WORKS
OF
OSEPIUS.
!
}
DS
116
J83
1825
VOL.
III.
な
​1

ARTES
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
1. E-PLURIBUS-UND
SI-QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAM
CIRCUMSPICE
THE
WORKS
OF
FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
TO WHICH ARE ADDED
THREE DISSERTATIONS,
CONCERNING
JESUS CHRIST, JOHN THE BAPTIST, JAMES THE JUST, GOD'S
COMMAND TO ABRAHAM, ETC.
WITH
AN INDEX TO THE WHOLE.
C. and C. Whittingham, Chiswick.
THE
WORKS
OF
9845
FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS,
THE LEARNED AND AUTHENTIC JEWISH HISTORIAN,
AND CELEBRATED WARRIOR.
TRANSLATED BY
WILLIAM WHISTON, A. M.
PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE:
R. M. TIMS, DUBLIN;
AND R. GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW.
1825.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
:
BOOK XVII.
CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF FOURTEEN YEARS.
From the Death of Alexander and Aristobulus to the Banishment
of Archelaus.
CHAP. I.
How Antipater was hated by all the Nation [of the Jews] for
the Slaughter of his Brethren; and how, for that Reason, he
got into peculiar Favour with his Friends at Rome, by giving
them many Presents; as he did also with Saturninus, the Pre-
sident of Syria, and the Governors who were under him; and
concerning Herod's Wives and Children.
§ 1. WHEN Antipater had thus taken off his brethren, and had
brought his father into the highest degree of impiety, till he was
haunted with furies for what he had done, his hopes did not succeed
to his mind, as to the rest of his life; for although he was delivered
from the fear of his brethren being his rivals as to the govern-
ment, yet did he find it a very hard thing, and almost impractica-
ble, to come at the kingdom, because the hatred of the nation
against him on that account was become very great: and, be-
sides this very disagreeable circumstance, the affair of the soldiery
grieved him still more, who were alienated from him, from which
yet these kings derived all the safety which they had, whenever
they found the nation desirous of innovation: and all this danger
was drawn upon him by his destruction of his brethren. How-
ever, he governed the nation jointly with his father, being indeed
no other than a king already: and he was for that very reason
trusted, and the 'more firmly depended on, for the which he
ought himself to have been put to death, as appearing to have
betrayed his brethren out of his concern for the preservation of
VOL. 111.
B
2
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
Herod, and not rather out of his ill will to them, and, before
them, to his father himself; and this was the accursed state he
was in. Now, all Antipater's contrivances tended to make his
way to take off Herod, that he might have nobody to accuse
him in the vile practices he was devising; and that Herod might
have no refuge, nor any to afford him their assistance, since they
must thereby have Antipater for their open enemy: insomuch
that the very plots he had laid against his brethren were occa-
sioned by the hatred he bore his father. But at this time he
was more than ever set upon the execution of his attempts against
Herod, because if he were once dead, the government would
now be firmly secured to him; but if he were suffered to live
any longer, he should be in danger upon a discovery of that
wickedness of which he had been the contriver, and his father
would of necessity then become his enemy. And on this ac-
count it was that he became very bountiful to his father's friends,
and bestowed great sums on several of them, in order to sur-
prise men with his good deeds, and take off their hatred against
him. And he sent great presents to his friends at Rome particu-
larly to gain their good will; and above all the rest to Saturninus,
the president of Syria. He also hoped to gain the favour of
Saturninus's brother with the large presents he bestowed on
him: as also he used the same art to [Salome] the king's sister,
who had married one of Herod's chief friends. And, when he
counterfeited friendship to those with whom he conversed, he
was very subtle in gaining their belief, and very cunning to hide
his hatred against any that he really did hate. But he could
not impose upon his aunt, who understood him of a long time,
and was a woman not easily to be deluded, especially while she
had already used all possible caution in preventing his pernicious
designs. Although Antipater's uncle, by the mother's side,
were married to her daughter, and this by his own connivance
and management, while she had before been married to Aristo-
bulus, and while Salome's other daughter by that husband was
married to the son of Calleas. But that marriage was no obsta-
cle to her, who knew how wicked he was, in her discovering his
designs, as her former kindred to him could not prevent her
hatred of him. Now Herod had compelled Salome, while she
was in love with Sylleus the Arabian, and had taken a fondness
for him, to marry Alexas; which match was by her submitted to
at the instance of Julia, who persuaded Salome not to refuse it,
lest she should herself be their open enemy, since Herod had
sworn that he would never be friends with Salome, if she would
not accept of Alexas for her husband; so she submitted to Julia
as being Cæsar's wife; and, besides that, as she advised her to
nothing but what was very much for her own advantage. At
this time also it was that Herod sent back king Archelaus's
C. 1.
હ
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
daughter, who had been Alexander's wife, to her father, return-
ing the portion he had with her out of his own estate, that there
might be no dispute between them about it.
2. Now Herod brought up his son's children with great care:
for Alexander had two sons by Glaphyra; and Aristobulus had
three sons by Bernice, Salome's daughter, and two daughters:
and, as his friends were once with him, he presented the children
before them; and, deploring the hard fortune of his own sons,
he prayed that no such ill fortune might befall those who were
their children, but that they might improve in virtue and obtain
what they justly deserved, and might make him amends for his
care of their education. He also caused them to be betrothed
against they should come to the proper age of marriage; the
elder of Alexander's sons to Pheroras's daughter, and Anti-
pater's daughter to Aristobulus's eldest son. He also allotted
one of Aristobulus's daughters to Antipater's son, and Aristo-
bulus's other daughter to Herod, a son of his own, who was
born to him by the high priest's daughter; for it is the ancient
practice among us to have many wives at the same time. Now
the king made these espousals for the children, out of commi-
seration of them now they were fatherless, as endeavouring to
render Antipater kind to them by these intermarriages. But
Antipater did not fail to bear the same temper of mind to his
brother's children, which he had borne to his brothers them-
selves; and his father's concern about them provoked his indig-
nation against them upon this supposal, that they would become
greater than ever his brothers had been; while Archelaus, a king,
would support his daughter's sons, and Pheroras, a tetrarch,
would accept of one of the daughters as a wife to his son.
What provoked him also was this, that all the multitude would
so commiserate these fatherless children, and so hate him [for
making them fatherless], that all would come out, since they
were no strangers to his vile disposition towards his brethren.
He contrived therefore to overturn his father's settlements, as
thinking it a terrible thing that they should be so related to him,
and be so powerful withal. So Herod yielded to him, and
changed his resolution at his entreaty; and the determination
now was, that Antipater himself should marry Aristobulus's
daughter, and Antipater's son should marry Pheroras's daughter.
So the espousals for the marriages were changed after this man-
ner, even without the king's real approbation.
3. Now Herod*, the king, had at this time nine wives: one of
them Antipater's mother, and another the high priest's daughter,
* Those who have a mind to know all the family and descendants of Anti-
pater, the Idumean, and of Herod the Great, his son, and have a memory to
preserve them all distinctly, may consult Josephus, Antiq. B. xviii. ch. 5. sect. 4.
and of the War, B. i. ch. xxviii. sect. 4, and Ñoldius in Havercamp's edition, p.
336, and Spanheim, ib. p. 402–405, and Reland, Palestin. part i. p. 175, 176.
B 2
4
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
by whom he had a son of his own name. He had also one who
was his brother's daughter, and another his sister's daughter,
which two had no children. One of his wives also was of the Sama-
ritan nation, whose sons were Antipas and Archelaus, and whose
daughter was Olympias; which daughter was afterward married
to Joseph, the king's brother's son; but Archelaus and Antipas
were brought up with a certain private man at Rome. Herod
had also to wife Cleopatra of Jerusalem, and by her he had his
sons Herod and Philip; which last was also brought up at
Rome: Pallas also was one of his wives, which bare him his
son Phasaelus. And besides these, he had for his wives Phæ-
dra and Elpis, by whom he had his daughters Roxana and
Salome. As for his elder daughters by the same mother with
Alexander and Aristobulus, and whom Pheroras neglected to
marry, he gave the one in marriage to Antipater, the king's sister's
son, and the other to Phasaelus, his brother's son. And this was
the posterity of Herod.
CHAP. II.·
!
Concerning Zamaris, the Babylonian Jew.
Concerning the
Plots laid by Antipater against his Father; and somewhat
about the Pharisees.
§ 1. AND now it was that Herod, being desirous of securing
himself on the side of the Trachonites, resolved to build a vil-
lage, as large as a city, for the Jews, in the middle of that coun-
try, which might make his own country difficult to be assaulted,
and whence he might be at hand to make sallies upon them,
and to do them a mischief. Accordingly, when he understood
that there was a man that was a Jew come out of Babylon, with
five hundred horsemen, all of whom could shoot their arrows as
they rode on horseback, and with a hundred of his relations had
passed over Euphrates, and now abode at Antioch by Daphne
of Syria, where Saturninus, who was then president, had given
them a place for habitation, called Valatha; he sent for this
man, with the multitude that followed him), and promised to give
him land in the toparchy called Batanea, which country is
bounded with Trachonites, as desirous to make that his habitation
a guard to himself. He also engaged to let him hold the country
free from tribute, and that they should dwell entirely without
paying such customs as used to be paid, and gave it him tax
free.
2. The Babylonian was induced by these offers to come,
hither; so he took possession of the land, and built in it for-
tresses and a village, and named it Bathyra. Whereby this man
became the safeguard to the inhabitants against the Trachonites,
.t
C. 11.
5
ANTIQUITIES of the JEWS.
and preserved those Jews who came out of Babylon to offer
their sacrifices at Jerusalem, from being hurt by the Trachonite
robberies; so that a great number came to him from all those
parts where the ancient Jewish laws were observed, and the
country became full of people, by reason of their universal free-
dom from taxes. This continued during the life of Herod;
but when Philip, who was [tetrarch] after him, took the govern-
ment, he made them pay some small taxes, and that for a little
while only; and Agrippa the Great, and his son of the same
name, although they harassed them greatly, yet would not take
their liberty away. From whom, when the Romans have now
taken the government into their own hands, they still give them
the privilege of their freeedom, but oppress them entirely with
the imposition of taxes. Of which matter I shall treat more
accurately in the progress of this history*,
3. At length Zamaris, the Babylonian, to whom Herod had
given that country for a possession, died; having lived virtuous-
ly, and left children of a good character behind him: one of
whom was Jacim, who was famous for his valour, and taught his
Babylonians how to ride their horses; and a troop of them
were guards to the forementioned kings. And when Jacim was
dead in his old age, he left a son whose name was Philip, one of
great strength in his hands, and in other respects also more emi-
nent for his valour than any of his contemporaries, on which
account there was a confidence and firm friendship between him
and king Agrippa. He had also an army, which he maintained
as great as that of a king; which he exercised and led whereso-
ever he had occasion to march.
4. When the affairs of Herod were in the condition I have de-
scribed, all the public affairs depended upon Antipater; and his
power was such that he could do good turns to as many as he
pleased, and this by his father's concession, in hopes of his good
will and fidelity to him; and this till he ventured to use his power
still farther, because his wicked designs were concealed from
his father, and he made him believe every thing he said. He
was also formidable to all, not so much on account of the
power and authority he had, as for the shrewdness of his vile
attempts beforehand: but he who principally cultivated a friend-
ship with him was Pheroras, who received the like marks of
his friendship; while Antipater had cunningly encompassed
him about by a company of women whom he placed as guards
about him: for Pheroras was greatly enslaved to his wife, and
to her mother, and to her sister; and this notwithstanding the
hatred he bare them, for the indignities they had offered to his
virgin daughters. Yet did he bear them, and nothing was to be
done without the women, who had got this man into their circle,
* This is now wanting.
1
!
6
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
and continued still to assist each other in all things, insomuch
that Antipater was entirely addicted to them, both by himself
and by his mother; for these four women* said all one and the
same thing; but the opinions of Pheroras and Antipater were
different, in some points of no consequence. But the king's
sister [Salome] was their antagonist, who for a good while had
looked about all their affairs, and was apprized that this their
friendship was made in order to do Herod some mischief, and was
disposed to inform the king of it. And since these people knew
that their friendship was very disagreeable to Herod, as tending
to do him a mischief, they contrived that their meetings should
not be discovered; so they pretended to hate one another, and
to abuse one another when time served, and especially when
Herod was present, or when any one was there that would tell
him; but still their intimacy was firmer than ever when they
were private. And this was the course they took; but they
could not conceal from Salome neither their first contrivance,
when they set about these their intentions, nor when they had
made some progress in them: but she searched out every thing;
and, aggravating the relations to her brother, declared to him,
"As well their secret assemblies and compotations, as their
counsels taken in a clandestine manner, which, if they were not
in order to destroy him, they might well enough have been open
and public. But, to appearance, they are at variance, and
speak about one another as if they intended one another a mis-
chief, but agree so well together when they are out of the sight
of the multitude; for when they are alone by themselves they
act in concert, and profess that they will never leave off their
friendship, but will fight against those from whom they conceal
their designs. And thus did she search out these things, and get
a perfect knowledge of them, and then told her brother of them;
who understood also of himself a great deal of what she said,
but still durst not depend upon it, because of the suspicions
he had of his sister's calumnies. For there was a certain sect
of men that were Jews, who valued themselves highly upon the
exact skill they had in the law of their fathers, and made men
believe they were highly favoured by God, by whom this set of
women was inveigled. These are those that are called the
sect of the Pharisees, who were in a capacity of greatly oppo-
sing kings. A cunning sect they were, and soon elevated to a
pitch of open fighting, and doing mischief. Accordingly, when
all the people of the Jews gave assurance of their good will to
Cæsar, and to the king's government, these very men did not
swear, being above six thousand; and when the king imposed a
fine upon them, Pheroras's wife paid their fine for them. In
order to requite which kindness of hers, since they were believed
* Pheroras's wife and her mother and sister, and Doris, Antipater's mother.
C. II.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
1
to have the foreknowledge of things to come by divine inspira-
tion, they foretold how God had decreed, that Herod's govern-
ment should cease, and his posterity should be deprived of it;
but that the kingdom should come to her and Pheroras, and to
their children. These predictions were not concealed from
Salome, but were told the king; as also how they had perverted
some persons about the palace itself: so the king slew such of
the Pharisees as were principally accused, and Bagoas the eu-
nuch, and one Carus, who exceeded all men of that time in
comeliness, and one that was his catamite. He slew also all
those of his own family who had consented to what the Phari-
sees foretold: and for Bagoas, he had been puffed up by them,
as though he should be named the father and the benefactor
of him who, by the prediction, was foretold to be their ap-
pointed king; for that this king would have all things in his
power, and would enable Bagoas to marry, and to have children
of his own body begotten.
CHAP. III.
Concerning the Enmity between Herod and Pheroras: how
Herod sent Antipater to Casar; and of the Death of
Pheroras.
1. WHEN Herod had punished those Pharisees who had been
convicted of the foregoing crimes, he gathered an assembly to-
gether of his friends, and accused Pheroras's wife; and, ascribing
the abuses of the virgins to the impudence of that woman,
brought an accusation against her for the dishonour she had
brought upon them: That "she had studiously introduced a
quarrel between him and his brother, and, by her ill temper, had
brought them into a state of war, both by her words and actions ;
that the fines which he had laid had not been paid, and the of-
fenders had escaped punishment by her means; and that nothing
which had of late been done had been done without her; for
which reason Pheroras would do well, if he would, of his own
accord, and by his own command, and not at my entreaty,
or as following my opinion, put this his wife away, as one that
will still be the occasion of war between thee and me. And
now Pheroras, if thou valuest thy relation to me, put this wife of
thine away: for by this means thou wilt continue to be a brother
to me, and wilt abide in thy love to me." Then said Pheroras
(although he were pressed hard by the former words), that “As
he would not do so unjust a thing as to renounce his brotherly
relation to him, so would he not leave off his affection for his
wife: that he would rather choose to die than to live and be
deprived of a wife that was so dear unto him." Hereupon
Herod put off his anger against Pheroras on these accounts,
1
8
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
although he himself thereby underwent a very uneasy punish-
ment. However, he forbade Antipater and his mother to have
any conversation with Pheroras, and bid them to take care to
avoid the assemblies of the women: which they promised to do;
but still got together when occasion served, and both Phero-
ras and Antipater had their own merry meetings. The report
went also, that Antipater had criminal conversation with Phero-
ras's wife; and that they were brought together by Antipater's
mother.
