THE WARS OF THE JEWS

OR HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM

By Flavius Josephus

Translated by William Whiston

PREFACE

1. [1] Whereas the war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been thegreatest of all those, not only that have been in our times, but, in amanner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein citieshave fought against cities, or nations against nations; while some menwho were not concerned in the affairs themselves have gotten togethervain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and have written them downafter a sophistical manner; and while those that were there presenthave given false accounts of things, and this either out of a humor offlattery to the Romans, or of hatred towards the Jews; and while theirwritings contain sometimes accusations, and sometimes encomiums, but nowhere the accurate truth of the facts; I have proposed to myself, for the sake of such as live under the government of the Romans, totranslate those books into the Greek tongue, which I formerly composedin 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 onewho at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to bepresent at what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work]. 

2. Now at the time when this great concussion of affairs happened, theaffairs of the Romans were themselves in great disorder. Those Jews alsowho were for innovations, then arose when the times were disturbed; theywere also in a flourishing condition for strength and riches, insomuchthat the affairs of the East were then exceeding tumultuous, while somehoped for gain, and others were afraid of loss in such troubles; for theJews hoped that all of their nation which were beyond Euphrates wouldhave raised an insurrection together with them. The Gauls also, in theneighborhood of the Romans, were in motion, and the Geltin werenot quiet; but all was in disorder after the death of Nero. And theopportunity now offered induced many to aim at the royal power; and thesoldiery affected change, out of the hopes of getting money. I thoughtit therefore an absurd thing to see the truth falsified in affairs ofsuch great consequence, and to take no notice of it; but to suffer thoseGreeks and Romans that were not in the wars to be ignorant of thesethings, and to read either flatteries or fictions, while the Parthians, and the Babylonians, and the remotest Arabians, and those of our nationbeyond Euphrates, with the Adiabeni, by my means, knew accurately bothwhence the war begun, what miseries it brought upon us, and after whatmanner it ended. 

3. It is true, these writers have the confidence to call their accountshistories; 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 todemonstrate the greatness of the Romans, while they still diminish andlessen the actions of the Jews, as not discerning how it cannot be thatthose must appear to be great who have only conquered those that werelittle. Nor are they ashamed to overlook the length of the war, themultitude of the Roman forces who so greatly suffered in it, or themight of the commanders, whose great labors about Jerusalem will bedeemed inglorious, if what they achieved be reckoned but a small matter. 

4. However, I will not go to the other extreme, out of opposition tothose men who extol the Romans nor will I determine to raise the actionsof my countrymen too high; but I will prosecute the actions of bothparties with accuracy. Yet shall I suit my language to the passions I amunder, as to the affairs I describe, and must be allowed to indulge somelamentations upon the miseries undergone by my own country. For that itwas a seditious temper of our own that destroyed it, and that they werethe tyrants among the Jews who brought the Roman power upon us, whounwillingly attacked us, and occasioned the burning of our holy temple, Titus Caesar, who destroyed it, is himself a witness, who, daring theentire war, pitied the people who were kept under by the seditious, anddid often voluntarily delay the taking of the city, and allowed time tothe siege, in order to let the authors have opportunity for repentance. But if any one makes an unjust accusation against us, when we speak sopassionately about the tyrants, or the robbers, or sorely bewail themisfortunes of our country, let him indulge my affections herein, thoughit be contrary to the rules for writing history; because it had socome to pass, that our city Jerusalem had arrived at a higher degree offelicity than any other city under the Roman government, and yet at lastfell into the sorest of calamities again. Accordingly, it appears tome 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 asthey were; while the authors of them were not foreigners neither. Thismakes it impossible for me to contain my lamentations. But if any one beinflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselvesto 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, uponthe comparison, quite eclipse the old wars, do yet sit as judges ofthose affairs, and pass bitter censures upon the labors of the bestwriters of antiquity; which moderns, although they may be superiorto the old writers in eloquence, yet are they inferior to them inthe execution of what they intended to do. While these also write newhistories about the Assyrians and Medes, as if the ancient writers hadnot described their affairs as they ought to have done; although thesebe as far inferior to them in abilities as they are different in theirnotions from them. For of old every one took upon them to write whathappened in his own time; where their immediate concern in the actionsmade their promises of value; and where it must be reproachful to writelies, when they must be known by the readers to be such. But then, an undertaking to preserve the memory Of what hath not been beforerecorded, and to represent the affairs of one's own time to those thatcome afterwards, is really worthy of praise and commendation. Now he isto be esteemed to have taken good pains in earnest, not who does no morethan change the disposition and order of other men's works, but hewho not only relates what had not been related before, but composes anentire body of history of his own: accordingly, I have been at greatcharges, and have taken very great pains [about this history], thoughI be a foreigner; and do dedicate this work, as a memorial of greatactions, both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians. But for some of ourown principal men, their mouths are wide open, and their tongues loosedpresently, for gain and law-suits, but quite muzzled up when they areto write history, where they must speak truth and gather facts togetherwith a great deal of pains; and so they leave the writing such historiesto weaker people, and to such as are not acquainted with the actions ofprinces. Yet shall the real truth of historical facts be preferred byus, 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 countrythey traveled over, and what countries they seized upon afterward, and how they were removed out of them, I think this not to be a fitopportunity, and, on other accounts, also superfluous; and this becausemany Jews before me have composed the histories of our ancestors veryexactly; as have some of the Greeks done it also, and have translatedour histories into their own tongue, and have not much mistaken thetruth in their histories. But then, where the writers of these affairsand our prophets leave off, thence shall I take my rise, and begin myhistory. 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, andwas then ejected out of the country by the sons of Asamoneus: afterthat, how their posterity quarreled about the government, and broughtupon their settlement the Romans and Pompey; how Herod also, the son ofAntipater, dissolved their government, and brought Sosins upon them; asalso how our people made a sedition upon Herod's death, while Augustuswas the Roman emperor, and Quintilius Varus was in that country; andhow the war broke out in the twelfth year of Nero, with what happened toCestius; and what places the Jews assaulted in a hostile manner in thefirst sallies of the war. 

8. As also [I shall relate] how they built walls about the neighboringcities; and how Nero, upon Cestius's defeat, was in fear of the entireevent of the war, and thereupon made Vespasian general in this war; andhow this Vespasian, with the elder of his sons [4] made an expeditioninto the country of Judea; what was the number of the Roman army thathe made use of; and how many of his auxiliaries were cut off in allGalilee; and how he took some of its cities entirely, and by force, andothers of them by treaty, and on terms. Now, when I am come so far, Ishall describe the good order of the Romans in war, and the disciplineof their legions; the amplitude of both the Galilees, with its nature, and the limits of Judea. And, besides this, I shall particularly go overwhat is peculiar to the country, the lakes and fountains that are inthem, and what miseries happened to every city as they were taken; andall 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 Ishall relate them to such as know the truth of them. 

9. After this, [I shall relate] how, When the Jews' affairs werebecome very bad, Nero died, and Vespasian, when he was going to attackJerusalem, was called back to take the government upon him; what signshappened to him relating to his gaining that government, and whatmutations of government then happened at Rome, and how he wasunwillingly made emperor by his soldiers; and how, upon his departure toEgypt, to take upon him the government of the empire, the affairs ofthe Jews became very tumultuous; as also how the tyrants rose up againstthem, and fell into dissensions among themselves. 

10. Moreover, [I shall relate] how Titus marched out of Egypt into Judeathe second time; as also how, and where, and how many forces he gottogether; 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 holyhouse; and besides, the measures of those edifices, and of the altar, and all accurately determined. A description also of certain of theirfestivals, and seven purifications of purity, [5] and the sacredministrations of the priests, with the garments of the priests, andof the high priests; and of the nature of the most holy place of thetemple; without concealing any thing, or adding any thing to the knowntruth of things. 

11. After this, I shall relate the barbarity of the tyrants towards thepeople of their own nation, as well as the indulgence of the Romans insparing foreigners; and how often Titus, out of his desire to preservethe city and the temple, invited the seditious to come to terms ofaccommodation. I shall also distinguish the sufferings of the people, and their calamities; how far they were afflicted by the sedition, andhow far by the famine, and at length were taken. Nor shall I omit tomention the misfortunes of the deserters, nor the punishments inflictedon the captives; as also how the temple was burnt, against the consentof Caesar; and how many sacred things that had been laid up in thetemple were snatched out of the fire; the destruction also of the entirecity, with the signs and wonders that went before it; and the taking thetyrants 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 theydemolished the strong holds that were in the country; and how Tituswent over the whole country, and settled its affairs; together with hisreturn into Italy, and his triumph. 

12. I have comprehended all these things in seven books, and have leftno occasion for complaint or accusation to such as have been acquaintedwith this war; and I have written it down for the sake of those thatlove truth, but not for those that please themselves [with fictitiousrelations]. And I will begin my account of these things with what I callmy First Chapter. 

WAR PREFACE FOOTNOTES

[1] I have already observed more than once, that this History of theJewish War was Josephus's first work, and published about A. D. 75, whenhe was but thirty-eight years of age; and that when he wrote it, he wasnot thoroughly acquainted with several circumstances of history fromthe days of Antiochus Epiphanes, with which it begins, till near his owntimes, contained in the first and former part of the second book, andso committed many involuntary errors therein. That he publishedhis Antiquities eighteen years afterward, in the thirteenth year ofDomitian, A. D. 93, when he was much more completely acquainted withthose ancient times, and after he had perused those most authentichistories, the First Book of Maccabees, and the Chronicles of thePriesthood of John Hyrcanus, etc. That accordingly he then reviewedthose parts of this work, and gave the public a more faithful, complete, and accurate account of the facts therein related; and honestlycorrected the errors he had before run into. 

[2] Who these Upper Barbarians, remote from the sea, were, Josephushimself will inform us, sect. 2, viz. The Parthians and Babylonians, and remotest Arabians [of the Jews among them]; besides the Jews beyondEuphrates, and the Adiabeni, or Assyrians. Whence we also learn thatthese Parthians, Babylonians, the remotest Arabians, [or at least theJews among them, ] as also the Jews beyond Euphrates, and the Adiabeni, or Assyrians, understood Josephus's Hebrew, or rather Chaldaic, books ofThe Jewish War, before they were put into the Greek language. 

[3] That these calamities of the Jews, who were our Savior's murderers, were to be the greatest that had ever been seen the beginning of theworld, our Savior had directly foretold, Matthew 24:21; Mark 13:19; Luke21:23, 24; and that they proved to be such accordingly, Josephus is herea most authentic witness. 

[4] Titus. 

[5] These seven, or rather five, degrees of purity, or purification, areenumerated hereafter, B. V. Ch. 5. Sect. 6. The Rabbins make ten degreesof 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 aquarrel with the sixth Ptolemy about his right to the whole country ofSyria, a great sedition fell among the men of power in Judea, and theyhad a contention about obtaining the government; while each of thosethat were of dignity could not endure to be subject to their equals. However, Onias, one of the high priests, got the better, and cast thesons of Tobias out of the city; who fled to Antiochus, and besoughthim to make use of them for his leaders, and to make an expedition intoJudea. 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 outhis soldiers to plunder them without mercy. He also spoiled the temple, and put a stop to the constant practice of offering a daily sacrificeof expiation for three years and six months. But Onias, the highpriest, fled to Ptolemy, and received a place from him in the Nomus ofHeliopolis, where he built a city resembling Jerusalem, and a templethat was like its temple [1] concerning which we shall speak more in itsproper place hereafter. 

2. Now Antiochus was not satisfied either with his unexpected takingthe city, or with its pillage, or with the great slaughter he had madethere; but being overcome with his violent passions, and rememberingwhat he had suffered during the siege, he compelled the Jews to dissolvethe laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcised, and to sacrifice swine's flesh upon the altar; against which they allopposed themselves, and the most approved among them were put to death. Bacchides also, who was sent to keep the fortresses, having these wickedcommands, joined to his own natural barbarity, indulged all sorts of theextremest 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 hiswicked doings to avenge themselves. 

3. Accordingly Matthias, the son of Asamoneus, one of the priests wholived in a village called Modin, armed himself, together with his ownfamily, which had five sons of his in it, and slew Bacchides withdaggers; and thereupon, out of the fear of the many garrisons [of theenemy], he fled to the mountains; and so many of the people followedhim, that he was encouraged to come down from the mountains, and to givebattle to Antiochus's generals, when he beat them, and drove them out ofJudea. So he came to the government by this his success, and became theprince 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 anarmy out of his own countrymen, and was the first that made a league offriendship with the Romans, and drove Epiphanes out of the country whenhe had made a second expedition into it, and this by giving him a greatdefeat there; and when he was warmed by this great success, he made anassault upon the garrison that was in the city, for it had not been cutoff hitherto; so he ejected them out of the upper city, and drove thesoldiers into the lower, which part of the city was called the Citadel. He then got the temple under his power, and cleansed the wholeplace, and walled it round about, and made new vessels for sacredministrations, and brought them into the temple, because the formervessels had been profaned. He also built another altar, and began tooffer the sacrifices; and when the city had already received its sacredconstitution again, Antiochus died; whose son Antiochus succeeded him inthe kingdom, and in his hatred to the Jews also. 

5. So this Antiochus got together fifty thousand footmen, and fivethousand horsemen, and fourscore elephants, and marched through Judeainto the mountainous parts. He then took Bethsura, which was a smallcity; 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 elephantsadorned with a large tower, and with military trappings of gold to guardhim, and supposing that Antiochus himself was upon him, he ran a greatway 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 bethe king, by reason of his being so high; but still he ran his weaponinto the belly of the beast, and brought him down upon himself, and wascrushed to death, having done no more than attempted great things, andshowed that he preferred glory before life. Now he that governed theelephant was but a private man; and had he proved to be Antiochus, Eleazar had performed nothing more by this bold stroke than that itmight appear he chose to die, when he had the bare hope of therebydoing a glorious action; nay, this disappointment proved an omen to hisbrother [Judas] how the entire battle would end. It is true that theJews fought it out bravely for a long time, but the king's forces, being superior in number, and having fortune on their side, obtainedthe victory. And when a great many of his men were slain, Judas took therest with him, and fled to the toparchy of Gophna. So Antiochus went toJerusalem, 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 hethought 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 ofhis own nation came to him, so did he gather those that had escaped outof the battle together, and gave battle again to Antiochus's generalsat a village called Adasa; and being too hard for his enemies in thebattle, and killing a great number of them, he was at last himself slainalso. Nor was it many days afterward that his brother John had a plotlaid 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 behavedhimself with great circumspection in other respects, with relation tohis own people; and he corroborated his authority by preserving hisfriendship with the Romans. He also made a league with Antiochus theson. Yet was not all this sufficient for his security; for the tyrantTrypho, who was guardian to Antiochus's son, laid a plot againsthim; and besides that, endeavored to take off his friends, and caughtJonathan by a wile, as he was going to Ptolemais to Antiochus, witha few persons in his company, and put him in bonds, and then made anexpedition against the Jews; but when he was afterward driven away bySimon, who was Jonathan's brother, and was enraged at his defeat, he putJonathan to death. 

2. However, Simon managed the public affairs after a courageous manner, and took Gazara, and Joppa, and Jamnia, which were cities in hisneighborhood. He also got the garrison under, and demolished thecitadel. He was afterward an auxiliary to Antiochus, against Trypho, whom he besieged in Dora, before he went on his expedition against theMedes; yet could not he make the king ashamed of his ambition, thoughhe had assisted him in killing Trypho; for it was not long ere Antiochussent Cendebeus his general with an army to lay waste Judea, and tosubdue Simon; yet he, though he was now in years, conducted the waras if he were a much younger man. He also sent his sons with a band ofstrong men against Antiochus, while he took part of the army himselfwith him, and fell upon him from another quarter. He also laid a greatmany men in ambush in many places of the mountains, and was superiorin all his attacks upon them; and when he had been conqueror after soglorious a manner, he was made high priest, and also freed the Jews fromthe dominion of the Macedonians, after one hundred and seventy years ofthe empire [of Seleucus]. 

3. This Simon also had a plot laid against him, and was slain at a feastby 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, hemade haste to get to the city, as having a very great confidence in thepeople there, both on account of the memory of the glorious actions ofhis father, and of the hatred they could not but bear to the injusticeof Ptolemy. Ptolemy also made an attempt to get into the city by anothergate; but was repelled by the people, who had just then admitted ofHyrcanus; so he retired presently to one of the fortresses that wereabout Jericho, which was called Dagon. Now when Hyrcanus had receivedthe high priesthood, which his father had held before, and had offeredsacrifice to God, he made great haste to attack Ptolemy, that he mightafford relief to his mother and brethren. 

4. So he laid siege to the fortress, and was superior to Ptolemy inother respects, but was overcome by him as to the just affection [he hadfor his relations]; for when Ptolemy was distressed, he brought forthhis mother, and his brethren, and set them upon the wall, and beat themwith rods in every body's sight, and threatened, that unless he wouldgo away immediately, he would throw them down headlong; at which sightHyrcanus's commiseration and concern were too hard for his anger. Buthis mother was not dismayed, neither at the stripes she received, norat 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 sufferedto spare the wretch; since it was to her better to die by the means ofPtolemy, than to live ever so long, provided he might be punished forthe injuries he done to their family. Now John's case was this: Whenhe considered the courage of his mother, and heard her entreaty, he setabout his attacks; but when he saw her beaten, and torn to pieceswith the stripes, he grew feeble, and was entirely overcome by hisaffections. And as the siege was delayed by this means, the year of restcame on, upon which the Jews rest every seventh year as they do onevery seventh day. On this year, therefore, Ptolemy was freed from beingbesieged, and slew the brethren of John, with their mother, and fled toZeno, 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 andbesieged Hyrcanus; but Hyrcanus opened the sepulcher of David, who wasthe richest of all kings, and took thence about three thousand talentsin money, and induced Antiochus, by the promise of three thousandtalents, to raise the siege. Moreover, he was the first of the Jews thathad money enough, and began to hire foreign auxiliaries also. 

6. However, at another time, when Antiochus was gone upon an expeditionagainst the Medes, and so gave Hyrcanus an opportunity of being revengedupon him, he immediately made an attack upon the cities of Syria, asthinking, what proved to be the case with them, that he should findthem empty of god troops. So he took Medaba and Samea, with the townsin their neighborhood, as also Shechem, and Gerizzim; and besides these, [he subdued] the nation of the Cutheans, who dwelt round about thattemple which was built in imitation of the temple at Jerusalem; he alsotook 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 awall, and set his sons, Aristobulus and Antigonus, over the siege; whopushed it on so hard, that a famine so far prevailed within the city, that they were forced to eat what never was esteemed food. Theyalso invited Antiochus, who was called Cyzicenus, to come to theirassistance; whereupon he got ready, and complied with their invitation, but was beaten by Aristobulus and Antigonus; and indeed he was pursuedas far as Scythopolis by these brethren, and fled away from them. Sothey returned back to Samaria, and shut the multitude again within thewall; and when they had taken the city, they demolished it, and madeslaves of its inhabitants. And as they had still great success in theirundertakings, they did not suffer their zeal to cool, but marched withan army as far as Scythopolis, and made an incursion upon it, and laidwaste 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 gottogether, 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 veryhappily, and administered the government after a most extraordinarymanner, and this for thirty-three entire years together. He died, leaving five sons behind him. He was certainly a very happy man, andafforded no occasion to have any complaint made of fortune on hisaccount. He it was who alone had three of the most desirable things inthe world, --the government of his nation, and the high priesthood, andthe gift of prophecy. For the Deity conversed with him, and he wasnot ignorant of any thing that was to come afterward; insomuch that heforesaw and foretold that his two eldest sons would not continue mastersof the government; and it will highly deserve our narration to describetheir catastrophe, and how far inferior these men were to their fatherin 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 adiadem upon his head, four hundred seventy and one years and threemonths after our people came down into this country, when they were setfree from the Babylonian slavery. Now, of his brethren, he appeared tohave an affection for Antigonus, who was next to him, and made him hisequal; but for the rest, he bound them, and put them in prison. He alsoput his mother in bonds, for her contesting the government with him;for John had left her to be the governess of public affairs. He alsoproceeded to that degree of barbarity as to cause her to be pined todeath in prison. 

2. But vengeance circumvented him in the affair of his brotherAntigonus, 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 thepalace contrived against him. At first, indeed, Aristobulus wouldnot believe their reports, partly out of the affection he had for hisbrother, and partly because he thought that a great part of these taleswere owing to the envy of their relaters: however, as Antigonus cameonce in a splendid manner from the army to that festival, wherein ourancient custom is to make tabernacles for God, it happened, in thosedays, that Aristobulus was sick, and that, at the conclusion of thefeast, Antigonus came up to it, with his armed men about him; and thiswhen he was adorned in the finest manner possible; and that, in a greatmeasure, to pray to God on the behalf of his brother. Now at this verytime it was that these ill men came to the king, and told him in whata pompous manner the armed men came, and with what insolence Antigonusmarched, 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 itwas in his power to take the kingdom himself. 

3. Now Aristobulus, by degrees, and unwillingly, gave credit to theseaccusations; and accordingly he took care not to discover his suspicionopenly, though he provided to be secure against any accidents; so heplaced the guards of his body in a certain dark subterranean passage;for he lay sick in a place called formerly the Citadel, thoughafterwards its name was changed to Antonia; and he gave orders that ifAntigonus came unarmed, they should let him alone; but if he came to himin his armor, they should kill him. He also sent some to let him knowbeforehand that he should come unarmed. But, upon this occasion, thequeen very cunningly contrived the matter with those that plotted hisruin, for she persuaded those that were sent to conceal the king'smessage; but to tell Antigonus how his brother had heard he had got avery the suit of armor made with fine martial ornaments, in Galilee;and because his present sickness hindered him from coming and seeing allthat 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 notallowing him to suspect any harm from him, he came along with his armoron, to show it to his brother; but when he was going along that darkpassage which was called Strato's Tower, he was slain by the bodyguards, and became an eminent instance how calumny destroys allgood-will and natural affection, and how none of our good affections arestrong enough to resist envy perpetually. 

5. And truly any one would be surprised at Judas upon this occasion. Hewas of the sect of the Essens, and had never failed or deceived men inhis predictions before. Now this man saw Antigonus as he was passingalong by the temple, and cried out to his acquaintance, [they were not afew who attended upon him as his scholars, ] "O strange!" said he, "it isgood for me to die now, since truth is dead before me, and somewhat thatI 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 beslain, according to that fatal decree, was Strato's Tower, which is atthe distance of six hundred furlongs from this place; and yet four hoursof this day are over already; which point of time renders the predictionimpossible to be fill filled. " And when the old man had said this, hewas dejected in his mind, and so continued. But in a little time newscame that Antigonus was slain in a subterraneous place, which was itselfalso called Strato's Tower, by the same name with that Cesarea which layby the sea-side; and this ambiguity it was which caused the prophet'sdisorder. 

6. Hereupon Aristobulus repented of the great crime he had been guiltyof, and this gave occasion to the increase of his distemper. He alsogrew worse and worse, and his soul was constantly disturbed at thethoughts of what he had done, till his very bowels being torn to piecesby the intolerable grief he was under, he threw up a great quantity ofblood. And as one of those servants that attended him carried out thatblood, he, by some supernatural providence, slipped and fell down in thevery place where Antigonus had been slain; and so he spilt some ofthe murderer's blood upon the spots of the blood of him that had beenmurdered, which still appeared. Hereupon a lamentable cry arose amongthe spectators, as if the servant had spilled the blood on purpose inthat place; and as the king heard that cry, he inquired what was thecause of it; and while nobody durst tell him, he pressed them so muchthe more to let him know what was the matter; so at length, when he hadthreatened them, and forced them to speak out, they told; whereupon heburst into tears, and groaned, and said, "So I perceive I am not liketo escape the all-seeing eye of God, as to the great crimes I havecommitted; but the vengeance of the blood of my kinsman pursues mehastily. O thou most impudent body! how long wilt thou retain a soulthat ought to die on account of that punishment it ought to suffer for amother and a brother slain! How long shall I myself spend my blood dropby drop? let them take it all at once; and let their ghosts no longer bedisappointed by a few parcels of my bowels offered to them. " As soonas he had said these words, he presently died, when he had reigned nolonger 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 madeAlexander king, who appeared both elder in age, and more moderate in histemper than the rest; who, when he came to the government, slew one ofhis brethren, as affecting to govern himself; but had the other of themin great esteem, as loving a quiet life, without meddling with publicaffairs. 

2. Now it happened that there was a battle between him and Ptolemy, whowas called Lathyrus, who had taken the city Asochis. He indeed slew agreat many of his enemies, but the victory rather inclined to Ptolemy. But when this Ptolemy was pursued by his mother Cleopatra, and retiredinto Egypt, Alexander besieged Gadara, and took it; as also he didAmathus, which was the strongest of all the fortresses that were aboutJordan, and therein were the most precious of all the possessions ofTheodorus, the son of Zeno. Whereupon Theodopus marched against him, andtook what belonged to himself as well as the king's baggage, and slewten thousand of the Jews. However, Alexander recovered this blow, andturned 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, thenation of the Jews made an insurrection against him at a festival; forat those feasts seditions are generally begun; and it looked as if heshould not be able to escape the plot they had laid for him, had not hisforeign auxiliaries, the Pisidians and Cilicians, assisted him; for asto the Syrians, he never admitted them among his mercenary troops, onaccount of their innate enmity against the Jewish nation. And when hehad slain more than six thousand of the rebels, he made an incursioninto Arabia; and when he had taken that country, together with theGileadires and Moabites, he enjoined them to pay him tribute, andreturned to Areathus; and as Theodorus was surprised at his greatsuccess, he took the fortress, and demolished it. 

4. However, when he fought with Obodas, king of the Arabians, who hadlaid an ambush for him near Golan, and a plot against him, he lost hisentire army, which was crowded together in a deep valley, and broken topieces by the multitude of camels. And when he had made his escape toJerusalem, he provoked the multitude, which hated him before, to makean insurrection against him, and this on account of the greatness of thecalamity 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 fewerthan fifty thousand of the Jews in the interval of six years. Yet hadhe no reason to rejoice in these victories, since he did but consume hisown kingdom; till at length he left off fighting, and endeavored tocome to a composition with them, by talking with his subjects. But thismutability and irregularity of his conduct made them hate him stillmore. And when he asked them why they so hated him, and what he shoulddo in order to appease them, they said, by killing himself; for that itwould be then all they could do to be reconciled to him, who had donesuch tragical things to them, even when he was dead. At the same timethey invited Demetrius, who was called Eucerus, to assist them; and ashe readily complied with their requests, in hopes of great advantages, and came with his army, the Jews joined with those their auxiliariesabout 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 himthat part of the Jews which favored him, to the number of ten thousand;while the adverse party had three thousand horsemen, and fourteenthousand footmen. Now, before they joined battle, the kings madeproclamation, and endeavored to draw off each other's soldiers, and makethem revolt; while Demetrius hoped to induce Alexander's mercenariesto leave him, and Alexander hoped to induce the Jews that were withDemetrius to leave him. But since neither the Jews would leave off theirrage, nor the Greeks prove unfaithful, they came to an engagement, andto a close fight with their weapons. In which battle Demetrius wasthe conqueror, although Alexander's mercenaries showed the greatestexploits, both in soul and body. Yet did the upshot of this battle provedifferent from what was expected, as to both of them; for neither didthose that invited Demetrius to come to them continue firm to him, though he was conqueror; and six thousand Jews, out of pity to thechange of Alexander's condition, when he was fled to the mountains, came over to him. Yet could not Demetrius bear this turn of affairs; butsupposing that Alexander was already become a match for him again, andthat 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 theirquarrels with him, when the [foreign] auxiliaries were gone; but theyhad a perpetual war with Alexander, until he had slain the greatest partof them, and driven the rest into the city Berneselis; and when he haddemolished that city, he carried the captives to Jerusalem. Nay, hisrage was grown so extravagant, that his barbarity proceeded to thedegree of impiety; for when he had ordered eight hundred to be hung uponcrosses in the midst of the city, he had the throats of their wives andchildren cut before their eyes; and these executions he saw as hewas drinking and lying down with his concubines. Upon which so deep asurprise seized on the people, that eight thousand of his opposersfled away the very next night, out of all Judea, whose flight was onlyterminated by Alexander's death; so at last, though not till late, and with great difficulty, he, by such actions, procured quiet to hiskingdom, and left off fighting any more. 

7. Yet did that Antiochus, who was also called Dionysius, become anorigin of troubles again. This man was the brother of Demetrius, andthe last of the race of the Seleucidse. [3] Alexander was afraid ofhim, when he was marching against the Arabians; so he cut a deep trenchbetween Antipatris, which was near the mountains, and the shores ofJoppa; he also erected a high wall before the trench, and built woodentowers, in order to hinder any sudden approaches. But still he was notable to exclude Antiochus, for he burnt the towers, and filled up thetrenches, and marched on with his army. And as he looked upon taking hisrevenge on Alexander, for endeavoring to stop him, as a thing of lessconsequence, he marched directly against the Arabians, whose kingretired into such parts of the country as were fittest for engaging theenemy, and then on the sudden made his horse turn back, which were innumber ten thousand, and fell upon Antiochus's army while they were indisorder, and a terrible battle ensued. Antiochus's troops, so long ashe was alive, fought it out, although a mighty slaughter was made amongthem by the Arabians; but when he fell, for he was in the forefront, inthe utmost danger, in rallying his troops, they all gave ground, and thegreatest part of his army were destroyed, either in the action or theflight; and for the rest, who fled to the village of Cana, it happenedthat 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 theirhatred to Ptolemy, the son of Menhens, invited Aretas [to take thegovernment], and made him king of Celesyria. This man also made anexpedition against Judea, and beat Alexander in battle; but afterwardsretired by mutual agreement. But Alexander, when he had takenPella, marched to Gerasa again, out of the covetous desire he had ofTheodorus's possessions; and when he had built a triple wall about thegarrison, he took the place by force. He also demolished Golan, andSeleucia, and what was called the Valley of Antiochus; besides which, he took the strong fortress of Gamala, and stripped Demetrius, who wasgovernor therein, of what he had, on account of the many crimes laid tohis charge, and then returned into Judea, after he had been three wholeyears 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, andsupposed that, by exercising himself again in martial affairs, heshould get rid of this distemper; but by making such expeditions atunseasonable times, and forcing his body to undergo greater hardshipsthan 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 andtwenty 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 dependedupon it that the Jews would now very readily submit to her, because shehad been very averse to such cruelty as he had treated them with, and had opposed his violation of their laws, and had thereby got thegood-will of the people. Nor was he mistaken as to his expectations; forthis woman kept the dominion, by the opinion that the people had of herpiety; for she chiefly studied the ancient customs of her country, andcast those men out of the government that offended against their holylaws. And as she had two sons by Alexander, she made Hyrcanus the elderhigh priest, on account of his age, as also, besides that, on account ofhis inactive temper, no way disposing him to disturb the public. Butshe retained the younger, Aristobulus, with her as a private person, byreason of the warmth of his temper. 

2. And now the Pharisees joined themselves to her, to assist her inthe government. These are a certain sect of the Jews that appear morereligious than others, and seem to interpret the laws more accurately. Low Alexandra hearkened to them to an extraordinary degree, as beingherself a woman of great piety towards God. But these Pharisees artfullyinsinuated themselves into her favor by little and little, and becamethemselves the real administrators of the public affairs: they banishedand reduced whom they pleased; they bound and loosed [men] at theirpleasure; [4] and, to say all at once, they had the enjoyment of theroyal authority, whilst the expenses and the difficulties of it belongedto Alexandra. She was a sagacious woman in the management of greataffairs, and intent always upon gathering soldiers together; so that sheincreased the army the one half, and procured a great body of foreigntroops, till her own nation became not only very powerful at home, butterrible 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 havingassisted the king with his advice, for crucifying the eight hundred men[before mentioned. ] They also prevailed with Alexandra to put to deaththe rest of those who had irritated him against them. Now she was sosuperstitious as to comply with their desires, and accordingly they slewwhom they pleased themselves. But the principal of those that were indanger fled to Aristobulus, who persuaded his mother to spare the men onaccount of their dignity, but to expel them out of the city, unless shetook them to be innocent; so they were suffered to go unpunished, andwere dispersed all over the country. But when Alexandra sent out herarmy to Damascus, under pretense that Ptolemy was always oppressingthat city, she got possession of it; nor did it make any considerableresistance. She also prevailed with Tigranes, king of Armenia, wholay with his troops about Ptolemais, and besieged Cleopatra, [5] byagreements and presents, to go away. Accordingly, Tigranes soon arosefrom the siege, by reason of those domestic tumults which happened uponLucullus's expedition into Armenia. 

4. In the mean time, Alexandra fell sick, and Aristobulus, her youngerson, took hold of this opportunity, with his domestics, of which he hada great many, who were all of them his friends, on account of the warmthof their youth, and got possession of all the fortresses. He also usedthe sums of money he found in them to get together a number of mercenarysoldiers, and made himself king; and besides this, upon Hyrcanus'scomplaint to his mother, she compassionated his case, and putAristobulus's wife and sons under restraint in Antonia, which was afortress that joined to the north part of the temple. It was, as I havealready said, of old called the Citadel; but afterwards got the name ofAntonia, when Antony was [lord of the East], just as the other cities, Sebaste and Agrippias, had their names changed, and these given themfrom Sebastus and Agrippa. But Alexandra died before she could punishAristobulus for his disinheriting his brother, after she had reignednine 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 mothercommit it before she died; but Aristobulus was superior to him in powerand magnanimity; and when there was a battle between them, to decidethe dispute about the kingdom, near Jericho, the greatest part desertedHyrcanus, and went over to Aristobulus; but Hyrcanus, with those of hisparty who staid with him, fled to Antonia, and got into his power thehostages that might be for his preservation [which were Aristobulus'swife, with her children]; but they came to an agreement before thingsshould come to extremities, that Aristobulus should be king, andHyrcanus should resign that up, but retain all the rest of hisdignities, as being the king's brother. Hereupon they were reconciledto each other in the temple, and embraced one another in a very kindmanner, while the people stood round about them; they also changed theirhouses, while Aristobulus went to the royal palace, and Hyrcanus retiredto the house of Aristobulus. 

2. Now those other people which were at variance with Aristobulus wereafraid upon his unexpected obtaining the government; and especially thisconcerned Antipater [6] whom Aristobulus hated of old. He was by birthan Idumean, and one of the principal of that nation, on account of hisancestors and riches, and other authority to him belonging: he alsopersuaded Hyrcanus to fly to Aretas, the king of Arabia, and to layclaim to the kingdom; as also he persuaded Aretas to receive Hyrcanus, and to bring him back to his kingdom: he also cast great reproaches uponAristobulus, as to his morals, and gave great commendations to Hyrcanus, and exhorted Aretas to receive him, and told him how becoming a filingit would be for him, who ruled so great a kingdom, to afford hisassistance to such as are injured; alleging that Hyrcanus was treatedunjustly, by being deprived of that dominion which belonged to him bythe prerogative of his birth. And when he had predisposed them both todo what he would have them, he took Hyrcanus by night, and ran away fromthe city, and, continuing his flight with great swiftness, he escaped tothe 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 withhim, and gaining upon him with many presents, he prevailed with him togive him an army that might restore him to his kingdom. This armyconsisted of fifty thousand footmen and horsemen, against whichAristobulus was not able to make resistance, but was deserted in hisfirst onset, and was driven to Jerusalem; he also had been taken atfirst by force, if Scaurus, the Roman general, had not come andseasonably interposed himself, and raised the siege. This Scaurus wassent into Syria from Armenia by Pompey the Great, when he fought againstTigranes; so Scaurus came to Damascus, which had been lately taken byMetellus and Lollius, and caused them to leave the place; and, upon hishearing how the affairs of Judea stood, he made haste thither as to acertain booty. 

3. As soon, therefore, as he was come into the country, therecame ambassadors from both the brothers, each of them desiring hisassistance; but Aristobulus's three hundred talents had more weight withhim than the justice of the cause; which sum, when Scaurus had received, he sent a herald to Hyrcanus and the Arabians, and threatened them withthe resentment of the Romans and of Pompey, unless they would raisethe siege. So Aretas was terrified, and retired out of Judea toPhiladelphia, as did Scaurus return to Damascus again; nor wasAristobulus satisfied with escaping [out of his brother's hands, ] butgathered all his forces together, and pursued his enemies, and foughtthem 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 fromthe Arabians, they transferred the same to their adversaries; andbecause Pompey had passed through Syria, and was come to Damascus, theyfled to him for assistance; and, without any bribes, they made the sameequitable pleas that they had used to Aretas, and besought him to hatethe violent behavior of Aristobulus, and to bestow the kingdom on himto whom it justly belonged, both on account of his good character andon account of his superiority in age. However, neither was Aristobuluswanting to himself in this case, as relying on the bribes that Scaurushad received: he was also there himself, and adorned himself aftera manner the most agreeable to royalty that he was able. But he soonthought it beneath him to come in such a servile manner, and could notendure to serve his own ends in a way so much more abject than he wasused to; so he departed from Diospolis. 

5. At this his behavior Pompey had great indignation; Hyrcanus also andhis friends made great intercessions to Pompey; so he took not only hisRoman forces, but many of his Syrian auxiliaries, and marched againstAristobulus. But when he had passed by Pella and Scythopolis, and wascome to Corea, where you enter into the country of Judea, when you goup to it through the Mediterranean parts, he heard that Aristobulus wasfled to Alexandrium, which is a strong hold fortified with the utmostmagnificence, and situated upon a high mountain; and he sent to him, andcommanded him to come down. Now his inclination was to try his fortunein a battle, since he was called in such an imperious manner, ratherthan to comply with that call. However, he saw the multitude were ingreat fear, and his friends exhorted him to consider what the power ofthe Romans was, and how it was irresistible; so he complied with theiradvice, and came down to Pompey; and when he had made a long apology forhimself, and for the justness of his cause in taking the government, he returned to the fortress. And when his brother invited him again [toplead his cause], he came down and spake about the justice of it, andthen went away without any hinderance from Pompey; so he was betweenhope and fear. And when he came down, it was to prevail with Pompey toallow 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 towrite to every one of their governors to yield them up; they havinghad this charge given them, to obey no letters but what were of hisown hand-writing. Accordingly he did what he was ordered to do; but hadstill an indignation at what was done, and retired to Jerusalem, andprepared to fight with Pompey. 

6. But Pompey did not give him time to make any preparations [for asiege], but followed him at his heels; he was also obliged to make hastein his attempt, by the death of Mithridates, of which he was informedabout Jericho. Now here is the most fruitful country of Judea, whichbears a vast number of palm trees [7] besides the balsam tree, whosesprouts they cut with sharp stones, and at the incisions they gather thejuice, which drops down like tears. So Pompey pitched his camp in thatplace one night, and then hasted away the next morning to Jerusalem; butAristobulus was so aftrighted at his approach, that he came and met himby way of supplication. He also promised him money, and that he woulddeliver up both himself and the city into his disposal, and therebymitigated the anger of Pompey. Yet did not he perform any of theconditions he had agreed to; for Aristobulus's party would not so muchas admit Gabinius into the city, who was sent to receive the money thathe 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 intocustody. And when he was come to the city, he looked about where hemight make his attack; for he saw the walls were so firm, that it wouldbe hard to overcome them; and that the valley before the walls wasterrible; and that the temple, which was within that valley, was itselfencompassed with a very strong wall, insomuch that if the city weretaken, that temple would be a second place of refuge for the enemy toretire to. 

2. Now as he was long in deliberating about this matter, a seditionarose among the people within the city; Aristobulus's party beingwilling to fight, and to set their king at liberty, while the party ofHyrcanus were for opening the gates to Pompey; and the dread people werein occasioned these last to be a very numerous party, when they lookedupon the excellent order the Roman soldiers were in. So Aristobulus'sparty was worsted, and retired into the temple, and cut off thecommunication between the temple and the city, by breaking down thebridge that joined them together, and prepared to make an opposition tothe utmost; but as the others had received the Romans into the city, andhad delivered up the palace to him, Pompey sent Piso, one of his greatofficers, into that palace with an army, who distributed a garrisonabout the city, because he could not persuade any one of those that hadfled to the temple to come to terms of accommodation; he then disposedall things that were round about them so as might favor their attacks, as having Hyrcanus's party very ready to afford them both counsel andassistance. 

3. But Pompey himself filled up the ditch that was oil the north side ofthe temple, and the entire valley also, the army itself being obliged tocarry the materials for that purpose. And indeed it was a hard thing tofill up that valley, by reason of its immense depth, especially asthe Jews used all the means possible to repel them from their superiorsituation; nor had the Romans succeeded in their endeavors, had notPompey taken notice of the seventh days, on which the Jews abstainfrom all sorts of work on a religious account, and raised his bank, butrestrained his soldiers from fighting on those days; for the Jews onlyacted defensively on sabbath days. But as soon as Pompey had filledup the valley, he erected high towers upon the bank, and brought thoseengines which they had fetched from Tyre near to the wall, and triedto batter it down; and the slingers of stones beat off those that stoodabove them, and drove them away; but the towers on this side of thecity made very great resistance, and were indeed extraordinary both forlargeness and magnificence. 

4. Now here it was that, upon the many hardships which the Romansunderwent, Pompey could not but admire not only at the other instancesof the Jews' fortitude, but especially that they did not at all intermittheir religious services, even when they were encompassed with dartson all sides; for, as if the city were in full peace, their dailysacrifices and purifications, and every branch of their religiousworship, was still performed to God with the utmost exactness. Norindeed when the temple was actually taken, and they were every dayslain about the altar, did they leave off the instances of their Divineworship that were appointed by their law; for it was in the thirdmonth of the siege before the Romans could even with great difficultyoverthrow one of the towers, and get into the temple. Now he that firstof all ventured to get over the wall, was Faustus Cornelius the son ofSylla; and next after him were two centurions, Furius and Fabius; andevery one of these was followed by a cohort of his own, who encompassedthe Jews on all sides, and slew them, some of them as they were runningfor shelter to the temple, and others as they, for a while, fought intheir own defense. 

5. And now did many of the priests, even when they saw their enemiesassailing them with swords in their hands, without any disturbance, goon with their Divine worship, and were slain while they were offeringtheir drink-offerings, and burning their incense, as preferring theduties about their worship to God before their own preservation. Thegreatest part of them were slain by their own countrymen, of the adversefaction, and an innumerable multitude threw themselves down precipices;nay, some there were who were so distracted among the insuperabledifficulties they were under, that they set fire to the buildings thatwere near to the wall, and were burnt together with them. Now of theJews 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 thecalamities they were then under, as that their holy place, which hadbeen hitherto seen by none, should be laid open to strangers; forPompey, 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, andsaw what was reposited therein, the candlestick with its lamps, and thetable, and the pouring vessels, and the censers, all made entirelyof gold, as also a great quantity of spices heaped together, with twothousand talents of sacred money. Yet did not he touch that money, norany thing else that was there reposited; but he commanded the ministersabout the temple, the very next day after he had taken it, to cleanseit, and to perform their accustomed sacrifices. Moreover, he madeHyrcanus high priest, as one that not only in other respects had showedgreat alacrity, on his side, during the siege, but as he had been themeans of hindering the multitude that was in the country from fightingfor Aristobulus, which they were otherwise very ready to have done;by which means he acted the part of a good general, and reconciledthe people to him more by benevolence than by terror. Now, among theCaptives, Aristobulus's father-in-law was taken, who was also his uncle:so those that were the most guilty he punished with decollatlon; butrewarded Faustus, and those with him that had fought so bravely, with glorious presents, and laid a tribute upon the country, and uponJerusalem itself. 

7. He also took away from the nation all those cities that they hadformerly taken, and that belonged to Celesyria, and made them subject tohim that was at that time appointed to be the Roman president there; andreduced Judea within its proper bounds. He also rebuilt Gadara, [9] thathad 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 othercities free from their dominion, that lay in the midst of the country, such, I mean, as they had not demolished before that time; Hippos, andScythopolis, as also Pella, and Samaria, and Marissa; and besides theseAshdod, and Jamnia, and Arethusa; and in like manner dealt he with themaritime cities, Gaza, and Joppa, and Dora, and that which wasanciently called Strato's Tower, but was afterward rebuilt with themost magnificent edifices, and had its name changed to Cesarea, by kingHerod. All which he restored to their own citizens, and put them underthe province of Syria; which province, together with Judea, and thecountries as far as Egypt and Euphrates, he committed to Scaurus astheir governor, and gave him two legions to support him; while he madeall the haste he could himself to go through Cilicia, in his wayto Rome, having Aristobulus and his children along with him as hiscaptives. They were two daughters and two sons; the one of which sons, Alexander, ran away as he was going; but the younger, Antigonus, withhis 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 wasstopped by the difficulty of the places about Petra. However, he laidwaste the country about Pella, though even there he was under greathardship; for his army was afflicted with famine. In order to supplywhich want, Hyrcanus afforded him some assistance, and sent himprovisions 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 buyhis peace. The king of Arabia complied with the proposal, and gave himthree hundred talents; upon which Scaurus drew his army out of Arabia[10]

2. But as for Alexander, that son of Aristobulus who ran away fromPompey, in some time he got a considerable band of men together, and layheavy upon Hyrcanus, and overran Judea, and was likely to overturnhim quickly; and indeed he had come to Jerusalem, and had ventured torebuild its wall that was thrown down by Pompey, had not Gabinius, whowas sent as successor to Scaurus into Syria, showed his bravery, as inmany other points, so in making an expedition against Alexander; who, ashe 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, andMachorus, that lay upon the mountains of Arabia. 

3. However, Gabinius sent before him Marcus Antonius, and followedhimself with his whole army; but for the select body of soldiers thatwere about Antipater, and another body of Jews under the command ofMalichus and Pitholaus, these joined themselves to those captainsthat were about Marcus Antonius, and met Alexander; to which body cameOabinius with his main army soon afterward; and as Alexander was notable 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 tofight, and lost six thousand men in the battle; three thousand of whichfell down dead, and three thousand were taken alive; so he fled with theremainder to Alexandrium. 

4. Now when Gabinius was come to Alexandrium, because he found a greatmany there en-camped, he tried, by promising them pardon for theirformer offenses, to induce them to come over to him before it came to afight; but when they would hearken to no terms of accommodation, heslew a great number of them, and shut up a great number of them in thecitadel. Now Marcus Antonius, their leader, signalized himself in thisbattle, who, as he always showed great courage, so did he never show itso much as now; but Gabinius, leaving forces to take the citadel, wentaway himself, and settled the cities that had not been demolished, and rebuilt those that had been destroyed. Accordingly, upon hisinjunctions, the following cities were restored: Scythopolis, andSamaria, and Anthedon, and Apollonia, and Jamnia, and Raphia, andMariassa, and Adoreus, and Gamala, and Ashdod, and many others; whilea great number of men readily ran to each of them, and became theirinhabitants. 

5. When Gabinius had taken care of these cities, he returned toAlexandrium, and pressed on the siege. So when Alexander despaired ofever obtaining the government, he sent ambassadors to him, and prayedhim to forgive what he had offended him in, and gave up to him theremaining fortresses, Hyrcanium and Macherus, as he put Alexandrium intohis hands afterwards; all which Gabinius demolished, at the persuasionof Alexander's mother, that they might not be receptacles of men in asecond war. She was now there in order to mollify Gabinius, out of herconcern for her relations that were captives at Rome, which were herhusband and her other children. After this Gabinius brought Hyrcanus toJerusalem, and committed the care of the temple to him; but ordained theother political government to be by an aristocracy. He also parted thewhole nation into five conventions, assigning one portion to Jerusalem, another to Gadara, that another should belong to Amathus, a fourth toJericho, and to the fifth division was allotted Sepphoris, a city ofGalilee. So the people were glad to be thus freed from monarchicalgovernment, 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 thatwere 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 tobuild a wall about it; but as soon as Gabinius had sent an army againsthim under Siscuria, and Antonius, and Servilius, he was aware of it, and retreated to Macherus. And as for the unprofitable multitude, hedismissed them, and only marched on with those that were armed, being tothe number of eight thousand, among whom was Pitholaus, who had been thelieutenant at Jerusalem, but deserted to Aristobulus with a thousandof 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 lengththey were overborne by the Romans, and of them five thousand fell downdead, and about two thousand fled to a certain little hill, but thethousand that remained with Aristobulus brake through the Roman army, and marched together to Macherus; and when the king had lodged the firstnight upon its ruins, he was in hopes of raising another army, if thewar would but cease a while; accordingly, he fortified that strong hold, though it was done after a poor manner. But the Romans falling uponhim, he resisted, even beyond his abilities, for two days, and then wastaken, and brought a prisoner to Gabinius, with Antigonus his son, whohad fled away together with him from Rome; and from Gabinius he wascarried to Rome again. Wherefore the senate put him under confinement, but returned his children back to Judea, because Gabinius informed themby letters that he had promised Aristobulus's mother to do so, for herdelivering 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, hebrought back into Egypt, making use of Hyrcanus and Antipater to provideevery thing that was necessary for this expedition; for Antipaterfurnished him with money, and weapons, and corn, and auxiliaries; healso prevailed with the Jews that were there, and guarded the avenues atPelusium, to let them pass. But now, upon Gabinius's absence, the otherpart of Syria was in motion, and Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, brought the Jews to revolt again. Accordingly, he got together a verygreat army, and set about killing all the Romans that were in thecountry; hereupon Gabinius was afraid, [for he was come back already outof Egypt, and obliged to come back quickly by these tumults, ] andsent Antipater, who prevailed with some of the revolters to be quiet. However, thirty thousand still continued with Alexander, who was himselfeager to fight also; accordingly, Gabinius went out to fight, whenthe Jews met him; and as the battle was fought near Mount Tabor, tenthousand of them were slain, and the rest of the multitude dispersedthemselves, and fled away. So Gabinius came to Jerusalem, and settledthe government as Antipater would have it; thence he marched, and foughtand beat the Nabateans: as for Mithridates and Orsanes, who fled out ofParthin, he sent them away privately, but gave it out among the soldiersthat they had run away. 

8. In the mean time, Crassus came as successor to Gabinius in Syria. Hetook 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 armywith 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 weremarching 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 intoJudea; and, upon his taking Taricheae, he carried thirty thousand Jewsinto slavery. He also slew Pitholaus, who had supported the seditiousfollowers of Aristobulus; and it was Antipater who advised him so todo. Now this Antipater married a wife of an eminent family among theArabisus, whose name was Cypros, and had four sons born to him by her, Phasaelus and Herod, who was afterwards king, and, besides these, Josephand Pheroras; and he had a daughter whose name was Salome. Now as hemade himself friends among the men of power every where, by the kindoffices he did them, and the hospitable manner that he treated them;so did he contract the greatest friendship with the king of Arabia, bymarrying his relation; insomuch that when he made war with Aristobulus, he sent and intrusted his children with him. So when Cassius had forcedAlexander to come to terms and to be quiet, he returned to Euphrates, in order to prevent the Parthians from repassing it; concerning whichmatter 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 IonianSea, Caesar got Rome and the empire under his power, and releasedAristobulus from his bonds. He also committed two legions to him, andsent him in haste into Syria, as hoping that by his means he shouldeasily conquer that country, and the parts adjoining to Judea. But envyprevented 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 himin his own country; but his dead body lay [above ground], preserved inhoney, until it was sent to the Jews by Antony, in order to be buried inthe royal sepulchers. 

2. His son Alexander also was beheaded by Sci-pio at Antioch, and thatby the command of Pompey, and upon an accusation laid against him beforehis tribunal, for the mischiefs he had done to the Romans. But Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, who was then ruler of Chalcis, under Libanus, tookhis brethren to him by sending his son Philippio for them to Ascalon, who took Antigonus, as well as his sisters, away from Aristobulus'swife, and brought them to his father; and falling in love with theyounger daughter, he married her, and was afterwards slain by his fatheron her account; for Ptolemy himself, after he had slain his son, marriedher, whose name was Alexandra; on the account of which marriage he tookthe greater care of her brother and sister. 

3. Now, after Pompey was dead, Antipater changed sides, and cultivated afriendship with Caesar. And since Mithridates of Pergamus, with theforces he led against Egypt, was excluded from the avenues aboutPelusium, 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 thehead of three thousand armed men. He also encouraged the men of power inSyria to come to his assistance, as also of the inhabitants of Libanus, Ptolemy, and Jamblicus, and another Ptolemy; by which means the citiesof that country came readily into this war; insomuch that Mithridatesventured now, in dependence upon the additional strength that he hadgotten by Antipater, to march forward to Pelusium; and when they refusedhim a passage through it, he besieged the city; in the attack of whichplace Antipater principally signalized himself, for he brought down thatpart of the wall which was over against him, and leaped first of allinto the city, with the men that were about him. 

4. Thus was Pelusium taken. But still, as they were marching on, thoseEgyptian Jews that inhabited the country called the country of Oniasstopped them. Then did Antipater not only persuade them not to stopthem, but to afford provisions for their army; on which account eventhe people about Memphis would not fight against them, but of theirown accord joined Mithridates. Whereupon he went round about Delta, andfought 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, Antipaterwheeled about, and came along the bank of the river to him; for hehad beaten those that opposed him as he led the left wing. After whichsuccess he fell upon those that pursued Mithridates, and slew a greatmany 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 Mithridateslost, during the pursuit that was made after him, about eight hundred. He was also himself saved unexpectedly, and became an unreproachablewitness to Caesar of the great actions of Antipater. 

5. Whereupon Caesar encouraged Antipater to undertake other hazardousenterprises for him, and that by giving him great commendations andhopes of reward. In all which enterprises he readily exposed himself tomany dangers, and became a most courageous warrior; and had many woundsalmost all over his body, as demonstrations of his valor. And whenCaesar had settled the affairs of Egypt, and was returning into Syriaagain, he gave him the privilege of a Roman citizen, and freedom fromtaxes, and rendered him an object of admiration by the honors and marksof friendship he bestowed upon him. On this account it was that he alsoconfirmed 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 ofAntipater's further advancement; for whereas he ought to have lamentedthat his father appeared to have been poisoned on account of hisquarrels with Pompey, and to have complained of Scipio's barbaritytowards his brother, and not to mix any invidious passion when hewas suing for mercy; besides those things, he came before Caesar, andaccused Hyrcanus and Antipater, how they had driven him and his brethrenentirely out of their native country, and had acted in a great manyinstances unjustly and extravagantly with relation to their nation; andthat as to the assistance they had sent him into Egypt, it was not doneout of good-will to him, but out of the fear they were in from formerquarrels, and in order to gain pardon for their friendship to [hisenemy] Pompey. 

2. Hereupon Antipater threw away his garments, and showed the multitudeof the wounds he had, and said, that as to his good-will to Caesar, hehad no occasion to say a word, because his body cried aloud, though hesaid nothing himself; that he wondered at Antigonus's boldness, whilehe was himself no other than the son of an enemy to the Romans, and ofa fugitive, and had it by inheritance from his father to be fond ofinnovations and seditions, that he should undertake to accuse othermen before the Roman governor, and endeavor to gain some advantages tohimself, 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 somuch because he was in want of it, but because, if he could once obtainthe same, he might stir up a sedition among the Jews, and use what heshould 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 worthyof the high priesthood, and gave leave to Antipater to choose whatauthority he pleased; but he left the determination of such dignity tohim that bestowed the dignity upon him; so he was constituted procuratorof all Judea, and obtained leave, moreover, to rebuild [12] those wallsof his country that had been thrown down. These honorary grants Caesarsent orders to have engraved in the Capitol, that they might stand thereas indications of his own justice, and of the virtue of Antipater. 

4. But as soon as Antipater had conducted Caesar out of Syria he returnedto Judea, and the first thing he did was to rebuild that wall of his owncountry [Jerusalem] which Pompey had overthrown, and then to go overthe country, and to quiet the tumults that were therein; where he partlythreatened, and partly advised, every one, and told them that in casethey would submit to Hyrcanus, they would live happily and peaceably, and enjoy what they possessed, and that with universal peace andquietness; but that in case they hearkened to such as had some frigidhopes by raising new troubles to get themselves some gain, they shouldthen find him to be their lord instead of their procurator; and findHyrcanus to be a tyrant instead of a king; and both the Romans andCaesar to be their enemies, instead of rulers; for that they would notsuffer him to be removed from the government, whom they had made theirgovernor. And, at the same time that he said this, he settled theaffairs of the country by himself, because he saw that Hyrcanus wasinactive, and not fit to manage the affairs of the kingdom. So heconstituted his eldest son, Phasaelus, governor of Jerusalem, and of theparts 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 hisactive spirit to work upon. As therefore he found that Hezekias, thehead of the robbers, ran over the neighboring parts of Syria with agreat band of men, he caught him and slew him, and many more of therobbers with him; which exploit was chiefly grateful to the Syrians, insomuch that hymns were sung in Herod's commendation, both in thevillages and in the cities, as having procured their quietness, andhaving preserved what they possessed to them; on which occasion hebecame acquainted with Sextus Caesar, a kinsman of the great Caesar, and president of Syria. A just emulation of his glorious actions excitedPhasaelus also to imitate him. Accordingly, he procured the good-will ofthe inhabitants of Jerusalem, by his own management of the city affairs, and did not abuse his power in any disagreeable manner; whence it cameto pass that the nation paid Antipater the respects that were due onlyto a king, and the honors they all yielded him were equal to the honorsdue to an absolute lord; yet did he not abate any part of that good-willor fidelity which he owed to Hyrcanus. 

6. However, he found it impossible to escape envy in such hisprosperity; for the glory of these young men affected even Hyrcanushimself already privately, though he said nothing of it to any body; butwhat he principally was grieved at was the great actions of Herod, andthat so many messengers came one before another, and informed him of thegreat reputation he got in all his undertakings. There were also manypeople in the royal palace itself who inflamed his envy at him; those, Imean, who were obstructed in their designs by the prudence either ofthe young men, or of Antipater. These men said, that by committing thepublic affairs to the management of Antipater and of his sons, hesat down with nothing but the bare name of a king, without any of itsauthority; 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 nowconceal their government of affairs any longer, but were plainly lordsof the nation, and had thrust him out of his authority; that this wasthe case when Herod slew so many men without his giving him any commandto do it, either by word of mouth, or by his letter, and this incontradiction to the law of the Jews; who therefore, in case he be not aking, but a private man, still ought to come to his trial, and answer itto him, and to the laws of his country, which do not permit any one tobe killed till he hath been condemned in judgment. 

7. Now Hyrcanus was, by degrees, inflamed with these discourses, and atlength could bear no longer, but he summoned Herod to take his trial. Accordingly, by his father's advice, and as soon as the affairs ofGalilee would give him leave, he came up to [Jerusalem], when he hadfirst placed garrisons in Galilee; however, he came with a sufficientbody of soldiers, so many indeed that he might not appear to have withhim an army able to overthrow Hyrcanus's government, nor yet so few asto expose him to the insults of those that envied him. However, SextusCaesar was in fear for the young man, lest he should be taken byhis enemies, and brought to punishment; so he sent some to denounceexpressly to Hyrcanus that he should acquit Herod of the capital chargeagainst him; who acquitted him accordingly, as being otherwise inclinedalso so to do, for he loved Herod. 

8. But Herod, supposing that he had escaped punishment without theconsent of the king, retired to Sextus, to Damascus, and got every thingready, in order not to obey him if he should summon him again; whereuponthose that were evil-disposed irritated Hyrcanus, and told him thatHerod was gone away in anger, and was prepared to make war upon him; andas the king believed what they said, he knew not what to do, since hesaw his antagonist was stronger than he was himself. And now, sinceHerod was made general of Coelesyria and Samaria by Sextus Caesar, hewas formidable, not only from the good-will which the nation bore him, but by the power he himself had; insomuch that Hyrcanus fell into theutmost degree of terror, and expected he would presently march againsthim with his army. 

9. Nor was he mistaken in the conjecture he made; for Herod got his armytogether, out of the anger he bare him for his threatening him with theaccusation in a public court, and led it to Jerusalem, in order to throwHyrcanus down from his kingdom; and this he had soon done, unless hisfather and brother had gone out together and broken the force of hisfury, and this by exhorting him to carry his revenge no further than tothreatening and affrighting, but to spare the king, under whom he hadbeen advanced to such a degree of power; and that he ought not to be somuch provoked at his being tried, as to forget to be thankful thathe was acquitted; nor so long to think upon what was of a melancholynature, as to be ungrateful for his deliverance; and if we ought toreckon that God is the arbitrator of success in war, an unjust causeis of more disadvantage than an army can be of advantage; and thattherefore he ought not to be entirely confident of success in a casewhere he is to fight against his king, his supporter, and one that hadoften been his benefactor, and that had never been severe to him, anyotherwise than as he had hearkened to evil counselors, and this nofurther than by bringing a shadow of injustice upon him. So Herod wasprevailed upon by these arguments, and supposed that what he had alreadydone was sufficient for his future hopes, and that he had enough shownhis power to the nation. 

10. In the mean time, there was a disturbance among the Romans aboutApamia, and a civil war occasioned by the treacherous slaughter ofSextus Caesar, by Cecilius Bassus, which he perpetrated out of hisgood-will to Pompey; he also took the authority over his forces; but asthe rest of Caesar's commanders attacked Bassus with their whole army, in order to punish him for the murder of Caesar, Antipater also sentthem 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 weretheir 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 thesudden and treacherous slaughter of Caesar by Cassius and Brutus, afterhe had held the government for three years and seven months. [14] Uponthis murder there were very great agitations, and the great men weremightily at difference one with another, and every one betook himself tothat party where they had the greatest hopes of their own, of advancingthemselves. Accordingly, Cassius came into Syria, in order to receivethe forces that were at Apamia, where he procured a reconciliationbetween Bassus and Marcus, and the legions which were at difference withhim; so he raised the siege of Apamia, and took upon him the command ofthe army, and went about exacting tribute of the cities, and demandingtheir money to such a degree as they were not able to bear. 

2. So he gave command that the Jews should bring in seven hundredtalents; whereupon Antipater, out of his dread of Cassius's threats, parted the raising of this sum among his sons, and among others of hisacquaintance, and to be done immediately; and among them he requiredone Malichus, who was at enmity with him, to do his part also, whichnecessity forced him to do. Now Herod, in the first place, mitigated thepassion of Cassius, by bringing his share out of Galilee, which was ahundred 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 thecities themselves; so he made slaves of Gophna and Emmaus, and twoothers of less note; nay, he proceeded as if he would kill Malichus, because he had not made greater haste in exacting his tribute; butAntipater prevented the ruin of this man, and of the other cities, andgot into Cassius's favor by bringing in a hundred talents immediately. [15]

3. However, when Cassius was gone Malichus forgot the kindness thatAntipater had done him, and laid frequent plots against him thathad saved him, as making haste to get him out of the way, who was anobstacle to his wicked practices; but Antipater was so much afraid ofthe power and cunning of the man, that he went beyond Jordan, in orderto get an army to guard himself against his treacherous designs; butwhen Malichus was caught in his plot, he put upon Antipater's sons byhis impudence, for he thoroughly deluded Phasaelus, who was the guardianof Jerusalem, and Herod who was intrusted with the weapons of war, andthis by a great many excuses and oaths, and persuaded them to procurehis reconciliation to his father. Thus was he preserved again byAntipater, who dissuaded Marcus, the then president of Syria, fromhis resolution of killing Malichus, on account of his attempts forinnovation. 

4. Upon the war between Cassius and Brutus on one side, against theyounger Caesar [Augustus] and Antony on the other, Cassius and Marcusgot together an army out of Syria; and because Herod was likely to havea great share in providing necessaries, they then made him procurator ofall Syria, and gave him an army of foot and horse. Cassius premised himalso, that after the war was over, he would make him king of Judea. Butit so happened that the power and hopes of his son became the cause ofhis perdition; for as Malichus was afraid of this, he corrupted oneof the king's cup-bearers with money to give a poisoned potion toAntipater; so he became a sacrifice to Malichus's wickedness, and diedat a feast. He was a man in other respects active in the managementof affairs, and one that recovered the government to Hyrcanus, andpreserved it in his hands. 

5. However, Malichus, when lie was suspected ef poisoning Antipater, andwhen the multitude was angry with him for it, denied it, and made thepeople believe he was not guilty. He also prepared to make a greaterfigure, and raised soldiers; for he did not suppose that Herod wouldbe quiet, who indeed came upon him with an army presently, in order torevenge his father's death; but, upon hearing the advice of his brotherPhasaelus, not to punish him in an open manner, lest the multitudeshould fall into a sedition, he admitted of Malichus's apology, andprofessed that he cleared him of that suspicion; he also made a pompousfuneral for his father. 

6. So Herod went to Samaria, which was then in a tumult, and settled thecity in peace; after which at the [Pentecost] festival, he returnedto Jerusalem, having his armed men with him: hereupon Hyrcanus, at therequest of Malichus, who feared his reproach, forbade them to introduceforeigners to mix themselves with the people of the country while theywere purifying themselves; but Herod despised the pretense, and him thatgave that command, and came in by night. Upon which Malithus came tohim, and bewailed Antipater; Herod also made him believe [he admittedof his lamentations as real], although he had much ado to restrain hispassion at him; however, he did himself bewail the murder of his fatherin his letters to Cassius, who, on other accounts, also hated Malichus. Cassius sent him word back that he should avenge his father's death uponhim, and privately gave order to the tribunes that were under him, thatthey should assist Herod in a righteous action he was about. 

7. And because, upon the taking of Laodicea by Cassius, the men of powerwere gotten together from all quarters, with presents and crowns intheir hands, Herod allotted this time for the punishment of Malichus. When Malichus suspected that, and was at Tyre, he resolved to withdrawhis son privately from among the Tyrians, who was a hostage there, whilehe got ready to fly away into Judea; the despair he was in of escapingexcited him to think of greater things; for he hoped that he shouldraise the nation to a revolt from the Romans, while Cassius was busyabout 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 hewas so zealous about, and invited both Hyrcanus and him to supper; butcalling one of the principal servants that stood by him to him, hesent him out, as though it were to get things ready for supper, but inreality to give notice beforehand about the plot that was laid againsthim; accordingly they called to mind what orders Cassius had giventhem, and went out of the city with their swords in their hands upon thesea-shore, where they encompassed Malichus round about, and killed himwith many wounds. Upon which Hyrcanus was immediately aftrighted, tillhe swooned away and fell down at the surprise he was in; and it waswith difficulty that he was recovered, when he asked who it was that hadkilled Malichus. And when one of the tribunes replied that it was doneby the command of Cassius, "Then, " said he, "Cassius hath saved both meand my country, by cutting off one that was laying plots against themboth. " Whether he spake according to his own sentiments, or whether hisfear was such that he was obliged to commend the action by saying so, is uncertain; however, by this method Herod inflicted punishment uponMalichus. 

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 atJerusalem, wherein Felix assaulted Phasaelus with an army, that he mightrevenge 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 bysickness; in the mean time, Phasaelus was by himself too hard for Felix, and reproached Hyrcanus on account of his ingratitude, both for whatassistance he had afforded Maliehus, and for overlooking Malichus'sbrother, when he possessed himself of the fortresses; for he had gottena 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 ofHerod, who, as soon as he was recovered, took the other fortressesagain, and drove him out of Masada in the posture of a supplicant; healso drove away Marion, the tyrant of the Tyrians, out of Galilee, whenhe had already possessed himself of three fortified places; but as tothose Tyrians whom he had caught, he preserved them all alive; nay, someof them he gave presents to, and so sent them away, and thereby procuredgood-will to himself from the city, and hatred to the tyrant. Marion hadindeed obtained that tyrannical power of Cassius, who set tyrantsover all Syria [16] and out of hatred to Herod it was that he assistedAntigonus, the son of Aristobulus, and principally on Fabius's account, whom Antigonus had made his assistant by money, and had him accordinglyon his side when he made his descent; but it was Ptolemy, the kinsman ofAntigonus, that supplied all that he wanted. 

3. When Herod had fought against these in the avenues of Judea, hewas conqueror in the battle, and drove away Antigonus, and returned toJerusalem, 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 hadformerly 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 marryMariamne, the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, and thegranddaughter of Hyrcanus, and was become thereby a relation of theking. 

4. But when Caesar and Antony had slain Cassius near Philippi, andCaesar was gone to Italy, and Antony to Asia, amongst the rest of thecities which sent ambassadors to Antony unto Bithynia, the great men ofthe Jews came also, and accused Phasaelus and Herod, that they kept thegovernment by force, and that Hyrcanus had no more than an honorablename. Herod appeared ready to answer this accusation; and having madeAntony his friend by the large sums of money which he gave him, hebrought him to such a temper as not to hear the others speak againsthim; and thus did they part at this time. 

5. However, after this, there came a hundred of the principal men amongthe Jews to Daphne by Antioch to Antony, who was already in love withCleopatra to the degree of slavery; these Jews put those men that werethe most potent, both in dignity and eloquence, foremost, and accusedthe brethren. [17] But Messala opposed them, and defended the brethren, and that while Hyrcanus stood by him, on account of his relation tothem. When Antony had heard both sides, he asked Hyrcanus which partywas the fittest to govern, who replied that Herod and his party werethe fittest. Antony was glad of that answer, for he had been formerlytreated in an hospitable and obliging manner by his father Antipater, when he marched into Judea with Gabinius; so he constituted the brethrentetrarchs, and committed to them the government of Judea. 

6. But when the ambassadors had indignation at this procedure, Antonytook fifteen of them, and put them into custody, whom he was also goingto kill presently, and the rest he drove away with disgrace; on whichoccasion a still greater tumult arose at Jerusalem; so they sent again athousand ambassadors to Tyre, where Antony now abode, as he was marchingto Jerusalem; upon these men who made a clamor he sent out the governorof Tyre, and ordered him to punish all that he could catch of them, andto settle those in the administration whom he had made tetrarchs. 

7. But before this Herod, and Hyrcanus went out upon the sea-shore, andearnestly desired of these ambassadors that they would neither bringruin upon themselves, nor war upon their native country, by their rashcontentions; and when they grew still more outrageous, Antony sent outarmed men, and slew a great many, and wounded more of them; of whomthose that were slain were buried by Hyrcanus, as were the woundedput under the care of physicians by him; yet would not those thathad escaped be quiet still, but put the affairs of the city into suchdisorder, and so provoked Antony, that he slew those whom he had inbonds 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 theParthians, and Paeorus, the king's son, had possessed themselves ofSyria, and when Lysanias had already succeeded upon the death of hisfather Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, in the government [of Chalcis], heprevailed with the governor, by a promise of a thousand talents, andfive hundred women, to bring back Antigonus to his kingdom, and to turnHyrcanus out of it. Pacorus was by these means induced so to do, andmarched along the sea-coast, while he ordered Barzapharnes to fall uponthe Jews as he went along the Mediterranean part of the country; butof the maritime people, the Tyrians would not receive Pacorus, althoughthose of Ptolemais and Sidon had received him; so he committed a troopof 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, inorder to learn the state of affairs among their enemies, and to helpAntigonus when he should want his assistance. 

2. Now as these men were ravaging Carmel, many of the Jews ran togetherto Antigonus, and showed themselves ready to make an incursion intothe country; so he sent them before into that place called Drymus, [thewoodland [18] ] to seize upon the place; whereupon a battle was foughtbetween them, and they drove the enemy away, and pursued them, and ranafter them as far as Jerusalem, and as their numbers increased, theyproceeded as far as the king's palace; but as Hyrcanus and Phasaelusreceived them with a strong body of men, there happened a battle in themarket-place, in which Herod's party beat the enemy, and shut them upin the temple, and set sixty men in the houses adjoining as a guard tothem. But the people that were tumultuous against the brethren came in, and burnt those men; while Herod, in his rage for killing them, attackedand slew many of the people, till one party made incursions on the otherby turns, day by day, in the way of ambushes, and slaughters were madecontinually among them. 

3. Now when that festival which we call Pentecost was at hand, all theplaces about the temple, and the whole city, was full of a multitude ofpeople that were come out of the country, and which were the greatestpart of them armed also, at which time Phasaelus guarded the wall, andHerod, with a few, guarded the royal palace; and when he made an assaultupon his enemies, as they were out of their ranks, on the north quarterof the city, he slew a very great number of them, and put them all toflight; and some of them he shut up within the city, and others withinthe outward rampart. In the mean time, Antigonus desired that Pacorusmight be admitted to be a reconciler between them; and Phasaelus wasprevailed upon to admit the Parthian into the city with five hundredhorse, and to treat him in an hospitable manner, who pretended that hecame 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 anambassador to Barzapharnes, in order to put an end to the war, althoughHerod was very earnest with him to the contrary, and exhorted him tokill the plotter, but not expose himself to the snares he had laid forhim, because the barbarians are naturally perfidious. However, Pacorus went out and took Hyrcanus with him, that he might be the lesssuspected; 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 peopleof that country had revolted, and were in arms, who came very cunninglyto their leader, and besought him to conceal his treacherous intentionsby an obliging behavior to them; accordingly, he at first made thempresents; and afterward, as they went away, laid ambushes for them; andwhen they were come to one of the maritime cities called Ecdippon, theyperceived that a plot was laid for them; for they were there informedof the promise of a thousand talents, and how Antigonus had devoted thegreatest number of the women that were there with them, among the fivehundred, to the Parthians; they also perceived that an ambush was alwayslaid for them by the barbarians in the night time; they had also beenseized on before this, unless they had waited for the seizure of Herodfirst at Jerusalem, because if he were once informed of this treacheryof 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 hadlearned the whole scheme of the plot from Saramalla, the richest ofall the Syrians. But Phasaelus went up to the Parfilian governor, andreproached him to his face for laying this treacherous plot againstthem, and chiefly because he had done it for money; and he promised himthat he would give him more money for their preservation, than Antigonushad promised to give for the kingdom. But the sly Parthian endeavored toremove all this suspicion by apologies and by oaths, and then went [tothe other] Pacorus; immediately after which those Parthians who wereleft, and had it in charge, seized upon Phasaelus and Hyrcanus, whocould 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 howto 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 thebeginning; and having then received intelligence that a messenger, who was to bring him the letters that informed him of the treacheryintended, 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 meetthe messengers that brought the letters, for that the enemy had nottaken them, and that the contents of them were not accounts of any plotsupon them, but of what Phasaelus had done; yet had he heard from othersthat his brother was seized; and Alexandra [20] the shrewdest woman inthe 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 anattempt upon him openly. 

7. Now as Pacorus and his friends were considering how they might bringtheir plot to bear privately, because it was not possible to circumventa man of so great prudence by openly attacking him, Herod preventedthem, and went off with the persons that were the most nearly related tohim by night, and this without their enemies being apprized of it. Butas soon as the Parthians perceived it, they pursued after them; and ashe gave orders for his mother, and sister, and the young woman who wasbetrothed to him, with her mother, and his youngest brother, to make thebest of their way, he himself, with his servants, took all the care theycould to keep off the barbarians; and when at every assault he had slaina 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 himthan did the Parthians, and created him troubles perpetually, and thisever since he was gotten sixty furlongs from the city; these sometimesbrought it to a sort of a regular battle. Now in the place where Herodbeat them, and killed a great number of them, there he afterward builta citadel, in memory of the great actions he did there, and adorned itwith the most costly palaces, and erected very strong fortifications, and called it, from his own name, Herodium. Now as they were in theirflight, many joined themselves to him every day; and at a place calledThressa of Idumea his brother Joseph met him, and advised him to easehimself of a great number of his followers, because Masada would notcontain so great a multitude, which were above nine thousand. Herodcomplied with this advice, and sent away the most cumbersome part of hisretinue, that they might go into Idumea, and gave them provisionsfor their journey; but he got safe to the fortress with his nearestrelations, and retained with him only the stoutest of his followers; andthere it was that he left eight hundred of his men as a guard for thewomen, and provisions sufficient for a siege; but he made haste himselfto Petra of Arabia. 

9. As for the Parthians in Jerusalem, they betook themselves toplundering, and fell upon the houses of those that were fled, and uponthe king's palace, and spared nothing but Hyrcanus's money, which wasnot 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 hada suspicion of the perfidiousness of the barbarians, had taken care tohave what was most splendid among his treasures conveyed into Idumea, as every one belonging to him had in like manner done also. But theParthians proceeded to that degree of injustice, as to fill all thecountry with war without denouncing it, and to demolish the cityMarissa, and not only to set up Antigonus for king, but to deliverPhasaelus and Hyrcanus bound into his hands, in order to their beingtormented by him. Antigonus himself also bit off Hyrcanus's ears withhis own teeth, as he fell down upon his knees to him, that so he mightnever be able upon any mutation of affairs to take the high priesthoodagain, for the high priests that officiated were to be complete, andwithout blemish. 

10. However, he failed in his purpose of abusing Phasaelus, by reason ofhis courage; for though he neither had the command of his sword nor ofhis hands, he prevented all abuses by dashing his head against a stone;so he demonstrated himself to be Herod's own brother, and Hyrcanus amost degenerate relation, and died with great bravery, and made the endof his life agreeable to the actions of it. There is also anotherreport about his end, viz. That he recovered of that stroke, and thata surgeon, who was sent by Antigonus to heal him, filled the wound withpoisonous ingredients, and so killed him; whichsoever of these deathshe came to, the beginning of it was glorious. It is also reported thatbefore he expired he was informed by a certain poor woman how Herod hadescaped out of their hands, and that he said thereupon, "I now die withcomfort, since I leave behind me one alive that will avenge me of mineenemies. "

11. This was the death of Phasaelus; but the Parthians, although theyhad failed of the women they chiefly desired, yet did they put thegovernment of Jerusalem into the hands of Antigonus, and took awayHyrcanus, 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, asmaking 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 covetoustemper of the barbarians to spare Phasaelus; for he reasoned thus withhimself:--that if the Arabian king was too forgetful of his father'sfriendship with him, and was too covetous to make him a free gift, hewould however borrow of him as much as might redeem his brother, andput 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 ageof seven years. Now he was ready to give three hundred talents for hisbrother, and intended to desire the intercession of the Tyrians, to getthem 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 theArabians; for their king, Malichus, sent to him immediately, andcommanded him to return back out of his country, and used the name ofthe Parthians as a pretense for so doing, as though these had denouncedto him by their ambassadors to cast Herod out of Arabia; while inreality they had a mind to keep back what they owed to Antipater, andnot be obliged to make requitals to his sons for the free gifts thefather had made them. He also took the impudent advice of those who, equally with himself, were willing to deprive Herod of what Antipaterhad deposited among them; and these men were the most potent of all whomhe had in his kingdom. 

2. So when Herod had found that the Arabians were his enemies, and thisfor those very reasons whence he hoped they would have been the mostfriendly, and had given them such an answer as his passion suggested, he returned back, and went for Egypt. Now he lodged the first evening atone of the temples of that country, in order to meet with those whom heleft behind; but on the next day word was brought him, as he was goingto 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 couldbear, he soon laid aside such cares, and proceeded on his journey. Butnow, after some time, the king of Arabia repented of what he had done, and sent presently away messengers to call him back: Herod had preventedthem, and was come to Pelusium, where he could not obtain a passage fromthose that lay with the fleet, so he besought their captains to let himgo by them; accordingly, out of the reverence they bore to the fame anddignity of the man, they conducted him to Alexandria; and when he cameinto the city, he was received by Cleopatra with great splendor, who hoped he might be persuaded to be commander of her forces in theexpedition she was now about; but he rejected the queen's solicitations, and being neither afrighted at the height of that storm which thenhappened, 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 outthe greatest part of the ship's lading, he with difficulty got safeto Rhodes, a place which had been grievously harassed in the war withCassius. He was there received by his friends, Ptolemy and Sappinius;and although he was then in want of money, he fitted up a three-deckedship of very great magnitude, wherein he and his friends sailed toBrundusium, [21] and went thence to Rome with all speed; where he firstof all went to Antony, on account of the friendship his father had withhim, and laid before him the calamities of himself and his family; andthat he had left his nearest relations besieged in a fortress, andhad sailed to him through a storm, to make supplication to him forassistance. 

4. Hereupon Antony was moved to compassion at the change that had beenmade in Herod's affairs, and this both upon his calling to mind howhospitably he had been treated by Antipater, but more especially onaccount of Herod's own virtue; so he then resolved to get him made kingof the Jews, whom he had himself formerly made tetrarch. The contestalso that he had with Antigonus was another inducement, and that of noless weight than the great regard he had for Herod; for he looked uponAntigonus as a seditious person, and an enemy of the Romans; and as forCaesar, Herod found him better prepared than Antony, as rememberingvery fresh the wars he had gone through together with his father, thehospitable treatment he had met with from him, and the entire good-willhe had showed to him; besides the activity which he saw in Herodhimself. So he called the senate together, wherein Messalas, and afterhim Atratinus, produced Herod before them, and gave a full account ofthe merits of his father, and his own good-will to the Romans. At thesame time they demonstrated that Antigonus was their enemy, not onlybecause he soon quarreled with them, but because he now overlooked theRomans, and took the government by the means of the Parthians. Thesereasons greatly moved the senate; at which juncture Antony came in, andtold them that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herodshould be king; so they all gave their votes for it. And when the senatewas separated, Antony and Caesar went out, with Herod between them;while the consul and the rest of the magistrates went before them, inorder to offer sacrifices, and to lay the decree in the Capitol. Antonyalso 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 wantof water; on which account Joseph, Herod's brother, was disposed to runaway to the Arabians, with two hundred of his own friends, because hehad 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 fortressalready, unless, on that very night when he was going away, there hadfallen a great deal of rain, insomuch that his reservoirs were full ofwater, and so he was under no necessity of running away. After which, therefore, they made an irruption upon Antigonus's party, and slew agreat many of them, some in open battles, and some in private ambush;nor had they always success in their attempts, for sometimes they werebeaten, 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 hiscamp very near to Jerusalem, as soon as he had got money enough, he wentaway with the greatest part of his forces; yet still did he leave Silowith some part of them, lest if he had taken them all away, his takingof bribes might have been too openly discovered. Now Antigonus hopedthat the Parthians would come again to his assistance, and thereforecultivated a good understanding with Silo in the mean time, lest anyinterruption should be given to his hopes. 

3. Now by this time Herod had sailed out of Italy, and was come toPtolemais; and as soon as he had gotten together no small army offoreigners, and of his own countrymen, he marched through Galileeagainst Antigonus, wherein he was assisted by Ventidius and Silo, bothwhom Dellius, [22] a person sent by Antony, persuaded to bring Herod[into his kingdom]. Now Ventidius was at this time among the cities, andcomposing the disturbances which had happened by means of the Parthians, as was Silo in Judea corrupted by the bribes that Antigonus had givenhim; yet was not Herod himself destitute of power, but the number of hisforces increased every day as he went along, and all Galilee, with fewexceptions, joined themselves to him. So he proposed to himself to setabout his most necessary enterprise, and that was Masada, in order todeliver his relations from the siege they endured. But still Joppa stoodin his way, and hindered his going thither; for it was necessary to takethat city first, which was in the enemies' hands, that when he shouldgo to Jerusalem, no fortress might be left in the enemies' power behindhim. Silo also willingly joined him, as having now a plausible occasionof drawing off his forces [from Jerusalem]; and when the Jews pursuedhim, and pressed upon him, [in his retreat, ] Herod made all excursionupon them with a small body of his men, and soon put them to flight, andsaved 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 wasmarching, many came in to him, induced by their friendship to hisfather, some by the reputation he had already gained himself, and somein order to repay the benefits they had received from them both; butstill what engaged the greatest number on his side, was the hopes fromhim when he should be established in his kingdom; so that he had gottentogether already an army hard to be conquered. But Antigonus laid anambush for him as he marched out, in which he did little or no harm tohis enemies. However, he easily recovered his relations again that werein Masada, as well as the fortress Ressa, and then marched to Jerusalem, where the soldiers that were with Silo joined themselves to his own, asdid 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, theguards 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 wascome for the good of the people and the preservation of the city, without any design to be revenged on his open enemies, but to grantoblivion to them, though they had been the most obstinate against him. Now the soldiers that were for Antigonus made a contrary clamor, and didneither permit any body to hear that proclamation, nor to change theirparty; so Antigonus gave order to his forces to beat the enemy from thewalls; 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 setmany of the soldiers to clamor about their want of necessaries, and torequire their pay, in order to buy themselves food, and to demand thathe would lead them into places convenient for their winter quarters;because all the parts about the city were laid waste by the means ofAntigonus's army, which had taken all things away. By this he moved thearmy, and attempted to get them off the siege; but Herod went to thecaptains that were under Silo, and to a great many of the soldiers, andbegged of them not to leave him, who was sent thither by Caesar, andAntony, and the senate; for that he would take care to have their wantssupplied that very day. After the making of which entreaty, he wenthastily into the country, and brought thither so great an abundanceof necessaries, that he cut off all Silo's pretenses; and in order toprovide that for the following days they should not want supplies, hesent to the people that were about Samaria [which city had joined itselfto him] to bring corn, and wine, and oil, and cattle to Jericho. WhenAntigonus heard of this, he sent some of his party with orders tohinder, and lay ambushes for these collectors of corn. This command wasobeyed, and a great multitude of armed men were gathered together aboutJericho, and lay upon the mountains, to watch those that brought theprovisions. Yet was Herod not idle, but took with him ten cohorts, fiveof them were Romans, and five were Jewish cohorts, together withsome mercenary troops intermixed among them, and besides those a fewhorsemen, and came to Jericho; and when he came, he found the citydeserted, but that there were five hundred men, with their wives andchildren, who had taken possession of the tops of the mountains; thesehe took, and dismissed them, while the Romans fell upon the rest of thecity, and plundered it, having found the houses full of all sorts ofgood things. So the king left a garrison at Jericho, and came back, andsent the Roman army into those cities which were come over to him, totake their winter quarters there, viz. Into Judea, [or Idumea, ] andGalilee, and Samaria. Antigonus also by bribes obtained of Silo to let apart 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 Macheras, 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 bysending his brother Joseph thither, that no innovation might be made byAntigonus. He also removed his mother, and all his relations, who hadbeen in Masada, to Samaria; and when he had settled them securely, hemarched to take the remaining parts of Galilee, and to drive away thegarrisons placed there by Antigonus. 

2. But when Herod had reached Sepphoris, [23] in a very great snow, hetook the city without any difficulty; the guards that should have keptit flying away before it was assaulted; where he gave an opportunityto his followers that had been in distress to refresh themselves, therebeing in that city a great abundance of necessaries. After which hehasted away to the robbers that were in the caves, who overran a greatpart of the country, and did as great mischief to its inhabitants asa war itself could have done. Accordingly, he sent beforehand threecohorts of footmen, and one troop of horsemen, to the village Arbela, and came himself forty days afterwards [24] with the rest of his forcesYet were not the enemy aftrighted at his assault but met him in arms;for their skill was that of warriors, but their boldness was theboldness 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 theirassistance, and both made his own left wing return back from its flight, and fell upon the pursuers, and cooled their courage, till they couldnot bear the attempts that were made directly upon them, and so turnedback and ran away. 3. But Herod followed them, and slew them as hefollowed them, and destroyed a great part of them, till those thatremained were scattered beyond the river [Jordan;] and Galilee wasfreed from the terrors they had been under, excepting from those thatremained, and lay concealed in caves, which required longer time erethey could be conquered. In order to which Herod, in the first place, distributed the fruits of their former labors to the soldiers, and gaveevery one of them a hundred and fifty drachmae of silver, and a greatdeal more to their commanders, and sent them into their winter quarters. He also sent to his youngest brother Pheroas, to take care of a goodmarket for them, where they might buy themselves provisions, and tobuild a wall about Alexandrium; who took care of both those injunctionsaccordingly. 

4. In the mean time Antony abode at Athens, while Ventidiuscalled for Silo and Herod to come to the war against the Parthians, butordered them first to settle the affairs of Judea; so Herod willinglydismissed Silo to go to Ventidius, but he made an expedition himselfagainst those that lay in the caves. Now these caves were in theprecipices of craggy mountains, and could not be come at from any side, since they had only some winding pathways, very narrow, by which theygot up to them; but the rock that lay on their front had beneath itvalleys of a vast depth, and of an almost perpendicular declivity;insomuch that the king was doubtful for a long time what to do, byreason 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 theutmost hazard; for he let down the most hardy of his men in chests, andset them at the mouths of the dens. Now these men slew the robbers andtheir families, and when they made resistance, they sent in fire uponthem [and burnt them]; and as Herod was desirous of saving some of them, he had proclamation made, that they should come and deliver themselvesup to him; but not one of them came willingly to him; and of those thatwere compelled to come, many preferred death to captivity. And here acertain old man, the father of seven children, whose children, togetherwith their mother, desired him to give them leave to go out, upon theassurance and right hand that was offered them, slew them after thefollowing manner: He ordered every one of them to go out, while he stoodhimself at the cave's mouth, and slew that son of his perpetually whowent out. Herod was near enough to see this sight, and his bowels ofcompassion were moved at it, and he stretched out his right hand to theold man, and besought him to spare his children; yet did not he relentat all upon what he said, but over and above reproached Herod on thelowness of his descent, and slew his wife as well as his children; andwhen he had thrown their dead bodies down the precipice, he at lastthrew himself down after them. 

5. By this means Herod subdued these caves, and the robbers that werein them. He then left there a part of his army, as many as he thoughtsufficient to prevent any sedition, and made Ptolemy their general, andreturned to Samaria; he led also with him three thousand armed footmen, and six hundred horsemen, against Antigonus. Now here those that usedto 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, andto places not easily to be found. But when Herod was informed of thisinsurrection, he came to the assistance of the country immediately, anddestroyed a great number of the seditions, and raised the sieges of allthose fortresses they had besieged; he also exacted the tribute of ahundred talents of his enemies, as a penalty for the mutations they hadmade 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 thousandhorsemen, and two legions, as auxiliaries to Herod, against Antigonus. Now Antigonus besought Macheras, who was their general, by letter, tocome to his assistance, and made a great many mournful complaints aboutHerod's violence, and about the injuries he did to the kingdom; andpromised to give him money for such his assistance; but he complied notwith his invitation to betray his trust, for he did not contemn him thatsent him, especially while Herod gave him more money [than the otheroffered]. So he pretended friendship to Antigonus, but came as a spy todiscover his affairs; although he did not herein comply with Herod, whodissuaded him from so doing. But Antigonus perceived what his intentionswere beforehand, and excluded him out of the city, and defended himselfagainst him as against an enemy, from the walls; till Macheras wasashamed of what he had done, and retired to Emmaus to Herod; and as hewas in a rage at his disappointment, he slew all the Jews whom he metwith, without sparing those that were for Herod, but using them all asif they were for Antigonus. 

7. Hereupon Herod was very angry at him, and was going to fight againstMacheras as his enemy; but he restrained his indignation, and marchedto Antony to accuse Macheras of maladministration. But Macheras was madesensible 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 hiscourage, and for doing what would greatly oblige Antony. Indeed, when hecame, he soon made an end of that siege, and slew a great number of thebarbarians, and took from them a large prey; insomuch that Antony, whoadmired his courage formerly, did now admire it still more. Accordingly, he heaped many more honors upon him, and gave him more assured hopesthat he should gain his kingdom; and now king Antiochus was forced todeliver 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. Hehad left his brother Joseph with full power, but had charged him to makeno attempts against Antigonus till his return; for that Macheras wouldnot be such an assistant as he could depend on, as it appeared by whathe had done already; but as soon as Joseph heard that his brother wasat a very great distance, he neglected the charge he had received, andmarched towards Jericho with five cohorts, which Macheras sent with him. This movement was intended for seizing on the corn, as it was now in themidst of summer; but when his enemies attacked him in the mountains, andin places which were difficult to pass, he was both killed himself, ashe was very bravely fighting in the battle, and the entire Roman cohortswere destroyed; for these cohorts were new-raised men, gathered out ofSyria, and here was no mixture of those called veteran soldiers amongthem, who might have supported those that were unskillful in war. 

2. This victory was not sufficient for Antigonus; but he proceeded tothat 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 givenfifty talents as a price of redemption for it. And now the affairs ofGalilee were put in such disorder after this victory of Antigonus's, that those of Antigonus's party brought the principal men that wereon Herod's side to the lake, and there drowned them. There was a greatchange made also in Idumea, where Macheras was building a wall about oneof the fortresses, which was called Gittha. But Herod had not yet beeninformed of these things; for after the taking of Samosata, and whenAntony had set Sosius over the affairs of Syria, and had given himorders to assist Herod against Antigonus, he departed into Egypt; butSosius sent two legions before him into Judea to assist Herod, andfollowed himself soon after with the rest of his army. 

3. Now when Herod was at Daphne, by Antioch, he had some dreams whichclearly foreboded his brother's death; and as he leaped out of his bedin a disturbed manner, there came messengers that acquainted him withthat calamity. So when he had lamented this misfortune for a while, heput off the main part of his mourning, and made haste to march againsthis enemies; and when he had performed a march that was above hisstrength, and was gone as far as Libanus, he got him eight hundred menof those that lived near to that mountain as his assistants, and joinedwith them one Roman legion, with which, before it was day, he made anirruption into Galilee, and met his enemies, and drove them back tothe place which they had left. He also made an immediate and continualattack upon the fortress. Yet was he forced by a most terrible storm topitch his camp in the neighboring villages before he could take it. Butwhen, after a few days' time, the second legion, that came from Antony, joined themselves to him, the enemy were aftrighted at his power, andleft their fortifications ill the night time. 

4. After this he marched through Jericho, as making what haste hecould to be avenged on his brother's murderers; where happened to hima providential sign, out of which, when he had unexpectedly escaped, he had the reputation of being very dear to God; for that evening therefeasted with him many of the principal men; and after that feast wasover, 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 shouldundergo, and how he should escape them in the war that he was goingabout, he, in the morning, set forward with his army, when about sixthousand of his enemies came running down from the mountains, and beganto fight with those in his forefront; yet durst they not be so very boldas to engage the Romans hand to hand, but threw stones and darts at themat a distance; by which means they wounded a considerable number; inwhich action Herod's own side was wounded with a dart. 

5. Now as Antigonus had a mind to appear to exceed Herod, not only inthe courage, but in the number of his men, he sent Pappus, one of hiscompanions, with an army against Samaria, whose fortune it was to opposeMacheras; but Herod overran the enemy's country, and demolished fivelittle cities, and destroyed two thousand men that were in them, and burned their houses, and then returned to his camp; but hishead-quarters were at the village called Cana. 

6. Now a great multitude of Jews resorted to him every day, both out ofJericho and the other parts of the country. Some were moved so to doout of their hatred to Antigonus, and some out of regard to the gloriousactions Herod had done; but others were led on by an unreasonable desireof change; so he fell upon them immediately. As for Pappus and hisparty, 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 aclose 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 themurder of his brother, that he might be avenged on those that had beenthe authors of it, soon beat those that opposed him; and after he hadbeaten them, he always turned his force against those that stood to itstill, and pursued them all; so that a great slaughter was made, whilesome were forced back into that village whence they came out; he alsopressed hard upon the hindermost, and slew a vast number of them; healso fell into the village with the enemy, where every house was filledwith armed men, and the upper rooms were crowded above with soldiers fortheir 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 themwith their swords in their hands; and the multitude of those slain andlying on heaps was so great, that the conquerors could not pass alongthe roads. Now the enemy could not bear this blow, so that when themultitude of them which was gathered together saw that those in thevillage were slain, they dispersed themselves, and fled away; upon theconfidence of which victory, Herod had marched immediately to Jerusalem, unless he tad been hindered by the depth of winter's [coming on]. Thiswas the impediment that lay in the way of this his entire gloriousprogress, and was what hindered Antigonus from being now conquered, whowas already disposed to forsake the city. 

7. Now when at the evening Herod had already dismissed his friends torefresh themselves after their fatigue, and when he was gone himself, while he was still hot in his armor, like a common soldier, to bathehimself, and had but one servant that attended him, and before he wasgotten into the bath, one of the enemies met him in the face with asword in his hand, and then a second, and then a third, and after thatmore of them; these were men who had run away out of the battle intothe bath in their armor, and they had lain there for some time in, greatterror, and in privacy; and when they saw the king, they trembled forfear, and ran by him in a flight, although he was naked, and endeavoredto get off into the public road. Now there was by chance nobody else athand that might seize upon these men; and for Herod, he was contented tohave 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 thegeneral for Antigonus, and was slain in the battle, and sent it to hisbrother Pheroras, by way of punishment for their slain brother; for hewas the man that slew Joseph. Now as winter was going off, Herod marchedto Jerusalem, and brought his army to the wall of it; this was the thirdyear since he had been made king at Rome; so he pitched his camp beforethe temple, for on that side it might be besieged, and there it wasthat Pompey took the city. So he parted the work among the army, anddemolished the suburbs, end raised three banks, and gave orders tohave towers built upon those banks, and left the most laborious of hisacquaintance at the works. But he went himself to Samaria, to take thedaughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus, to wife, who hadbeen betrothed to him before, as we have already said; and thus heaccomplished this by the by, during the siege of the city, for he hadhis enemies in great contempt already. 

9. When he had thus married Mariamne, he came back to Jerusalem with agreater army. Sosius also joined him with a large army, both of horsemenand footmen, which he sent before him through the midland parts, whilehe marched himself along Phoenicia; and when the whole army was gottentogether, which were eleven regiments of footmen, and six thousandhorsemen, besides the Syrian auxiliaries, which were no small partof the army, they pitched their camp near to the north wall. Herod'sdependence 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 toHerod'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 intoseveral factions; for the people that crowded about the temple, beingthe weaker part of them, gave it out that, as the times were, he was thehappiest and most religious man who should die first. But as to themore bold and hardy men, they got together in bodies, and fell a robbingothers after various manners, and these particularly plundered theplaces that were about the city, and this because there was no food lefteither for the horses or the men; yet some of the warlike men, who wereused to fight regularly, were appointed to defend the city during thesiege, and these drove those that raised the banks away from thewall; and these were always inventing some engine or another to be ahinderance to the engines of the enemy; nor had they so much success anyway as in the mines under ground. 

2. Now as for the robberies which were committed, the king contrivedthat ambushes should be so laid, that they might restrain theirexcursions; and as for the want of provisions, he provided that theyshould be brought to them from great distances. He was also too hardfor the Jews, by the Romans' skill in the art of war; although they werebold to the utmost degree, now they durst not come to a plain battlewith the Romans, which was certain death; but through their mines underground they would appear in the midst of them on the sudden, and beforethey could batter down one wall, they built them another in itsstead; and to sum up all at once, they did not show any want either ofpainstaking or of contrivances, as having resolved to hold out to thevery last. Indeed, though they had so great an army lying round aboutthem, they bore a siege of five months, till some of Herod's chosen menventured to get upon the wall, and fell into the city, as did Sosius'scenturions after them; and now they first of all seized upon whatwas about the temple; and upon the pouring in of the army, there wasslaughter of vast multitudes every where, by reason of the rage theRomans were in at the length of this siege, and by reason that the Jewswho were about Herod earnestly endeavored that none of their adversariesmight remain; so they were cut to pieces by great multitudes, as theywere crowded together in narrow streets, and in houses, or were runningaway to the temple; nor was there any mercy showed either to infants, orto the aged, or to the weaker sex; insomuch that although the king sentabout and desired them to spare the people, nobody could be persuadedto withhold their right hand from slaughter, but they slew people of allages, like madmen. Then it was that Antigonus, without any regard to hisformer or to his present fortune, came down from the citadel, and fellat Sosius's feet, who without pitying him at all, upon the change of hiscondition, 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 himinto bonds, and kept him in custody. 

3. But Herod's concern at present, now he had gotten his enemies underhis power, was to restrain the zeal of his foreign auxiliaries; for themultitude of the strange people were very eager to see the temple, andwhat was sacred in the holy house itself; but the king endeavored torestrain them, partly by his exhortations, partly by his threatenings, nay, partly by force, as thinking the victory worse than a defeat tohim, if any thing that ought not to be seen were seen by them. He alsoforbade, at the same time, the spoiling of the city, asking Sosius inthe most earnest manner, whether the Romans, by thus emptying the cityof money and men, had a mind to leave him king of a desert, --and toldhim that he judged the dominion of the habitable earth too small acompensation for the slaughter of so many citizens. And when Sosius saidthat it was but just to allow the soldiers this plunder as a reward forwhat they suffered during the siege, Herod made answer, that he wouldgive every one of the soldiers a reward out of his own money. So hepurchased the deliverance of his country, and performed his promises tothem, and made presents after a magnificent manner to each soldier, and proportionably to their commanders, and with a most royal bountyto Sosius himself, whereby nobody went away but in a wealthy condition. Hereupon Sosius dedicated a crown of gold to God, and then went awayfrom Jerusalem, leading Antigonus away in bonds to Antony; then did theaxe bring him to his end, [27] who still had a fond desire of life, andsome frigid hopes of it to the last, but by his cowardly behavior welldeserved 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 friendsby 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 hehad into money, and sent it to Antony, and to those about him. Yet couldhe not hereby purchase an exemption from all sufferings; for Antony wasnow bewitched by his love to Cleopatra, and was entirely conquered byher charms. Now Cleopatra had put to death all her kindred, till noone near her in blood remained alive, and after that she fell a slayingthose no way related to her. So she calumniated the principal men amongthe Syrians to Antony, and persuaded him to have them slain, that so shemight easily gain to be mistress of what they had; nay, she extended heravaricious humor to the Jews and Arabians, and secretly labored to haveHerod 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; forthough he esteemed it too abominable a thing to kill such good and greatkings, yet was he thereby alienated from the friendship he had forthem. He also took away a great deal of their country; nay, even theplantation of palm trees at Jericho, where also grows the balsam tree, and bestowed them upon her; as also all the cities on this side theriver Eleutherus, Tyre and Sidon [28] excepted. And when she was becomemistress of these, and had conducted Antony in his expedition againstthe Parthians as far as Euphrates, she came by Apamia and Damascusinto Judea and there did Herod pacify her indignation at him by largepresents. He also hired of her those places that had been torn away fromhis kingdom, at the yearly rent of two hundred talents. He conducted heralso as far as Pelusium, and paid her all the respects possible. Now itwas not long after this that Antony was come back from Parthia, and ledwith him Artabazes, Tigranes's son, captive, as a present for Cleopatra;for this Parthian was presently given her, with his money, and all theprey 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 tothe assistance of Antony, as being already freed from his troubles inJudea, and having gained Hyrcania, which was a place that was held byAntigonus's sister. However, he was cunningly hindered from partaking ofthe hazards that Antony went through by Cleopatra; for since, as wehave already noted, she had laid a plot against the kings [of Judeaand Arabia], she prevailed with Antony to commit the war against theArabians to Herod; that so, if he got the better, she might becomemistress of Arabia, or, if he were worsted, of Judea; and that she mightdestroy one of those kings by the other. 

2. However, this contrivance tended to the advantage of Herod; for atthe very first he took hostages from the enemy, and got together a greatbody 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 assembledthemselves together at Kanatha, a city of Celesyria, in vast multitudes, and waited for the Jews. And when Herod was come thither, he tried tomanage this war with particular prudence, and gave orders that theyshould build a wall about their camp; yet did not the multitude complywith those orders, but were so emboldened by their foregoing victory, that they presently attacked the Arabians, and beat them at the firstonset, and then pursued them; yet were there snares laid for Herod inthat pursuit; while Athenio, who was one of Cleopatra's generals, andalways an antagonist to Herod, sent out of Kanatha the men of thatcountry against him; for, upon this fresh onset, the Arabians tookcourage, and returned back, and both joined their numerous forces aboutstony places, that were hard to be gone over, and there put Herod's mento the rout, and made a great slaughter of them; but those that escapedout of the battle fled to Ormiza, where the Arabians surrounded theircamp, and took it, with all the men in it. 3. In a little time afterthis 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 obeyorders; for had not the fight begun so suddenly, Athenio had not founda proper season for the snares he laid for Herod: however, he was evenwith the Arabians afterward, and overran their country, and did themmore harm than their single victory could compensate. But as hewas avenging himself on his enemies, there fell upon him anotherprovidential calamity; for in the seventh [29] year of his reign, whenthe war about Actium was at the height, at the beginning of the spring, the earth was shaken, and destroyed an immense number of cattle, withthirty thousand men; but the army received no harm, because it lay inthe open air. In the mean time, the fame of this earthquake elevatedthe Arabians to greater courage, and this by augmenting it to afabulous height, as is constantly the case in melancholy accidents, andpretending that all Judea was overthrown. Upon this supposal, therefore, that they should easily get a land that was destitute of inhabitantsinto their power, they first sacrificed those ambassadors who were cometo them from the Jews, and then marched into Judea immediately. Now theJewish nation were affrighted at this invasion, and quite dispirited atthe greatness of their calamities one after another; whom yet Herodgot together, and endeavored to encourage to defend themselves by thefollowing speech which he made to them:

4. "The present dread you are under seems to me to have seized uponyou very unreasonably. It is true, you might justly be dismayed atthat providential chastisement which hath befallen you; but to sufferyourselves to be equally terrified at the invasion of men is unmanly. Asfor myself, I am so far from being aftrighted at our enemies after thisearthquake, that I imagine that God hath thereby laid a bait for theArabians, that we may be avenged on them; for their present invasionproceeds more from our accidental misfortunes, than that they have anygreat dependence on their weapons, or their own fitness for action. Now that hope which depends not on men's own power, but on others' illsuccess, is a very ticklish thing; for there is no certainty among men, either in their bad or good fortunes; but we may easily observe thatfortune is mutable, and goes from one side to another; and this you mayreadily learn from examples among yourselves; for when you were oncevictors in the former fight, your enemies overcame you at last; and verylikely it will now happen so, that these who think themselves sure ofbeating you will themselves be beaten. For when men are very confident, they are not upon their guard, while fear teaches men to act withcaution; insomuch that I venture to prove from your very timorousnessthat you ought to take courage; for when you were more bold than youought to have been, and than I would have had you, and marched on, Athenio's treachery took place; but your present slowness and seemingdejection of mind is to me a pledge and assurance of victory. Andindeed it is proper beforehand to be thus provident; but when we cometo action, we ought to erect our minds, and to make our enemies, be theyever so wicked, believe that neither any human, no, nor any providentialmisfortune, 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 tobecome 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 thequaking of inanimate creatures, nor do you imagine that this earthquakeis a sign of another calamity; for such affections of the elements areaccording to the course of nature, nor does it import any thing furtherto men, than what mischief it does immediately of itself. Perhaps theremay come some short sign beforehand in the case of pestilences, andfamines, and earthquakes; but these calamities themselves have theirforce limited by themselves [without foreboding any other calamity]. Andindeed what greater mischief can the war, though it should be a violentone, do to us than the earthquake hath done? Nay, there is a signal ofour enemies' destruction visible, and that a very great one also; andthis is not a natural one, nor derived from the hand of foreignersneither, but it is this, that they have barbarously murdered ourambassadors, contrary to the common law of mankind; and they havedestroyed so many, as if they esteemed them sacrifices for God, inrelation to this war. But they will not avoid his great eye, nor hisinvincible right hand; and we shall be revenged of them presently, incase we still retain any of the courage of our forefathers, and rise upboldly to punish these covenant-breakers. Let every one therefore go onand fight, not so much for his wife or his children, or for thedanger his country is in, as for these ambassadors of ours; those deadambassadors will conduct this war of ours better than we ourselves whoare alive. And if you will be ruled by me, I will myself go beforeyou into danger; for you know this well enough, that your courage isirresistible, unless you hurt yourselves by acting rashly. " [30]

5. When Herod had encouraged them by this speech, and he saw withwhat alacrity they went, he offered sacrifice to God; and after thatsacrifice, he passed over the river Jordan with his army, and pitchedhis camp about Philadelphia, near the enemy, and about a fortificationthat lay between them. He then shot at them at a distance, and wasdesirous to come to an engagement presently; for some of them had beensent beforehand to seize upon that fortification: but the king sent somewho immediately beat them out of the fortification, while he himselfwent in the forefront of the army, which he put in battle-array everyday, and invited the Arabians to fight. But as none of them came outof 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 uponthem, and pulled their fortification to pieces, by which means they werecompelled to come out to fight, which they did in disorder, and so thatthe horsemen and foot-men were mixed together. They were indeed superiorto the Jews in number, but inferior in their alacrity, although theywere obliged to expose themselves to danger by their very despair ofvictory. 

