And indeed this writer has set forth in five books what befell the Jews in the time of Caius — at once recounting the madness of Caius, how he proclaimed himself a god and committed countless outrages in his rule, and the miseries of the Jews in his time, and the embassy which he himself undertook, journeying to the city of the Romans on behalf of his fellow-countrymen at Alexandria; and how, when he stood before Caius on behalf of the ancestral laws, he carried away nothing but laughter and mockery, and well-nigh underwent peril of his very life.
Josephus also makes mention of these things in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, writing thus word for word: «And indeed, when a sedition had arisen at Alexandria between the Jews who dwell there and the Greeks, three envoys were chosen from each faction and came before Caius.
Now one of the Alexandrian envoys was Apion, who blasphemed against the Jews, saying, among other things, that they neglected the honours due to Caesar; for, whereas all who were subject to the rule of the Romans had set up altars and temples to Caius, and in all other respects received him as they did the gods, these alone thought it dishonourable to honour him with statues and to make his name the object of an oath.
And when Apion had uttered many grievous charges, by which he hoped — and it was likely — to provoke Caius, Philo, the head of the embassy of the Jews, a man in all respects illustrious, being the brother of Alexander the alabarch and not unversed in philosophy, was able to proceed to a defence against the accusations.
But Caius cut him off, ordering him to get out of the way; and being exceedingly enraged, he plainly was about to work some grievous harm upon them. So Philo went out, deeply insulted, and said to the Jews who were about him that they ought to take courage: for though in word Caius was wroth with them, yet in deed he was already setting God in array against himself.» So far Josephus.
And Philo himself, in the Embassy which he wrote, sets forth in detail and accurately the things that were then done by him; of which I will pass over the greater part and bring forward only those passages by which there will become evident to the readers a clear demonstration of the calamities that befell the Jews — at once, and not long afterward — on account of their crimes against Christ.
First, then, he relates that in the time of Tiberius, at the city of the Romans, Sejanus — the most powerful man at that time about the emperor — had brought a zeal utterly to destroy the whole nation; and that in Judaea, Pilate, in whose time the crimes against the Saviour were ventured, having attempted something contrary to what was permitted to the Jews, concerning the temple that was then still standing in Jerusalem, threw them into the greatest turmoil.