FLACCUS

 I. (1) Flaccus Avillius succeeded Sejanus in his hatred of and hostile designs against the Jewish nation. He was not, indeed, able to injure the whole

 II. (6) Perhaps some one may say here: Do you then, my good man, you who have determined to accuse this man, bring no accusation whatever against him

 III. (8) For having received a government which was intended to last six years, for the first five years, while Tiberius Caesar was alive, he both pre

 IV. (16) When, therefore, Flaccus learnt that he too was put to death, he utterly abandoned all other hope for the future, and was no longer able to a

 V. (25) Moreover, some occurrences of the following description increased that folly and insolence of his which was derived from instruction rather th

 VI. (36) There was a certain madman named Carabbas, afflicted not with a wild, savage, and dangerous madness (for that comes on in fits without being

 VII. (44) But he, for he was eagerly cooperating in all that was being done amiss, thought fit to use his superior power to face the seditious tumult

 VIII. (53) Since, therefore, the attempt which was being made to violate the law appeared to him to be prospering, while he was destroying the synagog

 IX. (58) And though these were evils sufficiently intolerable, yet nevertheless they appear actually trifling when compared with those which were subs

 X. (73) But after Flaccus had broken through every right, and trampled upon every principle of justice, and had left no portion of the Jews free from

 XI. (86) And why do I dwell on these things? for a second mode of barbarity was afterwards devised against us, because the governor wished to excite t

 XII. (97) But it was not out of his own head alone, but also because of the commands and in consequence of the situation of the emperor that he sought

 XIII. (108) And the manner in which he was cut short in his tyranny was as follows. He imagined that Gaius was already made favourable to him in respe

 XIV. (116) This was the unexampled misfortune which befell Flaccus in the country of which he was governor, being taken prisoner like an enemy on acco

 XV. (125) And besides what I have spoken of there is also a third thing, which appears to me to have taken place by the interposition of divine provid

 XVI. (128) And yet even this in my opinion was a lighter evil when compared with another which was greater still for it was not people who were merel

 XVII. (135) Such, then, was the character of Lampo, who was now one of the accusers of Flaccus. And Isidorus was in no respect inferior to him in wick

 XVIII. (146) I have related these events at some length, not for the sake of keeping old injuries in remembrance, but because I admire that power who

 XIX. (154) And after he had crossed the Ionian Gulf he sailed up the sea which leads to Corinth, being a spectacle to all the cities in Peloponnesus w

 XX. (166) With such discourses as these, he was continaully being cast down, and in a manner, as I may say, prostrated and avoiding all places where

 XXI. (180) While repeating these things over and over again and writhing with his agony, he awaited the end of his destiny, and his uninterrupted sorr

XVIII. (146) I have related these events at some length, not for the sake of keeping old injuries in remembrance, but because I admire that power who presides over all freemen's affairs, namely, justice, seeing that those men who were so generally hostile to Flaccus, those by whom of all men he was most hated, were the men who now brought their accusations against him, to fill up the measure of his grief, for it is not so bitter merely to be accused as to be accused by one's confessed enemies; (147) but this man was not merely accused, though a governor, by his subjects, and that by men who had always been his enemies, when he had only a short time before been the lord of the life of every individual among them, but he was also apprehended by force, being thus subjected to a twofold evil, namely, to be defeated and ridiculed by exulting enemies, which is worse than death to all right-minded and sensible people. (148) And then see what an abundance of disasters came upon him, for he was immediately stripped of all his possessions, both of those which he inherited from his parents and of all that he had acquired himself, having been a man who took especial delight in luxury and ornament; for he was not like some rich men, to whom wealth is an inactive material, but he was continually acquiring things of every useful kind in all imaginable abundance; cups, garments, couches, miniatures, and everything else which was any ornament to a house; (149) and besides that, he collected a vast number of servants, carefully selected for their excellencies and accomplishments, and with reference to their beauty, and health, and vigour of body, and to their unerring skill in all kinds of necessary and useful service; for every one of them was excellent in that employment to which he was appointed, so that he was looked upon as either the most excellent of all servants in that place, or, at all events, as inferior to no one. (150) And there is a very clear proof of this in the fact that, though there were a vast number of properties confiscated and sold for the public benefit, which belonged to persons who had been condemned, that of Flaccus alone was assigned to the emperor, with perhaps one or two more, in order that the law which had been established with respect to persons convicted of such crimes as his might not be violated. (151) And after he had been deprived of all his property, he was condemned to banishment, and was exiled from the whole continent, and that is the greatest and most excellent portion of the inhabited world, and from every island that has any character for fertility or richness; for he was commanded to be sent into that most miserable of all the islands in the Aegaean Sea, [this was a common place of banishment for criminals, Juvenal 1.72.] called Gyara, and he would have been left there if he had not availed himself of the intercession of Lepidus, by whose means he obtained leave to exchange Gyara for Andros, which was very near it. (152) Then he was sent back again on the road from Rome to Brundusium, a journey which he had taken a few years before, at the time when he was appointed governor of Egypt and the adjacent country of Libya, in order that the cities which had then seen him exulting and behaving with great insolence in the hour of his prosperity, might now again behold him full of dishonour. (153) And thus he being now become a conspicuous mark by reason of this total change of fortune, was overwhelmed with more bitter grief, his calamities being constantly rekindled and inflamed by the addition of fresh miseries, which, like relapses in sickness, compel the recollection of all former disasters to return, which up to that time appeared to be buried in obscurity.