6. Now while they made opposition, they had not a great numberslain; but as soon as they turned their backs, a great many were troddento 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 restof the multitude prevented their immediate death, by crowding into thefortification. Herod encompassed these around, and besieged them; andwhile they were ready to be taken by their enemies in arms, they hadanother additional distress upon them, which was thirst and want ofwater; for the king was above hearkening to their ambassadors; and whenthey offered five hundred talents, as the price of their redemption, he pressed still harder upon them. And as they were burnt up by theirthirst, they came out and voluntarily delivered themselves up bymultitudes to the Jews, till in five days' time four thousand of themwere put into bonds; and on the sixth day the multitude that were leftdespaired of saving themselves, and came out to fight: with these Herodfought, and slew again about seven thousand, insomuch that he punishedArabia so severely, and so far extinguished the spirits of the men, thathe 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 importantaffair, on account of his friendship with Antony, who was alreadyovercome at Actium by Caesar; yet he was more afraid than hurt; forCaesar did not think he had quite undone Antony, while Herod continuedhis assistance to him. However, the king resolved to expose himself todangers: accordingly he sailed to Rhodes, where Caesar then abode, andcame to him without his diadem, and in the habit and appearance of aprivate person, but in his behavior as a king. So he concealed nothingof the truth, but spike thus before his face: "O Caesar, as I was madeking of the Jews by Antony, so do I profess that I have used my royalauthority in the best manner, and entirely for his advantage; nor will Iconceal this further, that thou hadst certainly found me in arms, and aninseparable 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 thebow that was given him at Actium; but I gave him the best advice I wasable, when I was no longer able to assist him in the war; and I told himthat there was but one way of recovering his affairs, and that was tokill Cleopatra; and I promised him that, if she were once dead, I wouldafford him money and walls for his security, with an army and myselfto assist him in his war against thee: but his affections for Cleopatrastopped his ears, as did God himself also who hath bestowed thegovernment on thee. I own myself also to be overcome together withhim; and with his last fortune I have laid aside my diadem, and am comehither to thee, having my hopes of safety in thy virtue; and I desirethat thou wilt first consider how faithful a friend, and not whosefriend, 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 reasonof the fastness of thy friendship; and do thou endeavor to be equallyconstant in thy friendship to me, upon my good success, which is what Idepend upon from the generosity of thy disposition. However, Antony hathdone well in preferring Cleopatra to thee; for by this means we havegained thee by her madness, and thus thou hast begun to be my friendbefore I began to be thine; on which account Quintus Didius hath writtento me that thou sentest him assistance against the gladiators. I dotherefore assure thee that I will confirm the kingdom to thee by decree:I shall also endeavor to do thee some further kindness hereafter, thatthou mayst find no loss in the want of Antony. "

3. When Caesar had spoken such obliging things to the king, and had putthe diadem again about his head, he proclaimed what he had bestowed onhim by a decree, in which he enlarged in the commendation of the manafter a magnificent manner. Whereupon Herod obliged him to be kindto him by the presents he gave him, and he desired him to forgiveAlexander, one of Antony's friends, who was become a supplicant to him. But Caesar's anger against him prevailed, and he complained of the manyand very great offenses the man whom he petitioned for had been guiltyof; and by that means he rejected his petition. After this Caesar wentfor Egypt through Syria, when Herod received him with royal and richentertainments; and then did he first of all ride along with Caesar, ashe was reviewing his army about Ptolemais, and feasted him with allhis friends, and then distributed among the rest of the army what wasnecessary to feast them withal. He also made a plentiful provision ofwater for them, when they were to march as far as Pelusium, through adry country, which he did also in like manner at their return thence;nor were there any necessaries wanting to that army. It was thereforethe opinion, both of Caesar and of his soldiers, that Herod's kingdomwas too small for those generous presents he made them; for whichreason, when Caesar was come into Egypt, and Cleopatra and Antony weredead, he did not only bestow other marks of honor upon him, but made anaddition to his kingdom, by giving him not only the country which hadbeen taken from him by Cleopatra, but besides that, Gadara, and Hippos, and Samaria; and moreover, of the maritime cities, Gaza [31] andAnthedon, and Joppa, and Strato's Tower. He also made him a present offour hundred Galls [Galatians] as a guard for his body, which they hadbeen to Cleopatra before. Nor did any thing so strongly induce Caesar tomake these presents as the generosity of him that received them. 

4. Moreover, after the first games at Actium, he added to his kingdomboth the region called Trachonitis, and what lay in its neighborhood, Batanea, and the country of Auranitis; and that on the followingoccasion: Zenodorus, who had hired the house of Lysanias, had all alongsent robbers out of Trachonitis among the Damascenes; who thereupon hadrecourse to Varro, the president of Syria, and desired of him that hewould represent the calamity they were in to Caesar. When Caesar wasacquainted with it, he sent back orders that this nest of robbers shouldbe destroyed. Varro therefore made an expedition against them, andcleared the land of those men, and took it away from Zenodorus. Caesardid also afterward bestow it on Herod, that it might not again becomea receptacle for those robbers that had come against Damascus. Healso made him a procurator of all Syria, and this on the tenth yearafterward, when he came again into that province; and this was soestablished, that the other procurators could not do any thing in theadministration without his advice: but when Zenodorus was dead, Caesarbestowed on him all that land which lay between Trachonitis and Galilee. Yet, what was still of more consequence to Herod, he was beloved byCaesar next after Agrippa, and by Agrippa next after Caesar; whence hearrived at a very great degree of felicity. Yet did the greatness of hissoul exceed it, and the main part of his magnanimity was extended to thepromotion 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 thetemple, and encompassed a piece of land about it with a wall, which landwas twice as large as that before enclosed. The expenses he laidout upon it were vastly large also, and the riches about it wereunspeakable. A sign of which you have in the great cloisters that wereerected about the temple, and the citadel which was on its north side. The cloisters he built from the foundation, but the citadel [32] herepaired at a vast expense; nor was it other than a royal palace, whichhe called Antonia, in honor of Antony. He also built himself a palace inthe Upper city, containing two very large and most beautiful apartments;to which the holy house itself could not be compared [in largeness]. Theone apartment he named Caesareum, and the other Agrippium, from his [twogreat] 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 entirecities; for when he had built a most beautiful wall round a country inSamaria, twenty furlongs long, and had brought six thousand inhabitantsinto it, and had allotted to it a most fruitful piece of land, and inthe midst of this city, thus built, had erected a very large temple toCaesar, and had laid round about it a portion of sacred land of threefurlongs and a half, he called the city Sebaste, from Sebastus, orAugustus, and settled the affairs of the city after a most regularmanner. 

3. And when Caesar had further bestowed upon him anotheradditional country, he built there also a temple of white marble, hardby the fountains of Jordan: the place is called Panium, where is a topof 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 thereis a horrible precipice, that descends abruptly to a vast depth; itcontains a mighty quantity of water, which is immovable; and when anybody lets down any thing to measure the depth of the earth beneath thewater, no length of cord is sufficient to reach it. Now the fountains ofJordan 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 mattermore accurately in our following history. 

4. But the king erected other places at Jericho also, between thecitadel Cypros and the former palace, such as were better and moreuseful than the former for travelers, and named them from the samefriends of his. To say all at once, there was not any place of hiskingdom fit for the purpose that was permitted to be without somewhatthat was for Caesar's honor; and when he had filled his own country withtemples, he poured out the like plentiful marks of his esteem into hisprovince, and built many cities which he called Cesareas. 

5. And when he observed that there was a city by the sea-side that wasmuch decayed, [its name was Strato's Tower, ] but that the place, by thehappiness of its situation, was capable of great improvements from hisliberality, he rebuilt it all with white stone, and adorned it withseveral most splendid palaces, wherein he especially demonstrated hismagnanimity; for the case was this, that all the sea-shore between Doraand Joppa, in the middle, between which this city is situated, had nogood haven, insomuch that every one that sailed from Phoenicia for Egyptwas obliged to lie in the stormy sea, by reason of the south winds thatthreatened them; which wind, if it blew but a little fresh, such vastwaves are raised, and dash upon the rocks, that upon their retreat thesea is in a great ferment for a long way. But the king, by the expenseshe was at, and the liberal disposal of them, overcame nature, and builta haven larger than was the Pyrecum [33] [at Athens]; and in the innerretirements of the water he built other deep stations [for the shipsalso]. 

6. Now although the place where he built was greatly opposite to hispurposes, yet did he so fully struggle with that difficulty, that thefirmness of his building could not easily be conquered by the sea; andthe beauty and ornament of the works were such, as though he had not hadany difficulty in the operation; for when he had measured out as large aspace as we have before mentioned, he let down stones into twenty fathomwater, the greatest part of which were fifty feet in length, and nine indepth, and ten in breadth, and some still larger. But when the haven wasfilled up to that depth, he enlarged that wall which was thus alreadyextant above the sea, till it was two hundred feet wide; one hundred ofwhich 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; butthe rest of the space was under a stone wall that ran round it. On thiswall were very large towers, the principal and most beautiful of whichwas called Drusium, from Drusus, who was son-in-law to Caesar. 

7. Therewere also a great number of arches, where the mariners dwelt; and allthe places before them round about was a large valley, or walk, for aquay [or landing-place] to those that came on shore; but the entrancewas on the north, because the north wind was there the most gentle ofall the winds. At the mouth of the haven were on each side three greatColossi, supported by pillars, where those Colossi that are on your lefthand as you sail into the port are supported by a solid tower; but thoseon the right hand are supported by two upright stones joined together, which stones were larger than that tower which was on the other sideof the entrance. Now there were continual edifices joined to the haven, which were also themselves of white stone; and to this haven did thenarrow streets of the city lead, and were built at equal distancesone from another. And over against the mouth of the haven, upon anelevation, there was a temple for Caesar, which was excellent both inbeauty and largeness; and therein was a Colossus of Caesar, not lessthan that of Jupiter Olympius, which it was made to resemble. The otherColossus of Rome was equal to that of Juno at Argos. So he dedicated thecity to the province, and the haven to the sailors there; but thehonor of the building he ascribed to Caesar, [34] and named it Cesareaaccordingly. 

8. He also built the other edifices, the amphitheater, and theater, andmarket-place, in a manner agreeable to that denomination; and appointedgames every fifth year, and called them, in like manner, Caesar'sGames; and he first himself proposed the largest prizes upon the hundredninety-second olympiad; in which not only the victors themselves, butthose that came next to them, and even those that came in the thirdplace, were partakers of his royal bounty. He also rebuilt Anthedon, a city that lay on the coast, and had been demolished in the wars, andnamed it Agrippeum. Moreover, he had so very great a kindness for hisfriend Agrippa, that he had his name engraved upon that gate which hehad himself erected in the temple. 

9. Herod was also a lover of his father, if any other person ever wasso; for he made a monument for his father, even that city which he builtin the finest plain that was in his kingdom, and which had rivers andtrees in abundance, and named it Antipatris. He also built a wall abouta citadel that lay above Jericho, and was a very strong and veryfine building, and dedicated it to his mother, and called it Cypros. Moreover, he dedicated a tower that was at Jerusalem, and called itby the name of his brother Phasaelus, whose structure, largeness, andmagnificence we shall describe hereafter. He also built another city inthe valley that leads northward from Jericho, and named it Phasaelis. 

10. And as he transmitted to eternity his family and friends, so did henot neglect a memorial for himself, but built a fortress upon a mountaintowards Arabia, and named it from himself, Herodium [35] and he calledthat hill that was of the shape of a woman's breast, and was sixtyfurlongs distant from Jerusalem, by the same name. He also bestowed muchcurious art upon it, with great ambition, and built round towers allabout the top of it, and filled up the remaining space with the mostcostly palaces round about, insomuch that not only the sight of theinner apartments was splendid, but great wealth was laid out on theoutward walls, and partitions, and roofs also. Besides this, he broughta 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. Healso built other palaces about the roots of the hill, sufficient toreceive the furniture that was put into them, with his friends also, insomuch that, on account of its containing all necessaries, thefortress might seem to be a city, but, by the bounds it had, a palaceonly. 

11. And when he had built so much, he showed the greatness of his soulto no small number of foreign cities. He built palaces for exercise atTripoli, and Damascus, and Ptolemais; he built a wall about Byblus, as also large rooms, and cloisters, and temples, and market-places atBerytus and Tyre, with theatres at Sidon and Damascus. He also builtaqueducts for those Laodiceans who lived by the sea-side; and for thoseof Ascalon he built baths and costly fountains, as also cloisters rounda court, that were admirable both for their workmanship and largeness. Moreover, he dedicated groves and meadows to some people; nay, not a fewcities there were who had lands of his donation, as if they were partsof his own kingdom. He also bestowed annual revenues, and those for everalso, on the settlements for exercises, and appointed for them, as wellas for the people of Cos, that such rewards should never be wanting. Healso gave corn to all such as wanted it, and conferred upon Rhodes largesums of money for building ships; and this he did in many places, and frequently also. And when Apollo's temple had been burnt down, herebuilt 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 accordingto every body's wants of them. And are not the Athenians, andLacedemonians, and Nicopolitans, and that Pergamus which is in Mysia, full of donations that Herod presented them withal? And as for thatlarge open place belonging to Antioch in Syria, did not he pave it withpolished marble, though it were twenty furlongs long? and this whenit was shunned by all men before, because it was full of dirt andfilthiness, when he besides adorned the same place with a cloister ofthe same length. 

12. It is true, a man may say, these were favors peculiar to thoseparticular places on which he bestowed his benefits; but then whatfavors he bestowed on the Eleans was a donation not only in common toall Greece, but to all the habitable earth, as far as the glory of theOlympic games reached. For when he perceived that they were come tonothing, for want of money, and that the only remains of ancient Greecewere in a manner gone, he not only became one of the combatants in thatreturn of the fifth-year games, which in his sailing to Rome he happenedto be present at, but he settled upon them revenues of money forperpetuity, insomuch that his memorial as a combatant there can neverfail. It would be an infinite task if I should go over his paymentsof people's debts, or tributes, for them, as he eased the people ofPhasaelis, of Batanea, and of the small cities about Cilicia, of thoseannual pensions they before paid. However, the fear he was in muchdisturbed the greatness of his soul, lest he should be exposed to envy, or seem to hunt after greater filings than he ought, while he bestowedmore liberal gifts upon these cities than did their owners themselves. 

13. Now Herod had a body suited to his soul, and was ever a mostexcellent hunter, where he generally had good success, by the means ofhis great skill in riding horses; for in one day he caught forty wildbeasts: [36] that country breeds also bears, and the greatest part of itis replenished with stags and wild asses. He was also such a warrior ascould not be withstood: many men, therefore, there are who have stoodamazed at his readiness in his exercises, when they saw him throw thejavelin directly forward, and shoot the arrow upon the mark. And then, besides these performances of his depending on his own strength of mindand body, fortune was also very favorable to him; for he seldom failedof success in his wars; and when he failed, he was not himself theoccasion of such failings, but he either was betrayed by some, or therashness 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 greatsuccesses, by raising him up domestical troubles; and he began to havewild disorders in his family, on account of his wife, of whom he was sovery fond. For when he came to the government, he sent away her whomhe had before married when he was a private person, and who was born atJerusalem, whose name was Doris, and married Mariamne, the daughter ofAlexander, the son of Aristobulus; on whose account disturbances arosein his family, and that in part very soon, but chiefly after his returnfrom 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 himto come thither at no other times than at the festivals. After thishe slew his wife's grandfather, Hyrcanus, when he was returned out ofParthin to him, under this pretense, that he suspected him of plottingagainst him. Now this Hyrcanus had been carried captive to Barzapharnes, when he overran Syria; but those of his own country beyond Euphrateswere desirous he would stay with them, and this out of the commiserationthey 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 notperished: but the marriage of his granddaughter [to Herod] was histemptation; for as he relied upon him, and was over-fond of his owncountry, he came back to it. Herod's provocation was this, --not thatHyrcanus made any attempt to gain the kingdom, but that it was fitterfor him to be their king than for Herod. 

2. Now of the five childrenwhich Herod had by Mariamne, two of them were daughters, and three weresons; and the youngest of these sons was educated at Rome, and theredied; but the two eldest he treated as those of royal blood, on accountof the nobility of their mother, and because they were not born till hewas king. But then what was stronger than all this was the love that hebare to Mariamne, and which inflamed him every day to a great degree, and so far conspired with the other motives, that he felt no othertroubles, on account of her he loved so entirely. But Mariamne's hatredto him was not inferior to his love to her. She had indeed but toojust a cause of indignation from what he had done, while her boldnessproceeded from his affection to her; so she openly reproached himwith what he had done to her grandfather Hyrcanus, and to her brotherAristobulus; for he had not spared this Aristobulus, though he were buta child; for when he had given him the high priesthood at the age ofseventeen, he slew him quickly after he had conferred that dignityupon him; but when Aristobulus had put on the holy vestments, and hadapproached to the altar at a festival, the multitude, in great crowds, fell into tears; whereupon the child was sent by night to Jericho, andwas there dipped by the Galls, at Herod's command, in a pool till he wasdrowned. 

3. For these reasons Mariamne reproached Herod, and his sister andmother, after a most contumelious manner, while he was dumb on accountof 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 alsocontrived to have many other circumstances believed, in order to makethe thing more credible, and accused her of having sent her picture intoEgypt to Antony, and that her lust was so extravagant, as to have thusshowed herself, though she was absent, to a man that ran mad afterwomen, 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 intodisorder; and that especially, because his love to her occasioned him tobe jealous, and because he considered with himself that Cleopatra was ashrewd 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 thedissolving of his marriage, but to the danger of his life. 

4. When therefore he was about to take a journey abroad, he committedhis wife to Joseph, his sister Salome's husband, as to one who would befaithful to him, and bare him good-will on account of their kindred; healso gave him a secret injunction, that if Antony slew him, he shouldslay her. But Joseph, without any ill design, and only in order todemonstrate the king's love to his wife, how he could not bear to thinkof being separated from her, even by death itself, discovered this grandsecret to her; upon which, when Herod was come back, and as they talkedtogether, and he confirmed his love to her by many oaths, and assuredher that he had never such an affection for any other woman as he hadfor her--"Yes, " says she, "thou didst, to be sure, demonstrate thylove to me by the injunctions thou gavest Joseph, when thou commandedsthim to kill me. " [37]

5. When he heard that this grand secret was discovered, he was like adistracted man, and said that Joseph would never have disclosed thatinjunction of his, unless he had debauched her. His passion also madehim stark mad, and leaping out of his bed, he ran about the palace aftera wild manner; at which time his sister Salome took the opportunityalso to blast her reputation, and confirmed his suspicion about Joseph;whereupon, out of his ungovernable jealousy and rage, he commanded bothof them to be slain immediately; but as soon as ever his passion wasover, he repented of what he had done, and as soon as his anger wasworn off, his affections were kindled again. And indeed the flame of hisdesires for her was so ardent, that he could not think she was dead, butwould appear, under his disorders, to speak to her as if she werestill alive, till he were better instructed by time, when his grief andtrouble, now she was dead, appeared as great as his affection had beenfor 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 bornetheir mother; and when they considered the greatness of Herod's crimetowards her, they were suspicious of him as of an enemy of theirs; andthis first while they were educated at Rome, but still more when theywere returned to Judea. This temper of theirs increased upon themas they grew up to be men; and when they were Come to an age fit formarriage, the one of them married their aunt Salome's daughter, whichSalome had been the accuser of their mother; the other married thedaughter of Archclaus, king of Cappadocia. And now they used boldnessin speaking, as well as bore hatred in their minds. Now those thatcalumniated them took a handle from such their boldness, and certainof them spake now more plainly to the king that there were treacherousdesigns laid against him by both his sons; and he that was son-in-law toArchelaus, relying upon his father-in-law, was preparing to fly away, inorder to accuse Herod before Caesar; and when Herod's head had been longenough filled with these calumnies, he brought Antipater, whom he had byDoris, into favor again, as a defense to him against his other sons, andbegan 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, thenobility of their birth made them unable to contain their indignation;but whensoever they were uneasy, they showed the anger they had atit. And as these sons did day after day improve in that their anger, Antipater already exercised all his own abilities, which were verygreat, in flattering his father, and in contriving many sorts ofcalumnies against his brethren, while he told some stories of themhimself, and put it upon other proper persons to raise other storiesagainst them, till at length he entirely cut his brethren off from allhopes of succeeding to the kingdom; for he was already publicly put intohis father's will as his successor. Accordingly, he was sent with royalornaments, and other marks of royalty, to Caesar, excepting the diadem. He was also able in time to introduce his mother again into Mariamne'sbed. The two sorts of weapons he made use of against his brethren wereflattery and calumny, whereby he brought matters privately to such apass, 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 anattempt of poisoning him before Caesar. Alexander could hardly speak forlamentation; but having a judge that was more skillful than Antipater, and more wise than Herod, he modestly avoided laying any imputation uponhis father, but with great strength of reason confuted the calumnieslaid against him; and when he had demonstrated the innocency of hisbrother, who was in the like danger with himself, he at last bewailedthe craftiness of Antipater, and the disgrace they were under. He wasenabled also to justify himself, not only by a clear conscience, whichhe carried within him, but by his eloquence; for he was a shrewd manin making speeches. And upon his saying at last, that if his fatherobjected 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, asto reject the accusations, and to reconcile their father to themimmediately. But the conditions of this reconciliation were these, that they should in all things be obedient to their father, and that heshould 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 forgivenhis sons upon these accusations; but still so that he was not withouthis suspicions of them. They were followed by Antipater, who was thefountain-head of those accusations; yet did not he openly discover hishatred to them, as revering him that had reconciled them. But as Herodsailed by Cilicia, he touched at Eleusa, [38] where Archclaustreated them in the most obliging manner, and gave him thanks forthe deliverance of his son-in-law, and was much pleased at theirreconciliation; and this the more, because he had formerly written tohis friends at Rome that they should be assisting to Alexander at histrial. So he conducted Herod as far as Zephyrium, and made him presentsto the value of thirty talents. 

5. Now when Herod was come to Jerusalem, he gathered the peopletogether, and presented to them his three sons, and gave them anapologetic account of his absence, and thanked God greatly, andthanked Caesar greatly also, for settling his house when it was underdisturbances, and had procured concord among his sons, which was ofgreater consequence than the kingdom itself, --"and which I will renderstill more firm; for Caesar hath put into my power to dispose of thegovernment, and to appoint my successor. Accordingly, in way of requitalfor his kindness, and in order to provide for mine own advantage, I dodeclare that these three sons of mine shall be kings. And, in the firstplace, I pray for the approbation of God to what I am about; and, in thenext place, I desire your approbation also. The age of one of them, andthe 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 theirfather hath appointed; and do not you pay undue or unequal respects tothem, but to every one according to the prerogative of their births;for he that pays such respects unduly, will thereby not make him that ishonored beyond what his age requires so joyful, as he will make himthat is dishonored sorrowful. As for the kindred and friends that areto converse with them, I will appoint them to each of them, and will soconstitute them, that they may be securities for their concord; aswell knowing that the ill tempers of those with whom they converse willproduce quarrels and contentions among them; but that if these withwhom they converse be of good tempers, they will preserve their naturalaffections for one another. But still I desire that not these only, butall the captains of my army, have for the present their hopes placed onme alone; for I do not give away my kingdom to these my sons, but givethem royal honors only; whereby it will come to pass that they willenjoy the sweet parts of government as rulers themselves, but that theburden 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 mylife, and what piety I have exercised; for my age is not so great thatmen may soon expect the end of my life; nor have I indulged such aluxurious way of living as cuts men off when they are young; and wehave been so religious towards God, that we [have reason to hope we] mayarrive at a very great age. But for such as cultivate a friendship withmy sons, so as to aim at my destruction, they shall be punished by meon their account. I am not one who envy my own children, and thereforeforbid 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 comesnear them does but revolve this in his mind, that if he prove a goodman, 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 itis 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 beat concord with them. But do you, O my good children, reflect uponthe holiness of nature itself, by whose means natural affection ispreserved, even among wild beasts; in the next place, reflect uponCaesar, who hath made this reconciliation among us; and in the thirdplace, reflect upon me, who entreat you to do what I have power tocommand you, --continue brethren. I give you royal garments, and royalhonors; and I pray to God to preserve what I have determined, in caseyou be at concord one with another. " When the king had thus spoken, andhad saluted every one of his sons after an obliging manner, he dismissedthe multitude; some of which gave their assent to what he had said, andwished it might take effect accordingly; but for those who wished for achange of affairs, they pretended they did not so much as hear what hesaid. 

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 thesebrethren when they parted, and the suspicions they had one of theother grew worse. Alexander and Aristobulus were much grieved that theprivilege of the first-born was confirmed to Antipater; as was Antipatervery angry at his brethren that they were to succeed him. But then thislast being of a disposition that was mutable and politic, he knew how tohold his tongue, and used a great deal of cunning, and thereby concealedthe hatred he bore to them; while the former, depending on the nobilityof their births, had every thing upon their tongues which was in theirminds. Many also there were who provoked them further, and many of their[seeming] friends insinuated themselves into their acquaintance, tospy out what they did. Now every thing that was said by Alexander waspresently brought to Antipater, and from Antipater it was brought toHerod with additions. Nor could the young man say any thing in thesimplicity of his heart, without giving offense, but what he said wasstill turned to calumny against him. And if he had been at any time alittle free in his conversation, great imputations were forged fromthe smallest occasions. Antipater also was perpetually setting some toprovoke him to speak, that the lies he raised of him might seem to havesome foundation of truth; and if, among the many stories that were givenout, but one of them could be proved true, that was supposed to implythe rest to be true also. And as to Antipater's friends, they were alleither naturally so cautious in speaking, or had been so far bribed toconceal their thoughts, that nothing of these grand secrets got abroadby their means. Nor should one be mistaken if he called the life ofAntipater a mystery of wickedness; for he either corrupted Alexander'sacquaintance with money, or got into their favor by flatteries; by whichtwo means he gained all his designs, and brought them to betray theirmaster, and to steal away, and reveal what he either did or said. Thusdid he act a part very cunningly in all points, and wrought himself apassage by his calumnies with the greatest shrewdness; while he put ona face as if he were a kind brother to Alexander and Aristobulus, butsuborned other men to inform of what they did to Herod. And when anything was told against Alexander, he would come in, and pretend [to beof his side], and would begin to contradict what was said; but wouldafterward contrive matters so privately, that the king should have anindignation at him. His general aim was this, --to lay a plot, and tomake it believed that Alexander lay in wait to kill his father; fornothing afforded so great a confirmation to these calumnies as didAntipater's apologies for him. 

2. By these methods Herod was inflamed, and as much as his naturalaffection to the young men did every day diminish, so much did itincrease towards Antipater. The courtiers also inclined to the sameconduct, some of their own accord, and others by the king's injunction, as particularly did Ptolemy, the king's dearest friend, as also theking's brethren, and all his children; for Antipater was all in all; andwhat was the bitterest part of all to Alexander, Antipater's mother wasalso all in all; she was one that gave counsel against them, and wasmore harsh than a step-mother, and one that hated the queen's sons morethan is usual to hate sons-in-law. All men did therefore already paytheir respects to Antipater, in hopes of advantage; and it was theking's command which alienated every body [from the brethren], he havinggiven this charge to his most intimate friends, that they should notcome near, nor pay any regard, to Alexander, or to his friends. Herodwas also become terrible, not only to his domestics about the court, butto his friends abroad; for Caesar had given such a privilege to no otherking as he had given to him, which was this, --that he might fetch backany one that fled from him, even out of a city that was not underhis own jurisdiction. Now the young men were not acquainted with thecalumnies raised against them; for which reason they could not guardthemselves against them, but fell under them; for their father did notmake any public complaints against either of them; though in a littletime they perceived how things were by his coldness to them, and by thegreat uneasiness he showed upon any thing that troubled him. Antipaterhad also made their uncle Pheroras to be their enemy, as well as theiraunt 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 andgenealogy [from great persons], and pretending that she was a ladysuperior to all others in that kingdom, as being derived by her father'sside from Temenus, and by her mother's side from Darius, the son ofHystaspes. She also frequently reproached Herod's sister and wives withthe ignobility of their descent; and that they were every one chosen byhim for their beauty, but not for their family. Now those wives of hiswere not a few; it being of old permitted to the Jews to marry manywives, [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, whowas his mother-in-law, besides the anger he had conceived at Glaphyra'sreproaches; for he perpetually upbraided his wife with the meannessof her family, and complained, that as he had married a woman of a lowfamily, so had his brother Alexander married one of royal blood. Atthis Salome's daughter wept, and told it her with this addition, thatAlexander threatened the mothers of his other brethren, that when heshould come to the crown, he would make them weave with their maidens, and would make those brothers of his country schoolmasters; and brakethis jest upon them, that they had been very carefully instructed, tofit them for such an employment. Hereupon Salome could not contain heranger, but told all to Herod; nor could her testimony be suspected, since it was against her own son-in-law There was also another calumnythat ran abroad and inflamed the king's mind; for he heard that thesesons of his were perpetually speaking of their mother, and, among theirlamentations for her, did not abstain from cursing him; and that whenhe made presents of any of Mariamne's garments to his later wives, thesethreatened that in a little time, instead of royal garments, they wouldclothe theft in no better than hair-cloth. 

4. Now upon these accounts, though Herod was somewhat afraid of theyoung men's high spirit, yet did he not despair of reducing them to abetter mind; but before he went to Rome, whither he was now going bysea, he called them to him, and partly threatened them a little, as aking; but for the main, he admonished them as a father, and exhortedthem to love their brethren, and told them that he would pardon theirformer offenses, if they would amend for the time to come. But theyrefuted the calumnies that had been raised of them, and said theywere false, and alleged that their actions were sufficient for theirvindication; and said withal, that he himself ought to shut his earsagainst such tales, and not be too easy in believing them, for thatthere would never be wanting those that would tell lies to theirdisadvantage, as long as any would give ear to them. 

5. When they had thus soon pacified him, as being their father, they gotclear of the present fear they were in. Yet did they see occasion forsorrow in some time afterward; for they knew that Salome, as well astheir uncle Pheroras, were their enemies; who were both of them heavyand severe persons, and especially Pheroras, who was a partner withHerod in all the affairs of the kingdom, excepting his diadem. He hadalso a hundred talents of his own revenue, and enjoyed the advantageof all the land beyond Jordan, which he had received as a gift from hisbrother, who had asked of Caesar to make him a tetrarch, as he was madeaccordingly. 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 hadsolemnly espoused to him his own eldest daughter, with a dowry of threehundred talents; but Pheroras refused to consummate this royal marriage, out of his affection to a maidservant of his. Upon which account Herodwas very angry, and gave that daughter in marriage to a brother's sonof his, [Joseph, ] who was slain afterward by the Parthians; but in sometime he laid aside his anger against Pheroras, and pardoned him, as onenot 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 therecame then so great a number of informers, that Herod himself, though hewas an exceeding lover of his brethren, was brought to believe what wassaid, and to be afraid of it also. And when he had brought many of thosethat were under suspicion to the torture, he came at last to Pheroras'sown friends; none of which did openly confess the crime, but they ownedthat he had made preparation to take her whom he loved, and run away tothe Parthians. Costobarus also, the husband of Salome, to whom the kinghad given her in marriage, after her former husband had been put todeath for adultery, was instrumental in bringing about this contrivanceand flight of his. Nor did Salome escape all calumny upon herself; forher brother Pheroras accused her that she had made an agreement to marrySilleus, the procurator of Obodas, king of Arabia, who was at bitterenmity with Herod; but when she was convicted of this, and of all thatPheroras had accused her of, she obtained her pardon. The king alsopardoned Pheroras himself the crimes he had been accused of. 

7. But the storm of the whole family was removed to Alexander, and allof it rested upon his head. There were three eunuchs who were in thehighest esteem with the king, as was plain by the offices they were inabout him; for one of them was appointed to be his butler, another ofthem got his supper ready for him, and the third put him into bed, andlay down by him. Now Alexander had prevailed with these men, by largegifts, to let him use them after an obscene manner; which, when it wastold to the king, they were tortured, and found guilty, and presentlyconfessed the criminal conversation he had with them. They alsodiscovered the promises by which they were induced so to do, and howthey were deluded by Alexander, who had told them that they ought not tofix their hopes upon Herod, an old man, and one so shameless as to colorhis hair, unless they thought that would make him young again; but thatthey ought to fix their attention to him who was to be his successorin the kingdom, whether he would or not; and who in no long time wouldavenge himself on his enemies, and make his friends happy and blessed, and themselves in the first place; that the men of power did already payrespects 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 immediatelypublish 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; andwhen any were but suspected [of treason], he put them to death, insomuchthat the palace was full of horribly unjust proceedings; for every bodyforged calumnies, as they were themselves in a state of enmity or hatredagainst others; and many there were who abused the king's bloody passionto the disadvantage of those with whom they had quarrels, and lieswere easily believed, and punishments were inflicted sooner than thecalumnies were forged. He who had just then been accusing another wasaccused himself, and was led away to execution together with him whomhe had convicted; for the danger the king was in of his life madeexaminations be very short. He also proceeded to such a degree ofbitterness, that he could not look on any of those that were not accusedwith a pleasant countenance, but was in the most barbarous dispositiontowards his own friends. Accordingly, he forbade a great many of them tocome to court, and to those whom he had not power to punish actuallyhe spake harshly. But for Antipater, he insulted Alexander, now he wasunder his misfortunes, and got a stout company of his kindred together, and raised all sorts of calumny against him; and for the king, he wasbrought to such a degree of terror by those prodigious slanders andcontrivances, that he fancied he saw Alexander coming to him with adrawn 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 whomdied [under the torture], but would discover nothing, nor say any thingagainst their consciences; but some of them, being forced to speakfalsely by the pains they endured, said that Alexander, and his brotherAristobulus, plotted against him, and waited for an opportunity to killhim as he was hunting, and then fly away to Rome. These accusationsthough they were of an incredible nature, and only framed upon the greatdistress they were in, were readily believed by the king, who thought itsome comfort to him, after he had bound his son, that it might appear hehad 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 hisfather [that he was innocent], he resolved to meet his calamities, howsevere soever they were; so he composed four books against his enemies, and confessed that he had been in a plot; but declared withal that thegreatest part [of the courtiers] were in a plot with him, and chieflyPheroras and Salome; nay, that Salome once came and forced him to liewith her in the night time, whether he would or no. These books were putinto Herod's hands, and made a great clamor against the men in power. And now it was that Archelaus came hastily into Judea, as beingaffrighted for his son-in-law and his daughter; and he came as a properassistant, and in a very prudent manner, and by a stratagem he obligedthe king not to execute what he had threatened; for when he was come tohim, he cried out, "Where in the world is this wretched son-in-law ofmine? Where shall I see the head of him which contrived to murder hisfather, which I will tear to pieces with my own hands? I will do thesame also to my daughter, who hath such a fine husband; for although shebe 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 whomthis plot is laid, if Alexander be still alive; for as I came with whathaste I could from Cappadocia, I expected to find him put to death forhis crimes long ago; but still, in order to make an examination withthee about my daughter, whom, out of regard to thee and by dignity, Ihad espoused to him in marriage; but now we must take counsel about themboth; and if thy paternal affection be so great, that thou canst notpunish thy son, who hath plotted against thee, let us change our righthands, and let us succeed one to the other in expressing our rage uponthis occasion. "

2. When he had made this pompous declaration, he got Herod to remit ofhis anger, though he were in disorder, who thereupon gave him the bookswhich Alexander had composed to be read by him; and as he came to everyhead, he considered of it, together with Herod. So Archclaus took hencethe occasion for that stratagem which he made use of, and by degreeshe laid the blame on those men whose names were in these books, andespecially upon Pheroras; and when he saw that the king believed him [tobe in earnest], he said, "We must consider whether the young man be nothimself plotted against by such a number of wicked wretches, and notthou plotted against by the young man; for I cannot see any occasion forhis falling into so horrid a crime, since he enjoys the advantages ofroyalty already, and has the expectation of being one of thy successors;I mean this, unless there were some persons that persuade him to it, andsuch persons as make an ill use of the facility they know there isto persuade young men; for by such persons, not only young men aresometimes imposed upon, but old men also, and by them sometimes are themost illustrious families and kingdoms overturned. "

3. Herod assented to what he had said, and, by degrees, abated ofhis anger against Alexander, but was more angry at Pheroras; for theprincipal subject of the four books was Pheroras; who perceiving thatthe king's inclinations changed on a sudden, and that Archelaus'sfriendship could do every thing with him, and that he had no honorablemethod of preserving himself, he procured his safety by his impudence. So he left Alexander, and had recourse to Archelaus, who told him thathe did not see how he could get him excused, now he was directly caughtin so many crimes, whereby it was evidently demonstrated that he hadplotted against the king, and had been the cause of those misfortuneswhich the young man was now under, unless he would moreover leave offhis cunning knavery, and his denials of what he was charged withal, andconfess the charge, and implore pardon of his brother, who still had akindness for him; but that if he would do so, he would afford him allthe assistance he was able. 

4. With this advice Pheroras complied, andputting himself into such a habit as might most move compassion, he camewith black cloth upon his body, and tears in his eyes, and threw himselfdown at Herod's feet, and begged his pardon for what he had done, andconfessed that he had acted very wickedly, and was guilty of every thingthat he had been accused of, and lamented that disorder of his mind, anddistraction which his love to a woman, he said, had brought him to. Sowhen Archelaus had brought Pheroras to accuse and bear witness againsthimself, he then made an excuse for him, and mitigated Herod's angertowards him, and this by using certain domestical examples; for thatwhen 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 memberor other is ever swelled by the body's weight, in which case it is notproper to cut off such member, but to heal it by a gentle method ofcure. 

5. Upon Arehelaus's saying this, and much more to the same purpose, Herod's displeasure against Pheroras was mollified; yet did he perseverein his own indignation against Alexander, and said he would have hisdaughter divorced, and taken away from him, and this till he had broughtHerod to that pass, that, contrary to his former behavior to him, he petitioned Archelaus for the young man, and that he would let hisdaughter continue espoused to him: but Archelaus made him stronglybelieve that he would permit her to be married to any one else, but notto Alexander, because he looked upon it as a very valuable advantage, that the relation they had contracted by that affinity, and theprivileges that went along with it, might be preserved. And when theking said that his son would take it for a great favor to him, if hewould not dissolve that marriage, especially since they had alreadychildren between the young man and her, and since that wife of his wasso well beloved by him, and that as while she remains his wife she wouldbe a great preservative to him, and keep him from offending, as he hadformerly done; so if she should be once torn away from him, she would bethe cause of his falling into despair, because such young men's attemptsare best mollified when they are diverted from them by settling theiraffections at home. So Arehelaus complied with what Herod desired, butnot without difficulty, and was both himself reconciled to the youngman, 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 hadalready written a full account to him of this whole matter. 

6. Thus a period was put to Archelaus's stratagem, whereby hedelivered his son-in-law out of the dangers he was in; but when thesereconciliations were over, they spent their time in feastings andagreeable entertainments. And when Archelaus was going away, Herod madehim a present of seventy talents, with a golden throne set with preciousstones, and some eunuchs, and a concubine who was called Pannychis. He also paid due honors to every one of his friends according to theirdignity. In like manner did all the king's kindred, by his command, makeglorious presents to Archelaus; and so he was conducted on his way byHerod and his nobility as far as Antioch. 

CHAPTER 26. 

 How Eurycles [40] Calumniated The Sons Of Mariamne; And How Euaratus Of Costs Apology For Them Had No Effect. 

1. Now a little afterward there came into Judea a man that was muchsuperior to Arehelaus's stratagems, who did not only overturn thatreconciliation that had been so wisely made with Alexander, but provedthe occasion of his ruin. He was a Lacedemonian, and his name wasEurycles. He was so corrupt a man, that out of the desire of gettingmoney, he chose to live under a king, for Greece could not suffice hisluxury. He presented Herod with splendid gifts, as a bait which helaid in order to compass his ends, and quickly received them back againmanifold; yet did he esteem bare gifts as nothing, unless he imbrued thekingdom in blood by his purchases. Accordingly, he imposed upon the kingby flattering him, and by talking subtlely to him, as also by the lyingencomiums which he made upon him; for as he soon perceived Herod's blindside, so he said and did every thing that might please him, and therebybecame one of his most intimate friends; for both the king and all thatwere about him had a great regard for this Spartan, on account of hiscountry. [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 whatdisposition the father was towards each of them, he chose to take hislodging at the first in the house of Antipater, but deluded Alexanderwith a pretense of friendship to him, and falsely claimed to be an oldacquaintance of Archelaus; for which reason he was presently admittedinto Alexander's familiarity as a faithful friend. He also soonrecommended himself to his brother Aristobulus. And when he had thusmade trial of these several persons, he imposed upon one of them by onemethod, and upon another by another. But he was principally hired byAntipater, and so betrayed Alexander, and this by reproaching Antipater, because, while he was the eldest son he overlooked the intrigues ofthose who stood in the way of his expectations; and by reproachingAlexander, because he who was born of a queen, and was married to aking's daughter, permitted one that was born of a mean woman to layclaim to the succession, and this when he had Archelaus to support himin the most complete manner. Nor was his advice thought to be otherthan faithful by the young man, because of his pretended friendshipwith Archelaus; on which account it was that Alexander lamented to himAntipater's behavior with regard to himself, and this without concealingany thing from him; and how it was no wonder if Herod, after he hadkilled their mother, should deprive them of her kingdom. Upon thisEurycles pretended to commiserate his condition, and to grieve with him. He also, by a bait that he laid for him, procured Aristobulus to say thesame things. Thus did he inveigle both the brothers to make complaintsof their father, and then went to Antipater, and carried these grandsecrets to him. He also added a fiction of his own, as if his brothershad laid a plot against him, and were almost ready to come upon him withtheir drawn swords. For this intelligence he received a great sum ofmoney, and on that account he commended Antipater before his father, andat length undertook the work of bringing Alexander and Aristobulus totheir 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 favorshe had received from him, and would preserve his light [of life] by wayof retribution for his kind entertainment; for that a sword had beenlong whetted, and Alexander's right hand had been long stretched outagainst him; but that he had laid impediments in his way, prevented hisspeed, and that by pretending to assist him in his design: how Alexandersaid that Herod was not contented to reign in a kingdom that belonged toothers, and to make dilapidations in their mother's government afterhe had killed her; but besides all this, that he introduced a spurioussuccessor, and proposed to give the kingdom of their ancestors to thatpestilent fellow Antipater:--that he would now appease the ghosts ofHyrcanus and Mariamne, by taking vengeance on him; for that it was notfit for him to take the succession to the government from such a fatherwithout bloodshed: that many things happen every day to provoke him soto do, insomuch that he can say nothing at all, but it affords occasionfor calumny against him; for that if any mention be made of nobilityof birth, even in other cases, he is abused unjustly, while his fatherwould say that nobody, to be sure, is of noble birth but Alexander, andthat his father was inglorious for want of such nobility. If they beat any time hunting, and he says nothing, he gives offense; and if hecommends any body, they take it in way of jest. That they always findtheir father unmercifully severe, and have no natural affection forany of them but for Antipater; on which accounts, if this plot does nottake, he is very willing to die; but that in case he kill his father, hehath sufficient opportunities for saving himself. In the first place, hehath Archelaus his father-in-law to whom he can easily fly; and in thenext place, he hath Caesar, who had never known Herod's character tothis day; for that he shall not appear then before him with that dreadhe used to do when his father was there to terrify him; and that hewill not then produce the accusations that concerned himself alone, but would, in the first place, openly insist on the calamities of theirnation, and how they are taxed to death, and in what ways of luxury andwicked practices that wealth is spent which was gotten by bloodshed;what sort of persons they are that get our riches, and to whom thosecities belong upon whom he bestows his favors; that he would haveinquiry made what became of his grandfather [Hyrcanus], and his mother[Mariamne], and would openly proclaim the gross wickedness that was inthe kingdom; on which accounts he should not be deemed a parricide. 

3. When Eurycles had made this portentous speech, he greatly commendedAntipater, 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 formeraccusations, was exasperated to an incurable degree. At which timeAntipater took another occasion to send in other persons to hisfather to accuse his brethren, and to tell him that they had privatelydiscoursed with Jucundus and Tyrannus, who had once been masters ofthe horse to the king, but for some offenses had been put out ofthat honorable employment. Herod was in a very great rage at theseinformations, and presently ordered those men to be tortured; yet didnot they confess any thing of what the king had been informed; but acertain letter was produced, as written by Alexander to the governor ofa castle, to desire him to receive him and Aristobulus into the castlewhen he had killed his father, and to give them weapons, and what otherassistance he could, upon that occasion. Alexander said that this letterwas a forgery of Diophantus. This Diophantus was the king's secretary, abold man, and cunning in counterfeiting any one's hand; and after he hadcounterfeited a great number, he was at last put to death for it. Herod did also order the governor of the castle to be tortured, butgot nothing out of him of what the accusations suggested. 

4. However, although Herod found the proofs too weak, he gave order to have his sonskept in custody; for till now they had been at liberty. He also calledthat pest of his family, and forger of all this vile accusation, Eurycles, his savior and benefactor, and gave him a reward of fiftytalents. Upon which he prevented any accurate accounts that could comeof what he had done, by going immediately into Cappadocia, and therehe got money of Archelaus, having the impudence to pretend that he hadreconciled Herod to Alexander. He thence passed over into Greece, andused what he had thus wickedly gotten to the like wicked purposes. Accordingly, he was twice accused before Caesar, that he had filledAchaia with sedition, and had plundered its cities; and so he was sentinto banishment. And thus was he punished for what wicked actions he hadbeen guilty of about Aristobulus and Alexander. 

5. But it will now be worth while to put Euaratus of Cos in oppositionto 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 whichAlexander was accused were true? He assured him upon oath that he hadnever heard any such things from the young men; yet did this testimonyavail nothing for the clearing those miserable creatures; for Herod wasonly disposed and most ready to hearken to what made against them, andevery 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; forAristobulus was desirous to bring her, who was his mother-in-law and hisaunt, into the like dangers with themselves; so he sent to her to takecare of her own safety, and told her that the king was preparing to puther to death, on account of the accusation that was laid against her, asif 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'senemy; and this it was that came as the last storm, and entirely sunkthe young men when they were in great danger before. For Salome camerunning to the king, and informed him of what admonition had been givenher; whereupon he could bear no longer, but commanded both the youngmen to be bound, and kept the one asunder from the other. He also sentVolumnius, the general of his army, to Caesar immediately, as also hisfriend Olympus with him, who carried the informations in writing alongwith them. Now as soon as they had sailed to Rome, and delivered theking's letters to Caesar, Caesar was mightily troubled at the case ofthe young men; yet did not he think he ought to take the power from thefather of condemning his sons; so he wrote back to him, and appointedhim to have the power over his sons; but said withal, that he would dowell to make an examination into this matter of the plot against him ina public court, and to take for his assessors his own kindred, and thegovernors of the province. And if those sons be found guilty, to putthem to death; but if they appear to have thought of no more than flyingaway from him, that he should moderate their punishment. 

2. With these directions Herod complied, and came to Berytus, whereCaesar had ordered the court to be assembled, and got the judicaturetogether. The presidents sat first, as Caesar's letters had appointed, who were Saturninus and Pedanius, and their lieutenants that were withthem, with whom was the procurator Volumnius also; next to them sat theking's kinsmen and friends, with Salome also, and Pheroras; after whomsat the principal men of all Syria, excepting Archelaus; for Herod had asuspicion of him, because he was Alexander's father-in-law. Yet did nothe produce his sons in open court; and this was done very cunningly, for he knew well enough that had they but appeared only, they wouldcertainly have been pitied; and if withal they had been suffered tospeak, 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 werepresent; and as for that part of the accusation that they had plottedagainst him, he urged it but faintly, because he was destitute ofproofs; but he insisted before the assessors on the reproaches, andjests, and injurious carriage, and ten thousand the like offensesagainst him, which were heavier than death itself; and when nobodycontradicted him, he moved them to pity his case, as though he had beencondemned himself, now he had gained a bitter victory against his sons. So he asked every one's sentence, which sentence was first of all givenby Saturninus, and was this: That he condemned the young men, but notto death; for that it was not fit for him, who had three sons of hisown now present, to give his vote for the destruction of the sons ofanother. The two lieutenants also gave the like vote; some others therewere also who followed their example; but Volumnius began to vote on themore melancholy side, and all those that came after him condemned theyoung 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 Judeawas in great expectation, and waited for the last act of this tragedy;yet did nobody, suppose that Herod would be so barbarous as to murderhis children: however, he carried them away to Tyre, and thence sailedto Cesarea, and deliberated with himself what sort of death the youngmen should suffer. 

4. Now there was a certain old soldier of the king's, whose namewas Tero, who had a son that was very familiar with and a friend toAlexander, and who himself particularly loved the young men. Thissoldier was in a manner distracted, out of the excess of the indignationhe had at what was doing; and at first he cried out aloud, as he wentabout, 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 sparednot 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 tomost wicked wretches, against those that ought to be dearest to thee;since thou hast frequently resolved that Pheroras and Salome should beput to death, and yet believest them against thy sons; while these, by cutting off the succession of thine own sons, leave all whollyto Antipater, and thereby choose to have thee such a king as may bethoroughly in their own power. However, consider whether this death ofAntipater's brethren will not make him hated by the soldiers; for thereis nobody but commiserates the young men; and of the captains, a greatmany show their indignation at it openly. " Upon his saying this, henamed 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. Thisman leaped out from among the people in a kind of madness, and accusedhimself, and said, "This Tero endeavored to persuade me also to cut thythroat with my razor, when I trimmed thee, and promised that Alexandershould give me large presents for so doing. " When Herod heard this, heexamined Tero, with his son and the barber, by the torture; but as theothers denied the accusation, and he said nothing further, Herod gaveorder that Tero should be racked more severely; but his son, out of pityto his father, promised to discover the whole to the king, if he wouldgrant [that his father should be no longer tortured]. When he had agreedto this, he said that his father, at the persuasion of Alexander, had anintention to kill him. Now some said this was forged, in order to freehis father from his torments; and some said it was true. 

6. And now Herod accused the captains and Tero in an assembly of thepeople, and brought the people together in a body against them; andaccordingly there were they put to death, together with [Trypho] thebarber; they were killed by the pieces of wood and the stones that werethrown at them. He also sent his sons to Sebaste, a city not far fromCesarea, and ordered them to be there strangled; and as what he hadordered was executed immediately, so he commanded that their deadbodies should be brought to the fortress Alexandrium, to be buried withAlexander, their grandfather by the mother's side. And this was the endof 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, thoughhe had now an indisputable title to the succession, because they allknew that he was the person who contrived all the calumnies againsthis brethren. However, he began to be in a terrible fear, as he saw theposterity of those that had been slain growing up; for Alexander had twosons 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 withher portion, to Cappadocia. He married Bernice, Aristobulus's daughter, to Antipater's uncle by his mother, and it was Antipater who, inorder to reconcile her to him, when she had been at variance with him, contrived this match; he also got into Pheroras's favor, and intothe favor of Caesar's friends, by presents, and other ways ofobsequiousness, and sent no small sums of money to Rome; Saturninusalso, and his friends in Syria, were all well replenished with thepresents he made them; yet the more he gave, the more he was hated, asnot making these presents out of generosity, but spending his money outof fear. Accordingly, it so fell out that the receivers bore him no moregood-will than before, but that those to whom he gave nothing were hismore bitter enemies. However, he bestowed his money every day more andmore profusely, on observing that, contrary to his expectations, theking was taking care about the orphans, and discovering at the same timehis repentance for killing their fathers, by his commiseration of thosethat sprang from them. 

2. Accordingly, Herod got together his kindred and friends, and setbefore them the children, and, with his eyes full of tears, said thusto them: "It was an unlucky fate that took away from me thesechildren's fathers, which children are recommended to me by that naturalcommiseration which their orphan condition requires; however, I willendeavor, though I have been a most unfortunate father, to appear abetter grandfather, and to leave these children such curators aftermyself as are dearest to me. I therefore betroth thy daughter, Pheroras, to the elder of these brethren, the children of Alexander, that thoumayst be obliged to take care of them. I also betroth to thy son, Antipater, the daughter of Aristobulus; be thou therefore a father tothat orphan; and my son Herod [Philip] shall have her sister, whosegrandfather, by the mother's side, was high priest. And let every onethat loves me be of my sentiments in these dispositions, which none thathath an affection for me will abrogate. And I pray God that he will jointhese children together in marriage, to the advantage of my kingdom, andof my posterity; and may he look down with eyes more serene upon themthan he looked upon their fathers. "

3. While he spake these words he wept, and joined the children'sfight hands together; after which he embraced them every one after anaffectionate manner, and dismissed the assembly. Upon this, Antipaterwas in great disorder immediately, and lamented publicly at what wasdone; for he supposed that this dignity which was conferred on theseorphans was for his own destruction, even in his father's lifetime, andthat he should run another risk of losing the government, if Alexander'ssons should have both Archelaus [a king], and Pheroras a tetrarch, tosupport them. He also considered how he was himself hated by the nation, and how they pitied these orphans; how great affection the Jews bareto those brethren of his when they were alive, and how gladly theyremembered them now they had perished by his means. So he resolved byall the ways possible to get these espousals dissolved. 

4. Now he was afraid of going subtlely about this matter with hisfather, who was hard to be pleased, and was presently moved upon theleast suspicion: so he ventured to go to him directly, and to beg ofhim before his face not to deprive him of that dignity which he had beenpleased to bestow upon him; and that he might not have the bare name ofa king, while the power was in other persons; for that he should neverbe able to keep the government, if Alexander's son was to have both hisgrandfather Archelaus and Pheroras for his curators; and he besought himearnestly, since there were so many of the royal family alive, that hewould 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 alsoand Archelaus were by Malthace, the Samaritan, as was his daughterOlympias, which his brother Joseph's [43] son had married. By Cleopatraof Jerusalem he had Herod and Philip; and by Pallas, Phasaelus; he hadalso two daughters, Roxana and Salome, the one by Phedra, and the otherby Elpis; he had also two wives that had no children, the one his firstcousin, 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 theseintended marriages. 

5. When the king perceived what disposition he was in towards theseorphans, he was angry at it, and a suspicion came into his mind as tothose sons whom he had put to death, whether that had not been broughtabout by the false tales of Antipater; so that at that time he madeAntipater a long and a peevish answer, and bid him begone. Yet was heafterwards prevailed upon cunningly by his flatteries, and changed themarriages; he married Aristobulus's daughter to him, and his son toPheroras's daughter. 

6. Now one may learn, in this instance, how very much this flatteringAntipater could do, --even what Salome in the like circumstances couldnot do; for when she, who was his sister, and who, by the means ofJulia, Caesar's wife, earnestly desired leave to be married to Sylleusthe Arabian, Herod swore he would esteem her his bitter enemy, unlessshe would leave off that project: he also caused her, against her ownconsent, to be married to Alexas, a friend of his, and that one ofher daughters should be married to Alexas's son, and the other toAntipater's uncle by the mother's side. And for the daughters the kinghad by Mariamne, the one was married to Antipater, his sister's son, andthe 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 hadcontracted such affinities as would be most for his own advantage, heproceeded briskly, as having a certain expectation of the kingdom; andas he had now assurance added to his wickedness, he became intolerable;for not being able to avoid the hatred of all people, he built hissecurity upon the terror he struck into them. Pheroras also assisted himin his designs, looking upon him as already fixed in the kingdom. There was also a company of women in the court, which excited newdisturbances; for Pheroras's wife, together with her mother and sister, as also Antipater's mother, grew very impudent in the palace. She alsowas so insolent as to affront the king's two daughters, [44] on whichaccount the king hated her to a great degree; yet although these womenwere hated by him, they domineered over others: there was only Salomewho opposed their good agreement, and informed the king of theirmeetings, as not being for the advantage of his affairs. And when thosewomen knew what calumnies she had raised against them, and how muchHerod was displeased, they left off their public meetings, and friendlyentertainments of one another; nay, on the contrary, they pretendedto quarrel one with another when the king was within hearing. The likedissimulation did Antipater make use of; and when matters were public, he opposed Pheroras; but still they had private cabals and merrymeetings in the night time; nor did the observation of others do anymore than confirm their mutual agreement. However, Salome knew everything they did, and told every thing to Herod. 

2. But he was inflamed with anger at them, and chiefly at Pheroras'swife; for Salome had principally accused her. So he got an assembly ofhis friends and kindred together, and there accused this woman of manythings, and particularly of the affronts she had offered his daughters;and that she had supplied the Pharisees with money, by way of rewardsfor what they had done against him, and had procured his brother tobecome his enemy, by giving him love potions. At length he turned hisspeech to Pheroras, and told him that he would give him his choice ofthese two things: Whether he would keep in with his brother, or with hiswife? And when Pheroras said that he would die rather than forsake hiswife? Herod, not knowing what to do further in that matter, turned hisspeech to Antipater, and charged him to have no intercourse either withPheroras's wife, or with Pheroras himself, or with any one belongingto her. Now though Antipater did not transgress that his injunctionpublicly, yet did he in secret come to their night meetings; and becausehe was afraid that Salome observed what he did, he procured, by themeans of his Italian friends, that he might go and live at Rome; forwhen they wrote that it was proper for Antipater to be sent to Caesarfor some time, Herod made no delay, but sent him, and that with asplendid attendance, and a great deal of money, and gave him histestament to carry with him, --wherein Antipater had the kingdombequeathed to him, and wherein Herod was named for Antipater'ssuccessor; that Herod, I mean, who was the son of Mariarmne, the highpriest's daughter. 

3. Sylleus also, the Arabian, sailed to Rome, without any regard toCaesar's injunctions, and this in order to oppose Antipater with allhis might, as to that law-suit which Nicolaus had with him before. ThisSylleus had also a great contest with Aretas his own king; for he hadslain many others of Aretas's friends, and particularly Sohemus, themost potent man in the city Petra. Moreover, he had prevailed withPhabatus, 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 inducedhim to leave Syllcus, and by this means he demanded of him all thatCaesar had required of him to pay. But when Sylleus paid nothing of whathe was to pay, and did also accuse Phabatus to Caesar, and said that hewas not a steward for Caesar's advantage, but for Herod's, Phabatus wasangry at him on that account, but was still in very great esteem withHerod, and discovered Sylleus's grand secrets, and told the king thatSylleus had corrupted Corinthus, one of the guards of his body, bybribing him, and of whom he must therefore have a care. Accordingly, theking complied; for this Corinthus, though he was brought up in Herod'skingdom, yet was he by birth an Arabian; so the king ordered him to betaken up immediately, and not only him, but two other Arabians, who werecaught with him; the one of them was Sylleus's friend, the other thehead of a tribe. These last, being put to the torture, confessed thatthey had prevailed with Corinthus, for a large sum of money, to killHerod; and when they had been further examined before Saturninus, thepresident of Syria, they were sent to Rome. 

4. However, Herod did not leave off importuning Pheroras, but proceededto force him to put away his wife; [45] yet could he not devise any wayby which he could bring the woman herself to punishment, although hehad many causes of hatred to her; till at length he was in such greatuneasiness at her, that he cast both her and his brother out of hiskingdom. Pheroras took this injury very patiently, and went away intohis own tetrarchy, [Perea beyond Jordan, ] and sware that there shouldbe 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 hereturn when his brother was sick, although he earnestly sent for him tocome to him, because he had a mind to leave some injunctions with himbefore he died; but Herod unexpectedly recovered. A little afterwardPheroras himself fell sick, when Herod showed great moderation; forhe came to him, and pitied his case, and took care of him; but hisaffection 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 dayof his life, yet was a report spread abroad that he had killed himby poison. However, he took care to have his dead body carried toJerusalem, and appointed a very great mourning to the whole nation forhim, and bestowed a most pompous funeral upon him. And this was the endthat 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 ofhis freed-men came with a sad countenance to the king, and told him thathis brother had been destroyed by poison, and that his wife had broughthim somewhat that was prepared after an unusual manner, and that, uponhis eating it, he presently fell into his distemper; that Antipater'smother and sister, two days before, brought a woman out of Arabia thatwas skillful in mixing such drugs, that she might prepare a love potionfor Pheroras; and that instead of a love potion, she had given himdeadly poison; and that this was done by the management of Sylleus, whowas acquainted with that woman. 

2. The king was deeply affected with so many suspicions, and had themaid-servants and some of the free women also tortured; one of whichcried out in her agonies, "May that God that governs the earth andthe heaven punish this author of all these our miseries, Antipater'smother!" The king took a handle from this confession, and proceeded toinquire further into the truth of the matter. So this woman discoveredthe friendship of Antipater's mother to Pheroras, and Antipater's women, as also their secret meetings, and that Pheroras and Antipater had drunkwith them for a whole night together as they returned from the king, and would not suffer any body, either man-servant or maidservant, to bethere; while one of the free women discovered the matter. 

3. Upon this Herod tortured the maid-servants every on by themselvesseparately, who all unanimously agreed in the foregoing discoveries, and that accordingly by agreement they went away, Antipater to Rome, andPheroras to Perea; for that they oftentimes talked to one another thus:That after Herod had slain Alexander and Aristobulus, he would fall uponthem, and upon their wives, because, after he Mariamne and her childrenhe would spare nobody; and that for this reason it was best to get asfar off the wild beast as they were able:--and that Antipater oftentimeslamented his own case before his mother, and said to her, that he hadalready gray hairs upon his head, and that his father grew younger againevery day, and that perhaps death would overtake him before he shouldbegin to be a king in earnest; and that in case Herod should die, whichyet nobody knew when it would be, the enjoyment of the succession couldcertainly be but for a little time; for that these heads of Hydra, thesons of Alexander and Aristobulus, were growing up: that he was deprivedby his father of the hopes of being succeeded by his children, for thathis 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 plainlydistracted, to think that his testament should therein take place; forhe would take care that not one of his posterity should remain, becausehe was of all fathers the greatest hater of his children. Yet does hehate his brother still worse; whence it was that he a while ago gavehimself a hundred talents, that he should not have any intercourse withPheroras. And when Pheroras said, Wherein have we done him any harm?Antipater replied, "I wish he would but deprive us of all we have, andleave us naked and alive only; but it is indeed impossible to escapethis wild beast, who is thus given to murder, who will not permit us tolove any person openly, although we be together privately; yet may we beso 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 thatPheroras resolved to fly with them to Perea. Now Herod gave credit toall they said, on account of the affair of the hundred talents; for hehad no discourse with any body about them, but only with Antipater. Sohe vented his anger first of all against Antipater's mother, and tookaway from her all the ornaments which he had given her, which cost agreat many talents, and cast her out of the palace a second time. Healso took care of Pheroras's women after their tortures, as being nowreconciled to them; but he was in great consternation himself, andinflamed upon every suspicion, and had many innocent persons led tothe torture, out of his fear lest he should leave any guilty personuntortured. 

5. And now it was that he betook himself to examine Antipater ofSamaria, who was the steward of [his son] Antipater; and upon torturinghim, he learned that Antipater had sent for a potion of deadly poisonfor 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 wasat Rome, and so free him from the suspicion of doing it himself: thatPheroras also committed this potion to his wife. Then did the king sendfor her, and bid her bring to him what she had received immediately. Soshe came out of her house as if she would bring it with her, butthrew herself down from the top of the house, in order to prevent anyexamination and torture from the king. However, it came to pass, as itseems by the providence of God, when he intended to bring Antipater topunishment, that she fell not upon her head, but upon other parts of herbody, and escaped. The king, when she was brought to him, took care ofher, [for she was at first quite senseless upon her fall, ] and askedher why she had thrown herself down; and gave her his oath, that if shewould speak the real truth, he would excuse her from punishment; butthat if she concealed any thing, he would have her body torn to piecesby torments, and leave no part of it to be buried. 

6. Upon this the woman paused a little, and then said, "Why do I spareto speak of these grand secrets, now Pheroras is dead? that would onlytend to save Antipater, who is all our destruction. Hear then, O king, and be thou, and God himself, who cannot be deceived, witnesses to thetruth of what I am going to say. When thou didst sit weeping by Pherorasas he was dying, " then it was that he called me to him, and said, "My dearwife, I have been greatly mistaken as to the disposition of my brothertowards me, and have hated him that is so affectionate to me, and havecontrived 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 bringwhat poison was left with us by Antipater, and which thou keepest inorder to destroy him, and consume it immediately in the fire in mysight, 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 intothe fire, but reserved a little of it for my own use against uncertainfuturity, and out of my fear of thee. 

7. When she had said this, she brought the box, which had a smallquantity of this potion in it: but the king let her alone, andtransferred the tortures to Antiphilus's mother and brother; who bothconfessed that Antiphilus brought the box out of Egypt, and that theyhad received the potion from a brother of his, who was a physician atAlexandria. Then did the ghosts of Alexander and Aristobulus go roundall the palace, and became the inquisitors and discoverers of what couldnot otherwise have been found out and brought such as were the freestfrom suspicion to be examined; whereby it was discovered that Mariamne, the high priest's daughter, was conscious of this plot; and her verybrothers, when they were tortured, declared it so to be. Whereuponthe king avenged this insolent attempt of the mother upon her son, andblotted Herod, whom he had by her, out of his tretament, who had beenbefore 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, inorder to convict Antipater, who proved the concluding attestation toAntipater's designs; for indeed he was no other than his freed-man. Thisman came, and brought another deadly potion, the poison of asps, andthe juices of other serpents, that if the first potion did not do thebusiness, Pheroras and his wife might be armed with this also to destroythe king. He brought also an addition to Antipater's insolent attemptagainst his father, which was the letters which he wrote against hisbrethren, Archelaus and Philip, which were the king's sons, and educatedat Rome, being yet youths, but of generous dispositions. Antipater sethimself to get rid of these as soon as he could, that they might not beprejudicial to his hopes; and to that end he forged letters against themin the name of his friends at Rome. Some of these he corrupted by bribesto write how they grossly reproached their father, and did openly bewailAlexander and Aristobulus, and were uneasy at their being recalled; fortheir father had already sent for them, which was the very thing thattroubled Antipater. 

2. Nay, indeed, while Antipater was in Judea, and before he was uponhis journey to Rome, he gave money to have the like letters against themsent from Rome, and then came to his father, who as yet had no suspicionof him, and apologized for his brethren, and alleged on their behalfthat some of the things contained in those letters were false, andothers of them were only youthful errors. Yet at the same time that heexpended a great deal of his money, by making presents to such as wroteagainst his brethren, did he aim to bring his accounts into confusion, by buying costly garments, and carpets of various contextures, withsilver and gold cups, and a great many more curious things, that so, among the view great expenses laid out upon such furniture, he mightconceal the money he had used in hiring men [to write the letters];for he brought in an account of his expenses, amounting to two hundredtalents, his main pretense for which was file law-suit he had been inwith Sylleus. So while all his rogueries, even those of a lesser sortalso, were covered by his greater villainy, while all the examinationsby torture proclaimed his attempt to murder his father, and the lettersproclaimed his second attempt to murder his brethren; yet did no one ofthose that came to Rome inform him of his misfortunes in Judea, althoughseven months had intervened between his conviction and his return, sogreat was the hatred which they all bore to him. And perhaps they werethe ghosts of those brethren of his that had been murdered that stoppedthe mouths of those that intended to have told him. He then wrote fromRome, and informed his [friends] that he would soon come to them, andhow he was dismissed with honor by Caesar. 

3. Now the king, being desirous to get this plotter against him intohis hands, and being also afraid lest he should some way come to theknowledge how his affairs stood, and be upon his guard, he dissembledhis anger in his epistle to him, as in other points he wrote kindly tohim, and desired him to make haste, because if he came quickly, he wouldthen lay aside the complaints he had against his mother; for Antipaterwas not ignorant that his mother had been expelled out of the palace. However, he had before received a letter, which contained an account ofthe death of Pheroras, at Tarentum, [46] and made great lamentationsat it; for which some commended him, as being for his own uncle; thoughprobably this confusion arose on account of his having thereby failed inhis plot [on his father's life]; and his tears were more for the lossof 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, lestthe poison should have been discovered. However, when he was in Cilicia, he received the forementioned epistle from his father, and made greathaste accordingly. But when he had sailed to Celenderis, a suspicioncame into his mind relating to his mother's misfortunes; as if his soulforeboded some mischief to itself. Those therefore of his friends whichwere the most considerate advised him not rashly to go to his father, till he had learned what were the occasions why his mother had beenejected, because they were afraid that he might be involved in thecalumnies that had been cast upon his mother: but those that were lessconsiderate, and had more regard to their own desires of seeing theirnative country, than to Antipater's safety, persuaded him to make hastehome, and not, by delaying his journey, afford his father ground for anill suspicion, and give a handle to those that raised stories againsthim; for that in case any thing had been moved to his disadvantage, itwas owing to his absence, which durst not have been done had he beenpresent. And they said it was absurd to deprive himself of certainhappiness, for the sake of an uncertain suspicion, and not rather toreturn to his father, and take the royal authority upon him, which wasin a state of fluctuation on his account only. Antipater complied withthis last advice, for Providence hurried him on [to his destruction]. Sohe passed over the sea, and landed at Sebastus, the haven of Cesarea. 

4. And here he found a perfect and unexpected solitude, while ever bodyavoided him, and nobody durst come at him; for he was equally hated byall men; and now that hatred had liberty to show itself, and the dreadmen were in at the king's anger made men keep from him; for the wholecity [of Jerusalem] was filled with the rumors about Antipater, andAntipater himself was the only person who was ignorant of them; for asno man was dismissed more magnificently when he began his voyage to Romeso was no man now received back with greater ignominy. And indeed hebegan already to suspect what misfortunes there were in Herod's family;yet did he cunningly conceal his suspicion; and while he was inwardlyready to die for fear, he put on a forced boldness of countenance. Norcould he now fly any whither, nor had he any way of emerging out of thedifficulties which encompassed him; nor indeed had he even there anycertain intelligence of the affairs of the royal family, by reasonof the threats the king had given out: yet had he some small hopesof better tidings; for perhaps nothing had been discovered; or if anydiscovery had been made, perhaps he should be able to clear himself byimpudence and artful tricks, which were the only things he relied uponfor his deliverance. 

5. And with these hopes did he screen himself, till he came to thepalace, without any friends with him; for these were affronted, and shutout at the first gate. Now Varus, the president of Syria, happened tobe 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 HerodStretched out his hands, and turned his head away from him, and criedout, "Even this is an indication of a parricide, to be desirous toget me into his arms, when he is under such heinous accusations. Godconfound thee, thou vile wretch; do not thou touch me, till thou hastcleared thyself of these crimes that are charged upon thee. I appointthee a court where thou art to be judged, and this Varus, who is veryseasonably here, to be thy judge; and get thou thy defense ready againsttomorrow, for I give thee so much time to prepare suitable excuses forthyself. " And as Antipater was so confounded, that he was able to makeno answer to this charge, he went away; but his mother and wife cameto him, and told him of all the evidence they had gotten against him. Hereupon he recollected himself, and considered what defense he shouldmake 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 andfriends, and called in Antipater's friends also. Herod himself, withVarus, were the presidents; and Herod called for all the witnesses, andordered them to be brought in; among whom some of the domestic servantsof Antipater's mother were brought in also, who had but a little whilebefore been caught, as they were carrying the following letter from herto her son: "Since all those things have been already discovered tothy father, do not thou come to him, unless thou canst procure someassistance from Caesar. " When this and the other witnesses wereintroduced, Antipater came in, and falling on his face before hisfather's feet, he said, "Father, I beseech thee, do not condemn mebeforehand, but let thy ears be unbiassed, and attend to my defense; forif 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 thusto Varus: "I cannot but think that thou, Varus, and every other uprightjudge, will determine that Antipater is a vile wretch. I am also afraidthat thou wilt abhor my ill fortune, and judge me also myself worthyof all sorts of calamity for begetting such children; while yet I oughtrather to be pitied, who have been so affectionate a father to suchwretched sons; for when I had settled the kingdom on my former sons, even when they were young, and when, besides the charges of theireducation at Rome, I had made them the friends of Caesar, and made themenvied by other kings, I found them plotting against me. These have beenput 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 carechiefly to secure him from danger: but this profligate wild beast, whenhe had been over and above satiated with that patience which I showedhim, he made use of that abundance I had given him against myself; for Iseemed to him to live too long, and he was very uneasy at the old ageI was arrived at; nor could he stay any longer, but would be a king byparricide. And justly I am served by him for bringing him back out ofthe country to court, when he was of no esteem before, and for thrustingout those sons of mine that were born of the queen, and for making him asuccessor to my dominions. I confess to thee, O Varus, the great folly Iwas guilty for I provoked those sons of mine to act against me, and cutoff their just expectations for the sake of Antipater; and indeed whatkindness 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 Ihave openly named for the successor to my dominions in my testament, andgiven him a yearly revenue of his own of fifty talents, and supplied himwith money to an extravagant degree out of my own revenue; and' whenhe was about to sail to Rome, I gave him three talents, and recommendedhim, and him alone of all my children, to Caesar, as his father'sdeliverer. Now what crimes were those other sons of mine guilty of likethese of Antipater? and what evidence was there brought against them sostrong as there is to demonstrate this son to have plotted againstme? Yet does this parricide presume to speak for himself, and hopesto obscure the truth by his cunning tricks. Thou, O Varus, must guardthyself against him; for I know the wild beast, and I foresee howplausibly he will talk, and his counterfeit lamentation. This was he whoexhorted me to have a care of Alexander when he was alive, and not tointrust my body with all men! This was he who came to my very bed, andlooked about lest any one should lay snares for me! This was he who tookcare of my sleep, and secured me from fear of danger, who comforted meunder the trouble I was in upon the slaughter of my sons, and looked tosee 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, hiscraftiness upon every occasion, and his art of dissembling, I can hardlybelieve that I am still alive, and I wonder how I have escaped such adeep plotter of mischief. However, since some fate or other makes myhouse desolate, and perpetually raises up those that are dearest to meagainst me, I will, with tears, lament my hard fortune, and privatelygroan under my lonesome condition; yet am I resolved that no one whothirsts after my blood shall escape punishment, although the evidenceshould extend itself to all my sons. "

3. Upon Herod's saying this, he was interrupted by the confusion he wasin; but ordered Nicolaus, one of his friends, to produce the evidenceagainst Antipater. But in the mean time Antipater lifted up his head, [for he lay on the ground before his father's feet, ] and cried outaloud, "Thou, O father, hast made my apology for me; for how can I bea parricide, whom thou thyself confessest to have always had forthy guardian? Thou callest my filial affection prodigious lies andhypocrisy! how then could it be that I, who was so subtle in othermatters, should here be so mad as not to understand that it was not easythat he who committed so horrid a crime should be concealed from men, but impossible that he should be concealed from the Judge of heaven, whosees all things, and is present every where? or did not I know what endmy brethren came to, on whom God inflicted so great a punishment fortheir evil designs against thee? And indeed what was there that couldpossibly 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 Ibeloved by thee? And what other fear could I have? Nay, by preservingthee safe, I was a terror to others. Did I want money? No; for who wasable to expend so much as myself? Indeed, father, had I been the mostexecrable of all mankind, and had I had the soul of the most cruelwild beast, must I not have been overcome with the benefits thou hadstbestowed upon me? whom, as thou thyself sayest, thou broughtest [intothe palace]; whom thou didst prefer before so many of thy sons; whomthou madest a king in thine own lifetime, and, by the vast magnitude ofthe other advantages thou bestowedst on me, thou madest me an object ofenvy. 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 wasI absent, father, on thy affairs, that Sylleus might not treat thee withcontempt in thine old age. Rome is a witness to my filial affection, andso is Caesar, the ruler of the habitable earth, who oftentimes called mePhilopater. [47] Take here the letters he hath sent thee, they are moreto be believed than the calumnies raised here; these letters are my onlyapology; these I use as the demonstration of that natural affection Ihave 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 againstme. 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 thereis 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 oftrial is no advantage to me; for it seems, O father, that I am alreadycondemned, both before God and before thee; and as I am alreadycondemned, I beg that thou wilt not believe the others that have beentortured, but let fire be brought to torment me; let the racks marchthrough my bowels; have no regard to any lamentations that this pollutedbody can make; for if I be a parricide, I ought not to die withouttorture. " Thus did Antipater cry out with lamentation and weeping, andmoved all the rest, and Varus in particular, to commiserate his case. Herod was the only person whose passion was too strong to permit him toweep, as knowing that the testimonies against him were true. 

4. And now it was that, at the king's command, Nicolaus, when hehad premised a great deal about the craftiness of Antipater, and hadprevented the effects of their commiseration to him, afterwardsbrought in a bitter and large accusation against him, ascribing allthe wickedness that had been in the kingdom to him, and especially themurder of his brethren; and demonstrated that they had perished by thecalumnies he had raised against them. He also said that he had laiddesigns against them that were still alive, as if they were laying plotsfor the succession; and [said he] how can it be supposed that he whoprepared poison for his father should abstain from mischief as to hisbrethren? He then proceeded to convict him of the attempt to poisonHerod, and gave an account in order of the several discoveries thathad been made; and had great indignation as to the affair of Pheroras, because Antipater had been for making him murder his brother, and hadcorrupted those that were dearest to the king, and filled the wholepalace with wickedness; and when he had insisted on many otheraccusations, and the proofs for them, he left off. 

5. Then Varus bid Antipater make his defense; but he lay along insilence, and said no more but this, "God is my witness that I amentirely innocent. " So Varus asked for the potion, and gave it to bedrunk by a condemned malefactor, who was then in prison, who died uponthe 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, aftera day's stay. The king also bound Antipater, and sent away to informCaesar of his misfortunes. 

6. Now after this it was discovered thatAntipater had laid a plot against Salome also; for one of Antiphilus'sdomestic servants came, and brought letters from Rome, from amaid-servant of Julia, [Caesar's wife, ] whose name was Acme. By her amessage was sent to the king, that she had found a letter written bySalome, among Julia's papers, and had sent it to him privately, out ofher good-will to him. This letter of Salome contained the most bitterreproaches of the king, and the highest accusations against him. Antipater had forged this letter, and had corrupted Acme, and persuadedher to send it to Herod. This was proved by her letter to Antipater, forthus did this woman write to him: "As thou desirest, I have written aletter to thy father, and have sent that letter, and am persuaded thatthe king will not spare his sister when he reads it. Thou wilt do wellto remember what thou hast promised when all is accomplished. "

7. When this epistle was discovered, and what the epistle forged againstSalome contained, a suspicion came into the king's mind, that perhapsthe letters against Alexander were also forged: he was moreover greatlydisturbed, and in a passion, because he had almost slain his sister onAntipater's account. He did no longer delay therefore to bring himto punishment for all his crimes; yet when he was eagerly pursuingAntipater, he was restrained by a severe distemper he fell into. However, he sent all account to Caesar about Acme, and the contrivancesagainst Salome; he sent also for his testament, and altered it, andtherein made Antipas king, as taking no care of Archclaus and Philip, because Antipater had blasted their reputations with him; but hebequeathed to Caesar, besides other presents that he gave him, athousand talents; as also to his wife, and children, and friends, andfreed-men about five hundred: he also bequeathed to all others a greatquantity of land, and of money, and showed his respects to Salomehis sister, by giving her most splendid gifts. And this was what wascontained 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 thisbecause these his disorders fell upon him in his old age, and when hewas in a melancholy condition; for he was already seventy years of age, and had been brought by the calamities that happened to him abouthis children, whereby he had no pleasure in life, even when he was inhealth; the grief also that Antipater was still alive aggravated hisdisease, whom he resolved to put to death now not at random, but as soonas he should be well again, and resolved to have him slain [in a publicmanner]. 

2. There also now happened to him, among his other calamities, acertain popular sedition. There were two men of learning in the city[Jerusalem, ] who were thought the most skillful in the laws of theircountry, and were on that account had in very great esteem all over thenation; they were, the one Judas, the son of Sepphoris, and the otherMatthias, the son of Margalus. There was a great concourse of the youngmen to these men when they expounded the laws, and there got togetherevery 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 awaywith melancholy, and with a distemper, they dropped words to theiracquaintance, how it was now a very proper time to defend the causeof God, and to pull down what had been erected contrary to the laws oftheir country; for it was unlawful there should be any such thing inthe temple as images, or faces, or the like representation of any animalwhatsoever. Now the king had put up a golden eagle over the great gateof the temple, which these learned men exhorted them to cut down; andtold them, that if there should any danger arise, it was a gloriousthing to die for the laws of their country; because that the soul wasimmortal, and that an eternal enjoyment of happiness did await such asdied on that account; while the mean-spirited, and those that were notwise enough to show a right love of their souls, preferred a death by adisease, 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 theyoung men set about the work with greater boldness; they therefore letthemselves down from the top of the temple with thick cords, and this atmidday, and while a great number of people were in the temple, and cutdown that golden eagle with axes. This was presently told to the king'scaptain 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 asto cut down the golden eagle, they confessed they had done so; and whenhe asked them by whose command they had done it, they replied, at thecommand of the law of their country; and when he further asked them howthey 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 overcamehis disease [for the time, ] and went out, and spake to the people;wherein he made a terrible accusation against those men, as being guiltyof sacrilege, and as making greater attempts under pretense of theirlaw, and he thought they deserved to be punished as impious persons. Whereupon the people were afraid lest a great number should be foundguilty and desired that when he had first punished those that put themupon this work, and then those that were caught in it, he would leaveoff his anger as to the rest. With this the king complied, though notwithout difficulty, and ordered those that had let themselves down, together with their Rabbins, to be burnt alive, but delivered the restthat were caught to the proper officers, to be put to death by them. 

5. After this, the distemper seized upon his whole body, and greatlydisordered all its parts with various symptoms; for there was a gentlefever upon him, and an intolerable itching over all the surface of hisbody, and continual pains in his colon, and dropsical turnouts abouthis feet, and an inflammation of the abdomen, and a putrefaction of hisprivy member, that produced worms. Besides which he had a difficulty ofbreathing upon him, and could not breathe but when he sat upright, andhad a convulsion of all his members, insomuch that the diviners saidthose diseases were a punishment upon him for what he had done to theRabbins. Yet did he struggle with his numerous disorders, and stillhad a desire to live, and hoped for recovery, and considered of severalmethods of cure. Accordingly, he went over Jordan, and made use of thosehot baths at Callirrhoe, which ran into the lake Asphaltitis, but arethemselves sweet enough to be drunk. And here the physicians thoughtproper to bathe his whole body in warm oil, by letting it down into alarge vessel full of oil; whereupon his eyes failed him, and he came andwent 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 ofrecovery, and gave orders that each soldier should have fifty drachmaea-piece, and that his commanders and friends should have great sums ofmoney given them. 

6. He then returned back and came to Jericho, in such a melancholy stateof body as almost threatened him with present death, when he proceededto attempt a horrid wickedness; for he got together the most illustriousmen of the whole Jewish nation, out of every village, into a placecalled the Hippodrome, and there shut them in. He then called for hissister Salome, and her husband Alexas, and made this speech to them:"I know well enough that the Jews will keep a festival upon my deathhowever, it is in my power to be mourned for on other accounts, and tohave 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 arenow in custody, and slay them immediately upon my death, and then allJudea, and every family of them, will weep at it, whether they will orno. "

7. These were the commands he gave them; when there came letters fromhis ambassadors at Rome, whereby information was given that Acme was putto death at Caesar's command, and that Antipater was condemned to die;however, they wrote withal, that if Herod had a mind rather to banishhim, 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 hispains, and was disordered by want of food, and by a convulsive cough, and endeavored to prevent a natural, death; so he took an apple, andasked for a knife for he used to pare apples and eat them; he thenlooked round about to see that there was nobody to hinder him, and liftup his right hand as if he would stab himself; but Achiabus, his firstcousin, came running to him, and held his hand, and hindered him fromso doing; on which occasion a very great lamentation was made in thepalace, as if the king were expiring. As soon as ever Antipater heardthat, 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 principalkeeper 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 criedout louder than his distemper would well bear, and immediately sent someof his guards and slew Antipater; he also gave order to have himburied at Hyrcanium, and altered his testament again, and therein madeArchclaus, 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 beslain, and obtained his kingdom; but thirty-seven years since he hadbeen made king by the Romans. Now as for his fortune, it was prosperousin all other respects, if ever any other man could be so, since, from aprivate man, he obtained the kingdom, and kept it so long, and leftit to his own sons; but still in his domestic affairs he was a mostunfortunate man. Now, before the soldiers knew of his death, Salome andher husband came out and dismissed those that were in bonds, whom theking had commanded to be slain, and told them that he had altered hismind, and would have every one of them sent to their own homes. Whenthese men were gone, Salome, told the soldiers [the king was dead], andgot them and the rest of the multitude together to an assembly, in theamphitheater at Jericho, where Ptolemy, who was intrusted by the kingwith his signet ring, came before them, and spake of the happiness theking had attained, and comforted the multitude, and read the epistlewhich had been left for the soldiers, wherein he earnestly exhorted themto bear good-will to his successor; and after he had read the epistle, he opened and read his testament, wherein Philip was to inheritTrachonitis, and the neighboring countries, and Antipas was to betetrarch, as we said before, and Archelaus was made king. He had alsobeen commanded to carry Herod's ring to Caesar, and the settlementshe had made, sealed up, because Caesar was to be lord of all thesettlements he had made, and was to confirm his testament; and heordered that the dispositions he had made were to be kept as they werein his former testament. 

9. So there was an acclamation made to Archelaus, to congratulate himupon his advancement; and the soldiers, with the multitude, went roundabout in troops, and promised him their good-will, and besides, prayedGod to bless his government. After this, they betook themselves toprepare for the king's funeral; and Archelaus omitted nothing ofmagnificence therein, but brought out all the royal ornaments to augmentthe pomp of the deceased. There was a bier all of gold, embroidered withprecious stones, and a purple bed of various contexture, with the deadbody 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 nearto the bier were Herod's sons, and a multitude of his kindred; next towhich came his guards, and the regiment of Thracians, the Germans alsoand Gauls, all accounted as if they were going to war; but the rest ofthe army went foremost, armed, and following their captains and officersin a regular manner; after whom five hundred of his domestic servantsand freed-men followed, with sweet spices in their hands: and the bodywas carried two hundred furlongs, to Herodium, where he had given orderto be buried. And this shall suffice for the conclusion of the life ofHerod. 

WAR BOOK 1 FOOTNOTES

[1] I see little difference in the several accounts in Josephus aboutthe Egyptian temple Onion, of which large complaints are made by hiscommentators. Onias, it seems, hoped to have made it very like that atJerusalem, and of the same dimensions; and so he appears to have reallydone, as far as he was able and thought proper. Of this temple, seeAntiq. B. XIII. Ch. 3. Sect. 1--3, and Of the War, B. VII. Ch. 10. Sect. 8. 

[2] Why this John, the son of Simon, the high priest and governor ofthe Jews, was called Hyrcanus, Josephus no where informs us; nor is hecalled other than John at the end of the First Book of the Maccabees. However, Sixtus Seuensis, when he gives us an epitome of the Greekversion of the book here abridged by Josephus, or of the Chronicles ofthis John Hyrcanus, then extant, assures us that he was called Hyrcanusfrom 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] 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, tillPompey quite turned him out, as Dean Aldrich here notes from Appian andJustin. 

[4] Matthew 16:19; 18:18. Here we have the oldest and most authenticJewish exposition of binding and loosing, for punishing or absolvingmen, not for declaring actions lawful or unlawful, as some more modernJews and Christians vainly pretend. 

[5] Strabo, B. XVI. P. 740, relates, that this Selene Cleopatra wasbesieged by Tigranes, not in Ptolemais, as here, but after she had leftSyria, in Seleucia, a citadel in Mesopotamia; and adds, that when he hadkept her a while in prison, he put her to death. Dean Aldrich supposeshere that Strabo contradicts Josephus, which does not appear to me; foralthough Josephus says both here and in the Antiquities, B. XIII. Ch. 16. Sect. 4, that Tigranes besieged her now in Ptolemais, and thathe took the city, as the Antiquities inform us, yet does he no whereintimate that he now took the queen herself; so that both the narrationsof Strabo and Josephus may still be true notwithstanding. 

[6] 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 Spanheimalso, that the Latin is here the truest; that Pompey did him Hyrcanus, as he would have done the others from Aristobulus, sect. 6, althoughhis remarkable abstinence from the 2000 talents that were in the Jewishtemple, 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 takethem. 

[7] Of the famous palm trees and balsam about Jericho and Engaddl, seethe 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] Thus says Tacitus: Cn. Pompelna first of all subdued the Jews, andwent into their temple, by right of conquest, Hist. B. V. Ch. 9. Nor didhe touch any of its riches, as has been observed on the parallel placeof the Antiquities, B. XIV. Ch. 4. Sect. 4, out of Cicero himself. 

[9] 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 hereassures us. 

[10] Take the like attestation to the truth of this submission ofAretas, king of Arabia, to Scaurus the Roman general, in the words ofDean Aldrich. "Hence [says he] is derived that old and famous Denariusbelonging to the Emillian family [represented in Havercamp's edition], wherein Aretas appears in a posture of supplication, and taking hold ofa camel's bridle with his left hand, and with his right hand presentinga branch of the frankincense tree, with this inscription, M. SCAURUS EXS. C. ; and beneath, REX ARETAS. "

[11] This citation is now wanting. 

[12] What is here noted by Hudson and Spanheim, that this grant of leaveto 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 nowperhaps considered only as Hyrcanus's deputy and minister; althoughhe afterwards made a cipher of Hyrcanus, and, under great decency ofbehavior to him, took the real authority to himself. 

[13] 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 anaccount of this murder of Sextus Caesar, and of the war of Apamia uponthat occasion. They are cited in Dean Aldrich's note. 

[14] In the Antiquities, B. XIV. Ch. 11. Sect. 1, the duration of thereign of Julius Caesar is three years six months; but here three yearsseven months, beginning nightly, says Dean Aldrich, from his seconddictatorship. It is probable the real duration might be three years andbetween six and seven months. 

[15] It appears evidently by Josephus's accounts, both here and in hisAntiquities, B. XIV. Ch. 11. Sect. 2, that this Cassius, one of Caesar'smurderers, was a bitter oppressor, and exactor of tribute in Judea. These seven hundred talents amount to about three hundred thousandpounds sterling, and are about half the yearly revenues of king Herodafterwards. See the note on Antiq. B. XVII. Ch. 11. Sect. 4. It alsoappears that Galilee then paid no more than one hundred talents, or theseventh part of the entire sum to be levied in all the country. 

[16] Here we see that Cassius set tyrants over all Syria; so that hisassisting to destroy Caesar does not seem to have proceeded from histrue zeal for public liberty, but from a desire to be a tyrant himself. 

[17] Phasaelus and Herod. 

[18] This large and noted wood, or woodland, belonging to Carmel, calledApago by the Septuagint, is mentioned in the Old Testament, 2 Kings19:23; Isaiah 37:24, and by I Strabo, B. XVI. P. 758, as both Aldrichand Spanheim here remark very pertinently. 

[19] These accounts, both here and Antiq. B. XIV. Ch. 13. Sect. 5, thatthe Parthians fought chiefly on horseback, and that only some few oftheir soldiers were free-men, perfectly agree with Trogus Pompeius, inJustin, B. XLI. 2, 3, as Dean Aldrich well observes on this place. 

[20] Mariamac here, in the copies. 

[21] This Brentesium or Brundusium has coin still preserved, on which iswritten, as Spanheim informs us. 

[22] This Dellius is famous, or rather infamous, in the history of MarkAntony, as Spanheim and Aldrich here note, from the coins, from Plutarchand Dio. 

[23] This Sepphoris, the metropolis of Galilee, so often mentioned byJosephus, has coins still remaining, as Spanheim here informs us. 

[24] This way of speaking, "after forty days, " is interpreted byJosephus 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 byhimself interpreted, Antiq. B. XVII. Ch. 8. Sect. 1, that he died "onthe 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 secondyear. " And Dean Aldrich here notes that this way of speaking is familiarto Josephus. 

[25] This Samosata, the metropolis of Commagena, is well known fromits coins, as Spanheim here assures us. Dean Aldrich also confirms whatJosephus here notes, that Herod was a great means of taking the city byAntony, and that from Plutarch and Dio. 

[26] That is, a woman, not, a man. 

[27] This death of Antigonus is confirmed by Plutarch and. Straho; thelatter of whom is cited for it by Josephus himself, Antiq. B. XV. Ch. 1. Sect. 2, as Dean Aldrich here observes. 

[28] This ancient liberty of Tyre and Sidon under the Romans, takennotice of by Josephus, both here and Antiq. B. XV. Ch. 4. Sect. 1, isconfirmed by the testimony of Sirabe, B. XVI. P. 757, as Dean Aldrichremarks; although, as he justly adds, this liberty lasted but a littlewhile longer, when Augtus took it away from them. 

[29] This seventh year of the reign of Herod [from the conquest or deathof Antigonus], with the great earthquake in the beginning of the samespring, which are here fully implied to be not much before the fight atActium, between Octavius and Antony, and which is known from theRoman historians to have been in the beginning of September, in thethirty-first year before the Christian era, determines the chronologyof 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 beforethe Christian era, contained the latter part of a Sabbatic year, onwhich Sabbatic year, therefore, it is plain this great earthquakehappened in Judea. 

[30] 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 inthe same words; whence it appears that the sense was Herod's, but thecomposition Josephus's. 

[31] 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 Herodby Augustus, and yet implies that Herod had made Costobarus a governorof it before, Antiq. B. XV. Ch. 7. Sect. 9, Hardain has some pretensefor saying that Josephus here contradicted himself. But perhaps Herodthought he had sufficient authority to put a governor into Gaza, afterhe was made tetrarch or king, in times of war, before the city wasentirely delivered into his hands by Augustus. 

[32] This fort was first built, as it is supposed, by John Hyrcanus; seePrid. At the year 107; and called "Baris, " the Tower or Citadel. Itwas afterwards rebuilt, with great improvements, by Herod, under thegovernment of Antonius, and was named from him "the Tower of Antoni;"and about the time when Herod rebuilt the temple, he seems to have puthis 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 thetemple, and was a quarter as large. 

[33] That Josephus speaks truth, when he assures us that the haven ofthis Cesarea was made by Herod not less, nay rather larger, than thatfamous haven at Athens, called the Pyrecum, will appear, says DeanAldrich, to him who compares the descriptions of that at Athens inThucydides and Pausanias, with this of Cesarea in Josephus here, and inthe Antiq. B. XV. Ch. 9. Sect. 6, and B. XVII. Ch. 9. Sect. 1. 

[34] These buildings of cities by the name of Caesar, and institutionof solemn games in honor of Augustus Caesar, as here, and in theAntiquities, related of Herod by Josephus, the Roman historians attestto, as things then frequent in the provinces of that empire, as DeanAldrich observes on this chapter. 

[35] There were two cities, or citadels, called Herodium, in Judea, andboth 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 sixtyfurlongs distant from Jerusalem. One of them is mentioned by Pliny, Hist. Nat. B. V. Ch. 14. , as Dean Aldrich observes here. 

[36] Here seems to be a small defect in the copies, which describe thewild beasts which were hunted in a certain country by Herod, withoutnaming any such country at all. 

[37] Here is either a defect or a great mistake in Josephus's presentcopies or memory; for Mariamne did not now reproach Herod with thishis first injunction to Joseph to kill her, if he himself were slain byAntony, but that he had given the like command a second time to Soemusalso, when he was afraid of being slain by Augustus. Antiq. B. XV. Ch. 3. Sect. 5, etc. 

[38] That this island Eleusa, afterward called Sebaste, near Cilicia, had in it the royal palace of this Archclaus, king of Cappadocia, Strabotestifies, B. XV. P. 671. Stephanus of Byzantiam also calls it "anisland of Cilicia, which is now Sebaste;" both whose testimonies arepertinently cited here by Dr. Hudson. See the same history, Antiq. B. XVI. Ch. 10. Sect. 7. 

[39] That it was an immemorial custom among the Jews, and theirforefathers, the patriarchs, to have sometimes more wives or wives andconcubines, than one at the same the and that this polygamy was notdirectly forbidden in the law of Moses is evident; but that polygamywas ever properly and distinctly permitted in that law of Moses, in theplaces here cited by Dean Aldrich, Deuteronomy 17:16, 17, or 21:15, orindeed any where else, does not appear to me. And what our Savior saysabout the common Jewish divorces, which may lay much greater claim tosuch a permission than polygamy, seems to me true in this case also;that Moses, "for the hardness of their hearts, " suffered them to haveseveral wives at the same time, but that "from the beginning it was notso, " Matthew 19:8; Mark 10:5. 

[40] This vile fellow, Eurycles the Lacedemonian, seems to have beenthe same who is mentioned by Plutarch, as [twenty-live years before]a companion to Mark Antony, and as living with Herod; whence hemight 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 Jewsas we here see he was, is visible from the public records of the Jewsand Spartans, owning those Spartans to be of kin to the Jews, andderived from their common ancestor Abraham, the first patriarch of theJewish nation, Antiq. B. XII. Ch. 4. Sect. 10; B. XIII. Ch. 5. Sect. 8;and 1 Macc. 12:7. 

[41] See the preceding note. 

[42] Dean Aldrich takes notice here, that these nine wives of Herod werealive at the same time; and that if the celebrated Mariamne, who wasnow dead, be reckoned, those wives were in all ten. Yet it is remarkablethat he had no more than fifteen children by them all. 

[43] To prevent confusion, it may not be amiss, with Dean Aldrich, todistinguish between four Josephs in the history of Herod. 1. Joseph, Herod's uncle, and the [second] husband of his sister Salome, slain byHerod, 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] These daughters of Herod, whom Pheroras's wife affronted, wereSalome 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] This strange obstinacy of Pheroras in retaining his wife, who wasone 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 tothe counsels of the other great court ladies, together with Herod'sown importunity as to Pheroras's divorce and other marriage, all soremarkable here, or in the Antiquities XVII. Ch. 2. Sect. 4; and ch. 3. Be well accounted for, but on the supposal that Pheroras believed, andHerod suspected, that the Pharisees' prediction, as if the crown ofJudea should be translated from Herod to Pheroras's posterity and thatmost probably to Pheroras's posterity by this his wife, also would provetrue. See Antiq. B. XVII. Ch. 2. Sect. 4; and ch. 3. Sect. 1. 

[46] This Tarentum has coins still extant, as Reland informs us here inhis note. 

[47] A lover of his father. 

[48] Since in these two sections we have an evident account of theJewish 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 acatholic 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 thesepassages are in his Books of Antiquities, written peculiarly for the useof the Gentiles, to whom he thought it not proper to insist on topicsso much out of their way as these were. Nor is this observation to beomitted here, especially on account of the sensible difference wehave now before us in Josephus's reason of the used by the Rabbins topersuade their scholars to hazard their lives for the vindication ofGod's law against images, by Moses, as well as of the answers thosescholars made to Herod, when they were caught, and ready to die forthe same; I mean as compared with the parallel arguments and answersrepresented in the Antiquities, B. XVII. Ch. 6. Sect, 2, 3. A likedifference between Jewish and Gentile notions the reader will find in mynotes on Antiquities, B. III. Ch. 7. Sect. 7; B. XV. Ch. 9. Sect. 1. Seethe 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, Acts17:16-34, 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 toRome was the occasion of new disturbances; for when he had mourned forhis father seven days, [1] and had given a very expensive funeral feastto the multitude, [which custom is the occasion of poverty to many ofthe Jews, because they are forced to feast the multitude; for if any oneomits 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 variousacclamations. He also spake kindly to the multitude from an elevatedseat and a throne of gold, and returned them thanks for the zeal theyhad shown about his father's funeral, and the submission they had madeto him, as if he were already settled in the kingdom; but he told themwithal, that he would not at present take upon him either the authorityof a king, or the names thereto belonging, until Caesar, who is madelord of this whole affair by the testament, confirm the succession; forthat 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 andgood-will to him, when the superior lords [the Romans] should have givenhim a complete title to the kingdom; for that it should be his study toappear in all things better than his father. 

2. Upon this the multitude were pleased, and presently made a trial ofwhat he intended, by asking great things of him; for some made a clamorthat he would ease them in their taxes; others, that he would take offthe duties upon commodities; and some, that he would loose thosethat were in prison; in all which cases he answered readily to theirsatisfaction, in order to get the good-will of the multitude; afterwhich he offered [the proper] sacrifices, and feasted with his friends. And here it was that a great many of those that desired innovationscame in crowds towards the evening, and began then to mourn on their ownaccount, when the public mourning for the king was over. These lamentedthose that were put to death by Herod, because they had cut down thegolden eagle that had been over the gate of the temple. Nor was thismourning of a private nature, but the lamentations were very great, themourning solemn, and the weeping such as was loudly heard all over thecity, as being for those men who had perished for the laws of theircountry, and for the temple. They cried out that a punishment ought tobe inflicted for these men upon those that were honored by Herod; andthat, in the first place, the man whom he had made high priest shouldbe deprived; and that it was fit to choose a person of greater piety andpurity than he was. 

3. At these clamors Archelaus was provoked, but restrained himself fromtaking vengeance on the authors, on account of the haste he was in ofgoing to Rome, as fearing lest, upon his making war on the multitude, such an action might detain him at home. Accordingly, he made trial toquiet the innovators by persuasion, rather than by force, and sent hisgeneral 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 cameinto the temple, and before he could say any thing to them. The liketreatment they showed to others, who came to them after him, many ofwhich were sent by Archelaus, in order to reduce them to sobriety, andthese answered still on all occasions after a passionate manner; and itopenly appeared that they would not be quiet, if their numbers were butconsiderable. And indeed, at the feast of unleavened bread, which wasnow at hand, and is by the Jews called the Passover, and used to becelebrated with a great number of sacrifices, an innumerable multitudeof the people came out of the country to worship; some of these stoodin the temple bewailing the Rabbins [that had been put to death], and procured their sustenance by begging, in order to support theirsedition. At this Archclaus was aftrighted, and privately sent atribune, with his cohort of soldiers, upon them, before the diseaseshould spread over the whole multitude, and gave orders that they shouldconstrain those that began the tumult, by force, to be quiet. At thesethe whole multitude were irritated, and threw stones at many of thesoldiers, and killed them; but the tribune fled away wounded, and hadmuch ado to escape so. After which they betook themselves to theirsacrifices, as if they had done no mischief; nor did it appear toArchelaus that the multitude could be restrained without bloodshed; sohe sent his whole army upon them, the footmen in great multitudes, bythe 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 multitudewere dispersed upon the adjoining mountains: these were followed byArchelaus's heralds, who commanded every one to retire to their ownhomes, 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 hisfriends, Poplas, and Ptolemy, and Nicolaus, and left behind him Philip, to be his steward in the palace, and to take care of his domesticaffairs. Salome went also along with him with her sons, as did also theking's brethren and sons-in-law. These, in appearance, went to give himall 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 haddone at the temple. 

2. But as they were come to Cesarea, Sabinus, theprocurator of Syria, met them; he was going up to Judea, to secureHerod's effects; but Varus, [president of Syria, ] who was come thither, restrained him from going any farther. This Varus Archelaus had sentfor, by the earnest entreaty of Ptolemy. At this time, indeed, Sabinus, to gratify Varus, neither went to the citadels, nor did he shut up thetreasuries where his father's money was laid up, but promised thathe would lie still, until Caesar should have taken cognizance of theaffair. So he abode at Cesarea; but as soon as those that were hishinderance were gone, when Varus was gone to Antioch, and Archclaus wassailed to Rome, he immediately went on to Jerusalem, and seized upon thepalace. And when he had called for the governors of the citadels, andthe stewards [of the king's private affairs], he tried to sift out theaccounts of the money, and to take possession of the citadels. But thegovernors of those citadels were not unmindful of the commands laid uponthem by Archelaus, and continued to guard them, and said the custody ofthem rather belonged to Caesar than to Archelaus. 

3. In the mean time, Antipas went also to Rome, to strive for thekingdom, and to insist that the former testament, wherein he was namedto be king, was valid before the latter testament. Salome had alsopromised to assist him, as had many of Archelaus's kindred, who sailedalong with Archelaus himself also. He also carried along with him hismother, and Ptolemy, the brother of Nicolaus, who seemed one of greatweight, on account of the great trust Herod put in him, he having beenone of his most honored friends. However, Antipas depended chieflyupon Ireneus, the orator; upon whose authority he had rejected such asadvised him to yield to Archelaus, because he was his elder brother, andbecause the second testament gave the kingdom to him. The inclinationsalso of all Archelaus's kindred, who hated him, were removed to Antipas, when they came to Rome; although in the first place every one ratherdesired to live under their own laws [without a king], and to be undera Roman governor; but if they should fail in that point, these desiredthat Antipas might be their king. 

4. Sabinus did also afford these his assistance to the same purpose byletters he sent, wherein he accused Archelaus before Caesar, and highlycommended Antipas. Salome also, and those with her, put the crimes whichthey accused Archelaus of in order, and put them into Caesar's hands;and after they had done that, Archelaus wrote down the reasons of hisclaim, and, by Ptolemy, sent in his father's ring, and his father'saccounts. And when Caesar had maturely weighed by himself what both hadto allege for themselves, as also had considered of the great burden ofthe kingdom, and largeness of the revenues, and withal the number of thechildren Herod had left behind him, and had moreover read the letters hehad received from Varus and Sabinus on this occasion, he assembled theprincipal persons among the Romans together, [in which assembly Caius, the son of Agrippa, and his daughter Julias, but by himself adoptedfor his own son, sat in the first seat, ] and gave the pleaders leave tospeak. 

5. Then stood up Salome's son, Antipater, [who of all Archelaus'santagonists was the shrewdest pleader, ] and accused him in the followingspeech: That Archelaus did in words contend for the kingdom, but thatin deeds he had long exercised royal authority, and so did but insultCaesar in desiring to be now heard on that account, since he had notstaid for his determination about the succession, and since he hadsuborned certain persons, after Herod's death, to move for putting thediadem upon his head; since he had set himself down in the throne, andgiven answers as a king, and altered the disposition of the army, andgranted to some higher dignities; that he had also complied in allthings with the people in the requests they had made to him as to theirking, and had also dismissed those that had been put into bonds by hisfather for most important reasons. Now, after all this, he desires theshadow of that royal authority, whose substance he had already seized tohimself, and so hath made Caesar lord, not of things, but of words. Healso reproached him further, that his mourning for his father was onlypretended, while he put on a sad countenance in the day time, but drankto great excess in the night; from which behavior, he said, the latedisturbance among the multitude came, while they had an indignationthereat. And indeed the purport of his whole discourse was to aggravateArchelaus's crime in slaying such a multitude about the temple, whichmultitude came to the festival, but were barbarously slain in the midstof their own sacrifices; and he said there was such a vast number ofdead bodies heaped together in the temple, as even a foreign war, thatshould come upon them [suddenly], before it was denounced, could nothave heaped together. And he added, that it was the foresight his fatherhad of that his barbarity which made him never give him any hopes of thekingdom, but when his mind was more infirm than his body, and he was notable to reason soundly, and did not well know what was the character ofthat son, whom in his second testament he made his successor; and thiswas done by him at a time when he had no complaints to make of him whomhe had named before, when he was sound in body, and when his mind wasfree from all passion. That, however, if any one should suppose Herod'sjudgment, when he was sick, was superior to that at another time, yethad Archelaus forfeited his kingdom by his own behavior, and those hisactions, which were contrary to the law, and to its disadvantage. Or what sort of a king will this man be, when he hath obtained thegovernment from Caesar, who hath slain so many before he hath obtainedit!

6. When Antipater had spoken largely to this purpose, and hadproduced a great number of Archelaus's kindred as witnesses, to proveevery part of the accusation, he ended his discourse. Then stood upNicolaus to plead for Archelaus. He alleged that the slaughter in thetemple could not be avoided; that those that were slain were becomeenemies not to Archelaus's kingdom, only, but to Caesar, who was todetermine about him. He also demonstrated that Archelaus's accusershad advised him to perpetrate other things of which he might have beenaccused. But he insisted that the latter testament should, for thisreason, above all others, be esteemed valid, because Herod had thereinappointed Caesar to be the person who should confirm the succession; forhe who showed such prudence as to recede from his own power, and yieldit up to the lord of the world, cannot be supposed mistaken in hisjudgment about him that was to be his heir; and he that so wellknew whom to choose for arbitrator of the succession could not beunacquainted 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 heraised him up, after a very obliging manner, and declared that trulyhe was worthy to succeed his father. However, he still made no firmdetermination in his case; but when he had dismissed those assessorsthat had been with him that day, he deliberated by himself about theallegations which he had heard, whether it were fit to constitute anyof those named in the testaments for Herod's successor, or whether thegovernment should be parted among all his posterity, and this because ofthe 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 werebrought out of Syria from Varus, about a revolt of the Jews. This wasforeseen by Varus, who accordingly, after Archelaus was sailed, wentup to Jerusalem to restrain the promoters of the sedition, since it wasmanifest that the nation would not be at rest; so he left one of thoselegions which he brought with him out of Syria in the city, and wenthimself to Antioch. But Sabinus came, after he was gone, and gave theman occasion of making innovations; for he compelled the keepers of thecitadels to deliver them up to him, and made a bitter search after theking's money, as depending not only on the soldiers which were left byVarus, but on the multitude of his own servants, all which he armed andused as the instruments of his covetousness. Now when that feast, whichwas observed after seven weeks, and which the Jews called Pentecost, [i. E. The 50th day, ] was at hand, its name being taken from the numberof the days [after the passover], the people got together, but not onaccount of the accustomed Divine worship, but of the indignation theyhad ['at the present state of affairs']. Wherefore an immense multituderan together, out of Galilee, and Idumea, and Jericho, and Perea, thatwas beyond Jordan; but the people that naturally belonged to Judeaitself were above the rest, both in number, and in the alacrity of themen. So they distributed themselves into three parts, and pitched theircamps in three places; one at the north side of the temple, another atthe south side, by the Hippodrome, and the third part were at the palaceon the west. So they lay round about the Romans on every side, andbesieged them. 

2. Now Sabinus was aftrighted, both at their multitude, and at their courage, and sent messengers to Varus continually, andbesought him to come to his succor quickly; for that if he delayed, hislegion would be cut to pieces. As for Sabinus himself, he got up to thehighest tower of the fortress, which was called Phasaelus; it is of thesame name with Herod's brother, who was destroyed by the Parthians; andthen 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 ownmen. Hereupon the soldiers were prevailed upon, and leaped out intothe temple, and fought a terrible battle with the Jews; in which, whilethere were none over their heads to distress them, they were too hardfor them, by their skill, and the others' want of skill, in war; butwhen 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 avengethemselves upon those that threw their weapons from on high, nor was itmore easy for them to sustain those who came to fight them hand to hand. 

3. Since therefore the Romans were sorely afflicted by both thesecircumstances, they set fire to the cloisters, which were works to beadmired, both on account of their magnitude and costliness. Whereuponthose that were above them were presently encompassed with the flame, and many of them perished therein; as many of them also were destroyedby the enemy, who came suddenly upon them; some of them also threwthemselves down from the walls backward, and some there were who, fromthe desperate condition they were in, prevented the fire, by killingthemselves with their own swords; but so many of them as crept out fromthe walls, and came upon the Romans, were easily mastered by them, byreason of the astonishment they were under; until at last some of theJews being destroyed, and others dispersed by the terror they were in, the soldiers fell upon the treasure of God, which w now deserted, andplundered about four hundred talents, Of which sum Sabinus got togetherall that was not carried away by the soldiers. 

