The Emperor Claudius on the Jews

Claudius is possibly one of the most famous of all Roman emperors largely thanks to Robert Graves’ best-selling novel ‘I, Claudius’ and its subsequent television dramatization starring the Brian Blessed (as the Emperor Augustus) and the homosexual jew Derek Jacoby (as the future Emperor Claudius). (1)

During Claudius’ reign there were increasing tensions between the jewish and non-jewish communities as evidenced by the jews of Rome causing a ‘continuous disturbance’ under the leadership of a jew named Chrestus. (2) Claudius naturally took the logical course and expelled the jews writ large from Rome much as Tiberius had. (3)

In the 41 A.D. the jews and the Greeks of Alexandria began to clash again as they had for decades as the jews sought more privileges and to be allowed into Greek-only institutions such as the gymnasia. Of course, the Greeks didn’t fancy going and sitting in jew-only proto-yeshivot, but this didn’t seem to matter to the jews for it was only about what they couldn’t do and where they couldn’t go. So naturally the jews decided to make a big fuss about being ‘persecuted’, which began to cause riots to flare up again as the jews started swaggering around the streets in the belief that the extra privileges they had extracted from the Emperor Augustus were going to be upgraded yet further. (4)

However, the Greeks of Alexandria having long been wise to the nuances of jewish behaviour and detesting the jews as usurpers and usurers didn’t take this in their stride and instead clashed openly with the jews. Beating them in the streets and probably killing a few: this caused a series of public disturbances in Alexandria between the mainly Greek and the minority jewish population where running battles were fought on the streets.

This naturally caused the Roman authorities in Alexandria to appeal to the Emperor Claudius for aid and to which he sent the following public declaration after consultation with both the Greeks and the jews:

‘As for who were responsible for the outbreak and insurrection, or rather, if we must designate it correctly, for the wars against the Jews , although your envoys and especially Dionysius son of Theon distinguished themselves in argument with their (Jewish) adversaries, I nevertheless decided not to investigate the matter thoroughly, and I entered into the ledgers of my mind a ruthless indignation against whichever nation recommences hostilities; I now emphatically give warning that if the two peoples do not desist from their disastrous and contumacious hatred of one another, I shall be compelled to show what a benevolent ruler can be when is roused to righteous anger. Therefore I solemnly conjure the Alexandrians to behave with forbearance and kindness towards the Jews who have for a long time lived in the same city, and not to obstruct any of their customary rites in the cult of their god, but to permit them to observe the customs they followed in the time of the Divine Augustus, which I now sanction, after hearing both sides of the case. On the other hand, I now order the Jews not to agitate for more privileges than those they have long enjoyed, and not again to have the unprecedented insolence to send out their own ambassadors as though they were living in a separate state, and furthermore (I order them) not to force their way into games and contests held by the gymnasiarchs and cosmetae (officers who presided over the physical and intellectual education of the Greek youth in Alexandria) while they (the Jews) reap the profits of their own special privileges and, living in a city that is not their own, enjoy all the bountiful advantages of that city, furthermore (I order the Jews) not to import or bring in (i.e., into Alexandria) by ship Jews from Asia Minor or Egypt (from which Alexandria was administratively separated) , a procedure that must excite in me the gravest suspicions. Otherwise (i.e., if the Jews do not obey), I will by all means take vengeance on them as fomenters of what is a universal plague throughout the civilised world.

If both peoples, desisting from these practices, are willing to live together with tolerance and kindness toward one another, I, for my part, will show the utmost concern for the prosperity of the city (Alexandria) as being one joined to us by friendship from the time of our ancestors.

I assure you that my friend, (Tiberius Claudius) Barbillus (one of six Roman citizens among the twelve envoys from Alexandria) , has always shown solicitude for your welfare whenever he appeared before me, and he now championed your cause with great zeal and distinction, and the same goes for my friend, Tiberius Claudius Archibius (another one of the envoys). Farewell.’ (5)

There are numerous points of interest in this letter that not only require but demand comment.

These are as follows:

A) The Greeks objected to the jewish ‘cultic rights’ - i.e., the worship of Yahweh - being carried out as they rightly conceived that Judaism - then as now - rejects on its initial premise any other god but Yahweh - although the Decalogue does implicitly recognise that other gods actually exist - (6) which naturally offended the Greeks. They also probably held that evil rites were being conducted on the jews based on numerous rumours that were circulating at the time, (7) which would have been exacerbated by the excessive secrecy with which the jews surrounded their religion. (8) This ‘separateness’ and lack of ability to integrate or engage with the Imperial cult - because of their religion - is evinced by the jews daring to send their own ambassadors - as if they were a nation - to the Emperor which he obviously took great exception to.

B) The jews were - as Claudius states - ‘agitating’ for more privileges for themselves beyond what was normal for citizens of the Roman Empire and this probably included further trade concessions in addition to the special privileges conferred on them as jews by the Emperor Augustus. We may particularly ascertain the jews were seeking to ‘reap further profit’ from Claudius’ wording that the jews should be pleased with the ability they have to ‘reap the profits of their own special privileges’. (9)

C) The jews were arrogantly and forcibly seeking access into Greek educational establishments and when the Greeks of Alexandria refused to grant this demand the jews tried force (probably using hired thugs from the local Egyptian population). (10)

D) The jews were importing large numbers of jews from Palestine and the rest of Egypt - openly and by stealth - in order to swell their ranks either as a form of proto-Zionist project, (11) a way to gain more privileges by the use of numbers and/or simply for the sake of avarice. (12)

E) That Claudius felt that the cause of the problems in Alexandria was the jews and not the Greeks, which maybe ascertained from the fact he only admonishes the Greeks to tolerate the jews and their rites, while he specifies what the jews have done wrong and should not do in the future if they wish to avoid imperial retribution.

