Difference between revisions of "Gessius Florus"

<p> (Graecized Γέσσιος Φλῶρος by Josephus), sometimes with the praenomen [[Festus]] or Cestius, a native of Clazomenae, appointed procurator of Judaea, A.D. 64, in place of Albinus, by Nero, through the influence of his wife [[Cleopatra]] with Poppaea, the empress. His rule was marked with such unprecedented rapine and violence as to drive the [[Jews]] into their final rebellion (Tacit. Hist. 5:10), a result apparently intended by him in order to cover his own enormities (Josephus, Ant. 18:1, 6; 20:11, 1; War, 2:14). He took a bribe at [[Caesarea]] from the Jews for protecting them in their synagogue worship, and then abandoned them to the fury of the Greeks, imprisoning those who came to supplicate his promised protection. He massacred and impaled [[Jewish]] citizens of rank at pleasure, and publicly derided their efforts to secure the intervention of Cestius Gallus, proconsul of Syria, in their favor. His term ended with the Jewish insurrection, A.D. 65, in which he was superseded by Vespasian, or perhaps perished (Josephus, Life, 6; Ant. 14:9, 2; 20:9, 5; War, 2:15; Suetonius, Vesp. 4; Orosius, 7:9; Sulpic. Sev. Sacr. Hist. 2:42; Eusebius, Chron. 66).— Smith, Dict. of Class. Biog. s. 5. (See [[Governor]]). </p>