Leiden conventions rendered as EpiDoc: restorations as supplied(reason=lost), gaps as gap, abbreviations as expan(abbr+ex), omitted letters as supplied(reason=omitted), surplus as surplus, corrections as corr. Critical apparatus as listApp. The facing translation is div type=translation; the historical commentary is div type=commentary.
Lucius Aemilius Rectus proclaims: Since, by reason of its numbers, the whole city was unable to be present at the reading of the most sacred and most beneficent letter to the city, I have thought it necessary to display the letter publicly, so that, reading it man by man, you may admire the majesty of our god Caesar and feel gratitude for his goodwill towards the city. Year 2 of Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Imperator, the fourteenth of the month Neos Sebastos.
Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Imperator, pontifex maximus, holding the tribunician power, consul designate, to the city of the Alexandrians, greeting. Tiberius Claudius Barbillus, Apollonius son of Artemidorus, Chaeremon son of Leonidas, Marcus Iulius Asclepiades, Gaius Iulius Dionysius, Tiberius Claudius Phanias, Pasion son of Potamon, Dionysius son of Sabbion, Tiberius Claudius Apollonius son of Aristo, Gaius Iulius Apollonius, Hermaiscus son of Apollonius — your envoys — having delivered to me the decree, discoursed at length about the city, drawing my attention to your goodwill towards us, which, you may be sure, has long been stored up to your credit in my memory; for you are by nature reverent towards the Augusti, as I have come to know from many proofs, and in particular you showed warm zeal for my house, and were warmly cherished by it in return — of which, to mention the last instance and pass over the rest, the supreme witness is my brother Germanicus Caesar, who greeted you in words more unfeignedly his own. For which reasons I gladly accepted the honours given me by you, although I am not partial to such things.
And first I permit you to keep my birthday as a day of Augustus in the manner you have yourselves proposed; and I consent to the setting up, each in its place, of the statues of myself and of my family; for I see that you were eager to establish on every side memorials of your reverence towards my house. Of the two golden statues, the one made as the Claudian Augustan Peace shall — as my most honoured Barbillus suggested and entreated, when I would have refused it for fear of seeming too burdensome — be set up at Rome; the other shall be carried in procession on the name-days in your city, and let a ceremonial chair be carried with it, adorned with whatever finery you wish. It would be foolish, perhaps, while accepting such great honours, to refuse to institute a Claudian tribe and to allow the establishment of sacred groves after the manner of Egypt; therefore I grant you these things also. And if you wish, you may set up also the equestrian statues of Vitrasius Pollio, my procurator. As for the setting up of the four-horse chariots which you wish to dedicate to me at the approaches to the country, I consent that one be placed at the town called Taposiris in Libya, the second at Pharos of Alexandria, and the third at Pelusium in Egypt. But a high priest of myself and the building of temples I decline, not wishing to be offensive to the men of my own time, and holding that temples and the like have been set apart for the gods alone, by all the ages.
Concerning the requests which you have been anxious to obtain from me, I decide as follows. To all those registered as ephebes up to the time of my principate I confirm and guarantee the Alexandrian citizenship, with all the privileges and indulgences of the city, except any who, though born of slave mothers, have stolen in among you as ephebes; and it is no less my will that all the other favours be made secure which were granted to you by the emperors and kings and prefects before me, just as the deified Augustus also confirmed them.
The temple-wardens of the temple of the deified Augustus in Alexandria — which is the temple of the god Augustus — it is my will that they be chosen by lot, just as those at Canopus of the same god Augustus are chosen by lot. As for the civic magistracies being made triennial, your decision seems to me a very good one; for through fear of rendering account for any maladministration the magistrates will conduct themselves more moderately during their term of office. As for the council, what your custom was under the ancient kings I cannot say, but that you had no council under the Augusti before me you well know. Since this is a new matter, now being instituted for the first time, and it is unclear whether it will be of advantage to the city and to my own interests, I have written to Aemilius Rectus to look into the question and to make known to me whether the body ought to be constituted at all, and in what manner — if indeed it should be assembled — this is to be done.
As for the question which of the parties was responsible for the riot and the feud — or rather, if the truth must be told, the war — against the Jews, although in the confrontation your envoys, and particularly Dionysius son of Theon, contended with great zeal, nevertheless I have not wished to make a strict inquiry, though I store up within me an unrelenting anger against whichever party renews the conflict; and I tell you plainly that, unless you put a stop to this ruinous and obstinate mutual enmity, I shall be forced to show what a benevolent ruler becomes when he is turned to righteous anger. Wherefore even now I conjure you that the Alexandrians, on their part, behave gently and kindly towards the Jews who have inhabited the same city for many years, and do not dishonour any of the observances they keep in the worship of their god, but allow them to follow their own customs as they did in the time of the god Augustus — which customs I too, having heard both sides, have confirmed.