2. But Antipater had now a suspicion of his father, and was
afraid that the effects of his hatred to him might increase; so
he wrote to his friends at Rome, and bid them send to Herod,
that he would immediately send Antipater to Cæsar; which
when it was done, Herod sent Antipater thither, and sent most
noble presents along with him; as also his testament, wherein
Antipater was appointed to be his successor; and that if Anti-
pater should die first, his [Herod Philip] son by the high priest's
daughter should succeed. And, together with Antipater, there
went to Rome, Sylleus the Arabian, although he had done no-
thing of all that Cæsar had enjoined him. Antipater also accused
him of the same crimes of which he had been formerly accused
by Herod. Sylleus was also accused by Aretas, that without his
consent he had slain many of the chief of the Arabians at Petra;
and particularly Soemus, a man that deserved to be honoured
by all men and that he had slain Fabatus, a servant of Cæsar's.
These were the things of which Sylleus was accused, and that
on the occasion following: There was one Corinthus belonging
to Herod, of the guards of the king's body, and one who was
greatly trusted by him. Sylleus had persuaded this man, with
the offer of a great sum of money, to kill Herod: and he had
promised to do it. When Fabatus had been made acquainted
with this, for Sylleus had himself told him of it, he informed the
king of it; who caught Corinthus, and put him to the torture,
and thereby got out of him the whole conspiracy. He also
caught two other Arabians, who were discovered by Corinthus;
the one the head of a tribe, and the other a friend to Sylleus,
who were both by the king brought to the torture, and confess-
ed that they were coming to encourage Corinthus not to fail of
doing what he had undertaken to do; and to assist him with
their own hands in the murder, if need should require their assis-
tance. So Saturninus, upon Herod's discovering the whole to
him, sent them to Rome.
3. At this time Herod commanded Pheroras, that since he
was so obstinate in his affection for his wife, he should retire
into his own tetrarchy; which he did very willingly, and sware
many oaths that he would not come again, till he heard that He-
rod was dead. And indeed, when, upon a sickness of the king's,
he was desired to come to him before he died, that he might in-
་
C. III.
9
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
trust him with some of his injunctions, he had such a regard to
his oath, that he would not come to him: yet did not Herod so
retain his hatred to Pheroras, but remitted of his purpose (not to
see him), which he before had, and that for such great causes as
have been already mentioned: but as soon as he began to be ill,
he came to him, and this without being sent for; and when he
was dead, he took care of his funeral, and had his body brought
to Jerusalem and buried there, and appointed a solemn mourn-
ing for him. This [death of Pheroras] became the origin of An-
tipater's misfortunes, although he were already sailed for Rome,
God now being about to punish him for the murder of his bre-
thren. I will explain the history of this matter very distinctly,
that it may be for a warning to mankind, that they take care of
conducting their whole lives by the rules of virtue.
CHAP. IV.
Pheroras's Wife is accused by his Freedmen as guilty of poisoning
him; and how Herod, upon Examination of the Matter by
Torture, found the Poison; but so that it had been prepared
for himself by his Son Antipater; and upon an Inquiry by
Torture, he discovered the dangerous Designs of Antipater.
§ 1. As soon as Pheroras was dead, and his funeral was over,
two of Pheroras's freedmen, who were much esteemed by him,
came to Herod, and entreated him not to leave the murder of his
rother without avenging it, but to examine into such an unrea-
sonable and unhappy death. When he was moved with these
words, for they seemed to him to be true, they said, that "Phero-
ras supped with his wife the day before he fell sick, and that a
certain potion was brought him in such a sort of food as he was
not used to eat; but that when he had eaten he died of it: that this
potion was brought out of Arabia by a woman, under pretence
indeed as a love potion, for that was its name, but in reality to
kill Phororas; for that the Arabian women are skilful in making
such poisons: and the woman to whom they ascribe this was
confessedly a most intimate friend of one of Sylleus's mistresses;
and that both the mother and the sister of Pheroras's wife had
been at the places where she lived, and had persuaded her to sell
them this potion; and had come back and brought it with them
the day before that of his supper." Hereupon the king was
provoked, and put the women slaves to the torture, and some
that were free with them; and as the fact did not yet appear,
because none of them would confess it: at length one of
them, under her utmost agonies, said no more than this, that "she
prayed that God would send the like agonies upon Antipater's
mother, who had been the occasion of these miseries to all of

10
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
1
1
them." This prayer induced Herod to increase the women's
tortures, till thereby all was discovered: "Their merry meetings,
their secret assemblies, and the disclosing of what he had said to
his son alone, unto Pheroras's women *" (Now what Herod
had charged Antipater to conceal was the gift of a hundred
talents to him not to have any conversation with Pheroras.)
"And what hatred he bore to his father; and that he complain-
ed to his mother how very long his father lived; and that he was
himself almost an old man, insomuch that if the kingdom should
come to him, it would not afford him any great pleasure: and
that there were a great many of his brothers, or brothers' chil-
dren, bringing up, that might have hopes of the kingdom as well
as himself, all which made his own hopes of it uncertain; for
that even now, if he should himself not live, Herod had or-
dained that the government should be conferred, not on his son,
but rather on a brother. He also had accused the king of great
barbarity, and of the slaughter of his sons; and that it was out
of the fear he was under, lest he should do the like to him, that
made him contrive this his journey to Rome, and Pheroras con-
trive to go to his own tetrarchy.
men.
2. These confessions agreed with what his sister had told him,
and tended greatly to corroborate her testimony, and to free her
from the suspicion of her unfaithfulness to him. So the king
having satisfied himself of the spite which Doris, Antipater's
mother, as well as himself, bore to him, took away from her all
her fine ornaments, which were worth many talents, and then
sent her away, and entered into friendship with Pheroras's wo-
But he who most of all irritated the king against his son,
was one Antipater, the procurator of Antipater the king's son,
who, when he was tortured, among other things, said that An-
tipater had prepared a deadly potion, and given it to Pheroras,
with his desire that he would give it to his father during his ab-
sence, and when he was too remote to have the least suspicion
cast upon him thereto relating; that Antiphilus, one of Antipa-
ter's friends, brought that potion out Egypt; and that it was
sent to Pheroras by Theudion, the brother of the mother of An-
tipater, the king's son, and by that means came to Pheroras's
wife, her husband having given it her to keep. And when the
king asked her about it, she confessed it; and as she was run-
His wife, her mother, and sister.-It seems to me, by this whole story put
together, that Pheroras was not himself poisoned, as is commonly supposed; for
Antipater had persuaded him to poison Herod, ch. v. sect. 1, which would fall
to the ground, if he were himself poisoned; nor could the poisoning of Pheroras
serve any design that appears now going forward. It was only the supposal of
two of his freedmen, that this love potion, or poison, which they knew was
brought to Pheroras's wife, was made use of for poisoning him; whereas it ap-
pears to have been brought for her husband to poison Herod withal, as the fu-
ture examinations demonstrate.
C. IV.
11
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
ning to fetch it, she threw herself down from the housetop; yet
did she not kill herself, because she fell upon her feet: by which
means when the king had comforted her, and had promised her
and her domestics pardon, upon condition of their concealing
nothing of the truth from him; but had threatened her with the
utmost miseries if she proved ungrateful [and concealed any
thing]: so she promised and swore that she would speak out
every thing, and tell after what manner every thing was done;
and said what many took to be entirely true, that "the potion
was brought out of Egypt by Antiphilus: and that his brother,
who was a physician, had procured it; and that when Theudion
brought it us, she kept it, upon Pheroras's committing it to her:
and that it was prepared by Antipater for thee. When, there-
fore, Pheroras was fallen sick, and thou camedst to him, and
tookedst care of him, and when he saw the kindness thou hadst
for him, his mind was overborne thereby. So he called me to
him, and said to me, "O woman! Antipater hath circumvented
me in this affair of his father and my brother, by persuading me
to have a murderous intention to him, and procuring a potion
to be subservient thereto: do thou, therefore, go and fetch my
potion (since my brother appears to have still the same virtuous
disposition towards me which he had formerly, and I do not ex-
pect to live long myself, and that I may not defile my forefathers
by the murder of a brother), and burn it before my face:" that
accordingly she immediately brought it, and did as her husband
bade her; and that she burnt the greatest part of the potion;
but that a little of it was left, that if the king, after Pheroras's
death, should treat her ill, she might poison herself, and thereby
get clear of her miseries. Upon her saying thus, she brought
out the potion, and the box in which it was, before them all.
Nay, there was another brother of Antiphilus's, and his mother
also, who, by the extremity of pain and torture, confessed the
same things, and owned the box [to be that which had been
brought out of Egypt]. The high priest's daughter also, who
was the king's wife, was accused to have been conscious of all
this, and had resolved to conceal it: for which reason Herod
divorced her; and blotted her son out of his testament, wherein
he had been mentioned as one that was to reign after him; and
he took the high priesthood away from his father-in-law, Simeon,
the son of Boethus, and appointed Mattathias, son of Theophi-
lus, who was born at Jerusalem, to be high priest in his room.
""
3. While this was doing, Bathyllus, also Antipater's freed-
man, came from Rome, and, upon the torture, was found to
have brought another potion, to give it into the hands of Anti-
pater's mother, and of Pheroras, that if the former potion did
not operate upon the king, this at least might carry him off.
There came also letters from Herod's friends at Rome, by the
12
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
approbation and at the suggestion of Antipater, to accuse Ar-
chelaus and Philip, as if they calumniated their father on ac-
count of the slaughter of Alexander and Aristobulus, and as if
they commiserated their deaths; and as if, because they were
sent for home (for their father had already recalled them), they
concluded they were themselves also to be destroyed. These
letters had been procured by great rewards, by Antipater's
friends; but Antipater himself wrote to his father about them,
and laid the heaviest things to their charge; yet did he entirely
excuse them of any guilt, and said, they were but young men,
and so imputed their words to their youth. But he said, that
he had himself been very busy in the affair relating to Sylleus,
and in getting interest among the great men; and on that
account had bought splendid ornaments to present them withal,
which cost him two hundred talents. Now, one may wonder
how it came about, that while so many accusations were laid
against him in Judea during seven months before this time, he
was not made acquainted with any of them. The causes of
which were, that the roads were exactly guarded, and that men
hated Antipater; for there was nobody who would run any
hazard himself, to gain him any advantages.
CHAP. V.
Antipater's Navigation from Rome to his Father; and how he
was accused by Nicolaus of Damascus, and condemned to die
by his Father, and by Quintilius Varus, who was then Pre-
sident of Syria; and how he was then bound till Cæsar should
be informed of his Cause.
§ 1. Now Herod, upon Antipater's writing to him, that having
done all that he was to do, and this in the manner he was to do
it, he would suddenly come to him, concealed his anger against
him, and wrote back to him, and bid him not to delay his jour-
ney; lest any harm should befall himself in his absence. At
the same time also he made some little complaint about his mo-
ther; but promised, that he should lay those complaints aside
when he should return. He withal expressed his entire affec-
tion for him, as fearing lest he should have some suspicion of
him, and defer his journey to him; and lest, while he lived at
Rome, he should lay plots for the kingdom, and, moreover, do
somewhat against himself. This letter Antipater met with in
Cilicia; but had received an account of Pheroras's death before
at Tarentum. This last news affected him deeply; not out of
any affection for Pheroras, but because he was dead without
having murdered his father, which he had promised him to do.
And when he was at Celendris, in Cilicia, he began to deliberate
1
C. V.
13
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
!
1
+
with himself about his sailing home, as being much grieved with
the ejection of his mother. Now some of his friends advised
him, that he should tarry a while somewhere, in expectation of
farther information. But others advised him to sail home with-
out delay; for that if he were once come thither, he would soon
put an end to all accusations, and that nothing afforded any
weight to his accusers at present but his absence. He was per-
suaded by these last, and sailed on, and landed at the haven
called Sebastus; which Herod had built at vast expenses in
honour of Cæsar, and called Sebastus. And now was Antipa-
ter evidently in a miserable condition, while nobody came to
him or saluted him, as they did at his going away, with good
wishes or joyful acclamations; nor was there now any thing to
hinder them from entertaining him, on the contrary, with bitter
curses, while they supposed he was come to receive his punish-
ment for the murder of his brethren.
2. Now Quintilius Varus was at this time at Jerusalem, being
sent to succeed Saturninus, as president of Syria, and was come
as an assessor to Herod, who had desired his advice in his
present
affairs; and as they were sitting together, Antipater came upon
them, without knowing any thing of the matter; so he came into
the palace clothed in purple. The porters indeed received him
in, but excluded his friends. And now he was in great disorder,
and presently understood the condition he was in; while upon
his going to salute his father he was repulsed by him, who call-
ed him a murderer of his brethren, and a plotter of destruction
against himself, and told him that Varus should be his auditor
and his judge the very next day; so he found, that what misfor-
tune he now heard of was already upon him, with the greatness
of which he went away in confusion: upon which his mother
and his wife met him (which wife was the daughter of Antigo-
nus, who was king of the Jews before Herod), from whom he
learned all circumstances which concerned him, and then pre-
pared himself for his trial.
3. On the next day Varus and the king sat together in judg-
ment; and both their friends were also called in, as also the
king's relations, with his sister Salome, and as many as could
discover any thing, and such as had been tortured; and besides
these some slaves of Antipater's mother, who were taken up a
little before Antipater's coming, and brought with them a writ-
ten letter, the sum of which was this: that "he should not
come back, because all was come to his father's knowledge;
and that Cæsar was the only refuge he had left to prevent both
his and her delivery into his father's hands." Then did Anti-
pater fall down at his father's feet, and besought him "not to
prejudge his cause, but that he might be first heard by his
father, and that his father would keep himself unprejudiced.”
I
14
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
So Herod ordered him to be brought into the midst, and then
"lamented himself about his children, from whom he had suf-
fered such great misfortunes; and because Antipater fell upon
him in his old age. He also reckoned up what maintenance
and what education he had given them; and what seasonable
supplies of wealth he had afforded them, according to their own
desires: none of which favours had hindered them from con-
triving plots against him, and from bringing his very life into
danger, in order to gain his kingdom, after an impious manner,
by taking away his life before the course of nature, their father's
wishes, or justice, required that that kingdom should come to
them; and that he wondered what hopes could elevate Anti-
pater to such a pass, as to be hardy enough to attempt such
things; that he had by his testament in writing declared him his
successor in the government; and while he was alive he was in
no respect inferior to him, either in his illustrious dignity, or in
power and authority, he having no less than fifty talents for his
yearly income, and had received for his journey to Rome no
fewer than thirty talents. He also objected to him the case of
his brethren, whom he had accused; and if they were guilty, he
had imitated their example; and if not, he had brought him
groundless accusations against his near relations; for that he
had been acquainted with all those things by him, and by no-
body else, and had done what was done by his approbation, and
whom he now absolved from all that was criminal, by becoming
the inheritor of the guilt of such their parricide.
"
4. When Herod had thus spoken, he fell a weeping, and was
not able to say any more; but at his desire Nicolaus of Damas-
cus, being the king's friend, and always conversant with him,
and acquainted with whatsoever he did, and with the circum-
stances of his affairs, proceeded to what remained, and explained
all that concerned the demonstrations and evidences of the facts.
Upon which Antipater, in order to make his legal defence, turned
himself to his father, and "enlarged upon the many indications
he had given of his good will to him; and instanced in the
honours that had been done him, which yet had not been
done, had he not deserved them by his virtuous concern about
him; for that he had made provision for every thing that was
fit to be foreseen beforehand, as to giving him his wisest advice;
and whenever there was occasion for the labour of his own
hands, he had not grudged any such pains for him. And that it
was almost impossible that he, who had delivered his father from
so many treacherous contrivances laid against him, should be
himself in a plot against him, and so lose all the reputation he
had gained for his virtue, by his wickedness which succeeded it;
and this while he had nothing to prohibit him, who was already
appointed his successor, to enjoy the royal honour with his father
C. V.
15
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
also at present, and that there was no likelihood that a person
who had the one half of that authority without any danger, and
with a good character, should hunt after the whole infamy and
danger, and this when it was doubtful whether he could obtain
it or not; and when he saw the sad example of his brethren
before him, and was both the informer and the accuser against
them, at a time when they might not otherwise have been dis-
covered; nay, was the author of the punishment inflicted on
them, when it appeared evidently that they were guilty of a
wicked attempt against their father; and that even the conten-
tions there were in the king's family were indications that he
had ever managed affairs out of the sincerest affection to his
father. And as to what he had done at Rome, Cæsar was a
witness thereto; who yet was no more to be imposed upon thạn
God himself: of whose opinions his letters sent hither are suf-
ficient evidence; and that it was not reasonable to prefer the
calumnies of such as proposed to raise disturbances, before those
letters; the greatest part of which calumnies had been raised
during his absence, which gave scope to his enemies to forge
them, which they had not been able to do if he had been there."
Moreover he showed the weakness of the evidence obtained by
torture, which was commonly false; because the distress men
are in under such tortures naturally obliges them to say many
things in order to please those that govern them. He also offered
himself to the torture.
