In the first century, an Alexandrian Jewish philosopher journeyed to Rome to defend, in the presence of the emperor, against certain charges leveled at the Egyptian-Jewish community. But the Roman emperor Gaius, known as Caligula, had more gustatory matters on his mind. “Why,” he asked Philo, “is it that you abstain from eating pig’s flesh?” This, Philo ruefully recounts, provoked “a violent laughter” by his adversaries in the throne room, as “they wished to court the emperor out of flattery, and therefore wished to make it appear that this question was dictated by wit and uttered with grace.” To this Philo did his best to explain Jewish law, but others were still stuck on matters culinary. “There are also many people who do not eat lamb’s flesh which is the most tender of all meat,” another Roman commented. To this, Philo reports, Caligula laughingly commented, “They are quite right, for it is not nice.”
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