Sophia Scriptura

Church History 2.5.1

Eusebius of Caesarea · Church History · ca. 300–325 · Caesarea · Read in context

Summary: Philo described Gaius's madness, the Jews' sufferings, and his own embassy to Rome, where he was mocked and endangered.

Greek text · Dindorf 4:51

Καὶ δὴ τὰ κατὰ Γάϊον οὑτος Ἰουδαίοις συμβάντα πέντε βιβλίοις παραδίδωσιν, ὁμοῦ τὴν Γαίου διεξιὼν φρενοβλάβειαν, ὡσὰν θεὸν ἑαυτὸν ἀναγορεύσαντος καὶ μυρία περὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐνυβρίσαντος, τάς τε κατʼ αὐτὸν Ἰουδαίων ταλαιπω- ρίας, καὶ ἣν αὐτὸς στειλάμενος ἐπὶ τῆς Ῥωμαίων πόλεως ὑπὲρ τῶν κατὰ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν ὁμοεθνῶν ἐποιήσατο πρεσβείαν, καὶ ὅπως ἐπὶ τοῦ Γαίου καταστὰς ὑπὲρ τῶν πατρίων νόμων οὐδέν τι πλέον γέλωτος καὶ διασυρμῶν ἀπηνέγκατο, μικροῦ δεῖν καὶ τὸν περὶ τῆς ζωῆς ἀνατλὰς κίνδυνον.

English · Claude translation

This man relates in five books what befell the Jews under Gaius, describing at the same time Gaius's madness, how he proclaimed himself a god and committed countless outrages in his rule, and the miseries of the Jews under him, and the embassy that he himself undertook to the city of Rome on behalf of his countrymen in Alexandria; and how, when he stood before Gaius on behalf of the ancestral laws, he carried away nothing but laughter and ridicule, and very nearly incurred the danger of his life.

About this passage

Source
Dindorf 4:51 · Wilhelm Dindorf, ed., Eusebii Caesariensis Opera, vol. 4: Historiae ecclesiasticae libri I–X (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871) · Greek text: W. Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1871), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text
As printed in Dindorf, Eusebii Opera 4. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Dindorf, Eusebii Caesariensis Opera 4 (Teubner, 1871); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1 (1890) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)
Extrabiblical texts
  • Philo, Legat. (Philo of Alexandria (works)) · allusion, high confidence

Notes

Translation notes

  • The work is Philo's Embassy to Gaius (Legatio ad Gaium) with its companion books.

Cite this passage

Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.5.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/5/1/).

Plain text
Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 2.5.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/eusebius-historia/2/5/1/).

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