"I have already warned the prætor," Flaccus responded, "that Flora is not to run through the Regio Judæorum this year."
"The prætor dare not disobey thee," Lysimachus said, with a tone of finality in his voice.
"Thou hast our people's gratitude and allegiance; mine own thankfulness and blessings," Lysimachus responded heartily.
Flaccus waved his hand, and glanced at the other two, sitting aside.
"And ye?" he said. "Are ye but a portion of the alabarch's commission?"
"Nay, good sir," the Sadducee answered, "we come upon a mission for the congregation."
Lysimachus arose, but the Sadducee turned to him with a bow.
"Pray thee, sir, it concerns thee as well. Wilt thou abide longer and hear us?"
The alabarch inclined his head and sat down. Flaccus signified that he was ready to hear them.
"Thou didst ask our brother, the alabarch, if he were commissioned with a perplexity," the Sadducee continued. "Not he, but we come perplexed. Were we Jews in Judea, the method would be laid down to us by Law. But in Alexandria we have grown away from the method, while yet we have the same object to achieve."
"We lose in guidance what we gain in freedom," the Pharisee added.
"In Judea," the Sadducee continued, "they are still bound by the usages of the Mosaic Law. An offender against the Law is stoned. We do not stone in Alexandria; yet we have the offender, and suffer the offense. What, then, shall we do to cleanse our skirt and yet offer no violence to our advanced thinking?"
"Give me thy meaning," the proconsul said impatiently.
"Perchance it hath come to thee that there is a sect known as the Nazarenes, followers of Jesus of Nazareth, which are spreading like a pestilence on the wind over the world. So full of them is Judea, even David's City, that the Sanhedrim, in alliance with the Roman legate, is proceeding against them with extreme punishment."
"But the numbers have grown so great and so far-reaching that the Sanhedrim hath achieved little more than to drive them abroad into the world."
"So the legate informs me," Flaccus added.
"Perchance then thou knowest that Alexandria hath its share."
"Strange," Lysimachus broke in. "Strange, if they be such law-breakers, as they are reputed to be, that they have not been brought before me for rebellion and violence, ere this!"