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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wars of the Jews or History of the
+Destruction of Jerusalem, by Flavius Josephus
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use
+it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem
+
+Author: Flavius Josephus
+
+Translator: William Whiston
+
+Release Date: January 10, 2009 [EBook #2850]
+
+Last Updated: August 3, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WARS OF THE JEWS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Reed, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+THE WARS OF THE JEWS
+
+OR HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
+
+By Flavius Josephus
+
+
+Translated by William Whiston
+
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+ PREFACE
+
+
+
+ BOOK I.
+
+ CHAPTER 1.
+
+ CHAPTER 2.
+
+ CHAPTER 3.
+
+ CHAPTER 4.
+
+ CHAPTER 5.
+
+ CHAPTER 6.
+
+ CHAPTER 7.
+
+ CHAPTER 8.
+
+ CHAPTER 9.
+
+ CHAPTER 10.
+
+ CHAPTER 11.
+
+ CHAPTER 12.
+
+ CHAPTER 13.
+
+ CHAPTER 14.
+
+ CHAPTER 15.
+
+ CHAPTER 16.
+
+ CHAPTER 17.
+
+ CHAPTER 18.
+
+ CHAPTER 19.
+
+ CHAPTER 20.
+
+ CHAPTER 21.
+
+ CHAPTER 22.
+
+ CHAPTER 23.
+
+ CHAPTER 24.
+
+ CHAPTER 25.
+
+ CHAPTER 26.
+
+ CHAPTER 27.
+
+ CHAPTER 28.
+
+ CHAPTER 29.
+
+ CHAPTER 30.
+
+ CHAPTER 31.
+
+ CHAPTER 32.
+
+ CHAPTER 33.
+
+ BOOK 2.
+
+ CHAPTER 1.
+
+ CHAPTER 2.
+
+ CHAPTER 3.
+
+ CHAPTER 4.
+
+ CHAPTER 5.
+
+ CHAPTER 6.
+
+ CHAPTER 7.
+
+ CHAPTER 8.
+
+ CHAPTER 9.
+
+ CHAPTER 10.
+
+ CHAPTER 11.
+
+ CHAPTER 12.
+
+ CHAPTER 13.
+
+ CHAPTER 14.
+
+ CHAPTER 15.
+
+ CHAPTER 16.
+
+ CHAPTER 17.
+
+ CHAPTER 18.
+
+ CHAPTER 19.
+
+ CHAPTER 9.
+
+ CHAPTER 21.
+
+ CHAPTER 22.
+
+ BOOK III.
+
+ CHAPTER 1.
+
+ CHAPTER 2.
+
+ CHAPTER 3.
+
+ CHAPTER 4.
+
+ CHAPTER 5.
+
+ CHAPTER 6.
+
+ CHAPTER 7.
+
+ CHAPTER 8.
+
+ CHAPTER 9.
+
+ CHAPTER 10.
+
+ BOOK IV.
+
+ CHAPTER 1.
+
+ CHAPTER 2.
+
+ CHAPTER 3.
+
+ CHAPTER 4.
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+
+ CHAPTER 6.
+
+ CHAPTER 7.
+
+ CHAPTER 8.
+
+ CHAPTER 9.
+
+ CHAPTER 10.
+
+ CHAPTER 11.
+
+ BOOK V.
+
+ CHAPTER 1.
+
+ CHAPTER 2.
+
+ CHAPTER 3.
+
+ CHAPTER 4.
+
+ CHAPTER 5.
+
+ CHAPTER 6.
+
+ CHAPTER 7.
+
+ CHAPTER 8.
+
+ CHAPTER 9.
+
+ CHAPTER 10.
+
+ CHAPTER 11.
+
+ CHAPTER 12.
+
+ CHAPTER 13.
+
+ BOOK VI.
+
+ CHAPTER 1.
+
+ CHAPTER 2.
+
+ CHAPTER 3.
+
+ CHAPTER 4.
+
+ CHAPTER 5.
+
+ CHAPTER 6.
+
+ CHAPTER 7.
+
+ CHAPTER 8.
+
+ CHAPTER 9.
+
+ CHAPTER 10.
+
+ BOOK VII.
+
+ CHAPTER 1.
+
+ CHAPTER 2.
+
+ CHAPTER 3.
+
+ CHAPTER 4.
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+
+ CHAPTER 6.
+
+ CHAPTER 7.
+
+ CHAPTER 8.
+
+ CHAPTER 9.
+
+ CHAPTER 10.
+
+ CHAPTER 11.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+1. 1 Whereas the war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been the
+greatest of all those, not only that have been in our times, but, in a
+manner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein cities
+have fought against cities, or nations against nations; while some men
+who were not concerned in the affairs themselves have gotten together
+vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and have written them down
+after a sophistical manner; and while those that were there present
+have given false accounts of things, and this either out of a humor of
+flattery to the Romans, or of hatred towards the Jews; and while their
+writings contain sometimes accusations, and sometimes encomiums, but no
+where the accurate truth of the facts; I have proposed to myself,
+for the sake of such as live under the government of the Romans, to
+translate those books into the Greek tongue, which I formerly composed
+in the language of our country, and sent to the Upper Barbarians; 2
+Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one
+who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be
+present at what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work].
+
+2. Now at the time when this great concussion of affairs happened, the
+affairs of the Romans were themselves in great disorder. Those Jews also
+who were for innovations, then arose when the times were disturbed; they
+were also in a flourishing condition for strength and riches, insomuch
+that the affairs of the East were then exceeding tumultuous, while some
+hoped for gain, and others were afraid of loss in such troubles; for the
+Jews hoped that all of their nation which were beyond Euphrates would
+have raised an insurrection together with them. The Gauls also, in the
+neighborhood of the Romans, were in motion, and the Geltin were
+not quiet; but all was in disorder after the death of Nero. And the
+opportunity now offered induced many to aim at the royal power; and the
+soldiery affected change, out of the hopes of getting money. I thought
+it therefore an absurd thing to see the truth falsified in affairs of
+such great consequence, and to take no notice of it; but to suffer those
+Greeks and Romans that were not in the wars to be ignorant of these
+things, and to read either flatteries or fictions, while the Parthians,
+and the Babylonians, and the remotest Arabians, and those of our nation
+beyond Euphrates, with the Adiabeni, by my means, knew accurately both
+whence the war begun, what miseries it brought upon us, and after what
+manner it ended.
+
+3. It is true, these writers have the confidence to call their accounts
+histories; wherein yet they seem to me to fail of their own purpose,
+as well as to relate nothing that is sound. For they have a mind to
+demonstrate the greatness of the Romans, while they still diminish and
+lessen the actions of the Jews, as not discerning how it cannot be that
+those must appear to be great who have only conquered those that were
+little. Nor are they ashamed to overlook the length of the war, the
+multitude of the Roman forces who so greatly suffered in it, or the
+might of the commanders, whose great labors about Jerusalem will be
+deemed inglorious, if what they achieved be reckoned but a small matter.
+
+4. However, I will not go to the other extreme, out of opposition to
+those men who extol the Romans nor will I determine to raise the actions
+of my countrymen too high; but I will prosecute the actions of both
+parties with accuracy. Yet shall I suit my language to the passions I am
+under, as to the affairs I describe, and must be allowed to indulge some
+lamentations upon the miseries undergone by my own country. For that it
+was a seditious temper of our own that destroyed it, and that they were
+the tyrants among the Jews who brought the Roman power upon us, who
+unwillingly attacked us, and occasioned the burning of our holy temple,
+Titus Caesar, who destroyed it, is himself a witness, who, during the
+entire war, pitied the people who were kept under by the seditious, and
+did often voluntarily delay the taking of the city, and allowed time to
+the siege, in order to let the authors have opportunity for repentance.
+But if any one makes an unjust accusation against us, when we speak so
+passionately about the tyrants, or the robbers, or sorely bewail the
+misfortunes of our country, let him indulge my affections herein, though
+it be contrary to the rules for writing history; because it had so
+come to pass, that our city Jerusalem had arrived at a higher degree of
+felicity than any other city under the Roman government, and yet at last
+fell into the sorest of calamities again. Accordingly, it appears to
+me that the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, if
+they be compared to these of the Jews 3 are not so considerable as they
+were; while the authors of them were not foreigners neither. This makes
+it impossible for me to contain my lamentations. But if any one be
+inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselves
+to the historical part, and the lamentations to the writer himself only.
+
+5. However, I may justly blame the learned men among the Greeks, who,
+when such great actions have been done in their own times, which, upon
+the comparison, quite eclipse the old wars, do yet sit as judges of
+those affairs, and pass bitter censures upon the labors of the best
+writers of antiquity; which moderns, although they may be superior
+to the old writers in eloquence, yet are they inferior to them in
+the execution of what they intended to do. While these also write new
+histories about the Assyrians and Medes, as if the ancient writers had
+not described their affairs as they ought to have done; although these
+be as far inferior to them in abilities as they are different in their
+notions from them. For of old every one took upon them to write what
+happened in his own time; where their immediate concern in the actions
+made their promises of value; and where it must be reproachful to write
+lies, when they must be known by the readers to be such. But then,
+an undertaking to preserve the memory Of what hath not been before
+recorded, and to represent the affairs of one's own time to those that
+come afterwards, is really worthy of praise and commendation. Now he is
+to be esteemed to have taken good pains in earnest, not who does no more
+than change the disposition and order of other men's works, but he
+who not only relates what had not been related before, but composes an
+entire body of history of his own: accordingly, I have been at great
+charges, and have taken very great pains [about this history], though
+I be a foreigner; and do dedicate this work, as a memorial of great
+actions, both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians. But for some of our
+own principal men, their mouths are wide open, and their tongues loosed
+presently, for gain and law-suits, but quite muzzled up when they are
+to write history, where they must speak truth and gather facts together
+with a great deal of pains; and so they leave the writing such histories
+to weaker people, and to such as are not acquainted with the actions of
+princes. Yet shall the real truth of historical facts be preferred by
+us, how much soever it be neglected among the Greek historians.
+
+6. To write concerning the Antiquities of the Jews, who they were
+[originally], and how they revolted from the Egyptians, and what country
+they traveled over, and what countries they seized upon afterward,
+and how they were removed out of them, I think this not to be a fit
+opportunity, and, on other accounts, also superfluous; and this because
+many Jews before me have composed the histories of our ancestors very
+exactly; as have some of the Greeks done it also, and have translated
+our histories into their own tongue, and have not much mistaken the
+truth in their histories. But then, where the writers of these affairs
+and our prophets leave off, thence shall I take my rise, and begin my
+history. Now as to what concerns that war which happened in my own time,
+I will go over it very largely, and with all the diligence I am able;
+but for what preceded mine own age, that I shall run over briefly.
+
+7. [For example, I shall relate] how Antiochus, who was named Epiphanes,
+took Jerusalem by force, and held it three years and three months, and
+was then ejected out of the country by the sons of Asamoneus: after
+that, how their posterity quarreled about the government, and brought
+upon their settlement the Romans and Pompey; how Herod also, the son of
+Antipater, dissolved their government, and brought Sosins upon them; as
+also how our people made a sedition upon Herod's death, while Augustus
+was the Roman emperor, and Quintilius Varus was in that country; and
+how the war broke out in the twelfth year of Nero, with what happened to
+Cestius; and what places the Jews assaulted in a hostile manner in the
+first sallies of the war.
+
+8. As also [I shall relate] how they built walls about the neighboring
+cities; and how Nero, upon Cestius's defeat, was in fear of the entire
+event of the war, and thereupon made Vespasian general in this war; and
+how this Vespasian, with the elder of his sons 4 made an expedition into
+the country of Judea; what was the number of the Roman army that he made
+use of; and how many of his auxiliaries were cut off in all Galilee;
+and how he took some of its cities entirely, and by force, and others
+of them by treaty, and on terms. Now, when I am come so far, I shall
+describe the good order of the Romans in war, and the discipline of
+their legions; the amplitude of both the Galilees, with its nature, and
+the limits of Judea. And, besides this, I shall particularly go over
+what is peculiar to the country, the lakes and fountains that are in
+them, and what miseries happened to every city as they were taken; and
+all this with accuracy, as I saw the things done, or suffered in them.
+For I shall not conceal any of the calamities I myself endured, since I
+shall relate them to such as know the truth of them.
+
+9. After this, [I shall relate] how, When the Jews' affairs were
+become very bad, Nero died, and Vespasian, when he was going to attack
+Jerusalem, was called back to take the government upon him; what signs
+happened to him relating to his gaining that government, and what
+mutations of government then happened at Rome, and how he was
+unwillingly made emperor by his soldiers; and how, upon his departure to
+Egypt, to take upon him the government of the empire, the affairs of
+the Jews became very tumultuous; as also how the tyrants rose up against
+them, and fell into dissensions among themselves.
+
+10. Moreover, [I shall relate] how Titus marched out of Egypt into Judea
+the second time; as also how, and where, and how many forces he got
+together; and in what state the city was, by the means of the seditious,
+at his coming; what attacks he made, and how many ramparts he cast up;
+of the three walls that encompassed the city, and of their measures;
+of the strength of the city, and the structure of the temple and holy
+house; and besides, the measures of those edifices, and of the altar,
+and all accurately determined. A description also of certain of
+their festivals, and seven purifications of purity, 5 and the sacred
+ministrations of the priests, with the garments of the priests, and
+of the high priests; and of the nature of the most holy place of the
+temple; without concealing any thing, or adding any thing to the known
+truth of things.
+
+11. After this, I shall relate the barbarity of the tyrants towards the
+people of their own nation, as well as the indulgence of the Romans in
+sparing foreigners; and how often Titus, out of his desire to preserve
+the city and the temple, invited the seditious to come to terms of
+accommodation. I shall also distinguish the sufferings of the people,
+and their calamities; how far they were afflicted by the sedition, and
+how far by the famine, and at length were taken. Nor shall I omit to
+mention the misfortunes of the deserters, nor the punishments inflicted
+on the captives; as also how the temple was burnt, against the consent
+of Caesar; and how many sacred things that had been laid up in the
+temple were snatched out of the fire; the destruction also of the entire
+city, with the signs and wonders that went before it; and the taking the
+tyrants captives, and the multitude of those that were made slaves,
+and into what different misfortunes they were every one distributed.
+Moreover, what the Romans did to the remains of the wall; and how they
+demolished the strong holds that were in the country; and how Titus
+went over the whole country, and settled its affairs; together with his
+return into Italy, and his triumph.
+
+12. I have comprehended all these things in seven books, and have left
+no occasion for complaint or accusation to such as have been acquainted
+with this war; and I have written it down for the sake of those that
+love truth, but not for those that please themselves [with fictitious
+relations]. And I will begin my account of these things with what I call
+my First Chapter.
+
+WAR PREFACE FOOTNOTES
+
+1 (return) [ I have already observed more than once, that this History
+of the Jewish War was Josephus's first work, and published about A.D.
+75, when he was but thirty-eight years of age; and that when he wrote
+it, he was not thoroughly acquainted with several circumstances of
+history from the days of Antiochus Epiphanes, with which it begins, till
+near his own times, contained in the first and former part of the
+second book, and so committed many involuntary errors therein. That he
+published his Antiquities eighteen years afterward, in the thirteenth
+year of Domitian, A.D. 93, when he was much more completely acquainted
+with those ancient times, and after he had perused those most authentic
+histories, the First Book of Maccabees, and the Chronicles of the
+Priesthood of John Hyrcanus, etc. That accordingly he then reviewed
+those parts of this work, and gave the public a more faithful, complete,
+and accurate account of the facts therein related; and honestly
+corrected the errors he had before run into.]
+
+
+2 (return) [ Who these Upper Barbarians, remote from the sea, were,
+Josephus himself will inform us, sect. 2, viz. the Parthians and
+Babylonians, and remotest Arabians [of the Jews among them]; besides the
+Jews beyond Euphrates, and the Adiabeni, or Assyrians. Whence we also
+learn that these Parthians, Babylonians, the remotest Arabians, [or at
+least the Jews among them,] as also the Jews beyond Euphrates, and
+the Adiabeni, or Assyrians, understood Josephus's Hebrew, or rather
+Chaldaic, books of The Jewish War, before they were put into the Greek
+language.]
+
+
+3 (return) [ That these calamities of the Jews, who were our Savior's
+murderers, were to be the greatest that had ever been since the beginning
+of the world, our Savior had directly foretold, Matthew 24:21; Mark
+13:19; Luke 21:23, 24; and that they proved to be such accordingly,
+Josephus is here a most authentic witness.]
+
+
+4 (return) [ Titus.]
+
+
+5 (return) [ These seven, or rather five, degrees of purity, or
+purification, are enumerated hereafter, B. V. ch. 5. sect. 6. The
+Rabbins make ten degrees of them, as Reland there informs us.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+
+     Containing The Interval Of One Hundred And Sixty-Seven
+     Years.
+
+     From The Taking Of Jerusalem By Antiochus Epiphanes,
+     To The Death Of Herod The Great.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+
+     How The City Jerusalem Was Taken, And The Temple Pillaged
+     [By Antiochus Epiphanes]. As Also Concerning The Actions Of
+     The Maccabees, Matthias And Judas; And Concerning The Death
+     Of Judas.
+
+1. At the same time that Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, had a
+quarrel with the sixth Ptolemy about his right to the whole country of
+Syria, a great sedition fell among the men of power in Judea, and they
+had a contention about obtaining the government; while each of those
+that were of dignity could not endure to be subject to their equals.
+However, Onias, one of the high priests, got the better, and cast the
+sons of Tobias out of the city; who fled to Antiochus, and besought
+him to make use of them for his leaders, and to make an expedition into
+Judea. The king being thereto disposed beforehand, complied with them,
+and came upon the Jews with a great army, and took their city by force,
+and slew a great multitude of those that favored Ptolemy, and sent out
+his soldiers to plunder them without mercy. He also spoiled the temple,
+and put a stop to the constant practice of offering a daily sacrifice
+of expiation for three years and six months. But Onias, the high
+priest, fled to Ptolemy, and received a place from him in the Nomus of
+Heliopolis, where he built a city resembling Jerusalem, and a temple
+that was like its temple 1 concerning which we shall speak more in its
+proper place hereafter.
+
+2. Now Antiochus was not satisfied either with his unexpected taking
+the city, or with its pillage, or with the great slaughter he had made
+there; but being overcome with his violent passions, and remembering
+what he had suffered during the siege, he compelled the Jews to dissolve
+the laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcised,
+and to sacrifice swine's flesh upon the altar; against which they all
+opposed themselves, and the most approved among them were put to death.
+Bacchides also, who was sent to keep the fortresses, having these wicked
+commands, joined to his own natural barbarity, indulged all sorts of the
+extremest wickedness, and tormented the worthiest of the inhabitants,
+man by man, and threatened their city every day with open destruction,
+till at length he provoked the poor sufferers by the extremity of his
+wicked doings to avenge themselves.
+
+3. Accordingly Matthias, the son of Asamoneus, one of the priests who
+lived in a village called Modin, armed himself, together with his
+own family, which had five sons of his in it, and slew Bacchides with
+daggers; and thereupon, out of the fear of the many garrisons [of the
+enemy], he fled to the mountains; and so many of the people followed
+him, that he was encouraged to come down from the mountains, and to give
+battle to Antiochus's generals, when he beat them, and drove them out of
+Judea. So he came to the government by this his success, and became
+the prince of his own people by their own free consent, and then died,
+leaving the government to Judas, his eldest son.
+
+4. Now Judas, supposing that Antiochus would not lie still, gathered an
+army out of his own countrymen, and was the first that made a league of
+friendship with the Romans, and drove Epiphanes out of the country when
+he had made a second expedition into it, and this by giving him a great
+defeat there; and when he was warmed by this great success, he made an
+assault upon the garrison that was in the city, for it had not been cut
+off hitherto; so he ejected them out of the upper city, and drove the
+soldiers into the lower, which part of the city was called the Citadel.
+He then got the temple under his power, and cleansed the whole
+place, and walled it round about, and made new vessels for sacred
+ministrations, and brought them into the temple, because the former
+vessels had been profaned. He also built another altar, and began to
+offer the sacrifices; and when the city had already received its sacred
+constitution again, Antiochus died; whose son Antiochus succeeded him in
+the kingdom, and in his hatred to the Jews also.
+
+5. So this Antiochus got together fifty thousand footmen, and five
+thousand horsemen, and fourscore elephants, and marched through Judea
+into the mountainous parts. He then took Bethsura, which was a small
+city; but at a place called Bethzacharis, where the passage was narrow,
+Judas met him with his army. However, before the forces joined battle,
+Judas's brother Eleazar, seeing the very highest of the elephants
+adorned with a large tower, and with military trappings of gold to guard
+him, and supposing that Antiochus himself was upon him, he ran a great
+way before his own army, and cutting his way through the enemy's troops,
+he got up to the elephant; yet could he not reach him who seemed to be
+the king, by reason of his being so high; but still he ran his weapon
+into the belly of the beast, and brought him down upon himself, and was
+crushed to death, having done no more than attempted great things, and
+showed that he preferred glory before life. Now he that governed the
+elephant was but a private man; and had he proved to be Antiochus,
+Eleazar had performed nothing more by this bold stroke than that it
+might appear he chose to die, when he had the bare hope of thereby
+doing a glorious action; nay, this disappointment proved an omen to his
+brother [Judas] how the entire battle would end. It is true that the
+Jews fought it out bravely for a long time, but the king's forces,
+being superior in number, and having fortune on their side, obtained
+the victory. And when a great many of his men were slain, Judas took the
+rest with him, and fled to the toparchy of Gophna. So Antiochus went to
+Jerusalem, and staid there but a few days, for he wanted provisions,
+and so he went his way. He left indeed a garrison behind him, such as he
+thought sufficient to keep the place, but drew the rest of his army off,
+to take their winter-quarters in Syria.
+
+6. Now, after the king was departed, Judas was not idle; for as many of
+his own nation came to him, so did he gather those that had escaped out
+of the battle together, and gave battle again to Antiochus's generals
+at a village called Adasa; and being too hard for his enemies in the
+battle, and killing a great number of them, he was at last himself slain
+also. Nor was it many days afterward that his brother John had a plot
+laid against him by Antiochus's party, and was slain by them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+
+     Concerning The Successors Of Judas, Who Were Jonathan And
+     Simon, And John Hyrcanus.
+
+1. When Jonathan, who was Judas's brother, succeeded him, he behaved
+himself with great circumspection in other respects, with relation to
+his own people; and he corroborated his authority by preserving his
+friendship with the Romans. He also made a league with Antiochus the
+son. Yet was not all this sufficient for his security; for the tyrant
+Trypho, who was guardian to Antiochus's son, laid a plot against
+him; and besides that, endeavored to take off his friends, and caught
+Jonathan by a wile, as he was going to Ptolemais to Antiochus, with
+a few persons in his company, and put him in bonds, and then made an
+expedition against the Jews; but when he was afterward driven away by
+Simon, who was Jonathan's brother, and was enraged at his defeat, he put
+Jonathan to death.
+
+2. However, Simon managed the public affairs after a courageous manner,
+and took Gazara, and Joppa, and Jamnia, which were cities in his
+neighborhood. He also got the garrison under, and demolished the
+citadel. He was afterward an auxiliary to Antiochus, against Trypho,
+whom he besieged in Dora, before he went on his expedition against the
+Medes; yet could not he make the king ashamed of his ambition, though
+he had assisted him in killing Trypho; for it was not long ere Antiochus
+sent Cendebeus his general with an army to lay waste Judea, and to
+subdue Simon; yet he, though he was now in years, conducted the war
+as if he were a much younger man. He also sent his sons with a band of
+strong men against Antiochus, while he took part of the army himself
+with him, and fell upon him from another quarter. He also laid a great
+many men in ambush in many places of the mountains, and was superior
+in all his attacks upon them; and when he had been conqueror after so
+glorious a manner, he was made high priest, and also freed the Jews from
+the dominion of the Macedonians, after one hundred and seventy years of
+the empire [of Seleucus].
+
+3. This Simon also had a plot laid against him, and was slain at a feast
+by his son-in-law Ptolemy, who put his wife and two sons into prison,
+and sent some persons to kill John, who was also called Hyrcanus. 2
+But when the young man was informed of their coming beforehand, he
+made haste to get to the city, as having a very great confidence in the
+people there, both on account of the memory of the glorious actions of
+his father, and of the hatred they could not but bear to the injustice
+of Ptolemy. Ptolemy also made an attempt to get into the city by another
+gate; but was repelled by the people, who had just then admitted of
+Hyrcanus; so he retired presently to one of the fortresses that were
+about Jericho, which was called Dagon. Now when Hyrcanus had received
+the high priesthood, which his father had held before, and had offered
+sacrifice to God, he made great haste to attack Ptolemy, that he might
+afford relief to his mother and brethren.
+
+4. So he laid siege to the fortress, and was superior to Ptolemy in
+other respects, but was overcome by him as to the just affection [he had
+for his relations]; for when Ptolemy was distressed, he brought forth
+his mother, and his brethren, and set them upon the wall, and beat them
+with rods in every body's sight, and threatened, that unless he would
+go away immediately, he would throw them down headlong; at which sight
+Hyrcanus's commiseration and concern were too hard for his anger. But
+his mother was not dismayed, neither at the stripes she received, nor
+at the death with which she was threatened; but stretched out her hands,
+and prayed her son not to be moved with the injuries that she suffered
+to spare the wretch; since it was to her better to die by the means of
+Ptolemy, than to live ever so long, provided he might be punished for
+the injuries he done to their family. Now John's case was this: When
+he considered the courage of his mother, and heard her entreaty, he set
+about his attacks; but when he saw her beaten, and torn to pieces
+with the stripes, he grew feeble, and was entirely overcome by his
+affections. And as the siege was delayed by this means, the year of rest
+came on, upon which the Jews rest every seventh year as they do on
+every seventh day. On this year, therefore, Ptolemy was freed from being
+besieged, and slew the brethren of John, with their mother, and fled to
+Zeno, who was also called Cotylas, who was tyrant of Philadelphia.
+
+5. And now Antiochus was so angry at what he had suffered from Simon,
+that he made an expedition into Judea, and sat down before Jerusalem and
+besieged Hyrcanus; but Hyrcanus opened the sepulcher of David, who was
+the richest of all kings, and took thence about three thousand talents
+in money, and induced Antiochus, by the promise of three thousand
+talents, to raise the siege. Moreover, he was the first of the Jews that
+had money enough, and began to hire foreign auxiliaries also.
+
+6. However, at another time, when Antiochus was gone upon an expedition
+against the Medes, and so gave Hyrcanus an opportunity of being revenged
+upon him, he immediately made an attack upon the cities of Syria, as
+thinking, what proved to be the case with them, that he should find them
+empty of good troops. So he took Medaba and Samea, with the towns in
+their neighborhood, as also Shechem, and Gerizzim; and besides these,
+[he subdued] the nation of the Cutheans, who dwelt round about that
+temple which was built in imitation of the temple at Jerusalem; he also
+took a great many other cities of Idumea, with Adoreon and Marissa.
+7. He also proceeded as far as Samaria, where is now the city Sebaste,
+which was built by Herod the king, and encompassed it all round with a
+wall, and set his sons, Aristobulus and Antigonus, over the siege; who
+pushed it on so hard, that a famine so far prevailed within the city,
+that they were forced to eat what never was esteemed food. They
+also invited Antiochus, who was called Cyzicenus, to come to their
+assistance; whereupon he got ready, and complied with their invitation,
+but was beaten by Aristobulus and Antigonus; and indeed he was pursued
+as far as Scythopolis by these brethren, and fled away from them. So
+they returned back to Samaria, and shut the multitude again within the
+wall; and when they had taken the city, they demolished it, and made
+slaves of its inhabitants. And as they had still great success in their
+undertakings, they did not suffer their zeal to cool, but marched with
+an army as far as Scythopolis, and made an incursion upon it, and laid
+waste all the country that lay within Mount Carmel.
+
+8. But then these successes of John and of his sons made them be envied,
+and occasioned a sedition in the country; and many there were who got
+together, and would not be at rest till they brake out into open war,
+in which war they were beaten. So John lived the rest of his life very
+happily, and administered the government after a most extraordinary
+manner, and this for thirty-three entire years together. He died,
+leaving five sons behind him. He was certainly a very happy man, and
+afforded no occasion to have any complaint made of fortune on his
+account. He it was who alone had three of the most desirable things in
+the world,--the government of his nation, and the high priesthood, and
+the gift of prophecy. For the Deity conversed with him, and he was
+not ignorant of any thing that was to come afterward; insomuch that he
+foresaw and foretold that his two eldest sons would not continue masters
+of the government; and it will highly deserve our narration to describe
+their catastrophe, and how far inferior these men were to their father
+in felicity.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3.
+
+
+     How Aristobulus Was The First That Put A Diadem About His
+     Head; And After He Had Put His Mother And Brother To Death,
+     Died Himself, When He Had Reigned No More Than A Year.
+
+1. For after the death of their father, the elder of them, Aristobulus,
+changed the government into a kingdom, and was the first that put a
+diadem upon his head, four hundred seventy and one years and three
+months after our people came down into this country, when they were set
+free from the Babylonian slavery. Now, of his brethren, he appeared to
+have an affection for Antigonus, who was next to him, and made him his
+equal; but for the rest, he bound them, and put them in prison. He also
+put his mother in bonds, for her contesting the government with him;
+for John had left her to be the governess of public affairs. He also
+proceeded to that degree of barbarity as to cause her to be pined to
+death in prison.
+
+2. But vengeance circumvented him in the affair of his brother
+Antigonus, whom he loved, and whom he made his partner in the kingdom;
+for he slew him by the means of the calumnies which ill men about the
+palace contrived against him. At first, indeed, Aristobulus would
+not believe their reports, partly out of the affection he had for his
+brother, and partly because he thought that a great part of these tales
+were owing to the envy of their relaters: however, as Antigonus came
+once in a splendid manner from the army to that festival, wherein our
+ancient custom is to make tabernacles for God, it happened, in those
+days, that Aristobulus was sick, and that, at the conclusion of the
+feast, Antigonus came up to it, with his armed men about him; and this
+when he was adorned in the finest manner possible; and that, in a great
+measure, to pray to God on the behalf of his brother. Now at this very
+time it was that these ill men came to the king, and told him in what
+a pompous manner the armed men came, and with what insolence Antigonus
+marched, and that such his insolence was too great for a private person,
+and that accordingly he was come with a great band of men to kill him;
+for that he could not endure this bare enjoyment of royal honor, when it
+was in his power to take the kingdom himself.
+
+3. Now Aristobulus, by degrees, and unwillingly, gave credit to these
+accusations; and accordingly he took care not to discover his suspicion
+openly, though he provided to be secure against any accidents; so he
+placed the guards of his body in a certain dark subterranean passage;
+for he lay sick in a place called formerly the Citadel, though
+afterwards its name was changed to Antonia; and he gave orders that if
+Antigonus came unarmed, they should let him alone; but if he came to him
+in his armor, they should kill him. He also sent some to let him know
+beforehand that he should come unarmed. But, upon this occasion, the
+queen very cunningly contrived the matter with those that plotted his
+ruin, for she persuaded those that were sent to conceal the king's
+message; but to tell Antigonus how his brother had heard he had got a
+very the suit of armor made with fine martial ornaments, in Galilee;
+and because his present sickness hindered him from coming and seeing all
+that finery, he very much desired to see him now in his armor; because,
+said he, in a little time thou art going away from me.
+
+4. As soon as Antigonus heard this, the good temper of his brother not
+allowing him to suspect any harm from him, he came along with his armor
+on, to show it to his brother; but when he was going along that dark
+passage which was called Strato's Tower, he was slain by the body
+guards, and became an eminent instance how calumny destroys all
+good-will and natural affection, and how none of our good affections are
+strong enough to resist envy perpetually.
+
+5. And truly any one would be surprised at Judas upon this occasion. He
+was of the sect of the Essens, and had never failed or deceived men in
+his predictions before. Now this man saw Antigonus as he was passing
+along by the temple, and cried out to his acquaintance, [they were not a
+few who attended upon him as his scholars,] "O strange!" said he, "it is
+good for me to die now, since truth is dead before me, and somewhat that
+I have foretold hath proved false; for this Antigonus is this day alive,
+who ought to have died this day; and the place where he ought to be
+slain, according to that fatal decree, was Strato's Tower, which is at
+the distance of six hundred furlongs from this place; and yet four hours
+of this day are over already; which point of time renders the prediction
+impossible to be fill filled." And when the old man had said this, he
+was dejected in his mind, and so continued. But in a little time news
+came that Antigonus was slain in a subterraneous place, which was itself
+also called Strato's Tower, by the same name with that Cesarea which lay
+by the sea-side; and this ambiguity it was which caused the prophet's
+disorder.
+
+6. Hereupon Aristobulus repented of the great crime he had been guilty
+of, and this gave occasion to the increase of his distemper. He also
+grew worse and worse, and his soul was constantly disturbed at the
+thoughts of what he had done, till his very bowels being torn to pieces
+by the intolerable grief he was under, he threw up a great quantity of
+blood. And as one of those servants that attended him carried out that
+blood, he, by some supernatural providence, slipped and fell down in the
+very place where Antigonus had been slain; and so he spilt some of
+the murderer's blood upon the spots of the blood of him that had been
+murdered, which still appeared. Hereupon a lamentable cry arose among
+the spectators, as if the servant had spilled the blood on purpose in
+that place; and as the king heard that cry, he inquired what was the
+cause of it; and while nobody durst tell him, he pressed them so much
+the more to let him know what was the matter; so at length, when he had
+threatened them, and forced them to speak out, they told; whereupon he
+burst into tears, and groaned, and said, "So I perceive I am not like
+to escape the all-seeing eye of God, as to the great crimes I have
+committed; but the vengeance of the blood of my kinsman pursues me
+hastily. O thou most impudent body! how long wilt thou retain a soul
+that ought to die on account of that punishment it ought to suffer for a
+mother and a brother slain! How long shall I myself spend my blood drop
+by drop? let them take it all at once; and let their ghosts no longer be
+disappointed by a few parcels of my bowels offered to them." As soon
+as he had said these words, he presently died, when he had reigned no
+longer than a year.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+
+     What Actions Were Done By Alexander Janneus, Who Reigned
+     Twenty-Seven Years.
+
+1. And now the king's wife loosed the king's brethren, and made
+Alexander king, who appeared both elder in age, and more moderate in his
+temper than the rest; who, when he came to the government, slew one of
+his brethren, as affecting to govern himself; but had the other of them
+in great esteem, as loving a quiet life, without meddling with public
+affairs.
+
+2. Now it happened that there was a battle between him and Ptolemy, who
+was called Lathyrus, who had taken the city Asochis. He indeed slew a
+great many of his enemies, but the victory rather inclined to Ptolemy.
+But when this Ptolemy was pursued by his mother Cleopatra, and retired
+into Egypt, Alexander besieged Gadara, and took it; as also he did
+Amathus, which was the strongest of all the fortresses that were about
+Jordan, and therein were the most precious of all the possessions of
+Theodorus, the son of Zeno. Whereupon Theodorus marched against him, and
+took what belonged to himself as well as the king's baggage, and slew
+ten thousand of the Jews. However, Alexander recovered this blow, and
+turned his force towards the maritime parts, and took Raphia and Gaza,
+with Anthedon also, which was afterwards called Agrippias by king Herod.
+
+3. But when he had made slaves of the citizens of all these cities, the
+nation of the Jews made an insurrection against him at a festival; for
+at those feasts seditions are generally begun; and it looked as if he
+should not be able to escape the plot they had laid for him, had not his
+foreign auxiliaries, the Pisidians and Cilicians, assisted him; for as
+to the Syrians, he never admitted them among his mercenary troops, on
+account of their innate enmity against the Jewish nation. And when he
+had slain more than six thousand of the rebels, he made an incursion
+into Arabia; and when he had taken that country, together with the
+Gileadires and Moabites, he enjoined them to pay him tribute, and
+returned to Areathus; and as Theodorus was surprised at his great
+success, he took the fortress, and demolished it.
+
+4. However, when he fought with Obodas, king of the Arabians, who had
+laid an ambush for him near Golan, and a plot against him, he lost his
+entire army, which was crowded together in a deep valley, and broken to
+pieces by the multitude of camels. And when he had made his escape to
+Jerusalem, he provoked the multitude, which hated him before, to make
+an insurrection against him, and this on account of the greatness of the
+calamity that he was under. However, he was then too hard for them; and,
+in the several battles that were fought on both sides, he slew not fewer
+than fifty thousand of the Jews in the interval of six years. Yet had
+he no reason to rejoice in these victories, since he did but consume his
+own kingdom; till at length he left off fighting, and endeavored to
+come to a composition with them, by talking with his subjects. But this
+mutability and irregularity of his conduct made them hate him still
+more. And when he asked them why they so hated him, and what he should
+do in order to appease them, they said, by killing himself; for that it
+would be then all they could do to be reconciled to him, who had done
+such tragical things to them, even when he was dead. At the same time
+they invited Demetrius, who was called Eucerus, to assist them; and as
+he readily complied with their requests, in hopes of great advantages,
+and came with his army, the Jews joined with those their auxiliaries
+about Shechem.
+
+5. Yet did Alexander meet both these forces with one thousand horsemen,
+and eight thousand mercenaries that were on foot. He had also with him
+that part of the Jews which favored him, to the number of ten thousand;
+while the adverse party had three thousand horsemen, and fourteen
+thousand footmen. Now, before they joined battle, the kings made
+proclamation, and endeavored to draw off each other's soldiers, and make
+them revolt; while Demetrius hoped to induce Alexander's mercenaries
+to leave him, and Alexander hoped to induce the Jews that were with
+Demetrius to leave him. But since neither the Jews would leave off their
+rage, nor the Greeks prove unfaithful, they came to an engagement, and
+to a close fight with their weapons. In which battle Demetrius was
+the conqueror, although Alexander's mercenaries showed the greatest
+exploits, both in soul and body. Yet did the upshot of this battle prove
+different from what was expected, as to both of them; for neither did
+those that invited Demetrius to come to them continue firm to him,
+though he was conqueror; and six thousand Jews, out of pity to the
+change of Alexander's condition, when he was fled to the mountains,
+came over to him. Yet could not Demetrius bear this turn of affairs; but
+supposing that Alexander was already become a match for him again, and
+that all the nation would [at length] run to him, he left the country,
+and went his way.
+
+6. However, the rest of the [Jewish] multitude did not lay aside their
+quarrels with him, when the [foreign] auxiliaries were gone; but they
+had a perpetual war with Alexander, until he had slain the greatest part
+of them, and driven the rest into the city Berneselis; and when he had
+demolished that city, he carried the captives to Jerusalem. Nay, his
+rage was grown so extravagant, that his barbarity proceeded to the
+degree of impiety; for when he had ordered eight hundred to be hung upon
+crosses in the midst of the city, he had the throats of their wives and
+children cut before their eyes; and these executions he saw as he
+was drinking and lying down with his concubines. Upon which so deep a
+surprise seized on the people, that eight thousand of his opposers
+fled away the very next night, out of all Judea, whose flight was only
+terminated by Alexander's death; so at last, though not till late,
+and with great difficulty, he, by such actions, procured quiet to his
+kingdom, and left off fighting any more.
+
+7. Yet did that Antiochus, who was also called Dionysius, become an
+origin of troubles again. This man was the brother of Demetrius, and the
+last of the race of the Seleucidae. 3 Alexander was afraid of him, when
+he was marching against the Arabians; so he cut a deep trench between
+Antipatris, which was near the mountains, and the shores of Joppa; he
+also erected a high wall before the trench, and built wooden towers,
+in order to hinder any sudden approaches. But still he was not able to
+exclude Antiochus, for he burnt the towers, and filled up the trenches,
+and marched on with his army. And as he looked upon taking his
+revenge on Alexander, for endeavoring to stop him, as a thing of less
+consequence, he marched directly against the Arabians, whose king
+retired into such parts of the country as were fittest for engaging the
+enemy, and then on the sudden made his horse turn back, which were in
+number ten thousand, and fell upon Antiochus's army while they were in
+disorder, and a terrible battle ensued. Antiochus's troops, so long as
+he was alive, fought it out, although a mighty slaughter was made among
+them by the Arabians; but when he fell, for he was in the forefront, in
+the utmost danger, in rallying his troops, they all gave ground, and the
+greatest part of his army were destroyed, either in the action or the
+flight; and for the rest, who fled to the village of Cana, it happened
+that they were all consumed by want of necessaries, a few only excepted.
+
+8. About this time it was that the people of Damascus, out of their
+hatred to Ptolemy, the son of Menhens, invited Aretas [to take the
+government], and made him king of Celesyria. This man also made an
+expedition against Judea, and beat Alexander in battle; but afterwards
+retired by mutual agreement. But Alexander, when he had taken
+Pella, marched to Gerasa again, out of the covetous desire he had of
+Theodorus's possessions; and when he had built a triple wall about the
+garrison, he took the place by force. He also demolished Golan, and
+Seleucia, and what was called the Valley of Antiochus; besides which,
+he took the strong fortress of Gamala, and stripped Demetrius, who was
+governor therein, of what he had, on account of the many crimes laid to
+his charge, and then returned into Judea, after he had been three whole
+years in this expedition. And now he was kindly received of the nation,
+because of the good success he had. So when he was at rest from war,
+he fell into a distemper; for he was afflicted with a quartan ague, and
+supposed that, by exercising himself again in martial affairs, he
+should get rid of this distemper; but by making such expeditions at
+unseasonable times, and forcing his body to undergo greater hardships
+than it was able to bear, he brought himself to his end. He died,
+therefore, in the midst of his troubles, after he had reigned seven and
+twenty years.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5.
+
+
+     Alexandra Reigns Nine Years, During Which Time The Pharisees
+     Were The Real Rulers Of The Nation.
+
+1. Now Alexander left the kingdom to Alexandra his wife, and depended
+upon it that the Jews would now very readily submit to her, because she
+had been very averse to such cruelty as he had treated them with,
+and had opposed his violation of their laws, and had thereby got the
+good-will of the people. Nor was he mistaken as to his expectations; for
+this woman kept the dominion, by the opinion that the people had of her
+piety; for she chiefly studied the ancient customs of her country, and
+cast those men out of the government that offended against their holy
+laws. And as she had two sons by Alexander, she made Hyrcanus the elder
+high priest, on account of his age, as also, besides that, on account of
+his inactive temper, no way disposing him to disturb the public. But
+she retained the younger, Aristobulus, with her as a private person, by
+reason of the warmth of his temper.
+
+2. And now the Pharisees joined themselves to her, to assist her in
+the government. These are a certain sect of the Jews that appear more
+religious than others, and seem to interpret the laws more accurately.
+Now Alexandra hearkened to them to an extraordinary degree, as being
+herself a woman of great piety towards God. But these Pharisees artfully
+insinuated themselves into her favor by little and little, and became
+themselves the real administrators of the public affairs: they banished
+and reduced whom they pleased; they bound and loosed [men] at their
+pleasure; 4 and, to say all at once, they had the enjoyment of the royal
+authority, whilst the expenses and the difficulties of it belonged to
+Alexandra. She was a sagacious woman in the management of great
+affairs, and intent always upon gathering soldiers together; so that she
+increased the army the one half, and procured a great body of foreign
+troops, till her own nation became not only very powerful at home, but
+terrible also to foreign potentates, while she governed other people,
+and the Pharisees governed her.
+
+3. Accordingly, they themselves slew Diogenes, a person of figure,
+and one that had been a friend to Alexander; and accused him as having
+assisted the king with his advice, for crucifying the eight hundred men
+[before mentioned.] They also prevailed with Alexandra to put to death
+the rest of those who had irritated him against them. Now she was so
+superstitious as to comply with their desires, and accordingly they slew
+whom they pleased themselves. But the principal of those that were in
+danger fled to Aristobulus, who persuaded his mother to spare the men on
+account of their dignity, but to expel them out of the city, unless she
+took them to be innocent; so they were suffered to go unpunished, and
+were dispersed all over the country. But when Alexandra sent out her
+army to Damascus, under pretense that Ptolemy was always oppressing
+that city, she got possession of it; nor did it make any considerable
+resistance. She also prevailed with Tigranes, king of Armenia, who lay
+with his troops about Ptolemais, and besieged Cleopatra, 5 by agreements
+and presents, to go away. Accordingly, Tigranes soon arose from
+the siege, by reason of those domestic tumults which happened upon
+Lucullus's expedition into Armenia.
+
+4. In the mean time, Alexandra fell sick, and Aristobulus, her younger
+son, took hold of this opportunity, with his domestics, of which he had
+a great many, who were all of them his friends, on account of the warmth
+of their youth, and got possession of all the fortresses. He also used
+the sums of money he found in them to get together a number of mercenary
+soldiers, and made himself king; and besides this, upon Hyrcanus's
+complaint to his mother, she compassionated his case, and put
+Aristobulus's wife and sons under restraint in Antonia, which was a
+fortress that joined to the north part of the temple. It was, as I have
+already said, of old called the Citadel; but afterwards got the name of
+Antonia, when Antony was [lord of the East], just as the other cities,
+Sebaste and Agrippias, had their names changed, and these given them
+from Sebastus and Agrippa. But Alexandra died before she could punish
+Aristobulus for his disinheriting his brother, after she had reigned
+nine years.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+
+     When Hyrcanus Who Was Alexander's Heir, Receded From His
+     Claim To The Crown Aristobulus Is Made King; And Afterward
+     The Same Hyrcanus By The Means Of Antipater, Is Brought Back
+     By Abetas. At Last Pompey Is Made The Arbitrator Of The
+     Dispute Between The Brothers.
+
+1. Now Hyrcanus was heir to the kingdom, and to him did his mother
+commit it before she died; but Aristobulus was superior to him in power
+and magnanimity; and when there was a battle between them, to decide
+the dispute about the kingdom, near Jericho, the greatest part deserted
+Hyrcanus, and went over to Aristobulus; but Hyrcanus, with those of his
+party who staid with him, fled to Antonia, and got into his power the
+hostages that might be for his preservation [which were Aristobulus's
+wife, with her children]; but they came to an agreement before things
+should come to extremities, that Aristobulus should be king, and
+Hyrcanus should resign that up, but retain all the rest of his
+dignities, as being the king's brother. Hereupon they were reconciled
+to each other in the temple, and embraced one another in a very kind
+manner, while the people stood round about them; they also changed their
+houses, while Aristobulus went to the royal palace, and Hyrcanus retired
+to the house of Aristobulus.
+
+2. Now those other people which were at variance with Aristobulus were
+afraid upon his unexpected obtaining the government; and especially this
+concerned Antipater 6 whom Aristobulus hated of old. He was by birth
+an Idumean, and one of the principal of that nation, on account of his
+ancestors and riches, and other authority to him belonging: he also
+persuaded Hyrcanus to fly to Aretas, the king of Arabia, and to lay
+claim to the kingdom; as also he persuaded Aretas to receive Hyrcanus,
+and to bring him back to his kingdom: he also cast great reproaches upon
+Aristobulus, as to his morals, and gave great commendations to Hyrcanus,
+and exhorted Aretas to receive him, and told him how becoming a filing
+it would be for him, who ruled so great a kingdom, to afford his
+assistance to such as are injured; alleging that Hyrcanus was treated
+unjustly, by being deprived of that dominion which belonged to him by
+the prerogative of his birth. And when he had predisposed them both to
+do what he would have them, he took Hyrcanus by night, and ran away from
+the city, and, continuing his flight with great swiftness, he escaped to
+the place called Petra, which is the royal seat of the king of Arabia,
+where he put Hyrcanus into Aretas's hand; and by discoursing much with
+him, and gaining upon him with many presents, he prevailed with him
+to give him an army that might restore him to his kingdom. This
+army consisted of fifty thousand footmen and horsemen, against which
+Aristobulus was not able to make resistance, but was deserted in his
+first onset, and was driven to Jerusalem; he also had been taken
+at first by force, if Scaurus, the Roman general, had not come and
+seasonably interposed himself, and raised the siege. This Scaurus was
+sent into Syria from Armenia by Pompey the Great, when he fought against
+Tigranes; so Scaurus came to Damascus, which had been lately taken by
+Metellus and Lollius, and caused them to leave the place; and, upon his
+hearing how the affairs of Judea stood, he made haste thither as to a
+certain booty.
+
+3. As soon, therefore, as he was come into the country, there
+came ambassadors from both the brothers, each of them desiring his
+assistance; but Aristobulus's three hundred talents had more weight with
+him than the justice of the cause; which sum, when Scaurus had received,
+he sent a herald to Hyrcanus and the Arabians, and threatened them with
+the resentment of the Romans and of Pompey, unless they would raise
+the siege. So Aretas was terrified, and retired out of Judea to
+Philadelphia, as did Scaurus return to Damascus again; nor was
+Aristobulus satisfied with escaping [out of his brother's hands,] but
+gathered all his forces together, and pursued his enemies, and fought
+them at a place called Papyron, and slew about six thousand of them,
+and, together with them Antipater's brother Phalion.
+
+4. When Hyrcanus and Antipater were thus deprived of their hopes from
+the Arabians, they transferred the same to their adversaries; and
+because Pompey had passed through Syria, and was come to Damascus, they
+fled to him for assistance; and, without any bribes, they made the same
+equitable pleas that they had used to Aretas, and besought him to hate
+the violent behavior of Aristobulus, and to bestow the kingdom on him
+to whom it justly belonged, both on account of his good character and
+on account of his superiority in age. However, neither was Aristobulus
+wanting to himself in this case, as relying on the bribes that Scaurus
+had received: he was also there himself, and adorned himself after
+a manner the most agreeable to royalty that he was able. But he soon
+thought it beneath him to come in such a servile manner, and could not
+endure to serve his own ends in a way so much more abject than he was
+used to; so he departed from Diospolis.
+
+5. At this his behavior Pompey had great indignation; Hyrcanus also and
+his friends made great intercessions to Pompey; so he took not only his
+Roman forces, but many of his Syrian auxiliaries, and marched against
+Aristobulus. But when he had passed by Pella and Scythopolis, and was
+come to Corea, where you enter into the country of Judea, when you go
+up to it through the Mediterranean parts, he heard that Aristobulus was
+fled to Alexandrium, which is a strong hold fortified with the utmost
+magnificence, and situated upon a high mountain; and he sent to him, and
+commanded him to come down. Now his inclination was to try his fortune
+in a battle, since he was called in such an imperious manner, rather
+than to comply with that call. However, he saw the multitude were in
+great fear, and his friends exhorted him to consider what the power of
+the Romans was, and how it was irresistible; so he complied with their
+advice, and came down to Pompey; and when he had made a long apology for
+himself, and for the justness of his cause in taking the government,
+he returned to the fortress. And when his brother invited him again [to
+plead his cause], he came down and spake about the justice of it, and
+then went away without any hinderance from Pompey; so he was between
+hope and fear. And when he came down, it was to prevail with Pompey to
+allow him the government entirely; and when he went up to the citadel,
+it was that he might not appear to debase himself too low. However,
+Pompey commanded him to give up his fortified places, and forced him to
+write to every one of their governors to yield them up; they having
+had this charge given them, to obey no letters but what were of his
+own hand-writing. Accordingly he did what he was ordered to do; but had
+still an indignation at what was done, and retired to Jerusalem, and
+prepared to fight with Pompey.
+
+6. But Pompey did not give him time to make any preparations [for a
+siege], but followed him at his heels; he was also obliged to make haste
+in his attempt, by the death of Mithridates, of which he was informed
+about Jericho. Now here is the most fruitful country of Judea, which
+bears a vast number of palm trees 7 besides the balsam tree, whose
+sprouts they cut with sharp stones, and at the incisions they gather the
+juice, which drops down like tears. So Pompey pitched his camp in that
+place one night, and then hasted away the next morning to Jerusalem; but
+Aristobulus was so affrighted at his approach, that he came and met him
+by way of supplication. He also promised him money, and that he would
+deliver up both himself and the city into his disposal, and thereby
+mitigated the anger of Pompey. Yet did not he perform any of the
+conditions he had agreed to; for Aristobulus's party would not so much
+as admit Gabinius into the city, who was sent to receive the money that
+he had promised.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+
+     How Pompey Had The City Of Jerusalem Delivered Up To Him But
+     Took The Temple By Force. How He Went Into The Holy Of
+     Holies; As Also What Were His Other Exploits In Judea.
+
+1. At this treatment Pompey was very angry, and took Aristobulus into
+custody. And when he was come to the city, he looked about where he
+might make his attack; for he saw the walls were so firm, that it would
+be hard to overcome them; and that the valley before the walls was
+terrible; and that the temple, which was within that valley, was itself
+encompassed with a very strong wall, insomuch that if the city were
+taken, that temple would be a second place of refuge for the enemy to
+retire to.
+
+2. Now as he was long in deliberating about this matter, a sedition
+arose among the people within the city; Aristobulus's party being
+willing to fight, and to set their king at liberty, while the party of
+Hyrcanus were for opening the gates to Pompey; and the dread people were
+in occasioned these last to be a very numerous party, when they looked
+upon the excellent order the Roman soldiers were in. So Aristobulus's
+party was worsted, and retired into the temple, and cut off the
+communication between the temple and the city, by breaking down the
+bridge that joined them together, and prepared to make an opposition to
+the utmost; but as the others had received the Romans into the city, and
+had delivered up the palace to him, Pompey sent Piso, one of his great
+officers, into that palace with an army, who distributed a garrison
+about the city, because he could not persuade any one of those that had
+fled to the temple to come to terms of accommodation; he then disposed
+all things that were round about them so as might favor their attacks,
+as having Hyrcanus's party very ready to afford them both counsel and
+assistance.
+
+3. But Pompey himself filled up the ditch that was on the north side of
+the temple, and the entire valley also, the army itself being obliged to
+carry the materials for that purpose. And indeed it was a hard thing to
+fill up that valley, by reason of its immense depth, especially as
+the Jews used all the means possible to repel them from their superior
+situation; nor had the Romans succeeded in their endeavors, had not
+Pompey taken notice of the seventh days, on which the Jews abstain
+from all sorts of work on a religious account, and raised his bank, but
+restrained his soldiers from fighting on those days; for the Jews only
+acted defensively on sabbath days. But as soon as Pompey had filled
+up the valley, he erected high towers upon the bank, and brought those
+engines which they had fetched from Tyre near to the wall, and tried
+to batter it down; and the slingers of stones beat off those that stood
+above them, and drove them away; but the towers on this side of the
+city made very great resistance, and were indeed extraordinary both for
+largeness and magnificence.
+
+4. Now here it was that, upon the many hardships which the Romans
+underwent, Pompey could not but admire not only at the other instances
+of the Jews' fortitude, but especially that they did not at all intermit
+their religious services, even when they were encompassed with darts
+on all sides; for, as if the city were in full peace, their daily
+sacrifices and purifications, and every branch of their religious
+worship, was still performed to God with the utmost exactness. Nor
+indeed when the temple was actually taken, and they were every day
+slain about the altar, did they leave off the instances of their Divine
+worship that were appointed by their law; for it was in the third
+month of the siege before the Romans could even with great difficulty
+overthrow one of the towers, and get into the temple. Now he that first
+of all ventured to get over the wall, was Faustus Cornelius the son of
+Sylla; and next after him were two centurions, Furius and Fabius; and
+every one of these was followed by a cohort of his own, who encompassed
+the Jews on all sides, and slew them, some of them as they were running
+for shelter to the temple, and others as they, for a while, fought in
+their own defense.
+
+5. And now did many of the priests, even when they saw their enemies
+assailing them with swords in their hands, without any disturbance, go
+on with their Divine worship, and were slain while they were offering
+their drink-offerings, and burning their incense, as preferring the
+duties about their worship to God before their own preservation. The
+greatest part of them were slain by their own countrymen, of the adverse
+faction, and an innumerable multitude threw themselves down precipices;
+nay, some there were who were so distracted among the insuperable
+difficulties they were under, that they set fire to the buildings that
+were near to the wall, and were burnt together with them. Now of the
+Jews were slain twelve thousand; but of the Romans very few were slain,
+but a greater number was wounded.
+
+6. But there was nothing that affected the nation so much, in the
+calamities they were then under, as that their holy place, which had
+been hitherto seen by none, should be laid open to strangers; for
+Pompey, and those that were about him, went into the temple itself 8
+whither it was not lawful for any to enter but the high priest, and
+saw what was reposited therein, the candlestick with its lamps, and the
+table, and the pouring vessels, and the censers, all made entirely
+of gold, as also a great quantity of spices heaped together, with two
+thousand talents of sacred money. Yet did not he touch that money, nor
+any thing else that was there reposited; but he commanded the ministers
+about the temple, the very next day after he had taken it, to cleanse
+it, and to perform their accustomed sacrifices. Moreover, he made
+Hyrcanus high priest, as one that not only in other respects had showed
+great alacrity, on his side, during the siege, but as he had been the
+means of hindering the multitude that was in the country from fighting
+for Aristobulus, which they were otherwise very ready to have done;
+by which means he acted the part of a good general, and reconciled
+the people to him more by benevolence than by terror. Now, among the
+Captives, Aristobulus's father-in-law was taken, who was also his uncle:
+so those that were the most guilty he punished with decollation; but
+rewarded Faustus, and those with him that had fought so bravely,
+with glorious presents, and laid a tribute upon the country, and upon
+Jerusalem itself.
+
+7. He also took away from the nation all those cities that they had
+formerly taken, and that belonged to Celesyria, and made them subject to
+him that was at that time appointed to be the Roman president there; and
+reduced Judea within its proper bounds. He also rebuilt Gadara, 9 that
+had been demolished by the Jews, in order to gratify one Demetrius,
+who was of Gadara, and was one of his own freed-men. He also made other
+cities free from their dominion, that lay in the midst of the country,
+such, I mean, as they had not demolished before that time; Hippos, and
+Scythopolis, as also Pella, and Samaria, and Marissa; and besides these
+Ashdod, and Jamnia, and Arethusa; and in like manner dealt he with the
+maritime cities, Gaza, and Joppa, and Dora, and that which was
+anciently called Strato's Tower, but was afterward rebuilt with the
+most magnificent edifices, and had its name changed to Cesarea, by king
+Herod. All which he restored to their own citizens, and put them under
+the province of Syria; which province, together with Judea, and the
+countries as far as Egypt and Euphrates, he committed to Scaurus as
+their governor, and gave him two legions to support him; while he made
+all the haste he could himself to go through Cilicia, in his way
+to Rome, having Aristobulus and his children along with him as his
+captives. They were two daughters and two sons; the one of which sons,
+Alexander, ran away as he was going; but the younger, Antigonus, with
+his sisters, were carried to Rome.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+
+     Alexander, The Son Of Aristobulus, Who Ran Away From Pompey,
+     Makes An Expedition Against Hyrcanus; But Being Overcome By
+     Gabinius He Delivers Up The Fortresses To Him. After This
+     Aristobulus Escapes From Rome And Gathers An Army Together;
+     But Being Beaten By The Romans, He Is Brought Back To Rome;
+     With Other Things Relating To Gabinius, Crassus And Cassius.
+
+1. In the mean time, Scaurus made an expedition into Arabia, but was
+stopped by the difficulty of the places about Petra. However, he laid
+waste the country about Pella, though even there he was under great
+hardship; for his army was afflicted with famine. In order to supply
+which want, Hyrcanus afforded him some assistance, and sent him
+provisions by the means of Antipater; whom also Scaurus sent to Aretas,
+as one well acquainted with him, to induce him to pay him money to buy
+his peace. The king of Arabia complied with the proposal, and gave him
+three hundred talents; upon which Scaurus drew his army out of Arabia 10
+
+2. But as for Alexander, that son of Aristobulus who ran away from
+Pompey, in some time he got a considerable band of men together, and lay
+heavy upon Hyrcanus, and overran Judea, and was likely to overturn
+him quickly; and indeed he had come to Jerusalem, and had ventured to
+rebuild its wall that was thrown down by Pompey, had not Gabinius, who
+was sent as successor to Scaurus into Syria, showed his bravery, as in
+many other points, so in making an expedition against Alexander; who, as
+he was afraid that he would attack him, so he got together a large army,
+composed of ten thousand armed footmen, and fifteen hundred horsemen.
+He also built walls about proper places; Alexandrium, and Hyrcanium, and
+Machaerus, that lay upon the mountains of Arabia.
+
+3. However, Gabinius sent before him Marcus Antonius, and followed
+himself with his whole army; but for the select body of soldiers that
+were about Antipater, and another body of Jews under the command of
+Malichus and Pitholaus, these joined themselves to those captains
+that were about Marcus Antonius, and met Alexander; to which body came
+Gabinius with his main army soon afterward; and as Alexander was not
+able to sustain the charge of the enemies' forces, now they were joined,
+he retired. But when he was come near to Jerusalem, he was forced to
+fight, and lost six thousand men in the battle; three thousand of which
+fell down dead, and three thousand were taken alive; so he fled with the
+remainder to Alexandrium.
+
+4. Now when Gabinius was come to Alexandrium, because he found a great
+many there en-camped, he tried, by promising them pardon for their
+former offenses, to induce them to come over to him before it came to a
+fight; but when they would hearken to no terms of accommodation, he
+slew a great number of them, and shut up a great number of them in the
+citadel. Now Marcus Antonius, their leader, signalized himself in this
+battle, who, as he always showed great courage, so did he never show it
+so much as now; but Gabinius, leaving forces to take the citadel, went
+away himself, and settled the cities that had not been demolished,
+and rebuilt those that had been destroyed. Accordingly, upon his
+injunctions, the following cities were restored: Scythopolis, and
+Samaria, and Anthedon, and Apollonia, and Jamnia, and Raphia, and
+Mariassa, and Adoreus, and Gamala, and Ashdod, and many others; while
+a great number of men readily ran to each of them, and became their
+inhabitants.
+
+5. When Gabinius had taken care of these cities, he returned to
+Alexandrium, and pressed on the siege. So when Alexander despaired of
+ever obtaining the government, he sent ambassadors to him, and prayed
+him to forgive what he had offended him in, and gave up to him the
+remaining fortresses, Hyrcanium and Machaerus, as he put Alexandrium
+into his hands afterwards; all which Gabinius demolished, at the
+persuasion of Alexander's mother, that they might not be receptacles of
+men in a second war. She was now there in order to mollify Gabinius, out
+of her concern for her relations that were captives at Rome, which were
+her husband and her other children. After this Gabinius brought Hyrcanus
+to Jerusalem, and committed the care of the temple to him; but ordained
+the other political government to be by an aristocracy. He also parted
+the whole nation into five conventions, assigning one portion to
+Jerusalem, another to Gadara, that another should belong to Amathus, a
+fourth to Jericho, and to the fifth division was allotted Sepphoris,
+a city of Galilee. So the people were glad to be thus freed from
+monarchical government, and were governed for the future by all
+aristocracy.
+
+6. Yet did Aristobulus afford another foundation for new disturbances.
+He fled away from Rome, and got together again many of the Jews that
+were desirous of a change, such as had borne an affection to him of old;
+and when he had taken Alexandrium in the first place, he attempted to
+build a wall about it; but as soon as Gabinius had sent an army against
+him under Siscuria, and Antonius, and Servilius, he was aware of it,
+and retreated to Machaerus. And as for the unprofitable multitude, he
+dismissed them, and only marched on with those that were armed, being to
+the number of eight thousand, among whom was Pitholaus, who had been the
+lieutenant at Jerusalem, but deserted to Aristobulus with a thousand
+of his men; so the Romans followed him, and when it came to a battle,
+Aristobulus's party for a long time fought courageously; but at length
+they were overborne by the Romans, and of them five thousand fell down
+dead, and about two thousand fled to a certain little hill, but the
+thousand that remained with Aristobulus brake through the Roman army,
+and marched together to Machaerus; and when the king had lodged the
+first night upon its ruins, he was in hopes of raising another army, if
+the war would but cease a while; accordingly, he fortified that strong
+hold, though it was done after a poor manner. But the Romans falling
+upon him, he resisted, even beyond his abilities, for two days, and then
+was taken, and brought a prisoner to Gabinius, with Antigonus his son,
+who had fled away together with him from Rome; and from Gabinius he was
+carried to Rome again. Wherefore the senate put him under confinement,
+but returned his children back to Judea, because Gabinius informed them
+by letters that he had promised Aristobulus's mother to do so, for her
+delivering the fortresses up to him.
+
+7. But now as Gabinius was marching to the war against the Parthians,
+he was hindered by Ptolemy, whom, upon his return from Euphrates, he
+brought back into Egypt, making use of Hyrcanus and Antipater to provide
+every thing that was necessary for this expedition; for Antipater
+furnished him with money, and weapons, and corn, and auxiliaries; he
+also prevailed with the Jews that were there, and guarded the avenues at
+Pelusium, to let them pass. But now, upon Gabinius's absence, the other
+part of Syria was in motion, and Alexander, the son of Aristobulus,
+brought the Jews to revolt again. Accordingly, he got together a very
+great army, and set about killing all the Romans that were in the
+country; hereupon Gabinius was afraid, [for he was come back already out
+of Egypt, and obliged to come back quickly by these tumults,] and
+sent Antipater, who prevailed with some of the revolters to be quiet.
+However, thirty thousand still continued with Alexander, who was himself
+eager to fight also; accordingly, Gabinius went out to fight, when
+the Jews met him; and as the battle was fought near Mount Tabor, ten
+thousand of them were slain, and the rest of the multitude dispersed
+themselves, and fled away. So Gabinius came to Jerusalem, and settled
+the government as Antipater would have it; thence he marched, and fought
+and beat the Nabateans: as for Mithridates and Orsanes, who fled out of
+Parthin, he sent them away privately, but gave it out among the soldiers
+that they had run away.
+
+8. In the mean time, Crassus came as successor to Gabinius in Syria. He
+took away all the rest of the gold belonging to the temple of Jerusalem,
+in order to furnish himself for his expedition against the Parthians.
+He also took away the two thousand talents which Pompey had not touched;
+but when he had passed over Euphrates, he perished himself, and his army
+with him; concerning which affairs this is not a proper time to speak
+[more largely].
+
+9. But now Cassius, after Crassus, put a stop to the Parthians, who were
+marching in order to enter Syria. Cassius had fled into that province,
+and when he had taken possession of the same, he made a hasty march into
+Judea; and, upon his taking Taricheae, he carried thirty thousand Jews
+into slavery. He also slew Pitholaus, who had supported the seditious
+followers of Aristobulus; and it was Antipater who advised him so to
+do. Now this Antipater married a wife of an eminent family among the
+Arabisus, whose name was Cypros, and had four sons born to him by her,
+Phasaelus and Herod, who was afterwards king, and, besides these, Joseph
+and Pheroras; and he had a daughter whose name was Salome. Now as he
+made himself friends among the men of power every where, by the kind
+offices he did them, and the hospitable manner that he treated them;
+so did he contract the greatest friendship with the king of Arabia, by
+marrying his relation; insomuch that when he made war with Aristobulus,
+he sent and intrusted his children with him. So when Cassius had forced
+Alexander to come to terms and to be quiet, he returned to Euphrates,
+in order to prevent the Parthians from repassing it; concerning which
+matter we shall speak elsewhere. 11
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+
+     Aristobulus Is Taken Off By Pompey's Friends, As Is His Son
+     Alexander By Scipio. Antipater Cultivates A Friendship With
+     Caesar, After Pompey's Death; He Also Performs Great Actions
+     In That War, Wherein He Assisted Mithridates.
+
+1. Now, upon the flight of Pompey and of the senate beyond the Ionian
+Sea, Caesar got Rome and the empire under his power, and released
+Aristobulus from his bonds. He also committed two legions to him, and
+sent him in haste into Syria, as hoping that by his means he should
+easily conquer that country, and the parts adjoining to Judea. But envy
+prevented any effect of Aristobulus's alacrity, and the hopes of Caesar;
+for he was taken off by poison given him by those of Pompey's party;
+and, for a long while, he had not so much as a burial vouchsafed him
+in his own country; but his dead body lay [above ground], preserved in
+honey, until it was sent to the Jews by Antony, in order to be buried in
+the royal sepulchers.
+
+2. His son Alexander also was beheaded by Scipio at Antioch, and that
+by the command of Pompey, and upon an accusation laid against him before
+his tribunal, for the mischiefs he had done to the Romans. But Ptolemy,
+the son of Menneus, who was then ruler of Chalcis, under Libanus, took
+his brethren to him by sending his son Philippio for them to Ascalon,
+who took Antigonus, as well as his sisters, away from Aristobulus's
+wife, and brought them to his father; and falling in love with the
+younger daughter, he married her, and was afterwards slain by his father
+on her account; for Ptolemy himself, after he had slain his son, married
+her, whose name was Alexandra; on the account of which marriage he took
+the greater care of her brother and sister.
+
+3. Now, after Pompey was dead, Antipater changed sides, and cultivated
+a friendship with Caesar. And since Mithridates of Pergamus, with
+the forces he led against Egypt, was excluded from the avenues about
+Pelusium, and was forced to stay at Asealon, he persuaded the Arabians,
+among whom he had lived, to assist him, and came himself to him, at the
+head of three thousand armed men. He also encouraged the men of power in
+Syria to come to his assistance, as also of the inhabitants of Libanus,
+Ptolemy, and Jamblicus, and another Ptolemy; by which means the cities
+of that country came readily into this war; insomuch that Mithridates
+ventured now, in dependence upon the additional strength that he had
+gotten by Antipater, to march forward to Pelusium; and when they refused
+him a passage through it, he besieged the city; in the attack of which
+place Antipater principally signalized himself, for he brought down that
+part of the wall which was over against him, and leaped first of all
+into the city, with the men that were about him.
+
+4. Thus was Pelusium taken. But still, as they were marching on, those
+Egyptian Jews that inhabited the country called the country of Onias
+stopped them. Then did Antipater not only persuade them not to stop
+them, but to afford provisions for their army; on which account even
+the people about Memphis would not fight against them, but of their
+own accord joined Mithridates. Whereupon he went round about Delta, and
+fought the rest of the Egyptians at a place called the Jews' Camp; nay,
+when he was in danger in the battle with all his right wing, Antipater
+wheeled about, and came along the bank of the river to him; for he
+had beaten those that opposed him as he led the left wing. After which
+success he fell upon those that pursued Mithridates, and slew a great
+many of them, and pursued the remainder so far that he took their camp,
+while he lost no more than fourscore of his own men; as Mithridates
+lost, during the pursuit that was made after him, about eight hundred.
+He was also himself saved unexpectedly, and became an unreproachable
+witness to Caesar of the great actions of Antipater.
+
+5. Whereupon Caesar encouraged Antipater to undertake other hazardous
+enterprises for him, and that by giving him great commendations and
+hopes of reward. In all which enterprises he readily exposed himself to
+many dangers, and became a most courageous warrior; and had many wounds
+almost all over his body, as demonstrations of his valor. And when
+Caesar had settled the affairs of Egypt, and was returning into Syria
+again, he gave him the privilege of a Roman citizen, and freedom from
+taxes, and rendered him an object of admiration by the honors and marks
+of friendship he bestowed upon him. On this account it was that he also
+confirmed Hyrcanus in the high priesthood.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+
+     Caesar Makes Antipater Procurator Of Judea; As Does
+     Antipater Appoint Phasaelus To Be Governor Of Jerusalem, And
+     Herod Governor Of Galilee; Who, In Some Time, Was Called To
+     Answer For Himself [Before The Sanhedrim], Where He Is
+     Acquitted. Sextus Caesar Is Treacherously Killed By Bassus
+     And Is Succeeded By Marcus.
+
+1. About this time it was that Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus,
+came to Caesar, and became, in a surprising manner, the occasion of
+Antipater's further advancement; for whereas he ought to have lamented
+that his father appeared to have been poisoned on account of his
+quarrels with Pompey, and to have complained of Scipio's barbarity
+towards his brother, and not to mix any invidious passion when he
+was suing for mercy; besides those things, he came before Caesar, and
+accused Hyrcanus and Antipater, how they had driven him and his brethren
+entirely out of their native country, and had acted in a great many
+instances unjustly and extravagantly with relation to their nation; and
+that as to the assistance they had sent him into Egypt, it was not done
+out of good-will to him, but out of the fear they were in from former
+quarrels, and in order to gain pardon for their friendship to [his
+enemy] Pompey.
+
+2. Hereupon Antipater threw away his garments, and showed the multitude
+of the wounds he had, and said, that as to his good-will to Caesar, he
+had no occasion to say a word, because his body cried aloud, though he
+said nothing himself; that he wondered at Antigonus's boldness, while
+he was himself no other than the son of an enemy to the Romans, and of
+a fugitive, and had it by inheritance from his father to be fond of
+innovations and seditions, that he should undertake to accuse other
+men before the Roman governor, and endeavor to gain some advantages to
+himself, when he ought to be contented that he was suffered to live;
+for that the reason of his desire of governing public affairs was not so
+much because he was in want of it, but because, if he could once obtain
+the same, he might stir up a sedition among the Jews, and use what he
+should gain from the Romans to the disservice of those that gave it him.
+
+3. When Caesar heard this, he declared Hyrcanus to be the most worthy
+of the high priesthood, and gave leave to Antipater to choose what
+authority he pleased; but he left the determination of such dignity to
+him that bestowed the dignity upon him; so he was constituted procurator
+of all Judea, and obtained leave, moreover, to rebuild 12 those walls of
+his country that had been thrown down. These honorary grants Caesar sent
+orders to have engraved in the Capitol, that they might stand there as
+indications of his own justice, and of the virtue of Antipater.
+
+4. But as soon as Antipater had conducted Caesar out of Syria he
+returned to Judea, and the first thing he did was to rebuild that wall
+of his own country [Jerusalem] which Pompey had overthrown, and then to
+go over the country, and to quiet the tumults that were therein; where
+he partly threatened, and partly advised, every one, and told them
+that in case they would submit to Hyrcanus, they would live happily and
+peaceably, and enjoy what they possessed, and that with universal peace
+and quietness; but that in case they hearkened to such as had some
+frigid hopes by raising new troubles to get themselves some gain, they
+should then find him to be their lord instead of their procurator; and
+find Hyrcanus to be a tyrant instead of a king; and both the Romans and
+Caesar to be their enemies, instead of rulers; for that they would not
+suffer him to be removed from the government, whom they had made their
+governor. And, at the same time that he said this, he settled the
+affairs of the country by himself, because he saw that Hyrcanus was
+inactive, and not fit to manage the affairs of the kingdom. So he
+constituted his eldest son, Phasaelus, governor of Jerusalem, and of the
+parts about it; he also sent his next son, Herod, who was very young, 13
+with equal authority into Galilee.
+
+5. Now Herod was an active man, and soon found proper materials for his
+active spirit to work upon. As therefore he found that Hezekias, the
+head of the robbers, ran over the neighboring parts of Syria with a
+great band of men, he caught him and slew him, and many more of the
+robbers with him; which exploit was chiefly grateful to the Syrians,
+insomuch that hymns were sung in Herod's commendation, both in the
+villages and in the cities, as having procured their quietness, and
+having preserved what they possessed to them; on which occasion he
+became acquainted with Sextus Caesar, a kinsman of the great Caesar,
+and president of Syria. A just emulation of his glorious actions excited
+Phasaelus also to imitate him. Accordingly, he procured the good-will of
+the inhabitants of Jerusalem, by his own management of the city affairs,
+and did not abuse his power in any disagreeable manner; whence it came
+to pass that the nation paid Antipater the respects that were due only
+to a king, and the honors they all yielded him were equal to the honors
+due to an absolute lord; yet did he not abate any part of that good-will
+or fidelity which he owed to Hyrcanus.
+
+6. However, he found it impossible to escape envy in such his
+prosperity; for the glory of these young men affected even Hyrcanus
+himself already privately, though he said nothing of it to any body; but
+what he principally was grieved at was the great actions of Herod, and
+that so many messengers came one before another, and informed him of the
+great reputation he got in all his undertakings. There were also many
+people in the royal palace itself who inflamed his envy at him; those, I
+mean, who were obstructed in their designs by the prudence either of
+the young men, or of Antipater. These men said, that by committing the
+public affairs to the management of Antipater and of his sons, he
+sat down with nothing but the bare name of a king, without any of its
+authority; and they asked him how long he would so far mistake himself,
+as to breed up kings against his own interest; for that they did not now
+conceal their government of affairs any longer, but were plainly lords
+of the nation, and had thrust him out of his authority; that this was
+the case when Herod slew so many men without his giving him any command
+to do it, either by word of mouth, or by his letter, and this in
+contradiction to the law of the Jews; who therefore, in case he be not a
+king, but a private man, still ought to come to his trial, and answer it
+to him, and to the laws of his country, which do not permit any one to
+be killed till he hath been condemned in judgment.
+
+7. Now Hyrcanus was, by degrees, inflamed with these discourses, and at
+length could bear no longer, but he summoned Herod to take his trial.
+Accordingly, by his father's advice, and as soon as the affairs of
+Galilee would give him leave, he came up to [Jerusalem], when he had
+first placed garrisons in Galilee; however, he came with a sufficient
+body of soldiers, so many indeed that he might not appear to have with
+him an army able to overthrow Hyrcanus's government, nor yet so few as
+to expose him to the insults of those that envied him. However, Sextus
+Caesar was in fear for the young man, lest he should be taken by
+his enemies, and brought to punishment; so he sent some to denounce
+expressly to Hyrcanus that he should acquit Herod of the capital charge
+against him; who acquitted him accordingly, as being otherwise inclined
+also so to do, for he loved Herod.
+
+8. But Herod, supposing that he had escaped punishment without the
+consent of the king, retired to Sextus, to Damascus, and got every thing
+ready, in order not to obey him if he should summon him again; whereupon
+those that were evil-disposed irritated Hyrcanus, and told him that
+Herod was gone away in anger, and was prepared to make war upon him; and
+as the king believed what they said, he knew not what to do, since he
+saw his antagonist was stronger than he was himself. And now, since
+Herod was made general of Coelesyria and Samaria by Sextus Caesar, he
+was formidable, not only from the good-will which the nation bore him,
+but by the power he himself had; insomuch that Hyrcanus fell into the
+utmost degree of terror, and expected he would presently march against
+him with his army.
+
+9. Nor was he mistaken in the conjecture he made; for Herod got his army
+together, out of the anger he bare him for his threatening him with the
+accusation in a public court, and led it to Jerusalem, in order to throw
+Hyrcanus down from his kingdom; and this he had soon done, unless his
+father and brother had gone out together and broken the force of his
+fury, and this by exhorting him to carry his revenge no further than to
+threatening and affrighting, but to spare the king, under whom he had
+been advanced to such a degree of power; and that he ought not to be so
+much provoked at his being tried, as to forget to be thankful that
+he was acquitted; nor so long to think upon what was of a melancholy
+nature, as to be ungrateful for his deliverance; and if we ought to
+reckon that God is the arbitrator of success in war, an unjust cause
+is of more disadvantage than an army can be of advantage; and that
+therefore he ought not to be entirely confident of success in a case
+where he is to fight against his king, his supporter, and one that had
+often been his benefactor, and that had never been severe to him, any
+otherwise than as he had hearkened to evil counselors, and this no
+further than by bringing a shadow of injustice upon him. So Herod was
+prevailed upon by these arguments, and supposed that what he had already
+done was sufficient for his future hopes, and that he had enough shown
+his power to the nation.
+
+10. In the mean time, there was a disturbance among the Romans about
+Apamia, and a civil war occasioned by the treacherous slaughter of
+Sextus Caesar, by Cecilius Bassus, which he perpetrated out of his
+good-will to Pompey; he also took the authority over his forces; but as
+the rest of Caesar's commanders attacked Bassus with their whole army,
+in order to punish him for the murder of Caesar, Antipater also sent
+them assistance by his sons, both on account of him that was murdered,
+and on account of that Caesar who was still alive, both of which were
+their friends; and as this war grew to be of a considerable length,
+Marcus came out of Italy as successor to Sextus.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11.
+
+
+     Herod Is Made Procurator Of All Syria; Malichus Is Afraid Of
+     Him, And Takes Antipater Off By Poison; Whereupon The
+     Tribunes Of The Soldiers Are Prevailed With To Kill Him.
+
+1. There, was at this time a mighty war raised among the Romans upon the
+sudden and treacherous slaughter of Caesar by Cassius and Brutus, after
+he had held the government for three years and seven months. 14 Upon
+this murder there were very great agitations, and the great men were
+mightily at difference one with another, and every one betook himself to
+that party where they had the greatest hopes of their own, of advancing
+themselves. Accordingly, Cassius came into Syria, in order to receive
+the forces that were at Apamia, where he procured a reconciliation
+between Bassus and Marcus, and the legions which were at difference with
+him; so he raised the siege of Apamia, and took upon him the command of
+the army, and went about exacting tribute of the cities, and demanding
+their money to such a degree as they were not able to bear.
+
+2. So he gave command that the Jews should bring in seven hundred
+talents; whereupon Antipater, out of his dread of Cassius's threats,
+parted the raising of this sum among his sons, and among others of his
+acquaintance, and to be done immediately; and among them he required
+one Malichus, who was at enmity with him, to do his part also, which
+necessity forced him to do. Now Herod, in the first place, mitigated the
+passion of Cassius, by bringing his share out of Galilee, which was a
+hundred talents, on which account he was in the highest favor with him;
+and when he reproached the rest for being tardy, he was angry at the
+cities themselves; so he made slaves of Gophna and Emmaus, and two
+others of less note; nay, he proceeded as if he would kill Malichus,
+because he had not made greater haste in exacting his tribute; but
+Antipater prevented the ruin of this man, and of the other cities, and
+got into Cassius's favor by bringing in a hundred talents immediately.
+15
+
+3. However, when Cassius was gone Malichus forgot the kindness that
+Antipater had done him, and laid frequent plots against him that
+had saved him, as making haste to get him out of the way, who was an
+obstacle to his wicked practices; but Antipater was so much afraid of
+the power and cunning of the man, that he went beyond Jordan, in order
+to get an army to guard himself against his treacherous designs; but
+when Malichus was caught in his plot, he put upon Antipater's sons by
+his impudence, for he thoroughly deluded Phasaelus, who was the guardian
+of Jerusalem, and Herod who was intrusted with the weapons of war, and
+this by a great many excuses and oaths, and persuaded them to procure
+his reconciliation to his father. Thus was he preserved again by
+Antipater, who dissuaded Marcus, the then president of Syria, from
+his resolution of killing Malichus, on account of his attempts for
+innovation.
+
+4. Upon the war between Cassius and Brutus on one side, against the
+younger Caesar [Augustus] and Antony on the other, Cassius and Marcus
+got together an army out of Syria; and because Herod was likely to have
+a great share in providing necessaries, they then made him procurator of
+all Syria, and gave him an army of foot and horse. Cassius promised him
+also, that after the war was over, he would make him king of Judea. But
+it so happened that the power and hopes of his son became the cause of
+his perdition; for as Malichus was afraid of this, he corrupted one
+of the king's cup-bearers with money to give a poisoned potion to
+Antipater; so he became a sacrifice to Malichus's wickedness, and died
+at a feast. He was a man in other respects active in the management
+of affairs, and one that recovered the government to Hyrcanus, and
+preserved it in his hands.
+
+5. However, Malichus, when he was suspected of poisoning Antipater, and
+when the multitude was angry with him for it, denied it, and made the
+people believe he was not guilty. He also prepared to make a greater
+figure, and raised soldiers; for he did not suppose that Herod would
+be quiet, who indeed came upon him with an army presently, in order to
+revenge his father's death; but, upon hearing the advice of his brother
+Phasaelus, not to punish him in an open manner, lest the multitude
+should fall into a sedition, he admitted of Malichus's apology, and
+professed that he cleared him of that suspicion; he also made a pompous
+funeral for his father.
+
+6. So Herod went to Samaria, which was then in a tumult, and settled the
+city in peace; after which at the [Pentecost] festival, he returned
+to Jerusalem, having his armed men with him: hereupon Hyrcanus, at the
+request of Malichus, who feared his reproach, forbade them to introduce
+foreigners to mix themselves with the people of the country while they
+were purifying themselves; but Herod despised the pretense, and him that
+gave that command, and came in by night. Upon which Malithus came to
+him, and bewailed Antipater; Herod also made him believe [he admitted
+of his lamentations as real], although he had much ado to restrain his
+passion at him; however, he did himself bewail the murder of his father
+in his letters to Cassius, who, on other accounts, also hated Malichus.
+Cassius sent him word back that he should avenge his father's death upon
+him, and privately gave order to the tribunes that were under him, that
+they should assist Herod in a righteous action he was about.
+
+7. And because, upon the taking of Laodicea by Cassius, the men of power
+were gotten together from all quarters, with presents and crowns in
+their hands, Herod allotted this time for the punishment of Malichus.
+When Malichus suspected that, and was at Tyre, he resolved to withdraw
+his son privately from among the Tyrians, who was a hostage there, while
+he got ready to fly away into Judea; the despair he was in of escaping
+excited him to think of greater things; for he hoped that he should
+raise the nation to a revolt from the Romans, while Cassius was busy
+about the war against Antony, and that he should easily depose Hyrcanus,
+and get the crown for himself.
+
+8. But fate laughed at the hopes he had; for Herod foresaw what he
+was so zealous about, and invited both Hyrcanus and him to supper; but
+calling one of the principal servants that stood by him to him, he
+sent him out, as though it were to get things ready for supper, but in
+reality to give notice beforehand about the plot that was laid against
+him; accordingly they called to mind what orders Cassius had given
+them, and went out of the city with their swords in their hands upon the
+sea-shore, where they encompassed Malichus round about, and killed him
+with many wounds. Upon which Hyrcanus was immediately affrighted, till
+he swooned away and fell down at the surprise he was in; and it was
+with difficulty that he was recovered, when he asked who it was that had
+killed Malichus. And when one of the tribunes replied that it was done
+by the command of Cassius, "Then," said he, "Cassius hath saved both me
+and my country, by cutting off one that was laying plots against them
+both." Whether he spake according to his own sentiments, or whether his
+fear was such that he was obliged to commend the action by saying so,
+is uncertain; however, by this method Herod inflicted punishment upon
+Malichus.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12.
+
+
+     Phasaelus Is Too Hard For Felix; Herod Also Overcomes
+     Antigonus In Rattle; And The Jews Accuse Both Herod And
+     Phasaelus But Antonius Acquits Them, And Makes Them
+     Tetrarchs.
+
+1. When Cassius was gone out of Syria, another sedition arose at
+Jerusalem, wherein Felix assaulted Phasaelus with an army, that he might
+revenge the death of Malichus upon Herod, by falling upon his brother.
+Now Herod happened then to be with Fabius, the governor of Damascus,
+and as he was going to his brother's assistance, he was detained by
+sickness; in the mean time, Phasaelus was by himself too hard for Felix,
+and reproached Hyrcanus on account of his ingratitude, both for what
+assistance he had afforded Malichus, and for overlooking Malichus's
+brother, when he possessed himself of the fortresses; for he had gotten
+a great many of them already, and among them the strongest of them all,
+Masada.
+
+2. However, nothing could be sufficient for him against the force of
+Herod, who, as soon as he was recovered, took the other fortresses
+again, and drove him out of Masada in the posture of a supplicant; he
+also drove away Marion, the tyrant of the Tyrians, out of Galilee, when
+he had already possessed himself of three fortified places; but as to
+those Tyrians whom he had caught, he preserved them all alive; nay, some
+of them he gave presents to, and so sent them away, and thereby procured
+good-will to himself from the city, and hatred to the tyrant. Marion had
+indeed obtained that tyrannical power of Cassius, who set tyrants
+over all Syria 16 and out of hatred to Herod it was that he assisted
+Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, and principally on Fabius's account,
+whom Antigonus had made his assistant by money, and had him accordingly
+on his side when he made his descent; but it was Ptolemy, the kinsman of
+Antigonus, that supplied all that he wanted.
+
+3. When Herod had fought against these in the avenues of Judea, he
+was conqueror in the battle, and drove away Antigonus, and returned to
+Jerusalem, beloved by every body for the glorious action he had done;
+for those who did not before favor him did join themselves to him now,
+because of his marriage into the family of Hyrcanus; for as he had
+formerly married a wife out of his own country of no ignoble blood,
+who was called Doris, of whom he begat Antipater; so did he now marry
+Mariamne, the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, and the
+granddaughter of Hyrcanus, and was become thereby a relation of the
+king.
+
+4. But when Caesar and Antony had slain Cassius near Philippi, and
+Caesar was gone to Italy, and Antony to Asia, amongst the rest of the
+cities which sent ambassadors to Antony unto Bithynia, the great men of
+the Jews came also, and accused Phasaelus and Herod, that they kept the
+government by force, and that Hyrcanus had no more than an honorable
+name. Herod appeared ready to answer this accusation; and having made
+Antony his friend by the large sums of money which he gave him, he
+brought him to such a temper as not to hear the others speak against
+him; and thus did they part at this time.
+
+5. However, after this, there came a hundred of the principal men among
+the Jews to Daphne by Antioch to Antony, who was already in love with
+Cleopatra to the degree of slavery; these Jews put those men that were
+the most potent, both in dignity and eloquence, foremost, and accused
+the brethren. 17 But Messala opposed them, and defended the brethren,
+and that while Hyrcanus stood by him, on account of his relation to
+them. When Antony had heard both sides, he asked Hyrcanus which party
+was the fittest to govern, who replied that Herod and his party were
+the fittest. Antony was glad of that answer, for he had been formerly
+treated in an hospitable and obliging manner by his father Antipater,
+when he marched into Judea with Gabinius; so he constituted the brethren
+tetrarchs, and committed to them the government of Judea.
+
+6. But when the ambassadors had indignation at this procedure, Antony
+took fifteen of them, and put them into custody, whom he was also going
+to kill presently, and the rest he drove away with disgrace; on which
+occasion a still greater tumult arose at Jerusalem; so they sent again a
+thousand ambassadors to Tyre, where Antony now abode, as he was marching
+to Jerusalem; upon these men who made a clamor he sent out the governor
+of Tyre, and ordered him to punish all that he could catch of them, and
+to settle those in the administration whom he had made tetrarchs.
+
+7. But before this, Herod and Hyrcanus went out upon the sea-shore, and
+earnestly desired of these ambassadors that they would neither bring
+ruin upon themselves, nor war upon their native country, by their rash
+contentions; and when they grew still more outrageous, Antony sent out
+armed men, and slew a great many, and wounded more of them; of whom
+those that were slain were buried by Hyrcanus, as were the wounded
+put under the care of physicians by him; yet would not those that
+had escaped be quiet still, but put the affairs of the city into such
+disorder, and so provoked Antony, that he slew those whom he had in
+bonds also.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13.
+
+
+     The Parthians Bring Antigonus Back Into Judea, And Cast
+     Hyrcanus And Phasaelus Into Prison. The Flight Of Herod, And
+     The Taking Of Jerusalem And What Hyrcanus And Phasaelus
+     Suffered.
+
+1. Now two years afterward, when Barzapharnes, a governor among the
+Parthians, and Paeorus, the king's son, had possessed themselves of
+Syria, and when Lysanias had already succeeded upon the death of his
+father Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, in the government [of Chalcis], he
+prevailed with the governor, by a promise of a thousand talents, and
+five hundred women, to bring back Antigonus to his kingdom, and to turn
+Hyrcanus out of it. Pacorus was by these means induced so to do, and
+marched along the sea-coast, while he ordered Barzapharnes to fall upon
+the Jews as he went along the Mediterranean part of the country; but
+of the maritime people, the Tyrians would not receive Pacorus, although
+those of Ptolemais and Sidon had received him; so he committed a troop
+of his horse to a certain cup-bearer belonging to the royal family,
+of his own name [Pacorus], and gave him orders to march into Judea, in
+order to learn the state of affairs among their enemies, and to help
+Antigonus when he should want his assistance.
+
+2. Now as these men were ravaging Carmel, many of the Jews ran together
+to Antigonus, and showed themselves ready to make an incursion into
+the country; so he sent them before into that place called Drymus, [the
+woodland 18 ] to seize upon the place; whereupon a battle was fought
+between them, and they drove the enemy away, and pursued them, and ran
+after them as far as Jerusalem, and as their numbers increased, they
+proceeded as far as the king's palace; but as Hyrcanus and Phasaelus
+received them with a strong body of men, there happened a battle in the
+market-place, in which Herod's party beat the enemy, and shut them up
+in the temple, and set sixty men in the houses adjoining as a guard to
+them. But the people that were tumultuous against the brethren came in,
+and burnt those men; while Herod, in his rage for killing them, attacked
+and slew many of the people, till one party made incursions on the other
+by turns, day by day, in the way of ambushes, and slaughters were made
+continually among them.
+
+3. Now when that festival which we call Pentecost was at hand, all the
+places about the temple, and the whole city, was full of a multitude of
+people that were come out of the country, and which were the greatest
+part of them armed also, at which time Phasaelus guarded the wall, and
+Herod, with a few, guarded the royal palace; and when he made an assault
+upon his enemies, as they were out of their ranks, on the north quarter
+of the city, he slew a very great number of them, and put them all to
+flight; and some of them he shut up within the city, and others within
+the outward rampart. In the mean time, Antigonus desired that Pacorus
+might be admitted to be a reconciler between them; and Phasaelus was
+prevailed upon to admit the Parthian into the city with five hundred
+horse, and to treat him in an hospitable manner, who pretended that he
+came to quell the tumult, but in reality he came to assist Antigonus;
+however, he laid a plot for Phasaelus, and persuaded him to go as an
+ambassador to Barzapharnes, in order to put an end to the war, although
+Herod was very earnest with him to the contrary, and exhorted him to
+kill the plotter, but not expose himself to the snares he had laid for
+him, because the barbarians are naturally perfidious. However,
+Pacorus went out and took Hyrcanus with him, that he might be the less
+suspected; he also 19 left some of the horsemen, called the Freemen,
+with Herod, and conducted Phasaelus with the rest.
+
+4. But now, when they were come to Galilee, they found that the people
+of that country had revolted, and were in arms, who came very cunningly
+to their leader, and besought him to conceal his treacherous intentions
+by an obliging behavior to them; accordingly, he at first made them
+presents; and afterward, as they went away, laid ambushes for them; and
+when they were come to one of the maritime cities called Ecdippon, they
+perceived that a plot was laid for them; for they were there informed
+of the promise of a thousand talents, and how Antigonus had devoted the
+greatest number of the women that were there with them, among the five
+hundred, to the Parthians; they also perceived that an ambush was always
+laid for them by the barbarians in the night time; they had also been
+seized on before this, unless they had waited for the seizure of Herod
+first at Jerusalem, because if he were once informed of this treachery
+of theirs, he would take care of himself; nor was this a mere report,
+but they saw the guards already not far off them.
+
+5. Nor would Phasaelus think of forsaking Hyrcanus and flying away,
+although Ophellius earnestly persuaded him to it; for this man had
+learned the whole scheme of the plot from Saramalla, the richest of
+all the Syrians. But Phasaelus went up to the Parfilian governor, and
+reproached him to his face for laying this treacherous plot against
+them, and chiefly because he had done it for money; and he promised him
+that he would give him more money for their preservation, than Antigonus
+had promised to give for the kingdom. But the sly Parthian endeavored to
+remove all this suspicion by apologies and by oaths, and then went [to
+the other] Pacorus; immediately after which those Parthians who were
+left, and had it in charge, seized upon Phasaelus and Hyrcanus, who
+could do no more than curse their perfidiousness and their perjury.
+
+6. In the mean time, the cup-bearer was sent [back], and laid a plot how
+to seize upon Herod, by deluding him, and getting him out of the city,
+as he was commanded to do. But Herod suspected the barbarians from the
+beginning; and having then received intelligence that a messenger,
+who was to bring him the letters that informed him of the treachery
+intended, had fallen among the enemy, he would not go out of the city;
+though Pacorus said very positively that he ought to go out, and meet
+the messengers that brought the letters, for that the enemy had not
+taken them, and that the contents of them were not accounts of any plots
+upon them, but of what Phasaelus had done; yet had he heard from others
+that his brother was seized; and Alexandra 20 the shrewdest woman in the
+world, Hyrcanus's daughter, begged of him that he would not go out, nor
+trust himself to those barbarians, who now were come to make an attempt
+upon him openly.
+
+7. Now as Pacorus and his friends were considering how they might bring
+their plot to bear privately, because it was not possible to circumvent
+a man of so great prudence by openly attacking him, Herod prevented
+them, and went off with the persons that were the most nearly related to
+him by night, and this without their enemies being apprized of it. But
+as soon as the Parthians perceived it, they pursued after them; and as
+he gave orders for his mother, and sister, and the young woman who was
+betrothed to him, with her mother, and his youngest brother, to make the
+best of their way, he himself, with his servants, took all the care they
+could to keep off the barbarians; and when at every assault he had slain
+a great many of them, he came to the strong hold of Masada.
+
+8. Nay, he found by experience that the Jews fell more heavily upon him
+than did the Parthians, and created him troubles perpetually, and this
+ever since he was gotten sixty furlongs from the city; these sometimes
+brought it to a sort of a regular battle. Now in the place where Herod
+beat them, and killed a great number of them, there he afterward built
+a citadel, in memory of the great actions he did there, and adorned it
+with the most costly palaces, and erected very strong fortifications,
+and called it, from his own name, Herodium. Now as they were in their
+flight, many joined themselves to him every day; and at a place called
+Thressa of Idumea his brother Joseph met him, and advised him to ease
+himself of a great number of his followers, because Masada would not
+contain so great a multitude, which were above nine thousand. Herod
+complied with this advice, and sent away the most cumbersome part of his
+retinue, that they might go into Idumea, and gave them provisions
+for their journey; but he got safe to the fortress with his nearest
+relations, and retained with him only the stoutest of his followers; and
+there it was that he left eight hundred of his men as a guard for the
+women, and provisions sufficient for a siege; but he made haste himself
+to Petra of Arabia.
+
+9. As for the Parthians in Jerusalem, they betook themselves to
+plundering, and fell upon the houses of those that were fled, and upon
+the king's palace, and spared nothing but Hyrcanus's money, which was
+not above three hundred talents. They lighted on other men's money also,
+but not so much as they hoped for; for Herod having a long while had
+a suspicion of the perfidiousness of the barbarians, had taken care to
+have what was most splendid among his treasures conveyed into Idumea,
+as every one belonging to him had in like manner done also. But the
+Parthians proceeded to that degree of injustice, as to fill all the
+country with war without denouncing it, and to demolish the city
+Marissa, and not only to set up Antigonus for king, but to deliver
+Phasaelus and Hyrcanus bound into his hands, in order to their being
+tormented by him. Antigonus himself also bit off Hyrcanus's ears with
+his own teeth, as he fell down upon his knees to him, that so he might
+never be able upon any mutation of affairs to take the high priesthood
+again, for the high priests that officiated were to be complete, and
+without blemish.
+
+10. However, he failed in his purpose of abusing Phasaelus, by reason of
+his courage; for though he neither had the command of his sword nor of
+his hands, he prevented all abuses by dashing his head against a stone;
+so he demonstrated himself to be Herod's own brother, and Hyrcanus a
+most degenerate relation, and died with great bravery, and made the end
+of his life agreeable to the actions of it. There is also another
+report about his end, viz. that he recovered of that stroke, and that
+a surgeon, who was sent by Antigonus to heal him, filled the wound with
+poisonous ingredients, and so killed him; whichsoever of these deaths
+he came to, the beginning of it was glorious. It is also reported that
+before he expired he was informed by a certain poor woman how Herod had
+escaped out of their hands, and that he said thereupon, "I now die with
+comfort, since I leave behind me one alive that will avenge me of mine
+enemies."
+
+11. This was the death of Phasaelus; but the Parthians, although they
+had failed of the women they chiefly desired, yet did they put the
+government of Jerusalem into the hands of Antigonus, and took away
+Hyrcanus, and bound him, and carried him to Parthia.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14.
+
+
+     When Herod Is Rejected In Arabia, He Makes Haste To Rome
+     Where Antony And Caesar Join Their Interest To Make Him King
+ .
+
+1. Now Herod did the more zealously pursue his journey into Arabia, as
+making haste to get money of the king, while his brother was yet alive;
+by which money alone it was that he hoped to prevail upon the covetous
+temper of the barbarians to spare Phasaelus; for he reasoned thus with
+himself:--that if the Arabian king was too forgetful of his father's
+friendship with him, and was too covetous to make him a free gift, he
+would however borrow of him as much as might redeem his brother, and
+put into his hands, as a pledge, the son of him that was to be redeemed.
+Accordingly he led his brother's son along with him, who was of the age
+of seven years. Now he was ready to give three hundred talents for his
+brother, and intended to desire the intercession of the Tyrians, to get
+them accepted; however, fate had been too quick for his diligence;
+and since Phasaelus was dead, Herod's brotherly love was now in vain.
+Moreover, he was not able to find any lasting friendship among the
+Arabians; for their king, Malichus, sent to him immediately, and
+commanded him to return back out of his country, and used the name of
+the Parthians as a pretense for so doing, as though these had denounced
+to him by their ambassadors to cast Herod out of Arabia; while in
+reality they had a mind to keep back what they owed to Antipater, and
+not be obliged to make requitals to his sons for the free gifts the
+father had made them. He also took the impudent advice of those who,
+equally with himself, were willing to deprive Herod of what Antipater
+had deposited among them; and these men were the most potent of all whom
+he had in his kingdom.
+
+2. So when Herod had found that the Arabians were his enemies, and this
+for those very reasons whence he hoped they would have been the most
+friendly, and had given them such an answer as his passion suggested,
+he returned back, and went for Egypt. Now he lodged the first evening at
+one of the temples of that country, in order to meet with those whom he
+left behind; but on the next day word was brought him, as he was going
+to Rhinocurura, that his brother was dead, and how he came by his death;
+and when he had lamented him as much as his present circumstances could
+bear, he soon laid aside such cares, and proceeded on his journey. But
+now, after some time, the king of Arabia repented of what he had done,
+and sent presently away messengers to call him back: Herod had prevented
+them, and was come to Pelusium, where he could not obtain a passage from
+those that lay with the fleet, so he besought their captains to let him
+go by them; accordingly, out of the reverence they bore to the fame and
+dignity of the man, they conducted him to Alexandria; and when he came
+into the city, he was received by Cleopatra with great splendor,
+who hoped he might be persuaded to be commander of her forces in the
+expedition she was now about; but he rejected the queen's solicitations,
+and being neither afrighted at the height of that storm which then
+happened, nor at the tumults that were now in Italy, he sailed for Rome.
+
+3. But as he was in peril about Pamphylia, and obliged to cast out
+the greatest part of the ship's lading, he with difficulty got safe
+to Rhodes, a place which had been grievously harassed in the war with
+Cassius. He was there received by his friends, Ptolemy and Sappinius;
+and although he was then in want of money, he fitted up a three-decked
+ship of very great magnitude, wherein he and his friends sailed to
+Brundusium, 21 and went thence to Rome with all speed; where he first
+of all went to Antony, on account of the friendship his father had with
+him, and laid before him the calamities of himself and his family; and
+that he had left his nearest relations besieged in a fortress, and
+had sailed to him through a storm, to make supplication to him for
+assistance.
+
+4. Hereupon Antony was moved to compassion at the change that had been
+made in Herod's affairs, and this both upon his calling to mind how
+hospitably he had been treated by Antipater, but more especially on
+account of Herod's own virtue; so he then resolved to get him made king
+of the Jews, whom he had himself formerly made tetrarch. The contest
+also that he had with Antigonus was another inducement, and that of no
+less weight than the great regard he had for Herod; for he looked upon
+Antigonus as a seditious person, and an enemy of the Romans; and as for
+Caesar, Herod found him better prepared than Antony, as remembering
+very fresh the wars he had gone through together with his father, the
+hospitable treatment he had met with from him, and the entire good-will
+he had showed to him; besides the activity which he saw in Herod
+himself. So he called the senate together, wherein Messalas, and after
+him Atratinus, produced Herod before them, and gave a full account of
+the merits of his father, and his own good-will to the Romans. At the
+same time they demonstrated that Antigonus was their enemy, not only
+because he soon quarreled with them, but because he now overlooked the
+Romans, and took the government by the means of the Parthians. These
+reasons greatly moved the senate; at which juncture Antony came in, and
+told them that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod
+should be king; so they all gave their votes for it. And when the senate
+was separated, Antony and Caesar went out, with Herod between them;
+while the consul and the rest of the magistrates went before them, in
+order to offer sacrifices, and to lay the decree in the Capitol. Antony
+also made a feast for Herod on the first day of his reign.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15.
+
+
+     Antigonus Besieges Those That Were In Masada, Whom Herod
+     Frees From Confinement When He Came Back From Rome, And
+     Presently Marches To Jerusalem Where He Finds Silo Corrupted
+     By Bribes.
+
+1. Now during this time Antigonus besieged those that were in Masada,
+who had all other necessaries in sufficient quantity, but were in want
+of water; on which account Joseph, Herod's brother, was disposed to run
+away to the Arabians, with two hundred of his own friends, because he
+had heard that Malichus repented of his offenses with regard to Herod;
+and he had been so quick as to have been gone out of the fortress
+already, unless, on that very night when he was going away, there had
+fallen a great deal of rain, insomuch that his reservoirs were full of
+water, and so he was under no necessity of running away. After which,
+therefore, they made an irruption upon Antigonus's party, and slew a
+great many of them, some in open battles, and some in private ambush;
+nor had they always success in their attempts, for sometimes they were
+beaten, and ran away.
+
+2. In the mean time Ventidius, the Roman general, was sent out of Syria,
+to restrain the incursions of the Parthians; and after he had done that,
+he came into Judea, in pretense indeed to assist Joseph and his party,
+but in reality to get money of Antigonus; and when he had pitched his
+camp very near to Jerusalem, as soon as he had got money enough, he went
+away with the greatest part of his forces; yet still did he leave Silo
+with some part of them, lest if he had taken them all away, his taking
+of bribes might have been too openly discovered. Now Antigonus hoped
+that the Parthians would come again to his assistance, and therefore
+cultivated a good understanding with Silo in the mean time, lest any
+interruption should be given to his hopes.
+
+3. Now by this time Herod had sailed out of Italy, and was come to
+Ptolemais; and as soon as he had gotten together no small army of
+foreigners, and of his own countrymen, he marched through Galilee
+against Antigonus, wherein he was assisted by Ventidius and Silo, both
+whom Dellius, 22 a person sent by Antony, persuaded to bring Herod
+[into his kingdom]. Now Ventidius was at this time among the cities, and
+composing the disturbances which had happened by means of the Parthians,
+as was Silo in Judea corrupted by the bribes that Antigonus had given
+him; yet was not Herod himself destitute of power, but the number of his
+forces increased every day as he went along, and all Galilee, with few
+exceptions, joined themselves to him. So he proposed to himself to set
+about his most necessary enterprise, and that was Masada, in order to
+deliver his relations from the siege they endured. But still Joppa stood
+in his way, and hindered his going thither; for it was necessary to take
+that city first, which was in the enemies' hands, that when he should
+go to Jerusalem, no fortress might be left in the enemies' power behind
+him. Silo also willingly joined him, as having now a plausible occasion
+of drawing off his forces [from Jerusalem]; and when the Jews pursued
+him, and pressed upon him, [in his retreat,] Herod made all excursion
+upon them with a small body of his men, and soon put them to flight, and
+saved Silo when he was in distress.
+
+4. After this Herod took Joppa, and then made haste to Masada to free
+his relations. Now, as he was marching, many came in to him, induced by
+their friendship to his father, some by the reputation he had already
+gained himself, and some in order to repay the benefits they had
+received from them both; but still what engaged the greatest number on
+his side, was the hopes from him when he should be established in his
+kingdom; so that he had gotten together already an army hard to be
+conquered. But Antigonus laid an ambush for him as he marched out,
+in which he did little or no harm to his enemies. However, he easily
+recovered his relations again that were in Masada, as well as the
+fortress Ressa, and then marched to Jerusalem, where the soldiers that
+were with Silo joined themselves to his own, as did many out of the
+city, from a dread of his power.
+
+5. Now when he had pitched his camp on the west side of the city, the
+guards that were there shot their arrows and threw their darts at them,
+while others ran out in companies, and attacked those in the forefront;
+but Herod commanded proclamation to be made at the wall, that he was
+come for the good of the people and the preservation of the city,
+without any design to be revenged on his open enemies, but to grant
+oblivion to them, though they had been the most obstinate against him.
+Now the soldiers that were for Antigonus made a contrary clamor, and did
+neither permit any body to hear that proclamation, nor to change their
+party; so Antigonus gave order to his forces to beat the enemy from the
+walls; accordingly, they soon threw their darts at them from the towers,
+and put them to flight.
+
+6. And here it was that Silo discovered he had taken bribes; for he set
+many of the soldiers to clamor about their want of necessaries, and to
+require their pay, in order to buy themselves food, and to demand that
+he would lead them into places convenient for their winter quarters;
+because all the parts about the city were laid waste by the means of
+Antigonus's army, which had taken all things away. By this he moved the
+army, and attempted to get them off the siege; but Herod went to the
+captains that were under Silo, and to a great many of the soldiers, and
+begged of them not to leave him, who was sent thither by Caesar, and
+Antony, and the senate; for that he would take care to have their wants
+supplied that very day. After the making of which entreaty, he went
+hastily into the country, and brought thither so great an abundance
+of necessaries, that he cut off all Silo's pretenses; and in order to
+provide that for the following days they should not want supplies, he
+sent to the people that were about Samaria [which city had joined itself
+to him] to bring corn, and wine, and oil, and cattle to Jericho. When
+Antigonus heard of this, he sent some of his party with orders to
+hinder, and lay ambushes for these collectors of corn. This command was
+obeyed, and a great multitude of armed men were gathered together about
+Jericho, and lay upon the mountains, to watch those that brought the
+provisions. Yet was Herod not idle, but took with him ten cohorts, five
+of them were Romans, and five were Jewish cohorts, together with
+some mercenary troops intermixed among them, and besides those a few
+horsemen, and came to Jericho; and when he came, he found the city
+deserted, but that there were five hundred men, with their wives and
+children, who had taken possession of the tops of the mountains; these
+he took, and dismissed them, while the Romans fell upon the rest of the
+city, and plundered it, having found the houses full of all sorts of
+good things. So the king left a garrison at Jericho, and came back, and
+sent the Roman army into those cities which were come over to him, to
+take their winter quarters there, viz. into Judea, [or Idumea,] and
+Galilee, and Samaria. Antigonus also by bribes obtained of Silo to let a
+part of his army be received at Lydda, as a compliment to Antonius.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16.
+
+
+     Herod Takes Sepphoris And Subdues The Robbers That Were In
+     The Caves; He After That Avenges Himself Upon Machaerus, As
+     Upon An Enemy Of His And Goes To Antony As He Was Besieging
+     Samosata.
+
+1. So the Romans lived in plenty of all things, and rested from war.
+However, Herod did not lie at rest, but seized upon Idumea, and kept it,
+with two thousand footmen, and four hundred horsemen; and this he did by
+sending his brother Joseph thither, that no innovation might be made by
+Antigonus. He also removed his mother, and all his relations, who had
+been in Masada, to Samaria; and when he had settled them securely, he
+marched to take the remaining parts of Galilee, and to drive away the
+garrisons placed there by Antigonus.
+
+2. But when Herod had reached Sepphoris, 23 in a very great snow, he
+took the city without any difficulty; the guards that should have kept
+it flying away before it was assaulted; where he gave an opportunity
+to his followers that had been in distress to refresh themselves, there
+being in that city a great abundance of necessaries. After which he
+hasted away to the robbers that were in the caves, who overran a great
+part of the country, and did as great mischief to its inhabitants as
+a war itself could have done. Accordingly, he sent beforehand three
+cohorts of footmen, and one troop of horsemen, to the village Arbela,
+and came himself forty days afterwards 24 with the rest of his forces
+Yet were not the enemy affrighted at his assault but met him in arms;
+for their skill was that of warriors, but their boldness was the
+boldness of robbers: when therefore it came to a pitched battle,
+they put to flight Herod's left wing with their right one; but Herod,
+wheeling about on the sudden from his own right wing, came to their
+assistance, and both made his own left wing return back from its flight,
+and fell upon the pursuers, and cooled their courage, till they could
+not bear the attempts that were made directly upon them, and so turned
+back and ran away. 3. But Herod followed them, and slew them as he
+followed them, and destroyed a great part of them, till those that
+remained were scattered beyond the river [Jordan;] and Galilee was
+freed from the terrors they had been under, excepting from those that
+remained, and lay concealed in caves, which required longer time ere
+they could be conquered. In order to which Herod, in the first place,
+distributed the fruits of their former labors to the soldiers, and gave
+every one of them a hundred and fifty drachmae of silver, and a great
+deal more to their commanders, and sent them into their winter quarters.
+He also sent to his youngest brother Pheroas, to take care of a good
+market for them, where they might buy themselves provisions, and to
+build a wall about Alexandrium; who took care of both those injunctions
+accordingly.
+
+4. In the mean time Antony abode at Athens, while Ventidius called for
+Silo and Herod to come to the war against the Parthians, but ordered
+them first to settle the affairs of Judea; so Herod willingly dismissed
+Silo to go to Ventidius, but he made an expedition himself against those
+that lay in the caves. Now these caves were in the precipices of craggy
+mountains, and could not be come at from any side, since they had only
+some winding pathways, very narrow, by which they got up to them; but
+the rock that lay on their front had beneath it valleys of a vast depth,
+and of an almost perpendicular declivity; insomuch that the king
+was doubtful for a long time what to do, by reason of a kind of
+impossibility there was of attacking the place. Yet did he at length
+make use of a contrivance that was subject to the utmost hazard; for he
+let down the most hardy of his men in chests, and set them at the mouths
+of the dens. Now these men slew the robbers and their families, and when
+they made resistance, they sent in fire upon them [and burnt them]; and
+as Herod was desirous of saving some of them, he had proclamation made,
+that they should come and deliver themselves up to him; but not one of
+them came willingly to him; and of those that were compelled to come,
+many preferred death to captivity. And here a certain old man, the
+father of seven children, whose children, together with their mother,
+desired him to give them leave to go out, upon the assurance and right
+hand that was offered them, slew them after the following manner: He
+ordered every one of them to go out, while he stood himself at the
+cave's mouth, and slew that son of his perpetually who went out. Herod
+was near enough to see this sight, and his bowels of compassion were
+moved at it, and he stretched out his right hand to the old man, and
+besought him to spare his children; yet did not he relent at all upon
+what he said, but over and above reproached Herod on the lowness of
+his descent, and slew his wife as well as his children; and when he had
+thrown their dead bodies down the precipice, he at last threw himself
+down after them.
+
+5. By this means Herod subdued these caves, and the robbers that were
+in them. He then left there a part of his army, as many as he thought
+sufficient to prevent any sedition, and made Ptolemy their general, and
+returned to Samaria; he led also with him three thousand armed footmen,
+and six hundred horsemen, against Antigonus. Now here those that used
+to raise tumults in Galilee, having liberty so to do upon his departure,
+fell unexpectedly upon Ptolemy, the general of his forces, and slew him;
+they also laid the country waste, and then retired to the bogs, and
+to places not easily to be found. But when Herod was informed of this
+insurrection, he came to the assistance of the country immediately, and
+destroyed a great number of the seditions, and raised the sieges of all
+those fortresses they had besieged; he also exacted the tribute of a
+hundred talents of his enemies, as a penalty for the mutations they had
+made in the country.
+
+6. By this time [the Parthians being already driven out of the country,
+and Pacorus slain] Ventidius, by Antony's command, sent a thousand
+horsemen, and two legions, as auxiliaries to Herod, against Antigonus.
+Now Antigonus besought Machaerus, who was their general, by letter, to
+come to his assistance, and made a great many mournful complaints about
+Herod's violence, and about the injuries he did to the kingdom; and
+promised to give him money for such his assistance; but he complied not
+with his invitation to betray his trust, for he did not contemn him that
+sent him, especially while Herod gave him more money [than the other
+offered]. So he pretended friendship to Antigonus, but came as a spy to
+discover his affairs; although he did not herein comply with Herod, who
+dissuaded him from so doing. But Antigonus perceived what his intentions
+were beforehand, and excluded him out of the city, and defended himself
+against him as against an enemy, from the walls; till Machaerus was
+ashamed of what he had done, and retired to Emmaus to Herod; and as he
+was in a rage at his disappointment, he slew all the Jews whom he met
+with, without sparing those that were for Herod, but using them all as
+if they were for Antigonus.
+
+7. Hereupon Herod was very angry at him, and was going to fight against
+Machaerus as his enemy; but he restrained his indignation, and marched
+to Antony to accuse Machaerus of maladministration. But Machaerus was
+made sensible of his offenses, and followed after the king immediately,
+and earnestly begged and obtained that he would be reconciled to him.
+However, Herod did not desist from his resolution of going to Antony;
+but when he heard that he was besieging Samosata 25 with a great army,
+which is a strong city near to Euphrates, he made the greater haste;
+as observing that this was a proper opportunity for showing at once his
+courage, and for doing what would greatly oblige Antony. Indeed, when he
+came, he soon made an end of that siege, and slew a great number of the
+barbarians, and took from them a large prey; insomuch that Antony, who
+admired his courage formerly, did now admire it still more. Accordingly,
+he heaped many more honors upon him, and gave him more assured hopes
+that he should gain his kingdom; and now king Antiochus was forced to
+deliver up Samosata.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17.
+
+
+     The Death Of Joseph [Herod's Brother] Which Had Been
+     Signified To Herod In Dreams. How Herod Was Preserved Twice
+     After A Wonderful Manner. He Cuts Off The Head Of Pappus,
+     Who Was The Murderer Of His Brother And Sends That Head To
+     [His Other Brother] Pheroras, And In No Long Time He
+     Besieges Jerusalem And Marries Mariamne.
+
+1. In the mean time, Herod's affairs in Judea were in an ill state. He
+had left his brother Joseph with full power, but had charged him to make
+no attempts against Antigonus till his return; for that Machaerus would
+not be such an assistant as he could depend on, as it appeared by what
+he had done already; but as soon as Joseph heard that his brother was
+at a very great distance, he neglected the charge he had received, and
+marched towards Jericho with five cohorts, which Machaerus sent with
+him. This movement was intended for seizing on the corn, as it was
+now in the midst of summer; but when his enemies attacked him in the
+mountains, and in places which were difficult to pass, he was both
+killed himself, as he was very bravely fighting in the battle, and the
+entire Roman cohorts were destroyed; for these cohorts were new-raised
+men, gathered out of Syria, and here was no mixture of those called
+veteran soldiers among them, who might have supported those that were
+unskillful in war.
+
+2. This victory was not sufficient for Antigonus; but he proceeded to
+that degree of rage, as to treat the dead body of Joseph barbarously;
+for when he had got possession of the bodies of those that were slain,
+he cut off his head, although his brother Pheroras would have given
+fifty talents as a price of redemption for it. And now the affairs of
+Galilee were put in such disorder after this victory of Antigonus's,
+that those of Antigonus's party brought the principal men that were
+on Herod's side to the lake, and there drowned them. There was a great
+change made also in Idumea, where Machaerus was building a wall about
+one of the fortresses, which was called Gittha. But Herod had not yet
+been informed of these things; for after the taking of Samosata, and
+when Antony had set Sosius over the affairs of Syria, and had given him
+orders to assist Herod against Antigonus, he departed into Egypt; but
+Sosius sent two legions before him into Judea to assist Herod, and
+followed himself soon after with the rest of his army.
+
+3. Now when Herod was at Daphne, by Antioch, he had some dreams which
+clearly foreboded his brother's death; and as he leaped out of his bed
+in a disturbed manner, there came messengers that acquainted him with
+that calamity. So when he had lamented this misfortune for a while, he
+put off the main part of his mourning, and made haste to march against
+his enemies; and when he had performed a march that was above his
+strength, and was gone as far as Libanus, he got him eight hundred men
+of those that lived near to that mountain as his assistants, and joined
+with them one Roman legion, with which, before it was day, he made an
+irruption into Galilee, and met his enemies, and drove them back to
+the place which they had left. He also made an immediate and continual
+attack upon the fortress. Yet was he forced by a most terrible storm to
+pitch his camp in the neighboring villages before he could take it. But
+when, after a few days' time, the second legion, that came from Antony,
+joined themselves to him, the enemy were affrighted at his power, and
+left their fortifications in the night time.
+
+4. After this he marched through Jericho, as making what haste he
+could to be avenged on his brother's murderers; where happened to him
+a providential sign, out of which, when he had unexpectedly escaped,
+he had the reputation of being very dear to God; for that evening there
+feasted with him many of the principal men; and after that feast was
+over, and all the guests were gone out, the house fell down immediately.
+And as he judged this to be a common signal of what dangers he should
+undergo, and how he should escape them in the war that he was going
+about, he, in the morning, set forward with his army, when about six
+thousand of his enemies came running down from the mountains, and began
+to fight with those in his forefront; yet durst they not be so very bold
+as to engage the Romans hand to hand, but threw stones and darts at them
+at a distance; by which means they wounded a considerable number; in
+which action Herod's own side was wounded with a dart.
+
+5. Now as Antigonus had a mind to appear to exceed Herod, not only in
+the courage, but in the number of his men, he sent Pappus, one of his
+companions, with an army against Samaria, whose fortune it was to oppose
+Machaerus; but Herod overran the enemy's country, and demolished five
+little cities, and destroyed two thousand men that were in them,
+and burned their houses, and then returned to his camp; but his
+head-quarters were at the village called Cana.
+
+6. Now a great multitude of Jews resorted to him every day, both out of
+Jericho and the other parts of the country. Some were moved so to do
+out of their hatred to Antigonus, and some out of regard to the glorious
+actions Herod had done; but others were led on by an unreasonable desire
+of change; so he fell upon them immediately. As for Pappus and his
+party, they were not terrified either at their number or at their zeal,
+but marched out with great alacrity to fight them; and it came to a
+close fight. Now other parts of their army made resistance for a while;
+but Herod, running the utmost hazard, out of the rage he was in at the
+murder of his brother, that he might be avenged on those that had been
+the authors of it, soon beat those that opposed him; and after he had
+beaten them, he always turned his force against those that stood to it
+still, and pursued them all; so that a great slaughter was made, while
+some were forced back into that village whence they came out; he also
+pressed hard upon the hindermost, and slew a vast number of them; he
+also fell into the village with the enemy, where every house was filled
+with armed men, and the upper rooms were crowded above with soldiers for
+their defense; and when he had beaten those that were on the outside,
+he pulled the houses to pieces, and plucked out those that were within;
+upon many he had the roofs shaken down, whereby they perished by heaps;
+and as for those that fled out of the ruins, the soldiers received them
+with their swords in their hands; and the multitude of those slain and
+lying on heaps was so great, that the conquerors could not pass along
+the roads. Now the enemy could not bear this blow, so that when the
+multitude of them which was gathered together saw that those in the
+village were slain, they dispersed themselves, and fled away; upon the
+confidence of which victory, Herod had marched immediately to Jerusalem,
+unless he tad been hindered by the depth of winter's [coming on]. This
+was the impediment that lay in the way of this his entire glorious
+progress, and was what hindered Antigonus from being now conquered, who
+was already disposed to forsake the city.
+
+7. Now when at the evening Herod had already dismissed his friends to
+refresh themselves after their fatigue, and when he was gone himself,
+while he was still hot in his armor, like a common soldier, to bathe
+himself, and had but one servant that attended him, and before he was
+gotten into the bath, one of the enemies met him in the face with a
+sword in his hand, and then a second, and then a third, and after that
+more of them; these were men who had run away out of the battle into
+the bath in their armor, and they had lain there for some time in, great
+terror, and in privacy; and when they saw the king, they trembled for
+fear, and ran by him in a flight, although he was naked, and endeavored
+to get off into the public road. Now there was by chance nobody else at
+hand that might seize upon these men; and for Herod, he was contented to
+have come to no harm himself, so that they all got away in safety.
+
+8. But on the next day Herod had Pappus's head cut off, who was the
+general for Antigonus, and was slain in the battle, and sent it to his
+brother Pheroras, by way of punishment for their slain brother; for he
+was the man that slew Joseph. Now as winter was going off, Herod marched
+to Jerusalem, and brought his army to the wall of it; this was the third
+year since he had been made king at Rome; so he pitched his camp before
+the temple, for on that side it might be besieged, and there it was
+that Pompey took the city. So he parted the work among the army, and
+demolished the suburbs, end raised three banks, and gave orders to
+have towers built upon those banks, and left the most laborious of his
+acquaintance at the works. But he went himself to Samaria, to take the
+daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, to wife, who had
+been betrothed to him before, as we have already said; and thus he
+accomplished this by the by, during the siege of the city, for he had
+his enemies in great contempt already.
+
+9. When he had thus married Mariamne, he came back to Jerusalem with a
+greater army. Sosius also joined him with a large army, both of horsemen
+and footmen, which he sent before him through the midland parts, while
+he marched himself along Phoenicia; and when the whole army was gotten
+together, which were eleven regiments of footmen, and six thousand
+horsemen, besides the Syrian auxiliaries, which were no small part
+of the army, they pitched their camp near to the north wall. Herod's
+dependence was upon the decree of the senate, by which he was made king;
+and Sosius relied upon Antony, who sent the army that was under him to
+Herod's assistance.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18.
+
+
+     How Herod And Sosius Took Jerusalem By Force; And What Death
+     Antigonus Came To. Also Concerning Cleopatra's Avaricious
+     Temper.
+
+1. Now the multitude of the Jews that were in the city were divided into
+several factions; for the people that crowded about the temple, being
+the weaker part of them, gave it out that, as the times were, he was the
+happiest and most religious man who should die first. But as to the
+more bold and hardy men, they got together in bodies, and fell a robbing
+others after various manners, and these particularly plundered the
+places that were about the city, and this because there was no food left
+either for the horses or the men; yet some of the warlike men, who were
+used to fight regularly, were appointed to defend the city during the
+siege, and these drove those that raised the banks away from the
+wall; and these were always inventing some engine or another to be a
+hinderance to the engines of the enemy; nor had they so much success any
+way as in the mines under ground.
+
+2. Now as for the robberies which were committed, the king contrived
+that ambushes should be so laid, that they might restrain their
+excursions; and as for the want of provisions, he provided that they
+should be brought to them from great distances. He was also too hard
+for the Jews, by the Romans' skill in the art of war; although they were
+bold to the utmost degree, now they durst not come to a plain battle
+with the Romans, which was certain death; but through their mines under
+ground they would appear in the midst of them on the sudden, and before
+they could batter down one wall, they built them another in its
+stead; and to sum up all at once, they did not show any want either of
+painstaking or of contrivances, as having resolved to hold out to the
+very last. Indeed, though they had so great an army lying round about
+them, they bore a siege of five months, till some of Herod's chosen men
+ventured to get upon the wall, and fell into the city, as did Sosius's
+centurions after them; and now they first of all seized upon what
+was about the temple; and upon the pouring in of the army, there was
+slaughter of vast multitudes every where, by reason of the rage the
+Romans were in at the length of this siege, and by reason that the Jews
+who were about Herod earnestly endeavored that none of their adversaries
+might remain; so they were cut to pieces by great multitudes, as they
+were crowded together in narrow streets, and in houses, or were running
+away to the temple; nor was there any mercy showed either to infants, or
+to the aged, or to the weaker sex; insomuch that although the king sent
+about and desired them to spare the people, nobody could be persuaded
+to withhold their right hand from slaughter, but they slew people of all
+ages, like madmen. Then it was that Antigonus, without any regard to his
+former or to his present fortune, came down from the citadel, and fell
+at Sosius's feet, who without pitying him at all, upon the change of his
+condition, laughed at him beyond measure, and called him Antigona. 26
+Yet did he not treat him like a woman, or let him go free, but put him
+into bonds, and kept him in custody.
+
+3. But Herod's concern at present, now he had gotten his enemies under
+his power, was to restrain the zeal of his foreign auxiliaries; for the
+multitude of the strange people were very eager to see the temple, and
+what was sacred in the holy house itself; but the king endeavored to
+restrain them, partly by his exhortations, partly by his threatenings,
+nay, partly by force, as thinking the victory worse than a defeat to
+him, if any thing that ought not to be seen were seen by them. He also
+forbade, at the same time, the spoiling of the city, asking Sosius in
+the most earnest manner, whether the Romans, by thus emptying the city
+of money and men, had a mind to leave him king of a desert,--and told
+him that he judged the dominion of the habitable earth too small a
+compensation for the slaughter of so many citizens. And when Sosius said
+that it was but just to allow the soldiers this plunder as a reward for
+what they suffered during the siege, Herod made answer, that he would
+give every one of the soldiers a reward out of his own money. So he
+purchased the deliverance of his country, and performed his promises to
+them, and made presents after a magnificent manner to each soldier,
+and proportionably to their commanders, and with a most royal bounty
+to Sosius himself, whereby nobody went away but in a wealthy condition.
+Hereupon Sosius dedicated a crown of gold to God, and then went away
+from Jerusalem, leading Antigonus away in bonds to Antony; then did the
+axe bring him to his end, 27 who still had a fond desire of life, and
+some frigid hopes of it to the last, but by his cowardly behavior well
+deserved to die by it.
+
+4. Hereupon king Herod distinguished the multitude that was in the city;
+and for those that were of his side, he made them still more his friends
+by the honors he conferred on them; but for those of Antigonus's party,
+he slew them; and as his money ran low, he turned all the ornaments he
+had into money, and sent it to Antony, and to those about him. Yet could
+he not hereby purchase an exemption from all sufferings; for Antony was
+now bewitched by his love to Cleopatra, and was entirely conquered by
+her charms. Now Cleopatra had put to death all her kindred, till no
+one near her in blood remained alive, and after that she fell a slaying
+those no way related to her. So she calumniated the principal men among
+the Syrians to Antony, and persuaded him to have them slain, that so she
+might easily gain to be mistress of what they had; nay, she extended her
+avaricious humor to the Jews and Arabians, and secretly labored to have
+Herod and Malichus, the kings of both those nations, slain by his order.
+
+5. Now is to these her injunctions to Antony, he complied in part; for
+though he esteemed it too abominable a thing to kill such good and great
+kings, yet was he thereby alienated from the friendship he had for
+them. He also took away a great deal of their country; nay, even the
+plantation of palm trees at Jericho, where also grows the balsam tree,
+and bestowed them upon her; as also all the cities on this side the
+river Eleutherus, Tyre and Sidon 28 excepted. And when she was become
+mistress of these, and had conducted Antony in his expedition against
+the Parthians as far as Euphrates, she came by Apamia and Damascus
+into Judea and there did Herod pacify her indignation at him by large
+presents. He also hired of her those places that had been torn away from
+his kingdom, at the yearly rent of two hundred talents. He conducted her
+also as far as Pelusium, and paid her all the respects possible. Now it
+was not long after this that Antony was come back from Parthia, and led
+with him Artabazes, Tigranes's son, captive, as a present for Cleopatra;
+for this Parthian was presently given her, with his money, and all the
+prey that was taken with him.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 19.
+
+
+     How Antony At The Persuasion Of Cleopatra Sent Herod To
+     Fight Against The Arabians; And Now After Several Battles,
+     He At Length Got The Victory. As Also Concerning A Great
+     Earthquake.
+
+1. Now when the war about Actium was begun, Herod prepared to come to
+the assistance of Antony, as being already freed from his troubles in
+Judea, and having gained Hyrcania, which was a place that was held by
+Antigonus's sister. However, he was cunningly hindered from partaking of
+the hazards that Antony went through by Cleopatra; for since, as we
+have already noted, she had laid a plot against the kings [of Judea
+and Arabia], she prevailed with Antony to commit the war against the
+Arabians to Herod; that so, if he got the better, she might become
+mistress of Arabia, or, if he were worsted, of Judea; and that she might
+destroy one of those kings by the other.
+
+2. However, this contrivance tended to the advantage of Herod; for at
+the very first he took hostages from the enemy, and got together a great
+body of horse, and ordered them to march against them about Diespous;
+and he conquered that army, although it fought resolutely against him.
