A MATTER HANDLED WISELY
Flaccus Avillus, Proconsul of Egypt, held audience in his atrium. He
received a commission of three from the Jews of Alexandria. One was
Alexander Lysimachus, who came with a civil petition; the other two
were despatched from the congregation with a hieratic memorial.
The three were stately and deliberate in manner, handsome even for
their years, and as courtly as Jews can be when they bring up their
native grace to the highest standard of culture. They were bearded,
gowned in linen, covered with tarbooshes, and as they walked their
indoor sandals made no sound upon the polished pavement of the atrium.
One wore on his left arm a phylactery, the last clinging to the old
formality which had separated his fathers' class in Judea from the
others, as a Pharisee. The second was an Alexandrian Sadducee. The
third had over his shoulders the cloak of a magistrate.
Flaccus did not rise from his curule as they approached, but he
returned their greetings with better grace than they had formerly
expected of a Roman governor.
"Be greeted," he said bluntly. "And sit; ye are elderly men!"
Lysimachus took the nearest chair and the others retired a little way
to an indoor exedra.
Flaccus thrust away parchments and writings to let his elbow rest on
his table, ordered the bearers of the fasces to withdraw to a less
conspicuous position, and looked at Lysimachus.
"Thou lookest grave, Alexander," he said. "Art thou commissioned with
a perplexity?"
The alabarch, being a magistrate and therefore recognized by Rome
before the synagogue, answered readily.
"Not so much perplexed, good sir, as troubled. I come with a petition,
not in writing, but nevertheless most urgent."
"Let me hear it," Flaccus said.
"Nay, then; thou knowest that a certain celebration of the Gentiles in
this city is approaching. It is a feast of much magnitude and of much
lawlessness. Thou knowest the temper of the city toward my people, and
after three days of drunkenness, Alexandria will love the Jew no more,
but much less. Thou rememberest, as I and my people remember with
mourning, that last year, the excited multitude, that followed Flora's
trail of yellow roses through the Regio Judaeorum, fell upon the Jews by
the way and slaughtered and sacked as if it had been warfare instead of
festivity. It was a new diversion for the multitude, and one like to
be repeated. But we, who are led to believe by thy recent good will
that thou dost not cherish Rome's ancient prejudice against our race,
come unto thee and hopefully beseech thee to forbid the Flora to lead
her rioters upon our peaceful community."
"I have already warned the praetor," Flaccus responded, "that Flora is
not to run through the Regio Judaeorum this year."
"The praetor dare not disobey thee," Lysimachus said, with a tone of
finality in his voice.
Flaccus smiled grimly.
"Nor Flora," he added.
"Thou hast our people's gratitude and allegiance; mine own thankfulness
and blessings," Lysimachus responded heartily.
Flaccus waved his hand, and glanced at the other two, sitting aside.
"And ye?" he said. "Are ye but a portion of the alabarch's commission?"
"Nay, good sir," the Sadducee answered, "we come upon a mission for the
congregation."
Lysimachus arose, but the Sadducee turned to him with a bow.
"Pray thee, sir, it concerns thee as well. Wilt thou abide longer and
hear us?"
The alabarch inclined his head and sat down. Flaccus signified that he
was ready to hear them.
"Thou didst ask our brother, the alabarch, if he were commissioned with
a perplexity," the Sadducee continued. "Not he, but we come perplexed.
Were we Jews in Judea, the method would be laid down to us by Law. But
in Alexandria we have grown away from the method, while yet we have the
same object to achieve."
"We lose in guidance what we gain in freedom," the Pharisee added.
"In Judea," the Sadducee continued, "they are still bound by the usages
of the Mosaic Law. An offender against the Law is stoned. We do not
stone in Alexandria; yet we have the offender, and suffer the offense.
What, then, shall we do to cleanse our skirt and yet offer no violence
to our advanced thinking?"
"Give me thy meaning," the proconsul said impatiently.
"Perchance it hath come to thee that there is a sect known as the
Nazarenes, followers of Jesus of Nazareth, which are spreading like a
pestilence on the wind over the world. So full of them is Judea, even
David's City, that the Sanhedrim, in alliance with the Roman legate, is
proceeding against them with extreme punishment."
"I have heard," Flaccus assented.
"But the numbers have grown so great and so far-reaching that the
Sanhedrim hath achieved little more than to drive them abroad into the
world."
"So the legate informs me," Flaccus added.
"Perchance then thou knowest that Alexandria hath its share."
"I do."
"Even the Regio Judaeorum."
"Strange," Lysimachus broke in. "Strange, if they be such
law-breakers, as they are reputed to be, that they have not been
brought before me for rebellion and violence, ere this!"
The Pharisee put his plump white hands together.
"Thou touchest upon the perplexity, brother," he said, addressing
himself to Lysimachus. "We are warned by the scribe of Saul of Tarsus,
who leadeth the war against the heretics, that they are invidious
workers of sedition; whisperers of false doctrines and pretenders of
love and humility. They do not persuade the rich man nor the powerful
man nor the learned man. They labor among the poor and the despised
and the ignorant. Saul, himself, though first to be awakened to the
peril of the heresy, did not dream how immense an evil he had attacked
until he found the half of Jerusalem fleeing from him. Wherefore,
brother, we may be built upon the sliding sands of an evil doctrine;
the whole Regio Judaeorum may be going astray after this apostasy ere
the powers know it."
Lysimachus stroked his white beard and looked incredulous.
"The Jews of Alexandria will not tolerate a persecution," he said
emphatically.
"So thou dost grasp the perplexity wholly," the Sadducee said. "What
shall we do?" he turned to the proconsul.
"I am to advise, then?" Flaccus asked indifferently.
"Thou wilt not suffer them to lead our men-servants and our
maid-servants and our artisans into heresy?" the Pharisee asked.
"We do not persecute in Alexandria, thou saidst," Flaccus observed.
"No," declared Lysimachus. "If all the Regio Judaeorum were as we
three, the apostates might come and go, strive their best and die of
their own misdeeds, unincreased in number or in goods. But the
clamoring voice of the mass--nay, even Caesar hath harkened to it!
Those that have not followed the Nazarenes demand that they be cut off
from us. But we can not kill, and not even death daunts a Nazarene.
Commend thyself, Flaccus, that thou didst call my brothers' mission a
perplexity."
"So you have come formally to me with your people's plaint and expect
me to solve a question that you yourselves can not solve," Flaccus
said. "_Poena_! But you are a helpless lot! I shall pen the heretics
in Rhacotis forthwith, and command them neither to visit nor to be
visited! Is it enough?"
The three Jews arose.
"It is wisdom," said the Sadducee.
"It will serve," the Pharisee observed.
"I shall ferret them out," Lysimachus said.
"Thanks," the three observed at once. "Peace to all this house."
Flaccus waved his hand and the three passed out.