Riots in Alexandria, 38 CE

45–48

For it was more than clear that the rumor of the destruction of the synagogues that started in Alexandria would spread immediately to the districts of Egypt and speed from Egypt eastwards to the oriental nations, and from the coastal strip and Mareia, which are the borders of Libya, westwards to the nations living there. For there is not one country that can contain all the Jews, so numerous are they.

It is for this reason that they settle in most of the wealthiest countries of Europe and Asia, both their islands and the mainland. However, it is the holy city where the sacred temple of the Most High God stands, that they regard as their mother city, but the regions they obtained from their fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, and even more remote ancestors, to live in, [they regard] as their fatherland where they were born and brought up. There are also some regions where they came to as immigrants at the very moment of their foundation, much to the pleasure of the founders.

There was reason to fear that people all over the world would take their cue from there and treat their Jewish fellow-citizens outrageously by taking violent measures against their synagogues and their ancestral customs.

The Jews, however, were not going to remain quiet at all costs—even though they are by nature a peaceful people—not only since, as is the case with all humankind, the struggle to maintain one’s own traditions overrules the dangers to one’s own life, but also since they were the only people under the sun who by being deprived of their synagogues would at the same time be deprived of their means of showing their piety towards their benefactors [the emperors—Ed.], which is something they would have regarded as worth dying for many thousands of deaths. They no longer would have sacred precincts in which they could declare their thankfulness. [ . . . ]

53–62, 67–68

His [Flaccus’—Ed.] attack on our laws by means of a seizure of our synagogues, of which he had even the names removed, seemed to be successful to him. For that reason he proceeded to another project, namely, the destruction of our political organization. His purpose in that enterprise was that, if the only things to which our life was anchored were cut away, that is, our ancestral customs and our participation in political rights, we might be exposed to the worst misfortunes without having any rope left to which we could cling to for safety.

73–75

After he had broken into everything as a real burglar and had let no part of the Jewish community escape his exorbitant hostility, Flaccus [ . . . ] devised a monstrous and unparalleled attack.

Our council of elders had been appointed to manage Jewish affairs, after the death of the genarch, by our savior and benefactor Augustus. [ . . . ] Of this council of elders, Flaccus arrested 38 members, namely those who had been discovered in their own houses, and had them immediately put in bonds. Then he organized a fine procession, in which he marched these old men through the middle of the market place, their hands bound behind their backs, some with straps, others with iron chains, and took them into the theatre. [ . . . ] He ordered them all to be stripped and lacerated with scourges, an insulting form of treatment usually reserved for the worst criminals. [ . . . ]