c. 57–59 CE·New Testament·Person

Governor Felix in Josephus and Tacitus

Scripture: Acts 23:23–24:27

The claim

Acts describes Paul held for two years at Caesarea by the Roman governor Felix. Felix's Jewish wife Drusilla listens to Paul with him, and Felix hopes for a bribe. Porcius Festus succeeds him.

What archaeology found

Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 20; Jewish War 2) describes Antonius Felix as governor of Judea in the 50s CE. He tells how Felix persuaded Drusilla, sister of King Agrippa II, to leave her husband and marry him, and how Festus replaced him. The Roman historian Tacitus (Histories 5.9; 12.54) says Felix, a former slave and brother of the emperor's powerful freedman Pallas, 'exercised the power of a king with the mind of a slave'.

Where it is

Loading map…

Caesarea Maritima, IsraelView on OpenStreetMap

Sources

Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, Book 20 (trans. Louis H. Feldman), Loeb Classical Library 456 (Harvard University Press) (1965)
Tacitus, Histories, Book 5; Annals, Book 12, Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press)
E. Mary Smallwood, The Jews under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian, Brill (1976)

Verdict history

Nov 10, 2026ConfirmedInitial verdict.