is ignorant of what every body knows, that the Egyptians
were servants to the Persians, and afterwards to the
Macedonians, when they were lords of Asia, and were no
better than slaves, while we have enjoyed liberty formerly;
nay, more than that, have had the dominion of the cities that
lie round about us, and this nearly for a hundred and twenty
years together, until Pompeius Magnus. And when all the
kings every where were conquered by the Romans, our
ancestors were the only people who continued to be
esteemed their confederates and friends, on account of their
fidelity to them.(16)

13. "But," says Apion, "we Jews have not had any wonderful
men amongst us, not any inventors of arts, nor any eminent
for wisdom." He then enumerates Socrates, and Zeno, and
Cleanthes, and some others of the same sort; and, after all,
he adds himself to them, which is the most wonderful thing
of all that he says, and pronounces Alexandria to be happy,
because it hath such a citizen as he is in it; for he was the
fittest man to be a witness to his own deserts, although he
hath appeared to all others no better than a wicked
mountebank, of a corrupt life and ill discourses; on which
account one may justly pity Alexandria, if it should value
itself upon such a citizen as he is. But as to our own men, we
have had those who have been as deserving of commendation
as any other whosoever, and such as have perused our
Antiquities cannot be ignorant of them.

14. As to the other things which he sets down as
blameworthy, it may perhaps be the best way to let them pass