Editing Herod Agrippa (section)

====Judaism in the empire====
An edict by Claudius recalls the privileges granted to Alexandrian Jews who lived according to their laws,<ref name="Schwentzel 2011, pp.231-232">{{harvsp|Schwentzel|2011|pp=231–232}}.</ref> and a second edict extended the Alexandrian privileges to the Jews of the diaspora throughout the whole empire.<ref name="Schwentzel 2011, p.232">{{harvsp|Schwentzel|2011|p=232}}.</ref> Agrippa I and his brother Herod of Chalcis played the role of intercessor in favor of the Jews with the emperor.<ref name="Schwentzel 2011, p.232" /> These favors also extended to all the Jewish communities of the empire. They also had the status of censors of Jewish morals: they ensured respect for the Torah by the communities of the [[Jewish diaspora|diaspora]].<ref name="Schwentzel 2011, p.232" />

A few months after the murder of Caligula, inhabitants of the Phoenician city of [[Tel Dor|Dôra]] (south of [[Mount Carmel]])<ref name="Hadas-Lebel 2009, p.88" /> introduced a statue of Claudius into the main [[synagogue]] of the city.<ref name="Schwentzel 2011, p.232" /> For all those who stood up against Caligula's plan to erect his statue in the Temple of Jerusalem, it was a real provocation.<ref name="Schwentzel 2011, p.232" /> Agrippa I intervened immediately and asked for the application of the decree of Claudius.<ref name="Schwentzel 2011, p.233">{{harvsp|Schwentzel|2011|p=233}}.</ref> He acted here as an [[ethnarch]] of the Jews, since Dora was not located on his territory. Petronius, the [[proconsul]] of [[Roman Syria|Syria]] immediately ordered the magistrates of Dora to remove the statue, referring to the edict of Claudius.<ref name="Schwentzel 2011, p.233" /> However, this openness must be put into perspective, which is also reflected in the measures to limit worship against the Jews of Rome, as Cassius Dio reports (History, 60, 6, 6–7),<ref name="Blanchetière_p248">{{harvsp|Blanchetière|2001|p=248}}.</ref> perhaps in reaction to the agitation resulting from the rapid development of the movement of the followers of [[Historical Jesus|Jesus]] and which would be evoked by the Letter of Claudius to the Alexandrians.<ref>[http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/claualex.html ''Letter of the Emperor Claudius to the Alexandrians''].</ref> For [[François Blanchetière]], the writing of Philo Legation to Caïus "constitutes an apology for [[Augustus]], to be read a contrario as a criticism of the Judeophobic policy of Claudius (Legation to Caius 155–158)".<ref name="Blanchetière_p248" />