4. However, this destruction of the works [about the temple], and of themen, occasioned a much greater number, and those of a more warlike sort, to get together, to oppose the Romans. These encompassed the palaceround, and threatened to deploy all that were in it, unless they wenttheir ways quickly; for they promised that Sabinus should come to noharm, if he would go out with his legion. There were also a great manyof the king's party who deserted the Romans, and assisted the Jews; yetdid the most warlike body of them all, who were three thousand of themen of Sebaste, go over to the Romans. Rufus also, and Gratus, theircaptains, did the same, [Gratus having the foot of the king's partyunder him, and Rufus the horse, ] each of whom, even without the forcesunder them, were of great weight, on account of their strength andwisdom, which turn the scales in war. Now the Jews in the siege, andtried to break down walls of the fortress, and cried out to Sabinus andhis party, that they should go their ways, and not prove a hinderance tothem, now they hoped, after a long time, to recover that ancient libertywhich their forefathers had enjoyed. Sabinus indeed was well contentedto get out of the danger he was in, but he distrusted the assurances theJews gave him, and suspected such gentle treatment was but a bait laidas a snare for them: this consideration, together with the hopes he hadof 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 thatin many places; and the opportunity that now offered itself induced agreat many to set up for kings. And indeed in Idumea two thousand ofHerod's veteran soldiers got together, and armed and fought againstthose of the king's party; against whom Achiabus, the king's firstcousin, fought, and that out of some of the places that were the moststrongly fortified; but so as to avoid a direct conflict with them inthe 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 multitudetogether, and brake open the place where the royal armor was laid up, and armed those about him, and attacked those that were so earnest togain the dominion. 

2. In Perea also, Simon, one of the servants to the king, relying uponthe handsome appearance and tallness of his body, put a diadem upon hisown head also; he also went about with a company of robbers that he hadgotten together, and burnt down the royal palace that was at Jericho, and many other costly edifices besides, and procured himself very easilyspoils by rapine, as snatching them out of the fire. And he had soonburnt down all the fine edifices, if Gratus, the captain of the footof the king's party, had not taken the Trachonite archers, and themost warlike of Sebaste, and met the man. His footmen were slain in thebattle in abundance; Gratus also cut to pieces Simon himself, as he wasflying along a strait valley, when he gave him an oblique stroke uponhis neck, as he ran away, and brake it. The royal palaces that werenear Jordan at Betharamptha were also burnt down by some other of theseditious that came out of Perea. 

3. At this time it was that acertain shepherd ventured to set himself up for a king; he was calledAthrongeus. It was his strength of body that made him expect such adignity, as well as his soul, which despised death; and besides thesequalifications, he had four brethren like himself. He put a troop ofarmed men under each of these his brethren, and made use of them ashis generals and commanders, when he made his incursions, while hedid himself act like a king, and meddled only with the more importantaffairs; and at this time he put a diadem about his head, and continuedafter that to overrun the country for no little time with his brethren, and became their leader in killing both the Romans and those of theking's party; nor did any Jew escape him, if any gain could accrue tohim thereby. He once ventured to encompass a whole troop of Romans atEmmaus, who were carrying corn and weapons to their legion; his mentherefore shot their arrows and darts, and thereby slew their centurionArius, and forty of the stoutest of his men, while the rest of them, whowere in danger of the same fate, upon the coming of Gratus, with thoseof Sebaste, to their assistance, escaped. And when these men had thusserved both their own countrymen and foreigners, and that through thiswhole war, three of them were, after some time, subdued; the eldestby Archelaus, the two next by falling into the hands of Gratus andPtolemeus; but the fourth delivered himself up to Archelaus, upon hisgiving him his right hand for his security. However, this their endwas not till afterward, while at present they filled all Judea with apiratic 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 Sabinusand 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 withhim the other two legions, with the four troops of horsemen to thembelonging, and marched to Ptolenlais; having given orders for theauxiliaries that were sent by the kings and governors of cities tomeet him there. Moreover, he received from the people of Berytus, as hepassed through their city, fifteen hundred armed men. Now as soon as theother body of auxiliaries were come to Ptolemais, as well as Aretas theArabian, [who, out of the hatred he bore to Herod, brought a great armyof 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 theircaptain. This Caius put those that met him to flight, and took the citySepphoris, and burnt it, and made slaves of its inhabitants; but as forVarus himself, he marched to Samaria with his whole army, where he didnot meddle with the city itself, because he found that it had made nocommotion during these troubles, but pitched his camp about a certainvillage which was called Aras. It belonged to Ptolemy, and on thataccount was plundered by the Arabians, who were very angry even atHerod's friends also. He thence marched on to the village Sampho, another fortified place, which they plundered, as they had done theother. As they carried off all the money they lighted upon belongingto the public revenues, all was now full of fire and blood-shed, andnothing could resist the plunders of the Arabians. Emnaus was alsoburnt, upon the flight of its inhabitants, and this at the command ofVarus, 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 bythe Jews, he made their camps disperse themselves; they also went away, and fled up and down the country. But the citizens received him, andcleared themselves of having any hand in this revolt, and said thatthey had raised no commotions, but had only been forced to admit themultitude, because of the festival, and that they were rather besiegedtogether with the Romans, than assisted those that had revolted. Therehad before this met him Joseph, the first cousin of Archelaus, andGratus, together with Rufus, who led those of Sebaste, as well as theking's army: there also met him those of the Roman legion, armed aftertheir accustomed manner; for as to Sabinus, he durst not come intoVarus's sight, but was gone out of the city before this, to thesea-side. But Varus sent a part of his army into the country, againstthose that had been the authors of this commotion, and as they caughtgreat numbers of them, those that appeared to have been the leastconcerned in these tumults he put into custody, but such as were themost guilty he crucified; these were in number about two thousand. 

3. He was also informed that there continued in Idumea ten thousandmen still in arms; but when he found that the Arabians did not act likeauxiliaries, but managed the war according to their own passions, anddid mischief to the country otherwise than he intended, and this out oftheir hatred to Herod, he sent them away, but made haste, with his ownlegions, to march against those that had revolted; but these, by theadvice of Achiabus, delivered themselves up to him before it came to abattle. Then did Varus forgive the multitude their offenses, but senttheir captains to Caesar to be examined by him. Now Caesar forgave therest, but gave orders that certain of the king's relations [for some ofthose 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 toAntioch. 

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 atRome, 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 theliberty of their country; those that came were fifty in number, butthere were more than eight thousand of the Jews at Rome who supportedthem. And when Caesar had assembled a council of the principal Romansin Apollo's [2] temple, that was in the palace, [this was what he hadhimself built and adorned, at a vast expense, ] the multitude of the Jewsstood with the ambassadors, and on the other side stood Archelaus, withhis friends; but as for the kindred of Archelaus, they stood on neitherside; for to stand on Archelaus's side, their hatred to him, and envy athim, would not give them leave, while yet they were afraid to be seen byCaesar with his accusers. Besides these, there were present Archelaus'sbrother Philip, being sent thither beforehand, out of kindness byVarus, for two reasons: the one was this, that he might be assistingto Archelaus; and the other was this, that in case Caesar should makea distribution of what Herod possessed among his posterity, he mightobtain 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, andsaid that he was not a king, but the most barbarous of all tyrants, andthat they had found him to be such by the sufferings they underwent fromhim; that when a very great number had been slain by him, those thatwere left had endured such miseries, that they called those thatwere dead happy men; that he had not only tortured the bodies of hissubjects, but entire cities, and had done much harm to the cities of hisown country, while he adorned those that belonged to foreigners; and heshed the blood of Jews, in order to do kindnesses to those people thatwere out of their bounds; that he had filled the nation full of poverty, and of the greatest iniquity, instead of that happiness and those lawswhich they had anciently enjoyed; that, in short, the Jews had bornemore calamities from Herod, in a few years, than had their forefathersduring all that interval of time that had passed since they had come outof 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 hebrought them into bitter slavery; that accordingly they readily calledArchelaus, though he was the son of so great a tyrant, king, after thedecease of his father, and joined with him in mourning for the death ofHerod, and in wishing him good success in that his succession; whileyet this Archelaus, lest he should be in danger of not being thought thegenuine son of Herod, began his reign with the murder of three thousandcitizens; as if he had a mind to offer so many bloody sacrifices to Godfor his government, and to fill the temple with the like number of deadbodies at that festival: that, however, those that were left after somany miseries, had just reason to consider now at last the calamitiesthey had undergone, and to oppose themselves, like soldiers in war, toreceive those stripes upon their faces [but not upon their backs, ashitherto]. Whereupon they prayed that the Romans would have compassionupon the [poor] remains of Judea, and not expose what was left of themto such as barbarously tore them to pieces, and that they would jointheir country to Syria, and administer the government by their owncommanders, whereby it would [soon] be demonstrated that those who arenow under the calumny of seditious persons, and lovers of war, know howto bear governors that are set over them, if they be but tolerable ones. So the Jews concluded their accusation with this request. Then rose upNicolaus, and confuted the accusations which were brought against thekings, and himself accused the Jewish nation, as hard to be ruled, andas naturally disobedient to kings. He also reproached all those kinsmenof Archelaus who had left him, and were gone over to his accusers. 

3. SoCaesar, after he had heard both sides, dissolved the assembly for thattime; but a few days afterward, he gave the one half of Herod's kingdomto Archelaus, by the name of Ethnarch, and promised to make him kingalso afterward, if he rendered himself worthy of that dignity. But as tothe other half, he divided it into two tetrarchies, and gave them to twoother sons of Herod, the one of them to Philip, and the other to thatAntipas who contested the kingdom with Archelaus. Under this last wasPerea and Galilee, with a revenue of two hundred talents; but Batanea, and Trachonitis, and Auranitis, and certain parts of Zeno's houseabout Jamnia, with a revenue of a hundred talents, were made subjectto Philip; while Idumea, and all Judea, and Samaria were parts of theethnarchy of Archelaus, although Samaria was eased of one quarter of itstaxes, out of regard to their not having revolted with the rest of thenation. He also made subject to him the following cities, viz. Strato'sTower, and Sebaste, and Joppa, and Jerusalem; but as to the Greciancities, 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 givento Archelaus was four hundred talents. Salome also, besides what theking had left her in his testaments, was now made mistress of Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelis. Caesar did moreover bestow upon her the royalpalace of Ascalon; by all which she got together a revenue of sixtytalents; but he put her house under the ethnarchy of Archelaus. And forthe rest of Herod's offspring, they received what was bequeathed tothem in his testaments; but, besides that, Caesar granted to Herod's twovirgin daughters five hundred thousand [drachmae] of silver, andgave them in marriage to the sons of Pheroras: but after this familydistribution, he gave between them what had been bequeathed to him byHerod, which was a thousand talents, reserving to himself only someinconsiderable 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 broughtup at Sidon with one of the Roman freed-men, who falsely pretended, on account of the resemblance of their countenances, that he was thatAlexander who was slain by Herod. This man came to Rome, in hopes of notbeing detected. He had one who was his assistant, of his own nation, andwho knew all the affairs of the kingdom, and instructed him to say howthose that were sent to kill him and Aristobulus had pity upon them, and stole them away, by putting bodies that were like theirs in theirplaces. This man deceived the Jews that were at Crete, and got a greatdeal of money of them for traveling in splendor; and thence sailed toMelos, where he was thought so certainly genuine, that he got a greatdeal more money, and prevailed with those that had treated him to sailalong with him to Rome. So he landed at Dicearchia, [Puteoli, ] and gotvery large presents from the Jews who dwelt there, and was conducted byhis father's friends as if he were a king; nay, the resemblance inhis countenance procured him so much credit, that those who had seenAlexander, and had known him very well, would take their oaths that hewas the very same person. Accordingly, the whole body of the Jews thatwere at Rome ran out in crowds to see him, and an innumerable multitudethere 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 asedan, and maintained a royal attendance for him at their own propercharges. 

2. But Caesar, who knew perfectly well the lineaments of Alexander'sface, because he had been accused by Herod before him, discerned thefallacy in his countenance, even before he saw the man. However, hesuffered the agreeable fame that went of him to have some weight withhim, and sent Celadus, one who well knew Alexander, and ordered himto bring the young man to him. But when Caesar saw him, he immediatelydiscerned a difference in his countenance; and when he had discoveredthat his whole body was of a more robust texture, and like that of aslave, he understood the whole was a contrivance. But the impudence ofwhat he said greatly provoked him to be angry at him; for when he wasasked about Aristobulus, he said that he was also preserved alive, andwas left on purpose in Cyprus, for fear of treachery, because it wouldbe harder for plotters to get them both into their power while they wereseparate. Then did Caesar take him by himself privately, and said tohim, "I will give thee thy life, if thou wilt discover who it was thatpersuaded thee to forge such stories. " So he said that he would discoverhim, and followed Caesar, and pointed to that Jew who abused theresemblance of his face to get money; for that he had received morepresents in every city than ever Alexander did when he was alive. Caesarlaughed at the contrivance, and put this spurious Alexander among hisrowers, on account of the strength of his body, but ordered him thatpersuaded him to be put to death. But for the people of Melos, they hadbeen sufficiently punished for their folly, by the expenses they hadbeen at on his account. 

3. And now Archelaus took possession of his ethnarchy, and used not theJews only, but the Samaritans also, barbarously; and this out of hisresentment of their old quarrels with him. Whereupon they both of themsent ambassadors against him to Caesar; and in the ninth year of hisgovernment he was banished to Vienna, a city of Gaul, and his effectswere put into Caesar's treasury. But the report goes, that before he wassent 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 itportended; and when one of them had one interpretation, and another hadanother, Simon, one of the sect of Essens, said that he thought theears of corn denoted years, and the oxen denoted a mutation of things, because by their ploughing they made an alteration of the country. Thattherefore he should reign as many years as there were ears of corn; andafter he had passed through various alterations of fortune, shoulddie. Now five days after Archelaus had heard this interpretation he wascalled 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 firstbeen wife to Alexander, who was the brother of Archelaus, concerningwhom we have been discoursing. This Alexander was the son of Herod theking, by whom he was put to death, as we have already related. ThisGlaphyra 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 deeplyin love with her, that he divorced Mariamne, who was then his wife, andmarried her. When, therefore, she was come into Judea, and had beenthere 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 havebeen sufficient for thee; but thou wast not contented with him, but artreturned again to my family, to a third husband; and him, thou impudentwoman, hast thou chosen for thine husband, who is my brother. However, Ishall not overlook the injury thou hast offered me; I shall [soon] havethee again, whether thou wilt or no. " Now Glaphyra hardly survived thenarration 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, andCoponius, one of the equestrian order among the Romans, was sent as aprocurator, having the power of [life and] death put into his hands byCaesar. Under his administration it was that a certain Galilean, whosename was Judas, prevailed with his countrymen to revolt, and said theywere cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans and wouldafter God submit to mortal men as their lords. This man was a teacherof a peculiar sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of thosetheir leaders. 

2. For there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followersof the first of which are the Pharisees; of the second, the Sadducees;and the third sect, which pretends to a severer discipline, are calledEssens. These last are Jews by birth, and seem to have a greateraffection for one another than the other sects have. These Essens rejectpleasures as an evil, but esteem continence, and the conquest overour passions, to be virtue. They neglect wedlock, but choose out otherpersons children, while they are pliable, and fit for learning, andesteem them to be of their kindred, and form them according to their ownmanners. They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage, and thesuccession of mankind thereby continued; but they guard against thelascivious behavior of women, and are persuaded that none of thempreserve their fidelity to one man. 

3. These men are despisers of riches, and so very communicative asraises our admiration. Nor is there any one to be found among them whohath more than another; for it is a law among them, that those who cometo them must let what they have be common to the whole order, --insomuchthat among them all there is no appearance of poverty, or excess ofriches, but every one's possessions are intermingled with every other'spossessions; and so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all thebrethren. They think that oil is a defilement; and if any one of them beanointed without his own approbation, it is wiped off his body; for theythink to be sweaty is a good thing, as they do also to be clothed inwhite garments. They also have stewards appointed to take care of theircommon 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 liesopen for them, just as if it were their own; and they go in to such asthey never knew before, as if they had been ever so long acquainted withthem. For which reason they carry nothing at all with them when theytravel into remote parts, though still they take their weapons withthem, for fear of thieves. Accordingly, there is, in every city wherethey live, one appointed particularly to take care of strangers, andto provide garments and other necessaries for them. But the habit andmanagement of their bodies is such as children use who are in fear oftheir masters. Nor do they allow of the change of or of shoes till befirst torn to pieces, or worn out by time. Nor do they either buy orsell any thing to one another; but every one of them gives what he hathto him that wanteth it, and receives from him again in lieu of it whatmay 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; forbefore sun-rising they speak not a word about profane matters, but putup certain prayers which they have received from their forefathers, asif they made a supplication for its rising. After this every one of themare sent away by their curators, to exercise some of those arts whereinthey are skilled, in which they labor with great diligence till thefifth hour. After which they assemble themselves together again into oneplace; and when they have clothed themselves in white veils, they thenbathe their bodies in cold water. And after this purification is over, they every one meet together in an apartment of their own, into which itis not permitted to any of another sect to enter; while they go, aftera pure manner, into the dining-room, as into a certain holy temple, andquietly set themselves down; upon which the baker lays them loaves inorder; the cook also brings a single plate of one sort of food, and setsit before every one of them; but a priest says grace before meat; and itis unlawful for any one to taste of the food before grace be said. Thesame priest, when he hath dined, says grace again after meat; and whenthey begin, and when they end, they praise God, as he that bestows theirfood upon them; after which they lay aside their [white] garments, andbetake themselves to their labors again till the evening; then theyreturn home to supper, after the same manner; and if there be anystrangers there, they sit down with them. Nor is there ever any clamoror disturbance to pollute their house, but they give every one leave tospeak in their turn; which silence thus kept in their house appearsto foreigners like some tremendous mystery; the cause of which is thatperpetual sobriety they exercise, and the same settled measure ofmeat and drink that is allotted them, and that such as is abundantlysufficient for them. 

6. And truly, as for other things, they do nothing but according to theinjunctions of their curators; only these two things are done among themat 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 affordsuccor to such as deserve it, when they stand in need of it, and tobestow food on those that are in distress; but they cannot give anything to their kindred without the curators. They dispense their angerafter a just manner, and restrain their passion. They are eminent forfidelity, and are the ministers of peace; whatsoever they say also isfirmer than an oath; but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteemit worse than perjury [4] for they say that he who cannot be believedwithout [swearing by] God is already condemned. They also take greatpains in studying the writings of the ancients, and choose out of themwhat is most for the advantage of their soul and body; and they inquireafter 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 notimmediately admitted, but he is prescribed the same method of livingwhich they use for a year, while he continues excluded'; and they givehim also a small hatchet, and the fore-mentioned girdle, and the whitegarment. And when he hath given evidence, during that time, that he canobserve their continence, he approaches nearer to their way of living, and is made a partaker of the waters of purification; yet is he noteven now admitted to live with them; for after this demonstration of hisfortitude, his temper is tried two more years; and if he appear to beworthy, they then admit him into their society. And before he is allowedto touch their common food, he is obliged to take tremendous oaths, that, in the first place, he will exercise piety towards God, and thenthat he will observe justice towards men, and that he will do no harm toany one, either of his own accord, or by the command of others; that hewill always hate the wicked, and be assistant to the righteous; thathe will ever show fidelity to all men, and especially to thosein authority, because no one obtains the government without God'sassistance; and that if he be in authority, he will at no time whateverabuse his authority, nor endeavor to outshine his subjects either in hisgarments, or any other finery; that he will be perpetually a lover oftruth, and propose to himself to reprove those that tell lies; that hewill 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 anyoneshould compel him so to do at the hazard of his life. Moreover, heswears to communicate their doctrines to no one any otherwise than ashe received them himself; that he will abstain from robbery, and willequally preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the names ofthe angels [5] [or messengers]. These are the oaths by which they securetheir proselytes to themselves. 

8. But for those that are caught in any heinous sins, they cast them outof their society; and he who is thus separated from them does often dieafter 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 topartake of that food that he meets with elsewhere, but is forced to eatgrass, and to famish his body with hunger, till he perish; for whichreason they receive many of them again when they are at their last gasp, out of compassion to them, as thinking the miseries they have enduredtill they came to the very brink of death to be a sufficient punishmentfor 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 thana hundred. And as to what is once determined by that number, it isunalterable. What they most of all honor, after God himself, is the nameof their legislator [Moses], whom if any one blaspheme he is punishedcapitally. They also think it a good thing to obey their elders, and themajor part. Accordingly, if ten of them be sitting together, no one ofthem will speak while the other nine are against it. They also avoidspitting in the midst of them, or on the right side. Moreover, they arestricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their labors on theseventh day; for they not only get their food ready the day before, thatthey may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that day, but they will notremove any vessel out of its place, nor go to stool thereon. Nay, onother days they dig a small pit, a foot deep, with a paddle [which kindof hatchet is given them when they are first admitted among them]; andcovering themselves round with their garment, that they may not affrontthe Divine rays of light, they ease themselves into that pit, afterwhich they put the earth that was dug out again into the pit; and eventhis they do only in the more lonely places, which they choose out forthis purpose; and although this easement of the body be natural, yetit is a rule with them to wash themselves after it, as if it were adefilement to them. 

10. Now after the time of their preparatory trial is over, they areparted into four classes; and so far are the juniors inferior to theseniors, that if the seniors should be touched by the juniors, they mustwash themselves, as if they had intermixed themselves with the companyof a foreigner. They are long-lived also, insomuch that many of themlive 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 observealso. They contemn the miseries of life, and are above pain, by thegenerosity of their mind. And as for death, if it will be for theirglory, they esteem it better than living always; and indeed our war withthe Romans gave abundant evidence what great souls they had in theirtrials, wherein, although they were tortured and distorted, burnt andtorn to pieces, and went through all kinds of instruments of torment, that they might be forced either to blaspheme their legislator, or toeat what was forbidden them, yet could they not be made to do either ofthem, no, nor once to flatter their tormentors, or to shed a tear;but they smiled in their very pains, and laughed those to scorn whoinflicted the torments upon them, and resigned up their souls with greatalacrity, as expecting to receive them again. 

11. For their doctrine is this: That bodies are corruptible, and thatthe matter they are made of is not permanent; but that the souls areimmortal, and continue for ever; and that they come out of the mostsubtile air, and are united to their bodies as to prisons, into whichthey are drawn by a certain natural enticement; but that when they areset free from the bonds of the flesh, they then, as released from a longbondage, rejoice and mount upward. And this is like the opinions of theGreeks, that good souls have their habitations beyond the ocean, in aregion that is neither oppressed with storms of rain or snow, or withintense heat, but that this place is such as is refreshed by the gentlebreathing of a west wind, that is perpetually blowing from the ocean;while they allot to bad souls a dark and tempestuous den, full ofnever-ceasing punishments. And indeed the Greeks seem to me to havefollowed the same notion, when they allot the islands of the blessed totheir brave men, whom they call heroes and demi-gods; and to the soulsof the wicked, the region of the ungodly, in Hades, where their fablesrelate 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 anddehortations from wickedness collected; whereby good men are betteredin the conduct of their life by the hope they have of reward after theirdeath; and whereby the vehement inclinations of bad men to vice arerestrained, by the fear and expectation they are in, that althoughthey should lie concealed in this life, they should suffer immortalpunishment after their death. These are the Divine doctrines of theEssens [6] about the soul, which lay an unavoidable bait for such ashave once had a taste of their philosophy. 

12. There are also those among them who undertake to foretell thingsto come, [7] by reading the holy books, and using several sorts ofpurifications, and being perpetually conversant in the discourses of theprophets; and it is but seldom that they miss in their predictions. 

13. Moreover, there is another order of Essens, [8] who agree with therest as to their way of living, and customs, and laws, but differ fromthem in the point of marriage, as thinking that by not marrying theycut off the principal part of human life, which is the prospect ofsuccession; nay, rather, that if all men should be of the same opinion, the whole race of mankind would fail. However, they try their spousesfor three years; and if they find that they have their naturalpurgations thrice, as trials that they are likely to be fruitful, theythen actually marry them. But they do not use to accompany with theirwives when they are with child, as a demonstration that they do not manyout of regard to pleasure, but for the sake of posterity. Now the womengo into the baths with some of their garments on, as the men do withsomewhat girded about them. And these are the customs of this order ofEssens. 

14. But then as to the two other orders at first mentioned, thePharisees are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exactexplication of their laws, and introduce the first sect. These ascribeall to fate [or providence], and to God, and yet allow, that to act whatis right, or the contrary, is principally in the power of men, althoughfate does co-operate in every action. They say that all souls areincorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed intoother bodies, --but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternalpunishment. But the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned inour doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what isgood, or what is evil, is at men's own choice, and that the one or theother belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. Theyalso take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and thepunishments and rewards in Hades. Moreover, the Pharisees are friendlyto one another, and are for the exercise of concord, and regard for thepublic; but the behavior of the Sadducees one towards another is in somedegree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their ownparty is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this iswhat 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 Romanprovince, the other sons of Herod, Philip, and that Herod who was calledAntipas, each of them took upon them the administration of their owntetrarchies; for when Salome died, she bequeathed to Julia, the wife ofAugustus, both her toparchy, and Jamriga, as also her plantation of palmtrees that were in Phasaelis. But when the Roman empire was translatedto Tiberius, the son of Julia, upon the death of Augustus, who hadreigned fifty-seven years, six months, and two days, both Herod andPhilip continued in their tetrarchies; and the latter of them built thecity Cesarea, at the fountains of Jordan, and in the region of Paneas;as also the city Julias, in the lower Gaulonitis. Herod also built thecity Tiberius in Galilee, and in Perea [beyond Jordan] another that wasalso called Julias. 

2. Now Pilate, who was sent as procurator into Judea by Tiberius, sentby night those images of Caesar that are called ensigns into Jerusalem. This excited a very among great tumult among the Jews when it was day;for those that were near them were astonished at the sight of them, asindications that their laws were trodden under foot; for those laws donot permit any sort of image to be brought into the city. Nay, besidesthe indignation which the citizens had themselves at this procedure, a vast number of people came running out of the country. These camezealously to Pilate to Cesarea, and besought him to carry those ensignsout of Jerusalem, and to preserve them their ancient laws inviolable;but upon Pilate's denial of their request, they fell [9] down prostrateupon the ground, and continued immovable in that posture for five daysand as many nights. 

3. On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal, in the openmarket-place, and called to him the multitude, as desirous to give theman answer; and then gave a signal to the soldiers, that they should allby agreement at once encompass the Jews with their weapons; so the bandof soldiers stood round about the Jews in three ranks. The Jews wereunder the utmost consternation at that unexpected sight. Pilate alsosaid to them that they should be cut in pieces, unless they would admitof Caesar's images, and gave intimation to the soldiers to draw theirnaked swords. Hereupon the Jews, as it were at one signal, fell down invast numbers together, and exposed their necks bare, and cried outthat they were sooner ready to be slain, than that their law should betransgressed. Hereupon Pilate was greatly surprised at their prodigioussuperstition, and gave order that the ensigns should be presentlycarried out of Jerusalem. 

4. After this he raised another disturbance, by expending that sacredtreasure which is called Corban [10] upon aqueducts, whereby he broughtwater from the distance of four hundred furlongs. At this the multitudehad indignation; and when Pilate was come to Jerusalem, they cameabout his tribunal, and made a clamor at it. Now when he was apprizedaforehand of this disturbance, he mixed his own soldiers in their armorwith the multitude, and ordered them to conceal themselves under thehabits of private men, and not indeed to use their swords, but withtheir staves to beat those that made the clamor. He then gave the signalfrom his tribunal [to do as he had bidden them]. Now the Jews were sosadly beaten, that many of them perished by the stripes they received, and many of them perished as trodden to death by themselves; by whichmeans the multitude was astonished at the calamity of those that wereslain, and held their peace. 

5. In the mean time Agrippa, the son of that Aristobulus who hadbeen slain by his father Herod, came to Tiberius, to accuse Herod thetetrarch; who not admitting of his accusation, he staid at Rome, andcultivated a friendship with others of the men of note, but principallywith 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 verycomplaisant to him on several other accounts, he at length stretched outhis hands, and openly wished that Tiberius might die, and that he mightquickly see him emperor of the world. This was told to Tiberius byone of Agrippa's domestics, who thereupon was very angry, and orderedAgrippa to be bound, and had him very ill-treated in the prison for sixmonths, until Tiberius died, after he had reigned twenty-two years, sixmonths, 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 whenAgrippa had arrived at that degree of dignity, he inflamed the ambitiousdesires of Herod the tetrarch, who was chiefly induced to hope for theroyal authority by his wife Herodias, who reproached him for his sloth, and told him that it was only because he would not sail to Caesarthat he was destitute of that great dignity; for since Caesar had madeAgrippa a king, from a private person, much mole would he advance himfrom a tetrarch to that dignity. These arguments prevailed with Herod, so that he came to Caius, by whom he was punished for his ambition, bybeing banished into Spain; for Agrippa followed him, in order to accusehim; to whom also Caius gave his tetrarchy, by way of addition. So Heroddied 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, andto cut off those of the greatest nobility out of his country. He alsoextended his impiety as far as the Jews. Accordingly, he sent Petroniuswith an army to Jerusalem, to place his statues in the temple, [11] andcommanded him that, in case the Jews would not admit of them, he shouldslay those that opposed it, and carry all the rest of the nation intocaptivity: but God concerned himself with these his commands. However, Petronius marched out of Antioch into Judea, with three legions, andmany Syrian auxiliaries. Now as to the Jews, some of them could notbelieve the stories that spake of a war; but those that did believe themwere in the utmost distress how to defend themselves, and the terrordiffused itself presently through them all; for the army was alreadycome to Ptolemais. 

2. This Ptolemais is a maritime city of Galilee, built in the greatplain. It is encompassed with mountains: that on the east side, sixtyfurlongs off, belongs to Galilee; but that on the south belongs toCarmel, which is distant from it a hundred and twenty furlongs; and thaton the north is the highest of them all, and is called by the people ofthe country, The Ladder of the Tyrians, which is at the distance of ahundred furlongs. The very small river Belus [12] runs by it, at thedistance of two furlongs; near which there is Menmon's monument, [13]and hath near it a place no larger than a hundred cubits, which deservesadmiration; for the place is round and hollow, and affords such sandas glass is made of; which place, when it hath been emptied by the manyships there loaded, it is filled again by the winds, which bring intoit, as it were on purpose, that sand which lay remote, and was no morethan bare common sand, while this mine presently turns it into glassysand. And what is to me still more wonderful, that glassy sand which issuperfluous, and is once removed out of the place, becomes bare commonsand 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 andchildren into that plain that was by Ptolemais, and made supplication toPetronius, first for their laws, and, in the next place, for themselves. So he was prevailed upon by the multitude of the supplicants, and bytheir supplications, and left his army and the statues at Ptolemais, andthen went forward into Galilee, and called together the multitudeand all the men of note to Tiberias, and showed them the power of theRomans, and the threatenings of Caesar; and, besides this, provedthat their petition was unreasonable, because while all the nationsin subjection to them had placed the images of Caesar in their severalcities, among the rest of their gods, for them alone to oppose it, wasalmost 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 ofGod, or indeed of a man, and to put it in any despicable part of theircountry, much less in the temple itself, Petronius replied, "And amnot I also, " said he, "bound to keep the law of my own lord? For if Itransgress it, and spare you, it is but just that I perish; while hethat sent me, and not I, will commence a war against you; for I am undercommand as well as you. " Hereupon the whole multitude cried out thatthey were ready to suffer for their law. Petronius then quieted them, and said to them, "Will you then make war against Caesar?" The Jewssaid, "We offer sacrifices twice every day for Caesar, and for the Romanpeople;" but that if he would place the images among them, he must firstsacrifice the whole Jewish nation; and that they were ready to exposethemselves, together with their children and wives, to be slain. Atthis Petronius was astonished, and pitied them, on account of theinexpressible sense of religion the men were under, and that courageof theirs which made them ready to die for it; so they were dismissedwithout 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 ofthreatenings to them, and insisted upon the power of the Romans, and theanger of Caius; and besides, upon the necessity he was himself under [todo as he was enjoined]. But as they could be no way prevailed upon, andhe saw that the country was in danger of lying without tillage; [for itwas about seed time that the multitude continued for fifty days togetheridle;] so he at last got them together, and told them that it wasbest for him to run some hazard himself; "for either, by the Divineassistance, I shall prevail with Caesar, and shall myself escape thedanger as well as you, which will be matter of joy to us both; or, incase Caesar continue in his rage, I will be ready to expose my ownlife for such a great number as you are. " Whereupon he dismissed themultitude, who prayed greatly for his prosperity; and he took the armyout of Ptolemais, and returned to Antioch; from whence he presently sentan epistle to Caesar, and informed him of the irruption he had made intoJudea, and of the supplications of the nation; and that unless he had amind to lose both the country and the men in it, he must permit themto keep their law, and must countermand his former injunction. Caiusanswered that epistle in a violent-way, and threatened to have Petroniusput to death for his being so tardy in the execution of what he hadcommanded. But it happened that those who brought Caius's epistle weretossed 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 andtwenty 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 year's and eight months, and hadbeen slain by treachery, Claudius was hurried away by the armies thatwere at Rome to take the government upon him; but the senate, upon thereference of the consuls, Sentis Saturninns, and Pomponins Secundus, gave orders to the three regiments of soldiers that staid with them tokeep the city quiet, and went up into the capitol in great numbers, and resolved to oppose Claudius by force, on account of the barbaroustreatment they had met with from Caius; and they determined eitherto settle the nation under an aristocracy, as they had of old beengoverned, or at least to choose by vote such a one for emperor as mightbe worthy of it. 

2. Now it happened that at this time Agrippa sojourned at Rome, and thatboth the senate called him to consult with them, and at the same timeClaudius sent for him out of the camp, that he might be serviceable tohim, as he should have occasion for his service. So he, perceiving thatClaudius was in effect made Caesar already, went to him, who sent him asan 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 hurriedaway by the soldiers; moreover, that he thought it was not just todesert those soldiers in such their zeal for him, and that if he shoulddo so, his own fortune would be in uncertainty; for that it was adangerous case to have been once called to the empire. He added further, that he would administer the government as a good prince, and not likea tyrant; for that he would be satisfied with the honor of being calledemperor, but would, in every one of his actions, permit them all togive him their advice; for that although he had not been by naturefor moderation, yet would the death of Caius afford him a sufficientdemonstration how soberly he ought to act in that station. 

3. Thismessage was delivered by Agrippa; to which the senate replied, thatsince they had an army, and the wisest counsels on their side, theywould not endure a voluntary slavery. And when Claudius heard whatanswer the senate had made, he sent Agrippa to them again, with thefollowing message: That he could not bear the thoughts of betraying themthat had given their oaths to be true to him; and that he saw he mustfight, though unwillingly, against such as he had no mind to fight;that, however, [if it must come to that, ] it was proper to choose aplace without the city for the war, because it was not agreeable topiety to pollute the temples of their own city with the blood of theirown countrymen, and this only on occasion of their imprudent conduct. And when Agrippa had heard this message, he delivered it to thesenators. 

4. In the mean time, one of the soldiers belonging to the senate drewhis sword, and cried out, "O my fellow soldiers, what is the meaning ofthis choice of ours, to kill our brethren, and to use violence to ourkindred that are with Claudius? while we may have him for our emperorwhom no one can blame, and who hath so many just reasons [to lay claimto the government]; and this with regard to those against whom we aregoing to fight. " When he had said this, he marched through the wholesenate, and carried all the soldiers along with him. Upon which allthe patricians were immediately in a great fright at their being thusdeserted. But still, because there appeared no other way whither theycould turn themselves for deliverance, they made haste the same way withthe soldiers, and went to Claudius. But those that had the greatest luckin flattering the good fortune of Claudius betimes met them before thewalls with their naked swords, and there was reason to fear that thosethat came first might have been in danger, before Claudius could knowwhat violence the soldiers were going to offer them, had not Agrippa ranbefore, and told him what a dangerous thing they were going about, andthat unless he restrained the violence of these men, who were in a fitof madness against the patricians, he would lose those on whose accountit 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 anobliging manner, and went out with them presently to offer theirthank-offerings to God, which were proper upon, his first coming tothe empire. Moreover, he bestowed on Agrippa his whole paternal kingdomimmediately, and added to it, besides those countries that had beengiven by Augustus to Herod, Trachonitis and Auranitis, and still besidesthese, that kingdom which was called the kingdom of Lysanius. This gifthe declared to the people by a decree, but ordered the magistrates tohave the donation engraved on tables of brass, and to be set up in thecapitol. 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 adominion; nor did he abuse the money he had on small matters, buthe began to encompass Jerusalem with such a wall, which, had it beenbrought to perfection, had made it impracticable for the Romans to takeit by siege; but his death, which happened at Cesarea, before he hadraised the walls to their due height, prevented him. He had then reignedthree 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 namewas Agrippa: he was left a very young child, so that Claudius made thecountry a Roman province, and sent Cuspius Fadus to be its procurator, and after him Tiberius Alexander, who, making no alterations of theancient laws, kept the nation in tranquillity. Now after this, Herod theking of Chalcis died, and left behind him two sons, born to him of hisbrother's daughter Bernice; their names were Bernie Janus and Hyrcanus. [He also left behind him] Aristobulus, whom he had by his former wifeMariamne. There was besides another brother of his that died a privateperson, his name was also Aristobulus, who left behind him a daughter, whose name was Jotape: and these, as I have formerly said, werethe children of Aristobulus the son of Herod, which Aristobulus andAlexander were born to Herod by Mariamne, and were slain by him. But asfor 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 uponhim the office of procurator of the rest, which was a Roman province, and therein he succeeded Alexander; under which Cureanus began thetroubles, and the Jews' ruin came on; for when the multitude were cometogether to Jerusalem, to the feast of unleavened bread, and a Romancohort stood over the cloisters of the temple, [for they always werearmed, and kept guard at the festivals, to prevent any innovation whichthe multitude thus gathered together might make, ] one of the soldierspulled back his garment, and cowering down after an indecent manner, turned his breech to the Jews, and spake such words as you might expectupon such a posture. At this the whole multitude had indignation, andmade a clamor to Cumanus, that he would punish the soldier; whilethe rasher part of the youth, and such as were naturally the mosttumultuous, fell to fighting, and caught up stones, and threw them atthe soldiers. Upon which Cumanus was afraid lest all the people shouldmake an assault upon him, and sent to call for more armed men, who, whenthey came in great numbers into the cloisters, the Jews were in a verygreat consternation; and being beaten out of the temple, they ran intothe city; and the violence with which they crowded to get out was sogreat, that they trod upon each other, and squeezed one another, tillten thousand of them were killed, insomuch that this feast became thecause of mourning to the whole nation, and every family lamented theirown relations. 

2. Now there followed after this another calamity, which arose froma tumult made by robbers; for at the public road at Beth-boron, oneStephen, a servant of Caesar, carried some furniture, which the robbersfell upon and seized. Upon this Cureanus sent men to go round about tothe neighboring villages, and to bring their inhabitants to him bound, as laying it to their charge that they had not pursued after thethieves, 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 intothe fire. [14] Hereupon the Jews were in great disorder, as if theirwhole country were in a flame, and assembled themselves so many of themby their zeal for their religion, as by an engine, and ran together withunited clamor to Cesarea, to Cumanus, and made supplication to him thathe 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 acomfortable answer from him, gave order that the soldier should bebrought, and drawn through those that required to have him punished, toexecution, which being done, the Jews went their ways. 

3. After this there happened a fight between the Galileans and theSamaritans; it happened at a village called Geman, which is situate inthe great plain of Samaria; where, as a great number of Jews were goingup to Jerusalem to the feast [of tabernacles, ] a certain Galilean wasslain; and besides, a vast number of people ran together out of Galilee, in order to fight with the Samaritans. But the principal men amongthem came to Cumanus, and besought him that, before the evil becameincurable, he would come into Galilee, and bring the authors of thismurder to punishment; for that there was no other way to make themultitude separate without coming to blows. However, Cumanus postponedtheir supplications to the other affairs he was then about, and sent thepetitioners away without success. 

4. But when the affair of this murder came to be told at Jerusalem, itput the multitude into disorder, and they left the feast; and withoutany generals to conduct them, they marched with great violence toSamaria; nor would they be ruled by any of the magistrates that were setover them, but they were managed by one Eleazar, the son of Dineus, andby Alexander, in these their thievish and seditious attempts. Thesemen fell upon those that were ill the neighborhood of the Acrabatenetoparchy, and slew them, without sparing any age, and set the villageson fire. 

5. But Cumanus took one troop of horsemen, called the troop ofSebaste, out of Cesarea, and came to the assistance of those that werespoiled; he also seized upon a great number of those that followedEleazar, and slew more of them. And as for the rest of the multitude ofthose that went so zealously to fight with the Samaritans, the rulersof Jerusalem ran out clothed with sackcloth, and having ashes on theirhead, and begged of them to go their ways, lest by their attempt torevenge themselves upon the Samaritans they should provoke the Romansto come against Jerusalem; to have compassion upon their country andtemple, their children and their wives, and not bring the utmostdangers of destruction upon them, in order to avenge themselves upon oneGalilean only. The Jews complied with these persuasions of theirs, anddispersed themselves; but still there were a great number whobetook themselves to robbing, in hopes of impunity; and rapines andinsurrections of the bolder sort happened over the whole country. And the men of power among the Samaritans came to Tyre, to UmmidiusQuadratus, [15] the president of Syria, and desired that they that hadlaid waste the country might be punished: the great men also of theJews, and Jonathan the son of Ananus the high priest, came thither, and said that the Samaritans were the beginners of the disturbance, onaccount of that murder they had committed; and that Cumanus had givenoccasion to what had happened, by his unwillingness to punish theoriginal authors of that murder. 

6. But Quadratus put both parties off for that time, and told them, thatwhen he should come to those places, he would make a diligent inquiryafter every circumstance. After which he went to Cesarea, and crucifiedall those whom Cumanus had taken alive; and when from thence he was cometo the city Lydda, he heard the affair of the Samaritans, and sent foreighteen of the Jews, whom he had learned to have been concerned in thatfight, and beheaded them; but he sent two others of those that were ofthe greatest power among them, and both Jonathan and Ananias, the highpriests, as also Artanus the son of this Ananias, and certain othersthat were eminent among the Jews, to Caesar; as he did in like mannerby the most illustrious of the Samaritans. He also ordered that Cureanus[the procurator] and Celer the tribune should sail to Rome, in order togive an account of what had been done to Caesar. When he had finishedthese matters, he went up from Lydda to Jerusalem, and finding themultitude celebrating their feast of unleavened bread without anytumult, he returned to Antioch. 

7. Now when Caesar at Rome had heard what Cumanus and the Samaritanshad to say, [where it was done in the hearing of Agrippa, who zealouslyespoused the cause of the Jews, as in like manner many of the great menstood by Cumanus, ] he condemned the Samaritans, and commanded that threeof the most powerful men among them should be put to death; he banishedCumanus, and sent Color bound to Jerusalem, to be delivered over to theJews to be tormented; that he should be drawn round the city, and thenbeheaded. 

8. After this Caesar sent Felix, [16] the brother of Pallas, to beprocurator of Galilee, and Samaria, and Perea, and removed Agrippa fromChalcis unto a greater kingdom; for he gave him the tetrarchy whichhad belonged to Philip, which contained Batanae, Trachonitis, andGaulonitis: he added to it the kingdom of Lysanias, and that province[Abilene] which Varus had governed. But Claudius himself, when he hadadministered the government thirteen years, eight months, and twentydays, died, and left Nero to be his successor in the empire, whom he hadadopted by his Wife Agrippina's delusions, in order to be his successor, although he had a son of his own, whose name was Britannicus, byMessalina his former wife, and a daughter whose name was Octavia, whomhe had married to Nero; he had also another daughter by Petina, whosename 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 ofthe extravagant degree of the felicity and riches which he enjoyed, andby that means used his good fortune to the injury of others; and afterwhat manner he slew his brother, and wife, and mother, from whom hisbarbarity spread itself to others that were most nearly related to him;and how, at last, he was so distracted that he became an actor inthe scenes, and upon the theater, --I omit to say any more about them, because there are writers enough upon those subjects every where; butI shall turn myself to those actions of his time in which the Jews wereconcerned. 

2. Nero therefore bestowed the kingdom of the Lesser Armenia uponAristobulus, Herod's son, [17] and he added to Agrippa's kingdom fourcities, with the toparchies to them belonging; I mean Abila, and thatJulias which is in Perea, Tarichea also, and Tiberias of Galilee; butover the rest of Judea he made Felix procurator. This Felix took Eleazarthe arch-robber, and many that were with him, alive, when they hadravaged 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, andof 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 ofrobbers in Jerusalem, which were called Sicarii, who slew men in theday time, and in the midst of the city; this they did chiefly atthe festivals, when they mingled themselves among the multitude, andconcealed daggers under their garments, with which they stabbed thosethat were their enemies; and when any fell down dead, the murderersbecame a part of those that had indignation against them; by which meansthey appeared persons of such reputation, that they could by no meansbe discovered. The first man who was slain by them was Jonathan the highpriest, after whose death many were slain every day, while the fear menwere 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 menwere obliged to look before them, and to take notice of their enemies ata great distance; nor, if their friends were coming to them, durstthey trust them any longer; but, in the midst of their suspicions andguarding of themselves, they were slain. Such was the celerity of theplotters against them, and so cunning was their contrivance. 

4. There was also another body of wicked men gotten together, not soimpure in their actions, but more wicked in their intentions, whichlaid waste the happy state of the city no less than did these murderers. These were such men as deceived and deluded the people under pretenseof Divine inspiration, but were for procuring innovations and changesof the government; and these prevailed with the multitude to act likemadmen, and went before them into the wilderness, as pretending thatGod would there show them the signals of liberty. But Felix thought thisprocedure was to be the beginning of a revolt; so he sent some horsemenand footmen both armed, who destroyed a great number of them. 

5. But there was an Egyptian false prophet that did the Jews moremischief than the former; for he was a cheat, and pretended to be aprophet also, and got together thirty thousand men that were deluded byhim; these he led round about from the wilderness to the mount whichwas called the Mount of Olives, and was ready to break into Jerusalemby force from that place; and if he could but once conquer the Romangarrison and the people, he intended to domineer over them by theassistance of those guards of his that were to break into the citywith him. But Felix prevented his attempt, and met him with his Romansoldiers, while all the people assisted him in his attack upon them, insomuch that when it came to a battle, the Egyptian ran away, with afew others, while the greatest part of those that were with him wereeither destroyed or taken alive; but the rest of the multitude weredispersed every one to their own homes, and there concealed themselves. 

6. Now when these were quieted, it happened, as it does in a diseasedbody, that another part was subject to an inflammation; for a companyof deceivers and robbers got together, and persuaded the Jews to revolt, and exhorted them to assert their liberty, inflicting death on thosethat continued in obedience to the Roman government, and saying, thatsuch as willingly chose slavery ought to be forced from such theirdesired inclinations; for they parted themselves into different bodies, and lay in wait up and down the country, and plundered the houses of thegreat 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 toa direct war. 

7. There was also another disturbance at Cesarea, --those Jews who weremixed with the Syrians that lived there rising a tumult against them. The Jews pretended that the city was theirs, and said that he who builtit was a Jew, meaning king Herod. The Syrians confessed also that itsbuilder was a Jew; but they still said, however, that the city was aGrecian city; for that he who set up statues and temples in it could notdesign it for Jews. On which account both parties had a contest withone another; and this contest increased so much, that it came at last toarms, and the bolder sort of them marched out to fight; for the eldersof the Jews were not able to put a stop to their own people that weredisposed to be tumultuous, and the Greeks thought it a shame for themto be overcome by the Jews. Now these Jews exceeded the others inriches and strength of body; but the Grecian part had the advantageof assistance from the soldiery; for the greatest part of the Romangarrison was raised out of Syria; and being thus related to the Syrianpart, they were ready to assist it. However, the governors of the citywere concerned to keep all quiet, and whenever they caught those thatwere most for fighting on either side, they punished them with stripesand bands. Yet did not the sufferings of those that were caught affrightthe remainder, or make them desist; but they were still more and moreexasperated, and deeper engaged in the sedition. And as Felix came onceinto the market-place, and commanded the Jews, when they had beaten theSyrians, to go their ways, and threatened them if they would not, andthey would not obey him, he sent his soldiers out upon them, and slewa great many of them, upon which it fell out that what they had wasplundered. And as the sedition still continued, he chose out the mosteminent men on both sides as ambassadors to Nero, to argue about theirseveral 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 hisbusiness to correct those that made disturbances in the country. So hecaught the greatest part of the robbers, and destroyed a great many ofthem. But then Albinus, who succeeded Festus, did not execute his officeas the other had done; nor was there any sort of wickedness that couldbe named but he had a hand in it. Accordingly, he did not only, in hispolitical capacity, steal and plunder every one's substance, nor did heonly burden the whole nation with taxes, but he permitted the relationsof such as were in prison for robbery, and had been laid there, eitherby the senate of every city, or by the former procurators, to redeemthem for money; and no body remained in the prisons as a malefactor buthe who gave him nothing. At this time it was that the enterprises ofthe seditious at Jerusalem were very formidable; the principal menamong them purchasing leave of Albinus to go on with their seditiouspractices; while that part of the people who delighted in disturbancesjoined themselves to such as had fellowship with Albinus; and every oneof these wicked wretches were encompassed with his own band of robbers, while he himself, like an arch-robber, or a tyrant, made a figure amonghis company, and abused his authority over those about him, in orderto plunder those that lived quietly. The effect of which was this, thatthose who lost their goods were forced to hold their peace, when theyhad reason to show great indignation at what they had suffered; butthose who had escaped were forced to flatter him that deserved to bepunished, out of the fear they were in of suffering equally with theothers. Upon the Whole, nobody durst speak their minds, but tyrannywas generally tolerated; and at this time were those seeds sown whichbrought the city to destruction. 

2. And although such was the character of Albinus, yet did GessiusFlorus [18] who succeeded him, demonstrate him to have been a mostexcellent person, upon the comparison; for the former did the greatestpart of his rogueries in private, and with a sort of dissimulation; butGessius did his unjust actions to the harm of the nation after a pomponsmanner; and as though he had been sent as an executioner to punishcondemned malefactors, he omitted no sort of rapine, or of vexation;where the case was really pitiable, he was most barbarous, and in thingsof the greatest turpitude he was most impudent. Nor could any one outdohim in disguising the truth; nor could any one contrive more subtle waysof deceit than he did. He indeed thought it but a petty offense to getmoney out of single persons; so he spoiled whole cities, and ruinedentire bodies of men at once, and did almost publicly proclaim it allthe country over, that they had liberty given them to turn robbers, uponthis condition, that he might go shares with them in the spoils theygot. Accordingly, this his greediness of gain was the occasion thatentire toparchies were brought to desolation, and a great many of thepeople left their own country, and fled into foreign provinces. 

3. Andtruly, 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 ofunleavened bread, the people came about him not fewer in number thanthree millions [19] these besought him to commiserate the calamities oftheir 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 assuredthem that he would take care that Florus should hereafter treat them ina more gentle manner, returned to Antioch. Florus also conducted himas far as Cesarea, and deluded him, though he had at that very time thepurpose of showing his anger at the nation, and procuring a war uponthem, by which means alone it was that he supposed he might conceal hisenormities; for he expected that if the peace continued, he should havethe Jews for his accusers before Caesar; but that if he could procurethem to make a revolt, he should divert their laying lesser crimes tohis charge, by a misery that was so much greater; he therefore did everyday augment their calamities, in order to induce them to a rebellion. 

4. Now at this time it happened that the Grecians at Cesarea had beentoo hard for the Jews, and had obtained of Nero the government of thecity, and had brought the judicial determination: at the same time beganthe war, in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, and the seventeenthof the reign of Agrippa, in the month of Artemisins [Jyar. ] Now theoccasion of this war was by no means proportionable to those heavycalamities which it brought upon us. For the Jews that dwelt at Cesareahad a synagogue near the place, whose owner was a certain CesareanGreek: the Jews had endeavored frequently to have purchased thepossession of the place, and had offered many times its value for itsprice; but as the owner overlooked their offers, so did he raiseother buildings upon the place, in way of affront to them, and madeworking-shops of them, and left them but a narrow passage, and such aswas very troublesome for them to go along to their synagogue. Whereuponthe warmer part of the Jewish youth went hastily to the workmen, andforbade them to build there; but as Florus would not permit them to useforce, the great men of the Jews, with John the publican, being in theutmost distress what to do, persuaded Florus, with the offer of eighttalents, to hinder the work. He then, being intent upon nothing butgetting money, promised he would do for them all they desired of him, and then went away from Cesarea to Sebaste, and left the sedition totake its full course, as if he had sold a license to the Jews to fightit out. 

5. Now on the next day, which was the seventh day of the week, when theJews were crowding apace to their synagogue, a certain man of Cesarea, of a seditious temper, got an earthen vessel, and set it with the bottomupward, at the entrance of that synagogue, and sacrificed birds. Thisthing provoked the Jews to an incurable degree, because their laws wereaffronted, and the place was polluted. Whereupon the sober and moderatepart of the Jews thought it proper to have recourse to their governorsagain, while the seditious part, and such as were in the fervor of theiryouth, were vehemently inflamed to fight. The seditions also among theGentiles of Cesarea stood ready for the same purpose; for they had, byagreement, sent the man to sacrifice beforehand [as ready to supporthim;] so that it soon came to blows. Hereupon Jucundus, the master ofthe horse, who was ordered to prevent the fight, came thither, and tookaway 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, whichwas a place to them belonging, distant from Cesarea sixty furlongs. But John, and twelve of the principal men with him, went to Florus, toSebaste, and made a lamentable complaint of their case, and besoughthim to help them; and with all possible decency, put him in mind of theeight talents they had given him; but he had the men seized upon, andput in prison, and accused them for carrying the books of the law out ofCesarea. 

6. Moreover, as to the citizens of Jerusalem, although they took thismatter very ill, yet did they restrain their passion; but Florus actedherein as if he had been hired, and blew up the war into a flame, andsent some to take seventeen talents out of the sacred treasure, andpretended that Caesar wanted them. At this the people were in confusionimmediately, and ran together to the temple, with prodigious clamors, and called upon Caesar by name, and besought him to free them from thetyranny of Florus. Some also of the seditious cried out upon Florus, andcast the greatest reproaches upon him, and carried a basket about, andbegged some spills of money for him, as for one that was destitute ofpossessions, and in a miserable condition. Yet was not he made ashamedhereby of his love of money, but was more enraged, and provoked to getstill more; and instead of coming to Cesarea, as he ought to have done, and quenching the flame of war, which was beginning thence, and sotaking away the occasion of any disturbances, on which account it wasthat he had received a reward [of eight talents], he marched hastilywith an army of horsemen and footmen against Jerusalem, that he mightgain his will by the arms of the Romans, and might, by his terror, andby 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 orderto receive him very submissively. But he sent Capito, a centurion, beforehand, with fifty soldiers, to bid them go back, and not now makea show of receiving him in an obliging manner, whom they had so foullyreproached before; and said that it was incumbent on them, in case theyhad generous souls, and were free speakers, to jest upon him to hisface, and appear to be lovers of liberty, not only in words, but withtheir weapons also. With this message was the multitude amazed; andupon the coming of Capito's horsemen into the midst of them, they weredispersed before they could salute Florus, or manifest their submissivebehavior to him. Accordingly, they retired to their own houses, andspent that night in fear and confusion of face. 

8. Now at this timeFlorus took up his quarters at the palace; and on the next day he hadhis tribunal set before it, and sat upon it, when the high priests, andthe men of power, and those of the greatest eminence in the city, cameall before that tribunal; upon which Florus commanded them to deliverup to him those that had reproached him, and told them that they shouldthemselves partake of the vengeance to them belonging, if they didnot produce the criminals; but these demonstrated that the people werepeaceably disposed, and they begged forgiveness for those that hadspoken amiss; for that it was no wonder at all that in so great amultitude there should be some more daring than they ought to be, and, by reason of their younger age, foolish also; and that it was impossibleto distinguish those that offended from the rest, while every one wassorry for what he had done, and denied it out of fear of what wouldfollow: 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, andrather for the sake of a great number of innocent people to forgive afew that were guilty, than for the sake of a few of the wicked to put solarge and good a body of men into disorder. 

9. Florus was more provokedat this, and called out aloud to the soldiers to plunder that which wascalled the Upper Market-place, and to slay such as they met with. Sothe soldiers, taking this exhortation of their commander in a senseagreeable to their desire of gain, did not only plunder the place theywere sent to, but forcing themselves into every house, they slew itsinhabitants; so the citizens fled along the narrow lanes, and thesoldiers slew those that they caught, and no method of plunder wasomitted; they also caught many of the quiet people, and brought thembefore 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 infantsthemselves, ] was about three thousand and six hundred. And what madethis calamity the heavier was this new method of Roman barbarity; forFlorus ventured then to do what no one had done before, that is, to havemen of the equestrian order whipped [21] and nailed to the cross beforehis tribunal; who, although they were by birth Jews, yet were they ofRoman 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, tocongratulate Alexander upon his having obtained the government of Egyptfrom Nero; but as his sister Bernice was come to Jerusalem, and saw thewicked practices of the soldiers, she was sorely affected at it, andfrequently sent the masters of her horse and her guards to Florus, andbegged of him to leave off these slaughters; but he would not complywith her request, nor have any regard either to the multitude of thosealready slain, or to the nobility of her that interceded, but only tothe advantage he should make by this plundering; nay, this violence ofthe soldiers brake out to such a degree of madness, that it spent itselfon the queen herself; for they did not only torment and destroy thosewhom they had caught under her very eyes, but indeed had killed herselfalso, unless she had prevented them by flying to the palace, and hadstaid there all night with her guards, which she had about her for fearof an insult from the soldiers. Now she dwelt then at Jerusalem, inorder to perform a vow [22] which she had made to God; for it is usualwith those that had been either afflicted with a distemper, or with anyother distresses, to make vows; and for thirty days before they are tooffer their sacrifices, to abstain from wine, and to shave the hair oftheir head. Which things Bernice was now performing, and stood barefootbefore Florus's tribunal, and besought him [to spare the Jews]. Yetcould she neither have any reverence paid to her, nor could she escapewithout 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, rantogether to the Upper Market-place, and made the loudest lamentationsfor those that had perished; and the greatest part of the cries weresuch as reflected on Florus; at which the men of power were aftrighted, together with the high priests, and rent their garments, and fell downbefore each of them, and besought them to leave off, and not to provokeFlorus to some incurable procedure, besides what they had alreadysuffered. Accordingly, the multitude complied immediately, out ofreverence to those that had desired it of them, and out of the hope theyhad that Florus would do them no more injuries. 

3. So Florus was troubled that the disturbances were over, andendeavored to kindle that flame again, and sent for the high priests, with the other eminent persons, and said the only demonstration that thepeople would not make any other innovations should be this, that theymust go out and meet the soldiers that were ascending from Cesarea, whence two cohorts were coming; and while these men were exhortingthe multitude so to do, he sent beforehand, and gave directions to thecenturions of the cohorts, that they should give notice to those thatwere under them not to return the Jews' salutations; and that if theymade any reply to his disadvantage, they should make use of theirweapons. Now the high priests assembled the multitude in the temple, anddesired them to go and meet the Romans, and to salute the cohorts verycivilly, before their miserable case should become incurable. Nowthe seditious part would not comply with these persuasions; but theconsideration of those that had been destroyed made them incline tothose 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 theyused to minister in sacred things. The harpers also, and the singers ofhymns, came out with their instruments of music, and fell down beforethe multitude, and begged of them that they would preserve those holyornaments to them, and not provoke the Romans to carry off those sacredtreasures. You might also see then the high priests themselves, withdust sprinkled in great plenty upon their heads, with bosoms deprived ofany covering but what was rent; these besought every one of the eminentmen by name, and the multitude in common, that they would not for asmall offense betray their country to those that were desirous to haveit laid waste; saying, "What benefit will it bring to the soldiers tohave a salutation from the Jews? or what amendment of your affairs willit bring you, if you do not now go out to meet them? and that if theysaluted them civilly, all handle would be cut off from Florus to begina war; that they should thereby gain their country, and freedom from allfurther sufferings; and that, besides, it would be a sign of greatwant of command of themselves, if they should yield to a few seditiouspersons, while it was fitter for them who were so great a people toforce the others to act soberly. "

5. By these persuasions, which they used to the multitude and to theseditious, they restrained some by threatenings, and others by thereverence that was paid them. After this they led them out, and they metthe soldiers quietly, and after a composed manner, and when they werecome up with them, they saluted them; but when they made no answer, the seditious exclaimed against Florus, which was the signal given forfalling upon them. The soldiers therefore encompassed them presently, and struck them with their clubs; and as they fled away, the horsementrampled them down, so that a great many fell down dead by the strokesof the Romans, and more by their own violence in crushing one another. Now there was a terrible crowding about the gates, and while everybody was making haste to get before another, the flight of them all wasretarded, and a terrible destruction there was among those that felldown, for they were suffocated, an broken to pieces by the multitude ofthose that were uppermost; nor could any of them be distinguished byhis relations in order to the care of his funeral; the soldiers also whobeat them, fell upon those whom they overtook, without showing them anymercy, 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 placesinto his possession, brought such as were with him out of the king'spalace, and would have compelled them to get as far as the citadel[Antonia;] but his attempt failed, for the people immediately turnedback upon him, and stopped the violence of his attempt; and as theystood upon the tops of their houses, they threw their darts at theRomans, who, as they were sorely galled thereby, because those weaponscame from above, and they were not able to make a passage through themultitude, which stopped up the narrow passages, they retired to thecamp which was at the palace. 

6. But for the seditious, they were afraid lest Florus should comeagain, and get possession of the temple, through Antonia; so they gotimmediately upon those cloisters of the temple that joined to Antonia, and cut them down. This cooled the avarice of Florus; for whereas hewas eager to obtain the treasures of God [in the temple], and on thataccount was desirous of getting into Antonia, as soon as the cloisterswere broken down, he left off his attempt; he then sent for the highpriests and the sanhedrim, and told them that he was indeed himselfgoing out of the city, but that he would leave them as large a garrisonas they should desire. Hereupon they promised that they would make noinnovations, in case he would leave them one band; but not that whichhad fought with the Jews, because the multitude bore ill-will againstthat band on account of what they had suffered from it; so he changedthe band as they desired, and, with the rest of his forces, returned toCesarea. 

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 beginthe war, and sent to Cestius, and accused the Jews falsely of revolting[from the Roman government], and imputed the beginning of the formerfight to them, and pretended they had been the authors of thatdisturbance, wherein they were only the sufferers. Yet were not thegovernors of Jerusalem silent upon this occasion, but did themselveswrite to Cestius, as did Bernice also, about the illegal practices ofwhich Florus had been guilty against the city; who, upon reading bothaccounts, consulted with his captains [what he should do]. Now someof them thought it best for Cestius to go up with his army, either topunish the revolt, if it was real, or to settle the Roman affairs on asurer foundation, if the Jews continued quiet under them; but he thoughtit best himself to send one of his intimate friends beforehand, tosee the state of affairs, and to give him a faithful account of theintentions of the Jews. Accordingly, he sent one of his tribunes, whosename was Neopolitanus, who met with king Agrippa as he was returningfrom Alexandria, at Jamnia, and told him who it was that sent him, andon what errands he was sent. 

2. And here it was that the high priests, and men of power among theJews, as well as the sanhedrim, came to congratulate the king [upon hissafe return]; and after they had paid him their respects, they lamentedtheir own calamities, and related to him what barbarous treatmentthey had met with from Florus. At which barbarity Agrippa had greatindignation, but transferred, after a subtle manner, his anger towardsthose Jews whom he really pitied, that he might beat down their highthoughts of themselves, and would have them believe that they hadnot been so unjustly treated, in order to dissuade them from avengingthemselves. So these great men, as of better understanding than therest, and desirous of peace, because of the possessions they had, understood that this rebuke which the king gave them was intendedfor their good; but as to the people, they came sixty furlongs out ofJerusalem, and congratulated both Agrippa and Neopolitanus; but thewives of those that had been slain came running first of all andlamenting. The people also, when they heard their mourning, fell intolamentations also, and besought Agrippa to assist them: they alsocried out to Neopolitanus, and complained of the many miseries they hadendured under Florus; and they showed them, when they were come into thecity, how the market-place was made desolate, and the houses plundered. They then persuaded Neopolitanus, by the means of Agrippa, that he wouldwalk round the city, with one only servant, as far as Siloam, that hemight inform himself that the Jews submitted to all the rest of theRomans, and were only displeased at Florus, by reason of his exceedingbarbarity to them. So he walked round, and had sufficient experienceof the good temper the people were in, and then went up to the temple, where he called the multitude together, and highly commended them fortheir fidelity to the Romans, and earnestly exhorted them to keep thepeace; and having performed such parts of Divine worship at the templeas he was allowed to do, he returned to Cestius. 

3. But as for the multitude of the Jews, they addressed themselves tothe king, and to the high priests, and desired they might have leave tosend ambassadors to Nero against Florus, and not by their silence afforda suspicion that they had been the occasions of such great slaughtersas had been made, and were disposed to revolt, alleging that theyshould seem to have been the first beginners of the war, if they did notprevent the report by showing who it was that began it; and it appearedopenly that they would not be quiet, if any body should hinder themfrom sending such an embassage. But Agrippa, although he thought ittoo dangerous a thing for them to appoint men to go as the accusers ofFlorus, yet did he not think it fit for him to overlook them, asthey were in a disposition for war. He therefore called the multitudetogether into a large gallery, and placed his sister Bernice in thehouse of the Asamoneans, that she might be seen by them, [which housewas over the gallery, at the passage to the upper city, where the bridgejoined the temple to the gallery, ] and spake to them as follows:

4. [24] "Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to go towar with the Romans, and that the purer and more sincere part of thepeople did not propose to live in peace, I had not come out to you, norbeen so bold as to give you counsel; for all discourses that tend topersuade men to do what they ought to do are superfluous, when thehearers are agreed to do the contrary. But because some are earnest togo to war because they are young, and without experience of themiseries it brings, and because some are for it out of an unreasonableexpectation of regaining their liberty, and because others hope to getby it, and are therefore earnestly bent upon it, that in the confusionof your affairs they may gain what belongs to those that are too weak toresist them, I have thought proper to get you all together, and to sayto you what I think to be for your advantage; that so the former maygrow wiser, and change their minds, and that the best men may come tono harm by the ill conduct of some others. And let not any one betumultuous 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 myexhortation is over; but still my discourse will fall to the ground, even with a relation to those that have a mind to hear me, unlessyou will all keep silence. I am well aware that many make a tragicalexclamation concerning the injuries that have been offered you by yourprocurators, and concerning the glorious advantages of liberty; butbefore I begin the inquiry, who you are that must go to war, and whothey are against whom you must fight, I shall first separate thosepretenses that are by some connected together; for if you aim atavenging yourselves on those that have done you injury, why do youpretend this to be a war for recovering your liberty? but if you thinkall servitude intolerable, to what purpose serve your complaint againstyour particular governors? for if they treated you with moderation, itwould still be equally an unworthy thing to be in servitude. Considernow the several cases that may be supposed, how little occasion there isfor your going to war. Your first occasion is the accusations you haveto make against your procurators; now here you ought to be submissiveto those in authority, and not give them any provocation; but whenyou reproach men greatly for small offenses, you excite those whom youreproach to be your adversaries; for this will only make them leave offhurting you privately, and with some degree of modesty, and to lay whatyou have waste openly. Now nothing so much damps the force of strokes asbearing them with patience; and the quietness of those who are injureddiverts the injurious persons from afflicting. But let us take it forgranted that the Roman ministers are injurious to you, and are incurablysevere; yet are they not all the Romans who thus injure you; nor hathCaesar, against whom you are going to make war, injured you: it is notby their command that any wicked governor is sent to you; for they whoare in the west cannot see those that are in the east; nor indeed is iteasy for them there even to hear what is done in these parts. Now it isabsurd to make war with a great many for the sake of one, to do so withsuch mighty people for a small cause; and this when these people are notable to know of what you complain: nay, such crimes as we complain ofmay soon be corrected, for the same procurator will not continuefor ever; and probable it is that the successors will come with moremoderate inclinations. But as for war, if it be once begun, it is noteasily laid down again, nor borne without calamities coming therewith. However, as to the desire of recovering your liberty, it is unseasonableto indulge it so late; whereas you ought to have labored earnestly inold time that you might never have lost it; for the first experience ofslavery was hard to be endured, and the struggle that you might neverhave been subject to it would have been just; but that slave who hathbeen once brought into subjection, and then runs away, is rather arefractory slave than a lover of liberty; for it was then the propertime for doing all that was possible, that you might never have admittedthe Romans [into your city], when Pompey came first into the country. But so it was, that our ancestors and their kings, who were in muchbetter 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 Romanarmy. And yet you, who have now accustomed yourselves to obedience fromone generation to another, and who are so much inferior to those whofirst submitted, in your circumstances will venture to oppose the entireempire of the Romans. While those Athenians, who, in order to preservethe liberty of Greece, did once set fire to their own city; who pursuedXerxes, that proud prince, when he sailed upon the land, and walked uponthe sea, and could not be contained by the seas, but conducted such anarmy as was too broad for Europe; and made him run away like a fugitivein a single ship, and brake so great a part of Asia at the LesserSalamis; are yet at this time servants to the Romans; and thoseinjunctions which are sent from Italy become laws to the principalgoverning city of Greece. Those Lacedemonians also who got the greatvictories at Thermopylae and Platea, and had Agesilaus [for theirking], and searched every corner of Asia, are contented to admit thesame lords. Those Macedonians also, who still fancy what great men theirPhilip and Alexander were, and see that the latter had promised themthe empire over the world, these bear so great a change, and pay theirobedience to those whom fortune hath advanced in their stead. Moreover, ten thousand ether nations there are who had greater reason than we toclaim their entire liberty, and yet do submit. You are the only peoplewho think it a disgrace to be servants to those to whom all the worldhath submitted. What sort of an army do you rely on? What are the armsyou depend on? Where is your fleet, that may seize upon the Romanseas? and where are those treasures which may be sufficient for yourundertakings? Do you suppose, I pray you, that you are to make war withthe Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will you not carefully reflectupon the Roman empire? Will you not estimate your own weakness? Hath notyour army been often beaten even by your neighboring nations, while thepower of the Romans is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth?nay, rather they seek for somewhat still beyond that; for all Euphratesis not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danubeon the north; and for their southern limit, Libya hath been searchedover by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limiton the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable earthbeyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as such Britishislands as were never known before. What therefore do you pretend to?Are you richer than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans, wiser thanthe Greeks, more numerous than all men upon the habitable earth? Whatconfidence is it that elevates you to oppose the Romans? Perhaps it willbe said, It is hard to endure slavery. Yes; but how much harder is thisto the Greeks, who were esteemed the noblest of all people under thesun! These, though they inhabit in a large country, are in subjection tosix bundles of Roman rods. It is the same case with the Macedonians, who have juster reason to claim their liberty than you have. What isthe case of five hundred cities of Asia? Do they not submit to a singlegovernor, and to the consular bundle of rods? What need I speak of theHenlochi, and Colchi and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit theBosphorus, and the nations about Pontus, and Meotis, who formerlyknew not so much as a lord of their own, but are now subject to threethousand armed men, and where forty long ships keep the sea in peace, which before was not navigable, and very tempestuous? How strong a pleamay Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and the people of Pamphylia, the Lycians, and Cilicians, put in for liberty! But they are made tributary withoutan army. What are the circumstances of the Thracians, whose countryextends in breadth five days' journey, and in length seven, and is of amuch more harsh constitution, and much more defensible, than yours, andby the rigor of its cold sufficient to keep off armies from attackingthem? do not they submit to two thousand men of the Roman garrisons? Arenot the Illyrlans, who inhabit the country adjoining, as far as Dalmatiaand the Danube, governed by barely two legions? by which also they put astop to the incursions of the Daeians. And for the Dalmatians, who havemade such frequent insurrections in order to regain their liberty, andwho could never before be so thoroughly subdued, but that they alwaysgathered their forces together again, revolted, yet are they now veryquiet under one Roman legion. Moreover, if eat advantages might provokeany people to revolt, the Gauls might do it best of all, as being sothoroughly walled round by nature; on the east side by the Alps, on thenorth by the river Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean mountains, andon the west by the ocean. Now although these Gauls have such obstaclesbefore them to prevent any attack upon them, and have no fewer thanthree hundred and five nations among them, nay have, as one may say, the fountains of domestic happiness within themselves, and send outplentiful streams of happiness over almost the whole world, these bearto be tributary to the Romans, and derive their prosperous conditionfrom them; and they undergo this, not because they are of effeminateminds, or because they are of an ignoble stock, as having borne a warof eighty years in order to preserve their liberty; but by reason ofthe great regard they have to the power of the Romans, and their goodfortune, which is of greater efficacy than their arms. These Gauls, therefore, are kept in servitude by twelve hundred soldiers, which arehardly so many as are their cities; nor hath the gold dug out of themines of Spain been sufficient for the support of a war to preservetheir liberty, nor could their vast distance from the Romans by landand by sea do it; nor could the martial tribes of the Lusitanians andSpaniards escape; no more could the ocean, with its tide, which yet wasterrible to the ancient inhabitants. Nay, the Romans have extended theirarms beyond the pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds, upon the Pyrenean mountains, and have subdued these nations. And onelegion is a sufficient guard for these people, although they were sohard to be conquered, and at a distance so remote from Rome. Who isthere 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, andthat frequently, since the Romans have them among their captives everywhere; yet these Germans, who dwell in an immense country, who haveminds greater than their bodies, and a soul that despises death, andwho are in rage more fierce than wild beasts, have the Rhine for theboundary of their enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman legions. Such of them as were taken captive became their servants; and the restof the entire nation were obliged to save themselves by flight. Do youalso, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem, consider what a wall theBritons had; for the Romans sailed away to them, an subdued them whilethey were encompassed by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is notless than the [continent of this] habitable earth; and four legions area sufficient guard to so large all island And why should I speak muchmore about this matter, while the Parthians, that most warlike bodyof men, and lords of so many nations, and encompassed with such mightyforces, send hostages to the Romans? whereby you may see, if you please, even in Italy, the noblest nation of the East, under the notion ofpeace, submitting to serve them. Now when almost all people under thesun submit to the Roman arms, will you be the only people that make waragainst them? and this without regarding the fate of the Carthaginians, who, in the midst of their brags of the great Hannibal, and the nobilityof their Phoenician original, fell by the hand of Scipio. Nor indeedhave the Cyrenians, derived from the Lacedemonians, nor the Marmaridite, a nation extended as far as the regions uninhabitable for want ofwater, nor have the Syrtes, a place terrible to such as barely hearit described, the Nasamons and Moors, and the immense multitude of theNumidians, been able to put a stop to the Roman valor. And as for thethird part of the habitable earth, [Akica, ] whose nations are so manythat it is not easy to number them, and which is bounded by the AtlanticSea and the pillars of Hercules, and feeds an innumerable multitudeof Ethiopians, as far as the Red Sea, these have the Romans subduedentirely. And besides the annual fruits of the earth, which maintainthe multitude of the Romans for eight months in the year, this, over andabove, pays all sorts of tribute, and affords revenues suitable tothe necessities of the government. Nor do they, like you, esteem suchinjunctions a disgrace to them, although they have but one Roman legionthat abides among them. And indeed what occasion is there for showingyou the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is so easy tolearn it from Egypt, in your neighborhood? This country is extended asfar as the Ethiopians, and Arabia the Happy, and borders upon India; ithath seven millions five hundred thousand men, besides the inhabitantsof Alexandria, as may be learned from the revenue of the poll tax; yetit is not ashamed to submit to the Roman government, although it hathAlexandria as a grand temptation to a revolt, by reason it is so full ofpeople and of riches, and is besides exceeding large, its length beingthirty furlongs, and its breadth no less than ten; and it pays moretribute to the Romans in one month than you do in a year; nay, besideswhat it pays in money, it sends corn to Rome that supports it for fourmonths [in the year]: it is also walled round on all sides, either byalmost impassable deserts, or seas that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes; yet have none of these things been found too strong forthe Roman good fortune; however, two legions that lie in that city are abridle both for the remoter parts of Egypt, and for the parts inhabitedby the more noble Macedonians. Where then are those people whom you areto have for your auxiliaries? Must they come from the parts of the worldthat are uninhabited? for all that are in the habitable earth are [underthe] Romans. Unless any of you extend his hopes as far as beyond theEuphrates, and suppose that those of your own nation that dwell inAdiabene will come to your assistance; but certainly these will notembarrass themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if they shouldfollow such ill advice, will the Parthians permit them so to do; forit is their concern to maintain the truce that is between them and theRomans, 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; butthis is already on the side of the Romans; for it is impossible that sovast an empire should be settled without God's providence. Reflect uponit, how impossible it is for your zealous observations of your religiouscustoms to be here preserved, which are hard to be observed even whenyou fight with those whom you are able to conquer; and how can youthen most of all hope for God's assistance, when, by being forced totransgress his law, you will make him turn his face from you? and if youdo observe the custom of the sabbath days, and will not be revealedon to do any thing thereon, you will easily be taken, as were yourforefathers by Pompey, who was the busiest in his siege on those days onwhich the besieged rested. But if in time of war you transgress the lawof your country, I cannot tell on whose account you will afterward goto war; for your concern is but one, that you do nothing against any ofyour forefathers; and how will you call upon God to assist you, when youare voluntarily transgressing against his religion? Now all men that goto war do it either as depending on Divine or on human assistance; butsince your going to war will cut off both those assistances, those thatare for going to war choose evident destruction. What hinders you fromslaying your children and wives with your own hands, and burning thismost excellent native city of yours? for by this mad prank you will, however, escape the reproach of being beaten. But it were best, Omy friends, it were best, while the vessel is still in the haven, toforesee the impending storm, and not to set sail out of the port intothe middle of the hurricanes; for we justly pity those who fall intogreat misfortunes without fore-seeing them; but for him who rushesinto manifest ruin, he gains reproaches [instead of commiseration]. But certainly no one can imagine that you can enter into a war as byagreement, or that when the Romans have got you under their power, theywill use you with moderation, or will not rather, for an example toother nations, burn your holy city, and utterly destroy your wholenation; for those of you who shall survive the war will not be able tofind a place whither to flee, since all men have the Romans for theirlords already, or are afraid they shall have hereafter. Nay, indeed, thedanger concerns not those Jews that dwell here only, but those ofthem which dwell in other cities also; for there is no people upon thehabitable earth which have not some portion of you among them, whom yourenemies will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account also; andso every city which hath Jews in it will be filled with slaughter forthe sake of a few men, and they who slay them will be pardoned; but ifthat slaughter be not made by them, consider how wicked a thing it is totake arms against those that are so kind to you. Have pity, therefore, if not on your children and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, andits sacred walls; spare the temple, and preserve the holy house, withits holy furniture, for yourselves; for if the Romans get you undertheir power, they will no longer abstain from them, when their formerabstinence shall have been so ungratefully requited. I call to witnessyour sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this country commonto us all, that I have not kept back any thing that is for yourpreservation; 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 ifyou indulge four passions, you will run those hazards which I shall befree from. "

5. When Agrippa had spoken thus, both he and his sister wept, and bytheir tears repressed a great deal of the violence of the people; butstill they cried out, that they would not fight against the Romans, butagainst Florus, on account of what they had suffered by his means. Towhich Agrippa replied, that what they had already done was like such asmake war against the Romans; "for you have not paid the tribute whichis due to Caesar [25] and you have cut off the cloisters [of the temple]from joining to the tower Antonia. You will therefore prevent anyoccasion of revolt if you will but join these together again, and ifyou will but pay your tribute; for the citadel does not now belong toFlorus, 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 withthe king and Bernice, and began to rebuild the cloisters; the rulersalso and senators divided themselves into the villages, and collectedthe tributes, and soon got together forty talents, which was the sumthat was deficient. And thus did Agrippa then put a stop to that warwhich was threatened. Moreover, he attempted to persuade the multitudeto obey Florus, until Caesar should send one to succeed him; but theywere hereby more provoked, and cast reproaches upon the king, andgot him excluded out of the city; nay, some of the seditious had theimpudence to throw stones at him. So when the king saw that the violenceof those that were for innovations was not to be restrained, and beingvery angry at the contumelies he had received, he sent their rulers, together with their men of power, to Florus, to Cesarea, that he mightappoint whom he thought fit to collect the tribute in the country, whilehe retired into his own kingdom. 

2. And at this time it was that some of those that principally excitedthe people to go to war made an assault upon a certain fortress calledMasada. 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 thattime governor of the temple, persuaded those that officiated in theDivine service to receive no gift or sacrifice for any foreigner. And this was the true beginning of our war with the Romans; for theyrejected the sacrifice of Caesar on this account; and when many of thehigh priests and principal men besought them not to omit the sacrifice, which it was customary for them to offer for their princes, they wouldnot be prevailed upon. These relied much upon their multitude, for themost flourishing part of the innovators assisted them; but they had thechief regard to Eleazar, the governor of the temple. 

3. Hereupon the men of power got together, and conferred with the highpriests, as did also the principal of the Pharisees; and thinking allwas at stake, and that their calamities were becoming incurable, tookcounsel what was to be done. Accordingly, they determined to try whatthey could do with the seditious by words, and assembled the peoplebefore the brazen gate, which was that gate of the inner temple [courtof the priests] which looked toward the sun-rising. And, in the firstplace, they showed the great indignation they had at this attempt for arevolt, and for their bringing so great a war upon their country; afterwhich they confuted their pretense as unjustifiable, and told them thattheir forefathers had adorned their temple in great part with donationsbestowed on them by foreigners, and had always received what had beenpresented to them from foreign nations; and that they had been sofar from rejecting any person's sacrifice [which would be the highestinstance of impiety, ] that they had themselves placed those donationabout the temple which were still visible, and had remained there solong a time; that they did now irritate the Romans to take arms againstthem, and invited them to make war upon them, and brought up novel rulesof a strange Divine worship, and determined to run the hazard ofhaving their city condemned for impiety, while they would not allow anyforeigner, but Jews only, either to sacrifice or to worship therein. And if such a law should be introduced in the case of a single privateperson only, he would have indignation at it, as an instance ofinhumanity determined against him; while they have no regard to theRomans or to Caesar, and forbid even their oblations to be receivedalso; that however they cannot but fear, lest, by thus rejecting theirsacrifices, they shall not be allowed to offer their own; and that thiscity will lose its principality, unless they grow wiser quickly, andrestore the sacrifices as formerly, and indeed amend the injury [theyhave offered foreigners] before the report of it comes to the ears ofthose that have been injured. 

4. And as they said these things, they produced those priests that wereskillful in the customs of their country, who made the report that alltheir forefathers had received the sacrifices from foreign nations. Butstill not one of the innovators would hearken to what was said; nay, those that ministered about the temple would not attend their Divineservice, but were preparing matters for beginning the war. So the men ofpower perceiving that the sedition was too hard for them to subdue, andthat the danger which would arise from the Romans would come upon themfirst of all, endeavored to save themselves, and sent ambassadors, someto Florus, the chief of which was Simon the son of Ananias; and othersto Agrippa, among whom the most eminent were Saul, and Antipas, andCostobarus, who were of the king's kindred; and they desired of themboth that they would come with an army to the city, and cut off theseditious before it should be too hard to be subdued. Now this terriblemessage was good news to Florus; and because his design was to have awar kindled, he gave the ambassadors no answer at all. But Agrippa wasequally solicitous for those that were revolting, and for those againstwhom the war was to be made, and was desirous to preserve the Jews forthe Romans, and the temple and metropolis for the Jews; he was alsosensible that it was not for his own advantage that the disturbancesshould proceed; so he sent three thousand horsemen to the assistanceof the people out of Auranitis, and Batanea, and Trachonitis, and theseunder 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 thepart of the multitude that were desirous of peace, took courage, andseized upon the upper city [Mount Sion;] for the seditious part had thelower city and the temple in their power; so they made use of stones andslings perpetually against one another, and threw darts continuallyon both sides; and sometimes it happened that they made incursionsby troops, and fought it out hand to hand, while the seditious weresuperior in boldness, but the king's soldiers in skill. These laststrove chiefly to gain the temple, and to drive those out of it whoprofaned it; as did the seditious, with Eleazar, besides what theyhad already, labor to gain the upper city. Thus were there perpetualslaughters on both sides for seven days' time; but neither side wouldyield up the parts they had seized on. 

6. Now the next day was the festival of Xylophory; upon which the customwas for every one to bring wood for the altar [that there might never bea want of fuel for that fire which was unquenchable and always burning]. Upon that day they excluded the opposite party from the observation ofthis part of religion. And when they had joined to themselves many ofthe Sicarii, who crowded in among the weaker people, [that was the namefor such robbers as had under their bosoms swords called Sicae, ] theygrew bolder, and carried their undertaking further; insomuch that theking's soldiers were overpowered by their multitude and boldness; andso they gave way, and were driven out of the upper city by force. Theothers then set fire to the house of Ananias the high priest, and to thepalaces of Agrippa and Bernice; after which they carried the fire tothe place where the archives were reposited, and made haste to burn thecontracts belonging to their creditors, and thereby to dissolve theirobligations for paying their debts; and this was done in order togain the multitude of those who had been debtors, and that they mightpersuade the poorer sort to join in their insurrection with safetyagainst the more wealthy; so the keepers of the records fled away, andthe rest set fire to them. And when they had thus burnt down the nervesof the city, they fell upon their enemies; at which time some of the menof power, and of the high priests, went into the vaults under ground, and concealed themselves, while others fled with the king's soldiersto the upper palace, and shut the gates immediately; among whom wereAnanias the high priest, and the ambassadors that had been sent toAgrippa. And now the seditious were contented with the victory they hadgotten, 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 wasin it two days, and then took the garrison, and slew them, and set thecitadel on fire; after which they marched to the palace, whither theking's soldiers were fled, and parted themselves into four bodies, andmade an attack upon the walls. As for those that were within it, no onehad the courage to sally out, because those that assaulted them wereso numerous; but they distributed themselves into the breast-works andturrets, and shot at the besiegers, whereby many of the robbers fellunder the walls; nor did they cease to fight one with another either bynight or by day, while the seditious supposed that those within wouldgrow weary for want of food, and those without supposed the others woulddo the like by the tediousness of the siege. 

8. In the mean time, one Manahem, the son of Judas, that was called theGalilean, [who was a very cunning sophister, and had formerly reproachedthe Jews under Cyrenius, that after God they were subject to theRomans, ] 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 hisown 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 leaderof the sedition, and gave orders for continuing the siege; but theywanted proper instruments, and it was not practicable to undermine thewall, because the darts came down upon them from above. But still theydug a mine from a great distance under one of the towers, and made ittotter; and having done that, they set on fire what was combustible, andleft it; and when the foundations were burnt below, the tower fell downsuddenly. Yet did they then meet with another wall that had been builtwithin, for the besieged were sensible beforehand of what they weredoing, and probably the tower shook as it was undermining; so theyprovided themselves of another fortification; which when the besiegersunexpectedly saw, while they thought they had already gained the place, they were under some consternation. However, those that were within sentto Manahem, and to the other leaders of the sedition, and desiredthey might go out upon a capitulation: this was granted to the king'ssoldiers and their own countrymen only, who went out accordingly; butthe Romans that were left alone were greatly dejected, for they were notable to force their way through such a multitude; and to desire them togive them their right hand for their security, they thought it would bea reproach to them; and besides, if they should give it them, they durstnot depend upon it; so they deserted their camp, as easily taken, and ran away to the royal towers, --that called Hippicus, that calledPhasaelus, and that called Mariamne. But Manahem and his party fell uponthe place whence the soldiers were fled, and slew as many of them asthey could catch, before they got up to the towers, and plundered whatthey left behind them, and set fire to their camp. This was executed onthe sixth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul]. 

9. But on the next day the high priest was caught where he had concealedhimself in an aqueduct; he was slain, together with Hezekiah hisbrother, by the robbers: hereupon the seditious besieged the towers, andkept them guarded, lest any one of the soldiers should escape. Now theoverthrow of the places of strength, and the death of the high priestAnanias, so puffed up Manahem, that he became barbarously cruel; andas he thought he had no antagonist to dispute the management of affairswith him, he was no better than an insupportable tyrant; but Eleazarand his party, when words had passed between them, how it was not properwhen they revolted from the Romans, out of the desire of liberty, tobetray 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 thanthemselves; as also, that in case they were obliged to set some one overtheir public affairs, it was fitter they should give that privilege toany 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 adornedwith royal garments, and had his followers with him in their armor. ButEleazar and his party fell violently upon him, as did also the rest ofthe people; and taking up stones to attack him withal, they threw themat the sophister, and thought, that if he were once ruined, the entiresedition would fall to the ground. Now Manahem and his party maderesistance for a while; but when they perceived that the whole multitudewere falling upon them, they fled which way every one was able; thosethat were caught were slain, and those that hid themselves were searchedfor. A few there were of them who privately escaped to Masada, amongwhom was Eleazar, the son of Jairus, who was of kin to Manahem, andacted the part of a tyrant at Masada afterward. As for Manahem himself, he ran away to the place called Ophla, and there lay skulking inprivate; but they took him alive, and drew him out before them all; theythen tortured him with many sorts of torments, and after all slew him, as they did by those that were captains under him also, and particularlyby the principal instrument of his tyranny, whose name was Apsalom. 

10. And, as I said, so far truly the people assisted them, while theyhoped this might afford some amendment to the seditious practices; butthe others were not in haste to put an end to the war, but hoped toprosecute it with less danger, now they had slain Manahem. It istrue, that when the people earnestly desired that they would leaveoff besieging the soldiers, they were the more earnest in pressing itforward, and this till Metilius, who was the Roman general, sent toEleazar, and desired that they would give them security to spare theirlives only; but agreed to deliver up their arms, and what else they hadwith them. The others readily complied with their petition, sent to themGorion, the son of Nicodemus, and Ananias, the son of Sadduk, and Judas, the son of Jonathan, that they might give them the security Of theirright hands, and of their oaths; after which Metilius brought down hissoldiers; which soldiers, while they were in arms, were not meddled withby any of the seditious, nor was there any appearance of treachery; butas soon as, according to the articles of capitulation, they had all laiddown their shields and their swords, and were under no further suspicionof any harm, but were going away, Eleazar's men attacked them after aviolent manner, and encompassed them round, and slew them, while theyneither defended themselves, nor entreated for mercy, but only cried outupon the breach of their articles of capitulation and their oaths. Andthus were all these men barbarously murdered, excepting Metilius; forwhen he entreated for mercy, and promised that he would turn Jew, andbe circumcised, they saved him alive, but none else. This loss to theRomans was but light, there being no more than a few slain out of animmense army; but still it appeared to be a prelude to the Jews' owndestruction, while men made public lamentation when they saw that suchoccasions were afforded for a war as were incurable; that the citywas all over polluted with such abominations, from which it was butreasonable to expect some vengeance, even though they should escaperevenge from the Romans; so that the city was filled with sadness, andevery one of the moderate men in it were under great disturbance, as likely themselves to undergo punishment for the wickedness of theseditious; for indeed it so happened that this murder was perpetrated onthe sabbath day, on which day the Jews have a respite from their workson 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 themon the very same day and hour [when the soldiers were slain], whichone 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 caughtsuch as ran away, and sent them in bonds to the galleys. Upon whichstroke that the Jews received at Cesarea, the whole nation was greatlyenraged; so they divided themselves into several parties, and laid wastethe villages of the Syrians, and their neighboring cities, Philadelphia, and Sebonitis, and Gerasa, and Pella, and Scythopolis, and after themGadara, and Hippos; and falling upon Gaulonitis, some cities theydestroyed 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 violencewith which they were attacked; and when they had burnt these to theground; they entirely demolished Anthedon and Gaza; many also of thevillages that were about every one of those cities were plundered, andan immense slaughter was made of the men who were caught in them. 

2. However, the Syrians were even with the Jews in the multitude ofthe men whom they slew; for they killed those whom they caught in theircities, 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 thedisorders in all Syria were terrible, and every city was divided intotwo armies, encamped one against another, and the preservation of theone party was in the destruction of the other; so the day time was spentin shedding of blood, and the night in fear, which was of the two themore terrible; for when the Syrians thought they had ruined the Jews, they had the Judaizers in suspicion also; and as each side did not careto slay those whom they only suspected on the other, so did theygreatly fear them when they were mingled with the other, as if they werecertainly foreigners. Moreover, greediness of gain was a provocation tokill the opposite party, even to such as had of old appeared very mildand gentle towards them; for they without fear plundered the effects ofthe slain, and carried off the spoils of those whom they slew to theirown houses, as if they had been gained in a set battle; and he wasesteemed a man of honor who got the greatest share, as having prevailedover the greatest number of his enemies. It was then common to seecities filled with dead bodies, still lying unburied, and those of oldmen, mixed with infants, all dead, and scattered about together; womenalso lay amongst them, without any covering for their nakedness: youmight then see the whole province full of inexpressible calamities, while the dread of still more barbarous practices which were threatenedwas every where greater than what had been already perpetrated. 

3. And thus far the conflict had been between Jews and foreigners; butwhen they made excursions to Scythopolis, they found Jew that acted asenemies; for as they stood in battle-array with those of Scythopolis, and preferred their own safety before their relation to us, they foughtagainst 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 themselvesto their own people for their revolt from them. So they commanded them, that in case they would confirm their agreement and demonstrate theirfidelity to them, who were of a different nation, they should go out ofthe city, with their families to a neighboring grove; and when they haddone as they were commanded, without suspecting any thing, the people ofScythopolis lay still for the interval of two days, to tempt them to besecure; but on the third night they watched their opportunity, and cutall their throats, some as they lay unguarded, and some as they layasleep. The number that was slain was above thirteen thousand, and thenthey plundered them of all that they had. 

4. It will deserve our relation what befell Simon; he was the son ofone Saul, a man of reputation among the Jews. This man was distinguishedfrom the rest by the strength of his body, and the boldness of hisconduct, although he abused them both to the mischieving of hiscountrymen; for he came every day and slew a great many of the Jews ofScythopolis, and he frequently put them to flight, and became himselfalone the cause of his army's conquering. But a just punishment overtookhim for the murders he had committed upon those of the same nation withhim; for when the people of Scythopolis threw their darts at them in thegrove, he drew his sword, but did not attack any of the enemy; for hesaw that he could do nothing against such a multitude; but he cried outafter a very moving manner, and said, "O you people of Scythopolis, Ideservedly suffer for what I have done with relation to you, when I gaveyou such security of my fidelity to you, by slaying so many of thosethat were related to me. Wherefore we very justly experience theperfidiousness of foreigners, while we acted after a most wicked manneragainst our own nation. I will therefore die, polluted wretch as I am, by nine own hands; for it is not fit I should die by the hand of ourenemies; and let the same action be to me both a punishment for my greatcrimes, and a testimony of my courage to my commendation, that so no oneof 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, helooked round about him upon his family with eyes of commiseration andof rage [that family consisted of a wife and children, and his agedparents]; so, in the first place, he caught his father by his greyhairs, and ran his sword through him, and after him he did the same tohis mother, who willingly received it; and after them he did the liketo his wife and children, every one almost offering themselves to hissword, as desirous to prevent being slain by their enemies; so when hehad gone over all his family, he stood upon their bodies to be seenby all, and stretching out his right hand, that his action might beobserved by all, he sheathed his entire sword into his own bowels. Thisyoung man was to be pitied, on account of the strength of his body andthe courage of his soul; but since he had assured foreigners of hisfidelity [against his own countrymen], he suffered deservedly. 

5. Besides this murder at Scythopolis, the other cities rose up againstthe Jews that were among them; those of Askelon slew two thousand fivehundred, and those of Ptolemais two thousand, and put not a few intobonds; those of Tyre also put a great number to death, but kept agreater number in prison; moreover, those of Hippos, and those ofGadara, 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 ofthe cities of Syria, according as they every one either hated them orwere afraid of them; only the Antiochtans the Sidontans, and Apamiansspared those that dwelt with them, and would not endure either to killany of the Jews, or to put them in bonds. And perhaps they spared them, because their own number was so great that they despised theirattempts. But I think the greatest part of this favor was owing to theircommiseration of those whom they saw to make no innovations. As for theGerasans, they did no harm to those that abode with them; and for thosewho had a mind to go away, they conducted them as far as their bordersreached. 

6. There was also a plot laid against the Jews in Agrippa's kingdom; forhe was himself gone to Cestius Gallus, to Antioch, but had left oneof his companions, whose name was Noarus, to take care of the publicaffairs; which Noarus was of kin to king Sohemus. [26] Now therecame certain men seventy in number, out of Batanea, who were the mostconsiderable for their families and prudence of the rest of the people;these desired to have an army put into their hands, that if any tumultshould happen, they might have about them a guard sufficient to restrainsuch as might rise up against them. This Noarus sent out some of theking's armed men by night, and slew all those [seventy] men; which boldaction he ventured upon without the consent of Agrippa, and was sucha 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 hetreat that nation, and this contrary to the laws also, until Agrippawas informed of it, who did not indeed dare to put him to death, outof regard to Sohemus; but still he put an end to his procuratorshipimmediately. But as to the seditious, they took the citadel whichwas called Cypros, and was above Jericho, and cut the throats of thegarrison, and utterly demolished the fortifications. This was about thesame time that the multitude of the Jews that were at Machorus persuadedthe Romans who were in garrison to leave the place, and deliver it up tothem. These Romans being in great fear, lest the place should be takenby force, made an agreement with them to depart upon certain conditions;and when they had obtained the security they desired, they delivered upthe citadel, into which the people of Macherus put a garrison for theirown security, and held it in their own power. 

7. But for Alexandria, the sedition of the people of the place againstthe Jews was perpetual, and this from that very time when Alexander [theGreat], upon finding the readiness of the Jews in assisting him againstthe Egyptians, and as a reward for such their assistance, gave themequal privileges in this city with the Grecians themselves; whichhonorary reward Continued among them under his successors, who also setapart for them a particular place, that they might live without beingpolluted [by the Gentiles], and were thereby not so much intermixed withforeigners as before; they also gave them this further privilege, thatthey should be called Macedonians. Nay, when the Romans got possessionof Egypt, neither the first Caesar, nor any one that came after him, thought of diminishing the honors which Alexander had bestowed on theJews. But still conflicts perpetually arose with the Grecians; andalthough the governors did every day punish many of them, yet didthe sedition grow worse; but at this time especially, when there weretumults in other places also, the disorders among them were put into agreater flame; for when the Alexandrians had once a public assembly, todeliberate about an embassage they were sending to Nero, a great numberof Jews came flocking to the theater; but when their adversaries sawthem, they immediately cried out, and called them their enemies, andsaid they came as spies upon them; upon which they rushed out, and laidviolent hands upon them; and as for the rest, they were slain as theyran away; but there were three men whom they caught, and hauled themalong, in order to have them burnt alive; but all the Jews came in abody to defend them, who at first threw stones at the Grecians, butafter that they took lamps, and rushed with violence into the theater, and threatened that they would burn the people to a man; and this theyhad soon done, unless Tiberius Alexander, the governor of the city, hadrestrained their passions. However, this man did not begin to teach themwisdom by arms, but sent among them privately some of the principal men, and thereby entreated them to be quiet, and not provoke the Romanarmy against them; but the seditious made a jest of the entreaties ofTiberius, and reproached him for so doing. 

8. Now when he perceived that those who were for innovations would notbe pacified till some great calamity should overtake them, he sent outupon them those two Roman legions that were in the city, and togetherwith them five thousand other soldiers, who, by chance, were cometogether out of Libya, to the ruin of the Jews. They were also permittednot only to kill them, but to plunder them of what they had, and to setfire to their houses. These soldiers rushed violently into that part ofthe city that was called Delta, where the Jewish people lived together, and did as they were bidden, though not without bloodshed on their ownside also; for the Jews got together, and set those that were the bestarmed among them in the forefront, and made a resistance for a greatwhile; but when once they gave back, they were destroyed unmercifully;and this their destruction was complete, some being caught in the openfield, and others forced into their houses, which houses were firstplundered 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 theaged; but they went on in the slaughter of persons of every age, tillall the place was overflowed with blood, and fifty thousand of themlay dead upon heaps; nor had the remainder been preserved, had they notbe-taken themselves to supplication. So Alexander commiserated theircondition, and gave orders to the Romans to retire; accordingly, these being accustomed to obey orders, left off killing at the firstintimation; but the populace of Alexandria bare so very great hatred tothe Jews, that it was difficult to recall them, and it was a hard thingto make them leave their dead bodies. 

9. And this was the miserable calamity which at this time befell theJews at Alexandria. Hereupon Cestius thought fit no longer to lie still, while the Jews were everywhere up in arms; so he took out of Antiochthe twelfth legion entire, and out of each of the rest he selected twothousand, with six cohorts of footmen, and four troops of horsemen, besides those auxiliaries which were sent by the kings; of whichAntiochus sent two thousand horsemen, and three thousand footmen, withas many archers; and Agrippa sent the same number of footmen, and onethousand horsemen; Sohemus also followed with four thousand, a thirdpart whereof were horsemen, but most part were archers, and thus didhe march to Ptolemais. There were also great numbers of auxiliariesgathered together from the [free] cities, who indeed had not the sameskill in martial affairs, but made up in their alacrity and in theirhatred to the Jews what they wanted in skill. There came also along withCestius 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 hisforces, and marched hastily to Zabulon, a strong city of Galilee, whichwas called the City of Men, and divides the country of Ptolemais fromour nation; this he found deserted by its men, the multitude having fledto the mountains, but full of all sorts of good things; those he gaveleave to the soldiers to plunder, and set fire to the city, although itwas of admirable beauty, and had its houses built like those in Tyre, and Sidon, and Berytus. After this he overran all the country, andseized upon whatsoever came in his way, and set fire to the villagesthat were round about them, and then returned to Ptolemais. But when theSyrians, and especially those of Berytus, were busy in plundering, the Jews pulled up their courage again, for they knew that Cestius wasretired, and fell upon those that were left behind unexpectedly, anddestroyed 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, thatif they could take that city [by surprise] they should keep it; but thatin 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. Sosome of them made a brisk march by the sea-side, and some by land, andso coming upon them on both sides, they took the city with ease; and asthe inhabitants had made no provision beforehand for a flight, nor hadgotten any thing ready for fighting, the soldiers fell upon them, andslew them all, with their families, and then plundered and burnt thecity. The number of the slain was eight thousand four hundred. Inlike manner, Cestius sent also a considerable body of horsemen to thetoparchy of Narbatene, that adjoined to Cesarea, who destroyed thecountry, and slew a great multitude of its people; they also plunderedwhat they had, and burnt their villages. 

11. But Cestius sent Gallus, the commander of the twelfth legion, intoGalilee, and delivered to him as many of his forces as he supposedsufficient to subdue that nation. He was received by the strongest cityof Galilee, which was Sepphoris, with acclamations of joy; which wiseconduct of that city occasioned the rest of the cities to be in quiet;while the seditious part and the robbers ran away to that mountainwhich lies in the very middle of Galilee, and is situated over againstSepphoris; it is called Asamon. So Gallus brought his forces againstthem; but while those men were in the superior parts above the Romans, they easily threw their darts upon the Romans, as they made theirapproaches, and slew about two hundred of them. But when the Romans hadgone round the mountains, and were gotten into the parts above theirenemies, the others were soon beaten; nor could they who had only lightarmor on sustain the force of them that fought them armed all over; norwhen they were beaten could they escape the enemies' horsemen; insomuchthat only some few concealed themselves in certain places hard to become at, among the mountains, while the rest, above two thousand innumber, 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 innovationin Galilee, returned with his army to Cesarea: but Cestius removed withhis whole army, and marched to Antipatris; and when he was informed thatthere was a great body of Jewish forces gotten together in a certaintower called Aphek, he sent a party before to fight them; but this partydispersed the Jews by affrighting them before it came to a battle: sothey came, and finding their camp deserted, they burnt it, as wellas the villages that lay about it. But when Cestius had marched fromAntipatris to Lydda, he found the city empty of its men, for the wholemultitude [28] were gone up to Jerusalem to the feast of tabernacles;yet did he destroy fifty of those that showed themselves, and burnt thecity, and so marched forwards; and ascending by Betboron, he pitchedhis camp at a certain place called Gabao, fifty furlongs distant fromJerusalem. 

2. But as for the Jews, when they saw the war approaching to theirmetropolis, they left the feast, and betook themselves to their arms;and taking courage greatly from their multitude, went in a sudden anddisorderly manner to the fight, with a great noise, and without anyconsideration had of the rest of the seventh day, although the Sabbath[29] was the day to which they had the greatest regard; but that ragewhich made them forget the religious observation [of the sabbath]made them too hard for their enemies in the fight: with such violencetherefore 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 theywent, insomuch that unless the horsemen, and such part of the footmen aswere not yet tired in the action, had wheeled round, and succored thatpart 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 wereslain, of which number four hundred were footmen, and the rest horsemen, while the Jews lost only twenty-two, of whom the most valiant were thekinsmen of Monobazus, king of Adiabene, and their names were Monobazusand Kenedeus; and next to them were Niger of Perea, and Silas ofBabylon, who had deserted from king Agrippa to the Jews; for he hadformerly served in his army. When the front of the Jewish army had beencut off, the Jews retired into the city; but still Simon, the son ofGiora, fell upon the backs of the Romans, as they were ascending upBethoron, and put the hindmost of the army into disorder, and carriedoff many of the beasts that carded the weapons of war, and led Shem intothe city. But as Cestius tarried there three days, the Jews seized uponthe elevated parts of the city, and set watches at the entrances intothe city, and appeared openly resolved not to rest when once the Romansshould begin to march. 

3. And now when Agrippa observed that even the affairs of the Romanswere likely to be in danger, while such an immense multitude of theirenemies had seized upon the mountains round about, he determined to trywhat the Jews would agree to by words, as thinking that he should eitherpersuade them all to desist from fighting, or, however, that he shouldcause the sober part of them to separate themselves from the oppositeparty. So he sent Borceus and Phebus, the persons of his party that werethe best known to them, and promised them that Cestius should give themhis right hand, to secure them of the Romans' entire forgiveness of whatthey had done amiss, if they would throw away their arms, and come overto them; but the seditious, fearing lest the whole multitude, inhopes of security to themselves, should go over to Agrippa, resolvedimmediately to fall upon and kill the ambassadors; accordingly theyslew Phebus before he said a word, but Borceus was only wounded, and soprevented his fate by flying away. And when the people were very angryat this, they had the seditious beaten with stones and clubs, and drovethem before them into the city. 

4. But now Cestius, observing that the disturbances that were begunamong the Jews afforded him a proper opportunity to attack them, tookhis whole army along with him, and put the Jews to flight, and pursuedthem to Jerusalem. He then pitched his camp upon the elevation calledScopus, [or watch-tower, ] which was distant seven furlongs fromthe city; yet did not he assault them in three days' time, out ofexpectation that those within might perhaps yield a little; and in themean time he sent out a great many of his soldiers into neighboringvillages, to seize upon their corn. And on the fourth day, which was thethirtieth of the month Hyperbereteus, [Tisri, ] when he had put his armyin array, he brought it into the city. Now for the people, they werekept under by the seditious; but the seditious themselves were greatlyaffrighted at the good order of the Romans, and retired from thesuburbs, and retreated into the inner part of the city, and into thetemple. But when Cestius was come into the city, he set the part calledBezetha, which is called Cenopolis, [or the new city, ] on fire; as hedid 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 atthis very time attempted to get within the walls by force, he had wonthe city presently, and the war had been put an end to at once; butTyrannius Priseus, the muster-master of the army, and a great number ofthe officers of the horse, had been corrupted by Florus, and divertedhim from that his attempt; and that was the occasion that this warlasted so very long, and thereby the Jews were involved in suchincurable calamities. 

5. In the mean time, many of the principal men of the city werepersuaded by Ananus, the son of Jonathan, and invited Cestius into thecity, and were about to open the gates for him; but he overlooked thisoffer, partly out of his anger at the Jews, and partly because he didnot thoroughly believe they were in earnest; whence it was that hedelayed 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 stoodthemselves at proper distances in the towers, and threw their darts atthose that were getting over the wall. Thus did the Romans make theirattack against the wall for five days, but to no purpose. But on thenext day Cestius took a great many of his choicest men, and with themthe archers, and attempted to break into the temple at the northernquarter of it; but the Jews beat them off from the cloisters, andrepulsed them several times when they were gotten near to the wall, tillat 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 werestill 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 underminedthe wall, without being themselves hurt, and got all things ready forsetting 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 betaken immediately; but the people upon this took courage, and where thewicked part of the city gave ground, thither did they come, in order toset open the gates, and to admit Cestius [30] as their benefactor, who, had he but continued the siege a little longer, had certainly taken thecity; but it was, I suppose, owing to the aversion God had already atthe city and the sanctuary, that he was hindered from putting an end tothe war that very day. 