+After which defeat, the Arabians were in great motion, and assembled
+themselves together at Kanatha, a city of Celesyria, in vast multitudes,
+and waited for the Jews. And when Herod was come thither, he tried to
+manage this war with particular prudence, and gave orders that they
+should build a wall about their camp; yet did not the multitude comply
+with those orders, but were so emboldened by their foregoing victory,
+that they presently attacked the Arabians, and beat them at the first
+onset, and then pursued them; yet were there snares laid for Herod in
+that pursuit; while Athenio, who was one of Cleopatra's generals, and
+always an antagonist to Herod, sent out of Kanatha the men of that
+country against him; for, upon this fresh onset, the Arabians took
+courage, and returned back, and both joined their numerous forces about
+stony places, that were hard to be gone over, and there put Herod's men
+to the rout, and made a great slaughter of them; but those that escaped
+out of the battle fled to Ormiza, where the Arabians surrounded their
+camp, and took it, with all the men in it. 3. In a little time after
+this calamity, Herod came to bring them succors; but he came too late.
+Now the occasion of that blow was this, that the officers would not obey
+orders; for had not the fight begun so suddenly, Athenio had not found
+a proper season for the snares he laid for Herod: however, he was even
+with the Arabians afterward, and overran their country, and did them
+more harm than their single victory could compensate. But as he
+was avenging himself on his enemies, there fell upon him another
+providential calamity; for in the seventh 29 year of his reign, when the
+war about Actium was at the height, at the beginning of the spring, the
+earth was shaken, and destroyed an immense number of cattle, with thirty
+thousand men; but the army received no harm, because it lay in the open
+air. In the mean time, the fame of this earthquake elevated the Arabians
+to greater courage, and this by augmenting it to a fabulous height, as
+is constantly the case in melancholy accidents, and pretending that all
+Judea was overthrown. Upon this supposal, therefore, that they should
+easily get a land that was destitute of inhabitants into their power,
+they first sacrificed those ambassadors who were come to them from the
+Jews, and then marched into Judea immediately. Now the Jewish nation
+were affrighted at this invasion, and quite dispirited at the greatness
+of their calamities one after another; whom yet Herod got together, and
+endeavored to encourage to defend themselves by the following speech
+which he made to them:
+
+4. "The present dread you are under seems to me to have seized upon
+you very unreasonably. It is true, you might justly be dismayed at
+that providential chastisement which hath befallen you; but to suffer
+yourselves to be equally terrified at the invasion of men is unmanly. As
+for myself, I am so far from being affrighted at our enemies after this
+earthquake, that I imagine that God hath thereby laid a bait for the
+Arabians, that we may be avenged on them; for their present invasion
+proceeds more from our accidental misfortunes, than that they have any
+great dependence on their weapons, or their own fitness for action.
+Now that hope which depends not on men's own power, but on others' ill
+success, is a very ticklish thing; for there is no certainty among men,
+either in their bad or good fortunes; but we may easily observe that
+fortune is mutable, and goes from one side to another; and this you may
+readily learn from examples among yourselves; for when you were once
+victors in the former fight, your enemies overcame you at last; and very
+likely it will now happen so, that these who think themselves sure of
+beating you will themselves be beaten. For when men are very confident,
+they are not upon their guard, while fear teaches men to act with
+caution; insomuch that I venture to prove from your very timorousness
+that you ought to take courage; for when you were more bold than you
+ought to have been, and than I would have had you, and marched on,
+Athenio's treachery took place; but your present slowness and seeming
+dejection of mind is to me a pledge and assurance of victory. And
+indeed it is proper beforehand to be thus provident; but when we come
+to action, we ought to erect our minds, and to make our enemies, be they
+ever so wicked, believe that neither any human, no, nor any providential
+misfortune, can ever depress the courage of Jews while they are alive;
+nor will any of them ever overlook an Arabian, or suffer such a one to
+become lord of his good things, whom he has in a manner taken captive,
+and that many times also. And do not you disturb yourselves at the
+quaking of inanimate creatures, nor do you imagine that this earthquake
+is a sign of another calamity; for such affections of the elements are
+according to the course of nature, nor does it import any thing further
+to men, than what mischief it does immediately of itself. Perhaps there
+may come some short sign beforehand in the case of pestilences, and
+famines, and earthquakes; but these calamities themselves have their
+force limited by themselves [without foreboding any other calamity]. And
+indeed what greater mischief can the war, though it should be a violent
+one, do to us than the earthquake hath done? Nay, there is a signal of
+our enemies' destruction visible, and that a very great one also; and
+this is not a natural one, nor derived from the hand of foreigners
+neither, but it is this, that they have barbarously murdered our
+ambassadors, contrary to the common law of mankind; and they have
+destroyed so many, as if they esteemed them sacrifices for God, in
+relation to this war. But they will not avoid his great eye, nor his
+invincible right hand; and we shall be revenged of them presently, in
+case we still retain any of the courage of our forefathers, and rise up
+boldly to punish these covenant-breakers. Let every one therefore go on
+and fight, not so much for his wife or his children, or for the
+danger his country is in, as for these ambassadors of ours; those dead
+ambassadors will conduct this war of ours better than we ourselves who
+are alive. And if you will be ruled by me, I will myself go before
+you into danger; for you know this well enough, that your courage is
+irresistible, unless you hurt yourselves by acting rashly." 30
+
+5. When Herod had encouraged them by this speech, and he saw with
+what alacrity they went, he offered sacrifice to God; and after that
+sacrifice, he passed over the river Jordan with his army, and pitched
+his camp about Philadelphia, near the enemy, and about a fortification
+that lay between them. He then shot at them at a distance, and was
+desirous to come to an engagement presently; for some of them had been
+sent beforehand to seize upon that fortification: but the king sent some
+who immediately beat them out of the fortification, while he himself
+went in the forefront of the army, which he put in battle-array every
+day, and invited the Arabians to fight. But as none of them came out
+of their camp, for they were in a terrible fright, and their general,
+Elthemus, was not able to say a word for fear,--so Herod came upon
+them, and pulled their fortification to pieces, by which means they were
+compelled to come out to fight, which they did in disorder, and so that
+the horsemen and foot-men were mixed together. They were indeed superior
+to the Jews in number, but inferior in their alacrity, although they
+were obliged to expose themselves to danger by their very despair of
+victory.
+
+6. Now while they made opposition, they had not a great number slain;
+but as soon as they turned their backs, a great many were trodden to
+pieces by the Jews, and a great many by themselves, and so perished,
+till five thousand were fallen down dead in their flight, while the rest
+of the multitude prevented their immediate death, by crowding into the
+fortification. Herod encompassed these around, and besieged them; and
+while they were ready to be taken by their enemies in arms, they had
+another additional distress upon them, which was thirst and want of
+water; for the king was above hearkening to their ambassadors; and when
+they offered five hundred talents, as the price of their redemption,
+he pressed still harder upon them. And as they were burnt up by their
+thirst, they came out and voluntarily delivered themselves up by
+multitudes to the Jews, till in five days' time four thousand of them
+were put into bonds; and on the sixth day the multitude that were left
+despaired of saving themselves, and came out to fight: with these Herod
+fought, and slew again about seven thousand, insomuch that he punished
+Arabia so severely, and so far extinguished the spirits of the men, that
+he was chosen by the nation for their ruler.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 20.
+
+
+     Herod Is Confirmed In His Kingdom By Caesar, And Cultivates
+     A Friendship With The Emperor By Magnificent Presents; While
+     Caesar Returns His Kindness By Bestowing On Him That Part Of
+     His Kingdom Which Had Been Taken Away From It By Cleopatra
+     With The Addition Of Zenodoruss Country Also.
+
+1. But now Herod was under immediate concern about a most important
+affair, on account of his friendship with Antony, who was already
+overcome at Actium by Caesar; yet he was more afraid than hurt; for
+Caesar did not think he had quite undone Antony, while Herod continued
+his assistance to him. However, the king resolved to expose himself to
+dangers: accordingly he sailed to Rhodes, where Caesar then abode, and
+came to him without his diadem, and in the habit and appearance of a
+private person, but in his behavior as a king. So he concealed nothing
+of the truth, but spoke thus before his face: "O Caesar, as I was made
+king of the Jews by Antony, so do I profess that I have used my royal
+authority in the best manner, and entirely for his advantage; nor will I
+conceal this further, that thou hadst certainly found me in arms, and an
+inseparable companion of his, had not the Arabians hindered me. However,
+I sent him as many auxiliaries as I was able, and many ten thousand
+[cori] of corn. Nay, indeed, I did not desert my benefactor after the
+bow that was given him at Actium; but I gave him the best advice I was
+able, when I was no longer able to assist him in the war; and I told him
+that there was but one way of recovering his affairs, and that was to
+kill Cleopatra; and I promised him that, if she were once dead, I would
+afford him money and walls for his security, with an army and myself
+to assist him in his war against thee: but his affections for Cleopatra
+stopped his ears, as did God himself also who hath bestowed the
+government on thee. I own myself also to be overcome together with
+him; and with his last fortune I have laid aside my diadem, and am come
+hither to thee, having my hopes of safety in thy virtue; and I desire
+that thou wilt first consider how faithful a friend, and not whose
+friend, I have been."
+
+2. Caesar replied to him thus: "Nay, thou shalt not only be in safety,
+but thou shalt be a king; and that more firmly than thou wast before;
+for thou art worthy to reign over a great many subjects, by reason
+of the fastness of thy friendship; and do thou endeavor to be equally
+constant in thy friendship to me, upon my good success, which is what I
+depend upon from the generosity of thy disposition. However, Antony hath
+done well in preferring Cleopatra to thee; for by this means we have
+gained thee by her madness, and thus thou hast begun to be my friend
+before I began to be thine; on which account Quintus Didius hath written
+to me that thou sentest him assistance against the gladiators. I do
+therefore assure thee that I will confirm the kingdom to thee by decree:
+I shall also endeavor to do thee some further kindness hereafter, that
+thou mayst find no loss in the want of Antony."
+
+3. When Caesar had spoken such obliging things to the king, and had put
+the diadem again about his head, he proclaimed what he had bestowed on
+him by a decree, in which he enlarged in the commendation of the man
+after a magnificent manner. Whereupon Herod obliged him to be kind
+to him by the presents he gave him, and he desired him to forgive
+Alexander, one of Antony's friends, who was become a supplicant to him.
+But Caesar's anger against him prevailed, and he complained of the many
+and very great offenses the man whom he petitioned for had been guilty
+of; and by that means he rejected his petition. After this Caesar went
+for Egypt through Syria, when Herod received him with royal and rich
+entertainments; and then did he first of all ride along with Caesar, as
+he was reviewing his army about Ptolemais, and feasted him with all
+his friends, and then distributed among the rest of the army what was
+necessary to feast them withal. He also made a plentiful provision of
+water for them, when they were to march as far as Pelusium, through a
+dry country, which he did also in like manner at their return thence;
+nor were there any necessaries wanting to that army. It was therefore
+the opinion, both of Caesar and of his soldiers, that Herod's kingdom
+was too small for those generous presents he made them; for which
+reason, when Caesar was come into Egypt, and Cleopatra and Antony were
+dead, he did not only bestow other marks of honor upon him, but made an
+addition to his kingdom, by giving him not only the country which had
+been taken from him by Cleopatra, but besides that, Gadara, and Hippos,
+and Samaria; and moreover, of the maritime cities, Gaza 31 and Anthedon,
+and Joppa, and Strato's Tower. He also made him a present of four
+hundred Galls [Galatians] as a guard for his body, which they had been
+to Cleopatra before. Nor did any thing so strongly induce Caesar to make
+these presents as the generosity of him that received them.
+
+4. Moreover, after the first games at Actium, he added to his kingdom
+both the region called Trachonitis, and what lay in its neighborhood,
+Batanea, and the country of Auranitis; and that on the following
+occasion: Zenodorus, who had hired the house of Lysanias, had all along
+sent robbers out of Trachonitis among the Damascenes; who thereupon had
+recourse to Varro, the president of Syria, and desired of him that he
+would represent the calamity they were in to Caesar. When Caesar was
+acquainted with it, he sent back orders that this nest of robbers should
+be destroyed. Varro therefore made an expedition against them, and
+cleared the land of those men, and took it away from Zenodorus. Caesar
+did also afterward bestow it on Herod, that it might not again become
+a receptacle for those robbers that had come against Damascus. He
+also made him a procurator of all Syria, and this on the tenth year
+afterward, when he came again into that province; and this was so
+established, that the other procurators could not do any thing in the
+administration without his advice: but when Zenodorus was dead, Caesar
+bestowed on him all that land which lay between Trachonitis and Galilee.
+Yet, what was still of more consequence to Herod, he was beloved by
+Caesar next after Agrippa, and by Agrippa next after Caesar; whence he
+arrived at a very great degree of felicity. Yet did the greatness of his
+soul exceed it, and the main part of his magnanimity was extended to the
+promotion of piety.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 21.
+
+
+     Of The [Temple And] Cities That Were Built By Herod And
+     Erected From The Very Foundations; As Also Of Those Other
+     Edifices That Were Erected By Him; And What Magnificence He
+     Showed To Foreigners; And How Fortune Was In All Things
+     Favorable To Him.
+
+1. Accordingly, in the fifteenth year of his reign, Herod rebuilt the
+temple, and encompassed a piece of land about it with a wall, which land
+was twice as large as that before enclosed. The expenses he laid
+out upon it were vastly large also, and the riches about it were
+unspeakable. A sign of which you have in the great cloisters that were
+erected about the temple, and the citadel which was on its north side.
+The cloisters he built from the foundation, but the citadel 32 he
+repaired at a vast expense; nor was it other than a royal palace, which
+he called Antonia, in honor of Antony. He also built himself a palace in
+the Upper city, containing two very large and most beautiful apartments;
+to which the holy house itself could not be compared [in largeness]. The
+one apartment he named Caesareum, and the other Agrippium, from his [two
+great] friends.
+
+2. Yet did he not preserve their memory by particular buildings only,
+with their names given them, but his generosity went as far as entire
+cities; for when he had built a most beautiful wall round a country in
+Samaria, twenty furlongs long, and had brought six thousand inhabitants
+into it, and had allotted to it a most fruitful piece of land, and in
+the midst of this city, thus built, had erected a very large temple to
+Caesar, and had laid round about it a portion of sacred land of three
+furlongs and a half, he called the city Sebaste, from Sebastus, or
+Augustus, and settled the affairs of the city after a most regular
+manner.
+
+3. And when Caesar had further bestowed upon him another additional
+country, he built there also a temple of white marble, hard by the
+fountains of Jordan: the place is called Panium, where is a top of a
+mountain that is raised to an immense height, and at its side, beneath,
+or at its bottom, a dark cave opens itself; within which there is a
+horrible precipice, that descends abruptly to a vast depth; it contains
+a mighty quantity of water, which is immovable; and when any body lets
+down any thing to measure the depth of the earth beneath the water, no
+length of cord is sufficient to reach it. Now the fountains of Jordan
+rise at the roots of this cavity outwardly; and, as some think, this
+is the utmost origin of Jordan: but we shall speak of that matter more
+accurately in our following history.
+
+4. But the king erected other places at Jericho also, between the
+citadel Cypros and the former palace, such as were better and more
+useful than the former for travelers, and named them from the same
+friends of his. To say all at once, there was not any place of his
+kingdom fit for the purpose that was permitted to be without somewhat
+that was for Caesar's honor; and when he had filled his own country with
+temples, he poured out the like plentiful marks of his esteem into his
+province, and built many cities which he called Cesareas.
+
+5. And when he observed that there was a city by the sea-side that was
+much decayed, [its name was Strato's Tower,] but that the place, by the
+happiness of its situation, was capable of great improvements from his
+liberality, he rebuilt it all with white stone, and adorned it with
+several most splendid palaces, wherein he especially demonstrated his
+magnanimity; for the case was this, that all the sea-shore between Dora
+and Joppa, in the middle, between which this city is situated, had no
+good haven, insomuch that every one that sailed from Phoenicia for Egypt
+was obliged to lie in the stormy sea, by reason of the south winds that
+threatened them; which wind, if it blew but a little fresh, such vast
+waves are raised, and dash upon the rocks, that upon their retreat the
+sea is in a great ferment for a long way. But the king, by the expenses
+he was at, and the liberal disposal of them, overcame nature, and built
+a haven larger than was the Pyrecum 33 [at Athens]; and in the inner
+retirements of the water he built other deep stations [for the ships
+also].
+
+6. Now although the place where he built was greatly opposite to his
+purposes, yet did he so fully struggle with that difficulty, that the
+firmness of his building could not easily be conquered by the sea; and
+the beauty and ornament of the works were such, as though he had not had
+any difficulty in the operation; for when he had measured out as large a
+space as we have before mentioned, he let down stones into twenty fathom
+water, the greatest part of which were fifty feet in length, and nine in
+depth, and ten in breadth, and some still larger. But when the haven was
+filled up to that depth, he enlarged that wall which was thus already
+extant above the sea, till it was two hundred feet wide; one hundred of
+which had buildings before it, in order to break the force of the waves,
+whence it was called Procumatia, or the first breaker of the waves; but
+the rest of the space was under a stone wall that ran round it. On this
+wall were very large towers, the principal and most beautiful of which
+was called Drusium, from Drusus, who was son-in-law to Caesar.
+
+7. There were also a great number of arches, where the mariners dwelt;
+and all the places before them round about was a large valley, or walk,
+for a quay [or landing-place] to those that came on shore; but the
+entrance was on the north, because the north wind was there the most
+gentle of all the winds. At the mouth of the haven were on each side
+three great Colossi, supported by pillars, where those Colossi that are
+on your left hand as you sail into the port are supported by a solid
+tower; but those on the right hand are supported by two upright stones
+joined together, which stones were larger than that tower which was on
+the other side of the entrance. Now there were continual edifices joined
+to the haven, which were also themselves of white stone; and to this
+haven did the narrow streets of the city lead, and were built at equal
+distances one from another. And over against the mouth of the haven,
+upon an elevation, there was a temple for Caesar, which was excellent
+both in beauty and largeness; and therein was a Colossus of Caesar, not
+less than that of Jupiter Olympius, which it was made to resemble.
+The other Colossus of Rome was equal to that of Juno at Argos. So he
+dedicated the city to the province, and the haven to the sailors there;
+but the honor of the building he ascribed to Caesar, 34 and named it
+Cesarea accordingly.
+
+8. He also built the other edifices, the amphitheater, and theater, and
+market-place, in a manner agreeable to that denomination; and appointed
+games every fifth year, and called them, in like manner, Caesar's
+Games; and he first himself proposed the largest prizes upon the hundred
+ninety-second olympiad; in which not only the victors themselves, but
+those that came next to them, and even those that came in the third
+place, were partakers of his royal bounty. He also rebuilt Anthedon,
+a city that lay on the coast, and had been demolished in the wars, and
+named it Agrippeum. Moreover, he had so very great a kindness for his
+friend Agrippa, that he had his name engraved upon that gate which he
+had himself erected in the temple.
+
+9. Herod was also a lover of his father, if any other person ever was
+so; for he made a monument for his father, even that city which he built
+in the finest plain that was in his kingdom, and which had rivers and
+trees in abundance, and named it Antipatris. He also built a wall about
+a citadel that lay above Jericho, and was a very strong and very
+fine building, and dedicated it to his mother, and called it Cypros.
+Moreover, he dedicated a tower that was at Jerusalem, and called it
+by the name of his brother Phasaelus, whose structure, largeness, and
+magnificence we shall describe hereafter. He also built another city in
+the valley that leads northward from Jericho, and named it Phasaelis.
+
+10. And as he transmitted to eternity his family and friends, so did he
+not neglect a memorial for himself, but built a fortress upon a mountain
+towards Arabia, and named it from himself, Herodium 35 and he called
+that hill that was of the shape of a woman's breast, and was sixty
+furlongs distant from Jerusalem, by the same name. He also bestowed much
+curious art upon it, with great ambition, and built round towers all
+about the top of it, and filled up the remaining space with the most
+costly palaces round about, insomuch that not only the sight of the
+inner apartments was splendid, but great wealth was laid out on the
+outward walls, and partitions, and roofs also. Besides this, he brought
+a mighty quantity of water from a great distance, and at vast charges,
+and raised an ascent to it of two hundred steps of the whitest marble,
+for the hill was itself moderately high, and entirely factitious. He
+also built other palaces about the roots of the hill, sufficient to
+receive the furniture that was put into them, with his friends also,
+insomuch that, on account of its containing all necessaries, the
+fortress might seem to be a city, but, by the bounds it had, a palace
+only.
+
+11. And when he had built so much, he showed the greatness of his soul
+to no small number of foreign cities. He built palaces for exercise at
+Tripoli, and Damascus, and Ptolemais; he built a wall about Byblus,
+as also large rooms, and cloisters, and temples, and market-places at
+Berytus and Tyre, with theatres at Sidon and Damascus. He also built
+aqueducts for those Laodiceans who lived by the sea-side; and for those
+of Ascalon he built baths and costly fountains, as also cloisters round
+a court, that were admirable both for their workmanship and largeness.
+Moreover, he dedicated groves and meadows to some people; nay, not a few
+cities there were who had lands of his donation, as if they were parts
+of his own kingdom. He also bestowed annual revenues, and those for ever
+also, on the settlements for exercises, and appointed for them, as well
+as for the people of Cos, that such rewards should never be wanting. He
+also gave corn to all such as wanted it, and conferred upon Rhodes large
+sums of money for building ships; and this he did in many places,
+and frequently also. And when Apollo's temple had been burnt down, he
+rebuilt it at his own charges, after a better manner than it was before.
+What need I speak of the presents he made to the Lycians and Samnians?
+or of his great liberality through all Ionia? and that according
+to every body's wants of them. And are not the Athenians, and
+Lacedemonians, and Nicopolitans, and that Pergamus which is in Mysia,
+full of donations that Herod presented them withal? And as for that
+large open place belonging to Antioch in Syria, did not he pave it with
+polished marble, though it were twenty furlongs long? and this when
+it was shunned by all men before, because it was full of dirt and
+filthiness, when he besides adorned the same place with a cloister of
+the same length.
+
+12. It is true, a man may say, these were favors peculiar to those
+particular places on which he bestowed his benefits; but then what
+favors he bestowed on the Eleans was a donation not only in common to
+all Greece, but to all the habitable earth, as far as the glory of the
+Olympic games reached. For when he perceived that they were come to
+nothing, for want of money, and that the only remains of ancient Greece
+were in a manner gone, he not only became one of the combatants in that
+return of the fifth-year games, which in his sailing to Rome he happened
+to be present at, but he settled upon them revenues of money for
+perpetuity, insomuch that his memorial as a combatant there can never
+fail. It would be an infinite task if I should go over his payments
+of people's debts, or tributes, for them, as he eased the people of
+Phasaelis, of Batanea, and of the small cities about Cilicia, of those
+annual pensions they before paid. However, the fear he was in much
+disturbed the greatness of his soul, lest he should be exposed to envy,
+or seem to hunt after greater filings than he ought, while he bestowed
+more liberal gifts upon these cities than did their owners themselves.
+
+13. Now Herod had a body suited to his soul, and was ever a most
+excellent hunter, where he generally had good success, by the means of
+his great skill in riding horses; for in one day he caught forty wild
+beasts: 36 that country breeds also bears, and the greatest part of it
+is replenished with stags and wild asses. He was also such a warrior as
+could not be withstood: many men, therefore, there are who have stood
+amazed at his readiness in his exercises, when they saw him throw the
+javelin directly forward, and shoot the arrow upon the mark. And then,
+besides these performances of his depending on his own strength of mind
+and body, fortune was also very favorable to him; for he seldom failed
+of success in his wars; and when he failed, he was not himself the
+occasion of such failings, but he either was betrayed by some, or the
+rashness of his own soldiers procured his defeat.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 22.
+
+
+     The Murder Of Aristobulus And Hyrcanus, The High Priests, As
+     Also Of Mariamne The Queen.
+
+1. However, fortune was avenged on Herod in his external great
+successes, by raising him up domestical troubles; and he began to have
+wild disorders in his family, on account of his wife, of whom he was so
+very fond. For when he came to the government, he sent away her whom
+he had before married when he was a private person, and who was born at
+Jerusalem, whose name was Doris, and married Mariamne, the daughter of
+Alexander, the son of Aristobulus; on whose account disturbances arose
+in his family, and that in part very soon, but chiefly after his return
+from Rome. For, first of all, he expelled Antipater the son of Doris,
+for the sake of his sons by Mariamne, out of the city, and permitted him
+to come thither at no other times than at the festivals. After this
+he slew his wife's grandfather, Hyrcanus, when he was returned out of
+Parthin to him, under this pretense, that he suspected him of plotting
+against him. Now this Hyrcanus had been carried captive to Barzapharnes,
+when he overran Syria; but those of his own country beyond Euphrates
+were desirous he would stay with them, and this out of the commiseration
+they had for his condition; and had he complied with their desires,
+when they exhorted him not to go over the river to Herod, he had not
+perished: but the marriage of his granddaughter [to Herod] was his
+temptation; for as he relied upon him, and was over-fond of his own
+country, he came back to it. Herod's provocation was this,--not that
+Hyrcanus made any attempt to gain the kingdom, but that it was fitter
+for him to be their king than for Herod.
+
+2. Now of the five children which Herod had by Mariamne, two of them
+were daughters, and three were sons; and the youngest of these sons was
+educated at Rome, and there died; but the two eldest he treated as those
+of royal blood, on account of the nobility of their mother, and because
+they were not born till he was king. But then what was stronger than all
+this was the love that he bare to Mariamne, and which inflamed him every
+day to a great degree, and so far conspired with the other motives, that
+he felt no other troubles, on account of her he loved so entirely. But
+Mariamne's hatred to him was not inferior to his love to her. She had
+indeed but too just a cause of indignation from what he had done,
+while her boldness proceeded from his affection to her; so she openly
+reproached him with what he had done to her grandfather Hyrcanus, and to
+her brother Aristobulus; for he had not spared this Aristobulus, though
+he were but a child; for when he had given him the high priesthood at
+the age of seventeen, he slew him quickly after he had conferred that
+dignity upon him; but when Aristobulus had put on the holy vestments,
+and had approached to the altar at a festival, the multitude, in great
+crowds, fell into tears; whereupon the child was sent by night to
+Jericho, and was there dipped by the Galls, at Herod's command, in a
+pool till he was drowned.
+
+3. For these reasons Mariamne reproached Herod, and his sister and
+mother, after a most contumelious manner, while he was dumb on account
+of his affection for her; yet had the women great indignation at her,
+and raised a calumny against her, that she was false to his bed;
+which thing they thought most likely to move Herod to anger. They also
+contrived to have many other circumstances believed, in order to make
+the thing more credible, and accused her of having sent her picture into
+Egypt to Antony, and that her lust was so extravagant, as to have thus
+showed herself, though she was absent, to a man that ran mad after
+women, and to a man that had it in his power to use violence to her.
+This charge fell like a thunderbolt upon Herod, and put him into
+disorder; and that especially, because his love to her occasioned him to
+be jealous, and because he considered with himself that Cleopatra was a
+shrewd woman, and that on her account Lysanias the king was taken off,
+as well as Malichus the Arabian; for his fear did not only extend to the
+dissolving of his marriage, but to the danger of his life.
+
+4. When therefore he was about to take a journey abroad, he committed
+his wife to Joseph, his sister Salome's husband, as to one who would be
+faithful to him, and bare him good-will on account of their kindred; he
+also gave him a secret injunction, that if Antony slew him, he should
+slay her. But Joseph, without any ill design, and only in order to
+demonstrate the king's love to his wife, how he could not bear to think
+of being separated from her, even by death itself, discovered this grand
+secret to her; upon which, when Herod was come back, and as they talked
+together, and he confirmed his love to her by many oaths, and assured
+her that he had never such an affection for any other woman as he had
+for her--"Yes," says she, "thou didst, to be sure, demonstrate thy love
+to me by the injunctions thou gavest Joseph, when thou commandedst him
+to kill me." 37
+
+5. When he heard that this grand secret was discovered, he was like a
+distracted man, and said that Joseph would never have disclosed that
+injunction of his, unless he had debauched her. His passion also made
+him stark mad, and leaping out of his bed, he ran about the palace after
+a wild manner; at which time his sister Salome took the opportunity
+also to blast her reputation, and confirmed his suspicion about Joseph;
+whereupon, out of his ungovernable jealousy and rage, he commanded both
+of them to be slain immediately; but as soon as ever his passion was
+over, he repented of what he had done, and as soon as his anger was
+worn off, his affections were kindled again. And indeed the flame of his
+desires for her was so ardent, that he could not think she was dead, but
+would appear, under his disorders, to speak to her as if she were
+still alive, till he were better instructed by time, when his grief and
+trouble, now she was dead, appeared as great as his affection had been
+for her while she was living.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 23.
+
+
+     Calumnies Against The Sons Of Mariamne. Antipateris
+     Preferred Before Them. They Are Accused Before Caesar, And
+     Herod Is Reconciled To Them.
+
+1. Now Mariamne's sons were heirs to that hatred which had been borne
+their mother; and when they considered the greatness of Herod's crime
+towards her, they were suspicious of him as of an enemy of theirs; and
+this first while they were educated at Rome, but still more when they
+were returned to Judea. This temper of theirs increased upon them
+as they grew up to be men; and when they were Come to an age fit for
+marriage, the one of them married their aunt Salome's daughter, which
+Salome had been the accuser of their mother; the other married the
+daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia. And now they used boldness
+in speaking, as well as bore hatred in their minds. Now those that
+calumniated them took a handle from such their boldness, and certain
+of them spake now more plainly to the king that there were treacherous
+designs laid against him by both his sons; and he that was son-in-law to
+Archelaus, relying upon his father-in-law, was preparing to fly away, in
+order to accuse Herod before Caesar; and when Herod's head had been long
+enough filled with these calumnies, he brought Antipater, whom he had by
+Doris, into favor again, as a defense to him against his other sons, and
+began all the ways he possibly could to prefer him before them.
+
+2. But these sons were not able to bear this change in their affairs;
+but when they saw him that was born of a mother of no family, the
+nobility of their birth made them unable to contain their indignation;
+but whensoever they were uneasy, they showed the anger they had at
+it. And as these sons did day after day improve in that their anger,
+Antipater already exercised all his own abilities, which were very
+great, in flattering his father, and in contriving many sorts of
+calumnies against his brethren, while he told some stories of them
+himself, and put it upon other proper persons to raise other stories
+against them, till at length he entirely cut his brethren off from all
+hopes of succeeding to the kingdom; for he was already publicly put into
+his father's will as his successor. Accordingly, he was sent with royal
+ornaments, and other marks of royalty, to Caesar, excepting the diadem.
+He was also able in time to introduce his mother again into Mariamne's
+bed. The two sorts of weapons he made use of against his brethren were
+flattery and calumny, whereby he brought matters privately to such a
+pass, that the king had thoughts of putting his sons to death.
+
+3. So the father drew Alexander as far as Rome, and charged him with an
+attempt of poisoning him before Caesar. Alexander could hardly speak for
+lamentation; but having a judge that was more skillful than Antipater,
+and more wise than Herod, he modestly avoided laying any imputation upon
+his father, but with great strength of reason confuted the calumnies
+laid against him; and when he had demonstrated the innocency of his
+brother, who was in the like danger with himself, he at last bewailed
+the craftiness of Antipater, and the disgrace they were under. He was
+enabled also to justify himself, not only by a clear conscience, which
+he carried within him, but by his eloquence; for he was a shrewd man
+in making speeches. And upon his saying at last, that if his father
+objected this crime to them, it was in his power to put them to death,
+he made all the audience weep; and he brought Caesar to that pass, as
+to reject the accusations, and to reconcile their father to them
+immediately. But the conditions of this reconciliation were these,
+that they should in all things be obedient to their father, and that he
+should have power to leave the kingdom to which of them he pleased.
+
+4. After this the king came back from Rome, and seemed to have forgiven
+his sons upon these accusations; but still so that he was not without
+his suspicions of them. They were followed by Antipater, who was the
+fountain-head of those accusations; yet did not he openly discover his
+hatred to them, as revering him that had reconciled them. But as Herod
+sailed by Cilicia, he touched at Eleusa, 38 where Archelaus treated them
+in the most obliging manner, and gave him thanks for the deliverance of
+his son-in-law, and was much pleased at their reconciliation; and this
+the more, because he had formerly written to his friends at Rome that
+they should be assisting to Alexander at his trial. So he conducted
+Herod as far as Zephyrium, and made him presents to the value of thirty
+talents.
+
+5. Now when Herod was come to Jerusalem, he gathered the people
+together, and presented to them his three sons, and gave them an
+apologetic account of his absence, and thanked God greatly, and
+thanked Caesar greatly also, for settling his house when it was under
+disturbances, and had procured concord among his sons, which was of
+greater consequence than the kingdom itself,--"and which I will render
+still more firm; for Caesar hath put into my power to dispose of the
+government, and to appoint my successor. Accordingly, in way of requital
+for his kindness, and in order to provide for mine own advantage, I do
+declare that these three sons of mine shall be kings. And, in the first
+place, I pray for the approbation of God to what I am about; and, in the
+next place, I desire your approbation also. The age of one of them, and
+the nobility of the other two, shall procure them the succession. Nay,
+indeed, my kingdom is so large that it may be sufficient for more kings.
+Now do you keep those in their places whom Caesar hath joined, and their
+father hath appointed; and do not you pay undue or unequal respects to
+them, but to every one according to the prerogative of their births;
+for he that pays such respects unduly, will thereby not make him that is
+honored beyond what his age requires so joyful, as he will make him
+that is dishonored sorrowful. As for the kindred and friends that are
+to converse with them, I will appoint them to each of them, and will so
+constitute them, that they may be securities for their concord; as
+well knowing that the ill tempers of those with whom they converse will
+produce quarrels and contentions among them; but that if these with
+whom they converse be of good tempers, they will preserve their natural
+affections for one another. But still I desire that not these only, but
+all the captains of my army, have for the present their hopes placed on
+me alone; for I do not give away my kingdom to these my sons, but give
+them royal honors only; whereby it will come to pass that they will
+enjoy the sweet parts of government as rulers themselves, but that the
+burden of administration will rest upon myself whether I will or not.
+And let every one consider what age I am of, how I have conducted my
+life, and what piety I have exercised; for my age is not so great that
+men may soon expect the end of my life; nor have I indulged such a
+luxurious way of living as cuts men off when they are young; and we
+have been so religious towards God, that we [have reason to hope we] may
+arrive at a very great age. But for such as cultivate a friendship with
+my sons, so as to aim at my destruction, they shall be punished by me
+on their account. I am not one who envy my own children, and therefore
+forbid men to pay them great respect; but I know that such [extravagant]
+respects are the way to make them insolent. And if every one that comes
+near them does but revolve this in his mind, that if he prove a good
+man, he shall receive a reward from me, but that if he prove seditious,
+his ill-intended complaisance shall get him nothing from him to whom it
+is shown, I suppose they will all be of my side, that is, of my sons'
+side; for it will be for their advantage that I reign, and that I be
+at concord with them. But do you, O my good children, reflect upon
+the holiness of nature itself, by whose means natural affection is
+preserved, even among wild beasts; in the next place, reflect upon
+Caesar, who hath made this reconciliation among us; and in the third
+place, reflect upon me, who entreat you to do what I have power to
+command you,--continue brethren. I give you royal garments, and royal
+honors; and I pray to God to preserve what I have determined, in case
+you be at concord one with another." When the king had thus spoken, and
+had saluted every one of his sons after an obliging manner, he dismissed
+the multitude; some of which gave their assent to what he had said, and
+wished it might take effect accordingly; but for those who wished for a
+change of affairs, they pretended they did not so much as hear what he
+said.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 24.
+
+
+     The Malice Of Antipater And Doris. Alexander Is Very Uneasy
+     On Glaphyras Account. Herod Pardons Pheroras, Whom He
+     Suspected, And Salome Whom He Knew To Make Mischief Among
+     Them. Herod's Eunuchs Are Tortured And Alexander Is Bound.
+
+1. But now the quarrel that was between them still accompanied these
+brethren when they parted, and the suspicions they had one of the
+other grew worse. Alexander and Aristobulus were much grieved that the
+privilege of the first-born was confirmed to Antipater; as was Antipater
+very angry at his brethren that they were to succeed him. But then this
+last being of a disposition that was mutable and politic, he knew how to
+hold his tongue, and used a great deal of cunning, and thereby concealed
+the hatred he bore to them; while the former, depending on the nobility
+of their births, had every thing upon their tongues which was in their
+minds. Many also there were who provoked them further, and many of their
+[seeming] friends insinuated themselves into their acquaintance, to
+spy out what they did. Now every thing that was said by Alexander was
+presently brought to Antipater, and from Antipater it was brought to
+Herod with additions. Nor could the young man say any thing in the
+simplicity of his heart, without giving offense, but what he said was
+still turned to calumny against him. And if he had been at any time a
+little free in his conversation, great imputations were forged from
+the smallest occasions. Antipater also was perpetually setting some to
+provoke him to speak, that the lies he raised of him might seem to have
+some foundation of truth; and if, among the many stories that were given
+out, but one of them could be proved true, that was supposed to imply
+the rest to be true also. And as to Antipater's friends, they were all
+either naturally so cautious in speaking, or had been so far bribed to
+conceal their thoughts, that nothing of these grand secrets got abroad
+by their means. Nor should one be mistaken if he called the life of
+Antipater a mystery of wickedness; for he either corrupted Alexander's
+acquaintance with money, or got into their favor by flatteries; by which
+two means he gained all his designs, and brought them to betray their
+master, and to steal away, and reveal what he either did or said. Thus
+did he act a part very cunningly in all points, and wrought himself a
+passage by his calumnies with the greatest shrewdness; while he put on
+a face as if he were a kind brother to Alexander and Aristobulus, but
+suborned other men to inform of what they did to Herod. And when any
+thing was told against Alexander, he would come in, and pretend [to be
+of his side], and would begin to contradict what was said; but would
+afterward contrive matters so privately, that the king should have an
+indignation at him. His general aim was this,--to lay a plot, and to
+make it believed that Alexander lay in wait to kill his father; for
+nothing afforded so great a confirmation to these calumnies as did
+Antipater's apologies for him.
+
+2. By these methods Herod was inflamed, and as much as his natural
+affection to the young men did every day diminish, so much did it
+increase towards Antipater. The courtiers also inclined to the same
+conduct, some of their own accord, and others by the king's injunction,
+as particularly did Ptolemy, the king's dearest friend, as also the
+king's brethren, and all his children; for Antipater was all in all; and
+what was the bitterest part of all to Alexander, Antipater's mother was
+also all in all; she was one that gave counsel against them, and was
+more harsh than a step-mother, and one that hated the queen's sons more
+than is usual to hate sons-in-law. All men did therefore already pay
+their respects to Antipater, in hopes of advantage; and it was the
+king's command which alienated every body [from the brethren], he having
+given this charge to his most intimate friends, that they should not
+come near, nor pay any regard, to Alexander, or to his friends. Herod
+was also become terrible, not only to his domestics about the court, but
+to his friends abroad; for Caesar had given such a privilege to no other
+king as he had given to him, which was this,--that he might fetch back
+any one that fled from him, even out of a city that was not under
+his own jurisdiction. Now the young men were not acquainted with the
+calumnies raised against them; for which reason they could not guard
+themselves against them, but fell under them; for their father did not
+make any public complaints against either of them; though in a little
+time they perceived how things were by his coldness to them, and by the
+great uneasiness he showed upon any thing that troubled him. Antipater
+had also made their uncle Pheroras to be their enemy, as well as their
+aunt Salome, while he was always talking with her, as with a wife,
+and irritating her against them. Moreover, Alexander's wife, Glaphyra,
+augmented this hatred against them, by deriving her nobility and
+genealogy [from great persons], and pretending that she was a lady
+superior to all others in that kingdom, as being derived by her father's
+side from Temenus, and by her mother's side from Darius, the son of
+Hystaspes. She also frequently reproached Herod's sister and wives with
+the ignobility of their descent; and that they were every one chosen by
+him for their beauty, but not for their family. Now those wives of his
+were not a few; it being of old permitted to the Jews to marry many
+wives, 39 and this king delighting in many; all which hated Alexander,
+on account of Glaphyra's boasting and reproaches.
+
+3. Nay, Aristobulus had raised a quarrel between himself and Salome, who
+was his mother-in-law, besides the anger he had conceived at Glaphyra's
+reproaches; for he perpetually upbraided his wife with the meanness
+of her family, and complained, that as he had married a woman of a low
+family, so had his brother Alexander married one of royal blood. At
+this Salome's daughter wept, and told it her with this addition, that
+Alexander threatened the mothers of his other brethren, that when he
+should come to the crown, he would make them weave with their maidens,
+and would make those brothers of his country schoolmasters; and brake
+this jest upon them, that they had been very carefully instructed, to
+fit them for such an employment. Hereupon Salome could not contain her
+anger, but told all to Herod; nor could her testimony be suspected,
+since it was against her own son-in-law There was also another calumny
+that ran abroad and inflamed the king's mind; for he heard that these
+sons of his were perpetually speaking of their mother, and, among their
+lamentations for her, did not abstain from cursing him; and that when
+he made presents of any of Mariamne's garments to his later wives, these
+threatened that in a little time, instead of royal garments, they would
+clothe theft in no better than hair-cloth.
+
+4. Now upon these accounts, though Herod was somewhat afraid of the
+young men's high spirit, yet did he not despair of reducing them to a
+better mind; but before he went to Rome, whither he was now going by
+sea, he called them to him, and partly threatened them a little, as a
+king; but for the main, he admonished them as a father, and exhorted
+them to love their brethren, and told them that he would pardon their
+former offenses, if they would amend for the time to come. But they
+refuted the calumnies that had been raised of them, and said they
+were false, and alleged that their actions were sufficient for their
+vindication; and said withal, that he himself ought to shut his ears
+against such tales, and not be too easy in believing them, for that
+there would never be wanting those that would tell lies to their
+disadvantage, as long as any would give ear to them.
+
+5. When they had thus soon pacified him, as being their father, they got
+clear of the present fear they were in. Yet did they see occasion for
+sorrow in some time afterward; for they knew that Salome, as well as
+their uncle Pheroras, were their enemies; who were both of them heavy
+and severe persons, and especially Pheroras, who was a partner with
+Herod in all the affairs of the kingdom, excepting his diadem. He had
+also a hundred talents of his own revenue, and enjoyed the advantage
+of all the land beyond Jordan, which he had received as a gift from his
+brother, who had asked of Caesar to make him a tetrarch, as he was made
+accordingly. Herod had also given him a wife out of the royal family,
+who was no other than his own wife's sister, and after her death had
+solemnly espoused to him his own eldest daughter, with a dowry of three
+hundred talents; but Pheroras refused to consummate this royal marriage,
+out of his affection to a maidservant of his. Upon which account Herod
+was very angry, and gave that daughter in marriage to a brother's son
+of his, [Joseph,] who was slain afterward by the Parthians; but in some
+time he laid aside his anger against Pheroras, and pardoned him, as one
+not able to overcome his foolish passion for the maid-servant.
+
+6. Nay, Pheroras had been accused long before, while the queen
+[Mariamne] was alive, as if he were in a plot to poison Herod; and there
+came then so great a number of informers, that Herod himself, though he
+was an exceeding lover of his brethren, was brought to believe what was
+said, and to be afraid of it also. And when he had brought many of those
+that were under suspicion to the torture, he came at last to Pheroras's
+own friends; none of which did openly confess the crime, but they owned
+that he had made preparation to take her whom he loved, and run away to
+the Parthians. Costobarus also, the husband of Salome, to whom the king
+had given her in marriage, after her former husband had been put to
+death for adultery, was instrumental in bringing about this contrivance
+and flight of his. Nor did Salome escape all calumny upon herself; for
+her brother Pheroras accused her that she had made an agreement to marry
+Silleus, the procurator of Obodas, king of Arabia, who was at bitter
+enmity with Herod; but when she was convicted of this, and of all that
+Pheroras had accused her of, she obtained her pardon. The king also
+pardoned Pheroras himself the crimes he had been accused of.
+
+7. But the storm of the whole family was removed to Alexander, and all
+of it rested upon his head. There were three eunuchs who were in the
+highest esteem with the king, as was plain by the offices they were in
+about him; for one of them was appointed to be his butler, another of
+them got his supper ready for him, and the third put him into bed, and
+lay down by him. Now Alexander had prevailed with these men, by large
+gifts, to let him use them after an obscene manner; which, when it was
+told to the king, they were tortured, and found guilty, and presently
+confessed the criminal conversation he had with them. They also
+discovered the promises by which they were induced so to do, and how
+they were deluded by Alexander, who had told them that they ought not to
+fix their hopes upon Herod, an old man, and one so shameless as to color
+his hair, unless they thought that would make him young again; but that
+they ought to fix their attention to him who was to be his successor
+in the kingdom, whether he would or not; and who in no long time would
+avenge himself on his enemies, and make his friends happy and blessed,
+and themselves in the first place; that the men of power did already pay
+respects to Alexander privately, and that the captains of the soldiery,
+and the officers, did secretly come to him.
+
+8. These confessions did so terrify Herod, that he durst not immediately
+publish them; but he sent spies abroad privately, by night and by day,
+who should make a close inquiry after all that was done and said; and
+when any were but suspected [of treason], he put them to death, insomuch
+that the palace was full of horribly unjust proceedings; for every body
+forged calumnies, as they were themselves in a state of enmity or hatred
+against others; and many there were who abused the king's bloody passion
+to the disadvantage of those with whom they had quarrels, and lies
+were easily believed, and punishments were inflicted sooner than the
+calumnies were forged. He who had just then been accusing another was
+accused himself, and was led away to execution together with him whom
+he had convicted; for the danger the king was in of his life made
+examinations be very short. He also proceeded to such a degree of
+bitterness, that he could not look on any of those that were not accused
+with a pleasant countenance, but was in the most barbarous disposition
+towards his own friends. Accordingly, he forbade a great many of them to
+come to court, and to those whom he had not power to punish actually
+he spake harshly. But for Antipater, he insulted Alexander, now he was
+under his misfortunes, and got a stout company of his kindred together,
+and raised all sorts of calumny against him; and for the king, he was
+brought to such a degree of terror by those prodigious slanders and
+contrivances, that he fancied he saw Alexander coming to him with a
+drawn sword in his hand. So he caused him to be seized upon immediately,
+and bound, and fell to examining his friends by torture, many of whom
+died [under the torture], but would discover nothing, nor say any thing
+against their consciences; but some of them, being forced to speak
+falsely by the pains they endured, said that Alexander, and his brother
+Aristobulus, plotted against him, and waited for an opportunity to kill
+him as he was hunting, and then fly away to Rome. These accusations
+though they were of an incredible nature, and only framed upon the great
+distress they were in, were readily believed by the king, who thought it
+some comfort to him, after he had bound his son, that it might appear he
+had not done it unjustly.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 25.
+
+
+     Archelaus Procures A Reconciliation Between Alexander
+     Pheroras, And Herod.
+
+1. Now as to Alexander, since he perceived it impossible to persuade his
+father [that he was innocent], he resolved to meet his calamities, how
+severe soever they were; so he composed four books against his enemies,
+and confessed that he had been in a plot; but declared withal that the
+greatest part [of the courtiers] were in a plot with him, and chiefly
+Pheroras and Salome; nay, that Salome once came and forced him to lie
+with her in the night time, whether he would or no. These books were put
+into Herod's hands, and made a great clamor against the men in power.
+And now it was that Archelaus came hastily into Judea, as being
+affrighted for his son-in-law and his daughter; and he came as a proper
+assistant, and in a very prudent manner, and by a stratagem he obliged
+the king not to execute what he had threatened; for when he was come to
+him, he cried out, "Where in the world is this wretched son-in-law of
+mine? Where shall I see the head of him which contrived to murder his
+father, which I will tear to pieces with my own hands? I will do the
+same also to my daughter, who hath such a fine husband; for although she
+be not a partner in the plot, yet, by being the wife of such a creature,
+she is polluted. And I cannot but admire at thy patience, against whom
+this plot is laid, if Alexander be still alive; for as I came with what
+haste I could from Cappadocia, I expected to find him put to death for
+his crimes long ago; but still, in order to make an examination with
+thee about my daughter, whom, out of regard to thee and by dignity, I
+had espoused to him in marriage; but now we must take counsel about them
+both; and if thy paternal affection be so great, that thou canst not
+punish thy son, who hath plotted against thee, let us change our right
+hands, and let us succeed one to the other in expressing our rage upon
+this occasion."
+
+2. When he had made this pompous declaration, he got Herod to remit of
+his anger, though he were in disorder, who thereupon gave him the books
+which Alexander had composed to be read by him; and as he came to every
+head, he considered of it, together with Herod. So Archelaus took hence
+the occasion for that stratagem which he made use of, and by degrees
+he laid the blame on those men whose names were in these books, and
+especially upon Pheroras; and when he saw that the king believed him [to
+be in earnest], he said, "We must consider whether the young man be not
+himself plotted against by such a number of wicked wretches, and not
+thou plotted against by the young man; for I cannot see any occasion for
+his falling into so horrid a crime, since he enjoys the advantages of
+royalty already, and has the expectation of being one of thy successors;
+I mean this, unless there were some persons that persuade him to it, and
+such persons as make an ill use of the facility they know there is
+to persuade young men; for by such persons, not only young men are
+sometimes imposed upon, but old men also, and by them sometimes are the
+most illustrious families and kingdoms overturned."
+
+3. Herod assented to what he had said, and, by degrees, abated of
+his anger against Alexander, but was more angry at Pheroras; for the
+principal subject of the four books was Pheroras; who perceiving that
+the king's inclinations changed on a sudden, and that Archelaus's
+friendship could do every thing with him, and that he had no honorable
+method of preserving himself, he procured his safety by his impudence.
+So he left Alexander, and had recourse to Archelaus, who told him that
+he did not see how he could get him excused, now he was directly caught
+in so many crimes, whereby it was evidently demonstrated that he had
+plotted against the king, and had been the cause of those misfortunes
+which the young man was now under, unless he would moreover leave off
+his cunning knavery, and his denials of what he was charged withal, and
+confess the charge, and implore pardon of his brother, who still had a
+kindness for him; but that if he would do so, he would afford him all
+the assistance he was able.
+
+4. With this advice Pheroras complied, and putting himself into such a
+habit as might most move compassion, he came with black cloth upon his
+body, and tears in his eyes, and threw himself down at Herod's feet, and
+begged his pardon for what he had done, and confessed that he had acted
+very wickedly, and was guilty of every thing that he had been accused
+of, and lamented that disorder of his mind, and distraction which his
+love to a woman, he said, had brought him to. So when Archelaus had
+brought Pheroras to accuse and bear witness against himself, he then
+made an excuse for him, and mitigated Herod's anger towards him, and
+this by using certain domestical examples; for that when he had suffered
+much greater mischiefs from a brother of his own, he prefered the
+obligations of nature before the passion of revenge; because it is in
+kingdoms as it is in gross bodies, where some member or other is ever
+swelled by the body's weight, in which case it is not proper to cut off
+such member, but to heal it by a gentle method of cure.
+
+5. Upon Arehelaus's saying this, and much more to the same purpose,
+Herod's displeasure against Pheroras was mollified; yet did he persevere
+in his own indignation against Alexander, and said he would have his
+daughter divorced, and taken away from him, and this till he had brought
+Herod to that pass, that, contrary to his former behavior to him,
+he petitioned Archelaus for the young man, and that he would let his
+daughter continue espoused to him: but Archelaus made him strongly
+believe that he would permit her to be married to any one else, but not
+to Alexander, because he looked upon it as a very valuable advantage,
+that the relation they had contracted by that affinity, and the
+privileges that went along with it, might be preserved. And when the
+king said that his son would take it for a great favor to him, if he
+would not dissolve that marriage, especially since they had already
+children between the young man and her, and since that wife of his was
+so well beloved by him, and that as while she remains his wife she would
+be a great preservative to him, and keep him from offending, as he had
+formerly done; so if she should be once torn away from him, she would be
+the cause of his falling into despair, because such young men's attempts
+are best mollified when they are diverted from them by settling their
+affections at home. So Arehelaus complied with what Herod desired, but
+not without difficulty, and was both himself reconciled to the young
+man, and reconciled his father to him also. However, he said he must,
+by all means, be sent to Rome to discourse with Caesar, because he had
+already written a full account to him of this whole matter.
+
+6. Thus a period was put to Archelaus's stratagem, whereby he
+delivered his son-in-law out of the dangers he was in; but when these
+reconciliations were over, they spent their time in feastings and
+agreeable entertainments. And when Archelaus was going away, Herod made
+him a present of seventy talents, with a golden throne set with precious
+stones, and some eunuchs, and a concubine who was called Pannychis.
+He also paid due honors to every one of his friends according to their
+dignity. In like manner did all the king's kindred, by his command, make
+glorious presents to Archelaus; and so he was conducted on his way by
+Herod and his nobility as far as Antioch.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 26.
+
+
+     How Eurycles <a href="#linknote-40" name="linknoteref-40"
+      id="linknoteref-40">40</a> Calumniated The Sons Of Mariamne; And How
+     Euaratus Of Cos's Apology For Them Had No Effect.
+
+1. Now a little afterward there came into Judea a man that was much
+superior to Arehelaus's stratagems, who did not only overturn that
+reconciliation that had been so wisely made with Alexander, but proved
+the occasion of his ruin. He was a Lacedemonian, and his name was
+Eurycles. He was so corrupt a man, that out of the desire of getting
+money, he chose to live under a king, for Greece could not suffice his
+luxury. He presented Herod with splendid gifts, as a bait which he
+laid in order to compass his ends, and quickly received them back again
+manifold; yet did he esteem bare gifts as nothing, unless he imbrued the
+kingdom in blood by his purchases. Accordingly, he imposed upon the king
+by flattering him, and by talking subtlely to him, as also by the lying
+encomiums which he made upon him; for as he soon perceived Herod's blind
+side, so he said and did every thing that might please him, and thereby
+became one of his most intimate friends; for both the king and all that
+were about him had a great regard for this Spartan, on account of his
+country. 41
+
+2. Now as soon as this fellow perceived the rotten parts of the family,
+and what quarrels the brothers had one with another, and in what
+disposition the father was towards each of them, he chose to take his
+lodging at the first in the house of Antipater, but deluded Alexander
+with a pretense of friendship to him, and falsely claimed to be an old
+acquaintance of Archelaus; for which reason he was presently admitted
+into Alexander's familiarity as a faithful friend. He also soon
+recommended himself to his brother Aristobulus. And when he had thus
+made trial of these several persons, he imposed upon one of them by one
+method, and upon another by another. But he was principally hired by
+Antipater, and so betrayed Alexander, and this by reproaching Antipater,
+because, while he was the eldest son he overlooked the intrigues of
+those who stood in the way of his expectations; and by reproaching
+Alexander, because he who was born of a queen, and was married to a
+king's daughter, permitted one that was born of a mean woman to lay
+claim to the succession, and this when he had Archelaus to support him
+in the most complete manner. Nor was his advice thought to be other
+than faithful by the young man, because of his pretended friendship
+with Archelaus; on which account it was that Alexander lamented to him
+Antipater's behavior with regard to himself, and this without concealing
+any thing from him; and how it was no wonder if Herod, after he had
+killed their mother, should deprive them of her kingdom. Upon this
+Eurycles pretended to commiserate his condition, and to grieve with him.
+He also, by a bait that he laid for him, procured Aristobulus to say the
+same things. Thus did he inveigle both the brothers to make complaints
+of their father, and then went to Antipater, and carried these grand
+secrets to him. He also added a fiction of his own, as if his brothers
+had laid a plot against him, and were almost ready to come upon him with
+their drawn swords. For this intelligence he received a great sum of
+money, and on that account he commended Antipater before his father, and
+at length undertook the work of bringing Alexander and Aristobulus to
+their graves, and accused them before their father. So he came to Herod,
+and told him that he would save his life, as a requital for the favors
+he had received from him, and would preserve his light [of life] by way
+of retribution for his kind entertainment; for that a sword had been
+long whetted, and Alexander's right hand had been long stretched out
+against him; but that he had laid impediments in his way, prevented his
+speed, and that by pretending to assist him in his design: how Alexander
+said that Herod was not contented to reign in a kingdom that belonged to
+others, and to make dilapidations in their mother's government after
+he had killed her; but besides all this, that he introduced a spurious
+successor, and proposed to give the kingdom of their ancestors to that
+pestilent fellow Antipater:--that he would now appease the ghosts of
+Hyrcanus and Mariamne, by taking vengeance on him; for that it was not
+fit for him to take the succession to the government from such a father
+without bloodshed: that many things happen every day to provoke him so
+to do, insomuch that he can say nothing at all, but it affords occasion
+for calumny against him; for that if any mention be made of nobility
+of birth, even in other cases, he is abused unjustly, while his father
+would say that nobody, to be sure, is of noble birth but Alexander, and
+that his father was inglorious for want of such nobility. If they be
+at any time hunting, and he says nothing, he gives offense; and if he
+commends any body, they take it in way of jest. That they always find
+their father unmercifully severe, and have no natural affection for
+any of them but for Antipater; on which accounts, if this plot does not
+take, he is very willing to die; but that in case he kill his father, he
+hath sufficient opportunities for saving himself. In the first place, he
+hath Archelaus his father-in-law to whom he can easily fly; and in the
+next place, he hath Caesar, who had never known Herod's character to
+this day; for that he shall not appear then before him with that dread
+he used to do when his father was there to terrify him; and that he
+will not then produce the accusations that concerned himself alone,
+but would, in the first place, openly insist on the calamities of their
+nation, and how they are taxed to death, and in what ways of luxury and
+wicked practices that wealth is spent which was gotten by bloodshed;
+what sort of persons they are that get our riches, and to whom those
+cities belong upon whom he bestows his favors; that he would have
+inquiry made what became of his grandfather [Hyrcanus], and his mother
+[Mariamne], and would openly proclaim the gross wickedness that was in
+the kingdom; on which accounts he should not be deemed a parricide.
+
+3. When Eurycles had made this portentous speech, he greatly commended
+Antipater, as the only child that had an affection for his father,
+and on that account was an impediment to the other's plot against him.
+Hereupon the king, who had hardly repressed his anger upon the former
+accusations, was exasperated to an incurable degree. At which time
+Antipater took another occasion to send in other persons to his
+father to accuse his brethren, and to tell him that they had privately
+discoursed with Jucundus and Tyrannus, who had once been masters of
+the horse to the king, but for some offenses had been put out of
+that honorable employment. Herod was in a very great rage at these
+informations, and presently ordered those men to be tortured; yet did
+not they confess any thing of what the king had been informed; but a
+certain letter was produced, as written by Alexander to the governor of
+a castle, to desire him to receive him and Aristobulus into the castle
+when he had killed his father, and to give them weapons, and what other
+assistance he could, upon that occasion. Alexander said that this letter
+was a forgery of Diophantus. This Diophantus was the king's secretary, a
+bold man, and cunning in counterfeiting any one's hand; and after he had
+counterfeited a great number, he was at last put to death for it.
+Herod did also order the governor of the castle to be tortured, but got
+nothing out of him of what the accusations suggested.
+
+4. However, although Herod found the proofs too weak, he gave order to
+have his sons kept in custody; for till now they had been at liberty.
+He also called that pest of his family, and forger of all this vile
+accusation, Eurycles, his savior and benefactor, and gave him a reward
+of fifty talents. Upon which he prevented any accurate accounts that
+could come of what he had done, by going immediately into Cappadocia,
+and there he got money of Archelaus, having the impudence to pretend
+that he had reconciled Herod to Alexander. He thence passed over into
+Greece, and used what he had thus wickedly gotten to the like wicked
+purposes. Accordingly, he was twice accused before Caesar, that he had
+filled Achaia with sedition, and had plundered its cities; and so he was
+sent into banishment. And thus was he punished for what wicked actions
+he had been guilty of about Aristobulus and Alexander.
+
+5. But it will now be worth while to put Euaratus of Cos in opposition
+to this Spartan; for as he was one of Alexander's most intimate friends,
+and came to him in his travels at the same time that Eurycles came;
+so the king put the question to him, whether those things of which
+Alexander was accused were true? He assured him upon oath that he had
+never heard any such things from the young men; yet did this testimony
+avail nothing for the clearing those miserable creatures; for Herod was
+only disposed and most ready to hearken to what made against them, and
+every one was most agreeable to him that would believe they were guilty,
+and showed their indignation at them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 27.
+
+
+     Herod By Caesars Direction Accuses His Sons At Eurytus. They
+     Are Not Produced Before The Courts But Yet Are Condemned;
+     And In A Little Time They Are Sent To Sebaste, And Strangled
+     There.
+
+1. Moreover, Salome exasperated Herod's cruelty against his sons; for
+Aristobulus was desirous to bring her, who was his mother-in-law and his
+aunt, into the like dangers with themselves; so he sent to her to take
+care of her own safety, and told her that the king was preparing to put
+her to death, on account of the accusation that was laid against her, as
+if when she formerly endeavored to marry herself to Sylleus the Arabian,
+she had discovered the king's grand secrets to him, who was the king's
+enemy; and this it was that came as the last storm, and entirely sunk
+the young men when they were in great danger before. For Salome came
+running to the king, and informed him of what admonition had been given
+her; whereupon he could bear no longer, but commanded both the young
+men to be bound, and kept the one asunder from the other. He also sent
+Volumnius, the general of his army, to Caesar immediately, as also his
+friend Olympus with him, who carried the informations in writing along
+with them. Now as soon as they had sailed to Rome, and delivered the
+king's letters to Caesar, Caesar was mightily troubled at the case of
+the young men; yet did not he think he ought to take the power from the
+father of condemning his sons; so he wrote back to him, and appointed
+him to have the power over his sons; but said withal, that he would do
+well to make an examination into this matter of the plot against him in
+a public court, and to take for his assessors his own kindred, and the
+governors of the province. And if those sons be found guilty, to put
+them to death; but if they appear to have thought of no more than flying
+away from him, that he should moderate their punishment.
+
+2. With these directions Herod complied, and came to Berytus, where
+Caesar had ordered the court to be assembled, and got the judicature
+together. The presidents sat first, as Caesar's letters had appointed,
+who were Saturninus and Pedanius, and their lieutenants that were with
+them, with whom was the procurator Volumnius also; next to them sat the
+king's kinsmen and friends, with Salome also, and Pheroras; after whom
+sat the principal men of all Syria, excepting Archelaus; for Herod had a
+suspicion of him, because he was Alexander's father-in-law. Yet did not
+he produce his sons in open court; and this was done very cunningly,
+for he knew well enough that had they but appeared only, they would
+certainly have been pitied; and if withal they had been suffered to
+speak, Alexander would easily have answered what they were accused of;
+but they were in custody at Platane, a village of the Sidontans.
+
+3. So the king got up, and inveighed against his sons, as if they were
+present; and as for that part of the accusation that they had plotted
+against him, he urged it but faintly, because he was destitute of
+proofs; but he insisted before the assessors on the reproaches, and
+jests, and injurious carriage, and ten thousand the like offenses
+against him, which were heavier than death itself; and when nobody
+contradicted him, he moved them to pity his case, as though he had been
+condemned himself, now he had gained a bitter victory against his sons.
+So he asked every one's sentence, which sentence was first of all given
+by Saturninus, and was this: That he condemned the young men, but not
+to death; for that it was not fit for him, who had three sons of his
+own now present, to give his vote for the destruction of the sons of
+another. The two lieutenants also gave the like vote; some others there
+were also who followed their example; but Volumnius began to vote on the
+more melancholy side, and all those that came after him condemned the
+young men to die, some out of flattery, and some out of hatred to Herod;
+but none out of indignation at their crimes. And now all Syria and Judea
+was in great expectation, and waited for the last act of this tragedy;
+yet did nobody, suppose that Herod would be so barbarous as to murder
+his children: however, he carried them away to Tyre, and thence sailed
+to Cesarea, and deliberated with himself what sort of death the young
+men should suffer.
+
+4. Now there was a certain old soldier of the king's, whose name
+was Tero, who had a son that was very familiar with and a friend to
+Alexander, and who himself particularly loved the young men. This
+soldier was in a manner distracted, out of the excess of the indignation
+he had at what was doing; and at first he cried out aloud, as he went
+about, that justice was trampled under foot; that truth was perished,
+and nature confounded; and that the life of man was full of iniquity,
+and every thing else that passion could suggest to a man who spared
+not his own life; and at last he ventured to go to the king, and said,
+"Truly I think thou art a most miserable man, when thou hearkenest to
+most wicked wretches, against those that ought to be dearest to thee;
+since thou hast frequently resolved that Pheroras and Salome should be
+put to death, and yet believest them against thy sons; while these,
+by cutting off the succession of thine own sons, leave all wholly
+to Antipater, and thereby choose to have thee such a king as may be
+thoroughly in their own power. However, consider whether this death of
+Antipater's brethren will not make him hated by the soldiers; for there
+is nobody but commiserates the young men; and of the captains, a great
+many show their indignation at it openly." Upon his saying this, he
+named those that had such indignation; but the king ordered those men,
+with Tero himself and his son, to be seized upon immediately.
+
+5. At which time there was a certain barber, whose name was Trypho. This
+man leaped out from among the people in a kind of madness, and accused
+himself, and said, "This Tero endeavored to persuade me also to cut thy
+throat with my razor, when I trimmed thee, and promised that Alexander
+should give me large presents for so doing." When Herod heard this, he
+examined Tero, with his son and the barber, by the torture; but as the
+others denied the accusation, and he said nothing further, Herod gave
+order that Tero should be racked more severely; but his son, out of pity
+to his father, promised to discover the whole to the king, if he would
+grant [that his father should be no longer tortured]. When he had agreed
+to this, he said that his father, at the persuasion of Alexander, had an
+intention to kill him. Now some said this was forged, in order to free
+his father from his torments; and some said it was true.
+
+6. And now Herod accused the captains and Tero in an assembly of the
+people, and brought the people together in a body against them; and
+accordingly there were they put to death, together with [Trypho] the
+barber; they were killed by the pieces of wood and the stones that were
+thrown at them. He also sent his sons to Sebaste, a city not far from
+Cesarea, and ordered them to be there strangled; and as what he had
+ordered was executed immediately, so he commanded that their dead
+bodies should be brought to the fortress Alexandrium, to be buried with
+Alexander, their grandfather by the mother's side. And this was the end
+of Alexander and Aristobulus.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 28.
+
+
+     How Antipater Is Hated Of All Men; And How The King Espouses
+     The Sons Of Those That Had Been Slain To His Kindred; But
+     That Antipater Made Him Change Them For Other Women. Of
+     Herod's Marriages, And Children.
+
+1. But an intolerable hatred fell upon Antipater from the nation, though
+he had now an indisputable title to the succession, because they all
+knew that he was the person who contrived all the calumnies against
+his brethren. However, he began to be in a terrible fear, as he saw the
+posterity of those that had been slain growing up; for Alexander had two
+sons by Glaphyra, Tigranes and Alexander; and Aristobulus had Herod,
+and Agrippa, and Aristobulus, his sons, with Herodias and Mariamne,
+his daughters, and all by Bernice, Salome's daughter. As for Glaphyra,
+Herod, as soon as he had killed Alexander, sent her back, together with
+her portion, to Cappadocia. He married Bernice, Aristobulus's daughter,
+to Antipater's uncle by his mother, and it was Antipater who, in
+order to reconcile her to him, when she had been at variance with him,
+contrived this match; he also got into Pheroras's favor, and into
+the favor of Caesar's friends, by presents, and other ways of
+obsequiousness, and sent no small sums of money to Rome; Saturninus
+also, and his friends in Syria, were all well replenished with the
+presents he made them; yet the more he gave, the more he was hated, as
+not making these presents out of generosity, but spending his money out
+of fear. Accordingly, it so fell out that the receivers bore him no more
+good-will than before, but that those to whom he gave nothing were his
+more bitter enemies. However, he bestowed his money every day more and
+more profusely, on observing that, contrary to his expectations, the
+king was taking care about the orphans, and discovering at the same time
+his repentance for killing their fathers, by his commiseration of those
+that sprang from them.
+
+2. Accordingly, Herod got together his kindred and friends, and set
+before them the children, and, with his eyes full of tears, said thus
+to them: "It was an unlucky fate that took away from me these
+children's fathers, which children are recommended to me by that natural
+commiseration which their orphan condition requires; however, I will
+endeavor, though I have been a most unfortunate father, to appear a
+better grandfather, and to leave these children such curators after
+myself as are dearest to me. I therefore betroth thy daughter, Pheroras,
+to the elder of these brethren, the children of Alexander, that thou
+mayst be obliged to take care of them. I also betroth to thy son,
+Antipater, the daughter of Aristobulus; be thou therefore a father to
+that orphan; and my son Herod [Philip] shall have her sister, whose
+grandfather, by the mother's side, was high priest. And let every one
+that loves me be of my sentiments in these dispositions, which none that
+hath an affection for me will abrogate. And I pray God that he will join
+these children together in marriage, to the advantage of my kingdom, and
+of my posterity; and may he look down with eyes more serene upon them
+than he looked upon their fathers."
+
+3. While he spake these words he wept, and joined the children's
+right hands together; after which he embraced them every one after an
+affectionate manner, and dismissed the assembly. Upon this, Antipater
+was in great disorder immediately, and lamented publicly at what was
+done; for he supposed that this dignity which was conferred on these
+orphans was for his own destruction, even in his father's lifetime, and
+that he should run another risk of losing the government, if Alexander's
+sons should have both Archelaus [a king], and Pheroras a tetrarch, to
+support them. He also considered how he was himself hated by the nation,
+and how they pitied these orphans; how great affection the Jews bare
+to those brethren of his when they were alive, and how gladly they
+remembered them now they had perished by his means. So he resolved by
+all the ways possible to get these espousals dissolved.
+
+4. Now he was afraid of going subtlely about this matter with his
+father, who was hard to be pleased, and was presently moved upon the
+least suspicion: so he ventured to go to him directly, and to beg of
+him before his face not to deprive him of that dignity which he had been
+pleased to bestow upon him; and that he might not have the bare name of
+a king, while the power was in other persons; for that he should never
+be able to keep the government, if Alexander's son was to have both his
+grandfather Archelaus and Pheroras for his curators; and he besought him
+earnestly, since there were so many of the royal family alive, that he
+would change those [intended] marriages. Now the king had nine wives, 42
+and children by seven of them; Antipater was himself born of Doris, and
+Herod Philip of Mariamne, the high priest's daughter; Antipas also and
+Archelaus were by Malthace, the Samaritan, as was his daughter Olympias,
+which his brother Joseph's 43 son had married. By Cleopatra of Jerusalem
+he had Herod and Philip; and by Pallas, Phasaelus; he had also two
+daughters, Roxana and Salome, the one by Phedra, and the other by Elpis;
+he had also two wives that had no children, the one his first cousin,
+and the other his niece; and besides these he had two daughters, the
+sisters of Alexander and Aristobulus, by Mariamne. Since, therefore,
+the royal family was so numerous, Antipater prayed him to change these
+intended marriages.
+
+5. When the king perceived what disposition he was in towards these
+orphans, he was angry at it, and a suspicion came into his mind as to
+those sons whom he had put to death, whether that had not been brought
+about by the false tales of Antipater; so that at that time he made
+Antipater a long and a peevish answer, and bid him begone. Yet was he
+afterwards prevailed upon cunningly by his flatteries, and changed the
+marriages; he married Aristobulus's daughter to him, and his son to
+Pheroras's daughter.
+
+6. Now one may learn, in this instance, how very much this flattering
+Antipater could do,--even what Salome in the like circumstances could
+not do; for when she, who was his sister, and who, by the means of
+Julia, Caesar's wife, earnestly desired leave to be married to Sylleus
+the Arabian, Herod swore he would esteem her his bitter enemy, unless
+she would leave off that project: he also caused her, against her own
+consent, to be married to Alexas, a friend of his, and that one of
+her daughters should be married to Alexas's son, and the other to
+Antipater's uncle by the mother's side. And for the daughters the king
+had by Mariamne, the one was married to Antipater, his sister's son, and
+the other to his brother's son, Phasaelus.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 29.
+
+
+     Antipater Becomes Intolerable. He Is Sent To Rome, And
+     Carries Herod's Testament With Him; Pheroras Leaves His
+     Brother, That He May Keep His Wife. He Dies At Home.
+
+1. Now when Antipater had cut off the hopes of the orphans, and had
+contracted such affinities as would be most for his own advantage, he
+proceeded briskly, as having a certain expectation of the kingdom; and
+as he had now assurance added to his wickedness, he became intolerable;
+for not being able to avoid the hatred of all people, he built his
+security upon the terror he struck into them. Pheroras also assisted him
+in his designs, looking upon him as already fixed in the kingdom.
+There was also a company of women in the court, which excited new
+disturbances; for Pheroras's wife, together with her mother and sister,
+as also Antipater's mother, grew very impudent in the palace. She also
+was so insolent as to affront the king's two daughters, 44 on which
+account the king hated her to a great degree; yet although these women
+were hated by him, they domineered over others: there was only Salome
+who opposed their good agreement, and informed the king of their
+meetings, as not being for the advantage of his affairs. And when those
+women knew what calumnies she had raised against them, and how much
+Herod was displeased, they left off their public meetings, and friendly
+entertainments of one another; nay, on the contrary, they pretended
+to quarrel one with another when the king was within hearing. The like
+dissimulation did Antipater make use of; and when matters were public,
+he opposed Pheroras; but still they had private cabals and merry
+meetings in the night time; nor did the observation of others do any
+more than confirm their mutual agreement. However, Salome knew every
+thing they did, and told every thing to Herod.
+
+2. But he was inflamed with anger at them, and chiefly at Pheroras's
+wife; for Salome had principally accused her. So he got an assembly of
+his friends and kindred together, and there accused this woman of many
+things, and particularly of the affronts she had offered his daughters;
+and that she had supplied the Pharisees with money, by way of rewards
+for what they had done against him, and had procured his brother to
+become his enemy, by giving him love potions. At length he turned his
+speech to Pheroras, and told him that he would give him his choice of
+these two things: Whether he would keep in with his brother, or with his
+wife? And when Pheroras said that he would die rather than forsake his
+wife, Herod, not knowing what to do further in that matter, turned his
+speech to Antipater, and charged him to have no intercourse either with
+Pheroras's wife, or with Pheroras himself, or with any one belonging
+to her. Now though Antipater did not transgress that his injunction
+publicly, yet did he in secret come to their night meetings; and because
+he was afraid that Salome observed what he did, he procured, by the
+means of his Italian friends, that he might go and live at Rome; for
+when they wrote that it was proper for Antipater to be sent to Caesar
+for some time, Herod made no delay, but sent him, and that with a
+splendid attendance, and a great deal of money, and gave him his
+testament to carry with him,--wherein Antipater had the kingdom
+bequeathed to him, and wherein Herod was named for Antipater's
+successor; that Herod, I mean, who was the son of Mariamne, the high
+priest's daughter.
+
+3. Sylleus also, the Arabian, sailed to Rome, without any regard to
+Caesar's injunctions, and this in order to oppose Antipater with all
+his might, as to that law-suit which Nicolaus had with him before. This
+Sylleus had also a great contest with Aretas his own king; for he had
+slain many others of Aretas's friends, and particularly Sohemus, the
+most potent man in the city Petra. Moreover, he had prevailed with
+Phabatus, who was Herod's steward, by giving him a great sum of money,
+to assist him against Herod; but when Herod gave him more, he induced
+him to leave Sylleus, and by this means he demanded of him all that
+Caesar had required of him to pay. But when Sylleus paid nothing of what
+he was to pay, and did also accuse Phabatus to Caesar, and said that he
+was not a steward for Caesar's advantage, but for Herod's, Phabatus was
+angry at him on that account, but was still in very great esteem with
+Herod, and discovered Sylleus's grand secrets, and told the king that
+Sylleus had corrupted Corinthus, one of the guards of his body, by
+bribing him, and of whom he must therefore have a care. Accordingly, the
+king complied; for this Corinthus, though he was brought up in Herod's
+kingdom, yet was he by birth an Arabian; so the king ordered him to be
+taken up immediately, and not only him, but two other Arabians, who were
+caught with him; the one of them was Sylleus's friend, the other the
+head of a tribe. These last, being put to the torture, confessed that
+they had prevailed with Corinthus, for a large sum of money, to kill
+Herod; and when they had been further examined before Saturninus, the
+president of Syria, they were sent to Rome.
+
+4. However, Herod did not leave off importuning Pheroras, but proceeded
+to force him to put away his wife; 45 yet could he not devise any way
+by which he could bring the woman herself to punishment, although he
+had many causes of hatred to her; till at length he was in such great
+uneasiness at her, that he cast both her and his brother out of his
+kingdom. Pheroras took this injury very patiently, and went away into
+his own tetrarchy, [Perea beyond Jordan,] and sware that there should
+be but one end put to his flight, and that should be Herod's death;
+and that he would never return while he was alive. Nor indeed would he
+return when his brother was sick, although he earnestly sent for him to
+come to him, because he had a mind to leave some injunctions with him
+before he died; but Herod unexpectedly recovered. A little afterward
+Pheroras himself fell sick, when Herod showed great moderation; for
+he came to him, and pitied his case, and took care of him; but his
+affection for him did him no good, for Pheroras died a little afterward.
+Now though Herod had so great an affection for him to the last day
+of his life, yet was a report spread abroad that he had killed him
+by poison. However, he took care to have his dead body carried to
+Jerusalem, and appointed a very great mourning to the whole nation for
+him, and bestowed a most pompous funeral upon him. And this was the end
+that one of Alexander's and Aristobulus's murderers came to.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 30.
+
+
+     When Herod Made Inquiry About Pheroras's Death A Discovery
+     Was Made That Antipater Had Prepared A Poisonous Draught For
+     Him. Herod Casts Doris And Her Accomplices, As Also
+     Mariamne, Out Of The Palace And Blots Her Son Herod Out Of
+     His Testament.
+
+1. But now the punishment was transferred unto the original author,
+Antipater, and took its rise from the death of Pheroras; for certain of
+his freed-men came with a sad countenance to the king, and told him that
+his brother had been destroyed by poison, and that his wife had brought
+him somewhat that was prepared after an unusual manner, and that, upon
+his eating it, he presently fell into his distemper; that Antipater's
+mother and sister, two days before, brought a woman out of Arabia that
+was skillful in mixing such drugs, that she might prepare a love potion
+for Pheroras; and that instead of a love potion, she had given him
+deadly poison; and that this was done by the management of Sylleus, who
+was acquainted with that woman.
+
+2. The king was deeply affected with so many suspicions, and had the
+maid-servants and some of the free women also tortured; one of which
+cried out in her agonies, "May that God that governs the earth and
+the heaven punish this author of all these our miseries, Antipater's
+mother!" The king took a handle from this confession, and proceeded to
+inquire further into the truth of the matter. So this woman discovered
+the friendship of Antipater's mother to Pheroras, and Antipater's women,
+as also their secret meetings, and that Pheroras and Antipater had drunk
+with them for a whole night together as they returned from the king,
+and would not suffer any body, either man-servant or maidservant, to be
+there; while one of the free women discovered the matter.
+
+3. Upon this Herod tortured the maid-servants every one by themselves
+separately, who all unanimously agreed in the foregoing discoveries,
+and that accordingly by agreement they went away, Antipater to Rome, and
+Pheroras to Perea; for that they oftentimes talked to one another thus:
+That after Herod had slain Alexander and Aristobulus, he would fall upon
+them, and upon their wives, because, after he Mariamne and her children
+he would spare nobody; and that for this reason it was best to get as
+far off the wild beast as they were able:--and that Antipater oftentimes
+lamented his own case before his mother, and said to her, that he had
+already gray hairs upon his head, and that his father grew younger again
+every day, and that perhaps death would overtake him before he should
+begin to be a king in earnest; and that in case Herod should die, which
+yet nobody knew when it would be, the enjoyment of the succession could
+certainly be but for a little time; for that these heads of Hydra, the
+sons of Alexander and Aristobulus, were growing up: that he was deprived
+by his father of the hopes of being succeeded by his children, for that
+his successor after his death was not to be any one of his own sons,
+but Herod the son of Mariamne: that in this point Herod was plainly
+distracted, to think that his testament should therein take place; for
+he would take care that not one of his posterity should remain, because
+he was of all fathers the greatest hater of his children. Yet does he
+hate his brother still worse; whence it was that he a while ago gave
+himself a hundred talents, that he should not have any intercourse with
+Pheroras. And when Pheroras said, Wherein have we done him any harm?
+Antipater replied, "I wish he would but deprive us of all we have, and
+leave us naked and alive only; but it is indeed impossible to escape
+this wild beast, who is thus given to murder, who will not permit us to
+love any person openly, although we be together privately; yet may we be
+so openly too, if we have but the courage and the hands of men."
+
+4. These things were said by the women upon the torture; as also that
+Pheroras resolved to fly with them to Perea. Now Herod gave credit to
+all they said, on account of the affair of the hundred talents; for he
+had no discourse with any body about them, but only with Antipater. So
+he vented his anger first of all against Antipater's mother, and took
+away from her all the ornaments which he had given her, which cost a
+great many talents, and cast her out of the palace a second time. He
+also took care of Pheroras's women after their tortures, as being now
+reconciled to them; but he was in great consternation himself, and
+inflamed upon every suspicion, and had many innocent persons led to
+the torture, out of his fear lest he should leave any guilty person
+untortured.
+
+5. And now it was that he betook himself to examine Antipater of
+Samaria, who was the steward of [his son] Antipater; and upon torturing
+him, he learned that Antipater had sent for a potion of deadly poison
+for him out of Egypt, by Antiphilus, a companion of his; that Theudio,
+the uncle of Antipater, had it from him, and delivered it to Pheroras;
+for that Antipater had charged him to take his father off while he was
+at Rome, and so free him from the suspicion of doing it himself: that
+Pheroras also committed this potion to his wife. Then did the king send
+for her, and bid her bring to him what she had received immediately. So
+she came out of her house as if she would bring it with her, but
+threw herself down from the top of the house, in order to prevent any
+examination and torture from the king. However, it came to pass, as it
+seems by the providence of God, when he intended to bring Antipater to
+punishment, that she fell not upon her head, but upon other parts of her
+body, and escaped. The king, when she was brought to him, took care of
+her, [for she was at first quite senseless upon her fall,] and asked
+her why she had thrown herself down; and gave her his oath, that if she
+would speak the real truth, he would excuse her from punishment; but
+that if she concealed any thing, he would have her body torn to pieces
+by torments, and leave no part of it to be buried.
+
+6. Upon this the woman paused a little, and then said, "Why do I spare
+to speak of these grand secrets, now Pheroras is dead? that would only
+tend to save Antipater, who is all our destruction. Hear then, O king,
+and be thou, and God himself, who cannot be deceived, witnesses to the
+truth of what I am going to say. When thou didst sit weeping by Pheroras
+as he was dying," then it was that he called me to him, and said, "My
+dear wife, I have been greatly mistaken as to the disposition of my
+brother towards me, and have hated him that is so affectionate to me,
+and have contrived to kill him who is in such disorder for me before I
+am dead. As for myself, I receive the recompence of my impiety; but do
+thou bring what poison was left with us by Antipater, and which thou
+keepest in order to destroy him, and consume it immediately in the fire
+in my sight, that I may not be liable to the avenger in the invisible
+world." This I brought as he bid me, and emptied the greatest part of
+it into the fire, but reserved a little of it for my own use against
+uncertain futurity, and out of my fear of thee.
+
+7. When she had said this, she brought the box, which had a small
+quantity of this potion in it: but the king let her alone, and
+transferred the tortures to Antiphilus's mother and brother; who both
+confessed that Antiphilus brought the box out of Egypt, and that they
+had received the potion from a brother of his, who was a physician at
+Alexandria. Then did the ghosts of Alexander and Aristobulus go round
+all the palace, and became the inquisitors and discoverers of what could
+not otherwise have been found out and brought such as were the freest
+from suspicion to be examined; whereby it was discovered that Mariamne,
+the high priest's daughter, was conscious of this plot; and her very
+brothers, when they were tortured, declared it so to be. Whereupon
+the king avenged this insolent attempt of the mother upon her son, and
+blotted Herod, whom he had by her, out of his tretament, who had been
+before named therein as successor to Antipater.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 31.
+
+
+     Antipater Is Convicted By Bathyllus; But He Still Returns
+     From Rome Without Knowing It. Herod Brings Him To His Trial.
+
+1. After these things were over, Bathyllus came under examination, in
+order to convict Antipater, who proved the concluding attestation to
+Antipater's designs; for indeed he was no other than his freed-man. This
+man came, and brought another deadly potion, the poison of asps, and
+the juices of other serpents, that if the first potion did not do the
+business, Pheroras and his wife might be armed with this also to destroy
+the king. He brought also an addition to Antipater's insolent attempt
+against his father, which was the letters which he wrote against his
+brethren, Archelaus and Philip, which were the king's sons, and educated
+at Rome, being yet youths, but of generous dispositions. Antipater set
+himself to get rid of these as soon as he could, that they might not be
+prejudicial to his hopes; and to that end he forged letters against them
+in the name of his friends at Rome. Some of these he corrupted by bribes
+to write how they grossly reproached their father, and did openly bewail
+Alexander and Aristobulus, and were uneasy at their being recalled; for
+their father had already sent for them, which was the very thing that
+troubled Antipater.
+
+2. Nay, indeed, while Antipater was in Judea, and before he was upon
+his journey to Rome, he gave money to have the like letters against them
+sent from Rome, and then came to his father, who as yet had no suspicion
+of him, and apologized for his brethren, and alleged on their behalf
+that some of the things contained in those letters were false, and
+others of them were only youthful errors. Yet at the same time that he
+expended a great deal of his money, by making presents to such as wrote
+against his brethren, did he aim to bring his accounts into confusion,
+by buying costly garments, and carpets of various contextures, with
+silver and gold cups, and a great many more curious things, that so,
+among the view great expenses laid out upon such furniture, he might
+conceal the money he had used in hiring men [to write the letters];
+for he brought in an account of his expenses, amounting to two hundred
+talents, his main pretense for which was file law-suit he had been in
+with Sylleus. So while all his rogueries, even those of a lesser sort
+also, were covered by his greater villainy, while all the examinations
+by torture proclaimed his attempt to murder his father, and the letters
+proclaimed his second attempt to murder his brethren; yet did no one of
+those that came to Rome inform him of his misfortunes in Judea, although
+seven months had intervened between his conviction and his return, so
+great was the hatred which they all bore to him. And perhaps they were
+the ghosts of those brethren of his that had been murdered that stopped
+the mouths of those that intended to have told him. He then wrote from
+Rome, and informed his [friends] that he would soon come to them, and
+how he was dismissed with honor by Caesar.
+
+3. Now the king, being desirous to get this plotter against him into
+his hands, and being also afraid lest he should some way come to the
+knowledge how his affairs stood, and be upon his guard, he dissembled
+his anger in his epistle to him, as in other points he wrote kindly to
+him, and desired him to make haste, because if he came quickly, he would
+then lay aside the complaints he had against his mother; for Antipater
+was not ignorant that his mother had been expelled out of the palace.
+However, he had before received a letter, which contained an account of
+the death of Pheroras, at Tarentum, 46 and made great lamentations at
+it; for which some commended him, as being for his own uncle; though
+probably this confusion arose on account of his having thereby failed in
+his plot [on his father's life]; and his tears were more for the loss
+of him that was to have been subservient therein, than for [an uncle]
+Pheroras: moreover, a sort of fear came upon him as to his designs, lest
+the poison should have been discovered. However, when he was in Cilicia,
+he received the forementioned epistle from his father, and made great
+haste accordingly. But when he had sailed to Celenderis, a suspicion
+came into his mind relating to his mother's misfortunes; as if his soul
+foreboded some mischief to itself. Those therefore of his friends which
+were the most considerate advised him not rashly to go to his father,
+till he had learned what were the occasions why his mother had been
+ejected, because they were afraid that he might be involved in the
+calumnies that had been cast upon his mother: but those that were less
+considerate, and had more regard to their own desires of seeing their
+native country, than to Antipater's safety, persuaded him to make haste
+home, and not, by delaying his journey, afford his father ground for an
+ill suspicion, and give a handle to those that raised stories against
+him; for that in case any thing had been moved to his disadvantage, it
+was owing to his absence, which durst not have been done had he been
+present. And they said it was absurd to deprive himself of certain
+happiness, for the sake of an uncertain suspicion, and not rather to
+return to his father, and take the royal authority upon him, which was
+in a state of fluctuation on his account only. Antipater complied with
+this last advice, for Providence hurried him on [to his destruction]. So
+he passed over the sea, and landed at Sebastus, the haven of Cesarea.
+
+4. And here he found a perfect and unexpected solitude, while ever body
+avoided him, and nobody durst come at him; for he was equally hated by
+all men; and now that hatred had liberty to show itself, and the dread
+men were in at the king's anger made men keep from him; for the whole
+city [of Jerusalem] was filled with the rumors about Antipater, and
+Antipater himself was the only person who was ignorant of them; for as
+no man was dismissed more magnificently when he began his voyage to Rome
+so was no man now received back with greater ignominy. And indeed he
+began already to suspect what misfortunes there were in Herod's family;
+yet did he cunningly conceal his suspicion; and while he was inwardly
+ready to die for fear, he put on a forced boldness of countenance. Nor
+could he now fly any whither, nor had he any way of emerging out of the
+difficulties which encompassed him; nor indeed had he even there any
+certain intelligence of the affairs of the royal family, by reason
+of the threats the king had given out: yet had he some small hopes
+of better tidings; for perhaps nothing had been discovered; or if any
+discovery had been made, perhaps he should be able to clear himself by
+impudence and artful tricks, which were the only things he relied upon
+for his deliverance.
+
+5. And with these hopes did he screen himself, till he came to the
+palace, without any friends with him; for these were affronted, and shut
+out at the first gate. Now Varus, the president of Syria, happened to
+be in the palace [at this juncture]; so Antipater went in to his father,
+and, putting on a bold face, he came near to salute him. But Herod
+Stretched out his hands, and turned his head away from him, and cried
+out, "Even this is an indication of a parricide, to be desirous to
+get me into his arms, when he is under such heinous accusations. God
+confound thee, thou vile wretch; do not thou touch me, till thou hast
+cleared thyself of these crimes that are charged upon thee. I appoint
+thee a court where thou art to be judged, and this Varus, who is very
+seasonably here, to be thy judge; and get thou thy defense ready against
+tomorrow, for I give thee so much time to prepare suitable excuses for
+thyself." And as Antipater was so confounded, that he was able to make
+no answer to this charge, he went away; but his mother and wife came
+to him, and told him of all the evidence they had gotten against him.
+Hereupon he recollected himself, and considered what defense he should
+make against the accusations.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 32.
+
+
+     Antipater Is Accused Before Varus, And Is Convicted Of
+     Laying A Plot [Against His Father] By The Strongest
+     Evidence. Herod Puts Off His Punishment Till He Should Be
+     Recovered, And In The Mean Time Alters His Testament.
+
+1. Now the day following the king assembled a court of his kinsmen and
+friends, and called in Antipater's friends also. Herod himself, with
+Varus, were the presidents; and Herod called for all the witnesses, and
+ordered them to be brought in; among whom some of the domestic servants
+of Antipater's mother were brought in also, who had but a little while
+before been caught, as they were carrying the following letter from her
+to her son: "Since all those things have been already discovered to
+thy father, do not thou come to him, unless thou canst procure some
+assistance from Caesar." When this and the other witnesses were
+introduced, Antipater came in, and falling on his face before his
+father's feet, he said, "Father, I beseech thee, do not condemn me
+beforehand, but let thy ears be unbiassed, and attend to my defense; for
+if thou wilt give me leave, I will demonstrate that I am innocent."
+
+2. Hereupon Herod cried out to him to hold his peace, and spake thus
+to Varus: "I cannot but think that thou, Varus, and every other upright
+judge, will determine that Antipater is a vile wretch. I am also afraid
+that thou wilt abhor my ill fortune, and judge me also myself worthy
+of all sorts of calamity for begetting such children; while yet I ought
+rather to be pitied, who have been so affectionate a father to such
+wretched sons; for when I had settled the kingdom on my former sons,
+even when they were young, and when, besides the charges of their
+education at Rome, I had made them the friends of Caesar, and made them
+envied by other kings, I found them plotting against me. These have been
+put to death, and that, in great measure, for the sake of Antipater;
+for as he was then young, and appointed to be my successor, I took care
+chiefly to secure him from danger: but this profligate wild beast, when
+he had been over and above satiated with that patience which I showed
+him, he made use of that abundance I had given him against myself; for I
+seemed to him to live too long, and he was very uneasy at the old age
+I was arrived at; nor could he stay any longer, but would be a king by
+parricide. And justly I am served by him for bringing him back out of
+the country to court, when he was of no esteem before, and for thrusting
+out those sons of mine that were born of the queen, and for making him a
+successor to my dominions. I confess to thee, O Varus, the great folly I
+was guilty for I provoked those sons of mine to act against me, and cut
+off their just expectations for the sake of Antipater; and indeed what
+kindness did I do them; that could equal what I have done to Antipater?
+to I have, in a manner, yielded up my royal while I am alive, and whom I
+have openly named for the successor to my dominions in my testament, and
+given him a yearly revenue of his own of fifty talents, and supplied him
+with money to an extravagant degree out of my own revenue; and' when
+he was about to sail to Rome, I gave him three talents, and recommended
+him, and him alone of all my children, to Caesar, as his father's
+deliverer. Now what crimes were those other sons of mine guilty of like
+these of Antipater? and what evidence was there brought against them so
+strong as there is to demonstrate this son to have plotted against
+me? Yet does this parricide presume to speak for himself, and hopes
+to obscure the truth by his cunning tricks. Thou, O Varus, must guard
+thyself against him; for I know the wild beast, and I foresee how
+plausibly he will talk, and his counterfeit lamentation. This was he who
+exhorted me to have a care of Alexander when he was alive, and not to
+intrust my body with all men! This was he who came to my very bed, and
+looked about lest any one should lay snares for me! This was he who took
+care of my sleep, and secured me from fear of danger, who comforted me
+under the trouble I was in upon the slaughter of my sons, and looked to
+see what affection my surviving brethren bore me! This was my protector,
+and the guardian of my body! And when I call to mind, O Varus, his
+craftiness upon every occasion, and his art of dissembling, I can hardly
+believe that I am still alive, and I wonder how I have escaped such a
+deep plotter of mischief. However, since some fate or other makes my
+house desolate, and perpetually raises up those that are dearest to me
+against me, I will, with tears, lament my hard fortune, and privately
+groan under my lonesome condition; yet am I resolved that no one who
+thirsts after my blood shall escape punishment, although the evidence
+should extend itself to all my sons."
+
+3. Upon Herod's saying this, he was interrupted by the confusion he was
+in; but ordered Nicolaus, one of his friends, to produce the evidence
+against Antipater. But in the mean time Antipater lifted up his head,
+[for he lay on the ground before his father's feet,] and cried out
+aloud, "Thou, O father, hast made my apology for me; for how can I be
+a parricide, whom thou thyself confessest to have always had for
+thy guardian? Thou callest my filial affection prodigious lies and
+hypocrisy! how then could it be that I, who was so subtle in other
+matters, should here be so mad as not to understand that it was not easy
+that he who committed so horrid a crime should be concealed from men,
+but impossible that he should be concealed from the Judge of heaven, who
+sees all things, and is present every where? or did not I know what end
+my brethren came to, on whom God inflicted so great a punishment for
+their evil designs against thee? And indeed what was there that could
+possibly provoke me against thee? Could the hope of being king do it?
+I was a king already. Could I suspect hatred from thee? No. Was not I
+beloved by thee? And what other fear could I have? Nay, by preserving
+thee safe, I was a terror to others. Did I want money? No; for who was
+able to expend so much as myself? Indeed, father, had I been the most
+execrable of all mankind, and had I had the soul of the most cruel
+wild beast, must I not have been overcome with the benefits thou hadst
+bestowed upon me? whom, as thou thyself sayest, thou broughtest [into
+the palace]; whom thou didst prefer before so many of thy sons; whom
+thou madest a king in thine own lifetime, and, by the vast magnitude of
+the other advantages thou bestowedst on me, thou madest me an object of
+envy. O miserable man! that thou shouldst undergo this bitter absence,
+and thereby afford a great opportunity for envy to arise against thee,
+and a long space for such as were laying designs against thee! Yet was
+I absent, father, on thy affairs, that Sylleus might not treat thee with
+contempt in thine old age. Rome is a witness to my filial affection, and
+so is Caesar, the ruler of the habitable earth, who oftentimes called me
+Philopater. 47 Take here the letters he hath sent thee, they are more
+to be believed than the calumnies raised here; these letters are my only
+apology; these I use as the demonstration of that natural affection I
+have to thee. Remember that it was against my own choice that I sailed
+[to Rome], as knowing the latent hatred that was in the kingdom against
+me. It was thou, O father, however unwillingly, who hast been my ruin,
+by forcing me to allow time for calumnies against me, and envy at me.
+However, I am come hither, and am ready to hear the evidence there
+is against me. If I be a parricide, I have passed by land and by sea,
+without suffering any misfortune on either of them: but this method of
+trial is no advantage to me; for it seems, O father, that I am already
+condemned, both before God and before thee; and as I am already
+condemned, I beg that thou wilt not believe the others that have been
+tortured, but let fire be brought to torment me; let the racks march
+through my bowels; have no regard to any lamentations that this polluted
+body can make; for if I be a parricide, I ought not to die without
+torture." Thus did Antipater cry out with lamentation and weeping, and
+moved all the rest, and Varus in particular, to commiserate his case.
+Herod was the only person whose passion was too strong to permit him to
+weep, as knowing that the testimonies against him were true.
+
+4. And now it was that, at the king's command, Nicolaus, when he
+had premised a great deal about the craftiness of Antipater, and had
+prevented the effects of their commiseration to him, afterwards
+brought in a bitter and large accusation against him, ascribing all
+the wickedness that had been in the kingdom to him, and especially the
+murder of his brethren; and demonstrated that they had perished by the
+calumnies he had raised against them. He also said that he had laid
+designs against them that were still alive, as if they were laying plots
+for the succession; and [said he] how can it be supposed that he who
+prepared poison for his father should abstain from mischief as to his
+brethren? He then proceeded to convict him of the attempt to poison
+Herod, and gave an account in order of the several discoveries that
+had been made; and had great indignation as to the affair of Pheroras,
+because Antipater had been for making him murder his brother, and had
+corrupted those that were dearest to the king, and filled the whole
+palace with wickedness; and when he had insisted on many other
+accusations, and the proofs for them, he left off.
+
+5. Then Varus bid Antipater make his defense; but he lay along in
+silence, and said no more but this, "God is my witness that I am
+entirely innocent." So Varus asked for the potion, and gave it to be
+drunk by a condemned malefactor, who was then in prison, who died upon
+the spot. So Varus, when he had had a very private discourse with Herod,
+and had written an account of this assembly to Caesar, went away, after
+a day's stay. The king also bound Antipater, and sent away to inform
+Caesar of his misfortunes.
+
+6. Now after this it was discovered that Antipater had laid a plot
+against Salome also; for one of Antiphilus's domestic servants came,
+and brought letters from Rome, from a maid-servant of Julia, [Caesar's
+wife,] whose name was Acme. By her a message was sent to the king, that
+she had found a letter written by Salome, among Julia's papers, and had
+sent it to him privately, out of her good-will to him. This letter of
+Salome contained the most bitter reproaches of the king, and the highest
+accusations against him. Antipater had forged this letter, and had
+corrupted Acme, and persuaded her to send it to Herod. This was proved
+by her letter to Antipater, for thus did this woman write to him: "As
+thou desirest, I have written a letter to thy father, and have sent that
+letter, and am persuaded that the king will not spare his sister when he
+reads it. Thou wilt do well to remember what thou hast promised when all
+is accomplished."
+
+7. When this epistle was discovered, and what the epistle forged against
+Salome contained, a suspicion came into the king's mind, that perhaps
+the letters against Alexander were also forged: he was moreover greatly
+disturbed, and in a passion, because he had almost slain his sister on
+Antipater's account. He did no longer delay therefore to bring him
+to punishment for all his crimes; yet when he was eagerly pursuing
+Antipater, he was restrained by a severe distemper he fell into.
+However, he sent all account to Caesar about Acme, and the contrivances
+against Salome; he sent also for his testament, and altered it, and
+therein made Antipas king, as taking no care of Archelaus and Philip,
+because Antipater had blasted their reputations with him; but he
+bequeathed to Caesar, besides other presents that he gave him, a
+thousand talents; as also to his wife, and children, and friends, and
+freed-men about five hundred: he also bequeathed to all others a great
+quantity of land, and of money, and showed his respects to Salome
+his sister, by giving her most splendid gifts. And this was what was
+contained in his testament, as it was now altered.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 33.
+
+
+     The Golden Eagle Is Cut To Pieces. Herod's Barbarity When He
+     Was Ready To Die. He Attempts To Kill Himself. He Commands
+     Antipater To Be Slain. He Survives Him Five Days And Then
+     Dies.
+
+1. Now Herod's distemper became more and more severe to him, and this
+because these his disorders fell upon him in his old age, and when he
+was in a melancholy condition; for he was already seventy years of age,
+and had been brought by the calamities that happened to him about
+his children, whereby he had no pleasure in life, even when he was in
+health; the grief also that Antipater was still alive aggravated his
+disease, whom he resolved to put to death now not at random, but as soon
+as he should be well again, and resolved to have him slain [in a public
+manner].
+
+2. There also now happened to him, among his other calamities, a
+certain popular sedition. There were two men of learning in the city
+[Jerusalem,] who were thought the most skillful in the laws of their
+country, and were on that account had in very great esteem all over the
+nation; they were, the one Judas, the son of Sepphoris, and the other
+Matthias, the son of Margalus. There was a great concourse of the young
+men to these men when they expounded the laws, and there got together
+every day a kind of an army of such as were growing up to be men.
+Now when these men were informed that the king was wearing away
+with melancholy, and with a distemper, they dropped words to their
+acquaintance, how it was now a very proper time to defend the cause
+of God, and to pull down what had been erected contrary to the laws of
+their country; for it was unlawful there should be any such thing in
+the temple as images, or faces, or the like representation of any animal
+whatsoever. Now the king had put up a golden eagle over the great gate
+of the temple, which these learned men exhorted them to cut down; and
+told them, that if there should any danger arise, it was a glorious
+thing to die for the laws of their country; because that the soul was
+immortal, and that an eternal enjoyment of happiness did await such as
+died on that account; while the mean-spirited, and those that were not
+wise enough to show a right love of their souls, preferred a death by a
+disease, before that which is the result of a virtuous behavior.
+
+3. At the same time that these men made this speech to their disciples,
+a rumor was spread abroad that the king was dying, which made the
+young men set about the work with greater boldness; they therefore let
+themselves down from the top of the temple with thick cords, and this at
+midday, and while a great number of people were in the temple, and cut
+down that golden eagle with axes. This was presently told to the king's
+captain of the temple, who came running with a great body of soldiers,
+and caught about forty of the young men, and brought them to the king.
+And when he asked them, first of all, whether they had been so hardy as
+to cut down the golden eagle, they confessed they had done so; and when
+he asked them by whose command they had done it, they replied, at the
+command of the law of their country; and when he further asked them how
+they could be so joyful when they were to be put to death, they replied,
+because they should enjoy greater happiness after they were dead. 48
+
+4. At this the king was in such an extravagant passion, that he overcame
+his disease [for the time,] and went out, and spake to the people;
+wherein he made a terrible accusation against those men, as being guilty
+of sacrilege, and as making greater attempts under pretense of their
+law, and he thought they deserved to be punished as impious persons.
+Whereupon the people were afraid lest a great number should be found
+guilty and desired that when he had first punished those that put them
+upon this work, and then those that were caught in it, he would leave
+off his anger as to the rest. With this the king complied, though not
+without difficulty, and ordered those that had let themselves down,
+together with their Rabbins, to be burnt alive, but delivered the rest
+that were caught to the proper officers, to be put to death by them.
+
+5. After this, the distemper seized upon his whole body, and greatly
+disordered all its parts with various symptoms; for there was a gentle
+fever upon him, and an intolerable itching over all the surface of his
+body, and continual pains in his colon, and dropsical turnouts about
+his feet, and an inflammation of the abdomen, and a putrefaction of his
+privy member, that produced worms. Besides which he had a difficulty of
+breathing upon him, and could not breathe but when he sat upright, and
+had a convulsion of all his members, insomuch that the diviners said
+those diseases were a punishment upon him for what he had done to the
+Rabbins. Yet did he struggle with his numerous disorders, and still
+had a desire to live, and hoped for recovery, and considered of several
+methods of cure. Accordingly, he went over Jordan, and made use of those
+hot baths at Callirrhoe, which ran into the lake Asphaltites, but are
+themselves sweet enough to be drunk. And here the physicians thought
+proper to bathe his whole body in warm oil, by letting it down into a
+large vessel full of oil; whereupon his eyes failed him, and he came and
+went as if he was dying; and as a tumult was then made by his servants,
+at their voice he revived again. Yet did he after this despair of
+recovery, and gave orders that each soldier should have fifty drachmae
+a-piece, and that his commanders and friends should have great sums of
+money given them.
+
+6. He then returned back and came to Jericho, in such a melancholy state
+of body as almost threatened him with present death, when he proceeded
+to attempt a horrid wickedness; for he got together the most illustrious
+men of the whole Jewish nation, out of every village, into a place
+called the Hippodrome, and there shut them in. He then called for his
+sister Salome, and her husband Alexas, and made this speech to them:
+"I know well enough that the Jews will keep a festival upon my death
+however, it is in my power to be mourned for on other accounts, and to
+have a splendid funeral, if you will but be subservient to my commands.
+Do you but take care to send soldiers to encompass these men that are
+now in custody, and slay them immediately upon my death, and then all
+Judea, and every family of them, will weep at it, whether they will or
+no."
+
+7. These were the commands he gave them; when there came letters from
+his ambassadors at Rome, whereby information was given that Acme was put
+to death at Caesar's command, and that Antipater was condemned to die;
+however, they wrote withal, that if Herod had a mind rather to banish
+him, Caesar permitted him so to do. So he for a little while revived,
+and had a desire to live; but presently after he was overborne by his
+pains, and was disordered by want of food, and by a convulsive cough,
+and endeavored to prevent a natural, death; so he took an apple, and
+asked for a knife for he used to pare apples and eat them; he then
+looked round about to see that there was nobody to hinder him, and lift
+up his right hand as if he would stab himself; but Achiabus, his first
+cousin, came running to him, and held his hand, and hindered him from
+so doing; on which occasion a very great lamentation was made in the
+palace, as if the king were expiring. As soon as ever Antipater heard
+that, he took courage, and with joy in his looks, besought his keepers,
+for a sum of money, to loose him and let him go; but the principal
+keeper of the prison did not only obstruct him in that his intention,
+but ran and told the king what his design was; hereupon the king cried
+out louder than his distemper would well bear, and immediately sent some
+of his guards and slew Antipater; he also gave order to have him
+buried at Hyrcanium, and altered his testament again, and therein made
+Archelaus, his eldest son, and the brother of Antipas, his successor,
+and made Antipas tetrarch.
+
+8. So Herod, having survived the slaughter of his son five days, died,
+having reigned thirty-four years since he had caused Antigonus to be
+slain, and obtained his kingdom; but thirty-seven years since he had
+been made king by the Romans. Now as for his fortune, it was prosperous
+in all other respects, if ever any other man could be so, since, from a
+private man, he obtained the kingdom, and kept it so long, and left
+it to his own sons; but still in his domestic affairs he was a most
+unfortunate man. Now, before the soldiers knew of his death, Salome and
+her husband came out and dismissed those that were in bonds, whom the
+king had commanded to be slain, and told them that he had altered his
+mind, and would have every one of them sent to their own homes. When
+these men were gone, Salome, told the soldiers [the king was dead], and
+got them and the rest of the multitude together to an assembly, in the
+amphitheater at Jericho, where Ptolemy, who was intrusted by the king
+with his signet ring, came before them, and spake of the happiness the
+king had attained, and comforted the multitude, and read the epistle
+which had been left for the soldiers, wherein he earnestly exhorted them
+to bear good-will to his successor; and after he had read the epistle,
+he opened and read his testament, wherein Philip was to inherit
+Trachonitis, and the neighboring countries, and Antipas was to be
+tetrarch, as we said before, and Archelaus was made king. He had also
+been commanded to carry Herod's ring to Caesar, and the settlements
+he had made, sealed up, because Caesar was to be lord of all the
+settlements he had made, and was to confirm his testament; and he
+ordered that the dispositions he had made were to be kept as they were
+in his former testament.
+
+9. So there was an acclamation made to Archelaus, to congratulate him
+upon his advancement; and the soldiers, with the multitude, went round
+about in troops, and promised him their good-will, and besides, prayed
+God to bless his government. After this, they betook themselves to
+prepare for the king's funeral; and Archelaus omitted nothing of
+magnificence therein, but brought out all the royal ornaments to augment
+the pomp of the deceased. There was a bier all of gold, embroidered with
+precious stones, and a purple bed of various contexture, with the dead
+body upon it, covered with purple; and a diadem was put upon his head,
+and a crown of gold above it, and a sceptre in his right hand; and near
+to the bier were Herod's sons, and a multitude of his kindred; next to
+which came his guards, and the regiment of Thracians, the Germans also
+and Gauls, all accounted as if they were going to war; but the rest of
+the army went foremost, armed, and following their captains and officers
+in a regular manner; after whom five hundred of his domestic servants
+and freed-men followed, with sweet spices in their hands: and the body
+was carried two hundred furlongs, to Herodium, where he had given order
+to be buried. And this shall suffice for the conclusion of the life of
+Herod.
+
+WAR BOOK 1 FOOTNOTES
+
+1 (return) [ I see little difference in the several accounts in Josephus
+about the Egyptian temple Onion, of which large complaints are made by
+his commentators. Onias, it seems, hoped to have made it very like that
+at Jerusalem, and of the same dimensions; and so he appears to have
+really done, as far as he was able and thought proper. Of this temple,
+see Antiq. B. XIII. ch. 3. sect. 1--3, and Of the War, B. VII. ch. 10.
+sect. 8.]
+
+
+2 (return) [ Why this John, the son of Simon, the high priest and
+governor of the Jews, was called Hyrcanus, Josephus no where informs
+us; nor is he called other than John at the end of the First Book of the
+Maccabees. However, Sixtus Seuensis, when he gives us an epitome of
+the Greek version of the book here abridged by Josephus, or of the
+Chronicles of this John Hyrcanus, then extant, assures us that he was
+called Hyrcanus from his conquest of one of that name. See Authent. Rec.
+Part I. p. 207. But of this younger Antiochus, see Dean Aldrich's note
+here.]
+
+
+3 (return) [ Josephus here calls this Antiochus the last of the
+Seleucidae, although there remained still a shadow of another king of
+that family, Antiochus Asiaticus, or Commagenus, who reigned, or rather
+lay hid, till Pompey quite turned him out, as Dean Aldrich here notes
+from Appian and Justin.]
+
+
+4 (return) [ Matthew 16:19; 18:18. Here we have the oldest and most
+authentic Jewish exposition of binding and loosing, for punishing or
+absolving men, not for declaring actions lawful or unlawful, as some
+more modern Jews and Christians vainly pretend.]
+
+
+5 (return) [ Strabo, B. XVI. p. 740, relates, that this Selene Cleopatra
+was besieged by Tigranes, not in Ptolemais, as here, but after she had
+left Syria, in Seleucia, a citadel in Mesopotamia; and adds, that when
+he had kept her a while in prison, he put her to death. Dean Aldrich
+supposes here that Strabo contradicts Josephus, which does not appear
+to me; for although Josephus says both here and in the Antiquities, B.
+XIII. ch. 16. sect. 4, that Tigranes besieged her now in Ptolemais,
+and that he took the city, as the Antiquities inform us, yet does he
+no where intimate that he now took the queen herself; so that both the
+narrations of Strabo and Josephus may still be true notwithstanding.]
+
+
+6 (return) [ That this Antipater, the father of Herod the Great was an
+Idumean, as Josephus affirms here, see the note on Antiq. B. XIV. ch.
+15. sect. 2. It is somewhat probable, as Hapercamp supposes, and partly
+Spanheim also, that the Latin is here the truest; that Pompey did him
+Hyrcanus, as he would have done the others from Aristobulus, sect. 6,
+although his remarkable abstinence from the 2000 talents that were in
+the Jewish temple, when he took it a little afterward, ch. 7. sect. 6,
+and Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 4. sect. 4, will to Greek all which agree he did
+not take them.]
+
+
+7 (return) [ Of the famous palm trees and balsam about Jericho and
+Engaddl, see the notes in Havercamp's edition, both here and B. II. ch.
+9. sect. 1. They are somewhat too long to be transcribed in this place.]
+
+
+8 (return) [ Thus says Tacitus: Cn. Pompelna first of all subdued the
+Jews, and went into their temple, by right of conquest, Hist. B. V.
+ch. 9. Nor did he touch any of its riches, as has been observed on the
+parallel place of the Antiquities, B. XIV. ch. 4. sect. 4, out of Cicero
+himself.]
+
+
+9 (return) [ The coin of this Gadara, still extant, with its date from
+this era, is a certain evidence of this its rebuilding by Pompey, as
+Spanheim here assures us.]
+
+
+10 (return) [ Take the like attestation to the truth of this submission
+of Aretas, king of Arabia, to Scaurus the Roman general, in the words of
+Dean Aldrich. "Hence [says he] is derived that old and famous Denarius
+belonging to the Emillian family [represented in Havercamp's edition],
+wherein Aretas appears in a posture of supplication, and taking hold of
+a camel's bridle with his left hand, and with his right hand presenting
+a branch of the frankincense tree, with this inscription, M. SCAURUS EX
+S.C.; and beneath, REX ARETAS."]
+
+
+11 (return) [ This citation is now wanting.]
+
+
+12 (return) [ What is here noted by Hudson and Spanheim, that this grant
+of leave to rebuild the walls of the cities of Judea was made by Julius
+Caesar, not as here to Antipater, but to Hyrcanas, Antiq. B. XIV. ch.
+8. sect. 5, has hardly an appearance of a contradiction; Antipater being
+now perhaps considered only as Hyrcanus's deputy and minister; although
+he afterwards made a cipher of Hyrcanus, and, under great decency of
+behavior to him, took the real authority to himself.]
+
+
+13 (return) [ Or twenty-five years of age. See note on Antiq. B. I. ch.
+12. sect. 3; and on B. XIV. ch. 9. sect. 2; and Of the War, B. II.
+ch. 11. sect. 6; and Polyb. B. XVII. p. 725. Many writers of the Roman
+history give an account of this murder of Sextus Caesar, and of the war
+of Apamia upon that occasion. They are cited in Dean Aldrich's note.]
+
+
+14 (return) [ In the Antiquities, B. XIV. ch. 11. sect. 1, the duration
+of the reign of Julius Caesar is three years six months; but here three
+years seven months, beginning nightly, says Dean Aldrich, from his
+second dictatorship. It is probable the real duration might be three
+years and between six and seven months.]
+
+
+15 (return) [ It appears evidently by Josephus's accounts, both here and
+in his Antiquities, B. XIV. ch. 11. sect. 2, that this Cassius, one of
+Caesar's murderers, was a bitter oppressor, and exactor of tribute
+in Judea. These seven hundred talents amount to about three hundred
+thousand pounds sterling, and are about half the yearly revenues of king
+Herod afterwards. See the note on Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 11. sect. 4. It
+also appears that Galilee then paid no more than one hundred talents, or
+the seventh part of the entire sum to be levied in all the country.]
+
+
+16 (return) [ Here we see that Cassius set tyrants over all Syria; so
+that his assisting to destroy Caesar does not seem to have proceeded
+from his true zeal for public liberty, but from a desire to be a tyrant
+himself.]
+
+
+17 (return) [ Phasaelus and Herod.]
+
+
+18 (return) [ This large and noted wood, or woodland, belonging
+to Carmel, called Apago by the Septuagint, is mentioned in the Old
+Testament, 2 Kings 19:23; Isaiah 37:24, and by I Strabo, B. XVI. p. 758,
+as both Aldrich and Spanheim here remark very pertinently.]
+
+
+19 (return) [ These accounts, both here and Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 13. sect.
+5, that the Parthians fought chiefly on horseback, and that only
+some few of their soldiers were free-men, perfectly agree with Trogus
+Pompeius, in Justin, B. XLI. 2, 3, as Dean Aldrich well observes on this
+place.]
+
+
+20 (return) [ Mariamac here, in the copies.]
+
+
+21 (return) [ This Brentesium or Brundusium has coin still preserved, on
+which is written, as Spanheim informs us.]
+
+
+22 (return) [ This Dellius is famous, or rather infamous, in the history
+of Mark Antony, as Spanheim and Aldrich here note, from the coins, from
+Plutarch and Dio.]
+
+
+23 (return) [ This Sepphoris, the metropolis of Galilee, so often
+mentioned by Josephus, has coins still remaining, as Spanheim here
+informs us.]
+
+
+24 (return) [ This way of speaking, "after forty days," is interpreted
+by Josephus himself, "on the fortieth day," Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 15. sect.
+4. In like manner, when Josephus says, ch. 33. sect. 8, that Herod lived
+"after" he had ordered Antipater to be slain "five days;" this is by
+himself interpreted, Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 8. sect. 1, that he died "on
+the fifth day afterward." So also what is in this book, ch. 13. sect.
+1, "after two years," is, Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 13. sect. 3, "on the second
+year." And Dean Aldrich here notes that this way of speaking is familiar
+to Josephus.]
+
+
+25 (return) [ This Samosata, the metropolis of Commagena, is well known
+from its coins, as Spanheim here assures us. Dean Aldrich also confirms
+what Josephus here notes, that Herod was a great means of taking the
+city by Antony, and that from Plutarch and Dio.]
+
+
+26 (return) [ That is, a woman, not, a man.]
+
+
+27 (return) [ This death of Antigonus is confirmed by Plutarch and.
+Straho; the latter of whom is cited for it by Josephus himself, Antiq.
+B. XV. ch. 1. sect. 2, as Dean Aldrich here observes.]
+
+
+28 (return) [ This ancient liberty of Tyre and Sidon under the Romans,
+taken notice of by Josephus, both here and Antiq. B. XV. ch. 4. sect. 1,
+is confirmed by the testimony of Sirabe, B. XVI. p. 757, as Dean Aldrich
+remarks; although, as he justly adds, this liberty lasted but a little
+while longer, when Augtus took it away from them.]
+
+
+29 (return) [ This seventh year of the reign of Herod [from the conquest
+or death of Antigonus], with the great earthquake in the beginning of
+the same spring, which are here fully implied to be not much before the
+fight at Actium, between Octavius and Antony, and which is known from
+the Roman historians to have been in the beginning of September, in the
+thirty-first year before the Christian era, determines the chronology
+of Josephus as to the reign of Herod, viz. that he began in the year 37,
+beyond rational contradiction. Nor is it quite unworthy of our notice,
+that this seventh year of the reign of Herod, or the thirty-first before
+the Christian era, contained the latter part of a Sabbatic year, on
+which Sabbatic year, therefore, it is plain this great earthquake
+happened in Judea.]
+
+
+30 (return) [ This speech of Herod is set down twice by Josephus, here
+and Antiq. B. XV. ch. 5. sect. 3, to the very same purpose, but by no
+means in the same words; whence it appears that the sense was Herod's,
+but the composition Josephus's.]
+
+
+31 (return) [ Since Josephus, both here and in his Antiq. B. XV. ch.
+7. sect. 3, reckons Gaza, which had been a free city, among the cities
+given Herod by Augustus, and yet implies that Herod had made Costobarus
+a governor of it before, Antiq. B. XV. ch. 7. sect. 9, Hardain has some
+pretense for saying that Josephus here contradicted himself. But perhaps
+Herod thought he had sufficient authority to put a governor into Gaza,
+after he was made tetrarch or king, in times of war, before the city was
+entirely delivered into his hands by Augustus.]
+
+
+32 (return) [ This fort was first built, as it is supposed, by John
+Hyrcanus; see Prid. at the year 107; and called "Baris," the Tower or
+Citadel. It was afterwards rebuilt, with great improvements, by Herod,
+under the government of Antonius, and was named from him "the Tower of
+Antoni;" and about the time when Herod rebuilt the temple, he seems to
+have put his last hand to it. See Antiq. B. XVIII. ch. 5. sect. 4; Of
+the War, B. I. ch. 3. sect. 3; ch. 5. sect. 4. It lay on the northwest
+side of the temple, and was a quarter as large.]
+
+
+33 (return) [ That Josephus speaks truth, when he assures us that the
+haven of this Cesarea was made by Herod not less, nay rather larger,
+than that famous haven at Athens, called the Pyrecum, will appear, says
+Dean Aldrich, to him who compares the descriptions of that at Athens in
+Thucydides and Pausanias, with this of Cesarea in Josephus here, and in
+the Antiq. B. XV. ch. 9. sect. 6, and B. XVII. ch. 9. sect. 1.]
+
+
+34 (return) [ These buildings of cities by the name of Caesar, and
+institution of solemn games in honor of Augustus Caesar, as here, and
+in the Antiquities, related of Herod by Josephus, the Roman historians
+attest to, as things then frequent in the provinces of that empire, as
+Dean Aldrich observes on this chapter.]
+
+
+35 (return) [ There were two cities, or citadels, called Herodium, in
+Judea, and both mentioned by Josephus, not only here, but Antiq. B. XIV.
+ch. 13. sect. 9; B. XV. ch. 9. sect. 6; Of the War, B. I. ch. 13. sect.
+8; B. III. ch. 3. sect. 5. One of them was two hundred, and the other
+sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem. One of them is mentioned by
+Pliny, Hist. Nat. B. V. ch. 14., as Dean Aldrich observes here.]
+
+
+36 (return) [ Here seems to be a small defect in the copies, which
+describe the wild beasts which were hunted in a certain country by
+Herod, without naming any such country at all.]
+
+
+37 (return) [ Here is either a defect or a great mistake in Josephus's
+present copies or memory; for Mariamne did not now reproach Herod with
+this his first injunction to Joseph to kill her, if he himself were
+slain by Antony, but that he had given the like command a second time
+to Soemus also, when he was afraid of being slain by Augustus. Antiq. B.
+XV. ch. 3. sect. 5, etc.]
+
+
+38 (return) [ That this island Eleusa, afterward called Sebaste,
+near Cilicia, had in it the royal palace of this Archelaus, king of
+Cappadocia, Strabo testifies, B. XV. p. 671. Stephanus of Byzantiam
+also calls it "an island of Cilicia, which is now Sebaste;" both whose
+testimonies are pertinently cited here by Dr. Hudson. See the same
+history, Antiq. B. XVI. ch. 10. sect. 7.]
+
+
+39 (return) [ That it was an immemorial custom among the Jews, and their
+forefathers, the patriarchs, to have sometimes more wives or wives and
+concubines, than one at the same the and that this polygamy was not
+directly forbidden in the law of Moses is evident; but that polygamy
+was ever properly and distinctly permitted in that law of Moses, in the
+places here cited by Dean Aldrich, Deuteronomy 17:16, 17, or 21:15, or
+indeed any where else, does not appear to me. And what our Savior says
+about the common Jewish divorces, which may lay much greater claim to
+such a permission than polygamy, seems to me true in this case also;
+that Moses, "for the hardness of their hearts," suffered them to have
+several wives at the same time, but that "from the beginning it was not
+so," Matthew 19:8; Mark 10:5.]
+
+
+40 (return) [ This vile fellow, Eurycles the Lacedemonian, seems to
+have been the same who is mentioned by Plutarch, as [twenty-live years
+before] a companion to Mark Antony, and as living with Herod; whence he
+might easily insinuate himself into the acquaintance of Herod's sons,
+Antipater and Alexander, as Usher, Hudson, and Spanheim justly suppose.
+The reason why his being a Spartan rendered him acceptable to the Jews
+as we here see he was, is visible from the public records of the Jews
+and Spartans, owning those Spartans to be of kin to the Jews, and
+derived from their common ancestor Abraham, the first patriarch of the
+Jewish nation, Antiq. B. XII. ch. 4. sect. 10; B. XIII. ch. 5. sect. 8;
+and 1 Macc. 12:7.]
+
+
+41 (return) [ See the preceding note.]
+
+
+42 (return) [ Dean Aldrich takes notice here, that these nine wives of
+Herod were alive at the same time; and that if the celebrated Mariamne,
+who was now dead, be reckoned, those wives were in all ten. Yet it is
+remarkable that he had no more than fifteen children by them all.]
+
+
+43 (return) [ To prevent confusion, it may not be amiss, with Dean
+Aldrich, to distinguish between four Josephs in the history of Herod.
+1. Joseph, Herod's uncle, and the [second] husband of his sister Salome,
+slain by Herod, on account of Mariamne. 2. Joseph, Herod's quaestor, or
+treasurer, slain on the same account. 3. Joseph, Herod's brother, slain
+in battle against Antigonus. 4. Joseph, Herod's nephew, the husband of
+Olympias, mentioned in this place.]
+
+
+44 (return) [ These daughters of Herod, whom Pheroras's wife affronted,
+were Salome and Roxana, two virgins, who were born to him of his two
+wives, Elpide and Phedra. See Herod's genealogy, Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 1.
+sect. 3.]
+
+
+45 (return) [ This strange obstinacy of Pheroras in retaining his wife,
+who was one of a low family, and refusing to marry one nearly related to
+Herod, though he so earnestly desired it, as also that wife's admission
+to the counsels of the other great court ladies, together with Herod's
+own importunity as to Pheroras's divorce and other marriage, all so
+remarkable here, or in the Antiquities XVII. ch. 2. sect. 4; and ch. 3.
+be well accounted for, but on the supposal that Pheroras believed, and
+Herod suspected, that the Pharisees' prediction, as if the crown of
+Judea should be translated from Herod to Pheroras's posterity and that
+most probably to Pheroras's posterity by this his wife, also would prove
+true. See Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 2. sect. 4; and ch. 3. sect. 1.]
+
+
+46 (return) [ This Tarentum has coins still extant, as Reland informs us
+here in his note.]
+
+
+47 (return) [ A lover of his father.]
+
+
+48 (return) [ Since in these two sections we have an evident account of
+the Jewish opinions in the days of Josephus, about a future happy state,
+and the resurrection of the dead, as in the New Testament, John 11:24,
+I shall here refer to the other places in Josephus, before he became a
+catholic Christian, which concern the same matters. Of the War, B. II.
+ch. 8. sect. 10, 11; B. III. ch. 8. sect. 4; B. VII. ch. 6. sect. 7;
+Contr. Apion, B. II. sect. 30; where we may observe, that none of these
+passages are in his Books of Antiquities, written peculiarly for the use
+of the Gentiles, to whom he thought it not proper to insist on topics
+so much out of their way as these were. Nor is this observation to be
+omitted here, especially on account of the sensible difference we
+have now before us in Josephus's reason of the used by the Rabbins to
+persuade their scholars to hazard their lives for the vindication of
+God's law against images, by Moses, as well as of the answers those
+scholars made to Herod, when they were caught, and ready to die for
+the same; I mean as compared with the parallel arguments and answers
+represented in the Antiquities, B. XVII. ch. 6. sect, 2, 3. A like
+difference between Jewish and Gentile notions the reader will find in my
+notes on Antiquities, B. III. ch. 7. sect. 7; B. XV. ch. 9. sect. 1. See
+the like also in the case of the three Jewish sects in the Antiquities,
+B. XIII. ch. 5. sect. 9, and ch. 10. sect. 4, 5; B. XVIII. ch. 1. sect.
+5; and compared with this in his Wars of the Jews, B. II. ch. 8. sect.
+2-14. Nor does St. Paul himself reason to Gentiles at Athens, Acts
+17:16-34, as he does to Jews in his Epistles.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+
+     Containing The Interval Of Sixty-Nine Years.
+
+     From The Death Of Herod Till Vespasian Was Sent To Subdue
+     The Jews By Nero.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+
+     Archelaus Makes A Funeral Feast For The People, On The
+     Account Of Herod. After Which A Great Tumult Is Raised By
+     The Multitude And He Sends The Soldiers Out Upon Them, Who
+     Destroy About Three Thousand Of Them.
+
+1. Now the necessity which Archelaus was under of taking a journey to
+Rome was the occasion of new disturbances; for when he had mourned for
+his father seven days, 1 and had given a very expensive funeral feast to
+the multitude, [which custom is the occasion of poverty to many of the
+Jews, because they are forced to feast the multitude; for if any one
+omits it, he is not esteemed a holy person,] he put on a white garment,
+and went up to the temple, where the people accosted him with various
+acclamations. He also spake kindly to the multitude from an elevated
+seat and a throne of gold, and returned them thanks for the zeal they
+had shown about his father's funeral, and the submission they had made
+to him, as if he were already settled in the kingdom; but he told them
+withal, that he would not at present take upon him either the authority
+of a king, or the names thereto belonging, until Caesar, who is made
+lord of this whole affair by the testament, confirm the succession; for
+that when the soldiers would have set the diadem on his head at Jericho,
+he would not accept of it; but that he would make abundant requitals,
+not to the soldiers only, but to the people, for their alacrity and
+good-will to him, when the superior lords [the Romans] should have given
+him a complete title to the kingdom; for that it should be his study to
+appear in all things better than his father.
+
+2. Upon this the multitude were pleased, and presently made a trial of
+what he intended, by asking great things of him; for some made a clamor
+that he would ease them in their taxes; others, that he would take off
+the duties upon commodities; and some, that he would loose those
+that were in prison; in all which cases he answered readily to their
+satisfaction, in order to get the good-will of the multitude; after
+which he offered [the proper] sacrifices, and feasted with his friends.
+And here it was that a great many of those that desired innovations
+came in crowds towards the evening, and began then to mourn on their own
+account, when the public mourning for the king was over. These lamented
+those that were put to death by Herod, because they had cut down the
+golden eagle that had been over the gate of the temple. Nor was this
+mourning of a private nature, but the lamentations were very great, the
+mourning solemn, and the weeping such as was loudly heard all over the
+city, as being for those men who had perished for the laws of their
+country, and for the temple. They cried out that a punishment ought to
+be inflicted for these men upon those that were honored by Herod; and
+that, in the first place, the man whom he had made high priest should
+be deprived; and that it was fit to choose a person of greater piety and
+purity than he was.
+
+3. At these clamors Archelaus was provoked, but restrained himself from
+taking vengeance on the authors, on account of the haste he was in of
+going to Rome, as fearing lest, upon his making war on the multitude,
+such an action might detain him at home. Accordingly, he made trial to
+quiet the innovators by persuasion, rather than by force, and sent his
+general in a private way to them, and by him exhorted them to be quiet.
+But the seditious threw stones at him, and drove him away, as he came
+into the temple, and before he could say any thing to them. The like
+treatment they showed to others, who came to them after him, many of
+which were sent by Archelaus, in order to reduce them to sobriety, and
+these answered still on all occasions after a passionate manner; and it
+openly appeared that they would not be quiet, if their numbers were but
+considerable. And indeed, at the feast of unleavened bread, which was
+now at hand, and is by the Jews called the Passover, and used to be
+celebrated with a great number of sacrifices, an innumerable multitude
+of the people came out of the country to worship; some of these stood
+in the temple bewailing the Rabbins [that had been put to death],
+and procured their sustenance by begging, in order to support their
+sedition. At this Archelaus was affrighted, and privately sent a
+tribune, with his cohort of soldiers, upon them, before the disease
+should spread over the whole multitude, and gave orders that they should
+constrain those that began the tumult, by force, to be quiet. At these
+the whole multitude were irritated, and threw stones at many of the
+soldiers, and killed them; but the tribune fled away wounded, and had
+much ado to escape so. After which they betook themselves to their
+sacrifices, as if they had done no mischief; nor did it appear to
+Archelaus that the multitude could be restrained without bloodshed; so
+he sent his whole army upon them, the footmen in great multitudes, by
+the way of the city, and the horsemen by the way of the plain, who,
+falling upon them on the sudden, as they were offering their sacrifices,
+destroyed about three thousand of them; but the rest of the multitude
+were dispersed upon the adjoining mountains: these were followed by
+Archelaus's heralds, who commanded every one to retire to their own
+homes, whither they all went, and left the festival.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+
+     Archelaus Goes To Rome With A Great Number Of His Kindred.