5. Hereupon there was a change observed in the assembly,
while they greatly pitied Antipater, who by weeping and putting
on a countenance suitable to his sad case, made them commise-
rate the same; insomuch that his very enemies were moved to
compassion: and it appeared plainly that Herod himself was
affected in his own mind, although he was not willing it should
be taken notice of. Then did Nicolaus begin to prosecute what
the king had begun, and that with great bitterness; and summed
up all the evidence which arose from the tortures or from the
testimonies. "He principally and largely cried up the king's
virtues, which he had exhibited in the maintenance and education
of his sons: while he could never gain any advantage thereby, but
still fell from one misfortune to another. Although he owned,
that he was not so much surprised with that thoughtless beha-
viour of his former sons, who were but young, and were besides
corrupted by wicked counsellors, who were the occasions of
their wiping out of their minds the righteous dictates of nature,
and this out of a desire of coming to the government sooner
than they ought to do; yet that he could not but justly stand
amazed at the horrid wickedness of Antipater, who, although he
had not only had great benefits bestowed on him by his father,
enough to tame his reason, yet could not be more tamed than
16
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
the most envenomed serpents; whereas even those creatures
admit of some mitigation, and will not bite their benefactors;
while Antipater hath not let the misfortunes of his brethren be
any hinderance to him, but he hath gone on to imitate their bar-
barity notwithstanding. Yet wast thou, O Antipater! (as thou
hast thyself confessed) the informer as to what wicked actions
they had done, and the searcher out of the evidence against
them, and the author of the punishment they underwent upon
their detection. Nor do we say this as accusing thee for being
so zealous in thy anger against them, but are astonished at thy
endeavours to imitate their profligate behaviour; and we discover
thereby, that thou didst not act thus for the safety of thy father,
but for the destruction of thy brethren, that by such outside.
hatred of their impiety, thou mightest be believed a lover of thy
father, and mightest thereby get thee power enough to do mis-
chief with the greatest impunity; which design thy actions indeed
demonstrate. It is true, thou tookest thy brethren off because
thou didst convict them of their wicked designs: but thou didst
not yield up to justice those who were their partners; and
thereby didst make it evident to all men, that thou madest a
covenant with them against thy father, when thou chosest to be
the accuser of thy brethren, as desirous to gain to thyself alone
this advantage of laying plots to kill thy father, and so to enjoy
double pleasure; which is truly worthy of thy evil disposition,
which thou hast openly showed against thy brethren; on which
account thou didst rejoice, as having done a most famous exploit;
nor was that behaviour unworthy of thee. But if thy intentions
were otherwise, thou art worse than they; while thou didst con-
trive to hide thy treachery against thy father, thou didst hate
them, not as plotters against thy father, for in that case thou
hadst not thyself fallen upon the like crime, but as successors of
his dominions, and more worthy of that succession than thyself.
Thou wouldst kill thy father after thy brethren, lest thy lies
raised against them might be detected; and lest thou shouldest
suffer what punishment thou hadst deserved, thou hadst a mind
to exact that punishment of thy unhappy father, and didst devise
such a sort of uncommon parricide as the world never yet saw.
For thou, who art his son, didst not only lay a treacherous design
against thy father, and didst it while he loved thee and had been
thy benefactor, had made thee in reality his partner in the king-
dom, and had openly declared thee his successor, while thou
wast not forbidden to taste the sweetness of authority already,
and hadst the firm hope of what was future by thy father's de-
termination, and the security of a written testament. But, for
certain, thou didst not measure these things according to thy
father's various dispositions, but according to thy own thoughts
and inclinations; and wast desirous to take the part that re-
་
C. V.
17
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
mained away from thy too indulgent father, and soughtest to
destroy him with thy deeds, whom thou in words pretendest to
preserve. Nor wast thou content to be wicked thyself, but thou
filledst thy mother's head with thy devices, and raised disturb-
ances among thy brethren, and hadst the boldness to call thy
father a wild beast; while thou hadst thyself a mind more cruel
than any serpent, whence thou sendest out that poison amongst
thy nearest kindred and greatest benefactors, and invitedst them
to assist thee and guard thee, and didst hedge thyself in on all
sides by the artifices of both men and women, against an old
man; as though that mind of thine was not sufficient of itself to
support so great a hatred as thou barest to him. And here
thou appearest after the tortures of freemen, of domestics, of
men and women, which have been examined on thy account,
and after the informations of thy fellow-conspirators, as making
haste to contradict the truth; and hast thought on ways not
only how to take thy father out of the world, but to disannul
that written law which is against thee, and the virtue of Varus,
and the nature of justice; nay, such is that impudence of thine
on which thou confidest, that thou desirest to be put to the tor-
ture thyself, while thou allegest, that the tortures of those
already examined thereby have made them tell lies; that those
that have been the deliverers of thy father may not be allowed
to have spoken the truth; but that thy tortures may be esteemed
the discoverers of truth. Wilt not thou, O Varus, deliver the
king from the injuries of his kindred? Wilt not thou destroy
this wicked wild beast, which hath pretended kindness to his
father in order to destroy his brethren; while yet he is himself
alone ready to carry off the kingdom immediately, and appears
to be the most bloody butcher to him of them all? For thou
art sensible, that parricide is a general injury both to nature and
to common life; and that the intention of parricide is not infe-
rior to its preparation; and he who does not punish it, is inju-
rious to nature itself."
6. Nicolaus added farther what belonged to Antipater's
mother, and whatsoever she had prattled like a woman; as
also about the predictions and the sacrifices relating to the
king; and whatsoever Antipater had done lasciviously in his
cups and his amours among Pheroras's women; the examina-
tion upon torture; and whatsoever concerned the testimonies
of the witnesses, which were many, and of various kinds; some
prepared beforehand, and others were sudden answers, which
farther declared and confirmed the foregoing evidence. For
those men who were acquainted with Antipater's practices, but
had concealed them out of fear, when they saw that he was
exposed to the accusations of the former witnesses, and that his
great good fortune, which had supported him hitherto, had now
VOL. III.
C
1
18
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
evidently betrayed him into the hands of his enemies, who were
now insatiable in their hatred to him, told all they knew of him.
And his ruin was now hastened, not so much by the enmity of
those that were his accusers, as by his gross, and impudent, and
wicked contrivances, and by his ill will to his father and his
brethren; while he had filled their house with disturbance, and
caused them to murder one another; and was neither fair in his
hatred, nor kind in his friendship; but just so far as served his
own turn. Now, there were a great number who for a long
time beforehand had seen all this; and especially such as were
naturally disposed to judge of matters by the rules of virtue;
because they were used to determine about affairs without pas-
sion, but had been restrained from making any open complaints
before; these, upon the leave now given them, produced all
that they knew before the public. The demonstrations also
of these wicked facts could no way be disproved; because the
many witnesses there were did neither speak out of favour to
Herod, nor were they obliged to keep what they had to say
silent, out of suspicion of any danger they were in; but they
spake what they knew, because they thought such actions very
wicked; and that Antipater deserved the greatest punishment;
and indeed not so much for Herod's safety, as on account of
the man's own wickedness. Many things were also said, and
those by a great number of persons who were no way obliged
to say them; insomuch that Antipater, who used generally to
be very shrewd in his lies and impudence, was not able to say
one word to the contrary. When Nicolaus had left off speak-
ing, and had produced the evidence, Varus bid Antipater to
betake himself to making his defence, if he had prepared any
thing whereby it might appear that he was not guilty of the
crimes he was accused of; for that, as he was himself desirous,
so did he know that his father was in like manner desirous also
to have him found entirely innocent. But Antipater fell down
on his face, and appealed to God, and to all men, for testimo-
nials of his innocency; desiring that God would declare by
some evident signals, that he had not laid any plot against his
father. This being the usual method of all men destitute of
virtue, that when they set about any wicked undertakings, they
fall to work according to their own inclinations, as if they be-
lieved that God was unconcerned in human affairs; but when
once they are found out, and are in danger of undergoing the
punishment due to their crimes, they endeavour to overthrow
all the evidence against them, by appealing to God; which was
the very thing which Antipater now did; for whereas he had
done every thing as if there were no God in the world; when
he was on all sides distressed by justice, and when he had no
other advantage to expect from any legal proofs, by which he
C. V.
19
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
might disprove the accusations laid against him, he impudently
abused the majesty of God, and ascribed it to his power, that
he had been preserved hitherto; and produced before them all
what difficulties he had ever undergone in his bold acting for
his father's preservation.
7. So when Varus, upon asking Antipater what he had to
say for himself, found that he had nothing to say besides his
appeal to God, and saw that there was no end of that, he bid
them bring the potion before the court, that he might see what
virtue still remained in it; and when it was brought, and one
that was condemned to die had drank it by Varus's command,
he died presently. Then Varus got up, and departed out of the
court, and went away the day following to Antioch, where his
usual residence was, because that was the palace of the Syrians;
upon which Herod laid his son in bonds. But what were Va-
rus's discourses to Herod was not known to the generality, and
upon what words it was that he went away; though it was also
generally supposed that whatsoever Herod did afterward about
his son, was done with his approbation. But when Herod had
bound his son, he sent letters to Rome to Cæsar about him, and
such messengers withal as should, by word of mouth, inform
Cæsar of Antipater's wickedness. Now at this very time there
was seized a letter of Antiphilus, written to Antipater out of
Egypt (for he lived there); and when it was opened by the
king, it was found to contain what follows: "I have sent thee
Acme's letter, and hazarded my own life; for thou knowest that
I am in danger from two families, if I be discovered. I wish
thee good success in thy affair." These were the contents of
this letter; but the king made inquiry about the other letter
also; for it did not appear: and Antiphilus's slave, who brought
that letter which had been read, denied that he had received the
other. But while the king was in doubt about it, one of He-
rod's friends seeing a seam upon the inner coat of the slave, and
a doubling of the cloth (for he had two coats on), he guessed
that the letter might be within that doubling, which accordingly
proved to be true. So they took out the letter, and its contents
were these: "Acme to Antipater. I have written such a letter
to thy father as thou desirest me. I have also taken a copy, and
sent it, as if it came from Salome to my lady [Livia]; which,
when thou readest, I know that Herod will punish Salome, as
plotting against him." Now this pretended letter of Salome's
to her lady was composed by Antipater, in the name of Salome,
as to its real meaning, but in the words of Acme. The letter
was this: "Acme to king Herod. I have done my endeavour
that nothing that is done against thee should be concealed from
thee. So, upon my finding a letter of Salome written to my lady
against thee, I have written out a copy, and sent it to thee; with
c 2
20
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWs.
F
*
hazard to myself, but for thy advantage. The reason why she
wrote it was this; that she had a mind to be married to Sylleus.
Do thou therefore tear this letter in pieces, that I may not come
into danger of my life." Now Acme had written to Antipater
himself; and informed him that, in compliance with his com-
mand, she had both herself written to Herod, as if Salome had
laid a sudden plot entirely against him, and had herself sent a
copy of an epistle, as coming from Salome to her lady. Now
Acme was a Jew by birth, and a servant to Julia, Cæsar's wife;
and did this out of her friendship for Antipater, as having been
corrupted by him with a large present of money, to assist in his
pernicious designs against his father and his aunt.
8. Hereupon Herod was so amazed at the prodigious wick-
edness of Antipater, that he was ready to have ordered him to
be slain immediately, as a turbulent person in the most impor-
tant concerns, and as one that had laid a plot not only against
himself, but against his sister also; and even corrupted Cæsar's
own domestics. Salome also provoked him to it; beating her
breast, and bidding him to kill her, if he could produce any
credible testimony that she had acted in that manner. Herod
also sent for his son, and asked him about this matter; and bid
him contradict it if he could, and not suppress any thing he had
to say for himself; and when he had not one word to say, he
asked him, since he was every way caught in his villany, that he
would make no farther delay, but discover his associates in these
his wicked designs. So he laid all upon Antiphilus; but disco-
vered nobody else. Hereupon Herod was in such great grief,
that he was ready to send his son to Rome to Cæsar; there to
give an account of these his wicked contrivances. But he soon
became afraid, lest he might there, by the assistance of his
friends, escape the danger he was in: so he kept him bound as
before and sent more ambassadors and letters [to Rome] to
accuse his son; and an account of what assistance Acme had
given him in his wicked designs, with copies of the epistles
beforementioned.
CHAP. VI.
Concerning the Disease that Herod fell into, and the Sedition
which the Jews raised thereupon; with the Punishment of the
Seditious.
§ 1. Now Herod's ambassadors made haste to Rome: but went
as instructed beforehand, what answers they were to make to the
questions put to them, They also carried the epistles with them.
But Herod now fell into a distemper; and made his will, and
bequeathed his kingdom to [Antipas] his youngest son; and this
C. VI.
21:
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
out of that hatred to Archelaus and Philip, which the calumnies
of Antipater had raised against them. He also bequeathed a
thousand talents to Cæsar, and five hundred to Julia, Cæsar's
wife, to Cæsar's children, and friends, and freed men. He also
distributed among his sons and their sons his money, his reve-
nues, and his lands. He also made Salome his sister very rich;
because she had continued faithful to him in all his circum-
stances, and was never so rash as to do him any harm: and as he
despaired of recovering, for he was about the seventieth year of
his age, he grew fierce, and indulged the bitterest anger upon
all occasions; the cause whereof was this: that he thought him-
self despised, and that the nation was pleased with his misfor-
tunes; besides which, he resented a sedition which some of the
lower sort of men excited against him; the occasion of which
was as follows:
2. There was one Judas, the son of Saripheus, and Matthias,
the son of Margalothus, two of the most eloquent men among-
the Jews, and the most celebrated interpreters of the Jewish
laws; and men well beloved by the people, because of their
education of their youth: for all those that were studious of
virtue frequented their lectures every day. These men, when
they found that the king's distemper was incurable, excited the
young men that they would pull down all those works which
the king had erected contrary to the law of their fathers; and
thereby obtain the rewards which the law will confer on them
for such actions of piety; for that it was truly on account of
Herod's rashness in making such things as the law had forbid-
den, that his other misfortunes, and this distemper also, which
was so unusual among mankind, and with which he was now
afflicted, came upon him: for Herod had caused such things to
be made which were contrary to the law, of which he was ac-
cused by Judas and Matthias; for the king had erected over the
great gate of the temple a large golden eagle of great value, and
had dedicated it to the temple. Now the law forbids those that
propose to live according to it, to erect images* or representa-
tions of any living creature. So these wise men persuaded [their
scholars] to pull down the golden eagle; alleging, that "although
they should incur any danger, which might bring them to their
deaths, the virtue of the action now proposed to them would
appear much more advantageous to them than the pleasures of
life; since they would die for the preservation and observation
of the law of their fathers; since they would also acquire an
everlasting fame and commendation; since they would be both
commended by the present generation, and leave an example of
life that would never be forgotten to posterity; since that com-
* That the making of images, without an intention to worship them, was not
unlawful to the Jews, see the note on Antiq. B. viii. ch. vii. sect. 5.
22
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
mon calamity of dying cannot be avoided by our living so as to
escape any such dangers; that therefore it is a right thing for
those who are in love with a virtuous conduct, to wait for that
fatal hour by such a behaviour as may carry them out of the
world with praise and honour: and that this will alleviate death
to a great degree, thus to come at it by the performance of brave
actions, which bring us into danger of it; and at the same time,
to leave that reputation behind them to their children, and to
all their relations, whether they be men or women; which will
be of great advantage to them afterward."
3. And with such discourses as this did these men excite the
young men to this action; and a report being come to them that
the king was dead, this was an addition to the wise men's per-
suasions; so, in the very middle of the day, they got upon the
place, they pulled down the eagle, and cut it into pieces with
axes, while a great number of the people were in the temple.