7. It then happened that Cestius was not conscious either how thebesieged despaired of success, nor how courageous the people were forhim; and so he recalled his soldiers from the place, and by despairingof any expectation of taking it, without having received any disgrace, he retired from the city, without any reason in the world. But when therobbers perceived this unexpected retreat of his, they resumed theircourage, and ran after the hinder parts of his army, and destroyed aconsiderable number of both their horsemen and footmen; and now Cestiuslay all night at the camp which was at Scopus; and as he went offfarther next day, he thereby invited the enemy to follow him, who stillfell upon the hindmost, and destroyed them; they also fell upon theflank on each side of the army, and threw darts upon them obliquely, nor durst those that were hindmost turn back upon those who wounded thembehind, as imagining that the multitude of those that pursued them wasimmense; nor did they venture to drive away those that pressed upon themon each side, because they were heavy with their arms, and were afraidof breaking their ranks to pieces, and because they saw the Jews werelight, and ready for making incursions upon them. And this was thereason why the Romans suffered greatly, without being able to revengethemselves upon their enemies; so they were galled all the way, andtheir ranks were put into disorder, and those that were thus put out oftheir ranks were slain; among whom were Priscus, the commander of thesixth legion, and Longinus, the tribune, and Emilius Secundus, thecommander of a troop of horsemen. So it was not without difficulty thatthey got to Gabao, their former camp, and that not without the loss ofa great part of their baggage. There it was that Cestius staid twodays, and was in great distress to know what he should do in thesecircumstances; but when on the third day he saw a still much greaternumber of enemies, and all the parts round about him full of Jews, heunderstood that his delay was to his own detriment, and that if he staidany longer there, he should have still more enemies upon him. 

8. That therefore he might fly the faster, he gave orders to cast awaywhat might hinder his army's march; so they killed the mules and othercreatures, excepting those that carried their darts and machines, whichthey retained for their own use, and this principally because they wereafraid lest the Jews should seize upon them. He then made his army marchon as far as Bethoron. Now the Jews did not so much press upon them whenthey were in large open places; but when they were penned up in theirdescent through narrow passages, then did some of them get before, andhindered them from getting out of them; and others of them thrust thehinder-most down into the lower places; and the whole multitude extendedthemselves over against the neck of the passage, and covered the Romanarmy with their darts. In which circumstances, as the footmen knew nothow to defend themselves, so the danger pressed the horsemen still more, for they were so pelted, that they could not march along the road intheir ranks, and the ascents were so high, that the cavalry were notable to march against the enemy; the precipices also and valleys intowhich they frequently fell, and tumbled down, were such on each side ofthem, that there was neither place for their flight, nor any contrivancecould be thought of for their defense; till the distress they were atlast in was so great, that they betook themselves to lamentations, andto such mournful cries as men use in the utmost despair: the joyfulacclamations of the Jews also, as they encouraged one another, echoedthe sounds back again, these last composing a noise of those that atonce rejoiced and were in a rage. Indeed, things were come to such apass, that the Jews had almost taken Cestius's entire army prisoners, had not the night come on, when the Romans fled to Bethoron, and theJews seized upon all the places round about them, and watched for theircoming out [in the morning]. 

9. And then it was that Cestius, despairing of obtaining room for apublic march, contrived how he might best run away; and when he hadselected four hundred of the most courageous of his soldiers, he placedthem at the strongest of their fortifications, and gave order, that whenthey went up to the morning guard, they should erect their ensigns, thatthe 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 themorning, that the camp was empty, they ran upon those four hundred whohad deluded them, and immediately threw their darts at them, and slewthem; and then pursued after Cestius. But he had already made use of agreat part of the night in his flight, and still marched quicker when itwas day; insomuch that the soldiers, through the astonishment andfear they were in, left behind them their engines for sieges, and forthrowing of stones, and a great part of the instruments of war. So theJews went on pursuing the Romans as far as Antipatris; after which, seeing they could not overtake them, they came back, and took theengines, and spoiled the dead bodies, and gathered the prey togetherwhich the Romans had left behind them, and came back running and singingto their metropolis; while they had themselves lost a few only, but hadslain of the Romans five thousand and three hundred footmen, and threehundred and eighty horsemen. This defeat happened on the eighth day ofthe month Dius, [Marchesvan, ] in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero. 

CHAPTER 9. 

 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 eminentof the Jews swam away from the city, as from a ship when it was going tosink; Costobarus, therefore, and Saul, who were brethren, together withPhilip, the son of Jacimus, who was the commander of king Agrippa'sforces, ran away from the city, and went to Cestius. But then howAntipas, who had been besieged with them in the king's palace, but wouldnot fly away with them, was afterward slain by the seditious, we shallrelate hereafter. However, Cestius sent Saul and his friends, at theirown desire, to Achaia, to Nero, to inform him of the great distress theywere in, and to lay the blame of their kindling the war upon Florus, ashoping to alleviate his own danger, by provoking his indignation againstFlorus. 

2. In the mean time, the people of Damascus, when they were informedof the destruction of the Romans, set about the slaughter of those Jewsthat were among them; and as they had them already cooped up together inthe place of public exercises, which they had done out of the suspicionthey had of them, they thought they should meet with no difficulty inthe attempt; yet did they distrust their own wives, which were almostall of them addicted to the Jewish religion; on which account it wasthat their greatest concern was, how they might conceal these thingsfrom them; so they came upon the Jews, and cut their throats, as beingin a narrow place, in number ten thousand, and all of them unarmed, andthis in one hour's time, without any body to disturb them. 

3. But as to those who had pursued after Cestius, when they werereturned back to Jerusalem, they overbore some of those that favoredthe Romans by violence, and some them persuaded [by en-treaties] tojoin with them, and got together in great numbers in the temple, andappointed a great many generals for the war. Joseph also, the son ofGorion, [31] and Ananus the high priest, were chosen as governors ofall affairs within the city, and with a particular charge to repair thewalls of the city; for they did not ordain Eleazar the son of Simon tothat office, although he had gotten into his possession the prey theyhad taken from the Romans, and the money they had taken from Cestius, together with a great part of the public treasures, because they sawhe was of a tyrannical temper, and that his followers were, in theirbehavior, like guards about him. However, the want they were in ofEleazar's money, and the subtle tricks used by him, brought all soabout, that the people were circumvented, and submitted themselves tohis authority in all public affairs. 

4. They also chose other generals for Idumea; Jesus, the son ofSapphias, one of the high priests; and Eleazar, the son of Ananias, thehigh priest; they also enjoined Niger, the then governor of Idumea, [32] who was of a family that belonged to Perea, beyond Jordan, andwas thence called the Peraite, that he should be obedient to thosefore-named commanders. Nor did they neglect the care of other parts ofthe 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 ofThamna; Lydda was also added to his portion, and Joppa, and Emmaus. But John, the son of Matthias, was made governor of the toparchies ofGophnitica and Acrabattene; as was Josephus, the son of Matthias, ofboth the Galilees. Gamala also, which was the strongest city in thoseparts, was put under his command. 

5. So every one of the other commanders administered the affairs of hisportion with that alacrity and prudence they were masters of; but asto Josephus, when he came into Galilee, his first care was to gain thegood-will of the people of that country, as sensible that he shouldthereby have in general good success, although he should fail in otherpoints. And being conscious to himself that if he communicated part ofhis power to the great men, he should make them his fast friends; andthat he should gain the same favor from the multitude, if he executedhis commands by persons of their own country, and with whom they werewell acquainted; he chose out seventy of the most prudent men, and thoseelders in age, and appointed them to be rulers of all Galilee, as hechose seven judges in every city to hear the lesser quarrels; for as tothe greater causes, and those wherein life and death were concerned, heenjoined they should be brought to him and the seventy [33] elders. 

6. Josephus also, when he had settled these rules for determining causesby the law, with regard to the people's dealings one with another, betook himself to make provisions for their safety against externalviolence; and as he knew the Romans would fall upon Galilee, he builtwalls in proper places about Jotapata, and Bersabee, and Selamis; andbesides these, about Caphareccho, and Japha, and Sigo, and what theycall Mount Tabor, and Tarichee, and Tiberias. Moreover, he built wallsabout the caves near the lake of Gennesar, which places lay in the LowerGalilee; the same he did to the places of Upper Galilee, as well as tothe rock called the Rock of the Achabari, and to Seph, and Jamnith, andMeroth; and in Gaulonitis he fortified Seleucia, and Sogane, and Gamala;but as to those of Sepphoris, they were the only people to whom he gaveleave to build their own walls, and this because he perceived they wererich and wealthy, and ready to go to war, without standing in need ofany 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, butwith the consent of Josephus; but for the building of the rest of thefortresses, he labored together with all the other builders, and waspresent to give all the necessary orders for that purpose. He also gottogether an army out of Galilee, of more than a hundred thousand youngmen, all of which he armed with the old weapons which he had collectedtogether 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 exerciseof their arms, he despaired of teaching these his men the use of theirarms, which was to be obtained by experience; but observing thattheir readiness in obeying orders was owing to the multitude of theirofficers, he made his partitions in his army more after the Romanmanner, and appointed a great many subalterns. He also distributed thesoldiers into various classes, whom he put under captains of tens, andcaptains of hundreds, and then under captains of thousands; and besidesthese, he had commanders of larger bodies of men. He also taught them togive the signals one to another, and to call and recall the soldiers bythe trumpets, how to expand the wings of an army, and make them wheelabout; and when one wing hath had success, to turn again and assistthose that were hard set, and to join in the defense of what had mostsuffered. He also continually instructed them ill what concerned thecourage of the soul, and the hardiness of the body; and, above all, heexercised them for war, by declaring to them distinctly the good orderof the Romans, and that they were to fight with men who, both by thestrength of their bodies and courage of their souls, had conquered in amanner the whole habitable earth. He told them that he should make trialof the good order they would observe in war, even before it came to anybattle, in case they would abstain from the crimes they used toindulge themselves in, such as theft, and robbery, and rapine, and fromdefrauding their own countrymen, and never to esteem the harm doneto those that were so near of kin to them to be any advantage tothemselves; for that wars are then managed the best when the warriorspreserve a good conscience; but that such as are ill men in private lifewill not only have those for enemies which attack them, but God himselfalso for their antagonist. 

8. And thus did he continue to admonish them. Now he chose for the warsuch an army as was sufficient, i. E. Sixty thousand footmen, and twohundred and fifty horsemen; [34] and besides these, on which he put thegreatest trust, there were about four thousand five hundred mercenaries;he had also six hundred men as guards of his body. Now the cities easilymaintained the rest of his army, excepting the mercenaries, for everyone 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 forthem; insomuch that the one part went to the war, and the other part totheir work, and so those that sent out their corn were paid for it bythose 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 affairsof Galilee, there arose a treacherous person, a man of Gischala, the sonof Levi, whose name was John. His character was that of a very cunningand very knavish person, beyond the ordinary rate of the other menof eminence there, and for wicked practices he had not his fellowany where. Poor he was at first, and for a long time his wants were ahinderance to him in his wicked designs. He was a ready liar, and yetvery sharp in gaining credit to his fictions: he thought it a point ofvirtue to delude people, and would delude even such as were the dearestto him. He was a hypocritical pretender to humanity, but where he hadhopes of gain, he spared not the shedding of blood: his desires wereever carried to great things, and he encouraged his hopes from thosemean wicked tricks which he was the author of. He had a peculiar knackat thieving; but in some time he got certain companions in his impudentpractices; at first they were but few, but as he proceeded on in hisevil course, they became still more and more numerous. He took care thatnone of his partners should be easily caught in their rogueries, butchose such out of the rest as had the strongest constitutions of body, and the greatest courage of soul, together with great skill in martialaffairs; as he got together a band of four hundred men, who cameprincipally out of the country of Tyre, and were vagabonds that hadrun away from its villages; and by the means of these he laid wasteall Galilee, and irritated a considerable number, who were in greatexpectation of a war then suddenly to arise among them. 

2. However, John's want of money had hitherto restrained him in hisambition after command, and in his attempts to advance himself. But whenhe saw that Josephus was highly pleased with the activity of his temper, he persuaded him, in the first place, to intrust him with the repairingof the walls of his native city, [Gischala, ] in which work he got agreat deal of money from the rich citizens. He after that contrived avery shrewd trick, and pretending that the Jews who dwelt in Syria wereobliged to make use of oil that was made by others than those of theirown 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 offour Attic drachmae, and sold every half-amphora at the same price. Andas Galilee was very fruitful in oil, and was peculiarly so at that time, by sending away great quantities, and having the sole privilege soto do, he gathered an immense sum of money together, which money heimmediately used to the disadvantage of him who gave him that privilege;and, as he supposed, that if he could once overthrow Josephus, he shouldhimself obtain the government of Galilee; so he gave orders to therobbers that were under his command to be more zealous in their thievishexpeditions, that by the rise of many that desired innovations in thecountry, he might either catch their general in his snares, as he cameto the country's assistance, and then kill him; or if he should overlookthe robbers, he might accuse him for his negligence to the people of thecountry. He also spread abroad a report far and near that Josephus wasdelivering up the administration of affairs to the Romans; and many suchplots 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 wasAgrippa's and Bernice's steward, and took from him all that he had withhim; among which things there were a great many costly garments, and nosmall number of silver cups, and six hundred pieces of gold; yet werethey not able to conceal what they had stolen, but brought it all toJosephus, to Tarichee. Hereupon he blamed them for the violence they hadoffered to the king and queen, and deposited what they brought to himwith Eneas, the most potent man of Taricheae, with an intention ofsending the things back to the owners at a proper time; which act ofJosephus brought him into the greatest danger; for those that had stolenthe things had an indignation at him, both because they gained no shareof it for themselves, and because they perceived beforehand what wasJosephus's intention, and that he would freely deliver up what had costthem so much pains to the king and queen. These ran away by night totheir several villages, and declared to all men that Josephus was goingto betray them: they also raised great disorders in all the neighboringcities, insomuch that in the morning a hundred thousand armed men camerunning together; which multitude was crowded together in the hippodromeat Taricheae, and made a very peevish clamor against him; while somecried out, that they should depose the traitor; and others, that theyshould 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 thatJosephus's friends, and the guards of his body, were so affrighted atthis 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 toset fire to the house. And although those four that remained with himpersuaded him to run away, he was neither surprised at his being himselfdeserted, nor at the great multitude that came against him, but leapedout to them with his clothes rent, and ashes sprinkled on his head, withhis hands behind him, and his sword hanging at his neck. At this sighthis friends, especially those of Tarichae, 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 himproduce the money which belonged to them all immediately, and to confessthe agreement he had made to betray them; for they imagined, from thehabit in which he appeared, that he would deny nothing of what theysuspected concerning him, and that it was in order to obtain pardon thathe had put himself entirely into so pitiable a posture. But this humbleappearance was only designed as preparatory to a stratagem of his, whothereby contrived to set those that were so angry at him at variance onewith another about the things they were angry at. However, he promisedhe 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 itmyself; 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 myadvantage. But, O you people of Tariehete, I saw that your city stood inmore need than others of fortifications for your security, and that itwanted money in order for the building it a wall. I was also afraid lestthe people of Tiberias and other cities should lay a plot to seize uponthese spoils, and therefore it was that I intended to retain this moneyprivately, that I might encompass you with a wall. But if this does notplease you, I will produce what was brought me, and leave it to you toplunder 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 ofTiberias, with the rest of the company, gave him hard names, andthreatened what they would do to him; so both sides left off quarrellingwith Josephus, and fell on quarrelling with one another. So he grew boldupon the dependence he had on his friends, which were the people ofTaricheae, and about forty thousand in number, and spake more freely tothe whole multitude, and reproached them greatly for their rashness; andtold them, that with this money he would build walls about Taricheae, and would put the other cities in a state of security also; for thatthey should not want money, if they would but agree for whose benefit itwas to be procured, and would not suffer themselves to be irritatedagainst 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 anassault upon him in their armor; and as he was already gone to his ownhouse, they stood without and threatened him. On which occasion Josephusagain used a second stratagem to escape them; for he got upon the top ofhis house, and with his right hand desired them to be silent, and saidto 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 withall their demands, in case they would but send some of their numberin to him that might talk with him about it. And when the principal ofthem, with their leaders, heard this, they came into the house. He thendrew them to the most retired part of the house, and shut the door ofthat hall where he put them, and then had them whipped till every one oftheir inward parts appeared naked. In the mean time the multitude stoodround the house, and supposed that he had a long discourse with thosethat were gone in about what they claimed of him. He had then the doorsset open immediately, and sent the men out all bloody, which so terriblyaftrighted those that had before threatened him, that they threw awaytheir arms and ran away. 

6. But as for John, his envy grew greater [upon this escape ofJosephus], and he framed a new plot against him; he pretended to besick, and by a letter desired that Josephus would give him leave to usethe hot baths that were at Tiberias, for the recovery of his health. Hereupon Josephus, who hitherto suspected nothing of John's plotsagainst him, wrote to the governors of the city, that they would providea lodging and necessaries for John; which favors, when he had made useof, in two days' time he did what he came about; some he corrupted withdelusive frauds, and others with money, and so persuaded them to revoltfrom Josephus. This Silas, who was appointed guardian of the city byJosephus, wrote to him immediately, and informed him of the plot againsthim; which epistle when Josephus had received, he marched with greatdiligence all night, and came early in the morning to Tiberias; at whichtime the rest of the multitude met him. But John, who suspected that hiscoming was not for his advantage, sent however one of his friends, andpretended that he was sick, and that being confined to his bed, he couldnot come to pay him his respects. But as soon as Josephus had got thepeople of Tiberias together in the stadium, and tried to discourse withthem about the letters that he had received, John privately sent somearmed men, and gave them orders to slay him. But when the people sawthat the armed men were about to draw their swords, they cried out; atwhich cry Josephus turned himself about, and when he saw that theswords were just at his throat, he marched away in great haste to thesea-shore, and left off that speech which he was going to make to thepeople, upon an elevation of six cubits high. He then seized on a shipwhich lay in the haven, and leaped into it, with two of his guards, andfled 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 civilwar should be raised by the envy of a few men, and bring the city toruin; so he sent some of his party to tell them, that they should do nomore than provide for their own safety; that they should not kill anybody, nor accuse any for the occasion they had afforded [of disorder]. Accordingly, these men obeyed his orders, and were quiet; but the peopleof the neighboring country, when they were informed of this plot, and ofthe plotter, they got together in great multitudes to oppose John. Buthe prevented their attempt, and fled away to Gischala, his nativecity, while the Galileans came running out of their several cities toJosephus; and as they were now become many ten thousands of armed men, they cried out, that they were come against John the common plotteragainst their interest, and would at the same time burn him, and thatcity which had received him. Hereupon Josephus told them that he tooktheir good-will to him kindly, but still he restrained their fury, and intended to subdue his enemies by prudent conduct, rather than byslaying them; so he excepted those of every city which had joined inthis revolt with John, by name, who had readily been shown him by thesethat came from every city, and caused public proclamation to be made, that he would seize upon the effects of those that did not forsakeJohn within five days' time, and would burn both their houses and theirfamilies with fire. Whereupon three thousand of John's party left himimmediately, who came to Josephus, and threw their arms down at hisfeet. John then betook himself, together with his two thousand Syrianrunagates, from open attempts, to more secret ways of treachery. Accordingly, he privately sent messengers to Jerusalem, to accuseJosephus, as having to great power, and to let them know that he wouldsoon come as a tyrant to their metropolis, unless they prevented him. This accusation the people were aware of beforehand, but had no regardto it. However, some of the grandees, out of envy, and some of therulers also, sent money to John privately, that he might be able to gettogether mercenary soldiers, in order to fight Josephus; they also madea decree of themselves, and this for recalling him from his government, yet did they not think that decree sufficient; so they sent withal twothousand five hundred armed men, and four persons of the highest rankamongst 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 inspeaking, that these persons might withdraw the good-will of the peoplefrom Josephus. These had it in charge, that if he would voluntarilycome away, they should permit him to [come and] give an account ofhis conduct; but if he obstinately insisted upon continuing in hisgovernment, they should treat him as an enemy. Now Josephus's friendshad sent him word that an army was coming against him, but they gavehim no notice beforehand what the reason of their coming was, that beingonly known among some secret councils of his enemies; and by this meansit was that four cities revolted from him immediately, Sepphoris, andGamala, and Gischala, and Tiberias. Yet did he recover these citieswithout war; and when he had routed those four commanders by stratagems, and had taken the most potent of their warriors, he sent them toJerusalem; and the people [of Galilee] had great indignation at them, and were in a zealous disposition to slay, not only these forces, butthose that sent them also, had not these forces prevented it by runningaway. 

8. Now John was detained afterward within the walls of Gischala, bythe fear he was in of Josephus; but within a few days Tiberias revoltedagain, the people within it inviting king Agrippa [to return to theexercise of his authority there]. And when he did not come at thetime appointed, and when a few Roman horsemen appeared that day, they expelled Josephus out of the city. Now this revolt of theirs waspresently known at Taricheae; and as Josephus had sent out all thesoldiers that were with him to gather corn, he knew not how either tomarch out alone against the revolters, or to stay where he was, becausehe was afraid the king's soldiers might prevent him if he tarried, andmight get into the city; for he did not intend to do any thing onthe next day, because it was the sabbath day, and would hinder hisproceeding. 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 itwas intended, what stratagem he was about; he then got together all theships that were upon the lake, which were found to be two hundred andthirty, and in each of them he put no more than four mariners. So hesailed to Tiberias with haste, and kept at such a distance from thecity, that it was not easy for the people to see the vessels, andordered that the empty vessels should float up and down there, whilehimself, who had but seven of his guards with him, and those unarmedalso, went so near as to be seen; but when his adversaries, who werestill reproaching him, saw him from the walls, they were so astonishedthat they supposed all the ships were full of armed men, and threw downtheir arms, and by signals of intercession they besought him to sparethe city. 

9. Upon this Josephus threatened them terribly, and reproached them, that when they were the first that took up arms against the Romans, theyshould spend their force beforehand in civil dissensions, and do whattheir enemies desired above all things; and that besides they shouldendeavor so hastily to seize upon him, who took care of their safety, and had not been ashamed to shut the gates of their city againsthim that built their walls; that, however, he would admit of anyintercessors from them that might make some excuse for them, and withwhom 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 himpresently; and when he had taken them into one of his vessels, heordered them to be carried a great way off from the city. He thencommanded that fifty others of their senate, such as were men of thegreatest eminence, should come to him, that they also might give himsome security on their behalf. After which, under one new pretense oranother, he called forth others, one after another, to make the leaguesbetween them. He then gave order to the masters of those vessels whichhe had thus filled to sail away immediately for Taricheae, and toconfine those men in the prison there; till at length he took all theirsenate, consisting of six hundred persons, and about two thousand of thepopulace, and carried them away to Taricheae. [35]

10. And when the rest of the people cried out, that it was one Clitusthat was the chief author of this revolt, they desired him to spendhis anger upon him [only]; but Josephus, whose intention it was to slaynobody, commanded one Levius, belonging to his guards, to go out of thevessel, in order to cut off both Clitus's hands; yet was Levius afraidto go out by himself alone to such a large body of enemies, and refusedto 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 hishands; which Josephus agreed to, upon condition that he would himselfcutoff the other hand; accordingly he drew his sword, and with hisright hand cut off his left, so great was the fear he was in ofJosephus 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 revoltedwith the people of Sepphoris, and gave his soldiers leave to plunderit; yet did he get all the plunder together, and restored it to theinhabitants; and the like he did to the inhabitants of Sepphoris andTiberias. For when he had subdued those cities, he had a mind, byletting them be plundered, to give them some good instruction, while atthe same time he regained their good-will by restoring them their moneyagain. 

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 theirceasing to prosecute their civil dissensions, they betook themselves tomake preparations for the war with the Romans. Now in Jerusalem the highpriest Artanus, and do as many of the men of power as were not in theinterest of the Romans, both repaired the walls, and made a great manywarlike instruments, insomuch that in all parts of the city darts andall sorts of armor were upon the anvil. Although the multitude of theyoung men were engaged in exercises, without any regularity, and allplaces were full of tumultuous doings; yet the moderate sort wereexceedingly sad; and a great many there were who, out of the prospectthey had of the calamities that were coming upon them, made greatlamentations. There were also such omens observed as were understood tobe forerunners of evils by such as loved peace, but were by those thatkindled the war interpreted so as to suit their own inclinations; andthe very state of the city, even before the Romans came against it, wasthat of a place doomed to destruction. However, Ananus's concern wasthis, to lay aside, for a while, the preparations for the war, and topersuade the seditious to consult their own interest, and to restrainthe madness of those that had the name of zealots; but their violencewas 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 agreat number of those that were fond of innovations together, and betookhimself to ravage the country; nor did he only harass the rich men'shouses, but tormented their bodies, and appeared openly and beforehandto affect tyranny in his government. And when an army was sent againsthim by Artanus, and the other rulers, he and his band retired to therobbers that were at Masada, and staid there, and plundered the countryof Idumea with them, till both Ananus and his other adversaries wereslain; and until the rulers of that country were so afflicted with themultitude of those that were slain, and with the continual ravage ofwhat they had, that they raised an army, and put garrisons into thevillages, to secure them from those insults. And in this state were theaffairs of Judea at that time. 

WAR BOOK 2 FOOTNOTES

[1] Hear Dean Aldrich's note on this place: "The law or Custom of theJews [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 thedead, and, ch. 38:17, enjoins men to mourn for the dead, that they maynot be evil spoken of; for, as Josephus says presently, if any one omitsthis mourning [funeral feast], he is not esteemed a holy person. Howit is certain that such a seven days' mourning has been customary fromtimes of the greatest antiquity, Genesis 1:10. Funeral feasts are alsomentioned 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] This holding a council in the temple of Apollo, in the emperor'spalace at Rome, by Augustus, and even the building of this templemagnificently by himself in that palace, are exactly agreeable toAugustus, in his elder years, as Aldrich and from Suttonius andPropertius. 

[3] Here we have a strong confirmation that it was Xerxes, and notArtaxerxes, under whom the main part of the Jews returned out of theBabylonian captivity, i. E. In the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The samething is in the Antiquities, B. XI. Ch. 6

[4] This practice of the Essens, in refusing to swear, and esteemingswearing in ordinary occasions worse than perjury, is delivered here ingeneral words, as are the parallel injunctions of our Savior, Matthew6:34; 23:16; and of St. James, 5:12; but all admit of particularexceptions for solemn causes, and on great and necessary occasions. Thusthese very Essens, who here do so zealously avoid swearing, are related, in the very next section, to admit none till they take tremendous oathsto perform their several duties to God, and to their neighbor, withoutsupposing they thereby break this rule, Not to swear at all. The caseis the same in Christianity, as we learn from the ApostolicalConstitutions, which although they agree with Christ and St. James, inforbidding to swear in general, ch. 5:12; 6:2, 3; yet do they explain itelsewhere, 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 abundantlyexplain to us the nature of the measures of this general injunction. 

[5] This mention of the "names of angels, " so particularly preservedby the Essens, [if it means more than those "messengers" which wereemployed to bring, them the peculiar books of their Sect, ] looks likea prelude to that "worshipping of angels, " blamed by St. Paul, assuperstitious and unlawful, in some such sort of people as these Essenswere, Colossians 2:8; as is the prayer to or towards the sun for hisrising every morning, mentioned before, sect. 5, very like those notmuch later observances made mention of in the preaching of Peter, Authent. Rec. Part II. P. 669, and regarding a kind of worship ofangels, of the month, and of the moon, and not celebrating the newmoons, or other festivals, unless the moon appeared. Which, indeed, seems to me the earliest mention of any regard to the phases in fixingthe Jewish calendar, of which the Talmud and later Rabbins talk so much, and upon so very little ancient foundation. 

[6] Of these Jewish or Essene [and indeed Christian] doctrinesconcerning souls, both good and bad, in Hades, see that excellentdiscourse, or homily, of our Josephus concerning Hades, at the end ofthe volume. 

[7] Dean Aldrich reckons up three examples of this gift of prophecy inseveral of these Essens out of Josephus himself, viz. In the History ofthe War, B. I. Ch. 3. Sect. 5, Judas foretold the death of Antigonusat Strato's Tower; B. II. Ch. 7. Sect. 3, Simon foretold that Archelausshould reign but nine or ten years; and Antiq. B. XV. Ch. 10. Sect. 4, 5, Menuhem foretold that Herod should be king, and should reigntyrannically, and that for more than twenty or even thirty years. Allwhich came to pass accordingly. 

[8] There is so much more here about the Essens than is cited fromJosephus in Porphyry and Eusebius, and yet so much less about thePharisees and Sadducees, the two other Jewish sects, than wouldnaturally be expected in proportion to the Essens or third sect, nay, than seems to be referred to by himself elsewhere, that one is temptedto suppose Josephus had at first written less of the one, and more ofthe two others, than his present copies afford us; as also, that, bysome unknown accident, our present copies are here made up of the largeredition in the first case, and of the smaller in the second. See thenote in Havercamp's edition. However, what Josephus says in the name ofthe Pharisees, that only the souls of good men go out of one body intoanother, although all souls be immortal, and still the souls of thebad 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, andthat under the earth they receive rewards or punishments according astheir lives have been virtuous or vicious in the present world; that tothe bad is allotted an eternal prison, but that the good are permittedto live again in this world; are nearly agreeable to the doctrines ofChristianity. Only Josephus's rejection of the return of the wicked intoother bodies, or into this world, which he grants to the good, lookssomewhat like a contradiction to St. Paul's account of the doctrineof the Jews, that they "themselves allowed that there should be aresurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust, " Acts 24:15. Yetbecause Josephus's account is that of the Pharisees, and St. Patti'sthat of the Jews in general, and of himself the contradiction is notvery certain. 

[9] 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 tothe common copies, though declared worth little remark by the editor;which, upon the mention of Tiberius's coming to the empire, insertsfirst the famous testimony of Josephus concerning Jesus Christ, as itstands verbatim in the Antiquities, B. XVIII. Ch. 3. Sect. 3, withsome parts of that excellent discourse or homily of Josephus concerningHades, annexed to the work. But what is here principally to be notedis 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 nicelyor particularly. "

[10] This use of corban, or oblation, as here applied to the sacredmoney dedicated to God in the treasury of the temple, illustrates ourSavior's words, Mark 7:11, 12. 

[11] Tacitus owns that Caius commanded the Jews to place his effigies intheir temple, though he be mistaken when he adds that the Jews thereupontook arms. 

[12] This account of a place near the mouth of the river Belus inPhoenicia, whence came that sand out of which the ancients made theirglass, is a known thing in history, particularly in Tacitus and Strabo, and more largely in Pliny. 

[13] This Memnon had several monuments, and one of them appears, both byStrabo and Diodorus, to have been in Syria, and not improbably in thisvery place. 

[14] Reland notes here, that the Talmud in recounting ten sad accidentsfor which the Jews ought to rend their garments, reckons this for one, "When they hear that the law of God is burnt. "

[15] This Ummidius, or Numidius, or, as Tacitus calls him, VinidiusQuadratus, is mentioned in an ancient inscription, still preserved, asSpanhelm here informs us, which calls him Urnmidius Quadratus. 

[16] Take the character of this Felix [who is well known from theActs of the Apostles, particularly from his trembling when St. Pauldiscoursed of "righteousness, chastity, and judgment to come, "] Acts24:5; and no wonder, when we have elsewhere seen that he lived inadultery with Drusilla, another man's wife, [Antiq. B. XX. Ch. 7. Sect. 1] in the words of Tacitus, produced here by Dean Aldrich: "Felixexercised, " says Tacitas, "the authority of a king, with the dispositionof a slave, and relying upon the great power of his brother Pallasat court, thought he might safely be guilty of all kinds of wickedpractices. " 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 havebeen "many years a judge unto that nation, " as St. Paul says he hadthen been, Acts 24:10. But as to what Tacitus here says, that before thedeath of Cumanus, Felix was procurator over Samaria only, does not wellagree with St. Paul's words, who would hardly have called Samaria aJewish nation. In short, since what Tacitus here says is about countriesvery remote from Rome, where he lived; since what he says of two Romanprocurators, the one over Galilee, the other over Samaria at the sametime, is without example elsewhere; and since Josephus, who livedat that very time in Judea, appears to have known nothing of thisprocuratorship of Felix, before the death of Cureanus; I much suspectthe story itself as nothing better than a mistake of Tacitus, especiallywhen it seems not only omitted, but contradicted by Josephus; as any onemay find that compares their histories together. Possibly Felix mighthave been a subordinate judge among the Jews some time before underCureanus, but that he was in earnest a procurator of Samaria before Ido not believe. Bishop Pearson, as well as Bishop Lloyd, quote thisaccount, but with a doubtful clause: confides Tacito, "If we may believeTacitus. " Pears. Anhal. Paulin. P. 8; Marshall's Tables, at A. D. 49. 

[17] i. E. Herod king of Chalcis. 

[18] Not long after this beginning of Florus, the wickedest of all theRoman procurators of Judea, and the immediate occasion of the Jewishwar, at the twelfth year of Nero, and the seventeenth of Agrippa, orA. D. 66, the history in the twenty books of Josephus's Antiquities ends, although Josephus did not finish these books till the thirteenth ofDomitian, or A. D. 93, twenty-seven years afterward; as he did not finishtheir Appendix, containing an account of his own life, till Agrippa wasdead, which happened in the third year of Trajan, or A. D. 100, as Ihave several times observed before. 

[19] Here we may note, that three millions of the Jews were present atthe passover, A. D. 65; which confirms what Josephus elsewhere informsus of, that at a passover a little later they counted two hundred andfifty-six thousand five hundred paschal lambs, which, at twelve to eachlamb, which is no immoderate calculation, come to three millions andseventy-eight thousand. See B. VI. Ch. 9. Sect. 3. 

[20] Take here Dr. Hudson's very pertinent note. "By this action, " sayshe, "the killing of a bird over an earthen vessel, the Jews were exposedas a leprous people; for that was to be done by the law in the cleansingof a leper, Leviticus 14. It is also known that the Gentiles reproachedthe Jews as subject to the leprosy, and believed that they were drivenout of Egypt on that account. This that eminent person Mr. Relandsuggested to me. "

[21] Here we have examples of native Jews who were of the equestrianorder among the Romans, and so ought never to have been whipped orcrucified, according to the Roman laws. See almost the like case in St. Paul himself, Acts 22:25-29. 

[22] This vow which Bernice [here and elsewhere called queen, not onlyas daughter and sister to two kings, Agrippa the Great, and Agrippajunior, but the widow of Herod king of Chalcis] came now to accomplishat Jerusalem was not that of a Nazarite, but such a one as religiousJews used to make, in hopes of any deliverance from a disease, or otherdanger, as Josephus here intimates. However, these thirty days' abode atJerusalem, for fasting and preparation against the oblation of a propersacrifice, seems to be too long, unless it were wholly voluntary inthis great lady. It is not required in the law of Moses relating toNazarites, Numbers 6. , and is very different from St. Paul's time forsuch preparation, which was but one day, Acts 21:26. So we want alreadythe continuation of the Antiquities to afford us light here, as theyhave hitherto done on so many occasions elsewhere. Perhaps in this agethe traditions of the Pharisees had obliged the Jews to this degreeof rigor, not only as to these thirty days' preparation, but as to thegoing barefoot all that time, which here Bernice submitted to also. Forwe know that as God's and our Savior's yoke is usually easy, and hisburden 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 touchthem with one of their fingers, " Matthew 23:4; Luke 11:46. However, Noldius well observes, De Herod. No. 404, 414, that Juvenal, in hissixth satire, alludes to this remarkable penance or submission of thisBernice to Jewish discipline, and jests upon her for it; as do Tacitus, Dio, Suetonius, and Sextus Aurelius mention her as one well known atRome. --Ibid. 

[23] I take this Bezetha to be that small hill adjoining to the northside of the temple, whereon was the hospital with five porticoes orcloisters, and beneath which was the sheep pool of Bethesda; into whichan angel or messenger, at a certain season, descended, and where he orthey 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 thesame pool at this day; only the remaining cloisters are but three. SeeMaundrel, p. 106. The entire buildings seem to have been called theNew City, and this part, where was the hospital, peculiarly Bezetha orBethesda. See ch. 19. Sect. 4. 

[24] In this speech of king Agrippa we have an authentic account of theextent and strength of the Roman empire when the Jewish war began. Andthis speech with other circumstances in Josephus, demonstrate how wiseand how great a person Agrippa was, and why Josephus elsewhere callshim a most wonderful or admirable man, Contr. Ap. I. 9. He is the sameAgrippa 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 customsand questions of the Jews, " yet. 3. See another intimation of the limitsof the same Roman empire, Of the War, B. III. Ch. 5. Sect. 7. Butwhat seems to me very remarkable here is this, that when Josephus, in imitation of the Greeks and Romans, for whose use he wrote hisAntiquities, did himself frequently he into their they appear, by thepoliteness of their composition, and their flights of oratory, to be notthe real speeches of the persons concerned, who usually were no orators, but of his own elegant composure, the speech before us is of anothernature, 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 tohave been given Josephus by Agrippa himself, with whom Josephus had thegreatest friendship. Nor may we omit Agrippa's constant doctrinehere, that this vast Roman empire was raised and supported by DivineProvidence, and that therefore it was in vain for the Jews, or anyothers, to think of destroying it. Nor may we neglect to take noticeof Agrippa's solemn appeal to the angels here used; the like appealsto which we have in St. Paul, 1 Timothy 5:22, and by the apostles ingeneral, in the form of the ordination of bishops, Constitut. Apost. VIII. 4. 

[25] Julius Caesar had decreed that the Jews of Jerusalem should payan annual tribute to the Romans, excepting the city Joppa, and for thesabbatical year; as Spanheim observes from the Antiq. B. XIV. Ch. 10. Sect. 6. 

[26] Of this Sohemus we have mention made by Tacitus. We also learn fromDio that his father was king of the Arabians of Iturea, [which Iturea ismentioned by St. Luke, ch. 3:1. ] both whose testimonies are quoted hereby Dr. Hudson. See Noldius, No. 371. 

[27] Spanheim notes on the place, that this later Antiochus, who wascalled Epiphaues, is mentioned by Dio, LIX. P. 645, and that he ismentioned by Josephus elsewhere twice also, B. V. Ch. 11. Sect. 3; andAntiq. B. XIX. Ch. 8. Sect. I. 

[28] 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 formuch the greatest part only; but not so as to include every person, without exception; for when Josephus had said that "the whole multitude"[all the males] of Lydda were gone to the feast of tabernacles, heimmediately adds, that, however, no fewer than fifty of them appeared, and were slain by the Romans. Other examples somewhat like this I haveobserved elsewhere in Josephus, but, as I think, none so remarkable asthis. See Wall's Critical Observations on the Old Testament, p. 49, 50. 

[29] We have also, in this and the next section, two eminent facts to beobserved, viz. The first example, that I remember, in Josephus, of theonset of the Jews' enemies upon their country when their males were goneup to Jerusalem to one of their three sacred festivals; which, duringthe theocracy, God had promised to preserve them from, Exodus 34:24. Thesecond fact is this, the breach of the sabbath by the seditions Jews inan offensive fight, contrary to the universal doctrine and practice oftheir nation in these ages, and even contrary to what they themselvesafterward practiced in the rest of this war. See the note on Antiq. B. XVI. Ch. 2. Sect. 4. 

[30] There may another very important, and very providential, reason behere assigned for this strange and foolish retreat of Cestius; which, ifJosephus had been now a Christian, he might probably have taken noticeof also; and that is, the affording the Jewish Christians in the city anopportunity of calling to mind the prediction and caution given themby Christ about thirty-three years and a half before, that "when theyshould see the abomination of desolation" [the idolatrous Roman armies, with the images of their idols in their ensigns, ready to lay Jerusalemdesolate] "stand where it ought not;" or, "in the holy place;" or, "whenthey should see Jerusalem any one instance of a more unpolitic, butmore providential, compassed with armies;" they should then "flee tothe mound conduct than this retreat of Cestius visible during this wholerains. " By complying with which those Jewish Christians fled I siege ofJerusalem; which yet was providentially such a "great to the mountainsof Perea, and escaped this destruction. See tribulation, as had notbeen from the beginning of the world to that time; no, Lit. Accompl. OfProph. P. 69, 70. Nor was there, perhaps, nor ever should be. "--Ibid. P. 70, 71. 

[31] From this name of Joseph the son of Gorion, or Gorion the son ofJoseph, as B. IV. Ch. 3. Sect. 9, one of the governors of Jerusalem, whowas 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 takeshis 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] We may observe here, that the Idumeans, as having been proselytesof justice since the days of John Hyrcanus, during about one hundred andninety-five years, were now esteemed as part of the Jewish nation, andthese provided of a Jewish commander accordingly. See the note uponAntiq. B. XIII. . Ch. 9. Sect. 1. 

[33] We see here, and in Josephus's account of his own life, sect. 14, how exactly he imitated his legislator Moses, or perhaps only obeyedwhat he took to be his perpetual law, in appointing seven lesser judges, for smaller causes, in particular cities, and perhaps for the firsthearing of greater causes, with the liberty of an appeal to seventy-onesupreme judges, especially in those causes where life and death wereconcerned; 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 anddistribution of the subaltern officers of his army, as Exodus 18:25;Deuteronomy 1:15; and in his charge against the offenses common amongsoldiers, as Denteronomy 13:9; in all which he showed his great wisdomand piety, and skillful conduct in martial affairs. Yet may we discernin 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, bishopof Jerusalem, to be stoned, under Albinus the procurator, that whenhe wrote these books of the War, he was not so much as an EbioniteChristian; otherwise he would not have failed, according to his usualcustom, to have reckoned this his barbarous murder as a just punishmentupon him for that his cruelty to the chief, or rather only Christianbishop of the circumcision. Nor, had he been then a Christian, could heimmediately have spoken so movingly of the causes of the destructionof Jerusalem, without one word of either the condemnation of James, or crucifixion of Christ, as he did when he was become a Christianafterward. 

[34] I should think that an army of sixty thousand footmen shouldrequire many more than two hundred and fifty horsemen; and we findJosephus had more horsemen under his command than two hundred and fiftyin his future history. I suppose the number of the thousands is droppedin our present copies. 

[35] I cannot but think this stratagem of Josephus, which is relatedboth here and in his Life, sect. 32, 33, to be one of the finest thatever 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, aconcealed consternation and terror, as is usual in such cases, fell uponhim; although he openly looked very big, and was very angry, andsaid that what had happened was rather owing to the negligence of thecommander, than to any valor of the enemy: and as he thought it fitfor him, who bare the burden of the whole empire, to despise suchmisfortunes, he now pretended so to do, and to have a soul superior toall such sad accidents whatsoever. Yet did the disturbance that was inhis soul plainly appear by the solicitude he was in [how to recover hisaffairs again]. 

2. And as he was deliberating to whom he should committhe care of the East, now it was in so great a commotion, and who mightbe best able to punish the Jews for their rebellion, and might preventthe same distemper from seizing upon the neighboring nations also, --hefound no one but Vespasian equal to the task, and able to undergothe great burden of so mighty a war, seeing he was growing an old manalready in the camp, and from his youth had been exercised in warlikeexploits: he was also a man that had long ago pacified the west, andmade it subject to the Romans, when it had been put into disorder by theGermans; he had also recovered to them Britain by his arms, which hadbeen little known before [1] whereby he procured to his father Claudiusto 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 thatVespasian's age gave him sure experience, and great skill, and thathe had his sons as hostages for his fidelity to himself, and that theflourishing age they were in would make them fit instruments undertheir father's prudence. Perhaps also there was some interpositionof Providence, which was paving the way for Vespasian's being himselfemperor afterwards. Upon the whole, he sent this man to take upon himthe command of the armies that were in Syria; but this not without greatencomiums and flattering compellations, such as necessity required, andsuch as might mollify him into complaisance. So Vespasian sent his sonTitus from Achaia, where he had been with Nero, to Alexandria, to bringback with him from thence the fifth and the tenth legions, while hehimself, when he had passed over the Hellespont, came by land intoSyria, where he gathered together the Roman forces, with a considerablenumber 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 elevatedwith their unexpected success, that they could not govern their zeal, but, like people blown up into a flame by their good fortune, carriedthe war to remoter places. Accordingly, they presently got together agreat multitude of all their most hardy soldiers, and marched away forAscalon. This is an ancient city that is distant from Jerusalem fivehundred and twenty furlongs, and was always an enemy to the Jews; onwhich account they determined to make their first effort against it, andto make their approaches to it as near as possible. This excursion wasled on by three men, who were the chief of them all, both for strengthand sagacity; Niger, called the Persite, Silas of Babylon, and besidesthem John the Essene. Now Ascalon was strongly walled about, but hadalmost no assistance to be relied on [near them], for the garrisonconsisted of one cohort of footmen, and one troop of horsemen, whosecaptain was Antonius. 

2. These Jews, therefore, out of their anger, marched faster thanordinary, and, as if they had come but a little way, approached verynear the city, and were come even to it; but Antonius, who was notunapprized of the attack they were going to make upon the city, drew outhis horsemen beforehand, and being neither daunted at the multitude, nor at the courage of the enemy, received their first attacks with greatbravery; and when they crowded to the very walls, he beat them off. Nowthe Jews were unskillful in war, but were to fight with those who wereskillful therein; they were footmen to fight with horsemen; they werein disorder, to fight those that were united together; they were poorlyarmed, to fight those that were completely so; they were to fight moreby their rage than by sober counsel, and were exposed to soldiers thatwere exactly obedient; and did every thing they were bidden upon theleast intimation. So they were easily beaten; for as soon as evertheir first ranks were once in disorder, they were put to flight by theenemy's cavalry, and those of them that came behind such as crowded tothe wall fell upon their own party's weapons, and became one another'senemies; and this so long till they were all forced to give way to theattacks of the horsemen, and were dispersed all the plain over, whichplain was wide, and all fit for the horsemen; which circumstance wasvery commodious for the Romans, and occasioned the slaughter of thegreatest number of the Jews; for such as ran away, they could overrunthem, and make them turn back; and when they had brought them back aftertheir flight, and driven them together, they ran them through, and slewa vast number of them, insomuch that others encompassed others of them, and drove them before them whithersoever they turned themselves, andslew them easily with their arrows; and the great number there were ofthe Jews seemed a solitude to themselves, by reason of the distress theywere in, while the Romans had such good success with their small number, that they seemed to themselves to be the greater multitude. And as theformer strove zealously under their misfortunes, out of the shame ofa sudden flight, and hopes of the change in their success, so did thelatter feel no weariness by reason of their good fortune; insomuch thatthe fight lasted till the evening, till ten thousand men of the Jews'side lay dead, with two of their generals, John and Silas, and thegreater part of the remainder were wounded, with Niger, their remaininggeneral, who fled away together to a small city of Idumea, calledSallis. 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 forother attempts; for, overlooking the dead bodies which lay under theirfeet, they were enticed by their former glorious actions to venture ona second destruction; so when they had lain still so little a while thattheir wounds were not yet thoroughly cured, they got together all theirforces, and came with greater fury, and in much greater numbers, toAscalon. But their former ill fortune followed them, as the consequenceof their unskilfulness, and other deficiencies in war; for Antonius laidambushes for them in the passages they were to go through, where theyfell into snares unexpectedly, and where they were encompassed aboutwith horsemen, before they could form themselves into a regular body forfighting, and were above eight thousand of them slain; so all the restof them ran away, and with them Niger, who still did a great many boldexploits in his flight. However, they were driven along together by theenemy, who pressed hard upon them, into a certain strong tower belongingto a village called Bezedeh However, Antonius and his party, that theymight neither spend any considerable time about this tower, which washard to be taken, nor suffer their commander, and the most courageousman of them all, to escape from them, they set the wall on fire; and asthe tower was burning, the Romans went away rejoicing, as taking it forgranted that Niger was destroyed; but he leaped out of the tower into asubterraneous cave, in the innermost part of it, and was preserved; andon the third day afterward he spake out of the ground to those that withgreat lamentation were searching for him, in order to give him a decentfuneral; and when he was come out, he filled all the Jews with anunexpected joy, as though he were preserved by God's providence to betheir commander for the time to come. 

4. And now Vespasian took along with him his army from Antioch, [whichis the metropolis of Syria, and without dispute deserves the place ofthe third city in the habitable earth that was under the Roman empire, [2] both in magnitude, and other marks of prosperity, ] where he foundking Agrippa, with all his forces, waiting for his coming, and marchedto Ptolemais. At this city also the inhabitants of Sepphoris ofGalilee met him, who were for peace with the Romans. These citizens hadbeforehand taken care of their own safety, and being sensible of thepower of the Romans, they had been with Cestius Gallus before Vespasiancame, and had given their faith to him, and received the security of hisright hand, and had received a Roman garrison; and at this time withalthey received Vespasian, the Roman general, very kindly, and readilypromised that they would assist him against their own countrymen. Now the general delivered them, at their desire, as many horsemen andfootmen as he thought sufficient to oppose the incursions of the Jews, if they should come against them. And indeed the danger of losingSepphoris 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 bynature very strong, and might be a security of the whole nation's[fidelity to the Romans]. 

CHAPTER 3. 

 A Description Op 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 thesun-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 weredismissed by Herod the king dwelt therein; they are bounded on the southwith Samaria and Scythopolis, as far as the river Jordan; on the eastwith Hippeae and Gadaris, and also with Ganlonitis, and the borders ofthe kingdom of Agrippa; its northern parts are hounded by Tyre, and thecountry of the Tyrians. As for that Galilee which is called the Lower, it, extends in length from Tiberias to Zabulon, and of the maritimeplaces Ptolemais is its neighbor; its breadth is from the village calledXaloth, which lies in the great plain, as far as Bersabe, from whichbeginning also is taken the breadth of the Upper Galilee, as far as thevillage Baca, which divides the land of the Tyrians from it; its lengthis also from Meloth to Thella, a village near to Jordan. 

2. These two Galilees, of so great largeness, and encompassed withso many nations of foreigners, have been always able to make a strongresistance on all occasions of war; for the Galileans are inured to warfrom their infancy, and have been always very numerous; nor hath thecountry been ever destitute of men of courage, or wanted a numerous setof them; for their soil is universally rich and fruitful, and full ofthe plantations of trees of all sorts, insomuch that it invites themost slothful to take pains in its cultivation, by its fruitfulness;accordingly, it is all cultivated by its inhabitants, and no part of itlies idle. Moreover, the cities lie here very thick, and the verymany villages there are here are every where so full of people, bythe richness of their soil, that the very least of them contain abovefifteen thousand inhabitants. 

3. In short, if any one will suppose that Galilee is inferior to Pereain 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; butfor Perea, which is indeed much larger in extent, the greater part ofit is desert and rough, and much less disposed for the production of themilder kinds of fruits; yet hath it a moist soil [in other parts], andproduces all kinds of fruits, and its plains are planted with trees ofall sorts, while yet the olive tree, the vine, and the palm tree arechiefly cultivated there. It is also sufficiently watered with torrents, which issue out of the mountains, and with springs that never fail torun, even when the torrents fail them, as they do in the dog-days. Nowthe length of Perea is from Macherus to Pella, and its breadth fromPhiladelphia to Jordan; its northern parts are bounded by Pella, as wehave already said, as well as its Western with Jordan; the land of Moabis its southern border, and its eastern limits reach to Arabia, andSilbonitis, 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, andends at the Acrabbene toparchy, and is entirely of the same nature withJudea; for both countries are made up of hills and valleys, and aremoist enough for agriculture, and are very fruitful. They have abundanceof trees, and are full of autumnal fruit, both that which grows wild, and that which is the effect of cultivation. They are not naturallywatered by many rivers, but derive their chief moisture from rain-water, of which they have no want; and for those rivers which they have, alltheir waters are exceeding sweet: by reason also of the excellent grassthey have, their cattle yield more milk than do those in other places;and, what is the greatest sign of excellency and of abundance, they eachof them are very full of people. 

5. In the limits of Samaria and Judea lies the village Anuath, which isalso named Borceos. This is the northern boundary of Judea. The southernparts of Judea, if they be measured lengthways, are bounded by a Villageadjoining to the confines of Arabia; the Jews that dwell there call itJordan. However, its breadth is extended from the river Jordan to Joppa. The city Jerusalem is situated in the very middle; on which account somehave, 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 intoeleven portions, of which the royal city Jerusalem was the supreme, andpresided over all the neighboring country, as the head does over thebody. As to the other cities that were inferior to it, they presidedover 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 afterthem 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 ofAgrippa. This [last] country begins at Mount Libanus, and the fountainsof Jordan, and reaches breadthways to the lake of Tiberias; and inlength is extended from a village called Arpha, as far as Julias. Itsinhabitants are a mixture of Jews and Syrians. And thus have I, withall possible brevity, described the country of Judea, and those that lieround 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 ofSepphoris, being a thousand horsemen, and six thousand footmen, underPlacidus the tribune, pitched their camp in two bodies in the greatplain. The foot were put into the city to be a guard to it, but thehorse lodged abroad in the camp. These last, by marching continually oneway or other, and overrunning the parts of the adjoining country, werevery troublesome to Josephus and his men; they also plundered all theplaces that were out of the city's liberty, and intercepted such asdurst go abroad. On this account it was that Josephus marched againstthe city, as hoping to take what he had lately encompassed with sostrong a wall, before they revolted from the rest of the Galileans, thatthe Romans would have much ado to take it; by which means he proved tooweak, and failed of his hopes, both as to the forcing the place, and asto 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 tothe law of war; nor did the Romans, out of the anger they bore at thisattempt, leave off, either by night or by day, burning the places inthe plain, and stealing away the cattle that were in the country, andkilling whatsoever appeared capable of fighting perpetually, and leadingthe weaker people as slaves into captivity; so that Galilee was all overfilled with fire and blood; nor was it exempted from any kind of miseryor calamity, for the only refuge they had was this, that when they werepursued, they could retire to the cities which had walls built them byJosephus. 

2. But as to Titus, he sailed over from Achaia to Alexandria, and thatsooner than the winter season did usually permit; so he took with himthose forces he was sent for, and marching with great expedition, hecame suddenly to Ptolemais, and there finding his father, together withthe two legions, the fifth and the tenth, which were the most eminentlegions of all, he joined them to that fifteenth legion which was withhis father; eighteen cohorts followed these legions; there came alsofive cohorts from Cesarea, with one troop of horsemen, and five othertroops of horsemen from Syria. Now these ten cohorts had severally athousand footmen, but the other thirteen cohorts had no more than sixhundred footmen apiece, with a hundred and twenty horsemen. There werealso a considerable number of auxiliaries got together, that came fromthe kings Antiochus, and Agrippa, and Sohemus, each of them contributingone thousand footmen that were archers, and a thousand horsemen. Malchus also, the king of Arabia, sent a thousand horsemen, besides fivethousand footmen, the greatest part of which were archers; so thatthe whole army, including the auxiliaries sent by the kings, as wellhorsemen as footmen, when all were united together, amounted to sixtythousand, besides the servants, who, as they followed in vast numbers, so because they had been trained up in war with the rest, ought notto be distinguished from the fighting men; for as they were in theirmasters' service in times of peace, so did they undergo the like dangerswith 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, inproviding themselves of such household servants, as might not only serveat other times for the common offices of life, but might also be ofadvantage to them in their wars. And, indeed, if any one does but attendto the other parts of their military discipline, he will be forcedto confess that their obtaining so large a dominion hath been theacquisition of their valor, and not the bare gift of fortune; for theydo not begin to use their weapons first in time of war, nor do they thenput their hands first into motion, while they avoided so to do in timesof peace; but, as if their weapons did always cling to them, they havenever any truce from warlike exercises; nor do they stay till times ofwar admonish them to use them; for their military exercises differ notat all from the real use of their arms, but every soldier is every dayexercised, 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; forneither can any disorder remove them from their usual regularity, nor can fear affright them out of it, nor can labor tire them; whichfirmness of conduct makes them always to overcome those that have notthe same firmness; nor would he be mistaken that should call those theirexercises unbloody battles, and their battles bloody exercises. Norcan their enemies easily surprise them with the suddenness of theirincursions; for as soon as they have marched into an enemy's land, theydo not begin to fight till they have walled their camp about; nor is thefence they raise rashly made, or uneven; nor do they all abide illit, nor do those that are in it take their places at random; but if ithappens that the ground is uneven, it is first leveled: their camp isalso 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 theoutward circumference hath the resemblance to a wall, and is adornedwith towers at equal distances, where between the towers stand theengines for throwing arrows and darts, and for slinging stones, andwhere they lay all other engines that can annoy the enemy, all ready fortheir several operations. They also erect four gates, one at every sideof the circumference, and those large enough for the entrance of thebeasts, and wide enough for making excursions, if occasion shouldrequire. They divide the camp within into streets, very conveniently, and place the tents of the commanders in the middle; but in the verymidst 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 itsmarket-place, and place for handicraft trades, and with seats for theofficers superior and inferior, where, if any differences arise, theircauses are heard and determined. The camp, and all that is in it, isencompassed with a wall round about, and that sooner than one wouldimagine, and this by the multitude and the skill of the laborers; and, if occasion require, a trench is drawn round the whole, whose depth isfour cubits, and its breadth equal. 

3. When they have thus secured themselves, they live together bycompanies, with quietness and decency, as are all their other affairsmanaged with good order and security. Each company hath also their wood, and their corn, and their water brought them, when they stand in needof them; for they neither sup nor dine as they please themselves singly, but all together. Their times also for sleeping, and watching, andrising are notified beforehand by the sound of trumpets, nor is anything done without such a signal; and in the morning the soldiery goevery one to their centurions, and these centurions to their tribunes, to salute them; with whom all the superior officers go to the generalof the whole army, who then gives them of course the watchword and otherorders, to be by them cared to all that are under their command; whichis also observed when they go to fight, and thereby they turn themselvesabout on the sudden, when there is occasion for making sallies, as theycome 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 takedown their tents, and all is made ready for their going out; then do thetrumpets sound again, to order them to get ready for the march; then dothey lay their baggage suddenly upon their mules, and other beasts ofburden, and stand, as at the place of starting, ready to march; whenalso they set fire to their camp, and this they do because it will beeasy for them to erect another camp, and that it may not ever be of useto their enemies. Then do the trumpets give a sound the third time, thatthey are to go out, in order to excite those that on any account area little tardy, that so no one may be out of his rank when the armymarches. Then does the crier stand at the general's right hand, and asksthem thrice, in their own tongue, whether they be now ready to go outto war or not? To which they reply as often, with a loud and cheerfulvoice, saying, "We are ready. " And this they do almost before thequestion is asked them: they do this as filled with a kind of martialfury, and at the same time that they so cry out, they lift up theirright 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 onekeeps his own rank, as if they were going to war. The footmen are armedwith breastplates and head-pieces, and have swords on each side; but thesword which is upon their left side is much longer than the other, forthat on the right side is not longer than a span. Those foot-men alsothat are chosen out from the rest to be about the general himself have alance and a buckler, but the rest of the foot soldiers have a spear anda long buckler, besides a saw and a basket, a pick-axe and an axe, athong of leather and a hook, with provisions for three days, so that afootman hath no great need of a mule to carry his burdens. The horsemenhave 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, withthree or more darts that are borne in their quiver, having broadpoints, and not smaller than spears. They have also head-pieces andbreastplates, in like manner as have all the footmen. And for those thatare chosen to be about the general, their armor no way differs fromthat of the horsemen belonging to other troops; and he always leads thelegions forth to whom the lot assigns that employment. 

6. This is the manner of the marching and resting of the Romans, as alsothese are the several sorts of weapons they use. But when they are tofight, they leave nothing without forecast, nor to be done off-hand, butcounsel is ever first taken before any work is begun, and what hath beenthere resolved upon is put in execution presently; for which reason theyseldom commit any errors; and if they have been mistaken at any time, they easily correct those mistakes. They also esteem any errors theycommit upon taking counsel beforehand to be better than such rashsuccess as is owing to fortune only; because such a fortuitous advantagetempts them to be inconsiderate, while consultation, though it maysometimes fail of success, hath this good in it, that it makes men morecareful hereafter; but for the advantages that arise from chance, they are not owing to him that gains them; and as to what melancholyaccidents happen unexpectedly, there is this comfort in them, that theyhad however taken the best consultations they could to prevent them. 

7. Now they so manage their preparatory exercises of their weapons, thatnot the bodies of the soldiers only, but their souls may also becomestronger: they are moreover hardened for war by fear; for their lawsinflict capital punishments, not only for soldiers running away from theranks, but for slothfulness and inactivity, though it be but in a lesserdegree; as are their generals more severe than their laws, for theyprevent any imputation of cruelty toward those under condemnation, bythe great rewards they bestow on the valiant soldiers; and the readinessof obeying their commanders is so great, that it is very ornamental inpeace; 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 turningsabout, so sharp their hearing as to what orders are given them, so quicktheir sight of the ensigns, and so nimble are their hands when they setto work; whereby it comes to pass that what they do is done quickly, andwhat they suffer they bear with the greatest patience. Nor can we findany examples where they have been conquered in battle, when they cameto a close fight, either by the multitude of the enemies, or by theirstratagems, or by the difficulties in the places they were in; no, norby fortune neither, for their victories have been surer to them thanfortune could have granted them. In a case, therefore, where counselstill goes before action, and where, after taking the best advice, that advice is followed by so active an army, what wonder is it thatEuphrates on the east, the ocean on the west, the most fertile regionsof Libya on the south, and the Danube and the Rhine on the north, arethe limits of this empire? One might well say that the Roman possessionsare not inferior to the Romans themselves. 

8. This account I have given the reader, not so much with the intentionof commending the Romans, as of comforting those that have beenconquered by them, and for the deterring others from attemptinginnovations under their government. This discourse of the Roman militaryconduct may also perhaps be of use to such of the curious as areignorant of it, and yet have a mind to know it. I return now from thisdigression. 

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 atPtolemais, and had put his army in order. But when Placidus, who hadoverrun Galilee, and had besides slain a number of those whom he hadcaught, [which were only the weaker part of the Galileans, and suchas were of timorous souls, ] saw that the warriors ran always to thosecities whose walls had been built by Josephus, he marched furiouslyagainst Jotapata, which was of them all the strongest, as supposing heshould easily take it by a sudden surprise, and that he should therebyobtain great honor to himself among the commanders, and bring a greatadvantage to them in their future campaign; because if this strongestplace of them all were once taken, the rest would be so aftrighted as tosurrender themselves. But he was mightily mistaken in his undertaking;for the men of Jotapata were apprized of his coming to attack them, andcame out of the city, and expected him there. So they fought the Romansbriskly when they least expected it, being both many in number, andprepared for fighting, and of great alacrity, as esteeming theircountry, their wives, and their children to be in danger, and easily putthe Romans to flight, and wounded many of them, and slew seven of them;[4] because their retreat was not made in a disorderly manner, be-causethe strokes only touched the surface of their bodies, which were coveredwith their armor in all parts, and because the Jews did rather throwtheir weapons upon them from a great distance, than venture to come handto hand with them, and had only light armor on, while the others werecompletely armed. However, three men of the Jews' side were slain, anda 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 marchedout of Ptolemais, having put his army into that order wherein the Romansused to march. He ordered those auxiliaries which were lightly armed, and the archers, to march first, that they might prevent any suddeninsults from the enemy, and might search out the woods that lookedsuspiciously, and were capable of ambuscades. Next to these followedthat part of the Romans which was completely armed, both footmen andhorsemen. Next to these followed ten out of every hundred, carryingalong with them their arms, and what was necessary to measure out a campwithal; 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 mightnot be in distress, or tired with their march. Behind these he setsuch carriages of the army as belonged both to himself and to the othercommanders, with a considerable number of their horsemen for theirsecurity. After these he marched himself, having with him a select bodyof footmen, and horsemen, and pikemen. After these came the peculiarcavalry of his own legion, for there were a hundred and twenty horsementhat peculiarly belonged to every legion. Next to these came the mulesthat carried the engines for sieges, and the other warlike machinesof that nature. After these came the commanders of the cohorts andtribunes, having about them soldiers chosen out of the rest. Then camethe ensigns encompassing the eagle, which is at the head of every Romanlegion, the king, and the strongest of all birds, which seems to them asignal of dominion, and an omen that they shall conquer all against whomthey march; these sacred ensigns are followed by the trumpeters. Thencame the main army in their squadrons and battalions, with six men indepth, which were followed at last by a centurion, who, according tocustom, observed the rest. As for the servants of every legion, theyall followed the footmen, and led the baggage of the soldiers, whichwas borne by the mules and other beasts of burden. But behind all thelegions came the whole multitude of the mercenaries; and those thatbrought 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 numberof horsemen. 

3. And thus did Vespasian march with his army, and came to the bounds ofGalileo, where he pitched his camp and restrained his soldiers, whowere eager for war; he also showed his army to the enemy, in orderto affright them, and to afford them a season for repentance, to seewhether they would change their minds before it came to a battle, and atthe same time he got things ready for besieging their strong minds. Andindeed 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'scamp, which was at the city called Garis, not far from Sepphoris, whenthey heard that the war was come near them, and that the Romans wouldsuddenly fight them hand to hand, dispersed themselves and fled, notonly before they came to a battle, but before the enemy ever came insight, while Josephus and a few others were left behind; and as he sawthat he had not an army sufficient to engage the enemy, that the spiritsof the Jews were sunk, and that the greater part would willingly come toterms, if they might be credited, he already despaired of the success ofthe whole war, and determined to get as far as he possibly could outof danger; so he took those that staid along with him, and fled toTiberias. 

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 firstonset, because he found it destitute of any considerable number of mengrown 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 outof the hatred they bore the nation, and because of the iniquity they hadbeen guilty of in the affair of Cestius. He also set fire not only tothe city itself, but to all the villas and small cities that were roundabout it; some of them were quite destitute of inhabitants, and out ofsome of them he carried the inhabitants as slaves into captivity. 

2. As to Josephus, his retiring to that city which he chose as the mostfit for his security, put it into great fear; for the people of Tiberiasdid not imagine that he would have run away, unless he had entirelydespaired of the success of the war. And indeed, as to that point, theywere not mistaken about his opinion; for he saw whither the affairs ofthe Jews would tend at last, and was sensible that they had but one wayof escaping, and that was by repentance. However, although he expectedthat the Romans would forgive him, yet did he chose to die many timesover, rather than to betray his country, and to dishonor that supremecommand of the army which had been intrusted with him, or to livehappily under those against whom he was sent to fight. He determined, therefore, to give an exact account of affairs to the principal men atJerusalem by a letter, that he might not, by too much aggrandizing thepower of the enemy, make them too timorous; nor, by relating that theirpower beneath the truth, might encourage them to stand out when theywere perhaps disposed to repentance. He also sent them word, that ifthey thought of coming to terms, they must suddenly write him an answer;or if they resolved upon war, they must send him an army sufficientto fight the Romans. Accordingly, he wrote these things, and sentmessengers immediately to carry his letter to Jerusalem. 

3. Now Vespasian was very desirous of demolishing Jotapata, for he hadgotten intelligence that the greatest part of the enemy had retiredthither, and that it was, on other accounts, a place of great securityto them. Accordingly, he sent both foot-men and horsemen to level theroad, which was mountainous and rocky, not without difficulty to betraveled over by footmen, but absolutely impracticable for horsemen. Nowthese workmen accomplished what they were about in four days' time, and opened a broad way for the army. On the fifth day, which was thetwenty-first of the month Artemisius, [Jyar, ] Josephus prevented him, and came from Tiberias, and went into Jotapata, and raised the droopingspirits of the Jews. And a certain deserter told this good news toVespasian, that Josephus had removed himself thither, which made himmake haste to the city, as supposing that with taking that he shouldtake all Judea, in case he could but withal get Josephus under hispower. So he took this news to be of the vastest advantage to him, andbelieved it to be brought about by the providence of God, that he whoappeared to be the most prudent man of all their enemies, had, of hisown accord, shut himself up in a place of sure custody. Accordingly, hesent Placidus with a thousand horsemen, and Ebutius a decurion, a personthat was of eminency both in council and in action, to encompass thecity round, that Josephus might not escape away privately. 

4. Vespasian also, the very next day, took his whole army and followedthem, and by marching till late in the evening, arrived then atJotapata; and bringing his army to the northern side of the city, hepitched his camp on a certain small hill which was seven furlongs fromthe city, and still greatly endeavored to be well seen by the enemy, toput them into a consternation; which was indeed so terrible to the Jewsimmediately, that no one of them durst go out beyond the wall. Yet didthe Romans put off the attack at that time, because they had marched allthe day, although they placed a double row of battalions round thecity, with a third row beyond them round the whole, which consisted ofcavalry, in order to stop up every way for an exit; which thing makingthe Jews despair of escaping, excited them to act more boldly; fornothing makes men fight so desperately in war as necessity. 

5. Now when the next day an assault was made by the Romans, the Jews atfirst staid out of the walls and opposed them, and met them, as havingformed themselves a camp before the city walls. But when Vespasian hadset against them the archers and slingers, and the whole multitude thatcould throw to a great distance, he permitted them to go to work, whilehe himself, with the footmen, got upon an acclivity, whence the citymight easily be taken. Josephus was then in fear for the city, andleaped out, and all the Jewish multitude with him; these fell togetherupon the Romans in great numbers, and drove them away from the wall, andperformed a great many glorious and bold actions. Yet did they sufferas much as they made the enemy suffer; for as despair of deliveranceencouraged the Jews, so did a sense of shame equally encourage theRomans. These last had skill as well as strength; the other had onlycourage, which armed them, and made them fight furiously. And when thefight had lasted all day, it was put an end to by the coming on of thenight. They had wounded a great many of the Romans, and killed of themthirteen men; of the Jews' side seventeen were slain, and six hundredwounded. 

6. On the next day the Jews made another attack upon the Romans, andwent out of the walls and fought a much more desperate battle with themtitan before. For they were now become more courageous than formerly, and that on account of the unexpected good opposition they had made theday before, as they found the Romans also to fight more desperately;for a sense of shame inflamed these into a passion, as esteeming theirfailure of a sudden victory to be a kind of defeat. Thus did the Romanstry to make an impression upon the Jews till the fifth day continually, while the people of Jotapata made sallies out, and fought at the wallsmost desperately; nor were the Jews affrighted at the strength of theenemy, nor were the Romans discouraged at the difficulties they met within taking the city. 

7. Now Jotapata is almost all of it built on a precipice, having onall the other sides of it every way valleys immensely deep and steep, insomuch that those who would look down would have their sight fail thembefore it reaches to the bottom. It is only to be come at on the northside, where the utmost part of the city is built on the mountain, as itends obliquely at a plain. This mountain Josephus had encompassed witha wall when he fortified the city, that its top might not be capableof being seized upon by the enemies. The city is covered all round withother 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 thenatural 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 hecalled the commanders that were under him to a council of war, andconsulted with them which way the assault might be managed to the bestadvantage. And when the resolution was there taken to raise a bankagainst that part of the wall which was practicable, he sent his wholearmy abroad to get the materials together. So when they had cut downall the trees on the mountains that adjoined to the city, and had gottentogether a vast heap of stones, besides the wood they had cut down, someof them brought hurdles, in order to avoid the effects of the darts thatwere shot from above them. These hurdles they spread over their banks, under cover whereof they formed their bank, and so were little ornothing hurt by the darts that were thrown upon them from the wall, while others pulled the neighboring hillocks to pieces, and perpetuallybrought 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 uponthe hurdles which protected the men, with all sorts of darts also; andthe noise of what could not reach them was yet so terrible, that it wassome impediment to the workmen. 

9. Vespasian then set the engines for throwing stones and darts roundabout the city. The number of the engines was in all a hundred andsixty, and bid them fall to work, and dislodge those that were upon thewall. At the same time such engines as were intended for that purposethrew at once lances upon them with a great noise, and stones of theweight of a talent were thrown by the engines that were prepared forthat purpose, together with fire, and a vast multitude of arrows, whichmade the wall so dangerous, that the Jews durst not only not comeupon it, but durst not come to those parts within the walls which werereached by the engines; for the multitude of the Arabian archers, aswell also as all those that threw darts and slung stones, fell to workat the same time with the engines. Yet did not the otters lie still, when they could not throw at the Romans from a higher place; for theythen made sallies out of the city, like private robbers, by parties, andpulled away the hurdles that covered the workmen, and killed them whenthey were thus naked; and when those workmen gave way, these cast awaythe earth that composed the bank, and burnt the wooden parts of it, together with the hurdles, till at length Vespasian perceived that theintervals there were between the works were of disadvantage to him;for those spaces of ground afforded the Jews a place for assaulting theRomans. So he united the hurdles, and at the same time joined one partof the army to the other, which prevented the private excursions of theJews. 

10. And when the bank was now raised, and brought nearer than ever tothe battlements that belonged to the walls, Josephus thought it would beentirely wrong in him if he could make no contrivances in oppositionto theirs, and that might be for the city's preservation; so he gottogether his workmen, and ordered them to build the wall higher; andwhile they said that this was impossible to be done while so many dartswere thrown at them, he invented this sort of cover for them: He bidthem fix piles, and expand before them the raw hides of oxen newlykilled, that these hides by yielding and hollowing themselves when thestones were thrown at them might receive them, for that the other dartswould slide off them, and the fire that was thrown would be quenched bythe moisture that was in them. And these he set before the workmen, andunder them these workmen went on with their works in safety, and raisedthe wall higher, and that both by day and by night, fill it was twentycubits high. He also built a good number of towers upon the wall, andfitted it to strong battlements. This greatly discouraged the Romans, who in their own opinions were already gotten within the walls, whilethey were now at once astonished at Josephus's contrivance, and at thefortitude of the citizens that were in the city. 

11. And now Vespasian was plainly irritated at the great subtlety ofthis stratagem, and at the boldness of the citizens of Jotapata; fortaking heart again upon the building of this wall, they made freshsallies upon the Romans, and had every day conflicts with them byparties, together with all such contrivances, as robbers make use of, and with the plundering of all that came to hand, as also with thesetting fire to all the other works; and this till Vespasian made hisarmy leave off fighting them, and resolved to lie round the city, andto starve them into a surrender, as supposing that either they wouldbe forced to petition him for mercy by want of provisions, or if theyshould have the courage to hold out till the last, they should perishby famine: and he concluded he should conquer them the more easily infighting, if he gave them an interval, and then fell upon them when theywere weakened by famine; but still he gave orders that they should guardagainst their coming out of the city. 

12. Now the besieged had plenty of corn within the city, and indeed ofall necessaries, but they wanted water, because there was no fountain inthe city, the people being there usually satisfied with rain water; yetis it a rare thing in that country to have rain in summer, and atthis season, during the siege, they were in great distress for somecontrivance to satisfy their thirst; and they were very sad at this timeparticularly, as if they were already in want of water entirely, forJosephus seeing that the city abounded with other necessaries, and thatthe men were of good courage, and being desirous to protract the siegeto the Romans longer than they expected, ordered their drink to be giventhem by measure; but this scanty distribution of water by measure wasdeemed 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 moredesirous of drinking than they otherwise had been; nay, they were asmuch disheartened hereby as if they were come to the last degree ofthirst. Nor were the Romans unacquainted with the state they were in, for when they stood over against them, beyond the wall, they could seethem running together, and taking their water by measure, which madethem 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 inno long time be emptied, and that they would be forced to deliver upthe city to him; but Josephus being minded to break such his hope, gavecommand that they should wet a great many of their clothes, and hangthem out about the battlements, till the entire wall was of a sudden allwet with the running down of the water. At this sight the Romans werediscouraged, and under consternation, when they saw them able to throwaway in sport so much water, when they supposed them not to have enoughto drink themselves. This made the Roman general despair of taking thecity 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 greatlydesired; for as they despaired of either themselves or their city beingable to escape, they preferred a death in battle before one by hungerand thirst. 

14. However, Josephus contrived another stratagem besides the foregoing, to get plenty of what they wanted. There was a certain rough and unevenplace that could hardly be ascended, and on that account was not guardedby the soldiers; so Josephus sent out certain persons along the westernparts of the valley, and by them sent letters to whom he pleased of theJews that were out of the city, and procured from them what necessariessoever they wanted in the city in abundance; he enjoined them also tocreep generally along by the watch as they came into the city, and tocover 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 mightbe believed to be dogs. This was done till the watch perceived theircontrivance, and encompassed that rough place about themselves. 

15. And now it was that Josephus perceived that the city could not holdout 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 flyout of it. When the multitude understood this, they came all round abouthim, and begged of him not to overlook them while they entirely dependedon him, and him alone; for that there was still hope of the city'sdeliverance, if he would stay with them, because every body wouldundertake any pains with great cheerfulness on his account, and in thatcase there would be some comfort for them also, though they should betaken: that it became him neither to fly from his enemies, nor to deserthis friends, nor to leap out of that city, as out of a ship that wassinking 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 oncegone, upon whom they wholly confided. 16. Hereupon Josephus avoidedletting 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 thatif he staid with them, he should be able to do them little good whilethey were in a safe condition; and that if they were once taken, heshould only perish with them to no purpose; but that if he were oncegotten free from this siege, he should be able to bring them very greatrelief; for that he would then immediately get the Galileans together, out of the country, in great multitudes, and draw the Romans off theircity by another war. That he did not see what advantage he could bring tothem now, by staying among them, but only provoke the Romans to besiegethem 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 notthis 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 theirinfants, came mourning to him, and fell down before him, and all of themcaught hold of his feet, and held him fast, and besought him, with greatlamentations, that he would take his share with them in their fortune;and I think they did this, not that they envied his deliverance, butthat they hoped for their own; for they could not think they shouldsuffer any great misfortune, provided Josephus would but stay with them. 

17. Now Josephus thought, that if he resolved to stay, it would beascribed to their entreaties; and if he resolved to go away by force, heshould be put into custody. His commiseration also of the people undertheir lamentations had much broken that his eagerness to leave them; sohe resolved to stay, and arming himself with the common despair ofthe citizens, he said to them, "Now is the time to begin to fight inearnest, when there is no hope of deliverance left. It is a bravething to prefer glory before life, and to set about some such nobleundertaking as may be remembered by late posterity. " Having saidthis, he fell to work immediately, and made a sally, and dispersed theenemies' out-guards, and ran as far as the Roman camp itself, and pulledthe coverings of their tents to pieces, that were upon their banks, andset fire to their works. And this was the manner in which he never leftoff fighting, neither the next day, nor the day after it, but went onwith it for a considerable number of both days and nights. 

18. Upon this, Vespasian, when he saw the Romans distressed by thesesallies, [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 armorwould not let them pursue them far; while the Jews, when they hadperformed any action, and before they could be hurt themselves, stillretired into the city, ] ordered his armed men to avoid their onset, and not fight it out with men under desperation, while nothing is morecourageous than despair; but that their violence would be quenched whenthey saw they failed of their purposes, as fire is quenched whenit wants fuel; and that it was proper for the Romans to gain theirvictories as cheap as they could, since they are not forced to fight, but only to enlarge their own dominions. So he repelled the Jews ingreat measure by the Arabian archers, and the Syrian slingers, and bythose that threw stones at them, nor was there any intermission of thegreat number of their offensive engines. Now the Jews suffered greatlyby these engines, without being able to escape from them; and when theseengines threw their stones or javelins a great way, and the Jews werewithin their reach, they pressed hard upon the Romans, and foughtdesperately, without sparing either soul or body, one part succoringanother by turns, when it was tired down. 

19. When, therefore, Vespasian looked upon himself as in a mannerbesieged by these sallies of the Jews, and when his banks were now notfar 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, itsforepart is armed with a thick piece of iron at the head of it, whichis 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 ishung like the balance in a pair of scales from another beam, and bracedby 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 unitedforce, and then thrust forward by the same men, with a mighty noise, itbatters the walls with that iron part which is prominent. Nor is thereany tower so strong, or walls so broad, that can resist any more thanits first batteries, but all are forced to yield to it at last. This wasthe experiment which the Roman general betook himself to, when he waseagerly bent upon taking the city; but found lying in the field solong to be to his disadvantage, because the Jews would never let him bequiet. So these Romans brought the several engines for galling an enemynearer to the walls, that they might reach such as were upon the wall, and endeavored to frustrate their attempts; these threw stones andjavelins at them; in the like manner did the archers and slingers comeboth together closer to the wall. This brought matters to such a passthat none of the Jews durst mount the walls, and then it was that theother Romans brought the battering ram that was cased with hurdles allover, and in the tipper part was secured by skins that covered it, andthis both for the security of themselves and of the engine. Now, at thevery first stroke of this engine, the wall was shaken, and a terribleclamor was raised by the people within the city, as if they were alreadytaken. 

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 toelude for a while the force of the engine. With this design he gaveorders to fill sacks with chaff, and to hang them down before that placewhere they saw the ram always battering, that the stroke might be turnedaside, or that the place might feel less of the strokes by the yieldingnature of the chaff. This contrivance very much delayed the attemptsof the Romans, because, let them remove their engine to what part theypleased, those that were above it removed their sacks, and placed themover against the strokes it made, insomuch that the wall was no wayhurt, and this by diversion of the strokes, till the Romans made anopposite 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 andthose about him had afterward immediate recourse to fire, to defendthemselves withal; whereupon they took what materials soever they hadthat were but dry, and made a sally three ways, and set fire to themachines, and the hurdles, and the banks of the Romans themselves; nordid the Romans well know how to come to their assistance, being at onceunder a consternation at the Jews' boldness, and being prevented by theflames from coming to their assistance; for the materials being dry withthe bitumen and pitch that were among them, as was brimstone also, thefire caught hold of every thing immediately, and what cost the Romans agreat deal of pains was in one hour consumed. 

21. And here a certain Jew appeared worthy of our relation andcommendation; he was the son of Sameas, and was called Eleazar, and wasborn 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 aforce, 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 anyconcern carried it to the top of the wall, and this while he stood as afit mark to be pelted by all his enemies. Accordingly, he received thestrokes upon his naked body, and was wounded with five darts; nor did hemind any of them while he went up to the top of the wall, where he stoodin the sight of them all, as an instance of the greatest boldness; afterwhich he drew himself on a heap with his wounds upon him, and fell downtogether with the head of the ram. Next to him, two brothers showedtheir courage; their names were Netir and Philip, both of them of thevillage Ruma, and both of them Galileans also; these men leaped upon thesoldiers of the tenth legion, and fell upon the Romans with such a noiseand force as to disorder their ranks, and to put to flight all uponwhomsoever they made their assaults. 

22. After these men's performances, Josephus, and the rest of themultitude with him, took a great deal of fire, and burnt both themachines and their coverings, with the works belonging to the fifth andto the tenth legion, which they put to flight; when others followed themimmediately, and buried those instruments and all their materials underground. However, about the evening, the Romans erected the battering ramagain, against that part of the wall which had suffered before; where acertain Jew that defended the city from the Romans hit Vespasian with adart 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 whenthose who stood near him saw his blood, they were disturbed at it, anda report went abroad, through the whole army, that the general waswounded, while the greatest part left the siege, and came runningtogether with surprise and fear to the general; and before them allcame Titus, out of the concern he had for his father, insomuch that themultitude were in great confusion, and this out of the regard they hadfor their general, and by reason of the agony that the son was in. Yetdid the father soon put an end to the son's fear, and to the disorderthe army was under, for being superior to his pains, and endeavoringsoon to be seen by all that had been in a fright about him, he excitedthem to fight the Jews more briskly; for now every body was willing toexpose himself to danger immediately, in order to avenge their general;and then they encouraged one another with loud voices, and ran hastilyto the walls. 

23. But still Josephus and those with him, although they fell down deadone upon another by the darts and stones which the engines threw uponthem, yet did not they desert the wall, but fell upon those who managedthe ram, under the protection of the hurdles, with fire, and ironweapons, and stones; and these could do little or nothing, but fellthemselves perpetually, while they were seen by those whom they couldnot see, for the light of their own flame shone about them, and madethem 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 wasthrown at them was hard to be avoided; for the force with which theseengines threw stones and darts made them hurt several at a time, and theviolent 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 thecorners of the towers; for no body of men could be so strong as not tobe overthrown to the last rank by the largeness of the stones. And anyone 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 asfar as three furlongs. In the day time also, a woman with child had herbelly so violently struck, as she was just come out of her house, thatthe infant was carried to the distance of half a furlong, so great wasthe force of that engine. The noise of the instruments themselves wasvery terrible, the sound of the darts and stones that were thrown bythem 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 theclamor which these things raised in the women within the city, which wasechoed back at the same time by the cries of such as were slain; whilethe whole space of ground whereon they fought ran with blood, and thewall 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 couldeither affect the hearing or the sight: yet did a great part of thosethat fought so hard for Jotapata fall manfully, as were a great part ofthem wounded. However, the morning watch was come ere the wall yieldedto the machines employed against it, though it had been battered withoutintermission. However, those within covered their bodies with theirarmor, and raised works over against that part which was thrown down, before those machines were laid by which the Romans were to ascend intothe city. 

24. In the morning Vespasian got his army together, in order to take thecity [by storm], after a little recreation upon the hard pains they hadbeen at the night before; and as he was desirous to draw off those thatopposed him from the places where the wall had been thrown down, he madethe most courageous of the horsemen get off their horses, and placedthem in three ranks over against those ruins of the wall, but coveredwith their armor on every side, and with poles in their hands, thatso these might begin their ascent as soon as the instruments for suchascent were laid; behind them he placed the flower of the footmen; butfor the rest of the horse, he ordered them to extend themselves overagainst the wall, upon the whole hilly country, in order to prevent anyfrom escaping out of the city when it should be taken; and behind thesehe placed the archers round about, and commanded them to have theirdarts ready to shoot. The same command he gave to the slingers, and tothose 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 yetuntouched, that the besieged might be engaged in trying to hinder theirascent 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 soundparts of the wall, as expecting no harm from those quarters, but set thestrongest of his men at the place where the wall was broken down, andbefore them all six men by themselves, among whom he took his shareof the first and greatest danger. He also gave orders, that when thelegions made a shout, they should stop their ears, that they might notbe affrighted at it, and that, to avoid the multitude of the enemy'sdarts, they should bend down on their knees, and cover themselves withtheir shields, and that they should retreat a little backward for awhile, till the archers should have emptied their quivers; but that Whenthe Romans should lay their instruments for ascending the walls, theyshould leap out on the sudden, and with their own instruments shouldmeet 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 bepreserved, 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 beslain, and their children and wives were to be killed immediately by theenemy; and that they would beforehand spend all their fury, on accountof 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 thenfor the useless part of the citizens, the women and children, when theysaw their city encompassed by a threefold army, [for none of the usualguards that had been fighting before were removed, ] when they also saw, not only the walls thrown down, but their enemies with swords in theirhands, 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 andlamentable outcry of the destruction, as if the misery were not onlythreatened, but actually come upon them already. But Josephus orderedthe women to be shut up in their houses, lest they should render thewarlike actions of the men too effeminate, by making them commiseratetheir condition, and commanded them to hold their peace, and threatenedthem if they did not, while he came himself before the breach, where hisallotment was; for all those who brought ladders to the other places, he took no notice of them, but earnestly waited for the shower of arrowsthat was coming. 

27. And now the trumpeters of the several Roman legions soundedtogether, and the army made a terrible shout; and the darts, asby order, flew so last, that they intercepted the light. However, Josephus's men remembered the charges he had given them, they stoppedtheir 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 ranout upon them, before those that should have used them were gottenupon them. And now, on the ascending of the soldiers, there was a greatconflict, and many actions of the hands and of the soul were exhibited;while the Jews did earnestly endeavor, in the extreme danger they werein, not to show less courage than those who, without being in danger, fought so stoutly against them; nor did they leave struggling withthe Romans till they either fell down dead themselves, or killedtheir antagonists. But the Jews grew weary with defending themselvescontinually, and had not enough to come in their places, and succorthem; while, on the side of the Romans, fresh men still succeededthose that were tired; and still new men soon got upon the machines forascent, in the room of those that were thrust down; those encouragingone another, and joining side to side with their shields, which were aprotection to them, they became a body of men not to be broken; and asthis band thrust away the Jews, as though they were themselves but onebody, they began already to get upon the wall. 

28. Then did Josephus take necessity for his counselor in this utmostdistress, [which necessity is very sagacious in invention when it isirritated by despair, ] and gave orders to pour scalding oil upon thosewhose shields protected them. Whereupon they soon got it ready, beingmany 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 themtheir vessels as they were still hissing from the heat of the fire: thisso burnt the Romans, that it dispersed that united band, who now tumbledclown from the wall with horrid pains, for the oil did easily run downthe whole body from head to foot, under their entire armor, and fed upontheir flesh like flame itself, its fat and unctuous nature rendering itsoon heated and slowly cooled; and as the men were cooped up in theirhead-pieces and breastplates, they could no way get free from thisburning oil; they could only leap and roll about in their pains, as theyfell down from the bridges they had laid. And as they thus were beatenback, 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 didnot fail them, nor did the Jews want prudence to oppose them; for theRomans, although they saw their own men thrown down, and in a miserablecondition, yet were they vehemently bent against those that pouredthe oil upon them; while every one reproached the man before him as acoward, and one that hindered him from exerting himself; and while theJews made use of another stratagem to prevent their ascent, and pouredboiling fenugreek upon the boards, in order to make them slip and falldown; by which means neither could those that were coming up, northose that were going down, stand on their feet; but some of them fellbackward upon the machines on which they ascended, and were troddenupon; many of them fell down upon the bank they had raised, and whenthey were fallen upon it were slain by the Jews; for when the Romanscould not keep their feet, the Jews being freed from fighting hand tohand, had leisure to throw their darts at them. So the general calledoff those soldiers in the evening that had suffered so sorely, of whomthe number of the slain was not a few, while that of the wounded wasstill greater; but of the people of Jotapata no more than six men werekilled, although more than three hundred were carried off wounded. Thisfight happened on the twentieth day of the month Desius [Sivan]. 30. Hereupon Vespasian comforted his army on occasion of what happened, andas he found them angry indeed, but rather wanting somewhat to do thanany further exhortations, he gave orders to raise the banks stillhigher, and to erect three towers, each fifty feet high, and that theyshould cover them with plates of iron on every side, that they mightbe 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 couldshoot darts and arrows, with the lighter engines for throwing stones anddarts also; and besides these, he set upon them the stoutest men amongthe slingers, who not being to be seen by reason of the height theystood upon, and the battlements that protected them, might throw theirweapons 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 werethrown down upon their heads, nor to avenge themselves on those whomthey could not see, and perceiving that the height of the towers was sogreat, that a dart which they threw with their hand could hardly reachit, and that the iron plates about them made it very hard to come atthem by fire, they ran away from the walls, and fled hastily out of thecity, and fell upon those that shot at them. And thus did the people ofJotapata resist the Romans, while a great number of them were every daykilled, 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 citycalled Japha, that lay near to Jotapata, and that desired innovations, and was puffed up with the unexpected length of the opposition ofJotapata. This Trajan was the commander of the tenth legion, and to himVespasian committed one thousand horsemen, and two thousand footmen. When Trajan came to the city, he found it hard to be taken, for besidesthe natural strength of its situation, it was also secured by a doublewall; but when he saw the people of this city coming out of it, andready to fight him, he joined battle with them, and after a shortresistance which they made, he pursued after them; and as they fled totheir first wall, the Romans followed them so closely, that they fellin together with them: but when the Jews were endeavoring to get againwithin their second wall, their fellow citizens shut them out, as beingafraid that the Romans would force themselves in with them. It wascertainly God therefore who brought the Romans to punish the Galileans, and did then expose the people of the city every one of them manifestlyto be destroyed by their bloody enemies; for they fell upon the gates ingreat crowds, and earnestly calling to those that kept them, and thatby their names also, yet had they their throats cut in the very midst oftheir supplications; for the enemy shut the gates of the first wall, andtheir own citizens shut the gates of the second, so they were enclosedbetween two walls, and were slain in great numbers together; many ofthem were run through by swords of their own men, and many by their ownswords, besides an immense number that were slain by the Romans. Norhad they any courage to revenge themselves; for there was added to theconsternation they were in from the enemy, their being betrayed by theirown friends, which quite broke their spirits; and at last they died, cursing not the Romans, but their own citizens, till they were alldestroyed, being in number twelve thousand. So Trajan gathered that thecity was empty of people that could fight, and although there should afew of them be therein, he supposed that they would be too timorous toventure upon any opposition; so he reserved the taking of the city tothe general. Accordingly, he sent messengers to Vespasian, and desiredhim to send his son Titus to finish the victory he had gained. Vespasianhereupon imagining there might be some pains still necessary, sent hisson with an army of five hundred horsemen, and one thousand footmen. Sohe came quickly to the city, and put his army in order, and set Trajanover the left wing, while he had the right himself, and led them to thesiege: and when the soldiers brought ladders to be laid against the wallon every side, the Galileans opposed them from above for a while; butsoon afterward they left the walls. Then did Titus's men leap into thecity, and seized upon it presently; but when those that were in it weregotten together, there was a fierce battle between them; for the men ofpower fell upon the Romans in the narrow streets, and the women threwwhatsoever came next to hand at them, and sustained a fight with themfor six hours' time; but when the fighting men were spent, the rest ofthe multitude had their throats cut, partly in the open air, and partlyin their own houses, both young and old together. So there were no malesnow remaining, besides infants, which, with the women, were carried asslaves into captivity; so that the number of the slain, both now in thecity and at the former fight, was fifteen thousand, and the captiveswere two thousand one hundred and thirty. This calamity befell theGalileans on the twenty-fifth day of the month Desius [Sivan. ] 32. Nordid the Samaritans escape their share of misfortunes at this time; forthey assembled themselves together upon file mountain called Gerizzim, which is with them a holy mountain, and there they remained; whichcollection of theirs, as well as the courageous minds they showed, couldnot but threaten somewhat of war; nor were they rendered wiser bythe miseries that had come upon their neighboring cities. They also, notwithstanding the great success the Romans had, marched on in anunreasonable manner, depending on their own weakness, and were disposedfor any tumult upon its first appearance. Vespasian therefore thoughtit best to prevent their motions, and to cut off the foundation of theirattempts. For although all Samaria had ever garrisons settled amongthem, yet did the number of those that were come to Mount Gerizzim, andtheir conspiracy together, give ground for fear what they would be at;he therefore sent I thither Cerealis, the commander of the fifth legion, with six hundred horsemen, and three thousand footmen, who did not thinkit safe to go up to the mountain, and give them battle, because many ofthe enemy were on the higher part of the ground; so he encompassed allthe lower part of the mountain with his army, and watched them all thatday. Now it happened that the Samaritans, who were now destitute ofwater, were inflamed with a violent heat, [for it was summer time, andthe multitude had not provided themselves with necessaries, ] insomuchthat some of them died that very day with heat, while others of thempreferred slavery before such a death as that was, and fled to theRomans; by whom Cerealis understood that those which still staidthere were very much broken by their misfortunes. So he went up to themountain, and having placed his forces round about the enemy, he, in thefirst place, exhorted them to take the security of his right hand, andcome to terms with him, and thereby save themselves; and assured them, that if they would lay down their arms, he would secure them from anyharm; but when he could not prevail with them, he fell upon them andslew them all, being in number eleven thousand and six hundred. This wasdone on the twenty-seventh day of the month Desius [Sivan]. And thesewere the calamities that befell the Samaritans at this time. 

33. But as the people of Jotapata still held out manfully, and boreup tinder their miseries beyond all that could be hoped for, on theforty-seventh day [of the siege] the banks cast up by the Romans werebecome higher than the wall; on which day a certain deserter went toVespasian, and told him how few were left in the city, and how weak theywere, and that they had been so worn out with perpetual watching, and asperpetual fighting, that they could not now oppose any force that cameagainst them, and that they might be taken by stratagem, if any onewould attack them; for that about the last watch of the night, when theythought they might have some rest from the hardships they were under, and when a morning sleep used to come upon them, as they were thoroughlyweary, he said the watch used to fall asleep; accordingly his advicewas, that they should make their attack at that hour. But Vespasian hada suspicion about this deserter, as knowing how faithful the Jews wereto one another, and how much they despised any punishments that could beinflicted on them; this last because one of the people of Jotapata hadundergone all sorts of torments, and though they made him pass through afiery trial of his enemies in his examination, yet would he inform themnothing of the affairs within the city, and as he was crucified, smiledat them. However, the probability there was in the relation itselfdid partly confirm the truth of what the deserter told them, and theythought he might probably speak truth. However, Vespasian thought theyshould be no great sufferers if the report was a sham; so he commandedthem to keep the man in custody, and prepared the army for taking thecity. 

34. According to which resolution they marched without noise, at thehour that had been told them, to the wall; and it was Titus himself thatfirst got upon it, with one of his tribunes, Domitius Sabinus, and hada few of the fifteenth legion along with him. So they cut the throats ofthe watch, and entered the city very quietly. After these came Cerealisthe tribune, and Placidus, and led on those that were tinder them. Nowwhen the citadel was taken, and the enemy were in the very midst of thecity, and when it was already day, yet was not the taking of the cityknown 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, hinderedthose that got up from distinctly seeing the case they were in, till thewhole Roman army was gotten in, and they were raised up only to find themiseries they were under; and as they were slaying, they perceived thecity was taken. And for the Romans, they so well remembered what theyhad suffered during the siege, that they spared none, nor pitied any, but drove the people down the precipice from the citadel, and slew themas they drove them down; at which time the difficulties of the placehindered those that were still able to fight from defending themselves;for as they were distressed in the narrow streets, and could not keeptheir feet sure along the precipice, they were overpowered with thecrowd of those that came fighting them down from the citadel. Thisprovoked a great many, even of those chosen men that were aboutJosephus, to kill themselves with their own hands; for when they sawthat they could kill none of the Romans, they resolved to prevent beingkilled by the Romans, and got together in great numbers in the utmostparts of the city, and killed themselves. 

35. However, such of the watch as at the first perceived they weretaken, and ran away as fast as they could, went up into one ofthe towers on the north side of the city, and for a while defendedthemselves there; but as they were encompassed with a multitude ofenemies, they tried to use their right hands when it was too late, andat length they cheerfully offered their necks to be cut off by thosethat stood over them. And the Romans might have boasted that theconclusion of that siege was without blood [on their side] if there hadnot been a centurion, Antonius, who was slain at the taking of the city. His death was occasioned by the following treachery; for there was oneof those that were fled into the caverns, which were a great number, who desired that this Antonius would reach him his right hand for hissecurity, and would assure him that he would preserve him, and givehim his assistance in getting up out of the cavern; accordingly, heincautiously reached him his right hand, when the other man preventedhim, and stabbed him under his loins with a spear, and killed himimmediately. 

36. And on this day it was that the Romans slew all the multitudethat appeared openly; but on the following days they searched thehiding-places, and fell upon those that were under ground, and in thecaverns, and went thus through every age, excepting the infants andthe women, and of these there were gathered together as captives twelvehundred; 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. SoVespasian gave order that the city should be entirely demolished, andall the fortifications burnt down. And thus was Jotapata taken, in thethirteenth year of the reign of Nero, on the first day of the monthPanemus [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 theybore 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 warwould be over. They then searched among the dead, and looked into themost concealed recesses of the city; but as the city was first taken, he was assisted by a certain supernatural providence; for he withdrewhimself from the enemy when he was in the midst of them, and leaped intoa certain deep pit, whereto there adjoined a large den at one side ofit, which den could not be seen by those that were above ground;and there he met with forty persons of eminency that had concealedthemselves, and with provisions enough to satisfy them for not a fewdays. So in the day time he hid himself from the enemy, who had seizedupon all places, and in the night time he got up out of the den andlooked about for some way of escaping, and took exact notice of thewatch; but as all places were guarded every where on his account, thatthere 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 theyhad taken a woman who had been with them, he was discovered. WhereuponVespasian sent immediately and zealously two tribunes, Paulinus andGallicanus, and ordered them to give Josephus their right hands as asecurity for his life, and to exhort him to come up. 

2. So they came and invited the man to come up, and gave him assurancesthat his life should be preserved: but they did not prevail with him;for he gathered suspicions from the probability there was that one whohad done so many things against the Romans must suffer for it, thoughnot from the mild temper of those that invited him. However, he wasafraid that he was invited to come up in order to be punished, untilVespasian sent besides these a third tribune, Nicanor, to him; hewas one that was well known to Josephus, and had been his familiaracquaintance in old time. When he was come, he enlarged upon the naturalmildness of the Romans towards those they have once conquered; and toldhim that he had behaved himself so valiantly, that the commanders ratheradmired than hated him; that the general was very desirous to have himbrought to him, not in order to punish him, for that he could do thoughhe should not come voluntarily, but that he was determined to preserve aman of his courage. He moreover added this, that Vespasian, had he beenresolved to impose upon him, would not have sent to him a friend of hisown, nor put the fairest color upon the vilest action, by pretendingfriendship and meaning perfidiousness; nor would he have himselfacquiesced, or come to him, had it been to deceive him. 

3. Now as Josephus began to hesitate with himself about Nicanor'sproposal, the soldiery were so angry, that they ran hastily to set fireto the den; but the tribune would not permit them so to do, as beingvery desirous to take the man alive. And now, as Nicanor lay hard atJosephus to comply, and he understood how the multitude of the enemiesthreatened him, he called to mind the dreams which he had dreamed in thenight time, whereby God had signified to him beforehand both thefuture calamities of the Jews, and the events that concerned the Romanemperors. Now Josephus was able to give shrewd conjectures about theinterpretation of such dreams as have been ambiguously delivered by God. Moreover, he was not unacquainted with the prophecies contained inthe sacred books, as being a priest himself, and of the posterity ofpriests: and just then was he in an ecstasy; and setting before him thetremendous images of the dreams he had lately had, he put up a secretprayer to God, and said, "Since it pleaseth thee, who hast created theJewish nation, to depress the same, and since all their good fortune isgone over to the Romans, and since thou hast made choice of this soulof mine to foretell what is to come to pass hereafter, I willingly givethem my hands, and am content to live. And I protest openly that I donot go over to the Romans as a deserter of the Jews, but as a ministerfrom thee. "

4. When he had said this, he complied with Nicanor's invitation. Butwhen those Jews who had fled with him understood that he yielded tothose that invited him to come up, they came about him in a body, andcried out, "Nay, indeed, now may the laws of our forefathers, whichGod ordained himself, well groan to purpose; that God we mean who hathcreated 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 thelight in a state of slavery? How soon hast thou forgotten thyself! Howmany hast thou persuaded to lose their lives for liberty! Thouhast therefore had a false reputation for manhood, and a like falsereputation for wisdom, if thou canst hope for preservation from thoseagainst whom thou hast fought so zealously, and art however willingto be preserved by them, if they be in earnest. But although the goodfortune of the Romans hath made thee forget thyself, we ought to takecare that the glory of our forefathers may not be tarnished. We willlend 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 dieas a traitor to them. " As soon as they said this, they began to thrusttheir swords at him, and threatened they would kill him, if he thoughtof yielding himself to the Romans. 

5. Upon this Josephus was afraid of their attacking him, and yet thoughthe should be a betrayer of the commands of God, if he died before theywere delivered. So he began to talk like a philosopher to them in thedistress he was then in, when he said thus to them: "O my friends, whyare we so earnest to kill ourselves? and why do we set our soul andbody, which are such dear companions, at such variance? Can any onepretend that I am not the man I was formerly? Nay, the Romans aresensible how that matter stands well enough. It is a brave thin to diein war; but so that it be according to the law of war, by the hand ofconquerors. 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 ifthey admit of mercy, and would spare their enemy, how much more oughtwe to have mercy upon ourselves, and to spare ourselves? For it iscertainly a foolish thing to do that to ourselves which we quarrel withthem for doing to us. I confess freely that it is a brave thing to diefor liberty; but still so that it be in war, and done by those who takethat liberty from us; but in the present case our enemies do neithermeet us in battle, nor do they kill us. Now he is equally a coward whowill not die when he is obliged to die, and he who will die when he isnot obliged so to do. What are we afraid of, when we will not go upto the Romans? Is it death? If so, what we are afraid of, when webut suspect our enemies will inflict it on us, shall we inflict it onourselves for certain? But it may be said we must be slaves. And are wethen in a clear state of liberty at present? It may also be said thatit is a manly act for one to kill himself. No, certainly, but a mostunmanly 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. Nowself-murder is a crime most remote from the common nature of allanimals, and an instance of impiety against God our Creator; nor indeedis there any animal that dies by its own contrivance, or by its ownmeans, for the desire of life is a law engraven in them all; on whichaccount we deem those that openly take it away from us to be ourenemies, 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 towhat he hath bestowed on him? For from him it is that we have receivedour being, and we ought to leave it to his disposal to take that beingaway from us. The bodies of all men are indeed mortal, and are createdout of corruptible matter; but the soul is ever immortal, and is aportion of the divinity that inhabits our bodies. Besides, if any onedestroys or abuses a depositum he hath received from a mere man, he isesteemed a wicked and perfidious person; but then if any one cast outof his body this Divine depositum, can we imagine that he who is therebyaffronted does not know of it? Moreover, our law justly ordains thatslaves which run away from their master shall be punished, though themasters they run away from may have been wicked masters to them. Andshall 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 ofthis life according to the law of nature, and pay that debt which wasreceived from God, when he that lent it us is pleased to require it backagain, enjoy eternal fame; that their houses and their posterity aresure, that their souls are pure and obedient, and obtain a most holyplace in heaven, from whence, in the revolutions of ages, they are againsent into pure bodies; while the souls of those whose hands have actedmadly against themselves are received by the darkest place in Hades, and while God, who is their Father, punishes those that offend againsteither of them in their posterity? for which reason God hates suchdoings, and the crime is punished by our most wise legislator. Accordingly, our laws determine that the bodies of such as killthemselves 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 ourenemies [sooner]. The laws of other nations also enjoin such men'shands to be cut off when they are dead, which had been made use of indestroying themselves when alive, while they reckoned that as thebody is alien from the soul, so is the hand alien from the body. It istherefore, my friends, a right thing to reason justly, and not add tothe calamities which men bring upon us impiety towards our Creator. Ifwe have a mind to preserve ourselves, let us do it; for to be preservedby those our enemies, to whom we have given so many demonstrations ofour courage, is no way inglorious; but if we have a mind to die, it isgood to die by the hand of those that have conquered us. For nay part, Iwill not run over to our enemies' quarters, in order to be a traitor tomyself; for certainly I should then be much more foolish than those thatdeserted to the enemy, since they did it in order to save themselves, and I should do it for destruction, for my own destruction. However, Iheartily wish the Romans may prove treacherous in this matter; for if, after their offer of their right hand for security, I be slain bythem, I shall die cheerfully, and carry away with me the sense of theirperfidiousness, as a consolation greater than victory itself. "

6. Nowthese and many the like motives did Josephus use to these men to preventtheir murdering themselves; but desperation had shut their ears, ashaving long ago devoted themselves to die, and they were irritated atJosephus. They then ran upon him with their swords in their hands, onefrom one quarter, and another from another, and called him a coward, andeveryone 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 toanother, and taking a third by the hand, and making a fourth ashamedof himself, by praying him to forbear, and being in this conditiondistracted with various passions, [as he well might in the greatdistress he was then in, ] he kept off every one of their swordsfrom killing him, and was forced to do like such wild beasts as areencompassed about on every side, who always turn themselves againstthose that last touched them. Nay, some of their right hands weredebilitated by the reverence they bare to their general in these hisfatal calamities, and their swords dropped out of their hands; and nota few of them there were, who, when they aimed to smite him with theirswords, they were not thoroughly either willing or able to do it. 

7. However, in this extreme distress, he was not destitute of his usualsagacity; but trusting himself to the providence of God, he put his lifeinto hazard [in the manner following]: "And now, " said he, "since it isresolved among you that you will die, come on, let us commit our mutualdeaths to determination by lot. He whom the lot falls to first, let himbe killed by him that hath the second lot, and thus fortune shall makeits progress through us all; nor shall any of us perish by his own righthand, for it would be unfair if, when the rest are gone, somebody shouldrepent and save himself. " This proposal appeared to them to be veryjust; and when he had prevailed with them to determine this matter bylots, he drew one of the lots for himself also. He who had the firstlot laid his neck bare to him that had the next, as supposing that thegeneral would die among them immediately; for they thought death, ifJosephus might but die with them, was sweeter than life; yet was he withanother 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 neitherto be condemned by the lot, nor, if he had been left to the last, toimbrue his right hand in the blood of his countrymen, he persuaded himto 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 ownwar with his friends, and was led by Nicanor to Vespasian. But now allthe Romans ran together to see him; and as the multitude pressed oneupon 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 remotecried out to have this their enemy put to death, while those that werenear called to mind the actions he had done, and a deep concernappeared at the change of his fortune. Nor were there any of the Romancommanders, how much soever they had been enraged at him before, butrelented when they came to the sight of him. Above all the rest, Titus'sown valor, and Josephus's own patience under his afflictions, made himpity him, as did also the commiseration of his age, when he recalledto mind that but a little while ago he was fighting, but lay now in thehands 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 issure; for which reason he then made a great many more to be of the samepitiful 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 greatcaution, 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 hadsomewhat in his mind that he would willingly say to himself alone. Whentherefore they were all ordered to withdraw, excepting Titus and two oftheir friends, he said, "Thou, O Vespasian, thinkest no more thanthat thou hast taken Josephus himself captive; but I come to thee as amessenger 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 becomesgenerals to die. Dost thou send me to Nero? For why? Are Nero'ssuccessors till they come to thee still alive? Thou, O Vespasian, artCaesar 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 deserveto 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, Vespasianat present did not believe him, but supposed that Josephus said this asa cunning trick, in order to his own preservation; but in a little timehe was convinced, and believed what he said to be true, God himselferecting his expectations, so as to think of obtaining the empire, andby other signs fore-showing his advancement. He also found Josephus tohave spoken truth on other occasions; for one of those friends that werepresent at that secret conference said to Josephus, "I cannot but wonderhow thou couldst not foretell to the people of Jotapata that they shouldbe taken, nor couldst foretell this captivity which hath happened tothyself, unless what thou now sayest be a vain thing, in order to avoidthe rage that is risen against thyself. " To which Josephus replied, "Idid foretell to the people of Jotapata that they would be taken on theforty-seventh day, and that I should be caught alive by the Romans. "Now when Vespasian had inquired of the captives privately about thesepredictions, he found them to be true, and then he began to believethose that concerned himself. Yet did he not set Josephus at libertyfrom his hands, but bestowed on him suits of clothes, and other preciousgifts; he treated him also in a very obliging manner, and continued soto do, Titus still joining his interest ill the honors that were donehim. 

