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Gessius Florus was the Roman governor of Judea, from 64 CE to 66 CE.

Biography

In 64 CE, the Emperor Nero appointed Gessius Florus as Roman Procurator of Judea, succeeding Lucceius Albinus. Josephus opently blames Florius for alienating the Jewish population with acts of injustice and disrespect toward local traditions. "It was this Florus who necessitated us to take up arms against the Romans, while we thought it better to be destroyed at once, than by little and little" (Ant XX 11.1). Florus tried to crash the first signs of the uprising, but his ruthless action, which stroke indiscriminately also the pro-Roman components of Jewish society, only added resentment to resentment. By 66 CE the situation was out of control and the Jewish War began.

Florus in ancient sources

Josephus' works are the major sources of information on the life of Florus.

Josephus

1. Now Gessius Florus, who was sent as successor to Albinus by Nero, filled Judea with abundance of miseries. He was by birth of the city of Clazomene, and brought along with him his wife Cleopatra, (by whose friendship with Poppea, Nero's wife, he obtained this government,) who was no way different from him in wickedness. This Florus was so wicked, and so violent in the use of his authority, that the Jews took Albinus to have been [comparatively] their benefactor; so excessive were the mischiefs that he brought upon them. For Albinus concealed his wickedness, and was careful that it might not be discovered to all men; but Gessius Florus, as though he bad been sent on purpose to show his crimes to every body, made a pompous ostentation of them to our nation, as never omitting any sort of violence, nor any unjust sort of punishment; for he was not to be moved by pity, and never was satisfied with any degree of gain that came in his way; nor had he any more regard to great than to small acquisitions, but became a partner with the robbers themselves. For a great many fell then into that practice without fear, as having him for their security, and depending on him, that he would save them harmless in their particular robberies; so that there were no bounds set to the nation's miseries; but the unhappy Jews, when they were not able to bear the devastations which the robbers made among them, were all under a necessity of leaving their own habitations, and of flying away, as hoping to dwell more easily any where else in the world among foreigners [than in their own country]. And what need I say any more upon this head? since it was this Florus who necessitated us to take up arms against the Romans, while we thought it better to be destroyed at once, than by little and little. Now this war began in the second year of the government of Florus, and the twelfth year of the reign of Nero. But then what actions we were forced to do, or what miseries we were enabled to suffer, may be accurately known by such as will peruse those books which I have written about the Jewish war. (Ant XX 11:1).

Florus in Scholarship

Florus in Fiction

Related categories

• Roman Governors (subject)

External links

• Wikipedia