+     He Is There Accused Before Caesar By Antipater; But Is
+     Superior To His Accusers In Judgment By The Means Of That
+     Defense Which Nicolaus Made For Him.
+
+1. Archelaus went down now to the sea-side, with his mother and his
+friends, Poplas, and Ptolemy, and Nicolaus, and left behind him Philip,
+to be his steward in the palace, and to take care of his domestic
+affairs. Salome went also along with him with her sons, as did also the
+king's brethren and sons-in-law. These, in appearance, went to give him
+all the assistance they were able, in order to secure his succession,
+but in reality to accuse him for his breach of the laws by what he had
+done at the temple.
+
+2. But as they were come to Cesarea, Sabinus, the procurator of Syria,
+met them; he was going up to Judea, to secure Herod's effects; but
+Varus, [president of Syria,] who was come thither, restrained him from
+going any farther. This Varus Archelaus had sent for, by the earnest
+entreaty of Ptolemy. At this time, indeed, Sabinus, to gratify Varus,
+neither went to the citadels, nor did he shut up the treasuries where
+his father's money was laid up, but promised that he would lie still,
+until Caesar should have taken cognizance of the affair. So he abode at
+Cesarea; but as soon as those that were his hinderance were gone,
+when Varus was gone to Antioch, and Archelaus was sailed to Rome, he
+immediately went on to Jerusalem, and seized upon the palace. And when
+he had called for the governors of the citadels, and the stewards [of
+the king's private affairs], he tried to sift out the accounts of the
+money, and to take possession of the citadels. But the governors of
+those citadels were not unmindful of the commands laid upon them by
+Archelaus, and continued to guard them, and said the custody of them
+rather belonged to Caesar than to Archelaus.
+
+3. In the mean time, Antipas went also to Rome, to strive for the
+kingdom, and to insist that the former testament, wherein he was named
+to be king, was valid before the latter testament. Salome had also
+promised to assist him, as had many of Archelaus's kindred, who sailed
+along with Archelaus himself also. He also carried along with him his
+mother, and Ptolemy, the brother of Nicolaus, who seemed one of great
+weight, on account of the great trust Herod put in him, he having been
+one of his most honored friends. However, Antipas depended chiefly
+upon Ireneus, the orator; upon whose authority he had rejected such as
+advised him to yield to Archelaus, because he was his elder brother, and
+because the second testament gave the kingdom to him. The inclinations
+also of all Archelaus's kindred, who hated him, were removed to Antipas,
+when they came to Rome; although in the first place every one rather
+desired to live under their own laws [without a king], and to be under
+a Roman governor; but if they should fail in that point, these desired
+that Antipas might be their king.
+
+4. Sabinus did also afford these his assistance to the same purpose by
+letters he sent, wherein he accused Archelaus before Caesar, and highly
+commended Antipas. Salome also, and those with her, put the crimes which
+they accused Archelaus of in order, and put them into Caesar's hands;
+and after they had done that, Archelaus wrote down the reasons of his
+claim, and, by Ptolemy, sent in his father's ring, and his father's
+accounts. And when Caesar had maturely weighed by himself what both had
+to allege for themselves, as also had considered of the great burden of
+the kingdom, and largeness of the revenues, and withal the number of the
+children Herod had left behind him, and had moreover read the letters he
+had received from Varus and Sabinus on this occasion, he assembled the
+principal persons among the Romans together, [in which assembly Caius,
+the son of Agrippa, and his daughter Julias, but by himself adopted
+for his own son, sat in the first seat,] and gave the pleaders leave to
+speak.
+
+5. Then stood up Salome's son, Antipater, [who of all Archelaus's
+antagonists was the shrewdest pleader,] and accused him in the following
+speech: That Archelaus did in words contend for the kingdom, but that
+in deeds he had long exercised royal authority, and so did but insult
+Caesar in desiring to be now heard on that account, since he had not
+staid for his determination about the succession, and since he had
+suborned certain persons, after Herod's death, to move for putting the
+diadem upon his head; since he had set himself down in the throne, and
+given answers as a king, and altered the disposition of the army, and
+granted to some higher dignities; that he had also complied in all
+things with the people in the requests they had made to him as to their
+king, and had also dismissed those that had been put into bonds by his
+father for most important reasons. Now, after all this, he desires the
+shadow of that royal authority, whose substance he had already seized to
+himself, and so hath made Caesar lord, not of things, but of words. He
+also reproached him further, that his mourning for his father was only
+pretended, while he put on a sad countenance in the day time, but drank
+to great excess in the night; from which behavior, he said, the late
+disturbance among the multitude came, while they had an indignation
+thereat. And indeed the purport of his whole discourse was to aggravate
+Archelaus's crime in slaying such a multitude about the temple, which
+multitude came to the festival, but were barbarously slain in the midst
+of their own sacrifices; and he said there was such a vast number of
+dead bodies heaped together in the temple, as even a foreign war, that
+should come upon them [suddenly], before it was denounced, could not
+have heaped together. And he added, that it was the foresight his father
+had of that his barbarity which made him never give him any hopes of the
+kingdom, but when his mind was more infirm than his body, and he was not
+able to reason soundly, and did not well know what was the character of
+that son, whom in his second testament he made his successor; and this
+was done by him at a time when he had no complaints to make of him whom
+he had named before, when he was sound in body, and when his mind was
+free from all passion. That, however, if any one should suppose Herod's
+judgment, when he was sick, was superior to that at another time, yet
+had Archelaus forfeited his kingdom by his own behavior, and those his
+actions, which were contrary to the law, and to its disadvantage.
+Or what sort of a king will this man be, when he hath obtained the
+government from Caesar, who hath slain so many before he hath obtained
+it!
+
+6. When Antipater had spoken largely to this purpose, and had produced a
+great number of Archelaus's kindred as witnesses, to prove every part of
+the accusation, he ended his discourse. Then stood up Nicolaus to plead
+for Archelaus. He alleged that the slaughter in the temple could not
+be avoided; that those that were slain were become enemies not to
+Archelaus's kingdom, only, but to Caesar, who was to determine about
+him. He also demonstrated that Archelaus's accusers had advised him
+to perpetrate other things of which he might have been accused. But he
+insisted that the latter testament should, for this reason, above all
+others, be esteemed valid, because Herod had therein appointed Caesar to
+be the person who should confirm the succession; for he who showed such
+prudence as to recede from his own power, and yield it up to the lord
+of the world, cannot be supposed mistaken in his judgment about him
+that was to be his heir; and he that so well knew whom to choose for
+arbitrator of the succession could not be unacquainted with him whom he
+chose for his successor.
+
+7. When Nicolaus had gone through all he had to say, Archelaus came,
+and fell down before Caesar's knees, without any noise;--upon which he
+raised him up, after a very obliging manner, and declared that truly
+he was worthy to succeed his father. However, he still made no firm
+determination in his case; but when he had dismissed those assessors
+that had been with him that day, he deliberated by himself about the
+allegations which he had heard, whether it were fit to constitute any
+of those named in the testaments for Herod's successor, or whether the
+government should be parted among all his posterity, and this because of
+the number of those that seemed to stand in need of support therefrom.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3.
+
+
+     The Jews Fight A Great Battle With Sabinus's Soldiers, And A
+     Great Destruction Is Made At Jerusalem.
+
+1. Now before Caesar had determined any thing about these affairs,
+Malthace, Arehelaus's mother, fell sick and died. Letters also were
+brought out of Syria from Varus, about a revolt of the Jews. This was
+foreseen by Varus, who accordingly, after Archelaus was sailed, went
+up to Jerusalem to restrain the promoters of the sedition, since it was
+manifest that the nation would not be at rest; so he left one of those
+legions which he brought with him out of Syria in the city, and went
+himself to Antioch. But Sabinus came, after he was gone, and gave them
+an occasion of making innovations; for he compelled the keepers of the
+citadels to deliver them up to him, and made a bitter search after the
+king's money, as depending not only on the soldiers which were left by
+Varus, but on the multitude of his own servants, all which he armed and
+used as the instruments of his covetousness. Now when that feast, which
+was observed after seven weeks, and which the Jews called Pentecost, [i.
+e. the 50th day,] was at hand, its name being taken from the number
+of the days [after the passover], the people got together, but not on
+account of the accustomed Divine worship, but of the indignation they
+had ['at the present state of affairs']. Wherefore an immense multitude
+ran together, out of Galilee, and Idumea, and Jericho, and Perea, that
+was beyond Jordan; but the people that naturally belonged to Judea
+itself were above the rest, both in number, and in the alacrity of the
+men. So they distributed themselves into three parts, and pitched their
+camps in three places; one at the north side of the temple, another at
+the south side, by the Hippodrome, and the third part were at the palace
+on the west. So they lay round about the Romans on every side, and
+besieged them.
+
+2. Now Sabinus was affrighted, both at their multitude, and at their
+courage, and sent messengers to Varus continually, and besought him to
+come to his succor quickly; for that if he delayed, his legion would be
+cut to pieces. As for Sabinus himself, he got up to the highest tower
+of the fortress, which was called Phasaelus; it is of the same name with
+Herod's brother, who was destroyed by the Parthians; and then he made
+signs to the soldiers of that legion to attack the enemy; for his
+astonishment was so great, that he durst not go down to his own men.
+Hereupon the soldiers were prevailed upon, and leaped out into the
+temple, and fought a terrible battle with the Jews; in which, while
+there were none over their heads to distress them, they were too hard
+for them, by their skill, and the others' want of skill, in war; but
+when once many of the Jews had gotten up to the top of the cloisters,
+and threw their darts downwards, upon the heads of the Romans,
+there were a great many of them destroyed. Nor was it easy to avenge
+themselves upon those that threw their weapons from on high, nor was it
+more easy for them to sustain those who came to fight them hand to hand.
+
+3. Since therefore the Romans were sorely afflicted by both these
+circumstances, they set fire to the cloisters, which were works to be
+admired, both on account of their magnitude and costliness. Whereupon
+those that were above them were presently encompassed with the flame,
+and many of them perished therein; as many of them also were destroyed
+by the enemy, who came suddenly upon them; some of them also threw
+themselves down from the walls backward, and some there were who, from
+the desperate condition they were in, prevented the fire, by killing
+themselves with their own swords; but so many of them as crept out from
+the walls, and came upon the Romans, were easily mastered by them, by
+reason of the astonishment they were under; until at last some of the
+Jews being destroyed, and others dispersed by the terror they were in,
+the soldiers fell upon the treasure of God, which was now deserted, and
+plundered about four hundred talents, Of which sum Sabinus got together
+all that was not carried away by the soldiers.
+
+4. However, this destruction of the works [about the temple], and of the
+men, occasioned a much greater number, and those of a more warlike sort,
+to get together, to oppose the Romans. These encompassed the palace
+round, and threatened to deploy all that were in it, unless they went
+their ways quickly; for they promised that Sabinus should come to no
+harm, if he would go out with his legion. There were also a great many
+of the king's party who deserted the Romans, and assisted the Jews; yet
+did the most warlike body of them all, who were three thousand of the
+men of Sebaste, go over to the Romans. Rufus also, and Gratus, their
+captains, did the same, [Gratus having the foot of the king's party
+under him, and Rufus the horse,] each of whom, even without the forces
+under them, were of great weight, on account of their strength and
+wisdom, which turn the scales in war. Now the Jews in the siege, and
+tried to break down walls of the fortress, and cried out to Sabinus and
+his party, that they should go their ways, and not prove a hinderance to
+them, now they hoped, after a long time, to recover that ancient liberty
+which their forefathers had enjoyed. Sabinus indeed was well contented
+to get out of the danger he was in, but he distrusted the assurances the
+Jews gave him, and suspected such gentle treatment was but a bait laid
+as a snare for them: this consideration, together with the hopes he had
+of succor from Varus, made him bear the siege still longer.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+
+     Herod's Veteran Soldiers Become Tumultuous. The Robberies Of
+     Judas. Simon And Athronoeus Take The Name Of King Upon Them.
+
+1. At this time there were great disturbances in the country, and that
+in many places; and the opportunity that now offered itself induced a
+great many to set up for kings. And indeed in Idumea two thousand of
+Herod's veteran soldiers got together, and armed and fought against
+those of the king's party; against whom Achiabus, the king's first
+cousin, fought, and that out of some of the places that were the most
+strongly fortified; but so as to avoid a direct conflict with them in
+the plains. In Sepphoris also, a city of Galilee, there was one Judas
+[the son of that arch-robber Hezekias, who formerly overran the country,
+and had been subdued by king Herod]; this man got no small multitude
+together, and brake open the place where the royal armor was laid up,
+and armed those about him, and attacked those that were so earnest to
+gain the dominion.
+
+2. In Perea also, Simon, one of the servants to the king, relying upon
+the handsome appearance and tallness of his body, put a diadem upon his
+own head also; he also went about with a company of robbers that he had
+gotten together, and burnt down the royal palace that was at Jericho,
+and many other costly edifices besides, and procured himself very easily
+spoils by rapine, as snatching them out of the fire. And he had soon
+burnt down all the fine edifices, if Gratus, the captain of the foot
+of the king's party, had not taken the Trachonite archers, and the
+most warlike of Sebaste, and met the man. His footmen were slain in the
+battle in abundance; Gratus also cut to pieces Simon himself, as he was
+flying along a strait valley, when he gave him an oblique stroke upon
+his neck, as he ran away, and brake it. The royal palaces that were
+near Jordan at Betharamptha were also burnt down by some other of the
+seditious that came out of Perea.
+
+3. At this time it was that a certain shepherd ventured to set himself
+up for a king; he was called Athrongeus. It was his strength of body
+that made him expect such a dignity, as well as his soul, which despised
+death; and besides these qualifications, he had four brethren like
+himself. He put a troop of armed men under each of these his brethren,
+and made use of them as his generals and commanders, when he made his
+incursions, while he did himself act like a king, and meddled only with
+the more important affairs; and at this time he put a diadem about his
+head, and continued after that to overrun the country for no little time
+with his brethren, and became their leader in killing both the Romans
+and those of the king's party; nor did any Jew escape him, if any gain
+could accrue to him thereby. He once ventured to encompass a whole troop
+of Romans at Emmaus, who were carrying corn and weapons to their legion;
+his men therefore shot their arrows and darts, and thereby slew their
+centurion Arius, and forty of the stoutest of his men, while the rest
+of them, who were in danger of the same fate, upon the coming of Gratus,
+with those of Sebaste, to their assistance, escaped. And when these
+men had thus served both their own countrymen and foreigners, and that
+through this whole war, three of them were, after some time, subdued;
+the eldest by Archelaus, the two next by falling into the hands of
+Gratus and Ptolemeus; but the fourth delivered himself up to Archelaus,
+upon his giving him his right hand for his security. However, this their
+end was not till afterward, while at present they filled all Judea with
+a piratic war.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5.
+
+
+     Varus Composes The Tumults In Judea And Crucifies About Two
+     Thousand Of The Seditious.
+
+1. Upon Varus's reception of the letters that were written by Sabinus
+and the captains, he could not avoid being afraid for the whole legion
+[he had left there]. So he made haste to their relief, and took with
+him the other two legions, with the four troops of horsemen to them
+belonging, and marched to Ptolenlais; having given orders for the
+auxiliaries that were sent by the kings and governors of cities to
+meet him there. Moreover, he received from the people of Berytus, as he
+passed through their city, fifteen hundred armed men. Now as soon as the
+other body of auxiliaries were come to Ptolemais, as well as Aretas the
+Arabian, [who, out of the hatred he bore to Herod, brought a great army
+of horse and foot,] Varus sent a part of his army presently to Galilee,
+which lay near to Ptolemais, and Caius, one of his friends, for their
+captain. This Caius put those that met him to flight, and took the city
+Sepphoris, and burnt it, and made slaves of its inhabitants; but as for
+Varus himself, he marched to Samaria with his whole army, where he did
+not meddle with the city itself, because he found that it had made no
+commotion during these troubles, but pitched his camp about a certain
+village which was called Aras. It belonged to Ptolemy, and on that
+account was plundered by the Arabians, who were very angry even at
+Herod's friends also. He thence marched on to the village Sampho,
+another fortified place, which they plundered, as they had done the
+other. As they carried off all the money they lighted upon belonging
+to the public revenues, all was now full of fire and blood-shed, and
+nothing could resist the plunders of the Arabians. Emnaus was also
+burnt, upon the flight of its inhabitants, and this at the command of
+Varus, out of his rage at the slaughter of those that were about Arias.
+
+2. Thence he marched on to Jerusalem, and as soon as he was but seen by
+the Jews, he made their camps disperse themselves; they also went away,
+and fled up and down the country. But the citizens received him, and
+cleared themselves of having any hand in this revolt, and said that
+they had raised no commotions, but had only been forced to admit the
+multitude, because of the festival, and that they were rather besieged
+together with the Romans, than assisted those that had revolted. There
+had before this met him Joseph, the first cousin of Archelaus, and
+Gratus, together with Rufus, who led those of Sebaste, as well as the
+king's army: there also met him those of the Roman legion, armed after
+their accustomed manner; for as to Sabinus, he durst not come into
+Varus's sight, but was gone out of the city before this, to the
+sea-side. But Varus sent a part of his army into the country, against
+those that had been the authors of this commotion, and as they caught
+great numbers of them, those that appeared to have been the least
+concerned in these tumults he put into custody, but such as were the
+most guilty he crucified; these were in number about two thousand.
+
+3. He was also informed that there continued in Idumea ten thousand
+men still in arms; but when he found that the Arabians did not act like
+auxiliaries, but managed the war according to their own passions, and
+did mischief to the country otherwise than he intended, and this out of
+their hatred to Herod, he sent them away, but made haste, with his own
+legions, to march against those that had revolted; but these, by the
+advice of Achiabus, delivered themselves up to him before it came to a
+battle. Then did Varus forgive the multitude their offenses, but sent
+their captains to Caesar to be examined by him. Now Caesar forgave the
+rest, but gave orders that certain of the king's relations [for some of
+those that were among them were Herod's kinsmen] should be put to death,
+because they had engaged in a war against a king of their own family.
+When therefore Varus had settled matters at Jerusalem after this manner,
+and had left the former legion there as a garrison, he returned to
+Antioch.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+
+     The Jews Greatly Complain Of Archelaus And Desire That They
+     May Be Made Subject To Roman Governors. But When Caesar Had
+     Heard What They Had To Say, He Distributed Herod's Dominions
+     Among His Sons According To His Own Pleasure.
+
+1. But now came another accusation from the Jews against Archelaus at
+Rome, which he was to answer to. It was made by those ambassadors who,
+before the revolt, had come, by Varus's permission, to plead for the
+liberty of their country; those that came were fifty in number, but
+there were more than eight thousand of the Jews at Rome who supported
+them. And when Caesar had assembled a council of the principal Romans in
+Apollo's 2 temple, that was in the palace, [this was what he had himself
+built and adorned, at a vast expense,] the multitude of the Jews stood
+with the ambassadors, and on the other side stood Archelaus, with his
+friends; but as for the kindred of Archelaus, they stood on neither
+side; for to stand on Archelaus's side, their hatred to him, and envy at
+him, would not give them leave, while yet they were afraid to be seen by
+Caesar with his accusers. Besides these, there were present Archelaus's
+brother Philip, being sent thither beforehand, out of kindness by
+Varus, for two reasons: the one was this, that he might be assisting
+to Archelaus; and the other was this, that in case Caesar should make
+a distribution of what Herod possessed among his posterity, he might
+obtain some share of it.
+
+2. And now, upon the permission that was given the accusers to speak,
+they, in the first place, went over Herod's breaches of their law, and
+said that he was not a king, but the most barbarous of all tyrants, and
+that they had found him to be such by the sufferings they underwent from
+him; that when a very great number had been slain by him, those that
+were left had endured such miseries, that they called those that
+were dead happy men; that he had not only tortured the bodies of his
+subjects, but entire cities, and had done much harm to the cities of his
+own country, while he adorned those that belonged to foreigners; and he
+shed the blood of Jews, in order to do kindnesses to those people that
+were out of their bounds; that he had filled the nation full of poverty,
+and of the greatest iniquity, instead of that happiness and those laws
+which they had anciently enjoyed; that, in short, the Jews had borne
+more calamities from Herod, in a few years, than had their forefathers
+during all that interval of time that had passed since they had come out
+of Babylon, and returned home, in the reign of Xerxes 3 that, however,
+the nation was come to so low a condition, by being inured to hardships,
+that they submitted to his successor of their own accord, though he
+brought them into bitter slavery; that accordingly they readily called
+Archelaus, though he was the son of so great a tyrant, king, after the
+decease of his father, and joined with him in mourning for the death of
+Herod, and in wishing him good success in that his succession; while
+yet this Archelaus, lest he should be in danger of not being thought the
+genuine son of Herod, began his reign with the murder of three thousand
+citizens; as if he had a mind to offer so many bloody sacrifices to God
+for his government, and to fill the temple with the like number of dead
+bodies at that festival: that, however, those that were left after so
+many miseries, had just reason to consider now at last the calamities
+they had undergone, and to oppose themselves, like soldiers in war, to
+receive those stripes upon their faces [but not upon their backs, as
+hitherto]. Whereupon they prayed that the Romans would have compassion
+upon the [poor] remains of Judea, and not expose what was left of them
+to such as barbarously tore them to pieces, and that they would join
+their country to Syria, and administer the government by their own
+commanders, whereby it would [soon] be demonstrated that those who are
+now under the calumny of seditious persons, and lovers of war, know how
+to bear governors that are set over them, if they be but tolerable ones.
+So the Jews concluded their accusation with this request. Then rose up
+Nicolaus, and confuted the accusations which were brought against the
+kings, and himself accused the Jewish nation, as hard to be ruled, and
+as naturally disobedient to kings. He also reproached all those kinsmen
+of Archelaus who had left him, and were gone over to his accusers.
+
+3. So Caesar, after he had heard both sides, dissolved the assembly for
+that time; but a few days afterward, he gave the one half of Herod's
+kingdom to Archelaus, by the name of Ethnarch, and promised to make him
+king also afterward, if he rendered himself worthy of that dignity. But
+as to the other half, he divided it into two tetrarchies, and gave them
+to two other sons of Herod, the one of them to Philip, and the other to
+that Antipas who contested the kingdom with Archelaus. Under this
+last was Perea and Galilee, with a revenue of two hundred talents; but
+Batanea, and Trachonitis, and Auranitis, and certain parts of Zeno's
+house about Jamnia, with a revenue of a hundred talents, were made
+subject to Philip; while Idumea, and all Judea, and Samaria were parts
+of the ethnarchy of Archelaus, although Samaria was eased of one quarter
+of its taxes, out of regard to their not having revolted with the rest
+of the nation. He also made subject to him the following cities, viz.
+Strato's Tower, and Sebaste, and Joppa, and Jerusalem; but as to the
+Grecian cities, Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, he cut them off from the
+kingdom, and added them to Syria. Now the revenue of the country that
+was given to Archelaus was four hundred talents. Salome also, besides
+what the king had left her in his testaments, was now made mistress of
+Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelis. Caesar did moreover bestow upon her
+the royal palace of Ascalon; by all which she got together a revenue of
+sixty talents; but he put her house under the ethnarchy of Archelaus.
+And for the rest of Herod's offspring, they received what was bequeathed
+to them in his testaments; but, besides that, Caesar granted to Herod's
+two virgin daughters five hundred thousand [drachmae] of silver, and
+gave them in marriage to the sons of Pheroras: but after this family
+distribution, he gave between them what had been bequeathed to him by
+Herod, which was a thousand talents, reserving to himself only some
+inconsiderable presents, in honor of the deceased.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+
+     The History Of The Spurious Alexander. Archelaus Is Banished
+     And Glaphyra Dies, After What Was To Happen To Both Of Them
+     Had Been Showed Them In Dreams.
+
+1. In the meantime, there was a man, who was by birth a Jew, but brought
+up at Sidon with one of the Roman freed-men, who falsely pretended,
+on account of the resemblance of their countenances, that he was that
+Alexander who was slain by Herod. This man came to Rome, in hopes of not
+being detected. He had one who was his assistant, of his own nation, and
+who knew all the affairs of the kingdom, and instructed him to say how
+those that were sent to kill him and Aristobulus had pity upon them,
+and stole them away, by putting bodies that were like theirs in their
+places. This man deceived the Jews that were at Crete, and got a great
+deal of money of them for traveling in splendor; and thence sailed to
+Melos, where he was thought so certainly genuine, that he got a great
+deal more money, and prevailed with those that had treated him to sail
+along with him to Rome. So he landed at Dicearchia, [Puteoli,] and got
+very large presents from the Jews who dwelt there, and was conducted by
+his father's friends as if he were a king; nay, the resemblance in
+his countenance procured him so much credit, that those who had seen
+Alexander, and had known him very well, would take their oaths that he
+was the very same person. Accordingly, the whole body of the Jews that
+were at Rome ran out in crowds to see him, and an innumerable multitude
+there was which stood in the narrow places through which he was carried;
+for those of Melos were so far distracted, that they carried him in a
+sedan, and maintained a royal attendance for him at their own proper
+charges.
+
+2. But Caesar, who knew perfectly well the lineaments of Alexander's
+face, because he had been accused by Herod before him, discerned the
+fallacy in his countenance, even before he saw the man. However, he
+suffered the agreeable fame that went of him to have some weight with
+him, and sent Celadus, one who well knew Alexander, and ordered him
+to bring the young man to him. But when Caesar saw him, he immediately
+discerned a difference in his countenance; and when he had discovered
+that his whole body was of a more robust texture, and like that of a
+slave, he understood the whole was a contrivance. But the impudence of
+what he said greatly provoked him to be angry at him; for when he was
+asked about Aristobulus, he said that he was also preserved alive, and
+was left on purpose in Cyprus, for fear of treachery, because it would
+be harder for plotters to get them both into their power while they were
+separate. Then did Caesar take him by himself privately, and said to
+him, "I will give thee thy life, if thou wilt discover who it was that
+persuaded thee to forge such stories." So he said that he would discover
+him, and followed Caesar, and pointed to that Jew who abused the
+resemblance of his face to get money; for that he had received more
+presents in every city than ever Alexander did when he was alive. Caesar
+laughed at the contrivance, and put this spurious Alexander among his
+rowers, on account of the strength of his body, but ordered him that
+persuaded him to be put to death. But for the people of Melos, they had
+been sufficiently punished for their folly, by the expenses they had
+been at on his account.
+
+3. And now Archelaus took possession of his ethnarchy, and used not the
+Jews only, but the Samaritans also, barbarously; and this out of his
+resentment of their old quarrels with him. Whereupon they both of them
+sent ambassadors against him to Caesar; and in the ninth year of his
+government he was banished to Vienna, a city of Gaul, and his effects
+were put into Caesar's treasury. But the report goes, that before he was
+sent for by Caesar, he seemed to see nine ears of corn, full and large,
+but devoured by oxen. When, therefore, he had sent for the diviners,
+and some of the Chaldeans, and inquired of them what they thought it
+portended; and when one of them had one interpretation, and another had
+another, Simon, one of the sect of Essens, said that he thought the
+ears of corn denoted years, and the oxen denoted a mutation of things,
+because by their ploughing they made an alteration of the country. That
+therefore he should reign as many years as there were ears of corn; and
+after he had passed through various alterations of fortune, should
+die. Now five days after Archelaus had heard this interpretation he was
+called to his trial.
+
+4. I cannot also but think it worthy to be recorded what dream Glaphyra,
+the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, had, who had at first
+been wife to Alexander, who was the brother of Archelaus, concerning
+whom we have been discoursing. This Alexander was the son of Herod the
+king, by whom he was put to death, as we have already related. This
+Glaphyra was married, after his death, to Juba, king of Libya; and,
+after his death, was returned home, and lived a widow with her father.
+Then it was that Archelaus, the ethnarch, saw her, and fell so deeply
+in love with her, that he divorced Mariamne, who was then his wife,
+and married her. When, therefore, she was come into Judea, and had been
+there for a little while, she thought she saw Alexander stand by her,
+and that he said to her; "Thy marriage with the king of Libya might have
+been sufficient for thee; but thou wast not contented with him, but art
+returned again to my family, to a third husband; and him, thou impudent
+woman, hast thou chosen for thine husband, who is my brother. However, I
+shall not overlook the injury thou hast offered me; I shall [soon] have
+thee again, whether thou wilt or no." Now Glaphyra hardly survived the
+narration of this dream of hers two days.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+
+     Archelaus's Ethnarchy Is Reduced Into A [Roman] Province.
+     The Sedition Of Judas Of Galilee. The Three Sects.
+
+1. And now Archelaus's part of Judea was reduced into a province, and
+Coponius, one of the equestrian order among the Romans, was sent as a
+procurator, having the power of [life and] death put into his hands by
+Caesar. Under his administration it was that a certain Galilean, whose
+name was Judas, prevailed with his countrymen to revolt, and said they
+were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans and would
+after God submit to mortal men as their lords. This man was a teacher
+of a peculiar sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of those
+their leaders.
+
+2. For there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers
+of the first of which are the Pharisees; of the second, the Sadducees;
+and the third sect, which pretends to a severer discipline, are called
+Essens. These last are Jews by birth, and seem to have a greater
+affection for one another than the other sects have. These Essens reject
+pleasures as an evil, but esteem continence, and the conquest over
+our passions, to be virtue. They neglect wedlock, but choose out other
+persons children, while they are pliable, and fit for learning, and
+esteem them to be of their kindred, and form them according to their own
+manners. They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage, and the
+succession of mankind thereby continued; but they guard against the
+lascivious behavior of women, and are persuaded that none of them
+preserve their fidelity to one man.
+
+3. These men are despisers of riches, and so very communicative as
+raises our admiration. Nor is there any one to be found among them who
+hath more than another; for it is a law among them, that those who come
+to them must let what they have be common to the whole order,--insomuch
+that among them all there is no appearance of poverty, or excess of
+riches, but every one's possessions are intermingled with every other's
+possessions; and so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the
+brethren. They think that oil is a defilement; and if any one of them be
+anointed without his own approbation, it is wiped off his body; for they
+think to be sweaty is a good thing, as they do also to be clothed in
+white garments. They also have stewards appointed to take care of their
+common affairs, who every one of them have no separate business for any,
+but what is for the uses of them all.
+
+4. They have no one certain city, but many of them dwell in every city;
+and if any of their sect come from other places, what they have lies
+open for them, just as if it were their own; and they go in to such as
+they never knew before, as if they had been ever so long acquainted with
+them. For which reason they carry nothing at all with them when they
+travel into remote parts, though still they take their weapons with
+them, for fear of thieves. Accordingly, there is, in every city where
+they live, one appointed particularly to take care of strangers, and
+to provide garments and other necessaries for them. But the habit and
+management of their bodies is such as children use who are in fear of
+their masters. Nor do they allow of the change of garments or of shoes
+till be first torn to pieces, or worn out by time. Nor do they either
+buy or sell any thing to one another; but every one of them gives what
+he hath to him that wanteth it, and receives from him again in lieu of
+it what may be convenient for himself; and although there be no requital
+made, they are fully allowed to take what they want of whomsoever they
+please.
+
+5. And as for their piety towards God, it is very extraordinary; for
+before sun-rising they speak not a word about profane matters, but put
+up certain prayers which they have received from their forefathers, as
+if they made a supplication for its rising. After this every one of them
+are sent away by their curators, to exercise some of those arts wherein
+they are skilled, in which they labor with great diligence till the
+fifth hour. After which they assemble themselves together again into one
+place; and when they have clothed themselves in white veils, they then
+bathe their bodies in cold water. And after this purification is over,
+they every one meet together in an apartment of their own, into which it
+is not permitted to any of another sect to enter; while they go, after
+a pure manner, into the dining-room, as into a certain holy temple, and
+quietly set themselves down; upon which the baker lays them loaves in
+order; the cook also brings a single plate of one sort of food, and sets
+it before every one of them; but a priest says grace before meat; and it
+is unlawful for any one to taste of the food before grace be said. The
+same priest, when he hath dined, says grace again after meat; and when
+they begin, and when they end, they praise God, as he that bestows their
+food upon them; after which they lay aside their [white] garments, and
+betake themselves to their labors again till the evening; then they
+return home to supper, after the same manner; and if there be any
+strangers there, they sit down with them. Nor is there ever any clamor
+or disturbance to pollute their house, but they give every one leave to
+speak in their turn; which silence thus kept in their house appears
+to foreigners like some tremendous mystery; the cause of which is that
+perpetual sobriety they exercise, and the same settled measure of
+meat and drink that is allotted them, and that such as is abundantly
+sufficient for them.
+
+6. And truly, as for other things, they do nothing but according to the
+injunctions of their curators; only these two things are done among them
+at everyone's own free-will, which are to assist those that want it,
+and to show mercy; for they are permitted of their own accord to afford
+succor to such as deserve it, when they stand in need of it, and to
+bestow food on those that are in distress; but they cannot give any
+thing to their kindred without the curators. They dispense their anger
+after a just manner, and restrain their passion. They are eminent for
+fidelity, and are the ministers of peace; whatsoever they say also is
+firmer than an oath; but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem it
+worse than perjury 4 for they say that he who cannot be believed without
+[swearing by] God is already condemned. They also take great pains in
+studying the writings of the ancients, and choose out of them what is
+most for the advantage of their soul and body; and they inquire after
+such roots and medicinal stones as may cure their distempers.
+
+7. But now if any one hath a mind to come over to their sect, he is not
+immediately admitted, but he is prescribed the same method of living
+which they use for a year, while he continues excluded'; and they give
+him also a small hatchet, and the fore-mentioned girdle, and the white
+garment. And when he hath given evidence, during that time, that he can
+observe their continence, he approaches nearer to their way of living,
+and is made a partaker of the waters of purification; yet is he not
+even now admitted to live with them; for after this demonstration of his
+fortitude, his temper is tried two more years; and if he appear to be
+worthy, they then admit him into their society. And before he is allowed
+to touch their common food, he is obliged to take tremendous oaths,
+that, in the first place, he will exercise piety towards God, and then
+that he will observe justice towards men, and that he will do no harm to
+any one, either of his own accord, or by the command of others; that he
+will always hate the wicked, and be assistant to the righteous; that
+he will ever show fidelity to all men, and especially to those
+in authority, because no one obtains the government without God's
+assistance; and that if he be in authority, he will at no time whatever
+abuse his authority, nor endeavor to outshine his subjects either in his
+garments, or any other finery; that he will be perpetually a lover of
+truth, and propose to himself to reprove those that tell lies; that he
+will keep his hands clear from theft, and his soul from unlawful gains;
+and that he will neither conceal any thing from those of his own sect,
+nor discover any of their doctrines to others, no, not though anyone
+should compel him so to do at the hazard of his life. Moreover, he
+swears to communicate their doctrines to no one any otherwise than as
+he received them himself; that he will abstain from robbery, and will
+equally preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the names of the
+angels 5 [or messengers]. These are the oaths by which they secure their
+proselytes to themselves.
+
+8. But for those that are caught in any heinous sins, they cast them out
+of their society; and he who is thus separated from them does often die
+after a miserable manner; for as he is bound by the oath he hath taken,
+and by the customs he hath been engaged in, he is not at liberty to
+partake of that food that he meets with elsewhere, but is forced to eat
+grass, and to famish his body with hunger, till he perish; for which
+reason they receive many of them again when they are at their last gasp,
+out of compassion to them, as thinking the miseries they have endured
+till they came to the very brink of death to be a sufficient punishment
+for the sins they had been guilty of.
+
+9. But in the judgments they exercise they are most accurate and just,
+nor do they pass sentence by the votes of a court that is fewer than
+a hundred. And as to what is once determined by that number, it is
+unalterable. What they most of all honor, after God himself, is the name
+of their legislator [Moses], whom if any one blaspheme he is punished
+capitally. They also think it a good thing to obey their elders, and the
+major part. Accordingly, if ten of them be sitting together, no one of
+them will speak while the other nine are against it. They also avoid
+spitting in the midst of them, or on the right side. Moreover, they are
+stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their labors on the
+seventh day; for they not only get their food ready the day before, that
+they may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that day, but they will not
+remove any vessel out of its place, nor go to stool thereon. Nay, on
+other days they dig a small pit, a foot deep, with a paddle [which kind
+of hatchet is given them when they are first admitted among them]; and
+covering themselves round with their garment, that they may not affront
+the Divine rays of light, they ease themselves into that pit, after
+which they put the earth that was dug out again into the pit; and even
+this they do only in the more lonely places, which they choose out for
+this purpose; and although this easement of the body be natural, yet
+it is a rule with them to wash themselves after it, as if it were a
+defilement to them.
+
+10. Now after the time of their preparatory trial is over, they are
+parted into four classes; and so far are the juniors inferior to the
+seniors, that if the seniors should be touched by the juniors, they must
+wash themselves, as if they had intermixed themselves with the company
+of a foreigner. They are long-lived also, insomuch that many of them
+live above a hundred years, by means of the simplicity of their diet;
+nay, as I think, by means of the regular course of life they observe
+also. They contemn the miseries of life, and are above pain, by the
+generosity of their mind. And as for death, if it will be for their
+glory, they esteem it better than living always; and indeed our war with
+the Romans gave abundant evidence what great souls they had in their
+trials, wherein, although they were tortured and distorted, burnt and
+torn to pieces, and went through all kinds of instruments of torment,
+that they might be forced either to blaspheme their legislator, or to
+eat what was forbidden them, yet could they not be made to do either of
+them, no, nor once to flatter their tormentors, or to shed a tear;
+but they smiled in their very pains, and laughed those to scorn who
+inflicted the torments upon them, and resigned up their souls with great
+alacrity, as expecting to receive them again.
+
+11. For their doctrine is this: That bodies are corruptible, and that
+the matter they are made of is not permanent; but that the souls are
+immortal, and continue for ever; and that they come out of the most
+subtile air, and are united to their bodies as to prisons, into which
+they are drawn by a certain natural enticement; but that when they are
+set free from the bonds of the flesh, they then, as released from a long
+bondage, rejoice and mount upward. And this is like the opinions of the
+Greeks, that good souls have their habitations beyond the ocean, in a
+region that is neither oppressed with storms of rain or snow, or with
+intense heat, but that this place is such as is refreshed by the gentle
+breathing of a west wind, that is perpetually blowing from the ocean;
+while they allot to bad souls a dark and tempestuous den, full of
+never-ceasing punishments. And indeed the Greeks seem to me to have
+followed the same notion, when they allot the islands of the blessed to
+their brave men, whom they call heroes and demi-gods; and to the souls
+of the wicked, the region of the ungodly, in Hades, where their fables
+relate that certain persons, such as Sisyphus, and Tantalus, and Ixion,
+and Tityus, are punished; which is built on this first supposition,
+that souls are immortal; and thence are those exhortations to virtue and
+dehortations from wickedness collected; whereby good men are bettered
+in the conduct of their life by the hope they have of reward after their
+death; and whereby the vehement inclinations of bad men to vice are
+restrained, by the fear and expectation they are in, that although
+they should lie concealed in this life, they should suffer immortal
+punishment after their death. These are the Divine doctrines of the
+Essens 6 about the soul, which lay an unavoidable bait for such as have
+once had a taste of their philosophy.
+
+12. There are also those among them who undertake to foretell things
+to come, 7 by reading the holy books, and using several sorts of
+purifications, and being perpetually conversant in the discourses of the
+prophets; and it is but seldom that they miss in their predictions.
+
+13. Moreover, there is another order of Essens, 8 who agree with the
+rest as to their way of living, and customs, and laws, but differ from
+them in the point of marriage, as thinking that by not marrying they
+cut off the principal part of human life, which is the prospect of
+succession; nay, rather, that if all men should be of the same opinion,
+the whole race of mankind would fail. However, they try their spouses
+for three years; and if they find that they have their natural
+purgations thrice, as trials that they are likely to be fruitful, they
+then actually marry them. But they do not use to accompany with their
+wives when they are with child, as a demonstration that they do not many
+out of regard to pleasure, but for the sake of posterity. Now the women
+go into the baths with some of their garments on, as the men do with
+somewhat girded about them. And these are the customs of this order of
+Essens.
+
+14. But then as to the two other orders at first mentioned, the
+Pharisees are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exact
+explication of their laws, and introduce the first sect. These ascribe
+all to fate [or providence], and to God, and yet allow, that to act what
+is right, or the contrary, is principally in the power of men, although
+fate does co-operate in every action. They say that all souls are
+incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into
+other bodies,--but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal
+punishment. But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order,
+and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in
+our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is
+good, or what is evil, is at men's own choice, and that the one or the
+other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They
+also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the
+punishments and rewards in Hades. Moreover, the Pharisees are friendly
+to one another, and are for the exercise of concord, and regard for the
+public; but the behavior of the Sadducees one towards another is in some
+degree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own
+party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this is
+what I had to say concerning the philosophic sects among the Jews.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+
+     The Death Of Salome. The Cities Which Herod And Philip
+     Built. Pilate Occasions Disturbances. Tiberius Puts Agrippa
+     Into Bonds But Caius Frees Him From Them, And Makes Him
+     King. Herod Antipas Is Banished.
+
+1. And now as the ethnarchy of Archelaus was fallen into a Roman
+province, the other sons of Herod, Philip, and that Herod who was called
+Antipas, each of them took upon them the administration of their own
+tetrarchies; for when Salome died, she bequeathed to Julia, the wife of
+Augustus, both her toparchy, and Jamriga, as also her plantation of palm
+trees that were in Phasaelis. But when the Roman empire was translated
+to Tiberius, the son of Julia, upon the death of Augustus, who had
+reigned fifty-seven years, six months, and two days, both Herod and
+Philip continued in their tetrarchies; and the latter of them built the
+city Cesarea, at the fountains of Jordan, and in the region of Paneas;
+as also the city Julias, in the lower Gaulonitis. Herod also built the
+city Tiberius in Galilee, and in Perea [beyond Jordan] another that was
+also called Julias.
+
+2. Now Pilate, who was sent as procurator into Judea by Tiberius, sent
+by night those images of Caesar that are called ensigns into Jerusalem.
+This excited a very great tumult among the Jews when it was day;
+for those that were near them were astonished at the sight of them, as
+indications that their laws were trodden under foot; for those laws do
+not permit any sort of image to be brought into the city. Nay, besides
+the indignation which the citizens had themselves at this procedure,
+a vast number of people came running out of the country. These came
+zealously to Pilate to Cesarea, and besought him to carry those ensigns
+out of Jerusalem, and to preserve them their ancient laws inviolable;
+but upon Pilate's denial of their request, they fell 9 down prostrate
+upon the ground, and continued immovable in that posture for five days
+and as many nights.
+
+3. On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal, in the open
+market-place, and called to him the multitude, as desirous to give them
+an answer; and then gave a signal to the soldiers, that they should all
+by agreement at once encompass the Jews with their weapons; so the band
+of soldiers stood round about the Jews in three ranks. The Jews were
+under the utmost consternation at that unexpected sight. Pilate also
+said to them that they should be cut in pieces, unless they would admit
+of Caesar's images, and gave intimation to the soldiers to draw their
+naked swords. Hereupon the Jews, as it were at one signal, fell down in
+vast numbers together, and exposed their necks bare, and cried out
+that they were sooner ready to be slain, than that their law should be
+transgressed. Hereupon Pilate was greatly surprised at their prodigious
+superstition, and gave order that the ensigns should be presently
+carried out of Jerusalem.
+
+4. After this he raised another disturbance, by expending that sacred
+treasure which is called Corban 10 upon aqueducts, whereby he brought
+water from the distance of four hundred furlongs. At this the multitude
+had indignation; and when Pilate was come to Jerusalem, they came
+about his tribunal, and made a clamor at it. Now when he was apprized
+aforehand of this disturbance, he mixed his own soldiers in their armor
+with the multitude, and ordered them to conceal themselves under the
+habits of private men, and not indeed to use their swords, but with
+their staves to beat those that made the clamor. He then gave the signal
+from his tribunal [to do as he had bidden them]. Now the Jews were so
+sadly beaten, that many of them perished by the stripes they received,
+and many of them perished as trodden to death by themselves; by which
+means the multitude was astonished at the calamity of those that were
+slain, and held their peace.
+
+5. In the mean time Agrippa, the son of that Aristobulus who had
+been slain by his father Herod, came to Tiberius, to accuse Herod the
+tetrarch; who not admitting of his accusation, he staid at Rome, and
+cultivated a friendship with others of the men of note, but principally
+with Caius the son of Germanicus, who was then but a private person.
+Now this Agrippa, at a certain time, feasted Caius; and as he was very
+complaisant to him on several other accounts, he at length stretched out
+his hands, and openly wished that Tiberius might die, and that he might
+quickly see him emperor of the world. This was told to Tiberius by
+one of Agrippa's domestics, who thereupon was very angry, and ordered
+Agrippa to be bound, and had him very ill-treated in the prison for six
+months, until Tiberius died, after he had reigned twenty-two years, six
+months, and three days.
+
+6. But when Caius was made Caesar, he released Agrippa from his bonds,
+and made him king of Philip's tetrarchy, who was now dead; but when
+Agrippa had arrived at that degree of dignity, he inflamed the ambitious
+desires of Herod the tetrarch, who was chiefly induced to hope for the
+royal authority by his wife Herodias, who reproached him for his sloth,
+and told him that it was only because he would not sail to Caesar
+that he was destitute of that great dignity; for since Caesar had made
+Agrippa a king, from a private person, much mole would he advance him
+from a tetrarch to that dignity. These arguments prevailed with Herod,
+so that he came to Caius, by whom he was punished for his ambition, by
+being banished into Spain; for Agrippa followed him, in order to accuse
+him; to whom also Caius gave his tetrarchy, by way of addition. So Herod
+died in Spain, whither his wife had followed him.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+
+     Caius Commands That His Statue Should Be Set Up In The
+     Temple Itself; And What Petronius Did Thereupon.
+
+1. Now Caius Caesar did so grossly abuse the fortune he had arrived at,
+as to take himself to be a god, and to desire to be so called also, and
+to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of his country. He also
+extended his impiety as far as the Jews. Accordingly, he sent Petronius
+with an army to Jerusalem, to place his statues in the temple, 11 and
+commanded him that, in case the Jews would not admit of them, he should
+slay those that opposed it, and carry all the rest of the nation into
+captivity: but God concerned himself with these his commands. However,
+Petronius marched out of Antioch into Judea, with three legions, and
+many Syrian auxiliaries. Now as to the Jews, some of them could not
+believe the stories that spake of a war; but those that did believe them
+were in the utmost distress how to defend themselves, and the terror
+diffused itself presently through them all; for the army was already
+come to Ptolemais.
+
+2. This Ptolemais is a maritime city of Galilee, built in the great
+plain. It is encompassed with mountains: that on the east side, sixty
+furlongs off, belongs to Galilee; but that on the south belongs to
+Carmel, which is distant from it a hundred and twenty furlongs; and that
+on the north is the highest of them all, and is called by the people of
+the country, The Ladder of the Tyrians, which is at the distance of
+a hundred furlongs. The very small river Belus 12 runs by it, at the
+distance of two furlongs; near which there is Menmon's monument, 13 and
+hath near it a place no larger than a hundred cubits, which deserves
+admiration; for the place is round and hollow, and affords such sand
+as glass is made of; which place, when it hath been emptied by the many
+ships there loaded, it is filled again by the winds, which bring into
+it, as it were on purpose, that sand which lay remote, and was no more
+than bare common sand, while this mine presently turns it into glassy
+sand. And what is to me still more wonderful, that glassy sand which is
+superfluous, and is once removed out of the place, becomes bare common
+sand again. And this is the nature of the place we are speaking of.
+
+3. But now the Jews got together in great numbers with their wives and
+children into that plain that was by Ptolemais, and made supplication to
+Petronius, first for their laws, and, in the next place, for themselves.
+So he was prevailed upon by the multitude of the supplicants, and by
+their supplications, and left his army and the statues at Ptolemais, and
+then went forward into Galilee, and called together the multitude
+and all the men of note to Tiberias, and showed them the power of the
+Romans, and the threatenings of Caesar; and, besides this, proved
+that their petition was unreasonable, because while all the nations
+in subjection to them had placed the images of Caesar in their several
+cities, among the rest of their gods, for them alone to oppose it, was
+almost like the behavior of revolters, and was injurious to Caesar.
+
+4. And when they insisted on their law, and the custom of their country,
+and how it was not only not permitted them to make either an image of
+God, or indeed of a man, and to put it in any despicable part of their
+country, much less in the temple itself, Petronius replied, "And am
+not I also," said he, "bound to keep the law of my own lord? For if I
+transgress it, and spare you, it is but just that I perish; while he
+that sent me, and not I, will commence a war against you; for I am under
+command as well as you." Hereupon the whole multitude cried out that
+they were ready to suffer for their law. Petronius then quieted them,
+and said to them, "Will you then make war against Caesar?" The Jews
+said, "We offer sacrifices twice every day for Caesar, and for the Roman
+people;" but that if he would place the images among them, he must first
+sacrifice the whole Jewish nation; and that they were ready to expose
+themselves, together with their children and wives, to be slain. At
+this Petronius was astonished, and pitied them, on account of the
+inexpressible sense of religion the men were under, and that courage
+of theirs which made them ready to die for it; so they were dismissed
+without success.
+
+5. But on the following days he got together the men of power privately,
+and the multitude publicly, and sometimes he used persuasions to them,
+and sometimes he gave them his advice; but he chiefly made use of
+threatenings to them, and insisted upon the power of the Romans, and the
+anger of Caius; and besides, upon the necessity he was himself under [to
+do as he was enjoined]. But as they could be no way prevailed upon, and
+he saw that the country was in danger of lying without tillage; [for it
+was about seed time that the multitude continued for fifty days together
+idle;] so he at last got them together, and told them that it was
+best for him to run some hazard himself; "for either, by the Divine
+assistance, I shall prevail with Caesar, and shall myself escape the
+danger as well as you, which will be matter of joy to us both; or, in
+case Caesar continue in his rage, I will be ready to expose my own
+life for such a great number as you are." Whereupon he dismissed the
+multitude, who prayed greatly for his prosperity; and he took the army
+out of Ptolemais, and returned to Antioch; from whence he presently sent
+an epistle to Caesar, and informed him of the irruption he had made into
+Judea, and of the supplications of the nation; and that unless he had a
+mind to lose both the country and the men in it, he must permit them
+to keep their law, and must countermand his former injunction. Caius
+answered that epistle in a violent-way, and threatened to have Petronius
+put to death for his being so tardy in the execution of what he had
+commanded. But it happened that those who brought Caius's epistle were
+tossed by a storm, and were detained on the sea for three months,
+while others that brought the news of Caius's death had a good voyage.
+Accordingly, Petronins received the epistle concerning Caius seven and
+twenty days before he received that which was against himself.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11.
+
+
+     Concerning The Government Of Claudius, And The Reign Of
+     Agrippa. Concerning The Deaths Of Agrippa And Of Herod And
+     What Children They Both Left Behind Them.
+
+1. Now when Caius had reigned three years and eight months, and had been
+slain by treachery, Claudius was hurried away by the armies that were at
+Rome to take the government upon him; but the senate, upon the reference
+of the consuls, Sentis Saturninus, and Pomponius Secundus, gave orders
+to the three regiments of soldiers that staid with them to keep the city
+quiet, and went up into the capitol in great numbers, and resolved to
+oppose Claudius by force, on account of the barbarous treatment they
+had met with from Caius; and they determined either to settle the nation
+under an aristocracy, as they had of old been governed, or at least to
+choose by vote such a one for emperor as might be worthy of it.
+
+2. Now it happened that at this time Agrippa sojourned at Rome, and that
+both the senate called him to consult with them, and at the same time
+Claudius sent for him out of the camp, that he might be serviceable to
+him, as he should have occasion for his service. So he, perceiving that
+Claudius was in effect made Caesar already, went to him, who sent him as
+an ambassador to the senate, to let them know what his intentions were:
+that, in the first place, it was without his seeking that he was hurried
+away by the soldiers; moreover, that he thought it was not just to
+desert those soldiers in such their zeal for him, and that if he should
+do so, his own fortune would be in uncertainty; for that it was a
+dangerous case to have been once called to the empire. He added further,
+that he would administer the government as a good prince, and not like
+a tyrant; for that he would be satisfied with the honor of being called
+emperor, but would, in every one of his actions, permit them all to
+give him their advice; for that although he had not been by nature
+for moderation, yet would the death of Caius afford him a sufficient
+demonstration how soberly he ought to act in that station.
+
+3. This message was delivered by Agrippa; to which the senate replied,
+that since they had an army, and the wisest counsels on their side,
+they would not endure a voluntary slavery. And when Claudius heard what
+answer the senate had made, he sent Agrippa to them again, with the
+following message: That he could not bear the thoughts of betraying them
+that had given their oaths to be true to him; and that he saw he must
+fight, though unwillingly, against such as he had no mind to fight;
+that, however, [if it must come to that,] it was proper to choose a
+place without the city for the war, because it was not agreeable to
+piety to pollute the temples of their own city with the blood of their
+own countrymen, and this only on occasion of their imprudent conduct.
+And when Agrippa had heard this message, he delivered it to the
+senators.
+
+4. In the mean time, one of the soldiers belonging to the senate drew
+his sword, and cried out, "O my fellow soldiers, what is the meaning of
+this choice of ours, to kill our brethren, and to use violence to our
+kindred that are with Claudius? while we may have him for our emperor
+whom no one can blame, and who hath so many just reasons [to lay claim
+to the government]; and this with regard to those against whom we are
+going to fight." When he had said this, he marched through the whole
+senate, and carried all the soldiers along with him. Upon which all
+the patricians were immediately in a great fright at their being thus
+deserted. But still, because there appeared no other way whither they
+could turn themselves for deliverance, they made haste the same way with
+the soldiers, and went to Claudius. But those that had the greatest luck
+in flattering the good fortune of Claudius betimes met them before the
+walls with their naked swords, and there was reason to fear that those
+that came first might have been in danger, before Claudius could know
+what violence the soldiers were going to offer them, had not Agrippa ran
+before, and told him what a dangerous thing they were going about, and
+that unless he restrained the violence of these men, who were in a fit
+of madness against the patricians, he would lose those on whose account
+it was most desirable to rule, and would be emperor over a desert.
+
+5. When Claudius heard this, he restrained the violence of the soldiery,
+and received the senate into the camp, and treated them after an
+obliging manner, and went out with them presently to offer their
+thank-offerings to God, which were proper upon, his first coming to
+the empire. Moreover, he bestowed on Agrippa his whole paternal kingdom
+immediately, and added to it, besides those countries that had been
+given by Augustus to Herod, Trachonitis and Auranitis, and still besides
+these, that kingdom which was called the kingdom of Lysanius. This gift
+he declared to the people by a decree, but ordered the magistrates to
+have the donation engraved on tables of brass, and to be set up in the
+capitol. He bestowed on his brother Herod, who was also his son-in-law,
+by marrying [his daughter] Bernice, the kingdom of Chalcis.
+
+6. So now riches flowed in to Agrippa by his enjoyment of so large a
+dominion; nor did he abuse the money he had on small matters, but
+he began to encompass Jerusalem with such a wall, which, had it been
+brought to perfection, had made it impracticable for the Romans to take
+it by siege; but his death, which happened at Cesarea, before he had
+raised the walls to their due height, prevented him. He had then reigned
+three years, as he had governed his tetrarchies three other years.
+He left behind him three daughters, born to him by Cypros, Bernice,
+Mariamne, and Drusilla, and a son born of the same mother, whose name
+was Agrippa: he was left a very young child, so that Claudius made the
+country a Roman province, and sent Cuspius Fadus to be its procurator,
+and after him Tiberius Alexander, who, making no alterations of the
+ancient laws, kept the nation in tranquillity. Now after this, Herod the
+king of Chalcis died, and left behind him two sons, born to him of his
+brother's daughter Bernice; their names were Bernie Janus and Hyrcanus.
+[He also left behind him] Aristobulus, whom he had by his former wife
+Mariamne. There was besides another brother of his that died a private
+person, his name was also Aristobulus, who left behind him a daughter,
+whose name was Jotape: and these, as I have formerly said, were
+the children of Aristobulus the son of Herod, which Aristobulus and
+Alexander were born to Herod by Mariamne, and were slain by him. But as
+for Alexander's posterity, they reigned in Armenia.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12.
+
+
+     Many Tumults Under Cumanus, Which Were Composed By
+     Quadratus. Felix Is Procurator Of Judea. Agrippa Is Advanced
+     From Chalcis To A Greater Kingdom.
+
+1 Now after the death of Herod, king of Chalcis, Claudius set Agrippa,
+the son of Agrippa, over his uncle's kingdom, while Cumanus took upon
+him the office of procurator of the rest, which was a Roman province,
+and therein he succeeded Alexander; under which Cumanus began the
+troubles, and the Jews' ruin came on; for when the multitude were come
+together to Jerusalem, to the feast of unleavened bread, and a Roman
+cohort stood over the cloisters of the temple, [for they always were
+armed, and kept guard at the festivals, to prevent any innovation which
+the multitude thus gathered together might make,] one of the soldiers
+pulled back his garment, and cowering down after an indecent manner,
+turned his breech to the Jews, and spake such words as you might expect
+upon such a posture. At this the whole multitude had indignation, and
+made a clamor to Cumanus, that he would punish the soldier; while
+the rasher part of the youth, and such as were naturally the most
+tumultuous, fell to fighting, and caught up stones, and threw them at
+the soldiers. Upon which Cumanus was afraid lest all the people should
+make an assault upon him, and sent to call for more armed men, who, when
+they came in great numbers into the cloisters, the Jews were in a very
+great consternation; and being beaten out of the temple, they ran into
+the city; and the violence with which they crowded to get out was so
+great, that they trod upon each other, and squeezed one another, till
+ten thousand of them were killed, insomuch that this feast became the
+cause of mourning to the whole nation, and every family lamented their
+own relations.
+
+2. Now there followed after this another calamity, which arose from
+a tumult made by robbers; for at the public road at Beth-boron, one
+Stephen, a servant of Caesar, carried some furniture, which the robbers
+fell upon and seized. Upon this Cumanus sent men to go round about to
+the neighboring villages, and to bring their inhabitants to him bound,
+as laying it to their charge that they had not pursued after the
+thieves, and caught them. Now here it was that a certain soldier,
+finding the sacred book of the law, tore it to pieces, and threw it into
+the fire. 14 Hereupon the Jews were in great disorder, as if their whole
+country were in a flame, and assembled themselves so many of them by
+their zeal for their religion, as by an engine, and ran together with
+united clamor to Cesarea, to Cumanus, and made supplication to him that
+he would not overlook this man, who had offered such an affront to God,
+and to his law; but punish him for what he had done. Accordingly, he,
+perceiving that the multitude would not be quiet unless they had a
+comfortable answer from him, gave order that the soldier should be
+brought, and drawn through those that required to have him punished, to
+execution, which being done, the Jews went their ways.
+
+3. After this there happened a fight between the Galileans and the
+Samaritans; it happened at a village called Geman, which is situate in
+the great plain of Samaria; where, as a great number of Jews were going
+up to Jerusalem to the feast [of tabernacles,] a certain Galilean was
+slain; and besides, a vast number of people ran together out of Galilee,
+in order to fight with the Samaritans. But the principal men among
+them came to Cumanus, and besought him that, before the evil became
+incurable, he would come into Galilee, and bring the authors of this
+murder to punishment; for that there was no other way to make the
+multitude separate without coming to blows. However, Cumanus postponed
+their supplications to the other affairs he was then about, and sent the
+petitioners away without success.
+
+4. But when the affair of this murder came to be told at Jerusalem, it
+put the multitude into disorder, and they left the feast; and without
+any generals to conduct them, they marched with great violence to
+Samaria; nor would they be ruled by any of the magistrates that were set
+over them, but they were managed by one Eleazar, the son of Dineus, and
+by Alexander, in these their thievish and seditious attempts. These
+men fell upon those that were in the neighborhood of the Acrabatene
+toparchy, and slew them, without sparing any age, and set the villages
+on fire.
+
+5. But Cumanus took one troop of horsemen, called the troop of Sebaste,
+out of Cesarea, and came to the assistance of those that were spoiled;
+he also seized upon a great number of those that followed Eleazar, and
+slew more of them. And as for the rest of the multitude of those that
+went so zealously to fight with the Samaritans, the rulers of Jerusalem
+ran out clothed with sackcloth, and having ashes on their head, and
+begged of them to go their ways, lest by their attempt to revenge
+themselves upon the Samaritans they should provoke the Romans to come
+against Jerusalem; to have compassion upon their country and temple,
+their children and their wives, and not bring the utmost dangers of
+destruction upon them, in order to avenge themselves upon one Galilean
+only. The Jews complied with these persuasions of theirs, and dispersed
+themselves; but still there were a great number who betook themselves
+to robbing, in hopes of impunity; and rapines and insurrections of the
+bolder sort happened over the whole country. And the men of power among
+the Samaritans came to Tyre, to Ummidius Quadratus, 15 the president of
+Syria, and desired that they that had laid waste the country might be
+punished: the great men also of the Jews, and Jonathan the son of Ananus
+the high priest, came thither, and said that the Samaritans were
+the beginners of the disturbance, on account of that murder they had
+committed; and that Cumanus had given occasion to what had happened, by
+his unwillingness to punish the original authors of that murder.
+
+6. But Quadratus put both parties off for that time, and told them, that
+when he should come to those places, he would make a diligent inquiry
+after every circumstance. After which he went to Cesarea, and crucified
+all those whom Cumanus had taken alive; and when from thence he was come
+to the city Lydda, he heard the affair of the Samaritans, and sent for
+eighteen of the Jews, whom he had learned to have been concerned in that
+fight, and beheaded them; but he sent two others of those that were of
+the greatest power among them, and both Jonathan and Ananias, the high
+priests, as also Artanus the son of this Ananias, and certain others
+that were eminent among the Jews, to Caesar; as he did in like manner
+by the most illustrious of the Samaritans. He also ordered that Cumanus
+[the procurator] and Celer the tribune should sail to Rome, in order to
+give an account of what had been done to Caesar. When he had finished
+these matters, he went up from Lydda to Jerusalem, and finding the
+multitude celebrating their feast of unleavened bread without any
+tumult, he returned to Antioch.
+
+7. Now when Caesar at Rome had heard what Cumanus and the Samaritans
+had to say, [where it was done in the hearing of Agrippa, who zealously
+espoused the cause of the Jews, as in like manner many of the great men
+stood by Cumanus,] he condemned the Samaritans, and commanded that three
+of the most powerful men among them should be put to death; he banished
+Cumanus, and sent Celer bound to Jerusalem, to be delivered over to the
+Jews to be tormented; that he should be drawn round the city, and then
+beheaded.
+
+8. After this Caesar sent Felix, 16 the brother of Pallas, to be
+procurator of Galilee, and Samaria, and Perea, and removed Agrippa from
+Chalcis unto a greater kingdom; for he gave him the tetrarchy which
+had belonged to Philip, which contained Batanae, Trachonitis, and
+Gaulonitis: he added to it the kingdom of Lysanias, and that province
+[Abilene] which Varus had governed. But Claudius himself, when he had
+administered the government thirteen years, eight months, and twenty
+days, died, and left Nero to be his successor in the empire, whom he had
+adopted by his Wife Agrippina's delusions, in order to be his successor,
+although he had a son of his own, whose name was Britannicus, by
+Messalina his former wife, and a daughter whose name was Octavia, whom
+he had married to Nero; he had also another daughter by Petina, whose
+name was Antonia.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13.
+
+
+     Nero Adds Four Cities To Agrippas Kingdom; But The Other
+     Parts Of Judea Were Under Felix. The Disturbances Which Were
+     Raised By The Sicarii The Magicians And An Egyptian False
+     Prophet. The Jews And Syrians Have A Contest At Cesarea.
+
+1. Now as to the many things in which Nero acted like a madman, out of
+the extravagant degree of the felicity and riches which he enjoyed, and
+by that means used his good fortune to the injury of others; and after
+what manner he slew his brother, and wife, and mother, from whom his
+barbarity spread itself to others that were most nearly related to him;
+and how, at last, he was so distracted that he became an actor in
+the scenes, and upon the theater,--I omit to say any more about them,
+because there are writers enough upon those subjects every where; but
+I shall turn myself to those actions of his time in which the Jews were
+concerned.
+
+2. Nero therefore bestowed the kingdom of the Lesser Armenia upon
+Aristobulus, Herod's son, 17 and he added to Agrippa's kingdom four
+cities, with the toparchies to them belonging; I mean Abila, and that
+Julias which is in Perea, Tarichea also, and Tiberias of Galilee; but
+over the rest of Judea he made Felix procurator. This Felix took Eleazar
+the arch-robber, and many that were with him, alive, when they had
+ravaged the country for twenty years together, and sent them to Rome;
+but as to the number of the robbers whom he caused to be crucified, and
+of those who were caught among them, and whom he brought to punishment,
+they were a multitude not to be enumerated.
+
+3. When the country was purged of these, there sprang up another sort of
+robbers in Jerusalem, which were called Sicarii, who slew men in the
+day time, and in the midst of the city; this they did chiefly at
+the festivals, when they mingled themselves among the multitude, and
+concealed daggers under their garments, with which they stabbed those
+that were their enemies; and when any fell down dead, the murderers
+became a part of those that had indignation against them; by which means
+they appeared persons of such reputation, that they could by no means
+be discovered. The first man who was slain by them was Jonathan the high
+priest, after whose death many were slain every day, while the fear men
+were in of being so served was more afflicting than the calamity itself;
+and while every body expected death every hour, as men do in war, so men
+were obliged to look before them, and to take notice of their enemies at
+a great distance; nor, if their friends were coming to them, durst
+they trust them any longer; but, in the midst of their suspicions and
+guarding of themselves, they were slain. Such was the celerity of the
+plotters against them, and so cunning was their contrivance.
+
+4. There was also another body of wicked men gotten together, not so
+impure in their actions, but more wicked in their intentions, which
+laid waste the happy state of the city no less than did these murderers.
+These were such men as deceived and deluded the people under pretense
+of Divine inspiration, but were for procuring innovations and changes
+of the government; and these prevailed with the multitude to act like
+madmen, and went before them into the wilderness, as pretending that
+God would there show them the signals of liberty. But Felix thought this
+procedure was to be the beginning of a revolt; so he sent some horsemen
+and footmen both armed, who destroyed a great number of them.
+
+5. But there was an Egyptian false prophet that did the Jews more
+mischief than the former; for he was a cheat, and pretended to be a
+prophet also, and got together thirty thousand men that were deluded by
+him; these he led round about from the wilderness to the mount which
+was called the Mount of Olives, and was ready to break into Jerusalem
+by force from that place; and if he could but once conquer the Roman
+garrison and the people, he intended to domineer over them by the
+assistance of those guards of his that were to break into the city
+with him. But Felix prevented his attempt, and met him with his Roman
+soldiers, while all the people assisted him in his attack upon them,
+insomuch that when it came to a battle, the Egyptian ran away, with a
+few others, while the greatest part of those that were with him were
+either destroyed or taken alive; but the rest of the multitude were
+dispersed every one to their own homes, and there concealed themselves.
+
+6. Now when these were quieted, it happened, as it does in a diseased
+body, that another part was subject to an inflammation; for a company
+of deceivers and robbers got together, and persuaded the Jews to revolt,
+and exhorted them to assert their liberty, inflicting death on those
+that continued in obedience to the Roman government, and saying, that
+such as willingly chose slavery ought to be forced from such their
+desired inclinations; for they parted themselves into different bodies,
+and lay in wait up and down the country, and plundered the houses of the
+great men, and slew the men themselves, and set the villages on fire;
+and this till all Judea was filled with the effects of their madness.
+And thus the flame was every day more and more blown up, till it came to
+a direct war.
+
+7. There was also another disturbance at Cesarea,--those Jews who were
+mixed with the Syrians that lived there rising a tumult against them.
+The Jews pretended that the city was theirs, and said that he who built
+it was a Jew, meaning king Herod. The Syrians confessed also that its
+builder was a Jew; but they still said, however, that the city was a
+Grecian city; for that he who set up statues and temples in it could not
+design it for Jews. On which account both parties had a contest with
+one another; and this contest increased so much, that it came at last to
+arms, and the bolder sort of them marched out to fight; for the elders
+of the Jews were not able to put a stop to their own people that were
+disposed to be tumultuous, and the Greeks thought it a shame for them
+to be overcome by the Jews. Now these Jews exceeded the others in
+riches and strength of body; but the Grecian part had the advantage
+of assistance from the soldiery; for the greatest part of the Roman
+garrison was raised out of Syria; and being thus related to the Syrian
+part, they were ready to assist it. However, the governors of the city
+were concerned to keep all quiet, and whenever they caught those that
+were most for fighting on either side, they punished them with stripes
+and bands. Yet did not the sufferings of those that were caught affright
+the remainder, or make them desist; but they were still more and more
+exasperated, and deeper engaged in the sedition. And as Felix came once
+into the market-place, and commanded the Jews, when they had beaten the
+Syrians, to go their ways, and threatened them if they would not, and
+they would not obey him, he sent his soldiers out upon them, and slew
+a great many of them, upon which it fell out that what they had was
+plundered. And as the sedition still continued, he chose out the most
+eminent men on both sides as ambassadors to Nero, to argue about their
+several privileges.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14.
+
+
+     Festus Succeeds Felix Who Is Succeeded By Albinus As He Is
+     By Florus; Who By The Barbarity Of His Government Forces The
+     Jews Into The War.
+
+1. Now it was that Festus succeeded Felix as procurator, and made it his
+business to correct those that made disturbances in the country. So he
+caught the greatest part of the robbers, and destroyed a great many of
+them. But then Albinus, who succeeded Festus, did not execute his office
+as the other had done; nor was there any sort of wickedness that could
+be named but he had a hand in it. Accordingly, he did not only, in his
+political capacity, steal and plunder every one's substance, nor did he
+only burden the whole nation with taxes, but he permitted the relations
+of such as were in prison for robbery, and had been laid there, either
+by the senate of every city, or by the former procurators, to redeem
+them for money; and no body remained in the prisons as a malefactor but
+he who gave him nothing. At this time it was that the enterprises of
+the seditious at Jerusalem were very formidable; the principal men
+among them purchasing leave of Albinus to go on with their seditious
+practices; while that part of the people who delighted in disturbances
+joined themselves to such as had fellowship with Albinus; and every one
+of these wicked wretches were encompassed with his own band of robbers,
+while he himself, like an arch-robber, or a tyrant, made a figure among
+his company, and abused his authority over those about him, in order
+to plunder those that lived quietly. The effect of which was this, that
+those who lost their goods were forced to hold their peace, when they
+had reason to show great indignation at what they had suffered; but
+those who had escaped were forced to flatter him that deserved to be
+punished, out of the fear they were in of suffering equally with the
+others. Upon the Whole, nobody durst speak their minds, but tyranny
+was generally tolerated; and at this time were those seeds sown which
+brought the city to destruction.
+
+2. And although such was the character of Albinus, yet did Gessius
+Florus 18 who succeeded him, demonstrate him to have been a most
+excellent person, upon the comparison; for the former did the greatest
+part of his rogueries in private, and with a sort of dissimulation; but
+Gessius did his unjust actions to the harm of the nation after a pompous
+manner; and as though he had been sent as an executioner to punish
+condemned malefactors, he omitted no sort of rapine, or of vexation;
+where the case was really pitiable, he was most barbarous, and in things
+of the greatest turpitude he was most impudent. Nor could any one outdo
+him in disguising the truth; nor could any one contrive more subtle ways
+of deceit than he did. He indeed thought it but a petty offense to get
+money out of single persons; so he spoiled whole cities, and ruined
+entire bodies of men at once, and did almost publicly proclaim it all
+the country over, that they had liberty given them to turn robbers, upon
+this condition, that he might go shares with them in the spoils they
+got. Accordingly, this his greediness of gain was the occasion that
+entire toparchies were brought to desolation, and a great many of the
+people left their own country, and fled into foreign provinces.
+
+3. And truly, while Cestius Gallus was president of the province of
+Syria, nobody durst do so much as send an embassage to him against
+Florus; but when he was come to Jerusalem, upon the approach of the
+feast of unleavened bread, the people came about him not fewer in number
+than three millions 19 these besought him to commiserate the calamities
+of their nation, and cried out upon Florus as the bane of their country.
+But as he was present, and stood by Cestius, he laughed at their words.
+However, Cestius, when he had quieted the multitude, and had assured
+them that he would take care that Florus should hereafter treat them in
+a more gentle manner, returned to Antioch. Florus also conducted him
+as far as Cesarea, and deluded him, though he had at that very time the
+purpose of showing his anger at the nation, and procuring a war upon
+them, by which means alone it was that he supposed he might conceal his
+enormities; for he expected that if the peace continued, he should have
+the Jews for his accusers before Caesar; but that if he could procure
+them to make a revolt, he should divert their laying lesser crimes to
+his charge, by a misery that was so much greater; he therefore did every
+day augment their calamities, in order to induce them to a rebellion.
+
+4. Now at this time it happened that the Grecians at Cesarea had been
+too hard for the Jews, and had obtained of Nero the government of the
+city, and had brought the judicial determination: at the same time began
+the war, in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, and the seventeenth
+of the reign of Agrippa, in the month of Artemisius [Jyar.] Now the
+occasion of this war was by no means proportionable to those heavy
+calamities which it brought upon us. For the Jews that dwelt at Cesarea
+had a synagogue near the place, whose owner was a certain Cesarean
+Greek: the Jews had endeavored frequently to have purchased the
+possession of the place, and had offered many times its value for its
+price; but as the owner overlooked their offers, so did he raise
+other buildings upon the place, in way of affront to them, and made
+working-shops of them, and left them but a narrow passage, and such as
+was very troublesome for them to go along to their synagogue. Whereupon
+the warmer part of the Jewish youth went hastily to the workmen, and
+forbade them to build there; but as Florus would not permit them to use
+force, the great men of the Jews, with John the publican, being in the
+utmost distress what to do, persuaded Florus, with the offer of eight
+talents, to hinder the work. He then, being intent upon nothing but
+getting money, promised he would do for them all they desired of him,
+and then went away from Cesarea to Sebaste, and left the sedition to
+take its full course, as if he had sold a license to the Jews to fight
+it out.
+
+5. Now on the next day, which was the seventh day of the week, when the
+Jews were crowding apace to their synagogue, a certain man of Cesarea,
+of a seditious temper, got an earthen vessel, and set it with the bottom
+upward, at the entrance of that synagogue, and sacrificed birds. This
+thing provoked the Jews to an incurable degree, because their laws were
+affronted, and the place was polluted. Whereupon the sober and moderate
+part of the Jews thought it proper to have recourse to their governors
+again, while the seditious part, and such as were in the fervor of their
+youth, were vehemently inflamed to fight. The seditions also among the
+Gentiles of Cesarea stood ready for the same purpose; for they had, by
+agreement, sent the man to sacrifice beforehand [as ready to support
+him;] so that it soon came to blows. Hereupon Jucundus, the master of
+the horse, who was ordered to prevent the fight, came thither, and took
+away the earthen vessel, and endeavored to put a stop to the sedition;
+but when 20 he was overcome by the violence of the people of Cesarea,
+the Jews caught up their books of the law, and retired to Narbata, which
+was a place to them belonging, distant from Cesarea sixty furlongs.
+But John, and twelve of the principal men with him, went to Florus, to
+Sebaste, and made a lamentable complaint of their case, and besought
+him to help them; and with all possible decency, put him in mind of the
+eight talents they had given him; but he had the men seized upon, and
+put in prison, and accused them for carrying the books of the law out of
+Cesarea.
+
+6. Moreover, as to the citizens of Jerusalem, although they took this
+matter very ill, yet did they restrain their passion; but Florus acted
+herein as if he had been hired, and blew up the war into a flame, and
+sent some to take seventeen talents out of the sacred treasure, and
+pretended that Caesar wanted them. At this the people were in confusion
+immediately, and ran together to the temple, with prodigious clamors,
+and called upon Caesar by name, and besought him to free them from the
+tyranny of Florus. Some also of the seditious cried out upon Florus, and
+cast the greatest reproaches upon him, and carried a basket about, and
+begged some spills of money for him, as for one that was destitute of
+possessions, and in a miserable condition. Yet was not he made ashamed
+hereby of his love of money, but was more enraged, and provoked to get
+still more; and instead of coming to Cesarea, as he ought to have done,
+and quenching the flame of war, which was beginning thence, and so
+taking away the occasion of any disturbances, on which account it was
+that he had received a reward [of eight talents], he marched hastily
+with an army of horsemen and footmen against Jerusalem, that he might
+gain his will by the arms of the Romans, and might, by his terror, and
+by his threatenings, bring the city into subjection.
+
+7. But the people were desirous of making Florus ashamed of his attempt,
+and met his soldiers with acclamations, and put themselves in order
+to receive him very submissively. But he sent Capito, a centurion,
+beforehand, with fifty soldiers, to bid them go back, and not now make
+a show of receiving him in an obliging manner, whom they had so foully
+reproached before; and said that it was incumbent on them, in case they
+had generous souls, and were free speakers, to jest upon him to his
+face, and appear to be lovers of liberty, not only in words, but with
+their weapons also. With this message was the multitude amazed; and
+upon the coming of Capito's horsemen into the midst of them, they were
+dispersed before they could salute Florus, or manifest their submissive
+behavior to him. Accordingly, they retired to their own houses, and
+spent that night in fear and confusion of face.
+
+8. Now at this time Florus took up his quarters at the palace; and on
+the next day he had his tribunal set before it, and sat upon it, when
+the high priests, and the men of power, and those of the greatest
+eminence in the city, came all before that tribunal; upon which Florus
+commanded them to deliver up to him those that had reproached him, and
+told them that they should themselves partake of the vengeance to them
+belonging, if they did not produce the criminals; but these demonstrated
+that the people were peaceably disposed, and they begged forgiveness for
+those that had spoken amiss; for that it was no wonder at all that in
+so great a multitude there should be some more daring than they ought to
+be, and, by reason of their younger age, foolish also; and that it was
+impossible to distinguish those that offended from the rest, while every
+one was sorry for what he had done, and denied it out of fear of what
+would follow: that he ought, however, to provide for the peace of the
+nation, and to take such counsels as might preserve the city for the
+Romans, and rather for the sake of a great number of innocent people to
+forgive a few that were guilty, than for the sake of a few of the wicked
+to put so large and good a body of men into disorder.
+
+9. Florus was more provoked at this, and called out aloud to the
+soldiers to plunder that which was called the Upper Market-place, and to
+slay such as they met with. So the soldiers, taking this exhortation of
+their commander in a sense agreeable to their desire of gain, did not
+only plunder the place they were sent to, but forcing themselves into
+every house, they slew its inhabitants; so the citizens fled along
+the narrow lanes, and the soldiers slew those that they caught, and
+no method of plunder was omitted; they also caught many of the quiet
+people, and brought them before Florus, whom he first chastised with
+stripes, and then crucified. Accordingly, the whole number of those that
+were destroyed that day, with their wives and children, [for they did
+not spare even the infants themselves,] was about three thousand and six
+hundred. And what made this calamity the heavier was this new method
+of Roman barbarity; for Florus ventured then to do what no one had done
+before, that is, to have men of the equestrian order whipped 21 and
+nailed to the cross before his tribunal; who, although they were by
+birth Jews, yet were they of Roman dignity notwithstanding.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15.
+
+
+     Concerning Bernice's Petition To Florus, To Spare The Jews,
+     But In Vain; As Also How, After The Seditious Flame Was
+     Quenched, It Was Kindled Again By Florus.
+
+1. About this very time king Agrippa was going to Alexandria, to
+congratulate Alexander upon his having obtained the government of Egypt
+from Nero; but as his sister Bernice was come to Jerusalem, and saw the
+wicked practices of the soldiers, she was sorely affected at it, and
+frequently sent the masters of her horse and her guards to Florus, and
+begged of him to leave off these slaughters; but he would not comply
+with her request, nor have any regard either to the multitude of those
+already slain, or to the nobility of her that interceded, but only to
+the advantage he should make by this plundering; nay, this violence of
+the soldiers brake out to such a degree of madness, that it spent itself
+on the queen herself; for they did not only torment and destroy those
+whom they had caught under her very eyes, but indeed had killed herself
+also, unless she had prevented them by flying to the palace, and had
+staid there all night with her guards, which she had about her for fear
+of an insult from the soldiers. Now she dwelt then at Jerusalem, in
+order to perform a vow 22 which she had made to God; for it is usual
+with those that had been either afflicted with a distemper, or with any
+other distresses, to make vows; and for thirty days before they are to
+offer their sacrifices, to abstain from wine, and to shave the hair of
+their head. Which things Bernice was now performing, and stood barefoot
+before Florus's tribunal, and besought him [to spare the Jews]. Yet
+could she neither have any reverence paid to her, nor could she escape
+without some danger of being slain herself.
+
+2. This happened upon the sixteenth day of the month Artemisius [Jyar].
+Now, on the next day, the multitude, who were in a great agony, ran
+together to the Upper Market-place, and made the loudest lamentations
+for those that had perished; and the greatest part of the cries were
+such as reflected on Florus; at which the men of power were affrighted,
+together with the high priests, and rent their garments, and fell down
+before each of them, and besought them to leave off, and not to provoke
+Florus to some incurable procedure, besides what they had already
+suffered. Accordingly, the multitude complied immediately, out of
+reverence to those that had desired it of them, and out of the hope they
+had that Florus would do them no more injuries.
+
+3. So Florus was troubled that the disturbances were over, and
+endeavored to kindle that flame again, and sent for the high priests,
+with the other eminent persons, and said the only demonstration that the
+people would not make any other innovations should be this, that they
+must go out and meet the soldiers that were ascending from Cesarea,
+whence two cohorts were coming; and while these men were exhorting
+the multitude so to do, he sent beforehand, and gave directions to the
+centurions of the cohorts, that they should give notice to those that
+were under them not to return the Jews' salutations; and that if they
+made any reply to his disadvantage, they should make use of their
+weapons. Now the high priests assembled the multitude in the temple, and
+desired them to go and meet the Romans, and to salute the cohorts very
+civilly, before their miserable case should become incurable. Now
+the seditious part would not comply with these persuasions; but the
+consideration of those that had been destroyed made them incline to
+those that were the boldest for action.
+
+4. At this time it was that every priest, and every servant of God,
+brought out the holy vessels, and the ornamental garments wherein they
+used to minister in sacred things. The harpers also, and the singers of
+hymns, came out with their instruments of music, and fell down before
+the multitude, and begged of them that they would preserve those holy
+ornaments to them, and not provoke the Romans to carry off those sacred
+treasures. You might also see then the high priests themselves, with
+dust sprinkled in great plenty upon their heads, with bosoms deprived of
+any covering but what was rent; these besought every one of the eminent
+men by name, and the multitude in common, that they would not for a
+small offense betray their country to those that were desirous to have
+it laid waste; saying, "What benefit will it bring to the soldiers to
+have a salutation from the Jews? or what amendment of your affairs will
+it bring you, if you do not now go out to meet them? and that if they
+saluted them civilly, all handle would be cut off from Florus to begin
+a war; that they should thereby gain their country, and freedom from all
+further sufferings; and that, besides, it would be a sign of great
+want of command of themselves, if they should yield to a few seditious
+persons, while it was fitter for them who were so great a people to
+force the others to act soberly."
+
+5. By these persuasions, which they used to the multitude and to the
+seditious, they restrained some by threatenings, and others by the
+reverence that was paid them. After this they led them out, and they met
+the soldiers quietly, and after a composed manner, and when they were
+come up with them, they saluted them; but when they made no answer,
+the seditious exclaimed against Florus, which was the signal given for
+falling upon them. The soldiers therefore encompassed them presently,
+and struck them with their clubs; and as they fled away, the horsemen
+trampled them down, so that a great many fell down dead by the strokes
+of the Romans, and more by their own violence in crushing one another.
+Now there was a terrible crowding about the gates, and while every
+body was making haste to get before another, the flight of them all was
+retarded, and a terrible destruction there was among those that fell
+down, for they were suffocated, and broken to pieces by the multitude of
+those that were uppermost; nor could any of them be distinguished by
+his relations in order to the care of his funeral; the soldiers also who
+beat them, fell upon those whom they overtook, without showing them any
+mercy, and thrust the multitude through the place called Bezetha, 23 as
+they forced their way, in order to get in and seize upon the temple, and
+the tower Antonia. Florus also being desirous to get those places into
+his possession, brought such as were with him out of the king's palace,
+and would have compelled them to get as far as the citadel [Antonia;]
+but his attempt failed, for the people immediately turned back upon him,
+and stopped the violence of his attempt; and as they stood upon the tops
+of their houses, they threw their darts at the Romans, who, as they were
+sorely galled thereby, because those weapons came from above, and they
+were not able to make a passage through the multitude, which stopped up
+the narrow passages, they retired to the camp which was at the palace.
+
+6. But for the seditious, they were afraid lest Florus should come
+again, and get possession of the temple, through Antonia; so they got
+immediately upon those cloisters of the temple that joined to Antonia,
+and cut them down. This cooled the avarice of Florus; for whereas he
+was eager to obtain the treasures of God [in the temple], and on that
+account was desirous of getting into Antonia, as soon as the cloisters
+were broken down, he left off his attempt; he then sent for the high
+priests and the sanhedrim, and told them that he was indeed himself
+going out of the city, but that he would leave them as large a garrison
+as they should desire. Hereupon they promised that they would make no
+innovations, in case he would leave them one band; but not that which
+had fought with the Jews, because the multitude bore ill-will against
+that band on account of what they had suffered from it; so he changed
+the band as they desired, and, with the rest of his forces, returned to
+Cesarea.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16.
+
+
+     Cestius Sends Neopolitanus The Tribune To See In What
+     Condition The Affairs Of The Jews Were. Agrippa Makes A
+     Speech To The People Of The Jews That He May Divert Them
+     From Their Intentions Of Making War With The Romans.
+
+1. However, Florus contrived another way to oblige the Jews to begin
+the war, and sent to Cestius, and accused the Jews falsely of revolting
+[from the Roman government], and imputed the beginning of the former
+fight to them, and pretended they had been the authors of that
+disturbance, wherein they were only the sufferers. Yet were not the
+governors of Jerusalem silent upon this occasion, but did themselves
+write to Cestius, as did Bernice also, about the illegal practices of
+which Florus had been guilty against the city; who, upon reading both
+accounts, consulted with his captains [what he should do]. Now some
+of them thought it best for Cestius to go up with his army, either to
+punish the revolt, if it was real, or to settle the Roman affairs on a
+surer foundation, if the Jews continued quiet under them; but he thought
+it best himself to send one of his intimate friends beforehand, to
+see the state of affairs, and to give him a faithful account of the
+intentions of the Jews. Accordingly, he sent one of his tribunes, whose
+name was Neopolitanus, who met with king Agrippa as he was returning
+from Alexandria, at Jamnia, and told him who it was that sent him, and
+on what errands he was sent.
+
+2. And here it was that the high priests, and men of power among the
+Jews, as well as the sanhedrim, came to congratulate the king [upon his
+safe return]; and after they had paid him their respects, they lamented
+their own calamities, and related to him what barbarous treatment
+they had met with from Florus. At which barbarity Agrippa had great
+indignation, but transferred, after a subtle manner, his anger towards
+those Jews whom he really pitied, that he might beat down their high
+thoughts of themselves, and would have them believe that they had
+not been so unjustly treated, in order to dissuade them from avenging
+themselves. So these great men, as of better understanding than the
+rest, and desirous of peace, because of the possessions they had,
+understood that this rebuke which the king gave them was intended
+for their good; but as to the people, they came sixty furlongs out of
+Jerusalem, and congratulated both Agrippa and Neopolitanus; but the
+wives of those that had been slain came running first of all and
+lamenting. The people also, when they heard their mourning, fell into
+lamentations also, and besought Agrippa to assist them: they also
+cried out to Neopolitanus, and complained of the many miseries they had
+endured under Florus; and they showed them, when they were come into the
+city, how the market-place was made desolate, and the houses plundered.
+They then persuaded Neopolitanus, by the means of Agrippa, that he would
+walk round the city, with one only servant, as far as Siloam, that he
+might inform himself that the Jews submitted to all the rest of the
+Romans, and were only displeased at Florus, by reason of his exceeding
+barbarity to them. So he walked round, and had sufficient experience
+of the good temper the people were in, and then went up to the temple,
+where he called the multitude together, and highly commended them for
+their fidelity to the Romans, and earnestly exhorted them to keep the
+peace; and having performed such parts of Divine worship at the temple
+as he was allowed to do, he returned to Cestius.
+
+3. But as for the multitude of the Jews, they addressed themselves to
+the king, and to the high priests, and desired they might have leave to
+send ambassadors to Nero against Florus, and not by their silence afford
+a suspicion that they had been the occasions of such great slaughters
+as had been made, and were disposed to revolt, alleging that they
+should seem to have been the first beginners of the war, if they did not
+prevent the report by showing who it was that began it; and it appeared
+openly that they would not be quiet, if any body should hinder them
+from sending such an embassage. But Agrippa, although he thought it
+too dangerous a thing for them to appoint men to go as the accusers of
+Florus, yet did he not think it fit for him to overlook them, as
+they were in a disposition for war. He therefore called the multitude
+together into a large gallery, and placed his sister Bernice in the
+house of the Asamoneans, that she might be seen by them, [which house
+was over the gallery, at the passage to the upper city, where the bridge
+joined the temple to the gallery,] and spake to them as follows:
+
+4.24 "Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to go to war
+with the Romans, and that the purer and more sincere part of the people
+did not propose to live in peace, I had not come out to you, nor been
+so bold as to give you counsel; for all discourses that tend to persuade
+men to do what they ought to do are superfluous, when the hearers are
+agreed to do the contrary. But because some are earnest to go to war
+because they are young, and without experience of the miseries it
+brings, and because some are for it out of an unreasonable expectation
+of regaining their liberty, and because others hope to get by it, and
+are therefore earnestly bent upon it, that in the confusion of your
+affairs they may gain what belongs to those that are too weak to resist
+them, I have thought proper to get you all together, and to say to
+you what I think to be for your advantage; that so the former may grow
+wiser, and change their minds, and that the best men may come to no harm
+by the ill conduct of some others. And let not any one be tumultuous
+against me, in case what they hear me say do not please them; for as
+to those that admit of no cure, but are resolved upon a revolt, it
+will still be in their power to retain the same sentiments after my
+exhortation is over; but still my discourse will fall to the ground,
+even with a relation to those that have a mind to hear me, unless
+you will all keep silence. I am well aware that many make a tragical
+exclamation concerning the injuries that have been offered you by your
+procurators, and concerning the glorious advantages of liberty; but
+before I begin the inquiry, who you are that must go to war, and who
+they are against whom you must fight, I shall first separate those
+pretenses that are by some connected together; for if you aim at
+avenging yourselves on those that have done you injury, why do you
+pretend this to be a war for recovering your liberty? but if you think
+all servitude intolerable, to what purpose serve your complaint against
+your particular governors? for if they treated you with moderation, it
+would still be equally an unworthy thing to be in servitude. Consider
+now the several cases that may be supposed, how little occasion there is
+for your going to war. Your first occasion is the accusations you have
+to make against your procurators; now here you ought to be submissive
+to those in authority, and not give them any provocation; but when
+you reproach men greatly for small offenses, you excite those whom you
+reproach to be your adversaries; for this will only make them leave off
+hurting you privately, and with some degree of modesty, and to lay what
+you have waste openly. Now nothing so much damps the force of strokes as
+bearing them with patience; and the quietness of those who are injured
+diverts the injurious persons from afflicting. But let us take it for
+granted that the Roman ministers are injurious to you, and are incurably
+severe; yet are they not all the Romans who thus injure you; nor hath
+Caesar, against whom you are going to make war, injured you: it is not
+by their command that any wicked governor is sent to you; for they who
+are in the west cannot see those that are in the east; nor indeed is it
+easy for them there even to hear what is done in these parts. Now it is
+absurd to make war with a great many for the sake of one, to do so with
+such mighty people for a small cause; and this when these people are not
+able to know of what you complain: nay, such crimes as we complain of
+may soon be corrected, for the same procurator will not continue
+for ever; and probable it is that the successors will come with more
+moderate inclinations. But as for war, if it be once begun, it is not
+easily laid down again, nor borne without calamities coming therewith.
+However, as to the desire of recovering your liberty, it is unseasonable
+to indulge it so late; whereas you ought to have labored earnestly in
+old time that you might never have lost it; for the first experience of
+slavery was hard to be endured, and the struggle that you might never
+have been subject to it would have been just; but that slave who hath
+been once brought into subjection, and then runs away, is rather a
+refractory slave than a lover of liberty; for it was then the proper
+time for doing all that was possible, that you might never have admitted
+the Romans [into your city], when Pompey came first into the country.
+But so it was, that our ancestors and their kings, who were in much
+better circumstances than we are, both as to money, and strong bodies,
+and [valiant] souls, did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman
+army. And yet you, who have now accustomed yourselves to obedience from
+one generation to another, and who are so much inferior to those who
+first submitted, in your circumstances will venture to oppose the entire
+empire of the Romans. While those Athenians, who, in order to preserve
+the liberty of Greece, did once set fire to their own city; who pursued
+Xerxes, that proud prince, when he sailed upon the land, and walked upon
+the sea, and could not be contained by the seas, but conducted such an
+army as was too broad for Europe; and made him run away like a fugitive
+in a single ship, and brake so great a part of Asia at the Lesser
+Salamis; are yet at this time servants to the Romans; and those
+injunctions which are sent from Italy become laws to the principal
+governing city of Greece. Those Lacedemonians also who got the great
+victories at Thermopylae and Platea, and had Agesilaus [for their king],
+and searched every corner of Asia, are contented to admit the same
+lords. Those Macedonians also, who still fancy what great men their
+Philip and Alexander were, and see that the latter had promised them
+the empire over the world, these bear so great a change, and pay their
+obedience to those whom fortune hath advanced in their stead. Moreover,
+ten thousand ether nations there are who had greater reason than we to
+claim their entire liberty, and yet do submit. You are the only people
+who think it a disgrace to be servants to those to whom all the world
+hath submitted. What sort of an army do you rely on? What are the arms
+you depend on? Where is your fleet, that may seize upon the Roman
+seas? and where are those treasures which may be sufficient for your
+undertakings? Do you suppose, I pray you, that you are to make war with
+the Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will you not carefully reflect
+upon the Roman empire? Will you not estimate your own weakness? Hath not
+your army been often beaten even by your neighboring nations, while the
+power of the Romans is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth?
+nay, rather they seek for somewhat still beyond that; for all Euphrates
+is not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube
+on the north; and for their southern limit, Libya hath been searched
+over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit
+on the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable earth
+beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as such British
+islands as were never known before. What therefore do you pretend to?
+Are you richer than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans, wiser than
+the Greeks, more numerous than all men upon the habitable earth? What
+confidence is it that elevates you to oppose the Romans? Perhaps it will
+be said, It is hard to endure slavery. Yes; but how much harder is this
+to the Greeks, who were esteemed the noblest of all people under the
+sun! These, though they inhabit in a large country, are in subjection to
+six bundles of Roman rods. It is the same case with the Macedonians,
+who have juster reason to claim their liberty than you have. What is
+the case of five hundred cities of Asia? Do they not submit to a single
+governor, and to the consular bundle of rods? What need I speak of the
+Henlochi, and Colchi and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit the
+Bosphorus, and the nations about Pontus, and Meotis, who formerly
+knew not so much as a lord of their own, but are now subject to three
+thousand armed men, and where forty long ships keep the sea in peace,
+which before was not navigable, and very tempestuous? How strong a plea
+may Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and the people of Pamphylia, the Lycians,
+and Cilicians, put in for liberty! But they are made tributary without
+an army. What are the circumstances of the Thracians, whose country
+extends in breadth five days' journey, and in length seven, and is of a
+much more harsh constitution, and much more defensible, than yours, and
+by the rigor of its cold sufficient to keep off armies from attacking
+them? do not they submit to two thousand men of the Roman garrisons? Are
+not the Illyrlans, who inhabit the country adjoining, as far as Dalmatia
+and the Danube, governed by barely two legions? by which also they put a
+stop to the incursions of the Daeians. And for the Dalmatians, who have
+made such frequent insurrections in order to regain their liberty, and
+who could never before be so thoroughly subdued, but that they always
+gathered their forces together again, revolted, yet are they now very
+quiet under one Roman legion. Moreover, great advantages might provoke
+any people to revolt, the Gauls might do it best of all, as being so
+thoroughly walled round by nature; on the east side by the Alps, on the
+north by the river Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean mountains, and
+on the west by the ocean. Now although these Gauls have such obstacles
+before them to prevent any attack upon them, and have no fewer than
+three hundred and five nations among them, nay have, as one may say,
+the fountains of domestic happiness within themselves, and send out
+plentiful streams of happiness over almost the whole world, these bear
+to be tributary to the Romans, and derive their prosperous condition
+from them; and they undergo this, not because they are of effeminate
+minds, or because they are of an ignoble stock, as having borne a war
+of eighty years in order to preserve their liberty; but by reason of
+the great regard they have to the power of the Romans, and their good
+fortune, which is of greater efficacy than their arms. These Gauls,
+therefore, are kept in servitude by twelve hundred soldiers, which are
+hardly so many as are their cities; nor hath the gold dug out of the
+mines of Spain been sufficient for the support of a war to preserve
+their liberty, nor could their vast distance from the Romans by land
+and by sea do it; nor could the martial tribes of the Lusitanians and
+Spaniards escape; no more could the ocean, with its tide, which yet was
+terrible to the ancient inhabitants. Nay, the Romans have extended their
+arms beyond the pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds,
+upon the Pyrenean mountains, and have subdued these nations. And one
+legion is a sufficient guard for these people, although they were so
+hard to be conquered, and at a distance so remote from Rome. Who is
+there among you that hath not heard of the great number of the Germans?
+You have, to be sure, yourselves seen them to be strong and tall, and
+that frequently, since the Romans have them among their captives every
+where; yet these Germans, who dwell in an immense country, who have
+minds greater than their bodies, and a soul that despises death, and
+who are in rage more fierce than wild beasts, have the Rhine for the
+boundary of their enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman legions.
+Such of them as were taken captive became their servants; and the rest
+of the entire nation were obliged to save themselves by flight. Do you
+also, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem, consider what a wall the
+Britons had; for the Romans sailed away to them, an subdued them while
+they were encompassed by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not
+less than the [continent of this] habitable earth; and four legions are
+a sufficient guard to so large an island And why should I speak much
+more about this matter, while the Parthians, that most warlike body
+of men, and lords of so many nations, and encompassed with such mighty
+forces, send hostages to the Romans? whereby you may see, if you please,
+even in Italy, the noblest nation of the East, under the notion of
+peace, submitting to serve them. Now when almost all people under the
+sun submit to the Roman arms, will you be the only people that make war
+against them? and this without regarding the fate of the Carthaginians,
+who, in the midst of their brags of the great Hannibal, and the nobility
+of their Phoenician original, fell by the hand of Scipio. Nor indeed
+have the Cyrenians, derived from the Lacedemonians, nor the Marmaridite,
+a nation extended as far as the regions uninhabitable for want of
+water, nor have the Syrtes, a place terrible to such as barely hear
+it described, the Nasamons and Moors, and the immense multitude of the
+Numidians, been able to put a stop to the Roman valor. And as for the
+third part of the habitable earth, [Africa,] whose nations are so many
+that it is not easy to number them, and which is bounded by the Atlantic
+Sea and the pillars of Hercules, and feeds an innumerable multitude
+of Ethiopians, as far as the Red Sea, these have the Romans subdued
+entirely. And besides the annual fruits of the earth, which maintain
+the multitude of the Romans for eight months in the year, this, over and
+above, pays all sorts of tribute, and affords revenues suitable to
+the necessities of the government. Nor do they, like you, esteem such
+injunctions a disgrace to them, although they have but one Roman legion
+that abides among them. And indeed what occasion is there for showing
+you the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is so easy to
+learn it from Egypt, in your neighborhood? This country is extended as
+far as the Ethiopians, and Arabia the Happy, and borders upon India; it
+hath seven millions five hundred thousand men, besides the inhabitants
+of Alexandria, as may be learned from the revenue of the poll tax; yet
+it is not ashamed to submit to the Roman government, although it hath
+Alexandria as a grand temptation to a revolt, by reason it is so full of
+people and of riches, and is besides exceeding large, its length being
+thirty furlongs, and its breadth no less than ten; and it pays more
+tribute to the Romans in one month than you do in a year; nay, besides
+what it pays in money, it sends corn to Rome that supports it for four
+months [in the year]: it is also walled round on all sides, either by
+almost impassable deserts, or seas that have no havens, or by rivers,
+or by lakes; yet have none of these things been found too strong for
+the Roman good fortune; however, two legions that lie in that city are a
+bridle both for the remoter parts of Egypt, and for the parts inhabited
+by the more noble Macedonians. Where then are those people whom you are
+to have for your auxiliaries? Must they come from the parts of the world
+that are uninhabited? for all that are in the habitable earth are [under
+the] Romans. Unless any of you extend his hopes as far as beyond the
+Euphrates, and suppose that those of your own nation that dwell in
+Adiabene will come to your assistance; but certainly these will not
+embarrass themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if they should
+follow such ill advice, will the Parthians permit them so to do; for
+it is their concern to maintain the truce that is between them and the
+Romans, and they will be supposed to break the covenants between them,
+if any under their government march against the Romans. What remains,
+therefore, is this, that you have recourse to Divine assistance; but
+this is already on the side of the Romans; for it is impossible that so
+vast an empire should be settled without God's providence. Reflect upon
+it, how impossible it is for your zealous observations of your religious
+customs to be here preserved, which are hard to be observed even when
+you fight with those whom you are able to conquer; and how can you
+then most of all hope for God's assistance, when, by being forced to
+transgress his law, you will make him turn his face from you? and if you
+do observe the custom of the sabbath days, and will not be revealed
+on to do any thing thereon, you will easily be taken, as were your
+forefathers by Pompey, who was the busiest in his siege on those days on
+which the besieged rested. But if in time of war you transgress the law
+of your country, I cannot tell on whose account you will afterward go
+to war; for your concern is but one, that you do nothing against any of
+your forefathers; and how will you call upon God to assist you, when you
+are voluntarily transgressing against his religion? Now all men that go
+to war do it either as depending on Divine or on human assistance; but
+since your going to war will cut off both those assistances, those that
+are for going to war choose evident destruction. What hinders you from
+slaying your children and wives with your own hands, and burning this
+most excellent native city of yours? for by this mad prank you will,
+however, escape the reproach of being beaten. But it were best, O
+my friends, it were best, while the vessel is still in the haven, to
+foresee the impending storm, and not to set sail out of the port into
+the middle of the hurricanes; for we justly pity those who fall into
+great misfortunes without fore-seeing them; but for him who rushes
+into manifest ruin, he gains reproaches [instead of commiseration].
+But certainly no one can imagine that you can enter into a war as by
+agreement, or that when the Romans have got you under their power, they
+will use you with moderation, or will not rather, for an example to
+other nations, burn your holy city, and utterly destroy your whole
+nation; for those of you who shall survive the war will not be able to
+find a place whither to flee, since all men have the Romans for their
+lords already, or are afraid they shall have hereafter. Nay, indeed, the
+danger concerns not those Jews that dwell here only, but those of
+them which dwell in other cities also; for there is no people upon the
+habitable earth which have not some portion of you among them, whom your
+enemies will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account also; and
+so every city which hath Jews in it will be filled with slaughter for
+the sake of a few men, and they who slay them will be pardoned; but if
+that slaughter be not made by them, consider how wicked a thing it is to
+take arms against those that are so kind to you. Have pity, therefore,
+if not on your children and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, and
+its sacred walls; spare the temple, and preserve the holy house, with
+its holy furniture, for yourselves; for if the Romans get you under
+their power, they will no longer abstain from them, when their former
+abstinence shall have been so ungratefully requited. I call to witness
+your sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this country common
+to us all, that I have not kept back any thing that is for your
+preservation; and if you will follow that advice which you ought to do,
+you will have that peace which will be common to you and to me; but if
+you indulge four passions, you will run those hazards which I shall be
+free from."
+
+5. When Agrippa had spoken thus, both he and his sister wept, and by
+their tears repressed a great deal of the violence of the people; but
+still they cried out, that they would not fight against the Romans, but
+against Florus, on account of what they had suffered by his means. To
+which Agrippa replied, that what they had already done was like such as
+make war against the Romans; "for you have not paid the tribute which is
+due to Caesar 25 and you have cut off the cloisters [of the temple] from
+joining to the tower Antonia. You will therefore prevent any occasion
+of revolt if you will but join these together again, and if you will but
+pay your tribute; for the citadel does not now belong to Florus, nor are
+you to pay the tribute money to Florus."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17.
+
+
+     How The War Of The Jews With The Romans Began, And
+     Concerning Manahem.
+
+1. This advice the people hearkened to, and went up into the temple with
+the king and Bernice, and began to rebuild the cloisters; the rulers
+also and senators divided themselves into the villages, and collected
+the tributes, and soon got together forty talents, which was the sum
+that was deficient. And thus did Agrippa then put a stop to that war
+which was threatened. Moreover, he attempted to persuade the multitude
+to obey Florus, until Caesar should send one to succeed him; but they
+were hereby more provoked, and cast reproaches upon the king, and
+got him excluded out of the city; nay, some of the seditious had the
+impudence to throw stones at him. So when the king saw that the violence
+of those that were for innovations was not to be restrained, and being
+very angry at the contumelies he had received, he sent their rulers,
+together with their men of power, to Florus, to Cesarea, that he might
+appoint whom he thought fit to collect the tribute in the country, while
+he retired into his own kingdom.
+
+2. And at this time it was that some of those that principally excited
+the people to go to war made an assault upon a certain fortress called
+Masada. They took it by treachery, and slew the Romans that were there,
+and put others of their own party to keep it. At the same time Eleazar,
+the son of Ananias the high priest, a very bold youth, who was at that
+time governor of the temple, persuaded those that officiated in the
+Divine service to receive no gift or sacrifice for any foreigner.
+And this was the true beginning of our war with the Romans; for they
+rejected the sacrifice of Caesar on this account; and when many of the
+high priests and principal men besought them not to omit the sacrifice,
+which it was customary for them to offer for their princes, they would
+not be prevailed upon. These relied much upon their multitude, for the
+most flourishing part of the innovators assisted them; but they had the
+chief regard to Eleazar, the governor of the temple.
+
+3. Hereupon the men of power got together, and conferred with the high
+priests, as did also the principal of the Pharisees; and thinking all
+was at stake, and that their calamities were becoming incurable, took
+counsel what was to be done. Accordingly, they determined to try what
+they could do with the seditious by words, and assembled the people
+before the brazen gate, which was that gate of the inner temple [court
+of the priests] which looked toward the sun-rising. And, in the first
+place, they showed the great indignation they had at this attempt for a
+revolt, and for their bringing so great a war upon their country; after
+which they confuted their pretense as unjustifiable, and told them that
+their forefathers had adorned their temple in great part with donations
+bestowed on them by foreigners, and had always received what had been
+presented to them from foreign nations; and that they had been so
+far from rejecting any person's sacrifice [which would be the highest
+instance of impiety,] that they had themselves placed those donation
+about the temple which were still visible, and had remained there so
+long a time; that they did now irritate the Romans to take arms against
+them, and invited them to make war upon them, and brought up novel rules
+of a strange Divine worship, and determined to run the hazard of
+having their city condemned for impiety, while they would not allow any
+foreigner, but Jews only, either to sacrifice or to worship therein.
+And if such a law should be introduced in the case of a single private
+person only, he would have indignation at it, as an instance of
+inhumanity determined against him; while they have no regard to the
+Romans or to Caesar, and forbid even their oblations to be received
+also; that however they cannot but fear, lest, by thus rejecting their
+sacrifices, they shall not be allowed to offer their own; and that this
+city will lose its principality, unless they grow wiser quickly, and
+restore the sacrifices as formerly, and indeed amend the injury [they
+have offered foreigners] before the report of it comes to the ears of
+those that have been injured.
+
+4. And as they said these things, they produced those priests that were
+skillful in the customs of their country, who made the report that all
+their forefathers had received the sacrifices from foreign nations. But
+still not one of the innovators would hearken to what was said; nay,
+those that ministered about the temple would not attend their Divine
+service, but were preparing matters for beginning the war. So the men of
+power perceiving that the sedition was too hard for them to subdue, and
+that the danger which would arise from the Romans would come upon them
+first of all, endeavored to save themselves, and sent ambassadors, some
+to Florus, the chief of which was Simon the son of Ananias; and others
+to Agrippa, among whom the most eminent were Saul, and Antipas, and
+Costobarus, who were of the king's kindred; and they desired of them
+both that they would come with an army to the city, and cut off the
+seditious before it should be too hard to be subdued. Now this terrible
+message was good news to Florus; and because his design was to have a
+war kindled, he gave the ambassadors no answer at all. But Agrippa was
+equally solicitous for those that were revolting, and for those against
+whom the war was to be made, and was desirous to preserve the Jews for
+the Romans, and the temple and metropolis for the Jews; he was also
+sensible that it was not for his own advantage that the disturbances
+should proceed; so he sent three thousand horsemen to the assistance
+of the people out of Auranitis, and Batanea, and Trachonitis, and these
+under Darius, the master of his horse, and Philip the son of Jacimus,
+the general of his army.
+
+5. Upon this the men of power, with the high priests, as also all the
+part of the multitude that were desirous of peace, took courage, and
+seized upon the upper city [Mount Sion;] for the seditious part had the
+lower city and the temple in their power; so they made use of stones and
+slings perpetually against one another, and threw darts continually
+on both sides; and sometimes it happened that they made incursions
+by troops, and fought it out hand to hand, while the seditious were
+superior in boldness, but the king's soldiers in skill. These last
+strove chiefly to gain the temple, and to drive those out of it who
+profaned it; as did the seditious, with Eleazar, besides what they
+had already, labor to gain the upper city. Thus were there perpetual
+slaughters on both sides for seven days' time; but neither side would
+yield up the parts they had seized on.
+
+6. Now the next day was the festival of Xylophory; upon which the custom
+was for every one to bring wood for the altar [that there might never be
+a want of fuel for that fire which was unquenchable and always burning].
+Upon that day they excluded the opposite party from the observation of
+this part of religion. And when they had joined to themselves many of
+the Sicarii, who crowded in among the weaker people, [that was the name
+for such robbers as had under their bosoms swords called Sicae,] they
+grew bolder, and carried their undertaking further; insomuch that the
+king's soldiers were overpowered by their multitude and boldness; and
+so they gave way, and were driven out of the upper city by force. The
+others then set fire to the house of Ananias the high priest, and to the
+palaces of Agrippa and Bernice; after which they carried the fire to
+the place where the archives were reposited, and made haste to burn the
+contracts belonging to their creditors, and thereby to dissolve their
+obligations for paying their debts; and this was done in order to
+gain the multitude of those who had been debtors, and that they might
+persuade the poorer sort to join in their insurrection with safety
+against the more wealthy; so the keepers of the records fled away, and
+the rest set fire to them. And when they had thus burnt down the nerves
+of the city, they fell upon their enemies; at which time some of the men
+of power, and of the high priests, went into the vaults under ground,
+and concealed themselves, while others fled with the king's soldiers
+to the upper palace, and shut the gates immediately; among whom were
+Ananias the high priest, and the ambassadors that had been sent to
+Agrippa. And now the seditious were contented with the victory they had
+gotten, and the buildings they had burnt down, and proceeded no further.
+
+7. But on the next day, which was the fifteenth of the month Lous, [Ab,]
+they made an assault upon Antonia, and besieged the garrison which was
+in it two days, and then took the garrison, and slew them, and set the
+citadel on fire; after which they marched to the palace, whither the
+king's soldiers were fled, and parted themselves into four bodies, and
+made an attack upon the walls. As for those that were within it, no one
+had the courage to sally out, because those that assaulted them were
+so numerous; but they distributed themselves into the breast-works and
+turrets, and shot at the besiegers, whereby many of the robbers fell
+under the walls; nor did they cease to fight one with another either by
+night or by day, while the seditious supposed that those within would
+grow weary for want of food, and those without supposed the others would
+do the like by the tediousness of the siege.
+
+8. In the mean time, one Manahem, the son of Judas, that was called the
+Galilean, [who was a very cunning sophister, and had formerly reproached
+the Jews under Cyrenius, that after God they were subject to the
+Romans,] took some of the men of note with him, and retired to Masada,
+where he broke open king Herod's armory, and gave arms not only to his
+own people, but to other robbers also. These he made use of for a guard,
+and returned in the state of a king to Jerusalem; he became the leader
+of the sedition, and gave orders for continuing the siege; but they
+wanted proper instruments, and it was not practicable to undermine the
+wall, because the darts came down upon them from above. But still they
+dug a mine from a great distance under one of the towers, and made it
+totter; and having done that, they set on fire what was combustible, and
+left it; and when the foundations were burnt below, the tower fell down
+suddenly. Yet did they then meet with another wall that had been built
+within, for the besieged were sensible beforehand of what they were
+doing, and probably the tower shook as it was undermining; so they
+provided themselves of another fortification; which when the besiegers
+unexpectedly saw, while they thought they had already gained the place,
+they were under some consternation. However, those that were within sent
+to Manahem, and to the other leaders of the sedition, and desired
+they might go out upon a capitulation: this was granted to the king's
+soldiers and their own countrymen only, who went out accordingly; but
+the Romans that were left alone were greatly dejected, for they were not
+able to force their way through such a multitude; and to desire them to
+give them their right hand for their security, they thought it would be
+a reproach to them; and besides, if they should give it them, they durst
+not depend upon it; so they deserted their camp, as easily taken,
+and ran away to the royal towers,--that called Hippicus, that called
+Phasaelus, and that called Mariamne. But Manahem and his party fell upon
+the place whence the soldiers were fled, and slew as many of them as
+they could catch, before they got up to the towers, and plundered what
+they left behind them, and set fire to their camp. This was executed on
+the sixth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul].
+
+9. But on the next day the high priest was caught where he had concealed
+himself in an aqueduct; he was slain, together with Hezekiah his
+brother, by the robbers: hereupon the seditious besieged the towers, and
+kept them guarded, lest any one of the soldiers should escape. Now the
+overthrow of the places of strength, and the death of the high priest
+Ananias, so puffed up Manahem, that he became barbarously cruel; and
+as he thought he had no antagonist to dispute the management of affairs
+with him, he was no better than an insupportable tyrant; but Eleazar
+and his party, when words had passed between them, how it was not proper
+when they revolted from the Romans, out of the desire of liberty, to
+betray that liberty to any of their own people, and to bear a lord,
+who, though he should be guilty of no violence, was yet meaner than
+themselves; as also, that in case they were obliged to set some one over
+their public affairs, it was fitter they should give that privilege to
+any one rather than to him; they made an assault upon him in the temple;
+for he went up thither to worship in a pompous manner, and adorned
+with royal garments, and had his followers with him in their armor. But
+Eleazar and his party fell violently upon him, as did also the rest of
+the people; and taking up stones to attack him withal, they threw them
+at the sophister, and thought, that if he were once ruined, the entire
+sedition would fall to the ground. Now Manahem and his party made
+resistance for a while; but when they perceived that the whole multitude
+were falling upon them, they fled which way every one was able; those
+that were caught were slain, and those that hid themselves were searched
+for. A few there were of them who privately escaped to Masada, among
+whom was Eleazar, the son of Jairus, who was of kin to Manahem, and
+acted the part of a tyrant at Masada afterward. As for Manahem himself,
+he ran away to the place called Ophla, and there lay skulking in
+private; but they took him alive, and drew him out before them all; they
+then tortured him with many sorts of torments, and after all slew him,
+as they did by those that were captains under him also, and particularly
+by the principal instrument of his tyranny, whose name was Apsalom.
+
+10. And, as I said, so far truly the people assisted them, while they
+hoped this might afford some amendment to the seditious practices; but
+the others were not in haste to put an end to the war, but hoped to
+prosecute it with less danger, now they had slain Manahem. It is
+true, that when the people earnestly desired that they would leave
+off besieging the soldiers, they were the more earnest in pressing it
+forward, and this till Metilius, who was the Roman general, sent to
+Eleazar, and desired that they would give them security to spare their
+lives only; but agreed to deliver up their arms, and what else they had
+with them. The others readily complied with their petition, sent to them
+Gorion, the son of Nicodemus, and Ananias, the son of Sadduk, and Judas,
+the son of Jonathan, that they might give them the security Of their
+right hands, and of their oaths; after which Metilius brought down his
+soldiers; which soldiers, while they were in arms, were not meddled with
+by any of the seditious, nor was there any appearance of treachery; but
+as soon as, according to the articles of capitulation, they had all laid
+down their shields and their swords, and were under no further suspicion
+of any harm, but were going away, Eleazar's men attacked them after a
+violent manner, and encompassed them round, and slew them, while they
+neither defended themselves, nor entreated for mercy, but only cried out
+upon the breach of their articles of capitulation and their oaths. And
+thus were all these men barbarously murdered, excepting Metilius; for
+when he entreated for mercy, and promised that he would turn Jew, and
+be circumcised, they saved him alive, but none else. This loss to the
+Romans was but light, there being no more than a few slain out of an
+immense army; but still it appeared to be a prelude to the Jews' own
+destruction, while men made public lamentation when they saw that such
+occasions were afforded for a war as were incurable; that the city
+was all over polluted with such abominations, from which it was but
+reasonable to expect some vengeance, even though they should escape
+revenge from the Romans; so that the city was filled with sadness, and
+every one of the moderate men in it were under great disturbance,
+as likely themselves to undergo punishment for the wickedness of the
+seditious; for indeed it so happened that this murder was perpetrated on
+the sabbath day, on which day the Jews have a respite from their works
+on account of Divine worship.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18.
+
+
+     The Calamities And Slaughters That Came Upon The Jews.
+
+1. Now the people of Cesarea had slain the Jews that were among them
+on the very same day and hour [when the soldiers were slain], which
+one would think must have come to pass by the direction of Providence;
+insomuch that in one hour's time above twenty thousand Jews were killed,
+and all Cesarea was emptied of its Jewish inhabitants; for Florus caught
+such as ran away, and sent them in bonds to the galleys. Upon which
+stroke that the Jews received at Cesarea, the whole nation was greatly
+enraged; so they divided themselves into several parties, and laid waste
+the villages of the Syrians, and their neighboring cities, Philadelphia,
+and Sebonitis, and Gerasa, and Pella, and Scythopolis, and after them
+Gadara, and Hippos; and falling upon Gaulonitis, some cities they
+destroyed there, and some they set on fire, and then went to Kedasa,
+belonging to the Tyrians, and to Ptolemais, and to Gaba, and to Cesarea;
+nor was either Sebaste [Samaria] or Askelon able to oppose the violence
+with which they were attacked; and when they had burnt these to the
+ground; they entirely demolished Anthedon and Gaza; many also of the
+villages that were about every one of those cities were plundered, and
+an immense slaughter was made of the men who were caught in them.
+
+2. However, the Syrians were even with the Jews in the multitude of
+the men whom they slew; for they killed those whom they caught in their
+cities, and that not only out of the hatred they bare them, as formerly,
+but to prevent the danger under which they were from them; so that the
+disorders in all Syria were terrible, and every city was divided into
+two armies, encamped one against another, and the preservation of the
+one party was in the destruction of the other; so the day time was spent
+in shedding of blood, and the night in fear, which was of the two the
+more terrible; for when the Syrians thought they had ruined the Jews,
+they had the Judaizers in suspicion also; and as each side did not care
+to slay those whom they only suspected on the other, so did they
+greatly fear them when they were mingled with the other, as if they were
+certainly foreigners. Moreover, greediness of gain was a provocation to
+kill the opposite party, even to such as had of old appeared very mild
+and gentle towards them; for they without fear plundered the effects of
+the slain, and carried off the spoils of those whom they slew to their
+own houses, as if they had been gained in a set battle; and he was
+esteemed a man of honor who got the greatest share, as having prevailed
+over the greatest number of his enemies. It was then common to see
+cities filled with dead bodies, still lying unburied, and those of old
+men, mixed with infants, all dead, and scattered about together; women
+also lay amongst them, without any covering for their nakedness: you
+might then see the whole province full of inexpressible calamities,
+while the dread of still more barbarous practices which were threatened
+was every where greater than what had been already perpetrated.
+
+3. And thus far the conflict had been between Jews and foreigners; but
+when they made excursions to Scythopolis, they found Jew that acted as
+enemies; for as they stood in battle-array with those of Scythopolis,
+and preferred their own safety before their relation to us, they fought
+against their own countrymen; nay, their alacrity was so very great,
+that those of Scythopolis suspected them. These were afraid, therefore,
+lest they should make an assault upon the city in the night time, and,
+to their great misfortune, should thereby make an apology for themselves
+to their own people for their revolt from them. So they commanded them,
+that in case they would confirm their agreement and demonstrate their
+fidelity to them, who were of a different nation, they should go out of
+the city, with their families to a neighboring grove; and when they had
+done as they were commanded, without suspecting any thing, the people of
+Scythopolis lay still for the interval of two days, to tempt them to be
+secure; but on the third night they watched their opportunity, and cut
+all their throats, some as they lay unguarded, and some as they lay
+asleep. The number that was slain was above thirteen thousand, and then
+they plundered them of all that they had.
+
+4. It will deserve our relation what befell Simon; he was the son of
+one Saul, a man of reputation among the Jews. This man was distinguished
+from the rest by the strength of his body, and the boldness of his
+conduct, although he abused them both to the mischieving of his
+countrymen; for he came every day and slew a great many of the Jews of
+Scythopolis, and he frequently put them to flight, and became himself
+alone the cause of his army's conquering. But a just punishment overtook
+him for the murders he had committed upon those of the same nation with
+him; for when the people of Scythopolis threw their darts at them in the
+grove, he drew his sword, but did not attack any of the enemy; for he
+saw that he could do nothing against such a multitude; but he cried out
+after a very moving manner, and said, "O you people of Scythopolis, I
+deservedly suffer for what I have done with relation to you, when I gave
+you such security of my fidelity to you, by slaying so many of those
+that were related to me. Wherefore we very justly experience the
+perfidiousness of foreigners, while we acted after a most wicked manner
+against our own nation. I will therefore die, polluted wretch as I am,
+by mine own hands; for it is not fit I should die by the hand of our
+enemies; and let the same action be to me both a punishment for my great
+crimes, and a testimony of my courage to my commendation, that so no one
+of our enemies may have it to brag of, that he it was that slew me,
+and no one may insult upon me as I fall." Now when he had said this, he
+looked round about him upon his family with eyes of commiseration and
+of rage [that family consisted of a wife and children, and his aged
+parents]; so, in the first place, he caught his father by his grey
+hairs, and ran his sword through him, and after him he did the same to
+his mother, who willingly received it; and after them he did the like
+to his wife and children, every one almost offering themselves to his
+sword, as desirous to prevent being slain by their enemies; so when he
+had gone over all his family, he stood upon their bodies to be seen
+by all, and stretching out his right hand, that his action might be
+observed by all, he sheathed his entire sword into his own bowels. This
+young man was to be pitied, on account of the strength of his body and
+the courage of his soul; but since he had assured foreigners of his
+fidelity [against his own countrymen], he suffered deservedly.
+
+5. Besides this murder at Scythopolis, the other cities rose up against
+the Jews that were among them; those of Askelon slew two thousand five
+hundred, and those of Ptolemais two thousand, and put not a few into
+bonds; those of Tyre also put a great number to death, but kept a
+greater number in prison; moreover, those of Hippos, and those of
+Gadara, did the like while they put to death the boldest of the Jews,
+but kept those of whom they were afraid in custody; as did the rest of
+the cities of Syria, according as they every one either hated them or
+were afraid of them; only the Antiochtans the Sidontans, and Apamians
+spared those that dwelt with them, and would not endure either to kill
+any of the Jews, or to put them in bonds. And perhaps they spared them,
+because their own number was so great that they despised their
+attempts. But I think the greatest part of this favor was owing to their
+commiseration of those whom they saw to make no innovations. As for the
+Gerasans, they did no harm to those that abode with them; and for those
+who had a mind to go away, they conducted them as far as their borders
+reached.
+
+6. There was also a plot laid against the Jews in Agrippa's kingdom; for
+he was himself gone to Cestius Gallus, to Antioch, but had left one
+of his companions, whose name was Noarus, to take care of the public
+affairs; which Noarus was of kin to king Sohemus. 26 Now there came
+certain men seventy in number, out of Batanea, who were the most
+considerable for their families and prudence of the rest of the people;
+these desired to have an army put into their hands, that if any tumult
+should happen, they might have about them a guard sufficient to restrain
+such as might rise up against them. This Noarus sent out some of the
+king's armed men by night, and slew all those [seventy] men; which bold
+action he ventured upon without the consent of Agrippa, and was such
+a lover of money, that he chose to be so wicked to his own countrymen,
+though he brought ruin on the kingdom thereby; and thus cruelly did he
+treat that nation, and this contrary to the laws also, until Agrippa
+was informed of it, who did not indeed dare to put him to death, out
+of regard to Sohemus; but still he put an end to his procuratorship
+immediately. But as to the seditious, they took the citadel which
+was called Cypros, and was above Jericho, and cut the throats of the
+garrison, and utterly demolished the fortifications. This was about
+the same time that the multitude of the Jews that were at Machaerus
+persuaded the Romans who were in garrison to leave the place, and
+deliver it up to them. These Romans being in great fear, lest the place
+should be taken by force, made an agreement with them to depart upon
+certain conditions; and when they had obtained the security they
+desired, they delivered up the citadel, into which the people of
+Machaerus put a garrison for their own security, and held it in their
+own power.
+
+7. But for Alexandria, the sedition of the people of the place against
+the Jews was perpetual, and this from that very time when Alexander [the
+Great], upon finding the readiness of the Jews in assisting him against
+the Egyptians, and as a reward for such their assistance, gave them
+equal privileges in this city with the Grecians themselves; which
+honorary reward Continued among them under his successors, who also set
+apart for them a particular place, that they might live without being
+polluted [by the Gentiles], and were thereby not so much intermixed with
+foreigners as before; they also gave them this further privilege, that
+they should be called Macedonians. Nay, when the Romans got possession
+of Egypt, neither the first Caesar, nor any one that came after him,
+thought of diminishing the honors which Alexander had bestowed on the
+Jews. But still conflicts perpetually arose with the Grecians; and
+although the governors did every day punish many of them, yet did
+the sedition grow worse; but at this time especially, when there were
+tumults in other places also, the disorders among them were put into a
+greater flame; for when the Alexandrians had once a public assembly, to
+deliberate about an embassage they were sending to Nero, a great number
+of Jews came flocking to the theater; but when their adversaries saw
+them, they immediately cried out, and called them their enemies, and
+said they came as spies upon them; upon which they rushed out, and laid
+violent hands upon them; and as for the rest, they were slain as they
+ran away; but there were three men whom they caught, and hauled them
+along, in order to have them burnt alive; but all the Jews came in a
+body to defend them, who at first threw stones at the Grecians, but
+after that they took lamps, and rushed with violence into the theater,
+and threatened that they would burn the people to a man; and this they
+had soon done, unless Tiberius Alexander, the governor of the city, had
+restrained their passions. However, this man did not begin to teach them
+wisdom by arms, but sent among them privately some of the principal men,
+and thereby entreated them to be quiet, and not provoke the Roman
+army against them; but the seditious made a jest of the entreaties of
+Tiberius, and reproached him for so doing.
+
+8. Now when he perceived that those who were for innovations would not
+be pacified till some great calamity should overtake them, he sent out
+upon them those two Roman legions that were in the city, and together
+with them five thousand other soldiers, who, by chance, were come
+together out of Libya, to the ruin of the Jews. They were also permitted
+not only to kill them, but to plunder them of what they had, and to set
+fire to their houses. These soldiers rushed violently into that part of
+the city that was called Delta, where the Jewish people lived together,
+and did as they were bidden, though not without bloodshed on their own
+side also; for the Jews got together, and set those that were the best
+armed among them in the forefront, and made a resistance for a great
+while; but when once they gave back, they were destroyed unmercifully;
+and this their destruction was complete, some being caught in the open
+field, and others forced into their houses, which houses were first
+plundered of what was in them, and then set on fire by the Romans;
+wherein no mercy was shown to the infants, and no regard had to the
+aged; but they went on in the slaughter of persons of every age, till
+all the place was overflowed with blood, and fifty thousand of them
+lay dead upon heaps; nor had the remainder been preserved, had they not
+be-taken themselves to supplication. So Alexander commiserated their
+condition, and gave orders to the Romans to retire; accordingly,
+these being accustomed to obey orders, left off killing at the first
+intimation; but the populace of Alexandria bare so very great hatred to
+the Jews, that it was difficult to recall them, and it was a hard thing
+to make them leave their dead bodies.
+
+9. And this was the miserable calamity which at this time befell the
+Jews at Alexandria. Hereupon Cestius thought fit no longer to lie still,
+while the Jews were everywhere up in arms; so he took out of Antioch
+the twelfth legion entire, and out of each of the rest he selected two
+thousand, with six cohorts of footmen, and four troops of horsemen,
+besides those auxiliaries which were sent by the kings; of which
+Antiochus sent two thousand horsemen, and three thousand footmen, with
+as many archers; and Agrippa sent the same number of footmen, and one
+thousand horsemen; Sohemus also followed with four thousand, a third
+part whereof were horsemen, but most part were archers, and thus did
+he march to Ptolemais. There were also great numbers of auxiliaries
+gathered together from the [free] cities, who indeed had not the same
+skill in martial affairs, but made up in their alacrity and in their
+hatred to the Jews what they wanted in skill. There came also along with
+Cestius Agrippa himself, both as a guide in his march over the country,
+and a director what was fit to be done; so Cestius took part of his
+forces, and marched hastily to Zabulon, a strong city of Galilee, which
+was called the City of Men, and divides the country of Ptolemais from
+our nation; this he found deserted by its men, the multitude having fled
+to the mountains, but full of all sorts of good things; those he gave
+leave to the soldiers to plunder, and set fire to the city, although it
+was of admirable beauty, and had its houses built like those in Tyre,
+and Sidon, and Berytus. After this he overran all the country, and
+seized upon whatsoever came in his way, and set fire to the villages
+that were round about them, and then returned to Ptolemais. But when the
+Syrians, and especially those of Berytus, were busy in plundering,
+the Jews pulled up their courage again, for they knew that Cestius was
+retired, and fell upon those that were left behind unexpectedly, and
+destroyed about two thousand of them. 27
+
+10. And now Cestius himself marched from Ptolemais, and came to Cesarea;
+but he sent part of his army before him to Joppa, and gave order, that
+if they could take that city [by surprise] they should keep it; but that
+in case the citizens should perceive they were coming to attack them,
+that they then should stay for him, and for the rest of the army. So
+some of them made a brisk march by the sea-side, and some by land, and
+so coming upon them on both sides, they took the city with ease; and as
+the inhabitants had made no provision beforehand for a flight, nor had
+gotten any thing ready for fighting, the soldiers fell upon them, and
+slew them all, with their families, and then plundered and burnt the
+city. The number of the slain was eight thousand four hundred. In
+like manner, Cestius sent also a considerable body of horsemen to the
+toparchy of Narbatene, that adjoined to Cesarea, who destroyed the
+country, and slew a great multitude of its people; they also plundered
+what they had, and burnt their villages.