CHAPTER 9. 

 How Joppa Was Taken, And Tiberias Delivered Up. 

1. Now Vespasian returned to Ptolemais on the fourth day of the monthPanemus, [Tamus] and from thence he came to Cesarea, which lay by thesea-side. This was a very great city of Judea, and for the greatest partinhabited by Greeks: the citizens here received both the Roman army andits general, with all sorts of acclamations and rejoicings, and thispartly out of the good-will they bore to the Romans, but principally outof the hatred they bore to those that were conquered by them; on whichaccount they came clamoring against Josephus in crowds, and desiredhe might be put to death. But Vespasian passed over this petitionconcerning him, as offered by the injudicious multitude, with a baresilence. Two of the legions also he placed at Cesarea, that they mightthere take their winter-quarters, as perceiving the city very fit forsuch a purpose; but he placed the tenth and the fifth at Scythopolis, that he might not distress Cesarea with the entire army. This place waswarm even in winter, as it was suffocating hot in the summer time, byreason 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 hadseditiously got out from among their enemies, as those that had escapedout of the demolished cities, which were in all a great number, andrepaired Joppa, which had been left desolate by Cestius, that it mightserve them for a place of refuge; and because the adjoining region hadbeen laid waste in the war, and was not capable of supporting them, theydetermined to go off to sea. They also built themselves a great manypiratical ships, and turned pirates upon the seas near to Syria, andPhoenicia, and Egypt, and made those seas unnavigable to all men. Nowas soon as Vespasian knew of their conspiracy, he sent both footmen andhorsemen to Joppa, which was unguarded in the night time; however, thosethat were in it perceived that they should be attacked, and were afraidof it; yet did they not endeavor to keep the Romans out, but fled totheir 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 eachother, where there are deep precipices, and great stones that jut outinto the sea, and where the chains wherewith Andromeda was bound haveleft their footsteps, which attest to the antiquity of that fable. Butthe north wind opposes and beats upon the shore, and dashes mightywaves against the rocks which receive them, and renders the haven moredangerous than the country they had deserted. Now as those people ofJoppa were floating about in this sea, in the morning there fell aviolent wind upon them; it is called by those that sail there "theblack north wind, " and there dashed their ships one against another, and dashed some of them against the rocks, and carried many of them byforce, 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, thatthey were afraid to come to land; nay, the waves rose so very high, thatthey drowned them; nor was there any place whither they could fly, norany way to save themselves; while they were thrust out of the sea, bythe violence of the wind, if they staid where they were, and out of thecity by the violence of the Romans. And much lamentation there was whenthe ships were dashed against one another, and a terrible noise whenthey were broken to pieces; and some of the multitude that were inthem were covered with waves, and so perished, and a great many wereembarrassed with shipwrecks. But some of them thought that to dieby their own swords was lighter than by the sea, and so they killedthemselves before they were drowned; although the greatest part of themwere carried by the waves, and dashed to pieces against the abruptparts of the rocks, insomuch that the sea was bloody a long way, and themaritime parts were full of dead bodies; for the Romans came upon thosethat were carried to the shore, and destroyed them; and the number ofthe bodies that were thus thrown out of the sea was four thousand andtwo hundred. The Romans also took the city without opposition, andutterly demolished it. 

4. And thus was Joppa taken twice by the Romans in a little time; butVespasian, in order to prevent these pirates from coming thither anymore, erected a camp there, where the citadel of Joppa had been, andleft a body of horse in it, with a few footmen, that these last mightstay there and guard the camp, and the horsemen might spoil the countrythat lay round it, and might destroy the neighboring villages andsmaller cities. So these troops overran the country, as they wereordered to do, and every day cut to pieces and laid desolate the wholeregion. 

5. But now, when the fate of Jotapata was related at Jerusalem, a greatmany at the first disbelieved it, on account of the vastness of thecalamity, and because they had no eye-witness to attest the truthof what was related about it; for not one person was saved to be amessenger of that news, but a fame was spread abroad at random that thecity was taken, as such fame usually spreads bad news about. However, the truth was known by degrees, from the places near Jotapata, andappeared to all to be too true. Yet were there fictitious stories addedto what was really done; for it was reported that Josephus was slainat the taking of the city, which piece of news filled Jerusalem full ofsorrow. In every house also, and among all to whom any of the slainwere allied, there was a lamentation for them; but the mourning for thecommander was a public one; and some mourned for those that had livedwith them, others for their kindred, others for their friends, andothers for their brethren, but all mourned for Josephus; insomuch thatthe lamentation did not cease in the city before the thirtieth day; anda great many hired mourners, [5] with their pipes, who should begin themelancholy ditties for them. 

6. But as the truth came out in time, it appeared how the affairs ofJotapata really stood; yet was it found that the death of Josephus wasa fiction; and when they understood that he was alive, and was among theRomans, and that the commanders treated him at another rate than theytreated captives, they were as vehemently angry at him now as they hadshowed their good-will before, when he appeared to have been dead. Hewas also abused by some as having been a coward, and by others as adeserter; and the city was full of indignation at him, and of reproachescast upon him; their rage was also aggravated by their afflictions, andmore inflamed by their ill success; and what usually becomes an occasionof caution to wise men, I mean affliction, became a spur to them toventure on further calamities, and the end of one misery became stillthe beginning of another; they therefore resolved to fall on the Romansthe more vehemently, as resolving to be revenged on him in revengingthemselves on the Romans. And this was the state of Jerusalem as to thetroubles which now came upon it. 

7. But Vespasian, in order to see the kingdom of Agrippa, while the kingpersuaded himself so to do, [partly in order to his treating the generaland his army in the best and most splendid manner his private affairswould enable him to do, and partly that he might, by their means, correct such things as were amiss in his government, ] he removed fromthat Cesarea which was by the sea-side, and went to that which is calledCesarea Philippi [6] and there he refreshed his army for twenty days, and was himself feasted by king Agrippa, where he also returned publicthanks to God for the good success he had had in his undertakings. Butas soon as he was informed that Tiberias was fond of innovations, andthat Tarichere had revolted, both which cities were parts of the kingdomof Agrippa, and was satisfied within himself that the Jews were everywhere perverted [from their obedience to their governors], he thought itseasonable to make an expedition against these cities, and that for thesake of Agrippa, and in order to bring his cities to reason. So he sentaway his son Titus to [the other] Cesarea, that he might bring the armythat lay there to Seythopous, which is the largest city of Decapolis, and in the neighborhood of Tiberias, whither he came, and where hewaited for his son. He then came with three legions, and pitched hiscamp thirty furlongs off Tiberias, at a certain station easily seenby the innovators; it is named Sennabris. He also sent Valerian, adecurion, with fifty horsemen, to speak peaceably to those that were inthe city, and to exhort them to give him assurances of their fidelity;for he had heard that the people were desirous of peace, but wereobliged by some of the seditious part to join with them, and so wereforced to fight for them. When Valerian had marched up to the place, andwas near the wall, he alighted off his horse, and made those that werewith him to do the same, that they might not be thought to come toskirmish with them; but before they could come to a discourse one withanother, the most potent men among the seditious made a sally upon themarmed; their leader was one whose name was Jesus, the son of Shaphat, the principal head of a band of robbers. Now Valerian, neither thinkingit safe to fight contrary to the commands of the general, though hewere secure of a victory, and knowing that it was a very hazardousundertaking for a few to fight with many, for those that were unprovidedto fight those that were ready, and being on other accounts surprised atthis unexpected onset of the Jews, he ran away on foot, as did five ofthe rest in like manner, and left their horses behind them; which horsesJesus led away into the city, and rejoiced as if they had taken them inbattle, and not by treachery. 

8. Now the seniors of the people, and such as were of principalauthority among them, fearing what would be the issue of this matter, fled to the camp of the Romans; they then took their king along withthem, and fell down before Vespasian, to supplicate his favor, andbesought him not to overlook them, nor to impute the madness of a few tothe whole city, to spare a people that have been ever civil andobliging to the Romans; but to bring the authors of this revolt to duepunishment, who had hitherto so watched them, that though they werezealous to give them the security of their right hands of a long time, yet could they not accomplish the same. With these supplications thegeneral complied, although he were very angry at the whole city aboutthe carrying off his horses, and this because he saw that Agrippawas under a great concern for them. So when Vespasian and Agrippa hadaccepted of their right hands by way of security, Jesus and his partythought it not safe for them to continue at Tiberias, so they ranaway to Tarichete. The next day Vespasian sent Trajan before with somehorsemen to the citadel, to make trial of the multitude, whether theywere all disposed for peace; and as soon as he knew that the people wereof the same mind with the petitioner, he took his army, and went to thecity; upon which the citizens opened to him their gates, and met himwith 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 wereso narrow, Vespasian commanded the south wall to be broken down, andso made a broad passage for their entrance. However, he charged them toabstain from rapine and injustice, in order to gratify the king; and onhis account spared the rest of the wall, while the king undertook forthem that they should continue [faithful to the Romans] for the time tocome. And thus did he restore this city to a quiet state, after it hadbeen 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 beforced to stay there, and have a long war; for all the innovators hadgotten 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 ofthe country the Lake of Gennesareth. The city itself is situated likeTiberias, at the bottom of a mountain, and on those sides which are notwashed by the sea, had been strongly fortified by Josephus, though notso strongly as Tiberias; for the wall of Tiberias had been built at thebeginning of the Jews' revolt, when he had great plenty of money, andgreat power, but Tarichese 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 theywere so fitted up, that they might undertake a Sea-fight also. But asthe Romans were building a wall about their camp, Jesu and his partywere neither affrighted at their number, nor at the good order they werein, but made a sally upon them; and at the very first onset the buildersof the wall were dispersed; and these pulled what little they had beforebuilt to pieces; but as soon as they saw the armed men getting together, and before they had suffered any thing themselves, they retired to theirown men. But then the Romans pursued them, and drove them into theirships, where they launched out as far as might give them the opportunityof reaching the Romans with what they threw at them, and then castanchor, and brought their ships close, as in a line of battle, andthence fought the enemy from the sea, who were themselves at land. ButVespasian hearing that a great multitude of them were gotten together inthe plain that was before the city, he thereupon sent his son, with sixhundred chosen horsemen, to disperse them. 

2. But when Titus perceived that the enemy was very numerous, he sent tohis father, and informed him that he should want more forces. But ashe saw a great many of the horsemen eager to fight, and that before anysuccors could come to them, and that yet some of them were privatelyunder a sort of consternation at the multitude of the Jews, he stood ina 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 thebeginning of my speech, that so you may not be ignorant who you are, andwho 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 handshitherto; but as for the Jews, that I may speak of them too, though theyhave been already beaten, yet do they not give up the cause; and a sadthing it would be for us to grow wealthy under good success, when theybear up under their misfortunes. As to the alacrity which you showpublicly, I see it, and rejoice at it; yet am I afraid lest themultitude 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 whothose are against whom we are to fight. Now these Jews, though they bevery bold and great despisers of death, are but a disorderly body, andunskillful in war, and may rather be called a rout than an army; while Ineed say nothing of our skill and our good order; for this is the reasonwhy we Romans alone are exercised for war in time of peace, that we maynot 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, ifwe 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 effectunarmed, while you are well armed; with footmen, while you are horsemen;with those that have no good general, while you have one; and as theseadvantages make you in effect manifold more than you are, so dotheir disadvantages mightily diminish their number. Now it is notthe multitude of men, though they be soldiers, that manages wars withsuccess, but it is their bravery that does it, though they be but afew; for a few are easily set in battle-array, and can easily assist oneanother, while over-numerous armies are more hurt by themselves than bytheir enemies. It is boldness and rashness, the effects of madness, thatconduct the Jews. Those passions indeed make a great figure when theysucceed, but are quite extinguished upon the least ill success; but weare led on by courage, and obedience, and fortitude, which shows itselfindeed in our good fortune, but still does not for ever desert us in ourill fortune. Nay, indeed, your fighting is to be on greater motives thanthose 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 thanglory? and that it may never be said, that after we have got dominionof the habitable earth, the Jews are able to confront us. We must alsoreflect upon this, that there is no fear of our suffering any incurabledisaster in the present case; for those that are ready to assist usare many, and at hand also; yet it is in our power to seize upon thisvictory ourselves; and I think we ought to prevent the coming of thosemy father is sending to us for our assistance, that our success may bepeculiar to ourselves, and of greater reputation to us. And I cannot butthink this an opportunity wherein my father, and I, and you shall beall put to the trial, whether he be worthy of his former gloriousperformances, whether I be his son in reality, and whether you be reallymy soldiers; for it is usual for my father to conquer; and for myself, Ishould not bear the thoughts of returning to him if I were once takenby the enemy. And how will you be able to avoid being ashamed, if you donot show equal courage with your commander, when he goes before you intodanger? 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 desertme, but persuade yourselves that God will be assisting to my onset. Knowthis also before we begin, that we shall now have better success than weshould 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 hundredhorsemen, they were uneasy at it, because the reputation of the victorywould be diminished by being common to so many. Vespasian had also sentboth Antonius and Silo, with two thousand archers, and had given it themin 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 werecommanded, and prevented those that attempted to assist them that way;And now Titus made his own horse march first against the enemy, as didthe others with a great noise after him, and extended themselves uponthe plain as wide as the enemy which confronted them; by which meansthey 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 theywere pricked with their long poles, and overborne by the violent noiseof the horsemen, they came to be trampled under their feet; many also ofthem 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 Tituspressed upon the hindmost, and slew them; and of the rest, some he fellupon as they stood on heaps, and some he prevented, and met them in themouth, and run them through; many also he leaped upon as they fell oneupon another, and trod them down, and cut off all the retreat they hadto the wall, and turned them back into the plain, till at last theyforced a passage by their multitude, and got away, and ran into thecity. 

4. But now there fell out a terrible sedition among them within thecity; for the inhabitants themselves, who had possessions there, andto whom the city belonged, were not disposed to fight from the verybeginning; and now the less so, because they had been beaten; but theforeigners, which were very numerous, would force them to fight so muchthe more, insomuch that there was a clamor and a tumult among them, asall mutually angry one at another. And when Titus heard this tumult, forhe was not far from the wall, he cried out, "Fellow soldiers, now is thetime; and why do we make any delay, when God is giving up the Jews tous? Take the victory which is given you: do not you hear what a noisethey make? Those that have escaped our hands are ill an uproar againstone another. We have the city if we make haste; but besides haste, wemust undergo some labor, and use some courage; for no great thing usesto be accomplished without danger: accordingly, we must not only preventtheir uniting again, which necessity will soon compel them to do, but wemust also prevent the coming of our own men to our assistance, that, asfew as we are, we may conquer so great a multitude, and may ourselvesalone take the city:"

5. As soon as ever Titus had said this, he leaped upon his horse, androde apace down to the lake; by which lake he marched, and enteredinto 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 theboldness 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 thatwere about Jesus fled over the country, while others of them ran downto the lake, and met the enemy in the teeth, and some were slain as theywere getting up into the ships, but others of them as they attemptedto overtake those that were already gone aboard. There was also a greatslaughter made in the city, while those foreigners that had not fledaway already made opposition; but the natural inhabitants were killedwithout fighting: for in hopes of Titus's giving them his right hand fortheir security, and out of a consciousness that they had not given anyconsent to the war, they avoided fighting, till Titus had slain theauthors of this revolt, and then put a stop to any further slaughters, out of commiseration of these inhabitants of the place. But for thosethat had fled to the lake, upon seeing the city taken, they sailed asfar as they possibly could from the enemy. 

6. Hereupon Titus sent one of his horsemen to his father, and let himknow the good news of what he had done; at which, as was natural, he wasvery joyful, both on account of the courage and glorious actions of hisson; for he thought that now the greatest part of the war was over. Hethen came thither himself, and set men to guard the city, and gave themcommand to take care that nobody got privately out of it, but to killsuch as attempted so to do. And on the next day he went down to thelake, and commanded that vessels should be fitted up, in order to pursuethose that had escaped in the ships. These vessels were quickly gottenready accordingly, because there was great plenty of materials, and agreat number of artificers also. 

7. Now this lake of Gennesareth is so called from the country adjoiningto it. Its breadth is forty furlongs, and its length one hundred andforty; its waters are sweet, and very agreeable for drinking, for theyare 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 isalso of a temperate nature when you draw it up, and of a more gentlenature than river or fountain water, and yet always cooler than onecould expect in so diffuse a place as this is. Now when this wateris kept in the open air, it is as cold as that snow which the countrypeople are accustomed to make by night in summer. There are severalkinds of fish in it, different both to the taste and the sight fromthose elsewhere. It is divided into two parts by the river Jordan. NowPanium is thought to be the fountain of Jordan, but in reality it iscarried thither after an occult manner from the place called Phiala:this place lies as you go up to Trachonitis, and is a hundred and twentyfurlongs 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, fromthe roundness of its circumference, as being round like a wheel; itswater continues always up to its edges, without either sinking orrunning over. And as this origin of Jordan was formerly not known, itwas discovered so to be when Philip was tetrarch of Trachonitis; forhe had chaff thrown into Phiala, and it was found at Paninto, where theancients thought the fountain-head of the river was, whither it had beentherefore carried [by the waters]. As for Panium itself, its naturalbeauty had been improved by the royal liberality of Agrippa, and adornedat his expenses. Now Jordan's visible stream arises from this cavern, and divides the marshes and fens of the lake Semechonitis; when it hathrun another hundred and twenty furlongs, it first passes by the cityJulias, and then passes through the middle of the lake Gennesareth;after which it runs a long way over a desert, and then makes its exitinto the lake Asphaltitis. 

8. The country also that lies over against this lake hath the same nameof Gennesareth; its nature is wonderful as well as its beauty; itssoil is so fruitful that all sorts of trees can grow upon it, and theinhabitants accordingly plant all sorts of trees there; for the temperof the air is so well mixed, that it agrees very well with those severalsorts, particularly walnuts, which require the coldest air, flourishthere in vast plenty; there are palm trees also, which grow best in hotair; fig trees also and olives grow near them, which yet require an airthat is more temperate. One may call this place the ambition of nature, where it forces those plants that are naturally enemies to one anotherto agree together; it is a happy contention of the seasons, as ifevery one of them laid claim to this country; for it not only nourishesdifferent sorts of autumnal fruit beyond men's expectation, butpreserves them a great while; it supplies men with the principal fruits, with grapes and figs continually, during ten months of the year [7] andthe rest of the fruits as they become ripe together through the wholeyear; for besides the good temperature of the air, it is also wateredfrom a most fertile fountain. The people of the country call itCapharnaum. Some have thought it to be a vein of the Nile, because itproduces the Coracin fish as well as that lake does which is near toAlexandria. The length of this country extends itself along the banksof this lake that bears the same name for thirty furlongs, and is inbreadth twenty, And this is the nature of that place. 

9. But now, when the vessels were gotten ready, Vespasian put uponship-board as many of his forces as he thought sufficient to be too hardfor those that were upon the lake, and set sail after them. Now thesewhich were driven into the lake could neither fly to the land, whereall was in their enemies' hand, and in war against them; nor could theyfight upon the level by sea, for their ships were small and fitted onlyfor piracy; they were too weak to fight with Vespasian's vessels, andthe mariners that were in them were so few, that they were afraid tocome near the Romans, who attacked them in great numbers. However, asthey sailed round about the vessels, and sometimes as they came nearthem, 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 harmthemselves in both cases. As for the stones they threw at the Romans, they only made a sound one after another, for they threw them againstsuch as were in their armor, while the Roman darts could reach the Jewsthemselves; and when they ventured to come near the Romans, they becamesufferers themselves before they could do any harm to the ether, and were drowned, they and their ships together. As for those thatendeavored to come to an actual fight, the Romans ran many of themthrough with their long poles. Sometimes the Romans leaped into theirships, with swords in their hands, and slew them; but when some of themmet the vessels, the Romans caught them by the middle, and destroyed atonce their ships and themselves who were taken in them. And for such aswere 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 theirenemies, the Romans cut off either their heads or their hands; andindeed they were destroyed after various manners every where, till therest being put to flight, were forced to get upon the land, while thevessels encompassed them about [on the sea]: but as many of these wererepulsed when they were getting ashore, they were killed by the dartsupon the lake; and the Romans leaped out of their vessels, and destroyeda 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 terriblestink, and a very sad sight there was on the following days over thatcountry; for as for the shores, they were full of shipwrecks, and ofdead bodies all swelled; and as the dead bodies were inflamed by thesun, and putrefied, they corrupted the air, insomuch that the miserywas not only the object of commiseration to the Jews, but to those thathated them, and had been the authors of that misery. This was the upshotof the sea-fight. The number of the slain, including those that werekilled in the city before, was six thousand and five hundred. 

10. After this fight was over, Vespasian sat upon his tribunalat Taricheae, in order to distinguish the foreigners from the oldinhabitants; for those foreigners appear to have begun the war. So hedeliberated with the other commanders, whether he ought to save thoseold inhabitants or not. And when those commanders alleged that thedismission of them would be to his own disadvantage, because, when theywere once set at liberty, they would not be at rest, since they would bepeople destitute of proper habitations, and would be able to compel suchas they fled to fight against us, Vespasian acknowledged that they didnot deserve to be saved, and that if they had leave given them to flyaway, they would make use of it against those that gave them that leave. But still he considered with himself after what manner they should beslain [8] for if he had them slain there, he suspected the people of thecountry would thereby become his enemies; for that to be sure they wouldnever bear it, that so many that had been supplicants to him shouldbe killed; and to offer violence to them, after he had given themassurances of their lives, he could not himself bear to do it. However, his friends were too hard for him, and pretended that nothing againstJews could be any impiety, and that he ought to prefer what wasprofitable before what was fit to be done, where both could not be madeconsistent. So he gave them an ambiguous liberty to do as they advised, and permitted the prisoners to go along no other road than that whichled to Tiberias only. So they readily believed what they desired to betrue, and went along securely, with their effects, the way which wasallowed them, while the Romans seized upon all the road that led toTiberias, that none of them might go out of it, and shut them up in thecity. Then came Vespasian, and ordered them all to stand in the stadium, and commanded them to kill the old men, together with the others thatwere useless, which were in number a thousand and two hundred. Out ofthe young men he chose six thousand of the strongest, and sent them toNero, to dig through the Isthmus, and sold the remainder for slaves, being thirty thousand and four hundred, besides such as he made apresent of to Agrippa; for as to those that belonged to his kingdom, hegave him leave to do what he pleased with them; however, the king soldthese also for slaves; but for the rest of the multitude, who wereTrachonites, and Gaulanites, and of Hippos, and some of Gadara, thegreatest part of them were seditious persons and fugitives, who were ofsuch shameful characters, that they preferred war before peace. Theseprisoners were taken on the eighth day of the month Gorpiaeus [Elul]. 

WAR BOOK 3 NOTES

[1] Take the confirmation of this in the words of Suetonius, hereproduced by Dr. Hudson: "In the reign of Claudius, " says he, "Vespasian, for the sake of Narcissus, was sent as a lieutenant of a legion intoGermany. Thence he removed into Britain battles with the enemy. " InVesp. Sect. 4. We may also here note from Josephus, that Claudius theemperor, who triumphed for the conquest of Britain, was enabled so todo by Vespasian's conduct and bravery, and that he is here styled "thefather of Vespasian. "

[2] Spanheim and Reland both agree, that the two cities here esteemedgreater than Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, were Rome and Alexandria;nor is there any occasion for doubt in so plain a case. 

[3] This description of the exact symmetry and regularity of the Romanarmy, and of the Roman encampments, with the sounding their trumpets, etc. And order of war, described in this and the next chapter, is sovery like to the symmetry and regularity of the people of Israel in thewilderness, [see Description of the Temples, ch. 9. , ] that one cannotwell avoid the supposal, that the one was the ultimate pattern of theother, and that the tactics of the ancients were taken from the rulesgiven by God to Moses. And it is thought by some skillful in thesematters, that these accounts of Josephus, as to the Roman camp andarmor, and conduct in war, are preferable to those in the Roman authorsthemselves. 

[4] I cannot but here observe an Eastern way of speaking, frequent amongthem, but not usual among us, where the word "only" or "alone" is notset down, but perhaps some way supplied in the pronunciation. ThusJosephus here says, that those of Jotapata slew seven of the Romans asthey were marching off, because the Romans' retreat was regular, theirbodies were covered over with their armor, and the Jews fought at somedistance; his meaning is clear, that these were the reasons why theyslew only, or no more than seven. I have met with many the likeexamples in the Scriptures, in Josephus, etc. ; but did not note down theparticular places. This observation ought to be borne in mind upon manyoccasions. 

[5] 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 mayconsult the notes of Grotius. 

[6] Of this Cesarea Philippi [twice mentioned in our New Testament, Matthew 16:13; Mark 8;27] there are coins still extant, Spanheim hereinforms us. 

[7] I do not know where to find the law of Moses here mentioned byJosephus, and afterwards by Eleazar, 13. VII. Ch. 8. Sect. 7, andalmost implied in B. I. Ch. 13. Sect. 10, by Josephus's commendation ofPhasaelus for doing so; I mean, whereby Jewish generals and people wereobliged to kill themselves, rather than go into slavery under heathens. I doubt this would have been no better than "self-murder;" and I believeit was rather some vain doctrine, or interpretation, of the rigidPharisees, or Essens, or Herodiaus, than a just consequence from any lawof God delivered by Moses. 

[7] It may be worth our while to observe here, that near this lake ofGennesareth 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 leavesof 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 ofthe year, came and "found leaves" on a fig tree near Jerusalem, but "nofigs, because the time of" new "figs" ripening "was not yet, " he saysvery true; nor were they therefore other than old leaves which ourSavior saw, and old figs which he expected, and which even with uscommonly hang on the trees all winter long. 

[8] This is the most cruel and barbarous action that Vespasian ever didin this whole war, as he did it with great reluctance also. It was doneboth after public assurance given of sparing the prisoners' lives, andwhen all knew and confessed that these prisoners were no way guiltyof any sedition against the Romans. Nor indeed did Titus now give hisconsent, so far as appears, nor ever act of himself so barbarously;nay, soon after this, Titus grew quite weary of shedding blood, and ofpunishing the innocent with the guilty, and gave the people of Gischalaleave to keep the Jewish sabbath, B. IV. Ch. 2. Sect. 3, 5, in the midstof their siege. Nor was Vespasian disposed to do what he did, till hisofficers persuaded him, and that from two principal topics, viz. Thatnothing could be unjust that was done against Jews; and that when bothcannot be consistent, advantage must prevail over justice. Admirablecourt 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, hadrevolted from the Romans, did, upon the conquest of Taricheae, deliverthemselves up to them again. And the Romans received all the fortressesand the cities, excepting Gischala and those that had seized upon MountTabor; Gamala also, which is a city ever against Tarichem, but on theother side of the lake, conspired with them. This city lay Upon theborders of Agrippa's kingdom, as also did Sogana and Scleucia. And thesewere both parts of Gaulanitis; for Sogana was a part of that calledthe Upper Gaulanitis, as was Gamala of the Lower; while Selcucia wassituated at the lake Semechouitis, which lake is thirty furlongs inbreadth, and sixty in length; its marshes reach as far as the placeDaphne, which in other respects is a delicious place, and hath suchfountains as supply water to what is called Little Jordan, under thetemple of the golden calf, [1] where it is sent into Great Jordan. NowAgrippa had united Sogana and Seleucia by leagues to himself, at thevery beginning of the revolt from the Romans; yet did not Gamala accedeto them, but relied upon the difficulty of the place, which was greaterthan that of Jotapata, for it was situated upon a rough ridge of a highmountain, 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. Bothon 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 theyare joined to the mountain, somewhat easier of ascent than the other;but then the people belonging to the place have cut an oblique ditchthere, and made that hard to be ascended also. On its acclivity, whichis straight, houses are built, and those very thick and close to oneanother. The city also hangs so strangely, that it looks as if it wouldfall down upon itself, so sharp is it at the top. It is exposed to thesouth, and its southern mount, which reaches to an immense height, wasin 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 wasalso a spring of water within the wall, at the utmost limits of thecity. 

2. As this city was naturally hard to be taken, so had Josephus, bybuilding a wall about it, made it still stronger, as also by ditches andmines under ground. The people that were in it were made more bold bythe nature of the place than the people of Jotapata had been, but ithad much fewer fighting men in it; and they had such a confidence inthe situation of the place, that they thought the enemy could not be toomany for them; for the city had been filled with those that had fledto it for safety, on account of its strength; on which account theyhad been able to resist those whom Agrippa sent to besiege it for sevenmonths together. 

3. But Vespasian removed from Emmaus, where he had last pitched hiscamp before the city Tiberias, [now Emmaus, if it be interpreted, maybe rendered "a warm bath, " for therein is a spring of warm water, usefulfor healing, ] and came to Gamala; yet was its situation such that he wasnot able to encompass it all round with soldiers to watch it; but wherethe places were practicable, he set men to watch it, and seized upon themountain which was over it. And as the legions, according to their usualcustom, were fortifying their camp upon that mountain, he began to castup banks at the bottom, at the part towards the east, where the highesttower of the whole city was, and where the fifteenth legion pitchedtheir camp; while the fifth legion did duty over against the midst ofthe city, and whilst the tenth legion filled up the ditches and thevalleys. Now at this time it was that as king Agrippa was come nighthe walls, and was endeavoring to speak to those that were on the wallsabout a surrender, he was hit with a stone on his right elbow by one ofthe slingers; he was then immediately surrounded with his own men. Butthe Romans were excited to set about the siege, by their indignationon the king's account, and by their fear on their own account, asconcluding that those men would omit no kinds of barbarity againstforeigners and enemies, who where so enraged against one of their ownnation, and one that advised them to nothing but what was for their ownadvantage. 

4. Now when the banks were finished, which was done on the sudden, bothby the multitude of hands, and by their being accustomed to such work, they brought the machines; but Chares and Joseph, who were the mostpotent men in the city, set their armed men in order, though alreadyin a fright, because they did not suppose that the city could hold outlong, since they had not a sufficient quantity either of water, or ofother necessaries. However, these their leaders encouraged them, andbrought them out upon the wall, and for a while indeed they drove awaythose that were bringing the machines; but when those machines threwdarts and stones at them, they retired into the city; then did theRomans bring battering rams to three several places, and made the wallshake [and fall]. They then poured in over the parts of the wall thatwere 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 thatwere in the city; but these men fell upon the Romans for some time, attheir first entrance, and prevented their going any further, and withgreat courage beat them back; and the Romans were so overpowered by thegreater multitude of the people, who beat them on every side, that theywere obliged to run into the upper parts of the city. Whereupon thepeople turned about, and fell upon their enemies, who had attacked them, and thrust them down to the lower parts, and as they were distressedby the narrowness and difficulty of the place, slew them; and as theseRomans could neither beat those back that were above them, nor escapethe force of their own men that were forcing their way forward, theywere compelled to fly into their enemies' houses, which were low; butthese houses being thus full, of soldiers, whose weight they could notbear, fell down suddenly; and when one house fell, it shook down a greatmany of those that were under it, as did those do to such as were underthem. By this means a vast number of the Romans perished; for they wereso terribly distressed, that although they saw the houses subsiding, they were compelled to leap upon the tops of them; so that a great manywere ground to powder by these ruins, and a great many of those thatgot from under them lost some of their limbs, but still a greater numberwere suffocated by the dust that arose from those ruins. The peopleof Gamala supposed this to be an assistance afforded them by God, andwithout regarding what damage they suffered themselves, they pressedforward, and thrust the enemy upon the tops of their houses; and whenthey stumbled in the sharp and narrow streets, and were perpetuallyfalling 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; fordrawing the swords of those that were dead, they made use of them todespatch such as were only half dead; nay, there were a great numberwho, upon their falling down from the tops of the houses, stabbedthemselves, and died after that manner; nor indeed was it easy for thosethat were beaten back to fly away; for they were so unacquainted withthe ways, and the dust was so thick, that they wandered about withoutknowing one another, and fell down dead among the crowd. 

5. Those therefore that were able to find the ways out of the cityretired. But now Vespasian always staid among those that were hard set;for he was deeply affected with seeing the ruins of the city fallingupon his army, and forgot to take care of his own preservation. He wentup 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 thensent 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 theactions he had done from his youth, and recollecting his courage, as ifhe had been excited by a divine fury, he covered himself and those thatwere with him with their shields, and formed a testudo over both theirbodies and their armor, and bore up against the enemy's attacks, whocame running down from the top of the city; and without showing anydread 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 uponhim, he retired, though without showing his back to them till he wasgotten out of the walls of the city. Now a great number of the Romansfell in this battle, among whom was Ebutius, the decurion, a man whoappeared not only in this engagement, wherein he fell, but every where, and in former engagements, to be of the truest courage, and one that haddone very great mischief to the Jews. But there was a centurion whosename was Gallus, who, during this disorder, being encompassed about, he and ten other soldiers privately crept into the house of a certainperson, where he heard them talking at supper, what the people intendedto do against the Romans, or about themselves [for both the man himselfand those with him were Syrians]. So he got up in the night time, andcut all their throats, and escaped, together with his soldiers, to theRomans. 

6. And now Vespasian comforted his army, which was much dejected byreflecting on their ill success, and because they had never beforefallen into such a calamity, and besides this, because they were greatlyashamed that they had left their general alone in great dangers. As towhat concerned himself, he avoided to say any thing, that he might byno means seem to complain of it; but he said that "we ought to bearmanfully what usually falls out in war, and this, by considering whatthe nature of war is, and how it can never be that we must conquerwithout bloodshed on our own side; for there stands about us thatfortune which is of its own nature mutable; that while they had killedso many ten thousands of the Jews, they had now paid their small shareof the reckoning to fate; and as it is the part of weak people to be toomuch puffed up with good success, so is it the part of cowards to be toomuch aftrighted at that which is ill; for the change from the one to theother is sudden on both sides; and he is the best warrior who is of asober mind under misfortunes, that he may continue in that temper, andcheerfully recover what had been lost formerly; and as for what had nowhappened, it was neither owing to their own effeminacy, nor to the valorof the Jews, but the difficulty of the place was the occasion of theiradvantage, and of our disappointment. Upon reflecting on which matterone might blame your zeal as perfectly ungovernable; for when the enemyhad retired to their highest fastnesses, you ought to have restrainedyourselves, and not, by presenting yourselves at the top of the city, tobe exposed to dangers; but upon your having obtained the lower parts ofthe city, you ought to have provoked those that had retired thither toa safe and settled battle; whereas, in rushing so hastily upon victory, you took no care of your safety. But this incautiousness in war, andthis madness of zeal, is not a Roman maxim. While we perform all thatwe attempt by skill and good order, that procedure is the part ofbarbarians, and is what the Jews chiefly support themselves by. We oughttherefore to return to our own virtue, and to be rather angry than anylonger dejected at this unlucky misfortune, and let every one seek forhis own consolation from his own hand; for by this means he will avengethose that have been destroyed, and punish those that have killed them. For myself, I will endeavor, as I have now done, to go first beforeyou against your enemies in every engagement, and to be the last thatretires from it. "

7. So Vespasian encouraged his army by this speech; but for the peopleof Gamala, it happened that they took courage for a little while, uponsuch great and unaccountable success as they had had. But when theyconsidered with themselves that they had now no hopes of any terms ofaccommodation, and reflecting upon it that they could not get away, andthat their provisions began already to be short, they were exceedinglycast down, and their courage failed them; yet did they not neglect whatmight be for their preservation, so far as they were able, but the mostcourageous among them guarded those parts of the wall that were beatendown, while the more infirm did the same to the rest of the wall thatstill remained round the city. And as the Romans raised their banks, andattempted to get into the city a second time, a great many of them fledout of the city through impracticable valleys, where no guards wereplaced, as also through subterraneous caverns; while those that wereafraid of being caught, and for that reason staid in the city, perishedfor want of food; for what food they had was brought together from allquarters, and reserved for the fighting men. 

8. And these were the hard circumstances that the people of Gamalawere in. But now Vespasian went about other work by the by, during thissiege, and that was to subdue those that had seized upon Mount Tabor, aplace 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 beascended 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 awall in forty days' time, and furnished it with other materials, andwith water from below, for the inhabitants only made use of rain water. As therefore there was a great multitude of people gotten togetherupon this mountain, Vespasian sent Placidus with six hundred horsementhither. Now, as it was impossible for him to ascend the mountain, heinvited many of them to peace, by the offer of his right hand for theirsecurity, and of his intercession for them. Accordingly they came down, but with a treacherous design, as well as he had the like treacherousdesign 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 camedown, as complying with his proposals, but it was in order to fall uponhim when he was not aware of it: however, Placidus's stratagem was toohard for theirs; for when the Jews began to fight, he pretended to runaway, and when they were in pursuit of the Romans, he enticed thema 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 theretreat of the rest of the multitude, and hindered their return. So theyleft Tabor, and fled to Jerusalem, while the people of the country cameto terms with him, for their water failed them, and so they delivered upthe mountain and themselves to Placidus. 

9. But of the people of Gamala, those that were of the bolder sort fledaway and hid themselves, while the more infirm perished by famine; butthe men of war sustained the siege till the two and twentieth day ofthe month Hyperberetmus, [Tisri, ] when three soldiers of the fifteenthlegion, about the morning watch, got under a high tower that was nearthem, and undermined it, without making any noise; nor when they eithercame 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 theircoming avoided making a noise, and when they had rolled away five of itsstrongest stones, they went away hastily; whereupon the tower fell downon a sudden, with a very great noise, and its guard fell headlongwith it; so that those that kept guard at other places were under suchdisturbance, that they ran away; the Romans also slew many of those thatventured 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 aftrighted 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 wasthat Chares, who was ill, and under the physician's hands, gave up theghost, the fear he was in greatly contributing to make his distemperfatal to him. But the Romans so well remembered their former illsuccess, that they did not enter the city till the three and twentiethday of the forementioned month. 

10. At which time Titus, who was now returned, out of the indignationhe had at the destruction the Romans had undergone while he was absent, took two hundred chosen horsemen and some footmen with him, and enteredwithout noise into the city. Now as the watch perceived that he wascoming, they made a noise, and betook themselves to their arms; and asthat his entrance was presently known to those that were in the city, some of them caught hold of their children and their wives, and drewthem after them, and fled away to the citadel, with lamentationsand cries, while others of them went to meet Titus, and were killedperpetually; but so many of them as were hindered from running up tothe citadel, not knowing what in the world to do, fell among the Romanguards, while the groans of those that were killed were prodigiouslygreat every where, and blood ran down over all the lower parts of thecity, from the upper. But then Vespasian himself came to his assistanceagainst those that had fled to the citadel, and brought his whole armywith him; now this upper part of the city was every way rocky, anddifficult of ascent, and elevated to a vast altitude, and very full ofpeople on all sides, and encompassed with precipices, whereby the Jewscut off those that came up to them, and did much mischief to othersby their darts, and the large stones which they rolled down upon them, while they were themselves so high that the enemy's darts could hardlyreach them. However, there arose such a Divine storm against them aswas instrumental to their destruction; this carried the Roman dartsupon them, and made those which they threw return back, and drove themobliquely away from them; nor could the Jews indeed stand upon theirprecipices, by reason of the violence of the wind, having nothing thatwas stable to stand upon, nor could they see those that were ascendingup to them; so the Romans got up and surrounded them, and some they slewbefore they could defend themselves, and others as they were deliveringup themselves; and the remembrance of those that were slain at theirformer 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, andthemselves also, down the precipices, into the valley beneath, which, near the citadel, had been dug hollow to a vast depth; but so ithappened, that the anger of the Romans appeared not to be so extravagantas was the madness of those that were now taken, while the Romansslew but four thousand, whereas the number of those that had thrownthemselves down was found to be five thousand: nor did any one escapeexcept two women, who were the daughters of Philip, and Philip himselfwas the son of a certain eminent man called Jacimus, who had beengeneral of king Agrippa's army; and these did therefore escape, becausethey 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 wereflung down by them from the citadel. And thus was Gamala taken on thethree and twentieth day of the month Hyperberetens, [Tisri, ] whereasthe city had first revolted on the four and twentieth day of the monthGorpieus [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 ofGischala, whose multitude yet were desirous of peace; for they weregenerally husbandmen, and always applied themselves to cultivate thefruits of the earth. However, there were a great number that belonged toa band of robbers, that were already corrupted, and had crept in amongthem, and some of the governing part of the citizens were sick of thesame distemper. It was John, the son of a certain man whose name wasLevi, that drew them into this rebellion, and encouraged them in it. Hewas a cunning knave, and of a temper that could put on various shapes;very rash in expecting great things, and very sagacious in bringingabout what he hoped for. It was known to every body that he was fond ofwar, in order to thrust himself into authority; and the seditious partof the people of Gischala were under his management, by whose means thepopulace, who seemed ready to send ambassadors in order to a surrender, waited for the coming of the Romans in battle-array. Vespasian sentagainst them Titus, with a thousand horsemen, but withdrew the tenthlegion to Scythopolis, while he returned to Cesarea with the two otherlegions, that he might allow them to refresh themselves after their longand hard campaign, thinking withal that the plenty which was in thosecities would improve their bodies and their spirits, against thedifficulties they were to go through afterwards; for he saw there wouldbe occasion for great pains about Jerusalem, which was not yet taken, because it was the royal city, and the principal city of the wholenation, and because those that had run away from the war in other placesgot all together thither. It was also naturally strong, and the wallsthat 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 andbold, that even without the consideration of the walls, it would behard to subdue them; for which reason he took care of and exercised hissoldiers beforehand for the work, as they do wrestlers before they begintheir undertaking. 

2. Now Titus, as he rode ut to Gischala, found it would be easy for himto take the city upon the first onset; but knew withal, that if he tookit by force, the multitude would be destroyed by the soldiers withoutmercy. [Now he was already satiated with the shedding of blood, andpitied the major part, who would then perish, without distinction, together with the guilty. ] So he was rather desirous the city might besurrendered up to him on terms. Accordingly, when he saw the wall fullof those men that were of the corrupted party, he said to them, That hecould not but wonder what it was they depended on, when they alonestaid to fight the Romans, after every other city was taken by them, especially when they have seen cities much better fortified than theirsis overthrown by a single attack upon them; while as many as haveintrusted themselves to the security of the Romans' right hands, whichhe now offers to them, without regarding their former insolence, doenjoy their own possessions in safety; for that while they had hopesof recovering their liberty, they might be pardoned; but that theircontinuance still in their opposition, when they saw that to beimpossible, was inexcusable; for that if they will not comply with suchhumane offers, and right hands for security, they should have experienceof such a war as would spare nobody, and should soon be made sensiblethat their wall would be but a trifle, when battered by the Romanmachines; in depending on which they demonstrate themselves to be theonly Galileans that were no better than arrogant slaves and captives. 

3. Now none of the populace durst not only make a reply, but durst notso 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 therest from going out, in order to propose terms of submission, and fromreceiving any of the horsemen into the city. But John returnedTitus this answer: That for himself he was content to hearken to hisproposals, and that he would either persuade or force those that refusedthem. Yet he said that Titus ought to have such regard to the Jewishlaw, as to grant them leave to celebrate that day, which was the seventhday of the week, on which it was unlawful not only to remove theirarms, but even to treat of peace also; and that even the Romans were notignorant how the period of the seventh day was among them a cessationfrom all labors; and that he who should compel them to transgressthe law about that day would be equally guilty with those thatwere compelled to transgress it: and that this delay could be of nodisadvantage to him; for why should any body think of doing any thing inthe night, unless it was to fly away? which he might prevent by placinghis camp round about them; and that they should think it a great pointgained, if they might not be obliged to transgress the laws of theircountry; and that it would be a right thing for him, who designed togrant them peace, without their expectation of such a favor, to preservethe laws of those they saved inviolable. Thus did this man put a trickupon Titus, not so much out of regard to the seventh day as to his ownpreservation, for he was afraid lest he should be quite deserted if thecity should be taken, and had his hopes of life in that night, andin his flight therein. Now this was the work of God, who thereforepreserved this John, that he might bring on the destruction ofJerusalem; as also it was his work that Titus was prevailed with by thispretense for a delay, and that he pitched his camp further off thecity at Cydessa. This Cydessa was a strong Mediterranean village of theTyrians, which always hated and made war against the Jews; it had alsoa great number of inhabitants, and was well fortified, which made it aproper place for such as were enemies to the Jewish nation. 

4. Now, in the night time, when John saw that there was no Roman guardabout the city, he seized the opportunity directly, and, taking with himnot only the armed men that where about him, but a considerable numberof those that had little to do, together with their families, he fled toJerusalem. And indeed, though the man was making haste to get away, andwas tormented with fears of being a captive, or of losing his life, yetdid he prevail with himself to take out of the city along with him amultitude of women and children, as far as twenty furlongs; but there heleft them as he proceeded further on his journey, where those that wereleft behind made sad lamentations; for the farther every one of them wascome from his own people, the nearer they thought themselves to be totheir enemies. They also affrighted themselves with this thought, thatthose who would carry them into captivity were just at hand, and stillturned themselves back at the mere noise they made themselves in thistheir 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 asaimed to outgo the rest threw down many of them. And indeed there was amiserable destruction made of the women and children; while some of themtook courage to call their husbands and kinsmen back, and to beseechthem, with the bitterest lamentations, to stay for them; but John'sexhortation, who cried out to them to save themselves, and fly away, prevailed. He said also, that if the Romans should seize upon thosewhom they left behind, they would be revenged on them for it. So thismultitude that run thus away was dispersed abroad, according as each ofthem was able to run, one faster or slower than another. 

5. Now on thenext day Titus came to the wall, to make the agreement; whereuponthe people opened their gates to him, and came out to him, with theirchildren and wives, and made acclamations of joy to him, as to one thathad 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 innovationsto punishment. But Titus, not so much regarding the supplications of thepeople, sent part of his horsemen to pursue after John, but they couldnot overtake him, for he was gotten to Jerusalem before; they alsoslew six thousand of the women and children who went out with him, butreturned back, and brought with them almost three thousand. However, Titus was greatly displeased that he had not been able to bring thisJohn, 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 itmissed of John. So he entered the city in the midst of acclamations ofjoy; and when he had given orders to the soldiers to pull down a smallpart of the wall, as of a city taken in war, he repressed those thathad disturbed the city rather by threatenings than by executions; forhe thought that many would accuse innocent persons, out of their ownprivate animosities and quarrels, if he should attempt to distinguishthose that were worthy of punishment from the rest; and that it wasbetter to let a guilty person alone in his fears, that to destroy withhim any one that did not deserve it; for that probably such a one mightbe taught prudence, by the fear of the punishment he had deserved, and have a shame upon him for his former offenses, when he had beenforgiven; but that the punishment of such as have been once put to deathcould never be retrieved. However, he placed a garrison in the cityfor its security, by which means he should restrain those that werefor innovations, and should leave those that were peaceably disposedin greater security. And thus was all Galilee taken, but this not tillafter it had cost the Romans much pains before it could be taken bythem. 

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 peoplewere in an uproar, and ten thousand of them crowded about every one ofthe fugitives that were come to them, and inquired of them what miserieshad 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 theytalk big under their misfortunes, and pretended to say that they had notfled away from the Romans, but came thither in order to fight them withless hazard; for that it would be an unreasonable and a fruitless thingfor them to expose themselves to desperate hazards about Gischala, andsuch weak cities, whereas they ought to lay up their weapons and theirzeal, and reserve it for their metropolis. But when they related to themthe taking of Gischala, and their decent departure, as they pretended, from that place, many of the people understood it to be no better than aflight; and especially when the people were told of those that were madecaptives, they were in great confusion, and guessed those things to beplain indications that they should be taken also. But for John, he wasvery little concerned for those whom he had left behind him, but wentabout among all the people, and persuaded them to go to war, by thehopes he gave them. He affirmed that the affairs of the Romans were ina weak condition, and extolled his own power. He also jested upon theignorance of the unskillful, as if those Romans, although they shouldtake to themselves wings, could never fly over the wall of Jerusalem, who found such great difficulties in taking the villages of Galilee, andhad 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, andthose 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 beforethe Jerusalem sedition began; for Titus went from Gischala to Cesates, and Vespasian from Cesarea to Jamnia and Azotus, and took them both; andwhen he had put garrisons into them, he came back with a great numberof the people, who were come over to him, upon his giving them his righthand for their preservation. There were besides disorders and civil warsin every city; and all those that were at quiet from the Romans turnedtheir hands one against another. There was also a bitter contest betweenthose that were fond of war, and those that were desirous for peace. Atthe first this quarrelsome temper caught hold of private families, whocould not agree among themselves; after which those people that were thedearest to one another brake through all restraints with regard to eachother, and every one associated with those of his own opinion, and beganalready to stand in opposition one to another; so that seditions aroseevery where, while those that were for innovations, and were desirous ofwar, by their youth and boldness, were too hard for the aged and prudentmen. And, in the first place, all the people of every place betookthemselves to rapine; after which they got together in bodies, inorder to rob the people of the country, insomuch that for barbarity andiniquity 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 Romansthan by themselves. 

3. Now the Roman garrisons, which guarded the cities, partly out oftheir uneasiness to take such trouble upon them, and partly out of thehatred they bare to the Jewish nation, did little or nothing towardsrelieving the miserable, till the captains of these troops of robbers, being satiated with rapines in the country, got all together from allparts, and became a band of wickedness, and all together crept intoJerusalem, which was now become a city without a governor, and, as theancient custom was, received without distinction all that belonged totheir nation; and these they then received, because all men supposedthat those who came so fast into the city came out of kindness, and fortheir assistance, although these very men, besides the seditions theyraised, were otherwise the direct cause of the city's destruction also;for as they were an unprofitable and a useless multitude, they spentthose provisions beforehand which might otherwise have been sufficientfor the fighting men. Moreover, besides the bringing on of the war, theywere 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 thanthemselves, omitted no kind of barbarity; for they did not measure theircourage by their rapines and plunderings only, but preceded as far asmurdering men; and this not in the night time or privately, or withregard to ordinary men, but did it openly in the day time, and beganwith the most eminent persons in the city; for the first man theymeddled with was Antipas, one of the royal lineage, and the most potentman in the whole city, insomuch that the public treasures were committedto his care; him they took and confined; as they did in the next placeto Levias, a person of great note, with Sophas, the son of Raguel, bothwhich were of royal lineage also. And besides these, they did thesame to the principal men of the country. This caused a terribleconsternation among the people, and everyone contented himself withtaking care of his own safety, as they would do if the city had beentaken in war. 

5. But these were not satisfied with the bonds into whichthey had put the men forementioned; nor did they think it safe for themto 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 theseunjust proceedings, as to rise in a body against them; it was thereforeresolved to have them slain accordingly, they sent one John, who was themost bloody-minded of them all, to do that execution: this man was alsocalled "the son of Dorcas, " [3] in the language of our country. Ten moremen went along with him into the prison, with their swords drawn, andso they cut the throats of those that were in custody there. The grandlying pretence these men made for so flagrant an enormity was this, that these men had had conferences with the Romans for a surrender ofJerusalem to them; and so they said they had slain only such as weretraitors to their common liberty. Upon the whole, they grew the moreinsolent upon this bold prank of theirs, as though they had been thebenefactors and saviors of the city. 

6. Now the people were come to that degree of meanness and fear, andthese robbers to that degree of madness, that these last took uponthem to appoint high priests. [4] So when they had disannulled thesuccession, according to those families out of which the high priestsused to be made, they ordained certain unknown and ignoble personsfor that office, that they might have their assistance in their wickedundertakings; for such as obtained this highest of all honors, withoutany desert, were forced to comply with those that bestowed it on them. They also set the principal men at variance one with another, by severalsorts of contrivances and tricks, and gained the opportunity of doingwhat they pleased, by the mutual quarrels of those who might haveobstructed their measures; till at length, when they were satiated withthe unjust actions they had done towards men, they transferred theircontumelious behavior to God himself, and came into the sanctuary withpolluted feet. 

7. And now the multitude were going to rise against them already; forAnanus, the ancientest of the high priests, persuaded them to it. He wasa very prudent man, and had perhaps saved the city if he could but haveescaped the hands of those that plotted against him. These men made thetemple of God a strong hold for them, and a place whither they mightresort, in order to avoid the troubles they feared from the people;the sanctuary was now become a refuge, and a shop of tyranny. Theyalso mixed jesting among the miseries they introduced, which was moreintolerable than what they did; for in order to try what surprisethe people would be under, and how far their own power extended, theyundertook to dispose of the high priesthood by casting lots for it, whereas, as we have said already, it was to descend by succession in afamily. The pretense they made for this strange attempt was an ancientpractice, while they said that of old it was determined by lot; but intruth, it was no better than a dissolution of an undeniable law, anda cunning contrivance to seize upon the government, derived from thosethat presumed to appoint governors as they themselves pleased. 

8. Hereupon they sent for one of the pontifical tribes, which is calledEniachim, [5] and cast lots which of it should be the high priest. By fortune the lot so fell as to demonstrate their iniquity after theplainest manner, for it fell upon one whose name was Phannias, the sonof Samuel, of the village Aphtha. He was a man not only unworthy of thehigh priesthood, but that did not well know what the high priesthoodwas, such a mere rustic was he! yet did they hail this man, without hisown consent, out of the country, as if they were acting a play upon thestage, and adorned him with a counterfeit thee; they also put upon himthe sacred garments, and upon every occasion instructed him what he wasto do. This horrid piece of wickedness was sport and pastime with them, but occasioned the other priests, who at a distance saw their law madea jest of, to shed tears, and sorely lament the dissolution of such asacred dignity. 

9. And now the people could no longer bear the insolence of thisprocedure, but did all together run zealously, in order to overthrowthat tyranny; and indeed they were Gorion the son of Josephus, andSymeon the son of Gamaliel, [6] who encouraged them, by going up anddown when they were assembled together in crowds, and as they saw themalone, to bear no longer, but to inflict punishment upon these pestsand plagues of their freedom, and to purge the temple of these bloodypolluters of it. The best esteemed also of the high priests, Jesus theson of Gamalas, and Ananus the son of Ananus when they were at theirassemblies, bitterly reproached the people for their sloth, and excitedthem against the zealots; for that was the name they went by, as if theywere zealous in good undertakings, and were not rather zealous in theworst actions, and extravagant in them beyond the example of others. 

10. And now, when the multitude were gotten together to an assembly, andevery one was in indignation at these men's seizing upon the sanctuary, at their rapine and murders, but had not yet begun their attacks uponthem, [the reason of which was this, that they imagined it to be adifficult thing to suppress these zealots, as indeed the case was, ]Ananus stood in the midst of them, and casting his eyes frequently atthe temple, and having a flood of tears in his eyes, he said, "Certainlyit had been good for me to die before I had seen the house of God fullof so many abominations, or these sacred places, that ought not to betrodden upon at random, filled with the feet of these blood-sheddingvillains; yet do I, who am clothed with the vestments of the highpriesthood, and am called by that most venerable name [of high priest], still live, and am but too fond of living, and cannot endure to undergoa death which would be the glory of my old age; and if I were the onlyperson 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 amonga people insensible of their calamities, and where there is no notionremaining of any remedy for the miseries that are upon them? for whenyou are seized upon, you bear it! and when you are beaten, you aresilent! and when the people are murdered, nobody dare so much as sendout a groan openly! O bitter tyranny that we are under! But why do Icomplain of the tyrants? Was it not you, and your sufferance of them, that have nourished them? Was it not you that overlooked those thatfirst of all got together, for they were then but a few, and by yoursilence made them grow to be many; and by conniving at them when theytook arms, in effect armed them against yourselves? You ought to havethen prevented their first attempts, when they fell a reproaching yourrelations; but by neglecting that care in time, you have encouragedthese wretches to plunder men. When houses were pillaged, nobody saida word, which was the occasion why they carried off the owners of thosehouses; and when they were drawn through the midst of the city, nobodycame to their assistance. They then proceeded to put those whom you havebetrayed into their hands into bonds. I do not say how many and of whatcharacters those men were whom they thus served; but certainly they weresuch as were accused by none, and condemned by none; and since nobodysuccored them when they were put into bonds, the consequence was, thatyou saw the same persons slain. We have seen this also; so that stillthe best of the herd of brute animals, as it were, have been still ledto be sacrificed, when yet nobody said one word, or moved his right handfor their preservation. Will you bear, therefore, will you bear to seeyour sanctuary trampled on? and will you lay steps for these profanewretches, upon which they may mount to higher degrees of insolence? Willnot you pluck them down from their exaltation? for even by this timethey had proceeded to higher enormities, if they had been able tooverthrow any thing greater than the sanctuary. They have seized uponthe strongest place of the whole city; you may call it the temple, ifyou please, though it be like a citadel or fortress. Now, while you havetyranny in so great a degree walled in, and see your enemies over yourheads, to what purpose is it to take counsel? and what have you tosupport your minds withal? Perhaps you wait for the Romans, that theymay protect our holy places: are our matters then brought to that pass?and are we come to that degree of misery, that our enemies themselvesare expected to pity us? O wretched creatures! will not you rise up andturn upon those that strike you? which you may observe in wild beaststhemselves, that they will avenge themselves on those that strikethem. Will you not call to mind, every one of you, the calamities youyourselves have suffered? nor lay before your eyes what afflictions youyourselves have undergone? and will not such things sharpen your soulsto revenge? Is therefore that most honorable and most natural of ourpassions utterly lost, I mean the desire of liberty? Truly we are inlove with slavery, and in love with those that lord it over us, as ifwe had received that principle of subjection from our ancestors; yet didthey undergo many and great wars for the sake of liberty, nor were theyso far overcome by the power of the Egyptians, or the Medes, but thatstill they did what they thought fit, notwithstanding their commands tothe contrary. And what occasion is there now for a war with the Romans?[I meddle not with determining whether it be an advantageous andprofitable war or not. ] What pretense is there for it? Is it not thatwe may enjoy our liberty? Besides, shall we not bear the lords of thehabitable earth to be lords over us, and yet bear tyrants of our owncountry? Although I must say that submission to foreigners may be borne, because fortune hath already doomed us to it, while submission to wickedpeople of our own nation is too unmanly, and brought upon us by our ownconsent. However, since I have had occasion to mention the Romans, Iwill not conceal a thing that, as I am speaking, comes into my mind, andaffects me considerably; it is this, that though we should be taken bythem, [God forbid the event should be so!] yet can we undergo nothingthat will be harder to be borne than what these men have already broughtupon us. How then can we avoid shedding of tears, when we see the Romandonations in our temple, while we withal see those of our own nationtaking our spoils, and plundering our glorious metropolis, andslaughtering our men, from which enormities those Romans themselveswould have abstained? to see those Romans never going beyond the boundsallotted to profane persons, nor venturing to break in upon any of oursacred customs; nay, having a horror on their minds when they view at adistance those sacred walls; while some that have been born in this verycountry, and brought up in our customs, and called Jews, do walk aboutin the midst of the holy places, at the very time when their hands arestill warm with the slaughter of their own countrymen. Besides, canany one be afraid of a war abroad, and that with such as will havecomparatively much greater moderation than our own people have? Fortruly, if we may suit our words to the things they represent, it isprobable one may hereafter find the Romans to be the supporters of ourlaws, and those within ourselves the subverters of them. And now I ampersuaded that every one of you here comes satisfied before I speak thatthese overthrowers of our liberties deserve to be destroyed, and thatnobody can so much as devise a punishment that they have not deserved bywhat they have done, and that you are all provoked against them by thosetheir wicked actions, whence you have suffered so greatly. But perhapsmany of you are aftrighted at the multitude of those zealots, and attheir audaciousness, as well as at the advantage they have over us intheir being higher in place than we are; for these circumstances, asthey have been occasioned by your negligence, so will they become stillgreater by being still longer neglected; for their multitude is everyday augmented, by every ill man's running away to those that are like tothemselves, and their audaciousness is therefore inflamed, because theymeet 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 doso; but be assured of this, that if we go up to fight them, they willbe made tamer by their own consciences, and what advantages they have inthe height of their situation they will lose by the opposition of theirreason; perhaps also God himself, who hath been affronted by them, willmake what they throw at us return against themselves, and theseimpious wretches will be killed by their own darts: let us but make ourappearance before them, and they will come to nothing. However, it is aright thing, if there should be any danger in the attempt, to die beforethese holy gates, and to spend our very lives, if not for the sake ofour children and wives, yet for God's sake, and for the sake of hissanctuary. I will assist you both with my counsel and with my hand; norshall any sagacity of ours be wanting for your support; nor shall yousee that I will be sparing of my body neither. "

11. By these motives Ananus encouraged the multitude to go against thezealots, although he knew how difficult it would be to disperse them, because of their multitude, and their youth, and the courage of theirsouls; 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 thelast for those their enormities. However, Ananus resolved to undergowhatever sufferings might come upon him, rather than overlook things, now they were in such great confusion. So the multitude cried outto him, to lead them on against those whom he had described in hisexhortation to them, and every one of them was most readily disposed torun any hazard whatsoever on that account. 

12. Now while Ananus was choosing out his men, and putting those thatwere proper for his purpose in array for fighting, the zealots gotinformation of his undertaking, [for there were some who went to them, and told them all that the people were doing, ] and were irritated atit, and leaping out of the temple in crowds, and by parties, spared nonewhom they met with. Upon this Ananus got the populace together on thesudden, who were more numerous indeed than the zealots, but inferiorto them in arms, because they had not been regularly put into array forfighting; but the alacrity that every body showed supplied all theirdefects on both sides, the citizens taking up so great a passion as wasstronger than arms, and deriving a degree of courage from the templemore forcible than any multitude whatsoever; and indeed these citizensthought it was not possible for them to dwell in the city, unless theycould cut off the robbers that were in it. The zealots also thought thatunless they prevailed, there would be no punishment so bad but itwould be inflicted on them. So their conflicts were conducted by theirpassions; and at the first they only cast stones at each other in thecity, and before the temple, and threw their javelins at a distance; butwhen either of them were too hard for the other, they made use of theirswords; and great slaughter was made on both sides, and a great numberwere wounded. As for the dead bodies of the people, their relationscarried them out to their own houses; but when any of the zealots werewounded, he went up into the temple, and defiled that sacred floorwith his blood, insomuch that one may say it was their blood alonethat polluted our sanctuary. Now in these conflicts the robbers alwayssallied out of the temple, and were too hard for their enemies; butthe populace grew very angry, and became more and more numerous, andreproached those that gave back, and those behind would not afford roomto those that were going off, but forced them on again, till at lengththey made their whole body to turn against their adversaries, and therobbers could no longer oppose them, but were forced gradually to retireinto the temple; when Ananus and his party fell into it at the same timetogether with them. [7] This horribly affrighted the robbers, becauseit deprived them of the first court; so they fled into the inner courtimmediately, and shut the gates. Now Ananus did not think fit to makeany attack against the holy gates, although the other threw their stonesand darts at them from above. He also deemed it unlawful to introducethe multitude into that court before they were purified; he thereforechose out of them all by lot six thousand armed men, and placed them asguards in the cloisters; so there was a succession of such guardsone 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 thentook 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 wasthe 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 ata distance was the adviser in these actions; and indeed at this time hepretended to be of the people's opinion, and went all about with Ananuswhen he consulted the great men every day, and in the night time alsowhen he went round the watch; but he divulged their secrets to thezealots, and every thing that the people deliberated about was by hismeans known to their enemies, even before it had been well agreed uponby themselves. And by way of contrivance how he might not be broughtinto suspicion, he cultivated the greatest friendship possible withAnanus, and with the chief of the people; yet did this overdoing of histurn against him, for he flattered them so extravagantly, that he wasbut the more suspected; and his constant attendance every where, evenwhen he was not invited to be present, made him strongly suspected ofbetraying their secrets to the enemy; for they plainly perceivedthat they understood all the resolutions taken against them at theirconsultations. Nor was there any one whom they had so much reason tosuspect of that discovery as this John; yet was it not easy to get quitof him, so potent was he grown by his wicked practices. He was alsosupported by many of those eminent men, who were to be consulted uponall considerable affairs; it was therefore thought reasonable to obligehim to give them assurance of his good-will upon oath; accordingly Johntook such an oath readily, that he would be on the people's side, andwould not betray any of their counsels or practices to their enemies, and would assist them in overthrowing those that attacked them, and thatboth by his hand and his advice. So Ananus and his party believed hisoath, and did now receive him to their consultations without furthersuspicion; nay, so far did they believe him, that they sent him astheir ambassador into the temple to the zealots, with proposals ofaccommodation; for they were very desirous to avoid the pollution of thetemple as much as they possibly could, and that no one of their nationshould be slain therein. 

14. But now this John, as if his oath had been made to the zealots, andfor confirmation of his good-will to them, and not against them, wentinto the temple, and stood in the midst of them, and spake as follows:That he had run many hazards o, their accounts, and in order to let themknow of every thing that was secretly contrived against them by Ananusand his party; but that both he and they should be cast into the mostimminent danger, unless some providential assistance were afforded them;for that Ananus made no longer delay, but had prevailed with the peopleto send ambassadors to Vespasian, to invite him to come presently andtake the city; and that he had appointed a fast for the next day againstthem, that they might obtain admission into the temple on a religiousaccount, or gain it by force, and fight with them there; that he did notsee how long they could either endure a siege, or how they could fightagainst so many enemies. He added further, that it was by theprovidence of God he was himself sent as an ambassador to them for anaccommodation; for that Artanus did therefore offer them such proposals, that he might come upon them when they were unarmed; that they oughtto choose one of these two methods, either to intercede with those thatguarded them, to save their lives, or to provide some foreign assistancefor themselves; that if they fostered themselves with the hopes ofpardon, in case they were subdued, they had forgotten what desperatethings they had done, or could suppose, that as soon as the actorsrepented, those that had suffered by them must be presently reconciledto them; while those that have done injuries, though they pretend torepent of them, are frequently hated by the others for that sort ofrepentance; and that the sufferers, when they get the power into theirhands, are usually still more severe upon the actors; that the friendsand kindred of those that had been destroyed would always be layingplots against them; and that a large body of people were very angryon 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 dursthe not directly name what foreign assistance he meant, but in a covertway only intimated at the Idumeans. But now, that he might particularlyirritate the leaders of the zealots, he calumniated Ananus, that he wasabout a piece of barbarity, and did in a special manner threaten them. These leaders were Eleazar, the son of Simon, who seemed the mostplausible 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, theson of Phalek; both of whom derived their families from the priests. Now when these two men had heard, not only the common threatenings whichbelonged to them all, but those peculiarly leveled against themselves;and besides, how Artanus and his party, in order to secure their owndominion, had invited the Romans to come to them, for that also waspart 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 becausethe suddenness of the plot laid against them had almost cut off alltheir hopes of getting any foreign assistance; for they might be underthe height of their afflictions before any of their confederates couldbe informed of it. However, it was resolved to call in the Idumeans; sothey wrote a short letter to this effect: That Ananus had imposed onthe people, and was betraying their metropolis to the Romans; thatthey themselves had revolted from the rest, and were in custody in thetemple, on account of the preservation of their liberty; that there wasbut a small time left wherein they might hope for their deliverance; andthat unless they would come immediately to their assistance, they shouldthemselves be soon in the power of Artanus, and the city would be in thepower of the Romans. They also charged the messengers to tell many morecircumstances to the rulers of the Idumeans. Now there were two activemen proposed for the carrying this message, and such as were able tospeak, and to persuade them that things were in this posture, and, whatwas a qualification still more necessary than the former, they were veryswift of foot; for they knew well enough that these would immediatelycomply with their desires, as being ever a tumultuous and disorderlynation, always on the watch upon every motion, delighting in mutations;and upon your flattering them ever so little, and petitioning them, theysoon take their arms, and put themselves into motion, and make haste toa battle, as if it were to a feast. There was indeed occasion for quickdespatch in the carrying of this message, in which point the messengerswere no way defective. Both their names were Ananias; and they soon cameto the rulers of the Idumeans. 

2. Now these rulers were greatly surprised at the contents of theletter, and at what those that came with it further told them; whereuponthey ran about the nation like madmen, and made proclamation that thepeople should come to war; so a multitude was suddenly got together, sooner indeed than the time appointed in the proclamation, and everybody caught up their arms, in order to maintain the liberty of theirmetropolis; and twenty thousand of them were put into battle-array, andcame to Jerusalem, under four commanders, John, and Jacob the son ofSosas; and besides these were Simon, the son of Cathlas, and Phineas, the son of Clusothus. 

3. Now this exit of the messengers was not knowneither to Ananus or to the guards, but the approach of the Idumeanswas known to him; for as he knew of it before they came, he ordered thegates to be shut against them, and that the walls should be guarded. Yetdid not he by any means think of fighting against them, but, before theycame to blows, to try what persuasions would do. Accordingly, Jesus, theeldest of the high priests next to Artanus, stood upon the tower thatwas over against them, and said thus: "Many troubles indeed, and thoseof various kinds, have fallen upon this city, yet in none of them haveI so much wondered at her fortune as now, when you are come to assistwicked men, and this after a manner very extraordinary; for I see thatyou are come to support the vilest of men against us, and this withso great alacrity, as you could hardly put on the like, in case ourmetropolis had called you to her assistance against barbarians. And ifI had perceived that your army was composed of men like unto those whoinvited them, I had not deemed your attempt so absurd; for nothingdoes so much cement the minds of men together as the alliance there isbetween their manners. But now for these men who have invited you, ifyou were to examine them one by one, every one of them would be foundto have deserved ten thousand deaths; for the very rascality andoffscouring of the whole country, who have spent in debauchery theirown substance, and, by way of trial beforehand, have madly plundered theneighboring villages and cities, in the upshot of all, have privatelyrun together into this holy city. They are robbers, who by theirprodigious wickedness have profaned this most sacred floor, and who areto be now seen drinking themselves drunk in the sanctuary, and expendingthe spoils of those whom they have slaughtered upon their unsatiablebellies. As for the multitude that is with you, one may see them sodecently adorned in their armor, as it would become them to be had theirmetropolis called them to her assistance against foreigners. What can aman call this procedure of yours but the sport of fortune, when he seesa whole nation coming to protect a sink of wicked wretches? I have for agood while been in doubt what it could possibly be that should move youto do this so suddenly; because certainly you would not take on yourarmor 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 itemthat the Romans are pretended, and that we are supposed to be going tobetray this city to them; for some of your men have lately made a clamorabout those matters, and have said they are come to set their metropolisfree. Now we cannot but admire at these wretches in their devisingsuch a lie as this against us; for they knew there was no other way toirritate against us men that were naturally desirous of liberty, and onthat account the best disposed to fight against foreign enemies, but byframing 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 thatraise this calumny, and against what sort of people that calumny israised, and to gather the truth of things, not by fictitious speeches, but out of the actions of both parties; for what occasion is there forus to sell ourselves to the Romans, while it was in our power not tohave revolted from them at the first, or when we had once revolted, tohave returned under their dominion again, and this while the neighboringcountries were not yet laid waste? whereas it is not an easy thing tobe reconciled to the Romans, if we were desirous of it, now they havesubdued Galilee, and are thereby become proud and insolent; and toendeavor to please them at the time when they are so near us, wouldbring 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 wehave once made war upon them, and fought with them, I prefer death, withreputation, before living in captivity under them. But further, whetherdo they pretend that we, who are the rulers of the people, have sentthus privately to the Romans, or hath it been done by the commonsuffrages of the people? If it be ourselves only that have done it, letthem name those friends of ours that have been sent, as our servants, tomanage this treachery. Hath any one been caught as he went out on thiserrand, or seized upon as he came back? Are they in possession of ourletters? How could we be concealed from such a vast number of our fellowcitizens, among whom we are conversant every hour, while what is doneprivately in the country is, it seems, known by the zealots, who are butfew in number, and under confinement also, and are not able to come outof the temple into the city. Is this the first time that they are becomesensible how they ought to be punished for their insolent actions? Forwhile these men were free from the fear they are now under, there wasno suspicion raised that any of us were traitors. But if they laythis charge against the people, this must have been done at a publicconsultation, and not one of the people must have dissented from therest of the assembly; in which case the public fame of this matter wouldhave come to you sooner than any particular indication. But how couldthat be? Must there not then have been ambassadors sent to confirmthe agreements? And let them tell us who this ambassador was that wasordained for that purpose. But this is no other than a pretense of suchmen as are loath to die, and are laboring to escape those punishmentsthat hang over them; for if fate had determined that this city was to bebetrayed into its enemies' hands, no other than these men that accuseus falsely could have the impudence to do it, there being no wickednesswanting to complete their impudent practices but this only, that theybecome traitors. And now you Idumeans are come hither already withyour arms, it is your duty, in the first place, to be assisting to yourmetropolis, and to join with us in cutting off those tyrants that haveinfringed the rules of our regular tribunals, that have trampled uponour laws, and made their swords the arbitrators of right and wrong; forthey have seized upon men of great eminence, and under no accusation, as they stood in the midst of the market-place, and tortured them withputting them into bonds, and, without bearing to hear what they had tosay, or what supplications they made, they destroyed them. You may, ifyou please, come into the city, though not in the way of war, and takea view of the marks still remaining of what I now say, and may see thehouses that have been depopulated by their rapacious hands, with thosewives and families that are in black, mourning for their slaughteredrelations; as also you may hear their groans and lamentations all thecity over; for there is nobody but hath tasted of the incursions ofthese profane wretches, who have proceeded to that degree of madness, as not only to have transferred their impudent robberies out of thecountry, and the remote cities, into this city, the very face and headof the whole nation, but out of the city into the temple also; for thatis now made their receptacle and refuge, and the fountain-head whencetheir preparations are made against us. And this place, which is adoredby 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 beastsborn among ourselves. They now triumph in the desperate condition theyare already in, when they hear that one people is going to fight againstanother people, and one city against another city, and that your nationhath gotten an army together against its own bowels. Instead of whichprocedure, it were highly fit and reasonable, as I said before, for youto join with us in cutting off these wretches, and in particular tobe revenged on them for putting this very cheat upon you; I mean, forhaving the impudence to invite you to assist them, of whom they ought tohave stood in fear, as ready to punish them. But if you have some regardto these men's invitation of you, yet may you lay aside your arms, andcome into the city under the notion of our kindred, and take upon youa middle name between that of auxiliaries and of enemies, and so becomejudges in this case. However, consider what these men will gain by beingcalled into judgment before you, for such undeniable and such flagrantcrimes, who would not vouchsafe to hear such as had no accusations laidagainst them to speak a word for themselves. However, let them gain thisadvantage by your coming. But still, if you will neither take our partin that indignation we have at these men, nor judge between us, thethird thing I have to propose is this, that you let us both alone, and neither insult upon our calamities, nor abide with these plottersagainst their metropolis; for though you should have ever so great asuspicion that some of us have discoursed with the Romans, it is in yourpower to watch the passages into the city; and in case any thing that wehave been accused of is brought to light, then to come and defend yourmetropolis, 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 notyou wonder that the gates are shut against you, while you bear your armsabout you. "

4. Thus spake Jesus; yet did not the multitude of the Idumeans give anyattention to what he said, but were in a rage, because they did not meetwith a ready entrance into the city. The generals also had indignationat the offer of laying down their arms, and looked upon it as equal toa captivity, to throw them away at any man's injunction whomsoever. But Simon, the son of Cathlas, one of their commanders, with much adoquieted the tumult of his own men, and stood so that the high priestsmight hear him, and said as follows: "I can no longer wonder that thepatrons of liberty are under custody in the temple, since there arethose 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 themto throw down their arms which they have taken up for the preservationof its liberty. And while they will not intrust the guard of ourmetropolis to their kindred, profess to make them judges of thedifferences that are among them; nay, while they accuse some men ofhaving slain others without a legal trial, they do themselves condemna whole nation after an ignominious manner, and have now walled up thatcity from their own nation, which used to be open to even all foreignersthat 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 madesuch haste is this, that we may preserve that freedom which you are sounhappy as to betray. You have probably been guilty of the like crimesagainst those whom you keep in custody, and have, I suppose, collectedtogether the like plausible pretenses against them also that you makeuse of against us; after which you have gotten the mastery of thosewithin the temple, and keep them in custody, while they are only takingcare of the public affairs. You have also shut the gates of the cityin general against nations that are the most nearly related to you; andwhile you give such injurious commands to others, you complain that youhave been tyrannized over by them, and fix the name of unjust governorsupon such as are tyrannized over by yourselves. Who can bear this yourabuse of words, while they have a regard to the contrariety of youractions, unless you mean this, that those Idumeans do now exclude youout of your metropolis, whom you exclude from the sacred offices of yourown country? One may indeed justly complain of those that are besiegedin the temple, that when they had courage enough to punish those tyrantswhom you call eminent men, and free from any accusations, because oftheir 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 necessityrequired, we that are Idumeans will preserve this house of God, and willfight for our common country, and will oppose by war as well those thatattack them from abroad, as those that betray them from within. Herewill we abide before the walls in our armor, until either the Romansgrow weary in waiting for you, or you become friends to liberty, andrepent 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 againstall moderate counsels, and that the city was besieged on both sides. Norindeed were the minds of the Idumeans at rest; for they were in a rageat the injury that had been offered them by their exclusion out of thecity; and when they thought the zealots had been strong, but saw nothingof theirs to support them, they were in doubt about the matter, and manyof them repented that they had come thither. But the shame that wouldattend them in case they returned without doing any thing at all, so farovercame that their repentance, that they lay all night before the wall, though in a very bad encampment; for there broke out a prodigious stormin the night, with the utmost violence, and very strong winds, withthe largest showers of rain, with continued lightnings, terriblethunderings, and amazing concussions and bellowings of the earth, thatwas in an earthquake. These things were a manifest indication that somedestruction was coming upon men, when the system of the world wasput into this disorder; and any one would guess that these wondersforeshowed some grand calamities that were coming. 

6. Now the opinion of the Idumeans and of the citizens was one and thesame. The Idumeans thought that God was angry at their taking arms, andthat they would not escape punishment for their making war upon theirmetropolis. Ananus and his party thought that they had conquered withoutfighting, and that God acted as a general for them; but truly theyproved both ill conjectures at what was to come, and made those eventsto be ominous to their enemies, while they were themselves to undergothe ill effects of them; for the Idumeans fenced one another by unitingtheir bodies into one band, and thereby kept themselves warm, andconnecting their shields over their heads, were not so much hurt by therain. But the zealots were more deeply concerned for the danger thesemen were in than they were for themselves, and got together, and lookedabout 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 theirarms, and after that to fall into the midst of the city, and publiclyopen the gates to those that came to their assistance; as supposing theguards would be in disorder, and give way at such an unexpected attemptof theirs, especially as the greater part of them were unarmed andunskilled in the affairs of war; and that besides the multitude of thecitizens would not be easily gathered together, but confined totheir houses by the storm: and that if there were any hazard in theirundertaking, it became them to suffer any thing whatsoever themselves, rather than to overlook so great a multitude as were miserably perishingon their account. But the more prudent part of them disapproved of thisforcible method, because they saw not only the guards about them verynumerous, but the walls of the city itself carefully watched, by reasonof the Idumeans. They also supposed that Ananus would be every where, and visit the guards every hour; which indeed was done upon othernights, but was omitted that night, not by reason of any slothfulnessof Ananus, but by the overbearing appointment of fate, that so both hemight himself perish, and the multitude of the guards might perish withhim; 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 itcame into the heads of the zealots to make use of the saws belonging tothe temple, and to cut the bars of the gates to pieces. The noise of thewind, and that not inferior sound of the thunder, did here also conspirewith their designs, that the noise of the saws was not heard by theothers. 

7. So they secretly went out of the temple to the wall of the city, andmade use of their saws, and opened that gate which was over against theIdumeans. Now at first there came a fear upon the Idumeans themselves, which disturbed them, as imagining that Ananus and his party were comingto attack them, so that every one of them had his right hand upon hissword, in order to defend himself; but they soon came to know who theywere that came to them, and were entered the city. And had the Idumeansthen fallen upon the city, nothing could have hindered them fromdestroying the people every man of them, such was the rage they were inat that time; but as they first of all made haste to get the zealots outof custody, which those that brought them in earnestly desired them todo, and not to overlook those for whose sakes they were come, in themidst of their distresses, nor to bring them into a still greaterdanger; for that when they had once seized upon the guards, it wouldbe easy for them to fall upon the city; but that if the city were oncealarmed, they would not then be able to overcome those guards, becauseas soon as they should perceive they were there, they would putthemselves in order to fight them, and would hinder their coming intothe 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 thecity to the temple. The zealots were also in great expectation oftheir coming, and earnestly waited for them. When therefore these wereentering, they also came boldly out of the inner temple, and mixingthemselves among the Idumeans, they attacked the guards; and some ofthose that were upon the watch, but were fallen asleep, they killed asthey were asleep; but as those that were now awakened made a cry, thewhole multitude arose, and in the amazement they were in caught hold oftheir arms immediately, and betook themselves to their own defense; andso long as they thought they were only the zealots who attacked them, they went on boldly, as hoping to overpower them by their numbers; butwhen they saw others pressing in upon them also, they perceived theIdumeans were got in; and the greatest part of them laid asidetheir arms, together with their courage, and betook themselves tolamentations. But some few of the younger sort covered themselveswith their armor, and valiantly received the Idumeans, and for a whileprotected the multitude of old men. Others, indeed, gave a signal tothose that were in the city of the calamities they were in; but whenthese were also made sensible that the Idumeans were come in, none ofthem durst come to their assistance, only they returned the terribleecho of wailing, and lamented their misfortunes. A great howling of thewomen was excited also, and every one of the guards were in dangerof being killed. The zealots also joined in the shouts raised by theIdumeans; and the storm itself rendered the cry more terrible; nor didthe Idumeans spare any body; for as they are naturally a most barbarousand bloody nation, and had been distressed by the tempest, they made useof their weapons against those that had shut the gates against them, andacted in the same manner as to those that supplicated for their lives, and to those that fought them, insomuch that they ran through those withtheir swords who desired them to remember the relation there was betweenthem, and begged of them to have regard to their common temple. Nowthere was at present neither any place for flight, nor any hope ofpreservation; but as they were driven one upon another in heaps, sowere they slain. Thus the greater part were driven together by force, asthere 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 thanthat which they avoided, because that was a voluntary one. And now theouter temple was all of it overflowed with blood; and that day, as itcame 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 esteemedit needless to go on with killing them, but they sought for the highpriests, and the generality went with the greatest zeal against them;and as soon as they caught them they slew them, and then standing upontheir dead bodies, in way of jest, upbraided Ananus with his kindness tothe 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 deadbodies without burial, although the Jews used to take so much care ofthe burial of men, that they took down those that were condemned andcrucified, and buried them before the going down of the sun. I shouldnot mistake if I said that the death of Ananus was the beginning of thedestruction of the city, and that from this very day may be dated theoverthrow of her wall, and the ruin of her affairs, whereon they sawtheir high priest, and the procurer of their preservation, slain in themidst of their city. He was on other accounts also a venerable, and avery 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 kindof parity, even with regard to the meanest of the people; he wasa prodigious lover of liberty, and an admirer of a democracy ingovernment; and did ever prefer the public welfare before his ownadvantage, and preferred peace above all things; for he was thoroughlysensible that the Romans were not to be conquered. He also foresawthat of necessity a war would follow, and that unless the Jews made upmatters with them very dexterously, they would be destroyed; to sayall in a word, if Ananus had survived, they had certainly compoundedmatters; for he was a shrewd man in speaking and persuading the people, and had already gotten the mastery of those that opposed his designs, orwere for the war. And the Jews had then put abundance of delays in theway of the Romans, if they had had such a general as he was. Jesuswas also joined with him; and although he was inferior to him upon thecomparison, he was superior to the rest; and I cannot but think that itwas 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 thesetheir great defenders and well-wishers, while those that a little beforehad worn the sacred garments, and had presided over the public worship;and had been esteemed venerable by those that dwelt on the wholehabitable earth when they came into our city, were cast out naked, andseen to be the food of dogs and wild beasts. And I cannot but imaginethat virtue itself groaned at these men's case, and lamented that shewas here so terribly conquered by wickedness. And this at last was theend of Ananus and Jesus. 

3. Now after these were slain, the zealots and the multitude of theIdumeans fell upon the people as upon a flock of profane animals, andcut their throats; and for the ordinary sort, they were destroyed inwhat 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, andput off their slaughter, in hopes that some of them would turn over totheir party; but not one of them would comply with their desires, butall of them preferred death before being enrolled among such wickedwretches as acted against their own country. But this refusal of theirsbrought upon them terrible torments; for they were so scourged andtortured, 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 thentheir bodies were carried out and thrown away, that there might be roomfor other prisoners; and the terror that was upon the people was sogreat, that no one had courage enough either to weep openly for the deadman that was related to him, or to bury him; but those that were shut upin their own houses could only shed tears in secret, and durst not evengroan without great caution, lest any of their enemies should hear them;for if they did, those that mourned for others soon underwent the samedeath with those whom they mourned for. Only in the night time theywould take up a little dust, and throw it upon their bodies; and evensome that were the most ready to expose themselves to danger would do itin the day time: and there were twelve thousand of the better sort whoperished in this manner. 

4. And now these zealots and Idumeans were quite weary of barely killingmen, so they had the impudence of setting up fictitious tribunals andjudicatures for that purpose; and as they intended to have Zacharias [9]the son of Baruch, one of the most eminent of the citizens, slain, sowhat provoked them against him was, that hatred of wickedness and loveof liberty which were so eminent in him: he was also a rich man, so thatby taking him off, they did not only hope to seize his effects, butalso to get rid of a mall that had great power to destroy them. So theycalled together, by a public proclamation, seventy of the principal menof the populace, for a show, as if they were real judges, while they hadno proper authority. Before these was Zacharias accused of a designto betray their polity to the Romans, and having traitorously sent toVespasian for that purpose. Now there appeared no proof or sign ofwhat he was accused; but they affirmed themselves that they were wellpersuaded that so it was, and desired that such their affirmation mightbe taken for sufficient evidence. Now when Zacharias clearly saw thatthere was no way remaining for his escape from them, as having beentreacherously called before them, and then put in prison, but not withany intention of a legal trial, he took great liberty of speech in thatdespair of his life he was under. Accordingly he stood up, and laughedat their pretended accusation, and in a few words confuted the crimeslaid to his charge; after which he turned his speech to his accusers, and went over distinctly all their transgressions of the law, and madeheavy lamentation upon the confusion they had brought public affairsto: in the mean time, the zealots grew tumultuous, and had much ado toabstain from drawing their swords, although they designed to preservethe appearance and show of judicature to the end. They were alsodesirous, on other accounts, to try the judges, whether they would bemindful of what was just at their own peril. Now the seventy judgesbrought in their verdict that the person accused was not guilty, aschoosing rather to die themselves with him, than to have his death laidat their doors; hereupon there arose a great clamor of the zealotsupon his acquittal, and they all had indignation at the judges for notunderstanding 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 thetemple, 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 sureacquittal to thee than the other. " They also threw him down from thetemple immediately into the valley beneath it. Moreover, they struck thejudges with the backs of their swords, by way of abuse, and thrust themout of the court of the temple, and spared their lives with no otherdesign than that, when they were dispersed among the people in the city, they might become their messengers, to let them know they were no betterthan slaves. 

5. But by this time the Idumeans repented of their coming, and weredispleased at what had been done; and when they were assembled togetherby one of the zealots, who had come privately to them, he declaredto them what a number of wicked pranks they had themselves done inconjunction with those that invited them, and gave a particular accountof what mischiefs had been done against their metropolis. He said thatthey had taken arms, as though the high priests were betraying theirmetropolis to the Romans, but had found no indication of any suchtreachery; but that they had succored those that had pretended tobelieve such a thing, while they did themselves the works of war andtyranny, after an insolent manner. It had been indeed their business tohave hindered them from such their proceedings at the first, but seeingthey had once been partners with them in shedding the blood of theirown countrymen, it was high time to put a stop to such crimes, and notcontinue to afford any more assistance to such as are subverting thelaws of their forefathers; for that if any had taken it ill that thegates had been shut against them, and they had not been permitted tocome into the city, yet that those who had excluded them have beenpunished, and Ananus is dead, and that almost all those people had beendestroyed in one night's time. That one may perceive many of themselvesnow repenting for what they had done, and might see the horrid barbarityof those that had invited them, and that they had no regard to such ashad saved them; that they were so impudent as to perpetrate the vilestthings, under the eyes of those that had supported them, and that theirwicked actions would be laid to the charge of the Idumeans, and wouldbe so laid to their charge till somebody obstructs their proceedings, orseparates himself from the same wicked action; that they therefore oughtto 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 thistime, and that the government of the city was secured by such walls ascannot easily be thrown down; and, by avoiding any further fellowshipwith these bad men, to make some excuse for themselves, as to what theyhad 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 firstplace, they set those that were in the prisons at liberty, being abouttwo thousand of the populace, who thereupon fled away immediately toSimon, one whom we shall speak of presently. After which these Idumeansretired from Jerusalem, and went home; which departure of theirs wasa great surprise to both parties; for the people, not knowing of theirrepentance, pulled up their courage for a while, as eased of so many oftheir enemies, while the zealots grew more insolent not as deserted bytheir confederates, but as freed from such men as might hinder theirdesigns, and plat some stop to their wickedness. Accordingly, theymade no longer any delay, nor took any deliberation in their enormouspractices, but made use of the shortest methods for all their executionsand what they had once resolved upon, they put in practice sooner thanany one could imagine. But their thirst was chiefly after the bloodof valiant men, and men of good families; the one sort of which theydestroyed out of envy, the other out of fear; for they thought theirwhole security lay in leaving no potent men alive; on which account theyslew Gorion, a person eminent in dignity, and on account of his familyalso; he was also for democracy, and of as great boldness and freedomof spirit as were any of the Jews whosoever; the principal thing thatruined him, added to his other advantages, was his free speaking. Nordid Niger of Peres escape their hands; he had been a man of great valorin their war with the Romans, but was now drawn through the middle ofthe city, and, as he went, he frequently cried out, and showed the scarsof his wounds; and when he was drawn out of the gates, and despaired ofhis preservation, he besought them to grant him a burial; but as theyhad threatened him beforehand not to grant him any spot of earth for agrave, which he chiefly desired of them, so did they slay him [withoutpermitting him to be buried]. Now when they were slaying him, he madethis imprecation upon them, that they might undergo both famine andpestilence in this war, and besides all that, they might come to themutual slaughter of one another; all which imprecations God confirmedagainst these impious men, and was what came most justly upon them, whennot long afterward they tasted of their own madness in their mutualseditions one against another. So when this Niger was killed, theirfears of being overturned were diminished; and indeed there was no partof the people but they found out some pretense to destroy them; forsome were therefore slain, because they had had differences with some ofthem; and as to those that had not opposed them in times of peace, theywatched seasonable opportunities to gain some accusation againstthem; and if any one did not come near them at all, he was under theirsuspicion as a proud man; if any one came with boldness, he was esteemeda contemner of them; and if any one came as aiming to oblige them, hewas supposed to have some treacherous plot against them; while the onlypunishment of crimes, whether they were of the greatest or smallestsort, was death. Nor could any one escape, unless he were veryinconsiderable, either on account of the meanness of his birth, or onaccount of his fortune. 

2. And now all the rest of the commanders of the Romans deemed thissedition among their enemies to be of great advantage to them, and werevery earnest to march to the city, and they urged Vespasian, as theirlord and general in all cases, to make haste, and said to him, that "theprovidence of God is on our side, by setting our enemies at varianceagainst 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 betired out with their civil miseries, or repent them of such doings. " ButVespasian replied, that they were greatly mistaken in what they thoughtfit to be done, as those that, upon the theater, love to make a showof their hands, and of their weapons, but do it at their own hazard, without considering, what was for their advantage, and for theirsecurity; for that if they now go and attack the city immediately, "theyshall but occasion their enemies to unite together, and shall converttheir force, now it is in its height, against themselves. But if theystay a while, they shall have fewer enemies, because they will beconsumed in this sedition: that God acts as a general of the Romansbetter than he can do, and is giving the Jews up to them without anypains of their own, and granting their army a victory without anydanger; that therefore it is their best way, while their enemiesare destroying each other with their own hands, and falling into thegreatest of misfortunes, which is that of sedition, to sit still asspectators of the dangers they run into, rather than to fight hand tohand with men that love murdering, and are mad one against another. Butif any one imagines that the glory of victory, when it is gotten withoutfighting, will be more insipid, let him know this much, that a glorioussuccess, quietly obtained, is more profitable than the dangers ofa battle; for we ought to esteem these that do what is agreeable totemperance and prudence no less glorious than those that have gainedgreat reputation by their actions in war: that he shall lead on his armywith greater force when their enemies are diminished, and his own armyrefreshed after the continual labors they had undergone. However, thatthis 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 ofwalls, nor indeed in getting together auxiliaries, while the advantagewill be on their side who give them such opportunity of delay; butthat the Jews are vexed to pieces every day by their civil wars anddissensions, and are under greater miseries than, if they were oncetaken, could be inflicted on them by us. Whether therefore any onehath regard to what is for our safety, he ought to suffer these Jews todestroy one another; or whether he hath regard to the greater glory ofthe action, we ought by no means to meddle with those men, now they areafflicted with a distemper at home; for should we now conquer them, itwould be said the conquest was not owing to our bravery, but to theirsedition. " [10]

3. And now the commanders joined in their approbation of what Vespasianhad 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 fledaway from the zealots, although their flight was very difficult, sincethey had guarded every passage out of the city, and slew every one thatwas caught at them, as taking it for granted they were going over to theRomans; yet did he who gave them money get clear off, while he only thatgave them none was voted a traitor. So the upshot was this, that therich purchased their flight by money, while none but the poor wereslain. Along all the roads also vast numbers of dead bodies lay inheaps, and even many of those that were so zealous in deserting atlength chose rather to perish within the city; for the hopes of burialmade 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 tobestow a burial either on those slain in the city, or on those that layalong the roads; but as if they had made an agreement to cancel both thelaws of their country and the laws of nature, and, at the same timethat they defiled men with their wicked actions, they would pollute theDivinity itself also, they left the dead bodies to putrefy under thesun; and the same punishment was allotted to such as buried any asto those that deserted, which was no other than death; while he thatgranted the favor of a grave to another would presently stand in needof a grave himself. To say all in a word, no other gentle passion was soentirely lost among them as mercy; for what were the greatest objects ofpity did most of all irritate these wretches, and they transferred theirrage from the living to those that had been slain, and from the deadto the living. Nay, the terror was so very great, that he who survivedcalled them that were first dead happy, as being at rest already; as didthose that were under torture in the prisons, declare, that, uponthis comparison, those that lay unburied were the happiest. These men, therefore, trampled upon all the laws of men, and laughed at the lawsof God; and for the oracles of the prophets, they ridiculed them asthe tricks of jugglers; yet did these prophets foretell many thingsconcerning [the rewards of] virtue, and [punishments of] vice, whichwhen these zealots violated, they occasioned the fulfilling of thosevery prophecies belonging to their own country; for there was a certainancient oracle of those men, that the city should then be taken andthe sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a sedition should invade theJews, and their own hand should pollute the temple of God. Now whilethese zealots did not [quite] disbelieve these predictions, they madethemselves 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 beneathhim to accept of barely the same honors that others had; and joining tohimself by degrees a party of the wickedest of them all, he brokeoff from the rest of the faction. This was brought about by his stilldisagreeing with the opinions of others, and giving out injunctionsof his own, in a very imperious manner; so that it was evident he wassetting up a monarchical power. Now some submitted to him out of theirfear of him, and others out of their good-will to him; for he was ashrewd man to entice men to him, both by deluding them and puttingcheats upon them. Nay, many there were that thought they should be saferthemselves, if the causes of their past insolent actions should now bereduced 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 guardsabout 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 avery heavy thing to be in subjection to one that was formerly theirequal. But the main reason that moved men against him was the dread ofmonarchy, 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 thispretense always against them, that they had opposed him when he wasfirst advanced; while every one chose rather to suffer any thingwhatsoever in war, than that, when they had been in a voluntary slaveryfor some time, they should afterward perish. So the sedition was dividedinto two parts, and John reigned in opposition to his adversaries overone of them: but for their leaders, they watched one another, nordid they at all, or at least very little, meddle with arms in theirquarrels; but they fought earnestly against the people, and contendedone with another which of them should bring home the greatest prey. Butbecause 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, andobtained that preservation from the Romans which they despaired toobtain among their own people. 

2. And now a fourth misfortune arose, in order to bring our nation todestruction. There was a fortress of very great strength not farfrom Jerusalem, which had been built by our ancient kings, both asa repository for their effects in the hazards of war, and for thepreservation 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 onlyto procure to themselves necessaries; for the fear they were then inprevented their further ravages. But when once they were informedthat the Roman army lay still, and that the Jews were divided betweensedition and tyranny, they boldly undertook greater matters; and at thefeast of unleavened bread, which the Jews celebrate in memory of theirdeliverance from the Egyptian bondage, when they were sent back intothe country of their forefathers, they came down by night, withoutbeing discovered by those that could have prevented them, and overran acertain small city called Engaddi:--in which expedition they preventedthose citizens that could have stopped them, before they could armthemselves, and fight them. They also dispersed them, and cast themout of the city. As for such as could not run away, being women andchildren, they slew of them above seven hundred. Afterward, when theyhad carried every thing out of their houses, and had seized upon allthe fruits that were in a flourishing condition, they brought them intoMasada. And indeed these men laid all the villages that were about thefortress waste, and made the whole country desolate; while there came tothem 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 atrest were in motion, by means of the robbers. Now as it is in a humanbody, if the principal part be inflamed, all the members are subject tothe same distemper; so, by means of the sedition and disorder thatwas in the metropolis, . Had the wicked men that were in the countryopportunity to ravage the same. Accordingly, when every one of them hadplundered their own villages, they then retired into the desert; yetwere these men that now got together, and joined in the conspiracy byparties, too small for an army, and too many for a gang of thieves: andthus did they fall upon the holy places [11] and the cities; yet did itnow so happen that they were sometimes very ill treated by those uponwhom they fell with such violence, and were taken by them as men aretaken in war: but still they prevented any further punishment as dorobbers, who, as soon as their ravages [are discovered], run theirway. Nor was there now any part of Judea that was not in a miserablecondition, as well as its most eminent city also. 

3. These things were told Vespasian by deserters; for although theseditious watched all the passages out of the city, and destroyed all, whosoever they were, that came thither, yet were there some that hadconcealed themselves, and when they had fled to the Romans, persuadedtheir general to come to their city's assistance, and save the remainderof the people; informing him withal, that it was upon account of thepeople's good-will to the Romans that many of them were already slain, and the survivors in danger of the same treatment. Vespasian did indeedalready pity the calamities these men were in, and arose, in appearance, as though he was going to besiege Jerusalem, but in reality to deliverthem from a [worse] siege they were already under. However, he wasobliged first to overthrow what remained elsewhere, and to leave nothingout of Jerusalem behind him that might interrupt him in that siege. Accordingly, he marched against Gadara, the metropolis of Perea, whichwas a place of strength, and entered that city on the fourth day of themonth Dystrus [Adar]; for the men of power had sent an embassage tohim, 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 theireffects, because many of the citizens of Gadara were rich men. Thisembassy the opposite party knew nothing of, but discovered it asVespasian was approaching near the city. However, they despaired ofkeeping possession of the city, as being inferior in number to theirenemies who were within the city, and seeing the Romans very near tothe city; so they resolved to fly, but thought it dishonorable to do itwithout shedding some blood, and revenging themselves on the authorsof this surrender; so they seized upon Dolesus, [a person not only thefirst in rank and family in that city, but one that seemed the occasionof sending such an embassy, ] and slew him, and treated his dead bodyafter a barbarous manner, so very violent was their anger at him, andthen ran out of the city. And as now the Roman army was just upon them, the people of Gadara admitted Vespasian with joyful acclamations, andreceived from him the security of his right hand, as also a garrisonof horsemen and footmen, to guard them against the excursions of therunagates; for as to their wall, they had pulled it down beforethe Romans desired them so to do, that they might thereby give themassurance 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 fromGadara, with five hundred horsemen, and three thousand footmen, while hereturned himself to Cesarea, with the rest of the army. But as soonas these fugitives saw the horsemen that pursued them just upon theirbacks, and before they came to a close fight, they ran together to acertain village, which was called Bethennabris, where finding a greatmultitude of young men, and arming them, partly by their own consent, partly by force, they rashly and suddenly assaulted Placidus and thetroops that were with him. These horsemen at the first onset gave way alittle, as contriving to entice them further off the wall; and when theyhad drawn them into a place fit for their purpose, they made their horseencompass them round, and threw their darts at them. So the horsemen cutoff the flight of the fugitives, while the foot terribly destroyed thosethat fought against them; for those Jews did no more than show theircourage, and then were destroyed; for as they fell upon the Romans whenthey were joined close together, and, as it were, walled about withtheir entire armor, they were not able to find any place where the dartscould enter, nor were they any way able to break their ranks, while theywere themselves run through by the Roman darts, and, like the wildestof wild beasts, rushed upon the point of others' swords; so some of themwere destroyed, as cut with their enemies' swords upon their faces, andothers were dispersed by the horsemen. 

5. Now Placidus's concern was to exclude them in their flight fromgetting into the village; and causing his horse to march continually onthat side of them, he then turned short upon them, and at the same timehis men made use of their darts, and easily took their aim at those thatwere the nearest to them, as they made those that were further off turnback by the terror they were in, till at last the most courageous ofthem 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 fromGadara, because of their own people that were among them; and yet, ifthey should admit them, they expected to perish with them, which cameto pass accordingly; for as they were crowding together at the wall, theRoman horsemen were just ready to fall in with them. However, the guardsprevented them, and shut the gates, when Placidus made an assault uponthem, and fighting courageously till it was dark, he got possessionof the wall, and of the people that were in the city, when the uselessmultitude were destroyed; but those that were more potent ran away, andthe soldiers plundered the houses, and set the village on fire. As forthose that ran out of the village, they stirred up such as were in thecountry, and exaggerating their own calamities, and telling them thatthe whole army of the Romans were upon them, they put them into greatfear on every side; so they got in great numbers together, and fled toJericho, for they knew no other place that could afford them any hope ofescaping, it being a city that had a strong wall, and a great multitudeof inhabitants. But Placidus, relying much upon his horsemen, and hisformer good success, followed them, and slew all that he overtook, as far as Jordan; and when he had driven the whole multitude to theriver-side, where they were stopped by the current, [for it had beenaugmented lately by rains, and was not fordable, ] he put his soldiersin array over against them; so the necessity the others were in provokedthem to hazard a battle, because there was no place whither they couldflee. They then extended themselves a very great way along the banks ofthe river, and sustained the darts that were thrown at them, as well asthe attacks of the horsemen, who beat many of them, and pushed them intothe current. At which fight, hand to hand, fifteen thousand of them wereslain, while the number of those that were unwillingly forced to leapinto Jordan was prodigious. There were besides two thousand and twohundred taken prisoners. A mighty prey was taken also, consisting ofasses, and sheep, and camels, and oxen. 

6. Now this destruction that fell upon the Jews, as it was not inferiorto any of the rest in itself, so did it still appear greater than itreally was; and this, because not only the whole country through whichthey fled was filled with slaughter, and Jordan could not be passedover, by reason of the dead bodies that were in it, but because the lakeAsphaltiris was also full of dead bodies, that were carried down intoit by the river. And now Placidus, after this good success that he had, fell violently upon the neighboring smaller cities and villages; when hetook Abila, and Julias, and Bezemoth, and all those that lay as far asthe lake Asphaltitis, and put such of the deserters into each of them ashe thought proper. He then put his soldiers on board the ships, andslew such as had fled to the lake, insomuch that all Perea had eithersurrendered themselves, or were taken by the Romans, as far as Macherus. 

CHAPTER 8. 

 How Vespasian Upon Hearing Of Some Commotions In Gall, [12] Made Haste To Finish The Jewish War. A Description Of. Jericho, And Of The Great Plain; With An Account Besides Of The Lake Asphaltitis. 

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, hadrevolted from Nero; which affair is more accurately described elsewhere. This report, thus related to Vespasian, excited him to go on brisklywith the war; for he foresaw already the civil wars which were comingupon 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, heshould make the fears for Italy the lighter; while therefore the winterwas his hinderance [from going into the field], he put garrisons intothe villages and smaller cities for their security; he put decurionsalso into the villages, and centurions into the cities: he besidesthis rebuilt many of the cities that had been laid waste; but at thebeginning of the spring he took the greatest part of his army, and ledit from Cesarea to Antipatris, where he spent two days in settling theaffairs of that city, and then, on the third day, he marched on, layingwaste and burning all the neighboring villages. And when he had laidwaste all the places about the toparchy of Thamnas, he passed on toLydda 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 otherplaces] as inhabitants therein, and then came to Emmaus, where he seizedupon the passage which led thence to their metropolis, and fortified hiscamp, and leaving the fifth legion therein, he came to the toparchy ofBethletephon. He then destroyed that place, and the neighboring places, by fire, and fortified, at proper places, the strong holds all aboutIdumea; and when he had seized upon two villages, which were in the verymidst of Idumea, Betaris and Caphartobas, he slew above ten thousand ofthe people, and carried into captivity above a thousand, and drove awaythe rest of the multitude, and placed no small part of his own forcesin them, who overran and laid waste the whole mountainous country; whilehe, with the rest of his forces, returned to Emmaus, whence he came downthrough the country of Samaria, and hard by the city, by others calledNeapoils, [or Sichem, ] but by the people of that country Mabortha, toCorea, 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 dayTrajan, one of his commanders, joined him with the forces he broughtout of Perea, all the places beyond Jordan being subdued already. 

2. Hereupon a great multitude prevented their approach, and came out ofJericho, and fled to those mountainous parts that lay over againstJerusalem, while that part which was left behind was in a great measuredestroyed; 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 faras the country of Sodom, and the utmost limits of the lake Asphaltiris, southward. This mountain is all of it very uneven and uninhabited, byreason of its barrenness: there is an opposite mountain that is situatedover against it, on the other side of Jordan; this last begins atJulias, and the northern quarters, and extends itself southward as faras Somorrhon, [13] which is the bounds of Petra, in Arabia. In thisridge of mountains there is one called the Iron Mountain, that runs inlength as far as Moab. Now the region that lies in the middle betweenthese ridges of mountains is called the Great Plain; it reaches fromthe village Ginnabris, as far as the lake Asphaltitis; its length is twohundred and thirty furlongs, and its breadth a hundred and twenty, andit is divided in the midst by Jordan. It hath two lakes in it, that ofAsphaltitis, and that of Tiberias, whose natures are opposite to eachother; for the former is salt and unfruitful, but that of Tiberias issweet and fruitful. This plain is much burnt up in summer time, and, byreason of the extraordinary heat, contains a very unwholesome air; it isall destitute of water excepting the river Jordan, which water of Jordanis the occasion why those plantations of palm trees that are near itsbanks are more flourishing, and much more fruitful, as are those thatare remote from it not so flourishing, or fruitful. 

3. Notwithstandingwhich, there is a fountain by Jericho, that runs plentifully, and isvery fit for watering the ground; it arises near the old city, whichJoshua, the son of Naue, the general of the Hebrews, took the first ofall 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 ofthe earth and the trees, but of the children born of women, and that itwas entirely of a sickly and corruptive nature to all things whatsoever;but that it was made gentle, and very wholesome and fruitful, by theprophet Elisha. This prophet was familiar with Elijah, and was hissuccessor, 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 themamends as well as the country, by a lasting favor; for he went out ofthe city to this fountain, and threw into the current an earthen vesselfull of salt; after which he stretched out his righteous handunto heaven, and, pouring out a mild drink-offering, he made thissupplication, That the current might be mollified, and that the veins offresh water might be opened; that God also would bring into the placea more temperate and fertile air for the current, and would bestow uponthe people of that country plenty of the fruits of the earth, and asuccession of children; and that this prolific water might never failthem, 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 occasionof barrenness and famine before, from that time did supply a numerousposterity, and afforded great abundance to the country. Accordingly, thepower of it is so great in watering the ground, that if it do but oncetouch a country, it affords a sweeter nourishment than other waters do, when they lie so long upon them, till they are satiated with them. Forwhich reason, the advantage gained from other waters, when they flow ingreat plenty, is but small, while that of this water is great when itflows even in little quantities. Accordingly, it waters a larger spaceof ground than any other waters do, and passes along a plain of seventyfurlongs long, and twenty broad; wherein it affords nourishment to thosemost excellent gardens that are thick set with trees. There are in itmany sorts of palm trees that are watered by it, different from eachother in taste and name; the better sort of them, when they are pressed, yield an excellent kind of honey, not much inferior in sweetness toother honey. This country withal produces honey from bees; it also bearsthat balsam which is the most precious of all the fruits in that place, cypress trees also, and those that bear myrobalanum; so that he whoshould pronounce this place to be divine would not be mistaken, whereinis such plenty of trees produced as are very rare, and of the mustexcellent sort. And indeed, if we speak of those other fruits, it willnot be easy to light on any climate in the habitable earth that canwell 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 thefertility of the waters; the warmth calling forth the sprouts, andmaking them spread, and the moisture making every one of them take rootfirmly, and supplying that virtue which it stands in need of in summertime. Now this country is then so sadly burnt up, that nobody cares tocome at it; and if the water be drawn up before sun-rising, and afterthat exposed to the air, it becomes exceeding cold, and becomes of anature quite contrary to the ambient air; as in winter again it becomeswarm; and if you go into it, it appears very gentle. The ambient air ishere also of so good a temperature, that the people of the country areclothed in linen-only, even when snow covers the rest of Judea. Thisplace is one hundred and fifty furlongs from Jerusalem, and sixty fromJordan. The country, as far as Jerusalem, is desert and stony; but thatas far as Jordan and the lake Asphaltitis lies lower indeed, though itbe equally desert and barren. But so much shall suffice to have saidabout Jericho, and of the great happiness of its situation. 

