Felix

Felix was a freedman whom Claudius favoured and placed over Judaea (Suetonius, Claudius 28). Josephus calls him the brother of Pallas and puts his appointment late in Claudius’s reign (Josephus, Antiquities 20.137–138); Tacitus has him already governing Samaria while Cumanus held Galilee (Tacitus, Annals 12.54). He persuaded Drusilla, a sister of Herod Agrippa II, to leave her husband and marry him (Josephus, Antiquities 20.139–143).

Josephus describes his years in office as a time of growing disorder: Felix crucified bandits in great numbers, sent soldiers against prophets who led crowds into the wilderness, and scattered the following of an Egyptian on the Mount of Olives (Josephus, Jewish War 2.253–263). Josephus also says that he arranged the murder of the high priest Jonathan (Josephus, Antiquities 20.162–164). Tacitus judged that he used a king’s power in the spirit of a slave (Tacitus, Histories 5.9).

In Acts he receives Paul as a prisoner at Caesarea Maritima, hears him more than once, hopes for a bribe and leaves him in custody when Festus replaces him (Acts 23:33–24:27). After his recall the Jews of Caesarea accused him at Rome, and Josephus says that only the influence of Pallas saved him (Josephus, Antiquities 20.182).