+
+11. But Cestius sent Gallus, the commander of the twelfth legion, into
+Galilee, and delivered to him as many of his forces as he supposed
+sufficient to subdue that nation. He was received by the strongest city
+of Galilee, which was Sepphoris, with acclamations of joy; which wise
+conduct of that city occasioned the rest of the cities to be in quiet;
+while the seditious part and the robbers ran away to that mountain
+which lies in the very middle of Galilee, and is situated over against
+Sepphoris; it is called Asamon. So Gallus brought his forces against
+them; but while those men were in the superior parts above the Romans,
+they easily threw their darts upon the Romans, as they made their
+approaches, and slew about two hundred of them. But when the Romans had
+gone round the mountains, and were gotten into the parts above their
+enemies, the others were soon beaten; nor could they who had only light
+armor on sustain the force of them that fought them armed all over; nor
+when they were beaten could they escape the enemies' horsemen; insomuch
+that only some few concealed themselves in certain places hard to be
+come at, among the mountains, while the rest, above two thousand in
+number, were slain.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 19.
+
+
+     What Cestius Did Against The Jews; And How, Upon His
+     Besieging Jerusalem, He Retreated From The City Without Any
+     Just Occasion In The World. As Also What Severe Calamities
+     He Under Went From The Jews In His Retreat.
+
+1. And now Gallus, seeing nothing more that looked towards an innovation
+in Galilee, returned with his army to Cesarea: but Cestius removed with
+his whole army, and marched to Antipatris; and when he was informed that
+there was a great body of Jewish forces gotten together in a certain
+tower called Aphek, he sent a party before to fight them; but this party
+dispersed the Jews by affrighting them before it came to a battle: so
+they came, and finding their camp deserted, they burnt it, as well
+as the villages that lay about it. But when Cestius had marched from
+Antipatris to Lydda, he found the city empty of its men, for the whole
+multitude 28 were gone up to Jerusalem to the feast of tabernacles;
+yet did he destroy fifty of those that showed themselves, and burnt the
+city, and so marched forwards; and ascending by Betboron, he pitched
+his camp at a certain place called Gabao, fifty furlongs distant from
+Jerusalem.
+
+2. But as for the Jews, when they saw the war approaching to their
+metropolis, they left the feast, and betook themselves to their arms;
+and taking courage greatly from their multitude, went in a sudden and
+disorderly manner to the fight, with a great noise, and without any
+consideration had of the rest of the seventh day, although the Sabbath
+29 was the day to which they had the greatest regard; but that rage
+which made them forget the religious observation [of the sabbath]
+made them too hard for their enemies in the fight: with such violence
+therefore did they fall upon the Romans, as to break into their ranks,
+and to march through the midst of them, making a great slaughter as they
+went, insomuch that unless the horsemen, and such part of the footmen as
+were not yet tired in the action, had wheeled round, and succored that
+part of the army which was not yet broken, Cestius, with his whole army,
+had been in danger: however, five hundred and fifteen of the Romans were
+slain, of which number four hundred were footmen, and the rest horsemen,
+while the Jews lost only twenty-two, of whom the most valiant were the
+kinsmen of Monobazus, king of Adiabene, and their names were Monobazus
+and Kenedeus; and next to them were Niger of Perea, and Silas of
+Babylon, who had deserted from king Agrippa to the Jews; for he had
+formerly served in his army. When the front of the Jewish army had been
+cut off, the Jews retired into the city; but still Simon, the son of
+Giora, fell upon the backs of the Romans, as they were ascending up
+Bethoron, and put the hindmost of the army into disorder, and carried
+off many of the beasts that carried the weapons of war, and led Shem
+into the city. But as Cestius tarried there three days, the Jews seized
+upon the elevated parts of the city, and set watches at the entrances
+into the city, and appeared openly resolved not to rest when once the
+Romans should begin to march.
+
+3. And now when Agrippa observed that even the affairs of the Romans
+were likely to be in danger, while such an immense multitude of their
+enemies had seized upon the mountains round about, he determined to try
+what the Jews would agree to by words, as thinking that he should either
+persuade them all to desist from fighting, or, however, that he should
+cause the sober part of them to separate themselves from the opposite
+party. So he sent Borceus and Phebus, the persons of his party that were
+the best known to them, and promised them that Cestius should give them
+his right hand, to secure them of the Romans' entire forgiveness of what
+they had done amiss, if they would throw away their arms, and come over
+to them; but the seditious, fearing lest the whole multitude, in
+hopes of security to themselves, should go over to Agrippa, resolved
+immediately to fall upon and kill the ambassadors; accordingly they
+slew Phebus before he said a word, but Borceus was only wounded, and so
+prevented his fate by flying away. And when the people were very angry
+at this, they had the seditious beaten with stones and clubs, and drove
+them before them into the city.
+
+4. But now Cestius, observing that the disturbances that were begun
+among the Jews afforded him a proper opportunity to attack them, took
+his whole army along with him, and put the Jews to flight, and pursued
+them to Jerusalem. He then pitched his camp upon the elevation called
+Scopus, [or watch-tower,] which was distant seven furlongs from
+the city; yet did not he assault them in three days' time, out of
+expectation that those within might perhaps yield a little; and in the
+mean time he sent out a great many of his soldiers into neighboring
+villages, to seize upon their corn. And on the fourth day, which was the
+thirtieth of the month Hyperbereteus, [Tisri,] when he had put his army
+in array, he brought it into the city. Now for the people, they were
+kept under by the seditious; but the seditious themselves were greatly
+affrighted at the good order of the Romans, and retired from the
+suburbs, and retreated into the inner part of the city, and into the
+temple. But when Cestius was come into the city, he set the part called
+Bezetha, which is called Cenopolis, [or the new city,] on fire; as he
+did also to the timber market; after which he came into the upper city,
+and pitched his camp over against the royal palace; and had he but at
+this very time attempted to get within the walls by force, he had won
+the city presently, and the war had been put an end to at once; but
+Tyrannius Priseus, the muster-master of the army, and a great number of
+the officers of the horse, had been corrupted by Florus, and diverted
+him from that his attempt; and that was the occasion that this war
+lasted so very long, and thereby the Jews were involved in such
+incurable calamities.
+
+5. In the mean time, many of the principal men of the city were
+persuaded by Ananus, the son of Jonathan, and invited Cestius into the
+city, and were about to open the gates for him; but he overlooked this
+offer, partly out of his anger at the Jews, and partly because he did
+not thoroughly believe they were in earnest; whence it was that he
+delayed the matter so long, that the seditious perceived the treachery,
+and threw Ananus and those of his party down from the wall, and,
+pelting them with stones, drove them into their houses; but they stood
+themselves at proper distances in the towers, and threw their darts at
+those that were getting over the wall. Thus did the Romans make their
+attack against the wall for five days, but to no purpose. But on the
+next day Cestius took a great many of his choicest men, and with them
+the archers, and attempted to break into the temple at the northern
+quarter of it; but the Jews beat them off from the cloisters, and
+repulsed them several times when they were gotten near to the wall, till
+at length the multitude of the darts cut them off, and made them retire;
+but the first rank of the Romans rested their shields upon the wall,
+and so did those that were behind them, and the like did those that were
+still more backward, and guarded themselves with what they call Testudo,
+[the back of] a tortoise, upon which the darts that were thrown fell,
+and slided off without doing them any harm; so the soldiers undermined
+the wall, without being themselves hurt, and got all things ready for
+setting fire to the gate of the temple.
+
+6. And now it was that a horrible fear seized upon the seditious,
+insomuch that many of them ran out of the city, as though it were to be
+taken immediately; but the people upon this took courage, and where the
+wicked part of the city gave ground, thither did they come, in order to
+set open the gates, and to admit Cestius 30 as their benefactor, who,
+had he but continued the siege a little longer, had certainly taken the
+city; but it was, I suppose, owing to the aversion God had already at
+the city and the sanctuary, that he was hindered from putting an end to
+the war that very day.
+
+7. It then happened that Cestius was not conscious either how the
+besieged despaired of success, nor how courageous the people were for
+him; and so he recalled his soldiers from the place, and by despairing
+of any expectation of taking it, without having received any disgrace,
+he retired from the city, without any reason in the world. But when the
+robbers perceived this unexpected retreat of his, they resumed their
+courage, and ran after the hinder parts of his army, and destroyed a
+considerable number of both their horsemen and footmen; and now Cestius
+lay all night at the camp which was at Scopus; and as he went off
+farther next day, he thereby invited the enemy to follow him, who still
+fell upon the hindmost, and destroyed them; they also fell upon the
+flank on each side of the army, and threw darts upon them obliquely,
+nor durst those that were hindmost turn back upon those who wounded them
+behind, as imagining that the multitude of those that pursued them was
+immense; nor did they venture to drive away those that pressed upon them
+on each side, because they were heavy with their arms, and were afraid
+of breaking their ranks to pieces, and because they saw the Jews were
+light, and ready for making incursions upon them. And this was the
+reason why the Romans suffered greatly, without being able to revenge
+themselves upon their enemies; so they were galled all the way, and
+their ranks were put into disorder, and those that were thus put out of
+their ranks were slain; among whom were Priscus, the commander of the
+sixth legion, and Longinus, the tribune, and Emilius Secundus, the
+commander of a troop of horsemen. So it was not without difficulty that
+they got to Gabao, their former camp, and that not without the loss of
+a great part of their baggage. There it was that Cestius staid two
+days, and was in great distress to know what he should do in these
+circumstances; but when on the third day he saw a still much greater
+number of enemies, and all the parts round about him full of Jews, he
+understood that his delay was to his own detriment, and that if he staid
+any longer there, he should have still more enemies upon him.
+
+8. That therefore he might fly the faster, he gave orders to cast away
+what might hinder his army's march; so they killed the mules and other
+creatures, excepting those that carried their darts and machines, which
+they retained for their own use, and this principally because they were
+afraid lest the Jews should seize upon them. He then made his army march
+on as far as Bethoron. Now the Jews did not so much press upon them when
+they were in large open places; but when they were penned up in their
+descent through narrow passages, then did some of them get before, and
+hindered them from getting out of them; and others of them thrust the
+hinder-most down into the lower places; and the whole multitude extended
+themselves over against the neck of the passage, and covered the Roman
+army with their darts. In which circumstances, as the footmen knew not
+how to defend themselves, so the danger pressed the horsemen still more,
+for they were so pelted, that they could not march along the road in
+their ranks, and the ascents were so high, that the cavalry were not
+able to march against the enemy; the precipices also and valleys into
+which they frequently fell, and tumbled down, were such on each side of
+them, that there was neither place for their flight, nor any contrivance
+could be thought of for their defense; till the distress they were at
+last in was so great, that they betook themselves to lamentations, and
+to such mournful cries as men use in the utmost despair: the joyful
+acclamations of the Jews also, as they encouraged one another, echoed
+the sounds back again, these last composing a noise of those that at
+once rejoiced and were in a rage. Indeed, things were come to such a
+pass, that the Jews had almost taken Cestius's entire army prisoners,
+had not the night come on, when the Romans fled to Bethoron, and the
+Jews seized upon all the places round about them, and watched for their
+coming out [in the morning].
+
+9. And then it was that Cestius, despairing of obtaining room for a
+public march, contrived how he might best run away; and when he had
+selected four hundred of the most courageous of his soldiers, he placed
+them at the strongest of their fortifications, and gave order, that when
+they went up to the morning guard, they should erect their ensigns, that
+the Jews might be made to believe that the entire army was there still,
+while he himself took the rest of his forces with him, and marched,
+without any noise, thirty furlongs. But when the Jews perceived, in the
+morning, that the camp was empty, they ran upon those four hundred who
+had deluded them, and immediately threw their darts at them, and slew
+them; and then pursued after Cestius. But he had already made use of a
+great part of the night in his flight, and still marched quicker when it
+was day; insomuch that the soldiers, through the astonishment and
+fear they were in, left behind them their engines for sieges, and for
+throwing of stones, and a great part of the instruments of war. So the
+Jews went on pursuing the Romans as far as Antipatris; after which,
+seeing they could not overtake them, they came back, and took the
+engines, and spoiled the dead bodies, and gathered the prey together
+which the Romans had left behind them, and came back running and singing
+to their metropolis; while they had themselves lost a few only, but had
+slain of the Romans five thousand and three hundred footmen, and three
+hundred and eighty horsemen. This defeat happened on the eighth day of
+the month Dius, [Marchesvan,] in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 20.
+
+
+     Cestius Sends Ambassadors To Nero. The People Of Damascus
+     Slay Those Jews That Lived With Them. The People Of
+     Jerusalem After They Had [Left Off] Pursuing Cestius, Return
+     To The City And Get Things Ready For Its Defense And Make A
+     Great Many Generals For Their Armies And Particularly
+     Josephus The Writer Of These Books. Some Account Of His
+     Administration.
+
+1. After this calamity had befallen Cestius, many of the most eminent
+of the Jews swam away from the city, as from a ship when it was going to
+sink; Costobarus, therefore, and Saul, who were brethren, together with
+Philip, the son of Jacimus, who was the commander of king Agrippa's
+forces, ran away from the city, and went to Cestius. But then how
+Antipas, who had been besieged with them in the king's palace, but would
+not fly away with them, was afterward slain by the seditious, we shall
+relate hereafter. However, Cestius sent Saul and his friends, at their
+own desire, to Achaia, to Nero, to inform him of the great distress they
+were in, and to lay the blame of their kindling the war upon Florus, as
+hoping to alleviate his own danger, by provoking his indignation against
+Florus.
+
+2. In the mean time, the people of Damascus, when they were informed
+of the destruction of the Romans, set about the slaughter of those Jews
+that were among them; and as they had them already cooped up together in
+the place of public exercises, which they had done out of the suspicion
+they had of them, they thought they should meet with no difficulty in
+the attempt; yet did they distrust their own wives, which were almost
+all of them addicted to the Jewish religion; on which account it was
+that their greatest concern was, how they might conceal these things
+from them; so they came upon the Jews, and cut their throats, as being
+in a narrow place, in number ten thousand, and all of them unarmed, and
+this in one hour's time, without any body to disturb them.
+
+3. But as to those who had pursued after Cestius, when they were
+returned back to Jerusalem, they overbore some of those that favored
+the Romans by violence, and some them persuaded [by en-treaties] to
+join with them, and got together in great numbers in the temple, and
+appointed a great many generals for the war. Joseph also, the son of
+Gorion, 31 and Ananus the high priest, were chosen as governors of all
+affairs within the city, and with a particular charge to repair the
+walls of the city; for they did not ordain Eleazar the son of Simon to
+that office, although he had gotten into his possession the prey they
+had taken from the Romans, and the money they had taken from Cestius,
+together with a great part of the public treasures, because they saw
+he was of a tyrannical temper, and that his followers were, in their
+behavior, like guards about him. However, the want they were in of
+Eleazar's money, and the subtle tricks used by him, brought all so
+about, that the people were circumvented, and submitted themselves to
+his authority in all public affairs.
+
+4. They also chose other generals for Idumea; Jesus, the son of
+Sapphias, one of the high priests; and Eleazar, the son of Ananias, the
+high priest; they also enjoined Niger, the then governor of Idumea,
+32 who was of a family that belonged to Perea, beyond Jordan, and
+was thence called the Peraite, that he should be obedient to those
+fore-named commanders. Nor did they neglect the care of other parts of
+the country; but Joseph the son of Simon was sent as general to Jericho,
+as was Manasseh to Perea, and John, the Esscue, to the toparchy of
+Thamna; Lydda was also added to his portion, and Joppa, and Emmaus.
+But John, the son of Matthias, was made governor of the toparchies of
+Gophnitica and Acrabattene; as was Josephus, the son of Matthias, of
+both the Galilees. Gamala also, which was the strongest city in those
+parts, was put under his command.
+
+5. So every one of the other commanders administered the affairs of his
+portion with that alacrity and prudence they were masters of; but as
+to Josephus, when he came into Galilee, his first care was to gain the
+good-will of the people of that country, as sensible that he should
+thereby have in general good success, although he should fail in other
+points. And being conscious to himself that if he communicated part of
+his power to the great men, he should make them his fast friends; and
+that he should gain the same favor from the multitude, if he executed
+his commands by persons of their own country, and with whom they were
+well acquainted; he chose out seventy of the most prudent men, and those
+elders in age, and appointed them to be rulers of all Galilee, as he
+chose seven judges in every city to hear the lesser quarrels; for as to
+the greater causes, and those wherein life and death were concerned, he
+enjoined they should be brought to him and the seventy 33 elders.
+
+6. Josephus also, when he had settled these rules for determining causes
+by the law, with regard to the people's dealings one with another,
+betook himself to make provisions for their safety against external
+violence; and as he knew the Romans would fall upon Galilee, he built
+walls in proper places about Jotapata, and Bersabee, and Selamis; and
+besides these, about Caphareccho, and Japha, and Sigo, and what they
+call Mount Tabor, and Taricheae, and Tiberias. Moreover, he built walls
+about the caves near the lake of Gennesar, which places lay in the Lower
+Galilee; the same he did to the places of Upper Galilee, as well as to
+the rock called the Rock of the Achabari, and to Seph, and Jamnith, and
+Meroth; and in Gaulonitis he fortified Seleucia, and Sogane, and Gamala;
+but as to those of Sepphoris, they were the only people to whom he gave
+leave to build their own walls, and this because he perceived they were
+rich and wealthy, and ready to go to war, without standing in need of
+any injunctions for that purpose. The case was the same with Gischala,
+which had a wall built about it by John the son of Levi himself, but
+with the consent of Josephus; but for the building of the rest of the
+fortresses, he labored together with all the other builders, and was
+present to give all the necessary orders for that purpose. He also got
+together an army out of Galilee, of more than a hundred thousand young
+men, all of which he armed with the old weapons which he had collected
+together and prepared for them.
+
+7. And when he had considered that the Roman power became invincible,
+chiefly by their readiness in obeying orders, and the constant exercise
+of their arms, he despaired of teaching these his men the use of their
+arms, which was to be obtained by experience; but observing that
+their readiness in obeying orders was owing to the multitude of their
+officers, he made his partitions in his army more after the Roman
+manner, and appointed a great many subalterns. He also distributed the
+soldiers into various classes, whom he put under captains of tens, and
+captains of hundreds, and then under captains of thousands; and besides
+these, he had commanders of larger bodies of men. He also taught them to
+give the signals one to another, and to call and recall the soldiers by
+the trumpets, how to expand the wings of an army, and make them wheel
+about; and when one wing hath had success, to turn again and assist
+those that were hard set, and to join in the defense of what had most
+suffered. He also continually instructed them in what concerned the
+courage of the soul, and the hardiness of the body; and, above all, he
+exercised them for war, by declaring to them distinctly the good order
+of the Romans, and that they were to fight with men who, both by the
+strength of their bodies and courage of their souls, had conquered in a
+manner the whole habitable earth. He told them that he should make trial
+of the good order they would observe in war, even before it came to any
+battle, in case they would abstain from the crimes they used to
+indulge themselves in, such as theft, and robbery, and rapine, and from
+defrauding their own countrymen, and never to esteem the harm done
+to those that were so near of kin to them to be any advantage to
+themselves; for that wars are then managed the best when the warriors
+preserve a good conscience; but that such as are ill men in private life
+will not only have those for enemies which attack them, but God himself
+also for their antagonist.
+
+8. And thus did he continue to admonish them. Now he chose for the war
+such an army as was sufficient, i.e. sixty thousand footmen, and two
+hundred and fifty horsemen; 34 and besides these, on which he put the
+greatest trust, there were about four thousand five hundred mercenaries;
+he had also six hundred men as guards of his body. Now the cities easily
+maintained the rest of his army, excepting the mercenaries, for every
+one of the cities enumerated above sent out half their men to the army,
+and retained the other half at home, in order to get provisions for
+them; insomuch that the one part went to the war, and the other part to
+their work, and so those that sent out their corn were paid for it by
+those that were in arms, by that security which they enjoyed from them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 21.
+
+
+     Concerning John Of Gichala. Josephus Uses Stratagems Against
+     The Plots John Laid Against Him And Recovers Certain Cities
+     Which Had Revolted From Him.
+
+1. Now as Josephus was thus engaged in the administration of the affairs
+of Galilee, there arose a treacherous person, a man of Gischala, the son
+of Levi, whose name was John. His character was that of a very cunning
+and very knavish person, beyond the ordinary rate of the other men
+of eminence there, and for wicked practices he had not his fellow
+any where. Poor he was at first, and for a long time his wants were a
+hinderance to him in his wicked designs. He was a ready liar, and yet
+very sharp in gaining credit to his fictions: he thought it a point of
+virtue to delude people, and would delude even such as were the dearest
+to him. He was a hypocritical pretender to humanity, but where he had
+hopes of gain, he spared not the shedding of blood: his desires were
+ever carried to great things, and he encouraged his hopes from those
+mean wicked tricks which he was the author of. He had a peculiar knack
+at thieving; but in some time he got certain companions in his impudent
+practices; at first they were but few, but as he proceeded on in his
+evil course, they became still more and more numerous. He took care that
+none of his partners should be easily caught in their rogueries, but
+chose such out of the rest as had the strongest constitutions of body,
+and the greatest courage of soul, together with great skill in martial
+affairs; as he got together a band of four hundred men, who came
+principally out of the country of Tyre, and were vagabonds that had
+run away from its villages; and by the means of these he laid waste
+all Galilee, and irritated a considerable number, who were in great
+expectation of a war then suddenly to arise among them.
+
+2. However, John's want of money had hitherto restrained him in his
+ambition after command, and in his attempts to advance himself. But when
+he saw that Josephus was highly pleased with the activity of his temper,
+he persuaded him, in the first place, to intrust him with the repairing
+of the walls of his native city, [Gischala,] in which work he got a
+great deal of money from the rich citizens. He after that contrived a
+very shrewd trick, and pretending that the Jews who dwelt in Syria were
+obliged to make use of oil that was made by others than those of their
+own nation, he desired leave of Josephus to send oil to their borders;
+so he bought four amphorae with such Tyrian money as was of the value of
+four Attic drachmae, and sold every half-amphora at the same price. And
+as Galilee was very fruitful in oil, and was peculiarly so at that time,
+by sending away great quantities, and having the sole privilege so
+to do, he gathered an immense sum of money together, which money he
+immediately used to the disadvantage of him who gave him that privilege;
+and, as he supposed, that if he could once overthrow Josephus, he should
+himself obtain the government of Galilee; so he gave orders to the
+robbers that were under his command to be more zealous in their thievish
+expeditions, that by the rise of many that desired innovations in the
+country, he might either catch their general in his snares, as he came
+to the country's assistance, and then kill him; or if he should overlook
+the robbers, he might accuse him for his negligence to the people of the
+country. He also spread abroad a report far and near that Josephus was
+delivering up the administration of affairs to the Romans; and many such
+plots did he lay, in order to ruin him.
+
+3. Now at the same time that certain young men of the village Dabaritta,
+who kept guard in the Great Plain laid snares for Ptolemy, who was
+Agrippa's and Bernice's steward, and took from him all that he had with
+him; among which things there were a great many costly garments, and no
+small number of silver cups, and six hundred pieces of gold; yet were
+they not able to conceal what they had stolen, but brought it all to
+Josephus, to Taricheae. Hereupon he blamed them for the violence they
+had offered to the king and queen, and deposited what they brought to
+him with Eneas, the most potent man of Taricheae, with an intention of
+sending the things back to the owners at a proper time; which act of
+Josephus brought him into the greatest danger; for those that had stolen
+the things had an indignation at him, both because they gained no share
+of it for themselves, and because they perceived beforehand what was
+Josephus's intention, and that he would freely deliver up what had cost
+them so much pains to the king and queen. These ran away by night to
+their several villages, and declared to all men that Josephus was going
+to betray them: they also raised great disorders in all the neighboring
+cities, insomuch that in the morning a hundred thousand armed men came
+running together; which multitude was crowded together in the hippodrome
+at Taricheae, and made a very peevish clamor against him; while some
+cried out, that they should depose the traitor; and others, that they
+should burn him. Now John irritated a great many, as did also one Jesus,
+the son of Sapphias, who was then governor of Tiberias. Then it was that
+Josephus's friends, and the guards of his body, were so affrighted at
+this violent assault of the multitude, that they all fled away but four;
+and as he was asleep, they awaked him, as the people were going to
+set fire to the house. And although those four that remained with him
+persuaded him to run away, he was neither surprised at his being himself
+deserted, nor at the great multitude that came against him, but leaped
+out to them with his clothes rent, and ashes sprinkled on his head, with
+his hands behind him, and his sword hanging at his neck. At this sight
+his friends, especially those of Taricheae, commiserated his condition;
+but those that came out of the country, and those in their neighborhood,
+to whom his government seemed burdensome, reproached him, and bid him
+produce the money which belonged to them all immediately, and to confess
+the agreement he had made to betray them; for they imagined, from the
+habit in which he appeared, that he would deny nothing of what they
+suspected concerning him, and that it was in order to obtain pardon that
+he had put himself entirely into so pitiable a posture. But this humble
+appearance was only designed as preparatory to a stratagem of his, who
+thereby contrived to set those that were so angry at him at variance one
+with another about the things they were angry at. However, he promised
+he would confess all: hereupon he was permitted to speak, when he said,
+"I did neither intend to send this money back to Agrippa, nor to gain it
+myself; for I did never esteem one that was your enemy to be my friend,
+nor did I look upon what would tend to your disadvantage to be my
+advantage. But, O you people of Tarieheae, I saw that your city stood in
+more need than others of fortifications for your security, and that it
+wanted money in order for the building it a wall. I was also afraid lest
+the people of Tiberias and other cities should lay a plot to seize upon
+these spoils, and therefore it was that I intended to retain this money
+privately, that I might encompass you with a wall. But if this does not
+please you, I will produce what was brought me, and leave it to you to
+plunder it; but if I have conducted myself so well as to please you, you
+may if you please punish your benefactor."
+
+4. Hereupon the people of Taricheae loudly commended him; but those
+of Tiberias, with the rest of the company, gave him hard names, and
+threatened what they would do to him; so both sides left off quarrelling
+with Josephus, and fell on quarrelling with one another. So he grew
+bold upon the dependence he had on his friends, which were the people of
+Taricheae, and about forty thousand in number, and spake more freely to
+the whole multitude, and reproached them greatly for their rashness; and
+told them, that with this money he would build walls about Taricheae,
+and would put the other cities in a state of security also; for that
+they should not want money, if they would but agree for whose benefit
+it was to be procured, and would not suffer themselves to be irritated
+against him who procured it for them.
+
+5. Hereupon the rest of the multitude that had been deluded retired;
+but yet so that they went away angry, and two thousand of them made an
+assault upon him in their armor; and as he was already gone to his own
+house, they stood without and threatened him. On which occasion Josephus
+again used a second stratagem to escape them; for he got upon the top of
+his house, and with his right hand desired them to be silent, and said
+to them, "I cannot tell what you would have, nor can hear what you say,
+for the confused noise you make;" but he said that he would comply with
+all their demands, in case they would but send some of their number
+in to him that might talk with him about it. And when the principal of
+them, with their leaders, heard this, they came into the house. He then
+drew them to the most retired part of the house, and shut the door of
+that hall where he put them, and then had them whipped till every one of
+their inward parts appeared naked. In the mean time the multitude stood
+round the house, and supposed that he had a long discourse with those
+that were gone in about what they claimed of him. He had then the doors
+set open immediately, and sent the men out all bloody, which so terribly
+affrighted those that had before threatened him, that they threw away
+their arms and ran away.
+
+6. But as for John, his envy grew greater [upon this escape of
+Josephus], and he framed a new plot against him; he pretended to be
+sick, and by a letter desired that Josephus would give him leave to use
+the hot baths that were at Tiberias, for the recovery of his health.
+Hereupon Josephus, who hitherto suspected nothing of John's plots
+against him, wrote to the governors of the city, that they would provide
+a lodging and necessaries for John; which favors, when he had made use
+of, in two days' time he did what he came about; some he corrupted with
+delusive frauds, and others with money, and so persuaded them to revolt
+from Josephus. This Silas, who was appointed guardian of the city by
+Josephus, wrote to him immediately, and informed him of the plot against
+him; which epistle when Josephus had received, he marched with great
+diligence all night, and came early in the morning to Tiberias; at which
+time the rest of the multitude met him. But John, who suspected that his
+coming was not for his advantage, sent however one of his friends, and
+pretended that he was sick, and that being confined to his bed, he could
+not come to pay him his respects. But as soon as Josephus had got the
+people of Tiberias together in the stadium, and tried to discourse with
+them about the letters that he had received, John privately sent some
+armed men, and gave them orders to slay him. But when the people saw
+that the armed men were about to draw their swords, they cried out; at
+which cry Josephus turned himself about, and when he saw that the
+swords were just at his throat, he marched away in great haste to the
+sea-shore, and left off that speech which he was going to make to the
+people, upon an elevation of six cubits high. He then seized on a ship
+which lay in the haven, and leaped into it, with two of his guards, and
+fled away into the midst of the lake.
+
+7. But now the soldiers he had with him took up their arms immediately,
+and marched against the plotters; but Josephus was afraid lest a civil
+war should be raised by the envy of a few men, and bring the city to
+ruin; so he sent some of his party to tell them, that they should do no
+more than provide for their own safety; that they should not kill any
+body, nor accuse any for the occasion they had afforded [of disorder].
+Accordingly, these men obeyed his orders, and were quiet; but the people
+of the neighboring country, when they were informed of this plot, and of
+the plotter, they got together in great multitudes to oppose John. But
+he prevented their attempt, and fled away to Gischala, his native
+city, while the Galileans came running out of their several cities to
+Josephus; and as they were now become many ten thousands of armed men,
+they cried out, that they were come against John the common plotter
+against their interest, and would at the same time burn him, and that
+city which had received him. Hereupon Josephus told them that he took
+their good-will to him kindly, but still he restrained their fury,
+and intended to subdue his enemies by prudent conduct, rather than by
+slaying them; so he excepted those of every city which had joined in
+this revolt with John, by name, who had readily been shown him by these
+that came from every city, and caused public proclamation to be made,
+that he would seize upon the effects of those that did not forsake
+John within five days' time, and would burn both their houses and their
+families with fire. Whereupon three thousand of John's party left him
+immediately, who came to Josephus, and threw their arms down at his
+feet. John then betook himself, together with his two thousand Syrian
+runagates, from open attempts, to more secret ways of treachery.
+Accordingly, he privately sent messengers to Jerusalem, to accuse
+Josephus, as having to great power, and to let them know that he would
+soon come as a tyrant to their metropolis, unless they prevented him.
+This accusation the people were aware of beforehand, but had no regard
+to it. However, some of the grandees, out of envy, and some of the
+rulers also, sent money to John privately, that he might be able to get
+together mercenary soldiers, in order to fight Josephus; they also made
+a decree of themselves, and this for recalling him from his government,
+yet did they not think that decree sufficient; so they sent withal two
+thousand five hundred armed men, and four persons of the highest rank
+amongst them; Joazar the son of Nomicus, and Ananias the son of Sadduk,
+as also Simon and Judas the sons of Jonathan, all very able men in
+speaking, that these persons might withdraw the good-will of the people
+from Josephus. These had it in charge, that if he would voluntarily
+come away, they should permit him to [come and] give an account of
+his conduct; but if he obstinately insisted upon continuing in his
+government, they should treat him as an enemy. Now Josephus's friends
+had sent him word that an army was coming against him, but they gave
+him no notice beforehand what the reason of their coming was, that being
+only known among some secret councils of his enemies; and by this means
+it was that four cities revolted from him immediately, Sepphoris, and
+Gamala, and Gischala, and Tiberias. Yet did he recover these cities
+without war; and when he had routed those four commanders by stratagems,
+and had taken the most potent of their warriors, he sent them to
+Jerusalem; and the people [of Galilee] had great indignation at them,
+and were in a zealous disposition to slay, not only these forces, but
+those that sent them also, had not these forces prevented it by running
+away.
+
+8. Now John was detained afterward within the walls of Gischala, by
+the fear he was in of Josephus; but within a few days Tiberias revolted
+again, the people within it inviting king Agrippa [to return to the
+exercise of his authority there]. And when he did not come at the
+time appointed, and when a few Roman horsemen appeared that day,
+they expelled Josephus out of the city. Now this revolt of theirs was
+presently known at Taricheae; and as Josephus had sent out all the
+soldiers that were with him to gather corn, he knew not how either to
+march out alone against the revolters, or to stay where he was, because
+he was afraid the king's soldiers might prevent him if he tarried, and
+might get into the city; for he did not intend to do any thing on
+the next day, because it was the sabbath day, and would hinder his
+proceeding. So he contrived to circumvent the revolters by a stratagem;
+and in the first place he ordered the gates of Taricheae to be shut,
+that nobody might go out and inform [those of Tiberias], for whom it
+was intended, what stratagem he was about; he then got together all the
+ships that were upon the lake, which were found to be two hundred and
+thirty, and in each of them he put no more than four mariners. So he
+sailed to Tiberias with haste, and kept at such a distance from the
+city, that it was not easy for the people to see the vessels, and
+ordered that the empty vessels should float up and down there, while
+himself, who had but seven of his guards with him, and those unarmed
+also, went so near as to be seen; but when his adversaries, who were
+still reproaching him, saw him from the walls, they were so astonished
+that they supposed all the ships were full of armed men, and threw down
+their arms, and by signals of intercession they besought him to spare
+the city.
+
+9. Upon this Josephus threatened them terribly, and reproached them,
+that when they were the first that took up arms against the Romans, they
+should spend their force beforehand in civil dissensions, and do what
+their enemies desired above all things; and that besides they should
+endeavor so hastily to seize upon him, who took care of their safety,
+and had not been ashamed to shut the gates of their city against
+him that built their walls; that, however, he would admit of any
+intercessors from them that might make some excuse for them, and with
+whom he would make such agreements as might be for the city's security.
+Hereupon ten of the most potent men of Tiberias came down to him
+presently; and when he had taken them into one of his vessels, he
+ordered them to be carried a great way off from the city. He then
+commanded that fifty others of their senate, such as were men of the
+greatest eminence, should come to him, that they also might give him
+some security on their behalf. After which, under one new pretense or
+another, he called forth others, one after another, to make the leagues
+between them. He then gave order to the masters of those vessels which
+he had thus filled to sail away immediately for Taricheae, and to
+confine those men in the prison there; till at length he took all their
+senate, consisting of six hundred persons, and about two thousand of the
+populace, and carried them away to Taricheae. 35
+
+10. And when the rest of the people cried out, that it was one Clitus
+that was the chief author of this revolt, they desired him to spend
+his anger upon him [only]; but Josephus, whose intention it was to slay
+nobody, commanded one Levius, belonging to his guards, to go out of the
+vessel, in order to cut off both Clitus's hands; yet was Levius afraid
+to go out by himself alone to such a large body of enemies, and refused
+to go. Now Clitus saw that Josephus was in a great passion in the ship,
+and ready to leap out of it, in order to execute the punishment himself;
+he begged therefore from the shore, that he would leave him one of his
+hands; which Josephus agreed to, upon condition that he would himself
+cutoff the other hand; accordingly he drew his sword, and with his
+right hand cut off his left, so great was the fear he was in of
+Josephus himself. And thus he took the people of Tiberias prisoners,
+and recovered the city again with empty ships and seven of his guard.
+Moreover, a few days afterward he retook Gischala, which had revolted
+with the people of Sepphoris, and gave his soldiers leave to plunder
+it; yet did he get all the plunder together, and restored it to the
+inhabitants; and the like he did to the inhabitants of Sepphoris and
+Tiberias. For when he had subdued those cities, he had a mind, by
+letting them be plundered, to give them some good instruction, while at
+the same time he regained their good-will by restoring them their money
+again.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 22.
+
+
+     The Jews Make All Ready For The War; And Simon, The Son Of
+     Gioras, Falls To Plundering.
+
+1. And thus were the disturbances of Galilee quieted, when, upon their
+ceasing to prosecute their civil dissensions, they betook themselves to
+make preparations for the war with the Romans. Now in Jerusalem the
+high priest Artanus, and as many of the men of power as were not in the
+interest of the Romans, both repaired the walls, and made a great many
+warlike instruments, insomuch that in all parts of the city darts and
+all sorts of armor were upon the anvil. Although the multitude of the
+young men were engaged in exercises, without any regularity, and all
+places were full of tumultuous doings; yet the moderate sort were
+exceedingly sad; and a great many there were who, out of the prospect
+they had of the calamities that were coming upon them, made great
+lamentations. There were also such omens observed as were understood to
+be forerunners of evils by such as loved peace, but were by those that
+kindled the war interpreted so as to suit their own inclinations; and
+the very state of the city, even before the Romans came against it, was
+that of a place doomed to destruction. However, Ananus's concern was
+this, to lay aside, for a while, the preparations for the war, and to
+persuade the seditious to consult their own interest, and to restrain
+the madness of those that had the name of zealots; but their violence
+was too hard for him; and what end he came to we shall relate hereafter.
+
+2. But as for the Acrabbene toparchy, Simon, the son of Gioras, got a
+great number of those that were fond of innovations together, and betook
+himself to ravage the country; nor did he only harass the rich men's
+houses, but tormented their bodies, and appeared openly and beforehand
+to affect tyranny in his government. And when an army was sent against
+him by Artanus, and the other rulers, he and his band retired to the
+robbers that were at Masada, and staid there, and plundered the country
+of Idumea with them, till both Ananus and his other adversaries were
+slain; and until the rulers of that country were so afflicted with the
+multitude of those that were slain, and with the continual ravage of
+what they had, that they raised an army, and put garrisons into the
+villages, to secure them from those insults. And in this state were the
+affairs of Judea at that time.
+
+WAR BOOK 2 FOOTNOTES
+
+1 (return) [ Hear Dean Aldrich's note on this place: "The law or Custom
+of the Jews [says he] requires seven days' mourning for the dead,"
+Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 8. sect. 4; whence the author of the Book of
+Ecclesiasticus, ch. 22:12, assigns seven days as the proper time of
+mourning for the dead, and, ch. 38:17, enjoins men to mourn for the
+dead, that they may not be evil spoken of; for, as Josephus says
+presently, if any one omits this mourning [funeral feast], he is not
+esteemed a holy person. How it is certain that such a seven days'
+mourning has been customary from times of the greatest antiquity,
+Genesis 1:10. Funeral feasts are also mentioned as of considerable
+antiquity, Ezekiel 24:17; Jeremiah 16:7; Prey. 31:6; Deuteronomy 26:14;
+Josephus, Of the War B. III. ch. 9. sect. 5.]
+
+
+2 (return) [ This holding a council in the temple of Apollo, in the
+emperor's palace at Rome, by Augustus, and even the building of this
+temple magnificently by himself in that palace, are exactly agreeable
+to Augustus, in his elder years, as Aldrich and from Suttonius and
+Propertius.]
+
+
+3 (return) [ Here we have a strong confirmation that it was Xerxes, and
+not Artaxerxes, under whom the main part of the Jews returned out of the
+Babylonian captivity, i.e. in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The same
+thing is in the Antiquities, B. XI. ch.6]
+
+
+4 (return) [ This practice of the Essens, in refusing to swear,
+and esteeming swearing in ordinary occasions worse than perjury, is
+delivered here in general words, as are the parallel injunctions of our
+Savior, Matthew 6:34; 23:16; and of St. James, 5:12; but all admit of
+particular exceptions for solemn causes, and on great and necessary
+occasions. Thus these very Essens, who here do so zealously avoid
+swearing, are related, in the very next section, to admit none till they
+take tremendous oaths to perform their several duties to God, and to
+their neighbor, without supposing they thereby break this rule, Not to
+swear at all. The case is the same in Christianity, as we learn from the
+Apostolical Constitutions, which although they agree with Christ and St.
+James, in forbidding to swear in general, ch. 5:12; 6:2, 3; yet do they
+explain it elsewhere, by avoiding to swear falsely, and to swear often
+and in vain, ch. 2:36; and again, by "not swearing at all," but withal
+adding, that "if that cannot be avoided, to swear truly," ch. 7:3; which
+abundantly explain to us the nature of the measures of this general
+injunction.]
+
+
+5 (return) [ This mention of the "names of angels," so particularly
+preserved by the Essens, [if it means more than those "messengers" which
+were employed to bring, them the peculiar books of their Sect,] looks
+like a prelude to that "worshipping of angels," blamed by St. Paul, as
+superstitious and unlawful, in some such sort of people as these Essens
+were, Colossians 2:8; as is the prayer to or towards the sun for his
+rising every morning, mentioned before, sect. 5, very like those not
+much later observances made mention of in the preaching of Peter,
+Authent. Rec. Part II. p. 669, and regarding a kind of worship of
+angels, of the month, and of the moon, and not celebrating the new
+moons, or other festivals, unless the moon appeared. Which, indeed,
+seems to me the earliest mention of any regard to the phases in fixing
+the Jewish calendar, of which the Talmud and later Rabbins talk so much,
+and upon so very little ancient foundation.]
+
+
+6 (return) [ Of these Jewish or Essene [and indeed Christian] doctrines
+concerning souls, both good and bad, in Hades, see that excellent
+discourse, or homily, of our Josephus concerning Hades, at the end of
+the volume.]
+
+
+7 (return) [ Dean Aldrich reckons up three examples of this gift of
+prophecy in several of these Essens out of Josephus himself, viz. in the
+History of the War, B. I. ch. 3. sect. 5, Judas foretold the death of
+Antigonus at Strato's Tower; B. II. ch. 7. sect. 3, Simon foretold that
+Archelaus should reign but nine or ten years; and Antiq. B. XV. ch. 10.
+sect. 4, 5, Menuhem foretold that Herod should be king, and should reign
+tyrannically, and that for more than twenty or even thirty years. All
+which came to pass accordingly.]
+
+
+8 (return) [ There is so much more here about the Essens than is cited
+from Josephus in Porphyry and Eusebius, and yet so much less about
+the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two other Jewish sects, than would
+naturally be expected in proportion to the Essens or third sect, nay,
+than seems to be referred to by himself elsewhere, that one is tempted
+to suppose Josephus had at first written less of the one, and more of
+the two others, than his present copies afford us; as also, that, by
+some unknown accident, our present copies are here made up of the larger
+edition in the first case, and of the smaller in the second. See the
+note in Havercamp's edition. However, what Josephus says in the name of
+the Pharisees, that only the souls of good men go out of one body into
+another, although all souls be immortal, and still the souls of the
+bad are liable to eternal punishment; as also what he says afterwards,
+Antiq. B. XVIII. ch. 1. sect. 3, that the soul's vigor is immortal, and
+that under the earth they receive rewards or punishments according as
+their lives have been virtuous or vicious in the present world; that to
+the bad is allotted an eternal prison, but that the good are permitted
+to live again in this world; are nearly agreeable to the doctrines of
+Christianity. Only Josephus's rejection of the return of the wicked into
+other bodies, or into this world, which he grants to the good, looks
+somewhat like a contradiction to St. Paul's account of the doctrine
+of the Jews, that they "themselves allowed that there should be a
+resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust," Acts 24:15. Yet
+because Josephus's account is that of the Pharisees, and St. Patti's
+that of the Jews in general, and of himself the contradiction is not
+very certain.]
+
+
+9 (return) [ We have here, in that Greek MS. which was once Alexander
+Petavius's, but is now in the library at Leyden, two most remarkable
+additions to the common copies, though declared worth little remark by
+the editor; which, upon the mention of Tiberius's coming to the empire,
+inserts first the famous testimony of Josephus concerning Jesus Christ,
+as it stands verbatim in the Antiquities, B. XVIII. ch. 3. sect. 3, with
+some parts of that excellent discourse or homily of Josephus concerning
+Hades, annexed to the work. But what is here principally to be noted
+is this, that in this homily, Josephus having just mentioned Christ,
+as "God the Word, and the Judge of the world, appointed by the Father,"
+etc., adds, that "he had himself elsewhere spoken about him more nicely
+or particularly."]
+
+
+10 (return) [ This use of corban, or oblation, as here applied to the
+sacred money dedicated to God in the treasury of the temple, illustrates
+our Savior's words, Mark 7:11, 12.]
+
+
+11 (return) [ Tacitus owns that Caius commanded the Jews to place his
+effigies in their temple, though he be mistaken when he adds that the
+Jews thereupon took arms.]
+
+
+12 (return) [ This account of a place near the mouth of the river Belus
+in Phoenicia, whence came that sand out of which the ancients made their
+glass, is a known thing in history, particularly in Tacitus and Strabo,
+and more largely in Pliny.]
+
+
+13 (return) [ This Memnon had several monuments, and one of them
+appears, both by Strabo and Diodorus, to have been in Syria, and not
+improbably in this very place.]
+
+
+14 (return) [ Reland notes here, that the Talmud in recounting ten sad
+accidents for which the Jews ought to rend their garments, reckons this
+for one, "When they hear that the law of God is burnt."]
+
+
+15 (return) [ This Ummidius, or Numidius, or, as Tacitus calls him,
+Vinidius Quadratus, is mentioned in an ancient inscription, still
+preserved, as Spanhelm here informs us, which calls him Urnmidius
+Quadratus.]
+
+
+16 (return) [ Take the character of this Felix [who is well known from
+the Acts of the Apostles, particularly from his trembling when St. Paul
+discoursed of "righteousness, chastity, and judgment to come,"] Acts
+24:5; and no wonder, when we have elsewhere seen that he lived in
+adultery with Drusilla, another man's wife, [Antiq. B. XX. ch. 7.
+sect. 1: in the words of Tacitus, produced here by Dean Aldrich: "Felix
+exercised," says Tacitas, "the authority of a king, with the disposition
+of a slave, and relying upon the great power of his brother Pallas
+at court, thought he might safely be guilty of all kinds of wicked
+practices." Observe also the time when he was made procurator, A.D. 52;
+that when St. Paul pleaded his cause before him, A.D. 58, he might have
+been "many years a judge unto that nation," as St. Paul says he had
+then been, Acts 24:10. But as to what Tacitus here says, that before the
+death of Cumanus, Felix was procurator over Samaria only, does not well
+agree with St. Paul's words, who would hardly have called Samaria a
+Jewish nation. In short, since what Tacitus here says is about countries
+very remote from Rome, where he lived; since what he says of two Roman
+procurators, the one over Galilee, the other over Samaria at the same
+time, is without example elsewhere; and since Josephus, who lived
+at that very time in Judea, appears to have known nothing of this
+procuratorship of Felix, before the death of Cumanus; I much suspect
+the story itself as nothing better than a mistake of Tacitus, especially
+when it seems not only omitted, but contradicted by Josephus; as any one
+may find that compares their histories together. Possibly Felix might
+have been a subordinate judge among the Jews some time before under
+Cumanus, but that he was in earnest a procurator of Samaria before I
+do not believe. Bishop Pearson, as well as Bishop Lloyd, quote this
+account, but with a doubtful clause: confides Tacito, "If we may believe
+Tacitus." Pears. Anhal. Paulin. p. 8; Marshall's Tables, at A.D. 49.]
+
+
+17 (return) [ i.e. Herod king of Chalcis.]
+
+
+18 (return) [ Not long after this beginning of Florus, the wickedest of
+all the Roman procurators of Judea, and the immediate occasion of the
+Jewish war, at the twelfth year of Nero, and the seventeenth of Agrippa,
+or A.D. 66, the history in the twenty books of Josephus's Antiquities
+ends, although Josephus did not finish these books till the thirteenth
+of Domitian, or A.D. 93, twenty-seven years afterward; as he did not
+finish their Appendix, containing an account of his own life, till
+Agrippa was dead, which happened in the third year of Trajan, or A. D.
+100, as I have several times observed before.]
+
+
+19 (return) [ Here we may note, that three millions of the Jews were
+present at the passover, A.D. 65; which confirms what Josephus elsewhere
+informs us of, that at a passover a little later they counted two
+hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred paschal lambs, which, at
+twelve to each lamb, which is no immoderate calculation, come to three
+millions and seventy-eight thousand. See B. VI. ch. 9. sect. 3.]
+
+
+20 (return) [ Take here Dr. Hudson's very pertinent note. "By this
+action," says he, "the killing of a bird over an earthen vessel, the
+Jews were exposed as a leprous people; for that was to be done by the
+law in the cleansing of a leper, Leviticus 14. It is also known that
+the Gentiles reproached the Jews as subject to the leprosy, and believed
+that they were driven out of Egypt on that account. This that eminent
+person Mr. Reland suggested to me."]
+
+
+21 (return) [ Here we have examples of native Jews who were of the
+equestrian order among the Romans, and so ought never to have been
+whipped or crucified, according to the Roman laws. See almost the like
+case in St. Paul himself, Acts 22:25-29.]
+
+
+22 (return) [ This vow which Bernice [here and elsewhere called queen,
+not only as daughter and sister to two kings, Agrippa the Great, and
+Agrippa junior, but the widow of Herod king of Chalcis] came now to
+accomplish at Jerusalem was not that of a Nazarite, but such a one as
+religious Jews used to make, in hopes of any deliverance from a disease,
+or other danger, as Josephus here intimates. However, these thirty days'
+abode at Jerusalem, for fasting and preparation against the oblation
+of a proper sacrifice, seems to be too long, unless it were wholly
+voluntary in this great lady. It is not required in the law of Moses
+relating to Nazarites, Numbers 6., and is very different from St. Paul's
+time for such preparation, which was but one day, Acts 21:26. So we want
+already the continuation of the Antiquities to afford us light here, as
+they have hitherto done on so many occasions elsewhere. Perhaps in this
+age the traditions of the Pharisees had obliged the Jews to this degree
+of rigor, not only as to these thirty days' preparation, but as to the
+going barefoot all that time, which here Bernice submitted to also. For
+we know that as God's and our Savior's yoke is usually easy, and his
+burden comparatively light, in such positive injunctions, Matthew 11:30,
+so did the scribes and Pharisees sometimes "bind upon men heavy burdens,
+and grievous to be borne," even when they themselves "would not touch
+them with one of their fingers," Matthew 23:4; Luke 11:46. However,
+Noldius well observes, De Herod. No. 404, 414, that Juvenal, in his
+sixth satire, alludes to this remarkable penance or submission of this
+Bernice to Jewish discipline, and jests upon her for it; as do Tacitus,
+Dio, Suetonius, and Sextus Aurelius mention her as one well known at
+Rome.--Ibid.]
+
+
+23 (return) [ I take this Bezetha to be that small hill adjoining to the
+north side of the temple, whereon was the hospital with five porticoes
+or cloisters, and beneath which was the sheep pool of Bethesda; into
+which an angel or messenger, at a certain season, descended, and where
+he or they who were the "first put into the pool" were cured, John 5:1
+etc. This situation of Bezetha, in Josephus, on the north side of the
+temple, and not far off the tower Antonia, exactly agrees to the place
+of the same pool at this day; only the remaining cloisters are but
+three. See Maundrel, p. 106. The entire buildings seem to have been
+called the New City, and this part, where was the hospital, peculiarly
+Bezetha or Bethesda. See ch. 19. sect. 4.]
+
+
+24 (return) [ In this speech of king Agrippa we have an authentic
+account of the extent and strength of the Roman empire when the Jewish
+war began. And this speech with other circumstances in Josephus,
+demonstrate how wise and how great a person Agrippa was, and why
+Josephus elsewhere calls him a most wonderful or admirable man,
+Contr. Ap. I. 9. He is the same Agrippa who said to Paul, "Almost thou
+persuadest me to be a Christian," Acts 26;28; and of whom St. Paul said,
+"He was expert in all the customs and questions of the Jews," yet. 3.
+See another intimation of the limits of the same Roman empire, Of the
+War, B. III. ch. 5. sect. 7. But what seems to me very remarkable here
+is this, that when Josephus, in imitation of the Greeks and Romans, for
+whose use he wrote his Antiquities, did himself frequently he into their
+they appear, by the politeness of their composition, and their flights
+of oratory, to be not the real speeches of the persons concerned, who
+usually were no orators, but of his own elegant composure, the speech
+before us is of another nature, full of undeniable facts, and composed
+in a plain and unartful, but moving way; so it appears to be king
+Agrippa's own speech, and to have been given Josephus by Agrippa
+himself, with whom Josephus had the greatest friendship. Nor may we omit
+Agrippa's constant doctrine here, that this vast Roman empire was raised
+and supported by Divine Providence, and that therefore it was in vain
+for the Jews, or any others, to think of destroying it. Nor may we
+neglect to take notice of Agrippa's solemn appeal to the angels here
+used; the like appeals to which we have in St. Paul, 1 Timothy 5:22, and
+by the apostles in general, in the form of the ordination of bishops,
+Constitut. Apost. VIII. 4.]
+
+
+25 (return) [ Julius Caesar had decreed that the Jews of Jerusalem
+should pay an annual tribute to the Romans, excepting the city Joppa,
+and for the sabbatical year; as Spanheim observes from the Antiq. B.
+XIV. ch. 10. sect. 6.]
+
+
+26 (return) [ Of this Sohemus we have mention made by Tacitus. We also
+learn from Dio that his father was king of the Arabians of Iturea,
+[which Iturea is mentioned by St. Luke, ch. 3:1.] both whose testimonies
+are quoted here by Dr. Hudson. See Noldius, No. 371.]
+
+
+27 (return) [ Spanheim notes on the place, that this later Antiochus,
+who was called Epiphaues, is mentioned by Dio, LIX. p. 645, and that he
+is mentioned by Josephus elsewhere twice also, B.V. ch. 11. sect. 3; and
+Antiq. B. XIX. ch. 8. sect. I.]
+
+
+28 (return) [ Here we have an eminent example of that Jewish language,
+which Dr. Wail truly observes, we several times find used in the sacred
+writings; I mean, where the words "all" or "whole multitude," etc. are
+used for much the greatest part only; but not so as to include every
+person, without exception; for when Josephus had said that "the whole
+multitude" [Footnote all the males] of Lydda were gone to the feast of
+tabernacles, he immediately adds, that, however, no fewer than fifty
+of them appeared, and were slain by the Romans. Other examples somewhat
+like this I have observed elsewhere in Josephus, but, as I think, none
+so remarkable as this. See Wall's Critical Observations on the Old
+Testament, p. 49, 50.]
+
+
+29 (return) [ We have also, in this and the next section, two eminent
+facts to be observed, viz. the first example, that I remember, in
+Josephus, of the onset of the Jews' enemies upon their country when
+their males were gone up to Jerusalem to one of their three sacred
+festivals; which, during the theocracy, God had promised to preserve
+them from, Exodus 34:24. The second fact is this, the breach of the
+sabbath by the seditions Jews in an offensive fight, contrary to the
+universal doctrine and practice of their nation in these ages, and even
+contrary to what they themselves afterward practiced in the rest of this
+war. See the note on Antiq. B. XVI. ch. 2. sect. 4.]
+
+
+30 (return) [ There may another very important, and very providential,
+reason be here assigned for this strange and foolish retreat of Cestius;
+which, if Josephus had been now a Christian, he might probably have
+taken notice of also; and that is, the affording the Jewish Christians
+in the city an opportunity of calling to mind the prediction and caution
+given them by Christ about thirty-three years and a half before, that
+"when they should see the abomination of desolation" [the idolatrous
+Roman armies, with the images of their idols in their ensigns, ready
+to lay Jerusalem desolate] "stand where it ought not;" or, "in the holy
+place;" or, "when they should see Jerusalem any one instance of a more
+unpolitic, but more providential, compassed with armies;" they should
+then "flee to the mound conduct than this retreat of Cestius visible
+during this whole rains." By complying with which those Jewish
+Christians fled I siege of Jerusalem; which yet was providentially such
+a "great to the mountains of Perea, and escaped this destruction. See
+tribulation, as had not been from the beginning of the world to that
+time; no, Lit. Accompl. of Proph. p. 69, 70. Nor was there, perhaps, nor
+ever should be."--Ibid. p. 70, 71.]
+
+
+31 (return) [ From this name of Joseph the son of Gorion, or Gorion
+the son of Joseph, as B. IV. ch. 3. sect. 9, one of the governors of
+Jerusalem, who was slain at the beginning of the tumults by the zealots,
+B. IV. ch. 6. sect. 1, the much later Jewish author of a history of that
+nation takes his title, and yet personates our true Josephus, the son of
+Matthias; but the cheat is too gross to be put upon the learned world.]
+
+
+32 (return) [ We may observe here, that the Idumeans, as having been
+proselytes of justice since the days of John Hyrcanus, during about one
+hundred and ninety-five years, were now esteemed as part of the Jewish
+nation, and these provided of a Jewish commander accordingly. See the
+note upon Antiq. B. XIII.. ch. 9. sect. 1.]
+
+
+33 (return) [ We see here, and in Josephus's account of his own life,
+sect. 14, how exactly he imitated his legislator Moses, or perhaps only
+obeyed what he took to be his perpetual law, in appointing seven lesser
+judges, for smaller causes, in particular cities, and perhaps for
+the first hearing of greater causes, with the liberty of an appeal to
+seventy-one supreme judges, especially in those causes where life and
+death were concerned; as Antiq. B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 14; and of his Life,
+sect. 14. See also Of the War, B. IV. ch. 5. sect. 4. Moreover, we find,
+sect. 7, that he imitated Moses, as well as the Romans, in the number
+and distribution of the subaltern officers of his army, as Exodus 18:25;
+Deuteronomy 1:15; and in his charge against the offenses common among
+soldiers, as Denteronomy 13:9; in all which he showed his great wisdom
+and piety, and skillful conduct in martial affairs. Yet may we discern
+in his very high character of Artanus the high priest, B. IV. ch. 5.
+sect. 2, who seems to have been the same who condemned St. James, bishop
+of Jerusalem, to be stoned, under Albinus the procurator, that when
+he wrote these books of the War, he was not so much as an Ebionite
+Christian; otherwise he would not have failed, according to his usual
+custom, to have reckoned this his barbarous murder as a just punishment
+upon him for that his cruelty to the chief, or rather only Christian
+bishop of the circumcision. Nor, had he been then a Christian, could he
+immediately have spoken so movingly of the causes of the destruction
+of Jerusalem, without one word of either the condemnation of James,
+or crucifixion of Christ, as he did when he was become a Christian
+afterward.]
+
+
+34 (return) [ I should think that an army of sixty thousand footmen
+should require many more than two hundred and fifty horsemen; and we
+find Josephus had more horsemen under his command than two hundred and
+fifty in his future history. I suppose the number of the thousands is
+dropped in our present copies.]
+
+
+35 (return) [ I cannot but think this stratagem of Josephus, which is
+related both here and in his Life, sect. 32, 33, to be one of the finest
+that ever was invented and executed by any warrior whatsoever.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+
+     Containing The Interval Of About One Year.
+
+     From Vespasian's Coming To Subdue The Jews To The Taking Of
+     Gamala.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+
+     Vespasian Is Sent Into Syria By Nero In Order To Make War
+     With The Jews.
+
+1. When Nero was informed of the Romans' ill success in Judea, a
+concealed consternation and terror, as is usual in such cases, fell upon
+him; although he openly looked very big, and was very angry, and
+said that what had happened was rather owing to the negligence of the
+commander, than to any valor of the enemy: and as he thought it fit
+for him, who bare the burden of the whole empire, to despise such
+misfortunes, he now pretended so to do, and to have a soul superior to
+all such sad accidents whatsoever. Yet did the disturbance that was in
+his soul plainly appear by the solicitude he was in [how to recover his
+affairs again].
+
+2. And as he was deliberating to whom he should commit the care of the
+East, now it was in so great a commotion, and who might be best able
+to punish the Jews for their rebellion, and might prevent the same
+distemper from seizing upon the neighboring nations also,--he found
+no one but Vespasian equal to the task, and able to undergo the great
+burden of so mighty a war, seeing he was growing an old man already in
+the camp, and from his youth had been exercised in warlike exploits: he
+was also a man that had long ago pacified the west, and made it subject
+to the Romans, when it had been put into disorder by the Germans; he had
+also recovered to them Britain by his arms, which had been little known
+before 1 whereby he procured to his father Claudius to have a triumph
+bestowed on him without any sweat or labor of his own.
+
+3. So Nero esteemed these circumstances as favorable omens, and saw that
+Vespasian's age gave him sure experience, and great skill, and that
+he had his sons as hostages for his fidelity to himself, and that the
+flourishing age they were in would make them fit instruments under
+their father's prudence. Perhaps also there was some interposition
+of Providence, which was paving the way for Vespasian's being himself
+emperor afterwards. Upon the whole, he sent this man to take upon him
+the command of the armies that were in Syria; but this not without great
+encomiums and flattering compellations, such as necessity required, and
+such as might mollify him into complaisance. So Vespasian sent his son
+Titus from Achaia, where he had been with Nero, to Alexandria, to bring
+back with him from thence the fifth and the tenth legions, while he
+himself, when he had passed over the Hellespont, came by land into
+Syria, where he gathered together the Roman forces, with a considerable
+number of auxiliaries from the kings in that neighborhood.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+
+     A Great Slaughter About Ascalon. Vespasian Comes To
+     Ptolemais.
+
+1. Now the Jews, after they had beaten Cestius, were so much elevated
+with their unexpected success, that they could not govern their zeal,
+but, like people blown up into a flame by their good fortune, carried
+the war to remoter places. Accordingly, they presently got together a
+great multitude of all their most hardy soldiers, and marched away for
+Ascalon. This is an ancient city that is distant from Jerusalem five
+hundred and twenty furlongs, and was always an enemy to the Jews; on
+which account they determined to make their first effort against it, and
+to make their approaches to it as near as possible. This excursion was
+led on by three men, who were the chief of them all, both for strength
+and sagacity; Niger, called the Persite, Silas of Babylon, and besides
+them John the Essene. Now Ascalon was strongly walled about, but had
+almost no assistance to be relied on [near them], for the garrison
+consisted of one cohort of footmen, and one troop of horsemen, whose
+captain was Antonius.
+
+2. These Jews, therefore, out of their anger, marched faster than
+ordinary, and, as if they had come but a little way, approached very
+near the city, and were come even to it; but Antonius, who was not
+unapprized of the attack they were going to make upon the city, drew out
+his horsemen beforehand, and being neither daunted at the multitude,
+nor at the courage of the enemy, received their first attacks with great
+bravery; and when they crowded to the very walls, he beat them off. Now
+the Jews were unskillful in war, but were to fight with those who were
+skillful therein; they were footmen to fight with horsemen; they were
+in disorder, to fight those that were united together; they were poorly
+armed, to fight those that were completely so; they were to fight more
+by their rage than by sober counsel, and were exposed to soldiers that
+were exactly obedient; and did every thing they were bidden upon the
+least intimation. So they were easily beaten; for as soon as ever
+their first ranks were once in disorder, they were put to flight by the
+enemy's cavalry, and those of them that came behind such as crowded to
+the wall fell upon their own party's weapons, and became one another's
+enemies; and this so long till they were all forced to give way to the
+attacks of the horsemen, and were dispersed all the plain over, which
+plain was wide, and all fit for the horsemen; which circumstance was
+very commodious for the Romans, and occasioned the slaughter of the
+greatest number of the Jews; for such as ran away, they could overrun
+them, and make them turn back; and when they had brought them back after
+their flight, and driven them together, they ran them through, and slew
+a vast number of them, insomuch that others encompassed others of them,
+and drove them before them whithersoever they turned themselves, and
+slew them easily with their arrows; and the great number there were of
+the Jews seemed a solitude to themselves, by reason of the distress they
+were in, while the Romans had such good success with their small number,
+that they seemed to themselves to be the greater multitude. And as the
+former strove zealously under their misfortunes, out of the shame of
+a sudden flight, and hopes of the change in their success, so did the
+latter feel no weariness by reason of their good fortune; insomuch that
+the fight lasted till the evening, till ten thousand men of the Jews'
+side lay dead, with two of their generals, John and Silas, and the
+greater part of the remainder were wounded, with Niger, their remaining
+general, who fled away together to a small city of Idumea, called
+Sallis. Some few also of the Romans were wounded in this battle.
+
+3. Yet were not the spirits of the Jews broken by so great a calamity,
+but the losses they had sustained rather quickened their resolution for
+other attempts; for, overlooking the dead bodies which lay under their
+feet, they were enticed by their former glorious actions to venture on
+a second destruction; so when they had lain still so little a while that
+their wounds were not yet thoroughly cured, they got together all their
+forces, and came with greater fury, and in much greater numbers, to
+Ascalon. But their former ill fortune followed them, as the consequence
+of their unskilfulness, and other deficiencies in war; for Antonius laid
+ambushes for them in the passages they were to go through, where they
+fell into snares unexpectedly, and where they were encompassed about
+with horsemen, before they could form themselves into a regular body for
+fighting, and were above eight thousand of them slain; so all the rest
+of them ran away, and with them Niger, who still did a great many bold
+exploits in his flight. However, they were driven along together by the
+enemy, who pressed hard upon them, into a certain strong tower belonging
+to a village called Bezedeh However, Antonius and his party, that they
+might neither spend any considerable time about this tower, which was
+hard to be taken, nor suffer their commander, and the most courageous
+man of them all, to escape from them, they set the wall on fire; and as
+the tower was burning, the Romans went away rejoicing, as taking it for
+granted that Niger was destroyed; but he leaped out of the tower into a
+subterraneous cave, in the innermost part of it, and was preserved; and
+on the third day afterward he spake out of the ground to those that with
+great lamentation were searching for him, in order to give him a decent
+funeral; and when he was come out, he filled all the Jews with an
+unexpected joy, as though he were preserved by God's providence to be
+their commander for the time to come.
+
+4. And now Vespasian took along with him his army from Antioch, [which
+is the metropolis of Syria, and without dispute deserves the place of
+the third city in the habitable earth that was under the Roman empire,
+2 both in magnitude, and other marks of prosperity,] where he found king
+Agrippa, with all his forces, waiting for his coming, and marched to
+Ptolemais. At this city also the inhabitants of Sepphoris of Galilee met
+him, who were for peace with the Romans. These citizens had beforehand
+taken care of their own safety, and being sensible of the power of the
+Romans, they had been with Cestius Gallus before Vespasian came, and had
+given their faith to him, and received the security of his right hand,
+and had received a Roman garrison; and at this time withal they received
+Vespasian, the Roman general, very kindly, and readily promised that
+they would assist him against their own countrymen. Now the general
+delivered them, at their desire, as many horsemen and footmen as he
+thought sufficient to oppose the incursions of the Jews, if they should
+come against them. And indeed the danger of losing Sepphoris would be no
+small one, in this war that was now beginning, seeing it was the largest
+city of Galilee, and built in a place by nature very strong, and might
+be a security of the whole nation's [fidelity to the Romans].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3.
+
+
+     A Description Of Galilee, Samaria, And Judea.
+
+1. Now Phoenicia and Syria encompass about the Galilees, which are two,
+and called the Upper Galilee and the Lower. They are bounded toward the
+sun-setting, with the borders of the territory belonging to Ptolemais,
+and by Carmel; which mountain had formerly belonged to the Galileans,
+but now belonged to the Tyrians; to which mountain adjoins Gaba,
+which is called the City of Horsemen, because those horsemen that were
+dismissed by Herod the king dwelt therein; they are bounded on the south
+with Samaria and Scythopolis, as far as the river Jordan; on the east
+with Hippeae and Gadaris, and also with Ganlonitis, and the borders of
+the kingdom of Agrippa; its northern parts are bounded by Tyre, and the
+country of the Tyrians. As for that Galilee which is called the Lower,
+it, extends in length from Tiberias to Zabulon, and of the maritime
+places Ptolemais is its neighbor; its breadth is from the village called
+Xaloth, which lies in the great plain, as far as Bersabe, from which
+beginning also is taken the breadth of the Upper Galilee, as far as the
+village Baca, which divides the land of the Tyrians from it; its length
+is also from Meloth to Thella, a village near to Jordan.
+
+2. These two Galilees, of so great largeness, and encompassed with
+so many nations of foreigners, have been always able to make a strong
+resistance on all occasions of war; for the Galileans are inured to war
+from their infancy, and have been always very numerous; nor hath the
+country been ever destitute of men of courage, or wanted a numerous set
+of them; for their soil is universally rich and fruitful, and full of
+the plantations of trees of all sorts, insomuch that it invites the
+most slothful to take pains in its cultivation, by its fruitfulness;
+accordingly, it is all cultivated by its inhabitants, and no part of it
+lies idle. Moreover, the cities lie here very thick, and the very
+many villages there are here are every where so full of people, by
+the richness of their soil, that the very least of them contain above
+fifteen thousand inhabitants.
+
+3. In short, if any one will suppose that Galilee is inferior to Perea
+in magnitude, he will be obliged to prefer it before it in its strength;
+for this is all capable of cultivation, and is every where fruitful; but
+for Perea, which is indeed much larger in extent, the greater part of
+it is desert and rough, and much less disposed for the production of the
+milder kinds of fruits; yet hath it a moist soil [in other parts], and
+produces all kinds of fruits, and its plains are planted with trees of
+all sorts, while yet the olive tree, the vine, and the palm tree are
+chiefly cultivated there. It is also sufficiently watered with torrents,
+which issue out of the mountains, and with springs that never fail to
+run, even when the torrents fail them, as they do in the dog-days. Now
+the length of Perea is from Machaerus to Pella, and its breadth from
+Philadelphia to Jordan; its northern parts are bounded by Pella, as we
+have already said, as well as its Western with Jordan; the land of Moab
+is its southern border, and its eastern limits reach to Arabia, and
+Silbonitis, and besides to Philadelphene and Gerasa.
+
+4. Now as to the country of Samaria, it lies between Judea and Galilee;
+it begins at a village that is in the great plain called Ginea, and
+ends at the Acrabbene toparchy, and is entirely of the same nature with
+Judea; for both countries are made up of hills and valleys, and are
+moist enough for agriculture, and are very fruitful. They have abundance
+of trees, and are full of autumnal fruit, both that which grows wild,
+and that which is the effect of cultivation. They are not naturally
+watered by many rivers, but derive their chief moisture from rain-water,
+of which they have no want; and for those rivers which they have, all
+their waters are exceeding sweet: by reason also of the excellent grass
+they have, their cattle yield more milk than do those in other places;
+and, what is the greatest sign of excellency and of abundance, they each
+of them are very full of people.
+
+5. In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies the village Anuath, which is
+also named Borceos. This is the northern boundary of Judea. The southern
+parts of Judea, if they be measured lengthways, are bounded by a Village
+adjoining to the confines of Arabia; the Jews that dwell there call it
+Jordan. However, its breadth is extended from the river Jordan to Joppa.
+The city Jerusalem is situated in the very middle; on which account some
+have, with sagacity enough, called that city the Navel of the country.
+Nor indeed is Judea destitute of such delights as come from the sea,
+since its maritime places extend as far as Ptolemais: it was parted into
+eleven portions, of which the royal city Jerusalem was the supreme, and
+presided over all the neighboring country, as the head does over the
+body. As to the other cities that were inferior to it, they presided
+over their several toparchies; Gophna was the second of those cities,
+and next to that Acrabatta, after them Thamna, and Lydda, and Emmaus,
+and Pella, and Idumea, and Engaddi, and Herodium, and Jericho; and after
+them came Jamnia and Joppa, as presiding over the neighboring people;
+and besides these there was the region of Gamala, and Gaulonitis,
+and Batanea, and Trachonitis, which are also parts of the kingdom of
+Agrippa. This [last] country begins at Mount Libanus, and the fountains
+of Jordan, and reaches breadthways to the lake of Tiberias; and in
+length is extended from a village called Arpha, as far as Julias. Its
+inhabitants are a mixture of Jews and Syrians. And thus have I, with
+all possible brevity, described the country of Judea, and those that lie
+round about it.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+
+     Josephus Makes An Attempt Upon Sepphoris But Is Repelled.
+     Titus Comes With A Great Army To Ptolemais.
+
+1. Now the auxiliaries which were sent to assist the people of
+Sepphoris, being a thousand horsemen, and six thousand footmen, under
+Placidus the tribune, pitched their camp in two bodies in the great
+plain. The foot were put into the city to be a guard to it, but the
+horse lodged abroad in the camp. These last, by marching continually one
+way or other, and overrunning the parts of the adjoining country, were
+very troublesome to Josephus and his men; they also plundered all the
+places that were out of the city's liberty, and intercepted such as
+durst go abroad. On this account it was that Josephus marched against
+the city, as hoping to take what he had lately encompassed with so
+strong a wall, before they revolted from the rest of the Galileans, that
+the Romans would have much ado to take it; by which means he proved too
+weak, and failed of his hopes, both as to the forcing the place, and as
+to his prevailing with the people of Sepphoris to deliver it up to him.
+By this means he provoked the Romans to treat the country according to
+the law of war; nor did the Romans, out of the anger they bore at this
+attempt, leave off, either by night or by day, burning the places in
+the plain, and stealing away the cattle that were in the country, and
+killing whatsoever appeared capable of fighting perpetually, and leading
+the weaker people as slaves into captivity; so that Galilee was all over
+filled with fire and blood; nor was it exempted from any kind of misery
+or calamity, for the only refuge they had was this, that when they were
+pursued, they could retire to the cities which had walls built them by
+Josephus.
+
+2. But as to Titus, he sailed over from Achaia to Alexandria, and that
+sooner than the winter season did usually permit; so he took with him
+those forces he was sent for, and marching with great expedition, he
+came suddenly to Ptolemais, and there finding his father, together with
+the two legions, the fifth and the tenth, which were the most eminent
+legions of all, he joined them to that fifteenth legion which was with
+his father; eighteen cohorts followed these legions; there came also
+five cohorts from Cesarea, with one troop of horsemen, and five other
+troops of horsemen from Syria. Now these ten cohorts had severally a
+thousand footmen, but the other thirteen cohorts had no more than six
+hundred footmen apiece, with a hundred and twenty horsemen. There were
+also a considerable number of auxiliaries got together, that came from
+the kings Antiochus, and Agrippa, and Sohemus, each of them contributing
+one thousand footmen that were archers, and a thousand horsemen.
+Malchus also, the king of Arabia, sent a thousand horsemen, besides five
+thousand footmen, the greatest part of which were archers; so that
+the whole army, including the auxiliaries sent by the kings, as well
+horsemen as footmen, when all were united together, amounted to sixty
+thousand, besides the servants, who, as they followed in vast numbers,
+so because they had been trained up in war with the rest, ought not
+to be distinguished from the fighting men; for as they were in their
+masters' service in times of peace, so did they undergo the like dangers
+with them in times of war, insomuch that they were inferior to none,
+either in skill or in strength, only they were subject to their masters.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5.
+
+
+     A Description Of The Roman Armies And Roman Camps And Of
+     Other Particulars For Which The Romans Are Commended.
+
+1. Now here one cannot but admire at the precaution of the Romans, in
+providing themselves of such household servants, as might not only serve
+at other times for the common offices of life, but might also be of
+advantage to them in their wars. And, indeed, if any one does but attend
+to the other parts of their military discipline, he will be forced
+to confess that their obtaining so large a dominion hath been the
+acquisition of their valor, and not the bare gift of fortune; for they
+do not begin to use their weapons first in time of war, nor do they then
+put their hands first into motion, while they avoided so to do in times
+of peace; but, as if their weapons did always cling to them, they have
+never any truce from warlike exercises; nor do they stay till times of
+war admonish them to use them; for their military exercises differ not
+at all from the real use of their arms, but every soldier is every day
+exercised, and that with great diligence, as if it were in time of war,
+which is the reason why they bear the fatigue of battles so easily; for
+neither can any disorder remove them from their usual regularity,
+nor can fear affright them out of it, nor can labor tire them; which
+firmness of conduct makes them always to overcome those that have not
+the same firmness; nor would he be mistaken that should call those their
+exercises unbloody battles, and their battles bloody exercises. Nor
+can their enemies easily surprise them with the suddenness of their
+incursions; for as soon as they have marched into an enemy's land, they
+do not begin to fight till they have walled their camp about; nor is the
+fence they raise rashly made, or uneven; nor do they all abide in it,
+nor do those that are in it take their places at random; but if it
+happens that the ground is uneven, it is first leveled: their camp is
+also four-square by measure, and carpenters are ready, in great numbers,
+with their tools, to erect their buildings for them. 3
+
+2. As for what is within the camp, it is set apart for tents, but the
+outward circumference hath the resemblance to a wall, and is adorned
+with towers at equal distances, where between the towers stand the
+engines for throwing arrows and darts, and for slinging stones, and
+where they lay all other engines that can annoy the enemy, all ready for
+their several operations. They also erect four gates, one at every side
+of the circumference, and those large enough for the entrance of the
+beasts, and wide enough for making excursions, if occasion should
+require. They divide the camp within into streets, very conveniently,
+and place the tents of the commanders in the middle; but in the very
+midst of all is the general's own tent, in the nature of a temple,
+insomuch, that it appears to be a city built on the sudden, with its
+market-place, and place for handicraft trades, and with seats for the
+officers superior and inferior, where, if any differences arise, their
+causes are heard and determined. The camp, and all that is in it, is
+encompassed with a wall round about, and that sooner than one would
+imagine, and this by the multitude and the skill of the laborers; and,
+if occasion require, a trench is drawn round the whole, whose depth is
+four cubits, and its breadth equal.
+
+3. When they have thus secured themselves, they live together by
+companies, with quietness and decency, as are all their other affairs
+managed with good order and security. Each company hath also their wood,
+and their corn, and their water brought them, when they stand in need
+of them; for they neither sup nor dine as they please themselves singly,
+but all together. Their times also for sleeping, and watching, and
+rising are notified beforehand by the sound of trumpets, nor is any
+thing done without such a signal; and in the morning the soldiery go
+every one to their centurions, and these centurions to their tribunes,
+to salute them; with whom all the superior officers go to the general
+of the whole army, who then gives them of course the watchword and other
+orders, to be by them carried to all that are under their command; which
+is also observed when they go to fight, and thereby they turn themselves
+about on the sudden, when there is occasion for making sallies, as they
+come back when they are recalled in crowds also.
+
+4. Now when they are to go out of their camp, the trumpet gives a sound,
+at which time nobody lies still, but at the first intimation they take
+down their tents, and all is made ready for their going out; then do the
+trumpets sound again, to order them to get ready for the march; then do
+they lay their baggage suddenly upon their mules, and other beasts of
+burden, and stand, as at the place of starting, ready to march; when
+also they set fire to their camp, and this they do because it will be
+easy for them to erect another camp, and that it may not ever be of use
+to their enemies. Then do the trumpets give a sound the third time, that
+they are to go out, in order to excite those that on any account are
+a little tardy, that so no one may be out of his rank when the army
+marches. Then does the crier stand at the general's right hand, and asks
+them thrice, in their own tongue, whether they be now ready to go out
+to war or not? To which they reply as often, with a loud and cheerful
+voice, saying, "We are ready." And this they do almost before the
+question is asked them: they do this as filled with a kind of martial
+fury, and at the same time that they so cry out, they lift up their
+right hands also.
+
+5. When, after this, they are gone out of their camp, they all march
+without noise, and in a decent manner, and every one keeps his own rank,
+as if they were going to war. The footmen are armed with breastplates
+and head-pieces, and have swords on each side; but the sword which is
+upon their left side is much longer than the other, for that on the
+right side is not longer than a span. Those foot-men also that are
+chosen out from the rest to be about the general himself have a lance
+and a buckler, but the rest of the foot soldiers have a spear and a long
+buckler, besides a saw and a basket, a pick-axe and an axe, a thong of
+leather and a hook, with provisions for three days, so that a footman
+hath no great need of a mule to carry his burdens. The horsemen have
+a long sword on their right sides, axed a long pole in their hand; a
+shield also lies by them obliquely on one side of their horses, with
+three or more darts that are borne in their quiver, having broad
+points, and not smaller than spears. They have also head-pieces and
+breastplates, in like manner as have all the footmen. And for those that
+are chosen to be about the general, their armor no way differs from
+that of the horsemen belonging to other troops; and he always leads the
+legions forth to whom the lot assigns that employment.
+
+6. This is the manner of the marching and resting of the Romans, as also
+these are the several sorts of weapons they use. But when they are to
+fight, they leave nothing without forecast, nor to be done off-hand, but
+counsel is ever first taken before any work is begun, and what hath been
+there resolved upon is put in execution presently; for which reason they
+seldom commit any errors; and if they have been mistaken at any time,
+they easily correct those mistakes. They also esteem any errors they
+commit upon taking counsel beforehand to be better than such rash
+success as is owing to fortune only; because such a fortuitous advantage
+tempts them to be inconsiderate, while consultation, though it may
+sometimes fail of success, hath this good in it, that it makes men more
+careful hereafter; but for the advantages that arise from chance,
+they are not owing to him that gains them; and as to what melancholy
+accidents happen unexpectedly, there is this comfort in them, that they
+had however taken the best consultations they could to prevent them.
+
+7. Now they so manage their preparatory exercises of their weapons, that
+not the bodies of the soldiers only, but their souls may also become
+stronger: they are moreover hardened for war by fear; for their laws
+inflict capital punishments, not only for soldiers running away from the
+ranks, but for slothfulness and inactivity, though it be but in a lesser
+degree; as are their generals more severe than their laws, for they
+prevent any imputation of cruelty toward those under condemnation, by
+the great rewards they bestow on the valiant soldiers; and the readiness
+of obeying their commanders is so great, that it is very ornamental in
+peace; but when they come to a battle, the whole army is but one body,
+so well coupled together are their ranks, so sudden are their turnings
+about, so sharp their hearing as to what orders are given them, so quick
+their sight of the ensigns, and so nimble are their hands when they set
+to work; whereby it comes to pass that what they do is done quickly, and
+what they suffer they bear with the greatest patience. Nor can we find
+any examples where they have been conquered in battle, when they came
+to a close fight, either by the multitude of the enemies, or by their
+stratagems, or by the difficulties in the places they were in; no, nor
+by fortune neither, for their victories have been surer to them than
+fortune could have granted them. In a case, therefore, where counsel
+still goes before action, and where, after taking the best advice,
+that advice is followed by so active an army, what wonder is it that
+Euphrates on the east, the ocean on the west, the most fertile regions
+of Libya on the south, and the Danube and the Rhine on the north, are
+the limits of this empire? One might well say that the Roman possessions
+are not inferior to the Romans themselves.
+
+8. This account I have given the reader, not so much with the intention
+of commending the Romans, as of comforting those that have been
+conquered by them, and for the deterring others from attempting
+innovations under their government. This discourse of the Roman military
+conduct may also perhaps be of use to such of the curious as are
+ignorant of it, and yet have a mind to know it. I return now from this
+digression.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+
+     Placidus Attempts To Take Jotapata And Is Beaten Off.
+     Vespasian Marches Into Galilee.
+
+1. And now Vespasian, with his son Titus, had tarried some time at
+Ptolemais, and had put his army in order. But when Placidus, who had
+overrun Galilee, and had besides slain a number of those whom he had
+caught, [which were only the weaker part of the Galileans, and such
+as were of timorous souls,] saw that the warriors ran always to those
+cities whose walls had been built by Josephus, he marched furiously
+against Jotapata, which was of them all the strongest, as supposing he
+should easily take it by a sudden surprise, and that he should thereby
+obtain great honor to himself among the commanders, and bring a great
+advantage to them in their future campaign; because if this strongest
+place of them all were once taken, the rest would be so affrighted as to
+surrender themselves. But he was mightily mistaken in his undertaking;
+for the men of Jotapata were apprized of his coming to attack them, and
+came out of the city, and expected him there. So they fought the Romans
+briskly when they least expected it, being both many in number, and
+prepared for fighting, and of great alacrity, as esteeming their
+country, their wives, and their children to be in danger, and easily put
+the Romans to flight, and wounded many of them, and slew seven of them;
+4 because their retreat was not made in a disorderly manner, because
+the strokes only touched the surface of their bodies, which were covered
+with their armor in all parts, and because the Jews did rather throw
+their weapons upon them from a great distance, than venture to come hand
+to hand with them, and had only light armor on, while the others were
+completely armed. However, three men of the Jews' side were slain, and
+a few wounded; so Placidus, finding himself unable to assault the city,
+ran away.
+
+2. But as Vespasian had a great mind to fall upon Galilee, he marched
+out of Ptolemais, having put his army into that order wherein the Romans
+used to march. He ordered those auxiliaries which were lightly armed,
+and the archers, to march first, that they might prevent any sudden
+insults from the enemy, and might search out the woods that looked
+suspiciously, and were capable of ambuscades. Next to these followed
+that part of the Romans which was completely armed, both footmen and
+horsemen. Next to these followed ten out of every hundred, carrying
+along with them their arms, and what was necessary to measure out a camp
+withal; and after them, such as were to make the road even and straight,
+and if it were any where rough and hard to be passed over, to plane it,
+and to cut down the woods that hindered their march, that the army might
+not be in distress, or tired with their march. Behind these he set
+such carriages of the army as belonged both to himself and to the other
+commanders, with a considerable number of their horsemen for their
+security. After these he marched himself, having with him a select body
+of footmen, and horsemen, and pikemen. After these came the peculiar
+cavalry of his own legion, for there were a hundred and twenty horsemen
+that peculiarly belonged to every legion. Next to these came the mules
+that carried the engines for sieges, and the other warlike machines
+of that nature. After these came the commanders of the cohorts and
+tribunes, having about them soldiers chosen out of the rest. Then came
+the ensigns encompassing the eagle, which is at the head of every Roman
+legion, the king, and the strongest of all birds, which seems to them a
+signal of dominion, and an omen that they shall conquer all against whom
+they march; these sacred ensigns are followed by the trumpeters. Then
+came the main army in their squadrons and battalions, with six men in
+depth, which were followed at last by a centurion, who, according to
+custom, observed the rest. As for the servants of every legion, they
+all followed the footmen, and led the baggage of the soldiers, which
+was borne by the mules and other beasts of burden. But behind all the
+legions came the whole multitude of the mercenaries; and those that
+brought up the rear came last of all for the security of the whole army,
+being both footmen, and those in their armor also, with a great number
+of horsemen.
+
+3. And thus did Vespasian march with his army, and came to the bounds of
+Galilee, where he pitched his camp and restrained his soldiers, who
+were eager for war; he also showed his army to the enemy, in order
+to affright them, and to afford them a season for repentance, to see
+whether they would change their minds before it came to a battle, and at
+the same time he got things ready for besieging their strong minds. And
+indeed this sight of the general brought many to repent of their revolt,
+and put them all into a consternation; for those that were in Josephus's
+camp, which was at the city called Garis, not far from Sepphoris, when
+they heard that the war was come near them, and that the Romans would
+suddenly fight them hand to hand, dispersed themselves and fled, not
+only before they came to a battle, but before the enemy ever came in
+sight, while Josephus and a few others were left behind; and as he saw
+that he had not an army sufficient to engage the enemy, that the spirits
+of the Jews were sunk, and that the greater part would willingly come to
+terms, if they might be credited, he already despaired of the success of
+the whole war, and determined to get as far as he possibly could out
+of danger; so he took those that staid along with him, and fled to
+Tiberias.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+
+     Vespasian, When He Had Taken The City Gadaea Marches To
+     Jotapata. After A Long Siege The City Is Betrayed By A
+     Deserter, And Taken By Vespasian.
+
+1. So Vespasian marched to the city Gadara, and took it upon the first
+onset, because he found it destitute of any considerable number of men
+grown up and fit for war. He came then into it, and slew all the youth,
+the Romans having no mercy on any age whatsoever; and this was done out
+of the hatred they bore the nation, and because of the iniquity they had
+been guilty of in the affair of Cestius. He also set fire not only to
+the city itself, but to all the villas and small cities that were round
+about it; some of them were quite destitute of inhabitants, and out of
+some of them he carried the inhabitants as slaves into captivity.
+
+2. As to Josephus, his retiring to that city which he chose as the most
+fit for his security, put it into great fear; for the people of Tiberias
+did not imagine that he would have run away, unless he had entirely
+despaired of the success of the war. And indeed, as to that point, they
+were not mistaken about his opinion; for he saw whither the affairs of
+the Jews would tend at last, and was sensible that they had but one way
+of escaping, and that was by repentance. However, although he expected
+that the Romans would forgive him, yet did he choose to die many times
+over, rather than to betray his country, and to dishonor that supreme
+command of the army which had been intrusted with him, or to live
+happily under those against whom he was sent to fight. He determined,
+therefore, to give an exact account of affairs to the principal men at
+Jerusalem by a letter, that he might not, by too much aggrandizing the
+power of the enemy, make them too timorous; nor, by relating that their
+power beneath the truth, might encourage them to stand out when they
+were perhaps disposed to repentance. He also sent them word, that if
+they thought of coming to terms, they must suddenly write him an answer;
+or if they resolved upon war, they must send him an army sufficient
+to fight the Romans. Accordingly, he wrote these things, and sent
+messengers immediately to carry his letter to Jerusalem.
+
+3. Now Vespasian was very desirous of demolishing Jotapata, for he had
+gotten intelligence that the greatest part of the enemy had retired
+thither, and that it was, on other accounts, a place of great security
+to them. Accordingly, he sent both foot-men and horsemen to level the
+road, which was mountainous and rocky, not without difficulty to be
+traveled over by footmen, but absolutely impracticable for horsemen. Now
+these workmen accomplished what they were about in four days' time,
+and opened a broad way for the army. On the fifth day, which was the
+twenty-first of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] Josephus prevented him,
+and came from Tiberias, and went into Jotapata, and raised the drooping
+spirits of the Jews. And a certain deserter told this good news to
+Vespasian, that Josephus had removed himself thither, which made him
+make haste to the city, as supposing that with taking that he should
+take all Judea, in case he could but withal get Josephus under his
+power. So he took this news to be of the vastest advantage to him, and
+believed it to be brought about by the providence of God, that he who
+appeared to be the most prudent man of all their enemies, had, of his
+own accord, shut himself up in a place of sure custody. Accordingly, he
+sent Placidus with a thousand horsemen, and Ebutius a decurion, a person
+that was of eminency both in council and in action, to encompass the
+city round, that Josephus might not escape away privately.
+
+4. Vespasian also, the very next day, took his whole army and followed
+them, and by marching till late in the evening, arrived then at
+Jotapata; and bringing his army to the northern side of the city, he
+pitched his camp on a certain small hill which was seven furlongs from
+the city, and still greatly endeavored to be well seen by the enemy, to
+put them into a consternation; which was indeed so terrible to the Jews
+immediately, that no one of them durst go out beyond the wall. Yet did
+the Romans put off the attack at that time, because they had marched all
+the day, although they placed a double row of battalions round the
+city, with a third row beyond them round the whole, which consisted of
+cavalry, in order to stop up every way for an exit; which thing making
+the Jews despair of escaping, excited them to act more boldly; for
+nothing makes men fight so desperately in war as necessity.
+
+5. Now when the next day an assault was made by the Romans, the Jews at
+first staid out of the walls and opposed them, and met them, as having
+formed themselves a camp before the city walls. But when Vespasian had
+set against them the archers and slingers, and the whole multitude that
+could throw to a great distance, he permitted them to go to work, while
+he himself, with the footmen, got upon an acclivity, whence the city
+might easily be taken. Josephus was then in fear for the city, and
+leaped out, and all the Jewish multitude with him; these fell together
+upon the Romans in great numbers, and drove them away from the wall, and
+performed a great many glorious and bold actions. Yet did they suffer
+as much as they made the enemy suffer; for as despair of deliverance
+encouraged the Jews, so did a sense of shame equally encourage the
+Romans. These last had skill as well as strength; the other had only
+courage, which armed them, and made them fight furiously. And when the
+fight had lasted all day, it was put an end to by the coming on of the
+night. They had wounded a great many of the Romans, and killed of them
+thirteen men; of the Jews' side seventeen were slain, and six hundred
+wounded.
+
+6. On the next day the Jews made another attack upon the Romans, and
+went out of the walls and fought a much more desperate battle with them
+than before. For they were now become more courageous than formerly, and
+that on account of the unexpected good opposition they had made the day
+before, as they found the Romans also to fight more desperately; for a
+sense of shame inflamed these into a passion, as esteeming their failure
+of a sudden victory to be a kind of defeat. Thus did the Romans try to
+make an impression upon the Jews till the fifth day continually, while
+the people of Jotapata made sallies out, and fought at the walls most
+desperately; nor were the Jews affrighted at the strength of the enemy,
+nor were the Romans discouraged at the difficulties they met with in
+taking the city.
+
+7. Now Jotapata is almost all of it built on a precipice, having on
+all the other sides of it every way valleys immensely deep and steep,
+insomuch that those who would look down would have their sight fail them
+before it reaches to the bottom. It is only to be come at on the north
+side, where the utmost part of the city is built on the mountain, as it
+ends obliquely at a plain. This mountain Josephus had encompassed with
+a wall when he fortified the city, that its top might not be capable
+of being seized upon by the enemies. The city is covered all round with
+other mountains, and can no way be seen till a man comes just upon it.
+And this was the strong situation of Jotapata.
+
+8. Vespasian, therefore, in order to try how he might overcome the
+natural strength of the place, as well as the bold defense of the Jews,
+made a resolution to prosecute the siege with vigor. To that end he
+called the commanders that were under him to a council of war, and
+consulted with them which way the assault might be managed to the best
+advantage. And when the resolution was there taken to raise a bank
+against that part of the wall which was practicable, he sent his whole
+army abroad to get the materials together. So when they had cut down
+all the trees on the mountains that adjoined to the city, and had gotten
+together a vast heap of stones, besides the wood they had cut down, some
+of them brought hurdles, in order to avoid the effects of the darts that
+were shot from above them. These hurdles they spread over their banks,
+under cover whereof they formed their bank, and so were little or
+nothing hurt by the darts that were thrown upon them from the wall,
+while others pulled the neighboring hillocks to pieces, and perpetually
+brought earth to them; so that while they were busy three sorts of ways,
+nobody was idle. However, the Jews cast great stones from the walls upon
+the hurdles which protected the men, with all sorts of darts also; and
+the noise of what could not reach them was yet so terrible, that it was
+some impediment to the workmen.
+
+9. Vespasian then set the engines for throwing stones and darts round
+about the city. The number of the engines was in all a hundred and
+sixty, and bid them fall to work, and dislodge those that were upon the
+wall. At the same time such engines as were intended for that purpose
+threw at once lances upon them with a great noise, and stones of the
+weight of a talent were thrown by the engines that were prepared for
+that purpose, together with fire, and a vast multitude of arrows, which
+made the wall so dangerous, that the Jews durst not only not come
+upon it, but durst not come to those parts within the walls which were
+reached by the engines; for the multitude of the Arabian archers, as
+well also as all those that threw darts and slung stones, fell to work
+at the same time with the engines. Yet did not the others lie still,
+when they could not throw at the Romans from a higher place; for they
+then made sallies out of the city, like private robbers, by parties, and
+pulled away the hurdles that covered the workmen, and killed them when
+they were thus naked; and when those workmen gave way, these cast away
+the earth that composed the bank, and burnt the wooden parts of it,
+together with the hurdles, till at length Vespasian perceived that the
+intervals there were between the works were of disadvantage to him;
+for those spaces of ground afforded the Jews a place for assaulting the
+Romans. So he united the hurdles, and at the same time joined one part
+of the army to the other, which prevented the private excursions of the
+Jews.
+
+10. And when the bank was now raised, and brought nearer than ever to
+the battlements that belonged to the walls, Josephus thought it would be
+entirely wrong in him if he could make no contrivances in opposition
+to theirs, and that might be for the city's preservation; so he got
+together his workmen, and ordered them to build the wall higher; and
+while they said that this was impossible to be done while so many darts
+were thrown at them, he invented this sort of cover for them: He bid
+them fix piles, and expand before them the raw hides of oxen newly
+killed, that these hides by yielding and hollowing themselves when the
+stones were thrown at them might receive them, for that the other darts
+would slide off them, and the fire that was thrown would be quenched by
+the moisture that was in them. And these he set before the workmen, and
+under them these workmen went on with their works in safety, and raised
+the wall higher, and that both by day and by night, till it was twenty
+cubits high. He also built a good number of towers upon the wall, and
+fitted it to strong battlements. This greatly discouraged the Romans,
+who in their own opinions were already gotten within the walls, while
+they were now at once astonished at Josephus's contrivance, and at the
+fortitude of the citizens that were in the city.
+
+11. And now Vespasian was plainly irritated at the great subtlety of
+this stratagem, and at the boldness of the citizens of Jotapata; for
+taking heart again upon the building of this wall, they made fresh
+sallies upon the Romans, and had every day conflicts with them by
+parties, together with all such contrivances, as robbers make use of,
+and with the plundering of all that came to hand, as also with the
+setting fire to all the other works; and this till Vespasian made his
+army leave off fighting them, and resolved to lie round the city, and
+to starve them into a surrender, as supposing that either they would
+be forced to petition him for mercy by want of provisions, or if they
+should have the courage to hold out till the last, they should perish
+by famine: and he concluded he should conquer them the more easily in
+fighting, if he gave them an interval, and then fell upon them when they
+were weakened by famine; but still he gave orders that they should guard
+against their coming out of the city.
+
+12. Now the besieged had plenty of corn within the city, and indeed of
+all necessaries, but they wanted water, because there was no fountain in
+the city, the people being there usually satisfied with rain water; yet
+is it a rare thing in that country to have rain in summer, and at
+this season, during the siege, they were in great distress for some
+contrivance to satisfy their thirst; and they were very sad at this time
+particularly, as if they were already in want of water entirely, for
+Josephus seeing that the city abounded with other necessaries, and that
+the men were of good courage, and being desirous to protract the siege
+to the Romans longer than they expected, ordered their drink to be given
+them by measure; but this scanty distribution of water by measure was
+deemed by them as a thing more hard upon them than the want of it;
+and their not being able to drink as much as they would made them more
+desirous of drinking than they otherwise had been; nay, they were as
+much disheartened hereby as if they were come to the last degree of
+thirst. Nor were the Romans unacquainted with the state they were in,
+for when they stood over against them, beyond the wall, they could see
+them running together, and taking their water by measure, which made
+them throw their javelins thither the place being within their reach,
+and kill a great many of them.
+
+13. Hereupon Vespasian hoped that their receptacles of water would in
+no long time be emptied, and that they would be forced to deliver up
+the city to him; but Josephus being minded to break such his hope, gave
+command that they should wet a great many of their clothes, and hang
+them out about the battlements, till the entire wall was of a sudden all
+wet with the running down of the water. At this sight the Romans were
+discouraged, and under consternation, when they saw them able to throw
+away in sport so much water, when they supposed them not to have enough
+to drink themselves. This made the Roman general despair of taking the
+city by their want of necessaries, and to betake himself again to arms,
+and to try to force them to surrender, which was what the Jews greatly
+desired; for as they despaired of either themselves or their city being
+able to escape, they preferred a death in battle before one by hunger
+and thirst.
+
+14. However, Josephus contrived another stratagem besides the foregoing,
+to get plenty of what they wanted. There was a certain rough and uneven
+place that could hardly be ascended, and on that account was not guarded
+by the soldiers; so Josephus sent out certain persons along the western
+parts of the valley, and by them sent letters to whom he pleased of the
+Jews that were out of the city, and procured from them what necessaries
+soever they wanted in the city in abundance; he enjoined them also to
+creep generally along by the watch as they came into the city, and to
+cover their backs with such sheep-skins as had their wool upon them,
+that if any one should spy them out in the night time, they might
+be believed to be dogs. This was done till the watch perceived their
+contrivance, and encompassed that rough place about themselves.
+
+15. And now it was that Josephus perceived that the city could not hold
+out long, and that his own life would be in doubt if he continued in it;
+so he consulted how he and the most potent men of the city might fly
+out of it. When the multitude understood this, they came all round about
+him, and begged of him not to overlook them while they entirely depended
+on him, and him alone; for that there was still hope of the city's
+deliverance, if he would stay with them, because every body would
+undertake any pains with great cheerfulness on his account, and in that
+case there would be some comfort for them also, though they should be
+taken: that it became him neither to fly from his enemies, nor to desert
+his friends, nor to leap out of that city, as out of a ship that was
+sinking in a storm, into which he came when it was quiet and in a calm;
+for that by going away he would be the cause of drowning the city,
+because nobody would then venture to oppose the enemy when he was once
+gone, upon whom they wholly confided. 16. Hereupon Josephus avoided
+letting them know that he was to go away to provide for his own safety,
+but told them that he would go out of the city for their sakes; for that
+if he staid with them, he should be able to do them little good while
+they were in a safe condition; and that if they were once taken, he
+should only perish with them to no purpose; but that if he were once
+gotten free from this siege, he should be able to bring them very great
+relief; for that he would then immediately get the Galileans together,
+out of the country, in great multitudes, and draw the Romans off their
+city by another war. That he did not see what advantage he could bring
+to them now, by staying among them, but only provoke the Romans to
+besiege them more closely, as esteeming it a most valuable thing to take
+him; but that if they were once informed that he was fled out of the
+city, they would greatly remit of their eagerness against it. Yet did
+not this plea move the people, but inflamed them the more to hang about
+him. Accordingly, both the children and the old men, and the women with
+their infants, came mourning to him, and fell down before him, and all
+of them caught hold of his feet, and held him fast, and besought him,
+with great lamentations, that he would take his share with them in
+their fortune; and I think they did this, not that they envied his
+deliverance, but that they hoped for their own; for they could not think
+they should suffer any great misfortune, provided Josephus would but
+stay with them.
+
+17. Now Josephus thought, that if he resolved to stay, it would be
+ascribed to their entreaties; and if he resolved to go away by force, he
+should be put into custody. His commiseration also of the people under
+their lamentations had much broken that his eagerness to leave them; so
+he resolved to stay, and arming himself with the common despair of
+the citizens, he said to them, "Now is the time to begin to fight in
+earnest, when there is no hope of deliverance left. It is a brave
+thing to prefer glory before life, and to set about some such noble
+undertaking as may be remembered by late posterity." Having said
+this, he fell to work immediately, and made a sally, and dispersed the
+enemies' out-guards, and ran as far as the Roman camp itself, and pulled
+the coverings of their tents to pieces, that were upon their banks, and
+set fire to their works. And this was the manner in which he never left
+off fighting, neither the next day, nor the day after it, but went on
+with it for a considerable number of both days and nights.
+
+18. Upon this, Vespasian, when he saw the Romans distressed by these
+sallies, [though they were ashamed to be made to run away by the Jews;
+and when at any time they made the Jews run away, their heavy armor
+would not let them pursue them far; while the Jews, when they had
+performed any action, and before they could be hurt themselves, still
+retired into the city,] ordered his armed men to avoid their onset,
+and not fight it out with men under desperation, while nothing is more
+courageous than despair; but that their violence would be quenched when
+they saw they failed of their purposes, as fire is quenched when
+it wants fuel; and that it was proper for the Romans to gain their
+victories as cheap as they could, since they are not forced to fight,
+but only to enlarge their own dominions. So he repelled the Jews in
+great measure by the Arabian archers, and the Syrian slingers, and by
+those that threw stones at them, nor was there any intermission of the
+great number of their offensive engines. Now the Jews suffered greatly
+by these engines, without being able to escape from them; and when these
+engines threw their stones or javelins a great way, and the Jews were
+within their reach, they pressed hard upon the Romans, and fought
+desperately, without sparing either soul or body, one part succoring
+another by turns, when it was tired down.
+
+19. When, therefore, Vespasian looked upon himself as in a manner
+besieged by these sallies of the Jews, and when his banks were now not
+far from the walls, he determined to make use of his battering ram.
+This battering ram is a vast beam of wood like the mast of a ship, its
+forepart is armed with a thick piece of iron at the head of it, which
+is so carved as to be like the head of a ram, whence its name is taken.
+This ram is slung in the air by ropes passing over its middle, and is
+hung like the balance in a pair of scales from another beam, and braced
+by strong beams that pass on both sides of it, in the nature of a cross.
+When this ram is pulled backward by a great number of men with united
+force, and then thrust forward by the same men, with a mighty noise, it
+batters the walls with that iron part which is prominent. Nor is there
+any tower so strong, or walls so broad, that can resist any more than
+its first batteries, but all are forced to yield to it at last. This was
+the experiment which the Roman general betook himself to, when he was
+eagerly bent upon taking the city; but found lying in the field so
+long to be to his disadvantage, because the Jews would never let him be
+quiet. So these Romans brought the several engines for galling an enemy
+nearer to the walls, that they might reach such as were upon the wall,
+and endeavored to frustrate their attempts; these threw stones and
+javelins at them; in the like manner did the archers and slingers come
+both together closer to the wall. This brought matters to such a pass
+that none of the Jews durst mount the walls, and then it was that the
+other Romans brought the battering ram that was cased with hurdles all
+over, and in the tipper part was secured by skins that covered it, and
+this both for the security of themselves and of the engine. Now, at the
+very first stroke of this engine, the wall was shaken, and a terrible
+clamor was raised by the people within the city, as if they were already
+taken.
+
+20. And now, when Josephus saw this ram still battering the same place,
+and that the wall would quickly be thrown down by it, he resolved to
+elude for a while the force of the engine. With this design he gave
+orders to fill sacks with chaff, and to hang them down before that place
+where they saw the ram always battering, that the stroke might be turned
+aside, or that the place might feel less of the strokes by the yielding
+nature of the chaff. This contrivance very much delayed the attempts
+of the Romans, because, let them remove their engine to what part they
+pleased, those that were above it removed their sacks, and placed them
+over against the strokes it made, insomuch that the wall was no way
+hurt, and this by diversion of the strokes, till the Romans made an
+opposite contrivance of long poles, and by tying hooks at their ends,
+cut off the sacks. Now when the battering ram thus recovered its force,
+and the wall having been but newly built, was giving way, Josephus and
+those about him had afterward immediate recourse to fire, to defend
+themselves withal; whereupon they took what materials soever they had
+that were but dry, and made a sally three ways, and set fire to the
+machines, and the hurdles, and the banks of the Romans themselves; nor
+did the Romans well know how to come to their assistance, being at once
+under a consternation at the Jews' boldness, and being prevented by the
+flames from coming to their assistance; for the materials being dry with
+the bitumen and pitch that were among them, as was brimstone also, the
+fire caught hold of every thing immediately, and what cost the Romans a
+great deal of pains was in one hour consumed.
+
+21. And here a certain Jew appeared worthy of our relation and
+commendation; he was the son of Sameas, and was called Eleazar, and was
+born at Saab, in Galilee. This man took up a stone of a vast bigness,
+and threw it down from the wall upon the ram, and this with so great a
+force, that it broke off the head of the engine. He also leaped down,
+and took up the head of the ram from the midst of them, and without any
+concern carried it to the top of the wall, and this while he stood as a
+fit mark to be pelted by all his enemies. Accordingly, he received the
+strokes upon his naked body, and was wounded with five darts; nor did he
+mind any of them while he went up to the top of the wall, where he stood
+in the sight of them all, as an instance of the greatest boldness; after
+which he drew himself on a heap with his wounds upon him, and fell down
+together with the head of the ram. Next to him, two brothers showed
+their courage; their names were Netir and Philip, both of them of the
+village Ruma, and both of them Galileans also; these men leaped upon the
+soldiers of the tenth legion, and fell upon the Romans with such a noise
+and force as to disorder their ranks, and to put to flight all upon
+whomsoever they made their assaults.
+
+22. After these men's performances, Josephus, and the rest of the
+multitude with him, took a great deal of fire, and burnt both the
+machines and their coverings, with the works belonging to the fifth and
+to the tenth legion, which they put to flight; when others followed them
+immediately, and buried those instruments and all their materials under
+ground. However, about the evening, the Romans erected the battering ram
+again, against that part of the wall which had suffered before; where a
+certain Jew that defended the city from the Romans hit Vespasian with a
+dart in his foot, and wounded him a little, the distance being so great,
+that no mighty impression could be made by the dart thrown so far off.
+However, this caused the greatest disorder among the Romans; for when
+those who stood near him saw his blood, they were disturbed at it, and
+a report went abroad, through the whole army, that the general was
+wounded, while the greatest part left the siege, and came running
+together with surprise and fear to the general; and before them all
+came Titus, out of the concern he had for his father, insomuch that the
+multitude were in great confusion, and this out of the regard they had
+for their general, and by reason of the agony that the son was in. Yet
+did the father soon put an end to the son's fear, and to the disorder
+the army was under, for being superior to his pains, and endeavoring
+soon to be seen by all that had been in a fright about him, he excited
+them to fight the Jews more briskly; for now every body was willing to
+expose himself to danger immediately, in order to avenge their general;
+and then they encouraged one another with loud voices, and ran hastily
+to the walls.
+
+23. But still Josephus and those with him, although they fell down dead
+one upon another by the darts and stones which the engines threw upon
+them, yet did not they desert the wall, but fell upon those who managed
+the ram, under the protection of the hurdles, with fire, and iron
+weapons, and stones; and these could do little or nothing, but fell
+themselves perpetually, while they were seen by those whom they could
+not see, for the light of their own flame shone about them, and made
+them a most visible mark to the enemy, as they were in the day time,
+while the engines could not be seen at a great distance, and so what was
+thrown at them was hard to be avoided; for the force with which these
+engines threw stones and darts made them hurt several at a time, and the
+violent noise of the stones that were cast by the engines was so great,
+that they carried away the pinnacles of the wall, and broke off the
+corners of the towers; for no body of men could be so strong as not to
+be overthrown to the last rank by the largeness of the stones. And any
+one may learn the force of the engines by what happened this very night;
+for as one of those that stood round about Josephus was near the wall,
+his head was carried away by such a stone, and his skull was flung as
+far as three furlongs. In the day time also, a woman with child had her
+belly so violently struck, as she was just come out of her house, that
+the infant was carried to the distance of half a furlong, so great was
+the force of that engine. The noise of the instruments themselves was
+very terrible, the sound of the darts and stones that were thrown by
+them was so also; of the same sort was that noise the dead bodies made,
+when they were dashed against the wall; and indeed dreadful was the
+clamor which these things raised in the women within the city, which was
+echoed back at the same time by the cries of such as were slain; while
+the whole space of ground whereon they fought ran with blood, and the
+wall might have been ascended over by the bodies of the dead carcasses;
+the mountains also contributed to increase the noise by their echoes;
+nor was there on that night any thing of terror wanting that could
+either affect the hearing or the sight: yet did a great part of those
+that fought so hard for Jotapata fall manfully, as were a great part of
+them wounded. However, the morning watch was come ere the wall yielded
+to the machines employed against it, though it had been battered without
+intermission. However, those within covered their bodies with their
+armor, and raised works over against that part which was thrown down,
+before those machines were laid by which the Romans were to ascend into
+the city.
+
+24. In the morning Vespasian got his army together, in order to take the
+city [by storm], after a little recreation upon the hard pains they had
+been at the night before; and as he was desirous to draw off those that
+opposed him from the places where the wall had been thrown down, he made
+the most courageous of the horsemen get off their horses, and placed
+them in three ranks over against those ruins of the wall, but covered
+with their armor on every side, and with poles in their hands, that
+so these might begin their ascent as soon as the instruments for such
+ascent were laid; behind them he placed the flower of the footmen; but
+for the rest of the horse, he ordered them to extend themselves over
+against the wall, upon the whole hilly country, in order to prevent any
+from escaping out of the city when it should be taken; and behind these
+he placed the archers round about, and commanded them to have their
+darts ready to shoot. The same command he gave to the slingers, and to
+those that managed the engines, and bid them to take up other ladders,
+and have them ready to lay upon those parts of the wall which were yet
+untouched, that the besieged might be engaged in trying to hinder their
+ascent by them, and leave the guard of the parts that were thrown down,
+while the rest of them should be overborne by the darts cast at them,
+and might afford his men an entrance into the city.
+
+25. But Josephus, understanding the meaning of Vespasian's contrivance,
+set the old men, together with those that were tired out, at the sound
+parts of the wall, as expecting no harm from those quarters, but set the
+strongest of his men at the place where the wall was broken down, and
+before them all six men by themselves, among whom he took his share
+of the first and greatest danger. He also gave orders, that when the
+legions made a shout, they should stop their ears, that they might not
+be affrighted at it, and that, to avoid the multitude of the enemy's
+darts, they should bend down on their knees, and cover themselves with
+their shields, and that they should retreat a little backward for a
+while, till the archers should have emptied their quivers; but that When
+the Romans should lay their instruments for ascending the walls, they
+should leap out on the sudden, and with their own instruments should
+meet the enemy, and that every one should strive to do his best,
+in order not to defend his own city, as if it were possible to be
+preserved, but in order to revenge it, when it was already destroyed;
+and that they should set before their eyes how their old men were to be
+slain, and their children and wives were to be killed immediately by the
+enemy; and that they would beforehand spend all their fury, on account
+of the calamities just coming upon them, and pour it out on the actors.
+
+26. And thus did Josephus dispose of both his bodies of men; but then
+for the useless part of the citizens, the women and children, when they
+saw their city encompassed by a threefold army, [for none of the usual
+guards that had been fighting before were removed,] when they also saw,
+not only the walls thrown down, but their enemies with swords in their
+hands, as also the hilly country above them shining with their weapons,
+and the darts in the hands of the Arabian archers, they made a final
+and lamentable outcry of the destruction, as if the misery were not only
+threatened, but actually come upon them already. But Josephus ordered
+the women to be shut up in their houses, lest they should render the
+warlike actions of the men too effeminate, by making them commiserate
+their condition, and commanded them to hold their peace, and threatened
+them if they did not, while he came himself before the breach, where his
+allotment was; for all those who brought ladders to the other places,
+he took no notice of them, but earnestly waited for the shower of arrows
+that was coming.
+
+27. And now the trumpetersAnd now the trumpeters of the several Roman legions sounded
+together, and the army made a terrible shout; and the darts, as
+by order, flew so fast, that they intercepted the light. However,
+Josephus's men remembered the charges he had given them, they stopped
+their ears at the sounds, and covered their bodies against the darts;
+and as to the engines that were set ready to go to work, the Jews ran
+out upon them, before those that should have used them were gotten
+upon them. And now, on the ascending of the soldiers, there was a great
+conflict, and many actions of the hands and of the soul were exhibited;
+while the Jews did earnestly endeavor, in the extreme danger they were
+in, not to show less courage than those who, without being in danger,
+fought so stoutly against them; nor did they leave struggling with
+the Romans till they either fell down dead themselves, or killed
+their antagonists. But the Jews grew weary with defending themselves
+continually, and had not enough to come in their places, and succor
+them; while, on the side of the Romans, fresh men still succeeded
+those that were tired; and still new men soon got upon the machines for
+ascent, in the room of those that were thrust down; those encouraging
+one another, and joining side to side with their shields, which were a
+protection to them, they became a body of men not to be broken; and as
+this band thrust away the Jews, as though they were themselves but one
+body, they began already to get upon the wall.
+
+28. Then did Josephus take necessity for his counselor in this utmost
+distress, [which necessity is very sagacious in invention when it is
+irritated by despair,] and gave orders to pour scalding oil upon those
+whose shields protected them. Whereupon they soon got it ready, being
+many that brought it, and what they brought being a great quantity also,
+and poured it on all sides upon the Romans, and threw down upon them
+their vessels as they were still hissing from the heat of the fire: this
+so burnt the Romans, that it dispersed that united band, who now tumbled
+clown from the wall with horrid pains, for the oil did easily run down
+the whole body from head to foot, under their entire armor, and fed upon
+their flesh like flame itself, its fat and unctuous nature rendering it
+soon heated and slowly cooled; and as the men were cooped up in their
+head-pieces and breastplates, they could no way get free from this
+burning oil; they could only leap and roll about in their pains, as they
+fell down from the bridges they had laid. And as they thus were beaten
+back, and retired to their own party, who still pressed them forward,
+they were easily wounded by those that were behind them.
+
+29. However, in this ill success of the Romans, their courage did
+not fail them, nor did the Jews want prudence to oppose them; for the
+Romans, although they saw their own men thrown down, and in a miserable
+condition, yet were they vehemently bent against those that poured
+the oil upon them; while every one reproached the man before him as a
+coward, and one that hindered him from exerting himself; and while the
+Jews made use of another stratagem to prevent their ascent, and poured
+boiling fenugreek upon the boards, in order to make them slip and fall
+down; by which means neither could those that were coming up, nor
+those that were going down, stand on their feet; but some of them fell
+backward upon the machines on which they ascended, and were trodden
+upon; many of them fell down upon the bank they had raised, and when
+they were fallen upon it were slain by the Jews; for when the Romans
+could not keep their feet, the Jews being freed from fighting hand to
+hand, had leisure to throw their darts at them. So the general called
+off those soldiers in the evening that had suffered so sorely, of whom
+the number of the slain was not a few, while that of the wounded was
+still greater; but of the people of Jotapata no more than six men were
+killed, although more than three hundred were carried off wounded. This
+fight happened on the twentieth day of the month Desius [Sivan]. 30.
+Hereupon Vespasian comforted his army on occasion of what happened, and
+as he found them angry indeed, but rather wanting somewhat to do than
+any further exhortations, he gave orders to raise the banks still
+higher, and to erect three towers, each fifty feet high, and that they
+should cover them with plates of iron on every side, that they might
+be both firm by their weight, and not easily liable to be set on fire.
+These towers he set upon the banks, and placed upon them such as could
+shoot darts and arrows, with the lighter engines for throwing stones and
+darts also; and besides these, he set upon them the stoutest men among
+the slingers, who not being to be seen by reason of the height they
+stood upon, and the battlements that protected them, might throw their
+weapons at those that were upon the wall, and were easily seen by them.
+Hereupon the Jews, not being easily able to escape those darts that were
+thrown down upon their heads, nor to avenge themselves on those whom
+they could not see, and perceiving that the height of the towers was so
+great, that a dart which they threw with their hand could hardly reach
+it, and that the iron plates about them made it very hard to come at
+them by fire, they ran away from the walls, and fled hastily out of the
+city, and fell upon those that shot at them. And thus did the people of
+Jotapata resist the Romans, while a great number of them were every day
+killed, without their being able to retort the evil upon their enemies;
+nor could they keep them out of the city without danger to themselves.
+
+31. About this time it was that Vespasian sent out Trajan against a city
+called Japha, that lay near to Jotapata, and that desired innovations,
+and was puffed up with the unexpected length of the opposition of
+Jotapata. This Trajan was the commander of the tenth legion, and to him
+Vespasian committed one thousand horsemen, and two thousand footmen.
+When Trajan came to the city, he found it hard to be taken, for besides
+the natural strength of its situation, it was also secured by a double
+wall; but when he saw the people of this city coming out of it, and
+ready to fight him, he joined battle with them, and after a short
+resistance which they made, he pursued after them; and as they fled to
+their first wall, the Romans followed them so closely, that they fell
+in together with them: but when the Jews were endeavoring to get again
+within their second wall, their fellow citizens shut them out, as being
+afraid that the Romans would force themselves in with them. It was
+certainly God therefore who brought the Romans to punish the Galileans,
+and did then expose the people of the city every one of them manifestly
+to be destroyed by their bloody enemies; for they fell upon the gates in
+great crowds, and earnestly calling to those that kept them, and that
+by their names also, yet had they their throats cut in the very midst of
+their supplications; for the enemy shut the gates of the first wall, and
+their own citizens shut the gates of the second, so they were enclosed
+between two walls, and were slain in great numbers together; many of
+them were run through by swords of their own men, and many by their own
+swords, besides an immense number that were slain by the Romans. Nor
+had they any courage to revenge themselves; for there was added to the
+consternation they were in from the enemy, their being betrayed by their
+own friends, which quite broke their spirits; and at last they died,
+cursing not the Romans, but their own citizens, till they were all
+destroyed, being in number twelve thousand. So Trajan gathered that the
+city was empty of people that could fight, and although there should a
+few of them be therein, he supposed that they would be too timorous to
+venture upon any opposition; so he reserved the taking of the city to
+the general. Accordingly, he sent messengers to Vespasian, and desired
+him to send his son Titus to finish the victory he had gained. Vespasian
+hereupon imagining there might be some pains still necessary, sent his
+son with an army of five hundred horsemen, and one thousand footmen. So
+he came quickly to the city, and put his army in order, and set Trajan
+over the left wing, while he had the right himself, and led them to the
+siege: and when the soldiers brought ladders to be laid against the wall
+on every side, the Galileans opposed them from above for a while; but
+soon afterward they left the walls. Then did Titus's men leap into the
+city, and seized upon it presently; but when those that were in it were
+gotten together, there was a fierce battle between them; for the men of
+power fell upon the Romans in the narrow streets, and the women threw
+whatsoever came next to hand at them, and sustained a fight with them
+for six hours' time; but when the fighting men were spent, the rest of
+the multitude had their throats cut, partly in the open air, and partly
+in their own houses, both young and old together. So there were no males
+now remaining, besides infants, which, with the women, were carried as
+slaves into captivity; so that the number of the slain, both now in the
+city and at the former fight, was fifteen thousand, and the captives
+were two thousand one hundred and thirty. This calamity befell the
+Galileans on the twenty-fifth day of the month Desius [Sivan.] 32. Nor
+did the Samaritans escape their share of misfortunes at this time; for
+they assembled themselves together upon the mountain called Gerizzim,
+which is with them a holy mountain, and there they remained; which
+collection of theirs, as well as the courageous minds they showed, could
+not but threaten somewhat of war; nor were they rendered wiser by
+the miseries that had come upon their neighboring cities. They also,
+notwithstanding the great success the Romans had, marched on in an
+unreasonable manner, depending on their own weakness, and were disposed
+for any tumult upon its first appearance. Vespasian therefore thought
+it best to prevent their motions, and to cut off the foundation of their
+attempts. For although all Samaria had ever garrisons settled among
+them, yet did the number of those that were come to Mount Gerizzim, and
+their conspiracy together, give ground for fear what they would be at;
+he therefore sent thither Cerealis, the commander of the fifth legion,
+with six hundred horsemen, and three thousand footmen, who did not think
+it safe to go up to the mountain, and give them battle, because many of
+the enemy were on the higher part of the ground; so he encompassed all
+the lower part of the mountain with his army, and watched them all that
+day. Now it happened that the Samaritans, who were now destitute of
+water, were inflamed with a violent heat, [for it was summer time, and
+the multitude had not provided themselves with necessaries,] insomuch
+that some of them died that very day with heat, while others of them
+preferred slavery before such a death as that was, and fled to the
+Romans; by whom Cerealis understood that those which still staid
+there were very much broken by their misfortunes. So he went up to the
+mountain, and having placed his forces round about the enemy, he, in the
+first place, exhorted them to take the security of his right hand, and
+come to terms with him, and thereby save themselves; and assured them,
+that if they would lay down their arms, he would secure them from any
+harm; but when he could not prevail with them, he fell upon them and
+slew them all, being in number eleven thousand and six hundred. This was
+done on the twenty-seventh day of the month Desius [Sivan]. And these
+were the calamities that befell the Samaritans at this time.
+
+33. But as the people of Jotapata still held out manfully, and bore
+up under their miseries beyond all that could be hoped for, on the
+forty-seventh day [of the siege] the banks cast up by the Romans were
+become higher than the wall; on which day a certain deserter went to
+Vespasian, and told him how few were left in the city, and how weak they
+were, and that they had been so worn out with perpetual watching, and as
+perpetual fighting, that they could not now oppose any force that came
+against them, and that they might be taken by stratagem, if any one
+would attack them; for that about the last watch of the night, when they
+thought they might have some rest from the hardships they were under,
+and when a morning sleep used to come upon them, as they were thoroughly
+weary, he said the watch used to fall asleep; accordingly his advice
+was, that they should make their attack at that hour. But Vespasian had
+a suspicion about this deserter, as knowing how faithful the Jews were
+to one another, and how much they despised any punishments that could be
+inflicted on them; this last because one of the people of Jotapata had
+undergone all sorts of torments, and though they made him pass through a
+fiery trial of his enemies in his examination, yet would he inform them
+nothing of the affairs within the city, and as he was crucified, smiled
+at them. However, the probability there was in the relation itself
+did partly confirm the truth of what the deserter told them, and they
+thought he might probably speak truth. However, Vespasian thought they
+should be no great sufferers if the report was a sham; so he commanded
+them to keep the man in custody, and prepared the army for taking the
+city.
+
+34. According to which resolution they marched without noise, at the
+hour that had been told them, to the wall; and it was Titus himself that
+first got upon it, with one of his tribunes, Domitius Sabinus, and had
+a few of the fifteenth legion along with him. So they cut the throats of
+the watch, and entered the city very quietly. After these came Cerealis
+the tribune, and Placidus, and led on those that were tinder them. Now
+when the citadel was taken, and the enemy were in the very midst of the
+city, and when it was already day, yet was not the taking of the city
+known by those that held it; for a great many of them were fast asleep,
+and a great mist, which then by chance fell upon the city, hindered
+those that got up from distinctly seeing the case they were in, till the
+whole Roman army was gotten in, and they were raised up only to find the
+miseries they were under; and as they were slaying, they perceived the
+city was taken. And for the Romans, they so well remembered what they
+had suffered during the siege, that they spared none, nor pitied any,
+but drove the people down the precipice from the citadel, and slew them
+as they drove them down; at which time the difficulties of the place
+hindered those that were still able to fight from defending themselves;
+for as they were distressed in the narrow streets, and could not keep
+their feet sure along the precipice, they were overpowered with the
+crowd of those that came fighting them down from the citadel. This
+provoked a great many, even of those chosen men that were about
+Josephus, to kill themselves with their own hands; for when they saw
+that they could kill none of the Romans, they resolved to prevent being
+killed by the Romans, and got together in great numbers in the utmost
+parts of the city, and killed themselves.
+
+35. However, such of the watch as at the first perceived they were
+taken, and ran away as fast as they could, went up into one of
+the towers on the north side of the city, and for a while defended
+themselves there; but as they were encompassed with a multitude of
+enemies, they tried to use their right hands when it was too late, and
+at length they cheerfully offered their necks to be cut off by those
+that stood over them. And the Romans might have boasted that the
+conclusion of that siege was without blood [on their side] if there had
+not been a centurion, Antonius, who was slain at the taking of the city.
+His death was occasioned by the following treachery; for there was one
+of those that were fled into the caverns, which were a great number,
+who desired that this Antonius would reach him his right hand for his
+security, and would assure him that he would preserve him, and give
+him his assistance in getting up out of the cavern; accordingly, he
+incautiously reached him his right hand, when the other man prevented
+him, and stabbed him under his loins with a spear, and killed him
+immediately.
+
+36. And on this day it was that the Romans slew all the multitude
+that appeared openly; but on the following days they searched the
+hiding-places, and fell upon those that were under ground, and in the
+caverns, and went thus through every age, excepting the infants and
+the women, and of these there were gathered together as captives twelve
+hundred; and as for those that were slain at the taking of the city,
+and in the former fights, they were numbered to be forty thousand. So
+Vespasian gave order that the city should be entirely demolished, and
+all the fortifications burnt down. And thus was Jotapata taken, in the
+thirteenth year of the reign of Nero, on the first day of the month
+Panemus [Tamuz].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+
+     How Josephus Was Discovered By A Woman, And Was Willing To
+     Deliver Himself Up To The Romans; And What Discourse He Had
+     With His Own Men, When They Endeavored To Hinder Him; And
+     What He Said To Vespasian, When He Was Brought To Him; And
+     After What Manner Vespasian Used Him Afterward.
+
+1. And now the Romans searched for Josephus, both out of the hatred they
+bore him, and because their general was very desirous to have him taken;
+for he reckoned that if he were once taken, the greatest part of the war
+would be over. They then searched among the dead, and looked into the
+most concealed recesses of the city; but as the city was first taken,
+he was assisted by a certain supernatural providence; for he withdrew
+himself from the enemy when he was in the midst of them, and leaped into
+a certain deep pit, whereto there adjoined a large den at one side of
+it, which den could not be seen by those that were above ground;
+and there he met with forty persons of eminency that had concealed
+themselves, and with provisions enough to satisfy them for not a few
+days. So in the day time he hid himself from the enemy, who had seized
+upon all places, and in the night time he got up out of the den and
+looked about for some way of escaping, and took exact notice of the
+watch; but as all places were guarded every where on his account, that
+there was no way of getting off unseen, he went down again into the den.
+Thus he concealed himself two days; but on the third day, when they
+had taken a woman who had been with them, he was discovered. Whereupon
+Vespasian sent immediately and zealously two tribunes, Paulinus and
+Gallicanus, and ordered them to give Josephus their right hands as a
+security for his life, and to exhort him to come up.
+
+2. So they came and invited the man to come up, and gave him assurances
+that his life should be preserved: but they did not prevail with him;
+for he gathered suspicions from the probability there was that one who
+had done so many things against the Romans must suffer for it, though
+not from the mild temper of those that invited him. However, he was
+afraid that he was invited to come up in order to be punished, until
+Vespasian sent besides these a third tribune, Nicanor, to him; he
+was one that was well known to Josephus, and had been his familiar
+acquaintance in old time. When he was come, he enlarged upon the natural
+mildness of the Romans towards those they have once conquered; and told
+him that he had behaved himself so valiantly, that the commanders rather
+admired than hated him; that the general was very desirous to have him
+brought to him, not in order to punish him, for that he could do though
+he should not come voluntarily, but that he was determined to preserve a
+man of his courage. He moreover added this, that Vespasian, had he been
+resolved to impose upon him, would not have sent to him a friend of his
+own, nor put the fairest color upon the vilest action, by pretending
+friendship and meaning perfidiousness; nor would he have himself
+acquiesced, or come to him, had it been to deceive him.
+
+3. Now as Josephus began to hesitate with himself about Nicanor's
+proposal, the soldiery were so angry, that they ran hastily to set fire
+to the den; but the tribune would not permit them so to do, as being
+very desirous to take the man alive. And now, as Nicanor lay hard at
+Josephus to comply, and he understood how the multitude of the enemies
+threatened him, he called to mind the dreams which he had dreamed in the
+night time, whereby God had signified to him beforehand both the
+future calamities of the Jews, and the events that concerned the Roman
+emperors. Now Josephus was able to give shrewd conjectures about the
+interpretation of such dreams as have been ambiguously delivered by God.
+Moreover, he was not unacquainted with the prophecies contained in
+the sacred books, as being a priest himself, and of the posterity of
+priests: and just then was he in an ecstasy; and setting before him the
+tremendous images of the dreams he had lately had, he put up a secret
+prayer to God, and said, "Since it pleaseth thee, who hast created the
+Jewish nation, to depress the same, and since all their good fortune is
+gone over to the Romans, and since thou hast made choice of this soul
+of mine to foretell what is to come to pass hereafter, I willingly give
+them my hands, and am content to live. And I protest openly that I do
+not go over to the Romans as a deserter of the Jews, but as a minister
+from thee."
+
+4. When he had said this, he complied with Nicanor's invitation. But
+when those Jews who had fled with him understood that he yielded to
+those that invited him to come up, they came about him in a body, and
+cried out, "Nay, indeed, now may the laws of our forefathers, which
+God ordained himself, well groan to purpose; that God we mean who hath
+created the souls of the Jews of such a temper, that they despise death.
+O Josephus! art thou still fond of life? and canst thou bear to see the
+light in a state of slavery? How soon hast thou forgotten thyself! How
+many hast thou persuaded to lose their lives for liberty! Thou
+hast therefore had a false reputation for manhood, and a like false
+reputation for wisdom, if thou canst hope for preservation from those
+against whom thou hast fought so zealously, and art however willing
+to be preserved by them, if they be in earnest. But although the good
+fortune of the Romans hath made thee forget thyself, we ought to take
+care that the glory of our forefathers may not be tarnished. We will
+lend thee our right hand and a sword; and if thou wilt die willingly,
+thou wilt die as general of the Jews; but if unwillingly, thou wilt die
+as a traitor to them." As soon as they said this, they began to thrust
+their swords at him, and threatened they would kill him, if he thought
+of yielding himself to the Romans.
+
+5. Upon this Josephus was afraid of their attacking him, and yet thought
+he should be a betrayer of the commands of God, if he died before they
+were delivered. So he began to talk like a philosopher to them in the
+distress he was then in, when he said thus to them: "O my friends, why
+are we so earnest to kill ourselves? and why do we set our soul and
+body, which are such dear companions, at such variance? Can any one
+pretend that I am not the man I was formerly? Nay, the Romans are
+sensible how that matter stands well enough. It is a brave thing to die
+in war; but so that it be according to the law of war, by the hand of
+conquerors. If, therefore, I avoid death from the sword of the Romans,
+I am truly worthy to be killed by my own sword, and my own hand; but if
+they admit of mercy, and would spare their enemy, how much more ought
+we to have mercy upon ourselves, and to spare ourselves? For it is
+certainly a foolish thing to do that to ourselves which we quarrel with
+them for doing to us. I confess freely that it is a brave thing to die
+for liberty; but still so that it be in war, and done by those who take
+that liberty from us; but in the present case our enemies do neither
+meet us in battle, nor do they kill us. Now he is equally a coward who
+will not die when he is obliged to die, and he who will die when he is
+not obliged so to do. What are we afraid of, when we will not go up
+to the Romans? Is it death? If so, what we are afraid of, when we
+but suspect our enemies will inflict it on us, shall we inflict it on
+ourselves for certain? But it may be said we must be slaves. And are we
+then in a clear state of liberty at present? It may also be said that
+it is a manly act for one to kill himself. No, certainly, but a most
+unmanly one; as I should esteem that pilot to be an arrant coward, who,
+out of fear of a storm, should sink his ship of his own accord. Now
+self-murder is a crime most remote from the common nature of all
+animals, and an instance of impiety against God our Creator; nor indeed
+is there any animal that dies by its own contrivance, or by its own
+means, for the desire of life is a law engraven in them all; on which
+account we deem those that openly take it away from us to be our
+enemies, and those that do it by treachery are punished for so doing.
