Disquisitio philol. de Iudaeorum odio et abstinentia a porcina, eiusque c ausis

L. II. c. 57. Join this to AUGUST PFEIFFER'S Antiquities of the Hebrews, ch. X. Philological Works, p. 1007. Thus PORPHYRY, On Abstinence, Book IV, 2, says of the Jews: διεξελθων πολλων μεν ἀπεχομενων ζωων, ιδιως δε ἐτι και νυν των χοιριων having abstained from many animals, and specifically even now from PIGS. Thus Lamprias in PLUTARCH, Symposium, Book IV, 5: τες ἰδαιες ἐπισκηπτει, ἐπι το δικαιοτατον κρεας ἐκ ἐσθεσιν he mocks the Jews because they do not eat the most just meat. To this also pertains the witty remark of Augustus Caesar regarding Herod, which MACROBIUS reports, Saturnalia, Book II, 4: "When he heard that among the children a) whom Herod, King of the Jews, ordered to be killed within the age of two in Syria, his own son was also killed, he said: IT IS BETTER TO BE HEROD'S PIG THAN HIS SON." J. PINCERUS, Enigmas, p. 334. A similar expression occurs in AELIAN, Book XII, Var. 56, which Diogenes pronounced concerning the Megarians: ὑς ἐβύλετο Μεγαρεως ἀνδρος κριος εἶναι μαλλον, ἢ ὑος The Megarian citizen preferred to be a ram rather than a son. JUVENAL, describing the Holy Land, also mentions this abstinence, Satire VI, 158:

• • • • Agrippa gave this to his sister,
        Where kings observe the feasts of the sabbath with bare feet,
        And ancient clemency indulges the OLD PIGS.

The old SCHOLIAST of Juvenal must have been even less skilled in Jewish matters than the pig itself, for he comments on the last words thus: the old ones, that is, they spare the larger ones, for they eat the smaller ones. So too, Gaius Caesar Caligula, as reported by PHILO JUDAEUS, in the book On the Embassy to Gaius, p. 1042. (1691. fol.): Μεγιστον και σεμνον ἐρωτημα ἡρωτα, δια τι χοιρειων κρεων ἀπεχεσθε· παλιν προς την πευσιν γελως ἐκ των ἀντιδικων κατερραγη τοσοτος, τη μεν ἡδομενων, τη δε και ἐπιτηδευοντων ἑνεκα κολακειας, ὑπερ το το λεχθεν δοκειν συν εὐτρα- πελια και χαριτι, εἰρησθαι. He asked a great and solemn question: WHY DO YOU ABSTAIN FROM PORK? At this inquiry, a great laugh erupted from his adversaries, partly those rejoicing, and partly those doing so for the sake of flattery, so that what was said might seem to be said with wit and grace. He asked seriously and gravely, WHY DO YOU ABSTAIN FROM PORK?

a) In the Catholic Church, for this reason, the Feast of the Holy Innocents is celebrated, about which J. B. CASALIUS writes in On Christian Rites, page 529, and others.