These were the times of Christ. In 38 CE Caligula was the Roman Julian Emperor, and he regarded the Jews with suspicion, he felt they were the only people who opposed him. 40% of the population of Alexandria were Jews, and there were tensions between the Jews and the surrounding population. When Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great, traveled to Alexandria for a visit, the population was inflamed against the Jews. Philo writes " they slew them and thousands of others with all kinds of agony and tortures, and newly invented cruelties, for wherever they met with or caught sight of a Jew, they stoned him or beat him with sticks". There would also be riots in 40 and 66 CE - today the poor relation between Jews and the surrounding population continues and may lead us to a world war. 429