+And do not you think that God is very angry when a man does injury to
+what he hath bestowed on him? For from him it is that we have received
+our being, and we ought to leave it to his disposal to take that being
+away from us. The bodies of all men are indeed mortal, and are created
+out of corruptible matter; but the soul is ever immortal, and is a
+portion of the divinity that inhabits our bodies. Besides, if any one
+destroys or abuses a depositum he hath received from a mere man, he is
+esteemed a wicked and perfidious person; but then if any one cast out
+of his body this Divine depositum, can we imagine that he who is thereby
+affronted does not know of it? Moreover, our law justly ordains that
+slaves which run away from their master shall be punished, though the
+masters they run away from may have been wicked masters to them. And
+shall we endeavor to run away from God, who is the best of all masters,
+and not guilty of impeity? Do not you know that those who depart out of
+this life according to the law of nature, and pay that debt which was
+received from God, when he that lent it us is pleased to require it back
+again, enjoy eternal fame; that their houses and their posterity are
+sure, that their souls are pure and obedient, and obtain a most holy
+place in heaven, from whence, in the revolutions of ages, they are again
+sent into pure bodies; while the souls of those whose hands have acted
+madly against themselves are received by the darkest place in Hades,
+and while God, who is their Father, punishes those that offend against
+either of them in their posterity? for which reason God hates such
+doings, and the crime is punished by our most wise legislator.
+Accordingly, our laws determine that the bodies of such as kill
+themselves should be exposed till the sun be set, without burial,
+although at the same time it be allowed by them to be lawful to bury our
+enemies [sooner]. The laws of other nations also enjoin such men's
+hands to be cut off when they are dead, which had been made use of in
+destroying themselves when alive, while they reckoned that as the
+body is alien from the soul, so is the hand alien from the body. It is
+therefore, my friends, a right thing to reason justly, and not add to
+the calamities which men bring upon us impiety towards our Creator. If
+we have a mind to preserve ourselves, let us do it; for to be preserved
+by those our enemies, to whom we have given so many demonstrations of
+our courage, is no way inglorious; but if we have a mind to die, it is
+good to die by the hand of those that have conquered us. For my part, I
+will not run over to our enemies' quarters, in order to be a traitor to
+myself; for certainly I should then be much more foolish than those that
+deserted to the enemy, since they did it in order to save themselves,
+and I should do it for destruction, for my own destruction. However, I
+heartily wish the Romans may prove treacherous in this matter; for if,
+after their offer of their right hand for security, I be slain by
+them, I shall die cheerfully, and carry away with me the sense of their
+perfidiousness, as a consolation greater than victory itself."
+
+6. Now these and many the like motives did Josephus use to these men to
+prevent their murdering themselves; but desperation had shut their ears,
+as having long ago devoted themselves to die, and they were irritated at
+Josephus. They then ran upon him with their swords in their hands, one
+from one quarter, and another from another, and called him a coward, and
+everyone of them appeared openly as if he were ready to smite him;
+but he calling to one of them by name, and looking like a general to
+another, and taking a third by the hand, and making a fourth ashamed
+of himself, by praying him to forbear, and being in this condition
+distracted with various passions, [as he well might in the great
+distress he was then in,] he kept off every one of their swords
+from killing him, and was forced to do like such wild beasts as are
+encompassed about on every side, who always turn themselves against
+those that last touched them. Nay, some of their right hands were
+debilitated by the reverence they bare to their general in these his
+fatal calamities, and their swords dropped out of their hands; and not
+a few of them there were, who, when they aimed to smite him with their
+swords, they were not thoroughly either willing or able to do it.
+
+7. However, in this extreme distress, he was not destitute of his usual
+sagacity; but trusting himself to the providence of God, he put his life
+into hazard [in the manner following]: "And now," said he, "since it is
+resolved among you that you will die, come on, let us commit our mutual
+deaths to determination by lot. He whom the lot falls to first, let him
+be killed by him that hath the second lot, and thus fortune shall make
+its progress through us all; nor shall any of us perish by his own right
+hand, for it would be unfair if, when the rest are gone, somebody should
+repent and save himself." This proposal appeared to them to be very
+just; and when he had prevailed with them to determine this matter by
+lots, he drew one of the lots for himself also. He who had the first
+lot laid his neck bare to him that had the next, as supposing that the
+general would die among them immediately; for they thought death, if
+Josephus might but die with them, was sweeter than life; yet was he with
+another left to the last, whether we must say it happened so by chance,
+or whether by the providence of God. And as he was very desirous neither
+to be condemned by the lot, nor, if he had been left to the last, to
+imbrue his right hand in the blood of his countrymen, he persuaded him
+to trust his fidelity to him, and to live as well as himself.
+
+8. Thus Josephus escaped in the war with the Romans, and in this his own
+war with his friends, and was led by Nicanor to Vespasian. But now all
+the Romans ran together to see him; and as the multitude pressed one
+upon another about their general, there was a tumult of a various kind;
+while some rejoiced that Josephus was taken, and some threatened him,
+and some crowded to see him very near; but those that were more remote
+cried out to have this their enemy put to death, while those that were
+near called to mind the actions he had done, and a deep concern
+appeared at the change of his fortune. Nor were there any of the Roman
+commanders, how much soever they had been enraged at him before, but
+relented when they came to the sight of him. Above all the rest, Titus's
+own valor, and Josephus's own patience under his afflictions, made him
+pity him, as did also the commiseration of his age, when he recalled
+to mind that but a little while ago he was fighting, but lay now in the
+hands of his enemies, which made him consider the power of fortune,
+and how quick is the turn of affairs in war, and how no state of men is
+sure; for which reason he then made a great many more to be of the same
+pitiful temper with himself, and induced them to commiserate Josephus.
+He was also of great weight in persuading his father to preserve him.
+However, Vespasian gave strict orders that he should be kept with great
+caution, as though he would in a very little time send him to Nero. 5
+
+9. When Josephus heard him give those orders, he said that he had
+somewhat in his mind that he would willingly say to himself alone. When
+therefore they were all ordered to withdraw, excepting Titus and two of
+their friends, he said, "Thou, O Vespasian, thinkest no more than
+that thou hast taken Josephus himself captive; but I come to thee as a
+messenger of greater tidings; for had not I been sent by God to thee,
+I knew what was the law of the Jews in this case? and how it becomes
+generals to die. Dost thou send me to Nero? For why? Are Nero's
+successors till they come to thee still alive? Thou, O Vespasian, art
+Caesar and emperor, thou, and this thy son. Bind me now still faster,
+and keep me for thyself, for thou, O Caesar, are not only lord over me,
+but over the land and the sea, and all mankind; and certainly I deserve
+to be kept in closer custody than I now am in, in order to be punished,
+if I rashly affirm any thing of God." When he had said this, Vespasian
+at present did not believe him, but supposed that Josephus said this as
+a cunning trick, in order to his own preservation; but in a little time
+he was convinced, and believed what he said to be true, God himself
+erecting his expectations, so as to think of obtaining the empire, and
+by other signs fore-showing his advancement. He also found Josephus to
+have spoken truth on other occasions; for one of those friends that were
+present at that secret conference said to Josephus, "I cannot but wonder
+how thou couldst not foretell to the people of Jotapata that they should
+be taken, nor couldst foretell this captivity which hath happened to
+thyself, unless what thou now sayest be a vain thing, in order to avoid
+the rage that is risen against thyself." To which Josephus replied, "I
+did foretell to the people of Jotapata that they would be taken on the
+forty-seventh day, and that I should be caught alive by the Romans."
+Now when Vespasian had inquired of the captives privately about these
+predictions, he found them to be true, and then he began to believe
+those that concerned himself. Yet did he not set Josephus at liberty
+from his hands, but bestowed on him suits of clothes, and other precious
+gifts; he treated him also in a very obliging manner, and continued so
+to do, Titus still joining his interest in the honors that were done
+him.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+
+     How Joppa Was Taken, And Tiberias Delivered Up.
+
+1. Now Vespasian returned to Ptolemais on the fourth day of the month
+Panemus, [Tamus] and from thence he came to Cesarea, which lay by the
+sea-side. This was a very great city of Judea, and for the greatest part
+inhabited by Greeks: the citizens here received both the Roman army and
+its general, with all sorts of acclamations and rejoicings, and this
+partly out of the good-will they bore to the Romans, but principally out
+of the hatred they bore to those that were conquered by them; on which
+account they came clamoring against Josephus in crowds, and desired
+he might be put to death. But Vespasian passed over this petition
+concerning him, as offered by the injudicious multitude, with a bare
+silence. Two of the legions also he placed at Cesarea, that they might
+there take their winter-quarters, as perceiving the city very fit for
+such a purpose; but he placed the tenth and the fifth at Scythopolis,
+that he might not distress Cesarea with the entire army. This place was
+warm even in winter, as it was suffocating hot in the summer time, by
+reason of its situation in a plain, and near to the sea [of Galilee].
+
+2. In the mean time, there were gathered together as well such as had
+seditiously got out from among their enemies, as those that had escaped
+out of the demolished cities, which were in all a great number, and
+repaired Joppa, which had been left desolate by Cestius, that it might
+serve them for a place of refuge; and because the adjoining region had
+been laid waste in the war, and was not capable of supporting them, they
+determined to go off to sea. They also built themselves a great many
+piratical ships, and turned pirates upon the seas near to Syria, and
+Phoenicia, and Egypt, and made those seas unnavigable to all men. Now
+as soon as Vespasian knew of their conspiracy, he sent both footmen and
+horsemen to Joppa, which was unguarded in the night time; however, those
+that were in it perceived that they should be attacked, and were afraid
+of it; yet did they not endeavor to keep the Romans out, but fled to
+their ships, and lay at sea all night, out of the reach of their darts.
+
+3. Now Joppa is not naturally a haven, for it ends in a rough shore,
+where all the rest of it is straight, but the two ends bend towards each
+other, where there are deep precipices, and great stones that jut out
+into the sea, and where the chains wherewith Andromeda was bound have
+left their footsteps, which attest to the antiquity of that fable. But
+the north wind opposes and beats upon the shore, and dashes mighty
+waves against the rocks which receive them, and renders the haven more
+dangerous than the country they had deserted. Now as those people of
+Joppa were floating about in this sea, in the morning there fell a
+violent wind upon them; it is called by those that sail there "the
+black north wind," and there dashed their ships one against another,
+and dashed some of them against the rocks, and carried many of them by
+force, while they strove against the opposite waves, into the main sea;
+for the shore was so rocky, and had so many of the enemy upon it, that
+they were afraid to come to land; nay, the waves rose so very high, that
+they drowned them; nor was there any place whither they could fly, nor
+any way to save themselves; while they were thrust out of the sea, by
+the violence of the wind, if they staid where they were, and out of the
+city by the violence of the Romans. And much lamentation there was when
+the ships were dashed against one another, and a terrible noise when
+they were broken to pieces; and some of the multitude that were in
+them were covered with waves, and so perished, and a great many were
+embarrassed with shipwrecks. But some of them thought that to die
+by their own swords was lighter than by the sea, and so they killed
+themselves before they were drowned; although the greatest part of them
+were carried by the waves, and dashed to pieces against the abrupt
+parts of the rocks, insomuch that the sea was bloody a long way, and the
+maritime parts were full of dead bodies; for the Romans came upon those
+that were carried to the shore, and destroyed them; and the number of
+the bodies that were thus thrown out of the sea was four thousand and
+two hundred. The Romans also took the city without opposition, and
+utterly demolished it.
+
+4. And thus was Joppa taken twice by the Romans in a little time; but
+Vespasian, in order to prevent these pirates from coming thither any
+more, erected a camp there, where the citadel of Joppa had been, and
+left a body of horse in it, with a few footmen, that these last might
+stay there and guard the camp, and the horsemen might spoil the country
+that lay round it, and might destroy the neighboring villages and
+smaller cities. So these troops overran the country, as they were
+ordered to do, and every day cut to pieces and laid desolate the whole
+region.
+
+5. But now, when the fate of Jotapata was related at Jerusalem, a great
+many at the first disbelieved it, on account of the vastness of the
+calamity, and because they had no eye-witness to attest the truth
+of what was related about it; for not one person was saved to be a
+messenger of that news, but a fame was spread abroad at random that the
+city was taken, as such fame usually spreads bad news about. However,
+the truth was known by degrees, from the places near Jotapata, and
+appeared to all to be too true. Yet were there fictitious stories added
+to what was really done; for it was reported that Josephus was slain
+at the taking of the city, which piece of news filled Jerusalem full of
+sorrow. In every house also, and among all to whom any of the slain
+were allied, there was a lamentation for them; but the mourning for the
+commander was a public one; and some mourned for those that had lived
+with them, others for their kindred, others for their friends, and
+others for their brethren, but all mourned for Josephus; insomuch that
+the lamentation did not cease in the city before the thirtieth day;
+and a great many hired mourners, with their pipes, who should begin the
+melancholy ditties for them.
+
+6. But as the truth came out in time, it appeared how the affairs of
+Jotapata really stood; yet was it found that the death of Josephus was
+a fiction; and when they understood that he was alive, and was among the
+Romans, and that the commanders treated him at another rate than they
+treated captives, they were as vehemently angry at him now as they had
+showed their good-will before, when he appeared to have been dead. He
+was also abused by some as having been a coward, and by others as a
+deserter; and the city was full of indignation at him, and of reproaches
+cast upon him; their rage was also aggravated by their afflictions, and
+more inflamed by their ill success; and what usually becomes an occasion
+of caution to wise men, I mean affliction, became a spur to them to
+venture on further calamities, and the end of one misery became still
+the beginning of another; they therefore resolved to fall on the Romans
+the more vehemently, as resolving to be revenged on him in revenging
+themselves on the Romans. And this was the state of Jerusalem as to the
+troubles which now came upon it.
+
+7. But Vespasian, in order to see the kingdom of Agrippa, while the king
+persuaded himself so to do, [partly in order to his treating the general
+and his army in the best and most splendid manner his private affairs
+would enable him to do, and partly that he might, by their means,
+correct such things as were amiss in his government,] he removed from
+that Cesarea which was by the sea-side, and went to that which is called
+Cesarea Philippi 6 and there he refreshed his army for twenty days,
+and was himself feasted by king Agrippa, where he also returned public
+thanks to God for the good success he had had in his undertakings. But
+as soon as he was informed that Tiberias was fond of innovations, and
+that Taricheae had revolted, both which cities were parts of the kingdom
+of Agrippa, and was satisfied within himself that the Jews were every
+where perverted [from their obedience to their governors], he thought it
+seasonable to make an expedition against these cities, and that for the
+sake of Agrippa, and in order to bring his cities to reason. So he sent
+away his son Titus to [the other] Cesarea, that he might bring the army
+that lay there to Seythopous, which is the largest city of Decapolis,
+and in the neighborhood of Tiberias, whither he came, and where he
+waited for his son. He then came with three legions, and pitched his
+camp thirty furlongs off Tiberias, at a certain station easily seen
+by the innovators; it is named Sennabris. He also sent Valerian, a
+decurion, with fifty horsemen, to speak peaceably to those that were in
+the city, and to exhort them to give him assurances of their fidelity;
+for he had heard that the people were desirous of peace, but were
+obliged by some of the seditious part to join with them, and so were
+forced to fight for them. When Valerian had marched up to the place, and
+was near the wall, he alighted off his horse, and made those that were
+with him to do the same, that they might not be thought to come to
+skirmish with them; but before they could come to a discourse one with
+another, the most potent men among the seditious made a sally upon them
+armed; their leader was one whose name was Jesus, the son of Shaphat,
+the principal head of a band of robbers. Now Valerian, neither thinking
+it safe to fight contrary to the commands of the general, though he
+were secure of a victory, and knowing that it was a very hazardous
+undertaking for a few to fight with many, for those that were unprovided
+to fight those that were ready, and being on other accounts surprised at
+this unexpected onset of the Jews, he ran away on foot, as did five of
+the rest in like manner, and left their horses behind them; which horses
+Jesus led away into the city, and rejoiced as if they had taken them in
+battle, and not by treachery.
+
+8. Now the seniors of the people, and such as were of principal
+authority among them, fearing what would be the issue of this matter,
+fled to the camp of the Romans; they then took their king along with
+them, and fell down before Vespasian, to supplicate his favor, and
+besought him not to overlook them, nor to impute the madness of a few to
+the whole city, to spare a people that have been ever civil and
+obliging to the Romans; but to bring the authors of this revolt to due
+punishment, who had hitherto so watched them, that though they were
+zealous to give them the security of their right hands of a long time,
+yet could they not accomplish the same. With these supplications the
+general complied, although he were very angry at the whole city about
+the carrying off his horses, and this because he saw that Agrippa
+was under a great concern for them. So when Vespasian and Agrippa had
+accepted of their right hands by way of security, Jesus and his party
+thought it not safe for them to continue at Tiberias, so they ran
+away to Taricheae. The next day Vespasian sent Trajan before with some
+horsemen to the citadel, to make trial of the multitude, whether they
+were all disposed for peace; and as soon as he knew that the people were
+of the same mind with the petitioner, he took his army, and went to the
+city; upon which the citizens opened to him their gates, and met him
+with acclamations of joy, and called him their savior and benefactor.
+But as the army was a great while in getting in at the gates, they were
+so narrow, Vespasian commanded the south wall to be broken down, and
+so made a broad passage for their entrance. However, he charged them to
+abstain from rapine and injustice, in order to gratify the king; and on
+his account spared the rest of the wall, while the king undertook for
+them that they should continue [faithful to the Romans] for the time to
+come. And thus did he restore this city to a quiet state, after it had
+been grievously afflicted by the sedition.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+
+     How Taricheae Was Taken. A Description Of The River Jordan,
+     And Of The Country Of Gennesareth.
+
+1. And now Vespasian pitched his camp between this city and Taricheae,
+but fortified his camp more strongly, as suspecting that he should be
+forced to stay there, and have a long war; for all the innovators had
+gotten together at Taricheae, as relying upon the strength of the city,
+and on the lake that lay by it. This lake is called by the people of
+the country the Lake of Gennesareth. The city itself is situated like
+Tiberias, at the bottom of a mountain, and on those sides which are not
+washed by the sea, had been strongly fortified by Josephus, though not
+so strongly as Tiberias; for the wall of Tiberias had been built at the
+beginning of the Jews' revolt, when he had great plenty of money, and
+great power, but Taricheae partook only the remains of that liberality,
+Yet had they a great number of ships gotten ready upon the lake, that,
+in case they were beaten at land, they might retire to them; and they
+were so fitted up, that they might undertake a Sea-fight also. But as
+the Romans were building a wall about their camp, Jesus and his party
+were neither affrighted at their number, nor at the good order they were
+in, but made a sally upon them; and at the very first onset the builders
+of the wall were dispersed; and these pulled what little they had before
+built to pieces; but as soon as they saw the armed men getting together,
+and before they had suffered any thing themselves, they retired to their
+own men. But then the Romans pursued them, and drove them into their
+ships, where they launched out as far as might give them the opportunity
+of reaching the Romans with what they threw at them, and then cast
+anchor, and brought their ships close, as in a line of battle, and
+thence fought the enemy from the sea, who were themselves at land. But
+Vespasian hearing that a great multitude of them were gotten together in
+the plain that was before the city, he thereupon sent his son, with six
+hundred chosen horsemen, to disperse them.
+
+2. But when Titus perceived that the enemy was very numerous, he sent to
+his father, and informed him that he should want more forces. But as
+he saw a great many of the horsemen eager to fight, and that before any
+succors could come to them, and that yet some of them were privately
+under a sort of consternation at the multitude of the Jews, he stood in
+a place whence he might be heard, and said to them, "My brave Romans!
+for it is right for me to put you in mind of what nation you are, in the
+beginning of my speech, that so you may not be ignorant who you are, and
+who they are against whom we are going to fight. For as to us, Romans,
+no part of the habitable earth hath been able to escape our hands
+hitherto; but as for the Jews, that I may speak of them too, though they
+have been already beaten, yet do they not give up the cause; and a sad
+thing it would be for us to grow wealthy under good success, when they
+bear up under their misfortunes. As to the alacrity which you show
+publicly, I see it, and rejoice at it; yet am I afraid lest the
+multitude of the enemy should bring a concealed fright upon some of you:
+let such a one consider again, who we are that are to fight, and who
+those are against whom we are to fight. Now these Jews, though they be
+very bold and great despisers of death, are but a disorderly body, and
+unskillful in war, and may rather be called a rout than an army; while I
+need say nothing of our skill and our good order; for this is the reason
+why we Romans alone are exercised for war in time of peace, that we may
+not think of number for number when we come to fight with our enemies:
+for what advantage should we reap by our continual sort of warfare, if
+we must still be equal in number to such as have not been used to war.
+Consider further, that you are to have a conflict with men in effect
+unarmed, while you are well armed; with footmen, while you are horsemen;
+with those that have no good general, while you have one; and as these
+advantages make you in effect manifold more than you are, so do
+their disadvantages mightily diminish their number. Now it is not
+the multitude of men, though they be soldiers, that manages wars with
+success, but it is their bravery that does it, though they be but a
+few; for a few are easily set in battle-array, and can easily assist one
+another, while over-numerous armies are more hurt by themselves than by
+their enemies. It is boldness and rashness, the effects of madness, that
+conduct the Jews. Those passions indeed make a great figure when they
+succeed, but are quite extinguished upon the least ill success; but we
+are led on by courage, and obedience, and fortitude, which shows itself
+indeed in our good fortune, but still does not for ever desert us in our
+ill fortune. Nay, indeed, your fighting is to be on greater motives than
+those of the Jews; for although they run the hazard of war for liberty,
+and for their country, yet what can be a greater motive to us than
+glory? and that it may never be said, that after we have got dominion
+of the habitable earth, the Jews are able to confront us. We must also
+reflect upon this, that there is no fear of our suffering any incurable
+disaster in the present case; for those that are ready to assist us
+are many, and at hand also; yet it is in our power to seize upon this
+victory ourselves; and I think we ought to prevent the coming of those
+my father is sending to us for our assistance, that our success may be
+peculiar to ourselves, and of greater reputation to us. And I cannot but
+think this an opportunity wherein my father, and I, and you shall be
+all put to the trial, whether he be worthy of his former glorious
+performances, whether I be his son in reality, and whether you be really
+my soldiers; for it is usual for my father to conquer; and for myself, I
+should not bear the thoughts of returning to him if I were once taken
+by the enemy. And how will you be able to avoid being ashamed, if you do
+not show equal courage with your commander, when he goes before you into
+danger? For you know very well that I shall go into the danger first,
+and make the first attack upon the enemy. Do not you therefore desert
+me, but persuade yourselves that God will be assisting to my onset. Know
+this also before we begin, that we shall now have better success than we
+should have, if we were to fight at a distance."
+
+3. As Titus was saying this, an extraordinary fury fell upon the men;
+and as Trajan was already come before the fight began, with four hundred
+horsemen, they were uneasy at it, because the reputation of the victory
+would be diminished by being common to so many. Vespasian had also sent
+both Antonius and Silo, with two thousand archers, and had given it them
+in charge to seize upon the mountain that was over against the city,
+and repel those that were upon the wall; which archers did as they were
+commanded, and prevented those that attempted to assist them that way;
+And now Titus made his own horse march first against the enemy, as did
+the others with a great noise after him, and extended themselves upon
+the plain as wide as the enemy which confronted them; by which means
+they appeared much more numerous than they really were. Now the Jews,
+although they were surprised at their onset, and at their good order,
+made resistance against their attacks for a little while; but when they
+were pricked with their long poles, and overborne by the violent noise
+of the horsemen, they came to be trampled under their feet; many also of
+them were slain on every side, which made them disperse themselves,
+and run to the city, as fast as every one of them were able. So Titus
+pressed upon the hindmost, and slew them; and of the rest, some he fell
+upon as they stood on heaps, and some he prevented, and met them in the
+mouth, and run them through; many also he leaped upon as they fell one
+upon another, and trod them down, and cut off all the retreat they had
+to the wall, and turned them back into the plain, till at last they
+forced a passage by their multitude, and got away, and ran into the
+city.
+
+4. But now there fell out a terrible sedition among them within the
+city; for the inhabitants themselves, who had possessions there, and
+to whom the city belonged, were not disposed to fight from the very
+beginning; and now the less so, because they had been beaten; but the
+foreigners, which were very numerous, would force them to fight so much
+the more, insomuch that there was a clamor and a tumult among them, as
+all mutually angry one at another. And when Titus heard this tumult, for
+he was not far from the wall, he cried out, "Fellow soldiers, now is the
+time; and why do we make any delay, when God is giving up the Jews to
+us? Take the victory which is given you: do not you hear what a noise
+they make? Those that have escaped our hands are in an uproar against
+one another. We have the city if we make haste; but besides haste, we
+must undergo some labor, and use some courage; for no great thing uses
+to be accomplished without danger: accordingly, we must not only prevent
+their uniting again, which necessity will soon compel them to do, but we
+must also prevent the coming of our own men to our assistance, that, as
+few as we are, we may conquer so great a multitude, and may ourselves
+alone take the city."
+
+5. As soon as ever Titus had said this, he leaped upon his horse, and
+rode apace down to the lake; by which lake he marched, and entered
+into the city the first of them all, as did the others soon after him.
+Hereupon those that were upon the walls were seized with a terror at the
+boldness of the attempt, nor durst any one venture to fight with him,
+or to hinder him; so they left guarding the city, and some of those that
+were about Jesus fled over the country, while others of them ran down
+to the lake, and met the enemy in the teeth, and some were slain as they
+were getting up into the ships, but others of them as they attempted
+to overtake those that were already gone aboard. There was also a great
+slaughter made in the city, while those foreigners that had not fled
+away already made opposition; but the natural inhabitants were killed
+without fighting: for in hopes of Titus's giving them his right hand for
+their security, and out of a consciousness that they had not given any
+consent to the war, they avoided fighting, till Titus had slain the
+authors of this revolt, and then put a stop to any further slaughters,
+out of commiseration of these inhabitants of the place. But for those
+that had fled to the lake, upon seeing the city taken, they sailed as
+far as they possibly could from the enemy.
+
+6. Hereupon Titus sent one of his horsemen to his father, and let him
+know the good news of what he had done; at which, as was natural, he was
+very joyful, both on account of the courage and glorious actions of his
+son; for he thought that now the greatest part of the war was over. He
+then came thither himself, and set men to guard the city, and gave them
+command to take care that nobody got privately out of it, but to kill
+such as attempted so to do. And on the next day he went down to the
+lake, and commanded that vessels should be fitted up, in order to pursue
+those that had escaped in the ships. These vessels were quickly gotten
+ready accordingly, because there was great plenty of materials, and a
+great number of artificers also.
+
+7. Now this lake of Gennesareth is so called from the country adjoining
+to it. Its breadth is forty furlongs, and its length one hundred and
+forty; its waters are sweet, and very agreeable for drinking, for they
+are finer than the thick waters of other fens; the lake is also pure,
+and on every side ends directly at the shores, and at the sand; it is
+also of a temperate nature when you draw it up, and of a more gentle
+nature than river or fountain water, and yet always cooler than one
+could expect in so diffuse a place as this is. Now when this water
+is kept in the open air, it is as cold as that snow which the country
+people are accustomed to make by night in summer. There are several
+kinds of fish in it, different both to the taste and the sight from
+those elsewhere. It is divided into two parts by the river Jordan. Now
+Panium is thought to be the fountain of Jordan, but in reality it is
+carried thither after an occult manner from the place called Phiala:
+this place lies as you go up to Trachonitis, and is a hundred and twenty
+furlongs from Cesarea, and is not far out of the road on the right hand;
+and indeed it hath its name of Phiala [vial or bowl] very justly, from
+the roundness of its circumference, as being round like a wheel; its
+water continues always up to its edges, without either sinking or
+running over. And as this origin of Jordan was formerly not known, it
+was discovered so to be when Philip was tetrarch of Trachonitis; for
+he had chaff thrown into Phiala, and it was found at Paninto, where the
+ancients thought the fountain-head of the river was, whither it had been
+therefore carried [by the waters]. As for Panium itself, its natural
+beauty had been improved by the royal liberality of Agrippa, and adorned
+at his expenses. Now Jordan's visible stream arises from this cavern,
+and divides the marshes and fens of the lake Semechonitis; when it hath
+run another hundred and twenty furlongs, it first passes by the city
+Julias, and then passes through the middle of the lake Gennesareth;
+after which it runs a long way over a desert, and then makes its exit
+into the lake Asphaltites.
+
+8. The country also that lies over against this lake hath the same name
+of Gennesareth; its nature is wonderful as well as its beauty; its
+soil is so fruitful that all sorts of trees can grow upon it, and the
+inhabitants accordingly plant all sorts of trees there; for the temper
+of the air is so well mixed, that it agrees very well with those several
+sorts, particularly walnuts, which require the coldest air, flourish
+there in vast plenty; there are palm trees also, which grow best in hot
+air; fig trees also and olives grow near them, which yet require an air
+that is more temperate. One may call this place the ambition of nature,
+where it forces those plants that are naturally enemies to one another
+to agree together; it is a happy contention of the seasons, as if
+every one of them laid claim to this country; for it not only nourishes
+different sorts of autumnal fruit beyond men's expectation, but
+preserves them a great while; it supplies men with the principal fruits,
+with grapes and figs continually, during ten months of the year 7 and
+the rest of the fruits as they become ripe together through the whole
+year; for besides the good temperature of the air, it is also watered
+from a most fertile fountain. The people of the country call it
+Capharnaum. Some have thought it to be a vein of the Nile, because it
+produces the Coracin fish as well as that lake does which is near to
+Alexandria. The length of this country extends itself along the banks
+of this lake that bears the same name for thirty furlongs, and is in
+breadth twenty, And this is the nature of that place.
+
+9. But now, when the vessels were gotten ready, Vespasian put upon
+ship-board as many of his forces as he thought sufficient to be too hard
+for those that were upon the lake, and set sail after them. Now these
+which were driven into the lake could neither fly to the land, where
+all was in their enemies' hand, and in war against them; nor could they
+fight upon the level by sea, for their ships were small and fitted only
+for piracy; they were too weak to fight with Vespasian's vessels, and
+the mariners that were in them were so few, that they were afraid to
+come near the Romans, who attacked them in great numbers. However, as
+they sailed round about the vessels, and sometimes as they came near
+them, they threw stones at the Romans when they were a good way off,
+or came closer and fought them; yet did they receive the greatest harm
+themselves in both cases. As for the stones they threw at the Romans,
+they only made a sound one after another, for they threw them against
+such as were in their armor, while the Roman darts could reach the Jews
+themselves; and when they ventured to come near the Romans, they became
+sufferers themselves before they could do any harm to the ether,
+and were drowned, they and their ships together. As for those that
+endeavored to come to an actual fight, the Romans ran many of them
+through with their long poles. Sometimes the Romans leaped into their
+ships, with swords in their hands, and slew them; but when some of them
+met the vessels, the Romans caught them by the middle, and destroyed at
+once their ships and themselves who were taken in them. And for such as
+were drowning in the sea, if they lifted their heads up above the water,
+they were either killed by darts, or caught by the vessels; but if,
+in the desperate case they were in, they attempted to swim to their
+enemies, the Romans cut off either their heads or their hands; and
+indeed they were destroyed after various manners every where, till the
+rest being put to flight, were forced to get upon the land, while the
+vessels encompassed them about [on the sea]: but as many of these were
+repulsed when they were getting ashore, they were killed by the darts
+upon the lake; and the Romans leaped out of their vessels, and destroyed
+a great many more upon the land: one might then see the lake all bloody,
+and full of dead bodies, for not one of them escaped. And a terrible
+stink, and a very sad sight there was on the following days over that
+country; for as for the shores, they were full of shipwrecks, and of
+dead bodies all swelled; and as the dead bodies were inflamed by the
+sun, and putrefied, they corrupted the air, insomuch that the misery
+was not only the object of commiseration to the Jews, but to those that
+hated them, and had been the authors of that misery. This was the upshot
+of the sea-fight. The number of the slain, including those that were
+killed in the city before, was six thousand and five hundred.
+
+10. After this fight was over, Vespasian sat upon his tribunal
+at Taricheae, in order to distinguish the foreigners from the old
+inhabitants; for those foreigners appear to have begun the war. So he
+deliberated with the other commanders, whether he ought to save those
+old inhabitants or not. And when those commanders alleged that the
+dismission of them would be to his own disadvantage, because, when they
+were once set at liberty, they would not be at rest, since they would be
+people destitute of proper habitations, and would be able to compel such
+as they fled to fight against us, Vespasian acknowledged that they did
+not deserve to be saved, and that if they had leave given them to fly
+away, they would make use of it against those that gave them that leave.
+But still he considered with himself after what manner they should be
+slain 8 for if he had them slain there, he suspected the people of the
+country would thereby become his enemies; for that to be sure they would
+never bear it, that so many that had been supplicants to him should
+be killed; and to offer violence to them, after he had given them
+assurances of their lives, he could not himself bear to do it. However,
+his friends were too hard for him, and pretended that nothing against
+Jews could be any impiety, and that he ought to prefer what was
+profitable before what was fit to be done, where both could not be made
+consistent. So he gave them an ambiguous liberty to do as they advised,
+and permitted the prisoners to go along no other road than that which
+led to Tiberias only. So they readily believed what they desired to be
+true, and went along securely, with their effects, the way which was
+allowed them, while the Romans seized upon all the road that led to
+Tiberias, that none of them might go out of it, and shut them up in the
+city. Then came Vespasian, and ordered them all to stand in the stadium,
+and commanded them to kill the old men, together with the others that
+were useless, which were in number a thousand and two hundred. Out of
+the young men he chose six thousand of the strongest, and sent them to
+Nero, to dig through the Isthmus, and sold the remainder for slaves,
+being thirty thousand and four hundred, besides such as he made a
+present of to Agrippa; for as to those that belonged to his kingdom, he
+gave him leave to do what he pleased with them; however, the king sold
+these also for slaves; but for the rest of the multitude, who were
+Trachonites, and Gaulanites, and of Hippos, and some of Gadara, the
+greatest part of them were seditious persons and fugitives, who were of
+such shameful characters, that they preferred war before peace. These
+prisoners were taken on the eighth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul].
+
+WAR BOOK 3 FOOTNOTES
+
+1 (return) [ Take the confirmation of this in the words of Suetonius,
+here produced by Dr. Hudson: "In the reign of Claudius," says he,
+"Vespasian, for the sake of Narcissus, was sent as a lieutenant of a
+legion into Germany. Thence he removed into Britain battles with the
+enemy." In Vesp. sect. 4. We may also here note from Josephus, that
+Claudius the emperor, who triumphed for the conquest of Britain, was
+enabled so to do by Vespasian's conduct and bravery, and that he is here
+styled "the father of Vespasian."]
+
+
+2 (return) [ Spanheim and Reland both agree, that the two cities here
+esteemed greater than Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, were Rome and
+Alexandria; nor is there any occasion for doubt in so plain a case.]
+
+
+3 (return) [ This description of the exact symmetry and regularity of
+the Roman army, and of the Roman encampments, with the sounding their
+trumpets, etc. and order of war, described in this and the next chapter,
+is so very like to the symmetry and regularity of the people of Israel
+in the wilderness, [see Description of the Temples, ch. 9.,] that one
+cannot well avoid the supposal, that the one was the ultimate pattern
+of the other, and that the tactics of the ancients were taken from the
+rules given by God to Moses. And it is thought by some skillful in
+these matters, that these accounts of Josephus, as to the Roman camp and
+armor, and conduct in war, are preferable to those in the Roman authors
+themselves.]
+
+
+4 (return) [ I cannot but here observe an Eastern way of speaking,
+frequent among them, but not usual among us, where the word "only"
+or "alone" is not set down, but perhaps some way supplied in the
+pronunciation. Thus Josephus here says, that those of Jotapata slew
+seven of the Romans as they were marching off, because the Romans'
+retreat was regular, their bodies were covered over with their armor,
+and the Jews fought at some distance; his meaning is clear, that these
+were the reasons why they slew only, or no more than seven. I have met
+with many the like examples in the Scriptures, in Josephus, etc.; but
+did not note down the particular places. This observation ought to be
+borne in mind upon many occasions.]
+
+
+5 (return) [ These public mourners, hired upon the supposed death of
+Josephus, and the real death of many more, illustrate some passages in
+the Bible, which suppose the same custom, as Matthew 11:17, where the
+reader may consult the notes of Grotius.]
+
+
+6 (return) [ Of this Cesarea Philippi [twice mentioned in our New
+Testament, Matthew 16:13; Mark 8;27: there are coins still extant,
+Spanheim here informs us.]
+
+
+7 (return) [ I do not know where to find the law of Moses here mentioned
+by Josephus, and afterwards by Eleazar, 13. VII. ch. 8. sect. 7, and
+almost implied in B. I. ch. 13. sect. 10, by Josephus's commendation of
+Phasaelus for doing so; I mean, whereby Jewish generals and people were
+obliged to kill themselves, rather than go into slavery under heathens.
+I doubt this would have been no better than "self-murder;" and I believe
+it was rather some vain doctrine, or interpretation, of the rigid
+Pharisees, or Essens, or Herodiaus, than a just consequence from any law
+of God delivered by Moses.
+
+(It may be worth our while to observe here, that near this lake of
+Gennesareth grapes and figs hang on the trees ten months of the year.
+We may observe also, that in Cyril of Jerusalem, Cateehes. 18. sect. 3,
+which was delivered not long before Easter, there were no fresh leaves
+of fig trees, nor bunches of fresh grapes in Judea; so that when St.
+Mark says, ch. 11. ver. 13, that our Savior, soon after the same time of
+the year, came and "found leaves" on a fig tree near Jerusalem, but "no
+figs, because the time of" new "figs" ripening "was not yet," he says
+very true; nor were they therefore other than old leaves which our
+Savior saw, and old figs which he expected, and which even with us
+commonly hang on the trees all winter long.)]
+
+
+8 (return) [ This is the most cruel and barbarous action that Vespasian
+ever did in this whole war, as he did it with great reluctance also.
+It was done both after public assurance given of sparing the prisoners'
+lives, and when all knew and confessed that these prisoners were no way
+guilty of any sedition against the Romans. Nor indeed did Titus now give
+his consent, so far as appears, nor ever act of himself so barbarously;
+nay, soon after this, Titus grew quite weary of shedding blood, and of
+punishing the innocent with the guilty, and gave the people of Gischala
+leave to keep the Jewish sabbath, B. IV. ch. 2. sect. 3, 5, in the midst
+of their siege. Nor was Vespasian disposed to do what he did, till his
+officers persuaded him, and that from two principal topics, viz. that
+nothing could be unjust that was done against Jews; and that when both
+cannot be consistent, advantage must prevail over justice. Admirable
+court doctrines these!]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV.
+
+
+     Containing The Interval Of About One Year.
+
+
+     From The Siege Of Gamala To The Coming Of Titus To Besiege
+     Jerusalem.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+
+     The Siege And Taking Of Gamala.
+
+1. Now all those Galileans who, after the taking of Jotapata, had
+revolted from the Romans, did, upon the conquest of Taricheae, deliver
+themselves up to them again. And the Romans received all the fortresses
+and the cities, excepting Gischala and those that had seized upon Mount
+Tabor; Gamala also, which is a city over against Taricheae, but on the
+other side of the lake, conspired with them. This city lay upon the
+borders of Agrippa's kingdom, as also did Sogana and Seleucia. And these
+were both parts of Gaulanitis; for Sogana was a part of that called
+the Upper Gaulanitis, as was Gamala of the Lower; while Seleucia was
+situated at the lake Semechouitis, which lake is thirty furlongs in
+breadth, and sixty in length; its marshes reach as far as the place
+Daphne, which in other respects is a delicious place, and hath such
+fountains as supply water to what is called Little Jordan, under the
+temple of the golden calf, 1 where it is sent into Great Jordan. Now
+Agrippa had united Sogana and Seleucia by leagues to himself, at the
+very beginning of the revolt from the Romans; yet did not Gamala accede
+to them, but relied upon the difficulty of the place, which was greater
+than that of Jotapata, for it was situated upon a rough ridge of a high
+mountain, with a kind of neck in the middle: where it begins to ascend,
+it lengthens itself, and declines as much downward before as behind,
+insomuch that it is like a camel in figure, from whence it is so named,
+although the people of the country do not pronounce it accurately. Both
+on the side and the face there are abrupt parts divided from the rest,
+and ending in vast deep valleys; yet are the parts behind, where they
+are joined to the mountain, somewhat easier of ascent than the other;
+but then the people belonging to the place have cut an oblique ditch
+there, and made that hard to be ascended also. On its acclivity, which
+is straight, houses are built, and those very thick and close to one
+another. The city also hangs so strangely, that it looks as if it would
+fall down upon itself, so sharp is it at the top. It is exposed to the
+south, and its southern mount, which reaches to an immense height, was
+in the nature of a citadel to the city; and above that was a precipice,
+not walled about, but extending itself to an immense depth. There was
+also a spring of water within the wall, at the utmost limits of the
+city.
+
+2. As this city was naturally hard to be taken, so had Josephus, by
+building a wall about it, made it still stronger, as also by ditches and
+mines under ground. The people that were in it were made more bold by
+the nature of the place than the people of Jotapata had been, but it
+had much fewer fighting men in it; and they had such a confidence in
+the situation of the place, that they thought the enemy could not be too
+many for them; for the city had been filled with those that had fled
+to it for safety, on account of its strength; on which account they
+had been able to resist those whom Agrippa sent to besiege it for seven
+months together.
+
+3. But Vespasian removed from Emmaus, where he had last pitched his
+camp before the city Tiberias, [now Emmaus, if it be interpreted, may
+be rendered "a warm bath," for therein is a spring of warm water, useful
+for healing,] and came to Gamala; yet was its situation such that he was
+not able to encompass it all round with soldiers to watch it; but where
+the places were practicable, he set men to watch it, and seized upon the
+mountain which was over it. And as the legions, according to their usual
+custom, were fortifying their camp upon that mountain, he began to cast
+up banks at the bottom, at the part towards the east, where the highest
+tower of the whole city was, and where the fifteenth legion pitched
+their camp; while the fifth legion did duty over against the midst of
+the city, and whilst the tenth legion filled up the ditches and the
+valleys. Now at this time it was that as king Agrippa was come nigh
+the walls, and was endeavoring to speak to those that were on the walls
+about a surrender, he was hit with a stone on his right elbow by one of
+the slingers; he was then immediately surrounded with his own men. But
+the Romans were excited to set about the siege, by their indignation
+on the king's account, and by their fear on their own account, as
+concluding that those men would omit no kinds of barbarity against
+foreigners and enemies, who where so enraged against one of their own
+nation, and one that advised them to nothing but what was for their own
+advantage.
+
+4. Now when the banks were finished, which was done on the sudden, both
+by the multitude of hands, and by their being accustomed to such work,
+they brought the machines; but Chares and Joseph, who were the most
+potent men in the city, set their armed men in order, though already
+in a fright, because they did not suppose that the city could hold out
+long, since they had not a sufficient quantity either of water, or of
+other necessaries. However, these their leaders encouraged them, and
+brought them out upon the wall, and for a while indeed they drove away
+those that were bringing the machines; but when those machines threw
+darts and stones at them, they retired into the city; then did the
+Romans bring battering rams to three several places, and made the wall
+shake [and fall]. They then poured in over the parts of the wall that
+were thrown down, with a mighty sound of trumpets and noise of armor,
+and with a shout of the soldiers, and brake in by force upon those that
+were in the city; but these men fell upon the Romans for some time, at
+their first entrance, and prevented their going any further, and with
+great courage beat them back; and the Romans were so overpowered by the
+greater multitude of the people, who beat them on every side, that they
+were obliged to run into the upper parts of the city. Whereupon the
+people turned about, and fell upon their enemies, who had attacked them,
+and thrust them down to the lower parts, and as they were distressed
+by the narrowness and difficulty of the place, slew them; and as these
+Romans could neither beat those back that were above them, nor escape
+the force of their own men that were forcing their way forward, they
+were compelled to fly into their enemies' houses, which were low; but
+these houses being thus full, of soldiers, whose weight they could not
+bear, fell down suddenly; and when one house fell, it shook down a great
+many of those that were under it, as did those do to such as were under
+them. By this means a vast number of the Romans perished; for they were
+so terribly distressed, that although they saw the houses subsiding,
+they were compelled to leap upon the tops of them; so that a great many
+were ground to powder by these ruins, and a great many of those that
+got from under them lost some of their limbs, but still a greater number
+were suffocated by the dust that arose from those ruins. The people
+of Gamala supposed this to be an assistance afforded them by God, and
+without regarding what damage they suffered themselves, they pressed
+forward, and thrust the enemy upon the tops of their houses; and when
+they stumbled in the sharp and narrow streets, and were perpetually
+falling down, they threw their stones or darts at them, and slew them.
+Now the very ruins afforded them stones enow; and for iron weapons,
+the dead men of the enemies' side afforded them what they wanted; for
+drawing the swords of those that were dead, they made use of them to
+despatch such as were only half dead; nay, there were a great number
+who, upon their falling down from the tops of the houses, stabbed
+themselves, and died after that manner; nor indeed was it easy for those
+that were beaten back to fly away; for they were so unacquainted with
+the ways, and the dust was so thick, that they wandered about without
+knowing one another, and fell down dead among the crowd.
+
+5. Those therefore that were able to find the ways out of the city
+retired. But now Vespasian always staid among those that were hard set;
+for he was deeply affected with seeing the ruins of the city falling
+upon his army, and forgot to take care of his own preservation. He went
+up gradually towards the highest parts of the city before he was aware,
+and was left in the midst of dangers, having only a very few with him;
+for even his son Titus was not with him at that time, having been then
+sent into Syria to Mucianus. However, he thought it not safe to fly,
+nor did he esteem it a fit thing for him to do; but calling to mind the
+actions he had done from his youth, and recollecting his courage, as if
+he had been excited by a divine fury, he covered himself and those that
+were with him with their shields, and formed a testudo over both their
+bodies and their armor, and bore up against the enemy's attacks, who
+came running down from the top of the city; and without showing any
+dread at the multitude of the men or of their darts, he endured all,
+until the enemy took notice of that divine courage that was within him,
+and remitted of their attacks; and when they pressed less zealously upon
+him, he retired, though without showing his back to them till he was
+gotten out of the walls of the city. Now a great number of the Romans
+fell in this battle, among whom was Ebutius, the decurion, a man who
+appeared not only in this engagement, wherein he fell, but every where,
+and in former engagements, to be of the truest courage, and one that had
+done very great mischief to the Jews. But there was a centurion whose
+name was Gallus, who, during this disorder, being encompassed about,
+he and ten other soldiers privately crept into the house of a certain
+person, where he heard them talking at supper, what the people intended
+to do against the Romans, or about themselves [for both the man himself
+and those with him were Syrians]. So he got up in the night time, and
+cut all their throats, and escaped, together with his soldiers, to the
+Romans.
+
+6. And now Vespasian comforted his army, which was much dejected by
+reflecting on their ill success, and because they had never before
+fallen into such a calamity, and besides this, because they were greatly
+ashamed that they had left their general alone in great dangers. As to
+what concerned himself, he avoided to say any thing, that he might by
+no means seem to complain of it; but he said that "we ought to bear
+manfully what usually falls out in war, and this, by considering what
+the nature of war is, and how it can never be that we must conquer
+without bloodshed on our own side; for there stands about us that
+fortune which is of its own nature mutable; that while they had killed
+so many ten thousands of the Jews, they had now paid their small share
+of the reckoning to fate; and as it is the part of weak people to be too
+much puffed up with good success, so is it the part of cowards to be too
+much affrighted at that which is ill; for the change from the one to the
+other is sudden on both sides; and he is the best warrior who is of a
+sober mind under misfortunes, that he may continue in that temper, and
+cheerfully recover what had been lost formerly; and as for what had now
+happened, it was neither owing to their own effeminacy, nor to the valor
+of the Jews, but the difficulty of the place was the occasion of their
+advantage, and of our disappointment. Upon reflecting on which matter
+one might blame your zeal as perfectly ungovernable; for when the enemy
+had retired to their highest fastnesses, you ought to have restrained
+yourselves, and not, by presenting yourselves at the top of the city, to
+be exposed to dangers; but upon your having obtained the lower parts of
+the city, you ought to have provoked those that had retired thither to
+a safe and settled battle; whereas, in rushing so hastily upon victory,
+you took no care of your safety. But this incautiousness in war, and
+this madness of zeal, is not a Roman maxim. While we perform all that
+we attempt by skill and good order, that procedure is the part of
+barbarians, and is what the Jews chiefly support themselves by. We ought
+therefore to return to our own virtue, and to be rather angry than any
+longer dejected at this unlucky misfortune, and let every one seek for
+his own consolation from his own hand; for by this means he will avenge
+those that have been destroyed, and punish those that have killed them.
+For myself, I will endeavor, as I have now done, to go first before
+you against your enemies in every engagement, and to be the last that
+retires from it."
+
+7. So Vespasian encouraged his army by this speech; but for the people
+of Gamala, it happened that they took courage for a little while, upon
+such great and unaccountable success as they had had. But when they
+considered with themselves that they had now no hopes of any terms of
+accommodation, and reflecting upon it that they could not get away, and
+that their provisions began already to be short, they were exceedingly
+cast down, and their courage failed them; yet did they not neglect what
+might be for their preservation, so far as they were able, but the most
+courageous among them guarded those parts of the wall that were beaten
+down, while the more infirm did the same to the rest of the wall that
+still remained round the city. And as the Romans raised their banks, and
+attempted to get into the city a second time, a great many of them fled
+out of the city through impracticable valleys, where no guards were
+placed, as also through subterraneous caverns; while those that were
+afraid of being caught, and for that reason staid in the city, perished
+for want of food; for what food they had was brought together from all
+quarters, and reserved for the fighting men.
+
+8. And these were the hard circumstances that the people of Gamala
+were in. But now Vespasian went about other work by the by, during this
+siege, and that was to subdue those that had seized upon Mount Tabor, a
+place that lies in the middle between the great plain and Scythopolis,
+whose top is elevated as high as thirty furlongs 2 and is hardly to be
+ascended on its north side; its top is a plain of twenty-six furlongs,
+and all encompassed with a wall. Now Josephus erected this so long a
+wall in forty days' time, and furnished it with other materials, and
+with water from below, for the inhabitants only made use of rain water.
+As therefore there was a great multitude of people gotten together
+upon this mountain, Vespasian sent Placidus with six hundred horsemen
+thither. Now, as it was impossible for him to ascend the mountain, he
+invited many of them to peace, by the offer of his right hand for their
+security, and of his intercession for them. Accordingly they came down,
+but with a treacherous design, as well as he had the like treacherous
+design upon them on the other side; for Placidus spoke mildly to them,
+as aiming to take them, when he got them into the plain; they also came
+down, as complying with his proposals, but it was in order to fall upon
+him when he was not aware of it: however, Placidus's stratagem was too
+hard for theirs; for when the Jews began to fight, he pretended to run
+away, and when they were in pursuit of the Romans, he enticed them
+a great way along the plain, and then made his horsemen turn back;
+whereupon he beat them, and slew a great number of them, and cut off the
+retreat of the rest of the multitude, and hindered their return. So they
+left Tabor, and fled to Jerusalem, while the people of the country came
+to terms with him, for their water failed them, and so they delivered up
+the mountain and themselves to Placidus.
+
+9. But of the people of Gamala, those that were of the bolder sort fled
+away and hid themselves, while the more infirm perished by famine; but
+the men of war sustained the siege till the two and twentieth day of
+the month Hyperbereteus, [Tisri,] when three soldiers of the fifteenth
+legion, about the morning watch, got under a high tower that was near
+them, and undermined it, without making any noise; nor when they either
+came to it, which was in the night time, nor when they were under it,
+did those that guarded it perceive them. These soldiers then upon their
+coming avoided making a noise, and when they had rolled away five of its
+strongest stones, they went away hastily; whereupon the tower fell down
+on a sudden, with a very great noise, and its guard fell headlong
+with it; so that those that kept guard at other places were under such
+disturbance, that they ran away; the Romans also slew many of those that
+ventured to oppose them, among whom was Joseph, who was slain by a dart,
+as he was running away over that part of the wall that was broken down:
+but as those that were in the city were greatly affrighted at the noise,
+they ran hither and thither, and a great consternation fell upon them,
+as though all the enemy had fallen in at once upon them. Then it was
+that Chares, who was ill, and under the physician's hands, gave up the
+ghost, the fear he was in greatly contributing to make his distemper
+fatal to him. But the Romans so well remembered their former ill
+success, that they did not enter the city till the three and twentieth
+day of the forementioned month.
+
+10. At which time Titus, who was now returned, out of the indignation
+he had at the destruction the Romans had undergone while he was absent,
+took two hundred chosen horsemen and some footmen with him, and entered
+without noise into the city. Now as the watch perceived that he was
+coming, they made a noise, and betook themselves to their arms; and as
+that his entrance was presently known to those that were in the city,
+some of them caught hold of their children and their wives, and drew
+them after them, and fled away to the citadel, with lamentations
+and cries, while others of them went to meet Titus, and were killed
+perpetually; but so many of them as were hindered from running up to
+the citadel, not knowing what in the world to do, fell among the Roman
+guards, while the groans of those that were killed were prodigiously
+great every where, and blood ran down over all the lower parts of the
+city, from the upper. But then Vespasian himself came to his assistance
+against those that had fled to the citadel, and brought his whole army
+with him; now this upper part of the city was every way rocky, and
+difficult of ascent, and elevated to a vast altitude, and very full of
+people on all sides, and encompassed with precipices, whereby the Jews
+cut off those that came up to them, and did much mischief to others
+by their darts, and the large stones which they rolled down upon them,
+while they were themselves so high that the enemy's darts could hardly
+reach them. However, there arose such a Divine storm against them as
+was instrumental to their destruction; this carried the Roman darts
+upon them, and made those which they threw return back, and drove them
+obliquely away from them; nor could the Jews indeed stand upon their
+precipices, by reason of the violence of the wind, having nothing that
+was stable to stand upon, nor could they see those that were ascending
+up to them; so the Romans got up and surrounded them, and some they slew
+before they could defend themselves, and others as they were delivering
+up themselves; and the remembrance of those that were slain at their
+former entrance into the city increased their rage against them now;
+a great number also of those that were surrounded on every side,
+and despaired of escaping, threw their children and their wives, and
+themselves also, down the precipices, into the valley beneath, which,
+near the citadel, had been dug hollow to a vast depth; but so it
+happened, that the anger of the Romans appeared not to be so extravagant
+as was the madness of those that were now taken, while the Romans
+slew but four thousand, whereas the number of those that had thrown
+themselves down was found to be five thousand: nor did any one escape
+except two women, who were the daughters of Philip, and Philip himself
+was the son of a certain eminent man called Jacimus, who had been
+general of king Agrippa's army; and these did therefore escape, because
+they lay concealed from the rage of the Romans when the city was taken;
+for otherwise they spared not so much as the infants, of which many were
+flung down by them from the citadel. And thus was Gamala taken on the
+three and twentieth day of the month Hyperbereteus, [Tisri,] whereas
+the city had first revolted on the four and twentieth day of the month
+Gorpieus [Elul].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+
+     The Surrender Of Gischala; While John Flies Away From It To
+     Jerusalem.
+
+1. Now no place of Galilee remained to be taken but the small city of
+Gischala, whose multitude yet were desirous of peace; for they were
+generally husbandmen, and always applied themselves to cultivate the
+fruits of the earth. However, there were a great number that belonged to
+a band of robbers, that were already corrupted, and had crept in among
+them, and some of the governing part of the citizens were sick of the
+same distemper. It was John, the son of a certain man whose name was
+Levi, that drew them into this rebellion, and encouraged them in it. He
+was a cunning knave, and of a temper that could put on various shapes;
+very rash in expecting great things, and very sagacious in bringing
+about what he hoped for. It was known to every body that he was fond of
+war, in order to thrust himself into authority; and the seditious part
+of the people of Gischala were under his management, by whose means the
+populace, who seemed ready to send ambassadors in order to surrender,
+waited for the coming of the Romans in battle-array. Vespasian sent
+against them Titus, with a thousand horsemen, but withdrew the tenth
+legion to Scythopolis, while he returned to Cesarea with the two other
+legions, that he might allow them to refresh themselves after their long
+and hard campaign, thinking withal that the plenty which was in those
+cities would improve their bodies and their spirits, against the
+difficulties they were to go through afterwards; for he saw there would
+be occasion for great pains about Jerusalem, which was not yet taken,
+because it was the royal city, and the principal city of the whole
+nation, and because those that had run away from the war in other places
+got all together thither. It was also naturally strong, and the walls
+that were built round it made him not a little concerned about it.
+Moreover, he esteemed the men that were in it to be so courageous and
+bold, that even without the consideration of the walls, it would be
+hard to subdue them; for which reason he took care of and exercised his
+soldiers beforehand for the work, as they do wrestlers before they begin
+their undertaking.
+
+2. Now Titus, as he rode out to Gischala, found it would be easy for him
+to take the city upon the first onset; but knew withal, that if he took
+it by force, the multitude would be destroyed by the soldiers without
+mercy. [Now he was already satiated with the shedding of blood, and
+pitied the major part, who would then perish, without distinction,
+together with the guilty.] So he was rather desirous the city might be
+surrendered up to him on terms. Accordingly, when he saw the wall full
+of those men that were of the corrupted party, he said to them, That he
+could not but wonder what it was they depended on, when they alone
+staid to fight the Romans, after every other city was taken by them,
+especially when they have seen cities much better fortified than theirs
+is overthrown by a single attack upon them; while as many as have
+intrusted themselves to the security of the Romans' right hands, which
+he now offers to them, without regarding their former insolence, do
+enjoy their own possessions in safety; for that while they had hopes
+of recovering their liberty, they might be pardoned; but that their
+continuance still in their opposition, when they saw that to be
+impossible, was inexcusable; for that if they will not comply with such
+humane offers, and right hands for security, they should have experience
+of such a war as would spare nobody, and should soon be made sensible
+that their wall would be but a trifle, when battered by the Roman
+machines; in depending on which they demonstrate themselves to be the
+only Galileans that were no better than arrogant slaves and captives.
+
+3. Now none of the populace durst not only make a reply, but durst not
+so much as get upon the wall, for it was all taken up by the robbers,
+who were also the guard at the gates, in order to prevent any of the
+rest from going out, in order to propose terms of submission, and from
+receiving any of the horsemen into the city. But John returned
+Titus this answer: That for himself he was content to hearken to his
+proposals, and that he would either persuade or force those that refused
+them. Yet he said that Titus ought to have such regard to the Jewish
+law, as to grant them leave to celebrate that day, which was the seventh
+day of the week, on which it was unlawful not only to remove their
+arms, but even to treat of peace also; and that even the Romans were not
+ignorant how the period of the seventh day was among them a cessation
+from all labors; and that he who should compel them to transgress
+the law about that day would be equally guilty with those that
+were compelled to transgress it: and that this delay could be of no
+disadvantage to him; for why should any body think of doing any thing in
+the night, unless it was to fly away? which he might prevent by placing
+his camp round about them; and that they should think it a great point
+gained, if they might not be obliged to transgress the laws of their
+country; and that it would be a right thing for him, who designed to
+grant them peace, without their expectation of such a favor, to preserve
+the laws of those they saved inviolable. Thus did this man put a trick
+upon Titus, not so much out of regard to the seventh day as to his own
+preservation, for he was afraid lest he should be quite deserted if the
+city should be taken, and had his hopes of life in that night, and
+in his flight therein. Now this was the work of God, who therefore
+preserved this John, that he might bring on the destruction of
+Jerusalem; as also it was his work that Titus was prevailed with by this
+pretense for a delay, and that he pitched his camp further off the
+city at Cydessa. This Cydessa was a strong Mediterranean village of the
+Tyrians, which always hated and made war against the Jews; it had also
+a great number of inhabitants, and was well fortified, which made it a
+proper place for such as were enemies to the Jewish nation.
+
+4. Now, in the night time, when John saw that there was no Roman guard
+about the city, he seized the opportunity directly, and, taking with him
+not only the armed men that were about him, but a considerable number
+of those that had little to do, together with their families, he fled to
+Jerusalem. And indeed, though the man was making haste to get away, and
+was tormented with fears of being a captive, or of losing his life, yet
+did he prevail with himself to take out of the city along with him a
+multitude of women and children, as far as twenty furlongs; but there he
+left them as he proceeded further on his journey, where those that were
+left behind made sad lamentations; for the farther every one of them was
+come from his own people, the nearer they thought themselves to be to
+their enemies. They also affrighted themselves with this thought, that
+those who would carry them into captivity were just at hand, and still
+turned themselves back at the mere noise they made themselves in this
+their hasty flight, as if those from whom they fled were just upon them.
+Many also of them missed their ways, and the earnestness of such as
+aimed to outgo the rest threw down many of them. And indeed there was a
+miserable destruction made of the women and children; while some of them
+took courage to call their husbands and kinsmen back, and to beseech
+them, with the bitterest lamentations, to stay for them; but John's
+exhortation, who cried out to them to save themselves, and fly away,
+prevailed. He said also, that if the Romans should seize upon those
+whom they left behind, they would be revenged on them for it. So this
+multitude that run thus away was dispersed abroad, according as each of
+them was able to run, one faster or slower than another.
+
+5. Now on the next day Titus came to the wall, to make the agreement;
+whereupon the people opened their gates to him, and came out to him,
+with their children and wives, and made acclamations of joy to him, as
+to one that had been their benefactor, and had delivered the city out
+of custody; they also informed him of John's flight, and besought him
+to spare them, and to come in, and bring the rest of those that were
+for innovations to punishment. But Titus, not so much regarding the
+supplications of the people, sent part of his horsemen to pursue after
+John, but they could not overtake him, for he was gotten to Jerusalem
+before; they also slew six thousand of the women and children who went
+out with him, but returned back, and brought with them almost three
+thousand. However, Titus was greatly displeased that he had not been
+able to bring this John, who had deluded him, to punishment; yet he had
+captives enough, as well as the corrupted part of the city, to satisfy
+his anger, when it missed of John. So he entered the city in the midst
+of acclamations of joy; and when he had given orders to the soldiers
+to pull down a small part of the wall, as of a city taken in war, he
+repressed those that had disturbed the city rather by threatenings than
+by executions; for he thought that many would accuse innocent persons,
+out of their own private animosities and quarrels, if he should attempt
+to distinguish those that were worthy of punishment from the rest; and
+that it was better to let a guilty person alone in his fears, that to
+destroy with him any one that did not deserve it; for that probably such
+a one might be taught prudence, by the fear of the punishment he had
+deserved, and have a shame upon him for his former offenses, when he had
+been forgiven; but that the punishment of such as have been once put
+to death could never be retrieved. However, he placed a garrison in the
+city for its security, by which means he should restrain those that were
+for innovations, and should leave those that were peaceably disposed
+in greater security. And thus was all Galilee taken, but this not till
+after it had cost the Romans much pains before it could be taken by
+them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3.
+
+
+     Concerning John Of Gischala. Concerning The Zealots And The
+     High Priest Ananus; As Also How The Jews Raise Seditions One
+     Against Another [In Jerusalem].
+
+1. Now upon John's entry into Jerusalem, the whole body of the people
+were in an uproar, and ten thousand of them crowded about every one of
+the fugitives that were come to them, and inquired of them what miseries
+had happened abroad, when their breath was so short, and hot, and quick,
+that of itself it declared the great distress they were in; yet did they
+talk big under their misfortunes, and pretended to say that they had not
+fled away from the Romans, but came thither in order to fight them with
+less hazard; for that it would be an unreasonable and a fruitless thing
+for them to expose themselves to desperate hazards about Gischala, and
+such weak cities, whereas they ought to lay up their weapons and their
+zeal, and reserve it for their metropolis. But when they related to them
+the taking of Gischala, and their decent departure, as they pretended,
+from that place, many of the people understood it to be no better than a
+flight; and especially when the people were told of those that were made
+captives, they were in great confusion, and guessed those things to be
+plain indications that they should be taken also. But for John, he was
+very little concerned for those whom he had left behind him, but went
+about among all the people, and persuaded them to go to war, by the
+hopes he gave them. He affirmed that the affairs of the Romans were in
+a weak condition, and extolled his own power. He also jested upon the
+ignorance of the unskillful, as if those Romans, although they should
+take to themselves wings, could never fly over the wall of Jerusalem,
+who found such great difficulties in taking the villages of Galilee, and
+had broken their engines of war against their walls.
+
+2. These harangues of John's corrupted a great part of the young men,
+and puffed them up for the war; but as to the more prudent part, and
+those in years, there was not a man of them but foresaw what was coming,
+and made lamentation on that account, as if the city was already undone;
+and in this confusion were the people. But then it must be observed,
+that the multitude that came out of the country were at discord before
+the Jerusalem sedition began; for Titus went from Gischala to Cesates,
+and Vespasian from Cesarea to Jamnia and Azotus, and took them both; and
+when he had put garrisons into them, he came back with a great number
+of the people, who were come over to him, upon his giving them his right
+hand for their preservation. There were besides disorders and civil wars
+in every city; and all those that were at quiet from the Romans turned
+their hands one against another. There was also a bitter contest between
+those that were fond of war, and those that were desirous for peace. At
+the first this quarrelsome temper caught hold of private families, who
+could not agree among themselves; after which those people that were the
+dearest to one another brake through all restraints with regard to each
+other, and every one associated with those of his own opinion, and began
+already to stand in opposition one to another; so that seditions arose
+every where, while those that were for innovations, and were desirous of
+war, by their youth and boldness, were too hard for the aged and prudent
+men. And, in the first place, all the people of every place betook
+themselves to rapine; after which they got together in bodies, in
+order to rob the people of the country, insomuch that for barbarity and
+iniquity those of the same nation did no way differ from the Romans;
+nay, it seemed to be a much lighter thing to be ruined by the Romans
+than by themselves.
+
+3. Now the Roman garrisons, which guarded the cities, partly out of
+their uneasiness to take such trouble upon them, and partly out of the
+hatred they bare to the Jewish nation, did little or nothing towards
+relieving the miserable, till the captains of these troops of robbers,
+being satiated with rapines in the country, got all together from all
+parts, and became a band of wickedness, and all together crept into
+Jerusalem, which was now become a city without a governor, and, as the
+ancient custom was, received without distinction all that belonged to
+their nation; and these they then received, because all men supposed
+that those who came so fast into the city came out of kindness, and for
+their assistance, although these very men, besides the seditions they
+raised, were otherwise the direct cause of the city's destruction also;
+for as they were an unprofitable and a useless multitude, they spent
+those provisions beforehand which might otherwise have been sufficient
+for the fighting men. Moreover, besides the bringing on of the war, they
+were the occasions of sedition and famine therein.
+
+4. There were besides these other robbers that came out of the country,
+and came into the city, and joining to them those that were worse than
+themselves, omitted no kind of barbarity; for they did not measure their
+courage by their rapines and plunderings only, but preceded as far as
+murdering men; and this not in the night time or privately, or with
+regard to ordinary men, but did it openly in the day time, and began
+with the most eminent persons in the city; for the first man they
+meddled with was Antipas, one of the royal lineage, and the most potent
+man in the whole city, insomuch that the public treasures were committed
+to his care; him they took and confined; as they did in the next place
+to Levias, a person of great note, with Sophas, the son of Raguel, both
+which were of royal lineage also. And besides these, they did the
+same to the principal men of the country. This caused a terrible
+consternation among the people, and everyone contented himself with
+taking care of his own safety, as they would do if the city had been
+taken in war.
+
+5. But these were not satisfied with the bonds into which they had put
+the men forementioned; nor did they think it safe for them to keep
+them thus in custody long, since they were men very powerful, and had
+numerous families of their own that were able to avenge them. Nay,
+they thought the very people would perhaps be so moved at these unjust
+proceedings, as to rise in a body against them; it was therefore
+resolved to have them slain accordingly, they sent one John, who was the
+most bloody-minded of them all, to do that execution: this man was also
+called "the son of Dorcas," 3 in the language of our country. Ten more
+men went along with him into the prison, with their swords drawn, and
+so they cut the throats of those that were in custody there. The grand
+lying pretence these men made for so flagrant an enormity was this,
+that these men had had conferences with the Romans for a surrender of
+Jerusalem to them; and so they said they had slain only such as were
+traitors to their common liberty. Upon the whole, they grew the more
+insolent upon this bold prank of theirs, as though they had been the
+benefactors and saviors of the city.
+
+6. Now the people were come to that degree of meanness and fear, and
+these robbers to that degree of madness, that these last took upon them
+to appoint high priests. 4 So when they had disannulled the succession,
+according to those families out of which the high priests used to be
+made, they ordained certain unknown and ignoble persons for that office,
+that they might have their assistance in their wicked undertakings; for
+such as obtained this highest of all honors, without any desert, were
+forced to comply with those that bestowed it on them. They also set
+the principal men at variance one with another, by several sorts of
+contrivances and tricks, and gained the opportunity of doing what they
+pleased, by the mutual quarrels of those who might have obstructed
+their measures; till at length, when they were satiated with the unjust
+actions they had done towards men, they transferred their contumelious
+behavior to God himself, and came into the sanctuary with polluted feet.
+
+7. And now the multitude were going to rise against them already; for
+Ananus, the ancientest of the high priests, persuaded them to it. He was
+a very prudent man, and had perhaps saved the city if he could but have
+escaped the hands of those that plotted against him. These men made the
+temple of God a strong hold for them, and a place whither they might
+resort, in order to avoid the troubles they feared from the people;
+the sanctuary was now become a refuge, and a shop of tyranny. They
+also mixed jesting among the miseries they introduced, which was more
+intolerable than what they did; for in order to try what surprise
+the people would be under, and how far their own power extended, they
+undertook to dispose of the high priesthood by casting lots for it,
+whereas, as we have said already, it was to descend by succession in a
+family. The pretense they made for this strange attempt was an ancient
+practice, while they said that of old it was determined by lot; but in
+truth, it was no better than a dissolution of an undeniable law, and
+a cunning contrivance to seize upon the government, derived from those
+that presumed to appoint governors as they themselves pleased.
+
+8. Hereupon they sent for one of the pontifical tribes, which is called
+Eniachim, 5 and cast lots which of it should be the high priest. By
+fortune the lot so fell as to demonstrate their iniquity after the
+plainest manner, for it fell upon one whose name was Phannias, the son
+of Samuel, of the village Aphtha. He was a man not only unworthy of the
+high priesthood, but that did not well know what the high priesthood
+was, such a mere rustic was he! yet did they hail this man, without his
+own consent, out of the country, as if they were acting a play upon the
+stage, and adorned him with a counterfeit tree; they also put upon him
+the sacred garments, and upon every occasion instructed him what he was
+to do. This horrid piece of wickedness was sport and pastime with them,
+but occasioned the other priests, who at a distance saw their law made
+a jest of, to shed tears, and sorely lament the dissolution of such a
+sacred dignity.
+
+9. And now the people could no longer bear the insolence of this
+procedure, but did all together run zealously, in order to overthrow
+that tyranny; and indeed they were Gorion the son of Josephus, and
+Symeon the son of Gamaliel, 6 who encouraged them, by going up and down
+when they were assembled together in crowds, and as they saw them
+alone, to bear no longer, but to inflict punishment upon these pests
+and plagues of their freedom, and to purge the temple of these bloody
+polluters of it. The best esteemed also of the high priests, Jesus the
+son of Gamalas, and Ananus the son of Ananus when they were at their
+assemblies, bitterly reproached the people for their sloth, and excited
+them against the zealots; for that was the name they went by, as if they
+were zealous in good undertakings, and were not rather zealous in the
+worst actions, and extravagant in them beyond the example of others.
+
+10. And now, when the multitude were gotten together to an assembly, and
+every one was in indignation at these men's seizing upon the sanctuary,
+at their rapine and murders, but had not yet begun their attacks upon
+them, [the reason of which was this, that they imagined it to be a
+difficult thing to suppress these zealots, as indeed the case was,]
+Ananus stood in the midst of them, and casting his eyes frequently at
+the temple, and having a flood of tears in his eyes, he said, "Certainly
+it had been good for me to die before I had seen the house of God full
+of so many abominations, or these sacred places, that ought not to be
+trodden upon at random, filled with the feet of these blood-shedding
+villains; yet do I, who am clothed with the vestments of the high
+priesthood, and am called by that most venerable name [of high priest],
+still live, and am but too fond of living, and cannot endure to undergo
+a death which would be the glory of my old age; and if I were the only
+person concerned, and as it were in a desert, I would give up my life,
+and that alone for God's sake; for to what purpose is it to live among
+a people insensible of their calamities, and where there is no notion
+remaining of any remedy for the miseries that are upon them? for when
+you are seized upon, you bear it! and when you are beaten, you are
+silent! and when the people are murdered, nobody dare so much as send
+out a groan openly! O bitter tyranny that we are under! But why do I
+complain of the tyrants? Was it not you, and your sufferance of them,
+that have nourished them? Was it not you that overlooked those that
+first of all got together, for they were then but a few, and by your
+silence made them grow to be many; and by conniving at them when they
+took arms, in effect armed them against yourselves? You ought to have
+then prevented their first attempts, when they fell a reproaching your
+relations; but by neglecting that care in time, you have encouraged
+these wretches to plunder men. When houses were pillaged, nobody said
+a word, which was the occasion why they carried off the owners of those
+houses; and when they were drawn through the midst of the city, nobody
+came to their assistance. They then proceeded to put those whom you have
+betrayed into their hands into bonds. I do not say how many and of what
+characters those men were whom they thus served; but certainly they were
+such as were accused by none, and condemned by none; and since nobody
+succored them when they were put into bonds, the consequence was, that
+you saw the same persons slain. We have seen this also; so that still
+the best of the herd of brute animals, as it were, have been still led
+to be sacrificed, when yet nobody said one word, or moved his right hand
+for their preservation. Will you bear, therefore, will you bear to see
+your sanctuary trampled on? and will you lay steps for these profane
+wretches, upon which they may mount to higher degrees of insolence? Will
+not you pluck them down from their exaltation? for even by this time
+they had proceeded to higher enormities, if they had been able to
+overthrow any thing greater than the sanctuary. They have seized upon
+the strongest place of the whole city; you may call it the temple, if
+you please, though it be like a citadel or fortress. Now, while you have
+tyranny in so great a degree walled in, and see your enemies over your
+heads, to what purpose is it to take counsel? and what have you to
+support your minds withal? Perhaps you wait for the Romans, that they
+may protect our holy places: are our matters then brought to that pass?
+and are we come to that degree of misery, that our enemies themselves
+are expected to pity us? O wretched creatures! will not you rise up and
+turn upon those that strike you? which you may observe in wild beasts
+themselves, that they will avenge themselves on those that strike
+them. Will you not call to mind, every one of you, the calamities you
+yourselves have suffered? nor lay before your eyes what afflictions you
+yourselves have undergone? and will not such things sharpen your souls
+to revenge? Is therefore that most honorable and most natural of our
+passions utterly lost, I mean the desire of liberty? Truly we are in
+love with slavery, and in love with those that lord it over us, as if
+we had received that principle of subjection from our ancestors; yet did
+they undergo many and great wars for the sake of liberty, nor were they
+so far overcome by the power of the Egyptians, or the Medes, but that
+still they did what they thought fit, notwithstanding their commands to
+the contrary. And what occasion is there now for a war with the Romans?
+[I meddle not with determining whether it be an advantageous and
+profitable war or not.] What pretense is there for it? Is it not that
+we may enjoy our liberty? Besides, shall we not bear the lords of the
+habitable earth to be lords over us, and yet bear tyrants of our own
+country? Although I must say that submission to foreigners may be borne,
+because fortune hath already doomed us to it, while submission to wicked
+people of our own nation is too unmanly, and brought upon us by our own
+consent. However, since I have had occasion to mention the Romans, I
+will not conceal a thing that, as I am speaking, comes into my mind, and
+affects me considerably; it is this, that though we should be taken by
+them, [God forbid the event should be so!] yet can we undergo nothing
+that will be harder to be borne than what these men have already brought
+upon us. How then can we avoid shedding of tears, when we see the Roman
+donations in our temple, while we withal see those of our own nation
+taking our spoils, and plundering our glorious metropolis, and
+slaughtering our men, from which enormities those Romans themselves
+would have abstained? to see those Romans never going beyond the bounds
+allotted to profane persons, nor venturing to break in upon any of our
+sacred customs; nay, having a horror on their minds when they view at a
+distance those sacred walls; while some that have been born in this very
+country, and brought up in our customs, and called Jews, do walk about
+in the midst of the holy places, at the very time when their hands are
+still warm with the slaughter of their own countrymen. Besides, can
+any one be afraid of a war abroad, and that with such as will have
+comparatively much greater moderation than our own people have? For
+truly, if we may suit our words to the things they represent, it is
+probable one may hereafter find the Romans to be the supporters of our
+laws, and those within ourselves the subverters of them. And now I am
+persuaded that every one of you here comes satisfied before I speak that
+these overthrowers of our liberties deserve to be destroyed, and that
+nobody can so much as devise a punishment that they have not deserved by
+what they have done, and that you are all provoked against them by those
+their wicked actions, whence you have suffered so greatly. But perhaps
+many of you are affrighted at the multitude of those zealots, and at
+their audaciousness, as well as at the advantage they have over us in
+their being higher in place than we are; for these circumstances, as
+they have been occasioned by your negligence, so will they become still
+greater by being still longer neglected; for their multitude is every
+day augmented, by every ill man's running away to those that are like to
+themselves, and their audaciousness is therefore inflamed, because they
+meet with no obstruction to their designs. And for their higher place,
+they will make use of it for engines also, if we give them time to do
+so; but be assured of this, that if we go up to fight them, they will
+be made tamer by their own consciences, and what advantages they have in
+the height of their situation they will lose by the opposition of their
+reason; perhaps also God himself, who hath been affronted by them, will
+make what they throw at us return against themselves, and these
+impious wretches will be killed by their own darts: let us but make our
+appearance before them, and they will come to nothing. However, it is a
+right thing, if there should be any danger in the attempt, to die before
+these holy gates, and to spend our very lives, if not for the sake of
+our children and wives, yet for God's sake, and for the sake of his
+sanctuary. I will assist you both with my counsel and with my hand; nor
+shall any sagacity of ours be wanting for your support; nor shall you
+see that I will be sparing of my body neither."
+
+11. By these motives Ananus encouraged the multitude to go against the
+zealots, although he knew how difficult it would be to disperse them,
+because of their multitude, and their youth, and the courage of their
+souls; but chiefly because of their consciousness of what they had done,
+since they would not yield, as not so much as hoping for pardon at the
+last for those their enormities. However, Ananus resolved to undergo
+whatever sufferings might come upon him, rather than overlook things,
+now they were in such great confusion. So the multitude cried out
+to him, to lead them on against those whom he had described in his
+exhortation to them, and every one of them was most readily disposed to
+run any hazard whatsoever on that account.
+
+12. Now while Ananus was choosing out his men, and putting those that
+were proper for his purpose in array for fighting, the zealots got
+information of his undertaking, [for there were some who went to them,
+and told them all that the people were doing,] and were irritated at
+it, and leaping out of the temple in crowds, and by parties, spared none
+whom they met with. Upon this Ananus got the populace together on the
+sudden, who were more numerous indeed than the zealots, but inferior
+to them in arms, because they had not been regularly put into array for
+fighting; but the alacrity that every body showed supplied all their
+defects on both sides, the citizens taking up so great a passion as was
+stronger than arms, and deriving a degree of courage from the temple
+more forcible than any multitude whatsoever; and indeed these citizens
+thought it was not possible for them to dwell in the city, unless they
+could cut off the robbers that were in it. The zealots also thought that
+unless they prevailed, there would be no punishment so bad but it
+would be inflicted on them. So their conflicts were conducted by their
+passions; and at the first they only cast stones at each other in the
+city, and before the temple, and threw their javelins at a distance; but
+when either of them were too hard for the other, they made use of their
+swords; and great slaughter was made on both sides, and a great number
+were wounded. As for the dead bodies of the people, their relations
+carried them out to their own houses; but when any of the zealots were
+wounded, he went up into the temple, and defiled that sacred floor
+with his blood, insomuch that one may say it was their blood alone
+that polluted our sanctuary. Now in these conflicts the robbers always
+sallied out of the temple, and were too hard for their enemies; but
+the populace grew very angry, and became more and more numerous, and
+reproached those that gave back, and those behind would not afford room
+to those that were going off, but forced them on again, till at length
+they made their whole body to turn against their adversaries, and the
+robbers could no longer oppose them, but were forced gradually to retire
+into the temple; when Ananus and his party fell into it at the same time
+together with them. 7 This horribly affrighted the robbers, because
+it deprived them of the first court; so they fled into the inner court
+immediately, and shut the gates. Now Ananus did not think fit to make
+any attack against the holy gates, although the other threw their stones
+and darts at them from above. He also deemed it unlawful to introduce
+the multitude into that court before they were purified; he therefore
+chose out of them all by lot six thousand armed men, and placed them as
+guards in the cloisters; so there was a succession of such guards
+one after another, and every one was forced to attend in his course;
+although many of the chief of the city were dismissed by those that then
+took on them the government, upon their hiring some of the poorer sort,
+and sending them to keep the guard in their stead.
+
+13. Now it was John who, as we told you, ran away from Gischala, and was
+the occasion of all these being destroyed. He was a man of great craft,
+and bore about him in his soul a strong passion after tyranny, and at
+a distance was the adviser in these actions; and indeed at this time he
+pretended to be of the people's opinion, and went all about with Ananus
+when he consulted the great men every day, and in the night time also
+when he went round the watch; but he divulged their secrets to the
+zealots, and every thing that the people deliberated about was by his
+means known to their enemies, even before it had been well agreed upon
+by themselves. And by way of contrivance how he might not be brought
+into suspicion, he cultivated the greatest friendship possible with
+Ananus, and with the chief of the people; yet did this overdoing of his
+turn against him, for he flattered them so extravagantly, that he was
+but the more suspected; and his constant attendance every where, even
+when he was not invited to be present, made him strongly suspected of
+betraying their secrets to the enemy; for they plainly perceived
+that they understood all the resolutions taken against them at their
+consultations. Nor was there any one whom they had so much reason to
+suspect of that discovery as this John; yet was it not easy to get quit
+of him, so potent was he grown by his wicked practices. He was also
+supported by many of those eminent men, who were to be consulted upon
+all considerable affairs; it was therefore thought reasonable to oblige
+him to give them assurance of his good-will upon oath; accordingly John
+took such an oath readily, that he would be on the people's side, and
+would not betray any of their counsels or practices to their enemies,
+and would assist them in overthrowing those that attacked them, and that
+both by his hand and his advice. So Ananus and his party believed his
+oath, and did now receive him to their consultations without further
+suspicion; nay, so far did they believe him, that they sent him as
+their ambassador into the temple to the zealots, with proposals of
+accommodation; for they were very desirous to avoid the pollution of the
+temple as much as they possibly could, and that no one of their nation
+should be slain therein.
+
+14. But now this John, as if his oath had been made to the zealots, and
+for confirmation of his good-will to them, and not against them, went
+into the temple, and stood in the midst of them, and spake as follows:
+That he had run many hazards on their accounts, and in order to let them
+know of every thing that was secretly contrived against them by Ananus
+and his party; but that both he and they should be cast into the most
+imminent danger, unless some providential assistance were afforded them;
+for that Ananus made no longer delay, but had prevailed with the people
+to send ambassadors to Vespasian, to invite him to come presently and
+take the city; and that he had appointed a fast for the next day against
+them, that they might obtain admission into the temple on a religious
+account, or gain it by force, and fight with them there; that he did not
+see how long they could either endure a siege, or how they could fight
+against so many enemies. He added further, that it was by the
+providence of God he was himself sent as an ambassador to them for an
+accommodation; for that Artanus did therefore offer them such proposals,
+that he might come upon them when they were unarmed; that they ought
+to choose one of these two methods, either to intercede with those that
+guarded them, to save their lives, or to provide some foreign assistance
+for themselves; that if they fostered themselves with the hopes of
+pardon, in case they were subdued, they had forgotten what desperate
+things they had done, or could suppose, that as soon as the actors
+repented, those that had suffered by them must be presently reconciled
+to them; while those that have done injuries, though they pretend to
+repent of them, are frequently hated by the others for that sort of
+repentance; and that the sufferers, when they get the power into their
+hands, are usually still more severe upon the actors; that the friends
+and kindred of those that had been destroyed would always be laying
+plots against them; and that a large body of people were very angry
+on account of their gross breaches of their laws, and [illegal]
+judicatures, insomuch that although some part might commiserate them,
+those would be quite overborne by the majority.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+
+     The Idumeans Being Sent For By The Zealots, Came Immediately
+     To Jerusalem; And When They Were Excluded Out Of The City,
+     They Lay All Night There. Jesus One Of The High Priests
+     Makes A Speech To Them; And Simon The Idumean Makes A Reply
+     To It.
+
+1. Now, by this crafty speech, John made the zealots afraid; yet durst
+he not directly name what foreign assistance he meant, but in a covert
+way only intimated at the Idumeans. But now, that he might particularly
+irritate the leaders of the zealots, he calumniated Ananus, that he was
+about a piece of barbarity, and did in a special manner threaten them.
+These leaders were Eleazar, the son of Simon, who seemed the most
+plausible man of them all, both in considering what was fit to be done,
+and in the execution of what he had determined upon, and Zacharias, the
+son of Phalek; both of whom derived their families from the priests.
+Now when these two men had heard, not only the common threatenings which
+belonged to them all, but those peculiarly leveled against themselves;
+and besides, how Artanus and his party, in order to secure their own
+dominion, had invited the Romans to come to them, for that also was
+part of John's lie; they hesitated a great while what they should do,
+considering the shortness of the time by which they were straitened;
+because the people were prepared to attack them very soon, and because
+the suddenness of the plot laid against them had almost cut off all
+their hopes of getting any foreign assistance; for they might be under
+the height of their afflictions before any of their confederates could
+be informed of it. However, it was resolved to call in the Idumeans; so
+they wrote a short letter to this effect: That Ananus had imposed on
+the people, and was betraying their metropolis to the Romans; that
+they themselves had revolted from the rest, and were in custody in the
+temple, on account of the preservation of their liberty; that there was
+but a small time left wherein they might hope for their deliverance; and
+that unless they would come immediately to their assistance, they should
+themselves be soon in the power of Artanus, and the city would be in the
+power of the Romans. They also charged the messengers to tell many more
+circumstances to the rulers of the Idumeans. Now there were two active
+men proposed for the carrying this message, and such as were able to
+speak, and to persuade them that things were in this posture, and, what
+was a qualification still more necessary than the former, they were very
+swift of foot; for they knew well enough that these would immediately
+comply with their desires, as being ever a tumultuous and disorderly
+nation, always on the watch upon every motion, delighting in mutations;
+and upon your flattering them ever so little, and petitioning them, they
+soon take their arms, and put themselves into motion, and make haste to
+a battle, as if it were to a feast. There was indeed occasion for quick
+despatch in the carrying of this message, in which point the messengers
+were no way defective. Both their names were Ananias; and they soon came
+to the rulers of the Idumeans.
+
+2. Now these rulers were greatly surprised at the contents of the
+letter, and at what those that came with it further told them; whereupon
+they ran about the nation like madmen, and made proclamation that the
+people should come to war; so a multitude was suddenly got together,
+sooner indeed than the time appointed in the proclamation, and every
+body caught up their arms, in order to maintain the liberty of their
+metropolis; and twenty thousand of them were put into battle-array, and
+came to Jerusalem, under four commanders, John, and Jacob the son of
+Sosas; and besides these were Simon, the son of Cathlas, and Phineas,
+the son of Clusothus.
+
+3. Now this exit of the messengers was not known either to Ananus or to
+the guards, but the approach of the Idumeans was known to him; for as
+he knew of it before they came, he ordered the gates to be shut against
+them, and that the walls should be guarded. Yet did not he by any means
+think of fighting against them, but, before they came to blows, to try
+what persuasions would do. Accordingly, Jesus, the eldest of the high
+priests next to Artanus, stood upon the tower that was over against
+them, and said thus: "Many troubles indeed, and those of various kinds,
+have fallen upon this city, yet in none of them have I so much wondered
+at her fortune as now, when you are come to assist wicked men, and
+this after a manner very extraordinary; for I see that you are come to
+support the vilest of men against us, and this with so great alacrity,
+as you could hardly put on the like, in case our metropolis had called
+you to her assistance against barbarians. And if I had perceived that
+your army was composed of men like unto those who invited them, I had
+not deemed your attempt so absurd; for nothing does so much cement the
+minds of men together as the alliance there is between their manners.
+But now for these men who have invited you, if you were to examine
+them one by one, every one of them would be found to have deserved ten
+thousand deaths; for the very rascality and offscouring of the whole
+country, who have spent in debauchery their own substance, and, by way
+of trial beforehand, have madly plundered the neighboring villages and
+cities, in the upshot of all, have privately run together into this holy
+city. They are robbers, who by their prodigious wickedness have profaned
+this most sacred floor, and who are to be now seen drinking themselves
+drunk in the sanctuary, and expending the spoils of those whom they have
+slaughtered upon their unsatiable bellies. As for the multitude that
+is with you, one may see them so decently adorned in their armor, as
+it would become them to be had their metropolis called them to her
+assistance against foreigners. What can a man call this procedure of
+yours but the sport of fortune, when he sees a whole nation coming to
+protect a sink of wicked wretches? I have for a good while been in doubt
+what it could possibly be that should move you to do this so suddenly;
+because certainly you would not take on your armor on the behalf of
+robbers, and against a people of kin to you, without some very great
+cause for your so doing. But we have an item that the Romans are
+pretended, and that we are supposed to be going to betray this city
+to them; for some of your men have lately made a clamor about those
+matters, and have said they are come to set their metropolis free. Now
+we cannot but admire at these wretches in their devising such a lie
+as this against us; for they knew there was no other way to irritate
+against us men that were naturally desirous of liberty, and on that
+account the best disposed to fight against foreign enemies, but by
+framing a tale as if we were going to betray that most desirable thing,
+liberty. But you ought to consider what sort of people they are that
+raise this calumny, and against what sort of people that calumny is
+raised, and to gather the truth of things, not by fictitious speeches,
+but out of the actions of both parties; for what occasion is there for
+us to sell ourselves to the Romans, while it was in our power not to
+have revolted from them at the first, or when we had once revolted, to
+have returned under their dominion again, and this while the neighboring
+countries were not yet laid waste? whereas it is not an easy thing to
+be reconciled to the Romans, if we were desirous of it, now they have
+subdued Galilee, and are thereby become proud and insolent; and to
+endeavor to please them at the time when they are so near us, would
+bring such a reproach upon us as were worse than death. As for myself,
+indeed, I should have preferred peace with them before death; but now we
+have once made war upon them, and fought with them, I prefer death, with
+reputation, before living in captivity under them. But further, whether
+do they pretend that we, who are the rulers of the people, have sent
+thus privately to the Romans, or hath it been done by the common
+suffrages of the people? If it be ourselves only that have done it, let
+them name those friends of ours that have been sent, as our servants, to
+manage this treachery. Hath any one been caught as he went out on this
+errand, or seized upon as he came back? Are they in possession of our
+letters? How could we be concealed from such a vast number of our fellow
+citizens, among whom we are conversant every hour, while what is done
+privately in the country is, it seems, known by the zealots, who are but
+few in number, and under confinement also, and are not able to come out
+of the temple into the city. Is this the first time that they are become
+sensible how they ought to be punished for their insolent actions? For
+while these men were free from the fear they are now under, there was
+no suspicion raised that any of us were traitors. But if they lay
+this charge against the people, this must have been done at a public
+consultation, and not one of the people must have dissented from the
+rest of the assembly; in which case the public fame of this matter would
+have come to you sooner than any particular indication. But how could
+that be? Must there not then have been ambassadors sent to confirm
+the agreements? And let them tell us who this ambassador was that was
+ordained for that purpose. But this is no other than a pretense of such
+men as are loath to die, and are laboring to escape those punishments
+that hang over them; for if fate had determined that this city was to be
+betrayed into its enemies' hands, no other than these men that accuse
+us falsely could have the impudence to do it, there being no wickedness
+wanting to complete their impudent practices but this only, that they
+become traitors. And now you Idumeans are come hither already with
+your arms, it is your duty, in the first place, to be assisting to your
+metropolis, and to join with us in cutting off those tyrants that have
+infringed the rules of our regular tribunals, that have trampled upon
+our laws, and made their swords the arbitrators of right and wrong; for
+they have seized upon men of great eminence, and under no accusation,
+as they stood in the midst of the market-place, and tortured them with
+putting them into bonds, and, without bearing to hear what they had to
+say, or what supplications they made, they destroyed them. You may, if
+you please, come into the city, though not in the way of war, and take
+a view of the marks still remaining of what I now say, and may see the
+houses that have been depopulated by their rapacious hands, with those
+wives and families that are in black, mourning for their slaughtered
+relations; as also you may hear their groans and lamentations all the
+city over; for there is nobody but hath tasted of the incursions of
+these profane wretches, who have proceeded to that degree of madness,
+as not only to have transferred their impudent robberies out of the
+country, and the remote cities, into this city, the very face and head
+of the whole nation, but out of the city into the temple also; for that
+is now made their receptacle and refuge, and the fountain-head whence
+their preparations are made against us. And this place, which is adored
+by the habitable world, and honored by such as only know it by report,
+as far as the ends of the earth, is trampled upon by these wild beasts
+born among ourselves. They now triumph in the desperate condition they
+are already in, when they hear that one people is going to fight against
+another people, and one city against another city, and that your nation
+hath gotten an army together against its own bowels. Instead of which
+procedure, it were highly fit and reasonable, as I said before, for you
+to join with us in cutting off these wretches, and in particular to
+be revenged on them for putting this very cheat upon you; I mean, for
+having the impudence to invite you to assist them, of whom they ought to
+have stood in fear, as ready to punish them. But if you have some regard
+to these men's invitation of you, yet may you lay aside your arms, and
+come into the city under the notion of our kindred, and take upon you
+a middle name between that of auxiliaries and of enemies, and so become
+judges in this case. However, consider what these men will gain by being
+called into judgment before you, for such undeniable and such flagrant
+crimes, who would not vouchsafe to hear such as had no accusations laid
+against them to speak a word for themselves. However, let them gain this
+advantage by your coming. But still, if you will neither take our part
+in that indignation we have at these men, nor judge between us, the
+third thing I have to propose is this, that you let us both alone,
+and neither insult upon our calamities, nor abide with these plotters
+against their metropolis; for though you should have ever so great a
+suspicion that some of us have discoursed with the Romans, it is in your
+power to watch the passages into the city; and in case any thing that we
+have been accused of is brought to light, then to come and defend your
+metropolis, and to inflict punishment on those that are found guilty;
+for the enemy cannot prevent you who are so near to the city. But if,
+after all, none of these proposals seem acceptable and moderate, do not
+you wonder that the gates are shut against you, while you bear your arms
+about you."
+
+4. Thus spake Jesus; yet did not the multitude of the Idumeans give any
+attention to what he said, but were in a rage, because they did not meet
+with a ready entrance into the city. The generals also had indignation
+at the offer of laying down their arms, and looked upon it as equal to
+a captivity, to throw them away at any man's injunction whomsoever.
+But Simon, the son of Cathlas, one of their commanders, with much ado
+quieted the tumult of his own men, and stood so that the high priests
+might hear him, and said as follows: "I can no longer wonder that the
+patrons of liberty are under custody in the temple, since there are
+those that shut the gates of our common city 8 to their own nation, and
+at the same time are prepared to admit the Romans into it; nay, perhaps
+are disposed to crown the gates with garlands at their coming, while
+they speak to the Idumeans from their own towers, and enjoin them to
+throw down their arms which they have taken up for the preservation of
+its liberty. And while they will not intrust the guard of our metropolis
+to their kindred, profess to make them judges of the differences that
+are among them; nay, while they accuse some men of having slain others
+without a legal trial, they do themselves condemn a whole nation after
+an ignominious manner, and have now walled up that city from their
+own nation, which used to be open to even all foreigners that came to
+worship there. We have indeed come in great haste to you, and to a war
+against our own countrymen; and the reason why we have made such haste
+is this, that we may preserve that freedom which you are so unhappy
+as to betray. You have probably been guilty of the like crimes against
+those whom you keep in custody, and have, I suppose, collected together
+the like plausible pretenses against them also that you make use of
+against us; after which you have gotten the mastery of those within the
+temple, and keep them in custody, while they are only taking care of
+the public affairs. You have also shut the gates of the city in general
+against nations that are the most nearly related to you; and while you
+give such injurious commands to others, you complain that you have been
+tyrannized over by them, and fix the name of unjust governors upon such
+as are tyrannized over by yourselves. Who can bear this your abuse of
+words, while they have a regard to the contrariety of your actions,
+unless you mean this, that those Idumeans do now exclude you out of
+your metropolis, whom you exclude from the sacred offices of your own
+country? One may indeed justly complain of those that are besieged in
+the temple, that when they had courage enough to punish those tyrants
+whom you call eminent men, and free from any accusations, because of
+their being your companions in wickedness, they did not begin with you,
+and thereby cut off beforehand the most dangerous parts of this treason.
+But if these men have been more merciful than the public necessity
+required, we that are Idumeans will preserve this house of God, and will
+fight for our common country, and will oppose by war as well those that
+attack them from abroad, as those that betray them from within. Here
+will we abide before the walls in our armor, until either the Romans
+grow weary in waiting for you, or you become friends to liberty, and
+repent of what you have done against it."
+
+5. And now did the Idumeans make an acclamation to what Simon had said;
+but Jesus went away sorrowful, as seeing that the Idumeans were against
+all moderate counsels, and that the city was besieged on both sides. Nor
+indeed were the minds of the Idumeans at rest; for they were in a rage
+at the injury that had been offered them by their exclusion out of the
+city; and when they thought the zealots had been strong, but saw nothing
+of theirs to support them, they were in doubt about the matter, and many
+of them repented that they had come thither. But the shame that would
+attend them in case they returned without doing any thing at all, so far
+overcame that their repentance, that they lay all night before the wall,
+though in a very bad encampment; for there broke out a prodigious storm
+in the night, with the utmost violence, and very strong winds, with
+the largest showers of rain, with continued lightnings, terrible
+thunderings, and amazing concussions and bellowings of the earth, that
+was in an earthquake. These things were a manifest indication that some
+destruction was coming upon men, when the system of the world was
+put into this disorder; and any one would guess that these wonders
+foreshowed some grand calamities that were coming.
+
+6. Now the opinion of the Idumeans and of the citizens was one and the
+same. The Idumeans thought that God was angry at their taking arms, and
+that they would not escape punishment for their making war upon their
+metropolis. Ananus and his party thought that they had conquered without
+fighting, and that God acted as a general for them; but truly they
+proved both ill conjectures at what was to come, and made those events
+to be ominous to their enemies, while they were themselves to undergo
+the ill effects of them; for the Idumeans fenced one another by uniting
+their bodies into one band, and thereby kept themselves warm, and
+connecting their shields over their heads, were not so much hurt by the
+rain. But the zealots were more deeply concerned for the danger these
+men were in than they were for themselves, and got together, and looked
+about them to see whether they could devise any means of assisting them.
+The hotter sort of them thought it best to force their guards with their
+arms, and after that to fall into the midst of the city, and publicly
+open the gates to those that came to their assistance; as supposing the
+guards would be in disorder, and give way at such an unexpected attempt
+of theirs, especially as the greater part of them were unarmed and
+unskilled in the affairs of war; and that besides the multitude of the
+citizens would not be easily gathered together, but confined to
+their houses by the storm: and that if there were any hazard in their
+undertaking, it became them to suffer any thing whatsoever themselves,
+rather than to overlook so great a multitude as were miserably perishing
+on their account. But the more prudent part of them disapproved of this
+forcible method, because they saw not only the guards about them very
+numerous, but the walls of the city itself carefully watched, by reason
+of the Idumeans. They also supposed that Ananus would be every where,
+and visit the guards every hour; which indeed was done upon other
+nights, but was omitted that night, not by reason of any slothfulness
+of Ananus, but by the overbearing appointment of fate, that so both he
+might himself perish, and the multitude of the guards might perish with
+him; for truly, as the night was far gone, and the storm very terrible,
+Ananus gave the guards in the cloisters leave to go to sleep; while it
+came into the heads of the zealots to make use of the saws belonging to
+the temple, and to cut the bars of the gates to pieces. The noise of the
+wind, and that not inferior sound of the thunder, did here also conspire
+with their designs, that the noise of the saws was not heard by the
+others.
+
+7. So they secretly went out of the temple to the wall of the city, and
+made use of their saws, and opened that gate which was over against the
+Idumeans. Now at first there came a fear upon the Idumeans themselves,
+which disturbed them, as imagining that Ananus and his party were coming
+to attack them, so that every one of them had his right hand upon his
+sword, in order to defend himself; but they soon came to know who they
+were that came to them, and were entered the city. And had the Idumeans
+then fallen upon the city, nothing could have hindered them from
+destroying the people every man of them, such was the rage they were in
+at that time; but as they first of all made haste to get the zealots out
+of custody, which those that brought them in earnestly desired them to
+do, and not to overlook those for whose sakes they were come, in the
+midst of their distresses, nor to bring them into a still greater
+danger; for that when they had once seized upon the guards, it would
+be easy for them to fall upon the city; but that if the city were once
+alarmed, they would not then be able to overcome those guards, because
+as soon as they should perceive they were there, they would put
+themselves in order to fight them, and would hinder their coming into
+the temple.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+     The Cruelty Of The Idumeans When They Were Gotten Into The
+     Temple During The Storm; And Of The Zealots. Concerning The
+     Slaughter Of Ananus, And Jesus, And Zacharias; And How The
+     Idumeans Retired Home.
+
+1. This advice pleased the Idumeans, and they ascended through the
+city to the temple. The zealots were also in great expectation of
+their coming, and earnestly waited for them. When therefore these were
+entering, they also came boldly out of the inner temple, and mixing
+themselves among the Idumeans, they attacked the guards; and some of
+those that were upon the watch, but were fallen asleep, they killed as
+they were asleep; but as those that were now awakened made a cry, the
+whole multitude arose, and in the amazement they were in caught hold of
+their arms immediately, and betook themselves to their own defense; and
+so long as they thought they were only the zealots who attacked them,
+they went on boldly, as hoping to overpower them by their numbers; but
+when they saw others pressing in upon them also, they perceived the
+Idumeans were got in; and the greatest part of them laid aside
+their arms, together with their courage, and betook themselves to
+lamentations. But some few of the younger sort covered themselves
+with their armor, and valiantly received the Idumeans, and for a while
+protected the multitude of old men. Others, indeed, gave a signal to
+those that were in the city of the calamities they were in; but when
+these were also made sensible that the Idumeans were come in, none of
+them durst come to their assistance, only they returned the terrible
+echo of wailing, and lamented their misfortunes. A great howling of the
+women was excited also, and every one of the guards were in danger
+of being killed. The zealots also joined in the shouts raised by the
+Idumeans; and the storm itself rendered the cry more terrible; nor did
+the Idumeans spare any body; for as they are naturally a most barbarous
+and bloody nation, and had been distressed by the tempest, they made use
+of their weapons against those that had shut the gates against them, and
+acted in the same manner as to those that supplicated for their lives,
+and to those that fought them, insomuch that they ran through those with
+their swords who desired them to remember the relation there was between
+them, and begged of them to have regard to their common temple. Now
+there was at present neither any place for flight, nor any hope of
+preservation; but as they were driven one upon another in heaps, so
+were they slain. Thus the greater part were driven together by force, as
+there was now no place of retirement, and the murderers were upon them;
+and, having no other way, threw themselves down headlong into the city;
+whereby, in my opinion, they underwent a more miserable destruction than
+that which they avoided, because that was a voluntary one. And now the
+outer temple was all of it overflowed with blood; and that day, as it
+came on, they saw eight thousand five hundred dead bodies there.
+
+2. But the rage of the Idumeans was not satiated by these slaughters;
+but they now betook themselves to the city, and plundered every house,
+and slew every one they met; and for the other multitude, they esteemed
+it needless to go on with killing them, but they sought for the high
+priests, and the generality went with the greatest zeal against them;
+and as soon as they caught them they slew them, and then standing upon
+their dead bodies, in way of jest, upbraided Ananus with his kindness to
+the people, and Jesus with his speech made to them from the wall. Nay,
+they proceeded to that degree of impiety, as to cast away their dead
+bodies without burial, although the Jews used to take so much care of
+the burial of men, that they took down those that were condemned and
+crucified, and buried them before the going down of the sun. I should
+not mistake if I said that the death of Ananus was the beginning of the
+destruction of the city, and that from this very day may be dated the
+overthrow of her wall, and the ruin of her affairs, whereon they saw
+their high priest, and the procurer of their preservation, slain in the
+midst of their city. He was on other accounts also a venerable, and a
+very just man; and besides the grandeur of that nobility, and dignity,
+and honor of which he was possessed, he had been a lover of a kind
+of parity, even with regard to the meanest of the people; he was
+a prodigious lover of liberty, and an admirer of a democracy in
+government; and did ever prefer the public welfare before his own
+advantage, and preferred peace above all things; for he was thoroughly
+sensible that the Romans were not to be conquered. He also foresaw
+that of necessity a war would follow, and that unless the Jews made up
+matters with them very dexterously, they would be destroyed; to say
+all in a word, if Ananus had survived, they had certainly compounded
+matters; for he was a shrewd man in speaking and persuading the people,
+and had already gotten the mastery of those that opposed his designs, or
+were for the war. And the Jews had then put abundance of delays in the
+way of the Romans, if they had had such a general as he was. Jesus
+was also joined with him; and although he was inferior to him upon the
+comparison, he was superior to the rest; and I cannot but think that it
+was because God had doomed this city to destruction, as a polluted city,
+and was resolved to purge his sanctuary by fire, that he cut off these
+their great defenders and well-wishers, while those that a little before
+had worn the sacred garments, and had presided over the public worship;
+and had been esteemed venerable by those that dwelt on the whole
+habitable earth when they came into our city, were cast out naked, and
+seen to be the food of dogs and wild beasts. And I cannot but imagine
+that virtue itself groaned at these men's case, and lamented that she
+was here so terribly conquered by wickedness. And this at last was the
+end of Ananus and Jesus.
+
+3. Now after these were slain, the zealots and the multitude of the
+Idumeans fell upon the people as upon a flock of profane animals, and
+cut their throats; and for the ordinary sort, they were destroyed in
+what place soever they caught them. But for the noblemen and the youth,
+they first caught them and bound them, and shut them up in prison, and
+put off their slaughter, in hopes that some of them would turn over to
+their party; but not one of them would comply with their desires, but
+all of them preferred death before being enrolled among such wicked
+wretches as acted against their own country. But this refusal of theirs
+brought upon them terrible torments; for they were so scourged and
+tortured, that their bodies were not able to sustain their torments,
+till at length, and with difficulty, they had the favor to be slain.
+Those whom they caught in the day time were slain in the night, and then
+their bodies were carried out and thrown away, that there might be room
+for other prisoners; and the terror that was upon the people was so
+great, that no one had courage enough either to weep openly for the dead
+man that was related to him, or to bury him; but those that were shut up
+in their own houses could only shed tears in secret, and durst not even
+groan without great caution, lest any of their enemies should hear them;
+for if they did, those that mourned for others soon underwent the same
+death with those whom they mourned for. Only in the night time they
+would take up a little dust, and throw it upon their bodies; and even
+some that were the most ready to expose themselves to danger would do it
+in the day time: and there were twelve thousand of the better sort who
+perished in this manner.
+
+4. And now these zealots and Idumeans were quite weary of barely killing
+men, so they had the impudence of setting up fictitious tribunals and
+judicatures for that purpose; and as they intended to have Zacharias 9
+the son of Baruch, one of the most eminent of the citizens, slain, so
+what provoked them against him was, that hatred of wickedness and love
+of liberty which were so eminent in him: he was also a rich man, so that
+by taking him off, they did not only hope to seize his effects, but
+also to get rid of a mall that had great power to destroy them. So they
+called together, by a public proclamation, seventy of the principal men
+of the populace, for a show, as if they were real judges, while they had
+no proper authority. Before these was Zacharias accused of a design
+to betray their polity to the Romans, and having traitorously sent to
+Vespasian for that purpose. Now there appeared no proof or sign of
+what he was accused; but they affirmed themselves that they were well
+persuaded that so it was, and desired that such their affirmation might
+be taken for sufficient evidence. Now when Zacharias clearly saw that
+there was no way remaining for his escape from them, as having been
+treacherously called before them, and then put in prison, but not with
+any intention of a legal trial, he took great liberty of speech in that
+despair of his life he was under. Accordingly he stood up, and laughed
+at their pretended accusation, and in a few words confuted the crimes
+laid to his charge; after which he turned his speech to his accusers,
+and went over distinctly all their transgressions of the law, and made
+heavy lamentation upon the confusion they had brought public affairs
+to: in the mean time, the zealots grew tumultuous, and had much ado to
+abstain from drawing their swords, although they designed to preserve
+the appearance and show of judicature to the end. They were also
+desirous, on other accounts, to try the judges, whether they would be
+mindful of what was just at their own peril. Now the seventy judges
+brought in their verdict that the person accused was not guilty, as
+choosing rather to die themselves with him, than to have his death laid
+at their doors; hereupon there arose a great clamor of the zealots
+upon his acquittal, and they all had indignation at the judges for not
+understanding that the authority that was given them was but in jest.
+So two of the boldest of them fell upon Zacharias in the middle of the
+temple, and slew him; and as he fell down dead, they bantered him,
+and said, "Thou hast also our verdict, and this will prove a more sure
+acquittal to thee than the other." They also threw him down from the
+temple immediately into the valley beneath it. Moreover, they struck the
+judges with the backs of their swords, by way of abuse, and thrust them
+out of the court of the temple, and spared their lives with no other
+design than that, when they were dispersed among the people in the city,
+they might become their messengers, to let them know they were no better
+than slaves.
+
+5. But by this time the Idumeans repented of their coming, and were
+displeased at what had been done; and when they were assembled together
+by one of the zealots, who had come privately to them, he declared
+to them what a number of wicked pranks they had themselves done in
+conjunction with those that invited them, and gave a particular account
+of what mischiefs had been done against their metropolis. He said that
+they had taken arms, as though the high priests were betraying their
+metropolis to the Romans, but had found no indication of any such
+treachery; but that they had succored those that had pretended to
+believe such a thing, while they did themselves the works of war and
+tyranny, after an insolent manner. It had been indeed their business to
+have hindered them from such their proceedings at the first, but seeing
+they had once been partners with them in shedding the blood of their
+own countrymen, it was high time to put a stop to such crimes, and not
+continue to afford any more assistance to such as are subverting the
+laws of their forefathers; for that if any had taken it ill that the
+gates had been shut against them, and they had not been permitted to
+come into the city, yet that those who had excluded them have been
+punished, and Ananus is dead, and that almost all those people had been
+destroyed in one night's time. That one may perceive many of themselves
+now repenting for what they had done, and might see the horrid barbarity
+of those that had invited them, and that they had no regard to such as
+had saved them; that they were so impudent as to perpetrate the vilest
+things, under the eyes of those that had supported them, and that their
+wicked actions would be laid to the charge of the Idumeans, and would
+be so laid to their charge till somebody obstructs their proceedings, or
+separates himself from the same wicked action; that they therefore ought
+to retire home, since the imputation of treason appears to be a Calumny,
+and that there was no expectation of the coming of the Romans at this
+time, and that the government of the city was secured by such walls as
+cannot easily be thrown down; and, by avoiding any further fellowship
+with these bad men, to make some excuse for themselves, as to what they
+had been so far deluded, as to have been partners with them hitherto.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+
+     How The Zealots When They Were Freed From The Idumeans, Slew
+     A Great Many More Of The Citizens; And How Vespasian
+     Dissuaded The Romans When They Were Very Earnest To March
+     Against The Jews From Proceeding In The War At That Time.
+
+1. The Idumeans complied with these persuasions; and, in the first
+place, they set those that were in the prisons at liberty, being about
+two thousand of the populace, who thereupon fled away immediately to
+Simon, one whom we shall speak of presently. After which these Idumeans
+retired from Jerusalem, and went home; which departure of theirs was
+a great surprise to both parties; for the people, not knowing of their
+repentance, pulled up their courage for a while, as eased of so many of
+their enemies, while the zealots grew more insolent not as deserted by
+their confederates, but as freed from such men as might hinder their
+designs, and plot some stop to their wickedness. Accordingly, they
+made no longer any delay, nor took any deliberation in their enormous
+practices, but made use of the shortest methods for all their executions
+and what they had once resolved upon, they put in practice sooner than
+any one could imagine. But their thirst was chiefly after the blood
+of valiant men, and men of good families; the one sort of which they
+destroyed out of envy, the other out of fear; for they thought their
+whole security lay in leaving no potent men alive; on which account they
+slew Gorion, a person eminent in dignity, and on account of his family
+also; he was also for democracy, and of as great boldness and freedom
+of spirit as were any of the Jews whosoever; the principal thing that
+ruined him, added to his other advantages, was his free speaking. Nor
+did Niger of Peres escape their hands; he had been a man of great valor
+in their war with the Romans, but was now drawn through the middle of
+the city, and, as he went, he frequently cried out, and showed the scars
+of his wounds; and when he was drawn out of the gates, and despaired of
+his preservation, he besought them to grant him a burial; but as they
+had threatened him beforehand not to grant him any spot of earth for a
+grave, which he chiefly desired of them, so did they slay him [without
+permitting him to be buried]. Now when they were slaying him, he made
+this imprecation upon them, that they might undergo both famine and
+pestilence in this war, and besides all that, they might come to the
+mutual slaughter of one another; all which imprecations God confirmed
+against these impious men, and was what came most justly upon them,
+when not long afterward they tasted of their own madness in their mutual
+seditions one against another. So when this Niger was killed, their
+fears of being overturned were diminished; and indeed there was no part
+of the people but they found out some pretense to destroy them; for
+some were therefore slain, because they had had differences with some of
+them; and as to those that had not opposed them in times of peace, they
+watched seasonable opportunities to gain some accusation against
+them; and if any one did not come near them at all, he was under their
+suspicion as a proud man; if any one came with boldness, he was esteemed
+a contemner of them; and if any one came as aiming to oblige them, he
+was supposed to have some treacherous plot against them; while the only
+punishment of crimes, whether they were of the greatest or smallest
+sort, was death. Nor could any one escape, unless he were very
+inconsiderable, either on account of the meanness of his birth, or on
+account of his fortune.
+
+2. And now all the rest of the commanders of the Romans deemed this
+sedition among their enemies to be of great advantage to them, and were
+very earnest to march to the city, and they urged Vespasian, as their
+lord and general in all cases, to make haste, and said to him, that "the
+providence of God is on our side, by setting our enemies at variance
+against one another; that still the change in such cases may be sudden,
+and the Jews may quickly be at one again, either because they may be
+tired out with their civil miseries, or repent them of such doings." But
+Vespasian replied, that they were greatly mistaken in what they thought
+fit to be done, as those that, upon the theater, love to make a show
+of their hands, and of their weapons, but do it at their own hazard,
+without considering, what was for their advantage, and for their
+security; for that if they now go and attack the city immediately, "they
+shall but occasion their enemies to unite together, and shall convert
+their force, now it is in its height, against themselves. But if they
+stay a while, they shall have fewer enemies, because they will be
+consumed in this sedition: that God acts as a general of the Romans
+better than he can do, and is giving the Jews up to them without any
+pains of their own, and granting their army a victory without any
+danger; that therefore it is their best way, while their enemies
+are destroying each other with their own hands, and falling into the
+greatest of misfortunes, which is that of sedition, to sit still as
+spectators of the dangers they run into, rather than to fight hand to
+hand with men that love murdering, and are mad one against another. But
+if any one imagines that the glory of victory, when it is gotten without
+fighting, will be more insipid, let him know this much, that a glorious
+success, quietly obtained, is more profitable than the dangers of
+a battle; for we ought to esteem these that do what is agreeable to
+temperance and prudence no less glorious than those that have gained
+great reputation by their actions in war: that he shall lead on his army
+with greater force when their enemies are diminished, and his own army
+refreshed after the continual labors they had undergone. However, that
+this is not a proper time to propose to ourselves the glory of victory;
+for that the Jews are not now employed in making of armor or building of
+walls, nor indeed in getting together auxiliaries, while the advantage
+will be on their side who give them such opportunity of delay; but
+that the Jews are vexed to pieces every day by their civil wars and
+dissensions, and are under greater miseries than, if they were once
+taken, could be inflicted on them by us. Whether therefore any one
+hath regard to what is for our safety, he ought to suffer these Jews to
+destroy one another; or whether he hath regard to the greater glory of
+the action, we ought by no means to meddle with those men, now they are
+afflicted with a distemper at home; for should we now conquer them, it
+would be said the conquest was not owing to our bravery, but to their
+sedition." 10
+
+3. And now the commanders joined in their approbation of what Vespasian
+had said, and it was soon discovered how wise an opinion he had given.
+And indeed many there were of the Jews that deserted every day, and fled
+away from the zealots, although their flight was very difficult, since
+they had guarded every passage out of the city, and slew every one that
+was caught at them, as taking it for granted they were going over to the
+Romans; yet did he who gave them money get clear off, while he only that
+gave them none was voted a traitor. So the upshot was this, that the
+rich purchased their flight by money, while none but the poor were
+slain. Along all the roads also vast numbers of dead bodies lay in
+heaps, and even many of those that were so zealous in deserting at
+length chose rather to perish within the city; for the hopes of burial
+made death in their own city appear of the two less terrible to them.
+But these zealots came at last to that degree of barbarity, as not to
+bestow a burial either on those slain in the city, or on those that lay
+along the roads; but as if they had made an agreement to cancel both the
+laws of their country and the laws of nature, and, at the same time
+that they defiled men with their wicked actions, they would pollute the
+Divinity itself also, they left the dead bodies to putrefy under the
+sun; and the same punishment was allotted to such as buried any as
+to those that deserted, which was no other than death; while he that
+granted the favor of a grave to another would presently stand in need
+of a grave himself. To say all in a word, no other gentle passion was so
+entirely lost among them as mercy; for what were the greatest objects of
+pity did most of all irritate these wretches, and they transferred their
+rage from the living to those that had been slain, and from the dead
+to the living. Nay, the terror was so very great, that he who survived
+called them that were first dead happy, as being at rest already; as did
+those that were under torture in the prisons, declare, that, upon
+this comparison, those that lay unburied were the happiest. These men,
+therefore, trampled upon all the laws of men, and laughed at the laws
+of God; and for the oracles of the prophets, they ridiculed them as
+the tricks of jugglers; yet did these prophets foretell many things
+concerning [the rewards of] virtue, and [punishments of] vice, which
+when these zealots violated, they occasioned the fulfilling of those
+very prophecies belonging to their own country; for there was a certain
+ancient oracle of those men, that the city should then be taken and
+the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a sedition should invade the
+Jews, and their own hand should pollute the temple of God. Now while
+these zealots did not [quite] disbelieve these predictions, they made
+themselves the instruments of their accomplishment.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+
+     How John Tyrannized Over The Rest; And What Mischiefs The
+     Zealots Did At Masada. How Also Vespasian Took Gadara; And
+     What Actions Were Performed By Placidus.
+
+1. By this time John was beginning to tyrannize, and thought it beneath
+him to accept of barely the same honors that others had; and joining to
+himself by degrees a party of the wickedest of them all, he broke
+off from the rest of the faction. This was brought about by his still
+disagreeing with the opinions of others, and giving out injunctions
+of his own, in a very imperious manner; so that it was evident he was
+setting up a monarchical power. Now some submitted to him out of their
+fear of him, and others out of their good-will to him; for he was a
+shrewd man to entice men to him, both by deluding them and putting
+cheats upon them. Nay, many there were that thought they should be safer
+themselves, if the causes of their past insolent actions should now be
+reduced to one head, and not to a great many. His activity was so great,
+and that both in action and in counsel, that he had not a few guards
+about him; yet was there a great party of his antagonists that left him;
+among whom envy at him weighed a great deal, while they thought it a
+very heavy thing to be in subjection to one that was formerly their
+equal. But the main reason that moved men against him was the dread of
+monarchy, for they could not hope easily to put an end to his power,
+if he had once obtained it; and yet they knew that he would have this
+pretense always against them, that they had opposed him when he was
+first advanced; while every one chose rather to suffer any thing
+whatsoever in war, than that, when they had been in a voluntary slavery
+for some time, they should afterward perish. So the sedition was divided
+into two parts, and John reigned in opposition to his adversaries over
+one of them: but for their leaders, they watched one another, nor
+did they at all, or at least very little, meddle with arms in their
+quarrels; but they fought earnestly against the people, and contended
+one with another which of them should bring home the greatest prey. But
+because the city had to struggle with three of the greatest misfortunes,
+war, and tyranny, and sedition, it appeared, upon the comparison,
+that the war was the least troublesome to the populace of them all.
+Accordingly, they ran away from their own houses to foreigners, and
+obtained that preservation from the Romans which they despaired to
+obtain among their own people.
+
+2. And now a fourth misfortune arose, in order to bring our nation to
+destruction. There was a fortress of very great strength not far
+from Jerusalem, which had been built by our ancient kings, both as
+a repository for their effects in the hazards of war, and for the
+preservation of their bodies at the same time. It was called Masada.
+Those that were called Sicarii had taken possession of it formerly,
+but at this time they overran the neighboring countries, aiming only
+to procure to themselves necessaries; for the fear they were then in
+prevented their further ravages. But when once they were informed
+that the Roman army lay still, and that the Jews were divided between
+sedition and tyranny, they boldly undertook greater matters; and at the
+feast of unleavened bread, which the Jews celebrate in memory of their
+deliverance from the Egyptian bondage, when they were sent back into
+the country of their forefathers, they came down by night, without
+being discovered by those that could have prevented them, and overran a
+certain small city called Engaddi:--in which expedition they prevented
+those citizens that could have stopped them, before they could arm
+themselves, and fight them. They also dispersed them, and cast them
+out of the city. As for such as could not run away, being women and
+children, they slew of them above seven hundred. Afterward, when they
+had carried every thing out of their houses, and had seized upon all
+the fruits that were in a flourishing condition, they brought them into
+Masada. And indeed these men laid all the villages that were about the
+fortress waste, and made the whole country desolate; while there came to
+them every day, from all parts, not a few men as corrupt as themselves.
+At that time all the other regions of Judea that had hitherto been at
+rest were in motion, by means of the robbers. Now as it is in a human
+body, if the principal part be inflamed, all the members are subject to
+the same distemper; so, by means of the sedition and disorder that
+was in the metropolis,. had the wicked men that were in the country
+opportunity to ravage the same. Accordingly, when every one of them had
+plundered their own villages, they then retired into the desert; yet
+were these men that now got together, and joined in the conspiracy by
+parties, too small for an army, and too many for a gang of thieves: and
+thus did they fall upon the holy places 11 and the cities; yet did it
+now so happen that they were sometimes very ill treated by those upon
+whom they fell with such violence, and were taken by them as men are
+taken in war: but still they prevented any further punishment as do
+robbers, who, as soon as their ravages [are discovered], run their
+way. Nor was there now any part of Judea that was not in a miserable
+condition, as well as its most eminent city also.
+
+3. These things were told Vespasian by deserters; for although the
+seditious watched all the passages out of the city, and destroyed all,
+whosoever they were, that came thither, yet were there some that had
+concealed themselves, and when they had fled to the Romans, persuaded
+their general to come to their city's assistance, and save the remainder
+of the people; informing him withal, that it was upon account of the
+people's good-will to the Romans that many of them were already slain,
+and the survivors in danger of the same treatment. Vespasian did indeed
+already pity the calamities these men were in, and arose, in appearance,
+as though he was going to besiege Jerusalem, but in reality to deliver
+them from a [worse] siege they were already under. However, he was
+obliged first to overthrow what remained elsewhere, and to leave nothing
+out of Jerusalem behind him that might interrupt him in that siege.
+Accordingly, he marched against Gadara, the metropolis of Perea, which
+was a place of strength, and entered that city on the fourth day of the
+month Dystrus [Adar]; for the men of power had sent an embassage to
+him, without the knowledge of the seditious, to treat about a surrender;
+which they did out of the desire they had of peace, and for saving their
+effects, because many of the citizens of Gadara were rich men. This
+embassy the opposite party knew nothing of, but discovered it as
+Vespasian was approaching near the city. However, they despaired of
+keeping possession of the city, as being inferior in number to their
+enemies who were within the city, and seeing the Romans very near to
+the city; so they resolved to fly, but thought it dishonorable to do it
+without shedding some blood, and revenging themselves on the authors
+of this surrender; so they seized upon Dolesus, [a person not only the
+first in rank and family in that city, but one that seemed the occasion
+of sending such an embassy,] and slew him, and treated his dead body
+after a barbarous manner, so very violent was their anger at him, and
+then ran out of the city. And as now the Roman army was just upon them,
+the people of Gadara admitted Vespasian with joyful acclamations, and
+received from him the security of his right hand, as also a garrison
+of horsemen and footmen, to guard them against the excursions of the
+runagates; for as to their wall, they had pulled it down before
+the Romans desired them so to do, that they might thereby give them
+assurance that they were lovers of peace, and that, if they had a mind,
+they could not now make war against them.
+
+4. And now Vespasian sent Placidus against those that had fled from
+Gadara, with five hundred horsemen, and three thousand footmen, while he
+returned himself to Cesarea, with the rest of the army. But as soon
+as these fugitives saw the horsemen that pursued them just upon their
+backs, and before they came to a close fight, they ran together to a
+certain village, which was called Bethennabris, where finding a great
+multitude of young men, and arming them, partly by their own consent,
+partly by force, they rashly and suddenly assaulted Placidus and the
+troops that were with him. These horsemen at the first onset gave way a
+little, as contriving to entice them further off the wall; and when they
+had drawn them into a place fit for their purpose, they made their horse
+encompass them round, and threw their darts at them. So the horsemen cut
+off the flight of the fugitives, while the foot terribly destroyed those
+that fought against them; for those Jews did no more than show their
+courage, and then were destroyed; for as they fell upon the Romans when
+they were joined close together, and, as it were, walled about with
+their entire armor, they were not able to find any place where the darts
+could enter, nor were they any way able to break their ranks, while they
+were themselves run through by the Roman darts, and, like the wildest
+of wild beasts, rushed upon the point of others' swords; so some of them
+were destroyed, as cut with their enemies' swords upon their faces, and
+others were dispersed by the horsemen.
+
+5. Now Placidus's concern was to exclude them in their flight from
+getting into the village; and causing his horse to march continually on
+that side of them, he then turned short upon them, and at the same time
+his men made use of their darts, and easily took their aim at those that
+were the nearest to them, as they made those that were further off turn
+back by the terror they were in, till at last the most courageous of
+them brake through those horsemen and fled to the wall of the village.
+And now those that guarded the wall were in great doubt what to do;
+for they could not bear the thoughts of excluding those that came from
+Gadara, because of their own people that were among them; and yet, if
+they should admit them, they expected to perish with them, which came
+to pass accordingly; for as they were crowding together at the wall, the
+Roman horsemen were just ready to fall in with them. However, the guards
+prevented them, and shut the gates, when Placidus made an assault upon
+them, and fighting courageously till it was dark, he got possession
+of the wall, and of the people that were in the city, when the useless
+multitude were destroyed; but those that were more potent ran away, and
+the soldiers plundered the houses, and set the village on fire. As for
+those that ran out of the village, they stirred up such as were in the
+country, and exaggerating their own calamities, and telling them that
+the whole army of the Romans were upon them, they put them into great
+fear on every side; so they got in great numbers together, and fled to
+Jericho, for they knew no other place that could afford them any hope of
+escaping, it being a city that had a strong wall, and a great multitude
+of inhabitants. But Placidus, relying much upon his horsemen, and his
+former good success, followed them, and slew all that he overtook,
+as far as Jordan; and when he had driven the whole multitude to the
+river-side, where they were stopped by the current, [for it had been
+augmented lately by rains, and was not fordable,] he put his soldiers
+in array over against them; so the necessity the others were in provoked
+them to hazard a battle, because there was no place whither they could
+flee. They then extended themselves a very great way along the banks of
+the river, and sustained the darts that were thrown at them, as well as
+the attacks of the horsemen, who beat many of them, and pushed them into
+the current. At which fight, hand to hand, fifteen thousand of them were
+slain, while the number of those that were unwillingly forced to leap
+into Jordan was prodigious. There were besides two thousand and two
+hundred taken prisoners. A mighty prey was taken also, consisting of
+asses, and sheep, and camels, and oxen.
+
+6. Now this destruction that fell upon the Jews, as it was not inferior
+to any of the rest in itself, so did it still appear greater than it
+really was; and this, because not only the whole country through which
+they fled was filled with slaughter, and Jordan could not be passed
+over, by reason of the dead bodies that were in it, but because the lake
+Asphaltites was also full of dead bodies, that were carried down into
+it by the river. And now Placidus, after this good success that he had,
+fell violently upon the neighboring smaller cities and villages; when he
+took Abila, and Julias, and Bezemoth, and all those that lay as far as
+the lake Asphaltites, and put such of the deserters into each of them as
+he thought proper. He then put his soldiers on board the ships, and
+slew such as had fled to the lake, insomuch that all Perea had
+either surrendered themselves, or were taken by the Romans, as far as
+Machaerus.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+
+     How Vespasian Upon Hearing Of Some Commotions In Gall, <a
+      href="#link4note-12" name="link4noteref-12" id="link4noteref-12">12</a>
+     Made Haste To Finish The Jewish War. A Description Of
+     Jericho, And Of The Great Plain; With An Account Besides Of
+     The Lake Asphaltites.
+
+1. In the mean time, an account came that there were commotions in Gall,
+and that Vindex, together with the men of power in that country, had
+revolted from Nero; which affair is more accurately described elsewhere.
+This report, thus related to Vespasian, excited him to go on briskly
+with the war; for he foresaw already the civil wars which were coming
+upon them, nay, that the very government was in danger; and he thought,
+if he could first reduce the eastern parts of the empire to peace, he
+should make the fears for Italy the lighter; while therefore the winter
+was his hinderance [from going into the field], he put garrisons into
+the villages and smaller cities for their security; he put decurions
+also into the villages, and centurions into the cities: he besides
+this rebuilt many of the cities that had been laid waste; but at the
+beginning of the spring he took the greatest part of his army, and led
+it from Cesarea to Antipatris, where he spent two days in settling the
+affairs of that city, and then, on the third day, he marched on, laying
+waste and burning all the neighboring villages. And when he had laid
+waste all the places about the toparchy of Thamnas, he passed on to
+Lydda and Jamnia; and when both these cities had come over to him,
+he placed a great many of those that had come over to him [from other
+places] as inhabitants therein, and then came to Emmaus, where he seized
+upon the passage which led thence to their metropolis, and fortified his
+camp, and leaving the fifth legion therein, he came to the toparchy of
+Bethletephon. He then destroyed that place, and the neighboring places,
+by fire, and fortified, at proper places, the strong holds all about
+Idumea; and when he had seized upon two villages, which were in the very
+midst of Idumea, Betaris and Caphartobas, he slew above ten thousand of
+the people, and carried into captivity above a thousand, and drove away
+the rest of the multitude, and placed no small part of his own forces
+in them, who overran and laid waste the whole mountainous country; while
+he, with the rest of his forces, returned to Emmaus, whence he came down
+through the country of Samaria, and hard by the city, by others called
+Neapolis, [or Sichem,] but by the people of that country Mabortha, to
+Corea, where he pitched his camp, on the second day of the month Desius
+[Sivan]; and on the day following he came to Jericho; on which day
+Trajan, one of his commanders, joined him with the forces he brought out
+of Perea, all the places beyond Jordan being subdued already.
