This had the effect of ending the disturbances; and a few days later, after consulting the Senate, I definitely cancelled Caligula's decrees and restored to the Jews all the privileges that they had held under Augustus. But many of the younger Jews were still smarting under the sense of injustice and went marching through the streets: of Alexandria carrying banners which read: `Now Our Persecutors Must Lose Their Civic Rights', which was absurd, and `Equaclass="underline" Rights For All Jews Throughout The Empire', which was not so absurd. I published an edict which ran as follows:
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, High Pontiff, Protector of the People, Consul-Elect for the second time, issues the following,decree:
I hereby very willingly comply with the petitions of King Agrippa, and his brother King Herod, personages whom I hold in the highest esteem, that .I should grant to the Jews throughout the Roman Empire the same rights and privileges as I have granted, or rather restored, to the Jews of Alexandria. I do, these other Jews this favour not, only for the gratification of the aforesaid royal petitioners, but because I consider them worthy of these rights and privileges: they have always shown themselves faithful friends of the Roman people. I should not consider it just, however, that any Greek city should-(as has been suggested) be deprived of any rights and privileges which were granted it by the Emperor Augustus (now the God Augustus), any more than that the Jewish colony in Alexandria should have been deprived of its rights, and privileges by my predecessor. What is justice for Jews is justice for Greeks; and contrariwise. I have therefore decided to permit all Jews throughout my Empire to keep their ancient customs - in so far as these do not confict with the conduct of Imperial business without hindrance from anyone. At the same time I charge them not to presume upon the favour that I am hereby granting them, by showing contempt for the religious beliefs or practices of other races: let them content themselves with keeping their own Law. It is my pleasure that this decision of mine shall forthwith be engraved on stone tablets at the instance of the governors of all kingdoms, cities, colonies, and municipalities, both in Italy and abroad, whether Roman officials or Allied Potentates, and that these tablets shall be posted for public reading, during a full month, in some prominent public place and at a height from which the words will be plainly legible from the ground.
Talking privately to Herod one night I said: `The fact is that the Greek mind and the Jewish mind work in quite different ways and are bound to come in conflict. The Jews are too serious and proud, the Greeks' too vain and laughter-loving; the Jews hold too fast to the old, the Greeks are too restless in always seeking for something new; the Jews are too self-sufficient, the Greeks too accommodating. But though I might claim that we Romans understand the Greeks we know their limitations and potentialities and can make them very useful servants I should never claim that we understand the Jews. We have conquered them by our superior military strength but we have never felt ourselves their masters. We recognize that they retain the ancient virtues of their race, which goes back much farther in history than ours, and that we have lost our own ancient virtues; and the result is that we feel rather ashamed before them.'
Herod asked: `Do you know the Jewish version of Deucalion's Flood? The Jewish Deucalion was called Noah, and he had three married sons who, when the Flood subsided, re-peopled the earth. The eldest was Shem, the middle one was Ham, and the youngest was Japhet. Ham was punished for laughing at his father when he accidentally got drunk and threw off all his clothes, by being fated to serve the other two, who behaved with greater decency. Ham is the ancestor of all the African peoples. Japhet is the ancestor of the Greeks and Italians, and Shem the ancestor of the Jews, Syrians,' Phoenicians, Arabians, Edomites, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and the like. There is an ancient prophetic saying that if Shem and Japhet ever live under the same roof there will be endless bickering at the fireside, at the table, and in the bed-chamber. That has always proved true. Alexandria is a neat example. And if the whole of Palestine were cleared of Greeks, who don't belong there, it would be far easier to govern. The same with Syria.'
`Not for a Roman governor,' I smiled. `The Romans are not of the family of Shem and they count on Greek support. You'd have to get rid of us Romans too. But I agree with you so far as to wish that Rome had never conquered the East at all. She would have been much wiser if she had limited herself to ruling a federation of the descendants of Japhet. Alexander and Pompey have much to answer for. Both won the title "The Great" for their Eastern conquests, but I cannot see that either of them conferred a real benefit on his country.'
'It will all settle itself one day, Caesar,' said Herod thoughtfully,- ` if we have patience.'
Then I began telling Herod that I was about to betroth my daughter Antonia, who was now nearly old enough to marry; to young Pompey, a descendant of Pompey the Great. Caligula had taken away young Pompey's title, saying that it was too magnificent a one for a boy of his age to bear, and that in any case there was only one `'Great' in the world now: I had just restored the title, and all the other titles that Caligula had taken from noble Roman houses; together with such commemorative badges as the Torquatan Torque and the Cincinnatan Lock. Herod did not volunteer any more of his views on the subject. I did not realize that the future political relations of Shem and Japhet was the problem that had recently come to occupy his mind to the exclusion of all others.
Chapter 9
WHEN Herod had established me in the monarchy and set me proper course to follow - this, I am sure, is how he put the situation to himself - and in return won a number of favours from me, he said that he must take his leave at last unless there was some work of real importance that I wished him to do, such as nobody but himself was capable of undertaking. I could not think of any excuse for detaining him, and I would have felt obliged to pay him with more territory for every extra month he remained, so after a farewell banquet, which was appropriately magnificent, I let him go. We were both rather drunk that evening, I must confess, and I shed tears at the thought of his departure. We recalled our schooldays together, and when nobody seemed to be listening I leant across and called him by his old nickname.
`Brigand,' I said quietly, 'I always expected you to be a, king, but if anyone had ever told me that I'd be your Emperor I'd have called him a madman.'
`Little Marmoset,' he replied in the same low tones. `You're a fool, as I've always told you. But you have fool's luck. And fool's luck holds. You'll be an Olympian God when I'm only a dead hero; yes, don't blush, for That's how it will be, though there's no question which of us two is the better man.'
It did me good to hear Herod speak in his old style again. For the last three months he had been addressing me in the most formal and distant way, never failing to call me Caesar Augustus and to express only the most profound admiration for my opinions, even if he. was often regretfully forced to disagree with them. `Little Marmoset' (Cercopithecion) was the playful nickname Athenodorus had given me. I now begged him that when he wrote to me from Palestine he would always enclose with his official letter, signed with all his new titles, an unofficial letter signed `The Brigand' and giving me his, private news. He agreed to this: on condition that I replied in the same vein, signing myself 'Cercopithecion'. As we shook hands on the bargain he looked me steadily in the eyes and said: `Marmoset, do you want a little more of my excellent knavish advice? I'll give it you absolutely free this time.'