Don Pacifico

David Pacifico (1784 – 12 April 1854) was a naturalized British subject from Gibraltar born in 1784. David Pacifico's grandfather, who was born in Italy and whose name was David Pacifico too, eventually settled down in Gibraltar even if Pacifico's family's origin was Spanish sephardic . Once expulsed from Spain with the whole Jewish community in 1492, the Pacifico's ancestors reached Italy, particularly Tuscany, first in Leghorn then in Florence. It was Pacifico's grandfather who moved to Gibraltar. As Pacifico grew up in Portugal because of his father's work, he was speaking a perfect fluent Portuguese. From that derivates the misunderstanding of thinking Pacifico of Portuguese descent which is not at all. The Pacificos or Pacificis are always in fact known to be of Spanish descent in the Italian Jewish communities they do belong to. David Pacifico died in London 12 April 1854.^[1] He is best known to history as "Don Pacifico" and for his role as the key figure in the Don Pacifico Affair of 1850.

In 1847, while he was living and working in the Greek capital, Athens, as the Portuguese honorary consul, Don Pacifico's home was attacked and vandalised by an anti-Semitic mob that included the sons of a government minister, whilst police looked on and did nothing. Don Pacifico appealed to the Greek government for compensation for loss of possessions, including documents relating to a substantial claim against the Portuguese government for monies owed. When in 1848 it became clear that compensation would not be given, he appealed to the British.

Because Don Pacifico was born in Gibraltar and was therefore a British subject, then foreign minister Lord Palmerston decided military action would be justified and dispatched a squadron of the Royal Navy to blockade Piraeus, the port of Athens. After an eight-week blockade, the Greek government paid compensation to Pacifico. When challenged in the British Parliament by John Arthur Roebuck, the MP for Sheffield in a motion condemning his course of action, Lord Palmerston justified it in a speech to the Commons on June 25, 1850, using the phrase, "Civis romanus sum": translated as "I am a Roman citizen", this declaration by a Roman would protect him from harm anywhere in the ancient Roman empire.

See also

• List of Gibraltarians

References

1. Jacobs, Joseph. "PACIFICO CASE". JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved December 7, 2011.

Sources

• Dictionary of National Biography, article Pacifico, David
• voll. 18, 19, Jewish Historical Society of England, 1958, p. 1", "(...) The Pacifico family is of Italian Jewish origin (...)"
• " "(..) Pacifico, the Elder, Joshua's son, was born in 1707 in Italy and arrived in Gibraltar in 1726 (...)"
• ', Roy Jenkins, Gladstone: A biography, Random House, 2002, "(...) Pacifico was a Spanish jew (...)"
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• ' (...)Don Pacifico, the hero of the 1847–48 claims, was a naturalized British subject (...)", House Documents - Vol. 1-2;Vol 270 - Page 1339 Congress House of Representatives - 1874
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