FELICE, ANTONIO. - Procurator of Judaea from A.D. 52 to 60. An emancipated slave of Antonia, mother of the emperor Claudio (v.). Supported at court by his brother Pallante and favoured by Agrippina, he was appointed governor of Samaria, and then, in 52, at the request of the high priest Ionathan, procurator of Judaea.
“He exercised royal power with the spirit of a slave, resorting to every cruelty and lust” (Tacitus, Hist., 5, 9). He successively married three princesses. Svetonio calls him “trium reginarum maritus” (Claudi., 28). The first was Drusilla, daughter of the triumvir Antonio and Cleopatra; the third was another Jewish Drusilla, formerly the wife of Aziz, king of Emesa, whom F. compelled to divorce. Under his misgovernment the Zealots, or sicarii, raged; he persecuted them, but also used them to murder the high priest Ionathan. He was removed by Nerone in 60 and replaced by Festo. Cf. Fl. Giuseppe, Ant. Ind., XX, 8; Bell. Ind., II, 13.
Paul, arrested in Jerusalem by the tribune Lisia, was sent in 58 before his tribunal at Caesarea (Act. 23, 25-35). The Apostle defended Anania (v.) and the advocate Tertullo, and alarmed F. and “his wife Drusilla, a Jewess, while speaking of justice, continence, and the future judgment” (Act. 24, 25). Hoping for monetary gain, F. kept him prisoner in Herod’s praetorium until the arrival of Festo (Act. 23, 35-24, 27).
Pietro De Ambroga