4. The nature of the lake Asphaltitis 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 iteasy for any one to make things sink therein to the bottom, if he had amind so to do. Accordingly, when Vespasian went to see it, he commandedthat 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 asif a wind had forced them upwards. Moreover, the change of the color ofthis lake is wonderful, for it changes its appearance thrice everyday; and as the rays of the sun fall differently upon it, the light isvariously reflected. However, it casts up black clods of bitumen in manyparts of it; these swim at the top of the water, and resemble both inshape and bigness headless bulls; and when the laborers that belong tothe lake come to it, and catch hold of it as it hangs together, theydraw it into their ships; but when the ship is full, it is not easy tocut off the rest, for it is so tenacious as to make the ship hang uponits clods till they set it loose with the menstrual blood of women, andwith urine, to which alone it yields. This bitumen is not onlyuseful 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 thislake is five hundred and eighty furlongs, where it is extended as far asZoar in Arabia; and its breadth is a hundred and fifty. The country ofSodom borders upon it. It was of old a most happy land, both for thefruits it bore and the riches of its cities, although it be now allburnt up. It is related how, for the impiety of its inhabitants, itwas burnt by lightning; in consequence of which there are still theremainders of that Divine fire, and the traces [or shadows] of thefive cities are still to be seen, as well as the ashes growing in theirfruits; which fruits have a color as if they were fit to be eaten, butif 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 ofcredibility 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 themboth, partly out of his own Romans, and partly out of the body of hisauxiliaries. He also sent Lucius Annius to Gerasa, and delivered to hima body of horsemen, and a considerable number of footmen. So when he hadtaken the city, which he did at the first onset, he slew a thousand ofthose young men who had not prevented him by flying away; but he tooktheir families captive, and permitted his soldiers to plunder them oftheir effects; after which he set fire to their houses, and went away tothe adjoining villages, while the men of power fled away, and the weakerpart were destroyed, and what was remaining was all burnt down. And nowthe war having gone through all the mountainous country, and all theplain country also, those that were at Jerusalem were deprived ofthe liberty of going out of the city; for as to such as had a mind todesert, they were watched by the zealots; and as to such as were not yeton the side of the Romans, their army kept them in, by encompassing thecity round about on all sides. 

2. Now as Vespasian was returned to Cesarea, and was getting ready withall his army to march directly to Jerusalem, he was informed that Nerowas dead, after he had reigned thirteen years and eight days. But as toany 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 plotlaid against him by them, and was deserted by all his guards, and ranaway with four of his most trusty freed-men, and slew himself in thesuburbs of Rome; and how those that occasioned his death were in no longtime 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, andslain by treachery in the middle of the market-place at Rome, andOtho was made emperor; with his expedition against the commanders ofVitellius, and his destruction thereupon; and besides what troublesthere were under Vitellius, and the fight that was about the capitol;as also how Antonius Primus and Mucianus slew Vitellius, and his Germanlegions, and thereby put an end to that civil war; I have omitted togive an exact account of them, because they are well known by all, andthey are described by a great number of Greek and Roman authors; yetfor the sake of the connexion of matters, and that my history may notbe incoherent, I have just touched upon every thing briefly. WhereforeVespasian put off at first his expedition against Jerusalem, and stoodwaiting whither the empire would be transferred after the death ofNero. Moreover, when he heard that Galba was made emperor, he attemptednothing 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 hiscommands about the Jews. Upon the very same errand did king Agrippa sailalong with Titus to Galba; but as they were sailing in their long shipsby the coasts of Achaia, for it was winter time, they heard that Galbawas slain, before they could get to him, after he had reigned sevenmonths and as many days. After whom Otho took the government, andundertook the management of public affairs. So Agrippa resolved to go onto Rome without any terror; on account of the change in the government;but Titus, by a Divine impulse, sailed back from Greece to Syria, andcame in great haste to Cesarea, to his father. And now they were bothin suspense about the public affairs, the Roman empire being then in afluctuating condition, and did not go on with their expedition againstthe Jews, but thought that to make any attack upon foreigners was nowunseasonable, on account of the solicitude they were in for their owncountry. 

3. And now there arose another war at Jerusalem. There was a son ofGiora, one Simon, by birth of Gerasa, a young man, not so cunningindeed as John [of Gisehala], who had already seized upon the city, butsuperior in strength of body and courage; on which account, when he hadbeen driven away from that Acrabattene toparchy, which he once had, byAnanus the high priest, he came to those robbers who had seized uponMasada. At the first they suspected him, and only permitted him to comewith 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 mannerso well agreed with theirs, and he seemed so trusty a man, that he wentout with them, and ravaged and destroyed the country with them aboutMasada; yet when he persuaded them to undertake greater things, he couldnot prevail with them so to do; for as they were accustomed to dwell inthat citadel, they were afraid of going far from that which wastheir hiding-place; but he affecting to tyrannize, and being fond ofgreatness, when he had heard of the death of Ananus, he left them, andwent into the mountainous part of the country. So he proclaimed libertyto those in slavery, and a reward to those already free, and gottogether a set of wicked men from all quarters. 

4. And as he had now a strong body of men about him, he overran thevillages that lay in the mountainous country, and when there were stillmore and more that came to him, he ventured to go down into the lowerparts of the country, and since he was now become formidable to thecities, many of the men of power were corrupted by him; so that his armywas no longer composed of slaves and robbers, but a great many of thepopulace were obedient to him as to their king. He then overran theAcrabattene toparchy, and the places that reached as far as the GreatIdumea; for he built a wall at a certain village called Nain, and madeuse of that as a fortress for his own party's security; and at thevalley called Paran, he enlarged many of the caves, and many others hefound ready for his purpose; these he made use of as repositories forhis treasures, and receptacles for his prey, and therein he laid up thefruits that he had got by rapine; and many of his partizans had theirdwelling in them; and he made no secret of it that he was exercising hismen beforehand, and making preparations for the assault of Jerusalem. 

5. Whereupon the zealots, out of the dread they were in of his attackingthem, and being willing to prevent one that was growing up to opposethem, went out against him with their weapons. Simon met them, andjoining battle with them, slew a considerable number of them, and drovethe rest before him into the city, but durst not trust so much upon hisforces as to make an assault upon the walls; but he resolved first tosubdue Idumea, and as he had now twenty thousand armed men, he marchedto the borders of their country. Hereupon the rulers of the Idumeansgot together on the sudden the most warlike part of their people, abouttwenty-five thousand in number, and permitted the rest to be a guardto their own country, by reason of the incursions that were made by theSicarii that were at Masada. Thus they received Simon at their borders, where they fought him, and continued the battle all that day; and thedispute lay whether they had conquered him, or been conquered by him. Sohe went back to Nain, as did the Idumeans return home. Nor was it longere Simon came violently again upon their country; when he pitched hiscamp at a certain village called Thecoe, and sent Eleazar, one of hiscompanions, to those that kept garrison at Herodium, and in order topersuade them to surrender that fortress to him. The garrison receivedthis man readily, while they knew nothing of what he came about; but assoon as he talked of the surrender of the place, they fell upon him withtheir drawn swords, till he found that he had no place for flight, whenhe threw himself down from the wall into the valley beneath; so he diedimmediately: but the Idumeans, who were already much afraid of Simon'spower, thought fit to take a view of the enemy's army before theyhazarded a battle with them. 

6. Now there was one of their commanders named Jacob, who offered toserve them readily upon that occasion, but had it in his mind to betraythem. He went therefore from the village Alurus, wherein the army of theIdumeans were gotten together, and came to Simon, and at the very firsthe agreed to betray his country to him, and took assurances upon oathfrom him that he should always have him in esteem, and then promised himthat he would assist him in subduing all Idumea under him; upon whichaccount he was feasted after an obliging manner by Simon, and elevatedby his mighty promises; and when he was returned to his own men, he atfirst belied the army of Simon, and said it was manifold more in numberthan what it was; after which, he dexterously persuaded the commanders, and by degrees the whole multitude, to receive Simon, and to surrenderthe whole government up to him without fighting. And as he was doingthis, he invited Simon by his messengers, and promised him to dispersethe Idumeans, which he performed also; for as soon as their army wasnigh them, he first of all got upon his horse, and fled, together withthose whom he had corrupted; hereupon a terror fell upon the wholemultitude; 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, andmade a sudden attack upon the city Hebron, and took it; wherein he gotpossession of a great deal of prey, and plundered it of a vast quantityof fruit. Now the people of the country say that it is an ancientercity, not only than any in that country, but than Memphis in Egypt, andaccordingly its age is reckoned at two thousand and three hundredyears. They also relate that it had been the habitation of Abram, theprogenitor of the Jews, after he had removed out of Mesopotamia; andthey say that his posterity descended from thence into Egypt, whosemonuments are to this very time showed in that small city; the fabric ofwhich monuments are of the most excellent marble, and wrought after themost elegant manner. There is also there showed, at the distance of sixfurlongs from the city, a very large turpentine tree [17] and the reportgoes, that this tree has continued ever since the creation of the world. Thence did Simon make his progress over all Idumen, and did not onlyravage the cities and villages, but lay waste the whole country; for, besides those that were completely armed, he had forty thousand men thatfollowed him, insomuch that he had not provisions enough to suffice sucha multitude. Now, besides this want of provisions that he was in, hewas of a barbarous disposition, and bore great anger at this nation, bywhich means it came to pass that Idumea was greatly depopulated; and asone may see all the woods behind despoiled of their leaves by locusts, after they have been there, so was there nothing left behind Simon'sarmy but a desert. Some places they burnt down, some they utterlydemolished, and whatsoever grew in the country, they either trod itdown or fed upon it, and by their marches they made the ground that wascultivated harder and more untractable than that which was barren. Inshort, there was no sign remaining of those places that had been laidwaste, that ever they had had a being. 

8. This success of Simon excited the zealots afresh; and though theywere afraid to fight him openly in a fair battle, yet did they layambushes in the passes, and seized upon his wife, with a considerablenumber of her attendants; whereupon they came back to the cityrejoicing, as if they had taken Simon himself captive, and werein present expectation that he would lay down his arms, and makesupplication to them for his wife; but instead of indulging any mercifulaffection, he grew very angry at them for seizing his beloved wife; sohe came to the wall of Jerusalem, and, like wild beasts when they arewounded, and cannot overtake those that wounded them, he vented hisspleen upon all persons that he met with. Accordingly, he caught allthose that were come out of the city gates, either to gather herbsor sticks, who were unarmed and in years; he then tormented them anddestroyed them, out of the immense rage he was in, and was almost readyto taste the very flesh of their dead bodies. He also cut off the handsof 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 thosethat had been the authors of his wife's seizure. He also enjoined themto tell the people that Simon swore by the God of the universe, who seesall things, that unless they will restore him his wife, he will breakdown their wall, and inflict the like punishment upon all the citizens, without sparing any age, and without making any distinction between theguilty and the innocent. These threatenings so greatly affrighted, notthe people only, but the zealots themselves also, that they sent hiswife back to him; when he became a little milder, and left off hisperpetual blood-shedding. 

9. But now sedition and civil war prevailed, not only over Judea, butin Italy also; for now Galba was slain in the midst of the Romanmarket-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'sgenerals, at Betriacum, in Gaul, Otho gained the advantage on the firstday, but on the second day Vitellius's soldiers had the victory; andafter much slaughter Otho slew himself, when he had heard of this defeatat Brixia, and after he had managed the public affairs three months andtwo 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 timeVespasian removed from Cesarea, on the fifth day of the month Deasius, [Sivan, ] and marched against those places of Judea which were not yetoverthrown. So he went up to the mountainous country, and took those twotoparchies that were called the Gophnitick and Acrabattene toparchies. After which he took Bethel and Ephraim, two small cities; and when hehad put garrisons into them, he rode as far as Jerusalem, in which marchhe took many prisoners, and many captives; but Cerealis, one of hiscommanders, took a body of horsemen and footmen, and laid wastethat part of Idumea which was called the Upper Idumea, and attackedCaphethra, which pretended to be a small city, and took it at the firstonset, and burnt it down. He also attacked Caphatabira, and laid siegeto it, for it had a very strong wall; and when he expected to spend along time in that siege, those that were within opened their gates onthe sudden, and came to beg pardon, and surrendered themselves up tohim. When Cerealis had conquered them, he went to Hebron, another veryancient city. I have told you already that this city is situated in amountainous country not far off Jerusalem; and when he had broken intothe city by force, what multitude and young men were left therein heslew, and burnt down the city; so that as now all the places weretaken, excepting Herodlum, and Masada, and Macherus, which were in thepossession of the robbers, so Jerusalem was what the Romans at presentaimed at. 

10. And now, as soon as Simon had set his wife free, and recovered herfrom the zealots, he returned back to the remainders of Idumea, anddriving the nation all before him from all quarters, he compelled agreat number of them to retire to Jerusalem; he followed them himselfalso to the city, and encompassed the wall all round again; and when helighted upon any laborers that were coming thither out of the country, he slew them. Now this Simon, who was without the wall, was a greaterterror to the people than the Romans themselves, as were the zealots whowere within it more heavy upon them than both of the other; and duringthis time did the mischievous contrivances and courage [of John] corruptthe body of the Galileans; for these Galileans had advanced this John, and made him very potent, who made them suitable requital from theauthority he had obtained by their means; for he permitted them to doall things that any of them desired to do, while their inclination toplunder was insatiable, as was their zeal in searching the houses of therich; and for the murdering of the men, and abusing of the women, it wassport to them. They also devoured what spoils they had taken, togetherwith their blood, and indulged themselves in feminine wantonness, without any disturbance, till they were satiated therewith; while theydecked their hair, and put on women's garments, and were besmeared overwith ointments; and that they might appear very comely, they had paintsunder their eyes, and imitated not only the ornaments, but also thelusts of women, and were guilty of such intolerable uncleanness, thatthey invented unlawful pleasures of that sort. And thus did they rollthemselves up and down the city, as in a brothel-house, and defiled itentirely with their impure actions; nay, while their faces looked likethe faces of women, they killed with their right hands; and when theirgait was effeminate, they presently attacked men, and became warriors, and drew their swords from under their finely dyed cloaks, and ran everybody through whom they alighted upon. However, Simon waited for such asran away from John, and was the more bloody of the two; and he who hadescaped the tyrant within the wall was destroyed by the other that laybefore the gates, so that all attempts of flying and deserting to theRomans 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 attemptedto destroy him, and this out of their envy at his power, and hatred ofhis cruelty; so they got together, and slew many of the zealots, anddrove the rest before them into that royal palace that was built byGrapte, who was a relation of Izates, the king of Adiabene; the Idumeansfell in with them, and drove the zealots out thence into the temple, andbetook themselves to plunder John's effects; for both he himself was inthat palace, and therein had he laid up the spoils he had acquired byhis tyranny. In the mean time, the multitude of those zealots that weredispersed over the city ran together to the temple unto those that fledthither, and John prepared to bring them down against the people and theIdumeans, who were not so much afraid of being attacked by them [becausethey 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 theyassembled themselves together, and the high priests with them, and tookcounsel after what manner they should avoid their assault. Now it wasGod who turned their opinions to the worst advice, and thence theydevised such a remedy to get themselves free as was worse than thedisease itself. Accordingly, in order to overthrow John, they determinedto admit Simon, and earnestly to desire the introduction of a secondtyrant into the city; which resolution they brought to perfection, andsent Matthias, the high priest, to beseech this Simon to come ill tothem, of whom they had so often been afraid. Those also that had fledfrom the zealots in Jerusalem joined in this request to him, out ofthe desire they had of preserving their houses and their effects. Accordingly he, in an arrogant manner, granted them his lordlyprotection, and came into the city, in order to deliver it from thezealots. The people also made joyful acclamations to him, as theirsavior and their preserver; but when he was come in, with his army, hetook care to secure his own authority, and looked upon those that hadinvited him in to be no less his enemies than those against whom theinvitation was intended. 

12. And thus did Simon get possession of Jerusalem, in the third yearof the war, in the month Xanthicus [Nisan]; whereupon John, with hismultitude of zealots, as being both prohibited from coming out of thetemple, and having lost their power in the city, [for Simon andhis party had plundered them of what they had, ] were in despair ofdeliverance. Simon also made an assault upon the temple, with theassistance of the people, while the others stood upon the cloisters andthe battlements, and defended themselves from their assaults. However, a considerable number of Simon's party fell, and many were carried offwounded; for the zealots threw their darts easily from a superior place, and seldom failed of hitting their enemies; but having the advantage ofsituation, and having withal erected four very large towers aforehand, that their darts might come from higher places, one at the north-eastcorner of the court, one above the Xystus, the third at another cornerover against the lower city, and the last was erected above the top ofthe Pastophoria, where one of the priests stood of course, and gave asignal beforehand, with a trumpet [19] at the beginning of every seventhday, in the evening twilight, as also at the evening when that day wasfinished, as giving notice to the people when they were to leave offwork, and when they were to go to work again. These men also set theirengines to cast darts and stones withal, upon those towers, with theirarchers and slingers. And now Simon made his assault upon the templemore faintly, by reason that the greatest part of his men grew weary ofthat work; yet did he not leave off his opposition, because his armywas superior to the others, although the darts which were thrown by theengines were carried a great way, and slew many of those that fought forhim. 

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 Romeon all sides; for Vitellius was come from Germany with his soldiery, anddrew along with him a great multitude of other men besides. And when thespaces allotted for soldiers could not contain them, he made all Romeitself his camp, and filled all the houses with his armed men; whichmen, when they saw the riches of Rome with those eyes which had neverseen such riches before, and found themselves shone round about on allsides with silver and gold, they had much ado to contain their covetousdesires, and were ready to betake themselves to plunder, and to theslaughter of such as should stand in their way. And this was the stateof affairs in Italy at that time. 

2. But when Vespasian had overthrown all the places that were near toJerusalem, he returned to Cesarea, and heard of the troubles that wereat Rome, and that Vitellius was emperor. This produced indignation inhim, 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 somadly, and seized upon the government as if it were absolutely destituteof a governor. And as this sorrow of his was violent, he was not able tosupport the torments he was under, nor to apply himself further in otherwars, when his native country was laid waste; but then, as much as hispassion excited him to avenge his country, so much was he restrainedby the consideration of his distance therefrom; because fortune mightprevent him, and do a world of mischief before he could himself sailover the sea to Italy, especially as it was still the winter season; sohe restrained his anger, how vehement soever it was at this time. 

3. But now his commanders and soldiers met in several companies, andconsulted openly about changing the public affairs; and, out of theirindignation, cried out, how "at Rome there are soldiers that livedelicately, and when they have not ventured so much as to hear the fameof war, they ordain whom they please for our governors, and in hopesof gain make them emperors; while you, who have gone through so manylabors, and are grown into years under your helmets, give leave toothers to use such a power, when yet you have among yourselves onemore worthy to rule than any whom they have set up. Now what justeropportunity shall they ever have of requiting their generals, if theydo not make use of this that is now before them? while there is so muchjuster reasons for Vespasian's being emperor than for Vitellius; as theyare themselves more deserving than those that made the other emperors;for that they have undergone as great wars as have the troops that comefrom Germany; nor are they inferior in war to those that have broughtthat tyrant to Rome, nor have they undergone smaller labors thanthey; for that neither will the Roman senate, nor people, bear such alascivious emperor as Vitellius, if he be compared with their chasteVespasian; nor will they endure a most barbarous tyrant, instead of agood governor, nor choose one that hath no child [20] to preside overthem, instead of him that is a father; because the advancement of men'sown children to dignities is certainly the greatest security kings canhave for themselves. Whether, therefore, we estimate the capacityof governing from the skill of a person in years, we ought to haveVespasian, or whether from the strength of a young man, we ought to haveTitus; 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 theneighboring kings, and will have further all the armies in the east tosupport them, as also those in Europe, so they as they are out of thedistance and dread of Vitellius, besides such auxiliaries as they mayhave in Italy itself; that is, Vespasian's brother, [21] and his otherson [Domitian]; the one of whom will bring in a great many of thoseyoung men that are of dignity, while the other is intrusted with thegovernment of the city, which office of his will be no small means ofVespasian's obtaining the government. Upon the whole, the case may besuch, that if we ourselves make further delays, the senate may choose anemperor, whom the soldiers, who are the saviors of the empire, will havein contempt. "

4. These were the discourses the soldiers had in their severalcompanies; after which they got together in a great body, and, encouraging one another, they declared Vespasian emperor, [22] andexhorted him to save the government, which was now in danger. NowVespasian's concern had been for a considerable time about the public, yet did he not intend to set up for governor himself, though his actionsshowed him to deserve it, while he preferred that safety which is in aprivate life before the dangers in a state of such dignity; but when herefused the empire, the commanders insisted the more earnestly upon hisacceptance; and the soldiers came about him, with their drawn swordsin their hands, and threatened to kill him, unless he would now liveaccording to his dignity. And when he had shown his reluctance a greatwhile, and had endeavored to thrust away this dominion from him, he atlength, being not able to persuade them, yielded to their solicitationsthat would salute him emperor. 

5. So upon the exhortations of Mucianus, and the other commanders, thathe 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 overAlexandria, as knowing that Egypt was of the greatest consequence, inorder to obtain the entire government, because of its supplying of corn[to Rome]; which corn, if he could be master of, he hoped to dethroneVitellius, supposing he should aim to keep the empire by force [for hewould not be able to support himself, if the multitude at Rome shouldonce be in want of food]; and because he was desirous to join the twolegions that were at Alexandria to the other legions that were with him. He also considered with himself, that he should then have that countryfor 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. Ithath on the west the dry deserts of Libya; and on the south Siene, thatdivides it from Ethiopia, as well as the cataracts of the Nile, thatcannot be sailed over; and on the east the Red Sea extended as far asCoptus; and it is fortified on the north by the land that reaches toSyria, together with that called the Egyptian Sea, having no havens init for ships. And thus is Egypt walled about on every side. Its lengthbetween Pelusium and Siene is two thousand furlongs, and the passage bysea from Plinthine to Pelusium is three thousand six hundred furlongs. Its river Nile is navigable as far as the city called Elephantine, theforenamed cataracts hindering ships from going any farther, The havenalso of Alexandria is not entered by the mariners without difficulty, even in times of peace; for the passage inward is narrow, and full ofrocks that lie under the water, which oblige the mariners to turn froma straight direction: its left side is blocked up by works made by men'shands on both sides; on its right side lies the island called Pharus, which is situated just before the entrance, and supports a very greattower, that affords the sight of a fire to such as sail within threehundred furlongs of it, that ships may cast anchor a great way off inthe night time, by reason of the difficulty of sailing nearer. Aboutthis island are built very great piers, the handiwork of men, againstwhich, when the sea dashes itself, and its waves are broken againstthose boundaries, the navigation becomes very troublesome, and theentrance through so narrow a passage is rendered dangerous; yet is thehaven itself, when you are got into it, a very safe one, and of thirtyfurlongs in largeness; into which is brought what the country wants inorder to its happiness, as also what abundance the country affords morethan 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 heimmediately sent to Tiberius Alexander, who was then governor of Egyptand 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, wasdesirous to have him for his confederate and supporter. Now as soon asever Alexander had read this letter, he readily obliged the legionsand the multitude to take the oath of fidelity to Vespasian, both whichwillingly complied with him, as already acquainted with the courageof the man, from that his conduct in their neighborhood. AccordinglyVespasian, looking upon himself as already intrusted with thegovernment, got all things ready for his journey [to Rome]. Now famecarried this news abroad more suddenly than one could have thought, thathe was emperor over the east, upon which every city kept festivals, andcelebrated sacrifices and oblations for such good news; the legionsalso that were in Mysia and Pannonia, who had been in commotion a littlebefore, on account of this insolent attempt of Vitellius, were veryglad to take the oath of fidelity to Vespasian, upon his coming tothe empire. Vespasian then removed from Cesarea to Berytus, wheremany embassages came to him from Syria, and many from other provinces, bringing with them from every city crowns, and the congratulations ofthe people. Mucianus came also, who was the president of the province, and told him with what alacrity the people [received the news of hisadvancement], and how the people of every city had taken the oath offidelity to him. 

7. So Vespasian's good fortune succeeded to his wishes every where, andthe public affairs were, for the greatest part, already in his hands;upon which he considered that he had not arrived at the governmentwithout Divine Providence, but that a righteous kind of fate had broughtthe 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 obtainthe government, so did he remember what Josephus had said to him when heventured to foretell his coming to the empire while Nero was alive; sohe was much concerned that this man was still in bonds with him. He thencalled for Mucianus, together with his other commanders and friends, and, in the first place, he informed them what a valiant man Josephushad been, and what great hardships he had made him undergo in the siegeof Jotapata. After that he related those predictions of his [24] whichhe 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 shamefulthing [said he] that this man, who hath foretold my coming to the empirebeforehand, and been the minister of a Divine message to me, shouldstill be retained in the condition of a captive or prisoner. " So hecalled for Josephus, and commanded that he should be set at liberty;whereupon the commanders promised themselves glorious things, froth thisrequital Vespasian made to a stranger. Titus was then present withhis father, and said, "O father, it is but just that the scandal [of aprisoner] 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 willbe like a man that had never been bound at all. " For that is the usualmethod as to such as have been bound without a cause. This advice wasagreed to by Vespasian also; so there came a man in, and cut the chainto pieces; while Josephus received this testimony of his integrity fora reward, and was moreover esteemed a person of credit as to futuritiesalso. 

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, andhad disposed of the places of power justly, [25] and according to everyone's deserts, he came to Antioch, and consulting which way he had besttake, he preferred to go for Rome, rather than to march to Alexandria, because he saw that Alexandria was sure to him already, but that theaffairs at Rome were put into disorder by Vitellius; so he sent Mucianusto Italy, and committed a considerable army both of horsemen and footmento him; yet was Mucianus afraid of going by sea, because it was themiddle of winter, and so he led his army on foot through Cappadocia andPhrygia. 

2. In the mean time, Antonius Primus took the third of the legions thatwere in Mysia, for he was president of that province, and made haste, inorder to fight Vitellius; whereupon Vitellius sent away Cecinna, witha great army, having a mighty confidence in him, because of his havingbeaten Otho. This Cecinna marched out of Rome in great haste, and foundAntonius 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, hedurst not fight them; and as he thought a retreat dangerous, so he beganto think of betraying his army to Antonius. Accordingly, he assembledthe centurions and tribunes that were under his command, and persuadedthem to go over to Antonius, and this by diminishing the reputation ofVitellius, and by exaggerating the power of Vespasian. He also told themthat with the one there was no more than the bare name of dominion, butwith the other was the power of it; and that it was better for them toprevent necessity, and gain favor, and, while they were likely to beovercome in battle, to avoid the danger beforehand, and go over toAntonius willingly; that Vespasian was able of himself to subdue whathad not yet submitted without their assistance, while Vitellius couldnot preserve what he had already with it. 

3. Cecinna said this, and much more to the same purpose, and persuadedthem to comply with him; and both he and his army deserted; but stillthe very same night the soldiers repented of what they had done, and afear seized on them, lest perhaps Vitellius who sent them should get thebetter; and drawing their swords, they assaulted Cecinna, in order tokill him; and the thing had been done by them, if the tribunes had notfallen upon their knees, and besought them not to do it; so the soldiersdid not kill him, but put him in bonds, as a traitor, and were about tosend him to Vitellius. When [Antonius] Primus heard of this, he raisedup his men immediately, and made them put on their armor, and led themagainst those that had revolted; hereupon they put themselves in orderof battle, and made a resistance for a while, but were soon beaten, andfled to Cremona; then did Primus take his horsemen, and cut off theirentrance into the city, and encompassed and destroyed a great multitudeof 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 manystrangers, who were merchants, as well as many of the people of thatcountry, perished, and among them Vitellius's whole army, being thirtythousand and two hundred, while Antonius lost no more of those that camewith him from Mysia than four thousand and five hundred: he then loosedCecinna, and sent him to Vespasian to tell him the good news. So hecame, and was received by him, and covered the scandal of his treacheryby the unexpected honors he received from Vespasian. 

4. And now, upon the news that Antonius was approaching, Sabinus tookcourage at Rome, and assembled those cohorts of soldiers that kept watchby night, and in the night time seized upon the capitol; and, as theday came on, many men of character came over to him, with Domitian, his brother's son, whose encouragement was of very great weight for thecompassing the government. Now Vitellius was not much concerned at thisPrimus, 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 fightagainst the capitol; and many bold actions were done on this side, andon the side of those that held the temple. But at last, the soldiersthat came from Germany, being too numerous for the others, got the hillinto their possession, where Domitian, with many other of the principalRomans, providentially escaped, while the rest of the multitude wereentirely 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 hisarmy, and were met by Vitellius and his army; and having had a battlein three several places, the last were all destroyed. Then did Vitelliuscome out of the palace, in his cups, and satiated with an extravagantand luxurious meal, as in the last extremity, and being drawn alongthrough the multitude, and abused with all sorts of torments, had hishead cut off in the midst of Rome, having retained the government eightmonths and five days [26] and had he lived much longer, I cannot butthink the empire would not have been sufficient for his lust. Of theothers that were slain, were numbered above fifty thousand. This battlewas fought on the third day of the month Apelleus [Casleu]; on the nextday Mucianus came into the city with his army, and ordered Antonius andhis men to leave off killing; for they were still searching the houses, and killed many of Vitellius's soldiers, and many of the populace, assupposing them to be of his party, preventing by their rage any accuratedistinction between them and others. He then produced Domitian, andrecommended him to the multitude, until his father should come himself;so the people being now freed from their fears, made acclamations ofjoy for Vespasian, as for their emperor, and kept festival days for hisconfirmation, and for the destruction of Vitellius. 

5. And now, as Vespasian was come to Alexandria, this good newscame from Rome, and at the same time came embassies from all his ownhabitable earth, to congratulate him upon his advancement; and thoughthis Alexandria was the greatest of all cities next to Rome, it provedtoo narrow to contain the multitude that then came to it. So upon thisconfirmation of Vespasian's entire government, which was now settled, and upon the unexpected deliverance of the public affairs of the Romansfrom ruin, Vespasian turned his thoughts to what remained unsubdued inJudea. However, he himself made haste to go to Rome, as the winter wasnow almost over, and soon set the affairs of Alexandria in order, but sent his son Titus, with a select part of his army, to destroyJerusalem. So Titus marched on foot as far as Nicopolis, which isdistant twenty furlongs from Alexandria; there he put his army on boardsome 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 walkedon foot, and lodged all night at a small city called Tanis. His secondstation was Heracleopolis, and his third Pelusium; he then refreshed hisarmy at that place for two days, and on the third passed over the mouthsof 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 onthe next day at Ostracine. This station had no water, but the people ofthe country make use of water brought from other places. After this herested at Rhinocolura, and from thence he went to Raphia, which washis fourth station. This city is the beginning of Syria. For his fifthstation he pitched his camp at Gaza; after which he came to Ascalon, andthence to Jamnia, and after that to Joppa, and from Joppa to Cesarea, having taken a resolution to gather all his other forces together atthat place. 

WAR BOOK 4 FOOTNOTES

[1] Here we have the exact situation of of Jeroboam's "at the exit ofLittle Jordan into Great Jordan, near the place called Daphne, " but ofold Dan. See the note in Antiq. B. VIII. Ch. 8. Sect. 4. But Relandsuspects flint here we should read Dan instead of there being no whereelse mention of a place called Daphne. 

[2] These numbers in Josephus of thirty furlongs' ascent to the top ofMount Tabor, whether we estimate it by winding and gradual, or by theperpendicular altitude, and of twenty-six furlongs' circumference uponthe top, as also fifteen furlongs for this ascent in Polybius, withGeminus's perpendicular altitude of almost fourteen furlongs, here notedby Dr. Hudson, do none of' them agree with the authentic testimony ofMr. Maundrell, an eye-witness, p. 112, who says he was not an hour ingetting up to the top of this Mount Tabor, and that the area of the topis an oval of about two furlongs in length, and one in breadth. So Irather suppose Josephus wrote three furlongs for the ascent or altitude, instead of thirty; and six furlongs for the circumference at thetop, instead of twenty-six, --since a mountain of only three furlongsperpendicular altitude may easily require near an hour's ascent, and thecircumference 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 awall, including a trench and other fortifications, [perhaps those stillremaining, ibid. ] in the small interval of forty days, as Josephus heresays they were by himself. 

[3] This name Dorcas in Greek, was Tabitha in Hebrew or Syriac, as Acts9:36. Accordingly, some of the manuscripts set it down here Tabetha orTabeta. Nor can the context in Josephus be made out by supposing thereading to have been this: "The son of Tabitha; which, in the languageof our country, denotes Dorcas" [or a doe]. 

[4] Here we may discover the utter disgrace and ruin of the highpriesthood among the Jews, when undeserving, ignoble, and vile personswere advanced to that holy office by the seditious; which sort of highpriests, as Josephus well remarks here, were thereupon obliged to complywith and assist those that advanced them in their impious practices. Thenames of these high priests, or rather ridiculous and profane persons, were Jesus the son of Damneus, Jesus the son of Gamaliel, Matthias theson of Theophilus, and that prodigious ignoramus Phannias, the son ofSamuel; all whom we shall meet with in Josephus's future history ofthis war; nor do we meet with any other so much as pretended high priestafter Phannias, till Jerusalem was taken and destroyed. 

[5] This tribe or course of the high priests, or priests, here calledEniachim, seems to the learned Mr. Lowth, one well versed in Josephus, to be that 1 Chronicles 24:12, "the course of Jakim, " where some copieshave "the course of Eliakim;" and I think this to be by no means animprobable conjecture. 

[6] This Symeon, the son of Gamaliel, is mentioned as the presidentof the Jewish sanhedrim, and one that perished in the destruction ofJerusalem, by the Jewish Rabbins, as Reland observes on this place. Healso tells us that those Rabbins mention one Jesus the son of Gamala, asonce 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 badchronologers. 

[7] It is worth noting here, that this Ananus, the best of the Jewsat this time, and the high priest, who was so very uneasy at theprofanation of the Jewish courts of the temple by the zealots, did nothowever scruple the profanation of the "court of the Gentiles;" as inour Savior's days it was very much profaned by the Jews; and made amarket-place, nay, a "den of thieves, " without scruple, Matthew 21:12, 13; Mark 11:15-17. Accordingly Josephus himself, when he speaks of thetwo inner courts, calls them both hagia or holy places; but, so far asI remember, never gives that character of the court of the Gentiles. SeeB. V. Ch. 9. Sect. 2. 

[8] This appellation of Jerusalem given it here by Simon, the general ofthe Idumeans, "the common city" of the Idumeans, who were proselytes ofjustice, as well as of the original native Jews, greatly confirms thatmaxim of the Rabbins, here set down by Reland, that "Jerusalem was notassigned, or appropriated, to the tribe of Benjamin or Judah, but everytribe had equal right to it [at their coming to worship there at theseveral festivals]. " See a little before, ch. 3. Sect. 3, or "worldlyworship, " as the author to the Hebrews calls the sanctuary, "a worldlysanctuary. "

[9] Some commentators are ready to suppose that this "Zacharias, the sonof Baruch, " here most unjustly slain by the Jews in the temple, was thevery same person with "Zacharias, the son of Barachias, " whom our Saviorsays the Jews "slew between the temple and the altar, " Matthew 23:35. This is a somewhat strange exposition; since Zechariah the prophet wasreally "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 theslaughter was past when our Savior spake these words, the Jews had thenalready slain him; whereas this slaughter of "Zacharias, the son ofBaruch, " in Josephus, was then about thirty-four years future. And sincethe slaughter was "between the temple and the altar, " in the courtof the priests, one of the most sacred and remote parts of the wholetemple; while this was, in Josephus's own words, in the middle of thetemple, and much the most probably in the court of Israel only [for wehave had no intimation that the zealots had at this time profaned thecourt of the priests. See B. V. Ch. 1. Sect. 2]. Nor do I believe thatour Josephus, who always insists on the peculiar sacredness of theinmost court, and of the holy house that was in it, would have omittedso 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] This prediction, that the city [Jerusalem] should then "be taken, and the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a sedition should invadeJews, 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 countrymenin 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 Josephuswell remarks here, though, with the other predictions of the prophets, it was now laughed at by the seditious, was by their very means soonexactly fulfilled. However, I cannot but here take notice of Grotius'spositive assertion upon Matthew 26:9, here quoted by Dr. Hudson, that "it ought to be taken for granted, as a certain truth, that manypredictions of the Jewish prophets were preserved, not in writing, butby memory. " Whereas, it seems to me so far from certain, that I think ithas no evidence nor probability at all. 

[11] By these hiera, or "holy places, " as distinct from cities, must bemeant "proseuchae, " or "houses of prayer, " out of cities; of which wefind 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. "Inqua te quero proseucha?" Juvenal Sat. III. Yet. 296. They were situatedsometimes 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 prayevery morning by the sea-side before they went to their work, B. XII. Ch. 2. Sect. 12. 

[12] Gr. Galatia, and so everywhere. 

[13] Whether this Somorrhon, or Somorrha, ought not to be here writtenGomorrha, as some MSS. In a manner have it, [for the place meant byJosephus seems to be near Segor, or Zoar, at the very south of the DeadSea, hard by which stood Sodom and Gomorrha, ] cannot now be certainlydetermined, but seems by no means improbable. 

[14] This excellent prayer of Elisha is wanting in our copies, 2Kings 2:21, 22, though it be referred to also in the ApostolicalConstitutions, B. VII. Ch. 37. , and the success of it is mentioned inthem all. 

[15] See the note on B. V. Ch. 13. Sect. 6. 

[16] Of these Roman affairs and tumults under Galba, Otho, andVitellius, here only touched upon by Josephus, see Tacitus, Suelonius, and Dio, more largely. However, we may observe with Ottius, thatJosephus writes the name of the second of them not Otto, with manyothers, but Otho, with the coins. See also the note on ch. 11. Sect. 4. 

[17] Some of the ancients call this famous tree, or grove, an oakothers, a turpentine tree, or grove. It has been very famous in all thepast ages, and is so, I suppose, at this day; and that particularlyfor an eminent mart or meeting of merchants there every year, as thetravelers inform us. 

[18] Puetonius differs hardly three days from Josephus, and says Othoperished on the ninety-fifth day of his reign. In Anthon. See the noteon ch. 11. Sect. 4. 

[19] This beginning and ending the observation of the Jewish seventhday, 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 conjecturehere improbable, that this was the very place that has puzzled ourcommentators so long, called "Musach Sabbati, " the "Covert of theSabbath, " if that be the true reading, 2 Kings 16:18, because here theproper priest stood dry, under a "covering, " to proclaim the beginningand ending of every Jewish sabbath. 

[20] The Roman authors that now remain say Vitellius had children, whereas Josephus introduces here the Roman soldiers in Judea saying hehad 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] This brother of Vespasian was Flavius Sabinus, as Suetonius informsus, in Vitell. Sect. 15, and in Vespas. Sect. 2. He is also named byJosephus presently ch. 11. Sect; 4. 

[22] It is plain by the nature of the thing, as well as by Josephus andEutropius, that Vespasian was first of all saluted emperor in Judea, andnot till some time afterward in Egypt. Whence Tacitus's and Suetonius'spresent copies must be correct text, when they both say that he wasfirst proclaimed in Egypt, and that on the calends of July, while theystill say it was the fifth of the Nones or Ides of the same July beforehe was proclaimed in Judea. I suppose the month they there intendedwas June, and not July, as the copies now have it; nor does Tacitus'scoherence imply less. See Essay on the Revelation, p. 136. 

[23] Here we have an authentic description of the bounds andcircumstances of Egypt, in the days of Vespasian and Titus. 

[24] As Daniel was preferred by Darius and Cyrus, on account of hishaving foretold the destruction of the Babylonian monarchy by theirmeans, and the consequent exaltation of the Medes and Persians, Daniel5:6 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 theBabylonians, Jeremiah 40:1-7; so was our Josephus set at liberty, andhonorably treated, on account of his having foretold the advancementof Vespasian and Titus to the Roman empire. All these are most eminentinstances of the interposition of Divine Providence, and of thecertainty of Divine predictions in the great revolutions of the fourmonarchies. Several such-like examples there are, both in the sacred andother histories, as in the case of Joseph in Egypt. And of Jaddua thehigh priest, in the days of Alexander the Great, etc. 

[25] This is well observed by Josephus, that Vespasian, in order tosecure his success, and establish his government at first, distributedhis offices and places upon the foot of justice, and bestowed themon such as best deserved them, and were best fit for them. Which wiseconduct in a mere heathen ought to put those rulers and ministers ofstate to shame, who, professing Christianity, act otherwise, and therebyexpose themselves and their kingdoms to vice and destruction. 

[26] The numbers in Josephus, ch. 9. Sect. 2, 9, for Galba seven monthsseven days, for Otho three months two days, and here for Vitelliuseight months five days, do not agree with any Roman historians, who alsodisagree among themselves. And, indeed, Sealiger justly complains, asDr. Hudson observes on ch. 9. Sect. 2, that this period is very confusedand uncertain in the ancient authors. They were probably some of themcontemporary 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 togetherreign one whole year, nor had a single Thoth, or new-year's day, [whichthen fell upon August 6, ] in their entire reigns. Dio also, who saysthat Vitellius reigned a year within ten days, does yet estimate alltheir reigns together at no more than one year, one month, and two days. 

[27] 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 betweenEgypt and Syria, in the manner forementioned, he came to Cesarea, havingresolved to set his forces in order at that place, before he began thewar. Nay, indeed, while he was assisting his father at Alexandria, insettling that government which had been newly conferred upon them byGod, it so happened that the sedition at Jerusalem was revived, andparted into three factions, and that one faction fought against theother; which partition in such evil cases may be said to be a goodthing, and the effect of Divine justice. Now as to the attack thezealots made upon the people, and which I esteem the beginning of thecity's destruction, it hath been already explained after an accuratemanner; as also whence it arose, and to how great a mischief it wasincreased. But for the present sedition, one should not mistake if hecalled it a sedition begotten by another sedition, and to be like awild beast grown mad, which, for want of food from abroad, fell now uponeating its own flesh. 

2. For Eleazar, the son of Simon, who made the first separation of thezealots from the people, and made them retire into the temple, appearedvery angry at John's insolent attempts, which he made everyday upon thepeople; for this man never left off murdering; but the truth was, thathe could not bear to submit to a tyrant who set up after him. So hebeing desirous of gaining the entire power and dominion to himself, revolted from John, and took to his assistance Judas the son ofChelcias, and Simon the son of Ezron, who were among the men of greatestpower. There was also with him Hezekiah, the son of Chobar, a person ofeminence. 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 armsupon the holy gates, and over the holy fronts of that court. And becausethey had plenty of provisions, they were of good courage, for therewas a great abundance of what was consecrated to sacred uses, and theyscrupled not the making use of them; yet were they afraid, on account oftheir small number; and when they had laid up their arms there, they didnot stir from the place they were in. Now as to John, what advantagehe had above Eleazar in the multitude of his followers, the likedisadvantage he had in the situation he was in, since he had his enemiesover his head; and as he could not make any assault upon them withoutsome 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 hecould inflict upon them, yet would he not leave off assaulting them, insomuch that there were continual sallies made one against another, aswell as darts thrown at one another, and the temple was defiled everywhere with murders. 

3. But now the tyrant Simon, the son of Gioras, whom the people hadinvited in, out of the hopes they had of his assistance in the greatdistresses they were in, having in his power the upper city, and a greatpart of the lower, did now make more vehement assaults upon John andhis party, because they were fought against from above also; yet was hebeneath their situation when he attacked them, as they were beneath theattacks of the others above them. Whereby it came to pass that John didboth receive and inflict great damage, and that easily, as he was foughtagainst on both sides; and the same advantage that Eleazar and his partyhad over him, since he was beneath them, the same advantage had he, byhis higher situation, over Simon. On which account he easily repelledthe attacks that were made from beneath, by the weapons thrown fromtheir hands only; but was obliged to repel those that threw theirdarts from the temple above him, by his engines of war; for he had suchengines as threw darts, and javelins, and stones, and that in no smallnumber, by which he did not only defend himself from such as foughtagainst him, but slew moreover many of the priests, as they were abouttheir sacred ministrations. For notwithstanding these men were mad withall sorts of impiety, yet did they still admit those that desired tooffer their sacrifices, although they took care to search the people oftheir own country beforehand, and both suspected and watched them; whilethey were not so much afraid of strangers, who, although they had gottenleave of them, how cruel soever they were, to come into that court, wereyet often destroyed by this sedition; for those darts that were thrownby the engines came with that force, that they went over all thebuildings, and reached as far as the altar, and the temple itself, andfell upon the priests, and those [2] that were about the sacred offices;insomuch that many persons who came thither with great zeal from theends of the earth, to offer sacrifices at this celebrated place, whichwas esteemed holy by all mankind, fell down before their own sacrificesthemselves, and sprinkled that altar which was venerable among all men, both Greeks and Barbarians, with their own blood; till the dead bodiesof strangers were mingled together with those of their own country, andthose of profane persons with those of the priests, and the blood of allsorts of dead carcasses stood in lakes in the holy courts themselves. And now, "O must wretched city, what misery so great as this didst thousuffer from the Romans, when they came to purify thee from thy intestinehatred! 'For thou couldst be no longer a place fit for God, nor couldstthou long continue in being, after thou hadst been a sepulcher forthe bodies of thy own people, and hadst made the holy house itself aburying-place in this civil war of thine. Yet mayst thou again growbetter, if perchance thou wilt hereafter appease the anger of that Godwho is the author of thy destruction. " But I must restrain myself fromthese passions by the rules of history, since this is not a proper timefor domestical lamentations, but for historical narrations; I thereforereturn to the operations that follow in this sedition. [3]

4. And now there were three treacherous factions in the city, the oneparted from the other. Eleazar and his party, that kept the sacredfirst-fruits, came against John in their cups. Those that were with Johnplundered the populace, and went out with zeal against Simon. ThisSimon had his supply of provisions from the city, in opposition to theseditious. When, therefore, John was assaulted on both sides, he madehis men turn about, throwing his darts upon those citizens that cameup against him, from the cloisters he had in his possession, while heopposed 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, whichhappened frequently, from their being drunk and tired, he sallied outwith a great number upon Simon and his party; and this he did always insuch parts of the city as he could come at, till he set on fire thosehouses that were full of corn, and of all other provisions. [4] The samething was done by Simon, when, upon the other's retreat, he attacked thecity 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 thuscutting off the nerves of their own power. Accordingly, it so came topass, that all the places that were about the temple were burnt down, and were become an intermediate desert space, ready for fighting on bothsides of it; and that almost all that corn was burnt, which would havebeen sufficient for a siege of many years. So they were taken by themeans 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 thesetreacherous 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 werein such distress by their internal calamities, that they wished forthe Romans, and earnestly hoped for an external war, in order to theirdelivery from their domestical miseries. The citizens themselves wereunder a terrible consternation and fear; nor had they any opportunity oftaking counsel, and of changing their conduct; nor were there any hopesof coming to an agreement with their enemies; nor could such as had amind flee away; for guards were set at all places, and the heads ofthe robbers, although they were seditious one against another in otherrespects, yet did they agree in killing those that were for peace withthe Romans, or were suspected of an inclination to desert them, as theircommon enemies. They agreed in nothing but this, to kill those that wereinnocent. The noise also of those that were fighting was incessant, bothby day and by night; but the lamentations of those that mourned exceededthe other; nor was there ever any occasion for them to leave offtheir lamentations, because their calamities came perpetually one uponanother, although the deep consternation they were in prevented theiroutward wailing; but being constrained by their fear to conceal theirinward passions, they were inwardly tormented, without daring to opentheir lips in groans. Nor was any regard paid to those that were stillalive, by their relations; nor was there any care taken of burial forthose that were dead; the occasion of both which was this, that everyone despaired of himself; for those that were not among the seditioushad no great desires of any thing, as expecting for certain that theyshould very soon be destroyed; but for the seditious themselves, theyfought against each other, while they trod upon the dead bodies as theylay heaped one upon another, and taking up a mad rage from those deadbodies that were under their feet, became the fiercer thereupon. They, moreover, were still inventing somewhat or other that was perniciousagainst themselves; and when they had resolved upon any thing, theyexecuted it without mercy, and omitted no method of torment or ofbarbarity. Nay, John abused the sacred materials, [5] and employedthem in the construction of his engines of war; for the people and thepriests had formerly determined to support the temple, and raise theholy house twenty cubits higher; for king Agrippa had at a very greatexpense, and with very great pains, brought thither such materials aswere proper for that purpose, being pieces of timber very well worthseeing, both for their straightness and their largeness; but the warcoming on, and interrupting the work, John had them cut, and preparedfor the building him towers, he finding them long enough to oppose fromthem those his adversaries that thought him from the temple that wasabove him. He also had them brought and erected behind the inner courtover against the west end of the cloisters, where alone he could erectthem; whereas the other sides of that court had so many steps as wouldnot let them come nigh enough the cloisters. 

6. Thus did John hope to be too hard for his enemies by these enginesconstructed by his impiety; but God himself demonstrated that his painswould prove of no use to him, by bringing the Romans upon him, beforehe had reared any of his towers; for Titus, when he had gotten togetherpart of his forces about him, and had ordered the rest to meet him atJerusalem, marched out of Cesarea. He had with him those three legionsthat had accompanied his father when he laid Judea waste, together withthat twelfth legion which had been formerly beaten with Cestius; whichlegion, as it was otherwise remarkable for its valor, so did it marchon now with greater alacrity to avenge themselves on the Jews, asremembering what they had formerly suffered from them. Of these legionshe ordered the fifth to meet him, by going through Emmaus, and the tenthto go up by Jericho; he also moved himself, together with the rest;besides whom, marched those auxiliaries that came from the kings, beingnow more in number than before, together with a considerable number thatcame to his assistance from Syria. Those also that had been selected outof these four legions, and sent with Mucianus to Italy, had their placesfilled up out of these soldiers that came out of Egypt with Titus; whowere two thousand men, chosen out of the armies at Alexandria. Therefollowed him also three thousand drawn from those that guarded the riverEuphrates; as also there came Tiberius Alexander, who was a friend ofhis, most valuable, both for his good-will to him, and for his prudence. He had formerly been governor of Alexandria, but was now thought worthyto be general of the army [under Titus]. The reason of this was, that hehad been the first who encouraged Vespasian very lately to accept thishis new dominion, and joined himself to him with great fidelity, whenthings were uncertain, and fortune had not yet declared for him. He alsofollowed Titus as a counselor, very useful to him in this war, both byhis 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 O The City Of The Place Also Where He Pitched His Camp

1. Now, as Titus was upon his march into the enemy's country, theauxiliaries that were sent by the kings marched first, having all theother auxiliaries with them; after whom followed those that were toprepare the roads and measure out the camp; then came the commander'sbaggage, and after that the other soldiers, who were completely armedto support them; then came Titus himself, having with him another selectbody; and then came the pikemen; after whom came the horse belonging tothat legion. All these came before the engines; and after these enginescame the tribunes and the leaders of the cohorts, with their selectbodies; after these came the ensigns, with the eagle; and before thoseensigns came the trumpeters belonging to them; next these came the mainbody of the army in their ranks, every rank being six deep; the servantsbelonging to every legion came after these; and before these last theirbaggage; the mercenaries came last, and those that guarded them broughtup the rear. Now Titus, according to the Roman usage, went in thefront of the army after a decent manner, and marched through Samaria toGophna, a city that had been formerly taken by his father, and was thengarrisoned by Roman soldiers; and when he had lodged there one night, hemarched 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 aboutthirty furlongs. [6] There it was that he chose out six hundred selecthorsemen, and went to take a view of the city, to observe what strengthit 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 andsubmit; for he had been informed what was really true, that the peoplewho were fallen under the power of the seditious and the robbers weregreatly desirous of peace; but being too weak to rise up against therest, they lay still. 

2. Now, so long as he rode along the straight road which led to the wallof the city, nobody appeared out of the gates; but when he went out ofthat road, and declined towards the tower Psephinus, and led the band ofhorsemen obliquely, an immense number of the Jews leaped out suddenly atthe towers called the "Women's Towers, " through that gate which was overagainst the monuments of queen Helena, and intercepted his horse; andstanding directly opposite to those that still ran along the road, hindered them from joining those that had declined out of it. Theyintercepted Titus also, with a few other. Now it was here impossible forhim to go forward, because all the places had trenches dug in them fromthe wall, to preserve the gardens round about, and were full of gardensobliquely situated, and of many hedges; and to return back to his ownmen, he saw it was also impossible, by reason of the multitude of theenemies that lay between them; many of whom did not so much as know thatthe king was in any danger, but supposed him still among them. So heperceived that his preservation must be wholly owing to his own courage, and turned his horse about, and cried out aloud to those that were abouthim 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 mayprincipally learn, that both the success of wars, and the dangers thatkings [7] are in, are under the providence of God; for while such anumber of darts were thrown at Titus, when he had neither his head-pieceon, 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 asidewithout hurting him; as if all of them missed him on purpose, and onlymade a noise as they passed by him. So he diverted those perpetuallywith his sword that came on his side, and overturned many of thosethat directly met him, and made his horse ride over those that wereoverthrown. The enemy indeed made a shout at the boldness of Caesar, and exhorted one another to rush upon him. Yet did these against whom hemarched fly away, and go off from him in great numbers; while those thatwere in the same danger with him kept up close to him, though they werewounded both on their backs and on their sides; for they had eachof them but this one hope of escaping, if they could assist Titus inopening himself a way, that he might not be encompassed round by hisenemies before he got away from them. Now there were two of thosethat were with him, but at some distance; the one of which the enemycompassed round, and slew him with their darts, and his horse also; butthe other they slew as he leaped down from his horse, and carried offhis horse with them. But Titus escaped with the rest, and came safe tothe camp. So this success of the Jews' first attack raised their minds, and gave them an ill-grounded hope; and this short inclination offortune, 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 toCaesar at night, he removed thence, when it was day, and came to a placecalled Seopus; from whence the city began already to be seen, and aplain view might be taken of the great temple. Accordingly, this place, on the north quarter of the city, and joining thereto, was a plain, andvery properly named Scopus, [the prospect, ] and was no more than sevenfurlongs distant from it. And here it was that Titus ordered a campto be fortified for two legions that were to be together; but orderedanother camp to be fortified, at three furlongs farther distance behindthem, for the fifth legion; for he thought that, by marching in thenight, they might be tired, and might deserve to be covered from theenemy, and with less fear might fortify themselves; and as these werenow beginning to build, the tenth legion, who came through Jericho, was already come to the place, where a certain party of armed men hadformerly lain, to guard that pass into the city, and had been takenbefore by Vespasian. These legions had orders to encamp at the distanceof 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 partedfrom it by a deep valley, interposed between them, which is namedCedron. 

4. Now when hitherto the several parties in the city had been dashingone against another perpetually, this foreign war, now suddenlycome upon them after a violent manner, put the first stop to theircontentions one against another; and as the seditious now saw withastonishment the Romans pitching three several camps, they began tothink of an awkward sort of concord, and said one to another, "What dowe here, and what do we mean, when we suffer three fortified walls to bebuilt to coop us in, that we shall not be able to breathe freely? whilethe enemy is securely building a kind of city in opposition to us, andwhile we sit still within our own walls, and become spectators only ofwhat they are doing, with our hands idle, and our armor laid by, as ifthey were about somewhat that was for our good and advantage. We are, itseems, [so did they cry out, ] only courageous against ourselves, while the Romans are likely to gain the city without bloodshed by oursedition. " Thus did they encourage one another when they were gottentogether, and took their armor immediately, and ran out upon the tenthlegion, and fell upon the Romans with great eagerness, and with aprodigious shout, as they were fortifying their camp. These Romans werecaught in different parties, and this in order to perform their severalworks, 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 uponthem; and had they been disposed so to do, they supposed their seditionwould have distracted them. So they were put into disorder unexpectedly;when some of hem left their works they were about, and immediatelymarched off, while many ran to their arms, but were smitten and slainbefore they could turn back upon the enemy. The Jews became still moreand more in number, as encouraged by the good success of those thatfirst made the attack; and while they had such good fortune, they seemedboth to themselves and to the enemy to be many more than they reallywere. The disorderly way of their fighting at first put the Romans alsoto a stand, who had been constantly used to fight skillfully in goodorder, and with keeping their ranks, and obeying the orders that weregiven them; for which reason the Romans were caught unexpectedly, andwere obliged to give way to the assaults that were made upon them. Nowwhen these Romans were overtaken, and turned back upon the Jews, theyput a stop to their career; yet when they did not take care enough ofthemselves through the vehemency of their pursuit, they were woundedby them; but as still more and more Jews sallied out of the city, theRomans were at length brought into confusion, and put to fight, and ranaway from their camp. Nay, things looked as though the entire legionwould have been in danger, unless Titus had been informed of the casethey were in, and had sent them succors immediately. So he reproachedthem for their cowardice, and brought those back that were running away, and fell himself upon the Jews on their flank, with those select troopsthat were with him, and slew a considerable number, and wounded more ofthem, and put them all to flight, and made them run away hastily downthe valley. Now as these Jews suffered greatly in the declivity of thevalley, so when they were gotten over it, they turned about, and stoodover against the Romans, having the valley between them, and therefought with them. Thus did they continue the fight till noon; but whenit was already a little after noon, Titus set those that came to theassistance of the Romans with him, and those that belonged to thecohorts, to prevent the Jews from making any more sallies, and then sentthe rest of the legion to the upper part of the mountain, to fortifytheir camp. 

5. This march of the Romans seemed to the Jews to be a flight; and asthe watchman who was placed upon the wall gave a signal by shaking hisgarment, there came out a fresh multitude of Jews, and that with suchmighty violence, that one might compare it to the running of the mostterrible wild beasts. To say the truth, none of those that opposed themcould sustain the fury with which they made their attacks; but, as ifthey had been cast out of an engine, they brake the enemies' ranks topieces, who were put to flight, and ran away to the mountain; none butTitus himself, and a few others with him, being left in the midst of theacclivity. Now these others, who were his friends, despised the dangerthey were in, and were ashamed to leave their general, earnestlyexhorting him to give way to these Jews that are fond of dying, and notto 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 acommon soldier, to venture to turn back upon the enemy so suddenly; andthis because he was general in the war, and lord of the habitableearth, on whose preservation the public affairs do all depend. Thesepersuasions Titus seemed not so much as to hear, but opposed those thatran upon him, and smote them on the face; and when he had forced them togo back, he slew them: he also fell upon great numbers as they marcheddown the hill, and thrust them forward; while those men were so amazedat his courage and his strength, that they could not fly directly to thecity, but declined from him on both sides, and pressed after those thatfled up the hill; yet did he still fall upon their flank, and put a stopto their fury. In the mean time, a disorder and a terror fell again uponthose that were fortifying their camp at the top of the hill, upon theirseeing those beneath them running away; insomuch that the whole legionwas dispersed, while they thought that the sallies of the Jews upon themwere plainly insupportable, and that Titus was himself put to flight;because they took it for granted, that, if he had staid, the rest wouldnever have fled for it. Thus were they encompassed on every side bya kind of panic fear, and some dispersed themselves one way, and someanother, till certain of them saw their general in the very midst of anaction, and being under great concern for him, they loudly proclaimedthe danger he was in to the entire legion; and now shame made them turnback, 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 intothe bottom of the valley. Then did the Jews turn about and fight them;but as they were themselves retiring, and now, because the Romans hadthe advantage of the ground, and were above the Jews, they drove themall into the valley. Titus also pressed upon those that were near him, and sent the legion again to fortify their camp; while he, and thosethat were with him before, opposed the enemy, and kept them from doingfurther mischief; insomuch that, if I may be allowed neither to add anything out of flattery, nor to diminish any thing out of envy, but tospeak the plain truth, Caesar did twice deliver that entire legion whenit was in jeopardy, and gave them a quiet opportunity of fortifyingtheir 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 wasrevived; and on the feast of unleavened bread, which was now come, itbeing the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan, ] when it isbelieved the Jews were first freed from the Egyptians, Eleazar andhis party opened the gates of this [inmost court of the] temple, andadmitted 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 treacherousdesigns, and armed the most inconsiderable of his own party, the greaterpart of whom were not purified, with weapons concealed under theirgarments, and sent them with great zeal into the temple, in order toseize upon it; which armed men, when they were gotten in, threw theirgarments away, and presently appeared in their armor. Upon which therewas a very great disorder and disturbance about the holy house; whilethe people, who had no concern in the sedition, supposed that thisassault was made against all without distinction, as the zealots thoughtit was made against themselves only. So these left off guarding thegates any longer, and leaped down from their battlements before theycame to an engagement, and fled away into the subterranean caverns ofthe temple; while the people that stood trembling at the altar, andabout 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 werequiet, out of their own private enmity and hatred, as if they wereopposite to the seditious; and all those that had formerly offendedany of these plotters were now known, and were now led away to theslaughter; and when they had done abundance of horrid mischief to theguiltless, they granted a truce to the guilty, and let those go off thatcame cut of the caverns. These followers of John also did now seize uponthis inner temple, and upon all the warlike engines therein, and thenventured to oppose Simon. And thus that sedition, which had been dividedinto three factions, was now reduced to two. 

2. But Titus, intending to pitch his camp nearer to the city thanScopus, placed as many of his choice horsemen and footmen as he thoughtsufficient opposite to the Jews, to prevent their sallying out uponthem, while he gave orders for the whole army to level the distance, asfar as the wall of the city. So they threw down all the hedges and wallswhich the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit trees that lay between them and the wallof the city, and filled up all the hollow places and the chasms, anddemolished the rocky precipices with iron instruments; and thereby madeall the place level from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which adjoined tothe pool called the Serpent's Pool. 

3. Now at this very time the Jews contrived the following stratagemagainst the Romans. The bolder sort of the seditious went out at thetowers, called the Women's Towers, as if they had been ejected out ofthe city by those who were for peace, and rambled about as if theywere afraid of being assaulted by the Romans, and were in fear of oneanother; while those that stood upon the wall, and seemed to be of thepeople's side, cried out aloud for peace, and entreated they mighthave security for their lives given them, and called for the Romans, promising to open the gates to them; and as they cried out after thatmanner, they threw stones at their own people, as though they woulddrive them away from the gates. These also pretended that they wereexcluded by force, and that they petitioned those that were within tolet them in; and rushing upon the Romans perpetually, with violence, they then came back, and seemed to be in great disorder. Now the Romansoldiers thought this cunning stratagem of theirs was to be believedreal, and thinking they had the one party under their power, and couldpunish them as they pleased, and hoping that the other party would opentheir gates to them, set to the execution of their designs accordingly. But for Titus himself, he had this surprising conduct of the Jewsin suspicion; for whereas he had invited them to come to terms ofaccommodation, by Josephus, but one day before, he could then receiveno civil answer from them; so he ordered the soldiers to stay wherethey were. However, some of them that were set in the front of the worksprevented him, and catching up their arms ran to the gates; whereuponthose that seemed to have been ejected at the first retired; but as soonas 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 stonesand darts of all kinds at them, insomuch that they slew a considerablenumber, and wounded many more; for it was not easy for the Romans toescape, by reason those behind them pressed them forward; besides which, the shame they were under for being mistaken, and the fear they werein of their commanders, engaged them to persevere in their mistake;wherefore they fought with their spears a great while, and received manyblows from the Jews, though indeed they gave them as many blows again, and at last repelled those that had encompassed them about, while theJews pursued them as they retired, and followed them, and threw darts atthem as far as the monuments of queen Helena. 

4. After this these Jews, without keeping any decorum, grew insolentupon their good fortune, and jested upon the Romans for being deluded bythe trick they had put upon them, and making a noise with beating theirshields, leaped for gladness, and made joyful exclamations; while thesesoldiers were received with threatenings by their officers, and withindignation by Caesar himself, [who spake to them thus]: These Jews, who are only conducted by their madness, do every thing with care andcircumspection; they contrive stratagems, and lay ambushes, and fortunegives success to their stratagems, because they are obedient, andpreserve their goodwill and fidelity to one another; while the Romans, to whom fortune uses to be ever subservient, by reason of their goodorder, and ready submission to their commanders, have now had illsuccess by their contrary behavior, and by not being able to restraintheir hands from action, they have been caught; and that which is themost to their reproach, they have gone on without their commanders, in the very presence of Caesar. "Truly, " says Titus, "the laws of warcannot but groan heavily, as will my father also himself, when he shallbe informed of this wound that hath been given us, since he who is grownold in wars did never make so great a mistake. Our laws of war do alsoever inflict capital punishment on those that in the least break intogood order, while at this time they have seen an entire army run intodisorder. However, those that have been so insolent shall be madeimmediately sensible, that even they who conquer among the Romanswithout orders for fighting are to be under disgrace. " When Titus hadenlarged upon this matter before the commanders, it appeared evidentthat he would execute the law against all those that were concerned; sothese soldiers' minds sunk down in despair, as expecting to be put todeath, and that justly and quickly. However, the other legions cameround about Titus, and entreated his favor to these their fellowsoldiers, and made supplication to him, that he would pardon therashness of a few, on account of the better obedience of all the rest;and promised for them that they should make amends for their presentfault, by their more virtuous behavior for the time to come. 

5. So Caesar complied with their desires, and with what prudencedictated to him also; for he esteemed it fit to punish single personsby real executions, but that the punishment of great multitudes shouldproceed no further than reproofs; so he was reconciled to the soldiers, but gave them a special charge to act more wisely for the future; andhe considered with himself how he might be even with the Jews for theirstratagem. And now when the space between the Romans and the wall hadbeen leveled, which was done in four days, and as he was desirous tobring the baggage of the army, with the rest of the multitude thatfollowed him, safely to the camp, he set the strongest part of his armyover against that wall which lay on the north quarter of the city, andover against the western part of it, and made his army seven deep, withthe foot-men placed before them, and the horsemen behind them, each ofthe last in three ranks, whilst the archers stood in the midst in sevenranks. 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 theburdens, and belonged to the three legions, and the rest of themultitude, marched on without any fear. But as for Titus himself, he wasbut about two furlongs distant from the wall, at that part of itwhere was the corner [10] and over against that tower which was calledPsephinus, at which tower the compass of the wall belonging to the northbended, and extended itself over against the west; but the other part ofthe army fortified itself at the tower called Hippicus, and was distant, in like manner, by two furlongs from the city. However, the tenth legioncontinued 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 partsas were not encompassed with unpassable valleys; for in such places ithad but one wall. The city was built upon two hills, which are oppositeto one another, and have a valley to divide them asunder; at whichvalley the corresponding rows of houses on both hills end. Of thesehills, that which contains the upper city is much higher, and in lengthmore direct. Accordingly, it was called the "Citadel, " by king David; hewas the father of that Solomon who built this temple at the first; butit is by us called the "Upper Market-place. " But the other hill, whichwas called "Acra, " and sustains the lower city, is of the shape of amoon when she is horned; over against this there was a third hill, butnaturally lower than Acra, and parted formerly from the other by a broadvalley. However, in those times when the Asamoneans reigned, theyfilled up that valley with earth, and had a mind to join the city to thetemple. They then took off part of the height of Acra, and reduced itto be of less elevation than it was before, that the temple might besuperior to it. Now the Valley of the Cheesemongers, as it was called, and was that which we told you before distinguished the hill of theupper city from that of the lower, extended as far as Siloam; for thatis the name of a fountain which hath sweet water in it, and this ingreat plenty also. But on the outsides, these hills are surrounded bydeep valleys, and by reason of the precipices to them belonging on bothsides they are every where unpassable. 

2. Now, of these three walls, the old one was hard to be taken, both byreason of the valleys, and of that hill on which it was built, and whichwas above them. But besides that great advantage, as to the place wherethey were situated, it was also built very strong; because David andSolomon, and the following kings, were very zealous about this work. Now that wall began on the north, at the tower called "Hippicus, " andextended as far as the "Xistus, " a place so called, and then, joining tothe council-house, ended at the west cloister of the temple. But ifwe go the other way westward, it began at the same place, and extendedthrough a place called "Bethso, " to the gate of the Essens; and afterthat it went southward, having its bending above the fountain Siloam, where it also bends again towards the east at Solomon's pool, andreaches as far as a certain place which they called "Ophlas, " where itwas joined to the eastern cloister of the temple. The second wall tookits beginning from that gate which they called "Gennath, " which belongedto 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 wallwas at the tower Hippicus, whence it reached as far as the north quarterof the city, and the tower Psephinus, and then was so far extended tillit came over against the monuments of Helena, which Helena was queen ofAdiabene, the daughter of Izates; it then extended further to a greatlength, and passed by the sepulchral caverns of the kings, and bentagain 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 valleycalled the "Valley of Cedron. " It was Agrippa who encompassed the partsadded 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 oldlimits, and those parts of it that stood northward of the temple, and joined that hill to the city, made it considerably larger, andoccasioned 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, andthat in order to hinder the foundations of the tower of Antonia fromjoining to this hill, and thereby affording an opportunity for gettingto it with ease, and hindering the security that arose from its superiorelevation; for which reason also that depth of the ditch made theelevation of the towers more remarkable. This new-built part of thecity was called "Bezetha, " in our language, which, if interpreted in theGrecian language, may be called "the New City. " Since, therefore, itsinhabitants 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; buthe left off building it when he had only laid the foundations, out ofthe fear he was in of Claudius Caesar, lest he should suspect thatso strong a wall was built in order to make some innovation in publicaffairs; for the city could no way have been taken if that wall hadbeen finished in the manner it was begun; as its parts were connectedtogether by stones twenty cubits long, and ten cubits broad, which couldnever have been either easily undermined by any iron tools, or shakenby any engines. The wall was, however, ten cubits wide, and it wouldprobably have had a height greater than that, had not his zeal who beganit been hindered from exerting itself. After this, it was erected withgreat diligence by the Jews, as high as twenty cubits, above which ithad 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, andtwenty cubits in height; they were square and solid, as was the wallitself, wherein the niceness of the joints, and the beauty of thestones, were no way inferior to those of the holy house itself. Abovethis solid altitude of the towers, which was twenty cubits, there wererooms of great magnificence, and over them upper rooms, and cisterns toreceive rain-water. They were many in number, and the steps by which youascended up to them were every one broad: of these towers then thethird wall had ninety, and the spaces between them were each two hundredcubits; but in the middle wall were forty towers, and the old wall wasparted into sixty, while the whole compass of the city was thirty-threefurlongs. Now the third wall was all of it wonderful; yet was the towerPsephinus elevated above it at the north-west corner, and there Tituspitched his own tent; for being seventy cubits high it both afforded aprospect of Arabia at sun-rising, as well as it did of the utmost limitsof the Hebrew possessions at the sea westward. Moreover, it was anoctagon, and over against it was the tower Hipplicus, and hard by twoothers were erected by king Herod, in the old wall. These were forlargeness, beauty, and strength beyond all that were in the habitableearth; for besides the magnanimity of his nature, and his magnificencetowards the city on other occasions, he built these after such anextraordinary manner, to gratify his own private affections, anddedicated these towers to the memory of those three persons who had beenthe 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 [andjealousy], as we have already related; the other two he lost in war, asthey were courageously fighting. Hippicus, so named from his friend, was square; its length and breadth were each twenty-five cubits, and itsheight thirty, and it had no vacuity in it. Over this solid building, which was composed of great stones united together, there was areservoir twenty cubits deep, over which there was a house of twostories, whose height was twenty-five cubits, and divided into severalparts; over which were battlements of two cubits, and turrets all roundof three cubits high, insomuch that the entire height added togetheramounted to fourscore cubits. The second tower, which he named from hisbrother Phasaelus, had its breadth and its height equal, each of themforty cubits; over which was its solid height of forty cubits; overwhich a cloister went round about, whose height was ten cubits, and itwas covered from enemies by breast-works and bulwarks. There was alsobuilt over that cloister another tower, parted into magnificent rooms, and a place for bathing; so that this tower wanted nothing thatmight make it appear to be a royal palace. It was also adorned withbattlements and turrets, more than was the foregoing, and the entirealtitude was about ninety cubits; the appearance of it resembled thetower 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 ahouse, wherein Simon exercised his tyrannical authority. The third towerwas Mariamne, for that was his queen's name; it was solid as high astwenty cubits; its breadth and its length were twenty cubits, and wereequal to each other; its upper buildings were more magnificent, and hadgreater variety, than the other towers had; for the king thought it mostproper for him to adorn that which was denominated from his wife, betterthan those denominated from men, as those were built stronger than thisthat bore his wife's name. The entire height of this tower was fiftycubits. 

4. Now as these towers were so very tall, they appeared much taller bythe place on which they stood; for that very old wall wherein they werewas built on a high hill, and was itself a kind of elevation that wasstill thirty cubits taller; over which were the towers situated, andthereby were made much higher to appearance. The largeness also of thestones 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 whitemarble, cut out of the rock; each stone was twenty cubits in length, andten in breadth, and five in depth. They were so exactly united toone another, that each tower looked like one entire rock of stone, sogrowing naturally, and afterward cut by the hand of the artificers intotheir present shape and corners; so little, or not at all, did theirjoints or connexion appear low as these towers were themselves on thenorth 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 curiousas to want no cost nor skill in its construction, but was entirelywalled about to the height of thirty cubits, and was adorned with towersat equal distances, and with large bed-chambers, that would contain bedsfor a hundred guests a-piece, in which the variety of the stones is notto be expressed; for a large quantity of those that were rare of thatkind was collected together. Their roofs were also wonderful, both forthe length of the beams, and the splendor of their ornaments. The numberof the rooms was also very great, and the variety of the figures thatwere about them was prodigious; their furniture was complete, and thegreatest part of the vessels that were put in them was of silver andgold. There were besides many porticoes, one beyond another, roundabout, and in each of those porticoes curious pillars; yet were allthe courts that were exposed to the air every where green. There were, moreover, several groves of trees, and long walks through them, withdeep canals, and cisterns, that in several parts were filled withbrazen statues, through which the water ran out. There were withal manydove-courts [11] of tame pigeons about the canals. But indeed it is notpossible to give a complete description of these palaces; and the veryremembrance of them is a torment to one, as putting one in mind whatvastly rich buildings that fire which was kindled by the robbers hathconsumed; for these were not burnt by the Romans, but by these internalplotters, as we have already related, in the beginning of theirrebellion. That fire began at the tower of Antonia, and went on to thepalaces, 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 stronghill. At first the plain at the top was hardly sufficient for the holyhouse and the altar, for the ground about it was very uneven, and likea precipice; but when king Solomon, who was the person that built thetemple, had built a wall to it on its east side, there was then addedone cloister founded on a bank cast up for it, and on the other partsthe holy house stood naked. But in future ages the people added newbanks, [12] and the hill became a larger plain. They then broke down thewall on the north side, and took in as much as sufficed afterward forthe compass of the entire temple. And when they had built walls on threesides of the temple round about, from the bottom of the hill, and hadperformed a work that was greater than could be hoped for, [in whichwork long ages were spent by them, as well as all their sacred treasureswere exhausted, which were still replenished by those tributes whichwere sent to God from the whole habitable earth, ] they then encompassedtheir upper courts with cloisters, as well as they [afterward] did thelowest [court of the] temple. The lowest part of this was erected to theheight of three hundred cubits, and in some places more; yet did notthe entire depth of the foundations appear, for they brought earth, andfilled up the valleys, as being desirous to make them on a level withthe narrow streets of the city; wherein they made use of stones of fortycubits in magnitude; for the great plenty of money they then had, andthe liberality of the people, made this attempt of theirs to succeed toan incredible degree; and what could not be so much as hoped for as everto be accomplished, was, by perseverance and length of time, brought toperfection. 

2. Now for the works that were above these foundations, these were notunworthy of such foundations; for all the cloisters were double, andthe pillars to them belonging were twenty-five cubits in height, andsupported the cloisters. These pillars were of one entire stone each ofthem, and that stone was white marble; and the roofs were adorned withcedar, curiously graven. The natural magnificence, and excellent polish, and the harmony of the joints in these cloisters, afforded a prospectthat was very remarkable; nor was it on the outside adorned with anywork of the painter or engraver. The cloisters [of the outmost court]were in breadth thirty cubits, while the entire compass of it was bymeasure six furlongs, including the tower of Antonia; those entirecourts that were exposed to the air were laid with stones of all sorts. When you go through these [first] cloisters, unto the second [court ofthe] temple, there was a partition made of stone all round, whose heightwas three cubits: its construction was very elegant; upon it stoodpillars, at equal distances from one another, declaring the law ofpurity, some in Greek, and some in Roman letters, that "no foreignershould go within that sanctuary" for that second [court of the] templewas called "the Sanctuary, " and was ascended to by fourteen steps fromthe first court. This court was four-square, and had a wall about itpeculiar to itself; the height of its buildings, although it were on theoutside forty cubits, [13] was hidden by the steps, and on the insidethat height was but twenty-five cubits; for it being built over againsta higher part of the hill with steps, it was no further to be entirelydiscerned within, being covered by the hill itself. Beyond thesethirteen 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 tothe gates, which gates on the north and south sides were eight, on eachof those sides four, and of necessity two on the east. For since therewas a partition built for the women on that side, as the proper placewherein they were to worship, there was a necessity for a second gatefor them: this gate was cut out of its wall, over against the firstgate. There was also on the other sides one southern and one northerngate, through which was a passage into the court of the women; for asto 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 ownwall. This place was allotted to the women of our own country, andof other countries, provided they were of the same nation, and thatequally. The western part of this court had no gate at all, but the wallwas built entire on that side. But then the cloisters which were betwixtthe gates extended from the wall inward, before the chambers; for theywere supported by very fine and large pillars. These cloisters weresingle, and, excepting their magnitude, were no way inferior to those ofthe lower court. 

3. Now nine of these gates were on every side covered over with gold andsilver, as were the jambs of their doors and their lintels; but therewas one gate that was without the [inward court of the] holy house, which was of Corinthian brass, and greatly excelled those that were onlycovered over with silver and gold. Each gate had two doors, whose heightwas severally thirty cubits, and their breadth fifteen. However, theyhad large spaces within of thirty cubits, and had on each side rooms, and those, both in breadth and in length, built like towers, and theirheight was above forty cubits. Two pillars did also support these rooms, and were in circumference twelve cubits. Now the magnitudes of the othergates 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 wereforty cubits; and it was adorned after a most costly manner, as havingmuch richer and thicker plates of silver and gold upon them than theother. These nine gates had that silver and gold poured upon them byAlexander, the father of Tiberius. Now there were fifteen steps, whichled 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 stepsshorter. 

4. As to the holy house itself, which was placed in the midst [of theinmost court], that most sacred part of the temple, it was ascended toby twelve steps; and in front its height and its breadth were equal, andeach a hundred cubits, though it was behind forty cubits narrower; foron its front it had what may be styled shoulders on each side, thatpassed twenty cubits further. Its first gate was seventy cubits high, and twenty-five cubits broad; but this gate had no doors; for itrepresented the universal visibility of heaven, and that it cannot beexcluded from any place. Its front was covered with gold all over, andthrough it the first part of the house, that was more inward, did all ofit appear; which, as it was very large, so did all the parts about themore inward gate appear to shine to those that saw them; but then, asthe entire house was divided into two parts within, it was only thefirst part of it that was open to our view. Its height extended allalong to ninety cubits in height, and its length was fifty cubits, andits breadth twenty. But that gate which was at this end of the firstpart of the house was, as we have already observed, all over coveredwith gold, as was its whole wall about it; it had also golden vinesabove 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 partwas lower than the appearance of the outer, and had golden doors offifty-five cubits altitude, and sixteen in breadth; but before thesedoors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was aBabylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen, and scarlet, and purple, and of a contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was thismixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kindof image of the universe; for by the scarlet there seemed to beenigmatically signified fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the bluethe air, and by the purple the sea; two of them having their colors thefoundation of this resemblance; but the fine flax and the purple havetheir own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one, andthe sea the other. This curtain had also embroidered upon it all thatwas 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 itslength the same; whereas its breadth was but twenty cubits: but stillthat sixty cubits in length was divided again, and the first part of itwas cut off at forty cubits, and had in it three things that were verywonderful and famous among all mankind, the candlestick, the table [ofshew-bread], and the altar of incense. Now the seven lamps signified theseven planets; for so many there were springing out of the candlestick. Now the twelve loaves that were upon the table signified the circle ofthe zodiac and the year; but the altar of incense, by its thirteen kindsof sweet-smelling spices with which the sea replenished it, signifiedthat God is the possessor of all things that are both in theuninhabitable and habitable parts of the earth, and that they are all tobe dedicated to his use. But the inmost part of the temple of all was oftwenty cubits. This was also separated from the outer part by a veil. Inthis there was nothing at all. It was inaccessible and inviolable, andnot to be seen by any; and was called the Holy of Holies. Now, about thesides of the lower part of the temple, there were little houses, withpassages out of one into another; there were a great many of them, andthey were of three stories high; there were also entrances on each sideinto them from the gate of the temple. But the superior part of thetemple had no such little houses any further, because the temple wasthere narrower, and forty cubits higher, and of a smaller body than thelower parts of it. Thus we collect that the whole height, including thesixty cubits from the floor, amounted to a hundred cubits. 

6. Now the outward face of the temple in its front wanted nothing thatwas likely to surprise either men's minds or their eyes; for it wascovered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the firstrising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendor, and made thosewho forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just asthey would have done at the sun's own rays. But this temple appeared tostrangers, when they were coming to it at a distance, like a mountaincovered with snow; for as to those parts of it that were not gilt, theywere exceeding white. On its top it had spikes with sharp points, toprevent 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 sixin breadth. Before this temple stood the altar, fifteen cubits high, and equal both in length and breadth; each of which dimensions was fiftycubits. The figure it was built in was a square, and it had corners likehorns; and the passage up to it was by an insensible acclivity. It wasformed without any iron tool, nor did any such iron tool so much astouch it at any time. There was also a wall of partition, about a cubitin 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 thatwere on the outside off from the priests. Moreover, those that had thegonorrhea and the leprosy were excluded out of the city entirely; womenalso, when their courses were upon them, were shut out of the temple;nor when they were free from that impurity, were they allowed to gobeyond the limit before-mentioned; men also, that were not thoroughlypure, were prohibited to come into the inner [court of the] temple; nay, the priests themselves that were not pure were prohibited to come intoit also. 

7. Now all those of the stock of the priests that could not ministerby reason of some defect in their bodies, came within the partition, together with those that had no such imperfection, and had their sharewith them by reason of their stock, but still made use of none excepttheir own private garments; for nobody but he that officiated had on hissacred garments; but then those priests that were without any blemishupon them went up to the altar clothed in fine linen. They abstainedchiefly from wine, out of this fear, lest otherwise they shouldtransgress some rules of their ministration. The high priest did also goup with them; not always indeed, but on the seventh days and new moons, and if any festivals belonging to our nation, which we celebrate everyyear, happened. When he officiated, he had on a pair of breeches thatreached beneath his privy parts to his thighs, and had on an innergarment of linen, together with a blue garment, round, without seam, with fringe work, and reaching to the feet. There were also golden bellsthat hung upon the fringes, and pomegranates intermixed among them. Thebells signified thunder, and the pomegranates lightning. But that girdlethat tied the garment to the breast was embroidered with five rows ofvarious colors, of gold, and purple, and scarlet, as also of fine linenand blue, with which colors we told you before the veils of the templewere embroidered also. The like embroidery was upon the ephod; but thequantity of gold therein was greater. Its figure was that of a stomacherfor the breast. There were upon it two golden buttons like smallshields, which buttoned the ephod to the garment; in these buttons wereenclosed two very large and very excellent sardonyxes, having the namesof the tribes of that nation engraved upon them: on the other part therehung twelve stones, three in a row one way, and four in the other; asardius, 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 forementionednames of the tribes. A mitre also of fine linen encompassed his head, which was tied by a blue ribbon, about which there was another goldencrown, in which was engraven the sacred name [of God]: it consists offour vowels. However, the high priest did not wear these garments atother times, but a more plain habit; he only did it when he went intothe 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. Andthus much concerning the city and the temple; but for the customs andlaws hereto relating, we shall speak more accurately another time; forthere remain a great many things thereto relating which have not beenhere touched upon. 

8. Now as to the tower of Antonia, it was situated at the corner of twocloisters of the court of the temple; of that on the west, and that onthe north; it was erected upon a rock of fifty cubits in height, andwas on a great precipice; it was the work of king Herod, wherein hedemonstrated his natural magnanimity. In the first place, therock itself was covered over with smooth pieces of stone, from itsfoundation, both for ornament, and that any one who would either try toget up or to go down it might not be able to hold his feet upon it. Nextto this, and before you come to the edifice of the tower itself, therewas a wall three cubits high; but within that wall all the space of thetower 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 partedinto all kinds of rooms and other conveniences, such as courts, andplaces for bathing, and broad spaces for camps; insomuch that, by havingall conveniences that cities wanted, it might seem to be composed ofseveral cities, but by its magnificence it seemed a palace. And as theentire structure resembled that of a tower, it contained also four otherdistinct towers at its four corners; whereof the others were but fiftycubits high; whereas that which lay upon the southeast corner wasseventy 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 therealways lay in this tower a Roman legion] went several ways among thecloisters, with their arms, on the Jewish festivals, in order to watchthe people, that they might not there attempt to make any innovations;for the temple was a fortress that guarded the city, as was the towerof Antonia a guard to the temple; and in that tower were the guards ofthose three [14]. There was also a peculiar fortress belonging to theupper city, which was Herod's palace; but for the hill Bezetha, it wasdivided from the tower Antonia, as we have already told you; and as thathill 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 hinderedthe sight of the temple on the north. And this shall suffice at presentto have spoken about the city and the walls about it, because I haveproposed 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 theseditious that were with Simon, were ten thousand, besides the Idumeans. Those ten thousand had fifty commanders, over whom this Simon wassupreme. The Idumeans that paid him homage were five thousand, and hadeight commanders, among whom those of greatest fame were Jacob the sonof Sosas, and Simon the son of Cathlas. Jotre, who had seized upon thetemple, had six thousand armed men under twenty commanders; the zealotsalso that had come over to him, and left off their opposition, weretwo thousand four hundred, and had the same commander that they hadformerly, Eleazar, together with Simon the son of Arinus. Now, whilethese factions fought one against another, the people were their preyon both sides, as we have said already; and that part of the people whowould not join with them in their wicked practices were plundered byboth factions. Simon held the upper city, and the great wall as far asCedron, 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 theAdiabeni, beyond Euphrates; he also held that fountain, and the Acra, which was no other than the lower city; he also held all that reached tothe palace of queen Helena, the mother of Monobazus. But John held thetemple, and the parts thereto adjoining, for a great way, as also Ophla, and the valley called "the Valley of Cedron;" and when the parts thatwere interposed between their possessions were burnt by them, they lefta space wherein they might fight with each other; for this internalsedition did not cease even when the Romans were encamped near theirvery wall. But although they had grown wiser at the first onset theRomans made upon them, this lasted but a while; for they returned totheir former madness, and separated one from another, and fought it out, and did everything that the besiegers could desire them to do; for theynever suffered any thing that was worse from the Romans than they madeeach other suffer; nor was there any misery endured by the city afterthese men's actions that could be esteemed new. But it was most of allunhappy before it was overthrown, while those that took it did it agreater kindness for I venture to affirm that the sedition destroyed thecity, and the Romans destroyed the sedition, which it was a much harderthing to do than to destroy the walls; so that we may justly ascribe ourmisfortunes to our own people, and the just vengeance taken on them tothe Romans; as to which matter let every one determine by the actions onboth sides. 

2. Now when affairs within the city were in this posture, Titus wentround the city on the outside with some chosen horsemen, and lookedabout for a proper place where he might make an impression upon thewalls; but as he was in doubt where he could possibly make an attack onany 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 bythe engines, ] he thereupon thought it best to make his assault uponthe monument of John the high priest; for there it was that the firstfortification was lower, and the second was not joined to it, thebuilders neglecting to build strong where the new city was not muchinhabited; here also was an easy passage to the third wall, throughwhich he thought to take the upper city, and, through the tower ofAntonia, the temple itself But at this time, as he was going round aboutthe city, one of his friends, whose name was Nicanor, was wounded with adart on his left shoulder, as he approached, together with Josephus, toonear the wall, and attempted to discourse to those that were upon thewall, about terms of peace; for he was a person known by them. On thisaccount it was that Caesar, as soon as he knew their vehemence, thatthey would not hear even such as approached them to persuade them towhat tended to their own preservation, was provoked to press on thesiege. He also at the same time gave his soldiers leave to set thesuburbs on fire, and ordered that they should bring timber together, andraise banks against the city; and when he had parted his army into threeparts, in order to set about those works, he placed those that shotdarts and the archers in the midst of the banks that were then raising;before whom he placed those engines that threw javelins, and darts, andstones, that he might prevent the enemy from sallying out upon theirworks, and might hinder those that were upon the wall from being ableto obstruct them. So the trees were now cut down immediately, and thesuburbs left naked. But now while the timber was carrying to raise thebanks, and the whole army was earnestly engaged in their works, the Jewswere 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 werevery busy in opposing their enemies without the city, and that theyshould now be avenged on those that had been the authors of theirmiseries, in case the Romans did but get the victory. 

3. However, John staid behind, out of his fear of Simon, even while hisown men were earnest in making a sally upon their enemies without. Yetdid not Simon lie still, for he lay near the place of the siege; hebrought his engines of war, and disposed of them at due distances uponthe wall, both those which they took from Cestius formerly, and thosewhich they got when they seized the garrison that lay in the towerAntonia. But though they had these engines in their possession, they hadso little skill in using them, that they were in great measure uselessto them; but a few there were who had been taught by deserters how touse them, which they did use, though after an awkward manner. So theycast stones and arrows at those that were making the banks; they alsoran out upon them by companies, and fought with them. Now those thatwere 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, wereadmirably contrived; but still more extraordinary ones belonged to thetenth legion: those that threw darts and those that threw stones weremore forcible and larger than the rest, by which they not only repelledthe excursions of the Jews, but drove those away that were upon thewalls also. Now the stones that were cast were of the weight of atalent, and were carried two furlongs and further. The blow they gavewas no way to be sustained, not only by those that stood first in theway, but by those that were beyond them for a great space. As for theJews, they at first watched the coming of the stone, for it was of awhite color, and could therefore not only be perceived by the greatnoise it made, but could be seen also before it came by its brightness;accordingly the watchmen that sat upon the towers gave them notice whenthe 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 werein its way stood off, and threw themselves down upon the ground; bywhich means, and by their thus guarding themselves, the stone fell downand did them no harm. But the Romans contrived how to prevent that byblacking the stone, who then could aim at them with success, when thestone was not discerned beforehand, as it had been till then; and sothey destroyed many of them at one blow. Yet did not the Jews, under allthis distress, permit the Romans to raise their banks in quiet; but theyshrewdly and boldly exerted themselves, and repelled them both by nightand by day. 

4. And now, upon the finishing the Roman works, the workmen measuredthe distance there was from the wall, and this by lead and a line, whichthey threw to it from their banks; for they could not measure it anyotherwise, because the Jews would shoot at them, if they came to measureit themselves; and when they found that the engines could reach thewall, they brought them thither. Then did Titus set his engines atproper distances, so much nearer to the wall, that the Jews might notbe able to repel them, and gave orders they should go to work; and whenthereupon a prodigious noise echoed round about from three places, andthat on the sudden there was a great noise made by the citizens thatwere within the city, and no less a terror fell upon the seditiousthemselves; whereupon both sorts, seeing the common danger they were in, contrived to make a like defense. So those of different factions criedout one to another, that they acted entirely as in concert with theirenemies; whereas they ought however, notwithstanding God did not grantthem a lasting concord, in their present circumstances, to lay asidetheir enmities one against another, and to unite together against theRomans. Accordingly, Simon gave those that came from the temple leave, by proclamation, to go upon the wall; John also himself, though he couldnot believe Simon was in earnest, gave them the same leave. So on bothsides they laid aside their hatred and their peculiar quarrels, andformed themselves into one body; they then ran round the walls, andhaving a vast number of torches with them, they threw them at themachines, and shot darts perpetually upon those that impelled thoseengines which battered the wall; nay, the bolder sort leaped out bytroops upon the hurdles that covered the machines, and pulled them topieces, and fell upon those that belonged to them, and beat them, notso much by any skill they had, as principally by the boldness of theirattacks. However, Titus himself still sent assistance to those that werethe hardest set, and placed both horsemen and archers on the severalsides of the engines, and thereby beat off those that brought the fireto them; he also thereby repelled those that shot stones or darts fromthe towers, and then set the engines to work in good earnest; yet didnot the wall yield to these blows, excepting where the battering ram ofthe fifteenth legion moved the corner of a tower, while the wall itselfcontinued unhurt; for the wall was not presently in the same danger withthe tower, which was extant far above it; nor could the fall of thatpart of the tower easily break down any part of the wall itself togetherwith it. 

5. And now the Jews intermitted their sallies for a while; but when theyobserved the Romans dispersed all abroad at their works, and in theirseveral camps, [for they thought the Jews had retired out of wearinessand fear, ] they all at once made a sally at the tower Hippicus, throughan obscure gate, and at the same time brought fire to burn the works, and went boldly up to the Romans, and to their very fortificationsthemselves, where, at the cry they made, those that were near them camepresently to their assistance, and those farther off came running afterthem; and here the boldness of the Jews was too hard for the good orderof the Romans; and as they beat those whom they first fell upon, so theypressed upon those that were now gotten together. So this fight aboutthe machines was very hot, while the one side tried hard to set themon fire, and the other side to prevent it; on both sides there was aconfused cry made, and many of those in the forefront of the battlewere slain. However, the Jews were now too hard for the Romans, by thefurious assaults they made like madmen; and the fire caught hold of theworks, and both all those works, and the engines themselves, had been indanger of being burnt, had not many of these select soldiers that camefrom Alexandria opposed themselves to prevent it, and had they notbehaved themselves with greater courage than they themselves supposedthey could have done; for they outdid those in this fight that hadgreater reputation than themselves before. This was the state of thingstill Caesar took the stoutest of his horsemen, and attacked the enemy, while he himself slew twelve of those that were in the forefront of theJews; which death of these men, when the rest of the multitude saw, theygave way, and he pursued them, and drove them all into the city, andsaved the works from the fire. Now it happened at this fight that acertain Jew was taken alive, who, by Titus's order, was crucified beforethe wall, to see whether the rest of them would be aftrighted, andabate of their obstinacy. But after the Jews were retired, John, who wascommander of the Idumeans, and was talking to a certain soldier of hisacquaintance before the wall, was wounded by a dart shot at him by anArabian, and died immediately, leaving the greatest lamentation to theJews, 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 theRomans; for whereas Titus had given orders for the erection of threetowers of fifty cubits high, that by setting men upon them at everybank, he might from thence drive those away who were upon the wall, itso happened that one of these towers fell down about midnight; and asits 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 theirarms. Whereupon a disturbance and a tumult arose among the legions, and as nobody could tell what had happened, they went on after adisconsolate manner; and seeing no enemy appear, they were afraid one ofanother, and every one demanded of his neighbor the watchword with greatearnestness, as though the Jews had invaded their camp. And now werethey like people under a panic fear, till Titus was informed of whathad happened, and gave orders that all should be acquainted with it;and then, though with some difficulty, they got clear of the disturbancethey had been under. 

2. Now these towers were very troublesome to the Jews, who otherwiseopposed the Romans very courageously; for they shot at them out of theirlighter engines from those towers, as they did also by those that threwdarts, and the archers, and those that flung stones. For neither couldthe Jews reach those that were over them, by reason of their height; andit was not practicable to take them, nor to overturn them, they were soheavy, nor to set them on fire, because they were covered with plates ofiron. So they retired out of the reach of the darts, and did no longerendeavor to hinder the impression of their rams, which, by continuallybeating upon the wall, did gradually prevail against it; so thatthe wall already gave way to the Nico, for by that name did the Jewsthemselves call the greatest of their engines, because it conquered allthings. 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 adistance from the wall. It was on other accounts also thought by themto be superfluous to guard the wall, there being besides that two otherfortifications still remaining, and they being slothful, and theircounsels having been ill concerted on all occasions; so a great manygrew lazy and retired. Then the Romans mounted the breach, whereNico had made one, and all the Jews left the guarding that wall, andretreated to the second wall; so those that had gotten over that wallopened the gates, and received all the army within it. And thus did theRomans get possession of this first wall, on the fifteenth day of thesiege, which was the seventh day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar, ] whenthey demolished a great part of it, as well as they did of the northernparts of the city, which had been demolished also by Cestius formerly. 

3. And now Titus pitched his camp within the city, at that place whichwas called "the Camp of the Assyrians, " having seized upon all thatlay 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 dividedthemselves into several bodies, and courageously defended that wall;while John and his faction did it from the tower of Antonia, and fromthe northern cloister of the temple, and fought the Romans before themonuments of king Alexander; and Sireoh's army also took for their sharethe spot of ground that was near John's monument, and fortified it asfar as to that gate where water was brought in to the tower Hippicus. However, the Jews made violent sallies, and that frequently also, and inbodies together out of the gates, and there fought the Romans; and whenthey were pursued all together to the wall, they were beaten in thosefights, as wanting the skill of the Romans. But when they fought themfrom the walls, they were too hard for them; the Romans being encouragedby their power, joined to their skill, as were the Jews by theirboldness, which was nourished by the fear they were in, and thathardiness which is natural to our nation under calamities; they werealso encouraged still by the hope of deliverance, as were the Romans bytheir hopes of subduing them in a little time. Nor did either side growweary; but attacks and rightings upon the wall, and perpetual salliesout in bodies, were there all the day long; nor were there any sort ofwarlike engagements that were not then put in use. And the night itselfhad 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 moreuneasy than the day to them, while the one was afraid lest the wallshould be taken, and the other lest the Jews should make sallies upontheir 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 thebattle. Now among the Jews the ambition was who should undergo the firstdangers, and thereby gratify their commanders. Above all, they had agreat veneration and dread of Simon; and to that degree was he regardedby every one of those that were under him, that at his command they werevery ready to kill themselves with their own hands. What made the Romansso courageous was their usual custom of conquering and disuse of beingdefeated, their constant wars, and perpetual warlike exercises, andthe grandeur of their dominion; and what was now their chiefencouragement--Titus who was present every where with them all; forit appeared a terrible thing to grow weary while Caesar was there, and fought bravely as well as they did, and was himself at once aneye-witness of such as behaved themselves valiantly, and he who was toreward them also. It was, besides, esteemed an advantage at presentto have any one's valor known by Caesar; on which account many of themappeared to have more alacrity than strength to answer it. And now, asthe Jews were about this time standing in array before the wall, andthat in a strong body, and while both parties were throwing their dartsat each other, Longinus, one of the equestrian order, leaped out of thearmy of the Romans, and leaped into the very midst of the army of theJews; and as they dispersed themselves upon the attack, he slew two oftheir men of the greatest courage; one of them he struck in his mouth ashe was coming to meet him, the other was slain by him by that very dartwhich he drew out of the body of the other, with which he ran this manthrough his side as he was running away from him; and when he had donethis, he first of all ran out of the midst of his enemies to his ownside. So this man signalized himself for his valor, and many there werewho were ambitious of gaining the like reputation. And now the Jews wereunconcerned at what they suffered themselves from the Romans, and wereonly solicitous about what mischief they could do them; and death itselfseemed a small matter to them, if at the same time they could but killany one of their enemies. But Titus took care to secure his own soldiersfrom harm, as well as to have them overcome their enemies. He also saidthat inconsiderate violence was madness, and that this alone was thetrue courage that was joined with good conduct. He therefore commandedhis men to take care, when they fought their enemies, that they receivedno harm from them at the same time, and thereby show themselves to betruly valiant men. 

4. And now Titus brought one of his engines to the middle tower of thenorth part of the wall, in which a certain crafty Jew, whose name wasCastor, lay in ambush, with ten others like himself, the rest being fledaway by reason of the archers. These men lay still for a while, as ingreat 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 beggedof him to have mercy upon them; and Titus, in the innocency of hisheart, believing him to be in earnest, and hoping that the Jews did nowrepent, stopped the working of the battering ram, and forbade them toshoot at the petitioners, and bid Castor say what he had a mind to sayto him. He said that he would come down, if he would give him his righthand for his security. To which Titus replied, that he was well pleasedwith such his agreeable conduct, and would be well pleased if allthe Jews would be of his mind, and that he was ready to give the likesecurity to the city. Now five of the ten dissembled with him, andpretended to beg for mercy, while the rest cried out aloud that theywould never be slaves to the Romans, while it was in their power to diein a state of freedom. Now while these men were quarrelling for a longwhile, the attack was delayed; Castor also sent to Simon, and told himthat they might take some time for consultation about what was to bedone, because he would elude the power of the Romans for a considerabletime. And at the same time that he sent thus to him, he appeared openlyto exhort those that were obstinate to accept of Titus's hand for theirsecurity; but they seemed very angry at it, and brandished their nakedswords upon the breast-works, and struck themselves upon their breast, and fell down as if they had been slain. Hereupon Titus, and those withhim, were amazed at the courage of the men; and as they were not ableto see exactly what was done, they admired at their great fortitude, and pitied their calamity. During this interval, a certain person shota dart at Castor, and wounded him in his nose; whereupon he presentlypulled out the dart, and showed it to Titus, and complained that thiswas unfair treatment; so Caesar reproved him that shot the dart, andsent 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 pretendedpetitioners meant nothing that was good; he also restrained thosefriends of his who were zealous to go to him. But still there was oneEneas, a deserter, who said he would go to him. Castor also called tothem, that somebody should come and receive the money which he had withhim; this made Eneas the more earnestly to run to him with his bosomopen. Then did Castor take up a great stone, and threw it at him, whichmissed him, because he guarded himself against it; but still it woundedanother soldier that was coming to him. When Caesar understood thatthis was a delusion, he perceived that mercy in war is a perniciousthing, because such cunning tricks have less place under the exerciseof greater severity. So he caused the engine to work more strongly thanbefore, on account of his anger at the deceit put upon him. But Castorand his companions set the tower on fire when it began to give way, andleaped through the flame into a hidden vault that was under it, whichmade the Romans further suppose that they were men of great courage, ashaving 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 takenthe first; and when the Jews had fled from him, he entered into it witha thousand armed men, and those of his choice troops, and this at aplace where were the merchants of wool, the braziers, and the marketfor cloth, and where the narrow streets led obliquely to the wall. Wherefore, if Titus had either demolished a larger part of the wallimmediately, or had come in, and, according to the law of war, had laidwaste what was left, his victory would not, I suppose, have been mixedwith any loss to himself. But now, out of the hope he had that he shouldmake the Jews ashamed of their obstinacy, by not being willing, when hewas able, to afflict them more than he needed to do, he did not widenthe 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 akindness. When therefore he came in, he did not permit his soldiers tokill 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 fightwithout any harm to the people, and promised to restore the people'seffects to them; for he was very desirous to preserve the city for hisown sake, and the temple for the sake of the city. As to the people, hehad them of a long time ready to comply with his proposals; but as tothe fighting men, this humanity of his seemed a mark of his weakness, and they imagined that he made these proposals because he was not ableto 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. Theymoreover cut the throats of such as talked of a peace, and then attackedthose Romans that were come within the wall. Some of them they met inthe narrow streets, and some they fought against from their houses, while they made a sudden sally out at the upper gates, and assaultedsuch Romans as were beyond the wall, till those that guarded the wallwere so aftrighted, that they leaped down from their towers, and retiredto their several camps: upon which a great noise was made by the Romansthat were within, because they were encompassed round on every side bytheir enemies; as also by them that were without, because they were infear for those that were left in the city. Thus did the Jews grow morenumerous perpetually, and had great advantages over the Romans, by theirfull knowledge of those narrow lanes; and they wounded a great manyof them, and fell upon them, and drove them out of the city. Now theseRomans 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 inthe wall, it was so narrow. It is also probable that all those thatwere gotten within had been cut to pieces, if Titus had not sent themsuccors; for he ordered the archers to stand at the upper ends of thesenarrow lakes, and he stood himself where was the greatest multitude ofhis enemies, and with his darts he put a stop to them; as with himdid Domitius Sabinus also, a valiant man, and one that in this battleappeared so to be. Thus did Caesar continue to shoot darts at the Jewscontinually, and to hinder them from coming upon his men, and this untilall his soldiers had retreated out of the city. 

2. And thus were the Romans driven out, after they had possessedthemselves of the second wall. Whereupon the fighting men that werein the city were lifted up in their minds, and were elevated upon thistheir good success, and began to think that the Romans would neverventure to come into the city any more; and that if they kept within itthemselves, they should not be any more conquered. For God had blindedtheir minds for the transgressions they had been guilty of, nor couldthey see how much greater forces the Romans had than those that were nowexpelled, no more than they could discern how a famine was creeping uponthem; 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 timeseized upon the better part, and a great many had died already for wantof necessaries; although the seditious indeed supposed the destructionof the people to be an easement to themselves; for they desired thatnone others might be preserved but such as were against a peace with theRomans, and were resolved to live in opposition to them, and they werepleased when the multitude of those of a contrary opinion were consumed, as being then freed from a heavy burden. And this was their dispositionof mind with regard to those that were within the city, while theycovered themselves with their armor, and prevented the Romans, when theywere trying to get into the city again, and made a wall of their ownbodies over against that part of the wall that was cast down. Thus didthey valiantly defend themselves for three days; but on the fourth daythey could not support themselves against the vehement assaults of Titusbut were compelled by force to fly whither they had fled before; sohe quietly possessed himself again of that wall, and demolished itentirely. And when he had put a garrison into the towers that were onthe south parts of the city, he contrived how he might assault the thirdwall. 

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 littlewhile, and to afford the seditious an interval for consideration, and tosee whether the demolishing of their second wall would not make thema little more compliant, or whether they were not somewhat afraid ofa famine, because the spoils they had gotten by rapine would not besufficient for them long; so he made use of this relaxation in order tocompass his own designs. Accordingly, as the usual appointed time whenhe must distribute subsistence money to the soldiers was now come, hegave 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 theirpay. So the soldiers, according to custom, opened the cases whereintheir arms before lay covered, and marched with their breastplates on, as did the horsemen lead their horses in their fine trappings. Then didthe places that were before the city shine very splendidly for a greatway; nor was there any thing so grateful to Titus's own men, or soterrible to the enemy, as that sight. For the whole old wall, and thenorth side of the temple, were full of spectators, and one might seethe houses full of such as looked at them; nor was there any part of thecity which was not covered over with their multitudes; nay, a very greatconsternation seized upon the hardiest of the Jews themselves, when theysaw all the army in the same place, together with the fineness of theirarms, and the good order of their men. And I cannot but think thatthe seditious would have changed their minds at that sight, unless thecrimes they had committed against the people had been so horrid, thatthey despaired of forgiveness from the Romans; but as they believeddeath with torments must be their punishment, if they did not go on inthe defense of the city, they thought it much better to die in war. Fatealso prevailed so far over them, that the innocent were to perish withthe guilty, and the city was to be destroyed with the seditious thatwere in it. 

