In this paper I argue that Philo’s Embassy to Gaius makes use of the literary paradigm
of theatricality, a strategy of representation marked by the portrayal of multiple
and competing discourses amongst those in unequal relations of power, as
well as an emphasis on the arts of acting and discernment. Th e Embassy marks an
appearance of the theatrical paradigm which is earlier than its use by Tacitus,
whose portrayal of Nero in the Annals Shadi Bartsch has seen as the harbinger of
this theme in Roman historiography.