+
+2. Hereupon a great multitude prevented their approach, and came out
+of Jericho, and fled to those mountainous parts that lay over against
+Jerusalem, while that part which was left behind was in a great measure
+destroyed; they also found the city desolate. It is situated in a plain;
+but a naked and barren mountain, of a very great length, hangs over it,
+which extends itself to the land about Scythopolis northward, but as far
+as the country of Sodom, and the utmost limits of the lake Asphaltites,
+southward. This mountain is all of it very uneven and uninhabited, by
+reason of its barrenness: there is an opposite mountain that is situated
+over against it, on the other side of Jordan; this last begins at
+Julias, and the northern quarters, and extends itself southward as far
+as Somorrhon, 13 which is the bounds of Petra, in Arabia. In this ridge
+of mountains there is one called the Iron Mountain, that runs in length
+as far as Moab. Now the region that lies in the middle between these
+ridges of mountains is called the Great Plain; it reaches from the
+village Ginnabris, as far as the lake Asphaltites; its length is two
+hundred and thirty furlongs, and its breadth a hundred and twenty, and
+it is divided in the midst by Jordan. It hath two lakes in it, that of
+Asphaltites, and that of Tiberias, whose natures are opposite to each
+other; for the former is salt and unfruitful, but that of Tiberias is
+sweet and fruitful. This plain is much burnt up in summer time, and, by
+reason of the extraordinary heat, contains a very unwholesome air; it is
+all destitute of water excepting the river Jordan, which water of Jordan
+is the occasion why those plantations of palm trees that are near its
+banks are more flourishing, and much more fruitful, as are those that
+are remote from it not so flourishing, or fruitful.
+
+3. Notwithstanding which, there is a fountain by Jericho, that runs
+plentifully, and is very fit for watering the ground; it arises near
+the old city, which Joshua, the son of Naue, the general of the Hebrews,
+took the first of all the cities of the land of Canaan, by right of war.
+The report is, that this fountain, at the beginning, caused not only the
+blasting of the earth and the trees, but of the children born of women,
+and that it was entirely of a sickly and corruptive nature to all
+things whatsoever; but that it was made gentle, and very wholesome and
+fruitful, by the prophet Elisha. This prophet was familiar with Elijah,
+and was his successor, who, when he once was the guest of the people at
+Jericho, and the men of the place had treated him very kindly, he both
+made them amends as well as the country, by a lasting favor; for he went
+out of the city to this fountain, and threw into the current an earthen
+vessel full of salt; after which he stretched out his righteous hand
+unto heaven, and, pouring out a mild drink-offering, he made this
+supplication, That the current might be mollified, and that the veins of
+fresh water might be opened; that God also would bring into the place
+a more temperate and fertile air for the current, and would bestow upon
+the people of that country plenty of the fruits of the earth, and a
+succession of children; and that this prolific water might never fail
+them, while they continued to be righteous. To these prayers Elisha
+14 joined proper operations of his hands, after a skillful manner, and
+changed the fountain; and that water, which had been the occasion of
+barrenness and famine before, from that time did supply a numerous
+posterity, and afforded great abundance to the country. Accordingly, the
+power of it is so great in watering the ground, that if it do but once
+touch a country, it affords a sweeter nourishment than other waters do,
+when they lie so long upon them, till they are satiated with them. For
+which reason, the advantage gained from other waters, when they flow in
+great plenty, is but small, while that of this water is great when it
+flows even in little quantities. Accordingly, it waters a larger space
+of ground than any other waters do, and passes along a plain of seventy
+furlongs long, and twenty broad; wherein it affords nourishment to those
+most excellent gardens that are thick set with trees. There are in it
+many sorts of palm trees that are watered by it, different from each
+other in taste and name; the better sort of them, when they are pressed,
+yield an excellent kind of honey, not much inferior in sweetness to
+other honey. This country withal produces honey from bees; it also bears
+that balsam which is the most precious of all the fruits in that place,
+cypress trees also, and those that bear myrobalanum; so that he who
+should pronounce this place to be divine would not be mistaken, wherein
+is such plenty of trees produced as are very rare, and of the must
+excellent sort. And indeed, if we speak of those other fruits, it will
+not be easy to light on any climate in the habitable earth that can
+well be compared to it, what is here sown comes up in such clusters;
+the cause of which seems to me to be the warmth of the air, and the
+fertility of the waters; the warmth calling forth the sprouts, and
+making them spread, and the moisture making every one of them take root
+firmly, and supplying that virtue which it stands in need of in summer
+time. Now this country is then so sadly burnt up, that nobody cares to
+come at it; and if the water be drawn up before sun-rising, and after
+that exposed to the air, it becomes exceeding cold, and becomes of a
+nature quite contrary to the ambient air; as in winter again it becomes
+warm; and if you go into it, it appears very gentle. The ambient air is
+here also of so good a temperature, that the people of the country are
+clothed in linen-only, even when snow covers the rest of Judea. This
+place is one hundred and fifty furlongs from Jerusalem, and sixty from
+Jordan. The country, as far as Jerusalem, is desert and stony; but that
+as far as Jordan and the lake Asphaltites lies lower indeed, though it
+be equally desert and barren. But so much shall suffice to have said
+about Jericho, and of the great happiness of its situation.
+
+4. The nature of the lake Asphaltites is also worth describing. It is,
+as I have said already, bitter and unfruitful. It is so light [or thick]
+that it bears up the heaviest things that are thrown into it; nor is it
+easy for any one to make things sink therein to the bottom, if he had a
+mind so to do. Accordingly, when Vespasian went to see it, he commanded
+that some who could not swim should have their hands tied behind them,
+and be thrown into the deep, when it so happened that they all swam as
+if a wind had forced them upwards. Moreover, the change of the color of
+this lake is wonderful, for it changes its appearance thrice every
+day; and as the rays of the sun fall differently upon it, the light is
+variously reflected. However, it casts up black clods of bitumen in many
+parts of it; these swim at the top of the water, and resemble both in
+shape and bigness headless bulls; and when the laborers that belong to
+the lake come to it, and catch hold of it as it hangs together, they
+draw it into their ships; but when the ship is full, it is not easy to
+cut off the rest, for it is so tenacious as to make the ship hang upon
+its clods till they set it loose with the menstrual blood of women, and
+with urine, to which alone it yields. This bitumen is not only
+useful for the caulking of ships, but for the cure of men's bodies;
+accordingly, it is mixed in a great many medicines. The length of this
+lake is five hundred and eighty furlongs, where it is extended as far as
+Zoar in Arabia; and its breadth is a hundred and fifty. The country of
+Sodom borders upon it. It was of old a most happy land, both for the
+fruits it bore and the riches of its cities, although it be now all
+burnt up. It is related how, for the impiety of its inhabitants, it
+was burnt by lightning; in consequence of which there are still the
+remainders of that Divine fire, and the traces [or shadows] of the
+five cities are still to be seen, as well as the ashes growing in their
+fruits; which fruits have a color as if they were fit to be eaten, but
+if you pluck them with your hands, they dissolve into smoke and ashes.
+And thus what is related of this land of Sodom hath these marks of
+credibility which our very sight affords us.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+
+     That Vespasian, After He Had Taken Gadara Made Preparation
+     For The Siege Of Jerusalem; But That, Upon His Hearing Of
+     The Death Of Nero, He Changed His Intentions. As Also
+     Concerning Simon Of Geras.
+
+1. And now Vespasian had fortified all the places round about Jerusalem,
+and erected citadels at Jericho and Adida, and placed garrisons in them
+both, partly out of his own Romans, and partly out of the body of his
+auxiliaries. He also sent Lucius Annius to Gerasa, and delivered to him
+a body of horsemen, and a considerable number of footmen. So when he had
+taken the city, which he did at the first onset, he slew a thousand of
+those young men who had not prevented him by flying away; but he took
+their families captive, and permitted his soldiers to plunder them of
+their effects; after which he set fire to their houses, and went away to
+the adjoining villages, while the men of power fled away, and the weaker
+part were destroyed, and what was remaining was all burnt down. And now
+the war having gone through all the mountainous country, and all the
+plain country also, those that were at Jerusalem were deprived of
+the liberty of going out of the city; for as to such as had a mind to
+desert, they were watched by the zealots; and as to such as were not yet
+on the side of the Romans, their army kept them in, by encompassing the
+city round about on all sides.
+
+2. Now as Vespasian was returned to Cesarea, and was getting ready with
+all his army to march directly to Jerusalem, he was informed that Nero
+was dead, after he had reigned thirteen years and eight days. But as to
+any narration after what manner he abused his power in the government,
+and committed the management of affairs to those vile wretches,
+Nymphidius and Tigellinus, his unworthy freed-men; and how he had a plot
+laid against him by them, and was deserted by all his guards, and ran
+away with four of his most trusty freed-men, and slew himself in the
+suburbs of Rome; and how those that occasioned his death were in no long
+time brought themselves to punishment; how also the war in Gall ended;
+and how Galba was made emperor 16 and returned out of Spain to Rome; and
+how he was accused by the soldiers as a pusillanimous person, and slain
+by treachery in the middle of the market-place at Rome, and Otho was
+made emperor; with his expedition against the commanders of Vitellius,
+and his destruction thereupon; and besides what troubles there were
+under Vitellius, and the fight that was about the capitol; as also how
+Antonius Primus and Mucianus slew Vitellius, and his German legions, and
+thereby put an end to that civil war; I have omitted to give an exact
+account of them, because they are well known by all, and they are
+described by a great number of Greek and Roman authors; yet for the sake
+of the connexion of matters, and that my history may not be incoherent,
+I have just touched upon every thing briefly. Wherefore Vespasian put
+off at first his expedition against Jerusalem, and stood waiting whither
+the empire would be transferred after the death of Nero. Moreover, when
+he heard that Galba was made emperor, he attempted nothing till he also
+should send him some directions about the war: however, he sent his son
+Titus to him, to salute him, and to receive his commands about the Jews.
+Upon the very same errand did king Agrippa sail along with Titus to
+Galba; but as they were sailing in their long ships by the coasts of
+Achaia, for it was winter time, they heard that Galba was slain, before
+they could get to him, after he had reigned seven months and as many
+days. After whom Otho took the government, and undertook the management
+of public affairs. So Agrippa resolved to go on to Rome without any
+terror; on account of the change in the government; but Titus, by a
+Divine impulse, sailed back from Greece to Syria, and came in great
+haste to Cesarea, to his father. And now they were both in suspense
+about the public affairs, the Roman empire being then in a fluctuating
+condition, and did not go on with their expedition against the Jews, but
+thought that to make any attack upon foreigners was now unseasonable, on
+account of the solicitude they were in for their own country.
+
+3. And now there arose another war at Jerusalem. There was a son of
+Giora, one Simon, by birth of Gerasa, a young man, not so cunning
+indeed as John [of Gisehala], who had already seized upon the city, but
+superior in strength of body and courage; on which account, when he had
+been driven away from that Acrabattene toparchy, which he once had, by
+Ananus the high priest, he came to those robbers who had seized upon
+Masada. At the first they suspected him, and only permitted him to come
+with the women he brought with him into the lower part of the fortress,
+while they dwelt in the upper part of it themselves. However, his manner
+so well agreed with theirs, and he seemed so trusty a man, that he went
+out with them, and ravaged and destroyed the country with them about
+Masada; yet when he persuaded them to undertake greater things, he could
+not prevail with them so to do; for as they were accustomed to dwell in
+that citadel, they were afraid of going far from that which was
+their hiding-place; but he affecting to tyrannize, and being fond of
+greatness, when he had heard of the death of Ananus, he left them, and
+went into the mountainous part of the country. So he proclaimed liberty
+to those in slavery, and a reward to those already free, and got
+together a set of wicked men from all quarters.
+
+4. And as he had now a strong body of men about him, he overran the
+villages that lay in the mountainous country, and when there were still
+more and more that came to him, he ventured to go down into the lower
+parts of the country, and since he was now become formidable to the
+cities, many of the men of power were corrupted by him; so that his army
+was no longer composed of slaves and robbers, but a great many of the
+populace were obedient to him as to their king. He then overran the
+Acrabattene toparchy, and the places that reached as far as the Great
+Idumea; for he built a wall at a certain village called Nain, and made
+use of that as a fortress for his own party's security; and at the
+valley called Paran, he enlarged many of the caves, and many others he
+found ready for his purpose; these he made use of as repositories for
+his treasures, and receptacles for his prey, and therein he laid up the
+fruits that he had got by rapine; and many of his partizans had their
+dwelling in them; and he made no secret of it that he was exercising his
+men beforehand, and making preparations for the assault of Jerusalem.
+
+5. Whereupon the zealots, out of the dread they were in of his attacking
+them, and being willing to prevent one that was growing up to oppose
+them, went out against him with their weapons. Simon met them, and
+joining battle with them, slew a considerable number of them, and drove
+the rest before him into the city, but durst not trust so much upon his
+forces as to make an assault upon the walls; but he resolved first to
+subdue Idumea, and as he had now twenty thousand armed men, he marched
+to the borders of their country. Hereupon the rulers of the Idumeans
+got together on the sudden the most warlike part of their people, about
+twenty-five thousand in number, and permitted the rest to be a guard
+to their own country, by reason of the incursions that were made by the
+Sicarii that were at Masada. Thus they received Simon at their borders,
+where they fought him, and continued the battle all that day; and the
+dispute lay whether they had conquered him, or been conquered by him. So
+he went back to Nain, as did the Idumeans return home. Nor was it long
+ere Simon came violently again upon their country; when he pitched his
+camp at a certain village called Thecoe, and sent Eleazar, one of his
+companions, to those that kept garrison at Herodium, and in order to
+persuade them to surrender that fortress to him. The garrison received
+this man readily, while they knew nothing of what he came about; but as
+soon as he talked of the surrender of the place, they fell upon him with
+their drawn swords, till he found that he had no place for flight, when
+he threw himself down from the wall into the valley beneath; so he died
+immediately: but the Idumeans, who were already much afraid of Simon's
+power, thought fit to take a view of the enemy's army before they
+hazarded a battle with them.
+
+6. Now there was one of their commanders named Jacob, who offered to
+serve them readily upon that occasion, but had it in his mind to betray
+them. He went therefore from the village Alurus, wherein the army of the
+Idumeans were gotten together, and came to Simon, and at the very first
+he agreed to betray his country to him, and took assurances upon oath
+from him that he should always have him in esteem, and then promised him
+that he would assist him in subduing all Idumea under him; upon which
+account he was feasted after an obliging manner by Simon, and elevated
+by his mighty promises; and when he was returned to his own men, he at
+first belied the army of Simon, and said it was manifold more in number
+than what it was; after which, he dexterously persuaded the commanders,
+and by degrees the whole multitude, to receive Simon, and to surrender
+the whole government up to him without fighting. And as he was doing
+this, he invited Simon by his messengers, and promised him to disperse
+the Idumeans, which he performed also; for as soon as their army was
+nigh them, he first of all got upon his horse, and fled, together with
+those whom he had corrupted; hereupon a terror fell upon the whole
+multitude; and before it came to a close fight, they broke their ranks,
+and every one retired to his own home.
+
+7. Thus did Simon unexpectedly march into Idumea, without bloodshed, and
+made a sudden attack upon the city Hebron, and took it; wherein he got
+possession of a great deal of prey, and plundered it of a vast quantity
+of fruit. Now the people of the country say that it is an ancienter
+city, not only than any in that country, but than Memphis in Egypt, and
+accordingly its age is reckoned at two thousand and three hundred
+years. They also relate that it had been the habitation of Abram, the
+progenitor of the Jews, after he had removed out of Mesopotamia; and
+they say that his posterity descended from thence into Egypt, whose
+monuments are to this very time showed in that small city; the fabric of
+which monuments are of the most excellent marble, and wrought after the
+most elegant manner. There is also there showed, at the distance of six
+furlongs from the city, a very large turpentine tree 17 and the report
+goes, that this tree has continued ever since the creation of the world.
+Thence did Simon make his progress over all Idumea, and did not only
+ravage the cities and villages, but lay waste the whole country; for,
+besides those that were completely armed, he had forty thousand men that
+followed him, insomuch that he had not provisions enough to suffice such
+a multitude. Now, besides this want of provisions that he was in, he
+was of a barbarous disposition, and bore great anger at this nation, by
+which means it came to pass that Idumea was greatly depopulated; and as
+one may see all the woods behind despoiled of their leaves by locusts,
+after they have been there, so was there nothing left behind Simon's
+army but a desert. Some places they burnt down, some they utterly
+demolished, and whatsoever grew in the country, they either trod it
+down or fed upon it, and by their marches they made the ground that was
+cultivated harder and more untractable than that which was barren. In
+short, there was no sign remaining of those places that had been laid
+waste, that ever they had had a being.
+
+8. This success of Simon excited the zealots afresh; and though they
+were afraid to fight him openly in a fair battle, yet did they lay
+ambushes in the passes, and seized upon his wife, with a considerable
+number of her attendants; whereupon they came back to the city
+rejoicing, as if they had taken Simon himself captive, and were
+in present expectation that he would lay down his arms, and make
+supplication to them for his wife; but instead of indulging any merciful
+affection, he grew very angry at them for seizing his beloved wife; so
+he came to the wall of Jerusalem, and, like wild beasts when they are
+wounded, and cannot overtake those that wounded them, he vented his
+spleen upon all persons that he met with. Accordingly, he caught all
+those that were come out of the city gates, either to gather herbs
+or sticks, who were unarmed and in years; he then tormented them and
+destroyed them, out of the immense rage he was in, and was almost ready
+to taste the very flesh of their dead bodies. He also cut off the hands
+of a great many, and sent them into the city to astonish his enemies,
+and in order to make the people fall into a sedition, and desert those
+that had been the authors of his wife's seizure. He also enjoined them
+to tell the people that Simon swore by the God of the universe, who sees
+all things, that unless they will restore him his wife, he will break
+down their wall, and inflict the like punishment upon all the citizens,
+without sparing any age, and without making any distinction between the
+guilty and the innocent. These threatenings so greatly affrighted, not
+the people only, but the zealots themselves also, that they sent his
+wife back to him; when he became a little milder, and left off his
+perpetual blood-shedding.
+
+9. But now sedition and civil war prevailed, not only over Judea, but
+in Italy also; for now Galba was slain in the midst of the Roman
+market-place; then was Otho made emperor, and fought against Vitellius,
+who set up for emperor also; for the legions in Germany had chosen him.
+But when he gave battle to Valens and Cecinna, who were Vitellius's
+generals, at Betriacum, in Gaul, Otho gained the advantage on the first
+day, but on the second day Vitellius's soldiers had the victory; and
+after much slaughter Otho slew himself, when he had heard of this defeat
+at Brixia, and after he had managed the public affairs three months and
+two days. 18 Otho's army also came over to Vitellius's generals, and he
+came himself down to Rome with his army. But in the mean time Vespasian
+removed from Cesarea, on the fifth day of the month Desius, [Sivan,] and
+marched against those places of Judea which were not yet overthrown.
+So he went up to the mountainous country, and took those two toparchies
+that were called the Gophnitick and Acrabattene toparchies. After
+which he took Bethel and Ephraim, two small cities; and when he had put
+garrisons into them, he rode as far as Jerusalem, in which march he took
+many prisoners, and many captives; but Cerealis, one of his commanders,
+took a body of horsemen and footmen, and laid waste that part of
+Idumea which was called the Upper Idumea, and attacked Caphethra, which
+pretended to be a small city, and took it at the first onset, and burnt
+it down. He also attacked Caphatabira, and laid siege to it, for it had
+a very strong wall; and when he expected to spend a long time in that
+siege, those that were within opened their gates on the sudden, and came
+to beg pardon, and surrendered themselves up to him. When Cerealis had
+conquered them, he went to Hebron, another very ancient city. I have
+told you already that this city is situated in a mountainous country not
+far off Jerusalem; and when he had broken into the city by force, what
+multitude and young men were left therein he slew, and burnt down the
+city; so that as now all the places were taken, excepting Herodlum, and
+Masada, and Machaerus, which were in the possession of the robbers, so
+Jerusalem was what the Romans at present aimed at.
+
+10. And now, as soon as Simon had set his wife free, and recovered her
+from the zealots, he returned back to the remainders of Idumea, and
+driving the nation all before him from all quarters, he compelled a
+great number of them to retire to Jerusalem; he followed them himself
+also to the city, and encompassed the wall all round again; and when he
+lighted upon any laborers that were coming thither out of the country,
+he slew them. Now this Simon, who was without the wall, was a greater
+terror to the people than the Romans themselves, as were the zealots who
+were within it more heavy upon them than both of the other; and during
+this time did the mischievous contrivances and courage [of John] corrupt
+the body of the Galileans; for these Galileans had advanced this John,
+and made him very potent, who made them suitable requital from the
+authority he had obtained by their means; for he permitted them to do
+all things that any of them desired to do, while their inclination to
+plunder was insatiable, as was their zeal in searching the houses of the
+rich; and for the murdering of the men, and abusing of the women, it was
+sport to them. They also devoured what spoils they had taken, together
+with their blood, and indulged themselves in feminine wantonness,
+without any disturbance, till they were satiated therewith; while they
+decked their hair, and put on women's garments, and were besmeared over
+with ointments; and that they might appear very comely, they had paints
+under their eyes, and imitated not only the ornaments, but also the
+lusts of women, and were guilty of such intolerable uncleanness, that
+they invented unlawful pleasures of that sort. And thus did they roll
+themselves up and down the city, as in a brothel-house, and defiled it
+entirely with their impure actions; nay, while their faces looked like
+the faces of women, they killed with their right hands; and when their
+gait was effeminate, they presently attacked men, and became warriors,
+and drew their swords from under their finely dyed cloaks, and ran every
+body through whom they alighted upon. However, Simon waited for such as
+ran away from John, and was the more bloody of the two; and he who had
+escaped the tyrant within the wall was destroyed by the other that lay
+before the gates, so that all attempts of flying and deserting to the
+Romans were cut off, as to those that had a mind so to do.
+
+11. Yet did the army that was under John raise a sedition against him,
+and all the Idumeans separated themselves from the tyrant, and attempted
+to destroy him, and this out of their envy at his power, and hatred of
+his cruelty; so they got together, and slew many of the zealots, and
+drove the rest before them into that royal palace that was built by
+Grapte, who was a relation of Izates, the king of Adiabene; the Idumeans
+fell in with them, and drove the zealots out thence into the temple, and
+betook themselves to plunder John's effects; for both he himself was in
+that palace, and therein had he laid up the spoils he had acquired by
+his tyranny. In the mean time, the multitude of those zealots that were
+dispersed over the city ran together to the temple unto those that fled
+thither, and John prepared to bring them down against the people and the
+Idumeans, who were not so much afraid of being attacked by them [because
+they were themselves better soldiers than they] as at their madness,
+lest they should privately sally out of the temple and get among them,
+and not only destroy them, but set the city on fire also. So they
+assembled themselves together, and the high priests with them, and took
+counsel after what manner they should avoid their assault. Now it was
+God who turned their opinions to the worst advice, and thence they
+devised such a remedy to get themselves free as was worse than the
+disease itself. Accordingly, in order to overthrow John, they determined
+to admit Simon, and earnestly to desire the introduction of a second
+tyrant into the city; which resolution they brought to perfection, and
+sent Matthias, the high priest, to beseech this Simon to come in to
+them, of whom they had so often been afraid. Those also that had fled
+from the zealots in Jerusalem joined in this request to him, out of
+the desire they had of preserving their houses and their effects.
+Accordingly he, in an arrogant manner, granted them his lordly
+protection, and came into the city, in order to deliver it from the
+zealots. The people also made joyful acclamations to him, as their
+savior and their preserver; but when he was come in, with his army, he
+took care to secure his own authority, and looked upon those that had
+invited him in to be no less his enemies than those against whom the
+invitation was intended.
+
+12. And thus did Simon get possession of Jerusalem, in the third year
+of the war, in the month Xanthicus [Nisan]; whereupon John, with his
+multitude of zealots, as being both prohibited from coming out of the
+temple, and having lost their power in the city, [for Simon and
+his party had plundered them of what they had,] were in despair of
+deliverance. Simon also made an assault upon the temple, with the
+assistance of the people, while the others stood upon the cloisters and
+the battlements, and defended themselves from their assaults. However,
+a considerable number of Simon's party fell, and many were carried off
+wounded; for the zealots threw their darts easily from a superior place,
+and seldom failed of hitting their enemies; but having the advantage of
+situation, and having withal erected four very large towers aforehand,
+that their darts might come from higher places, one at the north-east
+corner of the court, one above the Xystus, the third at another corner
+over against the lower city, and the last was erected above the top of
+the Pastophoria, where one of the priests stood of course, and gave a
+signal beforehand, with a trumpet 19 at the beginning of every seventh
+day, in the evening twilight, as also at the evening when that day was
+finished, as giving notice to the people when they were to leave off
+work, and when they were to go to work again. These men also set their
+engines to cast darts and stones withal, upon those towers, with their
+archers and slingers. And now Simon made his assault upon the temple
+more faintly, by reason that the greatest part of his men grew weary of
+that work; yet did he not leave off his opposition, because his army
+was superior to the others, although the darts which were thrown by the
+engines were carried a great way, and slew many of those that fought for
+him.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+
+     How The Soldiers, Both In Judea And Egypt, Proclaimed
+     Vespasian Emperor; And How Vespasian Released Josephus From
+     His Bonds.
+
+1. Now about this very time it was that heavy calamities came about Rome
+on all sides; for Vitellius was come from Germany with his soldiery, and
+drew along with him a great multitude of other men besides. And when the
+spaces allotted for soldiers could not contain them, he made all Rome
+itself his camp, and filled all the houses with his armed men; which
+men, when they saw the riches of Rome with those eyes which had never
+seen such riches before, and found themselves shone round about on all
+sides with silver and gold, they had much ado to contain their covetous
+desires, and were ready to betake themselves to plunder, and to the
+slaughter of such as should stand in their way. And this was the state
+of affairs in Italy at that time.
+
+2. But when Vespasian had overthrown all the places that were near to
+Jerusalem, he returned to Cesarea, and heard of the troubles that were
+at Rome, and that Vitellius was emperor. This produced indignation in
+him, although he well knew how to be governed as well as to govern,
+and could not, with any satisfaction, own him for his lord who acted so
+madly, and seized upon the government as if it were absolutely destitute
+of a governor. And as this sorrow of his was violent, he was not able to
+support the torments he was under, nor to apply himself further in other
+wars, when his native country was laid waste; but then, as much as his
+passion excited him to avenge his country, so much was he restrained
+by the consideration of his distance therefrom; because fortune might
+prevent him, and do a world of mischief before he could himself sail
+over the sea to Italy, especially as it was still the winter season; so
+he restrained his anger, how vehement soever it was at this time.
+
+3. But now his commanders and soldiers met in several companies, and
+consulted openly about changing the public affairs; and, out of their
+indignation, cried out, how "at Rome there are soldiers that live
+delicately, and when they have not ventured so much as to hear the fame
+of war, they ordain whom they please for our governors, and in hopes
+of gain make them emperors; while you, who have gone through so many
+labors, and are grown into years under your helmets, give leave to
+others to use such a power, when yet you have among yourselves one
+more worthy to rule than any whom they have set up. Now what juster
+opportunity shall they ever have of requiting their generals, if they
+do not make use of this that is now before them? while there is so much
+juster reasons for Vespasian's being emperor than for Vitellius; as they
+are themselves more deserving than those that made the other emperors;
+for that they have undergone as great wars as have the troops that come
+from Germany; nor are they inferior in war to those that have brought
+that tyrant to Rome, nor have they undergone smaller labors than
+they; for that neither will the Roman senate, nor people, bear such a
+lascivious emperor as Vitellius, if he be compared with their chaste
+Vespasian; nor will they endure a most barbarous tyrant, instead of
+a good governor, nor choose one that hath no child 20 to preside over
+them, instead of him that is a father; because the advancement of men's
+own children to dignities is certainly the greatest security kings can
+have for themselves. Whether, therefore, we estimate the capacity
+of governing from the skill of a person in years, we ought to have
+Vespasian, or whether from the strength of a young man, we ought to have
+Titus; for by this means we shall have the advantage of both their ages,
+for that they will afford strength to those that shall be made emperors,
+they having already three legions, besides other auxiliaries from the
+neighboring kings, and will have further all the armies in the east to
+support them, as also those in Europe, so they as they are out of the
+distance and dread of Vitellius, besides such auxiliaries as they may
+have in Italy itself; that is, Vespasian's brother, 21 and his other son
+[Domitian]; the one of whom will bring in a great many of those
+young men that are of dignity, while the other is intrusted with the
+government of the city, which office of his will be no small means of
+Vespasian's obtaining the government. Upon the whole, the case may be
+such, that if we ourselves make further delays, the senate may choose an
+emperor, whom the soldiers, who are the saviors of the empire, will have
+in contempt."
+
+4. These were the discourses the soldiers had in their several
+companies; after which they got together in a great body, and,
+encouraging one another, they declared Vespasian emperor, 22 and
+exhorted him to save the government, which was now in danger. Now
+Vespasian's concern had been for a considerable time about the public,
+yet did he not intend to set up for governor himself, though his actions
+showed him to deserve it, while he preferred that safety which is in a
+private life before the dangers in a state of such dignity; but when he
+refused the empire, the commanders insisted the more earnestly upon his
+acceptance; and the soldiers came about him, with their drawn swords
+in their hands, and threatened to kill him, unless he would now live
+according to his dignity. And when he had shown his reluctance a great
+while, and had endeavored to thrust away this dominion from him, he at
+length, being not able to persuade them, yielded to their solicitations
+that would salute him emperor.
+
+5. So upon the exhortations of Mucianus, and the other commanders, that
+he would accept of the empire, and upon that of the rest of the army,
+who cried out that they were willing to be led against all his opposers,
+he was in the first place intent upon gaining the dominion over
+Alexandria, as knowing that Egypt was of the greatest consequence, in
+order to obtain the entire government, because of its supplying of corn
+[to Rome]; which corn, if he could be master of, he hoped to dethrone
+Vitellius, supposing he should aim to keep the empire by force [for he
+would not be able to support himself, if the multitude at Rome should
+once be in want of food]; and because he was desirous to join the two
+legions that were at Alexandria to the other legions that were with him.
+He also considered with himself, that he should then have that country
+for a defense to himself against the uncertainty of fortune; for Egypt
+23 is hard to be entered by land, and hath no good havens by sea. It
+hath on the west the dry deserts of Libya; and on the south Siene, that
+divides it from Ethiopia, as well as the cataracts of the Nile, that
+cannot be sailed over; and on the east the Red Sea extended as far as
+Coptus; and it is fortified on the north by the land that reaches to
+Syria, together with that called the Egyptian Sea, having no havens in
+it for ships. And thus is Egypt walled about on every side. Its length
+between Pelusium and Siene is two thousand furlongs, and the passage by
+sea from Plinthine to Pelusium is three thousand six hundred furlongs.
+Its river Nile is navigable as far as the city called Elephantine, the
+forenamed cataracts hindering ships from going any farther, The haven
+also of Alexandria is not entered by the mariners without difficulty,
+even in times of peace; for the passage inward is narrow, and full of
+rocks that lie under the water, which oblige the mariners to turn from
+a straight direction: its left side is blocked up by works made by men's
+hands on both sides; on its right side lies the island called Pharus,
+which is situated just before the entrance, and supports a very great
+tower, that affords the sight of a fire to such as sail within three
+hundred furlongs of it, that ships may cast anchor a great way off in
+the night time, by reason of the difficulty of sailing nearer. About
+this island are built very great piers, the handiwork of men, against
+which, when the sea dashes itself, and its waves are broken against
+those boundaries, the navigation becomes very troublesome, and the
+entrance through so narrow a passage is rendered dangerous; yet is the
+haven itself, when you are got into it, a very safe one, and of thirty
+furlongs in largeness; into which is brought what the country wants in
+order to its happiness, as also what abundance the country affords more
+than it wants itself is hence distributed into all the habitable earth.
+
+6. Justly, therefore, did Vespasian desire to obtain that government,
+in order to corroborate his attempts upon the whole empire; so he
+immediately sent to Tiberius Alexander, who was then governor of Egypt
+and of Alexandria, and informed him what the army had put upon him,
+and how he, being forced to accept of the burden of the government, was
+desirous to have him for his confederate and supporter. Now as soon as
+ever Alexander had read this letter, he readily obliged the legions
+and the multitude to take the oath of fidelity to Vespasian, both which
+willingly complied with him, as already acquainted with the courage
+of the man, from that his conduct in their neighborhood. Accordingly
+Vespasian, looking upon himself as already intrusted with the
+government, got all things ready for his journey [to Rome]. Now fame
+carried this news abroad more suddenly than one could have thought, that
+he was emperor over the east, upon which every city kept festivals, and
+celebrated sacrifices and oblations for such good news; the legions
+also that were in Mysia and Pannonia, who had been in commotion a little
+before, on account of this insolent attempt of Vitellius, were very
+glad to take the oath of fidelity to Vespasian, upon his coming to
+the empire. Vespasian then removed from Cesarea to Berytus, where
+many embassages came to him from Syria, and many from other provinces,
+bringing with them from every city crowns, and the congratulations of
+the people. Mucianus came also, who was the president of the province,
+and told him with what alacrity the people [received the news of his
+advancement], and how the people of every city had taken the oath of
+fidelity to him.
+
+7. So Vespasian's good fortune succeeded to his wishes every where, and
+the public affairs were, for the greatest part, already in his hands;
+upon which he considered that he had not arrived at the government
+without Divine Providence, but that a righteous kind of fate had brought
+the empire under his power; for as he called to mind the other signals,
+which had been a great many every where, that foretold he should obtain
+the government, so did he remember what Josephus had said to him when he
+ventured to foretell his coming to the empire while Nero was alive; so
+he was much concerned that this man was still in bonds with him. He then
+called for Mucianus, together with his other commanders and friends,
+and, in the first place, he informed them what a valiant man Josephus
+had been, and what great hardships he had made him undergo in the siege
+of Jotapata. After that he related those predictions of his 24 which he
+had then suspected as fictions, suggested out of the fear he was in,
+but which had by time been demonstrated to be Divine. "It is a shameful
+thing [said he] that this man, who hath foretold my coming to the empire
+beforehand, and been the minister of a Divine message to me, should
+still be retained in the condition of a captive or prisoner." So he
+called for Josephus, and commanded that he should be set at liberty;
+whereupon the commanders promised themselves glorious things, from this
+requital Vespasian made to a stranger. Titus was then present with
+his father, and said, "O father, it is but just that the scandal [of a
+prisoner] should be taken off Josephus, together with his iron chain.
+For if we do not barely loose his bonds, but cut them to pieces, he will
+be like a man that had never been bound at all." For that is the usual
+method as to such as have been bound without a cause. This advice was
+agreed to by Vespasian also; so there came a man in, and cut the chain
+to pieces; while Josephus received this testimony of his integrity for
+a reward, and was moreover esteemed a person of credit as to futurities
+also.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11.
+
+
+     That Upon The Conquest And Slaughter Of Vitellius Vespasian
+     Hastened His Journey To Rome; But Titus His Son Returned To
+     Jerusalem.
+
+1. And now, when Vespasian had given answers to the embassages, and had
+disposed of the places of power justly, 25 and according to every one's
+deserts, he came to Antioch, and consulting which way he had best take,
+he preferred to go for Rome, rather than to march to Alexandria, because
+he saw that Alexandria was sure to him already, but that the affairs at
+Rome were put into disorder by Vitellius; so he sent Mucianus to Italy,
+and committed a considerable army both of horsemen and footmen to him;
+yet was Mucianus afraid of going by sea, because it was the middle of
+winter, and so he led his army on foot through Cappadocia and Phrygia.
+
+2. In the mean time, Antonius Primus took the third of the legions that
+were in Mysia, for he was president of that province, and made haste, in
+order to fight Vitellius; whereupon Vitellius sent away Cecinna, with
+a great army, having a mighty confidence in him, because of his having
+beaten Otho. This Cecinna marched out of Rome in great haste, and found
+Antonius about Cremona in Gall, which city is in the borders of Italy;
+but when he saw there that the enemy were numerous and in good order, he
+durst not fight them; and as he thought a retreat dangerous, so he began
+to think of betraying his army to Antonius. Accordingly, he assembled
+the centurions and tribunes that were under his command, and persuaded
+them to go over to Antonius, and this by diminishing the reputation of
+Vitellius, and by exaggerating the power of Vespasian. He also told them
+that with the one there was no more than the bare name of dominion, but
+with the other was the power of it; and that it was better for them to
+prevent necessity, and gain favor, and, while they were likely to be
+overcome in battle, to avoid the danger beforehand, and go over to
+Antonius willingly; that Vespasian was able of himself to subdue what
+had not yet submitted without their assistance, while Vitellius could
+not preserve what he had already with it.
+
+3. Cecinna said this, and much more to the same purpose, and persuaded
+them to comply with him; and both he and his army deserted; but still
+the very same night the soldiers repented of what they had done, and a
+fear seized on them, lest perhaps Vitellius who sent them should get the
+better; and drawing their swords, they assaulted Cecinna, in order to
+kill him; and the thing had been done by them, if the tribunes had not
+fallen upon their knees, and besought them not to do it; so the soldiers
+did not kill him, but put him in bonds, as a traitor, and were about to
+send him to Vitellius. When [Antonius] Primus heard of this, he raised
+up his men immediately, and made them put on their armor, and led them
+against those that had revolted; hereupon they put themselves in order
+of battle, and made a resistance for a while, but were soon beaten, and
+fled to Cremona; then did Primus take his horsemen, and cut off their
+entrance into the city, and encompassed and destroyed a great multitude
+of them before the city, and fell into the city together with the rest,
+and gave leave to his soldiers to plunder it. And here it was that many
+strangers, who were merchants, as well as many of the people of that
+country, perished, and among them Vitellius's whole army, being thirty
+thousand and two hundred, while Antonius lost no more of those that came
+with him from Mysia than four thousand and five hundred: he then loosed
+Cecinna, and sent him to Vespasian to tell him the good news. So he
+came, and was received by him, and covered the scandal of his treachery
+by the unexpected honors he received from Vespasian.
+
+4. And now, upon the news that Antonius was approaching, Sabinus took
+courage at Rome, and assembled those cohorts of soldiers that kept watch
+by night, and in the night time seized upon the capitol; and, as the
+day came on, many men of character came over to him, with Domitian,
+his brother's son, whose encouragement was of very great weight for the
+compassing the government. Now Vitellius was not much concerned at this
+Primus, but was very angry with those that had revolted with Sabinus;
+and thirsting, out of his own natural barbarity, after noble blood,
+he sent out that part of the army which came along with him to fight
+against the capitol; and many bold actions were done on this side, and
+on the side of those that held the temple. But at last, the soldiers
+that came from Germany, being too numerous for the others, got the hill
+into their possession, where Domitian, with many other of the principal
+Romans, providentially escaped, while the rest of the multitude were
+entirely cut to pieces, and Sabinus himself was brought to Vitellius,
+and then slain; the soldiers also plundered the temple of its ornaments,
+and set it on fire. But now within a day's time came Antonius, with his
+army, and were met by Vitellius and his army; and having had a battle
+in three several places, the last were all destroyed. Then did Vitellius
+come out of the palace, in his cups, and satiated with an extravagant
+and luxurious meal, as in the last extremity, and being drawn along
+through the multitude, and abused with all sorts of torments, had his
+head cut off in the midst of Rome, having retained the government eight
+months and five days 26 and had he lived much longer, I cannot but think
+the empire would not have been sufficient for his lust. Of the others
+that were slain, were numbered above fifty thousand. This battle was
+fought on the third day of the month Apelleus [Casleu]; on the next day
+Mucianus came into the city with his army, and ordered Antonius and his
+men to leave off killing; for they were still searching the houses,
+and killed many of Vitellius's soldiers, and many of the populace, as
+supposing them to be of his party, preventing by their rage any accurate
+distinction between them and others. He then produced Domitian, and
+recommended him to the multitude, until his father should come himself;
+so the people being now freed from their fears, made acclamations of
+joy for Vespasian, as for their emperor, and kept festival days for his
+confirmation, and for the destruction of Vitellius.
+
+5. And now, as Vespasian was come to Alexandria, this good news
+came from Rome, and at the same time came embassies from all his own
+habitable earth, to congratulate him upon his advancement; and though
+this Alexandria was the greatest of all cities next to Rome, it proved
+too narrow to contain the multitude that then came to it. So upon this
+confirmation of Vespasian's entire government, which was now settled,
+and upon the unexpected deliverance of the public affairs of the Romans
+from ruin, Vespasian turned his thoughts to what remained unsubdued in
+Judea. However, he himself made haste to go to Rome, as the winter was
+now almost over, and soon set the affairs of Alexandria in order,
+but sent his son Titus, with a select part of his army, to destroy
+Jerusalem. So Titus marched on foot as far as Nicopolis, which is
+distant twenty furlongs from Alexandria; there he put his army on board
+some long ships, and sailed upon the river along the Mendesian Nomus,
+as far as the city Tumuis; there he got out of the ships, and walked
+on foot, and lodged all night at a small city called Tanis. His second
+station was Heracleopolis, and his third Pelusium; he then refreshed his
+army at that place for two days, and on the third passed over the mouths
+of the Nile at Pelusium; he then proceeded one station over the desert,
+and pitched his camp at the temple of the Casian Jupiter, 27 and on the
+next day at Ostracine. This station had no water, but the people of
+the country make use of water brought from other places. After this he
+rested at Rhinocolura, and from thence he went to Raphia, which was
+his fourth station. This city is the beginning of Syria. For his fifth
+station he pitched his camp at Gaza; after which he came to Ascalon, and
+thence to Jamnia, and after that to Joppa, and from Joppa to Cesarea,
+having taken a resolution to gather all his other forces together at
+that place.
+
+WAR BOOK 4 FOOTNOTES
+
+1 (return) [ Here we have the exact situation of Jeroboam's "at the exit
+of Little Jordan into Great Jordan, near the place called Daphne," but
+of old Dan. See the note in Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 8. sect. 4. But Reland
+suspects flint here we should read Dan instead of there being no where
+else mention of a place called Daphne.]
+
+
+2 (return) [ These numbers in Josephus of thirty furlongs' ascent to the
+top of Mount Tabor, whether we estimate it by winding and gradual, or
+by the perpendicular altitude, and of twenty-six furlongs' circumference
+upon the top, as also fifteen furlongs for this ascent in Polybius, with
+Geminus's perpendicular altitude of almost fourteen furlongs, here noted
+by Dr. Hudson, do none of' them agree with the authentic testimony of
+Mr. Maundrell, an eye-witness, p. 112, who says he was not an hour in
+getting up to the top of this Mount Tabor, and that the area of the top
+is an oval of about two furlongs in length, and one in breadth. So I
+rather suppose Josephus wrote three furlongs for the ascent or altitude,
+instead of thirty; and six furlongs for the circumference at the
+top, instead of twenty-six,--since a mountain of only three furlongs
+perpendicular altitude may easily require near an hour's ascent, and the
+circumference of an oval of the foregoing quantity is near six furlongs.
+Nor certainly could such a vast circumference as twenty-six furlongs,
+or three miles and a quarter, at that height be encompassed with a
+wall, including a trench and other fortifications, [perhaps those still
+remaining, ibid.] in the small interval of forty days, as Josephus here
+says they were by himself.]
+
+
+3 (return) [ This name Dorcas in Greek, was Tabitha in Hebrew or Syriac,
+as Acts 9:36. Accordingly, some of the manuscripts set it down here
+Tabetha or Tabeta. Nor can the context in Josephus be made out by
+supposing the reading to have been this: "The son of Tabitha; which, in
+the language of our country, denotes Dorcas" [or a doe].]
+
+
+4 (return) [ Here we may discover the utter disgrace and ruin of the
+high priesthood among the Jews, when undeserving, ignoble, and vile
+persons were advanced to that holy office by the seditious; which sort
+of high priests, as Josephus well remarks here, were thereupon obliged
+to comply with and assist those that advanced them in their impious
+practices. The names of these high priests, or rather ridiculous
+and profane persons, were Jesus the son of Damneus, Jesus the son of
+Gamaliel, Matthias the son of Theophilus, and that prodigious ignoramus
+Phannias, the son of Samuel; all whom we shall meet with in Josephus's
+future history of this war; nor do we meet with any other so much as
+pretended high priest after Phannias, till Jerusalem was taken and
+destroyed.]
+
+
+5 (return) [ This tribe or course of the high priests, or priests, here
+called Eniachim, seems to the learned Mr. Lowth, one well versed in
+Josephus, to be that 1 Chronicles 24:12, "the course of Jakim," where
+some copies have "the course of Eliakim;" and I think this to be by no
+means an improbable conjecture.]
+
+
+6 (return) [ This Symeon, the son of Gamaliel, is mentioned as the
+president of the Jewish sanhedrim, and one that perished in the
+destruction of Jerusalem, by the Jewish Rabbins, as Reland observes on
+this place. He also tells us that those Rabbins mention one Jesus
+the son of Gamala, as once a high priest, but this long before the
+destruction of Jerusalem; so that if he were the same person with this
+Jesus the son of Gamala, Josephus, he must have lived to be very old, or
+they have been very bad chronologers.]
+
+
+7 (return) [ It is worth noting here, that this Ananus, the best of the
+Jews at this time, and the high priest, who was so very uneasy at the
+profanation of the Jewish courts of the temple by the zealots, did not
+however scruple the profanation of the "court of the Gentiles;" as in
+our Savior's days it was very much profaned by the Jews; and made a
+market-place, nay, a "den of thieves," without scruple, Matthew 21:12,
+13; Mark 11:15-17. Accordingly Josephus himself, when he speaks of the
+two inner courts, calls them both hagia or holy places; but, so far as
+I remember, never gives that character of the court of the Gentiles. See
+B. V. ch. 9. sect. 2.]
+
+
+8 (return) [ This appellation of Jerusalem given it here by Simon, the
+general of the Idumeans, "the common city" of the Idumeans, who were
+proselytes of justice, as well as of the original native Jews, greatly
+confirms that maxim of the Rabbins, here set down by Reland, that
+"Jerusalem was not assigned, or appropriated, to the tribe of Benjamin
+or Judah, but every tribe had equal right to it [at their coming to
+worship there at the several festivals]." See a little before, ch. 3.
+sect. 3, or "worldly worship," as the author to the Hebrews calls the
+sanctuary, "a worldly sanctuary."]
+
+
+9 (return) [ Some commentators are ready to suppose that this
+"Zacharias, the son of Baruch," here most unjustly slain by the Jews
+in the temple, was the very same person with "Zacharias, the son of
+Barachias," whom our Savior says the Jews "slew between the temple and
+the altar," Matthew 23:35. This is a somewhat strange exposition; since
+Zechariah the prophet was really "the son of Barachiah," and "grandson
+of Iddo, Zechariah 1:1; and how he died, we have no other account than
+that before us in St. Matthew: while this "Zacharias" was "the son of
+Baruch." Since the slaughter was past when our Savior spake these
+words, the Jews had then already slain him; whereas this slaughter of
+"Zacharias, the son of Baruch," in Josephus, was then about thirty-four
+years future. And since the slaughter was "between the temple and the
+altar," in the court of the priests, one of the most sacred and remote
+parts of the whole temple; while this was, in Josephus's own words, in
+the middle of the temple, and much the most probably in the court of
+Israel only [for we have had no intimation that the zealots had at this
+time profaned the court of the priests. See B. V. ch. 1. sect. 2].
+Nor do I believe that our Josephus, who always insists on the peculiar
+sacredness of the inmost court, and of the holy house that was in it,
+would have omitted so material an aggravation of this barbarous murder,
+as perpetrated in. a place so very holy, had that been the true place of
+it. See Antiq. B. XI. ch. 7. sect. 1, and the note here on B. V. ch. 1.
+sect. 2.]
+
+
+10 (return) [ This prediction, that the city [Jerusalem] should then "be
+taken, and the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a sedition should
+invade Jews, and their own hands should pollute that temple;" or, as
+it is B. VI. ch. 2. sect. 1, "when any one should begin to slay his
+countrymen in the city;" is wanting in our present copies of the Old
+Testament. See Essay on the Old Test. p. 104--112. But this prediction,
+as Josephus well remarks here, though, with the other predictions of
+the prophets, it was now laughed at by the seditious, was by their very
+means soon exactly fulfilled. However, I cannot but here take notice
+of Grotius's positive assertion upon Matthew 26:9, here quoted by Dr.
+Hudson, that "it ought to be taken for granted, as a certain truth, that
+many predictions of the Jewish prophets were preserved, not in writing,
+but by memory." Whereas, it seems to me so far from certain, that I
+think it has no evidence nor probability at all.]
+
+
+11 (return) [ By these hiera, or "holy places," as distinct from cities,
+must be meant "proseuchae," or "houses of prayer," out of cities; of
+which we find mention made in the New Testament and other authors. See
+Luke 6:12; Acts 16:13, 16; Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 10. sect. 23; his Life,
+sect. 51. "In qua te quero proseucha?" Juvenal Sat. III. yet. 296. They
+were situated sometimes by the sides of rivers, Acts 16:13, or by
+the sea-side, Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 10. sect. 23. So did the seventy-two
+interpreters go to pray every morning by the sea-side before they went
+to their work, B. XII. ch. 2. sect. 12.]
+
+
+12 (return) [ Gr. Galatia, and so everywhere.]
+
+
+13 (return) [ Whether this Somorrhon, or Somorrha, ought not to be here
+written Gomorrha, as some MSS. in a manner have it, [for the place meant
+by Josephus seems to be near Segor, or Zoar, at the very south of
+the Dead Sea, hard by which stood Sodom and Gomorrha,] cannot now be
+certainly determined, but seems by no means improbable.]
+
+
+14 (return) [ This excellent prayer of Elisha is wanting in our copies,
+2 Kings 2:21, 22, though it be referred to also in the Apostolical
+Constitutions, B. VII. ch. 37., and the success of it is mentioned in
+them all.]
+
+
+16 (return) [ Of these Roman affairs and tumults under Galba, Otho, and
+Vitellius, here only touched upon by Josephus, see Tacitus, Suelonius,
+and Dio, more largely. However, we may observe with Ottius, that
+Josephus writes the name of the second of them not Otto, with many
+others, but Otho, with the coins. See also the note on ch. 11. sect. 4.]
+
+
+17 (return) [ Some of the ancients call this famous tree, or grove, an
+oak others, a turpentine tree, or grove. It has been very famous in all
+the past ages, and is so, I suppose, at this day; and that particularly
+for an eminent mart or meeting of merchants there every year, as the
+travelers inform us.]
+
+
+18 (return) [ Puetonius differs hardly three days from Josephus, and
+says Otho perished on the ninety-fifth day of his reign. In Anthon. See
+the note on ch. 11. sect. 4.]
+
+
+19 (return) [ This beginning and ending the observation of the Jewish
+seventh day, or sabbath, with a priest's blowing of a trumpet, is
+remarkable, and no where else mentioned, that I know of. Nor is Reland's
+conjecture here improbable, that this was the very place that has
+puzzled our commentators so long, called "Musach Sabbati," the "Covert
+of the Sabbath," if that be the true reading, 2 Kings 16:18, because
+here the proper priest stood dry, under a "covering," to proclaim the
+beginning and ending of every Jewish sabbath.]
+
+
+20 (return) [ The Roman authors that now remain say Vitellius had
+children, whereas Josephus introduces here the Roman soldiers in Judea
+saying he had none. Which of these assertions was the truth I know not.
+Spanheim thinks he hath given a peculiar reason for calling Vitellius
+"childless," though he really had children, Diss. de Num. p. 649, 650;
+to which it appears very difficult to give our assent.]
+
+
+21 (return) [ This brother of Vespasian was Flavius Sabinus, as
+Suetonius informs us, in Vitell. sect. 15, and in Vespas. sect. 2. He is
+also named by Josephus presently ch. 11. sect; 4.]
+
+
+22 (return) [ It is plain by the nature of the thing, as well as by
+Josephus and Eutropius, that Vespasian was first of all saluted emperor
+in Judea, and not till some time afterward in Egypt. Whence Tacitus's
+and Suetonius's present copies must be correct text, when they both say
+that he was first proclaimed in Egypt, and that on the calends of July,
+while they still say it was the fifth of the Nones or Ides of the same
+July before he was proclaimed in Judea. I suppose the month they there
+intended was June, and not July, as the copies now have it; nor does
+Tacitus's coherence imply less. See Essay on the Revelation, p. 136.]
+
+
+23 (return) [ Here we have an authentic description of the bounds and
+circumstances of Egypt, in the days of Vespasian and Titus.]
+
+
+24 (return) [ As Daniel was preferred by Darius and Cyrus, on account of
+his having foretold the destruction of the Babylonian monarchy by their
+means, and the consequent exaltation of the Medes and Persians, Daniel
+5:6 or rather, as Jeremiah, when he was a prisoner, was set at liberty,
+and honorably treated by Nebuzaradan, at the command of Nebuchadnezzar,
+on account of his having foretold the destruction of Jerusalem by the
+Babylonians, Jeremiah 40:1-7; so was our Josephus set at liberty, and
+honorably treated, on account of his having foretold the advancement
+of Vespasian and Titus to the Roman empire. All these are most eminent
+instances of the interposition of Divine Providence, and of the
+certainty of Divine predictions in the great revolutions of the four
+monarchies. Several such-like examples there are, both in the sacred and
+other histories, as in the case of Joseph in Egypt. and of Jaddua the
+high priest, in the days of Alexander the Great, etc.]
+
+
+25 (return) [ This is well observed by Josephus, that Vespasian, in
+order to secure his success, and establish his government at first,
+distributed his offices and places upon the foot of justice, and
+bestowed them on such as best deserved them, and were best fit for
+them. Which wise conduct in a mere heathen ought to put those rulers
+and ministers of state to shame, who, professing Christianity, act
+otherwise, and thereby expose themselves and their kingdoms to vice and
+destruction.]
+
+
+26 (return) [ The numbers in Josephus, ch. 9. sect. 2, 9, for Galba
+seven months seven days, for Otho three months two days, and here
+for Vitellius eight months five days, do not agree with any Roman
+historians, who also disagree among themselves. And, indeed, Sealiger
+justly complains, as Dr. Hudson observes on ch. 9. sect. 2, that this
+period is very confused and uncertain in the ancient authors. They were
+probably some of them contemporary together for some time; one of the
+best evidences we have, I mean Ptolemy's Canon, omits them all, as if
+they did not all together reign one whole year, nor had a single Thoth,
+or new-year's day, [which then fell upon August 6,] in their entire
+reigns. Dio also, who says that Vitellius reigned a year within ten
+days, does yet estimate all their reigns together at no more than one
+year, one month, and two days.]
+
+
+27 (return) [ There are coins of this Casian Jupiter still extant.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK V.
+
+
+     Containing The Interval Of Near Six Months.
+
+
+     From The Coming Of Titus To Besiege Jerusalem, To The Great
+     Extremity To Which The Jews Were Reduced.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+
+     Concerning The Seditions At Jerusalem And What Terrible
+     Miseries Afflicted The City By Their Means.
+
+1. When therefore Titus had marched over that desert which lies between
+Egypt and Syria, in the manner forementioned, he came to Cesarea, having
+resolved to set his forces in order at that place, before he began the
+war. Nay, indeed, while he was assisting his father at Alexandria, in
+settling that government which had been newly conferred upon them by
+God, it so happened that the sedition at Jerusalem was revived, and
+parted into three factions, and that one faction fought against the
+other; which partition in such evil cases may be said to be a good
+thing, and the effect of Divine justice. Now as to the attack the
+zealots made upon the people, and which I esteem the beginning of the
+city's destruction, it hath been already explained after an accurate
+manner; as also whence it arose, and to how great a mischief it was
+increased. But for the present sedition, one should not mistake if he
+called it a sedition begotten by another sedition, and to be like a
+wild beast grown mad, which, for want of food from abroad, fell now upon
+eating its own flesh.
+
+2. For Eleazar, the son of Simon, who made the first separation of the
+zealots from the people, and made them retire into the temple, appeared
+very angry at John's insolent attempts, which he made everyday upon the
+people; for this man never left off murdering; but the truth was, that
+he could not bear to submit to a tyrant who set up after him. So he
+being desirous of gaining the entire power and dominion to himself,
+revolted from John, and took to his assistance Judas the son of
+Chelcias, and Simon the son of Ezron, who were among the men of greatest
+power. There was also with him Hezekiah, the son of Chobar, a person of
+eminence. Each of these were followed by a great many of the zealots;
+these seized upon the inner court of the temple 1 and laid their arms
+upon the holy gates, and over the holy fronts of that court. And because
+they had plenty of provisions, they were of good courage, for there
+was a great abundance of what was consecrated to sacred uses, and they
+scrupled not the making use of them; yet were they afraid, on account of
+their small number; and when they had laid up their arms there, they did
+not stir from the place they were in. Now as to John, what advantage
+he had above Eleazar in the multitude of his followers, the like
+disadvantage he had in the situation he was in, since he had his enemies
+over his head; and as he could not make any assault upon them without
+some terror, so was his anger too great to let them be at rest; nay,
+although he suffered more mischief from Eleazar and his party than he
+could inflict upon them, yet would he not leave off assaulting them,
+insomuch that there were continual sallies made one against another, as
+well as darts thrown at one another, and the temple was defiled every
+where with murders.
+
+3. But now the tyrant Simon, the son of Gioras, whom the people had
+invited in, out of the hopes they had of his assistance in the great
+distresses they were in, having in his power the upper city, and a great
+part of the lower, did now make more vehement assaults upon John and
+his party, because they were fought against from above also; yet was he
+beneath their situation when he attacked them, as they were beneath the
+attacks of the others above them. Whereby it came to pass that John did
+both receive and inflict great damage, and that easily, as he was fought
+against on both sides; and the same advantage that Eleazar and his party
+had over him, since he was beneath them, the same advantage had he, by
+his higher situation, over Simon. On which account he easily repelled
+the attacks that were made from beneath, by the weapons thrown from
+their hands only; but was obliged to repel those that threw their
+darts from the temple above him, by his engines of war; for he had such
+engines as threw darts, and javelins, and stones, and that in no small
+number, by which he did not only defend himself from such as fought
+against him, but slew moreover many of the priests, as they were about
+their sacred ministrations. For notwithstanding these men were mad with
+all sorts of impiety, yet did they still admit those that desired to
+offer their sacrifices, although they took care to search the people of
+their own country beforehand, and both suspected and watched them; while
+they were not so much afraid of strangers, who, although they had gotten
+leave of them, how cruel soever they were, to come into that court, were
+yet often destroyed by this sedition; for those darts that were thrown
+by the engines came with that force, that they went over all the
+buildings, and reached as far as the altar, and the temple itself, and
+fell upon the priests, and those 2 that were about the sacred offices;
+insomuch that many persons who came thither with great zeal from the
+ends of the earth, to offer sacrifices at this celebrated place, which
+was esteemed holy by all mankind, fell down before their own sacrifices
+themselves, and sprinkled that altar which was venerable among all men,
+both Greeks and Barbarians, with their own blood; till the dead bodies
+of strangers were mingled together with those of their own country, and
+those of profane persons with those of the priests, and the blood of all
+sorts of dead carcasses stood in lakes in the holy courts themselves.
+And now, "O most wretched city, what misery so great as this didst thou
+suffer from the Romans, when they came to purify thee from thy intestine
+hatred! 'For thou couldst be no longer a place fit for God, nor couldst
+thou long continue in being, after thou hadst been a sepulcher for
+the bodies of thy own people, and hadst made the holy house itself a
+burying-place in this civil war of thine. Yet mayst thou again grow
+better, if perchance thou wilt hereafter appease the anger of that God
+who is the author of thy destruction." But I must restrain myself from
+these passions by the rules of history, since this is not a proper time
+for domestical lamentations, but for historical narrations; I therefore
+return to the operations that follow in this sedition. 3
+
+4. And now there were three treacherous factions in the city, the one
+parted from the other. Eleazar and his party, that kept the sacred
+first-fruits, came against John in their cups. Those that were with John
+plundered the populace, and went out with zeal against Simon. This
+Simon had his supply of provisions from the city, in opposition to the
+seditious. When, therefore, John was assaulted on both sides, he made
+his men turn about, throwing his darts upon those citizens that came
+up against him, from the cloisters he had in his possession, while he
+opposed those that attacked him from the temple by his engines of war.
+And if at any time he was freed from those that were above him, which
+happened frequently, from their being drunk and tired, he sallied out
+with a great number upon Simon and his party; and this he did always in
+such parts of the city as he could come at, till he set on fire those
+houses that were full of corn, and of all other provisions. 4 The same
+thing was done by Simon, when, upon the other's retreat, he attacked the
+city also; as if they had, on purpose, done it to serve the Romans,
+by destroying what the city had laid up against the siege, and by thus
+cutting off the nerves of their own power. Accordingly, it so came to
+pass, that all the places that were about the temple were burnt down,
+and were become an intermediate desert space, ready for fighting on both
+sides of it; and that almost all that corn was burnt, which would have
+been sufficient for a siege of many years. So they were taken by the
+means of the famine, which it was impossible they should have been,
+unless they had thus prepared the way for it by this procedure.
+
+5. And now, as the city was engaged in a war on all sides, from these
+treacherous crowds of wicked men, the people of the city, between them,
+were like a great body torn in pieces. The aged men and the women were
+in such distress by their internal calamities, that they wished for
+the Romans, and earnestly hoped for an external war, in order to their
+delivery from their domestical miseries. The citizens themselves were
+under a terrible consternation and fear; nor had they any opportunity of
+taking counsel, and of changing their conduct; nor were there any hopes
+of coming to an agreement with their enemies; nor could such as had a
+mind flee away; for guards were set at all places, and the heads of
+the robbers, although they were seditious one against another in other
+respects, yet did they agree in killing those that were for peace with
+the Romans, or were suspected of an inclination to desert them, as their
+common enemies. They agreed in nothing but this, to kill those that were
+innocent. The noise also of those that were fighting was incessant, both
+by day and by night; but the lamentations of those that mourned exceeded
+the other; nor was there ever any occasion for them to leave off
+their lamentations, because their calamities came perpetually one upon
+another, although the deep consternation they were in prevented their
+outward wailing; but being constrained by their fear to conceal their
+inward passions, they were inwardly tormented, without daring to open
+their lips in groans. Nor was any regard paid to those that were still
+alive, by their relations; nor was there any care taken of burial for
+those that were dead; the occasion of both which was this, that every
+one despaired of himself; for those that were not among the seditious
+had no great desires of any thing, as expecting for certain that they
+should very soon be destroyed; but for the seditious themselves, they
+fought against each other, while they trod upon the dead bodies as they
+lay heaped one upon another, and taking up a mad rage from those dead
+bodies that were under their feet, became the fiercer thereupon. They,
+moreover, were still inventing somewhat or other that was pernicious
+against themselves; and when they had resolved upon any thing, they
+executed it without mercy, and omitted no method of torment or of
+barbarity. Nay, John abused the sacred materials, 5 and employed them in
+the construction of his engines of war; for the people and the priests
+had formerly determined to support the temple, and raise the holy house
+twenty cubits higher; for king Agrippa had at a very great expense, and
+with very great pains, brought thither such materials as were proper for
+that purpose, being pieces of timber very well worth seeing, both for
+their straightness and their largeness; but the war coming on, and
+interrupting the work, John had them cut, and prepared for the building
+him towers, he finding them long enough to oppose from them those his
+adversaries that thought him from the temple that was above him. He also
+had them brought and erected behind the inner court over against the
+west end of the cloisters, where alone he could erect them; whereas the
+other sides of that court had so many steps as would not let them come
+nigh enough the cloisters.
+
+6. Thus did John hope to be too hard for his enemies by these engines
+constructed by his impiety; but God himself demonstrated that his pains
+would prove of no use to him, by bringing the Romans upon him, before
+he had reared any of his towers; for Titus, when he had gotten together
+part of his forces about him, and had ordered the rest to meet him at
+Jerusalem, marched out of Cesarea. He had with him those three legions
+that had accompanied his father when he laid Judea waste, together with
+that twelfth legion which had been formerly beaten with Cestius; which
+legion, as it was otherwise remarkable for its valor, so did it march
+on now with greater alacrity to avenge themselves on the Jews, as
+remembering what they had formerly suffered from them. Of these legions
+he ordered the fifth to meet him, by going through Emmaus, and the tenth
+to go up by Jericho; he also moved himself, together with the rest;
+besides whom, marched those auxiliaries that came from the kings, being
+now more in number than before, together with a considerable number that
+came to his assistance from Syria. Those also that had been selected out
+of these four legions, and sent with Mucianus to Italy, had their places
+filled up out of these soldiers that came out of Egypt with Titus; who
+were two thousand men, chosen out of the armies at Alexandria. There
+followed him also three thousand drawn from those that guarded the river
+Euphrates; as also there came Tiberius Alexander, who was a friend of
+his, most valuable, both for his good-will to him, and for his prudence.
+He had formerly been governor of Alexandria, but was now thought worthy
+to be general of the army [under Titus]. The reason of this was, that he
+had been the first who encouraged Vespasian very lately to accept this
+his new dominion, and joined himself to him with great fidelity, when
+things were uncertain, and fortune had not yet declared for him. He also
+followed Titus as a counselor, very useful to him in this war, both by
+his age and skill in such affairs.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+
+     How Titus Marched To Jerusalem, And How He Was In Danger As
+     He Was Taking A View Of The City Of The Place Also Where He
+     Pitched His Camp
+
+1. Now, as Titus was upon his march into the enemy's country, the
+auxiliaries that were sent by the kings marched first, having all the
+other auxiliaries with them; after whom followed those that were to
+prepare the roads and measure out the camp; then came the commander's
+baggage, and after that the other soldiers, who were completely armed
+to support them; then came Titus himself, having with him another select
+body; and then came the pikemen; after whom came the horse belonging to
+that legion. All these came before the engines; and after these engines
+came the tribunes and the leaders of the cohorts, with their select
+bodies; after these came the ensigns, with the eagle; and before those
+ensigns came the trumpeters belonging to them; next these came the main
+body of the army in their ranks, every rank being six deep; the servants
+belonging to every legion came after these; and before these last their
+baggage; the mercenaries came last, and those that guarded them brought
+up the rear. Now Titus, according to the Roman usage, went in the
+front of the army after a decent manner, and marched through Samaria to
+Gophna, a city that had been formerly taken by his father, and was then
+garrisoned by Roman soldiers; and when he had lodged there one night, he
+marched on in the morning; and when he had gone as far as a day's march,
+he pitched his camp at that valley which the Jews, in their own tongue,
+call "the Valley of Thorns," near a certain village called Gabaothsath,
+which signifies "the Hill of Saul," being distant from Jerusalem about
+thirty furlongs. 6 There it was that he chose out six hundred select
+horsemen, and went to take a view of the city, to observe what strength
+it was of, and how courageous the Jews were; whether, when they saw him,
+and before they came to a direct battle, they would be affrighted and
+submit; for he had been informed what was really true, that the people
+who were fallen under the power of the seditious and the robbers were
+greatly desirous of peace; but being too weak to rise up against the
+rest, they lay still.
+
+2. Now, so long as he rode along the straight road which led to the wall
+of the city, nobody appeared out of the gates; but when he went out of
+that road, and declined towards the tower Psephinus, and led the band of
+horsemen obliquely, an immense number of the Jews leaped out suddenly at
+the towers called the "Women's Towers," through that gate which was over
+against the monuments of queen Helena, and intercepted his horse; and
+standing directly opposite to those that still ran along the road,
+hindered them from joining those that had declined out of it. They
+intercepted Titus also, with a few other. Now it was here impossible for
+him to go forward, because all the places had trenches dug in them from
+the wall, to preserve the gardens round about, and were full of gardens
+obliquely situated, and of many hedges; and to return back to his own
+men, he saw it was also impossible, by reason of the multitude of the
+enemies that lay between them; many of whom did not so much as know that
+the king was in any danger, but supposed him still among them. So he
+perceived that his preservation must be wholly owing to his own courage,
+and turned his horse about, and cried out aloud to those that were about
+him to follow him, and ran with violence into the midst of his enemies,
+in order to force his way through them to his own men. And hence we may
+principally learn, that both the success of wars, and the dangers that
+kings 7 are in, are under the providence of God; for while such a number
+of darts were thrown at Titus, when he had neither his head-piece on,
+nor his breastplate, [for, as I told you, he went out not to fight, but
+to view the city,] none of them touched his body, but went aside without
+hurting him; as if all of them missed him on purpose, and only made a
+noise as they passed by him. So he diverted those perpetually with his
+sword that came on his side, and overturned many of those that directly
+met him, and made his horse ride over those that were overthrown. The
+enemy indeed made a shout at the boldness of Caesar, and exhorted one
+another to rush upon him. Yet did these against whom he marched fly
+away, and go off from him in great numbers; while those that were in the
+same danger with him kept up close to him, though they were wounded both
+on their backs and on their sides; for they had each of them but this
+one hope of escaping, if they could assist Titus in opening himself a
+way, that he might not be encompassed round by his enemies before he got
+away from them. Now there were two of those that were with him, but at
+some distance; the one of which the enemy compassed round, and slew
+him with their darts, and his horse also; but the other they slew as
+he leaped down from his horse, and carried off his horse with them. But
+Titus escaped with the rest, and came safe to the camp. So this
+success of the Jews' first attack raised their minds, and gave them an
+ill-grounded hope; and this short inclination of fortune, on their side,
+made them very courageous for the future.
+
+3. But now, as soon as that legion that had been at Emmaus was joined to
+Caesar at night, he removed thence, when it was day, and came to a place
+called Seopus; from whence the city began already to be seen, and a
+plain view might be taken of the great temple. Accordingly, this place,
+on the north quarter of the city, and joining thereto, was a plain, and
+very properly named Scopus, [the prospect,] and was no more than seven
+furlongs distant from it. And here it was that Titus ordered a camp
+to be fortified for two legions that were to be together; but ordered
+another camp to be fortified, at three furlongs farther distance behind
+them, for the fifth legion; for he thought that, by marching in the
+night, they might be tired, and might deserve to be covered from the
+enemy, and with less fear might fortify themselves; and as these were
+now beginning to build, the tenth legion, who came through Jericho,
+was already come to the place, where a certain party of armed men had
+formerly lain, to guard that pass into the city, and had been taken
+before by Vespasian. These legions had orders to encamp at the distance
+of six furlongs from Jerusalem, at the mount called the Mount of Olives
+8 which lies over against the city on the east side, and is parted from
+it by a deep valley, interposed between them, which is named Cedron.
+
+4. Now when hitherto the several parties in the city had been dashing
+one against another perpetually, this foreign war, now suddenly
+come upon them after a violent manner, put the first stop to their
+contentions one against another; and as the seditious now saw with
+astonishment the Romans pitching three several camps, they began to
+think of an awkward sort of concord, and said one to another, "What do
+we here, and what do we mean, when we suffer three fortified walls to be
+built to coop us in, that we shall not be able to breathe freely? while
+the enemy is securely building a kind of city in opposition to us, and
+while we sit still within our own walls, and become spectators only of
+what they are doing, with our hands idle, and our armor laid by, as if
+they were about somewhat that was for our good and advantage. We are, it
+seems, [so did they cry out,] only courageous against ourselves,
+while the Romans are likely to gain the city without bloodshed by our
+sedition." Thus did they encourage one another when they were gotten
+together, and took their armor immediately, and ran out upon the tenth
+legion, and fell upon the Romans with great eagerness, and with a
+prodigious shout, as they were fortifying their camp. These Romans were
+caught in different parties, and this in order to perform their several
+works, and on that account had in great measure laid aside their arms;
+for they thought the Jews would not have ventured to make a sally upon
+them; and had they been disposed so to do, they supposed their sedition
+would have distracted them. So they were put into disorder unexpectedly;
+when some of them left their works they were about, and immediately
+marched off, while many ran to their arms, but were smitten and slain
+before they could turn back upon the enemy. The Jews became still more
+and more in number, as encouraged by the good success of those that
+first made the attack; and while they had such good fortune, they seemed
+both to themselves and to the enemy to be many more than they really
+were. The disorderly way of their fighting at first put the Romans also
+to a stand, who had been constantly used to fight skillfully in good
+order, and with keeping their ranks, and obeying the orders that were
+given them; for which reason the Romans were caught unexpectedly, and
+were obliged to give way to the assaults that were made upon them. Now
+when these Romans were overtaken, and turned back upon the Jews, they
+put a stop to their career; yet when they did not take care enough of
+themselves through the vehemency of their pursuit, they were wounded
+by them; but as still more and more Jews sallied out of the city, the
+Romans were at length brought into confusion, and put to flight, and
+ran away from their camp. Nay, things looked as though the entire legion
+would have been in danger, unless Titus had been informed of the case
+they were in, and had sent them succors immediately. So he reproached
+them for their cowardice, and brought those back that were running away,
+and fell himself upon the Jews on their flank, with those select troops
+that were with him, and slew a considerable number, and wounded more of
+them, and put them all to flight, and made them run away hastily down
+the valley. Now as these Jews suffered greatly in the declivity of the
+valley, so when they were gotten over it, they turned about, and stood
+over against the Romans, having the valley between them, and there
+fought with them. Thus did they continue the fight till noon; but when
+it was already a little after noon, Titus set those that came to the
+assistance of the Romans with him, and those that belonged to the
+cohorts, to prevent the Jews from making any more sallies, and then sent
+the rest of the legion to the upper part of the mountain, to fortify
+their camp.
+
+5. This march of the Romans seemed to the Jews to be a flight; and as
+the watchman who was placed upon the wall gave a signal by shaking his
+garment, there came out a fresh multitude of Jews, and that with such
+mighty violence, that one might compare it to the running of the most
+terrible wild beasts. To say the truth, none of those that opposed them
+could sustain the fury with which they made their attacks; but, as if
+they had been cast out of an engine, they brake the enemies' ranks to
+pieces, who were put to flight, and ran away to the mountain; none but
+Titus himself, and a few others with him, being left in the midst of the
+acclivity. Now these others, who were his friends, despised the danger
+they were in, and were ashamed to leave their general, earnestly
+exhorting him to give way to these Jews that are fond of dying, and not
+to run into such dangers before those that ought to stay before him;
+to consider what his fortune was, and not, by supplying the place of a
+common soldier, to venture to turn back upon the enemy so suddenly; and
+this because he was general in the war, and lord of the habitable
+earth, on whose preservation the public affairs do all depend. These
+persuasions Titus seemed not so much as to hear, but opposed those that
+ran upon him, and smote them on the face; and when he had forced them to
+go back, he slew them: he also fell upon great numbers as they marched
+down the hill, and thrust them forward; while those men were so amazed
+at his courage and his strength, that they could not fly directly to the
+city, but declined from him on both sides, and pressed after those that
+fled up the hill; yet did he still fall upon their flank, and put a stop
+to their fury. In the mean time, a disorder and a terror fell again upon
+those that were fortifying their camp at the top of the hill, upon their
+seeing those beneath them running away; insomuch that the whole legion
+was dispersed, while they thought that the sallies of the Jews upon them
+were plainly insupportable, and that Titus was himself put to flight;
+because they took it for granted, that, if he had staid, the rest would
+never have fled for it. Thus were they encompassed on every side by
+a kind of panic fear, and some dispersed themselves one way, and some
+another, till certain of them saw their general in the very midst of an
+action, and being under great concern for him, they loudly proclaimed
+the danger he was in to the entire legion; and now shame made them turn
+back, and they reproached one another that they did worse than run away,
+by deserting Caesar. So they used their utmost force against the Jews,
+and declining from the straight declivity, they drove them on heaps into
+the bottom of the valley. Then did the Jews turn about and fight them;
+but as they were themselves retiring, and now, because the Romans had
+the advantage of the ground, and were above the Jews, they drove them
+all into the valley. Titus also pressed upon those that were near him,
+and sent the legion again to fortify their camp; while he, and those
+that were with him before, opposed the enemy, and kept them from doing
+further mischief; insomuch that, if I may be allowed neither to add any
+thing out of flattery, nor to diminish any thing out of envy, but to
+speak the plain truth, Caesar did twice deliver that entire legion when
+it was in jeopardy, and gave them a quiet opportunity of fortifying
+their camp.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3.
+
+
+     How The Sedition Was Again Revived Within Jerusalem And Yet
+     The Jews Contrived Snares For The Romans. How Titus Also
+     Threatened His Soldiers For Their Ungovernable Rashness.
+
+1. As now the war abroad ceased for a while, the sedition within was
+revived; and on the feast of unleavened bread, which was now come, it
+being the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] when it is
+believed the Jews were first freed from the Egyptians, Eleazar and
+his party opened the gates of this [inmost court of the] temple, and
+admitted such of the people as were desirous to worship God into it.
+9 But John made use of this festival as a cloak for his treacherous
+designs, and armed the most inconsiderable of his own party, the greater
+part of whom were not purified, with weapons concealed under their
+garments, and sent them with great zeal into the temple, in order to
+seize upon it; which armed men, when they were gotten in, threw their
+garments away, and presently appeared in their armor. Upon which there
+was a very great disorder and disturbance about the holy house; while
+the people, who had no concern in the sedition, supposed that this
+assault was made against all without distinction, as the zealots thought
+it was made against themselves only. So these left off guarding the
+gates any longer, and leaped down from their battlements before they
+came to an engagement, and fled away into the subterranean caverns of
+the temple; while the people that stood trembling at the altar, and
+about the holy house, were rolled on heaps together, and trampled upon,
+and were beaten both with wooden and with iron weapons without mercy.
+Such also as had differences with others slew many persons that were
+quiet, out of their own private enmity and hatred, as if they were
+opposite to the seditious; and all those that had formerly offended
+any of these plotters were now known, and were now led away to the
+slaughter; and when they had done abundance of horrid mischief to the
+guiltless, they granted a truce to the guilty, and let those go off that
+came out of the caverns. These followers of John also did now seize upon
+this inner temple, and upon all the warlike engines therein, and then
+ventured to oppose Simon. And thus that sedition, which had been divided
+into three factions, was now reduced to two.
+
+2. But Titus, intending to pitch his camp nearer to the city than
+Scopus, placed as many of his choice horsemen and footmen as he thought
+sufficient opposite to the Jews, to prevent their sallying out upon
+them, while he gave orders for the whole army to level the distance, as
+far as the wall of the city. So they threw down all the hedges and walls
+which the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of trees,
+and cut down all the fruit trees that lay between them and the wall
+of the city, and filled up all the hollow places and the chasms, and
+demolished the rocky precipices with iron instruments; and thereby made
+all the place level from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which adjoined to
+the pool called the Serpent's Pool.
+
+3. Now at this very time the Jews contrived the following stratagem
+against the Romans. The bolder sort of the seditious went out at the
+towers, called the Women's Towers, as if they had been ejected out of
+the city by those who were for peace, and rambled about as if they
+were afraid of being assaulted by the Romans, and were in fear of one
+another; while those that stood upon the wall, and seemed to be of the
+people's side, cried out aloud for peace, and entreated they might
+have security for their lives given them, and called for the Romans,
+promising to open the gates to them; and as they cried out after that
+manner, they threw stones at their own people, as though they would
+drive them away from the gates. These also pretended that they were
+excluded by force, and that they petitioned those that were within to
+let them in; and rushing upon the Romans perpetually, with violence,
+they then came back, and seemed to be in great disorder. Now the Roman
+soldiers thought this cunning stratagem of theirs was to be believed
+real, and thinking they had the one party under their power, and could
+punish them as they pleased, and hoping that the other party would open
+their gates to them, set to the execution of their designs accordingly.
+But for Titus himself, he had this surprising conduct of the Jews
+in suspicion; for whereas he had invited them to come to terms of
+accommodation, by Josephus, but one day before, he could then receive
+no civil answer from them; so he ordered the soldiers to stay where
+they were. However, some of them that were set in the front of the works
+prevented him, and catching up their arms ran to the gates; whereupon
+those that seemed to have been ejected at the first retired; but as soon
+as the soldiers were gotten between the towers on each side of the gate,
+the Jews ran out and encompassed them round, and fell upon them behind,
+while that multitude which stood upon the wall threw a heap of stones
+and darts of all kinds at them, insomuch that they slew a considerable
+number, and wounded many more; for it was not easy for the Romans to
+escape, by reason those behind them pressed them forward; besides which,
+the shame they were under for being mistaken, and the fear they were
+in of their commanders, engaged them to persevere in their mistake;
+wherefore they fought with their spears a great while, and received many
+blows from the Jews, though indeed they gave them as many blows again,
+and at last repelled those that had encompassed them about, while the
+Jews pursued them as they retired, and followed them, and threw darts at
+them as far as the monuments of queen Helena.
+
+4. After this these Jews, without keeping any decorum, grew insolent
+upon their good fortune, and jested upon the Romans for being deluded by
+the trick they had put upon them, and making a noise with beating their
+shields, leaped for gladness, and made joyful exclamations; while these
+soldiers were received with threatenings by their officers, and with
+indignation by Caesar himself, [who spake to them thus]: These Jews,
+who are only conducted by their madness, do every thing with care and
+circumspection; they contrive stratagems, and lay ambushes, and fortune
+gives success to their stratagems, because they are obedient, and
+preserve their goodwill and fidelity to one another; while the Romans,
+to whom fortune uses to be ever subservient, by reason of their good
+order, and ready submission to their commanders, have now had ill
+success by their contrary behavior, and by not being able to restrain
+their hands from action, they have been caught; and that which is the
+most to their reproach, they have gone on without their commanders,
+in the very presence of Caesar. "Truly," says Titus, "the laws of war
+cannot but groan heavily, as will my father also himself, when he shall
+be informed of this wound that hath been given us, since he who is grown
+old in wars did never make so great a mistake. Our laws of war do also
+ever inflict capital punishment on those that in the least break into
+good order, while at this time they have seen an entire army run into
+disorder. However, those that have been so insolent shall be made
+immediately sensible, that even they who conquer among the Romans
+without orders for fighting are to be under disgrace." When Titus had
+enlarged upon this matter before the commanders, it appeared evident
+that he would execute the law against all those that were concerned; so
+these soldiers' minds sunk down in despair, as expecting to be put to
+death, and that justly and quickly. However, the other legions came
+round about Titus, and entreated his favor to these their fellow
+soldiers, and made supplication to him, that he would pardon the
+rashness of a few, on account of the better obedience of all the rest;
+and promised for them that they should make amends for their present
+fault, by their more virtuous behavior for the time to come.
+
+5. So Caesar complied with their desires, and with what prudence
+dictated to him also; for he esteemed it fit to punish single persons
+by real executions, but that the punishment of great multitudes should
+proceed no further than reproofs; so he was reconciled to the soldiers,
+but gave them a special charge to act more wisely for the future; and
+he considered with himself how he might be even with the Jews for their
+stratagem. And now when the space between the Romans and the wall had
+been leveled, which was done in four days, and as he was desirous to
+bring the baggage of the army, with the rest of the multitude that
+followed him, safely to the camp, he set the strongest part of his army
+over against that wall which lay on the north quarter of the city, and
+over against the western part of it, and made his army seven deep, with
+the foot-men placed before them, and the horsemen behind them, each of
+the last in three ranks, whilst the archers stood in the midst in seven
+ranks. And now as the Jews were prohibited, by so great a body of men,
+from making sallies upon the Romans, both the beasts that bare the
+burdens, and belonged to the three legions, and the rest of the
+multitude, marched on without any fear. But as for Titus himself, he was
+but about two furlongs distant from the wall, at that part of it
+where was the corner 10 and over against that tower which was called
+Psephinus, at which tower the compass of the wall belonging to the north
+bended, and extended itself over against the west; but the other part of
+the army fortified itself at the tower called Hippicus, and was distant,
+in like manner, by two furlongs from the city. However, the tenth legion
+continued in its own place, upon the Mount of Olives.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+
+     The Description Of Jerusalem.
+
+1. The city of Jerusalem was fortified with three walls, on such parts
+as were not encompassed with unpassable valleys; for in such places it
+had but one wall. The city was built upon two hills, which are opposite
+to one another, and have a valley to divide them asunder; at which
+valley the corresponding rows of houses on both hills end. Of these
+hills, that which contains the upper city is much higher, and in length
+more direct. Accordingly, it was called the "Citadel," by king David; he
+was the father of that Solomon who built this temple at the first; but
+it is by us called the "Upper Market-place." But the other hill, which
+was called "Acra," and sustains the lower city, is of the shape of a
+moon when she is horned; over against this there was a third hill, but
+naturally lower than Acra, and parted formerly from the other by a broad
+valley. However, in those times when the Asamoneans reigned, they
+filled up that valley with earth, and had a mind to join the city to the
+temple. They then took off part of the height of Acra, and reduced it
+to be of less elevation than it was before, that the temple might be
+superior to it. Now the Valley of the Cheesemongers, as it was called,
+and was that which we told you before distinguished the hill of the
+upper city from that of the lower, extended as far as Siloam; for that
+is the name of a fountain which hath sweet water in it, and this in
+great plenty also. But on the outsides, these hills are surrounded by
+deep valleys, and by reason of the precipices to them belonging on both
+sides they are every where unpassable.
+
+2. Now, of these three walls, the old one was hard to be taken, both by
+reason of the valleys, and of that hill on which it was built, and which
+was above them. But besides that great advantage, as to the place where
+they were situated, it was also built very strong; because David and
+Solomon, and the following kings, were very zealous about this work.
+Now that wall began on the north, at the tower called "Hippicus," and
+extended as far as the "Xistus," a place so called, and then, joining to
+the council-house, ended at the west cloister of the temple. But if
+we go the other way westward, it began at the same place, and extended
+through a place called "Bethso," to the gate of the Essens; and after
+that it went southward, having its bending above the fountain Siloam,
+where it also bends again towards the east at Solomon's pool, and
+reaches as far as a certain place which they called "Ophlas," where it
+was joined to the eastern cloister of the temple. The second wall took
+its beginning from that gate which they called "Gennath," which belonged
+to the first wall; it only encompassed the northern quarter of the city,
+and reached as far as the tower Antonia. The beginning of the third wall
+was at the tower Hippicus, whence it reached as far as the north quarter
+of the city, and the tower Psephinus, and then was so far extended till
+it came over against the monuments of Helena, which Helena was queen of
+Adiabene, the daughter of Izates; it then extended further to a great
+length, and passed by the sepulchral caverns of the kings, and bent
+again at the tower of the corner, at the monument which is called the
+"Monument of the Fuller," and joined to the old wall at the valley
+called the "Valley of Cedron." It was Agrippa who encompassed the parts
+added to the old city with this wall, which had been all naked before;
+for as the city grew more populous, it gradually crept beyond its old
+limits, and those parts of it that stood northward of the temple,
+and joined that hill to the city, made it considerably larger, and
+occasioned that hill, which is in number the fourth, and is called
+"Bezetha," to be inhabited also. It lies over against the tower Antonia,
+but is divided from it by a deep valley, which was dug on purpose, and
+that in order to hinder the foundations of the tower of Antonia from
+joining to this hill, and thereby affording an opportunity for getting
+to it with ease, and hindering the security that arose from its superior
+elevation; for which reason also that depth of the ditch made the
+elevation of the towers more remarkable. This new-built part of the
+city was called "Bezetha," in our language, which, if interpreted in the
+Grecian language, may be called "the New City." Since, therefore, its
+inhabitants stood in need of a covering, the father of the present king,
+and of the same name with him, Agrippa, began that wall we spoke of; but
+he left off building it when he had only laid the foundations, out of
+the fear he was in of Claudius Caesar, lest he should suspect that
+so strong a wall was built in order to make some innovation in public
+affairs; for the city could no way have been taken if that wall had
+been finished in the manner it was begun; as its parts were connected
+together by stones twenty cubits long, and ten cubits broad, which could
+never have been either easily undermined by any iron tools, or shaken
+by any engines. The wall was, however, ten cubits wide, and it would
+probably have had a height greater than that, had not his zeal who began
+it been hindered from exerting itself. After this, it was erected with
+great diligence by the Jews, as high as twenty cubits, above which it
+had battlements of two cubits, and turrets of three cubits altitude,
+insomuch that the entire altitude extended as far as twenty-five cubits.
+
+3. Now the towers that were upon it were twenty cubits in breadth, and
+twenty cubits in height; they were square and solid, as was the wall
+itself, wherein the niceness of the joints, and the beauty of the
+stones, were no way inferior to those of the holy house itself. Above
+this solid altitude of the towers, which was twenty cubits, there were
+rooms of great magnificence, and over them upper rooms, and cisterns to
+receive rain-water. They were many in number, and the steps by which you
+ascended up to them were every one broad: of these towers then the
+third wall had ninety, and the spaces between them were each two hundred
+cubits; but in the middle wall were forty towers, and the old wall was
+parted into sixty, while the whole compass of the city was thirty-three
+furlongs. Now the third wall was all of it wonderful; yet was the tower
+Psephinus elevated above it at the north-west corner, and there Titus
+pitched his own tent; for being seventy cubits high it both afforded a
+prospect of Arabia at sun-rising, as well as it did of the utmost limits
+of the Hebrew possessions at the sea westward. Moreover, it was an
+octagon, and over against it was the tower Hipplicus, and hard by two
+others were erected by king Herod, in the old wall. These were for
+largeness, beauty, and strength beyond all that were in the habitable
+earth; for besides the magnanimity of his nature, and his magnificence
+towards the city on other occasions, he built these after such an
+extraordinary manner, to gratify his own private affections, and
+dedicated these towers to the memory of those three persons who had been
+the dearest to him, and from whom he named them. They were his brother,
+his friend, and his wife. This wife he had slain, out of his love [and
+jealousy], as we have already related; the other two he lost in war, as
+they were courageously fighting. Hippicus, so named from his friend,
+was square; its length and breadth were each twenty-five cubits, and its
+height thirty, and it had no vacuity in it. Over this solid building,
+which was composed of great stones united together, there was a
+reservoir twenty cubits deep, over which there was a house of two
+stories, whose height was twenty-five cubits, and divided into several
+parts; over which were battlements of two cubits, and turrets all round
+of three cubits high, insomuch that the entire height added together
+amounted to fourscore cubits. The second tower, which he named from his
+brother Phasaelus, had its breadth and its height equal, each of them
+forty cubits; over which was its solid height of forty cubits; over
+which a cloister went round about, whose height was ten cubits, and it
+was covered from enemies by breast-works and bulwarks. There was also
+built over that cloister another tower, parted into magnificent rooms,
+and a place for bathing; so that this tower wanted nothing that
+might make it appear to be a royal palace. It was also adorned with
+battlements and turrets, more than was the foregoing, and the entire
+altitude was about ninety cubits; the appearance of it resembled the
+tower of Pharus, which exhibited a fire to such as sailed to Alexandria,
+but was much larger than it in compass. This was now converted to a
+house, wherein Simon exercised his tyrannical authority. The third tower
+was Mariamne, for that was his queen's name; it was solid as high as
+twenty cubits; its breadth and its length were twenty cubits, and were
+equal to each other; its upper buildings were more magnificent, and had
+greater variety, than the other towers had; for the king thought it most
+proper for him to adorn that which was denominated from his wife, better
+than those denominated from men, as those were built stronger than this
+that bore his wife's name. The entire height of this tower was fifty
+cubits.
+
+4. Now as these towers were so very tall, they appeared much taller by
+the place on which they stood; for that very old wall wherein they were
+was built on a high hill, and was itself a kind of elevation that was
+still thirty cubits taller; over which were the towers situated, and
+thereby were made much higher to appearance. The largeness also of the
+stones was wonderful; for they were not made of common small stones,
+nor of such large ones only as men could carry, but they were of white
+marble, cut out of the rock; each stone was twenty cubits in length, and
+ten in breadth, and five in depth. They were so exactly united to
+one another, that each tower looked like one entire rock of stone, so
+growing naturally, and afterward cut by the hand of the artificers into
+their present shape and corners; so little, or not at all, did their
+joints or connexion appear low as these towers were themselves on the
+north side of the wall, the king had a palace inwardly thereto adjoined,
+which exceeds all my ability to describe it; for it was so very curious
+as to want no cost nor skill in its construction, but was entirely
+walled about to the height of thirty cubits, and was adorned with towers
+at equal distances, and with large bed-chambers, that would contain beds
+for a hundred guests a-piece, in which the variety of the stones is not
+to be expressed; for a large quantity of those that were rare of that
+kind was collected together. Their roofs were also wonderful, both for
+the length of the beams, and the splendor of their ornaments. The number
+of the rooms was also very great, and the variety of the figures that
+were about them was prodigious; their furniture was complete, and the
+greatest part of the vessels that were put in them was of silver and
+gold. There were besides many porticoes, one beyond another, round
+about, and in each of those porticoes curious pillars; yet were all
+the courts that were exposed to the air every where green. There were,
+moreover, several groves of trees, and long walks through them, with
+deep canals, and cisterns, that in several parts were filled with
+brazen statues, through which the water ran out. There were withal many
+dove-courts 11 of tame pigeons about the canals. But indeed it is not
+possible to give a complete description of these palaces; and the very
+remembrance of them is a torment to one, as putting one in mind what
+vastly rich buildings that fire which was kindled by the robbers hath
+consumed; for these were not burnt by the Romans, but by these internal
+plotters, as we have already related, in the beginning of their
+rebellion. That fire began at the tower of Antonia, and went on to the
+palaces, and consumed the upper parts of the three towers themselves.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5.
+
+
+     A Description Of The Temple.
+
+1. Now this temple, as I have already said, was built upon a strong
+hill. At first the plain at the top was hardly sufficient for the holy
+house and the altar, for the ground about it was very uneven, and like
+a precipice; but when king Solomon, who was the person that built the
+temple, had built a wall to it on its east side, there was then added
+one cloister founded on a bank cast up for it, and on the other parts
+the holy house stood naked. But in future ages the people added new
+banks, 12 and the hill became a larger plain. They then broke down the
+wall on the north side, and took in as much as sufficed afterward for
+the compass of the entire temple. And when they had built walls on three
+sides of the temple round about, from the bottom of the hill, and had
+performed a work that was greater than could be hoped for, [in which
+work long ages were spent by them, as well as all their sacred treasures
+were exhausted, which were still replenished by those tributes which
+were sent to God from the whole habitable earth,] they then encompassed
+their upper courts with cloisters, as well as they [afterward] did the
+lowest [court of the] temple. The lowest part of this was erected to the
+height of three hundred cubits, and in some places more; yet did not
+the entire depth of the foundations appear, for they brought earth, and
+filled up the valleys, as being desirous to make them on a level with
+the narrow streets of the city; wherein they made use of stones of forty
+cubits in magnitude; for the great plenty of money they then had, and
+the liberality of the people, made this attempt of theirs to succeed to
+an incredible degree; and what could not be so much as hoped for as ever
+to be accomplished, was, by perseverance and length of time, brought to
+perfection.
+
+2. Now for the works that were above these foundations, these were not
+unworthy of such foundations; for all the cloisters were double, and
+the pillars to them belonging were twenty-five cubits in height, and
+supported the cloisters. These pillars were of one entire stone each of
+them, and that stone was white marble; and the roofs were adorned with
+cedar, curiously graven. The natural magnificence, and excellent polish,
+and the harmony of the joints in these cloisters, afforded a prospect
+that was very remarkable; nor was it on the outside adorned with any
+work of the painter or engraver. The cloisters [of the outmost court]
+were in breadth thirty cubits, while the entire compass of it was by
+measure six furlongs, including the tower of Antonia; those entire
+courts that were exposed to the air were laid with stones of all sorts.
+When you go through these [first] cloisters, unto the second [court of
+the] temple, there was a partition made of stone all round, whose height
+was three cubits: its construction was very elegant; upon it stood
+pillars, at equal distances from one another, declaring the law of
+purity, some in Greek, and some in Roman letters, that "no foreigner
+should go within that sanctuary" for that second [court of the] temple
+was called "the Sanctuary," and was ascended to by fourteen steps from
+the first court. This court was four-square, and had a wall about it
+peculiar to itself; the height of its buildings, although it were on the
+outside forty cubits, 13 was hidden by the steps, and on the inside that
+height was but twenty-five cubits; for it being built over against a
+higher part of the hill with steps, it was no further to be entirely
+discerned within, being covered by the hill itself. Beyond these
+thirteen steps there was the distance of ten cubits; this was all plain;
+whence there were other steps, each of five cubits a-piece, that led to
+the gates, which gates on the north and south sides were eight, on each
+of those sides four, and of necessity two on the east. For since there
+was a partition built for the women on that side, as the proper place
+wherein they were to worship, there was a necessity for a second gate
+for them: this gate was cut out of its wall, over against the first
+gate. There was also on the other sides one southern and one northern
+gate, through which was a passage into the court of the women; for as
+to the other gates, the women were not allowed to pass through them;
+nor when they went through their own gate could they go beyond their own
+wall. This place was allotted to the women of our own country, and
+of other countries, provided they were of the same nation, and that
+equally. The western part of this court had no gate at all, but the wall
+was built entire on that side. But then the cloisters which were betwixt
+the gates extended from the wall inward, before the chambers; for they
+were supported by very fine and large pillars. These cloisters were
+single, and, excepting their magnitude, were no way inferior to those of
+the lower court.
+
+3. Now nine of these gates were on every side covered over with gold and
+silver, as were the jambs of their doors and their lintels; but there
+was one gate that was without the [inward court of the] holy house,
+which was of Corinthian brass, and greatly excelled those that were only
+covered over with silver and gold. Each gate had two doors, whose height
+was severally thirty cubits, and their breadth fifteen. However, they
+had large spaces within of thirty cubits, and had on each side rooms,
+and those, both in breadth and in length, built like towers, and their
+height was above forty cubits. Two pillars did also support these rooms,
+and were in circumference twelve cubits. Now the magnitudes of the other
+gates were equal one to another; but that over the Corinthian gate,
+which opened on the east over against the gate of the holy house itself,
+was much larger; for its height was fifty cubits; and its doors were
+forty cubits; and it was adorned after a most costly manner, as having
+much richer and thicker plates of silver and gold upon them than the
+other. These nine gates had that silver and gold poured upon them by
+Alexander, the father of Tiberius. Now there were fifteen steps, which
+led away from the wall of the court of the women to this greater gate;
+whereas those that led thither from the other gates were five steps
+shorter.
+
+4. As to the holy house itself, which was placed in the midst [of the
+inmost court], that most sacred part of the temple, it was ascended to
+by twelve steps; and in front its height and its breadth were equal, and
+each a hundred cubits, though it was behind forty cubits narrower; for
+on its front it had what may be styled shoulders on each side, that
+passed twenty cubits further. Its first gate was seventy cubits high,
+and twenty-five cubits broad; but this gate had no doors; for it
+represented the universal visibility of heaven, and that it cannot be
+excluded from any place. Its front was covered with gold all over, and
+through it the first part of the house, that was more inward, did all of
+it appear; which, as it was very large, so did all the parts about the
+more inward gate appear to shine to those that saw them; but then, as
+the entire house was divided into two parts within, it was only the
+first part of it that was open to our view. Its height extended all
+along to ninety cubits in height, and its length was fifty cubits, and
+its breadth twenty. But that gate which was at this end of the first
+part of the house was, as we have already observed, all over covered
+with gold, as was its whole wall about it; it had also golden vines
+above it, from which clusters of grapes hung as tall as a man's height.
+But then this house, as it was divided into two parts, the inner part
+was lower than the appearance of the outer, and had golden doors of
+fifty-five cubits altitude, and sixteen in breadth; but before these
+doors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a
+Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen, and scarlet,
+and purple, and of a contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was this
+mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind
+of image of the universe; for by the scarlet there seemed to be
+enigmatically signified fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the blue
+the air, and by the purple the sea; two of them having their colors the
+foundation of this resemblance; but the fine flax and the purple have
+their own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one, and
+the sea the other. This curtain had also embroidered upon it all that
+was mystical in the heavens, excepting that of the [twelve] signs,
+representing living creatures.
+
+5. When any persons entered into the temple, its floor received them.
+This part of the temple therefore was in height sixty cubits, and its
+length the same; whereas its breadth was but twenty cubits: but still
+that sixty cubits in length was divided again, and the first part of it
+was cut off at forty cubits, and had in it three things that were very
+wonderful and famous among all mankind, the candlestick, the table [of
+shew-bread], and the altar of incense. Now the seven lamps signified the
+seven planets; for so many there were springing out of the candlestick.
+Now the twelve loaves that were upon the table signified the circle of
+the zodiac and the year; but the altar of incense, by its thirteen kinds
+of sweet-smelling spices with which the sea replenished it, signified
+that God is the possessor of all things that are both in the
+uninhabitable and habitable parts of the earth, and that they are all to
+be dedicated to his use. But the inmost part of the temple of all was of
+twenty cubits. This was also separated from the outer part by a veil. In
+this there was nothing at all. It was inaccessible and inviolable, and
+not to be seen by any; and was called the Holy of Holies. Now, about the
+sides of the lower part of the temple, there were little houses, with
+passages out of one into another; there were a great many of them, and
+they were of three stories high; there were also entrances on each side
+into them from the gate of the temple. But the superior part of the
+temple had no such little houses any further, because the temple was
+there narrower, and forty cubits higher, and of a smaller body than the
+lower parts of it. Thus we collect that the whole height, including the
+sixty cubits from the floor, amounted to a hundred cubits.
+
+6. Now the outward face of the temple in its front wanted nothing that
+was likely to surprise either men's minds or their eyes; for it was
+covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the first
+rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made those
+who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as
+they would have done at the sun's own rays. But this temple appeared to
+strangers, when they were coming to it at a distance, like a mountain
+covered with snow; for as to those parts of it that were not gilt, they
+were exceeding white. On its top it had spikes with sharp points, to
+prevent any pollution of it by birds sitting upon it. Of its stones,
+some of them were forty-five cubits in length, five in height, and six
+in breadth. Before this temple stood the altar, fifteen cubits high,
+and equal both in length and breadth; each of which dimensions was fifty
+cubits. The figure it was built in was a square, and it had corners like
+horns; and the passage up to it was by an insensible acclivity. It was
+formed without any iron tool, nor did any such iron tool so much as
+touch it at any time. There was also a wall of partition, about a cubit
+in height, made of fine stones, and so as to be grateful to the sight;
+this encompassed the holy house and the altar, and kept the people that
+were on the outside off from the priests. Moreover, those that had the
+gonorrhea and the leprosy were excluded out of the city entirely; women
+also, when their courses were upon them, were shut out of the temple;
+nor when they were free from that impurity, were they allowed to go
+beyond the limit before-mentioned; men also, that were not thoroughly
+pure, were prohibited to come into the inner [court of the] temple; nay,
+the priests themselves that were not pure were prohibited to come into
+it also.
+
+7. Now all those of the stock of the priests that could not minister
+by reason of some defect in their bodies, came within the partition,
+together with those that had no such imperfection, and had their share
+with them by reason of their stock, but still made use of none except
+their own private garments; for nobody but he that officiated had on his
+sacred garments; but then those priests that were without any blemish
+upon them went up to the altar clothed in fine linen. They abstained
+chiefly from wine, out of this fear, lest otherwise they should
+transgress some rules of their ministration. The high priest did also go
+up with them; not always indeed, but on the seventh days and new moons,
+and if any festivals belonging to our nation, which we celebrate every
+year, happened. When he officiated, he had on a pair of breeches that
+reached beneath his privy parts to his thighs, and had on an inner
+garment of linen, together with a blue garment, round, without seam,
+with fringe work, and reaching to the feet. There were also golden bells
+that hung upon the fringes, and pomegranates intermixed among them. The
+bells signified thunder, and the pomegranates lightning. But that girdle
+that tied the garment to the breast was embroidered with five rows of
+various colors, of gold, and purple, and scarlet, as also of fine linen
+and blue, with which colors we told you before the veils of the temple
+were embroidered also. The like embroidery was upon the ephod; but the
+quantity of gold therein was greater. Its figure was that of a stomacher
+for the breast. There were upon it two golden buttons like small
+shields, which buttoned the ephod to the garment; in these buttons were
+enclosed two very large and very excellent sardonyxes, having the names
+of the tribes of that nation engraved upon them: on the other part there
+hung twelve stones, three in a row one way, and four in the other; a
+sardius, a topaz, and an emerald; a carbuncle, a jasper, and a sapphire;
+an agate, an amethyst, and a ligure; an onyx, a beryl, and a chrysolite;
+upon every one of which was again engraved one of the forementioned
+names of the tribes. A mitre also of fine linen encompassed his head,
+which was tied by a blue ribbon, about which there was another golden
+crown, in which was engraven the sacred name [of God]: it consists of
+four vowels. However, the high priest did not wear these garments at
+other times, but a more plain habit; he only did it when he went into
+the most sacred part of the temple, which he did but once in a year,
+on that day when our custom is for all of us to keep a fast to God. And
+thus much concerning the city and the temple; but for the customs and
+laws hereto relating, we shall speak more accurately another time; for
+there remain a great many things thereto relating which have not been
+here touched upon.
+
+8. Now as to the tower of Antonia, it was situated at the corner of two
+cloisters of the court of the temple; of that on the west, and that on
+the north; it was erected upon a rock of fifty cubits in height, and
+was on a great precipice; it was the work of king Herod, wherein he
+demonstrated his natural magnanimity. In the first place, the
+rock itself was covered over with smooth pieces of stone, from its
+foundation, both for ornament, and that any one who would either try to
+get up or to go down it might not be able to hold his feet upon it. Next
+to this, and before you come to the edifice of the tower itself, there
+was a wall three cubits high; but within that wall all the space of the
+tower of Antonia itself was built upon, to the height of forty cubits.
+The inward parts had the largeness and form of a palace, it being parted
+into all kinds of rooms and other conveniences, such as courts, and
+places for bathing, and broad spaces for camps; insomuch that, by having
+all conveniences that cities wanted, it might seem to be composed of
+several cities, but by its magnificence it seemed a palace. And as the
+entire structure resembled that of a tower, it contained also four other
+distinct towers at its four corners; whereof the others were but fifty
+cubits high; whereas that which lay upon the southeast corner was
+seventy cubits high, that from thence the whole temple might be viewed;
+but on the corner where it joined to the two cloisters of the temple,
+it had passages down to them both, through which the guard [for there
+always lay in this tower a Roman legion] went several ways among the
+cloisters, with their arms, on the Jewish festivals, in order to watch
+the people, that they might not there attempt to make any innovations;
+for the temple was a fortress that guarded the city, as was the tower
+of Antonia a guard to the temple; and in that tower were the guards
+of those three 14. There was also a peculiar fortress belonging to the
+upper city, which was Herod's palace; but for the hill Bezetha, it was
+divided from the tower Antonia, as we have already told you; and as that
+hill on which the tower of Antonia stood was the highest of these three,
+so did it adjoin to the new city, and was the only place that hindered
+the sight of the temple on the north. And this shall suffice at present
+to have spoken about the city and the walls about it, because I have
+proposed to myself to make a more accurate description of it elsewhere.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+
+     Concerning The Tyrants Simon And John. How Also As Titus Was
+     Going Round The Wall Of This City Nicanor Was Wounded By A
+     Dart; Which Accident Provoked Titus To Press On The Siege.
+
+1. Now the warlike men that were in the city, and the multitude of the
+seditious that were with Simon, were ten thousand, besides the Idumeans.
+Those ten thousand had fifty commanders, over whom this Simon was
+supreme. The Idumeans that paid him homage were five thousand, and had
+eight commanders, among whom those of greatest fame were Jacob the son
+of Sosas, and Simon the son of Cathlas. Jotre, who had seized upon the
+temple, had six thousand armed men under twenty commanders; the zealots
+also that had come over to him, and left off their opposition, were
+two thousand four hundred, and had the same commander that they had
+formerly, Eleazar, together with Simon the son of Arinus. Now, while
+these factions fought one against another, the people were their prey
+on both sides, as we have said already; and that part of the people who
+would not join with them in their wicked practices were plundered by
+both factions. Simon held the upper city, and the great wall as far as
+Cedron, and as much of the old wall as bent from Siloam to the east,
+and which went down to the palace of Monobazus, who was king of the
+Adiabeni, beyond Euphrates; he also held that fountain, and the Acra,
+which was no other than the lower city; he also held all that reached to
+the palace of queen Helena, the mother of Monobazus. But John held the
+temple, and the parts thereto adjoining, for a great way, as also Ophla,
+and the valley called "the Valley of Cedron;" and when the parts that
+were interposed between their possessions were burnt by them, they left
+a space wherein they might fight with each other; for this internal
+sedition did not cease even when the Romans were encamped near their
+very wall. But although they had grown wiser at the first onset the
+Romans made upon them, this lasted but a while; for they returned to
+their former madness, and separated one from another, and fought it out,
+and did everything that the besiegers could desire them to do; for they
+never suffered any thing that was worse from the Romans than they made
+each other suffer; nor was there any misery endured by the city after
+these men's actions that could be esteemed new. But it was most of all
+unhappy before it was overthrown, while those that took it did it a
+greater kindness for I venture to affirm that the sedition destroyed the
+city, and the Romans destroyed the sedition, which it was a much harder
+thing to do than to destroy the walls; so that we may justly ascribe our
+misfortunes to our own people, and the just vengeance taken on them to
+the Romans; as to which matter let every one determine by the actions on
+both sides.
+
+2. Now when affairs within the city were in this posture, Titus went
+round the city on the outside with some chosen horsemen, and looked
+about for a proper place where he might make an impression upon the
+walls; but as he was in doubt where he could possibly make an attack on
+any side, [for the place was no way accessible where the valleys were,
+and on the other side the first wall appeared too strong to be shaken by
+the engines,] he thereupon thought it best to make his assault upon
+the monument of John the high priest; for there it was that the first
+fortification was lower, and the second was not joined to it, the
+builders neglecting to build strong where the new city was not much
+inhabited; here also was an easy passage to the third wall, through
+which he thought to take the upper city, and, through the tower of
+Antonia, the temple itself But at this time, as he was going round about
+the city, one of his friends, whose name was Nicanor, was wounded with a
+dart on his left shoulder, as he approached, together with Josephus, too
+near the wall, and attempted to discourse to those that were upon the
+wall, about terms of peace; for he was a person known by them. On this
+account it was that Caesar, as soon as he knew their vehemence, that
+they would not hear even such as approached them to persuade them to
+what tended to their own preservation, was provoked to press on the
+siege. He also at the same time gave his soldiers leave to set the
+suburbs on fire, and ordered that they should bring timber together, and
+raise banks against the city; and when he had parted his army into three
+parts, in order to set about those works, he placed those that shot
+darts and the archers in the midst of the banks that were then raising;
+before whom he placed those engines that threw javelins, and darts, and
+stones, that he might prevent the enemy from sallying out upon their
+works, and might hinder those that were upon the wall from being able
+to obstruct them. So the trees were now cut down immediately, and the
+suburbs left naked. But now while the timber was carrying to raise the
+banks, and the whole army was earnestly engaged in their works, the Jews
+were not, however, quiet; and it happened that the people of Jerusalem,
+who had been hitherto plundered and murdered, were now of good courage,
+and supposed they should have a breathing time, while the others were
+very busy in opposing their enemies without the city, and that they
+should now be avenged on those that had been the authors of their
+miseries, in case the Romans did but get the victory.
+
+3. However, John staid behind, out of his fear of Simon, even while his
+own men were earnest in making a sally upon their enemies without. Yet
+did not Simon lie still, for he lay near the place of the siege; he
+brought his engines of war, and disposed of them at due distances upon
+the wall, both those which they took from Cestius formerly, and those
+which they got when they seized the garrison that lay in the tower
+Antonia. But though they had these engines in their possession, they had
+so little skill in using them, that they were in great measure useless
+to them; but a few there were who had been taught by deserters how to
+use them, which they did use, though after an awkward manner. So they
+cast stones and arrows at those that were making the banks; they also
+ran out upon them by companies, and fought with them. Now those that
+were at work covered themselves with hurdles spread over their banks,
+and their engines were opposed to them when they made their excursions.
+The engines, that all the legions had ready prepared for them, were
+admirably contrived; but still more extraordinary ones belonged to the
+tenth legion: those that threw darts and those that threw stones were
+more forcible and larger than the rest, by which they not only repelled
+the excursions of the Jews, but drove those away that were upon the
+walls also. Now the stones that were cast were of the weight of a
+talent, and were carried two furlongs and further. The blow they gave
+was no way to be sustained, not only by those that stood first in the
+way, but by those that were beyond them for a great space. As for the
+Jews, they at first watched the coming of the stone, for it was of a
+white color, and could therefore not only be perceived by the great
+noise it made, but could be seen also before it came by its brightness;
+accordingly the watchmen that sat upon the towers gave them notice when
+the engine was let go, and the stone came from it, and cried out aloud,
+in their own country language, The Stone Cometh 15 so those that were in
+its way stood off, and threw themselves down upon the ground; by which
+means, and by their thus guarding themselves, the stone fell down
+and did them no harm. But the Romans contrived how to prevent that by
+blacking the stone, who then could aim at them with success, when the
+stone was not discerned beforehand, as it had been till then; and so
+they destroyed many of them at one blow. Yet did not the Jews, under all
+this distress, permit the Romans to raise their banks in quiet; but they
+shrewdly and boldly exerted themselves, and repelled them both by night
+and by day.
+
+4. And now, upon the finishing the Roman works, the workmen measured
+the distance there was from the wall, and this by lead and a line, which
+they threw to it from their banks; for they could not measure it any
+otherwise, because the Jews would shoot at them, if they came to measure
+it themselves; and when they found that the engines could reach the
+wall, they brought them thither. Then did Titus set his engines at
+proper distances, so much nearer to the wall, that the Jews might not
+be able to repel them, and gave orders they should go to work; and when
+thereupon a prodigious noise echoed round about from three places, and
+that on the sudden there was a great noise made by the citizens that
+were within the city, and no less a terror fell upon the seditious
+themselves; whereupon both sorts, seeing the common danger they were in,
+contrived to make a like defense. So those of different factions cried
+out one to another, that they acted entirely as in concert with their
+enemies; whereas they ought however, notwithstanding God did not grant
+them a lasting concord, in their present circumstances, to lay aside
+their enmities one against another, and to unite together against the
+Romans. Accordingly, Simon gave those that came from the temple leave,
+by proclamation, to go upon the wall; John also himself, though he could
+not believe Simon was in earnest, gave them the same leave. So on both
+sides they laid aside their hatred and their peculiar quarrels, and
+formed themselves into one body; they then ran round the walls, and
+having a vast number of torches with them, they threw them at the
+machines, and shot darts perpetually upon those that impelled those
+engines which battered the wall; nay, the bolder sort leaped out by
+troops upon the hurdles that covered the machines, and pulled them to
+pieces, and fell upon those that belonged to them, and beat them, not
+so much by any skill they had, as principally by the boldness of their
+attacks. However, Titus himself still sent assistance to those that were
+the hardest set, and placed both horsemen and archers on the several
+sides of the engines, and thereby beat off those that brought the fire
+to them; he also thereby repelled those that shot stones or darts from
+the towers, and then set the engines to work in good earnest; yet did
+not the wall yield to these blows, excepting where the battering ram of
+the fifteenth legion moved the corner of a tower, while the wall itself
+continued unhurt; for the wall was not presently in the same danger with
+the tower, which was extant far above it; nor could the fall of that
+part of the tower easily break down any part of the wall itself together
+with it.
+
+5. And now the Jews intermitted their sallies for a while; but when they
+observed the Romans dispersed all abroad at their works, and in their
+several camps, [for they thought the Jews had retired out of weariness
+and fear,] they all at once made a sally at the tower Hippicus, through
+an obscure gate, and at the same time brought fire to burn the works,
+and went boldly up to the Romans, and to their very fortifications
+themselves, where, at the cry they made, those that were near them came
+presently to their assistance, and those farther off came running after
+them; and here the boldness of the Jews was too hard for the good order
+of the Romans; and as they beat those whom they first fell upon, so they
+pressed upon those that were now gotten together. So this fight about
+the machines was very hot, while the one side tried hard to set them
+on fire, and the other side to prevent it; on both sides there was a
+confused cry made, and many of those in the forefront of the battle
+were slain. However, the Jews were now too hard for the Romans, by the
+furious assaults they made like madmen; and the fire caught hold of the
+works, and both all those works, and the engines themselves, had been in
+danger of being burnt, had not many of these select soldiers that came
+from Alexandria opposed themselves to prevent it, and had they not
+behaved themselves with greater courage than they themselves supposed
+they could have done; for they outdid those in this fight that had
+greater reputation than themselves before. This was the state of things
+till Caesar took the stoutest of his horsemen, and attacked the enemy,
+while he himself slew twelve of those that were in the forefront of the
+Jews; which death of these men, when the rest of the multitude saw, they
+gave way, and he pursued them, and drove them all into the city, and
+saved the works from the fire. Now it happened at this fight that a
+certain Jew was taken alive, who, by Titus's order, was crucified before
+the wall, to see whether the rest of them would be affrighted, and
+abate of their obstinacy. But after the Jews were retired, John, who was
+commander of the Idumeans, and was talking to a certain soldier of his
+acquaintance before the wall, was wounded by a dart shot at him by an
+Arabian, and died immediately, leaving the greatest lamentation to the
+Jews, and sorrow to the seditious. For he was a man of great eminence,
+both for his actions and his conduct also.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+
+     How One Of The Towers Erected By The Romans Fell Down Of Its
+     Own Accord; And How The Romans After Great Slaughter Had
+     Been Made Got Possession Of The First Wall. How Also Titus
+     Made His Assaults Upon The Second Wall; As Also Concerning
+     Longinus The Roman, And Castor The Jew.
+
+1. Now, on the next night, a surprising disturbance fell upon the
+Romans; for whereas Titus had given orders for the erection of three
+towers of fifty cubits high, that by setting men upon them at every
+bank, he might from thence drive those away who were upon the wall, it
+so happened that one of these towers fell down about midnight; and as
+its fall made a very great noise, fear fell upon the army, and they,
+supposing that the enemy was coming to attack them, ran all to their
+arms. Whereupon a disturbance and a tumult arose among the legions,
+and as nobody could tell what had happened, they went on after a
+disconsolate manner; and seeing no enemy appear, they were afraid one of
+another, and every one demanded of his neighbor the watchword with great
+earnestness, as though the Jews had invaded their camp. And now were
+they like people under a panic fear, till Titus was informed of what
+had happened, and gave orders that all should be acquainted with it;
+and then, though with some difficulty, they got clear of the disturbance
+they had been under.
+
+2. Now these towers were very troublesome to the Jews, who otherwise
+opposed the Romans very courageously; for they shot at them out of their
+lighter engines from those towers, as they did also by those that threw
+darts, and the archers, and those that flung stones. For neither could
+the Jews reach those that were over them, by reason of their height; and
+it was not practicable to take them, nor to overturn them, they were so
+heavy, nor to set them on fire, because they were covered with plates of
+iron. So they retired out of the reach of the darts, and did no longer
+endeavor to hinder the impression of their rams, which, by continually
+beating upon the wall, did gradually prevail against it; so that
+the wall already gave way to the Nico, for by that name did the Jews
+themselves call the greatest of their engines, because it conquered all
+things. And now they were for a long while grown weary of fighting,
+and of keeping guards, and were retired to lodge in the night time at a
+distance from the wall. It was on other accounts also thought by them
+to be superfluous to guard the wall, there being besides that two other
+fortifications still remaining, and they being slothful, and their
+counsels having been ill concerted on all occasions; so a great many
+grew lazy and retired. Then the Romans mounted the breach, where
+Nico had made one, and all the Jews left the guarding that wall, and
+retreated to the second wall; so those that had gotten over that wall
+opened the gates, and received all the army within it. And thus did the
+Romans get possession of this first wall, on the fifteenth day of the
+siege, which was the seventh day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] when
+they demolished a great part of it, as well as they did of the northern
+parts of the city, which had been demolished also by Cestius formerly.
+
+3. And now Titus pitched his camp within the city, at that place which
+was called "the Camp of the Assyrians," having seized upon all that
+lay as far as Cedron, but took care to be out of the reach of the Jews'
+darts. He then presently began his attacks, upon which the Jews divided
+themselves into several bodies, and courageously defended that wall;
+while John and his faction did it from the tower of Antonia, and from
+the northern cloister of the temple, and fought the Romans before the
+monuments of king Alexander; and Sireoh's army also took for their share
+the spot of ground that was near John's monument, and fortified it as
+far as to that gate where water was brought in to the tower Hippicus.
+However, the Jews made violent sallies, and that frequently also, and in
+bodies together out of the gates, and there fought the Romans; and when
+they were pursued all together to the wall, they were beaten in those
+fights, as wanting the skill of the Romans. But when they fought them
+from the walls, they were too hard for them; the Romans being encouraged
+by their power, joined to their skill, as were the Jews by their
+boldness, which was nourished by the fear they were in, and that
+hardiness which is natural to our nation under calamities; they were
+also encouraged still by the hope of deliverance, as were the Romans by
+their hopes of subduing them in a little time. Nor did either side grow
+weary; but attacks and rightings upon the wall, and perpetual sallies
+out in bodies, were there all the day long; nor were there any sort of
+warlike engagements that were not then put in use. And the night itself
+had much ado to part them, when they began to fight in the morning; nay,
+the night itself was passed without sleep on both sides, and was more
+uneasy than the day to them, while the one was afraid lest the wall
+should be taken, and the other lest the Jews should make sallies upon
+their camps; both sides also lay in their armor during the night time,
+and thereby were ready at the first appearance of light to go to the
+battle. Now among the Jews the ambition was who should undergo the first
+dangers, and thereby gratify their commanders. Above all, they had a
+great veneration and dread of Simon; and to that degree was he regarded
+by every one of those that were under him, that at his command they were
+very ready to kill themselves with their own hands. What made the Romans
+so courageous was their usual custom of conquering and disuse of being
+defeated, their constant wars, and perpetual warlike exercises, and
+the grandeur of their dominion; and what was now their chief
+encouragement--Titus who was present every where with them all; for
+it appeared a terrible thing to grow weary while Caesar was there,
+and fought bravely as well as they did, and was himself at once an
+eye-witness of such as behaved themselves valiantly, and he who was to
+reward them also. It was, besides, esteemed an advantage at present
+to have any one's valor known by Caesar; on which account many of them
+appeared to have more alacrity than strength to answer it. And now, as
+the Jews were about this time standing in array before the wall, and
+that in a strong body, and while both parties were throwing their darts
+at each other, Longinus, one of the equestrian order, leaped out of the
+army of the Romans, and leaped into the very midst of the army of the
+Jews; and as they dispersed themselves upon the attack, he slew two of
+their men of the greatest courage; one of them he struck in his mouth as
+he was coming to meet him, the other was slain by him by that very dart
+which he drew out of the body of the other, with which he ran this man
+through his side as he was running away from him; and when he had done
+this, he first of all ran out of the midst of his enemies to his own
+side. So this man signalized himself for his valor, and many there were
+who were ambitious of gaining the like reputation. And now the Jews were
+unconcerned at what they suffered themselves from the Romans, and were
+only solicitous about what mischief they could do them; and death itself
+seemed a small matter to them, if at the same time they could but kill
+any one of their enemies. But Titus took care to secure his own soldiers
+from harm, as well as to have them overcome their enemies. He also said
+that inconsiderate violence was madness, and that this alone was the
+true courage that was joined with good conduct. He therefore commanded
+his men to take care, when they fought their enemies, that they received
+no harm from them at the same time, and thereby show themselves to be
+truly valiant men.
+
+4. And now Titus brought one of his engines to the middle tower of the
+north part of the wall, in which a certain crafty Jew, whose name was
+Castor, lay in ambush, with ten others like himself, the rest being fled
+away by reason of the archers. These men lay still for a while, as in
+great fear, under their breastplates; but when the tower was shaken,
+they arose, and Castor did then stretch out his hand, as a petitioner,
+and called for Caesar, and by his voice moved his compassion, and begged
+of him to have mercy upon them; and Titus, in the innocency of his
+heart, believing him to be in earnest, and hoping that the Jews did now
+repent, stopped the working of the battering ram, and forbade them to
+shoot at the petitioners, and bid Castor say what he had a mind to say
+to him. He said that he would come down, if he would give him his right
+hand for his security. To which Titus replied, that he was well pleased
+with such his agreeable conduct, and would be well pleased if all
+the Jews would be of his mind, and that he was ready to give the like
+security to the city. Now five of the ten dissembled with him, and
+pretended to beg for mercy, while the rest cried out aloud that they
+would never be slaves to the Romans, while it was in their power to die
+in a state of freedom. Now while these men were quarrelling for a long
+while, the attack was delayed; Castor also sent to Simon, and told him
+that they might take some time for consultation about what was to be
+done, because he would elude the power of the Romans for a considerable
+time. And at the same time that he sent thus to him, he appeared openly
+to exhort those that were obstinate to accept of Titus's hand for their
+security; but they seemed very angry at it, and brandished their naked
+swords upon the breast-works, and struck themselves upon their breast,
+and fell down as if they had been slain. Hereupon Titus, and those with
+him, were amazed at the courage of the men; and as they were not able
+to see exactly what was done, they admired at their great fortitude,
+and pitied their calamity. During this interval, a certain person shot
+a dart at Castor, and wounded him in his nose; whereupon he presently
+pulled out the dart, and showed it to Titus, and complained that this
+was unfair treatment; so Caesar reproved him that shot the dart, and
+sent Josephus, who then stood by him, to give his right hand to Castor.
+But Josephus said that he would not go to him, because these pretended
+petitioners meant nothing that was good; he also restrained those
+friends of his who were zealous to go to him. But still there was one
+Eneas, a deserter, who said he would go to him. Castor also called to
+them, that somebody should come and receive the money which he had with
+him; this made Eneas the more earnestly to run to him with his bosom
+open. Then did Castor take up a great stone, and threw it at him, which
+missed him, because he guarded himself against it; but still it wounded
+another soldier that was coming to him. When Caesar understood that this
+was a delusion, he perceived that mercy in war is a pernicious thing,
+because such cunning tricks have less place under the exercise of
+greater severity. So he caused the engine to work more strongly than
+before, on account of his anger at the deceit put upon him. But Castor
+and his companions set the tower on fire when it began to give way, and
+leaped through the flame into a hidden vault that was under it, which
+made the Romans further suppose that they were men of great courage, as
+having cast themselves into the fire.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+
+     How The Romans Took The Second Wall Twice, And Got All Ready
+     For Taking The Third Wall.
+
+1. Now Caesar took this wall there on the fifth day after he had taken
+the first; and when the Jews had fled from him, he entered into it with
+a thousand armed men, and those of his choice troops, and this at a
+place where were the merchants of wool, the braziers, and the market
+for cloth, and where the narrow streets led obliquely to the wall.
+Wherefore, if Titus had either demolished a larger part of the wall
+immediately, or had come in, and, according to the law of war, had laid
+waste what was left, his victory would not, I suppose, have been mixed
+with any loss to himself. But now, out of the hope he had that he should
+make the Jews ashamed of their obstinacy, by not being willing, when he
+was able, to afflict them more than he needed to do, he did not widen
+the breach of the wall, in order to make a safer retreat upon occasion;
+for he did not think they would lay snares for him that did them such a
+kindness. When therefore he came in, he did not permit his soldiers to
+kill any of those they caught, nor to set fire to their houses neither;
+nay, he gave leave to the seditious, if they had a mind, to fight
+without any harm to the people, and promised to restore the people's
+effects to them; for he was very desirous to preserve the city for his
+own sake, and the temple for the sake of the city. As to the people, he
+had them of a long time ready to comply with his proposals; but as to
+the fighting men, this humanity of his seemed a mark of his weakness,
+and they imagined that he made these proposals because he was not able
+to take the rest of the city. They also threatened death to the people,
+if they should any one of them say a word about a surrender. They
+moreover cut the throats of such as talked of a peace, and then attacked
+those Romans that were come within the wall. Some of them they met in
+the narrow streets, and some they fought against from their houses,
+while they made a sudden sally out at the upper gates, and assaulted
+such Romans as were beyond the wall, till those that guarded the wall
+were so affrighted, that they leaped down from their towers, and retired
+to their several camps: upon which a great noise was made by the Romans
+that were within, because they were encompassed round on every side by
+their enemies; as also by them that were without, because they were in
+fear for those that were left in the city. Thus did the Jews grow more
+numerous perpetually, and had great advantages over the Romans, by their
+full knowledge of those narrow lanes; and they wounded a great many
+of them, and fell upon them, and drove them out of the city. Now these
+Romans were at present forced to make the best resistance they could;
+for they were not able, in great numbers, to get out at the breach in
+the wall, it was so narrow. It is also probable that all those that
+were gotten within had been cut to pieces, if Titus had not sent them
+succors; for he ordered the archers to stand at the upper ends of these
+narrow lanes, and he stood himself where was the greatest multitude of
+his enemies, and with his darts he put a stop to them; as with him
+did Domitius Sabinus also, a valiant man, and one that in this battle
+appeared so to be. Thus did Caesar continue to shoot darts at the Jews
+continually, and to hinder them from coming upon his men, and this until
+all his soldiers had retreated out of the city.
+
+2. And thus were the Romans driven out, after they had possessed
+themselves of the second wall. Whereupon the fighting men that were
+in the city were lifted up in their minds, and were elevated upon this
+their good success, and began to think that the Romans would never
+venture to come into the city any more; and that if they kept within it
+themselves, they should not be any more conquered. For God had blinded
+their minds for the transgressions they had been guilty of, nor could
+they see how much greater forces the Romans had than those that were now
+expelled, no more than they could discern how a famine was creeping upon
+them; for hitherto they had fed themselves out of the public miseries,
+and drank the blood of the city. But now poverty had for a long time
+seized upon the better part, and a great many had died already for want
+of necessaries; although the seditious indeed supposed the destruction
+of the people to be an easement to themselves; for they desired that
+none others might be preserved but such as were against a peace with the
+Romans, and were resolved to live in opposition to them, and they were
+pleased when the multitude of those of a contrary opinion were consumed,
+as being then freed from a heavy burden. And this was their disposition
+of mind with regard to those that were within the city, while they
+covered themselves with their armor, and prevented the Romans, when they
+were trying to get into the city again, and made a wall of their own
+bodies over against that part of the wall that was cast down. Thus did
+they valiantly defend themselves for three days; but on the fourth day
+they could not support themselves against the vehement assaults of Titus
+but were compelled by force to fly whither they had fled before; so
+he quietly possessed himself again of that wall, and demolished it
+entirely. And when he had put a garrison into the towers that were on
+the south parts of the city, he contrived how he might assault the third
+wall.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+
+     Titus When The Jews Were Not At All Mollified By His Leaving
+     Off The Siege For A While, Set Himself Again To Prosecute
+     The Same; But Soon Sent Josephus To Discourse With His Own
+     Countrymen About Peace.
