Petronius
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [1]
the name of two Romans somewhat involved in Jewish history.
1. Caius Petronius succeeded Aulius Gallus in the government of Egypt, and carried on a war in B.C. 22 against the Ethiopians, who had invaded Egypt under their queen Candace (q.v.). He was a friend of Herod, and sent corn to Judsea during a famine (Josephus, Ant. 15:9, 2).
2. Publius Petroniis was sent by Caligula to Syria as the successor of Vitellius (A.D. 40), in the capacity of governor, with orders to erect the emperor's statue in the Temple at Jerusalem; but at the intercession of the Jews he was prevailed upon to disobey the imperial command, and escaped punishment by the opportune death of the emperor (Josephus, Ant. 18:9, 2; War, 2:10).
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
A Roman satirist and accomplished voluptuary at the court of Nero, and the director-in-chief of the imperial pleasures; accused of treason, and dreading death at the hands of the emperor his master, he opened his veins, and by bandaging them bled slowly to death, showing the while the same frivolity as throughout his life; he left behind him a work, extant now only in fragments, but enough to expose the abyss of profligacy in which the Roman world was then sunk at that crisis of its fate; d . 63.
