Flaccus and the Jews of Asia (Cicero "Pro Flacco" 28.67-69)

Abstract

OUR MOST VIVID AND RELIABLE piece of literary evidence concerning the Jewish community of Republican Rome is to be found in a dramatic passage of Cicero's oration Pro L. Flacco. Having dealt with the complaints of the cities of Asia, Cicero pauses briefly before proceeding to the accusations of the Roman residents of the province in order to defend his client L. Valerius Flaccus against auri illa invidia ludaici. This involves the allegation that Flaccus had acted improperly during his governorship of Asia in 62 B.C. in withdrawing from the Jews of his province their freedom to send the annual tribute-money to the Temple in Jerusalem.1 Cicero first appeals to the jurors' sense of humour by a pun which relates the aurum of the charge to the gradus Aurelii close by the scene of the trial and to their political sensibilities by the claim that this venue had been chosen by the prosecution in order to facilitate demonstrations by Jewish mobs. Then he stagily places his finger on his lips in feigned apprehension, lowers his voice, and proceeds to give some detail of the charge.2 Unlike his treatment of the charges concerning improper exactions from the Asian cities, which he had rejected as entirely false, Cicero is ready in this instance to admit the facts as alleged by the prosecution.