And the Jews, on the other side, I order not to aim at more than they have had before, and not in future to send two embassies, as if they lived in two cities — a thing never done before — and not to force their way into the games presided over by the gymnasiarchs and the kosmetai, since they enjoy what is their own and, in a city not their own, possess an abundance of all good things; and not to bring in or admit Jews sailing down from Syria or from Egypt, which will compel me to conceive graver suspicions. Otherwise I will by every means proceed against them as fomenting a common plague upon the whole world. If you both give up these ways and consent to live with mutual gentleness and kindness, I for my part will take the utmost care of the city, as one which has long belonged to my house. I bear witness to Barbillus, my companion, that he has always shown concern for you before me, and who now too has pleaded your cause with all zeal; and to Tiberius Claudius Archibius, my companion, likewise. Farewell.
The papyrus opens not with the emperor's words but with the prefect's. Lucius Aemilius Rectus, prefect of Egypt, issues a short edict ordering that Claudius' letter be displayed publicly, because the crowd at its first reading had been too great for all to hear it. The edict is dated to 10 November AD 41 (Bell 1924; CPJ II 153).
This covering edict is a precious witness to procedure: an imperial letter reached a province as a document to be received, copied and posted by the governor. The same mechanics are seen in the Cyrene Edicts, where Augustus folds a senatus consultum into his own edict for transmission. Here the prefect's edict and the imperial letter were copied together onto one roll.
The letter proper opens with Claudius' full titulature and the epistolary formula chairein, ‘greeting’ — the Greek mark of the imperial epistula. There follows the roll-call of the eleven Alexandrian envoys, named one by one: the form preserves, uniquely, a whole imperial embassy (Bell 1924; Smallwood 1967, no. 370).
The emperor then acknowledges the city's goodwill, dwelling on its long-standing devotion to the imperial house and citing his late brother Germanicus as its witness. The warmth is real but measured: Claudius accepts the honours offered, he says, although he is ‘not partial to such things’ — the studied modesty that the emperors brought to the cult of their own persons.
Claudius works through the honours the city has voted, granting each in turn: his birthday as a festal day, statues of himself and his family, two golden statues — one (the Pax Augusta Claudiana) to stand at Rome, the other to be carried in procession at Alexandria — a Claudian tribe, sacred groves, and equestrian statues of his procurator. The passage is a catalogue of the ruler-cult's everyday currency (Bell 1924; CPJ II 153).
One refusal stands out. The emperor declines a high priest of his own person and the building of temples to himself: such things, he says, belong ‘to the gods alone’. The line is a careful statement of the limit a prudent emperor set to his own divine honours — the same restraint Augustus had shown, and a theme that runs through the imperial pronouncements (Smallwood 1967, no. 370).
Claudius turns to the city's substantive petitions. He confirms the Alexandrian citizenship of all who had been registered as ephebes down to his accession — with one pointed reservation: those who had ‘stolen in’ to the ephebate though born of slave mothers are excluded. Citizenship, here as in the Cyrene Edicts, is read strictly (Bell 1924).
He then confirms, in a sweeping clause, every other favour granted to the city by ‘emperors and kings and prefects’ before him — exactly as the deified Augustus had confirmed them. The formula situates Claudius in an unbroken line of benefaction reaching back through the Ptolemies, the standard rhetoric of continuity by which a new reign reassured a Greek city (CPJ II 153).
Three administrative points. The temple-wardens of the temple of the deified Augustus are to be chosen by lot; the civic magistracies, the city has decided, are to be triennial — a reform Claudius praises, since the fear of a future reckoning will keep magistrates moderate. Sortition and accountability are the recurring instruments of good order in these documents (Bell 1924; CPJ II 153).
The third point is the most charged: the Alexandrians' wish for a city council. Alexandria had had none under the Roman emperors. Claudius will not decide it himself: a ‘new matter’ of uncertain advantage, he refers it to the prefect Rectus to investigate and report. The deferral — the emperor declining to settle by letter what needs inquiry on the spot — is the same procedural caution seen in the letter of Vespasian to the Saborenses (Smallwood 1967, no. 370).
The longest and gravest section of the letter turns to the violence between the Greek Alexandrians and the city's Jews — a ‘war’, Claudius says, refusing the milder word. He pointedly declines to fix blame, but issues a flat warning: if the strife is renewed, he will show ‘what a benevolent ruler can be when turned to righteous indignation’ (Bell 1924; CPJ II 153).
He then addresses each side. The Alexandrians are to treat the Jews — long resident in the same city — with forbearance and not to dishonour their worship; the Jewish customs Claudius, having heard both sides, confirms, as Augustus had. The passage is among the most-studied texts of the early empire: a direct imperial intervention in a religious and civic conflict, and a rare verbatim record of how Rome managed the coexistence it imposed (Smallwood 1967, no. 370).
The charge to the Jews is as firm as that to the Greeks. They are not to grasp for more than they have had, not to send two separate embassies ‘as though they lived in two cities’, not to intrude into the gymnasial games — and not to bring in Jews who sail down from Syria or Egypt, which would compel the emperor, he warns, to graver suspicions. The clauses fix the Jews' standing precisely: secure in their own customs, but not to expand them (Bell 1924; CPJ II 153).
The letter closes as it began, with the machinery of patronage: Claudius commends two friends, Barbillus and Tiberius Claudius Archibius, who had served the city's cause before him, and ends with the single word errōsthe, ‘farewell’. The whole document is a model of the imperial epistula at its fullest reach — a city's many petitions answered, point by point, in the emperor's own voice (Smallwood 1967, no. 370).