RESCRIPT OF CLAUDIUS ON JEWISH SACRED VESTMENTS
   
( AD 45 )
 
 
( Johnson, Coleman-Norton & Bourne, Ancient Roman Statutes, Austin, 1961, pp. 143-144, n. 173 ).
 
 
      When Gaius Cuspius Fadus was procurator of Judaea, he commanded, pursuant to the emperor's instruction, that the Jews should deposit in the Tower of Antonia in Jerusalem the sacred vestment and the crown which their high priest wore. Whereupon the Jews secured Fadus' permission to sanction a delegation with a petition to Claudius for retention of these objects under their own control. Marcus Julius Agrippa II, later king of Chalcis, introduced the envoys to the emperor, who granted their petition in the following rescript.
 
 
ENGLISH TRANSLATION.
 
 
      Claudius Caesar Germanicus, holding the tribunician power for the fifth time, consul designate for the fourth time, saluted imperator for the tenth time, father of the fatherland, to the magistrates, the Senate, the people of Jerusalem, the entire nation of the Jews, greetings.
      After Agrippa, my friend, whom I reared and have with me as a most pious person, presented to me your envoys, who thanked me because of the care that I have taken for your nation, and after they besought earnestly and eagerly that the sacred vestment and the crown should be under your control, I acquiesced, just as did Vitellius, who is an excellent and most honored person in my regard.
      I agreed with this opinion, first, because of my piety and desire that each and every one perform religious observances according to his ancestral customs, then, because knowing that I am much pleased to do these things for King Herod and Aristobulus the Younger, whose reverence toward me and zeal concerning you I know, and for whom, excellent and worthy in my opinion, I have the greatest claims of friendship.
      I have written about these matters to Cuspius Fadus, my procurator.
      The persons who carried the letter : Cornelius, son of Cero, Trypho, son of Theudio, Dorotheus, son of Nathanael, John, son of John.
      Written on June 28 in the consulship of Rufus and Pompeius Silvanus.