al country,
[Egypt,] but what he pretends to be his own country, Alexandria; for all
are agreed in this, that the part of that city which is near the sea is
the best part of all for habitation. Now if the Jews gained that part of
the city by force, and have kept it hitherto without impeachment, this
is a mark of their valor; but in reality it was Alexander himself that
gave them that place for their habitation, when they obtained equal
privileges there with the Macedonians. Nor call I devise what Apion
would have said, had their habitation been at Necropolis? and not been
fixed hard by the royal palace [as it is]; nor had their nation had
the denomination of Macedonians given them till this very day [as they
have]. Had this man now read the epistles of king Alexander, or those
of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, or met with the writings of the succeeding
kings, or that pillar which is still standing at Alexandria, and
contains the privileges which the great [Julius] Caesar bestowed upon
the Jews; had this man, I say, known these records, and yet hath the
impudence to write in contradiction to them, he hath shown himself to
be a wicked man; but if he knew nothing of these records, he hath shown
himself to be a man very ignorant: nay, when lie appears to wonder how
Jews could be called Alexandrians, this is another like instance of his
ignorance; for all such as are called out to be colonies, although they
be ever so far remote from one another in their original, receive their
names from those that bring them to their new habitations. And what
occasion is there to speak of others, when those of us Jews that dwell
at Antioch are named Antiochians, because Seleucns the founder of that
city gave them the privileges belonging thereto? After the like manner
do those Jews that inhabit Ephesus, and the other cities of Ionia, enjoy
the same name with those that were originally born there, by the grant
of the succeeding princes; nay, the kindness and humanity of the Romans
hath been so great, that it hath granted leave to almost all others to
take the same name of Romans upon them; I mean not particular men only,
but entire and large nations themselves also; for those anciently named
Iberi, and Tyrrheni, and Sabini, are now called Romani. And if Apion
reject this way of obtaining the privilege of a citizen of Alexandria,
let him abstain from calling himself an Alexandrian hereafter; for
otherwise, how can he who was born in the very heart