82 George Dahl, 



edict, which gives to Jews the right to observe their own customs, as 

 well as commanding that they enjoy equal political privileges with 

 the Greeks. I command, therefore, that those men who, contrary 

 to the edict of Augustus, have dared do this thing (at which those 

 very men who appear to be most prominent among them are indig- 

 nant also, and allege for themselves that it was not done with their 

 consent but by the violence of the multitude), be brought before 

 me by the centurion, Proculus Vitellius, that they may give account 

 of the things done. Furthermore, I urge the principal magis- 

 trates, xinless they wish to have it seem that this misdeed was done 

 with their consent, to point out to the centurion those that are to 

 blame, so as to furnish no occasion for any sort of uprising or 

 quarrel to arise; which they seem to me to hunt after who are con- 

 cerned in such doings; while both I myself and King Agrippa, for 

 whom I have the sincerest respect, have nothing more under our 

 cai'e, than that the Jewish nation may not find an occasion of get- 

 ting together under the pretext of avenging themselves, and 

 become uncontrollable. And that it may be better known what 

 Augustus also has resolved about the whole matter, I have sub- 

 joined the edicts he lately published in Alexandria', which, although 

 they may be well known to all, yet did King Agrippa, for whom I 

 have the sincerest respect, read them at that time before my tribu- 

 nal, pleading that they ought not to be deprived of this gift which 

 Augustus granted. For the time to come, therefore, I charge you 

 to seek no occasion of any sort of sedition or disturbance, but that 

 each one be allowed to observe his own religious customs.' 4. 

 Thus, then, did Petronius provide that the breach of the law 

 already committed should be corrected, and that no such thing 

 should afterward happen to them (i. e., the Jews)." 



Holscher^ ascribes this section of Josephus to a source which is 

 concerned principally with the Herodian family, and which he 

 therefore names the " Herodaergeschichte" \ The author of this 

 source he describes as a pious Jew, but with bi'oader views than 

 those of the Pharisees. This Jew in turn had as his sources j^os- 

 sibly Ptolemy of Ascalon, Cluvius Rufus, and state documents, in 



> Ant. XIX, 5:3, 3. 

 - Quellen des Josephus, pp. 68, 79, 80. 



3 This source Holscher finds traces of in Ant. XIV-XVII ; Ant. XVIII- 

 XX he derives practically entire from it. 