And now the king's captain, upon hearing what the undertaking
was, and supposing it was a thing of a higher nature than it proved
to be, came up thither, having a great band of soldiers with
him: such as was sufficient to put a stop to the multitude of
those who pulled down what was dedicated to God; so he fell
upon them unexpectedly, and as they were upon this bold at-
tempt, in a foolish presumption rather than a cautious circum-
spection, as is usual with the multitude: and while they were in
disorder and incautious of what was for their advantage; so he
caught no fewer than forty of the young men, who had the cou-
rage to stay behind when the rest ran away; together with the
authors of this bold attempt, Judas and Matthias, who thought
it an ignominious thing to retire upon his approach, and led them
to the king. And when they were come to the king, and he had
asked them if they had been so bold as to pull down what he
had dedicated to God?" Yes (said they), what was contrived
we contrived; and what hath been performed, we performed it;
and that with such a virtuous courage as becomes men: for we
have given our assistance to those things which were dedicated to
the majesty of God; and we have provided for what we have
learned by hearing the law; and it ought not to be wondered at
if we esteem those laws which Moses had suggested to him, and
were taught him by God, and which he wrote and left behind
him, more worthy of observation than thy commands. Accord-
ingly we will undergo death, and all sorts of punishment which
thou canst inflict upon us with pleasure, since we are conscious
to ourselves that, we shall die, not for any unrighteous actions,
but for our love to religion." And thus they all said; and their
courage was still equal to their profession, and equal to that with
which they readily set about this undertaking. And when the
king had ordered them to be bound, he sent them to Jericho, and
C. VI.
28
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
called together the principal men among the Jews; and when
they were come, he made them assemble in the theatre; and be-
cause he could not himself stand, he lay upon a couch, and
"enumerated the many labours that he had long endured on
their account; and his building of the temple, and what a vast
charge that was to him; while the Asamoneans, during the hun-
dred and twenty-five years of their government, had not been
able to perform any so great a work for the honour of God as
that was that he had also adorned it with very valuable dona-
tions; on which account he hoped that he had left himself a me-
morial, and procured himself a reputation after his death.
then cried out, that these men had not abstained from affronting
him, even in his life-time; but that in the very day-time, and in
the sight of the multitude, they had abused him to that degree as
to fall upon what he had dedicated; and in that way of abuse
had pulled it down to the ground. They pretended, indeed, that
they did it to affront him; but if any one consider the thing
truly, they will find that they were guilty of sacrilege towards
God therein.'
"
He
4. But the people, on account of Herod's barbarous tem-
per, and for fear he should be so cruel as to inflict punishment
on them, said, "What was done, was done without their appro-
bation; and that it seemed to them that the actors might well
be punished for what they had done." But as for Herod, he
dealt more mildly with others [of the assembly]; but he de-
prived Matthias of the high priesthood, as in part on occasion of
this action, and made Joazar, who was Matthias's wife's bro-
ther, high priest in his stead. Now it happened that during
the time of the high priesthood of this Matthias, there was ano-
ther person made high priest for a single day: that very day
which the Jews observed as a fast. The occasion was this:
this Matthias the high priest, on the night before that day when
the fast was to be celebrated, seemed in a dream to have con-
versation with his wife; and because he could not officiate him-
self on that account, Joseph, the son of Ellemus, his kinsman,
assisted him in that sacred office*. But Herod deprived this
Matthias of the high priesthood; and burnt the other Matthias,
* This fact, that one Joseph was made high priest for a single day, on occa-
sion of the action here specified, that befell Matthias, the real high priest, in his
sleep, the night before the great day of expiation, is attested to both in the
Mishna and Talmud, as Dr. Hudson here informs us. And indeed, from this
fact, thus fully attested, we may confute that pretended rule in the Talmud here
mentioned, and endeavoured to be excused by Reland, that the high priest was
not suffered to sleep the night before that great day of expiation; which watch-
ing would surely rather unfit him for the many important duties he was to per-
form on that solemn day, than dispose him duly to perform them. Nor do such
Talmudical rules, when unsupported by better evidence, much less when contra-
dicted thereby, seem to me of weight enough to deserve that so great a man as
Reland should spend his time in endeavours at their vindication.
เ
"
24
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
who had raised the sedition, with his companions, alive. And
that very night there was an eclipse of the moon*.
5. But now Herod's distemper greatly increased upon him
after a severe manner, and this by God's judgment upon him
for his sins; for a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not so
much appear to the touch outwardly, as it augmented his pains
inwardly; for it brought upon him a vehement appetite to eating,
which he could not avoid to supply with one sort of food or
other. His entrails were also exulcerated, and the chief vio-
lence of his pain lay on his colon: an aqueous and transparent
liquor also had settled itself about his feet, and a like matter
afflicted him at the bottom of his belly. Nay, farther his privy-
member was putrified, and produced worms: and when he sat
upright he had a difficulty of breathing, which was very loath-
some, on account of the stench of his breath, and the quickness
of its returns: he had also convulsions in all parts of his body,
which increased his stench to an insufferable degree. It was
said by those who pretended to divine, and who were endued
with wisdom to foretell such things, that God inflicted this
punishment on the king on account of his great impiety: yet was
he still in hopes of recovering, though his afflictions seemed
greater than any one could bear. He also sent for physicians,
and did not refuse to follow what they prescribed for his assis-
tance: and went beyond the river Jordan, and bathed himself in
the warm baths that were at Callirrhoe, which, besides their
other general virtues, were also fit to drink; which water runs
into the lake called Asphaltitis. And when the physicians once
thought fit to have him bathed in a vessel full of oil, it was sup-
posed that he was just dying; but upon the lamentable cries of
his domestics, he revived: and having no longer the least hopes
of recovering, he gave order that every soldier should be paid
fifty drachma; and he also gave a great deal to their command-
ers, and to his friends, and came again to Jericho, where he
grew so choleric that it brought him to do all things like a mad-
man; and though he were near his death, he contrived the fol-
lowing designs: He commanded that all the principal men of
the entire Jewish nation, wheresoever they lived, should be
called to him. Accordingly, there were a great number that
came, because the whole nation was called, and all men heard
of this call, and death was the penalty of such as should despise
the epistles that were sent to call them. And now the king was
*This eclipse of the moon (which is the only eclipse of either of the luminaries
mentioned by our Josephus in any of his writings) is of the greatest consequence
for the determination of the time for the death of Herod and Antipater, and for
the birth and entire chronology of Jesus Christ. It happened March 13th, in
the year of the Julian period 4710, and the 4th year before the Christian æra.
See its calculation by the rules of astronomy, at the end of the Astronomical
Lectures, edit. Lat. page 451, 452.
C. VI.
25
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS..
in a wild rage against them all, the innocent as well as those that
had afforded him ground for accusations; and when they were
come, he ordered them to be all shut up in the hippodrome*
and sent for his sister Salome, and her husband Alexis, and
spake thus to them: "I shall die in a little time, so great are
my pains; which death ought to be cheerfully borne, and to be
welcomed by all men; but what principally troubles me is this,
that I shall die without being lamented; and without such
inourning as men usually expect at a king's death. For that he
was not unacquainted with the temper of the Jews, that his
death would be a thing very desirable, and exceedingly acceptable
to them; because during his lifetime they were ready to revolt
from him, and to abuse the donations he had dedicated to God:
that it therefore was their business to resolve to afford him some
alleviation of his great sorrows on this occasion; for that, if they
do not refuse him their consent in what he desires, he shall have
a great mourning at his funeral, and such as never any king had
before him; for then the whole nation would mourn from their
very soul, which otherwise would be done in sport and mockery
only. He desired, therefore, that as soon as they see he hath
given up the ghost, they shall place soldiers round the hippo-
drome, while they do not know that he is dead; and that they
shall not declare his death to the multitude till this is done, but
that they shall give orders to have those that are in custody shot
with their darts: and that this slaughter of them all will cause that
he shall not miss to rejoice on a double account. That as he is
dying, they will make him secure that his will shall be executed
in what he charges them to do: and that he shall have the honour
of a memorable mourning at his funeral. So he deplored his con-
dition with tears in his eyes, and obtested them by the kindness
due from them, as of his kindred, and by the faith they owed to
God; and begged of them that they would not hinder him of this
honourable mourning at his funeral." So they promised him
not to transgress his commands.
.
6. Now any one may easily discover the temper of this man's
mind, which not only took pleasure in doing what he had done
formerly against his relations, out of the love of life, but by those
commands of his which savoured of no humanity: since he took
care, when he was departing out of this life, that the whole na-
tion should be put into mourning; and indeed made desolate of
their dearest kindred, when he gave order that one out of every
family should be slain, although they had done nothing that was
unjust, or that was against him, nor were they accused of any
other crimes; while it is usual for those who have any regard to
virtue, to lay aside their hatred at such a time, even with respect
to those they justly essteemed their enemies.
* A place for the horse-races.
1
·
26
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
CHAP. VII.
Herod had Thoughts of killing Himself with his own Hand:
and a little afterwards he orders Antipater to be slain.
§ 1. As he was giving these commands to his relations, there
came letters from his ambassadors, who had been sent to Rome
unto Cæsar, which, when they were read, their purport was
this: that "Acme was slain by Cæsar, out of his indignation at
what hand she had in Antipater's wicked practices: and that as
to Antipater himself, Cæsar left it to Herod to act as became a
father and a king, and either to banish him or take away his life,
which he pleased." When Herod heard this he was somewhat
better, out of the pleasure he had from the contents of the let-
ters; and was elevated at the death of Acme, and at the power
that was given him over his son; but as his pains were become
very great, he was now ready to faint for want of somewhat to
cat: so he called for an apple, and a knife; for it was his cus-
tom formerly to pare the apple himself, and soon afterwards to
cut it and eat it. When he had got the knife he looked about,
and had a mind to stab himself with it; and he had done it, had
not his first-cousin Archiabus prevented him, and held his hand,
and cried out loudly. Whereupon a woful lamentation echoed
through the palace, and a great tumult was made, as if the king
were dead. Upon which Antipater, who verily believed his
father was deceased, grew bold in his discourse, as hoping to be
immediately and entirely released from his bonds, and to take
the kingdom into his hands, without any more ado; so he dis-
coursed with the jailor about letting him go, and in that case
promised him great things, both now and hereafter, as if that
were the only thing now in question. But the jailor did not only
refuse to do what Antipater would have him, but informed the
king of his intentions, and how many solicitations he had from
him [of that nature]. Hereupon Herod, who had formerly no
affection or good will towards his son to restrain him, when he
heard what the jailor said, he cried out, and beat his head, al-
though he was at death's door, and raised himself upon his
elbow, and sent for some of his guards, and commanded them
to kill Antipater without any farther delay, and to do it pre-
sently, and to bury him in an ignoble manner at Hyrcania.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
27
CHAP. VIII.
Concerning Herod's Death, and Testament, and Burial.
§ 1. AND now Herod altered his testament upon the alteration
of his mind; for he appointed Antipas, to whom he had before
left the kingdom, to be tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, and
granted the kingdom to Archelaus. He also gave Gaulonitis,
and Trachonitis, and Paneas to Philip, who was his son, but own
brother to Archelaus*, by the name of tetrarchy; and bequeathed
Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelis, to Salome his sister, with
five hundred thousand [drachmæ] of silver that was coined. He
also made provision for all the rest of his kindred, by giving
them sums of money and annual revenues, and so left them all in
a wealthy condition. He bequeathed also to Cæsar ten millions
[of drachmæ] of coined money, besides both vessels of gold and
silver, and garments exceeding costly; to Julia, Cæsar's wife,
and to certain others, five millions. When he had done these
things, he died, the fifth day after he had caused Antipater to be
slain; having reigned, since he had procured Antigonus to be
slain, thirty-four years†; but since he had been declared king
by the Romans, thirty-seven. A man he was of great barbarity
towards all men equally, and a slave to his passion; but above
the consideration of what was right; yet was he favoured by for-
tune as much as any man ever was; for, from a private man
he became a king: and though he were encompassed with ten
thousand dangers, he got clear of them all, and continued his
life till a very old age. But then, as to the affairs of his family
and children, in which indeed, according to his own opinion, he
was also
very fortunate because he was able to conquer his ene-
mies; yet, in my opinion, he was herein very unfortunate.
2. But then Salome and Alexis, before the king's death was
made known, dismissed those that were shut up in the hippo-
drome, and told them that the king ordered them to go away to
their own lands, and take care of their own affairs, which was
When it is here said, that Philip the tetrarch, and Archelaus the king or eth-
narch, were ådɛλpoi yvnoɩɩ or genuine brothers; if these words mean own brothers,
or born of the same father and mother, there must be here some mistake; be-
cause they had indeed the same father, Herod, but different mothers; the former
Cleopatra, and Archelaus Malthace. They were indeed brought up altogether
privately at Rome like own brothers; and Philip was Archelaus's deputy when
he went to have his kingdom confirmed to him at Rome; ch. ix. sect. 3. and Of
the War, B. ii. ch. ii. sect. 1, which intimacy is perhaps all that Josephus in-
tended by the words before us.
+ These numbers of years for Herod's reign, 34, and 37, are the very same
with those of the War, B. i. ch. xxxiii. sect. 8, and are among the principal
chronological characters belonging to the reign or death of Herod. See Harm.
of the Evang. p. 150-155.
1
28
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
esteemed by the nation a great benefit. And now the king's
death was made public, when Salome and Alexis gathered the
soldiery together in the amphitheatre at Jericho; and the first
thing they did was, they read Herod's letter written to the sol-
diery thanking them for their fidelity and good will to him, and
exhorting them to afford his son Archelaus, whom he had ap-
pointed for their king, like fidelity and good will. After which
Ptolemy, who had the king's seal intrusted to him, read the
king's testament which was to be of force no otherwise than as
it should stand when Cæsar had inspected it; so there was pre-
sently an acclamation made to Archelaus, as king; and the sol-
diers came by bands, and their commanders with them, and pro-
mised the same good will to him, and readiness to serve him,
which they had exhibited to Herod; and they prayed God to be
assistant to him.
3. After this was over they prepared for his funeral, it being
Archelaus's care that the procession to his father's sepulchre
should be very sumptuous. Accordingly, he brought out all his
ornaments to adorn the pomp of the funeral. The body was
carried upon a golden bier, embroidered with very precious
stones of great variety, and it was covered over with purple, as
well as the body itself: he had a diadem upon his head, and
above it a crown of gold: he also had a sceptre in his right
hand. About the bier were his sons and his numerous relations;
next to these was the soldiery, distinguished according to their
several countries and denominations; and they were put into the
following order: first of all went his guards; then the band of
Thracians; and after them the Germans; and next the band of
Galatians, every one in their habiliments of war; and behind
these marched the whole army in the same manner as they used
to go out to war, and as they used to be put in array by their
muster-masters and centurions; these were followed by five
hundred of his domestics carrying spices. So they went eight
furlongs*, to Herodium; for there, by his own command, he was
to be buried. And thus did Herod end his life.
4. Now Archelaus paid him so much respect as to continue
his mourning till the seventh day; for so many days are ap-
pointed for it by the law of our fathers. And when he had given
a treat to the multitude, and left off his mourning, he went up
into the temple. He had also acclamations and praises given
him, which way soever he went, every one striving with the rest
who should appear to use the loudest acclamations. So he
ascended a high elevation made for him, and took his seat in a
* At eight stadia or furlongs a days, as here, Herod's funeral, conducted to
Herodium (which lay at the distance from Jericho, where he died, of 200 stadia
or furlongs; Of the War, B. i. ch. xxxiii. sect. 9.), must have taken up no less
than twenty-five days.
C. VIII.
29
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
I
throne made of gold, and spake kindly to the multitude, and de-
clared, “with what joy he received their acclamations, and the
marks of the good will they showed to him; and returned them
thanks that they did not remember the injuries his father had
done them, to his disadvantage; and promised them, he would
endeavour not to be behindhand with them in rewarding their
alacrity in his service, after a suitable manner: but that he
should abstain at present from the name of king, and that he
should have the honour of that dignity, if Cæsar should confirm
and settle that testament which his father had made; and that
it was on this account, that when the army would have put the
diadem on him at Jericho, he would not accept of that honour,
which is usually so much desired, because it was not yet evident
that he who was to be principally concerned in bestowing it,
would give it him; although, by his acceptance of the govern-
ment, he should not want the ability of rewarding their kindness
to him, and that it should be his endeavour, as to all things.
wherein they were concerned, to prove, in every respect, better
than his father." Whereupon the multitude, as it is usual, with
them, supposed, that the first days of those that enter upon such
governments declare the intentions of those that accept them;
and so by how much Archelaus spake the more gently and civilly
to them, by so much did they more highly commend him, and
made application to him for the grant of what they desired.
Some made a clamour that he would ease them of some of their
annual payments; but others desired him to release those that
were put into prison by Herod, who were many, and had been
put there at several times; others of them required that he would
lake away those taxes which had been severely laid upon what
was publicly sold and bought. So Archelaus contradicted them
in nothing, since he pretended to do all things so as to get the
good will of the multitude to him, as looking upon that good
will to be a great step towards his preservation of the govern-
ment. Hereupon he went and offered sacrifice to God, and
then betook himself to feast with his friends.
CHAP. IX.
How the People raised a Sedition against Archelaus, and how
he sailed to Rome.