+
+1. A Resolution was now taken by Titus to relax the siege for a little
+while, and to afford the seditious an interval for consideration, and to
+see whether the demolishing of their second wall would not make them
+a little more compliant, or whether they were not somewhat afraid of
+a famine, because the spoils they had gotten by rapine would not be
+sufficient for them long; so he made use of this relaxation in order to
+compass his own designs. Accordingly, as the usual appointed time when
+he must distribute subsistence money to the soldiers was now come, he
+gave orders that the commanders should put the army into battle-array,
+in the face of the enemy, and then give every one of the soldiers their
+pay. So the soldiers, according to custom, opened the cases wherein
+their arms before lay covered, and marched with their breastplates on,
+as did the horsemen lead their horses in their fine trappings. Then did
+the places that were before the city shine very splendidly for a great
+way; nor was there any thing so grateful to Titus's own men, or so
+terrible to the enemy, as that sight. For the whole old wall, and the
+north side of the temple, were full of spectators, and one might see
+the houses full of such as looked at them; nor was there any part of the
+city which was not covered over with their multitudes; nay, a very great
+consternation seized upon the hardiest of the Jews themselves, when they
+saw all the army in the same place, together with the fineness of their
+arms, and the good order of their men. And I cannot but think that
+the seditious would have changed their minds at that sight, unless the
+crimes they had committed against the people had been so horrid, that
+they despaired of forgiveness from the Romans; but as they believed
+death with torments must be their punishment, if they did not go on in
+the defense of the city, they thought it much better to die in war. Fate
+also prevailed so far over them, that the innocent were to perish with
+the guilty, and the city was to be destroyed with the seditious that
+were in it.
+
+2. Thus did the Romans spend four days in bringing this
+subsistence-money to the several legions. But on the fifth day, when
+no signs of peace appeared to come from the Jews, Titus divided his
+legions, and began to raise banks, both at the tower of Antonia and at
+John's monument. Now his designs were to take the upper city at that
+monument, and the temple at the tower of Antonia; for if the temple were
+not taken, it would be dangerous to keep the city itself; so at each of
+these parts he raised him banks, each legion raising one. As for those
+that wrought at John's monument, the Idumeans, and those that were in
+arms with Simon, made sallies upon them, and put some stop to them;
+while John's party, and the multitude of zealots with them, did the like
+to those that were before the tower of Antonia. These Jews were now too
+hard for the Romans, not only in direct fighting, because they stood
+upon the higher ground, but because they had now learned to use their
+own engines; for their continual use of them one day after another did
+by degrees improve their skill about them; for of one sort of engines
+for darts they had three hundred, and forty for stones; by the means of
+which they made it more tedious for the Romans to raise their banks. But
+then Titus, knowing that the city would be either saved or destroyed for
+himself, did not only proceed earnestly in the siege, but did not omit
+to have the Jews exhorted to repentance; so he mixed good counsel
+with his works for the siege. And being sensible that exhortations are
+frequently more effectual than arms, he persuaded them to surrender the
+city, now in a manner already taken, and thereby to save themselves, and
+sent Josephus to speak to them in their own language; for he imagined
+they might yield to the persuasion of a countryman of their own.
+
+3. So Josephus went round about the wall, and tried to find a place that
+was out of the reach of their darts, and yet within their hearing,
+and besought them, in many words, to spare themselves, to spare their
+country and their temple, and not to be more obdurate in these cases
+than foreigners themselves; for that the Romans, who had no relation
+to those things, had a reverence for their sacred rites and places,
+although they belonged to their enemies, and had till now kept their
+hands off from meddling with them; while such as were brought up under
+them, and, if they be preserved, will be the only people that will reap
+the benefit of them, hurry on to have them destroyed. That certainly
+they have seen their strongest walls demolished, and that the wall still
+remaining was weaker than those that were already taken. That they must
+know the Roman power was invincible, and that they had been used to
+serve them; for, that in case it be allowed a right thing to fight for
+liberty, that ought to have been done at first; but for them that have
+once fallen under the power of the Romans, and have now submitted
+to them for so many long years, to pretend to shake off that yoke
+afterward, was the work of such as had a mind to die miserably, not of
+such as were lovers of liberty. Besides, men may well enough grudge at
+the dishonor of owning ignoble masters over them, but ought not to do so
+to those who have all things under their command; for what part of the
+world is there that hath escaped the Romans, unless it be such as are
+of no use for violent heat, or for violent cold? And evident it is that
+fortune is on all hands gone over to them; and that God, when he had
+gone round the nations with this dominion, is now settled in Italy.
+That, moreover, it is a strong and fixed law, even among brute beasts,
+as well as among men, to yield to those that are too strong for them;
+and to suffer those to have the dominion who are too hard for the rest
+in war; for which reason it was that their forefathers, who were far
+superior to them, both in their souls and bodies, and other advantages,
+did yet submit to the Romans, which they would not have suffered, had
+they not known that God was with them. As for themselves, what can they
+depend on in this their opposition, when the greatest part of their city
+is already taken? and when those that are within it are under greater
+miseries than if they were taken, although their walls be still
+standing? For that the Romans are not unacquainted with that famine
+which is in the city, whereby the people are already consumed, and the
+fighting men will in a little time be so too; for although the Romans
+should leave off the siege, and not fall upon the city with their swords
+in their hands, yet was there an insuperable war that beset them within,
+and was augmented every hour, unless they were able to wage war with
+famine, and fight against it, or could alone conquer their natural
+appetites. He added this further, how right a thing it was to change
+their conduct before their calamities were become incurable, and to have
+recourse to such advice as might preserve them, while opportunity was
+offered them for so doing; for that the Romans would not be mindful
+of their past actions to their disadvantage, unless they persevered in
+their insolent behavior to the end; because they were naturally mild in
+their conquests, and preferred what was profitable, before what their
+passions dictated to them; which profit of theirs lay not in leaving the
+city empty of inhabitants, nor the country a desert; on which account
+Caesar did now offer them his right hand for their security. Whereas,
+if he took the city by force, he would not save any of them, and
+this especially, if they rejected his offers in these their utmost
+distresses; for the walls that were already taken could not but assure
+them that the third wall would quickly be taken also. And though their
+fortifications should prove too strong for the Romans to break through
+them, yet would the famine fight for the Romans against them.
+
+4. While Josephus was making this exhortation to the Jews, many of them
+jested upon him from the wall, and many reproached him; nay, some threw
+their darts at him: but when he could not himself persuade them by such
+open good advice, he betook himself to the histories belonging to their
+own nation, and cried out aloud, "O miserable creatures! are you so
+unmindful of those that used to assist you, that you will fight by your
+weapons and by your hands against the Romans? When did we ever conquer
+any other nation by such means? and when was it that God, who is the
+Creator of the Jewish people, did not avenge them when they had been
+injured? Will not you turn again, and look back, and consider whence it
+is that you fight with such violence, and how great a Supporter you have
+profanely abused? Will not you recall to mind the prodigious things done
+for your forefathers and this holy place, and how great enemies of yours
+were by him subdued under you? I even tremble myself in declaring the
+works of God before your ears, that are unworthy to hear them; however,
+hearken to me, that you may be informed how you fight not only against
+the Romans, but against God himself. In old times there was one Necao,
+king of Egypt, who was also called Pharaoh; he came with a prodigious
+army of soldiers, and seized queen Sarah, the mother of our nation.
+What did Abraham our progenitor then do? Did he defend himself from
+this injurious person by war, although he had three hundred and eighteen
+captains under him, and an immense army under each of them? Indeed he
+deemed them to be no number at all without God's assistance, and only
+spread out his hands towards this holy place, 16 which you have now
+polluted, and reckoned upon him as upon his invincible supporter,
+instead of his own army. Was not our queen sent back, without any
+defilement, to her husband, the very next evening?--while the king of
+Egypt fled away, adoring this place which you have defiled by shedding
+thereon the blood of your own countrymen; and he also trembled at those
+visions which he saw in the night season, and bestowed both silver and
+gold on the Hebrews, as on a people beloved by God. Shall I say nothing,
+or shall I mention the removal of our fathers into Egypt, who, when they
+were used tyrannically, and were fallen under the power of foreign kings
+for four hundred years together, and might have defended themselves by
+war and by fighting, did yet do nothing but commit themselves to God!
+Who is there that does not know that Egypt was overrun with all sorts of
+wild beasts, and consumed by all sorts of distempers? how their land
+did not bring forth its fruit? how the Nile failed of water? how the ten
+plagues of Egypt followed one upon another? and how by those means our
+fathers were sent away under a guard, without any bloodshed, and
+without running any dangers, because God conducted them as his peculiar
+servants? Moreover, did not Palestine groan 17 under the ravage the
+Assyrians made, when they carried away our sacred ark? as did their idol
+Dagon, and as also did that entire nation of those that carried it away,
+how they were smitten with a loathsome distemper in the secret parts of
+their bodies, when their very bowels came down together with what they
+had eaten, till those hands that stole it away were obliged to bring it
+back again, and that with the sound of cymbals and timbrels, and other
+oblations, in order to appease the anger of God for their violation of
+his holy ark. It was God who then became our General, and accomplished
+these great things for our fathers, and this because they did not meddle
+with war and fighting, but committed it to him to judge about their
+affairs. When Sennacherib, king of Assyria, brought along with him all
+Asia, and encompassed this city round with his army, did he fall by the
+hands of men? were not those hands lifted up to God in prayers, without
+meddling with their arms, when an angel of God destroyed that prodigious
+army in one night? when the Assyrian king, as he rose the next day,
+found a hundred fourscore and five thousand dead bodies, and when he,
+with the remainder of his army, fled away from the Hebrews, though they
+were unarmed, and did not pursue them. You are also acquainted with the
+slavery we were under at Babylon, where the people were captives for
+seventy years; yet were they not delivered into freedom again before
+God made Cyrus his gracious instrument in bringing it about; accordingly
+they were set free by him, and did again restore the worship of their
+Deliverer at his temple. And, to speak in general, we can produce no
+example wherein our fathers got any success by war, or failed of success
+when without war they committed themselves to God. When they staid at
+home, they conquered, as pleased their Judge; but when they went out
+to fight, they were always disappointed: for example, when the king of
+Babylon besieged this very city, and our king Zedekiah fought against
+him, contrary to what predictions were made to him by Jeremiah the
+prophet, he was at once taken prisoner, and saw the city and the temple
+demolished. Yet how much greater was the moderation of that king, than
+is that of your present governors, and that of the people then under
+him, than is that of you at this time! for when Jeremiah cried out
+aloud, how very angry God was at them, because of their transgressions,
+and told them they should be taken prisoners, unless they would
+surrender up their city, neither did the king nor the people put him to
+death; but for you, [to pass over what you have done within the city,
+which I am not able to describe as your wickedness deserves,] you abuse
+me, and throw darts at me, who only exhort you to save yourselves, as
+being provoked when you are put in mind of your sins, and cannot bear
+the very mention of those crimes which you every day perpetrate. For
+another example, when Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, lay before
+this city, and had been guilty of many indignities against God, and our
+forefathers met him in arms, they then were slain in the battle, this
+city was plundered by our enemies, and our sanctuary made desolate for
+three years and six months. And what need I bring any more examples?
+Indeed what can it be that hath stirred up an army of the Romans against
+our nation? Is it not the impiety of the inhabitants? Whence did our
+servitude commence? Was it not derived from the seditions that were
+among our forefathers, when the madness of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, and
+our mutual quarrels, brought Pompey upon this city, and when God reduced
+those under subjection to the Romans who were unworthy of the liberty
+they had enjoyed? After a siege, therefore, of three months, they were
+forced to surrender themselves, although they had not been guilty of
+such offenses, with regard to our sanctuary and our laws, as you have;
+and this while they had much greater advantages to go to war than you
+have. Do not we know what end Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, came
+to, under whose reign God provided that this city should be taken again
+upon account of the people's offenses? When Herod, the son of Antipater,
+brought upon us Sosius, and Sosius brought upon us the Roman army, they
+were then encompassed and besieged for six months, till, as a punishment
+for their sins, they were taken, and the city was plundered by the
+enemy. Thus it appears that arms were never given to our nation, but
+that we are always given up to be fought against, and to be taken; for
+I suppose that such as inhabit this holy place ought to commit the
+disposal of all things to God, and then only to disregard the assistance
+of men when they resign themselves up to their Arbitrator, who is above.
+As for you, what have you done of those things that are recommended by
+our legislator? and what have you not done of those things that he hath
+condemned? How much more impious are you than those who were so quickly
+taken! You have not avoided so much as those sins that are usually
+done in secret; I mean thefts, and treacherous plots against men, and
+adulteries. You are quarrelling about rapines and murders, and invent
+strange ways of wickedness. Nay, the temple itself is become the
+receptacle of all, and this Divine place is polluted by the hands of
+those of our own country; which place hath yet been reverenced by the
+Romans when it was at a distance from them, when they have suffered many
+of their own customs to give place to our law. And, after all this, do
+you expect Him whom you have so impiously abused to be your supporter?
+To be sure then you have a right to be petitioners, and to call upon Him
+to assist you, so pure are your hands! Did your king [Hezekiah] lift
+up such hands in prayer to God against the king of Assyria, when he
+destroyed that great army in one night? And do the Romans commit such
+wickedness as did the king of Assyria, that you may have reason to hope
+for the like vengeance upon them? Did not that king accept of money from
+our king on this condition, that he should not destroy the city, and
+yet, contrary to the oath he had taken, he came down to burn the temple?
+while the Romans do demand no more than that accustomed tribute which
+our fathers paid to their fathers; and if they may but once obtain that,
+they neither aim to destroy this city, nor to touch this sanctuary; nay,
+they will grant you besides, that your posterity shall be free, and your
+possessions secured to you, and will preserve our holy laws inviolate
+to you. And it is plain madness to expect that God should appear as well
+disposed towards the wicked as towards the righteous, since he knows
+when it is proper to punish men for their sins immediately; accordingly
+he brake the power of the Assyrians the very first night that they
+pitched their camp. Wherefore, had he judged that our nation was worthy
+of freedom, or the Romans of punishment, he had immediately inflicted
+punishment upon those Romans, as he did upon the Assyrians, when Pompey
+began to meddle with our nation, or when after him Sosius came up
+against us, or when Vespasian laid waste Galilee, or, lastly, when Titus
+came first of all near to this city; although Magnus and Sosius did not
+only suffer nothing, but took the city by force; as did Vespasian go
+from the war he made against you to receive the empire; and as for
+Titus, those springs that were formerly almost dried up when they were
+under your power 18 since he is come, run more plentifully than they
+did before; accordingly, you know that Siloam, as well as all the other
+springs that were without the city, did so far fail, that water was sold
+by distinct measures; whereas they now have such a great quantity of
+water for your enemies, as is sufficient not only for drink both for
+themselves and their cattle, but for watering their gardens also.
+The same wonderful sign you had also experience of formerly, when the
+forementioned king of Babylon made war against us, and when he took the
+city, and burnt the temple; while yet I believe the Jews of that age
+were not so impious as you are. Wherefore I cannot but suppose that God
+is fled out of his sanctuary, and stands on the side of those against
+whom you fight. Now even a man, if he be but a good man, will fly from
+an impure house, and will hate those that are in it; and do you persuade
+yourselves that God will abide with you in your iniquities, who sees all
+secret things, and hears what is kept most private? Now what crime
+is there, I pray you, that is so much as kept secret among you, or
+is concealed by you? nay, what is there that is not open to your very
+enemies? for you show your transgressions after a pompous manner, and
+contend one with another which of you shall be more wicked than another;
+and you make a public demonstration of your injustice, as if it were
+virtue. However, there is a place left for your preservation, if you
+be willing to accept of it; and God is easily reconciled to those that
+confess their faults, and repent of them. O hard-hearted wretches as
+you are! cast away all your arms, and take pity of your country already
+going to ruin; return from your wicked ways, and have regard to the
+excellency of that city which you are going to betray, to that excellent
+temple with the donations of so many countries in it. Who could bear to
+be the first that should set that temple on fire? who could be willing
+that these things should be no more? and what is there that can better
+deserve to be preserved? O insensible creatures, and more stupid than
+are the stones themselves! And if you cannot look at these things with
+discerning eyes, yet, however, have pity upon your families, and set
+before every one of your eyes your children, and wives, and parents,
+who will be gradually consumed either by famine or by war. I am sensible
+that this danger will extend to my mother, and wife, and to that family
+of mine who have been by no means ignoble, and indeed to one that hath
+been very eminent in old time; and perhaps you may imagine that it is
+on their account only that I give you this advice; if that be all, kill
+them; nay, take my own blood as a reward, if it may but procure your
+preservation; for I am ready to die, in case you will but return to a
+sound mind after my death."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+
+     How A Great Many Of The People Earnestly Endeavored To
+     Desert To The Romans; As Also What Intolerable Things Those
+     That Staid Behind Suffered By Famine, And The Sad
+     Consequences Thereof.
+
+1. As Josephus was speaking thus with a loud voice, the seditious would
+neither yield to what he said, nor did they deem it safe for them to
+alter their conduct; but as for the people, they had a great inclination
+to desert to the Romans; accordingly, some of them sold what they had,
+and even the most precious things that had been laid up as treasures by
+them, for every small matter, and swallowed down pieces of gold, that
+they might not be found out by the robbers; and when they had escaped
+to the Romans, went to stool, and had wherewithal to provide plentifully
+for themselves; for Titus let a great number of them go away into the
+country, whither they pleased. And the main reasons why they were so
+ready to desert were these: That now they should be freed from those
+miseries which they had endured in that city, and yet should not be in
+slavery to the Romans: however, John and Simon, with their factions, did
+more carefully watch these men's going out than they did the coming
+in of the Romans; and if any one did but afford the least shadow of
+suspicion of such an intention, his throat was cut immediately.
+
+2. But as for the richer sort, it proved all one to them whether they
+staid in the city, or attempted to get out of it; for they were equally
+destroyed in both cases; for every such person was put to death under
+this pretense, that they were going to desert, but in reality that the
+robbers might get what they had. The madness of the seditious did also
+increase together with their famine, and both those miseries were
+every day inflamed more and more; for there was no corn which any where
+appeared publicly, but the robbers came running into, and searched
+men's private houses; and then, if they found any, they tormented them,
+because they had denied they had any; and if they found none, they
+tormented them worse, because they supposed they had more carefully
+concealed it. The indication they made use of whether they had any or
+not was taken from the bodies of these miserable wretches; which, if
+they were in good case, they supposed they were in no want at all of
+food; but if they were wasted away, they walked off without searching
+any further; nor did they think it proper to kill such as these, because
+they saw they would very soon die of themselves for want of food. Many
+there were indeed who sold what they had for one measure; it was of
+wheat, if they were of the richer sort; but of barley, if they were
+poorer. When these had so done, they shut themselves up in the inmost
+rooms of their houses, and ate the corn they had gotten; some did it
+without grinding it, by reason of the extremity of the want they were
+in, and others baked bread of it, according as necessity and fear
+dictated to them: a table was no where laid for a distinct meal, but
+they snatched the bread out of the fire, half-baked, and ate it very
+hastily.
+
+3. It was now a miserable case, and a sight that would justly bring
+tears into our eyes, how men stood as to their food, while the more
+powerful had more than enough, and the weaker were lamenting [for want
+of it.] But the famine was too hard for all other passions, and it is
+destructive to nothing so much as to modesty; for what was otherwise
+worthy of reverence was in this case despised; insomuch that children
+pulled the very morsels that their fathers were eating out of their very
+mouths, and what was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers do
+as to their infants; and when those that were most dear were perishing
+under their hands, they were not ashamed to take from them the very last
+drops that might preserve their lives: and while they ate after this
+manner, yet were they not concealed in so doing; but the seditious every
+where came upon them immediately, and snatched away from them what they
+had gotten from others; for when they saw any house shut up, this was
+to them a signal that the people within had gotten some food; whereupon
+they broke open the doors, and ran in, and took pieces of what they were
+eating almost up out of their very throats, and this by force: the old
+men, who held their food fast, were beaten; and if the women hid what
+they had within their hands, their hair was torn for so doing; nor was
+there any commiseration shown either to the aged or to the infants, but
+they lifted up children from the ground as they hung upon the morsels
+they had gotten, and shook them down upon the floor. But still they were
+more barbarously cruel to those that had prevented their coming in, and
+had actually swallowed down what they were going to seize upon, as if
+they had been unjustly defrauded of their right. They also invented
+terrible methods of torments to discover where any food was, and they
+were these to stop up the passages of the privy parts of the miserable
+wretches, and to drive sharp stakes up their fundaments; and a man was
+forced to bear what it is terrible even to hear, in order to make him
+confess that he had but one loaf of bread, or that he might discover a
+handful of barley-meal that was concealed; and this was done when these
+tormentors were not themselves hungry; for the thing had been less
+barbarous had necessity forced them to it; but this was done to keep
+their madness in exercise, and as making preparation of provisions for
+themselves for the following days. These men went also to meet those
+that had crept out of the city by night, as far as the Roman guards,
+to gather some plants and herbs that grew wild; and when those people
+thought they had got clear of the enemy, they snatched from them what
+they had brought with them, even while they had frequently entreated
+them, and that by calling upon the tremendous name of God, to give them
+back some part of what they had brought; though these would not give
+them the least crumb, and they were to be well contented that they were
+only spoiled, and not slain at the same time.
+
+4. These were the afflictions which the lower sort of people suffered
+from these tyrants' guards; but for the men that were in dignity, and
+withal were rich, they were carried before the tyrants themselves; some
+of whom were falsely accused of laying treacherous plots, and so were
+destroyed; others of them were charged with designs of betraying the
+city to the Romans; but the readiest way of all was this, to suborn
+somebody to affirm that they were resolved to desert to the enemy. And
+he who was utterly despoiled of what he had by Simon was sent back again
+to John, as of those who had been already plundered by Jotre, Simon got
+what remained; insomuch that they drank the blood of the populace to one
+another, and divided the dead bodies of the poor creatures between them;
+so that although, on account of their ambition after dominion, they
+contended with each other, yet did they very well agree in their wicked
+practices; for he that did not communicate what he got by the miseries
+of others to the other tyrant seemed to be too little guilty, and in one
+respect only; and he that did not partake of what was so communicated to
+him grieved at this, as at the loss of what was a valuable thing, that
+he had no share in such barbarity.
+
+5. It is therefore impossible to go distinctly over every instance
+of these men's iniquity. I shall therefore speak my mind here at once
+briefly:--That neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries,
+nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than
+this was, from the beginning of the world. Finally, they brought
+the Hebrew nation into contempt, that they might themselves appear
+comparatively less impious with regard to strangers. They confessed
+what was true, that they were the slaves, the scum, and the spurious
+and abortive offspring of our nation, while they overthrew the city
+themselves, and forced the Romans, whether they would or no, to gain a
+melancholy reputation, by acting gloriously against them, and did almost
+draw that fire upon the temple, which they seemed to think came too
+slowly; and indeed when they saw that temple burning from the upper
+city, they were neither troubled at it, nor did they shed any tears on
+that account, while yet these passions were discovered among the Romans
+themselves; which circumstances we shall speak of hereafter in their
+proper place, when we come to treat of such matters.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11.
+
+
+     How The Jews Were Crucified Before The Walls Of The City
+     Concerning Antiochus Epiphanes; And How The Jews Overthrew
+     The Banks That Had Been Raised By The Romans.
+
+1. So now Titus's banks were advanced a great way, notwithstanding his
+soldiers had been very much distressed from the wall. He then sent a
+party of horsemen, and ordered they should lay ambushes for those that
+went out into the valleys to gather food. Some of these were indeed
+fighting men, who were not contented with what they got by rapine;
+but the greater part of them were poor people, who were deterred from
+deserting by the concern they were under for their own relations;
+for they could not hope to escape away, together with their wives and
+children, without the knowledge of the seditious; nor could they think
+of leaving these relations to be slain by the robbers on their account;
+nay, the severity of the famine made them bold in thus going out; so
+nothing remained but that, when they were concealed from the robbers,
+they should be taken by the enemy; and when they were going to be taken,
+they were forced to defend themselves for fear of being punished;
+as after they had fought, they thought it too late to make any
+supplications for mercy; so they were first whipped, and then tormented
+with all sorts of tortures, before they died, and were then crucified
+before the wall of the city. This miserable procedure made Titus greatly
+to pity them, while they caught every day five hundred Jews; nay, some
+days they caught more: yet it did not appear to be safe for him to let
+those that were taken by force go their way, and to set a guard over so
+many he saw would be to make such as great deal them useless to him. The
+main reason why he did not forbid that cruelty was this, that he hoped
+the Jews might perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they might
+themselves afterwards be liable to the same cruel treatment. So the
+soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those
+they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the
+crosses, by way of jest, when their multitude was so great, that room
+was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies. 19
+
+2. But so far were the seditious from repenting at this sad sight, that,
+on the contrary, they made the rest of the multitude believe otherwise;
+for they brought the relations of those that had deserted upon the
+wall, with such of the populace as were very eager to go over upon the
+security offered them, and showed them what miseries those underwent
+who fled to the Romans; and told them that those who were caught were
+supplicants to them, and not such as were taken prisoners. This sight
+kept many of those within the city who were so eager to desert, till
+the truth was known; yet did some of them run away immediately as unto
+certain punishment, esteeming death from their enemies to be a quiet
+departure, if compared with that by famine. So Titus commanded that the
+hands of many of those that were caught should be cut off, that they
+might not be thought deserters, and might be credited on account of the
+calamity they were under, and sent them in to John and Simon, with this
+exhortation, that they would now at length leave off [their madness],
+and not force him to destroy the city, whereby they would have those
+advantages of repentance, even in their utmost distress, that they would
+preserve their own lives, and so find a city of their own, and that
+temple which was their peculiar. He then went round about the banks that
+were cast up, and hastened them, in order to show that his words
+should in no long time be followed by his deeds. In answer to which the
+seditious cast reproaches upon Caesar himself, and upon his father also,
+and cried out, with a loud voice, that they contemned death, and
+did well in preferring it before slavery; that they would do all the
+mischief to the Romans they could while they had breath in them; and
+that for their own city, since they were, as he said, to be destroyed,
+they had no concern about it, and that the world itself was a better
+temple to God than this. That yet this temple would be preserved by him
+that inhabited therein, whom they still had for their assistant in this
+war, and did therefore laugh at all his threatenings, which would come
+to nothing, because the conclusion of the whole depended upon God only.
+These words were mixed with reproaches, and with them they made a mighty
+clamor.
+
+3. In the mean time Antiochus Epiphanes came to the city, having with
+him a considerable number of other armed men, and a band called the
+Macedonian band about him, all of the same age, tall, and just past
+their childhood, armed, and instructed after the Macedonian manner,
+whence it was that they took that name. Yet were many of them unworthy
+of so famous a nation; for it had so happened, that the king of
+Commagene had flourished more than any other kings that were under the
+power of the Romans, till a change happened in his condition; and when
+he was become an old man, he declared plainly that we ought not to call
+any man happy before he is dead. But this son of his, who was then
+come thither before his father was decaying, said that he could not but
+wonder what made the Romans so tardy in making their attacks upon the
+wall. Now he was a warlike man, and naturally bold in exposing himself
+to dangers; he was also so strong a man, that his boldness seldom failed
+of having success. Upon this Titus smiled, and said he would share the
+pains of an attack with him. However, Antiochus went as he then was, and
+with his Macedonians made a sudden assault upon the wall; and, indeed,
+for his own part, his strength and skill were so great, that he guarded
+himself from the Jewish darts, and yet shot his darts at them, while yet
+the young men with him were almost all sorely galled; for they had so
+great a regard to the promises that had been made of their courage, that
+they would needs persevere in their fighting, and at length many of them
+retired, but not till they were wounded; and then they perceived that
+true Macedonians, if they were to be conquerors, must have Alexander's
+good fortune also.
+
+4. Now as the Romans began to raise their banks on the twelfth day of
+the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] so had they much ado to finish them by
+the twenty-ninth day of the same month, after they had labored hard for
+seventeen days continually. For there were now four great banks raised,
+one of which was at the tower Antonia; this was raised by the fifth
+legion, over against the middle of that pool which was called Struthius.
+Another was cast up by the twelfth legion, at the distance of about
+twenty cubits from the other. But the labors of the tenth legion, which
+lay a great way off these, were on the north quarter, and at the pool
+called Amygdalon; as was that of the fifteenth legion about thirty
+cubits from it, and at the high priest's monument. And now, when the
+engines were brought, John had from within undermined the space that was
+over against the tower of Antonia, as far as the banks themselves,
+and had supported the ground over the mine with beams laid across one
+another, whereby the Roman works stood upon an uncertain foundation.
+Then did he order such materials to be brought in as were daubed over
+with pitch and bitumen, and set them on fire; and as the cross beams
+that supported the banks were burning, the ditch yielded on the
+sudden, and the banks were shaken down, and fell into the ditch with a
+prodigious noise. Now at the first there arose a very thick smoke and
+dust, as the fire was choked with the fall of the bank; but as the
+suffocated materials were now gradually consumed, a plain flame brake
+out; on which sudden appearance of the flame a consternation fell upon
+the Romans, and the shrewdness of the contrivance discouraged them; and
+indeed this accident coming upon them at a time when they thought they
+had already gained their point, cooled their hopes for the time to
+come. They also thought it would be to no purpose to take the pains
+to extinguish the fire, since if it were extinguished, the banks were
+swallowed up already [and become useless to them].
+
+5. Two days after this, Simon and his party made an attempt to destroy
+the other banks; for the Romans had brought their engines to bear there,
+and began already to make the wall shake. And here one Tephtheus, of
+Garsis, a city of Galilee, and Megassarus, one who was derived from some
+of queen Mariamne's servants, and with them one from Adiabene, he was
+the son of Nabateus, and called by the name of Chagiras, from the ill
+fortune he had, the word signifying "a lame man," snatched some torches,
+and ran suddenly upon the engines. Nor were there during this war any
+men that ever sallied out of the city who were their superiors, either
+in their boldness, or in the terror they struck into their enemies. For
+they ran out upon the Romans, not as if they were enemies, but friends,
+without fear or delay; nor did they leave their enemies till they had
+rushed violently through the midst of them, and set their machines on
+fire. And though they had darts thrown at them on every side, and were
+on every side assaulted with their enemies' swords, yet did they not
+withdraw themselves out of the dangers they were in, till the fire had
+caught hold of the instruments; but when the flame went up, the Romans
+came running from their camp to save their engines. Then did the
+Jews hinder their succors from the wall, and fought with those that
+endeavored to quench the fire, without any regard to the danger their
+bodies were in. So the Romans pulled the engines out of the fire, while
+the hurdles that covered them were on fire; but the Jews caught hold
+of the battering rams through the flame itself, and held them fast,
+although the iron upon them was become red hot; and now the fire spread
+itself from the engines to the banks, and prevented those that came to
+defend them; and all this while the Romans were encompassed round about
+with the flame; and, despairing of saving their works from it, they
+retired to their camp. Then did the Jews become still more and more
+in number by the coming of those that were within the city to their
+assistance; and as they were very bold upon the good success they
+had had, their violent assaults were almost irresistible; nay, they
+proceeded as far as the fortifications of the enemies' camp, and fought
+with their guards. Now there stood a body of soldiers in array before
+that camp, which succeeded one another by turns in their armor; and as
+to those, the law of the Romans was terrible, that he who left his post
+there, let the occasion be whatsoever it might be, he was to die for
+it; so that body of soldiers, preferring rather to die in fighting
+courageously, than as a punishment for their cowardice, stood firm; and
+at the necessity these men were in of standing to it, many of the others
+that had run away, out of shame, turned back again; and when they had
+set the engines against the wall, they put the multitude from coming
+more of them out of the city, [which they could the more easily do]
+because they had made no provision for preserving or guarding their
+bodies at this time; for the Jews fought now hand to hand with all that
+came in their way, and, without any caution, fell against the points of
+their enemies' spears, and attacked them bodies against bodies; for they
+were now too hard for the Romans, not so much by their other warlike
+actions, as by these courageous assaults they made upon them; and the
+Romans gave way more to their boldness than they did to the sense of the
+harm they had received from them.
+
+6. And now Titus was come from the tower of Antonia, whither he was
+gone to look out for a place for raising other banks, and reproached the
+soldiers greatly for permitting their own walls to be in danger, when
+they had taken the wails of their enemies, and sustained the fortune
+of men besieged, while the Jews were allowed to sally out against them,
+though they were already in a sort of prison. He then went round about
+the enemy with some chosen troops, and fell upon their flank himself; so
+the Jews, who had been before assaulted in their faces, wheeled about to
+Titus, and continued the fight. The armies also were now mixed one among
+another, and the dust that was raised so far hindered them from seeing
+one another, and the noise that was made so far hindered them from
+hearing one another, that neither side could discern an enemy from a
+friend. However, the Jews did not flinch, though not so much from their
+real strength, as from their despair of deliverance. The Romans also
+would not yield, by reason of the regard they had to glory, and to
+their reputation in war, and because Caesar himself went into the danger
+before them; insomuch that I cannot but think the Romans would in the
+conclusion have now taken even the whole multitude of the Jews, so
+very angry were they at them, had these not prevented the upshot of
+the battle, and retired into the city. However, seeing the banks of the
+Romans were demolished, these Romans were very much cast down upon the
+loss of what had cost them so long pains, and this in one hour's time.
+And many indeed despaired of taking the city with their usual engines of
+war only.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12.
+
+
+     Titus Thought Fit To Encompass The City Round With A Wall;
+     After Which The Famine Consumed The People By Whole Houses
+     And Families Together.
+
+1. And now did Titus consult with his commanders what was to be done.
+Those that were of the warmest tempers thought he should bring the whole
+army against the city and storm the wall; for that hitherto no more
+than a part of their army had fought with the Jews; but that in case the
+entire army was to come at once, they would not be able to sustain their
+attacks, but would be overwhelmed by their darts. But of those that were
+for a more cautious management, some were for raising their banks again;
+and others advised to let the banks alone, but to lie still before the
+city, to guard against the coming out of the Jews, and against their
+carrying provisions into the city, and so to leave the enemy to the
+famine, and this without direct fighting with them; for that despair was
+not to be conquered, especially as to those who are desirous to die by
+the sword, while a more terrible misery than that is reserved for them.
+However, Titus did not think it fit for so great an army to lie entirely
+idle, and that yet it was in vain to fight with those that would be
+destroyed one by another; he also showed them how impracticable it was
+to cast up any more banks, for want of materials, and to guard against
+the Jews coming out still more impracticable; as also, that to encompass
+the whole city round with his army was not very easy, by reason of its
+magnitude, and the difficulty of the situation, and on other accounts
+dangerous, upon the sallies the Jews might make out of the city. For
+although they might guard the known passages out of the place, yet would
+they, when they found themselves under the greatest distress, contrive
+secret passages out, as being well acquainted with all such places; and
+if any provisions were carried in by stealth, the siege would thereby be
+longer delayed. He also owned that he was afraid that the length of time
+thus to be spent would diminish the glory of his success; for though
+it be true that length of time will perfect every thing, yet that to
+do what we do in a little time is still necessary to the gaining
+reputation. That therefore his opinion was, that if they aimed at
+quickness joined with security, they must build a wall round about the
+whole city; which was, he thought, the only way to prevent the Jews from
+coming out any way, and that then they would either entirely despair of
+saving the city, and so would surrender it up to him, or be still the
+more easily conquered when the famine had further weakened them; for
+that besides this wall, he would not lie entirely at rest afterward, but
+would take care then to have banks raised again, when those that would
+oppose them were become weaker. But that if any one should think such a
+work to be too great, and not to be finished without much difficulty, he
+ought to consider that it is not fit for Romans to undertake any small
+work, and that none but God himself could with ease accomplish any great
+thing whatsoever.
+
+2. These arguments prevailed with the commanders. So Titus gave orders
+that the army should be distributed to their several shares of this
+work; and indeed there now came upon the soldiers a certain divine fury,
+so that they did not only part the whole wall that was to be built
+among them, nor did only one legion strive with another, but the lesser
+divisions of the army did the same; insomuch that each soldier was
+ambitious to please his decurion, each decurion his centurion, each
+centurion his tribune, and the ambition of the tribunes was to please
+their superior commanders, while Caesar himself took notice of and
+rewarded the like contention in those commanders; for he went round
+about the works many times every day, and took a view of what was done.
+Titus began the wall from the camp of the Assyrians, where his own camp
+was pitched, and drew it down to the lower parts of Cenopolis; thence
+it went along the valley of Cedron, to the Mount of Olives; it then
+bent towards the south, and encompassed the mountain as far as the rock
+called Peristereon, and that other hill which lies next it, and is over
+the valley which reaches to Siloam; whence it bended again to the west,
+and went down to the valley of the Fountain, beyond which it went up
+again at the monument of Ananus the high priest, and encompassing that
+mountain where Pompey had formerly pitched his camp, it returned back
+to the north side of the city, and was carried on as far as a certain
+village called "The House of the Erebinthi;" after which it encompassed
+Herod's monument, and there, on the east, was joined to Titus's own
+camp, where it began. Now the length of this wall was forty furlongs,
+one only abated. Now at this wall without were erected thirteen places
+to keep garrison in, whose circumferences, put together, amounted to
+ten furlongs; the whole was completed in three days; so that what would
+naturally have required some months was done in so short an interval as
+is incredible. When Titus had therefore encompassed the city with this
+wall, and put garrisons into proper places, he went round the wall, at
+the first watch of the night, and observed how the guard was kept; the
+second watch he allotted to Alexander; the commanders of legions took
+the third watch. They also cast lots among themselves who should be upon
+the watch in the night time, and who should go all night long round the
+spaces that were interposed between the garrisons.
+
+3. So all hope of escaping was now cut off from the Jews, together with
+their liberty of going out of the city. Then did the famine widen its
+progress, and devoured the people by whole houses and families; the
+upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine,
+and the lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aged; the
+children also and the young men wandered about the market-places like
+shadows, all swelled with the famine, and fell down dead, wheresoever
+their misery seized them. As for burying them, those that were sick
+themselves were not able to do it; and those that were hearty and well
+were deterred from doing it by the great multitude of those dead bodies,
+and by the uncertainty there was how soon they should die themselves;
+for many died as they were burying others, and many went to their
+coffins before that fatal hour was come. Nor was there any lamentations
+made under these calamities, nor were heard any mournful complaints;
+but the famine confounded all natural passions; for those who were just
+going to die looked upon those that were gone to rest before them with
+dry eyes and open mouths. A deep silence also, and a kind of deadly
+night, had seized upon the city; while yet the robbers were still more
+terrible than these miseries were themselves; for they brake open those
+houses which were no other than graves of dead bodies, and plundered
+them of what they had; and carrying off the coverings of their bodies,
+went out laughing, and tried the points of their swords in their dead
+bodies; and, in order to prove what metal they were made of they thrust
+some of those through that still lay alive upon the ground; but for
+those that entreated them to lend them their right hand and their sword
+to despatch them, they were too proud to grant their requests, and left
+them to be consumed by the famine. Now every one of these died with
+their eyes fixed upon the temple, and left the seditious alive behind
+them. Now the seditious at first gave orders that the dead should be
+buried out of the public treasury, as not enduring the stench of their
+dead bodies. But afterwards, when they could not do that, they had them
+cast down from the walls into the valleys beneath.
+
+4. However, when Titus, in going his rounds along those valleys, saw
+them full of dead bodies, and the thick putrefaction running about them,
+he gave a groan; and, spreading out his hands to heaven, called God to
+witness that this was not his doing; and such was the sad case of
+the city itself. But the Romans were very joyful, since none of the
+seditious could now make sallies out of the city, because they were
+themselves disconsolate, and the famine already touched them also. These
+Romans besides had great plenty of corn and other necessaries out of
+Syria, and out of the neighboring provinces; many of whom would stand
+near to the wall of the city, and show the people what great quantities
+of provisions they had, and so make the enemy more sensible of their
+famine, by the great plenty, even to satiety, which they had themselves.
+However, when the seditious still showed no inclinations of yielding,
+Titus, out of his commiseration of the people that remained, and out
+of his earnest desire of rescuing what was still left out of these
+miseries, began to raise his banks again, although materials for them
+were hard to be come at; for all the trees that were about the city had
+been already cut down for the making of the former banks. Yet did the
+soldiers bring with them other materials from the distance of ninety
+furlongs, and thereby raised banks in four parts, much greater than the
+former, though this was done only at the tower of Antonia. So Caesar
+went his rounds through the legions, and hastened on the works, and
+showed the robbers that they were now in his hands. But these men, and
+these only, were incapable of repenting of the wickednesses they had
+been guilty of; and separating their souls from their bodies, they used
+them both as if they belonged to other folks, and not to themselves. For
+no gentle affection could touch their souls, nor could any pain affect
+their bodies, since they could still tear the dead bodies of the people
+as dogs do, and fill the prisons with those that were sick.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13.
+
+
+     The Great Slaughters And Sacrilege That Were In Jerusalem.
+
+1. Accordingly Simon would not suffer Matthias, by whose means he got
+possession of the city, to go off without torment. This Matthias was the
+son of Boethus, and was one of the high priests, one that had been very
+faithful to the people, and in great esteem with them; he, when the
+multitude were distressed by the zealots, among whom John was numbered,
+persuaded the people to admit this Simon to come in to assist them,
+while he had made no terms with him, nor expected any thing that was
+evil from him. But when Simon was come in, and had gotten the city under
+his power, he esteemed him that had advised them to admit him as his
+enemy equally with the rest, as looking upon that advice as a piece
+of his simplicity only; so he had him then brought before him, and
+condemned to die for being on the side of the Romans, without giving him
+leave to make his defense. He condemned also his three sons to die with
+him; for as to the fourth, he prevented him by running away to Titus
+before. And when he begged for this, that he might be slain before his
+sons, and that as a favor, on account that he had procured the gates of
+the city to be opened to him, he gave order that he should be slain the
+last of them all; so he was not slain till he had seen his sons slain
+before his eyes, and that by being produced over against the Romans; for
+such a charge had Simon given to Artanus, the son of Bamadus, who was
+the most barbarous of all his guards. He also jested upon him, and told
+him that he might now see whether those to whom he intended to go over
+would send him any succors or not; but still he forbade their dead
+bodies should be buried. After the slaughter of these, a certain priest,
+Ananias, the son of Masambalus, a person of eminency, as also Aristens,
+the scribe of the sanhedrim, and born at Emmaus, and with them fifteen
+men of figure among the people, were slain. They also kept Josephus's
+father in prison, and made public proclamation, that no citizen
+whosoever should either speak to him himself, or go into his company
+among others, for fear he should betray them. They also slew such as
+joined in lamenting these men, without any further examination.
+
+2. Now when Judas, the son of Judas, who was one of Simon's under
+officers, and a person intrusted by him to keep one of the towers, saw
+this procedure of Simon, he called together ten of those under him, that
+were most faithful to him, [perhaps this was done partly out of pity
+to those that had so barbarously been put to death, but principally in
+order to provide for his own safety,] and spoke thus to them: "How long
+shall we bear these miseries? or what hopes have we of deliverance by
+thus continuing faithful to such wicked wretches? Is not the famine
+already come against us? Are not the Romans in a manner gotten within
+the city? Is not Simon become unfaithful to his benefactors? and
+is there not reason to fear he will very soon bring us to the like
+punishment, while the security the Romans offer us is sure? Come on,
+let us surrender up this wall, and save ourselves and the city. Nor
+will Simon be very much hurt, if, now he despairs of deliverance, he
+be brought to justice a little sooner than he thinks on." Now these ten
+were prevailed upon by those arguments; so he sent the rest of those
+that were under him, some one way, and some another, that no discovery
+might be made of what they had resolved upon. Accordingly, he called to
+the Romans from the tower about the third hour; but they, some of them
+out of pride, despised what he said, and others of them did not believe
+him to be in earnest, though the greatest number delayed the matter,
+as believing they should get possession of the city in a little time,
+without any hazard. But when Titus was just coming thither with his
+armed men, Simon was acquainted with the matter before he came,
+and presently took the tower into his own custody, before it was
+surrendered, and seized upon these men, and put them to death in the
+sight of the Romans themselves; and when he had mangled their dead
+bodies, he threw them down before the wall of the city.
+
+3. In the mean time, Josephus, as he was going round the city, had his
+head wounded by a stone that was thrown at him; upon which he fell down
+as giddy. Upon which fall of his the Jews made a sally, and he had been
+hurried away into the city, if Caesar had not sent men to protect him
+immediately; and as these men were fighting, Josephus was taken up,
+though he heard little of what was done. So the seditious supposed they
+had now slain that man whom they were the most desirous of killing, and
+made thereupon a great noise, in way of rejoicing. This accident
+was told in the city, and the multitude that remained became very
+disconsolate at the news, as being persuaded that he was really dead, on
+whose account alone they could venture to desert to the Romans. But when
+Josephus's mother heard in prison that her son was dead, she said to
+those that watched about her, That she had always been of opinion, since
+the siege of Jotapata, [that he would be slain,] and she should never
+enjoy him alive any more. She also made great lamentation privately to
+the maid-servants that were about her, and said, That this was all the
+advantage she had of bringing so extraordinary a person as this son into
+the world; that she should not be able even to bury that son of hers,
+by whom she expected to have been buried herself. However, this false
+report did not put his mother to pain, nor afford merriment to the
+robbers, long; for Josephus soon recovered of his wound, and came
+out, and cried out aloud, That it would not be long ere they should
+be punished for this wound they had given him. He also made a fresh
+exhortation to the people to come out upon the security that would be
+given them. This sight of Josephus encouraged the people greatly, and
+brought a great consternation upon the seditious.
+
+4. Hereupon some of the deserters, having no other way, leaped down from
+the wall immediately, while others of them went out of the city with
+stones, as if they would fight them; but thereupon they fled away to the
+Romans. But here a worse fate accompanied these than what they had found
+within the city; and they met with a quicker despatch from the too great
+abundance they had among the Romans, than they could have done from the
+famine among the Jews; for when they came first to the Romans, they were
+puffed up by the famine, and swelled like men in a dropsy; after which
+they all on the sudden overfilled those bodies that were before empty,
+and so burst asunder, excepting such only as were skillful enough to
+restrain their appetites, and by degrees took in their food into bodies
+unaccustomed thereto. Yet did another plague seize upon those that were
+thus preserved; for there was found among the Syrian deserters a certain
+person who was caught gathering pieces of gold out of the excrements
+of the Jews' bellies; for the deserters used to swallow such pieces of
+gold, as we told you before, when they came out, and for these did the
+seditious search them all; for there was a great quantity of gold in the
+city, insomuch that as much was now sold [in the Roman camp] for
+twelve Attic [drams], as was sold before for twenty-five. But when this
+contrivance was discovered in one instance, the fame of it filled their
+several camps, that the deserters came to them full of gold. So the
+multitude of the Arabians, with the Syrians, cut up those that came as
+supplicants, and searched their bellies. Nor does it seem to me that any
+misery befell the Jews that was more terrible than this, since in one
+night's time about two thousand of these deserters were thus dissected.
+
+5. When Titus came to the knowledge of this wicked practice, he had like
+to have surrounded those that had been guilty of it with his horse, and
+have shot them dead; and he had done it, had not their number been so
+very great, and those that were liable to this punishment would have
+been manifold more than those whom they had slain. However, he called
+together the commanders of the auxiliary troops he had with him, as well
+as the commanders of the Roman legions, [for some of his own soldiers
+had been also guilty herein, as he had been informed,] and had great
+indignation against both sorts of them, and said to them, "What! have
+any of my own soldiers done such things as this out of the uncertain
+hope of gain, without regarding their own weapons, which are made of
+silver and gold? Moreover, do the Arabians and Syrians now first of
+all begin to govern themselves as they please, and to indulge their
+appetites in a foreign war, and then, out of their barbarity in
+murdering men, and out of their hatred to the Jews, get it ascribed to
+the Romans?" for this infamous practice was said to be spread among some
+of his own soldiers also. Titus then threatened that he would put such
+men to death, if any of them were discovered to be so insolent as to
+do so again; moreover, he gave it in charge to the legions, that they
+should make a search after such as were suspected, and should bring
+them to him. But it appeared that the love of money was too hard for all
+their dread of punishment, and a vehement desire of gain is natural to
+men, and no passion is so venturesome as covetousness; otherwise such
+passions have certain bounds, and are subordinate to fear. But in
+reality it was God who condemned the whole nation, and turned every
+course that was taken for their preservation to their destruction. This,
+therefore, which was forbidden by Caesar under such a threatening, was
+ventured upon privately against the deserters, and these barbarians
+would go out still, and meet those that ran away before any saw them,
+and looking about them to see that no Roman spied them, they dissected
+them, and pulled this polluted money out of their bowels; which money
+was still found in a few of them, while yet a great many were destroyed
+by the bare hope there was of thus getting by them, which miserable
+treatment made many that were deserting to return back again into the
+city.
+
+6. But as for John, when he could no longer plunder the people,
+he betook himself to sacrilege, and melted down many of the sacred
+utensils, which had been given to the temple; as also many of those
+vessels which were necessary for such as ministered about holy things,
+the caldrons, the dishes, and the tables; nay, he did not abstain from
+those pouring vessels that were sent them by Augustus and his wife; for
+the Roman emperors did ever both honor and adorn this temple; whereas
+this man, who was a Jew, seized upon what were the donations of
+foreigners, and said to those that were with him, that it was proper for
+them to use Divine things, while they were fighting for the Divinity,
+without fear, and that such whose warfare is for the temple should live
+of the temple; on which account he emptied the vessels of that
+sacred wine and oil, which the priests kept to be poured on the
+burnt-offerings, and which lay in the inner court of the temple, and
+distributed it among the multitude, who, in their anointing themselves
+and drinking, used [each of them] above an hin of them. And here I
+cannot but speak my mind, and what the concern I am under dictates to
+me, and it is this: I suppose, that had the Romans made any longer delay
+in coming against these villains, that the city would either have been
+swallowed up by the ground opening upon them, or been overflowed by
+water, or else been destroyed by such thunder as the country of Sodom
+20 perished by, for it had brought forth a generation of men much more
+atheistical than were those that suffered such punishments; for by their
+madness it was that all the people came to be destroyed.
+
+7. And, indeed, why do I relate these particular calamities? while
+Manneus, the son of Lazarus, came running to Titus at this very time,
+and told him that there had been carried out through that one gate,
+which was intrusted to his care, no fewer than a hundred and fifteen
+thousand eight hundred and eighty dead bodies, in the interval between
+the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] when the Romans
+pitched their camp by the city, and the first day of the month Panemus
+[Tamuz]. This was itself a prodigious multitude; and though this man was
+not himself set as a governor at that gate, yet was he appointed to pay
+the public stipend for carrying these bodies out, and so was obliged of
+necessity to number them, while the rest were buried by their relations;
+though all their burial was but this, to bring them away, and cast them
+out of the city. After this man there ran away to Titus many of the
+eminent citizens, and told him the entire number of the poor that were
+dead, and that no fewer than six hundred thousand were thrown out at the
+gates, though still the number of the rest could not be discovered; and
+they told him further, that when they were no longer able to carry out
+the dead bodies of the poor, they laid their corpses on heaps in very
+large houses, and shut them up therein; as also that a medimnus of wheat
+was sold for a talent; and that when, a while afterward, it was not
+possible to gather herbs, by reason the city was all walled about, some
+persons were driven to that terrible distress as to search the common
+sewers and old dunghills of cattle, and to eat the dung which they got
+there; and what they of old could not endure so much as to see they now
+used for food. When the Romans barely heard all this, they commiserated
+their case; while the seditious, who saw it also, did not repent,
+but suffered the same distress to come upon themselves; for they were
+blinded by that fate which was already coming upon the city, and upon
+themselves also.
+
+WAR BOOK 5 FOOTNOTES
+
+1 (return) [ This appears to be the first time that the zealots ventured
+to pollute this most sacred court of the temple, which was the court of
+the priests, wherein the temple itself and the altar stood. So that the
+conjecture of those that would interpret that Zacharias, who was slain
+"between the temple and the altar" several months before, B. IV. ch. 5.
+sect. 4, as if he were slain there by these zealots, is groundless, as I
+have noted on that place already.]
+
+
+2 (return) [ The Levites.]
+
+
+3 (return) [ This is an excellent reflection of Josephus, including his
+hopes of the restoration of the Jews upon their repentance, See
+Antiq. B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 46, which is the grand "Hope of Israel," as
+Manasseh-ben-Israel, the famous Jewish Rabbi, styles it, in his small
+but remarkable treatise on that subject, of which the Jewish prophets
+are every where full. See the principal of those prophecies collected
+together at the end of the Essay on the Revelation, p. 822, etc.]
+
+
+4 (return) [ This destruction of such a vast quantity of corn and other
+provisions, as was sufficient for many years was the direct occasion
+of that terrible famine, which consumed incredible numbers of Jews in
+Jerusalem during its siege. Nor probably could the Romans have taken
+this city, after all, had not these seditious Jews been so infatuated as
+thus madly to destroy, what Josephus here justly styles, "The nerves of
+their power."]
+
+
+5 (return) [ This timber, we see, was designed for the rebuilding those
+twenty additional cubits of the holy house above the hundred, which had
+fallen down some years before. See the note on Antiq. B. XV. ch. 11.
+sect. 3.]
+
+
+6 (return) [ There being no gate on the west, and only on the west, side
+of the court of the priests, and so no steps there, this was the only
+side that the seditious, under this John of Gischala, could bring their
+engines close to the cloisters of that court end-ways, though upon the
+floor of the court of Israel. See the scheme of that temple, in the
+description of the temples hereto belonging.]
+
+
+7 (return) [ We may here note, that Titus is here called "a king," and
+"Caesar," by Josephus, even while he was no more than the emperor's son,
+and general of the Roman army, and his father Vespasian was still alive;
+just as the New Testament says "Archelaus reigned," or "was king,"
+Matthew 2:22, though he was properly no more than ethnarch, as Josephus
+assures us, Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 11. sect. 4; Of the War, B. II. ch. 6.
+sect. 3. Thus also the Jews called the Roman emperors "kings," though
+they never took that title to themselves: "We have no king but Caesar,"
+John 19:15. "Submit to the king as supreme," 1 Peter 2:13, 17; which is
+also the language of the Apostolical Constitutions, II. II, 31; IV.
+13; V. 19; VI. 2, 25; VII. 16; VIII. 2, 13; and elsewhere in the New
+Testament, Matthew 10:18; 17:25; 1 Timothy 2:2; and in Josephus also;
+though I suspect Josephus particularly esteemed Titus as joint king with
+his father ever since his divine dreams that declared them both such, B.
+III. ch. 8. sect. 9.]
+
+
+8 (return) [ This situation of the Mount of Olives, on the east of
+Jerusalem, at about the distance of five or six furlongs, with the
+valley of Cedron interposed between that mountain and the city, are
+things well known both in the Old and New Testament, in Josephus
+elsewhere, and in all the descriptions of Palestine.]
+
+
+9 (return) [ Here we see the true occasion of those vast numbers of Jews
+that were in Jerusalem during this siege by Titus, and perished therein;
+that the siege began at the feast of the passover, when such prodigious
+multitudes of Jews and proselytes of the gate were come from all parts
+of Judea, and from other countries, in order to celebrate that great
+festival. See the note B. VI. ch. 9. sect. 3. Tacitus himself informs
+us, that the number of men, women, and children in Jerusalem, when it
+was besieged by the Romans, as he had been informed. This information
+must have been taken from the Romans: for Josephus never recounts the
+numbers of those that were besieged, only he lets us know, that of the
+vulgar, carried dead out of the gates, and buried at the public charges,
+was the like number of 600,000, ch. viii. sect. 7. However, when
+Cestius Gallus came first to the siege, that sum in Tacitus is no way
+disagreeable to Josephus's history, though they were become much more
+numerous when Titus encompassed the city at the passover. As to the
+number that perished during this siege, Josephus assures us, as we
+shall see hereafter, they were 1,100,000, besides 97,000 captives. But
+Tacitus's history of the last part of this siege is not now extant; so
+we cannot compare his parallel numbers with those of Josephus.]
+
+
+10 (return) [ Perhaps, says Dr. Hudson, here was that gate, called the
+"Gate of the Corner," in 2 Chronicles 26:9. See ch. 4. sect. 2]
+
+
+11 (return) [ These dove-courts in Josephus, built by Herod the Great,
+are, in the opinion of Reland, the very same that are mentioned by the
+Talmudists, and named by them "Herod's dove courts." Nor is there any
+reason to suppose otherwise, since in both accounts they were expressly
+tame pigeons which were kept in them.]
+
+
+12 (return) [ See the description of the temples hereto belonging, ch.
+15. But note, that what Josephus here says of the original scantiness of
+this Mount Moriah, that it was quite too little for the temple, and that
+at first it held only one cloister or court of Solomon's building, and
+that the foundations were forced to be added long afterwards by degrees,
+to render it capable of the cloisters for the other courts, etc., is
+without all foundation in the Scriptures, and not at all confirmed by
+his exacter account in the Antiquities. All that is or can be true here
+is this, that when the court of the Gentiles was long afterward to be
+encompassed with cloisters, the southern foundation for these cloisters
+was found not to be large or firm enough, and was raised, and that
+additional foundation supported by great pillars and arches under
+ground, which Josephus speaks of elsewhere, Antiq. B. XV. ch. 11. sect.
+3, and which Mr. Maundrel saw, and describes, p. 100, as extant under
+ground at this day.]
+
+
+13 (return) [ What Josephus seems here to mean is this: that these
+pillars, supporting the cloisters in the second court, had their
+foundations or lowest parts as deep as the floor of the first or lowest
+court; but that so far of those lowest parts as were equal to the
+elevation of the upper floor above the lowest were, and must be, hidden
+on the inside by the ground or rock itself, on which that upper
+court was built; so that forty cubits visible below were reduced to
+twenty-five visible above, and implies the difference of their heights
+to be fifteen cubits. The main difficulty lies here, how fourteen or
+fifteen steps should give an ascent of fifteen cubits, half a cubit
+seeming sufficient for a single step. Possibly there were fourteen or
+fifteen steps at the partition wall, and fourteen or fifteen more thence
+into the court itself, which would bring the whole near to the just
+proportion. See sect. 3, infra. But I determine nothing.]
+
+
+14 (return) [ These three guards that lay in the tower of Antonia must
+be those that guarded the city, the temple, and the tower of Antonia.]
+
+
+15 (return) [ What should be the meaning of this signal or watchword,
+when the watchmen saw a stone coming from the engine, "The Stone
+Cometh," or what mistake there is in the reading, I cannot tell. The
+MSS., both Greek and Latin, all agree in this reading; and I cannot
+approve of any groundless conjectural alteration of the text from ro to
+lop, that not the son or a stone, but that the arrow or dart cometh;
+as hath been made by Dr. Hudson, and not corrected by Havercamp. Had
+Josephus written even his first edition of these books of the war in
+pure Hebrew, or had the Jews then used the pure Hebrew at Jerusalem, the
+Hebrew word for a son is so like that for a stone, ben and eben, that
+such a correction might have been more easily admitted. But Josephus
+wrote his former edition for the use of the Jews beyond Euphrates, and
+so in the Chaldee language, as he did this second edition in the Greek
+language; and bar was the Chaldee word for son, instead of the Hebrew
+ben, and was used not only in Chaldea, etc. but in Judea also, as the
+New Testament informs us. Dio lets us know that the very Romans at Rome
+pronounced the name of Simon the son of Giora, Bar Poras for Bar Gioras,
+as we learn from Xiphiline, p. 217. Reland takes notice, "that many will
+here look for a mystery, as though the meaning were, that the Son of God
+came now to take vengeance on the sins of the Jewish nation;" which is
+indeed the truth of the fact, but hardly what the Jews could now mean;
+unless possibly by way of derision of Christ's threatening so often
+made, that he would come at the head of the Roman army for their
+destruction. But even this interpretation has but a very small degree of
+probability. If I were to make an emendation by mere conjecture, I would
+read instead of, though the likeness be not so great as in lo; because
+that is the word used by Josephus just before, as has been already noted
+on this very occasion, while, an arrow or dart, is only a poetical word,
+and never used by Josephus elsewhere, and is indeed no way suitable
+to the occasion, this engine not throwing arrows or darts, but great
+stones, at this time.]
+
+
+16 (return) [ Josephus supposes, in this his admirable speech to the
+Jews, that not Abraham only, but Pharaoh king of Egypt, prayed towards
+a temple at Jerusalem, or towards Jerusalem itself, in which were Mount
+Sion and Mount Moriah, on which the tabernacle and temple did afterwards
+stand; and this long before either the Jewish tabernacle or temple were
+built. Nor is the famous command given by God to Abraham, to go two
+or three days' journey, on purpose to offer up his son Isaac there,
+unfavorable to such a notion.]
+
+
+17 (return) [ Note here, that Josephus, in this his same admirable
+speech, calls the Syrians, nay, even the Philistines, on the most south
+part of Syria, Assyrians; which Reland observes as what was common among
+the ancient writers. Note also, that Josephus might well put the Jews
+in mind, as he does here more than once, of their wonderful and truly
+miraculous deliverance from Sennacherib, king of Assyria, while the
+Roman army, and himself with them, were now encamped upon and beyond
+that very spot of ground where the Assyrian army lay seven hundred and
+eighty years before, and which retained the very name of the Camp of the
+Assyrians to that very day. See chap. 7. sect. 3, and chap. 12. sect.
+2.]
+
+
+18 (return) [ This drying up of the Jerusalem fountain of Siloam when
+the Jews wanted it, and its flowing abundantly when the enemies of the
+Jews wanted it, and these both in the days of Zedekiah and of Titus,
+[and this last as a certain event well known by the Jews at that time,
+as Josephus here tells them openly to their faces,] are very remarkable
+instances of a Divine Providence for the punishment of the Jewish
+nation, when they were grown very wicked, at both those times of the
+destruction of Jerusalem.]
+
+
+19 (return) [ Reland very properly takes notice here, how justly this
+judgment came upon the Jews, when they were crucified in such multitudes
+together, that the Romans wanted room for the crosses, and crosses
+for the bodies of these Jews, since they had brought this judgment on
+themselves by the crucifixion of their Messiah.]
+
+
+20 (return) [ Josephus, both here and before, B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 4,
+esteems the land of Sodom, not as part of the lake Asphaltites, or under
+its waters, but near it only, as Tacitus also took the same notion from
+him, Hist. V. ch. 6. 7, which the great Reland takes to be the very
+truth, both in his note on this place, and in his Palestina, tom. I. p.
+254-258; though I rather suppose part of that region of Pentapolis to be
+now under the waters of the south part of that sea, but perhaps not the
+whole country.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK VI.
+
+
+     Containing The Interval Of About One Month.
+
+     From The Great Extremity To Which The Jews Were Reduced To
+     The Taking Of Jerusalem By Titus.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+
+     That The Miseries Still Grew Worse; And How The Romans Made
+     An Assault Upon The Tower Of Antonia.
+
+1. Thus did the miseries of Jerusalem grow worse and worse every day,
+and the seditious were still more irritated by the calamities they were
+under, even while the famine preyed upon themselves, after it had preyed
+upon the people. And indeed the multitude of carcasses that lay in
+heaps one upon another was a horrible sight, and produced a pestilential
+stench, which was a hinderance to those that would make sallies out of
+the city, and fight the enemy: but as those were to go in battle-array,
+who had been already used to ten thousand murders, and must tread upon
+those dead bodies as they marched along, so were not they terrified,
+nor did they pity men as they marched over them; nor did they deem this
+affront offered to the deceased to be any ill omen to themselves; but
+as they had their right hands already polluted with the murders of their
+own countrymen, and in that condition ran out to fight with foreigners,
+they seem to me to have cast a reproach upon God himself, as if he were
+too slow in punishing them; for the war was not now gone on with as if
+they had any hope of victory; for they gloried after a brutish manner
+in that despair of deliverance they were already in. And now the
+Romans, although they were greatly distressed in getting together their
+materials, raised their banks in one and twenty days, after they had cut
+down all the trees that were in the country that adjoined to the city,
+and that for ninety furlongs round about, as I have already related. And
+truly the very view itself of the country was a melancholy thing; for
+those places which were before adorned with trees and pleasant gardens
+were now become a desolate country every way, and its trees were all cut
+down: nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judea and the most
+beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert, but lament
+and mourn sadly at so great a change: for the war had laid all the signs
+of beauty quite waste: nor if any one that had known the place before,
+had come on a sudden to it now, would he have known it again; but
+though he were at the city itself, yet would he have inquired for it
+notwithstanding.
+
+2. And now the banks were finished, they afforded a foundation for fear
+both to the Romans and to the Jews; for the Jews expected that the city
+would be taken, unless they could burn those banks, as did the Romans
+expect that, if these were once burnt down, they should never be able to
+take it; for there was a mighty scarcity of materials, and the bodies
+of the soldiers began to fail with such hard labors, as did their souls
+faint with so many instances of ill success; nay, the very calamities
+themselves that were in the city proved a greater discouragement to the
+Romans than those within the city; for they found the fighting men of
+the Jews to be not at all mollified among such their sore afflictions,
+while they had themselves perpetually less and less hopes of success,
+and their banks were forced to yield to the stratagems of the enemy,
+their engines to the firmness of their wall, and their closest fights
+to the boldness of their attack; and, what was their greatest
+discouragement of all, they found the Jews' courageous souls to be
+superior to the multitude of the miseries they were under, by their
+sedition, their famine, and the war itself; insomuch that they were
+ready to imagine that the violence of their attacks was invincible,
+and that the alacrity they showed would not be discouraged by their
+calamities; for what would not those be able to bear if they should be
+fortunate, who turned their very misfortunes to the improvement of their
+valor! These considerations made the Romans to keep a stronger guard
+about their banks than they formerly had done.
+
+3. But now John and his party took care for securing themselves
+afterward, even in case this wall should be thrown down, and fell to
+their work before the battering rams were brought against them. Yet did
+they not compass what they endeavored to do, but as they were gone out
+with their torches, they came back under great discouragement before
+they came near to the banks; and the reasons were these: that, in the
+first place, their conduct did not seem to be unanimous, but they went
+out in distinct parties, and at distinct intervals, and after a slow
+manner, and timorously, and, to say all in a word, without a Jewish
+courage; for they were now defective in what is peculiar to our nation,
+that is, in boldness, in violence of assault, and in running upon the
+enemy all together, and in persevering in what they go about, though
+they do not at first succeed in it; but they now went out in a more
+languid manner than usual, and at the same time found the Romans set in
+array, and more courageous than ordinary, and that they guarded their
+banks both with their bodies and their entire armor, and this to such
+a degree on all sides, that they left no room for the fire to get among
+them, and that every one of their souls was in such good courage, that
+they would sooner die than desert their ranks; for besides their notion
+that all their hopes were cut off, in case these their works were once
+burnt, the soldiers were greatly ashamed that subtlety should quite be
+too hard for courage, madness for armor, multitude for skill, and Jews
+for Romans. The Romans had now also another advantage, in that their
+engines for sieges co-operated with them in throwing darts and stones as
+far as the Jews, when they were coming out of the city; whereby the man
+that fell became an impediment to him that was next to him, as did the
+danger of going farther make them less zealous in their attempts; and
+for those that had run under the darts, some of them were terrified by
+the good order and closeness of the enemies' ranks before they came to a
+close fight, and others were pricked with their spears, and turned back
+again; at length they reproached one another for their cowardice, and
+retired without doing any thing. This attack was made upon the first
+day of the month Panemus [Tamuz.] So when the Jews were retreated, the
+Romans brought their engines, although they had all the while stones
+thrown at them from the tower of Antonia, and were assaulted by fire and
+sword, and by all sorts of darts, which necessity afforded the Jews to
+make use of; for although these had great dependence on their own wall,
+and a contempt of the Roman engines, yet did they endeavor to hinder
+the Romans from bringing them. Now these Romans struggled hard, on the
+contrary, to bring them, as deeming that this zeal of the Jews was
+in order to avoid any impression to be made on the tower of Antonia,
+because its wall was but weak, and its foundations rotten. However, that
+tower did not yield to the blows given it from the engines; yet did
+the Romans bear the impressions made by the enemies' darts which were
+perpetually cast at them, and did not give way to any of those dangers
+that came upon them from above, and so they brought their engines to
+bear. But then, as they were beneath the other, and were sadly wounded
+by the stones thrown down upon them, some of them threw their shields
+over their bodies, and partly with their hands, and partly with their
+bodies, and partly with crows, they undermined its foundations, and with
+great pains they removed four of its stones. Then night came upon both
+sides, and put an end to this struggle for the present; however, that
+night the wall was so shaken by the battering rams in that place where
+John had used his stratagem before, and had undermined their banks, that
+the ground then gave way, and the wall fell down suddenly.
+
+4. When this accident had unexpectedly happened, the minds of both
+parties were variously affected; for though one would expect that
+the Jews would be discouraged, because this fall of their wall was
+unexpected by them, and they had made no provision in that case, yet
+did they pull up their courage, because the tower of Antonia itself was
+still standing; as was the unexpected joy of the Romans at this fall of
+the wall soon quenched by the sight they had of another wall, which John
+and his party had built within it. However, the attack of this second
+wall appeared to be easier than that of the former, because it seemed
+a thing of greater facility to get up to it through the parts of the
+former wall that were now thrown down. This new wall appeared also to
+be much weaker than the tower of Antonia, and accordingly the Romans
+imagined that it had been erected so much on the sudden, that they
+should soon overthrow it: yet did not any body venture now to go up to
+this wall; for that such as first ventured so to do must certainly be
+killed.
+
+5. And now Titus, upon consideration that the alacrity of soldiers in
+war is chiefly excited by hopes and by good words, and that exhortations
+and promises do frequently make men to forget the hazards they run, nay,
+sometimes to despise death itself, got together the most courageous part
+of his army, and tried what he could do with his men by these methods.
+"O fellow soldiers," said he, "to make an exhortation to men to do what
+hath no peril in it, is on that very account inglorious to such to whom
+that exhortation is made; and indeed so it is in him that makes the
+exhortation, an argument of his own cowardice also. I therefore think
+that such exhortations ought then only to be made use of when affairs
+are in a dangerous condition, and yet are worthy of being attempted by
+every one themselves; accordingly, I am fully of the same opinion with
+you, that it is a difficult task to go up this wall; but that it is
+proper for those that desire reputation for their valor to struggle with
+difficulties in such cases as will then appear, when I have particularly
+shown that it is a brave thing to die with glory, and that the courage
+here necessary shall not go unrewarded in those that first begin the
+attempt. And let my first argument to move you to it be taken from
+what probably some would think reasonable to dissuade you, I mean the
+constancy and patience of these Jews, even under their ill successes;
+for it is unbecoming you, who are Romans and my soldiers, who have
+in peace been taught how to make wars, and who have also been used to
+conquer in those wars, to be inferior to Jews, either in action of the
+hand, or in courage of the soul, and this especially when you are at the
+conclusion of your victory, and are assisted by God himself; for as to
+our misfortunes, they have been owing to the madness of the Jews, while
+their sufferings have been owing to your valor, and to the assistance
+God hath afforded you; for as to the seditions they have been in, and
+the famine they are under, and the siege they now endure, and the
+fall of their walls without our engines, what can they all be but
+demonstrations of God's anger against them, and of his assistance
+afforded us? It will not therefore be proper for you, either to show
+yourselves inferior to those to whom you are really superior, or to
+betray that Divine assistance which is afforded you. And, indeed, how
+can it be esteemed otherwise than a base and unworthy thing, that while
+the Jews, who need not be much ashamed if they be deserted, because they
+have long learned to be slaves to others, do yet despise death, that
+they may be so no longer; and do make sallies into the very midst of
+us frequently, not in hopes of conquering us, but merely for a
+demonstration of their courage; we, who have gotten possession of almost
+all the world that belongs to either land or sea, to whom it will be a
+great shame if we do not conquer them, do not once undertake any attempt
+against our enemies wherein there is much danger, but sit still idle,
+with such brave arms as we have, and only wait till the famine and
+fortune do our business themselves, and this when we have it in our
+power, with some small hazard, to gain all that we desire! For if we go
+up to this tower of Antonia, we gain the city; for if there should be
+any more occasion for fighting against those within the city, which I do
+not suppose there will, since we shall then be upon the top of the
+hill 1 and be upon our enemies before they can have taken breath, these
+advantages promise us no less than a certain and sudden victory. As for
+myself, I shall at present wave any commendation of those who die in
+war, 2 and omit to speak of the immortality of those men who are slain
+in the midst of their martial bravery; yet cannot I forbear to imprecate
+upon those who are of a contrary disposition, that they may die in time
+of peace, by some distemper or other, since their souls are condemned to
+the grave, together with their bodies. For what man of virtue is there
+who does not know, that those souls which are severed from their fleshly
+bodies in battles by the sword are received by the ether, that purest of
+elements, and joined to that company which are placed among the stars;
+that they become good demons, and propitious heroes, and show themselves
+as such to their posterity afterwards? while upon those souls that wear
+away in and with their distempered bodies comes a subterranean night
+to dissolve them to nothing, and a deep oblivion to take away all the
+remembrance of them, and this notwithstanding they be clean from all
+spots and defilements of this world; so that, in this ease, the soul at
+the same time comes to the utmost bounds of its life, and of its body,
+and of its memorial also. But since he hath determined that death is to
+come of necessity upon all men, a sword is a better instrument for that
+purpose than any disease whatsoever. Why is it not then a very mean
+thing for us not to yield up that to the public benefit which we must
+yield up to fate? And this discourse have I made, upon the supposition
+that those who at first attempt to go upon this wall must needs be
+killed in the attempt, though still men of true courage have a chance to
+escape even in the most hazardous undertakings. For, in the first
+place, that part of the former wall that is thrown down is easily to be
+ascended; and for the new-built wall, it is easily destroyed. Do you,
+therefore, many of you, pull up your courage, and set about this work,
+and do you mutually encourage and assist one another; and this your
+bravery will soon break the hearts of your enemies; and perhaps such a
+glorious undertaking as yours is may be accomplished without bloodshed.
+For although it be justly to be supposed that the Jews will try to
+hinder you at your first beginning to go up to them; yet when you have
+once concealed yourselves from them, and driven them away by force, they
+will not be able to sustain your efforts against them any longer, though
+but a few of you prevent them, and get over the wall. As for that person
+who first mounts the wall, I should blush for shame if I did not make
+him to be envied of others, by those rewards I would bestow upon him.
+If such a one escape with his life, he shall have the command of others
+that are now but his equals; although it be true also that the greatest
+rewards will accrue to such as die in the attempt." 3
+
+6. Upon this speech of Titus, the rest of the multitude were afrighted
+at so great a danger. But there was one, whose name was Sabinus, a
+soldier that served among the cohorts, and a Syrian by birth, who
+appeared to be of very great fortitude, both in the actions he had done,
+and the courage of his soul he had shown; although any body would
+have thought, before he came to his work, that he was of such a weak
+constitution of body, that he was not fit to be a soldier; for his color
+was black, his flesh was lean and thin, and lay close together; but
+there was a certain heroic soul that dwelt in this small body, which
+body was indeed much too narrow for that peculiar courage which was in
+him. Accordingly he was the first that rose up, when he thus spake: "I
+readily surrender up myself to thee, O Caesar; I first ascend the
+wall, and I heartily wish that my fortune may follow my courage and
+my resolution And if some ill fortune grudge me the success of my
+undertaking, take notice that my ill success will not be unexpected, but
+that I choose death voluntarily for thy sake." When he had said this,
+and had spread out his shield over his head with his left hand, and had,
+with his right hand, drawn his sword, he marched up to the wall, just
+about the sixth hour of the day. There followed him eleven others, and
+no more, that resolved to imitate his bravery; but still this was the
+principal person of them all, and went first, as excited by a divine
+fury. Now those that guarded the wall shot at them from thence, and cast
+innumerable darts upon them from every side; they also rolled very large
+stones upon them, which overthrew some of those eleven that were with
+him. But as for Sabinus himself, he met the darts that were cast at him
+and though he was overwhelmed with them, yet did he not leave off the
+violence of his attack before he had gotten up on the top of the wall,
+and had put the enemy to flight. For as the Jews were astonished at
+his great strength, and the bravery of his soul, and as, withal, they
+imagined more of them had got upon the wall than really had, they were
+put to flight. And now one cannot but complain here of fortune, as still
+envious at virtue, and always hindering the performance of glorious
+achievements: this was the case of the man before us, when he had just
+obtained his purpose; for he then stumbled at a certain large stone, and
+fell down upon it headlong, with a very great noise. Upon which the Jews
+turned back, and when they saw him to be alone, and fallen down also,
+they threw darts at him from every side. However, he got upon his knee,
+and covered himself with his shield, and at the first defended himself
+against them, and wounded many of those that came near him; but he was
+soon forced to relax his right hand, by the multitude of the wounds that
+had been given him, till at length he was quite covered over with darts
+before he gave up the ghost. He was one who deserved a better fate, by
+reason of his bravery; but, as might be expected, he fell under so vast
+an attempt. As for the rest of his partners, the Jews dashed three of
+them to pieces with stones, and slew them as they were gotten up to the
+top of the wall; the other eight being wounded, were pulled down, and
+carried back to the camp. These things were done upon the third day of
+the month Panemus [Tamuz].
+
+7. Now two days afterward twelve of those men that were on the
+forefront, and kept watch upon the banks, got together, and called to
+them the standard-bearer of the fifth legion, and two others of a troop
+of horsemen, and one trumpeter; these went without noise, about the
+ninth hour of the night, through the ruins, to the tower of Antonia; and
+when they had cut the throats of the first guards of the place, as they
+were asleep, they got possession of the wall, and ordered the trumpeter
+to sound his trumpet. Upon which the rest of the guard got up on the
+sudden, and ran away, before any body could see how many they were that
+were gotten up; for, partly from the fear they were in, and partly from
+the sound of the trumpet which they heard, they imagined a great number
+of the enemy were gotten up. But as soon as Caesar heard the signal,
+he ordered the army to put on their armor immediately, and came thither
+with his commanders, and first of all ascended, as did the chosen men
+that were with him. And as the Jews were flying away to the temple, they
+fell into that mine which John had dug under the Roman banks. Then
+did the seditious of both the bodies of the Jewish army, as well that
+belonging to John as that belonging to Simon, drive them away; and
+indeed were no way wanting as to the highest degree of force and
+alacrity; for they esteemed themselves entirely ruined if once the
+Romans got into the temple, as did the Romans look upon the same thing
+as the beginning of their entire conquest. So a terrible battle was
+fought at the entrance of the temple, while the Romans were forcing
+their way, in order to get possession of that temple, and the Jews were
+driving them back to the tower of Antonia; in which battle the darts
+were on both sides useless, as well as the spears, and both sides drew
+their swords, and fought it out hand to hand. Now during this struggle
+the positions of the men were undistinguished on both sides, and
+they fought at random, the men being intermixed one with another, and
+confounded, by reason of the narrowness of the place; while the noise
+that was made fell on the ear after an indistinct manner, because it
+was so very loud. Great slaughter was now made on both sides, and the
+combatants trod upon the bodies and the armor of those that were dead,
+and dashed them to pieces. Accordingly, to which side soever the battle
+inclined, those that had the advantage exhorted one another to go on, as
+did those that were beaten make great lamentation. But still there was
+no room for flight, nor for pursuit, but disorderly revolutions and
+retreats, while the armies were intermixed one with another; but those
+that were in the first ranks were under the necessity of killing or
+being killed, without any way for escaping; for those on both sides that
+came behind forced those before them to go on, without leaving any space
+between the armies. At length the Jews' violent zeal was too hard for
+the Romans' skill, and the battle already inclined entirely that way;
+for the fight had lasted from the ninth hour of the night till the
+seventh hour of the day, While the Jews came on in crowds, and had the
+danger the temple was in for their motive; the Romans having no more
+here than a part of their army; for those legions, on which the soldiers
+on that side depended, were not come up to them. So it was at present
+thought sufficient by the Romans to take possession of the tower of
+Antonia.
+
+8. But there was one Julian, a centurion, that came from Bithynia, a man
+he was of great reputation, whom I had formerly seen in that war, and
+one of the highest fame, both for his skill in war, his strength of
+body, and the courage of his soul. This man, seeing the Romans giving
+ground, and in a sad condition, [for he stood by Titus at the tower of
+Antonia,] leaped out, and of himself alone put the Jews to flight, when
+they were already conquerors, and made them retire as far as the corner
+of the inner court of the temple; from him the multitude fled away in
+crowds, as supposing that neither his strength nor his violent attacks
+could be those of a mere man. Accordingly, he rushed through the midst
+of the Jews, as they were dispersed all abroad, and killed those that he
+caught. Nor, indeed, was there any sight that appeared more wonderful in
+the eyes of Caesar, or more terrible to others, than this. However, he
+was himself pursued by fate, which it was not possible that he, who was
+but a mortal man, should escape; for as he had shoes all full of thick
+and sharp nails 4 as had every one of the other soldiers, so when he ran
+on the pavement of the temple, he slipped, and fell down upon his back
+with a very great noise, which was made by his armor. This made those
+that were running away to turn back; whereupon those Romans that were in
+the tower of Antonia set up a great shout, as they were in fear for the
+man. But the Jews got about him in crowds, and struck at him with their
+spears and with their swords on all sides. Now he received a great
+many of the strokes of these iron weapons upon his shield, and often
+attempted to get up again, but was thrown down by those that struck at
+him; yet did he, as he lay along, stab many of them with his sword. Nor
+was he soon killed, as being covered with his helmet and his breastplate
+in all those parts of his body where he might be mortally wounded; he
+also pulled his neck close to his body, till all his other limbs were
+shattered, and nobody durst come to defend him, and then he yielded to
+his fate. Now Caesar was deeply affected on account of this man of so
+great fortitude, and especially as he was killed in the sight of so many
+people; he was desirous himself to come to his assistance, but the place
+would not give him leave, while such as could have done it were too much
+terrified to attempt it. Thus when Julian had struggled with death a
+great while, and had let but few of those that had given him his mortal
+wound go off unhurt, he had at last his throat cut, though not without
+some difficulty, and left behind him a very great fame, not only among
+the Romans, and with Caesar himself, but among his enemies also; then
+did the Jews catch up his dead body, and put the Romans to flight again,
+and shut them up in the tower of Antonia. Now those that most signalized
+themselves, and fought most zealously in this battle of the Jewish side,
+were one Alexas and Gyphtheus, of John's party, and of Simon's party
+were Malachias, and Judas the son of Merto, and James the son of Sosas,
+the commander of the Idumeans; and of the zealots, two brethren, Simon
+and Judas, the sons of Jairus.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+
+     How Titus Gave Orders To Demolish The Tower Of Antonia And
+     Then Persuaded Josephus To Exhort The Jews Again [To A
+     Surrender].
+
+1. And now Titus gave orders to his soldiers that were with him to dig
+up the foundations of the tower of Antonia, and make him a ready passage
+for his army to come up; while he himself had Josephus brought to
+him, [for he had been informed that on that very day, which was the
+seventeenth day 5of Panemus, [Tamuz,] the sacrifice called "the Daily
+Sacrifice" had failed, and had not been offered to God, for want of men
+to offer it, and that the people were grievously troubled at it,] and
+commanded him to say the same things to John that he had said before,
+that if he had any malicious inclination for fighting, he might come out
+with as many of his men as he pleased, in order to fight, without the
+danger of destroying either his city or temple; but that he desired he
+would not defile the temple, nor thereby offend against God. That he
+might, if he pleased, offer the sacrifices which were now discontinued
+by any of the Jews whom he should pitch upon. Upon this Josephus stood
+in such a place where he might be heard, not by John only, but by many
+more, and then declared to them what Caesar had given him in charge,
+and this in the Hebrew language. 6 So he earnestly prayed them to spare
+their own city, and to prevent that fire which was just ready to seize
+upon the temple, and to offer their usual sacrifices to God therein. At
+these words of his a great sadness and silence were observed among the
+people. But the tyrant himself cast many reproaches upon Josephus, with
+imprecations besides; and at last added this withal, that he did never
+fear the taking of the city, because it was God's own city. In answer to
+which Josephus said thus with a loud voice: "To be sure thou hast kept
+this city wonderfully pure for God's sake; the temple also continues
+entirely unpolluted! Nor hast thou been guilty of any impiety against
+him for whose assistance thou hopest! He still receives his accustomed
+sacrifices! Vile wretch that thou art! if any one should deprive thee of
+thy daily food, thou wouldst esteem him to be an enemy to thee; but thou
+hopest to have that God for thy supporter in this war whom thou hast
+deprived of his everlasting worship; and thou imputest those sins to the
+Romans, who to this very time take care to have our laws observed, and
+almost compel these sacrifices to be still offered to God, which have
+by thy means been intermitted! Who is there that can avoid groans and
+lamentations at the amazing change that is made in this city? since
+very foreigners and enemies do now correct that impiety which thou hast
+occasioned; while thou, who art a Jew, and wast educated in our laws,
+art become a greater enemy to them than the others. But still, John, it
+is never dishonorable to repent, and amend what hath been done amiss,
+even at the last extremity. Thou hast an instance before thee in
+Jechoniah, 7 the king of the Jews, if thou hast a mind to save the
+city, who, when the king of Babylon made war against him, did of his
+own accord go out of this city before it was taken, and did undergo a
+voluntary captivity with his family, that the sanctuary might not be
+delivered up to the enemy, and that he might not see the house of God
+set on fire; on which account he is celebrated among all the Jews, in
+their sacred memorials, and his memory is become immortal, and will be
+conveyed fresh down to our posterity through all ages. This, John, is
+an excellent example in such a time of danger, and I dare venture to
+promise that the Romans shall still forgive thee. And take notice that
+I, who make this exhortation to thee, am one of thine own nation; I,
+who am a Jew, do make this promise to thee. And it will become thee to
+consider who I am that give thee this counsel, and whence I am derived;
+for while I am alive I shall never be in such slavery, as to forego
+my own kindred, or forget the laws of our forefathers. Thou hast
+indignation at me again, and makest a clamor at me, and reproachest me;
+indeed I cannot deny but I am worthy of worse treatment than all this
+amounts to, because, in opposition to fate, I make this kind invitation
+to thee, and endeavor to force deliverance upon those whom God hath
+condemned. And who is there that does not know what the writings of the
+ancient prophets contain in them,--and particularly that oracle which
+is just now going to be fulfilled upon this miserable city? For they
+foretold that this city should be then taken when somebody shall begin
+the slaughter of his own countrymen. And are not both the city and the
+entire temple now full of the dead bodies of your countrymen? It is God,
+therefore, it is God himself who is bringing on this fire, to purge that
+city and temple by means of the Romans, 8 and is going to pluck up this
+city, which is full of your pollutions."
+
+2. As Josephus spoke these words, with groans and tears in his eyes, his
+voice was intercepted by sobs. However, the Romans could not but pity
+the affliction he was under, and wonder at his conduct. But for John,
+and those that were with him, they were but the more exasperated against
+the Romans on this account, and were desirous to get Josephus also into
+their power: yet did that discourse influence a great many of the better
+sort; and truly some of them were so afraid of the guards set by the
+seditious, that they tarried where they were, but still were satisfied
+that both they and the city were doomed to destruction. Some also there
+were who, watching a proper opportunity when they might quietly get
+away, fled to the Romans, of whom were the high priests Joseph and
+Jesus, and of the sons of high priests three, whose father was Ishmael,
+who was beheaded in Cyrene, and four sons of Matthias, as also one son
+of the other Matthias, who ran away after his father's death, 9 and
+whose father was slain by Simon the son of Gioras, with three of his
+sons, as I have already related; many also of the other nobility went
+over to the Romans, together with the high priests. Now Caesar not only
+received these men very kindly in other respects, but, knowing they
+would not willingly live after the customs of other nations, he sent
+them to Gophna, and desired them to remain there for the present, and
+told them, that when he was gotten clear of this war, he would restore
+each of them to their possessions again; so they cheerfully retired to
+that small city which was allotted them, without fear of any danger.
+But as they did not appear, the seditious gave out again that these
+deserters were slain by the Romans, which was done in order to deter
+the rest from running away, by fear of the like treatment. This trick of
+theirs succeeded now for a while, as did the like trick before; for the
+rest were hereby deterred from deserting, by fear of the like treatment.
+
+3. However, when Titus had recalled those men from Gophna, he gave
+orders that they should go round the wall, together with Josephus,
+and show themselves to the people; upon which a great many fled to the
+Romans. These men also got in a great number together, and stood before
+the Romans, and besought the seditious, with groans and tears in their
+eyes, in the first place to receive the Romans entirely into the city,
+and save that their own place of residence again; but that, if they
+would not agree to such a proposal, they would at least depart out of
+the temple, and save the holy house for their own use; for that the
+Romans would not venture to set the sanctuary on fire but under the most
+pressing necessity. Yet did the seditious still more and more contradict
+them; and while they cast loud and bitter reproaches upon these
+deserters, they also set their engines for throwing of darts, and
+javelins, and stones upon the sacred gates of the temple, at due
+distances from one another, insomuch that all the space round about
+within the temple might be compared to a burying-ground, so great was
+the number of the dead bodies therein; as might the holy house itself
+be compared to a citadel. Accordingly, these men rushed upon these holy
+places in their armor, that were otherwise unapproachable, and that
+while their hands were yet warm with the blood of their own people which
+they had shed; nay, they proceeded to such great transgressions, that
+the very same indignation which Jews would naturally have against
+Romans, had they been guilty of such abuses against them, the Romans
+now had against Jews, for their impiety in regard to their own religious
+customs. Nay, indeed, there were none of the Roman soldiers who did not
+look with a sacred horror upon the holy house, and adored it, and wished
+that the robbers would repent before their miseries became incurable.
+
+4. Now Titus was deeply affected with this state of things, and
+reproached John and his party, and said to them, "Have not you, vile
+wretches that you are, by our permission, put up this partition-wall
+before your sanctuary? Have not you been allowed to put up the pillars
+thereto belonging, at due distances, and on it to engrave in Greek,
+and in your own letters, this prohibition, that no foreigner should
+go beyond that wall. 10 Have not we given you leave to kill such as
+go beyond it, though he were a Roman? And what do you do now, you
+pernicious villains? Why do you trample upon dead bodies in this temple?
+and why do you pollute this holy house with the blood of both foreigners
+and Jews themselves? I appeal to the gods of my own country, and to
+every god that ever had any regard to this place; [for I do not suppose
+it to be now regarded by any of them;] I also appeal to my own army, and
+to those Jews that are now with me, and even to yourselves, that I do
+not force you to defile this your sanctuary; and if you will but change
+the place whereon you will fight, no Roman shall either come near your
+sanctuary, or offer any affront to it; nay, I will endeavor to preserve
+you your holy house, whether you will or not." 11
+
+5. As Josephus explained these things from the mouth of Caesar, both the
+robbers and the tyrant thought that these exhortations proceeded from
+Titus's fear, and not from his good-will to them, and grew insolent
+upon it. But when Titus saw that these men were neither to be moved by
+commiseration towards themselves, nor had any concern upon them to have
+the holy house spared, he proceeded unwillingly to go on again with the
+war against them. He could not indeed bring all his army against them,
+the place was so narrow; but choosing thirty soldiers of the most
+valiant out of every hundred, and committing a thousand to each tribune,
+and making Cerealis their commander-in-chief, he gave orders that they
+should attack the guards of the temple about the ninth hour of that
+night. But as he was now in his armor, and preparing to go down with
+them, his friends would not let him go, by reason of the greatness of
+the danger, and what the commanders suggested to them; for they said
+that he would do more by sitting above in the tower of Antonia, as a
+dispenser of rewards to those soldiers that signalized themselves in the
+fight, than by coming down and hazarding his own person in the forefront
+of them; for that they would all fight stoutly while Caesar looked upon
+them. With this advice Caesar complied, and said that the only reason
+he had for such compliance with the soldiers was this, that he might be
+able to judge of their courageous actions, and that no valiant soldier
+might lie concealed, and miss of his reward, and no cowardly soldier
+might go unpunished; but that he might himself be an eye-witness, and
+able to give evidence of all that was done, who was to be the disposer
+of punishments and rewards to them. So he sent the soldiers about their
+work at the hour forementioned, while he went out himself to a higher
+place in the tower of Antonia, whence he might see what was done, and
+there waited with impatience to see the event.
+
+6. However, the soldiers that were sent did not find the guards of the
+temple asleep, as they hoped to have done; but were obliged to fight
+with them immediately hand to hand, as they rushed with violence upon
+them with a great shout. Now as soon as the rest within the temple heard
+that shout of those that were upon the watch, they ran out in troops
+upon them. Then did the Romans receive the onset of those that came
+first upon them; but those that followed them fell upon their own
+troops, and many of them treated their own soldiers as if they had
+been enemies; for the great confused noise that was made on both sides
+hindered them from distinguishing one another's voices, as did the
+darkness of the night hinder them from the like distinction by the
+sight, besides that blindness which arose otherwise also from the
+passion and the fear they were in at the same time; for which reason
+it was all one to the soldiers who it was they struck at. However, this
+ignorance did less harm to the Romans than to the Jews, because they
+were joined together under their shields, and made their sallies
+more regularly than the others did, and each of them remembered their
+watch-word; while the Jews were perpetually dispersed abroad, and made
+their attacks and retreats at random, and so did frequently seem to one
+another to be enemies; for every one of them received those of their own
+men that came back in the dark as Romans, and made an assault upon them;
+so that more of them were wounded by their own men than by the enemy,
+till, upon the coming on of the day, the nature of the right was
+discerned by the eye afterward. Then did they stand in battle-array in
+distinct bodies, and cast their darts regularly, and regularly defended
+themselves; nor did either side yield or grow weary. The Romans
+contended with each other who should fight the most strenuously, both
+single men and entire regiments, as being under the eye of Titus; and
+every one concluded that this day would begin his promotion if he
+fought bravely. What were the great encouragements of the Jews to act
+vigorously were, their fear for themselves and for the temple, and the
+presence of their tyrant, who exhorted some, and beat and threatened
+others, to act courageously. Now, it so happened, that this fight was
+for the most part a stationary one, wherein the soldiers went on and
+came back in a short time, and suddenly; for there was no long space of
+ground for either of their flights or pursuits. But still there was a
+tumultuous noise among the Romans from the tower of Antonia, who loudly
+cried out upon all occasions to their own men to press on courageously,
+when they were too hard for the Jews, and to stay when they were
+retiring backward; so that here was a kind of theater of war; for what
+was done in this fight could not be concealed either from Titus, or from
+those that were about him. At length it appeared that this fight, which
+began at the ninth hour of the night, was not over till past the fifth
+hour of the day; and that, in the same place where the battle began,
+neither party could say they had made the other to retire; but both
+the armies left the victory almost in uncertainty between them; wherein
+those that signalized themselves on the Roman side were a great many,
+but on the Jewish side, and of those that were with Simon, Judas the son
+of Merto, and Simon the son of Josas; of the Idumeans, James and Simon,
+the latter of whom was the son of Cathlas, and James was the son of
+Sosas; of those that were with John, Gyphtheus and Alexas; and of the
+zealots, Simon the son of Jairus.
+
+7. In the mean time, the rest of the Roman army had, in seven days'
+time, overthrown [some] foundations of the tower of Antonia, and had
+made a ready and broad way to the temple. Then did the legions come near
+the first court, 12 and began to raise their banks. The one bank was
+over against the north-west corner of the inner temple 13 another was at
+that northern edifice which was between the two gates; and of the other
+two, one was at the western cloister of the outer court of the temple;
+the other against its northern cloister. However, these works were thus
+far advanced by the Romans, not without great pains and difficulty, and
+particularly by being obliged to bring their materials from the distance
+of a hundred furlongs. They had further difficulties also upon them;
+sometimes by their over-great security they were in that they should
+overcome the Jewish snares laid for them, and by that boldness of the
+Jews which their despair of escaping had inspired them withal; for some
+of their horsemen, when they went out to gather wood or hay, let their
+horses feed without having their bridles on during the time of foraging;
+upon which horses the Jews sallied out in whole bodies, and seized them.
+And when this was continually done, and Caesar believed what the truth
+was, that the horses were stolen more by the negligence of his own men
+than by the valor of the Jews, he determined to use greater severity to
+oblige the rest to take care of their horses; so he commanded that
+one of those soldiers who had lost their horses should be capitally
+punished; whereby he so terrified the rest, that they preserved their
+horses for the time to come; for they did not any longer let them go
+from them to feed by themselves, but, as if they had grown to them, they
+went always along with them when they wanted necessaries. Thus did the
+Romans still continue to make war against the temple, and to raise their
+banks against it.
+
+8. Now after one day had been interposed since the Romans ascended the
+breach, many of the seditious were so pressed by the famine, upon the
+present failure of their ravages, that they got together, and made an
+attack on those Roman guards that were upon the Mount of Olives, and
+this about the eleventh hour of the day, as supposing, first, that they
+would not expect such an onset, and, in the next place, that they were
+then taking care of their bodies, and that therefore they should easily
+beat them. But the Romans were apprized of their coming to attack them
+beforehand, and, running together from the neighboring camps on the
+sudden, prevented them from getting over their fortification, or forcing
+the wall that was built about them. Upon this came on a sharp fight, and
+here many great actions were performed on both sides; while the Romans
+showed both their courage and their skill in war, as did the Jews come
+on them with immoderate violence and intolerable passion. The one part
+were urged on by shame, and the other by necessity; for it seemed a very
+shameful thing to the Romans to let the Jews go, now they were taken in
+a kind of net; while the Jews had but one hope of saving themselves, and
+that was in case they could by violence break through the Roman wall;
+and one whose name was Pedanius, belonging to a party of horsemen, when
+the Jews were already beaten and forced down into the valley together,
+spurred his horse on their flank with great vehemence, and caught up a
+certain young man belonging to the enemy by his ankle, as he was running
+away; the man was, however, of a robust body, and in his armor; so
+low did Pedanius bend himself downward from his horse, even as he was
+galloping away, and so great was the strength of his right hand, and of
+the rest of his body, as also such skill had he in horsemanship. So this
+man seized upon that his prey, as upon a precious treasure, and carried
+him as his captive to Caesar; whereupon Titus admired the man that had
+seized the other for his great strength, and ordered the man that was
+caught to be punished [with death] for his attempt against the Roman
+wall, but betook himself to the siege of the temple, and to pressing on
+the raising of the banks.
+
+9. In the mean time, the Jews were so distressed by the fights they had
+been in, as the war advanced higher and higher, and creeping up to the
+holy house itself, that they, as it were, cut off those limbs of their
+body which were infected, in order to prevent the distemper's spreading
+further; for they set the north-west cloister, which was joined to the
+tower of Antonia, on fire, and after that brake off about twenty cubits
+of that cloister, and thereby made a beginning in burning the sanctuary;
+two days after which, or on the twenty-fourth day of the forenamed
+month, [Panemus or Tamuz,] the Romans set fire to the cloister that
+joined to the other, when the fire went fifteen cubits farther. The
+Jews, in like manner, cut off its roof; nor did they entirely leave
+off what they were about till the tower of Antonia was parted from the
+temple, even when it was in their power to have stopped the fire; nay,
+they lay still while the temple was first set on fire, and deemed this
+spreading of the fire to be for their own advantage. However, the armies
+were still fighting one against another about the temple, and the war
+was managed by continual sallies of particular parties against one
+another.
+
+10. Now there was at this time a man among the Jews, low of stature he
+was, and of a despicable appearance; of no character either as to his
+family, or in other respects: his name was Jonathan. He went out at the
+high priest John's monument, and uttered many other insolent things to
+the Romans, and challenged the best of them all to a single combat. But
+many of those that stood there in the army huffed him, and many of them
+[as they might well be] were afraid of him. Some of them also reasoned
+thus, and that justly enough: that it was not fit to fight with a man
+that desired to die, because those that utterly despaired of deliverance
+had, besides other passions, a violence in attacking men that could not
+be opposed, and had no regard to God himself; and that to hazard oneself
+with a person, whom, if you overcome, you do no great matter, and
+by whom it is hazardous that you may be taken prisoner, would be an
+instance, not of manly courage, but of unmanly rashness. So there being
+nobody that came out to accept the man's challenge, and the Jew cutting
+them with a great number of reproaches, as cowards, [for he was a very
+haughty man in himself, and a great despiser of the Romans,] one whose
+name was Pudens, of the body of horsemen, out of his abomination of
+the other's words, and of his impudence withal, and perhaps out of an
+inconsiderate arrogance, on account of the other's lowness of stature,
+ran out to him, and was too hard for him in other respects, but was
+betrayed by his ill fortune; for he fell down, and as he was down,
+Jonathan came running to him, and cut his throat, and then, standing
+upon his dead body, he brandished his sword, bloody as it was, and shook
+his shield with his left hand, and made many acclamations to the Roman
+army, and exulted over the dead man, and jested upon the Romans; till
+at length one Priscus, a centurion, shot a dart at him as he was leaping
+and playing the fool with himself, and thereby pierced him through;
+upon which a shout was set up both by the Jews and the Romans, though
+on different accounts. So Jonathan grew giddy by the pain of his wounds,
+and fell down upon the body of his adversary, as a plain instance how
+suddenly vengeance may come upon men that have success in war, without
+any just deserving the same.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3.
+
+
+     Concerning A Stratagem That Was Devised By The Jews, By
+     Which They Burnt Many Of The Romans; With Another
+     Description Of The Terrible Famine That Was In The City.
+
+1. But now the seditious that were in the temple did every day openly
+endeavor to beat off the soldiers that were upon the banks, and on the
+twenty-seventh day of the forenamed month [Panemus or Tamuz] contrived
+such a stratagem as this: They filled that part of the western cloister
+14 which was between the beams, and the roof under them, with dry
+materials, as also with bitumen and pitch, and then retired from that
+place, as though they were tired with the pains they had taken; at which
+procedure of theirs, many of the most inconsiderate among the Romans,
+who were carried away with violent passions, followed hard after them as
+they were retiring, and applied ladders to the cloister, and got up to
+it suddenly; but the prudent part of them, when they understood this
+unaccountable retreat of the Jews, stood still where they were before.
+However, the cloister was full of those that were gone up the ladders;
+at which time the Jews set it all on fire; and as the flame burst out
+every where on the sudden, the Romans that were out of the danger were
+seized with a very great consternation, as were those that were in
+the midst of the danger in the utmost distress. So when they perceived
+themselves surrounded with the flames, some of them threw themselves
+down backwards into the city, and some among their enemies [in the
+temple]; as did many leap down to their own men, and broke their limbs
+to pieces; but a great number of those that were going to take these
+violent methods were prevented by the fire; though some prevented the
+fire by their own swords. However, the fire was on the sudden carried
+so far as to surround those who would have otherwise perished. As for
+Caesar himself, he could not, however, but commiserate those that thus
+perished, although they got up thither without any order for so doing,
+since there was no way of giving the many relief. Yet was this some
+comfort to those that were destroyed, that every body might see that
+person grieve, for whose sake they came to their end; for he cried out
+openly to them, and leaped up, and exhorted those that were about him to
+do their utmost to relieve them; So every one of them died cheerfully,
+as carrying along with him these words and this intention of Caesar as a
+sepulchral monument. Some there were indeed who retired into the wall of
+the cloister, which was broad, and were preserved out of the fire, but
+were then surrounded by the Jews; and although they made resistance
+against the Jews for a long time, yet were they wounded by them, and at
+length they all fell down dead.
+
+2. At the last a young man among them, whose name was Longus, became a
+decoration to this sad affair, and while every one of them that perished
+were worthy of a memorial, this man appeared to deserve it beyond
+all the rest. Now the Jews admired this man for his courage, and were
+further desirous of having him slain; so they persuaded him to come down
+to them, upon security given him for his life. But Cornelius his brother
+persuaded him on the contrary, not to tarnish his own glory, nor that
+of the Roman army. He complied with this last advice, and lifting up his
+sword before both armies, he slew himself. Yet there was one Artorius
+among those surrounded by the fire who escaped by his subtlety; for
+when he had with a loud voice called to him Lucius, one of his fellow
+soldiers that lay with him in the same tent, and said to him, "I do
+leave thee heir of all I have, if thou wilt come and receive me." Upon
+this he came running to receive him readily; Artorius then threw himself
+down upon him, and saved his own life, while he that received him was
+dashed so vehemently against the stone pavement by the other's weight,
+that he died immediately. This melancholy accident made the Romans
+sad for a while, but still it made them more upon their guard for the
+future, and was of advantage to them against the delusions of the Jews,
+by which they were greatly damaged through their unacquaintedness with
+the places, and with the nature of the inhabitants. Now this cloister
+was burnt down as far as John's tower, which he built in the war he made
+against Simon over the gates that led to the Xystus. The Jews also cut
+off the rest of that cloister from the temple, after they had destroyed
+those that got up to it. But the next day the Romans burnt down the
+northern cloister entirely, as far as the east cloister, whose common
+angle joined to the valley that was called Cedron, and was built over
+it; on which account the depth was frightful. And this was the state of
+the temple at that time.
+
+3. Now of those that perished by famine in the city, the number was
+prodigious, and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable; for if so
+much as the shadow of any kind of food did any where appear, a war was
+commenced presently, and the dearest friends fell a fighting one with
+another about it, snatching from each other the most miserable supports
+of life. Nor would men believe that those who were dying had no food,
+but the robbers would search them when they were expiring, lest any one
+should have concealed food in their bosoms, and counterfeited dying;
+nay, these robbers gaped for want, and ran about stumbling and
+staggering along like mad dogs, and reeling against the doors of the
+houses like drunken men; they would also, in the great distress they
+were in, rush into the very same houses two or three times in one and
+the same day. Moreover, their hunger was so intolerable, that it obliged
+them to chew every thing, while they gathered such things as the most
+sordid animals would not touch, and endured to eat them; nor did they
+at length abstain from girdles and shoes; and the very leather which
+belonged to their shields they pulled off and gnawed: the very wisps
+of old hay became food to some; and some gathered up fibres, and sold
+a very small weight of them for four Attic [drachmae]. But why do I
+describe the shameless impudence that the famine brought on men in their
+eating inanimate things, while I am going to relate a matter of fact,
+the like to which no history relates, 15 either among the Greeks or
+Barbarians? It is horrible to speak of it, and incredible when heard.
+I had indeed willingly omitted this calamity of ours, that I might not
+seem to deliver what is so portentous to posterity, but that I have
+innumerable witnesses to it in my own age; and besides, my country would
+have had little reason to thank me for suppressing the miseries that she
+underwent at this time.
+
+4. There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name was
+Mary; her father was Eleazar, of the village Bethezob, which signifies
+the house of Hyssop. She was eminent for her family and her wealth, and
+had fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was with
+them besieged therein at this time. The other effects of this woman had
+been already seized upon, such I mean as she had brought with her out
+of Perea, and removed to the city. What she had treasured up besides, as
+also what food she had contrived to save, had been also carried off by
+the rapacious guards, who came every day running into her house for that
+purpose. This put the poor woman into a very great passion, and by
+the frequent reproaches and imprecations she cast at these rapacious
+villains, she had provoked them to anger against her; but none of them,
+either out of the indignation she had raised against herself, or out of
+commiseration of her case, would take away her life; and if she found
+any food, she perceived her labors were for others, and not for herself;
+and it was now become impossible for her any way to find any more food,
+while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also
+her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself; nor did she
+consult with any thing but with her passion and the necessity she was
+in. She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her
+son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, "O thou miserable
+infant! for whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and
+this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our
+lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even before
+that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible
+than both the other. Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury to
+these seditious varlets, and a by-word to the world, which is all that
+is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews." As soon as she
+had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and eat the one
+half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this the
+seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food,
+they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she
+did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she
+had saved a very fine portion of it for them, and withal uncovered
+what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and
+amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said to
+them, "This is mine own son, and what hath been done was mine own
+doing! Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do not
+you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate
+than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my
+sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for
+me also." After which those men went out trembling, being never so much
+affrighted at any thing as they were at this, and with some difficulty
+they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city
+was full of this horrid action immediately; and while every body laid
+this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this
+unheard of action had been done by themselves. So those that were thus
+distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those already
+dead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either
+to hear or to see such miseries.
+
+5. This sad instance was quickly told to the Romans, some of whom could
+not believe it, and others pitied the distress which the Jews were
+under; but there were many of them who were hereby induced to a more
+bitter hatred than ordinary against our nation. But for Caesar, he
+excused himself before God as to this matter, and said that he had
+proposed peace and liberty to the Jews, as well as an oblivion of all
+their former insolent practices; but that they, instead of concord,
+had chosen sedition; instead of peace, war; and before satiety and
+abundance, a famine. That they had begun with their own hands to burn
+down that temple which we have preserved hitherto; and that therefore
+they deserved to eat such food as this was. That, however, this horrid
+action of eating an own child ought to be covered with the overthrow of
+their very country itself, and men ought not to leave such a city upon
+the habitable earth to be seen by the sun, wherein mothers are thus fed,
+although such food be fitter for the fathers than for the mothers to eat
+of, since it is they that continue still in a state of war against us,
+after they have undergone such miseries as these. And at the same time
+that he said this, he reflected on the desperate condition these men
+must be in; nor could he expect that such men could be recovered to
+sobriety of mind, after they had endured those very sufferings, for the
+avoiding whereof it only was probable they might have repented.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+
+     When The Banks Were Completed And The Battering Rams
+     Brought, And Could Do Nothing, Titus Gave Orders To Set Fire
+     To The Gates Of The Temple; In No Long Time After Which The
+     Holy House Itself Was Burnt Down, Even Against His Consent.
+
+1. And now two of the legions had completed their banks on the eighth
+day of the month Lous [Ab]. Whereupon Titus gave orders that the
+battering rams should be brought, and set over against the western
+edifice of the inner temple; for before these were brought, the firmest
+of all the other engines had battered the wall for six days together
+without ceasing, without making any impression upon it; but the vast
+largeness and strong connexion of the stones were superior to that
+engine, and to the other battering rams also. Other Romans did indeed
+undermine the foundations of the northern gate, and after a world of
+pains removed the outermost stones, yet was the gate still upheld by the
+inner stones, and stood still unhurt; till the workmen, despairing of
+all such attempts by engines and crows, brought their ladders to the
+cloisters. Now the Jews did not interrupt them in so doing; but when
+they were gotten up, they fell upon them, and fought with them; some of
+them they thrust down, and threw them backwards headlong; others of
+them they met and slew; they also beat many of those that went down the
+ladders again, and slew them with their swords before they could bring
+their shields to protect them; nay, some of the ladders they threw down
+from above when they were full of armed men; a great slaughter was made
+of the Jews also at the same time, while those that bare the ensigns
+fought hard for them, as deeming it a terrible thing, and what would
+tend to their great shame, if they permitted them to be stolen away. Yet
+did the Jews at length get possession of these engines, and destroyed
+those that had gone up the ladders, while the rest were so intimidated
+by what those suffered who were slain, that they retired; although none
+of the Romans died without having done good service before his death. Of
+the seditious, those that had fought bravely in the former battles did
+the like now, as besides them did Eleazar, the brother's son of Simon
+the tyrant. But when Titus perceived that his endeavors to spare a
+foreign temple turned to the damage of his soldiers, and then be killed,
+he gave order to set the gates on fire.
+
+2. In the mean time, there deserted to him Ananus, who came from
+Emmaus, the most bloody of all Simon's guards, and Archelaus, the son of
+Magadatus, they hoping to be still forgiven, because they left the Jews
+at a time when they were the conquerors. Titus objected this to these
+men, as a cunning trick of theirs; and as he had been informed of their
+other barbarities towards the Jews, he was going in all haste to
+have them both slain. He told them that they were only driven to this
+desertion because of the utmost distress they were in, and did not come
+away of their own good disposition; and that those did not deserve to be
+preserved, by whom their own city was already set on fire, out of which
+fire they now hurried themselves away. However, the security he had
+promised deserters overcame his resentments, and he dismissed them
+accordingly, though he did not give them the same privileges that he
+had afforded to others. And now the soldiers had already put fire to the
+gates, and the silver that was over them quickly carried the flames to
+the wood that was within it, whence it spread itself all on the sudden,
+and caught hold on the cloisters. Upon the Jews seeing this fire all
+about them, their spirits sunk together with their bodies, and they were
+under such astonishment, that not one of them made any haste, either to
+defend himself or to quench the fire, but they stood as mute spectators
+of it only. However, they did not so grieve at the loss of what was now
+burning, as to grow wiser thereby for the time to come; but as though
+the holy house itself had been on fire already, they whetted their
+passions against the Romans. This fire prevailed during that day and the
+next also; for the soldiers were not able to burn all the cloisters that
+were round about together at one time, but only by pieces.
+
+3. But then, on the next day, Titus commanded part of his army to
+quench the fire, and to make a road for the more easy marching up of
+the legions, while he himself gathered the commanders together. Of those
+there were assembled the six principal persons: Tiberius Alexander, the
+commander [under the general] of the whole army; with Sextus Cerealis,
+the commander of the fifth legion; and Larcius Lepidus, the commander
+of the tenth legion; and Titus Frigius, the commander of the fifteenth
+legion: there was also with them Eternius, the leader of the two legions
+that came from Alexandria; and Marcus Antonius Julianus, procurator of
+Judea: after these came together all the rest of the procurators and
+tribunes. Titus proposed to these that they should give him their advice
+what should be done about the holy house. Now some of these thought
+it would be the best way to act according to the rules of war, [and
+demolish it,] because the Jews would never leave off rebelling while
+that house was standing; at which house it was that they used to get all
+together. Others of them were of opinion, that in case the Jews would
+leave it, and none of them would lay their arms up in it, he might save
+it; but that in case they got upon it, and fought any more, he might
+burn it; because it must then be looked upon not as a holy house, but as
+a citadel; and that the impiety of burning it would then belong to
+those that forced this to be done, and not to them. But Titus said, that
+"although the Jews should get upon that holy house, and fight us thence,
+yet ought we not to revenge ourselves on things that are inanimate,
+instead of the men themselves;" and that he was not in any case for
+burning down so vast a work as that was, because this would be a
+mischief to the Romans themselves, as it would be an ornament to their
+government while it continued. So Fronto, and Alexander, and Cerealis
+grew bold upon that declaration, and agreed to the opinion of Titus.
+Then was this assembly dissolved, when Titus had given orders to the
+commanders that the rest of their forces should lie still; but that they
+should make use of such as were most courageous in this attack. So he
+commanded that the chosen men that were taken out of the cohorts should
+make their way through the ruins, and quench the fire.
+
+4. Now it is true that on this day the Jews were so weary, and under
+such consternation, that they refrained from any attacks. But on the
+next day they gathered their whole force together, and ran upon those
+that guarded the outward court of the temple very boldly, through the
+east gate, and this about the second hour of the day. These guards
+received that their attack with great bravery, and by covering
+themselves with their shields before, as if it were with a wall, they
+drew their squadron close together; yet was it evident that they could
+not abide there very long, but would be overborne by the multitude of
+those that sallied out upon them, and by the heat of their passion.
+However, Caesar seeing, from the tower of Antonia, that this squadron
+was likely to give way, he sent some chosen horsemen to support them.
+Hereupon the Jews found themselves not able to sustain their onset, and
+upon the slaughter of those in the forefront, many of the rest were put
+to flight. But as the Romans were going off, the Jews turned upon them,
+and fought them; and as those Romans came back upon them, they retreated
+again, until about the fifth hour of the day they were overborne, and
+shut themselves up in the inner [court of the] temple.
+
+5. So Titus retired into the tower of Antonia, and resolved to storm the
+temple the next day, early in the morning, with his whole army, and to
+encamp round about the holy house. But as for that house, God had, for
+certain, long ago doomed it to the fire; and now that fatal day was
+come, according to the revolution of ages; it was the tenth day of
+the month Lous, [Ab,] upon which it was formerly burnt by the king of
+Babylon; although these flames took their rise from the Jews themselves,
+and were occasioned by them; for upon Titus's retiring, the seditious
+lay still for a little while, and then attacked the Romans again, when
+those that guarded the holy house fought with those that quenched the
+fire that was burning the inner [court of the] temple; but these Romans
+put the Jews to flight, and proceeded as far as the holy house itself.
+At which time one of the soldiers, without staying for any orders, and
+without any concern or dread upon him at so great an undertaking, and
+being hurried on by a certain divine fury, snatched somewhat out of the
+materials that were on fire, and being lifted up by another soldier, he
+set fire to a golden window, through which there was a passage to the
+rooms that were round about the holy house, on the north side of it. As
+the flames went upward, the Jews made a great clamor, such as so mighty
+an affliction required, and ran together to prevent it; and now they
+spared not their lives any longer, nor suffered any thing to restrain
+their force, since that holy house was perishing, for whose sake it was
+that they kept such a guard about it.
+
+6. And now a certain person came running to Titus, and told him of
+this fire, as he was resting himself in his tent after the last battle;
+whereupon he rose up in great haste, and, as he was, ran to the holy
+house, in order to have a stop put to the fire; after him followed all
+his commanders, and after them followed the several legions, in great
+astonishment; so there was a great clamor and tumult raised, as was
+natural upon the disorderly motion of so great an army. Then did Caesar,
+both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting, with a loud voice,
+and by giving a signal to them with his right hand, order them to quench
+the fire. But they did not hear what he said, though he spake so loud,
+having their ears already dimmed by a greater noise another way; nor did
+they attend to the signal he made with his hand neither, as still some
+of them were distracted with fighting, and others with passion. But as
+for the legions that came running thither, neither any persuasions
+nor any threatenings could restrain their violence, but each one's own
+passion was his commander at this time; and as they were crowding into
+the temple together, many of them were trampled on by one another, while
+a great number fell among the ruins of the cloisters, which were still
+hot and smoking, and were destroyed in the same miserable way with those
+whom they had conquered; and when they were come near the holy house,
+they made as if they did not so much as hear Caesar's orders to the
+contrary; but they encouraged those that were before them to set it on
+fire. As for the seditious, they were in too great distress already to
+afford their assistance [towards quenching the fire]; they were every
+where slain, and every where beaten; and as for a great part of the
+people, they were weak and without arms, and had their throats cut
+wherever they were caught. Now round about the altar lay dead bodies
+heaped one upon another, as at the steps 16 going up to it ran a great
+quantity of their blood, whither also the dead bodies that were slain
+above [on the altar] fell down.
+
+7. And now, since Caesar was no way able to restrain the enthusiastic
+fury of the soldiers, and the fire proceeded on more and more, he went
+into the holy place of the temple, with his commanders, and saw it, with
+what was in it, which he found to be far superior to what the relations
+of foreigners contained, and not inferior to what we ourselves boasted
+of and believed about it. But as the flame had not as yet reached to its
+inward parts, but was still consuming the rooms that were about the
+holy house, and Titus supposing what the fact was, that the house itself
+might yet be saved, he came in haste and endeavored to persuade the
+soldiers to quench the fire, and gave order to Liberalius the centurion,
+and one of those spearmen that were about him, to beat the soldiers that
+were refractory with their staves, and to restrain them; yet were their
+passions too hard for the regards they had for Caesar, and the dread
+they had of him who forbade them, as was their hatred of the Jews, and
+a certain vehement inclination to fight them, too hard for them also.
+Moreover, the hope of plunder induced many to go on, as having this
+opinion, that all the places within were full of money, and as seeing
+that all round about it was made of gold. And besides, one of those
+that went into the place prevented Caesar, when he ran so hastily out to
+restrain the soldiers, and threw the fire upon the hinges of the gate,
+in the dark; whereby the flame burst out from within the holy house
+itself immediately, when the commanders retired, and Caesar with them,
+and when nobody any longer forbade those that were without to set
+fire to it. And thus was the holy house burnt down, without Caesar's
+approbation.
+
+8. Now although any one would justly lament the destruction of such a
+work as this was, since it was the most admirable of all the works
+that we have seen or heard of, both for its curious structure and its
+magnitude, and also for the vast wealth bestowed upon it, as well as for
+the glorious reputation it had for its holiness; yet might such a one
+comfort himself with this thought, that it was fate that decreed it so
+to be, which is inevitable, both as to living creatures, and as to works
+and places also. However, one cannot but wonder at the accuracy of this
+period thereto relating; for the same month and day were now observed,
+as I said before, wherein the holy house was burnt formerly by the
+Babylonians. Now the number of years that passed from its first
+foundation, which was laid by king Solomon, till this its destruction,
+which happened in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, are
+collected to be one thousand one hundred and thirty, besides seven
+months and fifteen days; and from the second building of it, which
+was done by Haggai, in the second year of Cyrus the king, till its
+destruction under Vespasian, there were six hundred and thirty-nine
+years and forty-five days.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5.
+
+
+     The Great Distress The Jews Were In Upon The Conflagration
+     Of The Holy House. Concerning A False Prophet, And The Signs
+     That Preceded This Destruction.
+
+1. While the holy house was on fire, every thing was plundered that came
+to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor
+was there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity, but
+children, and old men, and profane persons, and priests were all slain
+in the same manner; so that this war went round all sorts of men, and
+brought them to destruction, and as well those that made supplication
+for their lives, as those that defended themselves by fighting. The
+flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the
+groans of those that were slain; and because this hill was high, and the
+works at the temple were very great, one would have thought the whole
+city had been on fire. Nor can one imagine any thing either greater
+or more terrible than this noise; for there was at once a shout of the
+Roman legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamor of the
+seditious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword. The people also
+that were left above were beaten back upon the enemy, and under a great
+consternation, and made sad moans at the calamity they were under; the
+multitude also that was in the city joined in this outcry with those
+that were upon the hill. And besides, many of those that were worn away
+by the famine, and their mouths almost closed, when they saw the fire of
+the holy house, they exerted their utmost strength, and brake out into
+groans and outcries again: Perea 17 did also return the echo, as well
+as the mountains round about [the city,] and augmented the force of
+the entire noise. Yet was the misery itself more terrible than this
+disorder; for one would have thought that the hill itself, on which the
+temple stood, was seething hot, as full of fire on every part of it,
+that the blood was larger in quantity than the fire, and those that were
+slain more in number than those that slew them; for the ground did
+no where appear visible, for the dead bodies that lay on it; but the
+soldiers went over heaps of those bodies, as they ran upon such as fled
+from them. And now it was that the multitude of the robbers were thrust
+out [of the inner court of the temple by the Romans,] and had much ado
+to get into the outward court, and from thence into the city, while the
+remainder of the populace fled into the cloister of that outer court. As
+for the priests, some of them plucked up from the holy house the spikes
+18 that were upon it, with their bases, which were made of lead, and
+shot them at the Romans instead of darts. But then as they gained
+nothing by so doing, and as the fire burst out upon them, they retired
+to the wall that was eight cubits broad, and there they tarried; yet did
+two of these of eminence among them, who might have saved themselves by
+going over to the Romans, or have borne up with courage, and taken their
+fortune with the others, throw themselves into the fire, and were burnt
+together with the holy house; their names were Meirus the son of Belgas,
+and Joseph the son of Daleus.
+
+2. And now the Romans, judging that it was in vain to spare what was
+round about the holy house, burnt all those places, as also the remains
+of the cloisters and the gates, two excepted; the one on the east side,
+and the other on the south; both which, however, they burnt afterward.
+They also burnt down the treasury chambers, in which was an immense
+quantity of money, and an immense number of garments, and other precious
+goods there reposited; and, to speak all in a few words, there it was
+that the entire riches of the Jews were heaped up together, while
+the rich people had there built themselves chambers [to contain such
+furniture]. The soldiers also came to the rest of the cloisters that
+were in the outer [court of the] temple, whither the women and children,
+and a great mixed multitude of the people, fled, in number about six
+thousand. But before Caesar had determined any thing about these people,
+or given the commanders any orders relating to them, the soldiers were
+in such a rage, that they set that cloister on fire; by which means it
+came to pass that some of these were destroyed by throwing themselves
+down headlong, and some were burnt in the cloisters themselves. Nor
+did any one of them escape with his life. A false prophet 19 was
+the occasion of these people's destruction, who had made a public
+proclamation in the city that very day, that God commanded them to get
+upon the temple, and that there they should receive miraculous signs of
+their deliverance. Now there was then a great number of false prophets
+suborned by the tyrants to impose on the people, who denounced this to
+them, that they should wait for deliverance from God; and this was in
+order to keep them from deserting, and that they might be buoyed up
+above fear and care by such hopes. Now a man that is in adversity does
+easily comply with such promises; for when such a seducer makes him
+believe that he shall be delivered from those miseries which oppress
+him, then it is that the patient is full of hopes of such his
+deliverance.
+
+3. Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such
+as belied God himself; while they did not attend nor give credit to the
+signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their future
+desolation, but, like men infatuated, without either eyes to see or
+minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to
+them. Thus there was a star 20 resembling a sword, which stood over the
+city, and a comet, that continued a whole year. Thus also before the
+Jews' rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war,
+when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened
+bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, 21 [Nisan,] and at the
+ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the
+holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time; which lasted for
+half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful,
+but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as to portend those events
+that followed immediately upon it. At the same festival also, a heifer,
+as she was led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb
+in the midst of the temple. Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner 22
+[court of the] temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had
+been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed
+with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which
+was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own
+accord about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in
+the temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and told
+him of it; who then came up thither, and not without great difficulty
+was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to
+be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate of
+happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of
+their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was
+opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declared
+that the signal foreshowed the desolation that was coming upon them.
+Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth
+day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible
+phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a
+fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events
+that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals;
+for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor
+were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities.
+Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were
+going by night into the inner [court of the temple,] as their custom
+was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first
+place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they
+heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, "Let us remove hence."
+But, what is still more terrible, there was one Jesus, the son of
+Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before the
+war began, and at a time when the city was in very great peace and
+prosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our custom for every one
+to make tabernacles to God in the temple, 23 began on a sudden to cry
+aloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from
+the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice
+against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole
+people!" This was his cry, as he went about by day and by night, in all
+the lanes of the city. However, certain of the most eminent among the
+populace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up
+the man, and gave him a great number of severe stripes; yet did not he
+either say any thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to those that
+chastised him, but still went on with the same words which he cried
+before. Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that
+this was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought him to the Roman
+procurator, where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare; yet
+he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but
+turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke
+of the whip his answer was, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" And when Albinus
+[for he was then our procurator] asked him, Who he was? and whence he
+came? and why he uttered such words? he made no manner of reply to what
+he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty, till Albinus
+took him to be a madman, and dismissed him. Now, during all the time
+that passed before the war began, this man did not go near any of
+the citizens, nor was seen by them while he said so; but he every day
+uttered these lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow,
+"Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" Nor did he give ill words to any of those that
+beat him every day, nor good words to those that gave him food; but this
+was his reply to all men, and indeed no other than a melancholy presage
+of what was to come. This cry of his was the loudest at the festivals;
+and he continued this ditty for seven years and five months, without
+growing hoarse, or being tired therewith, until the very time that he
+saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased; for
+as he was going round upon the wall, he cried out with his utmost force,
+"Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house!"
+And just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to myself also!" there
+came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and killed him
+immediately; and as he was uttering the very same presages he gave up
+the ghost.
+
+4. Now if any one consider these things, he will find that God takes
+care of mankind, and by all ways possible foreshows to our race what is
+for their preservation; but that men perish by those miseries which
+they madly and voluntarily bring upon themselves; for the Jews, by
+demolishing the tower of Antonia, had made their temple four-square,
+while at the same time they had it written in their sacred oracles,
+"That then should their city be taken, as well as their holy house, when
+once their temple should become four-square." But now, what did the most
+elevate them in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was
+also found in their sacred writings, how, "about that time, one from
+their country should become governor of the habitable earth." The Jews
+took this prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and many
+of the wise men were thereby deceived in their determination. Now this
+oracle certainly denoted the government of Vespasian, who was appointed
+emperor in Judea. However, it is not possible for men to avoid fate,
+although they see it beforehand. But these men interpreted some of these
+signals according to their own pleasure, and some of them they utterly
+despised, until their madness was demonstrated, both by the taking of
+their city and their own destruction.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+
+     How The Romans Carried Their Ensigns To The Temple, And Made
+     Joyful Acclamations To Titus. The Speech That Titus Made To
+     The Jews When They Made Supplication For Mercy. What Reply
+     They Made Thereto; And How That Reply Moved Titus's
+     Indignation Against Them.
+
+1. And now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city,
+and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and of all the buildings
+round about it, brought their ensigns to the temple 24 and set them over
+against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to
+them, and there did they make Titus imperator 25 with the greatest
+acclamations of joy. And now all the soldiers had such vast quantities
+of the spoils which they had gotten by plunder, that in Syria a pound
+weight of gold was sold for half its former value. But as for those
+priests that kept themselves still upon the wall of the holy house,26
+there was a boy that, out of the thirst he was in, desired some of the
+Roman guards to give him their right hands as a security for his life,
+and confessed he was very thirsty. These guards commiserated his age,
+and the distress he was in, and gave him their right hands accordingly.
+So he came down himself, and drank some water, and filled the vessel
+he had with him when he came to them with water, and then went off, and
+fled away to his own friends; nor could any of those guards overtake
+him; but still they reproached him for his perfidiousness. To which he
+made this answer: "I have not broken the agreement; for the security I
+had given me was not in order to my staying with you, but only in order
+to my coming down safely, and taking up some water; both which things I
+have performed, and thereupon think myself to have been faithful to my
+engagement." Hereupon those whom the child had imposed upon admired at
+his cunning, and that on account of his age. On the fifth day afterward,
+the priests that were pined with the famine came down, and when they
+were brought to Titus by the guards, they begged for their lives; but he
+replied, that the time of pardon was over as to them, and that this
+very holy house, on whose account only they could justly hope to be
+preserved, was destroyed; and that it was agreeable to their office that
+priests should perish with the house itself to which they belonged. So
+he ordered them to be put to death.
+
+2. But as for the tyrants themselves, and those that were with them,
+when they found that they were encompassed on every side, and, as it
+were, walled round, without any method of escaping, they desired to
+treat with Titus by word of mouth. Accordingly, such was the kindness
+of his nature, and his desire of preserving the city from destruction,
+joined to the advice of his friends, who now thought the robbers were
+come to a temper, that he placed himself on the western side of the
+outer [court of the] temple; for there were gates on that side above the
+Xystus, and a bridge that connected the upper city to the temple. This
+bridge it was that lay between the tyrants and Caesar, and parted them;
+while the multitude stood on each side; those of the Jewish nation
+about Sinran and John, with great hopes of pardon; and the Romans about
+Caesar, in great expectation how Titus would receive their supplication.
+So Titus charged his soldiers to restrain their rage, and to let their
+darts alone, and appointed an interpreter between them, which was a sign
+that he was the conqueror, and first began the discourse, and said, "I
+hope you, sirs, are now satiated with the miseries of your country, who
+have not had any just notions, either of our great power, or of your own
+great weakness, but have, like madmen, after a violent and inconsiderate
+manner, made such attempts, as have brought your people, your city, and
+your holy house to destruction. You have been the men that have never
+left off rebelling since Pompey first conquered you, and have, since
+that time, made open war with the Romans. Have you depended on your
+multitude, while a very small part of the Roman soldiery have been
+strong enough for you? Have you relied on the fidelity of your
+confederates? And what nations are there, out of the limits of our
+dominion, that would choose to assist the Jews before the Romans? Are
+your bodies stronger than ours? nay, you know that the [strong] Germans
+themselves are our servants. Have you stronger walls than we have? Pray,
+what greater obstacle is there than the wall of the ocean, with which
+the Britons are encompassed, and yet do adore the arms of the Romans.
