Meanwhile the Jews of Alexandria shared the woes of their brethren in Palestine and Rome. Their prosperity moved the envy of their Greek fellow-citizens, and the two elements had always met in a commercial rivalry for which they were not unequally matched. If Hebrew astuteness found its hero in Jacob, Odysseus formed a brilliant embodiment of Hellenic resourcefulness. Both characters are typical of their respective races. They are both distinguished not only by strong family affections, by a pathetic love of home when abroad and a passionate longing for travel when at home, by conjugal fidelity tempered by occasional lapses into its opposite, and by deep reverence for the divine, but also by a mastery of wiles and stratagems unsurpassed in any other national literature. It was, therefore, not surprising that the descendants of these versatile heroes should regard each other as enemies. The hostility was increased by social and religious antipathy and by the favours which the Greek kings of Egypt had always showered upon the Jews. The fables and calumnies originally invented by the Seleucid oppressors of Palestine spread to Egypt, where they were amplified by local wits. Under Augustus and Tiberius the lurking animosity was obliged to content itself with such food as the Greek genius for sarcasm and invective could afford; but the accession of Caligula supplied an opportunity for a more practical display of hatred. The Governor of Alexandria, being in disgrace with the new Emperor and afraid lest the Alexandrians should avail themselves of the circumstance and lodge complaints against him in Rome, became a tool of their prejudices. Two unprincipled scribblers led the anti-Jewish movement. Insult and ridicule were succeeded by violence, and in the summer of 38 A.D. the synagogues of the Jews were polluted with the busts of the Emperor. The governor was induced to deprive the Jews of the civil rights which they had enjoyed so long, and the unfortunate people, thus reduced to the condition of outlaws, were driven out of the divisions of the city which they had hitherto occupied and forced to take up their abode in the harbour. Their dwellings were looted and sacked, the refugees were besieged by the mob in their new quarters, and those who ventured out were seized, tortured, and burnt or crucified. The persecution continued with intermittent vigour until the Jews resolved to send an embassy to Rome to plead their cause before the Emperor. One of the envoys was the famous Jewish Hellenist Philo. Caligula, however, declined to listen to rhetoric or reason; but, on the contrary, he issued the order for his own deification, which, as has been seen, was frustrated only by his death.