§ 1. AT this time also it was that some of the Jews got together,
out of a desire of innovation. They lamented Matthias, and
those that were slain with him by Herod, who had not any re-
spect paid them by a funeral mourning out of the fear men were
in of that man; they were those who had been condemned for
pulling down the golden eagle. The people made a great cla-
mour and lamentation hereupon, and cast out some reproaches
30
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
against the king also, as if that tended to alleviate the miseries
of the deceased. These people assembled together, and de-
sired of Archelaus, that, in way of revenge on their account, he
would inflict punishment on those who had been honoured by
Herod; and that, in the first and principal place, he would de-
prive that high priest whom Herod had made, and would choose
one more agreeable to the law, and of greater purity, to officiate
as high priest. This was granted by Archelaus, although he was
mightily offended at their importunity, because he proposed to
himself to go to Rome immediately, to look after Caesar's deter-
mination about him. However, he sent the general of his
forces to use persuasions, and to tell them that the death which
was inflicted on their friends was according to the law; and to
represent to them, that their petitions about these things were
carried to a great height of injury to him; that the time was not
now proper for such petitions, but required their unanimity
until such time as he should be established in the government
by the consent of Cæsar, and should then be come back to
them; for that he would then consult with them in common
concerning the purport of their petitions, but that they ought at
present to be quiet, lest they should seem seditious persons.

,
2. So when the king had suggested these things, and instructed
his general in what he was to say, he sent him away to the people;
but they made a clamour, and would not give him leave to speak,
and put him in danger of his life, and as many more as were
desirous to venture upon saying openly any thing which might
reduce them to a sober mind, and prevent their going on in
their present courses; because they had more concern to have
all their own wills performed than to yield obedience to their
governors; thinking it to be a thing insufferable, that, while
Herod was alive, they should lose those that were the most dear
to them, and that when he was dead, they could not get the
actors to be punished. So they went on with their designs after
a violent manner, and thought all to be lawful and right which
tended to please them, and being unskilful in foreseeing what
dangers they incurred; and when they had suspicion of such a
thing, yet did the present pleasure they took in the punishment of
those they deemed their enemies overweigh all such considera-
tions; and although Archelaus sent many to speak to them, yet
they treated them not as messengers sent by him, but as persons
that came of their own accord to mitigate their anger, and would
not let one of them speak. The sedition also was made by such
as were in a great passion; and it was evident that they were pro
ceeding farther in seditious practices, by the multitude's running
so fast upon them.
3. Now upon the approach of that feast of unleavened bread,
which the law of their fathers had appointed for the Jews at this
C. IX.
31
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
罩
​+
$
time, which feast is called the Passover*, and is a memorial of
their deliverance out of Egypt (when they offer sacrifices with
great alacrity, and when they are required to slay more sacrifices
in number than at any other festival; and when an innumerable
multitude came thither out of the country, nay, from beyond its
limits also, in order to worship God); the seditious lamented
Judas and Matthias, those teachers of the laws, and kept to-
gether in the temple, and had plenty of food, because these
seditious persons were not ashamed to beg it. And as Arche-
laus was afraid lest some terrible thing should spring up by
means of these men's madness, he sent a regiment of armed men,
and with them a captain of a thousand, to suppress the violent
efforts of the seditious, before the whole multitude should be in-
fected with the like madness; and gave them this charge, that if
they found any much more openly seditious than others, and
more busy in tumultuous practices, they should bring them to
him. But those that were seditious on account of those teachers
of the law, irritated the people by the noise and clamour they
used to encourage the people in their designs; so they made an
assault upon the soldiers, and came up to them, and stoned the
greatest part of them, although some of them ran away wounded,
and their captain among them: and when they had thus done,
they returned to the sacrifices which were already in their hands.
Now Archelaus thought there was no way to preserve the entire
government, but by cutting off those who made this attempt upon
it; so he sent out the whole army upon them, and sent the
horsemen to prevent those that had their tents without the tem-
ple, from assisting those that were within the temple, and to kill
such as ran away from the footmen, when they thought themselves
out of danger, which horsemen slew three thousand men, while
the rest went to the neighbouring mountains. Then did Arche-
laus order proclamation to be made to them all, that they should
retire to their own homes; so they went away, and left the festival
out of fear of somewhat worse which would follow, although
they had been so bold, by reason of their want of instruction.
So Archelaus went down to the sea with his mother, and took
with him Nicolaus and Ptolemy, and many others of his friends,
and left Philip, his brother, as governor of all things belonging
both to his own family and to the public. There went out also
with him Salome, Herod's sister, who took with her her chil-
dren, and many of her. kindred were with her; which kindred
of hers went, as they pretended, to assist Archelaus in gaining the
kingdom, but in reality to oppose him, and chiefly to make loud
complaints of what he had done in the temple. But Sabinus,
1
* This passover, when the sedition here mentioned was moved against Arche-
laus, was not one, but thirteen months after the eclipse of the moon already men-
tioned.
32
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
-
Cæsar's steward for Syrian affairs, as he was making haste into
Judea, to preserve Herod's effects, met with Archelaus at Cæsa-
rea; but Varus (president of Syria) came at that time, and re-
strained him from meddling with them, for he was there as sent
for by Archelaus, by the means of Ptolemy. And Sabinus, out
of regard to Varus, did neither seize upon any of the castles that
were among the Jews, nor did he seal up the treasures in them,
but permitted Archelaus to have them until Cæsar should declare
his resolution about them; so that upon his promise, he tarried
still at Cæsarea. But after Archelaus was sailed for Rome, and
Varus was removed to Antioch, Sabinus went to Jerusalem, and
seized on the king's palace. He also sent for the keepers of the
garrisons, and for all those that had the charge of Herod's effects,
and declared publicly, that he should require them to give an ac-
count of what they had; and he disposed of the castles in the
manner he pleased; but those who kept them did not neglect
what Archelaus had given them in command, but continued to
keep all things in the manner that had been enjoined them; and
their pretence was, that they kept them all for Cæsar.
4. At the same time also did Antipas, another of Herod's
sons, sail to Rome, in order to gain the government; being
buoyed up by Salome with promises, that he should take that
government; and that he was a much honester and fitter man
than Archelaus for that authority; since Herod had, in his for-
mer testament, deemed him the worthiest to be made king, which
ought to be esteemed more valid than his latter testament. An-
tipas also brought with him his mother, and Ptolemy, the brother
of Nicolaus, one that had been Herod's most honoured friend,
and was now zealous for Antipas; but it was Ireneus the ora-
tor, and one who, on account of his reputation for sagacity, was
intrusted with the affairs of the kingdom, who most of all encou-
raged him to attempt to gain the kingdom: by whose means it
was that, when some advised him to yield to Archelaus, as to his
elder brother, and who had been declared king by their father's
last will, he would not submit so to do. And when he was come
to Rome, all his relations revolted to him; not out of their good
will to him, but out of their hatred to Archelaus; though indeed
they were most of all desirous of gaining their liberty, and to be
put under a Roman governor; but if there were too great an
opposition made to that, they thought Antipas preferable to
Archelaus, and so joined with him in order to procure the kingdom
for him. Sabinus also by letters accused Archelaus to Cæsar.
5. Now when Archelaus had sent in his papers to Cæsar,
wherein he pleaded his right to the kingdom, and his father's
testament, with the accounts of Herod's money, and with Pto-
lemy, who brought Herod's seal, he so expected the event; but
when Cæsar had read these papers, and Varus's and Sabinus's
C. IX.
33
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
!
1
letters, with the accounts of the money, and what were the an-
nual incomes of the kingdom, and understood that Antipas had
also sent letters to lay claim to the kingdom, he summoned his
friends together, to know their opinions, and with them Caius, the
son of Agrippa, and of Julia his daughter, whom he had adop-
ted, and took him, and made him sit first of all, and desired
such as pleased to speak their minds about the affairs now be-
fore them. Now Antipater, Salome's son, a very subtle orator,
and a bitter enemy to Archelaus, spake first to this purpose:
That" it was ridiculous in Archelaus to plead now to have the
kingdom given him, since he had, in reality, taken already the´
power over it to himself before Cæsar had granted it to him;
and appealed to those bold actions of his, in destroying so many
at the Jewish festival; and, if the men had acted unjustly, it was
but fit the punishing them should have been reserved to those
that were out of the country, but had the power to punish them;
and not been executed by a man that, if he pretended to be a
king, he did an injury to Cæsar, by usurping that authority be-
fore it was determined for him by Cæsar; but, if he owned him-
self to be a private person, his case was much worse, since he,
who was putting in for the kingdom, could by no means expect
to have that power granted him, of which he had already de-
prived Cæsar [by taking it to himself]. He also touched sharply
upon him, and appealed to his changing the commanders in the
army, and his sitting in the royal throne beforehand, and his de-
termination of lawsuits; all done as if he were no other than
a king. He appealed also to his concessions to those that peti-
tioned him on a public account, and indeed doing such things,
than which he could devise no greater if he had been already
settled in the kingdom by Cæsar. He also ascribed to him the
releasing of the prisoners that were in the Hippodrome, and
many other things, that either had been certainly done by him,
or were believed to be done, and easily might be believed to have
been done, because they were of such a nature, as to be usually
done by young men, and by such as, out of a desire of ruling,
seize upon the government too soon. He also charged him with
his neglect of the funeral mourning for his father, and with hav-
ing merry meetings the very night in which he died; and that it
was thence the multitude took the handle of raising a tumult;
and if Archelaus could thus requite his dead father, who had
bestowed such benefits upon him, and bequeathed such great
things to him, by pretending to shed tears for him in the day-
time, like an actor on the stage, but every night making mirth
for having gotten the government, he would appear to be the
same Archelaus with regard to Cæsar, if he granted him the
kingdom, which he had been to his father; since he had then
dancing and singing, as though an enemy of his were fallen, and
VOL. III.
D
34
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
not as though a man was carried to his funeral, that was so
nearly related, and had been so great a benefactor to him. But
he said that the greatest crime of all was this, that he came now
before Cæsar to obtain the kingdom by his grant, while he had
before acted in all things as he could have acted if Cæsar him-
self, who ruled all, had fixed him firmly in the government. And
what he most aggravated in his pleading was the slaughter of
those about the temple, and the impiety of it, as done at the fes-
tival; and how they were slain like sacrifices themselves, some
of whom were foreigners, and others of their own country, till
the temple was full of dead bodies; and all this was done, not
by an alien, but by one who pretended to the lawful title of a
king, that he might complete the wicked tyranny which his na-
ture prompted him to, and which is hated by all men. On which
account his father never so much as dreamed of making him his
successor in the kingdom, when he was of a sound mind, be-
cause he knew his disposition; and, in his former and more
authentic testament, he appointed his antagonist Antipas to suc-
ceed; but that Archelaus was called by his father to that dig-
nity, when he was in a dying condition, both of body and mind,
while Antipas was called when he was ripest in his judgment,
and of such strength of body as made him capable of managing
his own affairs; and if his father had the like notion of him for-
merly that he hath now showed, yet hath he given a sufficient
specimen what a king he is likely to be, when he hath [in effect]
deprived Cæsar of that power of disposing of the kingdom, which
he justly hath, and hath not abstained from making a terrible
slaughter of his fellow citizens in the temple, while he was but
a private person."
6. So when Antipater had made this speech, and had con-
firmed what he had said by producing many witnesses from
among Archelaus's own relations, he made an end of his plead-
ing. Upon which Nicolaus arose up to plead for Archelaus, and
said, "That what had been done at the temple was rather to
be attributed to the mind of those that had been killed, than to
the authority of Archelaus; for that those, who are the authors
of such things, are not only wicked in the injuries they do of
themselves, but in forcing sober persons to avenge themselves
upon them. Now, it is evident that what these did in way of
opposition was done under pretence indeed against Archelaus,
but in reality against Cæsar himself; for they, after an injurious
manner, attacked and slew those who were sent by Archelaus,
and who came only to put a stop to their doings. They had no
regard, either to God or to the festival, whom Antipater yet is
not ashamed to patronise, whether it be out of his indulgence of
an enmity to Archelaus, or out of his hatred of virtue and jus-
tice. For as to those who begin such tumults, and first set about
C. IX.
35
ANTIQUITIES of the jews.
such unrighteous actions, they are the men who force those that
punish them to betake themselves to arms even against their
wills. So that Antipater in effect ascribes the rest of what was
done to all those who were of counsel to the accusers, for no-
thing which is here accused of injustice has been done, but what
was derived from them as its authors; nor are those things evil
in themselves, but so represented only in order to do harm to
Archelaus. Such is these men's inclination to do an injury to a
man that is of their kindred, their father's benefactor, and fami-
liarly acquainted with them, and that hath ever lived in friend-
ship with them; for that, as to this testament, it was made by
the king when he was of a sound mind, and so ought to be of
more authority than his former testament; and that for this rea-
son, because Cæsar is therein left to be the judge and disposer
of all therein contained: and for Cæsar, he will not, to be sure,
at all imitate the unjust proceedings of those men, who, during
Herod's whole life, had on all occasions been joint partakers of
power with him, and yet do zealously endeavour to injure his de-
termination, while they have not themselves had the same regard
to their kinsman [which Archelaus had]. Cæsar will not there-
fore disannul the testament of a man whom he had entirely sup-
ported, of his friend and confederate, and that which is commit-
ted to him in trust to ratify: nor will Cæsar's virtuous and
upright disposition, which are known and uncontested through
all the habitable world, imitate the wickedness of these men in
condemning a king as a madman, and as having lost his reason,
while he hath bequeathed the succession to a good son of his,
and to one who flies to Cæsar's upright determination for refuge.
Nor can Herod at any time have been mistaken in his judgment
about a successor, while he showed so much prudence as to
submit all to Cæsar's determination."
7. Now when Nicolaus had laid these things before Cæsar,
he ended his plea; whereupon Cæsar was so obliging to Arche-
laus, that he raised him up when he had cast himself down at
his feet, and said, that "he well deserved the kingdom;" and
he soon let them know, that he was so far moved in his favour,
that he would not act otherwise than his father's testament di-
rected, and than was for the advantage of Archelaus. However,
while he gave this encouragement to Archelaus to depend on
him securely, he made no full determination about him; and,
when the assembly was broken up, he considered by himself,
whether he should confirm the kingdom to Archelaus, or whe-
ther he should part it among all Herod's posterity; and this be-
cause they all stood in need of much assistance to support them.
}
!
D 2
36
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
CHAP. X.
A Sedition of the Jews against Sabinus; and how Varus brought
the Authors of it to Punishment.
§ 1. BUT before these things could be brought to a settlement,
Malthace, Archelaus's mother, fell into a distemper, and died
of it; and letters came from Varus, the president of Syria, which
informed Cæsar of the revolt of the Jews; for, after Archelaus
was sailed, the whole nation was in a tumult. So Varus, since
he was there himself, brought the authors of the disturbance to
punishment: and when he had restrained them for the most part
from this sedition, which was a great one, he took his journey to
Antioch, leaving one legion of his army at Jerusalem to keep the
Jews quiet, who were now very fond of innovation. Yet did not
this at all avail to put an end to that their sedition; for, after
Varus was gone away, Sabinius, Cæsar's procurator, staid behind,
and greatly distressed the Jews, relying on the forces that were
left there, that they would by their multitude protect him; for
he made use of them, and armed them as his guards, thereby so
oppressing the Jews, and giving them so great disturbance, that
at length they rebelled; for he used force in seizing the citadels,
and zealously pressed on the search after the king's money, in
order to seize upon it by force, on account of his love of gain,
and his extraordinary covetousness.
2. But on the approach of Pentecost, which is a festival of
ours so called from the days of our forefathers, a great many
ten thousands of men got together; nor did they come only to
celebrate the festival, but out of their indignation at the mad-
ness of Sabinus, and at the injuries he offered them. A great
number there was of Galileans, and Idumeans, and many men
from Jericho, and others who had passed over the river Jordan,
and inhabited those parts. This whole multitude joined them-
selves to all the rest, and were more zealous than the others in
making an assault on Sabinus, in order to be avenged of him:
so they parted themselves into three bands, and encamped them-
selves in the places following: some of them seized on the Hip-
podrome; and of the other two bands, one pitched themselves
from the northern part of the temple to the southern, on the east
quarter; but the third band held the western part of the city,
where the king's palace was. Their work tended entirely to be-
siege the Romans, and to enclose them on all sides. Now Sabi-
nus was afraid of these men's number, and of their resolution,
who had little regard to their lives, but were very desirous not
to be overcome, while they thought it a point of puissance to
overcome their enemies. So he sent immediately a letter to
Varus; and, as he used to do, was very pressing with him, and
C. X.
S7
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
:
entreated him to come quickly to his assistance, because the
forces he had left were in imminent danger, and would proba-
bly, in no long time, be seized upon and cut to pieces; while he
did himself get up to the highest tower of the fortress Phasaelus,
which had been built in honour of Phasaelus, king Herod's bro-
ther, and called so when the Parthians had brought him to his
death. So Sabinus gave thence a signal to the Romans to fall
upon the Jews, although he did not himself venture so much as
to come down to his friends, and thought he might expect that
the others should expose themselves first to die on account of his
avarice. However, the Romans ventured to make a sally out
of the place, and a terrible battle ensued; wherein, though it is
true the Romans beat their adversaries, yet were not the Jews
daunted in their resolutions, even when they had the sight of that
terrible slaughter that was made of them; but they went round
about, and got upon those cloisters which encompassed the outer
court of the temple, where a great fight was still continued, and
they cast stones at the Romans, partly with their hands, and
partly with slings, as being much used to those exercises. All
the archers also in array did the Romans a great deal of mischief;
because they used their hands dexterously from a place superior
to the others, and because the others were at an utter loss what
to do; for when they tried to shoot their arrows against the Jews
upwards, these arrows could not reach them, insomuch that the
Jews were easily too hard for their enemies. And this sort of
fight lasted a great while, till at last the Romans, who were
greatly distressed by what was done, set fire to the cloisters so
privately, that those who were gotten upon them did not perceive
it. This fire t, being fed by a great deal of combustible matter,
caught hold immediately on the roof of the cloisters; so the
wood, which was full of pitch and wax, and whose gold was
laid on it with wax, yielded to the flame presently, and those vast
works, which were of the highest value and esteem, were de-
stroyed utterly; while those that were on the roof unexpectedly
perished at the same time; for as the roof tumbled down, some
of these men tumbled down with it, and others of them were
killed by their enemies who encompassed them. There was a
great number more, who, out of despair of saving their lives,
and out of astonishment at the misery that surrounded them, did
either cast themselves into the fire, or threw themselves upon
their own swords and so got out of their misery. But as to those
that retired behind the same way by which they ascended, and
1
* See Antiq. B. xiv. ch. xiii. sect. 10, and Of the War, B. i. ch. xxi. sect. 9.
