The Influence Of Caligula's Reign Of Alexandria

Alexandria is an Egyptian city with a strong link to ancient history . This Mediterranean city was founded and established by “Alexander the Great” , King of Macedonia during his conquest of various lands in 332 BC and thus changed it’s name from “Rhakotis” to Alexandria. As time went by, Alexandria came to be known as one of the most renowned cities of that time and after Alexander’s death in 323 BC, Greek influence remained predominant, and it continued to be the main language spoken in Alexandria during the ruling of the Roman emperor Gaius Caligula . According to various journals, such as Sandison’s (1958) “The Madness of Emperor Caligula” , Caligula was seen as a merciless and possibly mentally unstable ruler until his murder in 41
It was also known that during his rule, Gaius Caligula wanted to be viewed as a god and treated as such, which resulted in various statues being erected in his honour throughout Alexandria , which I will further elaborate upon during the course of this essay. In this essay I am also going to elaborate upon how Caligula’s reign was a catalyst to the various riots that took place against Jews during their stay in Alexandria by the non-Jewish citizens. In order to further justify my answer, this essay will include explanations on the various internal and external factors that attributed to these events such as the role of King Herod Agrippa and Flaccus . This essay will also tackle the issues with the existing evidence on the reign of Caligula in relation to these riots and how well they portray the chain of events accurately by looking at the works of the writer Philo and his first hand accounts
During the time when Alexandria was Hellenised, it was under the rule of Alexander and his successors the Ptolemy’s . It is seen that the relationship between these two groups was not necessarily a negative one in the beginning, as Greek people were actually interested in Jewish people as they were relatively unfamiliar with them . During the Hellenistic period, Jewish literature played a large role , with the goal of possibly allowing readers to gain insight into the lives and beliefs of Jewish people . However Alexandria was subsequently conquered by the Romans and they took control of the city from the Ptolemy’s , and during that time there was a general dislike of those who lived according to the Hellenistic culture in Rome, thus when the Romans took over, their pre-existing prejudices were transferred to Alexandria, leaving the Jewish people that had settled there, vulnerable . As a consequence of this pre-existing dislike, the riots, characterised by the deaths and general harassment of Jewish citizens took place and thus the lives of this group of people became increasingly difficult as time went on showing the relationship during the Roman period to be a generally negative