1He was not content with his innumerable licentiousness, but carried his audacity to the point of uttering injurious words against the Jews of that region.
2His friends, feeding this hatred in him, he erected a stele next to the palace tower.
3He ordered that on it be inscribed the following:
4No one who does not offer sacrifices may enter their temples; all Jews must be registered among the common people and reduced to the condition of slaves.
5Those who oppose will be arrested by force and killed.
6Those registered will also be branded with a hot iron on the body with the symbol of Dionysus, an ivy leaf, and will be brought back to their former limited condition.
7So as not to appear that he was an enemy of all, he added: If some of them choose to live according to the rites of the initiates, they will have equal rights with the Alexandrians.
8Some promptly renounced their ancestral practices, accepting to be branded.
9The majority, however, with noble courage, refused to abandon their religion for fear of death.
10They hoped confidently that they would obtain help and despised those who abandoned them.
11They considered them enemies of their nation and deprived them of all social dealing and service.
12When the impious king heard of this, he became so furious that his anger was directed not only toward those who lived in Alexandria.
13He became even more hostile toward those who lived in the countryside and ordered that all be gathered and killed in the most cruel manner.
14While these measures were being prepared, a rumor spread among the pagans that the Jews were planning to desert.
15This seemed to them a pretext to treat them with hostility.
16The Jews, for their part, continued to maintain good will toward the rulers.
17Because of their piety toward God and their observance of his law, they abstained from common food.
18This attitude displeased some.
19Their righteous conduct, however, was notoriously praiseworthy to all.
20The pagans, therefore, spread slanders throughout the city.
21They accused them of conspiring against the welfare of the king.
22This slander was not founded on anything.
23The Jews, for their part, had maintained unwavering fidelity and were favorable to the king.