Luke, in the household of Calpurnius;
To Antipas, nobleman and friend, and to Rufinus, preeminent citizen;
Greetings.
Our flourishing affiliation through correspondence pleases me greatly. Your faithfulness in reporting to me on matters of historical and contemporary interest is a source of refreshment and testifies to your own breadth of learning. In your letter to me, you raised points concerning the reputations of three men: Jesus, Domitian, and Josephus. I consider it my duty to reply to those points, however briefly, since I must permit Stachys, your trusted servant, to depart in the morning.
Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, as you read more of my monograph you will find that he would not have been in complete accord with the pro-Roman sympathizers with whom you had business dealings in Sepphoris. Much of what Jesus taught should be welcomed by Rome as a corrective to destructive forces within our society. But the seeds of scrutiny and challenge are also in his message, and I believe that any who neglect it, regardless of their stature, do so to the detriment of themselves and others. I need not say more, since my monograph is available to you.
Concerning Domitian, I appreciated hearing your report about the banquet he hosted at the completion of the gladiatorial contests near the Tiber. The full inventory of that infamous event should indeed be circulated. I am not one who seeks to peddle half-truths as if they were the whole truth. And yet, despite your corrective note, Domitian’s conduct at gladiatorial contests remains dubious. You might have heard one report, for instance, about an observer of a gladiatorial contest in Rome who thought it sporting to chide the emperor publicly for his strident preference for myrmillones over Thracian gladiators [two types of gladiators]. That man, himself a Roman citizen, was ejected from his seat and shamefully paraded around the arena before being torn to pieces by the arena dogs at Domitian’s command. Reports exemplifying the emperor’s generosity begin to lose their effectiveness against the sheer number of reports illustrating his cruelty.
I too have heard comparisons of Domitian and Nero. Like Nero, Domitian has great flair for building and refurbishing and has established a lavish palace for himself in Rome. His building campaigns are paid for by heavy taxation imposed in the provinces, including a poll tax on Jews that has been so stringently enforced that many Jews have been taken to court for not paying promptly. Like Nero, Domitian revels in self-glorification, expecting to be addressed as “lord and god” by even the most highly placed senators. Like Nero, Domitian has adorned himself with the graces of culture, writing poetry and instituting quadrennial Olympic games in Rome, complete with chariot races, athletics, and literature contests. He frequently attends these games in Greek dress wearing a golden crown and has the judges wear crowns with his image placed alongside those of Rome’s gods. Like Nero, Domitian demonstrates a cold and calculating cruelty toward anyone he considers a threat. You will know that recently he executed a provincial governor of Asia and the governor of Britain for supposed treasonous acts [89 CE], although their infractions were relatively trivial. He has banished philosophers from Rome for their denunciations of him, killing the two rhetoricians who were most vocal in their protestations against his tyranny. His severity extends even to those who pose no political threat to him. When three vestal virgins were found to have lovers, the lovers were banished and the vestals were executed, the emperor showing clemency by allowing them to choose their mode of execution. The same courtesy was not extended to the head vestal when she also was caught with a lover; Domitian had her buried alive and her lover beaten to death with rods. His severity is renowned, as was Nero’s late in his reign.
Concerning Josephus, he is a Jewish historian who has written voluminous amounts on points of historical interest. Most recently he has produced what is likely to be his definitive work on what he calls the Jewish Antiquities. The monograph is extensive, amounting to twenty volumes of detailed study of Jewish history from ancient times until today. So clearly, he is a most impressive historian. Much of his work is driven by an apologetic agenda, of course, so it cannot always be taken at face value. For instance, one of his major works is titled Jewish War, a monograph written fifteen years ago or so. It seems to have been written as a propaganda piece. In it, he tries to dissuade other Jews from rising up against Rome [Josephus, J.W. 3.108] and to protect the Jewish religion from an antisocial reputation in the aftermath of the Judean uprising against Rome. For instance, Josephus deliberately downplays the role of the Pharisees in the uprising, hoping to protect them, for they were the faction of Judaism with which he has been most closely associated. At one point in his life, he even sought to become a member of their party [Josephus, Life 11–21]. In general, Josephus consistently casts blame for the Jewish war against Rome on a few hotheads who were able to whip up the Jews into an unnatural and exceptional fervor.
This itself is curious, since Josephus was himself a general in the Jewish forces against Rome. As the Roman general Vespasian took his troops to invade Galilee, many Jewish revolutionaries fled in advance of his coming. Josephus took refuge in the city of Tiberias and then moved on to Jotapata, which the Romans eventually surrounded for several weeks. Although most of the men were captured and executed, Josephus managed to escape and went into hiding in a cave. Vespasian’s forces eventually discovered his whereabouts, and Vespasian planned to send Josephus to Nero for trial. But at this point Josephus played the role of a Jewish prophet, predicting that not only Vespasian but also his son Titus would become Roman emperors. The Jews had, in Josephus’s view, misinterpreted their own ancient scriptures, expecting the long-awaited anointed one to be a Jewish messiah who would lead them out of Roman oppression, just as the Hebrews had been led by Moses out of Egyptian bondage into national freedom. According to Josephus, the long-awaited anointed was, in fact, a Roman military general, Vespasian, soon to rise to rule as emperor. As a result of these favorable predictions, Josephus was retained as an aide within Vespasian’s forces. When Vespasian returned to Rome to take up the mantle of emperor [69 CE], Josephus was taken along with Vespasian’s entourage. It helped Vespasian’s legitimacy in Rome to have an adversarial warlord acting as a divine oracle in his favor. News of Josephus’s prediction spread throughout Rome. He was given residence in the imperial household and vast tracts of land in Judea free from imperial taxation.
Since settling in Rome, Josephus has set about writing historical monographs on Jewish history. I noted with interest his attempt in War to balance his belief in the sovereignty of the Jewish God with the reality of Roman rule. He suggests that the God of Israel has granted world sovereignty to Rome for a while but has not, in fact, been defeated by the gods of Rome. The God of Israel is permitting Rome a period of reign prior to the time when Israel’s God will once again rule over creation without intermediary.
You will forgive my musings on these issues. The sun has long set, and I am alone with my scribe Zosimos, eager to send a report back to you with Stachys.
We too pray for Calpurnius’s safety in travel and for each other, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.1
1. 1. Antipas’s reference in his letter to having returned the manuscript of Homer before the end of the rainy season, along with indications from earlier letters, permits some speculative dates for this correspondence: Antipas writes the letter prior to 11 March; Stachys departs from Pergamum on the morning of 11 March, arriving in Ephesus on the afternoon of 14 March; Stachys leaves Ephesus for Pergamum on the morning of 15 March, carrying Luke’s reply, and arriving in Pergamum on 18 March.