Trafika Europe 6 - Arabesque

györgy spiró

basket; it was the source of the free grain, of which Jews who had been granted citizenship also partook. Anyone who disturbed Egypt would bring serious famine down on Rome. Anthony had been the last to try it, but his navy was defeated at Actium by Octavian, who became the Emperor Augustus. He then prohibited Roman senators and legionnaires from visiting Egypt. Tiberius must have presumed that Germanicus, passing through Judaea, had cut a deal with the Jews living there that they would stand by him if a war were to break out with Egypt. Indeed, it is quite certain that this was his thinking. Otherwise, why not expel Egyptians, who lived separately from the Jews in Transtiberim, along with the Jews? Germanicus, subsequently, was fatally

poisoned. The rumor was that the emperor had dismissed the previous governor of Judaea, Valerius Gratus, for meeting with Germanicus, although it would have been difficult for him not to meet with the emperor’s adopted son when he was wandering around Judaea. The matter was of little importance, one governor being much the same as another viewed from Rome. But this particular event did become noteworthy because the emperor waited seven years before relieving Gratus, which was not a sign of forgetfulness but rather, according to political analysts, precisely the opposite: he never forgot and sooner or later would take vengeance for sure. It was unusual, by the way, for Emperor Tiberius to replace procurators and prefects, choosing rather to

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