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Tiberius died, after having reigned about twenty-two years, and
Caius succeeded him in the empire. He immediately gave the government
of the Jews to Agrippa, making him king over the tetrarchies of
Philip and of Lysanias; in addition to which he bestowed upon him,
not long afterward, the tetrarchy of Herod, having punished Herod
and his wife Herodias with perpetual exile on account of numerous
crimes. Josephus is a witness to these facts. Under this emperor,
Philo became known; a man most celebrated not only among many of our
own, but also among many scholars without the Church. He was a
Hebrew by birth, but was inferior to none of those who held high
dignities in Alexandria. How exceedingly he labored in the
Scriptures and in the studies of his nation is plain to all from the
work which he has done. How familiar he was with philosophy and with
the liberal studies of foreign nations, it is not necessary to say,
since he is reported to have surpassed all his contemporaries in the
study of Platonic and Pythagorean. philosophy, to which he
particularly devoted his attention.
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