+Do you exceed us in courage of soul, and in the sagacity of your
+commanders? Nay, indeed, you cannot but know that the very Carthaginians
+have been conquered by us. It can therefore be nothing certainly but
+the kindness of us Romans which hath excited you against us; who, in
+the first place, have given you this land to possess; and, in the next
+place, have set over you kings of your own nation; and, in the third
+place, have preserved the laws of your forefathers to you, and have
+withal permitted you to live, either by yourselves, or among others, as
+it should please you: and, what is our chief favor of all we have given
+you leave to gather up that tribute which is paid to God 27 with such
+other gifts that are dedicated to him; nor have we called those that
+carried these donations to account, nor prohibited them; till at length
+you became richer than we ourselves, even when you were our enemies; and
+you made preparations for war against us with our own money; nay, after
+all, when you were in the enjoyment of all these advantages, you
+turned your too great plenty against those that gave it you, and, like
+merciless serpents, have thrown out your poison against those that
+treated you kindly. I suppose, therefore, that you might despise the
+slothfulness of Nero, and, like limbs of the body that are broken or
+dislocated, you did then lie quiet, waiting for some other time, though
+still with a malicious intention, and have now showed your distemper
+to be greater than ever, and have extended your desires as far as your
+impudent and immense hopes would enable you to do it. At this time my
+father came into this country, not with a design to punish you for what
+you had done under Cestius, but to admonish you; for had he come to
+overthrow your nation, he had run directly to your fountain-head, and
+had immediately laid this city waste; whereas he went and burnt Galilee
+and the neighboring parts, and thereby gave you time for repentance;
+which instance of humanity you took for an argument of his weakness, and
+nourished up your impudence by our mildness. When Nero was gone out
+of the world, you did as the wickedest wretches would have done, and
+encouraged yourselves to act against us by our civil dissensions, and
+abused that time, when both I and my father were gone away to Egypt,
+to make preparations for this war. Nor were you ashamed to raise
+disturbances against us when we were made emperors, and this while you
+had experienced how mild we had been, when we were no more than generals
+of the army. But when the government was devolved upon us, and all other
+people did thereupon lie quiet, and even foreign nations sent embassies,
+and congratulated our access to the government, then did you Jews show
+yourselves to be our enemies. You sent embassies to those of your nation
+that are beyond Euphrates to assist you in your raising disturbances;
+new walls were built by you round your city, seditions arose, and one
+tyrant contended against another, and a civil war broke out among you;
+such indeed as became none but so wicked a people as you are. I then
+came to this city, as unwillingly sent by my father, and received
+melancholy injunctions from him. When I heard that the people were
+disposed to peace, I rejoiced at it; I exhorted you to leave off these
+proceedings before I began this war; I spared you even when you had
+fought against me a great while; I gave my right hand as security to the
+deserters; I observed what I had promised faithfully. When they fled
+to me, I had compassion on many of those that I had taken captive; I
+tortured those that were eager for war, in order to restrain them. It
+was unwillingly that I brought my engines of war against your walls; I
+always prohibited my soldiers, when they were set upon your slaughter,
+from their severity against you. After every victory I persuaded you
+to peace, as though I had been myself conquered. When I came near your
+temple, I again departed from the laws of war, and exhorted you to spare
+your own sanctuary, and to preserve your holy house to yourselves. I
+allowed you a quiet exit out of it, and security for your preservation;
+nay, if you had a mind, I gave you leave to fight in another place. Yet
+have you still despised every one of my proposals, and have set fire
+to your holy house with your own hands. And now, vile wretches, do you
+desire to treat with me by word of mouth? To what purpose is it that you
+would save such a holy house as this was, which is now destroyed? What
+preservation can you now desire after the destruction of your temple?
+Yet do you stand still at this very time in your armor; nor can you
+bring yourselves so much as to pretend to be supplicants even in this
+your utmost extremity. O miserable creatures! what is it you depend on?
+Are not your people dead? is not your holy house gone? is not your city
+in my power? and are not your own very lives in my hands? And do you
+still deem it a part of valor to die? However, I will not imitate your
+madness. If you throw down your arms, and deliver up your bodies to me,
+I grant you your lives; and I will act like a mild master of a family;
+what cannot be healed shall be punished, and the rest I will preserve
+for my own use."
+
+3. To that offer of Titus they made this reply: That they could not
+accept of it, because they had sworn never to do so; but they desired
+they might have leave to go through the wall that had been made about
+them, with their wives and children; for that they would go into the
+desert, and leave the city to him. At this Titus had great indignation,
+that when they were in the case of men already taken captives, they
+should pretend to make their own terms with him, as if they had been
+conquerors. So he ordered this proclamation to be made to them, That
+they should no more come out to him as deserters, nor hope for any
+further security; for that he would henceforth spare nobody, but fight
+them with his whole army; and that they must save themselves as well as
+they could; for that he would from henceforth treat them according to
+the laws of war. So he gave orders to the soldiers both to burn and to
+plunder the city; who did nothing indeed that day; but on the next
+day they set fire to the repository of the archives, to Acra, to the
+council-house, and to the place called Ophlas; at which time the fire
+proceeded as far as the palace of queen Helena, which was in the middle
+of Acra; the lanes also were burnt down, as were also those houses that
+were full of the dead bodies of such as were destroyed by famine.
+
+4. On the same day it was that the sons and brethren of Izates the
+king, together with many others of the eminent men of the populace,
+got together there, and besought Caesar to give them his right hand for
+their security; upon which, though he was very angry at all that were
+now remaining, yet did he not lay aside his old moderation, but received
+these men. At that time, indeed, he kept them all in custody, but still
+bound the king's sons and kinsmen, and led them with him to Rome, in
+order to make them hostages for their country's fidelity to the Romans.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+
+     What Afterward Befell The Seditious When They Had Done A
+     Great Deal Of Mischief, And Suffered Many Misfortunes; As
+     Also How Caesar Became Master Of The Upper City.
+
+1. And now the seditious rushed into the royal palace, into which many
+had put their effects, because it was so strong, and drove the Romans
+away from it. They also slew all the people that had crowded into it,
+who were in number about eight thousand four hundred, and plundered them
+of what they had. They also took two of the Romans alive; the one was
+a horseman, and the other a footman. They then cut the throat of the
+footman, and immediately had him drawn through the whole city, as
+revenging themselves upon the whole body of the Romans by this one
+instance. But the horseman said he had somewhat to suggest to them in
+order to their preservation; whereupon he was brought before Simon; but
+he having nothing to say when he was there, he was delivered to Ardalas,
+one of his commanders, to be punished, who bound his hands behind him,
+and put a riband over his eyes, and then brought him out over against
+the Romans, as intending to cut off his head. But the man prevented
+that execution, and ran away to the Romans, and this while the Jewish
+executioner was drawing out his sword. Now when he was gotten away from
+the enemy, Titus could not think of putting him to death; but because he
+deemed him unworthy of being a Roman soldier any longer, on account that
+he had been taken alive by the enemy, he took away his arms, and ejected
+him out of the legion whereto he had belonged; which, to one that had a
+sense of shame, was a penalty severer than death itself.
+
+2. On the next day the Romans drove the robbers out of the lower city,
+and set all on fire as far as Siloam. These soldiers were indeed glad
+to see the city destroyed. But they missed the plunder, because the
+seditious had carried off all their effects, and were retired into the
+upper city; for they did not yet at all repent of the mischiefs they had
+done, but were insolent, as if they had done well; for, as they saw the
+city on fire, they appeared cheerful, and put on joyful countenances, in
+expectation, as they said, of death to end their miseries. Accordingly,
+as the people were now slain, the holy house was burnt down, and the
+city was on fire, there was nothing further left for the enemy to do.
+Yet did not Josephus grow weary, even in this utmost extremity, to beg
+of them to spare what was left of the city; he spake largely to them
+about their barbarity and impiety, and gave them his advice in order to
+their escape; though he gained nothing thereby more than to be laughed
+at by them; and as they could not think of surrendering themselves up,
+because of the oath they had taken, nor were strong enough to fight with
+the Romans any longer upon the square, as being surrounded on all sides,
+and a kind of prisoners already, yet were they so accustomed to kill
+people, that they could not restrain their right hands from acting
+accordingly. So they dispersed themselves before the city, and laid
+themselves in ambush among its ruins, to catch those that attempted to
+desert to the Romans; accordingly many such deserters were caught by
+them, and were all slain; for these were too weak, by reason of their
+want of food, to fly away from them; so their dead bodies were thrown to
+the dogs. Now every other sort of death was thought more tolerable than
+the famine, insomuch that, though the Jews despaired now of mercy, yet
+would they fly to the Romans, and would themselves, even of their own
+accord, fall among the murderous rebels also. Nor was there any place
+in the city that had no dead bodies in it, but what was entirely covered
+with those that were killed either by the famine or the rebellion; and
+all was full of the dead bodies of such as had perished, either by that
+sedition or by that famine.
+
+3. So now the last hope which supported the tyrants, and that crew of
+robbers who were with them, was in the caves and caverns under ground;
+whither, if they could once fly, they did not expect to be searched for;
+but endeavored, that after the whole city should be destroyed, and the
+Romans gone away, they might come out again, and escape from them. This
+was no better than a dream of theirs; for they were not able to lie
+hid either from God or from the Romans. However, they depended on these
+under-ground subterfuges, and set more places on fire than did the
+Romans themselves; and those that fled out of their houses thus set
+on fire into the ditches, they killed without mercy, and pillaged them
+also; and if they discovered food belonging to any one, they seized upon
+it and swallowed it down, together with their blood also; nay, they were
+now come to fight one with another about their plunder; and I cannot
+but think that, had not their destruction prevented it, their barbarity
+would have made them taste of even the dead bodies themselves.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+
+     How Caesar Raised Banks Round About The Upper City [Mount
+     Zion] And When They Were Completed, Gave Orders That The
+     Machines Should Be Brought. He Then Possessed Himself Of The
+     Whole City.
+
+1. Now when Caesar perceived that the upper city was so steep that
+it could not possibly be taken without raising banks against it, he
+distributed the several parts of that work among his army, and this
+on the twentieth day of the month Lous [Ab]. Now the carriage of the
+materials was a difficult task, since all the trees, as I have already
+told you, that were about the city, within the distance of a hundred
+furlongs, had their branches cut off already, in order to make the
+former banks. The works that belonged to the four legions were erected
+on the west side of the city, over against the royal palace; but the
+whole body of the auxiliary troops, with the rest of the multitude that
+were with them, [erected their banks] at the Xystus, whence they reached
+to the bridge, and that tower of Simon which he had built as a citadel
+for himself against John, when they were at war one with another.
+
+2. It was at this time that the commanders of the Idumeans got together
+privately, and took counsel about surrendering up themselves to the
+Romans. Accordingly, they sent five men to Titus, and entreated him to
+give them his right hand for their security. So Titus thinking that the
+tyrants would yield, if the Idumeans, upon whom a great part of the
+war depended, were once withdrawn from them, after some reluctancy and
+delay, complied with them, and gave them security for their lives, and
+sent the five men back. But as these Idumeans were preparing to march
+out, Simon perceived it, and immediately slew the five men that had gone
+to Titus, and took their commanders, and put them in prison, of whom the
+most eminent was Jacob, the son of Sosas; but as for the multitude of
+the Idumeans, who did not at all know what to do, now their commanders
+were taken from them, he had them watched, and secured the walls by a
+more numerous garrison, Yet could not that garrison resist those that
+were deserting; for although a great number of them were slain, yet were
+the deserters many more in number. They were all received by the Romans,
+because Titus himself grew negligent as to his former orders for killing
+them, and because the very soldiers grew weary of killing them, and
+because they hoped to get some money by sparing them; for they left only
+the populace, and sold the rest of the multitude, 28 with their wives
+and children, and every one of them at a very low price, and that
+because such as were sold were very many, and the buyers were few: and
+although Titus had made proclamation beforehand, that no deserter should
+come alone by himself, that so they might bring out their families with
+them, yet did he receive such as these also. However, he set over them
+such as were to distinguish some from others, in order to see if any of
+them deserved to be punished. And indeed the number of those that were
+sold was immense; but of the populace above forty thousand were saved,
+whom Caesar let go whither every one of them pleased.
+
+3. But now at this time it was that one of the priests, the son of
+Thebuthus, whose name was Jesus, upon his having security given him, by
+the oath of Caesar, that he should be preserved, upon condition that
+he should deliver to him certain of the precious things that had been
+reposited in the temple 29 came out of it, and delivered him from the
+wall of the holy house two candlesticks, like to those that lay in the
+holy house, with tables, and cisterns, and vials, all made of solid
+gold, and very heavy. He also delivered to him the veils and the
+garments, with the precious stones, and a great number of other precious
+vessels that belonged to their sacred worship. The treasurer of the
+temple also, whose name was Phineas, was seized on, and showed Titus the
+coats and girdles of the priests, with a great quantity of purple and
+scarlet, which were there reposited for the uses of the veil, as also a
+great deal of cinnamon and cassia, with a large quantity of other sweet
+spices, 30 which used to be mixed together, and offered as incense to
+God every day. A great many other treasures were also delivered to
+him, with sacred ornaments of the temple not a few; which things thus
+delivered to Titus obtained of him for this man the same pardon that he
+had allowed to such as deserted of their own accord.
+
+4. And now were the banks finished on the seventh day of the month
+Gorpieus, [Elul,] in eighteen days' time, when the Romans brought their
+machines against the wall. But for the seditious, some of them, as
+despairing of saving the city, retired from the wall to the citadel;
+others of them went down into the subterranean vaults, though still a
+great many of them defended themselves against those that brought the
+engines for the battery; yet did the Romans overcome them by their
+number and by their strength; and, what was the principal thing of
+all, by going cheerfully about their work, while the Jews were quite
+dejected, and become weak. Now as soon as a part of the wall was
+battered down, and certain of the towers yielded to the impression of
+the battering rams, those that opposed themselves fled away, and such
+a terror fell upon the tyrants, as was much greater than the occasion
+required; for before the enemy got over the breach they were quite
+stunned, and were immediately for flying away. And now one might see
+these men, who had hitherto been so insolent and arrogant in their
+wicked practices, to be cast down and to tremble, insomuch that it
+would pity one's heart to observe the change that was made in those vile
+persons. Accordingly, they ran with great violence upon the Roman wall
+that encompassed them, in order to force away those that guarded it, and
+to break through it, and get away. But when they saw that those who had
+formerly been faithful to them had gone away, [as indeed they were fled
+whithersoever the great distress they were in persuaded them to flee,]
+as also when those that came running before the rest told them that the
+western wall was entirely overthrown, while others said the Romans were
+gotten in, and others that they were near, and looking out for them,
+which were only the dictates of their fear, which imposed upon their
+sight, they fell upon their face, and greatly lamented their own mad
+conduct; and their nerves were so terribly loosed, that they could
+not flee away. And here one may chiefly reflect on the power of God
+exercised upon these wicked wretches, and on the good fortune of the
+Romans; for these tyrants did now wholly deprive themselves of the
+security they had in their own power, and came down from those very
+towers of their own accord, wherein they could have never been taken
+by force, nor indeed by any other way than by famine. And thus did the
+Romans, when they had taken such great pains about weaker walls, get
+by good fortune what they could never have gotten by their engines;
+for three of these towers were too strong for all mechanical engines
+whatsoever, concerning which we have treated above.
+
+5. So they now left these towers of themselves, or rather they were
+ejected out of them by God himself, and fled immediately to that valley
+which was under Siloam, where they again recovered themselves out of the
+dread they were in for a while, and ran violently against that part of
+the Roman wall which lay on that side; but as their courage was too much
+depressed to make their attacks with sufficient force, and their power
+was now broken with fear and affliction, they were repulsed by the
+guards, and dispersing themselves at distances from each other, went
+down into the subterranean caverns. So the Romans being now become
+masters of the walls, they both placed their ensigns upon the towers,
+and made joyful acclamations for the victory they had gained, as having
+found the end of this war much lighter than its beginning; for when they
+had gotten upon the last wall, without any bloodshed, they could hardly
+believe what they found to be true; but seeing nobody to oppose them,
+they stood in doubt what such an unusual solitude could mean. But when
+they went in numbers into the lanes of the city with their swords drawn,
+they slew those whom they overtook without and set fire to the houses
+whither the Jews were fled, and burnt every soul in them, and laid
+waste a great many of the rest; and when they were come to the houses
+to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, and
+the upper rooms full of dead corpses, that is, of such as died by the
+famine; they then stood in a horror at this sight, and went out without
+touching any thing. But although they had this commiseration for such as
+were destroyed in that manner, yet had they not the same for those that
+were still alive, but they ran every one through whom they met with,
+and obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole
+city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of
+many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood. And truly so it
+happened, that though the slayers left off at the evening, yet did the
+fire greatly prevail in the night; and as all was burning, came that
+eighth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul] upon Jerusalem, a city that had
+been liable to so many miseries during this siege, that, had it always
+enjoyed as much happiness from its first foundation, it would certainly
+have been the envy of the world. Nor did it on any other account so much
+deserve these sore misfortunes, as by producing such a generation of men
+as were the occasions of this its overthrow.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+
+     What Injunctions Caesar Gave When He Was Come Within The
+     City. The Number Of The Captives And Of Those That Perished
+     In The Siege; As Also Concerning Those That Had Escaped Into
+     The Subterranean Caverns, Among Whom Were The Tyrants Simon
+     And John Themselves.
+
+1. Now when Titus was come into this [upper] city, he admired not only
+some other places of strength in it, but particularly those strong
+towers which the tyrants in their mad conduct had relinquished; for when
+he saw their solid altitude, and the largeness of their several stones,
+and the exactness of their joints, as also how great was their breadth,
+and how extensive their length, he expressed himself after the manner
+following: "We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war,
+and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these
+fortifications; for what could the hands of men or any machines do
+towards overthrowing these towers?" At which time he had many such
+discourses to his friends; he also let such go free as had been bound by
+the tyrants, and were left in the prisons. To conclude, when he entirely
+demolished the rest of the city, and overthrew its walls, he left
+these towers as a monument of his good fortune, which had proved his
+auxiliaries, and enabled him to take what could not otherwise have been
+taken by him.
+
+2. And now, since his soldiers were already quite tired with killing
+men, and yet there appeared to be a vast multitude still remaining
+alive, Caesar gave orders that they should kill none but those that were
+in arms, and opposed them, but should take the rest alive. But, together
+with those whom they had orders to slay, they slew the aged and the
+infirm; but for those that were in their flourishing age, and who might
+be useful to them, they drove them together into the temple, and shut
+them up within the walls of the court of the women; over which Caesar
+set one of his freed-men, as also Fronto, one of his own friends; which
+last was to determine every one's fate, according to his merits. So
+this Fronto slew all those that had been seditious and robbers, who were
+impeached one by another; but of the young men he chose out the tallest
+and most beautiful, and reserved them for the triumph; and as for the
+rest of the multitude that were above seventeen years old, he put them
+into bonds, and sent them to the Egyptian mines. 31 Titus also sent a
+great number into the provinces, as a present to them, that they might
+be destroyed upon their theatres, by the sword and by the wild beasts;
+but those that were under seventeen years of age were sold for slaves.
+Now during the days wherein Fronto was distinguishing these men, there
+perished, for want of food, eleven thousand; some of whom did not taste
+any food, through the hatred their guards bore to them; and others would
+not take in any when it was given them. The multitude also was so very
+great, that they were in want even of corn for their sustenance.
+
+3. Now the number 32 of those that were carried captive during this
+whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number
+of those that perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand,
+the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation [with the
+citizens of Jerusalem], but not belonging to the city itself; for they
+were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread,
+and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which, at the very first,
+occasioned so great a straitness among them, that there came a
+pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterward such a famine, as
+destroyed them more suddenly. And that this city could contain so many
+people in it, is manifest by that number of them which was taken under
+Cestius, who being desirous of informing Nero of the power of the city,
+who otherwise was disposed to contemn that nation, entreated the high
+priests, if the thing were possible, to take the number of their whole
+multitude. So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which
+is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth
+hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten 33
+belong to every sacrifice, [for it is not lawful for them to feast
+singly by themselves,] and many of us are twenty in a company, found
+the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five
+hundred; which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast
+together, amounts to two millions seven hundred thousand and two hundred
+persons that were pure and holy; for as to those that have the leprosy,
+or the gonorrhea, or women that have their monthly courses, or such as
+are otherwise polluted, it is not lawful for them to be partakers of
+this sacrifice; nor indeed for any foreigners neither, who come hither
+to worship.
+
+4. Now this vast multitude is indeed collected out of remote places, but
+the entire nation was now shut up by fate as in prison, and the
+Roman army encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants.
+Accordingly, the multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all
+the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world;
+for, to speak only of what was publicly known, the Romans slew some
+of them, some they carried captives, and others they made a search for
+under ground, and when they found where they were, they broke up the
+ground and slew all they met with. There were also found slain there
+above two thousand persons, partly by their own hands, and partly by one
+another, but chiefly destroyed by the famine; but then the ill savor
+of the dead bodies was most offensive to those that lighted upon them,
+insomuch that some were obliged to get away immediately, while others
+were so greedy of gain, that they would go in among the dead bodies
+that lay on heaps, and tread upon them; for a great deal of treasure was
+found in these caverns, and the hope of gain made every way of getting
+it to be esteemed lawful. Many also of those that had been put in prison
+by the tyrants were now brought out; for they did not leave off their
+barbarous cruelty at the very last: yet did God avenge himself upon them
+both, in a manner agreeable to justice. As for John, he wanted food,
+together with his brethren, in these caverns, and begged that the Romans
+would now give him their right hand for his security, which he had
+often proudly rejected before; but for Simon, he struggled hard with
+the distress he was in, still he was forced to surrender himself, as we
+shall relate hereafter; so he was reserved for the triumph, and to be
+then slain; as was John condemned to perpetual imprisonment. And now the
+Romans set fire to the extreme parts of the city, and burnt them down,
+and entirely demolished its walls.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+
+     That Whereas The City Of Jerusalem Had Been Five Times Taken
+     Formerly, This Was The Second Time Of Its Desolation. A
+     Brief Account Of Its History.
+
+1. And thus was Jerusalem taken, in the second year of the reign of
+Vespasian, on the eighth day of the month Gorpeius [Elul]. It had been
+taken five 34 times before, though this was the second time of its
+desolation; for Shishak, the king of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, and
+after him Pompey, and after them Sosius and Herod, took the city, but
+still preserved it; but before all these, the king of Babylon conquered
+it, and made it desolate, one thousand four hundred and sixty-eight
+years and six months after it was built. But he who first built it was
+a potent man among the Canaanites, and is in our own tongue called
+[Melchisedek], the Righteous King, for such he really was; on which
+account he was [there] the first priest of God, and first built a temple
+[there], 35 and called the city Jerusalem, which was formerly called
+Salem. However, David, the king of the Jews, ejected the Canaanites,
+and settled his own people therein. It was demolished entirely by the
+Babylonians, four hundred and seventy-seven years and six months after
+him. And from king David, who was the first of the Jews who reigned
+therein, to this destruction under Titus, were one thousand one hundred
+and seventy-nine years; but from its first building, till this last
+destruction, were two thousand one hundred and seventy-seven years; yet
+hath not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor the diffusion
+of its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the greatness of
+the veneration paid to it on a religious account, been sufficient to
+preserve it from being destroyed. And thus ended the siege of Jerusalem.
+
+WAR BOOK 6 FOOTNOTES
+
+1 (return) [ Reland notes here, very pertinently, that the tower of
+Antonia stood higher than the floor of the temple or court adjoining
+to it; and that accordingly they descended thence into the temple, as
+Josephus elsewhere speaks also. See Book VI. ch. 2. sect. 5.]
+
+
+2 (return) [ In this speech of Titus we may clearly see the notions
+which the Romans then had of death, and of the happy state of those who
+died bravely in war, and the contrary estate of those who died ignobly
+in their beds by sickness. Reland here also produces two parallel
+passages, the one out of Atonia Janus Marcellinus, concerning the Alani,
+lib. 31, that "they judged that man happy who laid down his life in
+battle;" the other of Valerius Maximus, lib. 11. ch. 6, who says, "that
+the Cimbri and Celtiberi exulted for joy in the army, as being to go out
+of the world gloriously and happily."]
+
+
+3 (return) [ See the note on p. 809.]
+
+
+4 (return) [ No wonder that this Julian, who had so many nails in his
+shoes, slipped upon the pavement of the temple, which was smooth, and
+laid with marble of different colors.]
+
+
+5 (return) [ This was a remarkable day indeed, the seventeenth of
+Panemuns. [Footnote Tamuz,] A.D. 70, when, according to Daniel's
+prediction, six hundred and six years before, the Romans "in half a week
+caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease," Daniel 9:27. For from the
+month of February, A.D. 66, about which time Vespasian entered on this
+war, to this very time, was just three years and a half. See Bishop
+Lloyd's Tables of Chronology, published by Mr. Marshall, on this year.
+Nor is it to be omitted, what year nearly confirms this duration of the
+war, that four years before the war begun was somewhat above seven years
+five months before the destruction of Jerusalem, ch. 5. sect. 3.]
+
+
+6 (return) [ The same that in the New Testament is always so called, and
+was then the common language of the Jews in Judea, which was the Syriac
+dialect.]
+
+
+7 (return) [ Our present copies of the Old Testament want this encomium
+upon king Jechoniah or Jehoiachim, which it seems was in Josephus's
+copy.]
+
+
+8 (return) [ Of this oracle, see the note on B. IV. ch. 6. sect. 3.
+Josephus, both here and in many places elsewhere, speaks so, that it is
+most evident he was fully satisfied that God was on the Romans' side,
+and made use of them now for the destruction of that wicked nation of
+the Jews; which was for certain the true state of this matter, as the
+prophet Daniel first, and our Savior himself afterwards, had clearly
+foretold. See Lit. Accompl. of Proph. p. 64, etc.]
+
+
+9 (return) [ Josephus had before told us, B. V. ch. 13. sect. 1, that
+this fourth son of Matthias ran away to the Romans "before" his father's
+and brethren's slaughter, and not "after" it, as here. The former
+account is, in all probability, the truest; for had not that fourth
+son escaped before the others were caught and put to death, he had been
+caught and put to death with them. This last account, therefore, looks
+like an instance of a small inadvertence of Josephus in the place before
+us.]
+
+
+10 (return) [ Of this partition-wall separating Jews and Gentiles, with
+its pillars and inscription, see the description of the temples, ch.
+15.]
+
+
+11 (return) [ That these seditious Jews were the direct occasions
+of their own destruction, and of the conflagration of their city and
+temple, and that Titus earnestly and constantly labored to save both, is
+here and every where most evident in Josephus.]
+
+
+12 (return) [ Court of the Gentiles.]
+
+
+13 (return) [ Court of Israel.]
+
+
+14 (return) [ Of the court of the Gentiles.]
+
+
+15 (return) [ What Josephus observes here, that no parallel examples
+had been recorded before this time of such sieges, wherein mothers were
+forced by extremity of famine to eat their own children, as had been
+threatened to the Jews in the law of Moses, upon obstinate disobedience,
+and more than once fulfilled, [see my Boyle's Lectures, p. 210-214,]
+is by Dr. Hudson supposed to have had two or three parallel examples in
+later ages. He might have had more examples, I suppose, of persons on
+ship-board, or in a desert island, casting lots for each others' bodies;
+but all this was only in cases where they knew of no possible way to
+avoid death themselves but by killing and eating others. Whether such
+examples come up to the present case may be doubted. The Romans were not
+only willing, but very desirous, to grant those Jews in Jerusalem both
+their lives and their liberties, and to save both their city and their
+temple. But the zealots, the robbers, and the seditious would hearken to
+no terms of submission. They voluntarily chose to reduce the citizens to
+that extremity, as to force mothers to this unnatural barbarity, which,
+in all its circumstances, has not, I still suppose, been hitherto
+paralleled among the rest of mankind.]
+
+
+16 (return) [ These steps to the altar of burnt-offering seem here
+either an improper and inaccurate expression of Josephus, since it was
+unlawful to make ladder steps; [see description of the temples, ch. 13.,
+and note on Antiq. B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 5;] or else those steps or stairs
+we now use were invented before the days of Herod the Great, and had
+been here built by him; though the later Jews always deny it, and say
+that even Herod's altar was ascended to by an acclivity only.]
+
+
+17 (return) [ This Perea, if the word be not mistaken in the copies,
+cannot well be that Perea which was beyond Jordan, whose mountains
+were at a considerable distance from Jordan, and much too remote from
+Jerusalem to join in this echo at the conflagration of the temple; but
+Perea must be rather some mountains beyond the brook Cedron, as was the
+Mount of Olives, or some others about such a distance from Jerusalem;
+which observation is so obvious, that it is a wonder our commentators
+here take no notice of it.]
+
+
+18 (return) [ Reland I think here judges well, when he interprets these
+spikes [Footnote of those that stood on the top of the holy house]
+with sharp points; they were fixed into lead, to prevent the birds from
+sitting there, and defiling the holy house; for such spikes there were
+now upon it, as Josephus himself hath already assured us, B. V. ch. 5.
+sect. 6.]
+
+
+19 (return) [ Reland here takes notice, that these Jews, who had
+despised the true Prophet, were deservedly abused and deluded by these
+false ones.]
+
+
+20 (return) [ Whether Josephus means that this star was different from
+that comet which lasted a whole year, I cannot certainly determine. His
+words most favor their being different one from another.]
+
+
+21 (return) [ Since Josephus still uses the Syro-Macedonian month
+Xanthicus for the Jewish month Nisan, this eighth, or, as Nicephorus
+reads it, this ninth of Xanthicus or Nisan was almost a week before the
+passover, on the fourteenth; about which time we learn from St.
+John that many used to go "out of the country to Jerusalem to purify
+themselves," John 11:55, with 12:1; in agreement with Josephus also, B.
+V. ch. 3. sect. 1. And it might well be, that in the sight of these this
+extraordinary light might appear.]
+
+
+22 (return) [ This here seems to be the court of the priests.]
+
+
+23 (return) [ Both Reland and Havercamp in this place alter the natural
+punctuation and sense of Josephus, and this contrary to the opinion of
+Valesilus and Dr. Hudson, lest Josephus should say that the Jews built
+booths or tents within the temple at the feast of tabernacles; which
+the later Rabbins will not allow to have been the ancient practice: but
+then, since it is expressly told us in Nehemiah, ch. 8:16, that in still
+elder times "the Jews made booths in the courts of the house of God"
+at that festival, Josephus may well be permitted to say the same.
+And indeed the modern Rabbins are of very small authority in all such
+matters of remote antiquity.]
+
+
+24 (return) [ Take Havercamp's note here: "This [says he] is a
+remarkable place; and Tertullian truly says in his Apologetic, ch. 16.
+p. 162, that the entire religion of the Roman camp almost consisted in
+worshipping the ensigns, in swearing by the ensigns, and in preferring
+the ensigns before all the [other] gods." See what Havercamp says upon
+that place of Tertullian.]
+
+
+25 (return) [ This declaring Titus imperator by the soldiers, upon such
+signal success, and the slaughter of such a vast number of enemies, was
+according to the usual practice of the Romans in like cases, as Reland
+assures us on this place.]
+
+
+26 (return) [ The Jews of later times agree with Josephus, that there
+were hiding-places or secret chambers about the holy house, as Reland
+here informs us, where he thinks he has found these very walls described
+by them.]
+
+
+27 (return) [ Spanheim notes here, that the Romans used to permit the
+Jews to collect their sacred tribute, and send it to Jerusalem; of which
+we have had abundant evidence in Josephus already on other occasions.]
+
+
+28 (return) [ This innumerable multitude of Jews that were "sold" by the
+Romans was an eminent completion of God's ancient threatening by Moses,
+that if they apostatized from the obedience to his laws, they should
+be "sold unto their enemies for bond-men and bond-women," Deuteronomy
+28;68. See more especially the note on ch. 9. sect. 2. But one thing
+is here peculiarly remarkable, that Moses adds, Though they should be
+"sold" for slaves, yet "no man should buy them;" i.e. either they should
+have none to redeem them from this sale into slavery; or rather, that
+the slaves to be sold should be more than were the purchasers for them,
+and so they should be sold for little or nothing; which is what Josephus
+here affirms to have been the case at this time.]
+
+
+29 (return) [ What became of these spoils of the temple that escaped the
+fire, see Josephus himself hereafter, B. VII. ch. 5. sect. 5, and Reland
+de Spoliis Templi, p. 129-138.]
+
+
+30 (return) [ These various sorts of spices, even more than those four
+which Moses prescribed, Exodus 31:34, we see were used in their public
+worship under Herod's temple, particularly cinnamon and cassia; which
+Reland takes particular notice of, as agreeing with the latter testimony
+of the Talmudists.]
+
+
+31 (return) [ See the several predictions that the Jews, if they became
+obstinate in their idolatry and wickedness, should be sent again or sold
+into Egypt for their punishment, Deuteronomy 28:68; Jeremiah 44:7; Hosea
+8:13; 9:3; 9:4, 5; 2 Samuel 15:10-13; with Authentic Records, Part I. p.
+49, 121; and Reland Painest And, tom. II. p. 715.]
+
+
+32 (return) [ The whole multitude of the Jews that were destroyed during
+the entire seven years before this time, in all the countries of and
+bordering on Judea, is summed up by Archbishop Usher, from Lipsius, out
+of Josephus, at the year of Christ 70, and amounts to 1,337,490. Nor
+could there have been that number of Jews in Jerusalem to be destroyed
+in this siege, as will be presently set down by Josephus, but that both
+Jews and proselytes of justice were just then come up out of the other
+countries of Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and Perea and other remoter
+regions, to the passover, in vast numbers, and therein cooped up, as in
+a prison, by the Roman army, as Josephus himself well observes in this
+and the next section, and as is exactly related elsewhere, B. V. ch. 3.
+sect. 1 and ch. 13. sect. 7.]
+
+
+33 (return) [ This number of a company for one paschal lamb, between
+ten and twenty, agrees exactly with the number thirteen, at our Savior's
+last passover. As to the whole number of the Jews that used to come up
+to the passover, and eat of it at Jerusalem, see the note on B. II.
+ch. 14. sect. 3. This number ought to be here indeed just ten times the
+number of the lambs, or just 2,565,000, by Josephus's own reasoning;
+whereas it is, in his present copies, no less than 2,700,000, which last
+number is, however, nearest the other number in the place now cited,
+which is 3,000,000. But what is here chiefly remarkable is this, that no
+foreign nation ever came thus to destroy the Jews at any of their solemn
+festivals, from the days of Moses till this time, but came now upon
+their apostasy from God, and from obedience to him. Nor is it possible,
+in the nature of things, that in any other nation such vast numbers
+should be gotten together, and perish in the siege of any one city
+whatsoever, as now happened in Jerusalem.]
+
+
+34 (return) [ This is the proper place for such as have closely
+attended to these latter books of the War to peruse, and that with equal
+attention, those distinct and plain predictions of Jesus of Nazareth, in
+the Gospels thereto relating, as compared with their exact completions
+in Josephus's history; upon which completions, as Dr. Whitby well
+observes, Annot. on Matthew 24:2, no small part of the evidence for the
+truth of the Christian religion does depend; and as I have step by
+step compared them together in my Literal Accomplishment of Scripture
+Prophecies. The reader is to observe further, that the true reason why I
+have so seldom taken notice of those completions in the course of these
+notes, notwithstanding their being so very remarkable, and frequently
+so very obvious, is this, that I had entirely prevented myself in that
+treatise beforehand; to which therefore I must here, once for all,
+seriously refer every inquisitive reader. Besides these five here
+enumerated, who had taken Jerusalem of old, Josephus, upon further
+recollection, reckons a sixth, Antiq. B. XII. ch. 1. sect. 1, who should
+have been here inserted in the second place; I mean Ptolemy, the son of
+Lagus.]
+
+
+35 (return) [ Why the great Bochart should say, [De Phoenic. Colon.
+B. II. ch. iv.,] that "there are in this clause of Josephus as many
+mistakes as words," I do by no means understand. Josephus thought
+Melchisedek first built, or rather rebuilt and adorned, this city, and
+that it was then called Salem, as Psalm 76:2; afterwards came to be
+called Jerusalem; and that Melchisedek, being a priest as well as a
+king, built to the true God therein a temple, or place for public Divine
+worship and sacrifice; all which things may be very true for aught we
+know to the contrary. And for the word, or temple, as if it must needs
+belong to the great temple built by Solomon long afterward, Josephus
+himself uses, for the small tabernacle of Moses, Antiq. B. III. ch. 6.
+sect. 4; see also Antiq. B. lit. ch. 6. sect. 1; as he here presently
+uses, for a large and splendid synagogue of the Jews at Antioch, B. VII.
+ch. 3. sect. 3.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK VII.
+
+
+     Containing The Interval Of About Three Years.
+
+     From The Taking Of Jerusalem By Titus To The Sedition At
+     Cyrene
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+
+     How The Entire City Of Jerusalem Was Demolished, Excepting
+     Three Towers; And How Titus Commended His Soldiers In A
+     Speech Made To Them, And Distributed Rewards To Them And
+     Then Dismissed Many Of Them.
+
+1. Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder,
+because there remained none to be the objects of their fury, [for they
+would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be
+done,] Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city
+and temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of
+the greatest eminency; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne;
+and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This
+wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in
+garrison, as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to
+posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the
+Roman valor had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall, it was so
+thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the
+foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither
+believe it had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem
+came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city
+otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.
+
+2. But Caesar resolved to leave there, as a guard, the tenth legion,
+with certain troops of horsemen, and companies of footmen. So, having
+entirely completed this war, he was desirous to commend his whole army,
+on account of the great exploits they had performed, and to bestow
+proper rewards on such as had signalized themselves therein. He had
+therefore a great tribunal made for him in the midst of the place
+where he had formerly encamped, and stood upon it with his principal
+commanders about him, and spake so as to be heard by the whole army
+in the manner following: That he returned them abundance of thanks for
+their good-will which they had showed to him: he commended them for that
+ready obedience they had exhibited in this whole war, which obedience
+had appeared in the many and great dangers which they had courageously
+undergone; as also for that courage they had shown, and had thereby
+augmented of themselves their country's power, and had made it evident
+to all men, that neither the multitude of their enemies, nor the
+strength of their places, nor the largeness of their cities, nor the
+rash boldness and brutish rage of their antagonists, were sufficient at
+any time to get clear of the Roman valor, although some of them may have
+fortune in many respects on their side. He said further, that it was
+but reasonable for them to put an end to this war, now it had lasted
+so long, for that they had nothing better to wish for when they entered
+into it; and that this happened more favorably for them, and more for
+their glory, that all the Romans had willingly accepted of those for
+their governors, and the curators of their dominions, whom they had
+chosen for them, and had sent into their own country for that purpose,
+which still continued under the management of those whom they had
+pitched on, and were thankful to them for pitching upon them. That
+accordingly, although he did both admire and tenderly regard them all,
+because he knew that every one of them had gone as cheerfully about
+their work as their abilities and opportunities would give them leave;
+yet, he said, that he would immediately bestow rewards and dignities on
+those that had fought the most bravely, and with greater force, and had
+signalized their conduct in the most glorious manner, and had made his
+army more famous by their noble exploits; and that no one who had
+been willing to take more pains than another should miss of a just
+retribution for the same; for that he had been exceeding careful about
+this matter, and that the more, because he had much rather reward the
+virtues of his fellow soldiers than punish such as had offended.
+
+3. Hereupon Titus ordered those whose business it was to read the list
+of all that had performed great exploits in this war, whom he called to
+him by their names, and commended them before the company, and rejoiced
+in them in the same manner as a man would have rejoiced in his own
+exploits. He also put on their heads crowns of gold, and golden
+ornaments about their necks, and gave them long spears of gold, and
+ensigns that were made of silver, and removed every one of them to a
+higher rank; and besides this, he plentifully distributed among them,
+out of the spoils, and the other prey they had taken, silver, and
+gold, and garments. So when they had all these honors bestowed on them,
+according to his own appointment made to every one, and he had wished
+all sorts of happiness to the whole army, he came down, among the great
+acclamations which were made to him, and then betook himself to offer
+thank-offerings [to the gods], and at once sacrificed a vast number of
+oxen, that stood ready at the altars, and distributed them among the
+army to feast on. And when he had staid three days among the principal
+commanders, and so long feasted with them, he sent away the rest of his
+army to the several places where they would be every one best situated;
+but permitted the tenth legion to stay, as a guard at Jerusalem, and did
+not send them away beyond Euphrates, where they had been before. And as
+he remembered that the twelfth legion had given way to the Jews, under
+Cestius their general, he expelled them out of all Syria, for they
+had lain formerly at Raphanea, and sent them away to a place called
+Meletine, near Euphrates, which is in the limits of Armenia and
+Cappadocia; he also thought fit that two of the legions should stay with
+him till he should go to Egypt. He then went down with his army to that
+Cesarea which lay by the sea-side, and there laid up the rest of his
+spoils in great quantities, and gave order that the captives should be
+kept there; for the winter season hindered him then from sailing into
+Italy.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+
+     How Titus Exhibited All Sorts Of Shows At Cesarea Philippi.
+     Concerning Simon The Tyrant How He Was Taken, And Reserved
+     For The Triumph.
+
+1. Now at the same time that Titus Caesar lay at the siege of Jerusalem,
+did Vespasian go on board a merchantship and sailed from Alexandria to
+Rhodes; whence he sailed away in ships with three rows of oars; and
+as he touched at several cities that lay in his road, he was joyfully
+received by them all, and so passed over from Ionia into Greece; whence
+he set sail from Corcyra to the promontory of Iapyx, whence he took his
+journey by land. But as for Titus, he marched from that Cesarea which
+lay by the sea-side, and came to that which is named Cesarea Philippi,
+and staid there a considerable time, and exhibited all sorts of shows
+there. And here a great number of the captives were destroyed, some
+being thrown to wild beasts, and others in multitudes forced to kill one
+another, as if they were their enemies. And here it was that Titus was
+informed of the seizure of Simon the son of Gioras, which was made after
+the manner following: This Simon, during the siege of Jerusalem, was in
+the upper city; but when the Roman army was gotten within the walls,
+and were laying the city waste, he then took the most faithful of his
+friends with him, and among them some that were stone-cutters, with
+those iron tools which belonged to their occupation, and as great a
+quantity of provisions as would suffice them for a long time, and let
+himself and all them down into a certain subterraneous cavern that was
+not visible above ground. Now, so far as had been digged of old, they
+went onward along it without disturbance; but where they met with solid
+earth, they dug a mine under ground, and this in hopes that they should
+be able to proceed so far as to rise from under ground in a safe place,
+and by that means escape. But when they came to make the experiment,
+they were disappointed of their hope; for the miners could make but
+small progress, and that with difficulty also; insomuch that their
+provisions, though they distributed them by measure, began to fail
+them. And now Simon, thinking he might be able to astonish and elude the
+Romans, put on a white frock, and buttoned upon him a purple cloak, and
+appeared out of the ground in the place where the temple had formerly
+been. At the first, indeed, those that saw him were greatly astonished,
+and stood still where they were; but afterward they came nearer to him,
+and asked him who he was. Now Simon would not tell them, but bid them
+call for their captain; and when they ran to call him, Terentius Rufus
+2 who was left to command the army there, came to Simon, and learned of
+him the whole truth, and kept him in bonds, and let Caesar know that he
+was taken. Thus did God bring this man to be punished for what bitter
+and savage tyranny he had exercised against his countrymen by those who
+were his worst enemies; and this while he was not subdued by violence,
+but voluntarily delivered himself up to them to be punished, and that
+on the very same account that he had laid false accusations against many
+Jews, as if they were falling away to the Romans, and had barbarously
+slain them; for wicked actions do not escape the Divine anger, nor is
+justice too weak to punish offenders, but in time overtakes those that
+transgress its laws, and inflicts its punishments upon the wicked in a
+manner, so much more severe, as they expected to escape it on account of
+their not being punished immediately. 3 Simon was made sensible of this
+by falling under the indignation of the Romans. This rise of his out of
+the ground did also occasion the discovery of a great number of others
+of the seditious at that time, who had hidden themselves under ground.
+But for Simon, he was brought to Caesar in bonds, when he was come back
+to that Cesarea which was on the seaside, who gave orders that he should
+be kept against that triumph which he was to celebrate at Rome upon this
+occasion.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3.
+
+
+     How Titus Upon The Celebration Of His Brothers And Fathers
+     Birthdays Had Many Of The Jews Slain. Concerning The Danger
+     The Jews Were In At Antioch, By Means Of The Transgression
+     And Impiety Of One Antiochus, A Jew.
+
+1. While Titus was at Cesarea, he solemnized the birthday of his brother
+[Domitian] after a splendid manner, and inflicted a great deal of the
+punishment intended for the Jews in honor of him; for the number of
+those that were now slain in fighting with the beasts, and were burnt,
+and fought with one another, exceeded two thousand five hundred. Yet did
+all this seem to the Romans, when they were thus destroyed ten thousand
+several ways, to be a punishment beneath their deserts. After this
+Caesar came to Berytus, 4 which is a city of Phoenicia, and a Roman
+colony, and staid there a longer time, and exhibited a still more
+pompous solemnity about his father's birthday, both in the magnificence
+of the shows, and in the other vast expenses he was at in his devices
+thereto belonging; so that a great multitude of the captives were here
+destroyed after the same manner as before.
+
+2. It happened also about this time, that the Jews who remained at
+Antioch were under accusations, and in danger of perishing, from the
+disturbances that were raised against them by the Antiochians; and this
+both on account of the slanders spread abroad at this time against them,
+and on account of what pranks they had played not long before; which
+I am obliged to describe without fail, though briefly, that I may the
+better connect my narration of future actions with those that went
+before.
+
+3. For as the Jewish nation is widely dispersed over all the habitable
+earth among its inhabitants, so it is very much intermingled with
+Syria by reason of its neighborhood, and had the greatest multitudes in
+Antioch by reason of the largeness of the city, wherein the kings, after
+Antiochus, had afforded them a habitation with the most undisturbed
+tranquillity; for though Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, laid
+Jerusalem waste, and spoiled the temple, yet did those that succeeded
+him in the kingdom restore all the donations that were made of brass to
+the Jews of Antioch, and dedicated them to their synagogue, and granted
+them the enjoyment of equal privileges of citizens with the Greeks
+themselves; and as the succeeding kings treated them after the same
+manner, they both multiplied to a great number, and adorned their temple
+gloriously by fine ornaments, and with great magnificence, in the use of
+what had been given them. They also made proselytes of a great many of
+the Greeks perpetually, and thereby after a sort brought them to be
+a portion of their own body. But about this time when the present war
+began, and Vespasian was newly sailed to Syria, and all men had taken
+up a great hatred against the Jews, then it was that a certain person,
+whose name was Antiochus, being one of the Jewish nation, and greatly
+respected on account of his father, who was governor of the Jews at
+Antioch 5 came upon the theater at a time when the people of Antioch
+were assembled together, and became an informer against his father, and
+accused both him and others that they had resolved to burn the whole
+city in one night; he also delivered up to them some Jews that were
+foreigners, as partners in their resolutions. When the people heard
+this, they could not refrain their passion, but commanded that those
+who were delivered up to them should have fire brought to burn them, who
+were accordingly all burnt upon the theater immediately. They did also
+fall violently upon the multitude of the Jews, as supposing that
+by punishing them suddenly they should save their own city. As for
+Antiochus, he aggravated the rage they were in, and thought to give them
+a demonstration of his own conversion, arm of his hatred of the Jewish
+customs, by sacrificing after the manner of the Greeks; he persuaded
+the rest also to compel them to do the same, because they would by that
+means discover who they were that had plotted against them, since they
+would not do so; and when the people of Antioch tried the experiment,
+some few complied, but those that would not do so were slain. As for
+Antiochus himself, he obtained soldiers from the Roman commander, and
+became a severe master over his own citizens, not permitting them to
+rest on the seventh day, but forcing them to do all that they usually
+did on other days; and to that degree of distress did he reduce them in
+this matter, that the rest of the seventh day was dissolved not only at
+Antioch, but the same thing which took thence its rise was done in other
+cities also, in like manner, for some small time.
+
+4. Now, after these misfortunes had happened to the Jews at Antioch, a
+second calamity befell them, the description of which when we were going
+about we premised the account foregoing; for upon this accident, whereby
+the four-square market-place was burnt down, as well as the archives,
+and the place where the public records were preserved, and the royal
+palaces, [and it was not without difficulty that the fire was then put
+a stop to, which was likely, by the fury wherewith it was carried along,
+to have gone over the whole city,] Antiochus accused the Jews as the
+occasion of all the mischief that was done. Now this induced the people
+of Antioch, who were now under the immediate persuasion, by reason of
+the disorder they were in, that this calumny was true, and would have
+been under the same persuasion, even though they had not borne
+an ill-will at the Jews before, to believe this man's accusation,
+especially when they considered what had been done before, and this
+to such a degree, that they all fell violently upon those that were
+accused, and this, like madmen, in a very furious rage also, even as if
+they had seen the Jews in a manner setting fire themselves to the city;
+nor was it without difficulty that one Cneius Collegas, the legate,
+could prevail with them to permit the affairs to be laid before Caesar;
+for as to Cesennius Petus, the president of Syria, Vespasian had already
+sent him away; and so it happened that he was not yet come back thither.
+But when Collegas had made a careful inquiry into the matter, he found
+out the truth, and that not one of those Jews that were accused by
+Antiochus had any hand in it, but that all was done by some vile persons
+greatly in debt, who supposed that if they could once set fire to the
+market-place, and burn the public records, they should have no further
+demands made upon them. So the Jews were under great disorder and
+terror, in the uncertain expectations of what would be the upshot of
+these accusations against them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+
+     How Vespasian Was Received At Rome; As Also How The Germans
+     Revolted From The Romans, But Were Subdued. That The
+     Sarmatians Overran Mysia, But Were Compelled To Retire To
+     Their Own Country Again.
+
+1. And now Titus Caesar, upon the news that was brought him concerning
+his father, that his coming was much desired by all the Italian cities,
+and that Rome especially received him with great alacrity and splendor,
+betook himself to rejoicing and pleasures to a great degree, as now
+freed from the solicitude he had been under, after the most agreeable
+manner. For all men that were in Italy showed their respects to him
+in their minds before he came thither, as if he were already come, as
+esteeming the very expectation they had of him to be his real presence,
+on account of the great desires they had to see him, and because the
+good-will they bore him was entirely free and unconstrained; for it was,
+desirable thing to the senate, who well remembered the calamities they
+had undergone in the late changes of their governors, to receive a
+governor who was adorned with the gravity of old age, and with the
+highest skill in the actions of war, whose advancement would be, as they
+knew, for nothing else but for the preservation of those that were to
+be governed. Moreover, the people had been so harassed by their civil
+miseries, that they were still more earnest for his coming immediately,
+as supposing they should then be firmly delivered from their calamities,
+and believed they should then recover their secure tranquillity and
+prosperity; and for the soldiery, they had the principal regard to him,
+for they were chiefly apprized of his great exploits in war; and since
+they had experienced the want of skill and want of courage in other
+commanders, they were very desirous to be free from that great shame
+they had undergone by their means, and heartily wished to receive such
+a prince as might be a security and an ornament to them. And as this
+good-will to Vespasian was universal, those that enjoyed any remarkable
+dignities could not have patience enough to stay in Rome, but made haste
+to meet him at a very great distance from it; nay, indeed, none of the
+rest could endure the delay of seeing him, but did all pour out of the
+city in such crowds, and were so universally possessed with the opinion
+that it was easier and better for them to go out than to stay there,
+that this was the very first time that the city joyfully perceived
+itself almost empty of its citizens; for those that staid within were
+fewer than those that went out. But as soon as the news was come that he
+was hard by, and those that had met him at first related with what good
+humor he received every one that came to him, then it was that the whole
+multitude that had remained in the city, with their wives and children,
+came into the road, and waited for him there; and for those whom he
+passed by, they made all sorts of acclamations, on account of the joy
+they had to see him, and the pleasantness of his countenance, and styled
+him their Benefactor and Savior, and the only person who was worthy to
+be ruler of the city of Rome. And now the city was like a temple, full
+of garlands and sweet odors; nor was it easy for him to come to the
+royal palace, for the multitude of the people that stood about him,
+where yet at last he performed his sacrifices of thanksgiving to his
+household gods for his safe return to the city. The multitude did also
+betake themselves to feasting; which feasts and drink-offerings they
+celebrated by their tribes, and their families, and their neighborhoods,
+and still prayed God to grant that Vespasian, his sons, and all their
+posterity, might continue in the Roman government for a very long time,
+and that his dominion might be preserved from all opposition. And this
+was the manner in which Rome so joyfully received Vespasian, and thence
+grew immediately into a state of great prosperity.
+
+2. But before this time, and while Vespasian was about Alexandria, and
+Titus was lying at the siege of Jerusalem, a great multitude of the
+Germans were in commotion, and tended to rebellion; and as the Gauls in
+their neighborhood joined with them, they conspired together, and had
+thereby great hopes of success, and that they should free themselves
+from the dominion of the Romans. The motives that induced the Germans to
+this attempt for a revolt, and for beginning the war, were these: In
+the first place, the nature [of the people], which was destitute of just
+reasonings, and ready to throw themselves rashly into danger, upon small
+hopes; in the next place, the hatred they bore to those that were their
+governors, while their nation had never been conscious of subjection
+to any but to the Romans, and that by compulsion only. Besides these
+motives, it was the opportunity that now offered itself, which above
+all the rest prevailed with them so to do; for when they saw the Roman
+government in a great internal disorder, by the continual changes of its
+rulers, and understood that every part of the habitable earth under them
+was in an unsettled and tottering condition, they thought this was
+the best opportunity that could afford itself for themselves to make a
+sedition, when the state of the Romans was so ill. Classicus 6 also,
+and Vitellius, two of their commanders, puffed them up with such hopes.
+These had for a long time been openly desirous of such an innovation,
+and were induced by the present opportunity to venture upon the
+declaration of their sentiments; the multitude was also ready; and when
+these men told them of what they intended to attempt, that news was
+gladly received by them. So when a great part of the Germans had agreed
+to rebel, and the rest were no better disposed, Vespasian, as guided by
+Divine Providence, sent letters to Petilius Cerealis, who had formerly
+had the command of Germany, whereby he declared him to have the dignity
+of consul, and commanded him to take upon him the government of Britain;
+so he went whither he was ordered to go, and when he was informed of
+the revolt of the Germans, he fell upon them as soon as they were gotten
+together, and put his army in battle-array, and slew a great number of
+them in the fight, and forced them to leave off their madness, and to
+grow wiser; nay, had he not fallen thus suddenly upon them on the
+place, it had not been long ere they would however have been brought
+to punishment; for as soon as ever the news of their revolt was come to
+Rome, and Caesar Domitian was made acquainted with it, he made no delay,
+even at that his age, when he was exceeding young, but undertook this
+weighty affair. He had a courageous mind from his father, and had
+made greater improvements than belonged to such an age: accordingly
+he marched against the barbarians immediately; whereupon their hearts
+failed them at the very rumor of his approach, and they submitted
+themselves to him with fear, and thought it a happy thing that they
+were brought under their old yoke again without suffering any further
+mischiefs. When therefore Domitian had settled all the affairs of Gaul
+in such good order, that it would not be easily put into disorder any
+more, he returned to Rome with honor and glory, as having performed such
+exploits as were above his own age, but worthy of so great a father.
+
+3. At the very same time with the forementioned revolt of the Germans
+did the bold attempt of the Scythians against the Romans occur; for
+those Scythians who are called Sarmatians, being a very numerous
+people, transported themselves over the Danube into Mysia, without
+being perceived; after which, by their violence, and entirely unexpected
+assault, they slew a great many of the Romans that guarded the
+frontiers; and as the consular legate Fonteius Agrippa came to meet
+them, and fought courageously against them, he was slain by them. They
+then overran all the region that had been subject to him, tearing and
+rending every thing that fell in their way. But when Vespasian was
+informed of what had happened, and how Mysia was laid waste, he sent
+away Rubrius Gallus to punish these Sarmatians; by whose means many of
+them perished in the battles he fought against them, and that part which
+escaped fled with fear to their own country. So when this general
+had put an end to the war, he provided for the future security of the
+country also; for he placed more and more numerous garrisons in the
+place, till he made it altogether impossible for the barbarians to
+pass over the river any more. And thus had this war in Mysia a sudden
+conclusion.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+     Concerning The Sabbatic River Which Titus Saw As He Was
+     Journeying Through Syria; And How The People Of Antioch Came
+     With A Petition To Titus Against The Jews But Were Rejected
+     By Him; As Also Concerning Titus's And Vespasian's Triumph.
+
+1. Now Titus Caesar tarried some time at Berytus, as we told you before.
+He thence removed, and exhibited magnificent shows in all those cities
+of Syria through which he went, and made use of the captive Jews as
+public instances of the destruction of that nation. He then saw a
+river as he went along, of such a nature as deserves to be recorded in
+history; it runs in the middle between Arcea, belonging to Agrippa's
+kingdom, and Raphanea. It hath somewhat very peculiar in it; for when
+it runs, its current is strong, and has plenty of water; after which its
+springs fail for six days together, and leave its channel dry, as any
+one may see; after which days it runs on the seventh day as it did
+before, and as though it had undergone no change at all; it hath also
+been observed to keep this order perpetually and exactly; whence it is
+that they call it the Sabbatic River 7 that name being taken from the
+sacred seventh day among the Jews.
+
+2. But when the people of Antioch were informed that Titus was
+approaching, they were so glad at it, that they could not keep within
+their walls, but hasted away to give him the meeting; nay, they
+proceeded as far as thirty furlongs, and more, with that intention.
+These were not the men only, but a multitude of women also with their
+children did the same; and when they saw him coming up to them, they
+stood on both sides of the way, and stretched out their right hands,
+saluting him, and making all sorts of acclamations to him, and turned
+back together with him. They also, among all the acclamations they made
+to him, besought him all the way they went to eject the Jews out of
+their city; yet did not Titus at all yield to this their petition, but
+gave them the bare hearing of it quietly. However, the Jews were in a
+great deal of terrible fear, under the uncertainty they were in what
+his opinion was, and what he would do to them. For Titus did not stay
+at Antioch, but continued his progress immediately to Zeugma, which lies
+upon the Euphrates, whither came to him messengers from Vologeses king
+of Parthia, and brought him a crown of gold upon the victory he had
+gained over the Jews; which he accepted of, and feasted the king's
+messengers, and then came back to Antioch. And when the senate and
+people of Antioch earnestly entreated him to come upon their theater,
+where their whole multitude was assembled, and expected him, he complied
+with great humanity; but when they pressed him with much earnestness,
+and continually begged of him that he would eject the Jews out of their
+city, he gave them this very pertinent answer: "How can this be done,
+since that country of theirs, whither the Jews must be obliged then to
+retire, is destroyed, and no place will receive them besides?" Whereupon
+the people of Antioch, when they had failed of success in this their
+first request, made him a second; for they desired that he would order
+those tables of brass to be removed on which the Jews' privileges were
+engraven. However, Titus would not grant that neither, but permitted the
+Jews of Antioch to continue to enjoy the very same privileges in that
+city which they had before, and then departed for Egypt; and as he came
+to Jerusalem in his progress, and compared the melancholy condition he
+saw it then in, with the ancient glory of the city, and called to mind
+the greatness of its present ruins, as well as its ancient splendor,
+he could not but pity the destruction of the city, so far was he from
+boasting that so great and goodly a city as that was had been by him
+taken by force; nay, he frequently cursed those that had been the
+authors of their revolt, and had brought such a punishment upon the
+city; insomuch that it openly appeared that he did not desire that
+such a calamity as this punishment of theirs amounted to should be a
+demonstration of his courage. Yet was there no small quantity of the
+riches that had been in that city still found among its ruins, a great
+deal of which the Romans dug up; but the greatest part was discovered
+by those who were captives, and so they carried it away; I mean the gold
+and the silver, and the rest of that most precious furniture which the
+Jews had, and which the owners had treasured up under ground, against
+the uncertain fortunes of war.
+
+3. So Titus took the journey he intended into Egypt, and passed over the
+desert very suddenly, and came to Alexandria, and took up a resolution
+to go to Rome by sea. And as he was accompanied by two legions, he sent
+each of them again to the places whence they had before come; the fifth
+he sent to Mysia, and the fifteenth to Pannonia: as for the leaders of
+the captives, Simon and John, with the other seven hundred men, whom
+he had selected out of the rest as being eminently tall and handsome
+of body, he gave order that they should be soon carried to Italy,
+as resolving to produce them in his triumph. So when he had had a
+prosperous voyage to his mind, the city of Rome behaved itself in his
+reception, and their meeting him at a distance, as it did in the case
+of his father. But what made the most splendid appearance in Titus's
+opinion was, when his father met him, and received him; but still the
+multitude of the citizens conceived the greatest joy when they saw
+them all three together, 8 as they did at this time; nor were many days
+overpast when they determined to have but one triumph, that should be
+common to both of them, on account of the glorious exploits they had
+performed, although the senate had decreed each of them a separate
+triumph by himself. So when notice had been given beforehand of the day
+appointed for this pompous solemnity to be made, on account of their
+victories, not one of the immense multitude was left in the city, but
+every body went out so far as to gain only a station where they might
+stand, and left only such a passage as was necessary for those that were
+to be seen to go along it.
+
+4. Now all the soldiery marched out beforehand by companies, and in
+their several ranks, under their several commanders, in the night time,
+and were about the gates, not of the upper palaces, but those near
+the temple of Isis; for there it was that the emperors had rested the
+foregoing night. And as soon as ever it was day, Vespasian and Titus
+came out crowned with laurel, and clothed in those ancient purple habits
+which were proper to their family, and then went as far as Octavian's
+Walks; for there it was that the senate, and the principal rulers, and
+those that had been recorded as of the equestrian order, waited for
+them. Now a tribunal had been erected before the cloisters, and ivory
+chairs had been set upon it, when they came and sat down upon them.
+Whereupon the soldiery made an acclamation of joy to them immediately,
+and all gave them attestations of their valor; while they were
+themselves without their arms, and only in their silken garments, and
+crowned with laurel: then Vespasian accepted of these shouts of theirs;
+but while they were still disposed to go on in such acclamations, he
+gave them a signal of silence. And when every body entirely held their
+peace, he stood up, and covering the greatest part of his head with his
+cloak, he put up the accustomed solemn prayers; the like prayers did
+Titus put up also; after which prayers Vespasian made a short speech to
+all the people, and then sent away the soldiers to a dinner prepared for
+them by the emperors. Then did he retire to that gate which was called
+the Gate of the Pomp, because pompous shows do always go through that
+gate; there it was that they tasted some food, and when they had put on
+their triumphal garments, and had offered sacrifices to the gods that
+were placed at the gate, they sent the triumph forward, and marched
+through the theatres, that they might be the more easily seen by the
+multitudes.
+
+5. Now it is impossible to describe the multitude of the shows as they
+deserve, and the magnificence of them all; such indeed as a man could
+not easily think of as performed, either by the labor of workmen, or
+the variety of riches, or the rarities of nature; for almost all such
+curiosities as the most happy men ever get by piece-meal were here one
+heaped on another, and those both admirable and costly in their nature;
+and all brought together on that day demonstrated the vastness of the
+dominions of the Romans; for there was here to be seen a mighty quantity
+of silver, and gold, and ivory, contrived into all sorts of things, and
+did not appear as carried along in pompous show only, but, as a man may
+say, running along like a river. Some parts were composed of the rarest
+purple hangings, and so carried along; and others accurately represented
+to the life what was embroidered by the arts of the Babylonians. There
+were also precious stones that were transparent, some set in crowns of
+gold, and some in other places, as the workmen pleased; and of these
+such a vast number were brought, that we could not but thence learn how
+vainly we imagined any of them to be rarities. The images of the gods
+were also carried, being as well wonderful for their largeness, as made
+very artificially, and with great skill of the workmen; nor were any of
+these images of any other than very costly materials; and many species
+of animals were brought, every one in their own natural ornaments. The
+men also who brought every one of these shows were great multitudes, and
+adorned with purple garments, all over interwoven with gold; those that
+were chosen for carrying these pompous shows having also about them such
+magnificent ornaments as were both extraordinary and surprising. Besides
+these, one might see that even the great number of the captives was not
+unadorned, while the variety that was in their garments, and their fine
+texture, concealed from the sight the deformity of their bodies. But
+what afforded the greatest surprise of all was the structure of the
+pageants that were borne along; for indeed he that met them could
+not but be afraid that the bearers would not be able firmly enough to
+support them, such was their magnitude; for many of them were so made,
+that they were on three or even four stories, one above another. The
+magnificence also of their structure afforded one both pleasure and
+surprise; for upon many of them were laid carpets of gold. There
+was also wrought gold and ivory fastened about them all; and many
+resemblances of the war, and those in several ways, and variety of
+contrivances, affording a most lively portraiture of itself. For there
+was to be seen a happy country laid waste, and entire squadrons of
+enemies slain; while some of them ran away, and some were carried into
+captivity; with walls of great altitude and magnitude overthrown and
+ruined by machines; with the strongest fortifications taken, and the
+walls of most populous cities upon the tops of hills seized on, and
+an army pouring itself within the walls; as also every place full of
+slaughter, and supplications of the enemies, when they were no longer
+able to lift up their hands in way of opposition. Fire also sent upon
+temples was here represented, and houses overthrown, and falling upon
+their owners: rivers also, after they came out of a large and melancholy
+desert, ran down, not into a land cultivated, nor as drink for men, or
+for cattle, but through a land still on fire upon every side; for the
+Jews related that such a thing they had undergone during this war. Now
+the workmanship of these representations was so magnificent and lively
+in the construction of the things, that it exhibited what had been done
+to such as did not see it, as if they had been there really present. On
+the top of every one of these pageants was placed the commander of the
+city that was taken, and the manner wherein he was taken. Moreover,
+there followed those pageants a great number of ships; and for the other
+spoils, they were carried in great plenty. But for those that were taken
+in the temple of Jerusalem, 9 they made the greatest figure of them
+all; that is, the golden table, of the weight of many talents; the
+candlestick also, that was made of gold, though its construction were
+now changed from that which we made use of; for its middle shaft was
+fixed upon a basis, and the small branches were produced out of it to
+a great length, having the likeness of a trident in their position, and
+had every one a socket made of brass for a lamp at the tops of them.
+These lamps were in number seven, and represented the dignity of the
+number seven among the Jews; and the last of all the spoils, was carried
+the Law of the Jews. After these spoils passed by a great many men,
+carrying the images of Victory, whose structure was entirely either of
+ivory or of gold. After which Vespasian marched in the first place,
+and Titus followed him; Domitian also rode along with them, and made a
+glorious appearance, and rode on a horse that was worthy of admiration.
+
+6. Now the last part of this pompous show was at the temple of Jupiter
+Capitolinus, whither when they were come, they stood still; for it was
+the Romans' ancient custom to stay till somebody brought the news that
+the general of the enemy was slain. This general was Simon, the son of
+Gioras, who had then been led in this triumph among the captives; a rope
+had also been put upon his head, and he had been drawn into a proper
+place in the forum, and had withal been tormented by those that drew him
+along; and the law of the Romans required that malefactors condemned to
+die should be slain there. Accordingly, when it was related that there
+was an end of him, and all the people had set up a shout for joy, they
+then began to offer those sacrifices which they had consecrated, in the
+prayers used in such solemnities; which when they had finished, they
+went away to the palace. And as for some of the spectators, the emperors
+entertained them at their own feast; and for all the rest there were
+noble preparations made for feasting at home; for this was a festival
+day to the city of Rome, as celebrated for the victory obtained by their
+army over their enemies, for the end that was now put to their civil
+miseries, and for the commencement of their hopes of future prosperity
+and happiness.
+
+7. After these triumphs were over, and after the affairs of the Romans
+were settled on the surest foundations, Vespasian resolved to build
+a temple to Peace, which was finished in so short a time, and in so
+glorious a manner, as was beyond all human expectation and opinion: for
+he having now by Providence a vast quantity of wealth, besides what he
+had formerly gained in his other exploits, he had this temple adorned
+with pictures and statues; for in this temple were collected and
+deposited all such rarities as men aforetime used to wander all over the
+habitable world to see, when they had a desire to see one of them after
+another; he also laid up therein those golden vessels and instruments
+that were taken out of the Jewish temple, as ensigns of his glory. But
+still he gave order that they should lay up their Law, and the purple
+veils of the holy place, in the royal palace itself, and keep them
+there.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+
+     Concerning Machaerus, And How Lucilius Bassus Took That
+     Citadel, And Other Places.
+
+1. Now Lucilius Bassus was sent as legate into Judea, and there he
+received the army from Cerealis Vitellianus, and took that citadel which
+was in Herodium, together with the garrison that was in it; after which
+he got together all the soldiery that was there, [which was a large
+body, but dispersed into several parties,] with the tenth legion, and
+resolved to make war upon Machaerus; for it was highly necessary that
+this citadel should be demolished, lest it might be a means of drawing
+away many into a rebellion, by reason of its strength; for the nature
+of the place was very capable of affording the surest hopes of safety to
+those that possessed it, as well as delay and fear to those that should
+attack it; for what was walled in was itself a very rocky hill, elevated
+to a very great height; which circumstance alone made it very hard to be
+subdued. It was also so contrived by nature, that it could not be easily
+ascended; for it is, as it were, ditched about with such valleys on all
+sides, and to such a depth, that the eye cannot reach their bottoms,
+and such as are not easily to be passed over, and even such as it is
+impossible to fill up with earth. For that valley which cuts it on the
+west extends to threescore furlongs, and did not end till it came to the
+lake Asphaltites; on the same side it was also that Machaerus had
+the tallest top of its hill elevated above the rest. But then for the
+valleys that lay on the north and south sides, although they be not
+so large as that already described, yet it is in like manner an
+impracticable thing to think of getting over them; and for the valley
+that lies on the east side, its depth is found to be no less than a
+hundred cubits. It extends as far as a mountain that lies over against
+Machaerus, with which it is bounded.
+
+2. Now when Alexander [Janneus], the king of the Jews, observed the
+nature of this place, he was the first who built a citadel here,
+which afterwards was demolished by Gabinius, when he made war against
+Aristobulus. But when Herod came to be king, he thought the place to
+be worthy of the utmost regard, and of being built upon in the firmest
+manner, and this especially because it lay so near to Arabia; for it is
+seated in a convenient place on that account, and hath a prospect toward
+that country; he therefore surrounded a large space of ground with walls
+and towers, and built a city there, out of which city there was a way
+that led up to the very citadel itself on the top of the mountain; nay,
+more than this, he built a wall round that top of the hill, and erected
+towers at the corners, of a hundred and sixty cubits high; in the middle
+of which place he built a palace, after a magnificent manner, wherein
+were large and beautiful edifices. He also made a great many reservoirs
+for the reception of water, that there might be plenty of it ready
+for all uses, and those in the properest places that were afforded him
+there. Thus did he, as it were, contend with the nature of the place,
+that he might exceed its natural strength and security [which yet itself
+rendered it hard to be taken] by those fortifications which were made by
+the hands of men. Moreover, he put a large quantity of darts and other
+machines of war into it, and contrived to get every thing thither that
+might any way contribute to its inhabitants' security, under the longest
+siege possible.
+
+3. Now within this place there grew a sort of rue 10 that deserves our
+wonder on account of its largeness, for it was no way inferior to any
+fig tree whatsoever, either in height or in thickness; and the report
+is, that it had lasted ever since the times of Herod, and would probably
+have lasted much longer, had it not been cut down by those Jews who
+took possession of the place afterward. But still in that valley which
+encompasses the city on the north side there is a certain place called
+Baaras, which produces a root of the same name with itself 11 its
+color is like to that of flame, and towards the evenings it sends out a
+certain ray like lightning. It is not easily taken by such as would
+do it, but recedes from their hands, nor will yield itself to be taken
+quietly, until either the urine of a woman, or her menstrual blood, be
+poured upon it; nay, even then it is certain death to those that touch
+it, unless any one take and hang the root itself down from his hand,
+and so carry it away. It may also be taken another way, without danger,
+which is this: they dig a trench quite round about it, till the hidden
+part of the root be very small, they then tie a dog to it, and when the
+dog tries hard to follow him that tied him, this root is easily plucked
+up, but the dog dies immediately, as if it were instead of the man that
+would take the plant away; nor after this need any one be afraid of
+taking it into their hands. Yet, after all this pains in getting, it
+is only valuable on account of one virtue it hath, that if it be only
+brought to sick persons, it quickly drives away those called demons,
+which are no other than the spirits of the wicked, that enter into men
+that are alive and kill them, unless they can obtain some help against
+them. Here are also fountains of hot water, that flow out of this place,
+which have a very different taste one from the other; for some of them
+are bitter, and others of them are plainly sweet. Here are also many
+eruptions of cold waters, and this not only in the places that lie
+lower, and have their fountains near one another, but, what is still
+more wonderful, here is to be seen a certain cave hard by, whose cavity
+is not deep, but it is covered over by a rock that is prominent; above
+this rock there stand up two [hills or] breasts, as it were, but a
+little distant one from another, the one of which sends out a fountain
+that is very cold, and the other sends out one that is very hot; which
+waters, when they are mingled together, compose a most pleasant bath;
+they are medicinal indeed for other maladies, but especially good for
+strengthening the nerves. This place has in it also mines of sulfur and
+alum.
+
+4. Now when Bassus had taken a full view of this place, he resolved to
+besiege it, by filling up the valley that lay on the east side; so he
+fell hard to work, and took great pains to raise his banks as soon as
+possible, and by that means to render the siege easy. As for the Jews
+that were caught in this place, they separated themselves from the
+strangers that were with them, and they forced those strangers, as an
+otherwise useless multitude, to stay in the lower part of the city, and
+undergo the principal dangers, while they themselves seized on the upper
+citadel, and held it, and this both on account of its strength, and to
+provide for their own safety. They also supposed they might obtain their
+pardon, in case they should [at last] surrender the citadel. However,
+they were willing to make trial, in the first place, whether the
+hopes they had of avoiding a siege would come to any thing; with which
+intention they made sallies every day, and fought with those that met
+them; in which conflicts they were many of them slain, as they therein
+slew many of the Romans. But still it was the opportunities that
+presented themselves which chiefly gained both sides their victories;
+these were gained by the Jews, when they fell upon the Romans as they
+were off their guard; but by the Romans, when, upon the others' sallies
+against their banks, they foresaw their coming, and were upon their
+guard when they received them. But the conclusion of this siege did
+not depend upon these bickerings; but a certain surprising accident,
+relating to what was done in this siege, forced the Jews to surrender
+the citadel. There was a certain young man among the besieged, of great
+boldness, and very active of his hand, his name was Eleazar; he greatly
+signalized himself in those sallies, and encouraged the Jews to go out
+in great numbers, in order to hinder the raising of the banks, and did
+the Romans a vast deal of mischief when they came to fighting; he so
+managed matters, that those who sallied out made their attacks easily,
+and returned back without danger, and this by still bringing up the rear
+himself. Now it happened that, on a certain time, when the fight was
+over, and both sides were parted, and retired home, he, in way of
+contempt of the enemy, and thinking that none of them would begin the
+fight again at that time, staid without the gates, and talked with those
+that were upon the wall, and his mind was wholly intent upon what they
+said. Now a certain person belonging to the Roman camp, whose name was
+Rufus, by birth an Egyptian, ran upon him suddenly, when nobody expected
+such a thing, and carried him off, with his armor itself; while, in the
+mean time, those that saw it from the wall were under such an amazement,
+that Rufus prevented their assistance, and carried Eleazar to the Roman
+camp. So the general of the Romans ordered that he should be taken up
+naked, set before the city to be seen, and sorely whipped before their
+eyes. Upon this sad accident that befell the young man, the Jews were
+terribly confounded, and the city, with one voice, sorely lamented him,
+and the mourning proved greater than could well be supposed upon the
+calamity of a single person. When Bassus perceived that, he began
+to think of using a stratagem against the enemy, and was desirous to
+aggravate their grief, in order to prevail with them to surrender the
+city for the preservation of that man. Nor did he fail of his hope; for
+he commanded them to set up a cross, as if he were just going to hang
+Eleazar upon it immediately; the sight of this occasioned a sore grief
+among those that were in the citadel, and they groaned vehemently, and
+cried out that they could not bear to see him thus destroyed. Whereupon
+Eleazar besought them not to disregard him, now he was going to suffer a
+most miserable death, and exhorted them to save themselves, by yielding
+to the Roman power and good fortune, since all other people were now
+conquered by them. These men were greatly moved with what he said, there
+being also many within the city that interceded for him, because he was
+of an eminent and very numerous family; so they now yielded to their
+passion of commiseration, contrary to their usual custom. Accordingly,
+they sent out immediately certain messengers, and treated with the
+Romans, in order to a surrender of the citadel to them, and desired that
+they might be permitted to go away, and take Eleazar along with them.
+Then did the Romans and their general accept of these terms; while the
+multitude of strangers that were in the lower part of the city, hearing
+of the agreement that was made by the Jews for themselves alone, were
+resolved to fly away privately in the night time; but as soon as they
+had opened their gates, those that had come to terms with Bassus told
+him of it; whether it were that they envied the others' deliverance,
+or whether it were done out of fear, lest an occasion should be taken
+against them upon their escape, is uncertain. The most courageous,
+therefore, of those men that went out prevented the enemy, and got away,
+and fled for it; but for those men that were caught within they were
+slain to the number of one thousand seven hundred, as were the women and
+children made slaves. But as Bassus thought he must perform the covenant
+he had made with those that surrendered the citadel, he let them go, and
+restored Eleazar to them.
+
+5. When Bassus had settled these affairs, he marched hastily to the
+forest of Jarden, as it is called; for he had heard that a great many
+of those that had fled from Jerusalem and Machaerus formerly were there
+gotten together. When he was therefore come to the place, and understood
+that the former news was no mistake, he, in the first place, surrounded
+the whole place with his horsemen, that such of the Jews as had boldness
+enough to try to break through might have no way possible for escaping,
+by reason of the situation of these horsemen; and for the footmen, he
+ordered them to cut down the trees that were in the wood whither
+they were fled. So the Jews were under a necessity of performing some
+glorious exploit, and of greatly exposing themselves in a battle, since
+they might perhaps thereby escape. So they made a general attack, and
+with a great shout fell upon those that surrounded them, who received
+them with great courage; and so while the one side fought desperately,
+and the others would not yield, the fight was prolonged on that account.
+But the event of the battle did not answer the expectation of the
+assailants; for so it happened, that no more than twelve fell on the
+Roman side, with a few that were wounded; but not one of the Jews
+escaped out of this battle, but they were all killed, being in the whole
+not fewer in number than three thousand, together with Judas, the son
+of Jairus, their general, concerning whom we have before spoken, that he
+had been a captain of a certain band at the siege of Jerusalem, and by
+going down into a certain vault under ground, had privately made his
+escape.
+
+6. About the same time it was that Caesar sent a letter to Bassus, and
+to Liberius Maximus, who was the procurator [of Judea], and gave order
+that all Judea should be exposed to sale 12 for he did not found any
+city there, but reserved the country for himself. However, he assigned
+a place for eight hundred men only, whom he had dismissed from his army,
+which he gave them for their habitation; it is called Emmaus, 13 and is
+distant from Jerusalem threescore furlongs. He also laid a tribute upon
+the Jews wheresoever they were, and enjoined every one of them to bring
+two drachmae every year into the Capitol, as they used to pay the same
+to the temple at Jerusalem. And this was the state of the Jewish affairs
+at this time.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+
+     Concerning The Calamity That Befell Antiochus, King Of
+     Commagene. As Also Concerning The Alans And What Great
+     Mischiefs They Did To The Medes And Armenians.
+
+1. And now, in the fourth year of the reign of Vespasian, it came to
+pass that Antiochus, the king of Commagene, with all his family, fell
+into very great calamities. The occasion was this: Cesennius Petus, who
+was president of Syria at this time, whether it were done out of regard
+to truth, or whether out of hatred to Antiochus, [for which was the real
+motive was never thoroughly discovered,] sent an epistle to Caesar, and
+therein told him that Antiochus, with his son Epiphanes, had resolved to
+rebel against the Romans, and had made a league with the king of Parthia
+to that purpose; that it was therefore fit to prevent them, lest they
+prevent us, and begin such a war as may cause a general disturbance in
+the Roman empire. Now Caesar was disposed to take some care about the
+matter, since this discovery was made; for the neighborhood of the
+kingdoms made this affair worthy of greater regard; for Samoseta, the
+capital of Commagene, lies upon Euphrates, and upon any such design
+could afford an easy passage over it to the Parthians, and could also
+afford them a secure reception. Petus was accordingly believed, and had
+authority given him of doing what he should think proper in the case; so
+he set about it without delay, and fell upon Commagene before Antiochus
+and his people had the least expectation of his coming: he had with him
+the tenth legion, as also some cohorts and troops of horsemen. These
+kings also came to his assistance: Aristobulus, king of the country
+called Chalcidene, and Sohemus, who was called king of Emesa. Nor was
+there any opposition made to his forces when they entered the kingdom;
+for no one of that country would so much as lift up his hand against
+them. When Antiochus heard this unexpected news, he could not think in
+the least of making war with the Romans, but determined to leave his
+whole kingdom in the state wherein it now was, and to retire privately,
+with his wife and children, as thinking thereby to demonstrate himself
+to the Romans to be innocent as to the accusation laid against him. So
+he went away from that city as far as a hundred and twenty furlongs,
+into a plain, and there pitched his tents.
+
+2. Petus then sent some of his men to seize upon Samosate, and by their
+means took possession of that city, while he went himself to attack
+Antiochus with the rest of his army. However, the king was not prevailed
+upon by the distress he was in to do any thing in the way of war against
+the Romans, but bemoaned his own hard fate, and endured with patience
+what he was not able to prevent. But his sons, who were young, and
+unexperienced in war, but of strong bodies, were not easily induced
+to bear this calamity without fighting. Epiphanes, therefore, and
+Callinicus, betook themselves to military force; and as the battle was a
+sore one, and lasted all the day long, they showed their own valor in
+a remarkable manner, and nothing but the approach of night put a period
+thereto, and that without any diminution of their forces; yet would
+not Antiochus, upon this conclusion of the fight, continue there by any
+means, but took his wife and his daughters, and fled away with them
+to Cilicia, and by so doing quite discouraged the minds of his own
+soldiers. Accordingly, they revolted, and went over to the Romans, out
+of the despair they were in of his keeping the kingdom; and his case was
+looked upon by all as quite desperate. It was therefore necessary that
+Epiphanes and his soldiers should get clear of their enemies before they
+became entirely destitute of any confederates; nor were there any more
+than ten horsemen with him, who passed with him over Euphrates, whence
+they went undisturbed to Vologeses, the king of Parthia, where they were
+not disregarded as fugitives, but had the same respect paid them as if
+they had retained their ancient prosperity.
+
+3. Now when Antiochus was come to Tarsus in Cilicia, Petus ordered
+a centurion to go to him, and send him in bonds to Rome. However,
+Vespasian could not endure to have a king brought to him in that manner,
+but thought it fit rather to have a regard to the ancient friendship
+that had been between them, than to preserve an inexorable anger upon
+pretense of this war. Accordingly, he gave orders that they should take
+off his bonds, while he was still upon the road, and that he should not
+come to Rome, but should now go and live at Lacedemon; he also gave him
+large revenues, that he might not only live in plenty, but like a king
+also. When Epiphanes, who before was in great fear for his father, was
+informed of this, their minds were freed from that great and almost
+incurable concern they had been under. He also hoped that Caesar would
+be reconciled to them, upon the intercession of Vologeses; for although
+he lived in plenty, he knew not how to bear living out of the Roman
+empire. So Caesar gave him leave, after an obliging manner, and he came
+to Rome; and as his father came quickly to him from Lacedemon, he had
+all sorts of respect paid him there, and there he remained.
+
+4. Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned
+some where as being Scythians and inhabiting at the lake Meotis. This
+nation about this time laid a design of falling upon Media, and the
+parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they
+treated with the king of Hyrcania; for he was master of that passage
+which king Alexander [the Great] shut up with iron gates. This king gave
+them leave to come through them; so they came in great multitudes, and
+fell upon the Medes unexpectedly, and plundered their country, which
+they found full of people, and replenished with abundance of cattle,
+while nobody durst make any resistance against them; for Paeorus, the
+king of the country, had fled away for fear into places where they could
+not easily come at him, and had yielded up every thing he had to them,
+and had only saved his wife and his concubines from them, and that with
+difficulty also, after they had been made captives, by giving them a
+hundred talents for their ransom. These Alans therefore plundered the
+country without opposition, and with great ease, and proceeded as far
+as Armenia, laying all waste before them. Now Tiridates was king of that
+country, who met them, and fought them, but had like to have been taken
+alive in the battle; for a certain man threw a net over him from a great
+distance, and had soon drawn him to him, unless he had immediately cut
+the cord with his sword, and ran away, and prevented it. So the Alans,
+being still more provoked by this sight, laid waste the country, and
+drove a great multitude of the men, and a great quantity of the other
+prey they had gotten out of both kingdoms, along with them, and then
+retreated back to their own country.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+
+     Concerning Masada And Those Sicarii Who Kept It; And How
+     Silva Betook Himself To Form The Siege Of That Citadel.
+     Eleazar's Speeches To The Besieged.
+
+1. When Bassus was dead in Judea, Flavius Silva succeeded him as
+procurator there; who, when he saw that all the rest of the country was
+subdued in this war, and that there was but one only strong hold
+that was still in rebellion, he got all his army together that lay in
+different places, and made an expedition against it. This fortress was
+called Masada. It was one Eleazar, a potent man, and the commander of
+these Sicarii, that had seized upon it. He was a descendant from that
+Judas who had persuaded abundance of the Jews, as we have formerly
+related, not to submit to the taxation when Cyrenius was sent into Judea
+to make one; for then it was that the Sicarii got together against
+those that were willing to submit to the Romans, and treated them in all
+respects as if they had been their enemies, both by plundering them
+of what they had, by driving away their cattle, and by setting fire
+to their houses; for they said that they differed not at all from
+foreigners, by betraying, in so cowardly a manner, that freedom which
+Jews thought worthy to be contended for to the utmost, and by owning
+that they preferred slavery under the Romans before such a contention.
+Now this was in reality no better than a pretense and a cloak for the
+barbarity which was made use of by them, and to color over their own
+avarice, which they afterwards made evident by their own actions; for
+those that were partners with them in their rebellion joined also with
+them in the war against the Romans, and went further lengths with them
+in their impudent undertakings against them; and when they were again
+convicted of dissembling in such their pretenses, they still more abused
+those that justly reproached them for their wickedness. And indeed that
+was a time most fertile in all manner of wicked practices, insomuch that
+no kind of evil deeds were then left undone; nor could any one so much
+as devise any bad thing that was new, so deeply were they all infected,
+and strove with one another in their single capacity, and in their
+communities, who should run the greatest lengths in impiety towards
+God, and in unjust actions towards their neighbors; the men of power
+oppressing the multitude, and the multitude earnestly laboring to
+destroy the men of power. The one part were desirous of tyrannizing over
+others, and the rest of offering violence to others, and of plundering
+such as were richer than themselves. They were the Sicarii who first
+began these transgressions, and first became barbarous towards those
+allied to them, and left no words of reproach unsaid, and no works of
+perdition untried, in order to destroy those whom their contrivances
+affected. Yet did John demonstrate by his actions that these Sicarii
+were more moderate than he was himself, for he not only slew all such
+as gave him good counsel to do what was right, but treated them worst of
+all, as the most bitter enemies that he had among all the Citizens; nay,
+he filled his entire country with ten thousand instances of wickedness,
+such as a man who was already hardened sufficiently in his impiety
+towards God would naturally do; for the food was unlawful that was set
+upon his table, and he rejected those purifications that the law of his
+country had ordained; so that it was no longer a wonder if he, who
+was so mad in his impiety towards God, did not observe any rules of
+gentleness and common affection towards men. Again, therefore, what
+mischief was there which Simon the son of Gioras did not do? or what
+kind of abuses did he abstain from as to those very free-men who had set
+him up for a tyrant? What friendship or kindred were there that did not
+make him more bold in his daily murders? for they looked upon the doing
+of mischief to strangers only as a work beneath their courage, but
+thought their barbarity towards their nearest relations would be a
+glorious demonstration thereof. The Idumeans also strove with these
+men who should be guilty of the greatest madness! for they [all], vile
+wretches as they were, cut the throats of the high priests, that so
+no part of a religious regard to God might be preserved; they
+thence proceeded to destroy utterly the least remains of a political
+government, and introduced the most complete scene of iniquity in all
+instances that were practicable; under which scene that sort of people
+that were called zealots grew up, and who indeed corresponded to
+the name; for they imitated every wicked work; nor, if their memory
+suggested any evil thing that had formerly been done, did they avoid
+zealously to pursue the same; and although they gave themselves that
+name from their zeal for what was good, yet did it agree to them only
+by way of irony, on account of those they had unjustly treated by their
+wild and brutish disposition, or as thinking the greatest mischiefs to
+be the greatest good. Accordingly, they all met with such ends as God
+deservedly brought upon them in way of punishment; for all such miseries
+have been sent upon them as man's nature is capable of undergoing,
+till the utmost period of their lives, and till death came upon them
+in various ways of torment; yet might one say justly that they suffered
+less than they had done, because it was impossible they could be
+punished according to their deserving. But to make a lamentation
+according to the deserts of those who fell under these men's barbarity,
+this is not a proper place for it;--I therefore now return again to the
+remaining part of the present narration.
+
+2. For now it was that the Roman general came, and led his army against
+Eleazar and those Sicarii who held the fortress Masada together with
+him; and for the whole country adjoining, he presently gained it, and
+put garrisons into the most proper places of it; he also built a wall
+quite round the entire fortress, that none of the besieged might easily
+escape; he also set his men to guard the several parts of it; he also
+pitched his camp in such an agreeable place as he had chosen for the
+siege, and at which place the rock belonging to the fortress did make
+the nearest approach to the neighboring mountain, which yet was a place
+of difficulty for getting plenty of provisions; for it was not only food
+that was to be brought from a great distance [to the army], and this
+with a great deal of pain to those Jews who were appointed for that
+purpose, but water was also to be brought to the camp, because the place
+afforded no fountain that was near it. When therefore Silva had ordered
+these affairs beforehand, he fell to besieging the place; which siege
+was likely to stand in need of a great deal of skill and pains, by
+reason of the strength of the fortress, the nature of which I will now
+describe.
+
+3. There was a rock, not small in circumference, and very high. It was
+encompassed with valleys of such vast depth downward, that the eye could
+not reach their bottoms; they were abrupt, and such as no animal could
+walk upon, excepting at two places of the rock, where it subsides, in
+order to afford a passage for ascent, though not without difficulty.
+Now, of the ways that lead to it, one is that from the lake Asphaltites,
+towards the sun-rising, and another on the west, where the ascent is
+easier: the one of these ways is called the Serpent, as resembling that
+animal in its narrowness and its perpetual windings; for it is broken
+off at the prominent precipices of the rock, and returns frequently into
+itself, and lengthening again by little and little, hath much ado to
+proceed forward; and he that would walk along it must first go on one
+leg, and then on the other; there is also nothing but destruction, in
+case your feet slip; for on each side there is a vastly deep chasm and
+precipice, sufficient to quell the courage of every body by the terror
+it infuses into the mind. When, therefore, a man hath gone along this
+way for thirty furlongs, the rest is the top of the hill--not ending at
+a small point, but is no other than a plain upon the highest part of the
+mountain. Upon this top of the hill, Jonathan the high priest first of
+all built a fortress, and called it Masada: after which the rebuilding
+of this place employed the care of king Herod to a great degree; he
+also built a wall round about the entire top of the hill, seven furlongs
+long; it was composed of white stone; its height was twelve, and
+its breadth eight cubits; there were also erected upon that wall
+thirty-eight towers, each of them fifty cubits high; out of which you
+might pass into lesser edifices, which were built on the inside, round
+the entire wall; for the king reserved the top of the hill, which was of
+a fat soil, and better mould than any valley for agriculture, that such
+as committed themselves to this fortress for their preservation might
+not even there be quite destitute of food, in case they should ever be
+in want of it from abroad. Moreover, he built a palace therein at the
+western ascent; it was within and beneath the walls of the citadel, but
+inclined to its north side. Now the wall of this palace was very high
+and strong, and had at its four corners towers sixty cubits high. The
+furniture also of the edifices, and of the cloisters, and of the
+baths, was of great variety, and very costly; and these buildings were
+supported by pillars of single stones on every side; the walls and also
+the floors of the edifices were paved with stones of several colors. He
+also had cut many and great pits, as reservoirs for water, out of the
+rocks, at every one of the places that were inhabited, both above and
+round about the palace, and before the wall; and by this contrivance
+he endeavored to have water for several uses, as if there had been
+fountains there. Here was also a road digged from the palace, and
+leading to the very top of the mountain, which yet could not be seen by
+such as were without [the walls]; nor indeed could enemies easily
+make use of the plain roads; for the road on the east side, as we have
+already taken notice, could not be walked upon, by reason of its nature;
+and for the western road, he built a large tower at its narrowest place,
+at no less a distance from the top of the hill than a thousand cubits;
+which tower could not possibly be passed by, nor could it be easily
+taken; nor indeed could those that walked along it without any fear
+[such was its contrivance] easily get to the end of it; and after such
+a manner was this citadel fortified, both by nature and by the hands of
+men, in order to frustrate the attacks of enemies.
+
+4. As for the furniture that was within this fortress, it was still more
+wonderful on account of its splendor and long continuance; for here was
+laid up corn in large quantities, and such as would subsist men for a
+long time; here was also wine and oil in abundance, with all kinds of
+pulse and dates heaped up together; all which Eleazar found there, when
+he and his Sicarii got possession of the fortress by treachery. These
+fruits were also fresh and full ripe, and no way inferior to such fruits
+newly laid in, although they were little short of a hundred years 14
+from the laying in these provisions [by Herod], till the place was taken
+by the Romans; nay, indeed, when the Romans got possession of those
+fruits that were left, they found them not corrupted all that while; nor
+should we be mistaken, if we supposed that the air was here the cause
+of their enduring so long; this fortress being so high, and so free from
+the mixture of all terrain and muddy particles of matter. There was also
+found here a large quantity of all sorts of weapons of war, which had
+been treasured up by that king, and were sufficient for ten thousand
+men; there was cast iron, and brass, and tin, which show that he
+had taken much pains to have all things here ready for the greatest
+occasions; for the report goes how Herod thus prepared this fortress on
+his own account, as a refuge against two kinds of danger; the one for
+fear of the multitude of the Jews, lest they should depose him, and
+restore their former kings to the government; the other danger was
+greater and more terrible, which arose from Cleopatra queen of Egypt,
+who did not conceal her intentions, but spoke often to Antony, and
+desired him to cut off Herod, and entreated him to bestow the kingdom of
+Judea upon her. And certainly it is a great wonder that Antony did never
+comply with her commands in this point, as he was so miserably enslaved
+to his passion for her; nor should any one have been surprised if she
+had been gratified in such her request. So the fear of these dangers
+made Herod rebuild Masada, and thereby leave it for the finishing stroke
+of the Romans in this Jewish war.
+
+5. Since therefore the Roman commander Silva had now built a wall on the
+outside, round about this whole place, as we have said already, and
+had thereby made a most accurate provision to prevent any one of the
+besieged running away, he undertook the siege itself, though he found
+but one single place that would admit of the banks he was to raise; for
+behind that tower which secured the road that led to the palace, and to
+the top of the hill from the west; there was a certain eminency of the
+rock, very broad and very prominent, but three hundred cubits beneath
+the highest part of Masada; it was called the White Promontory.
+Accordingly, he got upon that part of the rock, and ordered the army
+to bring earth; and when they fell to that work with alacrity, and
+abundance of them together, the bank was raised, and became solid for
+two hundred cubits in height. Yet was not this bank thought sufficiently
+high for the use of the engines that were to be set upon it; but still
+another elevated work of great stones compacted together was raised upon
+that bank; this was fifty cubits, both in breadth and height. The other
+machines that were now got ready were like to those that had been first
+devised by Vespasian, and afterwards by Titus, for sieges. There was
+also a tower made of the height of sixty cubits, and all over plated
+with iron, out of which the Romans threw darts and stones from the
+engines, and soon made those that fought from the walls of the place to
+retire, and would not let them lift up their heads above the works. At
+the same time Silva ordered that great battering ram which he had made
+to be brought thither, and to be set against the wall, and to make
+frequent batteries against it, which with some difficulty broke down
+a part of the wall, and quite overthrew it. However, the Sicarii made
+haste, and presently built another wall within that, which should not be
+liable to the same misfortune from the machines with the other; it was
+made soft and yielding, and so was capable of avoiding the terrible
+blows that affected the other. It was framed after the following manner:
+They laid together great beams of wood lengthways, one close to the end
+of another, and the same way in which they were cut: there were two of
+these rows parallel to one another, and laid at such a distance from
+each other as the breadth of the wall required, and earth was put into
+the space between those rows. Now, that the earth might not fall away
+upon the elevation of this bank to a greater height, they further laid
+other beams over cross them, and thereby bound those beams together that
+lay lengthways. This work of theirs was like a real edifice; and when
+the machines were applied, the blows were weakened by its yielding; and
+as the materials by such concussion were shaken closer together, the
+pile by that means became firmer than before. When Silva saw this, he
+thought it best to endeavor the taking of this wall by setting fire to
+it; so he gave order that the soldiers should throw a great number of
+burning torches upon it: accordingly, as it was chiefly made of wood,
+it soon took fire; and when it was once set on fire, its hollowness made
+that fire spread to a mighty flame. Now, at the very beginning of this
+fire, a north wind that then blew proved terrible to the Romans; for by
+bringing the flame downward, it drove it upon them, and they were almost
+in despair of success, as fearing their machines would be burnt: but
+after this, on a sudden the wind changed into the south, as if it were
+done by Divine Providence, and blew strongly the contrary way, and
+carried the flame, and drove it against the wall, which was now on fire
+through its entire thickness. So the Romans, having now assistance
+from God, returned to their camp with joy, and resolved to attack their
+enemies the very next day; on which occasion they set their watch more
+carefully that night, lest any of the Jews should run away from them
+without being discovered.
+
+6. However, neither did Eleazar once think of flying away, nor would he
+permit any one else to do so; but when he saw their wall burned down by
+the fire, and could devise no other way of escaping, or room for their
+further courage, and setting before their eyes what the Romans would do
+to them, their children, and their wives, if they got them into their
+power, he consulted about having them all slain. Now as he judged this
+to be the best thing they could do in their present circumstances, he
+gathered the most courageous of his companions together, and encouraged
+them to take that course by a speech 15 which he made to them in the
+manner following: "Since we, long ago, my generous friends, resolved
+never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than to God
+himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is now
+come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice. And
+let us not at this time bring a reproach upon ourselves for
+self-contradiction, while we formerly would not undergo slavery, though
+it were then without danger, but must now, together with slavery,
+choose such punishments also as are intolerable; I mean this, upon the
+supposition that the Romans once reduce us under their power while we
+are alive. We were the very first that revolted from them, and we are
+the last that fight against them; and I cannot but esteem it as a favor
+that God hath granted us, that it is still in our power to die bravely,
+and in a state of freedom, which hath not been the case of others, who
+were conquered unexpectedly. It is very plain that we shall be taken
+within a day's time; but it is still an eligible thing to die after a
+glorious manner, together with our dearest friends. This is what our
+enemies themselves cannot by any means hinder, although they be very
+desirous to take us alive. Nor can we propose to ourselves any more
+to fight them, and beat them. It had been proper indeed for us to have
+conjectured at the purpose of God much sooner, and at the very first,
+when we were so desirous of defending our liberty, and when we received
+such sore treatment from one another, and worse treatment from our
+enemies, and to have been sensible that the same God, who had of old
+taken the Jewish nation into his favor, had now condemned them to
+destruction; for had he either continued favorable, or been but in a
+lesser degree displeased with us, he had not overlooked the destruction
+of so many men, or delivered his most holy city to be burnt and
+demolished by our enemies. To be sure we weakly hoped to have preserved
+ourselves, and ourselves alone, still in a state of freedom, as if we
+had been guilty of no sins ourselves against God, nor been partners with
+those of others; we also taught other men to preserve their liberty.
+Wherefore, consider how God hath convinced us that our hopes were in
+vain, by bringing such distress upon us in the desperate state we are
+now in, and which is beyond all our expectations; for the nature of this
+fortress which was in itself unconquerable, hath not proved a means of
+our deliverance; and even while we have still great abundance of food,
+and a great quantity of arms, and other necessaries more than we want,
+we are openly deprived by God himself of all hope of deliverance; for
+that fire which was driven upon our enemies did not of its own accord
+turn back upon the wall which we had built; this was the effect of God's
+anger against us for our manifold sins, which we have been guilty of
+in a most insolent and extravagant manner with regard to our own
+countrymen; the punishments of which let us not receive from the Romans,
+but from God himself, as executed by our own hands; for these will be
+more moderate than the other. Let our wives die before they are abused,
+and our children before they have tasted of slavery; and after we
+have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another
+mutually, and preserve ourselves in freedom, as an excellent funeral
+monument for us. But first let us destroy our money and the fortress
+by fire; for I am well assured that this will be a great grief to the
+Romans, that they shall not be able to seize upon our bodies, and shall
+fail of our wealth also; and let us spare nothing but our provisions;
+for they will be a testimonial when we are dead that we were not subdued
+for want of necessaries, but that, according to our original resolution,
+we have preferred death before slavery."
+
+7. This was Eleazar's speech to them. Yet did not the opinions of all
+the auditors acquiesce therein; but although some of them were very
+zealous to put his advice in practice, and were in a manner filled with
+pleasure at it, and thought death to be a good thing, yet had those that
+were most effeminate a commiseration for their wives and families;
+and when these men were especially moved by the prospect of their own
+certain death, they looked wistfully at one another, and by the tears
+that were in their eyes declared their dissent from his opinion.
+When Eleazar saw these people in such fear, and that their souls were
+dejected at so prodigious a proposal, he was afraid lest perhaps these
+effeminate persons should, by their lamentations and tears, enfeeble
+those that heard what he had said courageously; so he did not leave
+off exhorting them, but stirred up himself, and recollecting proper
+arguments for raising their courage, he undertook to speak more briskly
+and fully to them, and that concerning the immortality of the soul. So
+he made a lamentable groan, and fixing his eyes intently on those that
+wept, he spake thus: "Truly, I was greatly mistaken when I thought to be
+assisting to brave men who struggled hard for their liberty, and to such
+as were resolved either to live with honor, or else to die; but I find
+that you are such people as are no better than others, either in virtue
+or in courage, and are afraid of dying, though you be delivered thereby
+from the greatest miseries, while you ought to make no delay in this
+matter, nor to await any one to give you good advice; for the laws of
+our country, and of God himself, have from ancient times, and as soon as
+ever we could use our reason, continually taught us, and our forefathers
+have corroborated the same doctrine by their actions, and by their
+bravery of mind, that it is life that is a calamity to men, and not
+death; for this last affords our souls their liberty, and sends them
+by a removal into their own place of purity, where they are to be
+insensible of all sorts of misery; for while souls are tied down to a
+mortal body, they are partakers of its miseries; and really, to speak
+the truth, they are themselves dead; for the union of what is divine
+to what is mortal is disagreeable. It is true, the power of the soul
+is great, even when it is imprisoned in a mortal body; for by moving it
+after a way that is invisible, it makes the body a sensible instrument,
+and causes it to advance further in its actions than mortal nature could
+otherwise do. However, when it is freed from that weight which draws it
+down to the earth and is connected with it, it obtains its own proper
+place, and does then become a partaker of that blessed power, and those
+abilities, which are then every way incapable of being hindered in their
+operations. It continues invisible, indeed, to the eyes of men, as does
+God himself; for certainly it is not itself seen while it is in the
+body; for it is there after an invisible manner, and when it is freed
+from it, it is still not seen. It is this soul which hath one nature,
+and that an incorruptible one also; but yet it is the cause of the
+change that is made in the body; for whatsoever it be which the soul
+touches, that lives and flourishes; and from whatsoever it is removed,
+that withers away and dies; such a degree is there in it of immortality.
+Let me produce the state of sleep as a most evident demonstration of
+the truth of what I say; wherein souls, when the body does not distract
+them, have the sweetest rest depending on themselves, and conversing
+with God, by their alliance to him; they then go every where, and
+foretell many futurities beforehand. And why are we afraid of death,
+while we are pleased with the rest that we have in sleep? And how absurd
+a thing is it to pursue after liberty while we are alive, and yet to
+envy it to ourselves where it will be eternal! We, therefore, who have
+been brought up in a discipline of our own, ought to become an example
+to others of our readiness to die. Yet, if we do stand in need of
+foreigners to support us in this matter, let us regard those Indians
+who profess the exercise of philosophy; for these good men do but
+unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon it as a necessary
+servitude, and make haste to let their souls loose from their bodies;
+nay, when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them upon it,
+these have such a desire of a life of immortality, that they tell other
+men beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders them,
+but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be
+carried to their familiar friends [that are dead], so firmly and
+certainly do they believe that souls converse with one another [in the
+other world]. So when these men have heard all such commands that were
+to be given them, they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order
+to their getting their soul a separation from the body in the greatest
+purity, they die in the midst of hymns of commendations made to them;
+for their dearest friends conduct them to their death more readily than
+do any of the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they
+are going a very long journey, who at the same time weep on their own
+account, but look upon the others as happy persons, as so soon to be
+made partakers of the immortal order of beings. Are not we, therefore,
+ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians? and by our own cowardice
+to lay a base reproach upon the laws of our country, which are so much
+desired and imitated by all mankind? But put the case that we had
+been brought up under another persuasion, and taught that life is the
+greatest good which men are capable of, and that death is a calamity;
+however, the circumstances we are now in ought to be an inducement to us
+to bear such calamity courageously, since it is by the will of God, and
+by necessity, that we are to die; for it now appears that God hath
+made such a decree against the whole Jewish nation, that we are to be
+deprived of this life which [he knew] we would not make a due use
+of. For do not you ascribe the occasion of our present condition to
+yourselves, nor think the Romans are the true occasion that this war we
+have had with them is become so destructive to us all: these things
+have not come to pass by their power, but a more powerful cause hath
+intervened, and made us afford them an occasion of their appearing to be
+conquerors over us. What Roman weapons, I pray you, were those by which
+the Jews at Cesarea were slain? On the contrary, when they were no way
+disposed to rebel, but were all the while keeping their seventh day
+festival, and did not so much as lift up their hands against the
+citizens of Cesarea, yet did those citizens run upon them in great
+crowds, and cut their throats, and the throats of their wives and
+children, and this without any regard to the Romans themselves, who
+never took us for their enemies till we revolted from them. But some may
+be ready to say, that truly the people of Cesarea had always a quarrel
+against those that lived among them, and that when an opportunity
+offered itself, they only satisfied the old rancor they had against
+them. What then shall we say to those of Scythopolis, who ventured to
+wage war with us on account of the Greeks? Nor did they do it by way of
+revenge upon the Romans, when they acted in concert with our countrymen.
+Wherefore you see how little our good-will and fidelity to them profited
+us, while they were slain, they and their whole families, after the most
+inhuman manner, which was all the requital that was made them for the
+assistance they had afforded the others; for that very same destruction
+which they had prevented from falling upon the others did they suffer
+themselves from them, as if they had been ready to be the actors
+against them. It would be too long for me to speak at this time of every
+destruction brought upon us; for you cannot but know that there was not
+any one Syrian city which did not slay their Jewish inhabitants, and
+were not more bitter enemies to us than were the Romans themselves; nay,
+even those of Damascus, 16 when they were able to allege no tolerable
+pretense against us, filled their city with the most barbarous
+slaughters of our people, and cut the throats of eighteen thousand Jews,
+with their wives and children. And as to the multitude of those that
+were slain in Egypt, and that with torments also, we have been informed
+they were more than sixty thousand; those indeed being in a foreign
+country, and so naturally meeting with nothing to oppose against their
+enemies, were killed in the manner forementioned. As for all those of
+us who have waged war against the Romans in our own country, had we not
+sufficient reason to have sure hopes of victory? For we had arms, and
+walls, and fortresses so prepared as not to be easily taken, and courage
+not to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty, which encouraged
+us all to revolt from the Romans. But then these advantages sufficed
+us but for a short time, and only raised our hopes, while they really
+appeared to be the origin of our miseries; for all we had hath been
+taken from us, and all hath fallen under our enemies, as if these
+advantages were only to render their victory over us the more glorious,
+and were not disposed for the preservation of those by whom these
+preparations were made. And as for those that are already dead in the
+war, it is reasonable we should esteem them blessed, for they are
+dead in defending, and not in betraying their liberty; but as to the
+multitude of those that are now under the Romans, who would not pity
+their condition? and who would not make haste to die, before he would
+suffer the same miseries with them? Some of them have been put upon the
+rack, and tortured with fire and whippings, and so died. Some have been
+half devoured by wild beasts, and yet have been reserved alive to be
+devoured by them a second time, in order to afford laughter and sport to
+our enemies; and such of those as are alive still are to be looked on as
+the most miserable, who, being so desirous of death, could not come
+at it. And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish
+nation, which was fortified by so many walls round about, which had
+so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could hardly
+contain the instruments prepared for the war, and which had so many ten
+thousands of men to fight for it? Where is this city that was believed
+to have God himself inhabiting therein? It is now demolished to the very
+foundations, and hath nothing but that monument of it preserved, I mean
+the camp of those that hath destroyed it, which still dwells upon its
+ruins; some unfortunate old men also lie upon the ashes of the temple,
+and a few women are there preserved alive by the enemy, for our bitter
+shame and reproach. Now who is there that revolves these things in his
+mind, and yet is able to bear the sight of the sun, though he might live
+out of danger? Who is there so much his country's enemy, or so unmanly,
+and so desirous of living, as not to repent that he is still alive? And
+I cannot but wish that we had all died before we had seen that holy city
+demolished by the hands of our enemies, or the foundations of our holy
+temple dug up after so profane a manner. But since we had a generous
+hope that deluded us, as if we might perhaps have been able to avenge
+ourselves on our enemies on that account, though it be now become
+vanity, and hath left us alone in this distress, let us make haste to
+die bravely. Let us pity ourselves, our children, and our wives while it
+is in our own power to show pity to them; for we were born to die, 17 as
+well as those were whom we have begotten; nor is it in the power of the
+most happy of our race to avoid it. But for abuses, and slavery, and
+the sight of our wives led away after an ignominious manner, with their
+children, these are not such evils as are natural and necessary among
+men; although such as do not prefer death before those miseries, when it
+is in their power so to do, must undergo even them, on account of their
+own cowardice. We revolted from the Romans with great pretensions
+to courage; and when, at the very last, they invited us to preserve
+ourselves, we would not comply with them. Who will not, therefore,
+believe that they will certainly be in a rage at us, in case they can
+take us alive? Miserable will then be the young men who will be strong
+enough in their bodies to sustain many torments! miserable also will
+be those of elder years, who will not be able to bear those calamities
+which young men might sustain! One man will be obliged to hear the voice
+of his son implore help of his father, when his hands are bound. But
+certainly our hands are still at liberty, and have a sword in them; let
+them then be subservient to us in our glorious design; let us die before
+we become slaves under our enemies, and let us go out of the world,
+together with our children and our wives, in a state of freedom. This
+it is that our laws command us to do; this it is that our wives
+and children crave at our hands; nay, God himself hath brought this
+necessity upon us; while the Romans desire the contrary, and are afraid
+lest any of us should die before we are taken. Let us therefore make
+haste, and instead of affording them so much pleasure, as they hope
+for in getting us under their power, let us leave them an example
+which shall at once cause their astonishment at our death, and their
+admiration of our hardiness therein."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+
+     How The People That Were In The Fortress Were Prevailed On
+     By The Words Of Eleazar, Two Women And Five Children Only
+     Excepted And All Submitted To Be Killed By One Another.
+
+1. Now as Eleazar was proceeding on in this exhortation, they all
+cut him off short, and made haste to do the work, as full of an
+unconquerable ardor of mind, and moved with a demoniacal fury. So they
+went their ways, as one still endeavoring to be before another, and as
+thinking that this eagerness would be a demonstration of their courage
+and good conduct, if they could avoid appearing in the last class; so
+great was the zeal they were in to slay their wives and children, and
+themselves also! Nor indeed, when they came to the work itself, did
+their courage fail them, as one might imagine it would have done, but
+they then held fast the same resolution, without wavering, which they
+had upon the hearing of Eleazar's speech, while yet every one of them
+still retained the natural passion of love to themselves and their
+families, because the reasoning they went upon appeared to them to be
+very just, even with regard to those that were dearest to them; for the
+husbands tenderly embraced their wives, and took their children into
+their arms, and gave the longest parting kisses to them, with tears
+in their eyes. Yet at the same time did they complete what they had
+resolved on, as if they had been executed by the hands of strangers; and
+they had nothing else for their comfort but the necessity they were in
+of doing this execution, to avoid that prospect they had of the miseries
+they were to suffer from their enemies. Nor was there at length any
+one of these men found that scrupled to act their part in this terrible
+execution, but every one of them despatched his dearest relations.
+Miserable men indeed were they! whose distress forced them to slay their
+own wives and children with their own hands, as the lightest of those
+evils that were before them. So they being not able to bear the grief
+they were under for what they had done any longer, and esteeming it an
+injury to those they had slain, to live even the shortest space of time
+after them, they presently laid all they had upon a heap, and set fire
+to it. They then chose ten men by lot out of them to slay all the rest;
+every one of whom laid himself down by his wife and children on the
+ground, and threw his arms about them, and they offered their necks to
+the stroke of those who by lot executed that melancholy office; and when
+these ten had, without fear, slain them all, they made the same rule for
+casting lots for themselves, that he whose lot it was should first kill
+the other nine, and after all should kill himself. Accordingly, all
+these had courage sufficient to be no way behind one another in doing
+or suffering; so, for a conclusion, the nine offered their necks to the
+executioner, and he who was the last of all took a view of all the
+other bodies, lest perchance some or other among so many that were slain
+should want his assistance to be quite despatched, and when he perceived
+that they were all slain, he set fire to the palace, and with the great
+force of his hand ran his sword entirely through himself, and fell
+down dead near to his own relations. So these people died with this
+intention, that they would not leave so much as one soul among them all
+alive to be subject to the Romans. Yet was there an ancient woman,
+and another who was of kin to Eleazar, and superior to most women in
+prudence and learning, with five children, who had concealed themselves
+in caverns under ground, and had carried water thither for their drink,
+and were hidden there when the rest were intent upon the slaughter of
+one another. Those others were nine hundred and sixty in number, the
+women and children being withal included in that computation. This
+calamitous slaughter was made on the fifteenth day of the month
+Xanthicus [Nisan].
+
+2. Now for the Romans, they expected that they should be fought in the
+morning, when, accordingly, they put on their armor, and laid bridges of
+planks upon their ladders from their banks, to make an assault upon the
+fortress, which they did; but saw nobody as an enemy, but a terrible
+solitude on every side, with a fire within the place, as well as a
+perfect silence. So they were at a loss to guess at what had happened.
+At length they made a shout, as if it had been at a blow given by the
+battering ram, to try whether they could bring any one out that was
+within; the women heard this noise, and came out of their under-ground
+cavern, and informed the Romans what had been done, as it was done; and
+the second of them clearly described all both what was said and what
+was done, and this manner of it; yet did they not easily give their
+attention to such a desperate undertaking, and did not believe it could
+be as they said; they also attempted to put the fire out, and quickly
+cutting themselves a way through it, they came within the palace, and so
+met with the multitude of the slain, but could take no pleasure in the
+fact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could they do other than
+wonder at the courage of their resolution, and the immovable contempt of
+death which so great a number of them had shown, when they went through
+with such an action as that was.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+
+     That Many Of The Sicarii Fled To Alexandria Also And What
+     Dangers They Were In There; On Which Account That Temple
+     Which Had Formerly Been Built By Onias The High Priest Was
+     Destroyed.
+
+1. When Masada was thus taken, the general left a garrison in the
+fortress to keep it, and he himself went away to Cesarea; for there were
+now no enemies left in the country, but it was all overthrown by so long
+a war. Yet did this war afford disturbances and dangerous disorders even
+in places very far remote from Judea; for still it came to pass that
+many Jews were slain at Alexandria in Egypt; for as many of the Sicarii
+as were able to fly thither, out of the seditious wars in Judea, were
+not content to have saved themselves, but must needs be undertaking to
+make new disturbances, and persuaded many of those that entertained
+them to assert their liberty, to esteem the Romans to be no better than
+themselves, and to look upon God as their only Lord and Master. But when
+part of the Jews of reputation opposed them, they slew some of them, and
+with the others they were very pressing in their exhortations to revolt
+from the Romans; but when the principal men of the senate saw what
+madness they were come to, they thought it no longer safe for themselves
+to overlook them. So they got all the Jews together to an assembly, and
+accused the madness of the Sicarii, and demonstrated that they had been
+the authors of all the evils that had come upon them. They said also
+that "these men, now they were run away from Judea, having no sure hope
+of escaping, because as soon as ever they shall be known, they will be
+soon destroyed by the Romans, they come hither and fill us full of those
+calamities which belong to them, while we have not been partakers with
+them in any of their sins." Accordingly, they exhorted the multitude to
+have a care, lest they should be brought to destruction by their means,
+and to make their apology to the Romans for what had been done,
+by delivering these men up to them; who being thus apprized of the
+greatness of the danger they were in, complied with what was proposed,
+and ran with great violence upon the Sicarii, and seized upon them; and
+indeed six hundred of them were caught immediately: but as to all those
+that fled into Egypt 18 and to the Egyptian Thebes, it was not long ere
+they were caught also, and brought back, whose courage, or whether we
+ought to call it madness, or hardiness in their opinions, every body was
+amazed at. For when all sorts of torments and vexations of their bodies
+that could be devised were made use of to them, they could not get any
+one of them to comply so far as to confess, or seem to confess, that
+Caesar was their lord; but they preserved their own opinion, in spite
+of all the distress they were brought to, as if they received these
+torments and the fire itself with bodies insensible of pain, and with
+a soul that in a manner rejoiced under them. But what was most of all
+astonishing to the beholders was the courage of the children; for not
+one of these children was so far overcome by these torments, as to name
+Caesar for their lord. So far does the strength of the courage [of the
+soul] prevail over the weakness of the body.
+
+2. Now Lupus did then govern Alexandria, who presently sent Caesar word
+of this commotion; who having in suspicion the restless temper of the
+Jews for innovation, and being afraid lest they should get together
+again, and persuade some others to join with them, gave orders to Lupus
+to demolish that Jewish temple which was in the region called Onion,
+19 and was in Egypt, which was built and had its denomination from the
+occasion following: Onias, the son of Simon, one of the Jewish high
+priests fled from Antiochus the king of Syria, when he made war with the
+Jews, and came to Alexandria; and as Ptolemy received him very kindly,
+on account of hatred to Antiochus, he assured him, that if he would
+comply with his proposal, he would bring all the Jews to his assistance;
+and when the king agreed to do it so far as he was able, he desired him
+to give him leave to build a temple some where in Egypt, and to worship
+God according to the customs of his own country; for that the Jews would
+then be so much readier to fight against Antiochus who had laid waste
+the temple at Jerusalem, and that they would then come to him with
+greater good-will; and that, by granting them liberty of conscience,
+very many of them would come over to him.
+
+3. So Ptolemy complied with his proposals, and gave him a place one
+hundred and eighty furlongs distant from Memphis. 20 That Nomos was
+called the Nomos of Hellopolis, where Onias built a fortress and a
+temple, not like to that at Jerusalem, but such as resembled a tower.
+He built it of large stones to the height of sixty cubits; he made the
+structure of the altar in imitation of that in our own country, and in
+like manner adorned with gifts, excepting the make of the candlestick,
+for he did not make a candlestick, but had a [single] lamp hammered out
+of a piece of gold, which illuminated the place with its rays, and which
+he hung by a chain of gold; but the entire temple was encompassed with
+a wall of burnt brick, though it had gates of stone. The king also gave
+him a large country for a revenue in money, that both the priests might
+have a plentiful provision made for them, and that God might have great
+abundance of what things were necessary for his worship. Yet did not
+Onias do this out of a sober disposition, but he had a mind to contend
+with the Jews at Jerusalem, and could not forget the indignation he had
+for being banished thence. Accordingly, he thought that by building this
+temple he should draw away a great number from them to himself. There
+had been also a certain ancient prediction made by [a prophet] whose
+name was Isaiah, about six hundred years before, that this temple should
+be built by a man that was a Jew in Egypt. And this is the history of
+the building of that temple.
+
+4. And now Lupus, the governor of Alexandria, upon the receipt of
+Caesar's letter, came to the temple, and carried out of it some of the
+donations dedicated thereto, and shut up the temple itself. And as Lupus
+died a little afterward, Paulinus succeeded him. This man left none of
+those donations there, and threatened the priests severely if they
+did not bring them all out; nor did he permit any who were desirous of
+worshipping God there so much as to come near the whole sacred place;
+but when he had shut up the gates, he made it entirely inaccessible,
+insomuch that there remained no longer the least footsteps of any Divine
+worship that had been in that place. Now the duration of the time from
+the building of this temple till it was shut up again was three hundred
+and forty-three years.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11.
+
+
+     Concerning Jonathan, One Of The Sicarii, That Stirred Up A
+     Sedition In Cyrene, And Was A False Accuser [Of The
+     Innocent].
+
+1. And now did the madness of the Sicarii, like a disease, reach as far
+as the cities of Cyrene; for one Jonathan, a vile person, and by trade
+a weaver, came thither and prevailed with no small number of the
+poorer sort to give ear to him; he also led them into the desert, upon
+promising them that he would show them signs and apparitions. And as for
+the other Jews of Cyrene, he concealed his knavery from them, and put
+tricks upon them; but those of the greatest dignity among them informed
+Catullus, the governor of the Libyan Pentapolis, of his march into the
+desert, and of the preparations he had made for it. So he sent out after
+him both horsemen and footmen, and easily overcame them, because they
+were unarmed men; of these many were slain in the fight, but some were
+taken alive, and brought to Catullus. As for Jonathan, the head of this
+plot, he fled away at that time; but upon a great and very diligent
+search, which was made all the country over for him, he was at last
+taken. And when he was brought to Catullus, he devised a way whereby he
+both escaped punishment himself, and afforded an occasion to Catullus
+of doing much mischief; for he falsely accused the richest men among the
+Jews, and said that they had put him upon what he did.
+
+2. Now Catullus easily admitted of these his calumnies, and aggravated
+matters greatly, and made tragical exclamations, that he might also be
+supposed to have had a hand in the finishing of the Jewish war. But what
+was still harder, he did not only give a too easy belief to his stories,
+but he taught the Sicarii to accuse men falsely. He bid this Jonathan,
+therefore, to name one Alexander, a Jew [with whom he had formerly had
+a quarrel, and openly professed that he hated him]; he also got him to
+name his wife Bernice, as concerned with him. These two Catullus ordered
+to be slain in the first place; nay, after them he caused all the rich
+and wealthy Jews to be slain, being no fewer in all than three thousand.
+This he thought he might do safely, because he confiscated their
+effects, and added them to Caesar's revenues.
+
+3. Nay, indeed, lest any Jews that lived elsewhere should convict him of
+his villainy, he extended his false accusations further, and persuaded
+Jonathan, and certain others that were caught with him, to bring an
+accusation of attempts for innovation against the Jews that were of the
+best character both at Alexandria and at Rome. One of these, against
+whom this treacherous accusation was laid, was Josephus, the writer of
+these books. However, this plot, thus contrived by Catullus, did not
+succeed according to his hopes; for though he came himself to Rome, and
+brought Jonathan and his companions along with him in bonds, and thought
+he should have had no further inquisition made as to those lies that
+were forged under his government, or by his means; yet did Vespasian
+suspect the matter and made an inquiry how far it was true. And when he
+understood that the accusation laid against the Jews was an unjust one,
+he cleared them of the crimes charged upon them, and this on account of
+Titus's concern about the matter, and brought a deserved punishment upon
+Jonathan; for he was first tormented, and then burnt alive.
+
+4. But as to Catullus, the emperors were so gentle to him, that he
+underwent no severe condemnation at this time; yet was it not long
+before he fell into a complicated and almost incurable distemper, and
+died miserably. He was not only afflicted in body, but the distemper
+in his mind was more heavy upon him than the other; for he was terribly
+disturbed, and continually cried out that he saw the ghosts of those
+whom he had slain standing before him. Where upon he was not able to
+contain himself, but leaped out of his bed, as if both torments and fire
+were brought to him. This his distemper grew still a great deal worse
+and worse continually, and his very entrails were so corroded, that they
+fell out of his body, and in that condition he died. Thus he became as
+great an instance of Divine Providence as ever was, and demonstrated
+that God punishes wicked men.
+
+5. And here we shall put an end to this our history; wherein we formerly
+promised to deliver the same with all accuracy, to such as should be
+desirous of understanding after what manner this war of the Romans with
+the Jews was managed. Of which history, how good the style is, must be
+left to the determination of the readers; but as for its agreement with
+the facts, I shall not scruple to say, and that boldly, that truth hath
+been what I have alone aimed at through its entire composition.
+
+WAR BOOK 7 FOOTNOTES 2 (return) [ This Tereutius Rufus, as Reland in
+part observes here, is the same person whom the Talmudists call Turnus
+Rufus; of whom they relate, that "he ploughed up Sion as a field, and
+made Jerusalem become as heaps, and the mountain of the house as the
+high Idaces of a forest;" which was long before foretold by the prophet
+Micah, ch. 3:12, and quoted from him in the prophecies of Jeremiah, ch.
+26:18.]
+
+
+3 (return) [ See Ecclesiastes 8:11.]
+
+
+4 (return) [ This Berytus was certainly a Roman colony, and has coins
+extant that witness the same, as Hudson and Spanheim inform us. See the
+note on Antiq. B. XVI: ch. 11. sect. 1.]
+
+
+5 (return) [ The Jews at Antioch and Alexandria, the two principal
+cities in all the East, had allowed them, both by the Macedonians, and
+afterwards by the Romans, a governor of their own, who was exempt from
+the jurisdiction of the other civil governors. He was called sometimes
+barely "governor," sometimes "ethnarch," and [at Alexandria] "alabarch,"
+as Dr. Hudson takes notice on this place out of Fuller's Miscellanies.
+They had the like governor or governors allowed them at Babylon under
+their captivity there, as the history of Susanna implies.]
+
+
+6 (return) [ This Classicus, and Civilis, and Cerealis are names well
+known in Tacitus; the two former as moving sedition against the Romans,
+and the last as sent to repress them by Vespasian, just as they are here
+described in Josephus; which is the case also of Fontellis Agrippa
+and Rubrius Gallup, i, sect. 3. But as to the very favorable account
+presently given of Domitian, particularly as to his designs in this his
+Gallic and German expedition, it is not a little contrary to that in
+Suetonius, Vesp. sect. 7. Nor are the reasons unobvious that might
+occasion this great diversity: Domitian was one of Josephus's patrons,
+and when he published these books of the Jewish war, was very young, and
+had hardly begun those wicked practices which rendered him so infamous
+afterward; while Suetonius seems to have been too young, and too low
+in life, to receive any remarkable favors from him; as Domitian was
+certainly very lewd and cruel, and generally hated, when Suetonius wrote
+about him.]
+
+
+7 (return) [ Since in these latter ages this Sabbatic River, once so
+famous, which, by Josephus's account here, ran every seventh day,
+and rested on six, but according to Pliny, Nat. Hist. 31. II, ran
+perpetually on six days, and rested every seventh, [though it no way
+appears by either of their accounts that the seventh day of this river
+was the Jewish seventh day or sabbath,] is quite vanished, I shall add
+no more about it: only see Dr. Hudson's note. In Varenius's Geography,
+i, 17, the reader will find several instances of such periodical
+fountains and rivers, though none of their periods were that of a just
+week as of old this appears to have been.]
+
+
+8 (return) [ Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian.]
+
+
+9 (return) [ See the representations of these Jewish vessels as they
+still stand on Titus's triumphal arch at Rome, in Reland's very curious
+book de Spoliis Ternpli, throughout. But what, things are chiefly to be
+noted are these: [1.] That Josephus says the candlestick here carried in
+this triumph was not thoroughly like that which was used in the temple,
+which appears in the number of the little knobs and flowers in that on
+the triumphal arch not well agreeing with Moses's description, Exodus
+25:31-36. [2.] The smallness of the branches in Josephus compared with
+the thickness of those on that arch. [3.] That the Law or Pentateuch
+does not appear on that arch at all, though Josephus, an eye-witness,
+assures us that it was carried in this procession. All which things
+deserve the consideration of the inquisitive reader.]
+
+
+10 (return) [ Spanheim observes here, that in Graceia Major and
+Sicily they had rue prodigiously great and durable, like this rue at
+Machaerus.]
+
+
+11 (return) [ This strange account of the place and root Baaras seems to
+have been taken from the magicians, and the root to have been made use
+of in the days of Josephus, in that superstitious way of casting out
+demons, supposed by him to have been derived from king Solomon; of which
+we have already seen he had a great opinion, Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 2.
+sect. 5. We also may hence learn the true notion Josephus had of demons
+and demoniacs, exactly like that of the Jews and Christians in the New
+Testament, and the first four centuries. See Antiq. B. I. ch. 8. sect.
+2; B. XI, ch. 2. sect. 3.]
+
+
+12 (return) [ It is very remarkable that Titus did not people this now
+desolate country of Judea, but ordered it to be all sold; nor indeed is
+it properly peopled at this day, but lies ready for its old inhabitants
+the Jews, at their future restoration. See Literal Accomplishment of
+Prophecies, p. 77.]
+
+
+13 (return) [ That the city Emmaus, or Areindus, in Josephus and others
+which was the place of the government of Julius Africanus were slain,
+to the number of one thousand seven hundred, as were the women and the
+children made slaves. But as Bassus thought he must perform the covenant
+he had made with those that had surrendered the citadel, he let them go,
+and restored Eleazar to them, in the beginning of the third century, and
+which he then procured to be rebuilt, and after which rebuilding it
+was called Nicopolis, is entirely different from that Emmaus which is
+mentioned by St. Luke 24;13; see Reland's Paleestina, lib. II. p. 429,
+and under the name Ammaus also. But he justly thinks that that in St.
+Luke may well be the same with his Ammaus before us, especially since
+the Greek copies here usually make it sixty furlongs distant from
+Jerusalem, as does St. Luke, though the Latin copies say only thirty.
+The place also allotted for these eight hundred soldiers, as for a Roman
+garrison, in this place, would most naturally be not so remote from
+Jerusalem as was the other Emmaus, or Nicopolis.]
+
+
+14 (return) [ Pliny and others confirm this strange paradox, that
+provisions laid up against sieges will continue good for a hundred
+years, as Spanheim notes upon this place.]
+
+
+15 (return) [ The speeches in this and the next section, as introduced
+under the person of this Eleazar, are exceeding remarkable, and of the
+noblest subjects, the contempt of death, and the dignity and immortality
+of the soul; and that not only among the Jews, but among the Indians
+themselves also; and are highly worthy the perusal of all the curious.
+It seems as if that philosophic lady who survived, ch. 9. sect. 1, 2,
+remembered the substance of these discourses, as spoken by Eleazar, and
+so Josephus clothed them in his own words: at the lowest they contain
+the Jewish notions on these heads, as understood then by our Josephus,
+and cannot but deserve a suitable regard from us.]
+
+
+16 (return) [ See B. II. ch. 20. sect. 2, where the number of the slain
+is but 10,000.]
+
+
+17 (return) [ Reland here sets down a parallel aphorism of one of
+the Jewish Rabbins, "We are born that we may die, and die that we may
+live."]
+
+
+18 (return) [ Since Josephus here informs us that some of these Sicarii,
+or ruffians, went from Alexandria [which was itself in Egypt, in a large
+sense] into Egypt, and Thebes there situated, Reland well observes, from
+Vossius, that Egypt sometimes denotes Proper or Upper Egypt, as distinct
+from the Delta, and the lower parts near Palestine. Accordingly, as he
+adds, those that say it never rains in Egypt must mean the Proper or
+Upper Egypt, because it does sometimes rain in the other parts. See the
+note on Antiq. B. II. ch. 7. sect. 7, and B. III. ch. 1. sect. 6.]
+
+
+19 (return) [ Of this temple of Onias's building in Egypt, see the notes
+on Antiq. B. XIII. ch. 3. sect. 1. But whereas it is elsewhere, both
+of the War, B. I. ch. 1. sect. 1, and in the Antiquities as now quoted,
+said that this temple was like to that at Jerusalem, and here that it
+was not like it, but like a tower, sect. 3, there is some reason to
+suspect the reading here, and that either the negative particle is here
+to be blotted out, or the word entirely added.]
+
+
+20 (return) [ We must observe, that Josephus here speaks of Antiochus
+who profaned the temple as now alive, when Onias had leave given them
+by Philometer to build his temple; whereas it seems not to have been
+actually built till about fifteen years afterwards. Yet, because it is
+said in the Antiquities that Onias went to Philometer, B. XII. ch.
+9. sect. 7, during the lifetime of that Antiochus, it is probable he
+petitioned, and perhaps obtained his leave then, though it were not
+actually built or finished till fifteen years afterward.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
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