FLORUS, GESSIUS: Last Roman procurator of Judea (64-66 A.D.), successor of Albinus. He was a native of Clazomenæ (on the south side of the Bay of Smyrna) and obtained his office through the friendship of his wife, Cleopatra, with the empress, Poppæa. His cruelty, tyranny, and shameless corruption surpassed that of all his predecessors and led to the final revolt of the Jews, which cost them their national independence. Suetonius (Vespasian, iv.) says he perished in the revolt, but Josephus (Life, vi.) says merely "he was beaten, and many of those with him fell."