Cicero – De Flacco – on Jewish Gold

There follows the odium that is attached to Jewish gold. This is no doubt the reason why this case is being tried not far from the Aurelian Steps. [Where the Jews of Rome gathered – 55 BCE] You procured this place and the crowd of Jews, Laelius, for this trial. You know how many of them there are in Rome, how they stick together, how influential they are and how they support one another in informal assemblies. So, I will speak in a low voice so that only the jurors may hear ; for those are not wanting who would incite them against me and against every respectable man. I shall not help them to do this more easily. [67] When every year it was customary to send gold to Jerusalem on the order of the Jews from Italy and from all our provinces, Flaccus forbade by an edict its exportation from Asia.  Is there anyone who thinks that this was not the correct decision?

The senate often earlier and also in my consulship most urgently forbade the export of gold. It removed wealth from our imperial provinces in favour of their interests. But to resist this barbaric superstition with an act of firmness in defiance of the crowd of the Jews when in our assemblies they were hot with passion, for the welfare of the state, was an act of the greatest serious courage. They export wealth from us, but Gnaeus Pompeius when Jerusalem was captured laid his victorious hands on nothing in their temple. [68]

In that he was especially wise – as in many other matters. In a state and people [Judea] so given to suspicion and lying and slander, he left his critics no opportunity for gossip. But I do not think that that illustrious general was hindered by the religious feelings of the Jews and his enemies, but by his sense of honour.

Where, then, is the ground for an accusation against Flaccus, since, indeed, you never make any charge of theft, you approve his edict, you confess that there was judgement for debt, you do not deny the business was openly proposed and published, and the facts show it was administered by excellent men ? At Apamea a little less than a hundred pounds of gold was openly seized and weighed before the seat of the praetor in the forum through the agency of Sextius Caesius, a Roman knight, an upright and honourable man ; at Laodicea a little more than twenty pounds by Lucius Peducaeus, our juror. At Adramyttium** by Gnaeus Domitius, the legate, at Pergamum a small amount. The accounting for the gold is correct. [69] The gold is in the treasury, no embezzlement is charged, it is just an attempt by the Jews to falsely accuse him because he caught them in the act.  The plea is not addressed to the jury ; the voice the advocate is directed to the attendant crowd and the mob. Each state, Laelius, has its own religious scruples, we have ours.

Even while Jerusalem was standing and the Jews were at peace with us, the practice of their sacred rites was at variance with the glory of our empire, the dignity of our name, the customs of our ancestors. But now it is even more so, when that nation by its armed resistance has shown what it thinks of our rule ; how dear it was to the immortal gods is shown by the fact that it has been conquered, let out for taxes, made a slave. [Referring to Roman annexation by Pompey which ended Hasmonean rule].

Cicero, Pro Flacco