2. Thus did the Romans spend four days in bringing thissubsistence-money to the several legions. But on the fifth day, whenno signs of peace appeared to come from the Jews, Titus divided hislegions, and began to raise banks, both at the tower of Antonia and atJohn's monument. Now his designs were to take the upper city at thatmonument, and the temple at the tower of Antonia; for if the temple werenot taken, it would be dangerous to keep the city itself; so at each ofthese parts he raised him banks, each legion raising one. As for thosethat wrought at John's monument, the Idumeans, and those that were inarms 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 liketo those that were before the tower of Antonia. These Jews were now toohard for the Romans, not only in direct fighting, because they stoodupon the higher ground, but because they had now learned to use theirown engines; for their continual use of them one day after another didby degrees improve their skill about them; for of one sort of enginesfor darts they had three hundred, and forty for stones; by the means ofwhich they made it more tedious for the Romans to raise their banks. Butthen Titus, knowing that the city would be either saved or destroyed forhimself, did not only proceed earnestly in the siege, but did not omitto have the Jews exhorted to repentance; so he mixed good counselwith his works for the siege. And being sensible that exhortations arefrequently more effectual than arms, he persuaded them to surrender thecity, now in a manner already taken, and thereby to save themselves, andsent Josephus to speak to them in their own language; for he imaginedthey 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 thatwas out of the reach of their darts, and yet within their hearing, and besought them, in many words, to spare themselves, to spare theircountry and their temple, and not to be more obdurate in these casesthan foreigners themselves; for that the Romans, who had no relationto those things, had a reverence for their sacred rites and places, although they belonged to their enemies, and had till now kept theirhands off from meddling with them; while such as were brought up underthem, and, if they be preserved, will be the only people that will reapthe benefit of them, hurry on to have them destroyed. That certainlythey have seen their strongest walls demolished, and that the wall stillremaining was weaker than those that were already taken. That they mustknow the Roman power was invincible, and that they had been used toserve them; for, that in case it be allowed a right thing to fight forliberty, that ought to have been done at first; but for them that haveonce fallen under the power of the Romans, and have now submittedto them for so many long years, to pretend to shake off that yokeafterward, was the work of such as had a mind to die miserably, not ofsuch as were lovers of liberty. Besides, men may well enough grudge atthe dishonor of owning ignoble masters over them, but ought not to do soto those who have all things under their command; for what part of theworld is there that hath escaped the Romans, unless it be such as areof no use for violent heat, or for violent cold? And evident it is thatfortune is on all hands gone over to them; and that God, when he hadgone 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 stiffer those to have the dominion who are too hard for the restin war; for which reason it was that their forefathers, who were farsuperior to them, both in their souls and bodies, and other advantages, did yet submit to the Romans, which they would not have suffered, hadthey not known that God was with them. As for themselves, what can theydepend on in this their opposition, when the greatest part of their cityis already taken? and when those that are within it are under greatermiseries than if they were taken, although their walls be stillstanding? For that the Romans are not unacquainted with that faminewhich is in the city, whereby the people are already consumed, and thefighting men will in a little time be so too; for although the Romansshould leave off the siege, and not fall upon the city with their swordsin their hands, yet was there an insuperable war that beset them within, and was augmented every hour, unless they were able to wage war withfamine, and fight against it, or could alone conquer their naturalappetites. He added this further, how right a thing it was to changetheir conduct before their calamities were become incurable, and to haverecourse to such advice as might preserve them, while opportunity wasoffered them for so doing; for that the Romans would not be mindfulof their past actions to their disadvantage, unless they persevered intheir insolent behavior to the end; because they were naturally mild intheir conquests, and preferred what was profitable, before what theirpassions dictated to them; which profit of theirs lay not in leaving thecity empty of inhabitants, nor the country a desert; on which accountCaesar 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, andthis especially, if they rejected his offers in these their utmostdistresses; for the walls that were already taken could not but assurethem that the third wall would quickly be taken also. And though theirfortifications should prove too strong for the Romans to break throughthem, yet would the famine fight for the Romans against them. 

4. While Josephus was making this exhortation to the Jews, many of themjested upon him from the wall, and many reproached him; nay, some threwtheir darts at him: but when he could not himself persuade them by suchopen good advice, he betook himself to the histories belonging to theirown nation, and cried out aloud, "O miserable creatures! are you sounmindful of those that used to assist you, that you will fight by yourweapons and by your hands against the Romans? When did we ever conquerany other nation by such means? and when was it that God, who is theCreator of the Jewish people, did not avenge them when they had beeninjured? Will not you turn again, and look back, and consider whence itis that you fight with such violence, and how great a Supporter you haveprofanely abused? Will not you recall to mind the prodigious things donefor your forefathers and this holy place, and how great enemies of yourswere by him subdued under you? I even tremble myself in declaring theworks 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 againstthe Romans, but against God himself. In old times there was one Necao, king of Egypt, who was also called Pharaoh; he came with a prodigiousarmy of soldiers, and seized queen Sarah, the mother of our nation. What did Abraham our progenitor then do? Did he defend himself fromthis injurious person by war, although he had three hundred and eighteencaptains under him, and an immense army under each of them? Indeed hedeemed them to be no number at all without God's assistance, and onlyspread out his hands towards this holy place, [16] which you havenow polluted, and reckoned upon him as upon his invincible supporter, instead of his own army. Was not our queen sent back, without anydefilement, to her husband, the very next evening?--while the king ofEgypt fled away, adoring this place which you have defiled by sheddingthereon the blood of your own countrymen; and he also trembled at thosevisions which he saw in the night season, and bestowed both silver andgold 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, [17] whenthey were used tyrannically, and were fallen under the power of foreignkings for four hundred ears together, and might have defended themselvesby 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 ofwild beasts, and consumed by all sorts of distempers? how their landdid not bring forth its fruit? how the Nile failed of water? how the tenplagues of Egypt followed one upon another? and how by those means ourfathers were sent away under a guard, without any bloodshed, andwithout running any dangers, because God conducted them as his peculiarservants? Moreover, did not Palestine groan under the ravage theAssyrians made, when they carried away our sacred ark? as did their idolDagon, 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 oftheir bodies, when their very bowels came down together with what theyhad eaten, till those hands that stole it away were obliged to bring itback again, and that with the sound of cymbals and timbrels, and otheroblations, in order to appease the anger of God for their violation ofhis holy ark. It was God who then became our General, and accomplishedthese great things for our fathers, and this because they did not meddlewith war and fighting, but committed it to him to judge about theiraffairs. When Sennacherib, king of Assyria, brought along with him allAsia, and encompassed this city round with his army, did he fall by thehands of men? were not those hands lifted up to God in prayers, withoutmeddling with their arms, when an angel of God destroyed that prodigiousarmy 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 theywere unarmed, and did not pursue them. You are also acquainted with theslavery we were under at Babylon, where the people were captives forseventy years; yet were they not delivered into freedom again beforeGod made Cyrus his gracious instrument in bringing it about; accordinglythey were set free by him, and did again restore the worship of theirDeliverer at his temple. And, to speak in general, we can produce noexample wherein our fathers got any success by war, or failed of successwhen without war they committed themselves to God. When they staid athome, they conquered, as pleased their Judge; but when they went outto fight, they were always disappointed: for example, when the king ofBabylon besieged this very city, and our king Zedekiah fought againsthim, contrary to what predictions were made to him by Jeremiah theprophet, he was at once taken prisoner, and saw the city and the templedemolished. Yet how much greater was the moderation of that king, thanis that of your present governors, and that of the people then underhim, than is that of you at this time! for when Jeremiah cried outaloud, how very angry God was at them, because of their transgressions, and told them they should be taken prisoners, unless they wouldsurrender up their city, neither did the king nor the people put him todeath; 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 abuseme, and throw darts at me, who only exhort you to save yourselves, asbeing provoked when you are put in mind of your sins, and cannot bearthe very mention of those crimes which you every day perpetrate. Foranother example, when Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, lay beforethis city, and had been guilty of many indignities against God, and ourforefathers met him in arms, they then were slain in the battle, thiscity was plundered by our enemies, and our sanctuary made desolate forthree 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 againstour nation? Is it not the impiety of the inhabitants? Whence did ourservitude commence? Was it not derived from the seditions that wereamong our forefathers, when the madness of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, andour mutual quarrels, brought Pompey upon this city, and when God reducedthose under subjection to the Romans who were unworthy of the libertythey had enjoyed? After a siege, therefore, of three months, they wereforced to surrender themselves, although they had not been guilty ofsuch 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 youhave. Do not we know what end Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, cameto, under whose reign God provided that this city should be taken againupon account of the people's offenses? When Herod, the son of Antipater, brought upon us Sosius, and Sosius brought upon us the Roman army, theywere then encompassed and besieged for six months, till, as a punishmentfor their sins, they were taken, and the city was plundered by theenemy. Thus it appears that arms were never given to our nation, butthat we are always given up to be fought against, and to be taken; forI suppose that such as inhabit this holy place ought to commit thedisposal of all things to God, and then only to disregard the assistanceof 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 byour legislator? and what have you not done of those things that he hathcondemned? How much more impious are you than those who were so quicklytaken! You have not avoided so much as those sins that are usuallydone in secret; I mean thefts, and treacherous plots against men, andadulteries. You are quarrelling about rapines and murders, and inventstrange ways of wickedness. Nay, the temple itself is become thereceptacle of all, and this Divine place is polluted by the hands ofthose of our own country; which place hath yet been reverenced by theRomans when it was at a distance from them, when they have suffered manyof their own customs to give place to our law. And, after all this, doyou 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 Himto assist you, so pure are your hands! Did your king [Hezekiah] liftup such hands in prayer to God against the king of Assyria, when hedestroyed that great army in one night? And do the Romans commit suchwickedness as did the king of Assyria, that you may have reason to hopefor the like vengeance upon them? Did not that king accept of money fromour king on this condition, that he should not destroy the city, andyet, 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 whichour 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 yourpossessions secured to you, and will preserve our holy laws inviolateto you. And it is plain madness to expect that God should appear as welldisposed towards the wicked as towards the righteous, since he knowswhen it is proper to punish men for their sins immediately; accordinglyhe brake the power of the Assyrians the very first night that theypitched their camp. Wherefore, had he judged that our nation was worthyof freedom, or the Romans of punishment, he had immediately inflictedpunishment upon those Romans, as he did upon the Assyrians, when Pompeybegan to meddle with our nation, or when after him Sosius came upagainst us, or when Vespasian laid waste Galilee, or, lastly, when Tituscame first of all near to this city; although Magnus and Sosius did notonly suffer nothing, but took the city by force; as did Vespasian gofrom the war he made against you to receive the empire; and as forTitus, those springs that were formerly almost dried up when they wereunder your power [18] since he is come, run more plentifully than theydid before; accordingly, you know that Siloam, as well as all the othersprings that were without the city, did so far fail, that water was soldby distinct measures; whereas they now have such a great quantity ofwater for your enemies, as is sufficient not only for drink both forthemselves and their cattle, but for watering their gardens also. The same wonderful sign you had also experience of formerly, when theforementioned king of Babylon made war against us, and when he took thecity, and burnt the temple; while yet I believe the Jews of that agewere not so impious as you are. Wherefore I cannot but suppose that Godis fled out of his sanctuary, and stands on the side of those againstwhom you fight. Now even a man, if he be but a good man, will fly froman impure house, and will hate those that are in it; and do you persuadeyourselves that God will abide with you in your iniquities, who sees allsecret things, and hears what is kept most private? Now what crimeis there, I pray you, that is so much as kept secret among you, oris concealed by you? nay, what is there that is not open to your veryenemies? for you show your transgressions after a pompous manner, andcontend one with another which of you shall be more wicked than another;and you make a public demonstration of your injustice, as if it werevirtue. However, there is a place left for your preservation, if yoube willing to accept of it; and God is easily reconciled to those thatconfess their faults, and repent of them. O hard-hearted wretches asyou are! cast away all your arms, and take pity of your country alreadygoing to ruin; return from your wicked ways, and have regard to theexcellency of that city which you are going to betray, to that excellenttemple with the donations of so many countries in it. Who could bear tobe the first that should set that temple on fire? who could be willingthat these things should be no more? and what is there that can betterdeserve to be preserved? O insensible creatures, and more stupid thanare the stones themselves! And if you cannot look at these things withdiscerning eyes, yet, however, have pity upon your families, and setbefore every one of your eyes your children, and wives, and parents, who will be gradually consumed either by famine or by war. I am sensiblethat this danger will extend to my mother, and wife, and to that familyof mine who have been by no means ignoble, and indeed to one that hathbeen very eminent in old time; and perhaps you may imagine that it ison their account only that I give you this advice; if that be all, killthem; nay, take my own blood as a reward, if it may but procure yourpreservation; for I am ready to die, in case you will but return to asound 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 wouldneither yield to what he said, nor did they deem it safe for them toalter their conduct; but as for the people, they had a great inclinationto 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 bythem, for every small matter, and swallowed down pieces of gold, thatthey might not be found out by the robbers; and when they had escapedto the Romans, went to stool, and had wherewithal to provide plentifullyfor themselves; for Titus let a great number of them go away into thecountry, whither they pleased. And the main reasons why they were soready to desert were these: That now they should be freed from thosemiseries which they had endured in that city, and yet should not be inslavery to the Romans: however, John and Simon, with their factions, didmore carefully watch these men's going out than they did the comingin of the Romans; and if any one did but afford the least shadow ofsuspicion of such an intention, his throat was cut immediately. 

2. But as for the richer sort, it proved all one to them whether theystaid in the city, or attempted to get out of it; for they were equallydestroyed in both cases; for every such person was put to death underthis pretense, that they were going to desert, but in reality that therobbers might get what they had. The madness of the seditious did alsoincrease together with their famine, and both those miseries wereevery day inflamed more and more; for there was no corn which any whereappeared publicly, but the robbers came running into, and searchedmen's private houses; and then, if they found any, they tormented them, because they had denied they had any; and if they found none, theytormented them worse, because they supposed they had more carefullyconcealed it. The indication they made use of whether they had any ornot was taken from the bodies of these miserable wretches; which, ifthey were in good case, they supposed they were in no want at all offood; but if they were wasted away, they walked off without searchingany further; nor did they think it proper to kill such as these, becausethey saw they would very soon die of themselves for want of food. Manythere were indeed who sold what they had for one measure; it was ofwheat, if they were of the richer sort; but of barley, if they werepoorer. When these had so done, they shut themselves up in the inmostrooms of their houses, and ate the corn they had gotten; some did itwithout grinding it, by reason of the extremity of the want they werein, and others baked bread of it, according as necessity and feardictated to them: a table was no where laid for a distinct meal, butthey snatched the bread out of the fire, half-baked, and ate it veryhastily. 

3. It was now a miserable case, and a sight that would justly bringtears into our eyes, how men stood as to their food, while the morepowerful had more than enough, and the weaker were lamenting [for wantof it. ] But the famine was too hard for all other passions, and it isdestructive to nothing so much as to modesty; for what was otherwiseworthy of reverence was in this case despised; insomuch that childrenpulled the very morsels that their fathers were eating out of their verymouths, and what was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers doas to their infants; and when those that were most dear were perishingunder their hands, they were not ashamed to take from them the very lastdrops that might preserve their lives: and while they ate after thismanner, yet were they not concealed in so doing; but the seditious everywhere came upon them immediately, and snatched away from them what theyhad gotten from others; for when they saw any house shut up, this wasto them a signal that the people within had gotten some food; whereuponthey broke open the doors, and ran in, and took pieces of what they wereeating almost up out of their very throats, and this by force: the oldmen, who held their food fast, were beaten; and if the women hid whatthey had within their hands, their hair was torn for so doing; nor wasthere any commiseration shown either to the aged or to the infants, butthey lifted up children from the ground as they hung upon the morselsthey had gotten, and shook them down upon the floor. But still they weremore barbarously cruel to those that had prevented their coming in, andhad actually swallowed down what they were going to seize upon, as ifthey had been unjustly defrauded of their right. They also inventedterrible methods of torments to discover where any food was, and theywere these to stop up the passages of the privy parts of the miserablewretches, and to drive sharp stakes up their fundaments; and a man wasforced to bear what it is terrible even to hear, in order to make himconfess that he had but one loaf of bread, or that he might discover ahandful of barley-meal that was concealed; and this was done when thesetormentors were not themselves hungry; for the thing had been lessbarbarous had necessity forced them to it; but this was done to keeptheir madness in exercise, and as making preparation of provisions forthemselves for the following days. These men went also to meet thosethat 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 peoplethought they had got clear of the enemy, they snatched from them whatthey had brought with them, even while they had frequently entreatedthem, and that by calling upon the tremendous name of God, to give themback some part of what they had brought; though these would not givethem the least crumb, and they were to be well contented that they wereonly spoiled, and not slain at the same time. 

4. These were the afflictions which the lower sort of people sufferedfrom these tyrants' guards; but for the men that were in dignity, andwithal were rich, they were carried before the tyrants themselves; someof whom were falsely accused of laying treacherous plots, and so weredestroyed; others of them were charged with designs of betraying thecity to the Romans; but the readiest way of all was this, to subornsomebody to affirm that they were resolved to desert to the enemy. Andhe who was utterly despoiled of what he had by Simon was sent back againto John, as of those who had been already plundered by Jotre, Simon gotwhat remained; insomuch that they drank the blood of the populace to oneanother, and divided the dead bodies of the poor creatures between them;so that although, on account of their ambition after dominion, theycontended with each other, yet did they very well agree in their wickedpractices; for he that did not communicate what he got by the miseriesof others to the other tyrant seemed to be too little guilty, and in onerespect only; and he that did not partake of what was so communicated tohim grieved at this, as at the loss of what was a valuable thing, thathe had no share in such barbarity. 

5. It is therefore impossible to go distinctly over every instanceof these men's iniquity. I shall therefore speak my mind here at oncebriefly:--That neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness thanthis was, from the beginning of the world. Finally, they broughtthe Hebrew nation into contempt, that they might themselves appearcomparatively less impious with regard to strangers. They confessedwhat was true, that they were the slaves, the scum, and the spuriousand abortive offspring of our nation, while they overthrew the citythemselves, and forced the Romans, whether they would or no, to gain amelancholy reputation, by acting gloriously against them, and did almostdraw that fire upon the temple, which they seemed to think came tooslowly; and indeed when they saw that temple burning from the uppercity, they were neither troubled at it, nor did they shed any tears onthat account, while yet these passions were discovered among the Romansthemselves; which circumstances we shall speak of hereafter in theirproper 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 hissoldiers had been very much distressed from the wall. He then sent aparty of horsemen, and ordered they should lay ambushes for those thatwent out into the valleys to gather food. Some of these were indeedfighting men, who were not contented with what they got by rapine;but the greater part of them were poor people, who were deterred fromdeserting by the concern they were under for their own relations;for they could not hope to escape away, together with their wives andchildren, without the knowledge of the seditious; nor could they thinkof 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; sonothing 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 anysupplications for mercy; so they were first whipped, and then tormentedwith all sorts of tortures, before they died, and were then crucifiedbefore the wall of the city. This miserable procedure made Titus greatlyto pity them, while they caught every day five hundred Jews; nay, somedays they caught more: yet it did not appear to be safe for him to letthose that were taken by force go their way, and to set a guard over somany he saw would be to make such as great deal them useless to him. Themain reason why he did not forbid that cruelty was this, that he hopedthe Jews might perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they mightthemselves afterwards be liable to the same cruel treatment. So thesoldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed thosethey caught, one after one way, and another after another, to thecrosses, by way of jest, when their multitude was so great, that roomwas 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 thewall, with such of the populace as were very eager to go over upon thesecurity offered them, and showed them what miseries those underwentwho fled to the Romans; and told them that those who were caught weresupplicants to them, and not such as were taken prisoners. This sightkept many of those within the city who were so eager to desert, tillthe truth was known; yet did some of them run away immediately as untocertain punishment, esteeming death from their enemies to be a quietdeparture, if compared with that by famine. So Titus commanded that thehands of many of those that were caught should be cut off, that theymight not be thought deserters, and might be credited on account of thecalamity they were under, and sent them in to John and Simon, with thisexhortation, that they would now at length leave off [their madness], and not force him to destroy the city, whereby they would have thoseadvantages of repentance, even in their utmost distress, that they wouldpreserve their own lives, and so find a city of their own, and thattemple which was their peculiar. He then went round about the banks thatwere cast up, and hastened them, in order to show that his wordsshould in no long time be followed by his deeds. In answer to which theseditious cast reproaches upon Caesar himself, and upon his father also, and cried out, with a loud voice, that they contemned death, anddid well in preferring it before slavery; that they would do all themischief to the Romans they could while they had breath in them; andthat 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 bettertemple to God than this. That yet this temple would be preserved by himthat inhabited therein, whom they still had for their assistant in thiswar, and did therefore laugh at all his threatenings, which would cometo nothing, because the conclusion of the whole depended upon God only. These words were mixed with reproaches, and with them they made a mightyclamor. 

3. In the mean time Antiochus Epiphanes came to the city, having withhim a considerable number of other armed men, and a band called theMacedonian band about him, all of the same age, tall, and just pasttheir childhood, armed, and instructed after the Macedonian manner, whence it was that they took that name. Yet were many of them unworthyof so famous a nation; for it had so happened, that the king ofCommagene had flourished more than any other kings that were under thepower of the Romans, till a change happened in his condition; and whenhe was become an old man, he declared plainly that we ought not to callany man happy before he is dead. But this son of his, who was thencome thither before his father was decaying, said that he could not butwonder what made the Romans so tardy in making their attacks upon thewall. Now he was a warlike man, and naturally bold in exposing himselfto dangers; he was also so strong a man, that his boldness seldom failedof having success. Upon this Titus smiled, and said he would share thepains of an attack with him. However, Antiochus went as he then was, andwith his Macedonians made a sudden assault upon the wall; and, indeed, for his own part, his strength and skill were so great, that he guardedhimself from the Jewish darts, and yet shot his darts at them, while yetthe young men with him were almost all sorely galled; for they had sogreat a regard to the promises that had been made of their courage, thatthey would needs persevere in their fighting, and at length many of themretired, but not till they were wounded; and then they perceived thattrue Macedonians, if they were to be conquerors, must have Alexander'sgood fortune also. 

4. Now as the Romans began to raise their banks on the twelfth day ofthe month Artemisius, [Jyar, ] so had they much ado to finish them bythe twenty-ninth day of the same month, after they had labored hard forseventeen days continually. For there were now four great banks raised, one of which was at the tower Antonia; this was raised by the fifthlegion, over against the middle of that pool which was called Struthius. Another was cast up by the twelfth legion, at the distance of abouttwenty cubits from the other. But the labors of the tenth legion, whichlay a great way off these, were on the north quarter, and at the poolcalled Amygdalon; as was that of the fifteenth legion about thirtycubits from it, and at the high priest's monument. And now, when theengines were brought, John had from within undermined the space that wasover against the tower of Antonia, as far as the banks themselves, and had supported the ground over the mine with beams laid across oneanother, whereby the Roman works stood upon an uncertain foundation. Then did he order such materials to be brought in as were daubed overwith pitch and bitumen, and set them on fire; and as the cross beamsthat supported the banks were burning, the ditch yielded on thesudden, and the banks were shaken down, and fell into the ditch with aprodigious noise. Now at the first there arose a very thick smoke anddust, as the fire was choked with the fall of the bank; but as thesuffocated materials were now gradually consumed, a plain flame brakeout; on which sudden appearance of the flame a consternation fell uponthe Romans, and the shrewdness of the contrivance discouraged them; andindeed this accident coming upon them at a time when they thought theyhad already gained their point, cooled their hopes for the time tocome. They also thought it would be to no purpose to take the painsto extinguish the fire, since if it were extinguished, the banks wereswallowed up already [and become useless to them]. 

5. Two days after this, Simon and his party made an attempt to destroythe other banks; for the Romans had brought their engines to bear there, and began already to make the wall shake. And here one Tephtheus, ofGarsis, a city of Galilee, and Megassarus, one who was derived from someof queen Mariamne's servants, and with them one from Adiabene, he wasthe son of Nabateus, and called by the name of Chagiras, from the illfortune he had, the word signifying "a lame man, " snatched some torches, and ran suddenly upon the engines. Nor were there during this war anymen that ever sallied out of the city who were their superiors, eitherin their boldness, or in the terror they struck into their enemies. Forthey 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 hadrushed violently through the midst of them, and set their machines onfire. And though they had darts thrown at them on every side, and wereon every side assaulted with their enemies' swords, yet did they notwithdraw themselves out of the dangers they were in, till the fire hadcaught hold of the instruments; but when the flame went up, the Romanscame running from their camp to save their engines. Then did theJews hinder their succors from the wall, and fought with those thatendeavored to quench the fire, without any regard to the danger theirbodies were in. So the Romans pulled the engines out of the fire, whilethe hurdles that covered them were on fire; but the Jews caught holdof the battering rams through the flame itself, and held them fast, although the iron upon them was become red hot; and now the fire spreaditself from the engines to the banks, and prevented those that came todefend them; and all this while the Romans were encompassed round aboutwith the flame; and, despairing of saying their works from it, theyretired to their camp. Then did the Jews become still more and morein number by the coming of those that were within the city to theirassistance; and as they were very bold upon the good success theyhad had, their violent assaults were almost irresistible; nay, theyproceeded as far as the fortifications of the enemies' camp, and foughtwith their guards. Now there stood a body of soldiers in array beforethat camp, which succeeded one another by turns in their armor; and asto those, the law of the Romans was terrible, that he who left his postthere, let the occasion be whatsoever it might be, he was to die forit; so that body of soldiers, preferring rather to die in fightingcourageously, than as a punishment for their cowardice, stood firm; andat the necessity these men were in of standing to it, many of the othersthat had run away, out of shame, turned back again; and when they hadset the engines against the wall, they put the multitude from comingmore of them out of the city, [which they could the more easily do]because they had made no provision for preserving or guarding theirbodies at this time; for the Jews fought now hand to hand with all thatcame in their way, and, without any caution, fell against the points oftheir enemies' spears, and attacked them bodies against bodies; for theywere now too hard for the Romans, not so much by their other warlikeactions, as by these courageous assaults they made upon them; and theRomans gave way more to their boldness than they did to the sense of theharm they had received from them. 

6. And now Titus was come from the tower of Antonia, whither he wasgone to look out for a place for raising other banks, and reproached thesoldiers greatly for permitting their own walls to be in danger, whenthey had taken the wails of their enemies, and sustained the fortuneof 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 aboutthe enemy with some chosen troops, and fell upon their flank himself; sothe Jews, who had been before assaulted in their faces, wheeled about toTitus, and continued the fight. The armies also were now mixed one amonganother, and the dust that was raised so far hindered them from seeingone another, and the noise that was made so far hindered them fromhearing one another, that neither side could discern an enemy from afriend. However, the Jews did not flinch, though not so much from theirreal strength, as from their despair of deliverance. The Romans alsowould not yield, by reason of the regard they had to glory, and totheir reputation in war, and because Caesar himself went into the dangerbefore them; insomuch that I cannot but think the Romans would in theconclusion have now taken even the whole multitude of the Jews, sovery angry were they at them, had these not prevented the upshot ofthe battle, and retired into the city. However, seeing the banks of theRomans were demolished, these Romans were very much east down upon theloss 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 ofwar 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 wholearmy against the city and storm the wall; for that hitherto no morethan a part of their army had fought with the Jews; but that in case theentire army was to come at once, they would not be able to sustain theirattacks, but would be overwhelmed by their darts. But of those that werefor a more cautious management, some were for raising their banks again;and others advised to let the banks alone, but to lie still before thecity, to guard against the coming out of the Jews, and against theircarrying provisions into the city, and so to leave the enemy to thefamine, and this without direct fighting with them; for that despair wasnot to be conquered, especially as to those who are desirous to die bythe 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 entirelyidle, and that yet it was in vain to fight with those that would bedestroyed one by another; he also showed them how impracticable it wasto cast up any more banks, for want of materials, and to guard againstthe Jews coming out still more impracticable; as also, that to encompassthe whole city round with his army was not very easy, by reason of itsmagnitude, and the difficulty of the situation, and on other accountsdangerous, upon the sallies the Jews might make out of the city. Foralthough they might guard the known passages out of the place, yet wouldthey, when they found themselves under the greatest distress, contrivesecret passages out, as being well acquainted with all such places; andif any provisions were carried in by stealth, the siege would thereby belonger delayed. He also owned that he was afraid that the length of timethus to be spent would diminish the glory of his success; for thoughit be true that length of time will perfect every thing, yet that todo what we do in a little time is still necessary to the gainingreputation. That therefore his opinion was, that if they aimed atquickness joined with security, they must build a wall round about thewhole city; which was, he thought, the only way to prevent the Jews fromcoming out any way, and that then they would either entirely despair ofsaving the city, and so would surrender it up to him, or be still themore easily conquered when the famine had further weakened them; forthat besides this wall, he would not lie entirely at rest afterward, butwould take care then to have banks raised again, when those that wouldoppose them were become weaker. But that if any one should think such awork to be too great, and not to be finished without much difficulty, heought to consider that it is not fit for Romans to undertake any smallwork, and that none but God himself could with ease accomplish any greatthing whatsoever. 

2. These arguments prevailed with the commanders. So Titus gave ordersthat the army should be distributed to their several shares of thiswork; 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 builtamong them, nor did only one legion strive with another, but the lesserdivisions of the army did the same; insomuch that each soldier wasambitious to please his decurion, each decurion his centurion, eachcenturion his tribune, and the ambition of the tribunes was to pleasetheir superior commanders, while Caesar himself took notice of andrewarded the like contention in those commanders; for he went roundabout 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 campwas pitched, and drew it down to the lower parts of Cenopolis; thenceit went along the valley of Cedron, to the Mount of Olives; it thenbent towards the south, and encompassed the mountain as far as the rockcalled Peristereon, and that other hill which lies next it, and is overthe 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 upagain at the monument of Ananus the high priest, and encompassing thatmountain where Pompey had formerly pitched his camp, it returned backto the north side of the city, and was carried on as far as a certainvillage called "The House of the Erebinthi;" after which it encompassedHerod's monument, and there, on the east, was joined to Titus's owncamp, where it began. Now the length of this wall was forty furlongs, one only abated. Now at this wall without were erected thirteen placesto keep garrison in, whose circumferences, put together, amounted toten furlongs; the whole was completed in three days; so that what wouldnaturally have required some months was done in so short an interval asis incredible. When Titus had therefore encompassed the city with thiswall, and put garrisons into proper places, he went round the wall, atthe first watch of the night, and observed how the guard was kept; thesecond watch he allotted to Alexander; the commanders of legions tookthe third watch. They also cast lots among themselves who should be uponthe watch in the night time, and who should go all night long round thespaces that were interposed between the garrisons. 

3. So all hope of escaping was now cut off from the Jews, together withtheir liberty of going out of the city. Then did the famine widen itsprogress, and devoured the people by whole houses and families; theupper 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; thechildren also and the young men wandered about the market-places likeshadows, all swelled with the famine, and fell down dead, wheresoevertheir misery seized them. As for burying them, those that were sickthemselves were not able to do it; and those that were hearty and wellwere 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 theircoffins before that fatal hour was come. Nor was there any lamentationsmade under these calamities, nor were heard any mournful complaints;but the famine confounded all natural passions; for those who were justgoing to die looked upon those that were gone to rest before them withdry eyes and open mouths. A deep silence also, and a kind of deadlynight, had seized upon the city; while yet the robbers were still moreterrible than these miseries were themselves; for they brake open thosehouses which were no other than graves of dead bodies, and plunderedthem of what they had; and carrying off the coverings of their bodies, went out laughing, and tried the points of their swords in their deadbodies; and, in order to prove what metal they were made of they thrustsome of those through that still lay alive upon the ground; but forthose that entreated them to lend them their right hand and their swordto despatch them, they were too proud to grant their requests, and leftthem to be consumed by the famine. Now every one of these died withtheir eyes fixed upon the temple, and left the seditious alive behindthem. Now the seditious at first gave orders that the dead should beburied out of the public treasury, as not enduring the stench of theirdead bodies. But afterwards, when they could not do that, they had themcast down from the walls into the valleys beneath. 

4. However, when Titus, in going his rounds along those valleys, sawthem full of dead bodies, and the thick putrefaction running about them, he gave a groan; and, spreading out his hands to heaven, called God towitness that this was not his doing; and such was the sad case ofthe city itself. But the Romans were very joyful, since none of theseditious could now make sallies out of the city, because they werethemselves disconsolate, and the famine already touched them also. TheseRomans besides had great plenty of corn and other necessaries out ofSyria, and out of the neighboring provinces; many of whom would standnear to the wall of the city, and show the people what great quantitiesof provisions they had, and so make the enemy more sensible of theirfamine, 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 outof his earnest desire of rescuing what was still left out of thesemiseries, began to raise his banks again, although materials for themwere hard to be come at; for all the trees that were about the city hadbeen already cut down for the making of the former banks. Yet did thesoldiers bring with them other materials from the distance of ninetyfurlongs, and thereby raised banks in four parts, much greater than theformer, though this was done only at the tower of Antonia. So Caesarwent his rounds through the legions, and hastened on the works, andshowed the robbers that they were now in his hands. But these men, andthese only, were incapable of repenting of the wickednesses they hadbeen guilty of; and separating their souls from their bodies, they usedthem both as if they belonged to other folks, and not to themselves. Forno gentle affection could touch their souls, nor could any pain affecttheir bodies, since they could still tear the dead bodies of the peopleas 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 gotpossession of the city, to go off without torment. This Matthias was theson of Boethus, and was one of the high priests, one that had been veryfaithful to the people, and in great esteem with them; he, when themultitude 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 wasevil from him. But when Simon was come in, and had gotten the city underhis power, he esteemed him that had advised them to admit him as hisenemy equally with the rest, as looking upon that advice as a pieceof his simplicity only; so he had him then brought before him, andcondemned to die for being on the side of the Romans, without giving himleave to make his defense. He condemned also his three sons to die withhim; for as to the fourth, he prevented him by running away to Titusbefore. And when he begged for this, that he might be slain before hissons, and that as a favor, on account that he had procured the gates ofthe city to be opened to him, he gave order that he should be slain thelast of them all; so he was not slain till he had seen his sons slainbefore his eyes, and that by being produced over against the Romans; forsuch a charge had Simon given to Artanus, the son of Bamadus, who wasthe most barbarous of all his guards. He also jested upon him, and toldhim that he might now see whether those to whom he intended to go overwould send him any succors or not; but still he forbade their deadbodies 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 fifteenmen of figure among the people, were slain. They also kept Josephus'sfather in prison, and made public proclamation, that no citizenwhosoever should either speak to him himself, or go into his companyamong others, for fear he should betray them. They also slew such asjoined in lamenting these men, without any further examination. 

2. Now when Judas, the son of Judas, who was one of Simon's underofficers, and a person intrusted by him to keep one of the towers, sawthis procedure of Simon, he called together ten of those under him, thatwere most faithful to him, [perhaps this was done partly out of pityto those that had so barbarously been put to death, but principally inorder to provide for his own safety, ] and spoke thus to them: "How longshall we bear these miseries? or what hopes have we of deliverance bythus continuing faithful to such wicked wretches? Is not the faminealready come against us? Are not the Romans in a manner gotten withinthe city? Is not Simon become unfaithful to his benefactors? andis there not reason to fear he will very soon bring us to the likepunishment, while the security the Romans offer us is sure? Come on, let us surrender up this wall, and save ourselves and the city. Norwill Simon be very much hurt, if, now he despairs of deliverance, hebe brought to justice a little sooner than he thinks on. " Now these tenwere prevailed upon by those arguments; so he sent the rest of thosethat were under him, some one way, and some another, that no discoverymight be made of what they had resolved upon. Accordingly, he called tothe Romans from the tower about the third hour; but they, some of themout of pride, despised what he said, and others of them did not believehim 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 hisarmed men, Simon was acquainted with the matter before he came, and presently took the tower into his own custody, before it wassurrendered, and seized upon these men, and put them to death in thesight of the Romans themselves; and when he had mangled their deadbodies, he threw them down before the wall of the city. 

3. In the mean time, Josephus, as he was going round the city, had hishead wounded by a stone that was thrown at him; upon which he fell downas giddy. Upon which fall of his the Jews made a sally, and he had beenhurried away into the city, if Caesar had not sent men to protect himimmediately; and as these men were fighting, Josephus was taken up, though he heard little of what was done. So the seditious supposed theyhad now slain that man whom they were the most desirous of killing, andmade thereupon a great noise, in way of rejoicing. This accidentwas told in the city, and the multitude that remained became verydisconsolate at the news, as being persuaded that he was really dead, onwhose account alone they could venture to desert to the Romans. But whenJosephus's mother heard in prison that her son was dead, she said tothose that watched about her, That she had always been of opinion, sincethe siege of Jotapata, [that he would be slain, ] and she should neverenjoy him alive any more. She also made great lamentation privately tothe maid-servants that were about her, and said, That this was all theadvantage she had of bringing so extraordinary a person as this son intothe 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 falsereport did not put his mother to pain, nor afford merriment to therobbers, long; for Josephus soon recovered of his wound, and cameout, and cried out aloud, That it would not be long ere they shouldbe punished for this wound they had given him. He also made a freshexhortation to the people to come out upon the security that would begiven them. This sight of Josephus encouraged the people greatly, andbrought a great consternation upon the seditious. 

4. Hereupon some of the deserters, having no other way, leaped down fromthe wall immediately, while others of them went out of the city withstones, as if they would fight them; but thereupon they fled away to theRomans. But here a worse fate accompanied these than what they had foundwithin the city; and they met with a quicker despatch from the too greatabundance they had among the Romans, than they could have done from thefamine among the Jews; for when they came first to the Romans, they werepuffed up by the famine, and swelled like men in a dropsy; after whichthey all on the sudden overfilled those bodies that were before empty, and so burst asunder, excepting such only as were skillful enough torestrain their appetites, and by degrees took in their food into bodiesunaccustomed thereto. Yet did another plague seize upon those that werethus preserved; for there was found among the Syrian deserters a certainperson who was caught gathering pieces of gold out of the excrementsof the Jews' bellies; for the deserters used to swallow such pieces ofgold, as we told you before, when they came out, and for these did theseditious search them all; for there was a great quantity of gold in thecity, insomuch that as much was now sold [in the Roman camp] fortwelve Attic [drams], as was sold before for twenty-five. But when thiscontrivance was discovered in one instance, the fame of it filled theirseveral camps, that the deserters came to them full of gold. So themultitude of the Arabians, with the Syrians, cut up those that came assupplicants, and searched their bellies. Nor does it seem to me that anymisery befell the Jews that was more terrible than this, since in onenight's time about two thousand of these deserters were thus dissected. 

5. When Titus came to the knowledge of this wicked practice, he had liketo have surrounded those that had been guilty of it with his horse, andhave shot them dead; and he had done it, had not their number been sovery great, and those that were liable to this punishment would havebeen manifold more than those whom they had slain. However, he calledtogether the commanders of the auxiliary troops he had with him, as wellas the commanders of the Roman legions, [for some of his own soldiershad been also guilty herein, as he had been informed, ] and had greatindignation against both sorts of them, and said to them, "What! haveany of my own soldiers done such things as this out of the uncertainhope of gain, without regarding their own weapons, which are made ofsilver and gold? Moreover, do the Arabians and Syrians now first ofall begin to govern themselves as they please, and to indulge theirappetites in a foreign war, and then, out of their barbarity inmurdering men, and out of their hatred to the Jews, get it ascribed tothe Romans?" for this infamous practice was said to be spread among someof his own soldiers also. Titus then threatened that he would put suchmen to death, if any of them were discovered to be so insolent as todo so again; moreover, he gave it in charge to the legions, that theyshould make a search after such as were suspected, and should bringthem to him. But it appeared that the love of money was too hard for alltheir dread of punishment, and a vehement desire of gain is natural tomen, and no passion is so venturesome as covetousness; otherwise suchpassions have certain bounds, and are subordinate to fear. But inreality it was God who condemned the whole nation, and turned everycourse that was taken for their preservation to their destruction. This, therefore, which was forbidden by Caesar under such a threatening, wasventured upon privately against the deserters, and these barbarianswould 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 dissectedthem, and pulled this polluted money out of their bowels; which moneywas still found in a few of them, while yet a great many were destroyedby the bare hope there was of thus getting by them, which miserabletreatment made many that were deserting to return back again into thecity. 

6. But as for John, when he could no longer plunder the people, he betook himself to sacrilege, and melted down many of the sacredutensils, which had been given to the temple; as also many of thosevessels which were necessary for such as ministered about holy things, the caldrons, the dishes, and the tables; nay, he did not abstain fromthose pouring vessels that were sent them by Augustus and his wife; forthe Roman emperors did ever both honor and adorn this temple; whereasthis man, who was a Jew, seized upon what were the donations offoreigners, and said to those that were with him, that it was proper forthem to use Divine things, while they were fighting for the Divinity, without fear, and that such whose warfare is for the temple should liveof the temple; on which account he emptied the vessels of thatsacred wine and oil, which the priests kept to be poured on theburnt-offerings, and which lay in the inner court of the temple, anddistributed it among the multitude, who, in their anointing themselvesand drinking, used [each of them] above an hin of them. And here Icannot but speak my mind, and what the concern I am under dictates tome, and it is this: I suppose, that had the Romans made any longer delayin coming against these villains, that the city would either have beenswallowed up by the ground opening upon them, or been overflowed bywater, 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 moreatheistical than were those that suffered such punishments; for by theirmadness it was that all the people came to be destroyed. 

7. And, indeed, why do I relate these particular calamities? whileManneus, 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 fifteenthousand eight hundred and eighty dead bodies, in the interval betweenthe fourteenth day of the month Xanthieus, [Nisan, ] when the Romanspitched their camp by the city, and the first day of the month Panemus[Tamuz]. This was itself a prodigious multitude; and though this man wasnot himself set as a governor at that gate, yet was he appointed to paythe public stipend for carrying these bodies out, and so was obliged ofnecessity to number them, while the rest were buried by their relations;though all their burial was but this, to bring them away, and cast themout of the city. After this man there ran away to Titus many of theeminent citizens, and told him the entire number of the poor that weredead, and that no fewer than six hundred thousand were thrown out at thegates, though still the number of the rest could not be discovered; andthey told him further, that when they were no longer able to carry outthe dead bodies of the poor, they laid their corpses on heaps in verylarge houses, and shut them up therein; as also that a medimnus of wheatwas sold for a talent; and that when, a while afterward, it was notpossible to gather herbs, by reason the city was all walled about, somepersons were driven to that terrible distress as to search the commonsewers and old dunghills of cattle, and to eat the dung which they gotthere; and what they of old could not endure so much as to see they nowused for food. When the Romans barely heard all this, they commiseratedtheir case; while the seditious, who saw it also, did not repent, but suffered the same distress to come upon themselves; for they wereblinded by that fate which was already coming upon the city, and uponthemselves also. 

WAR BOOK 5 FOOTNOTES

[1] This appears to be the first time that the zealots ventured topollute this most sacred court of the temple, which was the court ofthe priests, wherein the temple itself and the altar stood. So that theconjecture 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 Ihave noted on that place already. 

[2] The Levites. 

[3] This is an excellent reflection of Josephus, including his hopes ofthe restoration of the Jews upon their repentance, See Antiq. B. IV. Ch. 8. Sect. 46, which is the grand "Hope of Israel, " asManasseh-ben-Israel, the famous Jewish Rabbi, styles it, in his smallbut remarkable treatise on that subject, of which the Jewish prophetsare every where full. See the principal of those prophecies collectedtogether at the end of the Essay on the Revelation, p. 822, etc. 

[4] This destruction of such a vast quantity of corn and otherprovisions, as was sufficient for many years was the direct occasionof that terrible famine, which consumed incredible numbers of Jews inJerusalem during its siege. Nor probably could the Romans have takenthis city, after all, had not these seditious Jews been so infatuated asthus madly to destroy, what Josephus here justly styles, "The nerves oftheir power. "

[5] This timber, we see, was designed for the rebuilding those twentyadditional cubits of the holy house above the hundred, which had fallendown some years before. See the note on Antiq. B. XV. Ch. 11. Sect. 3. 

[6] There being no gate on the west, and only on the west, side of thecourt of the priests, and so no steps there, this was the only side thatthe seditious, under this John of Gischala, could bring their enginesclose to the cloisters of that court end-ways, though upon the floor ofthe court of Israel. See the scheme of that temple, in the descriptionof the temples hereto belonging. 

[7] 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, andgeneral 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 Josephusassures 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, " thoughthey 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 isalso 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 NewTestament, Matthew 10:18; 17:25; 1 Timothy 2:2; and in Josephus also;though I suspect Josephus particularly esteemed Titus as joint king withhis father ever since his divine dreams that declared them both such, B. III. Ch. 8. Sect. 9. 

[8] This situation of the Mount of Olives, on the east of Jerusalem, atabout the distance of five or six furlongs, with the valley of Cedroninterposed between that mountain and the city, are things well knownboth in the Old and New Testament, in Josephus elsewhere, and in all thedescriptions of Palestine. 

[9] Here we see the true occasion of those vast numbers of Jews thatwere in Jerusalem during this siege by Titus, and perished therein;that the siege began at the feast of the passover, when such prodigiousmultitudes of Jews and proselytes of the gate were come from all partsof Judea, and from other countries, in order to celebrate that greatfestival. See the note B. VI. Ch. 9. Sect. 3. Tacitus himself informsus, that the number of men, women, and children in Jerusalem, when itwas besieged by the Romans, as he had been informed. This informationmust have been taken from the Romans: for Josephus never recounts thenumbers of those that were besieged, only he lets us know, that of thevulgar, carried dead out of the gates, and buried at the public charges, was the like number of 600, 000, ch. Viii. Sect. 7. However, whenCestius Gallus came first to the siege, that sum in Tacitus is no waydisagreeable to Josephus's history, though they were become much morenumerous when Titus encompassed the city at the passover. As to thenumber that perished during this siege, Josephus assures us, as weshall see hereafter, they were 1, 100, 000, besides 97, 000 captives. ButTacitus's history of the last part of this siege is not now extant; sowe cannot compare his parallel numbers with those of Josephus. 

[10] Perhaps, says Dr. Hudson, here was that gate, called the "Gate ofthe Corner, " in 2 Chronicles 26:9. See ch. 4. Sect. 2

[11] These dove-courts in Josephus, built by Herod the Great, are, in the opinion of Reland, the very same that are mentioned by theTalmudists, and named by them "Herod's dove courts. " Nor is there anyreason to suppose otherwise, since in both accounts they were expresslytame pigeons which were kept in them. 

[12] See the description of the temples hereto belonging, ch. 15. Butnote, that what Josephus here says of the original scantiness of thisMount Moriah, that it was quite too little for the temple, and that atfirst it held only one cloister or court of Solomon's building, and thatthe foundations were forced to be added long afterwards by degrees, to render it capable of the cloisters for the other courts, etc. , iswithout all foundation in the Scriptures, and not at all confirmed byhis exacter account in the Antiquities. All that is or can be true hereis this, that when the court of the Gentiles was long afterward to beencompassed with cloisters, the southern foundation for these cloisterswas found not to be large or firm enough, and was raised, and thatadditional foundation supported by great pillars and arches underground, which Josephus speaks of elsewhere, Antiq. B. XV. Ch. 11. Sect. 3, and which Mr. Maundrel saw, and describes, p. 100, as extant underground at this day. 

[13] What Josephus seems here to mean is this: that these pillars, supporting the cloisters in the second court, had their foundations orlowest parts as deep as the floor of the first or lowest court; but thatso far of those lowest parts as were equal to the elevation of the upperfloor above the lowest were, and must be, hidden on the inside by theground or rock itself, on which that upper court was built; so thatforty cubits visible below were reduced to twenty-five visible above, and implies the difference of their heights to be fifteen cubits. Themain difficulty lies here, how fourteen or fifteen steps should give anascent of fifteen cubits, half a cubit seeming sufficient for a singlestep. Possibly there were fourteen or fifteen steps at the partitionwall, and fourteen or fifteen more thence into the court itself, whichwould bring the whole near to the just proportion. See sect. 3, infra. But I determine nothing. 

[14] These three guards that lay in the tower of Antonia must be thosethat guarded the city, the temple, and the tower of Antonia. 

[15] What should be the meaning of this signal or watchword, when thewatchmen saw a stone coming from the engine, "The Stone Cometh, " or whatmistake there is in the reading, I cannot tell. The MSS. , both Greek andLatin, all agree in this reading; and I cannot approve of any groundlessconjectural alteration of the text from ro to lop, that not the son ora stone, but that the arrow or dart cometh; as hath been made by Dr. Hudson, and not corrected by Havercamp. Had Josephus written even hisfirst edition of these books of the war in pure Hebrew, or had the Jewsthen used the pure Hebrew at Jerusalem, the Hebrew word for a son is solike that for a stone, ben and eben, that such a correction might havebeen more easily admitted. But Josephus wrote his former edition for theuse of the Jews beyond Euphrates, and so in the Chaldee language, as hedid this second edition in the Greek language; and bar was the Chaldeeword for son, instead of the Hebrew ben, and was used not only inChaldea, etc. But in Judea also, as the New Testament informs us. Diolets us know that the very Romans at Rome pronounced the name of Simonthe 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, asthough the meaning were, that the Son of God came now to take vengeanceon the sins of the Jewish nation;" which is indeed the truth of thefact, but hardly what the Jews could now mean; unless possibly by wayof derision of Christ's threatening so often made, that he would comeat the head of the Roman army for their destruction. But even thisinterpretation has but a very small degree of probability. If I were tomake an emendation by mere conjecture, I would read instead of, thoughthe likeness be not so great as in lo; because that is the word used byJosephus just before, as has been already noted on this very occasion, while, an arrow or dart, is only a poetical word, and never used byJosephus elsewhere, and is indeed no way suitable to the occasion, thisengine not throwing arrows or darts, but great stones, at this time. 

[16] Josephus supposes, in this his admirable speech to the Jews, thatnot Abraham only, but Pharaoh king of Egypt, prayed towards a templeat Jerusalem, or towards Jerusalem itself, in which were Mount Sion andMount 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 threedays' journey, on purpose to offer up his son Isaac there, unfavorableto such a notion. 

[17] Note here, that Josephus, in this his same admirable speech, callsthe Syrians, nay, even the Philistines, on the most south part of Syria, Assyrians; which Reland observes as what was common among the ancientwriters. Note also, that Josephus might well put the Jews in mind, ashe does here more than once, of their wonderful and truly miraculousdeliverance from Sennacherib, king of Assyria, while the Roman army, andhimself with them, were now encamped upon and beyond that very spotof ground where the Assyrian army lay seven hundred and eighty yearsbefore, and which retained the very name of the Camp of the Assyrians tothat very day. See chap. 7. Sect. 3, and chap. 12. Sect. 2. 

[18] This drying up of the Jerusalem fountain of Siloam when the Jewswanted it, and its flowing abundantly when the enemies of the Jewswanted it, and these both in the days of Zedekiah and of Titus, [andthis last as a certain event well known by the Jews at that time, asJosephus here tells them openly to their faces, ] are very remarkableinstances of a Divine Providence for the punishment of the Jewishnation, when they were grown very wicked, at both those times of thedestruction of Jerusalem. 

[19] Reland very properly takes notice here, how justly this judgmentcame upon the Jews, when they were crucified in such multitudestogether, that the Romans wanted room for the crosses, and crossesfor the bodies of these Jews, since they had brought this judgment onthemselves by the crucifixion of their Messiah. 

[20] Josephus, both here and before, B. IV. Ch. 8. Sect. 4, esteems theland of Sodom, not as part of the lake Asphaltiris, 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 inhis note on this place, and in his Palestina, tom. I. P. 254-258; thoughI rather suppose part of that region of Pentapolis to be now under thewaters 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 wereunder, even while the famine preyed upon themselves, after it had preyedupon the people. And indeed the multitude of carcasses that lay inheaps one upon another was a horrible sight, and produced a pestilentialstench, which was a hinderance to those that would make sallies out ofthe 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 uponthose 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 thisaffront offered to the deceased to be any ill omen to themselves; butas they had their right hands already polluted with the murders of theirown 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 weretoo slow in punishing them; for the war was not now gone on with as ifthey had any hope of victory; for they gloried after a brutish mannerin that despair of deliverance they were already in. And now theRomans, although they were greatly distressed in getting together theirmaterials, raised their banks in one and twenty days, after they had cutdown 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. Andtruly the very view itself of the country was a melancholy thing; forthose places which were before adorned with trees and pleasant gardenswere now become a desolate country every way, and its trees were all cutdown: nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judea and the mostbeautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert, but lamentand mourn sadly at so great a change: for the war had laid all the signsof 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; butthough he were at the city itself, yet would he have inquired for itnotwithstanding. 

2. And now the banks were finished, they afforded a foundation for fearboth to the Romans and to the Jews; for the Jews expected that the citywould be taken, unless they could burn those banks, as did the Romansexpect that, if these were once burnt down, they should never be able totake it; for there was a mighty scarcity of materials, and the bodiesof the soldiers began to fail with such hard labors, as did their soulsfaint with so many instances of ill success; nay, the very calamitiesthemselves that were in the city proved a greater discouragement to theRomans than those within the city; for they found the fighting men ofthe 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 fightsto the boldness of their attack; and, what was their greatestdiscouragement of all, they found the Jews' courageous souls to besuperior to the multitude of the miseries they were under, by theirsedition, their famine, and the war itself; insomuch that they wereready to imagine that the violence of their attacks was invincible, and that the alacrity they showed would not be discouraged by theircalamities; for what would not those be able to bear if they should befortunate, who turned their very misfortunes to the improvement of theirvalor! These considerations made the Romans to keep a stronger guardabout their banks than they formerly had done. 

3. But now John and his party took care for securing themselvesafterward, even in case this wall should be thrown down, and fell totheir work before the battering rams were brought against them. Yet didthey not compass what they endeavored to do, but as they were gone outwith their torches, they came back under great discouragement beforethey came near to the banks; and the reasons were these: that, in thefirst place, their conduct did not seem to be unanimous, but they wentout in distinct parties, and at distinct intervals, and after a slowmanner, and timorously, and, to say all in a word, without a Jewishcourage; for they were now defective in what is peculiar to our nation, that is, in boldness, in violence of assault, and in running upon theenemy all together, and in persevering in what they go about, thoughthey do not at first succeed in it; but they now went out in a morelanguid manner than usual, and at the same time found the Romans set inarray, and more courageous than ordinary, and that they guarded theirbanks both with their bodies and their entire armor, and this to sucha degree on all sides, that they left no room for the fire to get amongthem, and that every one of their souls was in such good courage, thatthey would sooner die than desert their ranks; for besides their notionthat all their hopes were cut off, in case these their works were onceburnt, the soldiers were greatly ashamed that subtlety should quite betoo hard for courage, madness for armor, multitude for skill, and Jewsfor Romans. The Romans had now also another advantage, in that theirengines for sieges co-operated with them in throwing darts and stones asfar as the Jews, when they were coming out of the city; whereby the manthat fell became an impediment to him that was next to him, as did thedanger of going farther make them less zealous in their attempts; andfor those that had run under the darts, some of them were terrified bythe good order and closeness of the enemies' ranks before they came to aclose fight, and others were pricked with their spears, and turned backagain; at length they reproached one another for their cowardice, andretired without doing any thing. This attack was made upon the firstday of the month Panemus [Tamuz. ] So when the Jews were retreated, theRomans brought their engines, although they had all the while stonesthrown at them from the tower of Antonia, and were assaulted by fire andsword, and by all sorts of darts, which necessity afforded the Jews tomake use of; for although these had great dependence on their own wall, and a contempt of the Roman engines, yet did they endeavor to hinderthe Romans from bringing them. Now these Romans struggled hard, on thecontrary, to bring them, as deeming that this zeal of the Jews wasin order to avoid any impression to be made on the tower of Antonia, because its wall was but weak, and its foundations rotten. However, thattower did not yield to the blows given it from the engines; yet didthe Romans bear the impressions made by the enemies' darts which wereperpetually cast at them, and did not give way to any of those dangersthat came upon them from above, and so they brought their engines tobear. But then, as they were beneath the other, and were sadly woundedby the stones thrown down upon them, some of them threw their shieldsover their bodies, and partly with their hands, and partly with theirbodies, and partly with crows, they undermined its foundations, and withgreat pains they removed four of its stones. Then night came upon bothsides, and put an end to this struggle for the present; however, thatnight the wall was so shaken by the battering rams in that place whereJohn had used his stratagem before, and had undermined their banks, thatthe ground then gave way, and the wall fell down suddenly. 

4. When this accident had unexpectedly happened, the minds of bothparties were variously affected; for though one would expect thatthe Jews would be discouraged, because this fall of their wall wasunexpected by them, and they had made no provision in that case, yetdid they pull up their courage, because the tower of Antonia itself wasstill standing; as was the unexpected joy of the Romans at this fall ofthe wall soon quenched by the sight they had of another wall, which Johnand his party had built within it. However, the attack of this secondwall appeared to be easier than that of the former, because it seemeda thing of greater facility to get up to it through the parts of theformer wall that were now thrown down. This new wall appeared also tobe much weaker than the tower of Antonia, and accordingly the Romansimagined that it had been erected so much on the sudden, that theyshould soon overthrow it: yet did not any body venture now to go up tothis wall; for that such as first ventured so to do must certainly bekilled. 

5. And now Titus, upon consideration that the alacrity of soldiers inwar is chiefly excited by hopes and by good words, and that exhortationsand promises do frequently make men to forget the hazards they run, nay, sometimes to despise death itself, got together the most courageous partof 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 whathath no peril in it, is on that very account inglorious to such to whomthat exhortation is made; and indeed so it is in him that makes theexhortation, an argument of his own cowardice also. I therefore thinkthat such exhortations ought then only to be made use of when affairsare in a dangerous condition, and yet are worthy of being attempted byevery one themselves; accordingly, I am fully of the same opinion withyou, that it is a difficult task to go up this wall; but that it isproper for those that desire reputation for their valor to struggle withdifficulties in such cases will then appear, when I have particularlyshown that it is a brave thing to die with glory, and that the couragehere necessary shall not go unrewarded in those that first begin theattempt. And let my first argument to move you to it be taken fromwhat probably some would think reasonable to dissuade you, I mean theconstancy and patience of these Jews, even under their ill successes;for it is unbecoming you, who are Romans and my soldiers, who havein peace been taught how to make wars, and who have also been used toconquer in those wars, to be inferior to Jews, either in action of thehand, or in courage of the soul, and this especially when you are at theconclusion of your victory, and are assisted by God himself; for as toour misfortunes, they have been owing to the madness of the Jews, whiletheir sufferings have been owing to your valor, and to the assistanceGod hath afforded you; for as to the seditions they have been in, andthe famine they are under, and the siege they now endure, and thefall of their walls without our engines, what can they all be butdemonstrations of God's anger against them, and of his assistanceafforded us? It will not therefore be proper for you, either to showyourselves inferior to those to whom you are really superior, or tobetray that Divine assistance which is afforded you. And, indeed, howcan it be esteemed otherwise than a base and unworthy thing, that whilethe Jews, who need not be much ashamed if they be deserted, because theyhave long learned to be slaves to others, do yet despise death, thatthey may be so no longer; and do make sallies into the very midst of usfrequently, no in hopes of conquering us, but merely for a demonstrationof their courage; we, who have gotten possession of almost all the worldthat belongs to either land or sea, to whom it will be a great shame ifwe do not conquer them, do not once undertake any attempt against ourenemies wherein there is much danger, but sit still idle, with suchbrave arms as we have, and only wait till the famine and fortune do ourbusiness themselves, and this when we have it in our power, with somesmall hazard, to gain all that we desire! For if we go up to this towerof Antonia, we gain the city; for if there should be any more occasionfor fighting against those within the city, which I do not suppose therewill, since we shall then be upon the top of the hill [1] and be uponour enemies before they can have taken breath, these advantages promiseus no less than a certain and sudden victory. As for myself, I shall atpresent wave any commendation of those who die in war, [2] and omitto speak of the immortality of those men who are slain in the midst oftheir martial bravery; yet cannot I forbear to imprecate upon those whoare of a contrary disposition, that they may die in time of peace, bysome distemper or other, since their souls are condemned to the grave, together with their bodies. For what man of virtue is there who does notknow, that those souls which are severed from their fleshly bodies inbattles by the sword are received by the ether, that purest of elements, and joined to that company which are placed among the stars; that theybecome good demons, and propitious heroes, and show themselves as suchto their posterity afterwards? while upon those souls that wear away inand with their distempered bodies comes a subterranean night to dissolvethem to nothing, and a deep oblivion to take away all the remembranceof them, and this notwithstanding they be clean from all spots anddefilements of this world; so that, in this ease, the soul at the sametime comes to the utmost bounds of its life, and of its body, and ofits memorial also. But since he hath determined that death is to come ofnecessity upon all men, a sword is a better instrument for that purposethan any disease whatsoever. Why is it not then a very mean thing forus not to yield up that to the public benefit which we must yield up tofate? And this discourse have I made, upon the supposition that thosewho at first attempt to go upon this wall must needs be killed in theattempt, though still men of true courage have a chance to escape evenin the most hazardous undertakings. For, in the first place, that partof the former wall that is thrown down is easily to be ascended; and forthe new-built wall, it is easily destroyed. Do you, therefore, many ofyou, pull up your courage, and set about this work, and do you mutuallyencourage and assist one another; and this your bravery will soon breakthe hearts of your enemies; and perhaps such a glorious undertakingas yours is may be accomplished without bloodshed. For although it bejustly to be supposed that the Jews will try to hinder you at your firstbeginning to go up to them; yet when you have once concealed yourselvesfrom them, and driven them away by force, they will not be able tosustain your efforts against them any longer, though but a few of youprevent them, and get over the wall. As for that person who first mountsthe wall, I should blush for shame if I did not make him to be envied ofothers, by those rewards I would bestow upon him. If such a one escapewith his life, he shall have the command of others that are now but hisequals; although it be true also that the greatest rewards will accrueto such as die in the attempt. " [3]

6. Upon this speech of Titus, the rest of the multitude were afrightedat so great a danger. But there was one, whose name was Sabinus, asoldier that served among the cohorts, and a Syrian by birth, whoappeared 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 wouldhave thought, before he came to his work, that he was of such a weakconstitution of body, that he was not fit to be a soldier; for his colorwas black, his flesh was lean and thin, and lay close together; butthere was a certain heroic soul that dwelt in this small body, whichbody was indeed much too narrow for that peculiar courage which was inhim. Accordingly he was the first that rose up, when he thus spake: "Ireadily surrender up myself to thee, O Caesar; I first ascend thewall, and I heartily wish that my fortune may follow my courage andmy resolution And if some ill fortune grudge me the success of myundertaking, take notice that my ill success will not be unexpected, butthat 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, andhill, 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 wasthe principal person of them all, and went first, as excited by a divinefury. Now those that guarded the wall shot at them from thence, and castinnumerable darts upon them from every side; they also rolled very largestones upon them, which overthrew some of those eleven that were withhim. But as for Sabinus himself, he met the darts that were cast at himand though he was overwhelmed with them, yet did he not leave off theviolence 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 athis great strength, and the bravery of his soul, and as, withal, theyimagined more of them had got upon the wall than really had, they wereput to flight. And now one cannot but complain here of fortune, as stillenvious at virtue, and always hindering the performance of gloriousachievements: this was the case of the man before us, when he had justobtained his purpose; for he then stumbled at a certain large stone, andfell down upon it headlong, with a very great noise. Upon which the Jewsturned 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 himselfagainst them, and wounded many of those that came near him; but he wassoon forced to relax his right hand, by the multitude of the wounds thathad been given him, till at length he was quite covered over with dartsbefore he gave up the ghost. He was one who deserved a better fate, byreason of his bravery; but, as might be expected, he fell under so vastan attempt. As for the rest of his partners, the Jews dashed three ofthem to pieces with stones, and slew them as they were gotten up to thetop of the wall; the other eight being wounded, were pulled down, andcarried back to the camp. These things were done upon the third day ofthe month Panemus [Tamuz]. 

7. Now two days afterward twelve of those men that were on theforefront, and kept watch upon the banks, got together, and called tothem the standard-bearer of the fifth legion, and two others of a troopof horsemen, and one trumpeter; these went without noise, about theninth hour of the night, through the ruins, to the tower of Antonia; andwhen they had cut the throats of the first guards of the place, as theywere asleep, they got possession of the wall, and ordered the trumpeterto sound his trumpet. Upon which the rest of the guard got up on thesudden, and ran away, before any body could see how many they were thatwere gotten up; for, partly from the fear they were in, and partly fromthe sound of the trumpet which they heard, they imagined a great numberof 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 thitherwith his commanders, and first of all ascended, as did the chosen menthat were with him. And as the Jews were flying away to the temple, theyfell into that mine which John had dug under the Roman banks. Thendid the seditious of both the bodies of the Jewish army, as well thatbelonging to John as that belonging to Simon, drive them away; andindeed were no way wanting as to the highest degree of force andalacrity; for they esteemed themselves entirely ruined if once theRomans got into the temple, as did the Romans look upon the same thingas the beginning of their entire conquest. So a terrible battle wasfought at the entrance of the temple, while the Romans were forcingtheir way, in order to get possession of that temple, and the Jews weredriving them back to the tower of Antonia; in which battle the dartswere on both sides useless, as well as the spears, and both sides drewtheir swords, and fought it out hand to hand. Now during this strugglethe positions of the men were undistinguished on both sides, andthey fought at random, the men being intermixed one with another, andconfounded, by reason of the narrowness of the place; while the noisethat was made fell on the ear after an indistinct manner, because itwas so very loud. Great slaughter was now made on both sides, and thecombatants trod upon the bodies and the armor of those that were dead, and dashed them to pieces. Accordingly, to which side soever the battleinclined, those that had the advantage exhorted one another to go on, asdid those that were beaten make great lamentation. But still there wasno room for flight, nor for pursuit, but disorderly revolutions andretreats, while the armies were intermixed one with another; but thosethat were in the first ranks were under the necessity of killing orbeing killed, without any way for escaping; for those on both sides thatcame behind forced those before them to go on, without leaving any spacebetween the armies. At length the Jews' violent zeal was too hard forthe Romans' skill, and the battle already inclined entirely that way;for the fight had lasted from the ninth hour of the night till theseventh hour of the day, While the Jews came on in crowds, and had thedanger the temple was in for their motive; the Romans having no morehere than a part of their army; for those legions, on which the soldierson that side depended, were not come up to them. So it was at presentthought sufficient by the Romans to take possession of the tower ofAntonia. 

8. But there was one Julian, a centurion, that came from Eithynia, a manhe was of great reputation, whom I had formerly seen in that war, andone of the highest fame, both for his skill in war, his strength ofbody, and the courage of his soul. This man, seeing the Romans givingground, and ill a sad condition, [for he stood by Titus at the tower ofAntonia, ] leaped out, and of himself alone put the Jews to flight, whenthey were already conquerors, and made them retire as far as the cornerof the inner court of the temple; from him the multitude fled away incrowds, as supposing that neither his strength nor his violent attackscould be those of a mere man. Accordingly, he rushed through the midstof the Jews, as they were dispersed all abroad, and killed those that hecaught. Nor, indeed, was there any sight that appeared more wonderful inthe eyes of Caesar, or more terrible to others, than this. However, hewas himself pursued by fate, which it all not possible that he, who wasbut a mortal man, should escape; for as he had shoes all full of thickand sharp nails [4] as had every one of the other soldiers, so when heran on the pavement of the temple, he slipped, and fell down upon hisback with a very great noise, which was made by his armor. This madethose that were running away to turn back; whereupon those Romans thatwere in the tower of Antonia set up a great shout, as they were in fearfor the man. But the Jews got about him in crowds, and struck at himwith their spears and with their swords on all sides. Now he receiveda 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 thatstruck at him; yet did he, as he lay along, stab many of them with hissword. Nor was he soon killed, as being covered with his helmet and hisbreastplate in all those parts of his body where he might be mortallywounded; he also pulled his neck close to his body, till all his otherlimbs were shattered, and nobody durst come to defend him, and then heyielded to his fate. Now Caesar was deeply affected on account of thisman of so great fortitude, and especially as he was killed in the sightof 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 doneit were too much terrified to attempt it. Thus when Julian had struggledwith death a great while, and had let but few of those that had givenhim his mortal wound go off unhurt, he had at last his throat cut, though not without some difficulty, and left behind him a very greatfame, not only among the Romans, and with Caesar himself, but amonghis enemies also; then did the Jews catch up his dead body, and put theRomans to flight again, and shut them up in the tower of Antonia. Nowthose that most signalized themselves, and fought most zealously inthis battle of the Jewish side, were one Alexas and Gyphtheus, of John'sparty, 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 thezealots, 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 digup the foundations of the tower of Antonia, and make him a ready passagefor his army to come up; while he himself had Josephus brought tohim, [for he had been informed that on that very day, which was theseventeenth day [5]of Panemus, [Tamuz, ] the sacrifice called "the DailySacrifice" had failed, and had not been offered to God, for want of mento offer it, and that the people were grievously troubled at it, ] andcommanded 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 outwith as many of his men as he pleased, in order to fight, without thedanger of destroying either his city or temple; but that he desired hewould not defile the temple, nor thereby offend against God. That hemight, if he pleased, offer the sacrifices which were now discontinuedby any of the Jews whom he should pitch upon. Upon this Josephus stoodin such a place where he might be heard, not by John only, but by manymore, and then declared to them what Caesar had given him in charge, andthis in the Hebrew language. [6] So he earnestly prayed them to sparetheir own city, and to prevent that fire which was just ready to seizeupon the temple, and to offer their usual sacrifices to God therein. Atthese words of his a great sadness and silence were observed among thepeople. But the tyrant himself cast many reproaches upon Josephus, withimprecations besides; and at last added this withal, that he did neverfear the taking of the city, because it was God's own city. In answer towhich Josephus said thus with a loud voice: "To be sure thou hast keptthis city wonderfully pure for God's sake; the temple also continuesentirely unpolluted! Nor hast thou been guilty of ally impiety againsthim for whose assistance thou hopest! He still receives his accustomedsacrifices! Vile wretch that thou art! if any one should deprive thee ofthy daily food, thou wouldst esteem him to be an enemy to thee; but thouhopest to have that God for thy supporter in this war whom thou hastdeprived of his everlasting worship; and thou imputest those sins to theRomans, who to this very time take care to have our laws observed, andalmost compel these sacrifices to be still offered to God, which haveby thy means been intermitted! Who is there that can avoid groans andlamentations at the amazing change that is made in this city? sincevery foreigners and enemies do now correct that impiety which thou hastoccasioned; 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, itis never dishonorable to repent, and amend what hath been done amiss, even at the last extremity. Thou hast an instance before thee inJechoniah, [7] the king of the Jews, if thou hast a mind to save thecity, who, when the king of Babylon made war against him, did of hisown accord go out of this city before it was taken, and did undergo avoluntary captivity with his family, that the sanctuary might not bedelivered up to the enemy, and that he might not see the house of Godset on fire; on which account he is celebrated among all the Jews, intheir sacred memorials, and his memory is become immortal, and will beconveyed fresh down to our posterity through all ages. This, John, isan excellent example in such a time of danger, and I dare venture topromise that the Romans shall still forgive thee. And take notice thatI, 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 toconsider 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 foregomy own kindred, or forget the laws of our forefathers. Thou hastindignation 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 thisamounts to, because, in opposition to fate, I make this kind invitationto thee, and endeavor to force deliverance upon those whom God hathcondemned. And who is there that does not know what the writings of theancient prophets contain in them, --and particularly that oracle whichis just now going to be fulfilled upon this miserable city? For theyforetold that this city should be then taken when somebody shall beginthe slaughter of his own countrymen. And are not both the city and theentire 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 thatcity and temple by means of the Romans, [8] and is going to pluck upthis city, which is full of your pollutions. "

2. As Josephus spoke these words, with groans and tears in his eyes, hisvoice was intercepted by sobs. However, the Romans could not but pitythe affliction he was under, and wonder at his conduct. But for John, and those that were with him, they were but the more exasperated againstthe Romans on this account, and were desirous to get Josephus also intotheir power: yet did that discourse influence a great many of the bettersort; and truly some of them were so afraid of the guards set by theseditious, that they tarried where they were, but still were satisfiedthat both they and the city were doomed to destruction. Some also therewere who, watching a proper opportunity when they might quietly getaway, fled to the Romans, of whom were the high priests Joseph andJesus, 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 sonof the other Matthias, who ran away after his father's death, [9] andwhose father was slain by Simon the son of Gioras, with three of hissons, as I have already related; many also of the other nobility wentover to the Romans, together with the high priests. Now Caesar not onlyreceived these men very kindly in other respects, but, knowing theywould not willingly live after the customs of other nations, he sentthem to Gophna, and desired them to remain there for the present, andtold them, that when he was gotten clear of this war, he would restoreeach of them to their possessions again; so they cheerfully retired tothat small city which was allotted them, without fear of any danger. But as they did not appear, the seditious gave out again that thesedeserters were slain by the Romans, which was done in order to deterthe rest from running away, by fear of the like treatment. This trick oftheirs succeeded now for a while, as did the like trick before; for therest were hereby deterred from deserting, by fear of the like treatment. 

3. However, when Titus had recalled those men from Gophna, he gaveorders that they should go round the wall, together with Josephus, and show themselves to the people; upon which a great many fled to theRomans. These men also got in a great number together, and stood beforethe Romans, and besought the seditious, with groans and tears in theireyes, in the first place to receive the Romans entirely into the city, and save that their own place of residence again; but that, if theywould not agree to such a proposal, they would at least depart out ofthe temple, and save the holy house for their own use; for that theRomans would not venture to set the sanctuary on fire but under the mostpressing necessity. Yet did the seditious still more and more contradictthem; and while they cast loud and bitter reproaches upon thesedeserters, they also set their engines for throwing of darts, andjavelins, and stones upon the sacred gates of the temple, at duedistances from one another, insomuch that all the space round aboutwithin the temple might be compared to a burying-ground, so great wasthe number of the dead bodies therein; as might the holy house itselfbe compared to a citadel. Accordingly, these men rushed upon these holyplaces in their armor, that were otherwise unapproachable, and thatwhile their hands were yet warm with the blood of their own people whichthey had shed; nay, they proceeded to such great transgressions, thatthe very same indignation which Jews would naturally have againstRomans, had they been guilty of such abuses against them, the Romansnow had against Jews, for their impiety in regard to their own religiouscustoms. Nay, indeed, there were none of the Roman soldiers who did notlook with a sacred horror upon the holy house, and adored it, and wishedthat the robbers would repent before their miseries became incurable. 

4. Now Titus was deeply affected with this state of things, andreproached John and his party, and said to them, "Have not you, vilewretches that you are, by our permission, put up this partition-wallbefore your sanctuary? Have not you been allowed to put up the pillarsthereto belonging, at due distances, and on it to engrave in Greek, and in your own letters, this prohibition, that no foreigner should gobeyond that wall. [10] Have not we given you leave to kill such asgo beyond it, though he were a Roman? And what do you do now, youpernicious villains? Why do you trample upon dead bodies in this temple?and why do you pollute this holy house with the blood of both foreignersand Jews themselves? I appeal to the gods of my own country, and toevery god that ever had any regard to this place; [for I do not supposeit to be now regarded by any of them;] I also appeal to my own army, andto those Jews that are now with me, and even to yourselves, that I donot force you to defile this your sanctuary; and if you will but changethe place whereon you will fight, no Roman shall either come near yoursanctuary, or offer any affront to it; nay, I will endeavor to preserveyou your holy house, whether you will or not. " [11]

5. As Josephus explained these things from the mouth of Caesar, both therobbers and the tyrant thought that these exhortations proceeded fromTitus's fear, and not from his good-will to them, and grew insolentupon it. But when Titus saw that these men were neither to be moved bycommiseration towards themselves, nor had any concern upon them to havethe holy house spared, he proceeded unwillingly to go on again with thewar against them. He could not indeed bring all his army against them, the place was so narrow; but choosing thirty soldiers of the mostvaliant out of every hundred, and committing a thousand to each tribune, and making Cerealis their commander-in-chief, he gave orders that theyshould attack the guards of the temple about the ninth hour of thatnight. But as he was now in his armor, and preparing to go down withthem, his friends would not let him go, by reason of the greatness ofthe danger, and what the commanders suggested to them; for they saidthat he would do more by sitting above in the tower of Antonia, as adispenser of rewards to those soldiers that signalized themselves in thefight, than by coming down and hazarding his own person in the forefrontof them; for that they would all fight stoutly while Caesar looked uponthem. With this advice Caesar complied, and said that the only reasonhe had for such compliance with the soldiers was this, that he might beable to judge of their courageous actions, and that no valiant soldiermight lie concealed, and miss of his reward, and no cowardly soldiermight go unpunished; but that he might himself be an eye-witness, andable to give evidence of all that was done, who was to be the disposerof punishments and rewards to them. So he sent the soldiers about theirwork at the hour forementioned, while he went out himself to a higherplace in the tower of Antonia, whence he might see what was done, andthere waited with impatience to see the event. 

6. However, the soldiers that were sent did not find the guards of thetemple asleep, as they hoped to have done; but were obliged to fightwith them immediately hand to hand, as they rushed with violence uponthem with a great shout. Now as soon as the rest within the temple heardthat shout of those that were upon the watch, they ran out in troopsupon them. Then did the Romans receive the onset of those that camefirst upon them; but those that followed them fell upon their owntroops, and many of them treated their own soldiers as if they hadbeen enemies; for the great confused noise that was made on both sideshindered them from distinguishing one another's voices, as did thedarkness of the night hinder them from the like distinction by thesight, besides that blindness which arose otherwise also from thepassion and the fear they were in at the same time; for which reasonit was all one to the soldiers who it was they struck at. However, thisignorance did less harm to the Romans than to the Jews, because theywere joined together under their shields, and made their salliesmore regularly than the others did, and each of them remembered theirwatch-word; while the Jews were perpetually dispersed abroad, and madetheir attacks and retreats at random, and so did frequently seem to oneanother to be enemies; for every one of them received those of their ownmen 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 wasdiscerned by the eye afterward. Then did they stand in battle-array indistinct bodies, and cast their darts regularly, and regularly defendedthemselves; nor did either side yield or grow weary. The Romanscontended with each other who should fight the most strenuously, bothsingle men and entire regiments, as being under the eye of Titus; andevery one concluded that this day would begin his promotion if hefought bravely. What were the great encouragements of the Jews to actvigorously were, their fear for themselves and for the temple, and thepresence of their tyrant, who exhorted some, and beat and threatenedothers, to act courageously. Now, it so happened, that this fight wasfor the most part a stationary one, wherein the soldiers went on andcame back in a short time, and suddenly; for there was no long space ofground for either of their flights or pursuits. But still there was atumultuous noise among the Romans from the tower of Antonia, who loudlycried 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 wereretiring backward; so that here was a kind of theater of war; for whatwas done in this fight could not be concealed either from Titus, or fromthose that were about him. At length it appeared that this fight, whichbegan at the ninth hour of the night, was not over till past the fifthhour 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 boththe armies left the victory almost in uncertainty between them; whereinthose 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 sonof 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 ofSosas; of those that were with John, Gyphtheus and Alexas; and of thezealots, 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 hadmade a ready and broad way to the temple. Then did the legions come nearthe first court, [12] and began to raise their banks. The one bank wasover against the north-west corner of the inner temple [13] another wasat that northern edifice which was between the two gates; and of theother two, one was at the western cloister of the outer court of thetemple; the other against its northern cloister. However, these workswere thus far advanced by the Romans, not without great pains anddifficulty, and particularly by being obliged to bring their materialsfrom the distance of a hundred furlongs. They had further difficultiesalso upon them; sometimes by their over-great security they were inthat they should overcome the Jewish snares laid for them, and by thatboldness of the Jews which their despair of escaping had inspired themwithal; for some of their horsemen, when they went out to gather woodor hay, let their horses feed without having their bridles on duringthe time of foraging; upon which horses the Jews sallied out in wholebodies, and seized them. And when this was continually done, and Caesarbelieved what the truth was, that the horses were stolen more by thenegligence of his own men than by the valor of the Jews, he determinedto 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 horsesshould be capitally punished; whereby he so terrified the rest, thatthey preserved their horses for the time to come; for they did not anylonger let them go from them to feed by themselves, but, as if theyhad grown to them, they went always along with them when they wantednecessaries. Thus did the Romans still continue to make war against thetemple, and to raise their banks against it. 

8. Now after one day had been interposed since the Romans ascended thebreach, many of the seditious were so pressed by the famine, upon thepresent failure of their ravages, that they got together, and made anattack on those Roman guards that were upon the Mount of Olives, andthis about the eleventh hour of the day, as supposing, first, that theywould not expect such an onset, and, in the next place, that they werethen taking care of their bodies, and that therefore they should easilybeat them. But the Romans were apprized of their coming to attack thembeforehand, and, running together from the neighboring camps on thesudden, prevented them from getting over their fortification, or forcingthe wall that was built about them. Upon this came on a sharp fight, andhere many great actions were performed on both sides; while the Romansshowed both their courage and their skill in war, as did the Jews comeon them with immoderate violence and intolerable passion. The one partwere urged on by shame, and the other by necessity; for it seemed a veryshameful thing to the Romans to let the Jews go, now they were taken ina kind of net; while the Jews had but one hope of saving themselves, andthat was in case they could by violence break through the Roman wall;and one whose name was Pedanius, belonging to a party of horsemen, whenthe Jews were already beaten and forced down into the valley together, spurred his horse on their flank with great vehemence, and caught up acertain young man belonging to the enemy by his ankle, as he was runningaway; the man was, however, of a robust body, and in his armor; solow did Pedanius bend himself downward from his horse, even as he wasgalloping away, and so great was the strength of his right hand, and ofthe rest of his body, as also such skill had he in horsemanship. So thisman seized upon that his prey, as upon a precious treasure, and carriedhim as his captive to Caesar; whereupon Titus admired the man that hadseized the other for his great strength, and ordered the man that wascaught to be punished [with death] for his attempt against the Romanwall, but betook himself to the siege of the temple, and to pressing onthe raising of the banks. 

9. In the mean time, the Jews were so distressed by the fights they hadbeen in, as the war advanced higher and higher, and creeping up to theholy house itself, that they, as it were, cut off those limbs of theirbody which were infected, in order to prevent the distemper's spreadingfurther; for they set the north-west cloister, which was joined to thetower of Antonia, on fire, and after that brake off about twenty cubitsof that cloister, and thereby made a beginning in burning the sanctuary;two days after which, or on the twenty-fourth day of the forenamedmonth, [Panemus or Tamuz, ] the Romans set fire to the cloister thatjoined to the other, when the fire went fifteen cubits farther. TheJews, in like manner, cut off its roof; nor did they entirely leaveoff what they were about till the tower of Antonia was parted from thetemple, 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 thisspreading of the fire to be for their own advantage. However, the armieswere still fighting one against another about the temple, and the warwas managed by continual sallies of particular parties against oneanother. 

10. Now there was at this time a man among the Jews, low of stature hewas, and of a despicable appearance; of no character either as to hisfamily, or in other respects: his flame was Jonathan. He went out at thehigh priest John's monument, and uttered many other insolent things tothe Romans, a challenged the best of them all to a single combat. Butmany 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 reasonedthus, and that justly enough: that it was not fit to fight with a manthat desired to die, because those that utterly despaired of deliverancehad, besides other passions, a violence in attacking men that could notbe opposed, and had no regard to God himself; and that to hazard oneselfwith a person, whom, if you overcome, you do no great matter, andby whom it is hazardous that you may be taken prisoner, would be aninstance, not of manly courage, but of unmanly rashness. So there beingnobody that came out to accept the man's challenge, and the Jew cuttingthem with a great number of reproaches, as cowards, [for he was a veryhaughty man in himself, and a great despiser of the Romans, ] one whosename was Pudens, of the body of horsemen, out of his abomination ofthe other's words, and of his impudence withal, and perhaps out of aninconsiderate arrogance, on account of the other's lowness of stature, ran out to him, and was too hard for him in other respects, but wasbetrayed by his ill fortune; for he fell down, and as he was down, Jonathan came running to him, and cut his throat, and then, standingupon his dead body, he brandished his sword, bloody as it was, and shookhis shield with his left hand, and made many acclamations to the Romanarmy, and exulted over the dead man, and jested upon the Romans; tillat length one Priscus, a centurion, shot a dart at him as he was leapingand playing the fool with himself, and thereby pierced him through;upon which a shout was set up both by the Jews and the Romans, thoughon 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 howsuddenly vengeance may come upon men that have success in war, withoutany 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 openlyendeavor to beat off the soldiers that were upon the banks, and on thetwenty-seventh day of the forenamed month [Panemus or Tamuz] contrivedsuch a stratagem as this: They filled that part of the western cloister[14] which was between the beams, and the roof under them, with drymaterials, as also with bitumen and pitch, and then retired from thatplace, as though they were tired with the pains they had taken; at whichprocedure of theirs, many of the most inconsiderate among the Romans, who were carried away with violent passions, followed hard after them asthey were retiring, and applied ladders to the cloister, and got up toit suddenly; but the prudent part of them, when they understood thisunaccountable 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 outevery where on the sudden, the Romans that were out of the danger wereseized with a very great consternation, as were those that were inthe midst of the danger in the utmost distress. So when they perceivedthemselves surrounded with the flames, some of them threw themselvesdown backwards into the city, and some among their enemies [in thetemple]; as did many leap down to their own men, and broke their limbsto pieces; but a great number of those that were going to take theseviolent methods were prevented by the fire; though some prevented thefire by their own swords. However, the fire was on the sudden carriedso far as to surround those who would have otherwise perished. As forCaesar himself, he could not, however, but commiserate those that thusperished, although they got up thither without any order for so doing, since there was no way of giving the many relief. Yet was this somecomfort to those that were destroyed, that every body might see thatperson grieve, for whose sake they came to their end; for he cried outopenly to them, and leaped up, and exhorted those that were about him todo 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 asepulchral monument. Some there were indeed who retired into the wall ofthe cloister, which was broad, and were preserved out of the fire, butwere then surrounded by the Jews; and although they made resistanceagainst the Jews for a long time, yet were they wounded by them, and atlength they all fell down dead. 

2. At the last a young man among them, whose name was Longus, became adecoration to this sad affair, and while every one of them that perishedwere worthy of a memorial, this man appeared to deserve it beyondall the rest. Now the Jews admired this man for his courage, and werefurther desirous of having him slain; so they persuaded him to come downto them, upon security given him for his life. But Cornelius his brotherpersuaded him on the contrary, not to tarnish his own glory, nor thatof the Roman army. He complied with this last advice, and lifting up hissword before both armies, he slew himself. Yet there was one Artoriusamong those surrounded by the fire who escaped by his subtlety; forwhen he had with a loud voice called to him Lucius, one of his fellowsoldiers that lay with him in the same tent, and said to him, "I doleave thee heir of all I have, if thou wilt come and receive me. " Uponthis he came running to receive him readily; Artorius then threw himselfdown upon him, and saved his own life, while he that received him wasdashed so vehemently against the stone pavement by the other's weight, that he died immediately. This melancholy accident made the Romanssad for a while, but still it made them more upon their guard for thefuture, and was of advantage to them against the delusions of the Jews, by which they were greatly damaged through their unacquaintedness withthe places, and with the nature of the inhabitants. Now this cloisterwas burnt down as far as John's tower, which he built in the war he madeagainst Simon over the gates that led to the Xystus. The Jews also cutoff the rest of that cloister from the temple, after they had destroyedthose that got up to it. But the next day the Romans burnt down thenorthern cloister entirely, as far as the east cloister, whose commonangle joined to the valley that was called Cedron, and was built overit; on which account the depth was frightful. And this was the state ofthe temple at that time. 

3. Now of those that perished by famine in the city, the number wasprodigious, and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable; for if somuch as the shadow of any kind of food did any where appear, a war wascommenced presently, and the dearest friends fell a fighting one withanother about it, snatching from each other the most miserable supportsof 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 oneshould have concealed food in their bosoms, and counterfeited dying;nay, these robbers gaped for want, and ran about stumbling andstaggering along like mad dogs, and reeling against the doors of thehouses like drunken men; they would also, in the great distress theywere in, rush into the very same houses two or three times in one andthe same day. Moreover, their hunger was so intolerable, that it obligedthem to chew every thing, while they gathered such things as the mostsordid animals would not touch, and endured to eat them; nor did theyat length abstain from girdles and shoes; and the very leather whichbelonged to their shields they pulled off and gnawed: the very wispsof old hay became food to some; and some gathered up fibres, and solda very small weight of them for four Attic [drachmae]. But why do Idescribe the shameless impudence that the famine brought on men in theireating inanimate things, while I am going to relate a matter of fact, the like to which no history relates, [15] either among the Greeks orBarbarians? It is horrible to speak of it, and incredible when heard. I had indeed willingly omitted this calamity of ours, that I might notseem to deliver what is so portentous to posterity, but that I haveinnumerable witnesses to it in my own age; and besides, my country wouldhave had little reason to thank me for suppressing the miseries that sheunderwent at this time. 

4. There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name wasMary; her father was Eleazar, of the village Bethezob, which signifiesthe house of Hyssop. She was eminent for her family and her wealth, andhad fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was withthem besieged therein at this time. The other effects of this woman hadbeen already seized upon, such I mean as she had brought with her outof Perea, and removed to the city. What she had treasured up besides, asalso what food she had contrived to save, had been also carried off bythe rapacious guards, who came every day running into her house for thatpurpose. This put the poor woman into a very great passion, and bythe frequent reproaches and imprecations she east at these rapaciousvillains, she had provoked them to anger against her; but none of them, either out of the indignation she had raised against herself, or out ofcommiseration of her case, would take away her life; and if she foundany 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 alsoher passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself; nor did sheconsult with any thing but with her passion and the necessity she wasin. She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up herson, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, "O thou miserableinfant! for whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, andthis sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve ourlives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even beforethat slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terriblethan both the other. Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury tothese seditious varlets, and a by-word to the world, which is all thatis now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews. " As soon as shehad said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and eat the onehalf of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this theseditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if shedid not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that shehad saved a very fine portion of it for them, and withal uncoveredwhat was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror andamazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said tothem, "This is mine own son, and what hath been done was mine owndoing! Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do notyou pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionatethan a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this mysacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved forme also. " After which those men went out trembling, being never so muchaftrighted at any thing as they were at this, and with some difficultythey left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole citywas full of this horrid action immediately; and while every body laidthis miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if thisunheard of action had been done by themselves. So those that were thusdistressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those alreadydead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough eitherto hear or to see such miseries. 

5. This sad instance was quickly told to the Romans, some of whom couldnot believe it, and others pitied the distress which the Jews wereunder; but there were many of them who were hereby induced to a morebitter hatred than ordinary against our nation. But for Caesar, heexcused himself before God as to this matter, and said that he hadproposed peace and liberty to the Jews, as well as an oblivion of alltheir former insolent practices; but that they, instead of concord, had chosen sedition; instead of peace, war; and before satiety andabundance, a famine. That they had begun with their own hands to burndown that temple which we have preserved hitherto; and that thereforethey deserved to eat such food as this was. That, however, this horridaction of eating an own child ought to be covered with the overthrow oftheir very country itself, and men ought not to leave such a city uponthe 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 eatof, 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 timethat he said this, he reflected on the desperate condition these menmust be in; nor could he expect that such men could be recovered tosobriety of mind, after they had endured those very sufferings, for theavoiding 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 eighthday of the month Lous [Ab]. Whereupon Titus gave orders that thebattering rams should be brought, and set over against the westernedifice of the inner temple; for before these were brought, the firmestof all the other engines had battered the wall for six days togetherwithout ceasing, without making any impression upon it; but the vastlargeness and strong connexion of the stones were superior to thatengine, and to the other battering rams also. Other Romans did indeedundermine the foundations of the northern gate, and after a world ofpains removed the outermost stones, yet was the gate still upheld by theinner stones, and stood still unhurt; till the workmen, despairing ofall such attempts by engines and crows, brought their ladders to thecloisters. Now the Jews did not interrupt them in so doing; but whenthey were gotten up, they fell upon them, and fought with them; some ofthem they thrust down, and threw them backwards headlong; others ofthem they met and slew; they also beat many of those that went down theladders again, and slew them with their swords before they could bringtheir shields to protect them; nay, some of the ladders they threw downfrom above when they were full of armed men; a great slaughter was madeof the Jews also at the same time, while those that bare the ensignsfought hard for them, as deeming it a terrible thing, and what wouldtend to their great shame, if they permitted them to be stolen away. Yetdid the Jews at length get possession of these engines, and destroyedthose that had gone up the ladders, while the rest were so intimidatedby what those suffered who were slain, that they retired; although noneof the Romans died without having done good service before his death. Ofthe seditious, those that had fought bravely in the former battles didthe like now, as besides them did Eleazar, the brother's son of Simonthe tyrant. But when Titus perceived that his endeavors to spare aforeign 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 fromEmmaus, the most bloody of all Simon's guards, and Archelaus, the son ofMagadatus, they hoping to be still forgiven, because they left the Jewsat a time when they were the conquerors. Titus objected this to thesemen, as a cunning trick of theirs; and as he had been informed of theirother barbarities towards the Jews, he was going in all haste tohave them both slain. He told them that they were only driven to thisdesertion because of the utmost distress they were in, and did not comeaway of their own good disposition; and that those did not deserve to bepreserved, by whom their own city was already set on fire, out of whichfire they now hurried themselves away. However, the security he hadpromised deserters overcame his resentments, and he dismissed themaccordingly, though he did not give them the same privileges that hehad afforded to others. And now the soldiers had already put fire to thegates, and the silver that was over them quickly carried the flames tothe 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 allabout them, their spirits sunk together with their bodies, and they wereunder such astonishment, that not one of them made any haste, either todefend himself or to quench the fire, but they stood as mute spectatorsof it only. However, they did not so grieve at the loss of what was nowburning, as to grow wiser thereby for the time to come; but as thoughthe holy house itself had been on fire already, they whetted theirpassions against the Romans. This fire prevailed during that day and thenext also; for the soldiers were not able to burn all the cloisters thatwere round about together at one time, but only by pieces. 

3. But then, on the next day, Titus commanded part of his army toquench the fire, and to make a road for the more easy marching up ofthe legions, while he himself gathered the commanders together. Of thosethere were assembled the six principal persons: Tiberius Alexander, thecommander [under the general] of the whole army; with Sextus Cerealis, the commander of the fifth legion; and Larcius Lepidus, the commanderof the tenth legion; and Titus Frigius, the commander of the fifteenthlegion: there was also with them Eternius, the leader of the two legionsthat came from Alexandria; and Marcus Antonius Julianus, procurator ofJudea: after these came together all the rest of the procurators andtribunes. Titus proposed to these that they should give him their advicewhat should be done about the holy house. Now some of these thoughtit would be the best way to act according to the rules of war, [anddemolish it, ] because the Jews would never leave off rebelling whilethat house was standing; at which house it was that they used to get alltogether. Others of them were of opinion, that in case the Jews wouldleave it, and none of them would lay their arms up in it, he might saveit; but that in case they got upon it, and fought any more, he mightburn it; because it must then be looked upon not as a holy house, but asa citadel; and that the impiety of burning it would then belong tothose 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 forburning down so vast a work as that was, because this would be amischief to the Romans themselves, as it would be an ornament to theirgovernment while it continued. So Fronto, and Alexander, and Cerealisgrew bold upon that declaration, and agreed to the opinion of Titus. Then was this assembly dissolved, when Titus had given orders to thecommanders that the rest of their forces should lie still; but that theyshould make use of such as were most courageous in this attack. So hecommanded that the chosen men that were taken out of the cohorts shouldmake their way through the ruins, and quench the fire. 

4. Now it is true that on this day the Jews were so weary, and undersuch consternation, that they refrained from any attacks. But on thenext day they gathered their whole force together, and ran upon thosethat guarded the outward court of the temple very boldly, through theeast gate, and this about the second hour of the day. These guardsreceived that their attack with great bravery, and by coveringthemselves with their shields before, as if it were with a wall, theydrew their squadron close together; yet was it evident that they couldnot abide there very long, but would be overborne by the multitude ofthose that sallied out upon them, and by the heat of their passion. However, Caesar seeing, from the tower of Antonia, that this squadronwas likely to give way, he sent some chosen horsemen to support them. Hereupon the Jews found themselves not able to sustain their onset, andupon the slaughter of those in the forefront, many of the rest were putto 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 retreatedagain, until about the fifth hour of the day they were overborne, andshut themselves up in the inner [court of the] temple. 

5. So Titus retired into the tower of Antonia, and resolved to storm thetemple the next day, early in the morning, with his whole army, and toencamp round about the holy house. But as for that house, God had, forcertain, long ago doomed it to the fire; and now that fatal day wascome, according to the revolution of ages; it was the tenth day ofthe month Lous, [Ab, ] upon which it was formerly burnt by the king ofBabylon; although these flames took their rise from the Jews themselves, and were occasioned by them; for upon Titus's retiring, the seditiouslay still for a little while, and then attacked the Romans again, whenthose that guarded the holy house fought with those that quenched thefire that was burning the inner [court of the] temple; but these Romansput 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, andwithout any concern or dread upon him at so great an undertaking, andbeing hurried on by a certain divine fury, snatched somewhat out of thematerials that were on fire, and being lifted up by another soldier, heset fire to a golden window, through which there was a passage to therooms that were round about the holy house, on the north side of it. Asthe flames went upward, the Jews made a great clamor, such as so mightyan affliction required, and ran together to prevent it; and now theyspared not their lives any longer, nor suffered any thing to restraintheir force, since that holy house was perishing, for whose sake it wasthat they kept such a guard about it. 

6. And now a certain person came running to Titus, and told him ofthis 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 holyhouse, in order to have a stop put to the fire; after him followed allhis commanders, and after them followed the several legions, in greatastonishment; so there was a great clamor and tumult raised, as wasnatural 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 quenchthe 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 didthey attend to the signal he made with his hand neither, as still someof them were distracted with fighting, and others with passion. But asfor the legions that came running thither, neither any persuasionsnor any threatenings could restrain their violence, but each one's ownpassion was his commander at this time; and as they were crowding intothe temple together, many of them were trampled on by one another, whilea great number fell among the ruins of the cloisters, which were stillhot and smoking, and were destroyed in the same miserable way with thosewhom 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 thecontrary; but they encouraged those that were before them to set it onfire. As for the seditious, they were in too great distress already toafford their assistance [towards quenching the fire]; they were everywhere slain, and every where beaten; and as for a great part of thepeople, they were weak and without arms, and had their throats cutwherever they were caught. Now round about the altar lay dead bodiesheaped one upon another, as at the steps [16] going up to it ran a greatquantity of their blood, whither also the dead bodies that were slainabove [on the altar] fell down. 

7. And now, since Caesar was no way able to restrain the enthusiasticfury of the soldiers, and the fire proceeded on more and more, he wentinto the holy place of the temple, with his commanders, and saw it, withwhat was in it, which he found to be far superior to what the relationsof foreigners contained, and not inferior to what we ourselves boastedof and believed about it. But as the flame had not as yet reached to itsinward parts, but was still consuming the rooms that were about theholy house, and Titus supposing what the fact was, that the house itselfmight yet be saved, he came in haste and endeavored to persuade thesoldiers to quench the fire, and gave order to Liberalius the centurion, and one of those spearmen that were about him, to beat the soldiers thatwere refractory with their staves, and to restrain them; yet were theirpassions too hard for the regards they had for Caesar, and the dreadthey had of him who forbade them, as was their hatred of the Jews, anda certain vehement inclination to fight them, too hard for them also. Moreover, the hope of plunder induced many to go on, as having thisopinion, that all the places within were full of money, and as seeingthat all round about it was made of gold. And besides, one of thosethat went into the place prevented Caesar, when he ran so hastily out torestrain the soldiers, and threw the fire upon the hinges of the gate, in the dark; whereby the flame burst out from within the holy houseitself immediately, when the commanders retired, and Caesar with them, and when nobody any longer forbade those that were without to setfire to it. And thus was the holy house burnt down, without Caesar'sapprobation. 

8. Now although any one would justly lament the destruction of such awork as this was, since it was the most admirable of all the worksthat we have seen or heard of, both for its curious structure and itsmagnitude, and also for the vast wealth bestowed upon it, as well as forthe glorious reputation it had for its holiness; yet might such a onecomfort himself with this thought, that it was fate that decreed it soto be, which is inevitable, both as to living creatures, and as to worksand places also. However, one cannot but wonder at the accuracy of thisperiod thereto relating; for the same month and day were now observed, as I said before, wherein the holy house was burnt formerly by theBabylonians. Now the number of years that passed from its firstfoundation, which was laid by king Solomon, till this its destruction, which happened in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, arecollected to be one thousand one hundred and thirty, besides sevenmonths and fifteen days; and from the second building of it, whichwas done by Haggai, in the second year of Cyrus the king, till itsdestruction under Vespasian, there were six hundred and thirty-nineyears 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 cameto hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; norwas there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity, butchildren, and old men, and profane persons, and priests were all slainin the same manner; so that this war went round all sorts of men, andbrought them to destruction, and as well those that made supplicationfor their lives, as those that defended themselves by fighting. Theflame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with thegroans of those that were slain; and because this hill was high, and theworks at the temple were very great, one would have thought the wholecity had been on fire. Nor can one imagine any thing either greateror more terrible than this noise; for there was at once a shout of theRoman legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamor of theseditious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword. The people alsothat were left above were beaten back upon the enemy, and under a greatconsternation, and made sad moans at the calamity they were under; themultitude also that was in the city joined in this outcry with thosethat were upon the hill. And besides, many of those that were worn awayby the famine, and their mouths almost closed, when they saw the fire ofthe holy house, they exerted their utmost strength, and brake out intogroans and outcries again: Pera [17] did also return the echo, as wellas the mountains round about [the city, ] and augmented the force ofthe entire noise. Yet was the misery itself more terrible than thisdisorder; for one would have thought that the hill itself, on which thetemple 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 wereslain more in number than those that slew them; for the ground didno where appear visible, for the dead bodies that lay on it; but thesoldiers went over heaps of those bodies, as they ran upon such as fledfrom them. And now it was that the multitude of the robbers were thrustout [of the inner court of the temple by the Romans, ] and had much adoto get into the outward court, and from thence into the city, while theremainder of the populace fled into the cloister of that outer court. Asfor 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 gainednothing by so doing, and as the fire burst out upon them, they retiredto the wall that was eight cubits broad, and there they tarried; yet didtwo of these of eminence among them, who might have saved themselves bygoing over to the Romans, or have borne up with courage, and taken theirfortune with the others, throw themselves into the fire, and were burnttogether 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 wasround about the holy house, burnt all those places, as also the remainsof 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 immensequantity of money, and an immense number of garments, and other preciousgoods there reposited; and, to speak all in a few words, there it wasthat the entire riches of the Jews were heaped up together, whilethe rich people had there built themselves chambers [to contain suchfurniture]. The soldiers also came to the rest of the cloisters thatwere in the outer [court of the] temple, whither the women and children, and a great mixed multitude of the people, fled, in number about sixthousand. But before Caesar had determined any thing about these people, or given the commanders any orders relating to them, the soldiers werein such a rage, that they set that cloister on fire; by which means itcame to pass that some of these were destroyed by throwing themselvesdown headlong, and some were burnt in the cloisters themselves. Nordid any one of them escape with his life. A false prophet [19] wasthe occasion of these people's destruction, who had made a publicproclamation in the city that very day, that God commanded them to getupon the temple, and that there they should receive miraculous signs oftheir deliverance. Now there was then a great number of false prophetssuborned by the tyrants to impose on the people, who denounced this tothem, that they should wait for deliverance from God; and this was inorder to keep them from deserting, and that they might be buoyed upabove fear and care by such hopes. Now a man that is in adversity doeseasily comply with such promises; for when such a seducer makes himbelieve that he shall be delivered from those miseries which oppresshim, then it is that the patient is full of hopes of such hisdeliverance. 

3. Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and suchas belied God himself; while they did not attend nor give credit to thesigns that were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their futuredesolation, but, like men infatuated, without either eyes to see orminds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made tothem. Thus there was a star [20] resembling a sword, which stood overthe city, and a comet, that continued a whole year. Thus also beforethe Jews' rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavenedbread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, [21] [Nisan, ] and atthe ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar andthe holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time; which lasted forhalf 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 eventsthat 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 lambin 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 hadbeen with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armedwith iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, whichwas there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its ownaccord about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch inthe temple came hereupon running to the captain of the temple, and toldhim of it; who then came up thither, and not without great difficultywas able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar tobe a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate ofhappiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security oftheir holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate wasopened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declaredthat the signal foreshowed the desolation that was coming upon them. Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentiethday of the month Artemisius, [Jyar, ] a certain prodigious and incrediblephenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be afable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the eventsthat followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals;for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armorwere seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests weregoing by night into the inner [court of the temple, ] as their customwas, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the firstplace, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that theyheard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, "Let us remove hence. "But, what is still more terrible, there was one Jesus, the son ofAnanus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before thewar began, and at a time when the city was in very great peace andprosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our custom for every oneto make tabernacles to God in the temple, [23] began on a sudden to cryaloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice fromthe four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voiceagainst the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this wholepeople!" This was his cry, as he went about by day and by night, in allthe lanes of the city. However, certain of the most eminent among thepopulace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took upthe man, and gave him a great number of severe stripes; yet did not heeither say any thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to those thatchastised him, but still went on with the same words which he criedbefore. Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, thatthis was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought him to the Romanprocurator, where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare; yethe did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, butturning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every strokeof 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 hecame? and why he uttered such words? he made no manner of reply to whathe said, but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty, till Albinustook him to be a madman, and dismissed him. Now, during all the timethat passed before the war began, this man did not go near any ofthe citizens, nor was seen by them while he said so; but he every dayuttered these lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" Nor did he give ill words to any of those thatbeat him every day, nor good words to those that gave him food; but thiswas his reply to all men, and indeed no other than a melancholy presageof 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, withoutgrowing hoarse, or being tired therewith, until the very time that hesaw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased; foras 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!" therecame a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and killed himimmediately; and as he was uttering the very same presages he gave upthe ghost. 

