Tiberius Julius Alexander

Tiberius Julius Alexander came from a Jewish family: his father, Alexander Alabarch , was, according to Josephus, the richest man in Egypt, and his uncle was the famous Jewish Hellenistic philosopher Philo of Alexandria ^[1] . The brother of Tiberius Alexander - Mark - was married to the sister of the Jewish king Agrippa II, Queen Berenice , but died young.

Leaving the Jewish religion (either, without performing it, or having converted to paganism , reading Josephus does not give an exact answer), he became an official in Egypt.

Judean Procurator

In 46, Emperor Claudius appointed Tiberius Alexander the procurator of Judea. During the two years of rule, Tiberius Julius Alexander proved to be a tough viceroy, with him there were persecutions of Jewish patriots; he executed the two sons of the green of Judah the Galilean .

Participation in the Parthian-Roman War

In 63 , during the campaign of the Romans against the Parthians , Tiberius Alexander was in the position of a horseman ( Nero gave Alexander the title of Roman horseman), assistant Roman commander Corbulon , according to Mommsen , was the chief of staff. Tiberius Alexander met during this campaign with Tiridat - the brother of the Parthian king Vologhes .

Viceroy of Egypt. Battle of the Delta

Nero appointed Alexander in 66 to the post of prefect of Egypt as proconsul ; the Jewish king Agrippa II hurried from Jerusalem - where a rebellion broke out - to Alexandria to congratulate Alexander.

As governor of Egypt, Tiberius Alexander commanded two legions: III Cyrenaica and XXII Deiotariana .

When the Jews of Alexandria began the war with the Alexandrian Greeks , Alexander withdrew the Roman legion and devastated the Jewish-populated quarter, Delta, killing about 50 thousand people.

The rebellion began with the fact that once in the amphitheater, where the Greeks gathered, preparing to go to the embassy to Nero, representatives of the Jews arrived. The Greeks killed them.

“All Jewry then rose to revenge. In the beginning, they threw stones at the Greeks, but then they collected torches, rushed with the whole crowd to the amphitheater and threatened to burn the whole assembly alive. They would have done this if the head of the city, Tiberius Alexander had not curbed their fury ... Tiberius moved two Roman legions against them along with another 5,000 soldiers ... The Jews closely rallied together, advanced their better armed men and thus defended the battlefield for a long time ... ^{[ 2]} "

As the prefect of Egypt, Tiberius Julius Alexander wrote a well-known edict, which is important for studying the history of the economy of Egypt in the middle of the 1st century. ^[3]

Participation in the Judean War

During the struggle between Vitellius and Vespasian for the imperial post, Alexander, receiving a letter from Vespasian, forced the Egyptian troops to take the oath of allegiance to the latter on July 1, 69 . This was probably done at the instigation of the mistress of Vespasian’s son, Titus, a Jewess of Berenice , who was at one time married to Alexander’s brother, Mark.

Thus, Tiberius Alexander, according to Suetonius and Tacitus , was the first to recognize Vespasian as emperor.

As a reward for this service, Alexander was appointed to accompany Titus (the son of Vespasian, also the future emperor) during the Judean War as the prefect of the Praetorium - “the commander of the army”. In 70, Tiberius Alexander participated in the siege and capture of Jerusalem. At a military council near Jerusalem, Alexander voted to preserve the Temple . Josephus Flavius ​​calls him commander of the Roman army, who fought against the rebellious Jews, and adviser to Titus.

Josephus writes that on the eve of the destruction of the Temple, Titus convened a council at which he declared that the Temple should not be destroyed in any case; Tiberius Alexander supported his opinion. But the fragment from Tacitus, preserved in the chronicle of Sulpicius of the North , testifies to the opposite: Titus insisted on the destruction of the Temple, Tiberius Alexander too.

From the papyrus found in Egypt, it follows that after the Judean War, Tiberius Alexander was appointed Vespasian for the position of commander of the Praetorian Guard (praefectus praetorio).

Ratings

Tiberius Alexander was devoted to the pseudo-Aristotelian work “On the Universe”, written by a certain Alexandrian Jew. It is believed that Philo of Alexandria dedicated two treatises to his nephew: “ On Providence ” and “ On Animals ” (“ Alexander ”).

In 1838, an inscription was found in Arad in which the council and the population of Arad show respect to Pliny the Elder and Alexander at the same time. The inscription lists the titles of Alexander: "eparch of the Jewish army", "ruler of Syria ", "eparch of the 22nd Egyptian Legion."

• ALEXANDER, TIBERIUS JULIUS
• Tiberius Julius Alexander Junior
• Jewish friends and helpers of the Divine Vespasian