Note 158 — Chapter XI · JUDAEA AND THE JEWS.

Whether the legal position of the Jews in Alexandria is warrantably traced back by Josephus (contra Ap. ii. 4) to Alexander is so far doubtful, as, to the best of our knowledge, not he, but the first Ptolemy, settled Jews in masses there (Josephus, Arch. xii. 1.; Appian, Syr. 50). The remarkable similarity of form assumed by the bodies of Jews in the different states of the Diadochi must, if it is not based on Alexander’s ordinances, be traced to rivalry and imitation in the founding of towns. The fact that Palestine was now Egyptian, now Syrian, doubtless exercised an essential influence in the case of these settlements.