We can see from this list that the actual grievances of the Greeks and their causes are very real, and the Greeks of Alexandria were understandably worried about a jewish takeover being affected and the jews gaining yet more concessions which would inevitably cause Greek economic, social and political life to deteriorate. At this juncture it would be wise to point that the inevitable response of the philo-Semite here will be that these are socio-economic - not racial - cause, but while it is true the symptoms are socio-economic in nature: they are fundamentally caused by the collision of two biologically very different peoples and the resultant competition between the two. The socio-economic symptoms in essence are the way that the Greeks of Alexandria expressed their racial concern as a group about the competing biological group: the jews and the fact that they were favoured by the edict of the Emperor Augustine and were seeking further competitive advantage over the Greeks in the city.

So, if this is true then the advocate of socio-economic causation will answer then how do you understand socio-economic symptoms with a racial basis as opposed to the socio-economic competition endemic in any social system.

To this we can simply respond that the key to recognising this is simply to realise that all biological groups - from the genus to the individual - are in competition with one another and that all socio-economic competition is an expression of the evolutionary need to compete. That means that all competition between groups is biological in nature and that competition between racial groups may be recognised simply through noting where biologically different groups are in evidence as they will naturally cluster together and as a broad generalised unit compete with the other biological group. In this case we are simply dealing with sub-species - i.e., racial - competition between two different sub-species, which will inevitably lead to the victory of the one over the other either by driving the other off or by eliminating it as a threat. As it happens the Alexandrian Greeks did in fact eventually rise up against the jews and do just this when a jewish conspiracy emanating from Palestine sought to conquer the whole of North Africa in the name of Yahweh. (13)

If we understand all this it becomes clear to us that jewish behaviour has as a rule not changed much in almost two millennia and it says something for the racial understanding of the jewish question that jews behaviour is - if properly understood - largely consistent and what has changed over the years is the way of interpreting and understanding that behaviour.

Was the Emperor Claudius an anti-Semite?

I don’t think we can go that far, but rather that Claudius’ experiences dealing with the jews caused him to become increasingly opposed to the jews as a people and Judaism as a religion.

References

(1) The veracity of Robert Graves as the classical scholar his hagiographers and publishers claimed - and continue to claim - he was, has been spectacularly destroyed by the classicist Revilo Oliver in his 2006, ‘America’s Decline: The Education of a Conservative’, 2^nd Edition, Historical Review Press: Uckfield, pp. 145-147

(2) Suet. Claud. 25

(3) Ibid. Tib. 36

(4) The jews were exempt from the heavy local and imperial taxes levied on the local Greek and Egyptian population by the Roman state due to the privileges conferred upon them by the Emperor Augustus. Revilo Oliver, 2007, ‘The Jewish Strategy’, 2^nd Edition, Historical Review Press: Uckfield, p. 23. He takes this from papyrus no. 8877 in Berlin.

(5) Ibid., pp. 22-23; Oliver offers an exact linguistic nuance breakdown of the translation of the key passage on p. 24 as an aid to the reader. I have retained Oliver’s helpful in-line notes in the passage.

(6) ‘You shall have no gods before me’, which implies that other gods exist and that Yahweh; rather than saying that other gods don’t is saying that they do but that he is the supreme god. That said all three Abrahamic faiths assume there is only and has only ever been one god.

(7) For example, the Greek Grammarian Apion’s is cited by Josephus in ‘Against Apion’ as asserting that the jews worshipped the head of an ass in the Temple at Jerusalem and sacrificed non-jewish children to Yahweh.

(8) Juv. 14

(9) I am reminded here of Juvenal’s comment that the jews are obsessed with money and will do anything to get it. I.e. ‘No sooner has that fellow departed than a palsied Jewess, leaving her basket and her truss of hay, comes begging to her secret ear; she is an interpreter of the laws of Jerusalem, a high priestess of the tree, a trusty go-between of highest heaven. She, too, fills her palm, but more sparingly, for a Jew will tell you dreams of any kind you please for the smallest of coins.’ (Juv. 6)

(10)  This is reminiscent of the story of Mordechai and Esther in Persia as celebrated by the jews - historically and currently - on Purim with a night of drunken gratitude and quite often violence towards non-jews by way of celebration. On this see Elliot Horowitz, 2007, ‘Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence’, 1^st Edition, Princeton University Press: Princeton.

(11)  For further context of this jewish habit please see Strab. 16.2.28:38 and/or my article ‘Strabo on the Jews’, which is available at the following address: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/strabo-on-the-jews

(12)  This idea is sometimes expressed colloquially today in the jewish phrase: ‘Oy what a bargain!’

(13) John Allegro, 1971, ‘The Chosen People: A Study of Jewish History from the time of the Exile until the Revolt of Bar Kocheba’, 1^st Edition, Hodder & Stoughton: London, pp. 243-249