Apollonius replied so swiftly that I could only admire his flexibility. “What do I care about the building of the State?” he said. “I live for the gods alone. But I should not wish the majority of humankind to be brought down for the lack of a good and wise shepherd. In fact, when I think about it, an enlightened autocracy, carefully watched over by a well-chosen senate whose highest aim is the common good, is the best and most highly developed form of democracy.”
He then began to explain in a roundabout way that he wished to acquaint himself with Egypt’s ancient wisdom, investigate the pyramids and possibly drink from the source of the Nile. But he could not afford to hire the necessary riverboat and oarsmen, although he was an old man whose feet were worn out from many journeys. So Vespasian took the opportunity to point to me.
“I have no money,” he said, “except for the most unavoidable needs of the State, which I am sure you know, dear Apollonius. But my friend here, Minutus Manilianus, is, in his capacity as senator, as keen a friend of democracy as you are. He is wealthy and will probably give you a ship with oarsmen if you ask him, as well as pay for your journey to the source of the Nile. Nor need you fear any danger during the journey, for an expedition of scientists is on its way there now, sent by Nero two years ago and protected by Praetorians. Join them if you can.”
Apollonius was delighted with this promise, which did not cost Vespasian a single coin.
“Oh Capolitian Jupiter,” he cried ecstatically, “healer of the chaos of State, preserve this man for your own. Your temple, which godless hands are now destroying in the light of the flames, he will build up again.”
We were all dumbfounded at this prophecy and vision of his. To tell the truth, I took his behavior to be sheer pretense. Not until two weeks later did we hear of Vitellius’ deposition and how Flavius Sabinus and Domitian had been forced to entrench themselves on the Capitoline.
Domitian fled the siege like a coward, after shaving off his hair and disguising himself as a priest of Isis. He joined a group of sacrificial priests when Vitellius’ soldiers, after setting fire to the temple and destroying its walls with their machines, released the imprisoned priests before the final slaughter. Old as he was, my former father-in-law Flavius Sabinus died there bravely for his brother Vespasian, his sword in his hand.
523
Domitian fled to the other side of the Tiber and hid with the Jewish mother of one of his former school friends. All the members of the families of the Jewish sovereign princes go to the Palatine school. One of them was the son of the King of Chalcis, whose fate drove my son Jucundus to join the youthful conspiracy to destroy Rome and move the capital to the East. I mention this too, although I had thought to say nothing of it.
Tigellinus had made the Prince of Chalcis drunk and then used him for his desires. In the presence of his school friends, the boy then committed suicide, for his religious prejudices forbade him to have inter-course with men, and after this he would never be able to inherit from his father and become King of Chalcis. It was in revenge for this that Rome had begun to burn once again, starting in Tigellinus’ gardens after the great fire had already begun to die out. Jucundus was involved in this and so did not die an innocent victim. But the old Subura went with the fire and with it a shameful stain on Rome.
In his cowardice, Domitian guessed that no one would think of looking for him in the Jewish section ctf the city, for the Jews hated Vespasian and his whole family because of the siege of Jerusalem and the losses his fateful pmcer movement had caused the Jews when the rebels had attempted to fight out in the open field.
At the mention of losses, Apollonius of Tyana again tried to intervene on the side of the Greeks in the internal struggle for power in Alexandria. As he left Vespasian before going on board the Nile boat I had bought him, he said, “I pricked up my ears when I heard that you had destroyed thirty thousand Jews in one battle and fifty thousand in another. Even then I thought: Who is this man? He could do better things. The Jews have long betrayed not only Rome but also the whole of mankind. A people who seek to isolate themselves from all other peoples, who will not eat or drink in the company of others and even refuse to perform the usual traditional prayers and incense offerings to the gods, such people are more distant from us than Susa and Bactra. It would be better if there were not a single Jew left in the world.”
The wisest man of our times spoke so intolerantly that I was glad to finance his journey and earnestly hoped his boat would sink or the Nubian savages would impale him on a roasting spit. Naturally his eternal talk about democracy disturbed me most. Vespasian leaned far too far toward righteous meditation and gave more thought to the good of the people than to his own advantage as Emperor.
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