Page:Selections. Translated by H. St. J. Thackeray (1919).djvu/93



Meanwhile, in Rome, Gaius' friend, Herod Agrippa, had prevailed on the Emperor to desist from his purpose. Gaius thereupon counter-ordered his previous instructions, but on receipt of Petronius's appeal wrote him an angry letter, advising him, in view of his disregard of orders, "to judge for himself what course he should take," i. e. to commit suicide.

Such was the letter which Gaius wrote to Petronius; but it did not reach him in the Emperor's lifetime, the messengers entrusted with it having so slow a passage that before it arrived Petronius received other letters which told him that Gaius was dead. God, as the event proved, was not to forget the risks which Petronius had run on behalf of the Jews and His own honour, but was to pay him his reward by removing Gaius, in indignation at his daring action in claiming divine worship for himself. Petronius, moreover, was supported by the good-will of Rome and of all the magistrates, in particular the most eminent senators, because Gaius had treated them with unmitigated severity.

The Emperor died not long after writing to Petronius the letter which was intended to be his death-warrant. The cause of his death and the manner of the plot I shall relate in the course of my work. Petronius received first the letter announcing the death of Gaius, and shortly afterwards the other with the order to put himself to death. He was delighted at the happy coincidence of Gaius's end and marvelled at the providence of God, who instantly and without delay gave him his reward for his regard for the Temple and for his assistance to the Jews in their hour of danger. Thus easily, in a way which none would have conjectured, did Petronius escape the peril of death.—Ant. XVIII. 8. 2, etc. (261, 276-8, 284-6, 305-9).