4. Now if any one consider these things, he will find that God takescare of mankind, and by all ways possible foreshows to our race what isfor their preservation; but that men perish by those miseries whichthey madly and voluntarily bring upon themselves; for the Jews, bydemolishing 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, whenonce their temple should become four-square. " But now, what did the mostelevate them in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that wasalso found in their sacred writings, how, "about that time, one fromtheir country should become governor of the habitable earth. " The Jewstook this prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and manyof the wise men were thereby deceived in their determination. Now thisoracle certainly denoted the government of Vespasian, who was appointedemperor in Judea. However, it is not possible for men to avoid fate, although they see it beforehand. But these men interpreted some of thesesignals according to their own pleasure, and some of them they utterlydespised, until their madness was demonstrated, both by the taking oftheir 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 buildingsround about it, brought their ensigns to the temple [24] and set themover against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices tothem, and there did they make Titus imperator [25] with the greatestacclamations of joy. And now all the soldiers had such vast quantitiesof the spoils which they had gotten by plunder, that in Syria a poundweight of gold was sold for half its former value. But as for thosepriests 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 theRoman 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 vesselhe had with him when he came to them with water, and then went off, andfled away to his own friends; nor could any of those guards overtakehim; but still they reproached him for his perfidiousness. To which hemade this answer: "I have not broken the agreement; for the security Ihad given me was not in order to my staying with you, but only in orderto my coming down safely, and taking up some water; both which things Ihave performed, and thereupon think myself to have been faithful to myengagement. " Hereupon those whom the child had imposed upon admired athis 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 theywere brought to Titus by the guards, they begged for their lives; but hereplied, that the time of pardon was over as to them, and that thisvery holy house, on whose account only they could justly hope to bepreserved, was destroyed; and that it was agreeable to their office thatpriests should perish with the house itself to which they belonged. Sohe 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 itwere, walled round, without any method of escaping, they desired totreat with Titus by word of mouth. Accordingly, such was the kindnessof his nature, and his desire of preserving the city from destruction, joined to the advice of his friends, who now thought the robbers werecome to a temper, that he placed himself on the western side of theouter [court of the] temple; for there were gates on that side above theXystus, and a bridge that connected the upper city to the temple. Thisbridge it was that lay between the tyrants and Caesar, and parted them;while the multitude stood on each side; those of the Jewish nationabout Sinran and John, with great hopes of pardon; and the Romans aboutCaesar, in great expectation how Titus would receive their supplication. So Titus charged his soldiers to restrain their rage, and to let theirdarts alone, and appointed an interpreter between them, which was a signthat he was the conqueror, and first began the discourse, and said, "Ihope you, sirs, are now satiated with the miseries of your country, whohave not bad any just notions, either of our great power, or of your owngreat weakness, but have, like madmen, after a violent and inconsideratemanner, made such attempts, as have brought your people, your city, andyour holy house to destruction. You have been the men that have neverleft off rebelling since Pompey first conquered you, and have, sincethat time, made open war with the Romans. Have you depended on yourmultitude, while a very small part of the Roman soldiery have beenstrong enough for you? Have you relied on the fidelity of yourconfederates? And what nations are there, out of the limits of ourdominion, that would choose to assist the Jews before the Romans? Areyour bodies stronger than ours? nay, you know that the [strong] Germansthemselves are our servants. Have you stronger walls than we have? Pray, what greater obstacle is there than the wall of the ocean, with whichthe 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 yourcommanders? Nay, indeed, you cannot but know that the very Carthaginianshave been conquered by us. It can therefore be nothing certainly butthe kindness of us Romans which hath excited you against us; who, inthe first place, have given you this land to possess; and, in the nextplace, have set over you kings of your own nation; and, in the thirdplace, have preserved the laws of your forefathers to you, and havewithal permitted you to live, either by yourselves, or among others, asit should please you: and, what is our chief favor of all we have givenyou leave to gather up that tribute which is paid to God [27] with suchother gifts that are dedicated to him; nor have we called those thatcarried these donations to account, nor prohibited them; till at lengthyou became richer than we ourselves, even when you were our enemies; andyou made preparations for war against us with our own money; nay, afterall, when you were in the enjoyment of all these advantages, youturned your too great plenty against those that gave it you, and, likemerciless serpents, have thrown out your poison against those thattreated you kindly. I suppose, therefore, that you might despise theslothfulness of Nero, and, like limbs of the body that are broken ordislocated, you did then lie quiet, waiting for some other time, thoughstill with a malicious intention, and have now showed your distemperto be greater than ever, and have extended your desires as far as yourimpudent and immense hopes would enable you to do it. At this time myfather came into this country, not with a design to punish you for whatyou had done under Cestius, but to admonish you; for had he come tooverthrow your nation, he had run directly to your fountain-head, andhad immediately laid this city waste; whereas he went and burnt Galileeand the neighboring parts, and thereby gave you time for repentance;which instance of humanity you took for an argument of his weakness, andnourished up your impudence by our mildness. When Nero was gone outof the world, you did as the wickedest wretches would have done, andencouraged yourselves to act against us by our civil dissensions, andabused that time, when both I and my father were gone away to Egypt, to make preparations for this war. Nor were you ashamed to raisedisturbances against us when we were made emperors, and this while youhad experienced how mild we had been, when we were no more than generalsof the army. But when the government was devolved upon us, and all otherpeople did thereupon lie quiet, and even foreign nations sent embassies, and congratulated our access to the government, then did you Jews showyourselves to be our enemies. You sent embassies to those of your nationthat are beyond Euphrates to assist you in your raising disturbances;new walls were built by you round your city, seditions arose, and onetyrant 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 thencame to this city, as unwillingly sent by my father, and receivedmelancholy injunctions from him. When I heard that the people weredisposed to peace, I rejoiced at it; I exhorted you to leave off theseproceedings before I began this war; I spared you even when you hadfought against me a great while; I gave my right hand as security to thedeserters; I observed what I had promised faithfully. When they fledto me, I had compassion on many of those that I had taken captive; Itortured those that were eager for war, in order to restrain them. Itwas unwillingly that I brought my engines of war against your walls; Ialways prohibited my soldiers, when they were set upon your slaughter, from their severity against you. After every victory I persuaded youto peace, as though I had been myself conquered. When I came near yourtemple, I again departed from the laws of war, and exhorted you to spareyour own sanctuary, and to preserve your holy house to yourselves. Iallowed 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. Yethave you still despised every one of my proposals, and have set fireto your holy house with your own hands. And now, vile wretches, do youdesire to treat with me by word of mouth? To what purpose is it that youwould save such a holy house as this was, which is now destroyed? Whatpreservation can you now desire after the destruction of your temple?Yet do you stand still at this very time in your armor; nor can youbring yourselves so much as to pretend to be supplicants even in thisyour 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 cityin my power? and are not your own very lives in my hands? And do youstill deem it a part of valor to die? However, I will not imitate yourmadness. 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 preservefor my own use. "

3. To that offer of Titus they made this reply: That they could notaccept of it, because they had sworn never to do so; but they desiredthey might have leave to go through the wall that had been made aboutthem, with their wives and children; for that they would go into thedesert, and leave the city to him. At this Titus had great indignation, that when they were in the case of men already taken captives, theyshould pretend to make their own terms with him, as if they had beenconquerors. So he ordered this proclamation to be made to them, Thatthey should no more come out to him as deserters, nor hope for anyfurther security; for that he would henceforth spare nobody, but fightthem with his whole army; and that they must save themselves as well asthey could; for that he would from henceforth treat them according tothe laws of war. So he gave orders to the soldiers both to burn and toplunder the city; who did nothing indeed that day; but on the nextday they set fire to the repository of the archives, to Acra, to thecouncil-house, and to the place called Ophlas; at which time the fireproceeded as far as the palace of queen Helena, which was in the middleof Acra; the lanes also were burnt down, as were also those houses thatwere 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 theking, together with many others of the eminent men of the populace, got together there, and besought Caesar to give them his right hand fortheir security; upon which, though he was very angry at all that werenow remaining, yet did he not lay aside his old moderation, but receivedthese men. At that time, indeed, he kept them all in custody, but stillbound the king's sons and kinsmen, and led them with him to Rome, inorder 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 manyhad put their effects, because it was so strong, and drove the Romansaway from it. They also slew all the people that had crowded into it, who were in number about eight thousand four hundred, and plundered themof what they had. They also took two of the Romans alive; the one wasa horseman, and the other a footman. They then cut the throat of thefootman, and immediately had him drawn through the whole city, asrevenging themselves upon the whole body of the Romans by this oneinstance. But the horseman said he had somewhat to suggest to them inorder to their preservation; whereupon he was brought before Simon; buthe 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 againstthe Romans, as intending to cut off his head. But the man preventedthat execution, and ran away to the Romans, and this while the Jewishexecutioner was drawing out his sword. Now when he was gotten away fromthe enemy, Titus could not think of putting him to death; but because hedeemed him unworthy of being a Roman soldier any longer, on account thathe had been taken alive by the enemy, he took away his arms, and ejectedhim out of the legion whereto he had belonged; which, to one that had asense 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 gladto see the city destroyed. But they missed the plunder, because theseditious had carried off all their effects, and were retired into theupper city; for they did not yet at all repent of the mischiefs they haddone, but were insolent, as if they had done well; for, as they saw thecity on fire, they appeared cheerful, and put on joyful countenances, inexpectation, as they said, of death to end their miseries. Accordingly, as the people were now slain, the holy house was burnt down, and thecity 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 begof them to spare what was left of the city; he spake largely to themabout their barbarity and impiety, and gave them his advice in order totheir escape; though he gained nothing thereby more than to be laughedat 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 withthe Romans any longer upon the square, as being surrounded on all sides, and a kind of prisoners already, yet were they so accustomed to killpeople, that they could not restrain their right hands from actingaccordingly. So they dispersed themselves before the city, and laidthemselves in ambush among its ruins, to catch those that attempted todesert to the Romans; accordingly many such deserters were caught bythem, and were all slain; for these were too weak, by reason of theirwant of food, to fly away from them; so their dead bodies were thrown tothe dogs. Now every other sort of death was thought more tolerable thanthe famine, insomuch that, though the Jews despaired now of mercy, yetwould they fly to the Romans, and would themselves, even of their ownaccord, fall among the murderous rebels also. Nor was there any placein the city that had no dead bodies in it, but what was entirely coveredwith those that were killed either by the famine or the rebellion; andall was full of the dead bodies of such as had perished, either by thatsedition or by that famine. 

3. So now the last hope which supported the tyrants, and that crew ofrobbers 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 theRomans gone away, they might come out again, and escape from them. Thiswas no better than a dream of theirs; for they were not able to liehid either from God or from the Romans. However, they depended on theseunder-ground subterfuges, and set more places on fire than did theRomans themselves; and those that fled out of their houses thus seton fire into the ditches, they killed without mercy, and pillaged themalso; and if they discovered food belonging to any one, they seized uponit and swallowed it down, together with their blood also; nay, they werenow come to fight one with another about their plunder; and I cannotbut think that, had not their destruction prevented it, their barbaritywould 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 thatit could not possibly be taken without raising banks against it, hedistributed the several parts of that work among his army, and thison the twentieth day of the month Lous [Ab]. Now the carriage of thematerials was a difficult task, since all the trees, as I have alreadytold you, that were about the city, within the distance of a hundredfurlongs, had their branches cut off already, in order to make theformer banks. The works that belonged to the four legions were erectedon the west side of the city, over against the royal palace; but thewhole body of the auxiliary troops, with the rest of the multitude thatwere with them, [erected their banks] at the Xystus, whence they reachedto the bridge, and that tower of Simon which he had built as a citadelfor himself against John, when they were at war one with another. 

2. It was at this time that the commanders of the Idumeans got togetherprivately, and took counsel about surrendering up themselves to theRomans. Accordingly, they sent five men to Titus, and entreated him togive them his right hand for their security. So Titus thinking that thetyrants would yield, if the Idumeans, upon whom a great part of thewar depended, were once withdrawn from them, after some reluctancy anddelay, complied with them, and gave them security for their lives, andsent the five men back. But as these Idumeans were preparing to marchout, Simon perceived it, and immediately slew the five men that had goneto Titus, and took their commanders, and put them in prison, of whom themost eminent was Jacob, the son of Sosas; but as for the multitude ofthe Idumeans, who did not at all know what to do, now their commanderswere taken from them, he had them watched, and secured the walls by amore numerous garrison, Yet could not that garrison resist those thatwere deserting; for although a great number of them were slain, yet werethe deserters many more in number. They were all received by the Romans, because Titus himself grew negligent as to his former orders for killingthem, and because the very soldiers grew weary of killing them, andbecause they hoped to get some money by sparing them; for they left onlythe populace, and sold the rest of the multitude, [28] with theirwives and children, and every one of them at a very low price, and thatbecause such as were sold were very many, and the buyers were few: andalthough Titus had made proclamation beforehand, that no deserter shouldcome alone by himself, that so they might bring out their families withthem, yet did he receive such as these also. However, he set over themsuch as were to distinguish some from others, in order to see if any ofthem deserved to be punished. And indeed the number of those that weresold 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 ofThebuthus, whose name was Jesus, upon his having security given him, bythe oath of Caesar, that he should be preserved, upon condition thathe should deliver to him certain of the precious things that had beenreposited in the temple [29] came out of it, and delivered him from thewall of the holy house two candlesticks, like to those that lay in theholy house, with tables, and cisterns, and vials, all made of solidgold, and very heavy. He also delivered to him the veils and thegarments, with the precious stones, and a great number of other preciousvessels that belonged to their sacred worship. The treasurer of thetemple also, whose name was Phineas, was seized on, and showed Titus thecoats and girdles of the priests, with a great quantity of purple andscarlet, which were there reposited for the uses of the veil, as also agreat deal of cinnamon and cassia, with a large quantity of other sweetspices, [30] which used to be mixed together, and offered as incense toGod every day. A great many other treasures were also delivered tohim, with sacred ornaments of the temple not a few; which things thusdelivered to Titus obtained of him for this man the same pardon that hehad allowed to such as deserted of their own accord. 

4. And now were the banks finished on the seventh day of the monthGorpieus, [Elul, ] in eighteen days' time, when the Romans brought theirmachines against the wall. But for the seditious, some of them, asdespairing of saving the city, retired from the wall to the citadel;others of them went down into the subterranean vaults, though still agreat many of them defended themselves against those that brought theengines for the battery; yet did the Romans overcome them by theirnumber and by their strength; and, what was the principal thing ofall, by going cheerfully about their work, while the Jews were quitedejected, and become weak. Now as soon as a part of the wall wasbattered down, and certain of the towers yielded to the impression ofthe battering rams, those that opposed themselves fled away, and sucha terror fell upon the tyrants, as was much greater than the occasionrequired; for before the enemy got over the breach they were quitestunned, and were immediately for flying away. And now one might seethese men, who had hitherto been so insolent and arrogant in theirwicked practices, to be cast down and to tremble, insomuch that itwould pity one's heart to observe the change that was made in those vilepersons. Accordingly, they ran with great violence upon the Roman wallthat encompassed them, in order to force away those that guarded it, andto break through it, and get away. But when they saw that those who hadformerly been faithful to them had gone away, [as indeed they were fledwhithersoever the great distress they were in persuaded them to flee, ]as also when those that came running before the rest told them that thewestern wall was entirely overthrown, while others said the Romans weregotten in, and others that they were near, and looking out for them, which were only the dictates of their fear, which imposed upon theirsight, they fell upon their face, and greatly lamented their own madconduct; and their nerves were so terribly loosed, that they couldnot flee away. And here one may chiefly reflect on the power of Godexercised upon these wicked wretches, and on the good fortune of theRomans; for these tyrants did now wholly deprive themselves of thesecurity they had in their own power, and came down from those verytowers of their own accord, wherein they could have never been takenby force, nor indeed by any other way than by famine. And thus did theRomans, when they had taken such great pains about weaker walls, getby good fortune what they could never have gotten by their engines;for three of these towers were too strong for all mechanical engineswhatsoever, concerning which we have treated above. 

5. So they now left these towers of themselves, or rather they wereejected out of them by God himself, and fled immediately to that valleywhich was under Siloam, where they again recovered themselves out of thedread they were in for a while, and ran violently against that part ofthe Roman wall which lay on that side; but as their courage was too muchdepressed to make their attacks with sufficient force, and their powerwas now broken with fear and affliction, they were repulsed by theguards, and dispersing themselves at distances from each other, wentdown into the subterranean caverns. So the Romans being now becomemasters of the walls, they both placed their ensigns upon the towers, and made joyful acclamations for the victory they had gained, as havingfound the end of this war much lighter than its beginning; for when theyhad gotten upon the last wall, without any bloodshed, they could hardlybelieve what they found to be true; but seeing nobody to oppose them, they stood in doubt what such an unusual solitude could mean. But whenthey 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 houseswhither the Jews were fled, and burnt every soul in them, and laidwaste a great many of the rest; and when they were come to the housesto plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, andthe upper rooms full of dead corpses, that is, of such as died by thefamine; they then stood in a horror at this sight, and went out withouttouching any thing. But although they had this commiseration for such aswere destroyed in that manner, yet had they not the same for those thatwere still alive, but they ran every one through whom they met with, and obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the wholecity run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire ofmany of the houses was quenched with these men's blood. And truly so ithappened, that though the slayers left off at the evening, yet did thefire greatly prevail in the night; and as all was burning, came thateighth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul] upon Jerusalem, a city that hadbeen liable to so many miseries during this siege, that, had it alwaysenjoyed as much happiness from its first foundation, it would certainlyhave been the envy of the world. Nor did it on any other account so muchdeserve these sore misfortunes, as by producing such a generation of menas 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 onlysome other places of strength in it, but particularly those strongtowers which the tyrants in their mad conduct had relinquished; for whenhe 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 mannerfollowing: "We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of thesefortifications; for what could the hands of men or any machines dotowards overthrowing these towers?" At which time he had many suchdiscourses to his friends; he also let such go free as had been bound bythe tyrants, and were left in the prisons. To conclude, when he entirelydemolished the rest of the city, and overthrew its walls, he leftthese towers as a monument of his good fortune, which had proved hisauxiliaries, and enabled him to take what could not otherwise have beentaken by him. 

2. And now, since his soldiers were already quite tired with killingmen, and yet there appeared to be a vast multitude still remainingalive, Caesar gave orders that they should kill none but those that werein arms, and opposed them, but should take the rest alive. But, togetherwith those whom they had orders to slay, they slew the aged and theinfirm; but for those that were in their flourishing age, and who mightbe useful to them, they drove them together into the temple, and shutthem up within the walls of the court of the women; over which Caesarset one of his freed-men, as also Fronto, one of his own friends; whichlast was to determine every one's fate, according to his merits. Sothis Fronto slew all those that had been seditious and robbers, who wereimpeached one by another; but of the young men he chose out the tallestand most beautiful, and reserved them for the triumph; and as for therest of the multitude that were above seventeen years old, he put theminto bonds, and sent them to the Egyptian mines [31] Titus also sent agreat number into the provinces, as a present to them, that they mightbe 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, thereperished, for want of food, eleven thousand; some of whom did not tasteany food, through the hatred their guards bore to them; and others wouldnot take in any when it was given them. The multitude also was so verygreat, that they were in want even of corn for their sustenance. 

3. Now the number [32] of those that were carried captive during thiswhole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the numberof those that perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation [with thecitizens of Jerusalem], but not belonging to the city itself; for theywere 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 apestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterward such a famine, asdestroyed them more suddenly. And that this city could contain so manypeople in it, is manifest by that number of them which was taken underCestius, who being desirous of informing Nero of the power of the city, who otherwise was disposed to contemn that nation, entreated the highpriests, if the thing were possible, to take the number of their wholemultitude. So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast whichis called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninthhour 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 feastsingly by themselves, ] and many of us are twenty in a company, foundthe number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand fivehundred; which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feasttogether, amounts to two millions seven hundred thousand and two hundredpersons 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 asare otherwise polluted, it is not lawful for them to be partakers ofthis sacrifice; nor indeed for any foreigners neither, who come hitherto worship. 

4. Now this vast multitude is indeed collected out of remote places, butthe entire nation was now shut up by fate as in prison, and theRoman army encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly, the multitude of those that therein perished exceeded allthe destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world;for, to speak only of what was publicly known, the Romans slew someof them, some they carried captives, and others they made a search forunder ground, and when they found where they were, they broke up theground and slew all they met with. There were also found slain thereabove two thousand persons, partly by their own hands, and partly by oneanother, but chiefly destroyed by the famine; but then the ill savorof the dead bodies was most offensive to those that lighted upon them, insomuch that some were obliged to get away immediately, while otherswere so greedy of gain, that they would go in among the dead bodiesthat lay on heaps, and tread upon them; for a great deal of treasure wasfound in these caverns, and the hope of gain made every way of gettingit to be esteemed lawful. Many also of those that had been put in prisonby the tyrants were now brought out; for they did not leave off theirbarbarous cruelty at the very last: yet did God avenge himself upon themboth, in a manner agreeable to justice. As for John, he wanted food, together with his brethren, in these caverns, and begged that the Romanswould now give him their right hand for his security, which he hadoften proudly rejected before; but for Simon, he struggled hard with thedistress he was in, fill he was forced to surrender himself, as we shallrelate hereafter; so he was reserved for the triumph, and to be thenslain; as was John condemned to perpetual imprisonment. And now theRomans 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 ofVespasian, on the eighth day of the month Gorpeius [Elul]. It had beentaken five [34] times before, though this was the second time of itsdesolation; for Shishak, the king of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, andafter him Pompey, and after them Sosius and Herod, took the city, butstill preserved it; but before all these, the king of Babylon conqueredit, and made it desolate, one thousand four hundred and sixty-eightyears 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 whichaccount he was [there] the first priest of God, and first built a temple[there], and called the city Jerusalem, which was formerly calledSalem. However, David, the king of the Jews, ejected the Canaanites, and set-tied his own people therein. It was demolished entirely by theBabylonians, four hundred and seventy-seven years and six months afterhim. And from king David, who was the first of the Jews who reignedtherein, to this destruction under Titus, were one thousand one hundredand seventy-nine years; but from its first building, till this lastdestruction, were two thousand one hundred and seventy-seven years; yethath not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor the diffusionof its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the greatness ofthe veneration paid to it on a religious account, been sufficient topreserve it from being destroyed. And thus ended the siege of Jerusalem. 

WAR BOOK 6 FOOTNOTES

[1] Reland notes here, very pertinently, that the tower of Antonia stoodhigher than the floor of the temple or court adjoining to it; and thataccordingly they descended thence into the temple, as Josephus elsewherespeaks also. See Book VI. Ch. 2. Sect. 5. 

[2] In this speech of Titus we may clearly see the notions which theRomans then had of death, and of the happy state of those who diedbravely in war, and the contrary estate of those who died ignobly intheir 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;" theother of Valerius Maximus, lib. 11. Ch. 6, who says, "that the Cimbriand Celtiberi exulted for joy in the army, as being to go out of theworld gloriously and happily. "

[3] See the note on p. 809. 

[4] 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 withmarble of different colors. 

[5] This was a remarkable day indeed, the seventeenth of Paneruns. [Tamuz, ] A. D. 70, when, according to Daniel's prediction, six hundredand six years before, the Romans "in half a week caused the sacrificeand 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 verytime, was just three years and a half. See Bishop Lloyd's Tables ofChronology, published by Mr. Marshall, on this year. Nor is it to beomitted, what year nearly confirms this duration of the war, that fouryears before the war begun was somewhat above seven years five monthsbefore the destruction of Jerusalem, ch. 5. Sect. 3. 

[6] The same that in the New Testament is always so called, and was thenthe common language of the Jews in Judea, which was the Syriac dialect. 

[7] Our present copies of the Old Testament want this encomium upon kingJechoniah or Jehoiachim, which it seems was in Josephus's copy. 

[8] 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 mostevident he was fully satisfied that God was on the Romans' side, andmade use of them now for the destruction of that wicked nation ofthe Jews; which was for certain the true state of this matter, as theprophet Daniel first, and our Savior himself afterwards, had clearlyforetold. See Lit. Accompl. Of Proph. P. 64, etc. 

[9] Josephus had before told us, B. V. Ch. 13. Sect. 1, that thisfourth son of Matthias ran away to the Romans "before" his father's andbrethren's slaughter, and not "after" it, as here. The former accountis, in all probability, the truest; for had not that fourth son escapedbefore the others were caught and put to death, he had been caught andput to death with them. This last account, therefore, looks like aninstance of a small inadvertence of Josephus in the place before us. 

[10] Of this partition-wall separating Jews and Gentiles, with itspillars and inscription, see the description of the temples, ch. 15. 

[11] That these seditious Jews were the direct occasions of their owndestruction, and of the conflagration of their city and temple, and thatTitus earnestly and constantly labored to save both, is here and everywhere most evident in Josephus. 

[12] Court of the Gentiles. 

[13] Court of Israel. 

[14] Of the court of the Gentiles. 

[15] What Josephus observes here, that no parallel examples had beenrecorded before this time of such sieges, wherein mothers were forced byextremity of famine to eat their own children, as had been threatened tothe Jews in the law of Moses, upon obstinate disobedience, and more thanonce fulfilled, [see my Boyle's Lectures, p. 210-214, ] is by Dr. Hudsonsupposed to have had two or three parallel examples in later ages. Hemight have had more examples, I suppose, of persons on ship-board, or ina desert island, casting lots for each others' bodies; but all thiswas only in cases where they knew of no possible way to avoid deaththemselves but by killing and eating others. Whether such examples comeup 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 andtheir liberties, and to save both their city and their temple. But thezealots, the rubbers, and the seditious would hearken to no termsof submission. They voluntarily chose to reduce the citizens to thatextremity, as to force mothers to this unnatural barbarity, which, in all its circumstances, has not, I still suppose, been hithertoparalleled among the rest of mankind. 

[16] These steps to the altar of burnt-offering seem here either animproper and inaccurate expression of Josephus, since it was unlawful tomake ladder steps; [see description of the temples, ch. 13. , and note onAntiq. B. IV. Ch. 8. Sect. 5;] or else those steps or stairs we nowuse were invented before the days of Herod the Great, and had been herebuilt by him; though the later Jews always deny it, and say that evenHerod's altar was ascended to by an acclivity only. 

[17] This Perea, if the word be not mistaken in the copies, cannotwell be that Perea which was beyond Jordan, whose mountains were at aconsiderable distance from Jordan, and much too remote from Jerusalem tojoin in this echo at the conflagration of the temple; but Perea mustbe rather some mountains beyond the brook Cedron, as was the Mountof Olives, or some others about such a distance from Jerusalem; whichobservation is so obvious, that it is a wonder our commentators heretake no notice of it. 

[18] Reland I think here judges well, when he interprets these spikes[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, asJosephus himself hath already assured us, B. V. Ch. 5. Sect. 6. 

[19] Reland here takes notice, that these Jews, who had despised thetrue Prophet, were deservedly abused and deluded by these false ones. 

[20] Whether Josephus means that this star was different from that cometwhich lasted a whole year, I cannot certainly determine. His words mostfavor their being different one from another. 

[21] Since Josephus still uses the Syro-Macedonian month Xanthicus forthe Jewish month Nisan, this eighth, or, as Nicephorus reads it, thisninth of Xanthicus or Nisan was almost a week before the passover, onthe fourteenth; about which time we learn from St. John that many usedto go "out of the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves, " John11:55, 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 extraordinarylight might appear. 

[22] This here seems to be the court of the priests. 

[23] Both Reland and Havercamp in this place alter the naturalpunctuation and sense of Josephus, and this contrary to the opinion ofValesilus and Dr. Hudson, lest Josephus should say that the Jews builtbooths or tents within the temple at the feast of tabernacles; whichthe later Rabbins will not allow to have been the ancient practice: butthen, since it is expressly told us in Nehemiah, ch. 8:16, that in stillelder 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 suchmatters of remote antiquity. 

[24] Take Havercamp's note here: "This [says he] is a remarkable place;and Tertullian truly says in his Apologetic, ch. 16. P. 162, that theentire religion of the Roman camp almost consisted in worshipping theensigns, in swearing by the ensigns, and in preferring the ensignsbefore all the [other] gods. " See what Havercamp says upon that place ofTertullian. 

[25] This declaring Titus imperator by the soldiers, upon such signalsuccess, and the slaughter of such a vast number of enemies, wasaccording to the usual practice of the Romans in like cases, as Relandassures us on this place. 

[26] The Jews of later times agree with Josephus, that there werehiding-places or secret chambers about the holy house, as Reland hereinforms us, where he thinks he has found these very walls described bythem. 

[27] Spanheim notes here, that the Romans used to permit the Jews tocollect their sacred tribute, and send it to Jerusalem; of which we havehad abundant evidence in Josephus already on other occasions. 

[28] This innumerable multitude of Jews that were "sold" by the Romanswas an eminent completion of God's ancient threatening by Moses, thatif they apostatized from the obedience to his laws, they should be "soldunto 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 herepeculiarly remarkable, that Moses adds, Though they should be "sold" forslaves, yet "no man should buy them;" i. E. Either they should have noneto redeem them from this sale into slavery; or rather, that the slavesto be sold should be more than were the purchasers for them, and sothey should be sold for little or nothing; which is what Josephus hereaffirms to have been the case at this time. 

[29] What became of these spoils of the temple that escaped the fire, see Josephus himself hereafter, B. VII. Ch. 5. Sect. 5, and Reland deSpoliis Templi, p. 129-138. 

[30] These various sorts of spices, even more than those four whichMoses prescribed, Exodus 31:34, we see were used in their public worshipunder Herod's temple, particularly cinnamon and cassia; which Relandtakes particular notice of, as agreeing with the latter testimony of theTalmudists. 

[31] See the several predictions that the Jews, if they became obstinatein their idolatry and wickedness, should be sent again or sold intoEgypt for their punishment, Deuteronomy 28:68; Jeremiah 44:7; Hosea8:13; 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] The whole multitude of the Jews that were destroyed during theentire seven years before this time, in all the countries of andbordering on Judea, is summed up by Archbishop Usher, from Lipsius, outof Josephus, at the year of Christ 70, and amounts to 1, 337, 490. Norcould there have been that number of Jews in Jerusalem to be destroyedin this siege, as will be presently set down by Josephus, but that bothJews and proselytes of justice were just then come up out of the othercountries of Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and Perea and other remoterregions, to the passover, in vast numbers, and therein cooped up, as ina prison, by the Roman army, as Josephus himself well observes in thisand the next section, and as is exactly related elsewhere, B. V. Ch. 3. Sect. 1 and ch. 13. Sect. 7. 

[33] This number of a company for one paschal lamb, between ten andtwenty, agrees exactly with the number thirteen, at our Savior's lastpassover. As to the whole number of the Jews that used to come up tothe 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 numberof the lambs, or just 2, 565, [D0, by Josephus's own reasoning; whereas itis, in his present copies, no less than 2, 700, [D0, which last numberis, however, nearest the other number in the place now cited, which is3, 000, 000. But what is here chiefly remarkable is this, that no foreignnation ever came thus to destroy the Jews at any of their solemnfestivals, from the days of Moses till this time, but came now upontheir apostasy from God, and from obedience to him. Nor is it possible, in the nature of things, that in any other nation such vast numbersshould be gotten together, and perish in the siege of any one citywhatsoever, as now happened in Jerusalem. 

[34] This is the proper place for such as have closely attended to theselatter books of the War to peruse, and that with equal attention, thosedistinct and plain predictions of Jesus of Nazareth, in the Gospelsthereto relating, as compared with their exact completions in Josephus'shistory; upon which completions, as Dr. Whitby well observes, Annot. On Matthew 24:2, no small part of the evidence for the truth of theChristian religion does depend; and as I have step by step comparedthem together in my Literal Accomplishment of Scripture Prophecies. Thereader is to observe further, that the true reason why I have soseldom taken notice of those completions in the course of these notes, notwithstanding their being so very remarkable, and frequently so veryobvious, is this, that I had entirely prevented myself in that treatisebeforehand; to which therefore I must here, once for all, seriouslyrefer every inquisitive reader. Besides these five here enumerated, whohad taken Jerusalem of old, Josephus, upon further recollection, reckonsa sixth, Antiq. B. XII. Ch. 1. Sect. 1, who should have been hereinserted in the second place; I mean Ptolemy, the son of Lagus. 

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 theywould not have spared any, had there remained any other work to bedone, ] Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire cityand temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were ofthe greatest eminency; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne;and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. Thiswall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie ingarrison, as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate toposterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which theRoman valor had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall, it was sothoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to thefoundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thitherbelieve it had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalemcame to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a cityotherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind. [1]

2. But Caesar resolved to leave there, as a guard, the tenth legion, with certain troops of horsemen, and companies of footmen. So, havingentirely completed this war, he was desirous to commend his whole army, on account of the great exploits they had performed, and to bestowproper rewards on such as had signalized themselves therein. He hadtherefore a great tribunal made for him in the midst of the placewhere he had formerly encamped, and stood upon it with his principalcommanders about him, and spake so as to be heard by the whole armyin the manner following: That he returned them abundance of thanks fortheir good-will which they had showed to him: he commended them for thatready obedience they had exhibited in this whole war, which obediencehad appeared in the many and great dangers which they had courageouslyundergone; as also for that courage they had shown, and had therebyaugmented of themselves their country's power, and had made it evidentto all men, that neither the multitude of their enemies, nor thestrength of their places, nor the largeness of their cities, nor therash boldness and brutish rage of their antagonists, were sufficient atany time to get clear of the Roman valor, although some of them may havefortune in many respects on their side. He said further, that it wasbut reasonable for them to put an end to this war, now it had lastedso long, for that they had nothing better to wish for when they enteredinto it; and that this happened more favorably for them, and more fortheir glory, that all the Romans had willingly accepted of those fortheir governors, and the curators of their dominions, whom they hadchosen for them, and had sent into their own country for that purpose, which still continued under the management of those whom they hadpitched on, and were thankful to them for pitching upon them. Thataccordingly, although he did both admire and tenderly regard them all, because he knew that every one of them had gone as cheerfully abouttheir work as their abilities and opportunities would give them leave;yet, he said, that he would immediately bestow rewards and dignities onthose that had fought the most bravely, and with greater force, and hadsignalized their conduct in the most glorious manner, and had made hisarmy more famous by their noble exploits; and that no one who hadbeen willing to take more pains than another should miss of a justretribution for the same; for that he had been exceeding careful aboutthis matter, and that the more, because he had much rather reward thevirtues of his fellow soldiers than punish such as had offended. 

3. Hereupon Titus ordered those whose business it was to read the listof all that had performed great exploits in this war, whom he called tohim by their names, and commended them before the company, and rejoicedin them in the same manner as a man would have rejoiced in his ownexploits. He also put on their heads crowns of gold, and goldenornaments about their necks, and gave them long spears of gold, andensigns that were made of silver, and removed every one of them to ahigher rank; and besides this, he plentifully distributed among them, out of the spoils, and the other prey they had taken, silver, andgold, and garments. So when they had all these honors bestowed on them, according to his own appointment made to every one, and he had wishedall sorts of happiness to the whole army, he came down, among the greatacclamations which were made to him, and then betook himself to offerthank-offerings [to the gods], and at once sacrificed a vast number ofoxen, that stood ready at the altars, and distributed them among thearmy to feast on. And when he had staid three days among the principalcommanders, and so long feasted with them, he sent away the rest of hisarmy 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 didnot send them away beyond Euphrates, where they had been before. And ashe remembered that the twelfth legion had given way to the Jews, underCestius their general, he expelled them out of all Syria, for theyhad lain formerly at Raphanea, and sent them away to a place calledMeletine, near Euphrates, which is in the limits of Armenia andCappadocia; he also thought fit that two of the legions should stay withhim till he should go to Egypt. He then went down with his army to thatCesarea which lay by the sea-side, and there laid up the rest of hisspoils in great quantities, and gave order that the captives should bekept there; for the winter season hindered him then from sailing intoItaly. 

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 toRhodes; whence he sailed away in ships with three rows of oars; andas he touched at several cities that lay in his road, he was joyfullyreceived by them all, and so passed over from Ionia into Greece; whencehe set sail from Corcyra to the promontory of Iapyx, whence he took hisjourney by land. But as for Titus, he marched from that Cesarea whichlay by the sea-side, and came to that which is named Cesarea Philippi, and staid there a considerable time, and exhibited all sorts of showsthere. And here a great number of the captives were destroyed, somebeing thrown to wild beasts, and others in multitudes forced to kill oneanother, as if they were their enemies. And here it was that Titus wasinformed of the seizure of Simon the son of Gioras, which was made afterthe manner following: This Simon, during the siege of Jerusalem, was inthe 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 hisfriends with him, and among them some that were stone-cutters, withthose iron tools which belonged to their occupation, and as great aquantity of provisions as would suffice them for a long time, and lethimself and all them down into a certain subterraneous cavern that wasnot visible above ground. Now, so far as had been digged of old, theywent onward along it without disturbance; but where they met with solidearth, they dug a mine under ground, and this in hopes that they shouldbe 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 butsmall progress, and that with difficulty also; insomuch that theirprovisions, though they distributed them by measure, began to failthem. And now Simon, thinking he might be able to astonish and elude theRomans, put on a white frock, and buttoned upon him a purple cloak, andappeared out of the ground in the place where the temple had formerlybeen. 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 themcall 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 learnedof him the whole truth, and kept him in bonds, and let Caesar know thathe was taken. Thus did God bring this man to be punished for what bitterand savage tyranny he had exercised against his countrymen by those whowere his worst enemies; and this while he was not subdued by violence, but voluntarily delivered himself up to them to be punished, and thaton the very same account that he had laid false accusations against manyJews, as if they were falling away to the Romans, and had barbarouslyslain them for wicked actions do not escape the Divine anger, nor isjustice too weak to punish offenders, but in time overtakes those thattransgress its laws, and inflicts its punishments upon the wicked in amanner, so much more severe, as they expected to escape it on accountof their not being punished immediately. [3] Simon was made sensible ofthis by falling under the indignation of the Romans. This rise of hisout of the ground did also occasion the discovery of a great number ofothers Of the seditious at that time, who had hidden themselves underground. But for Simon, he was brought to Caesar in bonds, when he wascome back to that Cesarea which was on the seaside, who gave orders thathe should be kept against that triumph which he was to celebrate at Romeupon 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 thepunishment intended for the Jews in honor of him; for the number ofthose that were now slain in fighting with the beasts, and were burnt, and fought with one another, exceeded two thousand five hundred. Yet didall this seem to the Romans, when they were thus destroyed ten thousandseveral ways, to be a punishment beneath their deserts. After thisCaesar came to Berytus, [4] which is a city of Phoenicia, and a Romancolony, and staid there a longer time, and exhibited a still morepompous solemnity about his father's birthday, both in the magnificenceof the shows, and in the other vast expenses he was at in his devicesthereto belonging; so that a great multitude of the captives were heredestroyed after the same manner as before. 

2. It happened also about this time, that the Jews who remained atAntioch were under accusations, and in danger of perishing, from thedisturbances that were raised against them by the Antiochians; and thisboth on account of the slanders spread abroad at this time against them, and on account of what pranks they had played not long before; whichI am obliged to describe without fail, though briefly, that I may thebetter connect my narration of future actions with those that wentbefore. 

3. For as the Jewish nation is widely dispersed over all the habitableearth among its inhabitants, so it is very much intermingled withSyria by reason of its neighborhood, and had the greatest multitudes inAntioch by reason of the largeness of the city, wherein the kings, afterAntiochus, had afforded them a habitation with the most undisturbedtranquillity; for though Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, laidJerusalem waste, and spoiled the temple, yet did those that succeededhim in the kingdom restore all the donations that were made of brass tothe Jews of Antioch, and dedicated them to their synagogue, and grantedthem the enjoyment of equal privileges of citizens with the Greeksthemselves; and as the succeeding kings treated them after the samemanner, they both multiplied to a great number, and adorned their templegloriously by fine ornaments, and with great magnificence, in the use ofwhat had been given them. They also made proselytes of a great many ofthe Greeks perpetually, and thereby after a sort brought them to bea portion of their own body. But about this time when the present warbegan, and Vespasian was newly sailed to Syria, and all men had takenup a great hatred against the Jews, then it was that a certain person, whose name was Antiochus, being one of the Jewish nation, and greatlyrespected on account of his father, who was governor of the Jews atAntioch [5] came upon the theater at a time when the people of Antiochwere assembled together, and became an informer against his father, andaccused both him and others that they had resolved to burn the wholecity in one night; he also delivered up to them some Jews that wereforeigners, as partners in their resolutions. When the people heardthis, they could not refrain their passion, but commanded that thosewho were delivered up to them should have fire brought to burn them, whowere accordingly all burnt upon the theater immediately. They did alsofall violently upon the multitude of the Jews, as supposing thatby punishing them suddenly they should save their own city. As forAntiochus, he aggravated the rage they were in, and thought to give thema demonstration of his own conversion, arm of his hatred of the Jewishcustoms, by sacrificing after the manner of the Greeks; he persuadedthe rest also to compel them to do the same, because they would by thatmeans discover who they were that had plotted against them, since theywould 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 forAiltiochus himself, he obtained soldiers from the Roman commander, andbecame a severe master over his own citizens, not permitting them torest on the seventh day, but forcing them to do all that they usuallydid on other days; and to that degree of distress did he reduce them inthis matter, that the rest of the seventh day was dissolved not only atAntioch, but the same thing which took thence its rise was done in othercities also, in like manner, for some small time. 

4. Now, after these misfortunes had happened to the Jews at Antioch, asecond calamity befell them, the description of which when we were goingabout we premised the account foregoing; for upon this accident, wherebythe four-square market-place was burnt down, as well as the archives, and the place where the public records were preserved, and the royalpalaces, [and it was not without difficulty that the fire was then puta 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 theoccasion of all the mischief that was done. Now this induced the peopleof Antioch, who were now under the immediate persuasion, by reason ofthe disorder they were in, that this calumny was true, and would havebeen under the same persuasion, even though they had not bornean ill-will at the Jews before, to believe this man's accusation, especially when they considered what had been done before, and thisto such a degree, that they all fell violently upon those that wereaccused, and this, like madmen, in a very furious rage also, even as ifthey 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 alreadysent 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 foundout the truth, and that not one of those Jews that were accused byAntiochus had any hand in it, but that all was done by some vile personsgreatly in debt, who supposed that if they could once set fire to themarket-place, and burn the public records, they should have no furtherdemands made upon them. So the Jews were under great disorder andterror, in the uncertain expectations of what would be the upshot ofthese 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 concerninghis 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 nowfreed from the solicitude he had been under, after the most agreeablemanner. For all men that were in Italy showed their respects to himin their minds before he came thither, as if he were already come, asesteeming 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 thegood-will they bore him was entirely free and unconstrained; for it was, desirable thing to the senate, who well remembered the calamities theyhad undergone in the late changes of their governors, to receive agovernor who was adorned with the gravity of old age, and with thehighest skill in the actions of war, whose advancement would be, as theyknew, for nothing else but for the preservation of those that were tobe governed. Moreover, the people had been so harassed by their civilmiseries, 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 andprosperity; and for the soldiery, they had the principal regard to him, for they were chiefly apprized of his great exploits in war; and sincethey had experienced the want of skill and want of courage in othercommanders, they were very desirous to be free from that great shamethey had undergone by their means, and heartily wished to receive sucha prince as might be a security and an ornament to them. And as thisgood-will to Vespasian was universal, those that enjoyed any remarkabledignities could not have patience enough to stay in Rome, but made hasteto meet him at a very great distance from it; nay, indeed, none of therest could endure the delay of seeing him, but did all pour out of thecity in such crowds, and were so universally possessed with the opinionthat 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 perceiveditself almost empty of its citizens; for those that staid within werefewer than those that went out. But as soon as the news was come that hewas hard by, and those that had met him at first related with what goodhumor he received every one that came to him, then it was that the wholemultitude that had remained in the city, with their wives and children, came into the road, and waited for him there; and for those whom hepassed by, they made all sorts of acclamations, on account of the joythey had to see him, and the pleasantness of his countenance, and styledhim their Benefactor and Savior, and the only person who was worthy tobe ruler of the city of Rome. And now the city was like a temple, fullof garlands and sweet odors; nor was it easy for him to come to theroyal palace, for the multitude of the people that stood about him, where yet at last he performed his sacrifices of thanksgiving to hishousehold gods for his safe return to the city. The multitude did alsobetake themselves to feasting; which feasts and drink-offerings theycelebrated by their tribes, and their families, and their neighborhoods, and still prayed God to grant that Vespasian, his sons, and all theirposterity, might continue in the Roman government for a very long time, and that his dominion might be preserved from all opposition. And thiswas the manner in which Rome so joyfully received Vespasian, and thencegrew immediately into a state of great prosperity. 

2. But before this time, and while Vespasian was about Alexandria, andTitus was lying at the siege of Jerusalem, a great multitude of theGermans were in commotion, and tended to rebellion; and as the Gauls intheir neighborhood joined with them, they conspired together, and hadthereby great hopes of success, and that they should free themselvesfrom the dominion of the Romans. The motives that induced the Germans tothis attempt for a revolt, and for beginning the war, were these: Inthe first place, the nature [of the people], which was destitute of justreasonings, and ready to throw themselves rashly into danger, upon smallhopes; in the next place, the hatred they bore to those that were theirgovernors, while their nation had never been conscious of subjectionto any but to the Romans, and that by compulsion only. Besides thesemotives, it was the opportunity that now offered itself, which aboveall the rest prevailed with them so to do; for when they saw the Romangovernment in a great internal disorder, by the continual changes of itsrulers, and understood that every part of the habitable earth under themwas in an unsettled and tottering condition, they thought this was thebest opportunity that could afford itself for themselves to make asedition, 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 thedeclaration of their sentiments; the multitude was also ready; and whenthese men told them of what they intended to attempt, that news wasgladly received by them. So when a great part of the Germans had agreedto rebel, and the rest were no better disposed, Vespasian, as guided byDivine Providence, sent letters to Petilius Cerealis, who had formerlyhad the command of Germany, whereby he declared him to have the dignityof 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 ofthe revolt of the Germans, he fell upon them as soon as they were gottentogether, and put his army in battle-array, and slew a great number ofthem in the fight, and forced them to leave off their madness, and togrow wiser; nay, had he not fallen thus suddenly upon them on theplace, it had not been long ere they would however have been broughtto punishment; for as soon as ever the news of their revolt was come toRome, and Caesar Domitian was made acquainted with it, he made no delay, even at that his age, when he was exceeding young, but undertook thisweighty affair. He had a courageous mind from his father, and hadmade greater improvements than belonged to such an age: accordinglyhe marched against the barbarians immediately; whereupon their heartsfailed them at the very rumor of his approach, and they submittedthemselves to him with fear, and thought it a happy thing that theywere brought under their old yoke again without suffering any furthermischiefs. When therefore Domitian had settled all the affairs of Gaulin such good order, that it would not be easily put into disorder anymore, he returned to Rome with honor and glory, as having performed suchexploits 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 Germansdid the bold attempt of the Scythians against the Romans occur; forthose Scythians who are called Sarmatians, being a very numerouspeople, transported themselves over the Danube into Mysia, withoutbeing perceived; after which, by their violence, and entirely unexpectedassault, they slew a great many of the Romans that guarded thefrontiers; and as the consular legate Fonteius Agrippa came to meetthem, and fought courageously against them, he was slain by them. Theythen overran all the region that had been subject to him, tearing andrending every thing that fell in their way. But when Vespasian wasinformed of what had happened, and how Mysia was laid waste, he sentaway Rubrius Gallus to punish these Sarmatians; by whose means many ofthem perished in the battles he fought against them, and that part whichescaped fled with fear to their own country. So when this generalhad put an end to the war, he provided for the future security of thecountry also; for he placed more and more numerous garrisons in theplace, till he made it altogether impossible for the barbarians topass over the river any more. And thus had this war in Mysia a suddenconclusion. 

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 citiesof Syria through which he went, and made use of the captive Jews aspublic instances of the destruction of that nation. He then saw ariver as he went along, of such a nature as deserves to be recorded inhistory; it runs in the middle between Arcea, belonging to Agrippa'skingdom, and Raphanea. It hath somewhat very peculiar in it; for whenit runs, its current is strong, and has plenty of water; after which itssprings fail for six days together, and leave its channel dry, as anyone may see; after which days it runs on the seventh day as it didbefore, and as though it had undergone no change at all; it hath alsobeen observed to keep this order perpetually and exactly; whence it isthat they call it the Sabbatic River [7] that name being taken from thesacred seventh day among the Jews. 

2. But when the people of Antioch were informed that Titus wasapproaching, they were so glad at it, that they could not keep withintheir walls, but hasted away to give him the meeting; nay, theyproceeded as far as thirty furlongs, and more, with that intention. These were not the men only, but a multitude of women also with theirchildren did the same; and when they saw him coming up to them, theystood on both sides of the way, and stretched out their right hands, saluting him, and making all sorts of acclamations to him, and turnedback together with him. They also, among all the acclamations they madeto him, besought him all the way they went to eject the Jews out oftheir city; yet did not Titus at all yield to this their petition, butgave them the bare hearing of it quietly. However, the Jews were in agreat deal of terrible fear, under the uncertainty they were in whathis opinion was, and what he would do to them. For Titus did not stayat Antioch, but continued his progress immediately to Zeugma, which liesupon the Euphrates, whither came to him messengers from Vologeses kingof Parthia, and brought him a crown of gold upon the victory he hadgained over the Jews; which he accepted of, and feasted the king'smessengers, and then came back to Antioch. And when the senate andpeople of Antioch earnestly entreated him to come upon their theater, where their whole multitude was assembled, and expected him, he compliedwith great humanity; but when they pressed him with much earnestness, and continually begged of him that he would eject the Jews out of theircity, he gave them this very pertinent answer: "How can this be done, since that country of theirs, whither the Jews must be obliged then toretire, is destroyed, and no place will receive them besides?" Whereuponthe people of Antioch, when they had failed of success in this theirfirst request, made him a second; for they desired that he would orderthose tables of brass to be removed on which the Jews' privileges wereengraven. However, Titus would not grant that neither, but permitted theJews of Antioch to continue to enjoy the very same privileges in thatcity which they had before, and then departed for Egypt; and as he cameto Jerusalem in his progress, and compared the melancholy condition hesaw it then in, with the ancient glory of the city, and called to mindthe 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 fromboasting that so great and goodly a city as that was had been by himtaken by force; nay, he frequently cursed those that had been theauthors of their revolt, and had brought such a punishment upon thecity; insomuch that it openly appeared that he did not desire thatsuch a calamity as this punishment of theirs amounted to should be ademonstration of his courage. Yet was there no small quantity of theriches that had been in that city still found among its ruins, a greatdeal of which the Romans dug up; but the greatest part was discoveredby those who were captives, and so they carried it away; I mean the goldand the silver, and the rest of that most precious furniture which theJews had, and which the owners had treasured up under ground, againstthe uncertain fortunes of war. 

3. So Titus took the journey he intended into Egypt, and passed over thedesert very suddenly, and came to Alexandria, and took up a resolutionto go to Rome by sea. And as he was accompanied by two legions, he senteach of them again to the places whence they had before come; the fifthhe sent to Mysia, and the fifteenth to Pannonia: as for the leaders ofthe captives, Simon and John, with the other seven hundred men, whomhe had selected out of the rest as being eminently tall and handsomeof 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 aprosperous voyage to his mind, the city of Rome behaved itself in hisreception, and their meeting him at a distance, as it did in the caseof his father. But what made the most splendid appearance in Titus'sopinion was, when his father met him, and received him; but still themultitude of the citizens conceived the greatest joy when they saw themall three together, [8] as they did at this time; nor were many daysoverpast when they determined to have but one triumph, that should becommon to both of them, on account of the glorious exploits they hadperformed, although the senate had decreed each of them a separatetriumph by himself. So when notice had been given beforehand of the dayappointed for this pompous solemnity to be made, on account of theirvictories, not one of the immense multitude was left in the city, butevery body went out so far as to gain only a station where they mightstand, and left only such a passage as was necessary for those that wereto be seen to go along it. 

4. Now all the soldiery marched out beforehand by companies, and intheir several ranks, under their several commanders, in the night time, and were about the gates, not of the upper palaces, but those nearthe temple of Isis; for there it was that the emperors had rested theforegoing night. And as soon as ever it was day, Vespasian and Tituscame out crowned with laurel, and clothed in those ancient purple habitswhich were proper to their family, and then went as far as Octavian'sWalks; for there it was that the senate, and the principal rulers, andthose that had been recorded as of the equestrian order, waited forthem. Now a tribunal had been erected before the cloisters, and ivorychairs 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 werethemselves without their arms, and only in their silken garments, andcrowned with laurel: then Vespasian accepted of these shouts of theirs;but while they were still disposed to go on in such acclamations, hegave them a signal of silence. And when every body entirely held theirpeace, he stood up, and covering the greatest part of his head with hiscloak, he put up the accustomed solemn prayers; the like prayers didTitus put up also; after which prayers Vespasian made a short speech toall the people, and then sent away the soldiers to a dinner prepared forthem by the emperors. Then did he retire to that gate which was calledthe Gate of the Pomp, because pompous shows do always go through thatgate; there it was that they tasted some food, and when they had put ontheir triumphal garments, and had offered sacrifices to the gods thatwere placed at the gate, they sent the triumph forward, and marchedthrough the theatres, that they might be the more easily seen by themultitudes. 

5. Now it is impossible to describe the multitude of the shows as theydeserve, and the magnificence of them all; such indeed as a man couldnot easily think of as performed, either by the labor of workmen, orthe variety of riches, or the rarities of nature; for almost all suchcuriosities as the most happy men ever get by piece-meal were here oneheaped on another, and those both admirable and costly in their nature;and all brought together on that day demonstrated the vastness of thedominions of the Romans; for there was here to be seen a mighty quantityof silver, and gold, and ivory, contrived into all sorts of things, anddid not appear as carried along in pompous show only, but, as a man maysay, running along like a river. Some parts were composed of the rarestpurple hangings, and so carried along; and others accurately representedto the life what was embroidered by the arts of the Babylonians. Therewere also precious stones that were transparent, some set in crowns ofgold, and some in other ouches, as the workmen pleased; and of thesesuch a vast number were brought, that we could not but thence learn howvainly we imagined any of them to be rarities. The images of the godswere also carried, being as well wonderful for their largeness, as madevery artificially, and with great skill of the workmen; nor were any ofthese images of any other than very costly materials; and many speciesof animals were brought, every one in their own natural ornaments. Themen also who brought every one of these shows were great multitudes, andadorned with purple garments, all over interwoven with gold; those thatwere chosen for carrying these pompous shows having also about them suchmagnificent ornaments as were both extraordinary and surprising. Besidesthese, one might see that even the great number of the captives was notunadorned, while the variety that was in their garments, and their finetexture, concealed from the sight the deformity of their bodies. Butwhat afforded the greatest surprise of all was the structure of thepageants that were borne along; for indeed he that met them couldnot but be afraid that the bearers would not be able firmly enough tosupport them, such was their magnitude; for many of them were so made, that they were on three or even four stories, one above another. Themagnificence also of their structure afforded one both pleasure andsurprise; for upon many of them were laid carpets of gold. Therewas also wrought gold and ivory fastened about them all; and manyresemblances of the war, and those in several ways, and variety ofcontrivances, affording a most lively portraiture of itself. For therewas to be seen a happy country laid waste, and entire squadrons ofenemies slain; while some of them ran away, and some were carried intocaptivity; with walls of great altitude and magnitude overthrown andruined by machines; with the strongest fortifications taken, and thewalls of most populous cities upon the tops of hills seized on, andan army pouring itself within the walls; as also every place full ofslaughter, and supplications of the enemies, when they were no longerable to lift up their hands in way of opposition. Fire also sent upontemples was here represented, and houses overthrown, and falling upontheir owners: rivers also, after they came out of a large and melancholydesert, ran down, not into a land cultivated, nor as drink for men, orfor cattle, but through a land still on fire upon every side; for theJews related that such a thing they had undergone during this war. Nowthe workmanship of these representations was so magnificent and livelyin the construction of the things, that it exhibited what had been doneto such as did not see it, as if they had been there really present. Onthe top of every one of these pageants was placed the commander of thecity that was taken, and the manner wherein he was taken. Moreover, there followed those pageants a great number of ships; and for the otherspoils, they were carried in great plenty. But for those that were takenin the temple of Jerusalem, [9] they made the greatest figure of themall; that is, the golden table, of the weight of many talents; thecandlestick also, that was made of gold, though its construction werenow changed from that which we made use of; for its middle shaft wasfixed upon a basis, and the small branches were produced out of it toa great length, having the likeness of a trident in their position, andhad 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 thenumber seven among the Jews; and the last of all the spoils, was carriedthe Law of the Jews. After these spoils passed by a great many men, carrying the images of Victory, whose structure was entirely either ofivory or of gold. After which Vespasian marched in the first place, and Titus followed him; Domitian also rode along with them, and made aglorious 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 JupiterCapitolinus, whither when they were come, they stood still; for it wasthe Romans' ancient custom to stay till somebody brought the news thatthe general of the enemy was slain. This general was Simon, the son ofGioras, who had then been led in this triumph among the captives; a ropehad also been put upon his head, and he had been drawn into a properplace in the forum, and had withal been tormented by those that drew himalong; and the law of the Romans required that malefactors condemned todie should be slain there. Accordingly, when it was related that therewas an end of him, and all the people had set up a shout for joy, theythen began to offer those sacrifices which they had consecrated, in theprayers used in such solemnities; which when they had finished, theywent away to the palace. And as for some of the spectators, the emperorsentertained them at their own feast; and for all the rest there werenoble preparations made for feasting at home; for this was a festivalday to the city of Rome, as celebrated for the victory obtained by theirarmy over their enemies, for the end that was now put to their civilmiseries, and for the commencement of their hopes of future prosperityand happiness. 

7. After these triumphs were over, and after the affairs of the Romanswere settled on the surest foundations, Vespasian resolved to builda temple to Peace, which was finished in so short a time, and in soglorious a manner, as was beyond all human expectation and opinion: forhe having now by Providence a vast quantity of wealth, besides what hehad formerly gained in his other exploits, he had this temple adornedwith pictures and statues; for in this temple were collected anddeposited all such rarities as men aforetime used to wander all over thehabitable world to see, when they had a desire to see one of them afteranother; he also laid up therein those golden vessels and instrumentsthat were taken out of the Jewish temple, as ensigns of his glory. Butstill he gave order that they should lay up their Law, and the purpleveils of the holy place, in the royal palace itself, and keep themthere. 

CHAPTER 6. 

 Concerning Macherus, And How Lucilius Bassus Took That Citadel, And Other Places. 

1. Now Lucilius Bassus was sent as legate into Judea, and there hereceived the army from Cerealis Vitellianus, and took that citadel whichwas in Herodium, together with the garrison that was in it; after whichhe got together all the soldiery that was there, [which was a largebody, but dispersed into several parties, ] with the tenth legion, andresolved to make war upon Macherus; for it was highly necessary thatthis citadel should be demolished, lest it might be a means of drawingaway many into a rebellion, by reason of its strength; for the natureof the place was very capable of affording the surest hopes of safety tothose that possessed it, as well as delay and fear to those that shouldattack it; for what was walled in was itself a very rocky hill, elevatedto a very great height; which circumstance alone made it very hard to besubdued. It was also so contrived by nature, that it could not be easilyascended; for it is, as it were, ditched about with such valleys on allsides, 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 isimpossible to fill up with earth. For that valley which cuts it on thewest extends to threescore furlongs, and did not end till it came tothe lake Asphaltitis; on the same side it was also that Macherus hadthe tallest top of its hill elevated above the rest. But then for thevalleys that lay on the north and south sides, although they be notso large as that already described, yet it is in like manner animpracticable thing to think of getting over them; and for the valleythat lies on the east side, its depth is found to be no less than ahundred cubits. It extends as far as a mountain that lies over againstMacherus, with which it is bounded. 

2. Now when Alexander [Janneus], the king of the Jews, observed thenature of this place, he was the first who built a citadel here, which afterwards was demolished by Gabinius, when he made war againstAristobulus. But when Herod came to be king, he thought the place tobe worthy of the utmost regard, and of being built upon in the firmestmanner, and this especially because it lay so near to Arabia; for it isseated in a convenient place on that account, and hath a prospect towardthat country; he therefore surrounded a large space of ground with wallsand towers, and built a city there, out of which city there was a waythat 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 erectedtowers at the corners, of a hundred and sixty cubits high; in the middleof which place he built a palace, after a magnificent manner, whereinwere large and beautiful edifices. He also made a great many reservoirsfor the reception of water, that there might be plenty of it readyfor all uses, and those in the properest places that were afforded himthere. Thus did he, as it were, contend with the nature of the place, that he might exceed its natural strength and security [which yet itselfrendered it hard to be taken] by those fortifications which were made bythe hands of men. Moreover, he put a large quantity of darts and othermachines of war into it, and contrived to get every thing thither thatmight any way contribute to its inhabitants' security, under the longestsiege possible. 

3. Now within this place there grew a sort of rue [10] that deserves ourwonder on account of its largeness, for it was no way inferior to anyfig tree whatsoever, either in height or in thickness; and the reportis, that it had lasted ever since the times of Herod, and would probablyhave lasted much longer, had it not been cut down by those Jews whotook possession of the place afterward. But still in that valley whichencompasses the city on the north side there is a certain place calledBaaras, which produces a root of the same name with itself [11] itscolor is like to that of flame, and towards the evenings it sends out acertain ray like lightning. It is not easily taken by such as woulddo it, but recedes from their hands, nor will yield itself to be takenquietly, until either the urine of a woman, or her menstrual blood, bepoured upon it; nay, even then it is certain death to those that touchit, 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 hiddenpart of the root be very small, they then tie a dog to it, and when thedog tries hard to follow him that tied him, this root is easily pluckedup, but the dog dies immediately, as if it were instead of the man thatwould take the plant away; nor after this need any one be afraid oftaking it into their hands. Yet, after all this pains in getting, itis only valuable on account of one virtue it hath, that if it be onlybrought to sick persons, it quickly drives away those called demons, which are no other than the spirits of the wicked, that enter into menthat are alive and kill them, unless they can obtain some help againstthem. 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 themare bitter, and others of them are plainly sweet. Here are also manyeruptions of cold waters, and this not only in the places that lielower, and have their fountains near one another, but, what is stillmore wonderful, here is to be seen a certain cave hard by, whose cavityis not deep, but it is covered over by a rock that is prominent; abovethis rock there stand up two [hills or] breasts, as it were, but alittle distant one from another, the one of which sends out a fountainthat is very cold, and the other sends out one that is very hot; whichwaters, when they are mingled together, compose a most pleasant bath;they are medicinal indeed for other maladies, but especially good forstrengthening the nerves. This place has in it also mines of sulfur andalum. 

4. Now when Bassus had taken a full view of this place, he resolved tobesiege it, by filling up the valley that lay on the east side; so hefell hard to work, and took great pains to raise his banks as soon aspossible, and by that means to render the siege easy. As for the Jewsthat were caught in this place, they separated themselves from thestrangers that were with them, and they forced those strangers, as anotherwise useless multitude, to stay in the lower part of the city, andundergo the principal dangers, while they themselves seized on the uppercitadel, and held it, and this both on account of its strength, and toprovide for their own safety. They also supposed they might obtain theirpardon, in case they should [at last] surrender the citadel. However, they were willing to make trial, in the first place, whether thehopes they had of avoiding a siege would come to any thing; with whichintention they made sallies every day, and fought with those that metthem; in which conflicts they were many of them slain, as they thereinslew many of the Romans. But still it was the opportunities thatpresented themselves which chiefly gained both sides their victories;these were gained by the Jews, when they fell upon the Romans as theywere off their guard; but by the Romans, when, upon the others' salliesagainst their banks, they foresaw their coming, and were upon their lardwhen they received them. But the conclusion of this siege did not dependupon these bickerings; but a certain surprising accident, relating towhat 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 signalizedhimself in those sallies, and encouraged the Jews to go out in greatnumbers, in order to hinder the raising of the banks, and did theRomans a vast deal of mischief when they came to fighting; he so managedmatters, that those who sallied out made their attacks easily, andreturned back without danger, and this by still bringing up the rearhimself. Now it happened that, on a certain time, when the fight wasover, and both sides were parted, and retired home, he, in way ofcontempt of the enemy, and thinking that none of them would begin thefight again at that time, staid without the gates, and talked with thosethat were upon the wall, and his mind was wholly intent upon what theysaid. Now a certain person belonging to the Roman camp, whose lame wasRufus, by birth an Egyptian, ran upon him suddenly, when nobody expectedsuch a thing, and carried him off, with his armor itself; while, in themean time, those that saw it from the wall were under such an amazement, that Rufus prevented their assistance, and carried Eleazar to the Romancamp. So the general of the Romans ordered that he should be taken upnaked, set before the city to be seen, and sorely whipped before theireyes. Upon this sad accident that befell the young man, the Jews wereterribly confounded, and the city, with one voice, sorely lamented him, and the mourning proved greater than could well be supposed upon thecalamity of a single person. When Bassus perceived that, he beganto think of using a stratagem against the enemy, and was desirous toaggravate their grief, in order to prevail with them to surrender thecity for the preservation of that man. Nor did he fail of his hope; forhe commanded them to set up a cross, as if he were just going to hangEleazar upon it immediately; the sight of this occasioned a sore griefamong those that were in the citadel, and they groaned vehemently, andcried out that they could not bear to see him thus destroyed. WhereuponEleazar besought them not to disregard him, now he was going to suffer amost miserable death, and exhorted them to save themselves, by yieldingto the Roman power and good fortune, since all other people were nowconquered by them. These men were greatly moved with what he said, therebeing also many within the city that interceded for him, because he wasof an eminent and very numerous family; so they now yielded to theirpassion of commiseration, contrary to their usual custom. Accordingly, they sent out immediately certain messengers, and treated with theRomans, in order to a surrender of the citadel to them, and desired thatthey might be permitted to go away, and take Eleazar along with them. Then did the Romans and their general accept of these terms; while themultitude of strangers that were in the lower part of the city, hearingof the agreement that was made by the Jews for themselves alone, wereresolved to fly away privately in the night time; but as soon as theyhad opened their gates, those that had come to terms with Bassus toldhim of it; whether it were that they envied the others' deliverance, or whether it were done out of fear, lest an occasion should be takenagainst 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. . . . 

5. When Bassus had settled these affairs, he marched hastily to theforest of Jarden, as it is called; for he had heard that a great manyof those that had fled from Jerusalem and Macherus formerly were theregotten together. When he was therefore come to the place, and understoodthat the former news was no mistake, he, in the first place, surroundedthe whole place with his horsemen, that such of the Jews as had boldnessenough to try to break through might have no way possible for escaping, by reason of the situation of these horsemen; and for the footmen, heordered them to cut down the trees that were in the wood whitherthey were fled. So the Jews were under a necessity of performing someglorious exploit, and of greatly exposing themselves in a battle, sincethey might perhaps thereby escape. So they made a general attack, andwith a great shout fell upon those that surrounded them, who receivedthem 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 theassailants; for so it happened, that no more than twelve fell on theRoman side, with a few that were wounded; but not one of the Jewsescaped out of this battle, but they were all killed, being in the wholenot fewer in number than three thousand, together with Judas, the sonof Jairus, their general, concerning whom we have before spoken, that hehad been a captain of a certain band at the siege of Jerusalem, and bygoing down into a certain vault under ground, had privately made hisescape. 

6. About the same time it was that Caesar sent a letter to Bassus, andto Liberius Maximus, who was the procurator [of Judea], and gave orderthat all Judea should be exposed to sale [12] for he did not found anycity there, but reserved the country for himself. However, he assigneda 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] andis distant from Jerusalem threescore furlongs. He also laid a tributeupon the Jews wheresoever they were, and enjoined every one of them tobring two drachmae every year into the Capitol, as they used to pay thesame to the temple at Jerusalem. And this was the state of the Jewishaffairs 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 topass that Antiochus, the king of Commagene, with all his family, fellinto very great calamities. The occasion was this: Cesennius Petus, whowas president of Syria at this time, whether it were done out of regardto truth, or whether out of hatred to Antiochus, [for which was the realmotive was never thoroughly discovered, ] sent an epistle to Caesar, andtherein told him that Antiochus, with his son Epiphanes, had resolved torebel against the Romans, and had made a league with the king of Parthiato that purpose; that it was therefore fit to prevent them, lest theyprevent us, and begin such a war as may cause a general disturbance inthe Roman empire. Now Caesar was disposed to take some care about thematter, since this discovery was made; for the neighborhood of thekingdoms made this affair worthy of greater regard; for Samoseta, thecapital of Commagene, lies upon Euphrates, and upon any such designcould afford an easy passage over it to the Parthians, and could alsoafford them a secure reception. Petus was accordingly believed, and hadauthority given him of doing what he should think proper in the case; sohe set about it without delay, and fell upon Commagene before Antiochusand his people had the least expectation of his coming: he had with himthe tenth legion, as also some cohorts and troops of horsemen. Thesekings also came to his assistance: Aristobulus, king of the countrycalled Chalcidene, and Sohemus, who was called king of Emesa. Nor wasthere 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 againstthem. When Antiochus heard this unexpected news, he could not think inthe least of making war with the Romans, but determined to leave hiswhole kingdom in the state wherein it now was, and to retire privately, with his wife and children, as thinking thereby to demonstrate himselfto the Romans to be innocent as to the accusation laid against him. Sohe 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 theirmeans took possession of that city, while he went himself to attackAntiochus with the rest of his army. However, the king was not prevailedupon by the distress he was in to do any thing in the way of war againstthe Romans, but bemoaned his own hard fate, and endured with patiencewhat he was not able to prevent. But his sons, who were young, andunexperienced in war, but of strong bodies, were not easily inducedto bear this calamity without fighting. Epiphanes, therefore, andCallinicus, betook themselves to military force; and as the battle was asore one, and lasted all the day long, they showed their own valor ina remarkable manner, and nothing but the approach of night put a periodthereto, and that without any diminution of their forces; yet wouldnot Antiochus, upon this conclusion of the fight, continue there by anymeans, but took his wife and his daughters, and fled away with themto Cilicia, and by so doing quite discouraged the minds of his ownsoldiers. Accordingly, they revolted, and went over to the Romans, outof the despair they were in of his keeping the kingdom; and his case waslooked upon by all as quite desperate. It was therefore necessary thatEpiphanes and his soldiers should get clear of their enemies before theybecame entirely destitute of any confederates; nor were there any morethan ten horsemen with him, who passed with him over Euphrates, whencethey went undisturbed to Vologeses, the king of Parthie, where they werenot disregarded as fugitives, but had the same respect paid them as ifthey had retained their ancient prosperity. 

3. Now when Antiochus was come to Tarsus in Cilicia, Petus ordereda 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 friendshipthat had been between them, than to preserve an inexorable anger uponpretense of this war. Accordingly, he gave orders that they should takeoff his bonds, while he was still upon the road, and that he should notcome to Rome, but should now go and live at Lacedemon; he also gave himlarge revenues, that he might not only live in plenty, but like a kingalso. When Epiphanes, who before was in great fear for his father, wasinformed of this, their minds were freed from that great and almostincurable concern they had been under. He also hoped that Caesar wouldbe reconciled to them, upon the intercession of Vologeses; for althoughhe lived in plenty, he knew not how to bear living out of the Romanempire. So Caesar gave him leave, after an obliging manner, and he cameto Rome; and as his father came quickly to him from Lacedemon, he hadall sorts of respect paid him there, and there he remained. 

4. Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentionedsome where as being Scythians and inhabiting at the lake Meotis. Thisnation about this time laid a design of falling upon Media, and theparts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention theytreated with the king of Hyrcania; for he was master of that passagewhich king Alexander [the Great] shut up with iron gates. This king gavethem leave to come through them; so they came in great multitudes, andfell upon the Medes unexpectedly, and plundered their country, whichthey found full of people, and replenished with abundance of cattle, while nobody durst make any resistance against them; for Paeorus, theking of the country, had fled away for fear into places where they couldnot 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 withdifficulty also, after they had been made captives, by giving them ahundred talents for their ransom. These Alans therefore plundered thecountry without opposition, and with great ease, and proceeded as faras Armenia, laying all waste before them. Now Tiridates was king of thatcountry, who met them, and fought them, but had like to have been takenalive in the battle; for a certain man threw a net over him from a greatdistance, and had soon drawn him to him, unless he had immediately cutthe cord with his sword, and ran away, and prevented it. So the Alans, being still more provoked by this sight, laid waste the country, anddrove a great multitude of the men, and a great quantity of the otherprey they had gotten out of both kingdoms, along with them, and thenretreated 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 asprocurator there; who, when he saw that all the rest of the country wassubdued in this war, and that there was but one only strong holdthat was still in rebellion, he got all his army together that lay indifferent places, and made an expedition against it. This fortress wascalled Masada. It was one Eleazar, a potent man, and the commander ofthese Sicarii, that had seized upon it. He was a descendant from thatJudas who had persuaded abundance of the Jews, as we have formerlyrelated, not to submit to the taxation when Cyrenius was sent into Judeato make one; for then it was that the Sicarii got together againstthose that were willing to submit to the Romans, and treated them in allrespects as if they had been their enemies, both by plundering themof what they had, by driving away their cattle, and by setting fireto their houses; for they said that they differed not at all fromforeigners, by betraying, in so cowardly a manner, that freedom whichJews thought worthy to be contended for to the utmost, and by owningthat they preferred slavery under the Romans before such a contention. Now this was in reality no better than a pretense and a cloak for thebarbarity which was made use of by them, and to color over their ownavarice, which they afterwards made evident by their own actions; forthose that were partners with them in their rebellion joined also withthem in the war against the Romans, and went further lengths with themin their impudent undertakings against them; and when they were againconvicted of dissembling in such their pretenses, they still more abusedthose that justly reproached them for their wickedness. And indeed thatwas a time most fertile in all manner of wicked practices, insomuch thatno kind of evil deeds were then left undone; nor could any one so muchas devise any bad thing that was new, so deeply were they all infected, and strove with one another in their single capacity, and in theircommunities, who should run the greatest lengths in impiety towardsGod, and in unjust actions towards their neighbors; the men of poweroppressing the multitude, and the multitude earnestly laboring todestroy the men of power. The one part were desirous of tyrannizing overothers, and the rest of offering violence to others, and of plunderingsuch as were richer than themselves. They were the Sicarii who firstbegan these transgressions, and first became barbarous towards thoseallied to them, and left no words of reproach unsaid, and no works ofperdition untried, in order to destroy those whom their contrivancesaffected. Yet did John demonstrate by his actions that these Sicariiwere more moderate than he was himself, for he not only slew all suchas gave him good counsel to do what was right, but treated them worst ofall, 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 impietytowards God would naturally do; for the food was unlawful that was setupon his table, and he rejected those purifications that the law of hiscountry had ordained; so that it was no longer a wonder if he, whowas so mad in his impiety towards God, did not observe any rules ofgentleness and common affection towards men. Again, therefore, whatmischief was there which Simon the son of Gioras did not do? or whatkind of abuses did he abstain from as to those very free-men who had sethim up for a tyrant? What friendship or kindred were there that did notmake him more bold in his daily murders? for they looked upon the doingof mischief to strangers only as a work beneath their courage, butthought their barbarity towards their nearest relations would be aglorious demonstration thereof. The Idumeans also strove with thesemen who should be guilty of the greatest madness! for they [all], vilewretches as they were, cut the throats of the high priests, that sono part of a religious regard to God might be preserved; theythence proceeded to destroy utterly the least remains of a politicalgovernment, and introduced the most complete scene of iniquity in allinstances that were practicable; under which scene that sort of peoplethat were called zealots grew up, and who indeed corresponded tothe name; for they imitated every wicked work; nor, if their memorysuggested any evil thing that had formerly been done, did they avoidzealously to pursue the same; and although they gave themselves thatname from their zeal for what was good, yet did it agree to them onlyby way of irony, on account of those they had unjustly treated by theirwild and brutish disposition, or as thinking the greatest mischiefs tobe the greatest good. Accordingly, they all met with such ends as Goddeservedly brought upon them in way of punishment; for all such miserieshave been sent upon them as man's nature is capable of undergoing, till the utmost period of their lives, and till death came upon themin various ways of torment; yet might one say justly that they sufferedless than they had done, because it was impossible they could bepunished according to their deserving. But to make a lamentationaccording 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 theremaining part of the present narration. 

2. For now it was that the Roman general came, and led his army againstEleazar and those Sicarii who held the fortress Masada together withhim; and for the whole country adjoining, he presently gained it, andput garrisons into the most proper places of it; he also built a wallquite round the entire fortress, that none of the besieged might easilyescape; he also set his men to guard the several parts of it; he alsopitched his camp in such an agreeable place as he had chosen for thesiege, and at which place the rock belonging to the fortress did makethe nearest approach to the neighboring mountain, which yet was a placeof difficulty for getting plenty of provisions; for it was not only foodthat was to be brought from a great distance [to the army], and thiswith a great deal of pain to those Jews who were appointed for thatpurpose, but water was also to be brought to the camp, because the placeafforded no fountain that was near it. When therefore Silva had orderedthese affairs beforehand, he fell to besieging the place; which siegewas likely to stand in need of a great deal of skill and pains, byreason of the strength of the fortress, the nature of which I will nowdescribe. 

3. There was a rock, not small in circumference, and very high. It wasencompassed with valleys of such vast depth downward, that the eye couldnot reach their bottoms; they were abrupt, and such as no animal couldwalk upon, excepting at two places of the rock, where it subsides, inorder to afford a passage for ascent, though not without difficulty. Now, of the ways that lead to it, one is that from the lake Asphaltiris, towards the sun-rising, and another on the west, where the ascent iseasier: the one of these ways is called the Serpent, as resembling thatanimal in its narrowness and its perpetual windings; for it is brokenoff at the prominent precipices of the rock, and returns frequently intoitself, and lengthening again by little and little, hath much ado toproceed forward; and he that would walk along it must first go on oneleg, and then on the other; there is also nothing but destruction, incase your feet slip; for on each side there is a vastly deep chasm andprecipice, sufficient to quell the courage of every body by the terrorit infuses into the mind. When, therefore, a man hath gone along thisway for thirty furlongs, the rest is the top of the hill--not ending ata small point, but is no other than a plain upon the highest part of themountain. Upon this top of the hill, Jonathan the high priest first ofall built a fortress, and called it Masada: after which the rebuildingof this place employed the care of king Herod to a great degree; healso built a wall round about the entire top of the hill, seven furlongslong; it was composed of white stone; its height was twelve, andits breadth eight cubits; there were also erected upon that wallthirty-eight towers, each of them fifty cubits high; out of which youmight pass into lesser edifices, which were built on the inside, roundthe entire wall; for the king reserved the top of the hill, which was ofa fat soil, and better mould than any valley for agriculture, that suchas committed themselves to this fortress for their preservation mightnot even there be quite destitute of food, in case they should ever bein want of it from abroad. Moreover, he built a palace therein at thewestern ascent; it was within and beneath the walls of the citadel, butinclined to its north side. Now the wall of this palace was very highand strong, and had at its four corners towers sixty cubits high. Thefurniture also of the edifices, and of the cloisters, and of thebaths, was of great variety, and very costly; and these buildings weresupported by pillars of single stones on every side; the walls and alsothe floors of the edifices were paved with stones of several colors. Healso had cut many and great pits, as reservoirs for water, out of therocks, at every one of the places that were inhabited, both above andround about the palace, and before the wall; and by this contrivancehe endeavored to have water for several uses, as if there had beenfountains there. Here was also a road digged from the palace, andleading to the very top of the mountain, which yet could not be seen bysuch as were without [the walls]; nor indeed could enemies easilymake use of the plain roads; for the road on the east side, as we havealready 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 easilytaken; nor indeed could those that walked along it without any fear[such was its contrivance] easily get to the end of it; and after sucha manner was this citadel fortified, both by nature and by the hands ofmen, in order to frustrate the attacks of enemies. 

4. As for the furniture that was within this fortress, it was still morewonderful on account of its splendor and long continuance; for here waslaid up corn in large quantities, and such as would subsist men for along time; here was also wine and oil in abundance, with all kinds ofpulse and dates heaped up together; all which Eleazar found there, whenhe and his Sicarii got possession of the fortress by treachery. Thesefruits were also fresh and full ripe, and no way inferior to such fruitsnewly laid in, although they were little short of a hundred years [14]from the laying in these provisions [by Herod], till the place wastaken by the Romans; nay, indeed, when the Romans got possession of thosefruits that were left, they found them not corrupted all that while; norshould we be mistaken, if we supposed that the air was here the causeof their enduring so long; this fortress being so high, and so free fromthe mixture of all terrain and muddy particles of matter. There was alsofound here a large quantity of all sorts of weapons of war, which hadbeen treasured up by that king, and were sufficient for ten thousandmen; there was east iron, and brass, and tin, which show that hehad taken much pains to have all things here ready for the greatestoccasions; for the report goes how Herod thus prepared this fortress onhis own account, as a refuge against two kinds of danger; the one forfear of the multitude of the Jews, lest they should depose him, andrestore their former kings to the government; the other danger wasgreater and more terrible, which arose from Cleopatra queen of Egypt, who did not conceal her intentions, but spoke often to Antony, anddesired him to cut off Herod, and entreated him to bestow the kingdom ofJudea upon her. And certainly it is a great wonder that Antony did nevercomply with her commands in this point, as he was so miserably enslavedto his passion for her; nor should any one have been surprised if shehad been gratified in such her request. So the fear of these dangersmade Herod rebuild Masada, and thereby leave it for the finishing strokeof the Romans in this Jewish war. 

5. Since therefore the Roman commander Silva had now built a wall on theoutside, round about this whole place, as we have said already, andhad thereby made a most accurate provision to prevent any one of thebesieged running away, he undertook the siege itself, though he foundbut one single place that would admit of the banks he was to raise; forbehind that tower which secured the road that led to the palace, and tothe top of the hill from the west; there was a certain eminency of therock, very broad and very prominent, but three hundred cubits beneaththe highest part of Masada; it was called the White Promontory. Accordingly, he got upon that part of the rock, and ordered the armyto bring earth; and when they fell to that work with alacrity, andabundance of them together, the bank was raised, and became solid fortwo hundred cubits in height. Yet was not this bank thought sufficientlyhigh for the use of the engines that were to be set upon it; but stillanother elevated work of great stones compacted together was raised uponthat bank; this was fifty cubits, both in breadth and height. The othermachines that were now got ready were like to those that had been firstdevised by Vespasian, and afterwards by Titus, for sieges. There wasalso a tower made of the height of sixty cubits, and all over platedwith iron, out of which the Romans threw darts and stones from theengines, and soon made those that fought from the walls of the place toretire, and would not let them lift up their heads above the works. Atthe same time Silva ordered that great battering ram which he had madeto be brought thither, and to be set against the wall, and to makefrequent batteries against it, which with some difficulty broke downa part of the wall, and quite overthrew it. However, the Sicarii madehaste, and presently built another wall within that, which should not beliable to the same misfortune from the machines with the other; it wasmade soft and yielding, and so was capable of avoiding the terribleblows that affected the other. It was framed after the following manner:They laid together great beams of wood lengthways, one close to the endof another, and the same way in which they were cut: there were two ofthese rows parallel to one another, and laid at such a distance fromeach other as the breadth of the wall required, and earth was put intothe space between those rows. Now, that the earth might not fall awayupon the elevation of this bank to a greater height, they further laidother beams over cross them, and thereby bound those beams together thatlay lengthways. This work of theirs was like a real edifice; and whenthe machines were applied, the blows were weakened by its yielding; andas the materials by such concussion were shaken closer together, thepile by that means became firmer than before. When Silva saw this, hethought it best to endeavor the taking of this wall by setting fire toit; so he gave order that the soldiers should throw a great number ofburning 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 madethat fire spread to a mighty flame. Now, at the very beginning of thisfire, a north wind that then blew proved terrible to the Romans; for bybringing the flame downward, it drove it upon them, and they were almostin despair of success, as fearing their machines would be burnt: butafter this, on a sudden the wind changed into the south, as if it weredone by Divine Providence, and blew strongly the contrary way, andcarried the flame, and drove it against the wall, which was now on firethrough its entire thickness. So the Romans, having now assistancefrom God, returned to their camp with joy, and resolved to attack theirenemies the very next day; on which occasion they set their watch morecarefully that night, lest any of the Jews should run away from themwithout being discovered. 

6. However, neither did Eleazar once think of flying away, nor would hepermit any one else to do so; but when he saw their wall burned down bythe fire, and could devise no other way of escaping, or room for theirfurther courage, and setting before their eyes what the Romans would doto them, their children, and their wives, if they got them into theirpower, he consulted about having them all slain. Now as he judged thisto be the best thing they could do in their present circumstances, hegathered the most courageous of his companions together, and encouragedthem to take that course by a speech [15] which he made to them in themanner following: "Since we, long ago, my generous friends, resolvednever to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than to Godhimself, who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is nowcome that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice. Andlet us not at this time bring a reproach upon ourselves forself-contradiction, while we formerly would not undergo slavery, thoughit were then without danger, but must now, together with slavery, choose such punishments also as are intolerable; I mean this, upon thesupposition that the Romans once reduce us under their power while weare alive. We were the very first that revolted from them, and we arethe last that fight against them; and I cannot but esteem it as a favorthat 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, whowere conquered unexpectedly. It is very plain that we shall be takenwithin a day's time; but it is still an eligible thing to die after aglorious manner, together with our dearest friends. This is what ourenemies themselves cannot by any means hinder, although they be verydesirous to take us alive. Nor can we propose to ourselves any moreto fight them, and beat them. It had been proper indeed for us to haveconjectured at the purpose of God much sooner, and at the very first, when we were so desirous of defending our liberty, and when we receivedsuch sore treatment from one another, and worse treatment from ourenemies, and to have been sensible that the same God, who had of oldtaken the Jewish nation into his favor, had now condemned them todestruction; for had he either continued favorable, or been but in alesser degree displeased with us, he had not overlooked the destructionof so many men, or delivered his most holy city to be burnt anddemolished by our enemies. To be sure we weakly hoped to have preservedourselves, and ourselves alone, still in a state of freedom, as if wehad been guilty of no sins ourselves against God, nor been partners withthose of others; we also taught other men to preserve their liberty. Wherefore, consider how God hath convinced us that our hopes were invain, by bringing such distress upon us in the desperate state we arenow in, and which is beyond all our expectations; for the nature of thisfortress which was in itself unconquerable, hath not proved a means ofour 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; forthat fire which was driven upon our enemies did not of its own accordturn back upon the wall which we had built; this was the effect of God'sanger against us for our manifold sins, which we have been guilty ofin a most insolent and extravagant manner with regard to our owncountrymen; the punishments of which let us not receive from the Romans, but from God himself, as executed by our own hands; for these will bemore moderate than the other. Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children before they have tasted of slavery; and after wehave slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one anothermutually, and preserve ourselves in freedom, as an excellent funeralmonument for us. But first let us destroy our money and the fortressby fire; for I am well assured that this will be a great grief to theRomans, that they shall not be able to seize upon our bodies, and shallfall 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 subduedfor 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 allthe auditors acquiesce therein; but although some of them were veryzealous to put his advice in practice, and were in a manner filled withpleasure at it, and thought death to be a good thing, yet had those thatwere most effeminate a commiseration for their wives and families;and when these men were especially moved by the prospect of their owncertain death, they looked wistfully at one another, and by the tearsthat were in their eyes declared their dissent from his opinion. When Eleazar saw these people in such fear, and that their souls weredejected at so prodigious a proposal, he was afraid lest perhaps theseeffeminate persons should, by their lamentations and tears, enfeeblethose that heard what he had said courageously; so he did not leaveoff exhorting them, but stirred up himself, and recollecting properarguments for raising their courage, he undertook to speak more brisklyand fully to them, and that concerning the immortality of the soul. Sohe made a lamentable groan, and fixing his eyes intently on those thatwept, he spake thus: "Truly, I was greatly mistaken when I thought to beassisting to brave men who struggled hard for their liberty, and to suchas were resolved either to live with honor, or else to die; but I findthat you are such people as are no better than others, either in virtueor in courage, and are afraid of dying, though you be delivered therebyfrom the greatest miseries, while you ought to make no delay in thismatter, nor to await any one to give you good advice; for the laws ofour country, and of God himself, have from ancient times, and as soon asever we could use our reason, continually taught us, and our forefathershave corroborated the same doctrine by their actions, and by theirbravery of mind, that it is life that is a calamity to men, and notdeath; for this last affords our souls their liberty, and sends themby a removal into their own place of purity, where they are to beinsensible of all sorts of misery; for while souls are tied clown to amortal body, they are partakers of its miseries; and really, to speakthe truth, they are themselves dead; for the union of what is divineto what is mortal is disagreeable. It is true, the power of the soulis great, even when it is imprisoned in a mortal body; for by moving itafter a way that is invisible, it makes the body a sensible instrument, and causes it to advance further in its actions than mortal nature couldotherwise do. However, when it is freed from that weight which draws itdown to the earth and is connected with it, it obtains its own properplace, and does then become a partaker of that blessed power, and thoseabilities, which are then every way incapable of being hindered in theiroperations. It continues invisible, indeed, to the eyes of men, as doesGod himself; for certainly it is not itself seen while it is in thebody; for it is there after an invisible manner, and when it is freedfrom 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 thechange that is made in the body; for whatsoever it be which the soultouches, 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 ofthe truth of what I say; wherein souls, when the body does not distractthem, have the sweetest rest depending on themselves, and conversingwith God, by their alliance to him; they then go every where, andforetell many futurities beforehand. And why are we afraid of death, while we are pleased with the rest that we have in sleep? And how absurda thing is it to pursue after liberty while we are alive, and yet toenvy it to ourselves where it will be eternal! We, therefore, who havebeen brought up in a discipline of our own, ought to become an exampleto others of our readiness to die. Yet, if we do stand in need offoreigners to support us in this matter, let us regard those Indianswho profess the exercise of philosophy; for these good men do butunwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon it as a necessaryservitude, 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 othermen beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders them, but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to becarried to their familiar friends [that are dead], so firmly andcertainly do they believe that souls converse with one another [in theother world]. So when these men have heard all such commands that wereto be given them, they deliver their body to the fire; and, in orderto their getting their soul a separation from the body in the greatestpurity, they die in the midst of hymns of commendations made to them;for their dearest friends conduct them to their death more readily thando any of the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when theyare going a very long journey, who at the same time weep on their ownaccount, but look upon the others as happy persons, as so soon to bemade partakers of the immortal order of beings. Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians? and by our own cowardiceto lay a base reproach upon the laws of our country, which are so muchdesired and imitated by all mankind? But put the case that we hadbeen brought up under another persuasion, and taught that life is thegreatest 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 usto bear such calamity courageously, since it is by the will of God, andby necessity, that we are to die; for it now appears that God hathmade such a decree against the whole Jewish nation, that we are to bedeprived of this life which [he knew] we would not make a due useof. For do not you ascribe the occasion of our present condition toyourselves, nor think the Romans are the true occasion that this war wehave had with them is become so destructive to us all: these thingshave not come to pass by their power, but a more powerful cause hathintervened, and made us afford them an occasion of their appearing to beconquerors over us. What Roman weapons, I pray you, were those by whichthe Jews at Cesarea were slain? On the contrary, when they were no waydisposed to rebel, but were all the while keeping their seventh dayfestival, and did not so much as lift up their hands against thecitizens of Cesarea, yet did those citizens run upon them in greatcrowds, and cut their throats, and the throats of their wives andchildren, and this without any regard to the Romans themselves, whonever took us for their enemies till we revolted from them. But some maybe ready to say, that truly the people of Cesarea had always a quarrelagainst those that lived among them, and that when an opportunityoffered itself, they only satisfied the old rancor they had againstthem. What then shall we say to those of Scythopolis, who ventured towage war with us on account of the Greeks? Nor did they do it by way ofrevenge upon the Romans, when they acted in concert with our countrymen. Wherefore you see how little our good-will and fidelity to them profiledus, while they were slain, they and their whole families, after the mostinhuman manner, which was all the requital that was made them for theassistance they had afforded the others; for that very same destructionwhich they had prevented from falling upon the others did they sufferthemselves from them, as if they had been ready to be the actorsagainst them. It would be too long for me to speak at this time of everydestruction brought upon us; for you cannot but know that there was notany one Syrian city which did not slay their Jewish inhabitants, andwere not more bitter enemies to us than were the Romans themselves; nay, even those of Damascus, [16] when they were able to allege no tolerablepretense against us, filled their city with the most barbarousslaughters of our people, and cut the throats of eighteen thousand Jews, with their wives and children. And as to the multitude of those thatwere slain in Egypt, and that with torments also, we have been informedthey were more than sixty thousand; those indeed being in a foreigncountry, and so naturally meeting with nothing to oppose against theirenemies, were killed in the manner forementioned. As for all those ofus who have waged war against the Romans in our own country, had we notsufficient reason to have sure hopes of victory? For we had arms, andwalls, and fortresses so prepared as not to be easily taken, and couragenot to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty, which encouragedus all to revolt from the Romans. But then these advantages sufficedus but for a short time, and only raised our hopes, while they reallyappeared to be the origin of our miseries; for all we had hath beentaken from us, and all hath fallen under our enemies, as if theseadvantages were only to render their victory over us the more glorious, and were not disposed for the preservation of those by whom thesepreparations were made. And as for those that are already dead in thewar, it is reasonable we should esteem them blessed, for they aredead in defending, and not in betraying their liberty; but as to themultitude of those that are now under the Romans, who would not pitytheir condition? and who would not make haste to die, before he wouldsuffer the same miseries with them? Some of them have been put upon therack, and tortured with fire and whippings, and so died. Some have beenhalf devoured by wild beasts, and yet have been reserved alive to bedevoured by them a second time, in order to afford laughter and sport toour enemies; and such of those as are alive still are to be looked on asthe most miserable, who, being so desirous of death, could not comeat it. And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewishnation, which was fortified by so many walls round about, which hadso many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could hardlycontain the instruments prepared for the war, and which had so many tenthousands of men to fight for it? Where is this city that was believedto have God himself inhabiting therein? It is now demolished to the veryfoundations, and hath nothing but that monument of it preserved, I meanthe camp of those that hath destroyed it, which still dwells upon itsruins; 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 bittershame and reproach. Now who is there that revolves these things in hismind, and yet is able to bear the sight of the sun, though he might liveout 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? AndI cannot but wish that we had all died before we had seen that holy citydemolished by the hands of our enemies, or the foundations of our holytemple dug up after so profane a manner. But since we had a generoushope that deluded us, as if we might perhaps have been able to avengeourselves on our enemies on that account, though it be now becomevanity, and hath left us alone in this distress, let us make haste todie bravely. Let us pity ourselves, our children, and our wives while itis 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 ofthe most happy of our race to avoid it. But for abuses, and slavery, andthe sight of our wives led away after an ignominious manner, with theirchildren, these are not such evils as are natural and necessary amongmen; although such as do not prefer death before those miseries, when itis in their power so to do, must undergo even them, on account of theirown cowardice. We revolted from the Romans with great pretensionsto courage; and when, at the very last, they invited us to preserveourselves, we would not comply with them. Who will not, therefore, believe that they will certainly be in a rage at us, in case they cantake us alive? Miserable will then be the young men who will be strongenough in their bodies to sustain many torments! miserable also willbe those of elder years, who will not be able to bear those calamitieswhich young men might sustain! One man will be obliged to hear the voiceof his son implore help of his father, when his hands are bound. Butcertainly our hands are still at liberty, and have a sword in them; letthem then be subservient to us in our glorious design; let us die beforewe 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 itis that our laws command us to do this it is that our wives and childrencrave at our hands; nay, God himself hath brought this necessity uponus; while the Romans desire the contrary, and are afraid lest any of usshould die before we are taken. Let us therefore make haste, and insteadof affording them so much pleasure, as they hope for in getting us undertheir power, let us leave them an example which shall at once causetheir astonishment at our death, and their admiration of our hardinesstherein. "

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 allcut him off short, and made haste to do the work, as full of anunconquerable ardor of mind, and moved with a demoniacal fury. So theywent their ways, as one still endeavoring to be before another, and asthinking that this eagerness would be a demonstration of their courageand good conduct, if they could avoid appearing in the last class; sogreat was the zeal they were in to slay their wives and children, andthemselves also! Nor indeed, when they came to the work itself, didtheir courage fail them, as one might imagine it would have done, butthey then held fast the same resolution, without wavering, which theyhad upon the hearing of Eleazar's speech, while yet every one of themstill retained the natural passion of love to themselves and theirfamilies, because the reasoning they went upon appeared to them to bevery just, even with regard to those that were dearest to them; for thehusbands tenderly embraced their wives, and took their children intotheir arms, and gave the longest parting kisses to them, with tearsin their eyes. Yet at the same time did they complete what they hadresolved on, as if they had been executed by the hands of strangers; andthey had nothing else for their comfort but the necessity they were inof doing this execution, to avoid that prospect they had of the miseriesthey were to suffer from their enemies. Nor was there at length anyone of these men found that scrupled to act their part in this terribleexecution, but every one of them despatched his dearest relations. Miserable men indeed were they! whose distress forced them to slay theirown wives and children with their own hands, as the lightest of thoseevils that were before them. So they being not able to bear the griefthey were under for what they had done any longer, and esteeming it aninjury to those they had slain, to live even the shortest space of timeafter them, they presently laid all they had upon a heap, and set fireto 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 theground, and threw his arms about them, and they offered their necks tothe stroke of those who by lot executed that melancholy office; and whenthese ten had, without fear, slain them all, they made the same rule forcasting lots for themselves, that he whose lot it was should first killthe other nine, and after all should kill himself. Accordingly, allthese had courage sufficient to be no way behind one another in doingor suffering; so, for a conclusion, the nine offered their necks to theexecutioner, and he who was the last of all took a view of all theother bodies, lest perchance some or other among so many that were slainshould want his assistance to be quite despatched, and when he perceivedthat they were all slain, he set fire to the palace, and with the greatforce of his hand ran his sword entirely through himself, and felldown dead near to his own relations. So these people died with thisintention, that they would not leave so much as one soul among them allalive 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 inprudence and learning, with five children, who had concealed themselvesin caverns under ground, and had carried water thither for their drink, and were hidden there when the rest were intent upon the slaughter ofone another. Those others were nine hundred and sixty in number, thewomen and children being withal included in that computation. Thiscalamitous slaughter was made on the fifteenth day of the monthXanthicus [Nisan]. 

2. Now for the Romans, they expected that they should be fought in themorning, when, accordingly, they put on their armor, and laid bridges ofplanks upon their ladders from their banks, to make an assault upon thefortress, which they did; but saw nobody as an enemy, but a terriblesolitude on every side, with a fire within the place, as well as aperfect 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 thebattering ram, to try whether they could bring any one out that waswithin; the women heard this noise, and came out of their under-groundcavern, and informed the Romans what had been done, as it was done; andthe second of them clearly described all both what was said and whatwas done, and this manner of it; yet did they not easily give theirattention to such a desperate undertaking, and did not believe it couldbe as they said; they also attempted to put the fire out, and quicklycutting themselves a way through it, they came within the palace, and somet with the multitude of the slain, but could take no pleasure in thefact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could they do other thanwonder at the courage of their resolution, and the immovable contempt ofdeath which so great a number of them had shown, when they went throughwith 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 thefortress to keep it, and he himself went away to Cesarea; for there werenow no enemies left in the country, but it was all overthrown by so longa war. Yet did this war afford disturbances and dangerous disorders evenin places very far remote from Judea; for still it came to pass thatmany Jews were slain at Alexandria in Egypt; for as many of the Sicariias were able to fly thither, out of the seditious wars in Judea, werenot content to have saved themselves, but must needs be undertaking tomake new disturbances, and persuaded many of those that entertainedthem to assert their liberty, to esteem the Romans to be no better thanthemselves, and to look upon God as their only Lord and Master. But whenpart of the Jews of reputation opposed them, they slew some of them, andwith the others they were very pressing in their exhortations to revoltfrom the Romans; but when the principal men of the senate saw whatmadness they were come to, they thought it no longer safe for themselvesto overlook them. So they got all the Jews together to an assembly, andaccused the madness of the Sicarii, and demonstrated that they had beenthe authors of all the evils that had come upon them. They said alsothat "these men, now they were run away from Judea, having no sure hopeof escaping, because as soon as ever they shall be known, they will besoon destroyed by the Romans, they come hither and fill us full of thosecalamities which belong to them, while we have not been partakers withthem in any of their sins. " Accordingly, they exhorted the multitude tohave 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 thegreatness of the danger they were in, complied with what was proposed, and ran with great violence upon the Sicarii, and seized upon them; andindeed six hundred of them were caught immediately: but as to all thosethat fled into Egypt [18] and to the Egyptian Thebes, it was not longere they were caught also, and brought back, whose courage, or whetherwe ought to call it madness, or hardiness in their opinions, every bodywas amazed at. For when all sorts of torments and vexations of theirbodies that could be devised were made use of to them, they could notget 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, inspite of all the distress they were brought to, as if they receivedthese torments and the fire itself with bodies insensible of pain, andwith a soul that in a manner rejoiced under them. But what was most ofall astonishing to the beholders was the courage of the children; fornot one of these children was so far overcome by these torments, as toname Caesar for their lord. So far does the strength of the courage [ofthe soul] prevail over the weakness of the body. 

2. Now Lupus did then govern Alexandria, who presently sent Caesar wordof this commotion; who having in suspicion the restless temper of theJews for innovation, and being afraid lest they should get togetheragain, and persuade some others to join with them, gave orders to Lupusto demolish that Jewish temple which was in the region called Onion, [19] and was in Egypt, which was built and had its denomination fromthe occasion following: Onias, the son of Simon, one of the Jewish highpriests fled from Antiochus the king of Syria, when he made war with theJews, and came to Alexandria; and as Ptolemy received him very kindly, on account of hatred to Antiochus, he assured him, that if he wouldcomply 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 himto give him leave to build a temple some where in Egypt, and to worshipGod according to the customs of his own country; for that the Jews wouldthen be so much readier to fight against Antiochus who had laid wastethe temple at Jerusalem, and that they would then come to him withgreater 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 onehundred and eighty furlongs distant from Memphis. [20] That Nomos wascalled the Nomos of Hellopolls, where Onias built a fortress and atemple, 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 thestructure of the altar in imitation of that in our own country, and inlike manner adorned with gifts, excepting the make of the candlestick, for he did not make a candlestick, but had a [single] lamp hammered outof a piece of gold, which illuminated the place with its rays, and whichhe hung by a chain of gold; but the entire temple was encompassed witha wall of burnt brick, though it had gates of stone. The king also gavehim a large country for a revenue in money, that both the priests mighthave a plentiful provision made for them, and that God might have greatabundance of what things were necessary for his worship. Yet did notOnias do this out of a sober disposition, but he had a mind to contendwith the Jews at Jerusalem, and could not forget the indignation he hadfor being banished thence. Accordingly, he thought that by building thistemple he should draw away a great number from them to himself. Therehad been also a certain ancient prediction made by [a prophet] whosename was Isaiah, about six hundred years before, that this temple shouldbe built by a man that was a Jew in Egypt. And this is the history ofthe building of that temple. 

4. And now Lupus, the governor of Alexandria, upon the receipt ofCaesar's letter, came to the temple, and carried out of it some of thedonations dedicated thereto, and shut up the temple itself. And as Lupusdied a little afterward, Paulinns succeeded him. This man left none ofthose donations there, and threatened the priests severely if theydid not bring them all out; nor did he permit any who were desirous ofworshipping 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 Divineworship that had been in that place. Now the duration of the time fromthe building of this temple till it was shut up again was three hundredand 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 faras the cities of Cyrene; for one Jonathan, a vile person, and by tradea weaver, came thither and prevailed with no small number of thepoorer sort to give ear to him; he also led them into the desert, uponpromising them that he would show them signs and apparitions. And as forthe other Jews of Cyrene, he concealed his knavery from them, and puttricks upon them; but those of the greatest dignity among them informedCatullus, the governor of the Libyan Pentapolis, of his march into thedesert, and of the preparations he had made for it. So he sent out afterhim both horsemen and footmen, and easily overcame them, because theywere unarmed men; of these many were slain in the fight, but some weretaken alive, and brought to Catullus. As for Jonathan, the head of thisplot, he fled away at that time; but upon a great and very diligentsearch, which was made all the country over for him, he was at lasttaken. And when he was brought to Catullus, he devised a way whereby heboth escaped punishment himself, and afforded an occasion to Catullusof doing much mischief; for he falsely accused the richest men among theJews, and said that they had put him upon what he did. 

2. Now Catullus easily admitted of these his calumnies, and aggravatedmatters greatly, and made tragical exclamations, that he might also besupposed to have had a hand in the finishing of the Jewish war. But whatwas 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 hada quarrel, and openly professed that he hated him]; he also got him toname his wife Bernice, as concerned with him. These two Catullus orderedto be slain in the first place; nay, after them he caused all the richand wealthy Jews to be slain, being no fewer in all than three thousand. This he thought he might do safely, because he confiscated theireffects, and added them to Caesar's revenues. 

3. Nay, indeed, lest any Jews that lived elsewhere should convict him ofhis villainy, he extended his false accusations further, and persuadedJonathan, and certain others that were caught with him, to bring anaccusation of attempts for innovation against the Jews that were of thebest character both at Alexandria and at Rome. One of these, againstwhom this treacherous accusation was laid, was Josephus, the writer ofthese books. However, this plot, thus contrived by Catullus, did notsucceed according to his hopes; for though he came himself to Rome, andbrought Jonathan and his companions along with him in bonds, and thoughthe should have had no further inquisition made as to those lies thatwere forged under his government, or by his means; yet did Vespasiansuspect the matter and made an inquiry how far it was true. And when heunderstood that the accusation laid against the Jews was an unjust one, he cleared them of the crimes charged upon them, and this on account ofTitus's concern about the matter, and brought a deserved punishment uponJonathan; for he was first tormented, and then burnt alive. 

4. But as to Catullus, the emperors Were so gentle to him, that heunderwent no severe condemnation at this time; yet was it not longbefore he fell into a complicated and almost incurable distemper, anddied miserably. He was not only afflicted in body, but the distemperin his mind was more heavy upon him than the other; for he was terriblydisturbed, and continually cried out that he saw the ghosts of thosewhom he had slain standing before him. Where upon he was not able tocontain himself, but leaped out of his bed, as if both torments and firewere brought to him. This his distemper grew still a great deal worseand worse continually, and his very entrails were so corroded, that theyfell out of his body, and in that condition he died. Thus he became asgreat an instance of Divine Providence as ever was, and demonstratedthat God punishes wicked men. 

5. And here we shall put an end to this our history; wherein we formerlypromised to deliver the same with all accuracy, to such as should bedesirous of understanding after what manner this war of the Romans withthe Jews was managed. Of which history, how good the style is, must beleft to the determination of the readers; but as for its agreement withthe facts, I shall not scruple to say, and that boldly, that truth hathbeen what I have alone aimed at through its entire composition. 

WAR BOOK 7 FOOTNOTES

[1] Why the great Bochart should say, [De Phoenic. Colon. B. II. Ch. Iv. , ] that "there are in this clause of Josephus as many mistakes aswords, " I do by no means understand. Josephus thought Melchisedek firstbuilt, or rather rebuilt and adorned, this city, and that it was thencalled Salem, as Psalm 76:2; afterwards came to be called Jerusalem; andthat Melchisedek, being a priest as well as a king, built to the trueGod 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. Andfor the word, or temple, as if it must needs belong to the great templebuilt by Solomon long afterward, Josephus himself uses, for the smalltabernacle 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 splendidsynagogue of the Jews at Antioch, B. VII. Ch. 3. Sect. 3. 

[2] This Tereutius Rufus, as Reland in part observes here, is the sameperson 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 waslong before foretold by the prophet Micah, ch. 3:12, and quoted from himin the prophecies of Jeremiah, ch. 26:18. 

[3] See Ecclesiastes 8:11. 

[4] This Berytus was certainly a Roman colony, and has coins extantthat witness the same, as Hudson and Spanheim inform us. See the note onAntiq. B. XVI: ch. 11. Sect. 1. 

[5] The Jews at Antioch and Alexandria, the two principal cities in allthe East, had allowed them, both by the Macedonians, and afterwardsby the Romans, a governor of their own, who was exempt from thejurisdiction of the other civil governors. He was called sometimesbarely "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 undertheir captivity there, as the history of Susanna implies. 

[6] This Classicus, and Civilis, and Cerealis are names well known inTacitus; the two former as moving sedition against the Romans, andthe last as sent to repress them by Vespasian, just as they are heredescribed in Josephus; which is the case also of Fontellis Agrippaand Rubrius Gallup, i, sect. 3. But as to the very favorable accountpresently given of Domitian, particularly as to his designs in this hisGallic and German expedition, it is not a little contrary to that inSuetonius, Vesp. Sect. 7. Nor are the reasons unobvious that mightoccasion this great diversity: Domitian was one of Josephus's patrons, and when he published these books of the Jewish war, was very young, andhad hardly begun those wicked practices which rendered him so infamousafterward; while Suetonius seems to have been too young, and too lowin life, to receive any remarkable favors from him; as Domitian wascertainly very lewd and cruel, and generally hated, when Puetonius wroteabout him. 

[7] Since in these latter ages this Sabbatic River, once so famous, which, by Josephus's account here, ran every seventh day, and rested onsix, but according to Pliny, Nat. Hist. 31. II, ran perpetually on sixdays, and rested every seventh, [though it no way appears by either oftheir accounts that the seventh day of this river was the Jewish seventhday or sabbath, ] is quite vanished, I shall add no more about it: onlysee Dr. Hudson's note. In Varenius's Geography, i, 17, the reader willfind several instances of such periodical fountains and rivers, thoughnone of their periods were that of a just week as of old this appears tohave been. 

[8] Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian. 

[9] See the representations of these Jewish vessels as they still standon Titus's triumphal arch at Rome, in Reland's very curious book deSpoliis Ternpli, throughout. But what, things are chiefly to be notedare these: [1. ] That Josephus says the candlestick here carried in thistriumph was not thoroughly like that which was used in the temple, whichappears in the number of the little knobs and flowers in that on thetriumphal arch not well agreeing with Moses's description, Exodus25:31-36. [2. ] The smallness of the branches in Josephus compared withthe thickness of those on that arch. [3. ] That the Law or Pentateuchdoes not appear on that arch at all, though Josephus, an eye-witness, assures us that it was carried in this procession. All which thingsdeserve the consideration of the inquisitive reader. 

[10] Spanheim observes here, that in Graceia Major and Sicily they hadrue prodigiously great and durable, like this rue at Macherus. 

[11] This strange account of the place and root Baaras seems to havebeen taken from the magicians, and the root to have been made use of inthe days of Josephus, in that superstitious way of casting out demons, supposed by him to have been derived from king Solomon; of which we havealready 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 anddemoniacs, exactly like that of the Jews and Christians in the NewTestament, and the first four centuries. See Antiq. B. I. Ch. 8. Sect. 2; B. XI, ch. 2. Sect. 3. 

[12] It is very remarkable that Titus did not people this now desolatecountry of Judea, but ordered it to be all sold; nor indeed is itproperly peopled at this day, but lies ready for its old inhabitantsthe Jews, at their future restoration. See Literal Accomplishment ofProphecies, p. 77. 

[13] That the city Emmaus, or Areindus, in Josephus and others whichwas the place of the government of Julius Africanus were slain, to thenumber of one thousand seven hundred, as were the women and the childrenmade slaves. But as Bassus thought he must perform the covenant he hadmade with those that had surrendered the citadel, he let them go, andrestored Eleazar to them, in the beginning of the third century, andwhich he then procured to be rebuilt, and after which rebuilding itwas called Nicopolis, is entirely different from that Emmaus which ismentioned 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 sincethe Greek copies here usually make it sixty furlongs distant fromJerusalem, as does St. Luke, though the Latin copies say only thirty. The place also allotted for these eight hundred soldiers, as for a Romangarrison, in this place, would most naturally be not so remote fromJerusalem as was the other Emmaus, or Nicopolis. 

[14] Pliny and others confirm this strange paradox, that provisions laidup against sieges will continue good for a hundred ears, as Spanheimnotes upon this place. 

[15] The speeches in this and the next section, as introduced under theperson of this Eleazar, are exceeding remarkable, and oil the noblestsubjects, the contempt of death, and the dignity and immortality of thesoul; and that not only among the Jews, but among the Indians themselvesalso; and are highly worthy the perusal of all the curious. It seems asif that philosophic lady who survived, ch. 9. Sect. 1, 2, rememberedthe substance of these discourses, as spoken by Eleazar, and so Josephusclothed them in his own words: at the lowest they contain the Jewishnotions on these heads, as understood then by our Josephus, and cannotbut deserve a suitable regard from us. 

[16] See B. II. Ch. 20. Sect. 2, where the number of the slain is but10, 000. 

[17] Reland here sets down a parallel aphorism of one of the JewishRabbins, "We are born that we may die, and die that we may live. "

[18] Since Josephus here informs us that some of these Sicarii, orruffians, went from Alexandria [which was itself in Egypt, in a largesense] into Egypt, and Thebes there situated, Reland well observes, fromVossius, that Egypt sometimes denotes Proper or Upper Egypt, as distinctfrom the Delta, and the lower parts near Palestine. Accordingly, as headds, those that say it never rains in Egypt must mean the Proper orUpper Egypt, because it does sometimes rain in the other parts. See thenote on Antiq. B. II. Ch. 7. Sect. 7, and B. III. Ch. 1. Sect. 6. 

[19] Of this temple of Onias's building in Egypt, see the notes onAntiq. B. XIII. Ch. 3. Sect. 1. But whereas it is elsewhere, both of theWar, B. I. Ch. 1. Sect. 1, and in the Antiquities as now quoted, saidthat this temple was like to that at Jerusalem, and here that it was notlike it, but like a tower, sect. 3, there is some reason to suspectthe reading here, and that either the negative particle is here to beblotted out, or the word entirely added. 

[20] We must observe, that Josephus here speaks of Antiochus whoprofaned the temple as now alive, when Onias had leave given themby Philometer to build his temple; whereas it seems not to have beenactually built till about fifteen years afterwards. Yet, because it issaid in the Antiquities that Onias went to Philometer, B. XII. Ch. 9. Sect. 7, during the lifetime of that Antiochus, it is probable hepetitioned, and perhaps obtained his leave then, though it were notactually built or finished till fifteen years afterward.