[464] There seems little to recommend Tacitus' theory of the identity of the Idaei and Judaei, though it has been suggested that the Cherethites of 2. Sam. viii. 18 and Ezek. xxv. 16 are Cretans, migrated into the neighbourhood of the Philistines. The Jewish Sabbath (Saturn's day) seems also to have suggested connexion with Saturn and Crete.
[465] Elsewhere the Idaei figure as supernatural genii in attendance on either Jupiter or Saturn.
[466] Ethiopian here means Phoenician. Tradition made Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, king of Joppa.
[467] From Damascus, said Justin, where Abraham was one of their kings, and Trogus Pompeius adds that the name of Abraham was honourably remembered at Damascus. These are variants of the Biblical migration of Abraham.
[468] Il. vi. 184; Od. v. 282.
[469] Another piece of fanciful philology, based on a misinterpretation of a Greek transliteration of the name Jerusalem. The Solymi are traditionally placed in Lycia. Both Juvenal and Martial use Solymus as equivalent to Judaeus.
[470] The only known King Bocchoris belongs to the eighth century b.c., whereas the Exodus is traditionally placed not later than the sixteenth.
[471] See Exod. xvii.
[472] i.e. an ass. The idea that this animal was sacred to the Jews was so prevalent among 'the Gentiles' that Josephus takes the trouble to refute it.
[473] Cp. Lev. xvi. 3, 'a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.' Tacitus' reasons are of course errors due to the prevalent confusion of Jewish and Egyptian history.