In Defence of Flaccus (Pro Flacco)
A court speech delivered at Rome in 59 BC, four years after Pompey took Jerusalem. In passing, Cicero mentions the gold that Jews sent each year to the temple and says that Pompey, as conqueror, touched nothing in it.
Read the text at perseus.tufts.edu ↗Latin text, edited by A. C. Clark (Perseus) ↗
Cicero was consul in 63 BC, the year in which Pompey took Jerusalem. In 59 BC he defended Lucius Valerius Flaccus, a former governor of Asia, against a charge of extortion. One count was that Flaccus had seized the gold which the Jews of his province collected for the temple in Jerusalem. Cicero defends the seizure, speaks with open contempt of the Jews and their religion, and answers the objection that Pompey himself had left the temple’s treasures alone (sections 66–69).
The speech is the plea of an advocate and is hostile to the Jews. Its value is that it is nearly contemporary: it shows that within four years of the conquest it was common knowledge at Rome that Pompey had taken nothing from the temple, and that Jewish communities across the empire were already sending money to Jerusalem. See Pompey Takes Jerusalem.
Cited in
- 63 BC, firm date