+ These great devastations made about the temple here, and Of the War, B.
ii. ch. iii. sect. 3, seem not to have been fully reedified in the days of Nero; till
whose time there were 18000 workmen continually employed in rebuilding and
repairing that temple, as Josephus informs us, Antiq. B. xx. ch. ix. sect. 7. See
the note on that place.
38
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
thereby escaped, they were all killed by the Romans, as being
unarmed men, and their courage failing them; their wild fury
being now not able to help them, because they were destitute of
armour, insomuch that, of those that went up to the top of the
roof, not one escaped. The Romans also rushed through the
fire, where it gave them room so to do, and seized on that trea-
sure where the sacred money was reposited; a great part of which
was stolen by the soldiers, and Sabinus got openly four hundred
talents.
3. But this calamity of the Jews' friends, who fell in this
battle, grieved them, as did also this plundering of the money
dedicated to God in the temple. Accordingly that body of
them which continued best together, and was the most warlike,
encompassed the palace, and threatened to set fire to it, and to
kill all that were in it. Yet still they commanded them to go
out presently, and promised that, if they would do so, they would
not hurt them, nor Sabinus neither; at which time the great-
est part of the king's troops deserted to them, while Rufus and
Gratus, who had three thousand of the most warlike of Herod's
army with them, who were men of active bodies, went over to
the Romans. There was also a band of horsemen under the
command of Rufus, which itself went over to the Romans also.
However, the Jews went on with the siege, and dug mines
under the palace walls, and besought those that were gone over
to the other side not to be their hinderance, now they had such
a proper opportunity for the recovery of their country's ancient
liberty; and for Sabinus, truly, he was desirous of going away
with his soldiers, but was not able to trust himself with the
enemy, on account of what mischief he had already done them;
and he took this great [pretended] lenity of theirs for an argu-
ment why he should not comply with them; and so, because he
expected that Varus was coming, he still bore the siege.
4. Now at this time there were ten thousand other disorders
in Judea, which were like tumults; because a great number put
themselves into a warlike posture, either out of hopes of gain to
themselves, or out of enmity to the Jews. In particular, two
thousand of Herod's old soldiers, who had been already dis-
banded, got together in Judea itself, and fought against the king's
troops; although Achiabus, Herod's first cousin, opposed them;
but as he was driven out of the plains into the mountainous parts
by the military skill of those men, he kept himself in the fast-
nesses that were there, and saved what he could.
5. There was also Judas*, the son of that Ezekias who had
* Unless this Judas, the son of Ezekias, be the same with that Theudas men-
tioned Acts, v. 36, Josephus must have omitted him; for that other Theudas, whom
he afterwards mentions under Fados, the Roman governor, B. xx. ch. v. sect. 1, is
much too late to correspond to him that is mentioned in the Acts. The names
C. X.
39
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
been head of the robbers; which Ezekias was a very strong man,
and had with great difficulty been caught by Herod. This Judas,
having gotten together a multitude of men of a profligate cha-
racter about Sepphoris in Galilee, made an assault upon the
palace [there], and seized upon all the weapons that were laid
up in it, and with them armed every one of those that were with
him, and carried away what money was left there; and he be-
came terrible to all men, by tearing and rending those that came
near him; and all this in order to raise himself, and out of an
ambitious desire of the royal dignity; and he hoped to obtain
that as the reward, not of his virtuous skill in war, but of his
extravagance in doing injuries.
6. There was also Simon, who had been a slave of Herod the
king, but in other respects a comely person, of a tall and robust
body; he was one that was much superior to others of his order,
and had had great things committed to his care. This man was
elevated at the disorderly state of things, and was so bold as to
put a diadem on his head, while a certain number of the people
stood by him, and by them he was declared to be a king, and
thought himself more worthy of that dignity than any one else.
He burned down the royal palace at Jericho, and plundered
what was left in it. He also set fire to many others of the king's
houses in several places of the country, and utterly destroyed
them, and permitted those that were with him to take what was
left in them for a prey; and he would have done greater things
unless care had been taken to repress him immediately; for
Gratus, when he had joined himself to some Roman soldiers,
took the forces he had with him, and met Simon, and after a
great and long fight, no small part of those that came from Perea,
who were a disordered body of men, and fought rather in a bold
than in a skilful manner, were destroyed: and although Simon
had saved himself by flying away through a certain valley, yet
Gratus overtook him, and cut off his head. The royal palace
also at Amathus, by the river Jordan, was burned down by a
party of men that were got together, as were those belonging to
Simon. And thus did a great and a wild fury spread itself over
the nation, because they had no king to keep the multitude in
good order, and because those foreigners, who came to reduce
the seditious to sobriety, did on the contrary set them more in a
Theudas, Thadeus, and Judas, differ but little. See Archbishop Usher's annals
at A. M. 4001. However, since Josephus does not pretend to reckon up the
heads of all those ten thousand disorders in Judea, which he tells us were then
abroad, see sect. 4 and 8, the Theudas of the Acts might be at the head of one of
those seditions, though not particularly named by him. Thus he informs us here,
sect. 6, and Of the War, B. ii. ch. iv. sect. 2, that certain of the seditious came
and burned the royal palace at Amathus, or Betharamphta, upon the river Jordan.
Perhaps their leader, who is not named by Josephus, might be this Theudas.
J
$
40
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
flame, because of the injuries they offered them, and the avari-
cious management of their affairs.
7. But because Athronges, a person neither eminent by the
dignity of his progenitors, nor for any great wealth he was pos-
sessed of, but one that had in all respects been a shepherd only,
and was not known by any body; yet because he was a tall man,
and excelled others in the strength of his hands, he was so bold
as to set up for king. This man thought it so sweet a thing to
do more than ordinary injuries to others, that although he should
be killed, he did not much care if he lost his life in so great a
design. He had also four brethren, who were tall men them-
selves, and were believed to be superior to others in the strength
of their hands, and thereby were encouraged to aim at great
things, and thought that strength of theirs would support them
in retaining the kingdom. Each of these ruled over a band of
men of their own; for those that got together to them were very
numerous. They were every one of them also commanders
but, when they came to fight, they were subordinate to him, and
fought for him, while he put a diadem about his head, and
assembled a council to debate about what things should be done,
and all things were done according to his pleasure. And this
man retained his power a great while; he was also called king,
and had nothing to hinder him from doing what he pleased. He
also, as well as his brethren, slew a great many both of the
Romans and of the king's forces, and managed matters with the
like hatred to each of them. The king's forces they fell upon,
because of the licentious conduct they had been allowed under
Herod's government; and they fell upon the Romans, because
of the injuries they had so lately received from them. But in
process of time they grew more cruel to all sorts of men; nor
could any one escape from one or other of these seditions, since
they slew some out of the hopes of gain, and others from a
mere custom of slaying men. They once attacked a company
of Romans at Emmaus, who were bringing corn and weapons
to the army, and fell upon Arius, the centurion, who commanded
the company, and shot forty of the best of his foot soldiers; but
the rest of them were affrighted at their slaughter, and left their
dead behind them, but saved themselves by the means of Gra-
tus, who came with the king's troops that were about him to
their assistance. Now these four brethren continued the war a
long while by such sort of expeditions, and much grieved the
Romans; but did their own nation also a great deal of mischief.
Yet were they afterward subdued; one of them in a fight with
Gratus, another with Ptolemy; Archelaus also took the eldest
of them prisoner; while the last of them was so dejected at the
other's misfortune, and saw so plainly that he had no way now
C. X.
41
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
left to save himself, his army being worn away with sickness and
continual labours, that he also delivered himself up to Archelaus,
upon his promise and oath to God [to preserve his life]. But
these things came to pass a good while afterwards.
8. And now Judea was full of robberies; and, as the several
companies of the seditious light upon any one to head them, he
was created a king immediately, in order to do mischief to the
public. They were in some small measure, indeed, and in small
matters, hurtful to the Romans; but the murders they committed
upon their own people lasted a long while.
9. As soon as Varus was once informed of the state of Judea
by Sabinus's writing to him, he was afraid for the legion he had
left there; so he took the two other legions (for there were three
legions in all belonging to Syria), and four troops of horsemen,
with the several auxiliary forces which either the kings or cer-
tain of the tetrarchs afforded him, and made what haste he could
to assist those that were then besieged in Judea. He also gave
order, that all that were sent out for this expedition should make
haste to Ptolemais. The citizens of Berytus also gave him one
thousand five hundred auxiliaries, as he passed through their
city. Aretus also, the king of Arabia Petrea, out of his hatred
to Herod, and in order to purchase the favour of the Romans,
sent him no small assistance, besides their footmen and horse-
men: and, when he had now collected all his forces together,
he committed a part of them to his son, and to a friend of his,
and sent them upon an expedition into Galilee, which lies in
the neighbourhood of Ptolemais; who made an attack upon the
enemy, and put them to flight, and took Sepphoris, and made
its inhabitants slaves, and burned the city. But Varus himself
pursued his march for Samaria with his whole army; yet did
not he meddle with the city of that name, because it had not at
all joined with the seditious; but pitched his camp at a certain
village, that belonged to Ptolemy, whose name was Arus, which
the Arabians burned, out of their hatred to Herod, and out of
the enmity they bore to his friends; whence they marched to
another village, whose name was Sampho, which the Arabians
plundered and burned, although it was a fortified and a strong
place; and all along this march nothing escaped them, but all
places were full of fire and of slaughter. Emmaus was also
burned by Varus's order, after its inhabitants had deserted it,
that he might avenge those that had there been destroyed. From
thence he now marched to Jerusalem; whereupon those Jews
whose camp lay there, and who had besieged the Roman legion,
not bearing the coming of this army, left the siege imperfect.
But as to the Jerusalem Jews, when Varus reproached them
bitterly for what had been done, they cleared themselves of the
accusation, and alleged, that the conflux of the people was
occasioned by the feast; that the war was not made with their
h
*
42
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
approbation, but by the rashness of the strangers, while they
were on the side of the Romans, and besieged together with
them, rather than having any inclination to besiege them. There
also came beforehand to meet Varus, Joseph, the cousin-german
of king Herod, as also Gratus and Rufus, who brought their
soldiers along with them, together with those Romans who had
been besieged: but Sabinus did not come into Varus's presence,
but stole out of the city privately, and went to the seaside.
>
10. Upon this Varus sent a part of his army into the coun-
try, to seek out those that had been the authors of the revolt;
and when they were discovered, he punished some of them that
were most guilty, and some he dismissed: now the number of
those that were crucified on this account were two thousand.
After which he disbanded his army, which he found noways
useful to him in the affairs he came about: for they behaved
themselves very disorderly, and disobeyed his orders, and what
Varus desired them to do, and this out of regard to that gain
which they made by the mischief they did. As for himself,
when he was informed that ten thousand Jews had gotten toge-
ther, he made haste to catch them; but they did not proceed so
far as to fight him, but by the advice of Achiabus, they came
together, and delivered themselves up to him; hereupon Varus
forgave the crime of revolting to the multitude, but sent their
several commanders to Cæsar, many of whom Cæsar dismissed;
but for the several relations of Herod, who had been among
these men in this war, they were the only persons whom he
punished; who, without the least regard to justice, fought
against their own kindred.
CHAP. XI.
An Embassage of the Jews to Casar; and how Cæsar confirmed
Herod's Testament.
§ 1. So when Varus had settled these affairs, and had placed
the former legion at Jerusalem, he returned back to Antioch;
but as for Archelaus, he had new sources of trouble coming
upon him at Rome, on the occasions following; for an embas-
sage of the Jews was come to Rome, Varus having permitted
the nation to send it, that they might petition for the liberty of
living by their own laws*. Now the number of the ambassa-
dors that were sent by the authority of the nation was fifty, to
which they joined above eight thousand of the Jews that were
at Rome already. Hereupon Cæsar assembled his friends, and
the chief men among the Romans, in the temple of Apollo †,
which he had built at a vast charge; whither the ambassadors
came, and a multitude of the Jews that were there already,
* See of the War, B. ii. ch. ii. sect. 3.
+ See the note, Of the War, B. ii. ch. vi. sect. i.
C. XI.
43
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
came with them, as did also Archelaus and his friends; but as
for the several kinsmen which Archelaus had, they would not
join themselves with him, out of their hatred to him; and yet
they thought it too gross a thing for them to assist the ambassa-
dors [against him], as supposing it would be a disgrace to them
in Cæsar's opinion to think of thus acting in opposition to a
man of their own kindred. Philip* also was come hither out
of Syria, by the persuasion of Varus, with this principal inten-
tion to assist his brother [Archelaus]; for Varus was his great
friend; but still so, that if there should any change happen in
the form of government (which Varus suspected there would),
and if any distribution should be made on account of the num-
ber that desired the liberty of living by their own laws, that he
might not be disappointed, but might have his share in it.
2. Now, upon the liberty that was given to the Jewish am-
bassadors to speak, they who hoped to obtain a dissolution of
kingly government betook themselves to accuse Herod of his
iniquities; and they declared, "That he was indeed in name a
king, but that he had taken to himself that uncontrolable autho-
rity which tyrants exercise over their subjects; and had made
use of that authority for the destruction of the Jews; and did
not abstain from making many innovations among them besides,
according to his own inclinations; and that whereas there were
a great many who perished by that destruction he brought upon
them; so many indeed as no other history relates: they that
survived were far more miserable than those that suffered under
him; not only by the anxiety they were in from his looks and
disposition towards them, but from the danger their estates were
in of being taken away by him. That he did never leave off
adorning those cities that lay in their neighbourhood, but were
inhabited by foreigners; but so that the cities belonging to his
own government were ruined, and utterly destroyed: that
whereas, when he took the kingdom, it was in an extraordinary
flourishing condition, he had filled the nation with the utmost
degree of poverty; and when, upon unjust pretences, he had
slain any of the nobility, he took away their estates; and when
he permitted any of them to live, he condemned them to the for-
feiture of what they possessed. And besides the annual impo-
sitions which he had laid upon every one of them, they were to
make liberal presents to himself, to his domestics and friends,
and to such of his slaves as were vouchsafed the favour of being
his tax-gatherers; because there was no way of obtaining a free-
dom from unjust violence, without giving either gold or silver
for it. That they would say nothing of the corruption of the
chastity of their virgins, and the reproach laid on their wives for
incontinency, and those things acted after an insolent and inhu-
man manner; because it was not a smaller pleasure to the suf-
* He was tetrarch afterward.
44
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
ferers to have such things concealed, than it would have been
not to have suffered them. That Herod had put such abuses
upon them as a wild beast would not have put on them, if he
had power given him to rule over us; and that although their
nation had passed through many subversions and alterations of
government, their history gave no account of any calamity they
had ever been under, that could be compared with this which
Herod had brought upon their nation; that it was for this rea-
son that they thought they might justly and gladly salute Arche-
laus as king, upon this supposition, that whosoever should be set
over their kingdom, he would appear more mild to them than
Herod had been: and that they had joined with him in the
mourning for his father, in order to gratify him; and were ready
to oblige him in other points also, if they could meet with any
degree of moderation from him; but that he seemed to be
afraid lest he should not be deemed Herod's own son; and so
without any delay, and immediately, he let the nation understand
his meaning, and this before his dominion was well established;
since the power of disposing of it belonged to Cæsar, who could
either give it him or not, as he pleased. That he had given
him a specimen of his future virtue to his subjects, and with
what kind of moderation and good administration he would go-
vern them, by that his first action which concerned them, his
own citizens, and God himself also, when he made the slaugh-
ter of three thousand of his own countrymen at the temple.
