The threatened imperial statue in the Temple
About this date: The crisis ends with Caligula's death in 41 CE. The range marks the threatened installation and resistance, not a period when a statue stood inside the Temple.
Caligula orders his image installed in Jerusalem's Temple. Josephus describes petitions, Petronius's hesitation, and Agrippa's intervention; the installation is not completed.
Historical context
The Temple linked religious practice with public authority. Josephus's narrative also shows how mass resistance could disrupt farming and create anxiety about food and tribute before open warfare began.
Key points
- Crowds petition Petronius at Ptolemais and Tiberias.
- Josephus reports concern that abandoned cultivation would endanger livelihoods and tax payments.
- News of Caligula's death arrives before the emperor's punitive order against Petronius can take effect.
People
- Gaius Caligula
- Publius Petronius
- Herod Agrippa I
Sources and further reading
- Antiquities: Petronius and the statue crisis
Full narrative of the order, resistance, intervention, and outcome. - Church History: Caligula's religious claims
A compressed later account requiring comparison with the earlier evidence.