How then could they avoid the just hatred of him, who, to the
rest of his barbarity, hath added this as one of our crimes, that
we have opposed and contradicted him in the exercise of his
authority? Now the main thing they desired was this, that
they might be delivered from kingly* and the like forms of go-
vernment, and might be added to Syria, and be put under the
authority of such presidents of theirs as should be sent to them;
for that it would thereby be made evident, whether they be
really a seditious people, and generally fond of innovations, or
whether they would live in an orderly manner, if they might
have governors of any sort of moderation set over them."
3. Now when the Jews had said this, Nicolaus vindicated
*If any one compare that divine prediction concerning the tyrannical power
which Jewish kings would exercise over them, if they would be so foolish as to
prefer it before their ancient theocracy or aristocracy, 1 Sam. viii. 1–22. An-
tiq. B. vi. chap. iv. sect. 4, he will soon find that it was superabundantly ful-
filled in the days of Herod, and that to such a degree, that the nation now at
last seem sorely to repent of such their ancient choice in opposition to God's
better choice for them, and had much rather be subject to even a Pagan Roman
government, and their deputies, than to be any longer under the oppression of
the family of Herod; which request of theirs Augustus did not now grant them;
but did it for the one half of that nation in a few years afterward, upon fresh
complaints of the Jews made against Archelaus; who, under the more humble
name of ethnarch, which Augustus only would now allow him, soon took upon
him the insolence and tyranny of his father king Herod, as the remaining part
of this book will inform us, and particularly chap. xiii. sect. 2.
•
C. XI.
45
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
the kings from those accusations, and said, that " as for Herod,
since he had never been thus accused* all the time of his life, it
was not fit for those that might have accused him for lesser
crimes than those now mentioned, and might have procured him
to be punished during his lifetime, to bring an accusation against
him now he is dead. He also attributed the actions of Arche-
laus to the Jews' injuries to him; who, affecting to govern con-
trary to the laws, and going about to kill those that would have
hindered them from acting unjustly, when they were by him
punished for what they had done, made their complaints against
him; so he accused them of their attempts for innovation, and
of the pleasure they took in sedition, by reason of their not
having learned to submit to justice, and to the laws, but still
desiring to be superior in all things." This was the substance
of what Nicolaus said.
4
4. When Cæsar had heard these pleadings, he dissolved the
assembly; but a few days afterwards he appointed Archelaus,
not indeed to be king of the whole country, but ethnarch of
the one half of that which had been subject to Herod, and pro-
mised to give him the royal dignity hereafter, if he governed his
part virtuously. But as for the other half, he divided it into
two parts, and gave it to two other of Herod's sons, to Philip
and to Antipas, that Antipas who disputed with Archelaus for
the whole kingdom. Now to him it was that Perea and Gali-
lee paid their tribute, which amounted † annually to two hun-
dred talents: while Batanea, with Trachonitis, as well as Aura-
nitís, with a certain part of what was called the house of
*This is not true. See Antiq. B. xiv. ch. ix. sect. 3, 4, and chap. xii. sect.
2, and chap. xiii. sect. 1, 2. Antiq. B. xv. ch. iii. sect. 5, and chap. x. sect. 2, 3.
Antiq. B. xvi. chap. 9, sect. 3.
+ Since Josephus here informs us that Archelaus had one half of the kingdom
of Herod, and presently informs us farther, that Archelaus's annual income, after
an abatement of one quarter for the present, was 600 talents, we may therefore
gather pretty nearly what was Herod the Great's yearly income; I mean about
1600 talents, which, at the known value of 3000 shekels to a talent, and about
2s. 10d. to a shekel, in the days of Josephus, see the note on Antiq. B. iii.
ch. viii. sect. 2, amounts to £680,000 sterling per annum: which income, though
great in itself, bearing no proportion to his vast expenses every where visible in
Josephus, and to the vast sums he left behind him in his will, chap. viii. sect. 1,
and chap. xii. sect. 1, the rest must have arisen either from his confiscation of
those great men's estates whom he put to death, or made to pay fine for the
saving of their lives, or from some other heavy methods of oppression which
such savage tyrants usually exercise upon their miserable subjects; or rather
from these several methods put together, all which yet seem very much too
small for his expenses, being drawn from no larger a nation than that of the
Jews, which was very populous, but without the advantage of trade to bring
them riches; so that I cannot but strongly suspect that no small part of this his
wealth arose from another source; I mean from some vast sums he took out of
David's sepulchre, but concealed from the people. See the note on Antiq.
B. vii. ch. xv. sect. 3.
‡ Take here a very useful note of Grotius, on Luke, B. iii. ch. i. here quoted
by Dr. Hudson: "When Josephus says, that some part of the house [or posses-
sion] of Zenodorus (i. e. Abilene), was allotted to Philip, he thereby declares
46
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
Zenodorus, paid the tribute of one hundred talents to Philip;
but Idumea, and Judea, and the country of Samaria paid tri-
bute to Archelaus; but had a fourth part of that tribute taken
off by the order of Cæsar; who decreed them that mitigation,
because they did not join in this revolt with the rest of the mul-
titude. There were also certain of the cities which paid tribute
to Archelaus; Strato's Tower, and Sebaste, with Joppa, and
Jerusalem; for as to Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, they
were Grecian cities, which Cæsar separated from his govern-
ment, and added them to the province of Syria. Now the tri-
bute-money, that came to Archelaus every year from his own
dominions, amounted to six hundred talents.
5. And so much came to Herod's sons from their father's in-
heritance. But Salome, besides what her brother left her by
his testament, which were Jamnia, and Ashdod, and Phasaelis,
and five hundred thousand [drachmæ] of coined silver, Cæsar
made her a present of a royal habitation at Askelon: in all, her
revenues amounted to sixty talents by the year, and her dwell-
ing house was within Archelaus's government. The rest also of
the king's relations received also what his testament allotted
them. Moreover, Cæsar made a present to each of Herod's
two virgin daughters, besides what their father left them, of two
hundred and fifty thousand [drachmæ] of silver, and married
them to Pheroras's sons: he also granted all that was be-
queathed to himself to the king's sons; which was one thousand
five hundred talents, excepting a few of the vessels, which he
reserved for himself; and they were acceptable to him, not so
much for the great value they were of, as because they were
memorials of the king to him.
CHAP. XII.
Concerning a spurious Alexander.
§ 1. WHEN these affairs had been thus settled by Cæsar, a cer-
tain young man by birth a Jew, but brought up by a Roman
freedman in the city of Sidon, ingrafted himself into the kindred
that the larger part of it belonged to another; this other was Lysanias, whom
Luke mentions, of the posterity of that Lysanias who was possessed of the same
country called Abilene, from the city Abila, and by others Chalcidene, from the
city Chalcis, when the government of the east was under Antonius, and this after
Ptolemy, the son of Mennius, from which Lysanias, this country came to be
commonly called the Country of Lysanias; and as, after the death of the for-
mer Lysanias, it was called the tetrarchy of Zenodorus, so, after the death of
Zenodorus, or when the time for which he hired it was ended, when another
Lysanias, of the same name with the former, was possessed of the same country,
it began to be called again the tetrarchy of Lysanias." However, since Josephus
elsewhere, Antiq. xx. ch. vii. sect. 1, clearly distinguishes Abilene from Chalci-
dene, Grotius must be here so far mistaken.
C. XII.
47
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
$
of Herod by the resemblance of his countenance, which those
that saw him attested to be that of Alexander, the son of Herod,
whom he had slain; and this was an incitement to him to en-
deavour to obtain the government: so he took to him, as an
assistant, a man of his own country (one that was well acquainted
with the affairs of the palace, but on other accounts an ill man,
and one whose nature made him capable of causing great distur-
bances to the public, and one that became a teacher of such a
mischievous contrivance to the other), and declared himself to be
Alexander, and the son of Herod; but stolen away by one of
those that were sent to slay him; who, in reality, slew other
men in order to deceive the spectators, but saved both him and
his brother Aristobulus. Thus was this man elated, and able to
impose on those that came to him; and when he was come to
Crete, he made all the Jews that came to discourse with him
believe him [to be Alexander]. And when he had gotten much
money which had been presented to him there, he passed over
to Melos, where he got much more money than he had be-
fore, out of the belief they had that he was of the royal family,
and their hopes that he would recover his father's principality,
and reward his benefactors; so he made haste to Rome, and
was conducted thither by those strangers who entertained him.
He was also so fortunate as, upon his landing at Dicearchia, to
bring the Jews that were there into the same delusion; and not
only other people, but also all those that had been great with
Herod, or had a kindness for him, joined themselves to this man
as to their king. The cause of it was this, that men were glad of
his pretences, which were seconded by the likeness of his coun-
tenance, which made those that had been acquainted with Alex-
ander strongly to believe that he was no other but the very same
person, which they also confirmed to others by oath; insomuch
that when the report went about him that he was coming to Rome,
the whole multitude of the Jews that were there went out to meet
him, ascribing it to Divine Providence that he had so unexpect-
edly escaped, and being very joyful on account of his mother's
family. And when he was come, he was carried in a royal lit-
ter through the streets, and all the ornaments about him were
such as kings are adorned withal; and this was at the expenses
of those that entertained him. The multitude also flocked
about him greatly, and made mighty acclamations to him, and
nothing was omitted which could be thought suitable to such as
had been so unexpectedly preserved.
2. When this thing was told Cæsar, he did not believe it, be-
cause Herod was not easily to be imposed upon in such affairs
as were of great concern to him; yet having some suspicion it
might be so, he sent one Celadus, a freedman of his, and one
that had conversed with the young men themselves, and bade him
4S
B. XVII,
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
bring Alexander into his presence: so he brought him, being no
more accurate in judging about him than the rest of the multi-
tude. Yet did not he deceive Cæsar; for although there were
a resemblance between him and Alexander, yet it was not so
exact as to impose on such as were prudent in discerning; for
this spurious Alexander had his hands rough, by the labours he
had been put to, and instead of that softness of body which the
other had, and this as derived from his delicate and generous
education, this man, for the contrary reason, had a rugged body.
When, therefore, Cæsar saw how the master and the scholar
agreed in this lying story, and in a bold way of talking, he in-
quired about Aristobulus, and asked what became of him, who
[it seems] was stolen away together with him, and for what rea-
son it was that he did not come along with him, and endeavour
to recover that dominion which was due to his high birth also?
And when he said, that "he had been left in the isle of Crete, for
fear of the dangers of sea, that in case any accident should come
to himself, the posterity of Mariamne might not utterly perish,
but that Aristobulus might survive, and punish those that laid
such treacherous designs against them." And when he per-
severed in his affirmations, and the author of the imposture
agreed in supporting it, Cæsar took the young man by himself,
and said to him, "If thou wilt not impose upon me, thou shalt
have this for thy reward, that thou shalt escape with thy life;
tell me then who thou art? and who it was that had boldness
enough to contrive such a cheat as this? For this contrivance is
too considerable a piece of villany to be undertaken by one of thy
age."
Accordingly, because he had no other way to take, he told
Cæsar the contrivance, and after what manner, and by whom it
was laid together. So Cæsar, upon observing the spurious
Alexander to be a strong active man, and fit to work with his
hands, that he might not break his promise to him, put him
among those that were to row among the mariners; but slew him
that induced him to do what he had done; for as for the people
of Melos, he thought them sufficiently punished, in having
thrown away so much of their money upon this spurious Alex-
ander. And such was the ignominious conclusion of this bold
contrivance about the spurious Alexander.
CHAP. XIII.
How Archelaus, upon a second Accusation, was banished to
Vienna.
§ 1. WHEN Archelaus was entered on his ethnarchy, and was
come into Judea, he accused Joazar, the son of Boethus, of
assisting the seditious, and took away the high priesthood from
C. XIII.
49
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
him, and put Eleazar his brother in his place. He also mag-
nificently rebuilt the royal palace that had been at Jericho, and
he diverted half the water with which the village of Neara used
to be watered, and drew off that water into the plain to water
those palm trees which he had there planted: he also built a
village, and put his own name upon it, and called it Archelais,
Moreover he transgressed the law of our fathers, and married
Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, who had been the wife of
his brother Alexander, which Alexander had children by her;
while it was a thing detestable among the Jews to marry the
brother's wife*: nor did this Eleazar abide long in the high
priesthood, Jesus, the son of Sie, being put in his room while
he was still living.
2. But in the tenth year of Archelaus's government, both his
brethren, and the principal men of Judea and Samaria, not being
able to bear his barbarous and tyrannical usage of them, ac-
cused him before Cæsar, and that especially because they knew
he had broken the commands of Cæsar; which obliged him to
behave himself with moderation among them. Whereupon
Cæsar, when he heard it, was very angry, and called for Arche-
laus's steward, who took care of his affairs at Rome, and whose
name was Archelaus also; and thinking it beneath him to write
to Archelaus, he bid him sail away as soon as possible, and bring
him to us; so the man made haste in his voyage, and when he
came into Judea, he found Archelaus feasting with his friends;
so he told him what Cæsar had sent him about, and hastened him
away. And when he was come [to Rome], Cæsar, upon hearing
what certain accusers of his had to say, and what reply he could
make, both banished him, and appointed Vienna, a city of Gaul,
to be the place of his habitation, and took his money away from
him.
3. Now before Archelaus was gone up to Rome upon this
message, he related this dream to his friends, that "he saw ears
of corn, in number ten, full of wheat perfectly ripe; which ears,
as it seemed to him, were devoured by oxen." And when he was
awake, and gotten up, because the vision appeared to be of
great importance to him, he sent for the diviners, whose study
was employed about dreams. And while some were of one
opinion, and some of another (for all their interpretations did
not agree), Simon, a man of the sect of the Essens, desired leave
to speak his mind freely, and said, that "the vision denoted a
change in the affairs of Archelaus, and that not for the better;
that oxen, because that animal takes uneasy pains in his labours,
denoted afflictions, and indeed denoted farther a change of affairs;
* Spanheim seasonably observes here, that it was forbidden the Jews to
marry their brother's wife, when she had children by her first husband, and thaţ
Zenoras [cites or] interprets the clause before us accordingly.
VOL. III.
E
50
B. XVII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
""
because that land which is ploughed by oxen cannot remain in
its former state: and that the ears of corn being ten, determined
the like number of years, because an ear of corn grows in one
year; and that the time of Archelaus's government was over.
And thus did this man expound the dream. Now on the fifth
day after this dream came first to Archelaus, the other Arche-
laus, that was sent to Judea by Cæsar to call him away, came
thither also.
4. The like accident befell Glaphyra his wife, who was the
daughter of king Archelaus, who, as I said before, was married
while she was a virgin to Alexander the son of Herod, and
brother of Archelaus; but since it fell out so that Alexander was
slain by his father, she was married to Juba, the king of Lydia;
and when he was dead, and she lived in widowhood in Cappado-
cia with her father, Archelaus divorced his former wife Mariamne,
and married her, so great was his affection for this Glaphyra;
who during her marriage to him saw the following dream. She
thought "she saw Alexander standing by her, at which she
rejoiced, and embraced him with great affection; but that he
complained of her, and said, O Glaphyra! thou provest that say-
ing to be true which assures us, that women are not to be trusted.
Didst not thou pledge thy faith to me? And wast not thou mar-
ried to me when thou wast a virgin? And had we not children
between us? Yet hast thou forgotten the affection I bare to
thee out of a desire of a second husband. Nor hast thou been
satisfied with that injury thou didst me, but thou hast been so
bold as to procure thee a third husband to lie by thee; and in
an indecent and impudent manner hast entered into my house,
and hast been married to Archelaus, thy husband, and my
brother. However, I will not forget thy former kind affection
for me, but will set thee free from every such reproachful action,
and cause thee to be mine again, as thou once wast." When
she had related this to her female companions, in a few days
time she departed this life.
5. Now I did not think these histories improper for the pre-
sent discourse, both because my discourse now is concerning
kings, and otherwise also an account of the advantage hence to
be drawn, as well for the confirmation of the immortality of the
soul, as of the providence of God over human affairs, I thought
them fit to be set down; but if any one does not believe such
relations, let him indeed enjoy his own opinion, but let him not
hinder another that would thereby encourage himself in virtue.
So Archelaus's country was laid to the province of Syria; and
Cyrenius, one that had been consul, was sent by Cæsar to take
an account of the people's effects in Syria, and to sell the house
of Archelaus.
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
51
BOOK XVIII.
CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF THIRTY-TWO YEARS.
From the Banishment of Archelaus to the Departure of the Jews
from Babylon.
CHAP. I.
How Cyrenius was sent by Cæsar to make a Taxation of Syria
and Judea; and how Coponius was sent to be Procurator of
Judea; concerning Judas of Galilee, and concerning the Sects
that were among the Jews.
1. Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone
through other magistracies, and had passed through them till
he had been consul, and one who, on other accounts, was of
great dignity, came at this time into Syria, with a few others,
being sent by Cæsar to be a judge of that nation, and to take an
account of their substance: Coponius also, a man of the eques-
trian order, was sent together with him, to have the supreme
power over the Jews. Moreover, Cyrenius came himself into
Judea, which was now added to the province of Syria, to take
an account of their substance, and to dispose of Archelaus's
money: but the Jews, although at the beginning they took the re-
port of a taxation heinously, yet did they leave off any farther
opposition to it, by the persuasion of Joazar, who was the son
of Boethus, and high priest; so they, being overpersuaded by
Joazar's words, gave an account of their estates, without any
dispute about it. Yet was there one Judas*, a Gaulonite, of a
* Since St. Luke once, Acts, v. 37, and Josephus four several times, once here,
sect. 6; and B. xx. ch. v. sect. 2; Of the War, B. ii. chap. viii, sect, 1; and ch.
xvii. sect. 8; calls this Judas, who was the pestilent author of that seditious doc-
trine and temper which brought the Jewish nation to utter destruction, a Gali-
lean; but here, sect. 1, Josephus calls him a Gaulonite, of the city Gamala; it is
a great question where this Judas was born, whether in Galilee, on the west side,
or in Gaulonitis, on the east side of the river Jordan: while in the place just now
cited out of the Antiquities, B. xx. ch. v. sect. 2, he is not only called a Galilean,
but it is added to his story, as I have signified in the books that go before these, as
if he had still called him a Galilean in those Antiquities before, as well as in that
particular place, as Dean Aldrich observes, On the War, B. ii, ch. viii. sect. 1,
Nor can one well imagine why he should here call him a Gaulonite, when in the
6th section following here, as well as twice Of the War, he still calls him a Ga-
lilean. As for the city of Gamala, whence this Judas was derived, it determines
nothing, since there were two of that name, the one in Gaulonitis, the other in
Galilee. See Reland on the city or town of that name.
E 2
52
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews:
F
city whose name was Gamala, who taking with him Saddouk*,
a Pharisee, became zealous to draw them to a revolt, who both
said that this taxation was no better than an introduction to sla-
very, and exhorted the nation to assert their liberty; as if they
could procure them happiness and security for what they pos-
sessed, and an assured enjoyment of a still greater good, which
was that of the honour and glory they would thereby acquire for
magnanimity. They also said, that God would not otherwise be
assisting to them, than upon their joining with one another in
such counsels as might be successful, and for their own advan-
tage; and this especially, if they would set about great exploits,
and not grow weary in executing the same; so men received
what they said with pleasure, and this bold attempt proceeded
to a great height. All sorts of misfortunes also sprang from
these men, and the nation was infected with this doctrine to an
incredible degree; one violent war came upon us after another,
and we lost our friends which used to alleviate our pains; there
were also very great robberies and murders of our principal
men. This was done in pretence indeed for the public welfare,
but in reality from the hopes of gain to themselves; whence
arose seditions, and from them murders of men, which some-
times fell on those of their own people (by the madness of these
men towards one another, while their desire was that none of the
adverse party might be left), and sometimes on their enemies;
a famine also coming upon us reduced us to the last degree of
despair, as did also the taking and demolishing of cities; nay,
the sedition at last increased so high, that the very temple of
God was burnt down by their enemies' fire. Such were the
consequences of this, that the customs of our fathers were al-
tered, and such a change was made, as added a mighty weight
toward bringing all to destruction, which these men occasioned
by their thus conspiring together; for Judas and Sadducus †, who
excited a fourth philosophic sect among us, and had a great many
followers therein, filled our civil government with tumults at
present, and laid the foundations of our future miseries by this
system of philosophy, which we were before unacquainted with-
al; concerning which I will discourse a little, and this the rather,
because the infection which spread thence among the younger
sort, who were zealous for it, brought the people to destruction.
2. The Jews had, for a great while, three sects of philosophy
* It seems not very improbable to me, that this Sadduc, the Pharisee, was the
very same man of whom the Rabbins speak, as the unhappy but undesigning oc-
casion of the impiety or infidelity of the Sadducees: nor perhaps had the men
this name of Sadducees till this very time, though they were a distinct sect long
before. See the note on B. xiii. ch. x. sect. 5; and Dean Prideaux, as there
quoted; nor do we, that I know of, find the least footsteps of such impiety or
infidelity of these Sadducees before this time, the Recognitions assuring us that
they began about the days of John the Baptist, B. i. ch. liv. vol. 1.
+ See the preceding Note.
C. 1.
53
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
peculiar to themselves, the sect of the Essens, and the sect of
the Sadducees, and the third sort of opinions was that of those
called Pharisees; of which sects, although I have already
spoken in the second book of the Jewish war, yet will I a little
touch upon them now.
ነ
3. Now for the Pharisees, they live meanly, and despise de-
licacies in diet; and they follow the conduct of reason; and
what that prescribes to them as good for them, they do; and
they think they ought earnestly to strive to observe reason's dic-
tates for practice. They also pay a respect to such as are in
years; nor are they so bold as to contradict them in any thing
which they have introduced; and, when they determine that all
things are done by fate, they do not take away the freedom from
men of acting as they think fit; since their notion is, that it hath
pleased God to make a temperament, whereby what he wills is
done, but so that the will of man can act virtuously or viciously.
They also believe that souls have an immortal vigour in them,
and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments,
according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life;
and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that
the former shall have power to revive and live again on account
of which doctrines they are able greatly to persuade the body
of the people; and whatsoever they do about divine worship,
prayers, and sacrifices, they perform them according to their
direction; insomuch that the cities gave great attestations to
them on account of their entire virtuous conduct, both in the
actions of their lives, and their discourses also.
4. But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this, that souls die
with the bodies; nor do they regard the observation of any thing
besides what the law enjoins them; for they think it an instance
of virtue to dispute with those teachers of philosophy whom they
frequent; but this doctrine is received but by a few, yet by those
still of the greatest dignity. But they are able almost to do no-
thing of themselves; for when they become magistrates, as they
are unwillingly and by force sometimes obliged to be, they ad-
dict themselves to the notions of the Pharisees, because the mul-
titude would not otherwise bear them.
5. The doctrine of the Essens is this, that all things are best
ascribed to God. They teach the immortality of souls, and es-
teem that the rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven
for; and when they send what they have dedicated to God into
the temple*, they do not offer sacrifices, because they have more
* It seems by what Josephus says here, and Philo himself elsewhere, Op. p.
676, that these Essens did not use to go up to the Jewish festivals at Jerusalem,
or to offer sacrifices there, which may be one great occasion why they are never
mentioned in the ordinary books of the New Testament; though in the Aposto-
lical Constitutions they are mentioned as those that observe the customs of their fore-
fathers, and that without any such ill character laid upon them as is there laid
upon the other sects among that people.
蠡
​54
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
pure lustrations of their own; on which account they are ex-
cluded from the common court of the temple, but offer their sa-
crifices themselves; yet is their course of life better than that of
other men; and they entirely addict themselves to husbandry.
It also deserves our admiration how much they exceed all other
men that addict themselves to virtue, and this in righteousness;
and indeed to such a degree, that as it hath never appeared
among any other men, neither Greeks nor barbarians, no, not for
a little time, so hath it endured a long while among them. This
is demonstrated by that institution of theirs, which will not suf-
fer any thing to hinder them from having all things in common;
so that a rich man enjoys no more of his own wealth than he
who hath nothing at all. There are about four thousand men
that live in this way; and neither marry wives, nor are desirous
to keep servants; as thinking the latter tempts men to be un-
just, and the former gives the handle to domestic quarrels; but
as they live by themselves, they minister one to another. They
also appoint certain stewards to receive the incomes of their re-
venues, and of the fruits of the ground: such as are good men
and priests, who are to get their corn and their food ready for
them. They none of them differ from others of the Essens in
their way of living, but do the most resemble those Daca, who
are called Polista* [dwellers in cities].
6. But of the fourth sect of Jewish philosophy, Judas the
Galilean was the author. These men agree in all other things
with the Pharisaic notions; but they have an inviolable attach-
ment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only Ruler and
Lord. They also do not value dying any kinds of death, nor in-
deed do they heed the deaths of their relations and friends, nor
can any such fear make them call any man lord. And since this
immoveable resolution of theirs is well known to a great many,
I shall speak no farther about that matter; nor am I afraid that
any thing I have said of them should be disbelieved, but rather
fear that what I have said is beneath the resolution they show
when they undergo pain. And it was in Gessius Florus's time
that the nation began to go mad with this distemper, who was
our procurator, and who occasioned the Jews to go wild with
it by the abuse of his authority, and to make them revolt from
the Romans. And these are the sects of Jewish philosophy.
* Who these IIoλisa in Josephus, or Krisai in Strabo, among the Pythago-
ric Dace were, it is not easy to determine. Scaliger offers no improbable con-
jecture, that some of these Daca lived alone like monks, in tents or caves; but
that others of them lived together in built cities, and thence were called by such
names as implied the same.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
55
1
CHAP. II.
How Herod and Philip built several Cities in honour of Cæsar.
Concerning the Succession of Priests and Procurators; as
also what befell Phraates and the Parthians.
§ 1. WHEN Cyrenius had now disposed of Archelaus's money,
and when the taxings were come to a conclusion, which were made
in the thirty-seventh year of Cæsar's victory over Antony at Ac-
tium, he deprived Joazar of the high priesthood, which dignity
had been conferred on him by the multitude, and he appointed
Ananus, the son of Seth, to be high priest; while Herod and
Philip had each of them received their own tetrarchy, and set-
tled the affairs thereof. Herod also built a wall about Sepphoris
(which is the security of all Galilee), and made it the metropo-
lis of the country. He also built a wall round Betharamphtha,
which was itself a city also, and called it Julius, from the name
of the emperor's wife. When Philip also had built Paneas, a
city at the fountains of Jordan, he named it Cesarea. He also
advanced the village Bethsaida, situate at the lake of Gennesa-
reth, unto the dignity of a city, both by the number of inhabi-
tants it contained, and its other grandeur, and called it by the
name of Julias, the same name with Cæsar's daughter.
2. As Coponius, who we told you was sent along with Cy-
renius, was exercising his office of procurator, and governing
Judea, the following accidents happened. As the Jews were
celebrating the feast of unleavened bread, which we call the Pass-
over, it was customary for the priests to open the temple gates
just after midnight. When, therefore, those gates were first
opened, some of the Samaritans came privately into Jerusalem,
and threw about dead men's bodies in the cloisters; on which
account the Jews afterward excluded them out of the temple,
which they had not used to do at such festivals; and on other
accounts also they watched the temple more carefully than they
had formerly done. A little after which accident Coponius re-
turned to Rome, and Marcus Ambivius came to be his successor
in that government; under whom Salome, the sister of king
Herod, died, and left to Julia [Cæsar's wife] Jamnia, all its to-
parchy, and Phasaelis in the plain, and Archelais, where is a
great plantation of palm trees, and their fruit is excellent in its
kind. After him came Annius Rufus, under whom died Cæsar,
the second emperor of the Romans, the duration of whose reign
was fifty-seven years, besides six months and two days (of which
time Antonius ruled together with him fourteen years; but the
duration of his life was seventy-seven years); upon whose death
Tiberius Nero, his wife Julia's son, succeeded. He was now the
third emperor; and he sent Valerius Gratus to be procurator
56
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
of Judea, and to succeed Annius Rufus. This man deprived
Ananus of the high priesthood, and appointed Ismael, the son
of Phabi, to be high priest. He also deprived him in a little
time, and ordained Eleazar, the son of Ananus, who had been
high priest before, to be high priest; which office, when he had
held for a year, Gratus deprived him of it, and gave the high
priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus; and, when he had
possessed that dignity no longer than a year, Joseph Caiaphas
was made his successor. When Gratus had done these things,
he went back to Rome, after he had tarried in Judea eleven
years, when Pontius Pilate came as his successor.
3. And now Herod the tetrarch, who was in great favour with
Tiberius, built a city of the same name with him, and called it
Tiberias. He built it in the best part of Galilee, at the lake of
Gennesareth. There are warm baths, at a little distance from it,
in a village named Emmaus. Strangers came and inhabited this
city; a great number of the inhabitants were Galileans also; and
many were necessitated by Herod to come thither out of the
country belonging to him, and were by force compelled to be its
inhabitants: some of them were persons of condition. He also
admitted poor people, and those such as were collected from all
parts, to dwell in it. Nay, some of them were not quite free-
men; and these he was a benefactor to, and made them free in
great numbers; but obliged them not to forsake the city, by
building them very good houses at his own expenses, and by
giving them land also: for he was sensible, that to make this
place a habitation was to transgress the Jewish ancient laws,
because many sepulchres were to be here taken away, in order
to make room for the city Tiberias*; whereas our laws pro-
nounce, that such inhabitants are unclean for seven days †.
4. About this time died Phraates, king of the Parthians, by
the treachery of Phraataces his son, upon the occasion follow-
ing: When Phraates had had legitimate sons of his own, he had
also an Italian maid-servant, whose name was Thermusa, who
had been formerly sent to him by Julius Cæsar, among other
presents. He first made her his concubine; but he being a great
admirer of her beauty, in process of time having a son by her,
whose name was Phraataces, he made her his legitimate wife,
and had a great respect for her. Now she was able to persuade
him to do any thing that she said, and was earnest in procuring
the government of Parthia for her son; but still she saw that her
* We may here take notice, as well as in the parallel parts of the books Of
the War, B. ii. ch. ix. sect. 1, that after the death of Herod the Great, and the
succession of Archelaus, Josephus is very brief in his accounts of Judea, till near
his own time. I suppose the reason is, that after the large history of Nicolaus
of Damascus, including the life of Herod, and probably the succession and first
actions of his sons, he had but few good histories of those times before him.
+ Numb. xix. 11-14.
C. II.
57
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
endeavours would not succeed, unless she could contrive how to
remove Phraates's legitimate sons out [of the kingdom]: so she
persuaded him to send those his sons as pledges of his fidelity
to Rome; and they were sent to Rome accordingly, because it
was not easy for him to contradict her commands. Now while
Phraataces was alone brought up in order to succeed in the go-
vernment, he thought it very tedious to expect that government
by his father's donation [as his successor]: he therefore formed
a treacherous design against his father by his mother's assist-
ance, with whom, as the report went, he had criminal conversa-
tion also. So he was hated for both these vices, while his sub-
jects esteemed this [wicked] love of his mother to be no way
inferior to his parricide; and he was by them in a sedition ex-
pelled out of the country, before he grew too great, and died.
But as the best sort of Parthians agreed together that it was im-
possible they should be governed without a king, while also it
was their constant practice to choose one of the family of Arsa-
ces (nor did their law allow of any others; and they thought this
kingdom had been sufficiently injured already by the marriage
with an Italian concubine, and by her issue), they sent ambas-
sadors, and called Orodes [to take the crown]; for the multi-
tude would not otherwise have borne them; and though he were
accused of very great cruelty, and was of an untractable tem-
per, and prone to wrath, yet still he was one of the family of
Arsaces. However, they made a conspiracy against him, and
slew him, and that, as some say, at a festival, and among their
sacrifices (for it is the universal custom there to carry their
swords with them); but as the more general report is, they slew
him when they had drawn him out a hunting. So they sent am-
bassadors to Rome, and desired they would send one of those
that were there as pledges, to be their king. Accordingly, Vo-
nones was preferred before the rest, and sent to them (for he
seemed capable of such great fortune, which two of the greatest
kingdoms under the sun now offered him, his own and a foreign
one). However, the barbarians soon changed their minds, they
being naturally of a mutable disposition, upon the supposal that
this man was not worthy to be their governor; for they could
not think of obeying the commands of one that had been a slave
(for so they called those that had been hostages), nor could they
bear the ignominy of that name: and this was the more intoler-
able, because then the Parthians must have such a king set over
them, not by right of war, but in a time of peace. So they pre-
sently invited Artabanus, king of Media, to be their king, he
being also of the race of Arsaces. Artabanus complied with the
offer that was made to him, and came to them with an army. So
Vonones met him; and at first the multitude of the Parthians
stood on his side, and he put his army in array, but Artabanus
58
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
was beaten, and fled to the mountains of Media. Yet did he a
little time after gather a great army together, and fought with
Vonones, and beat him; whereupon Vonones fled away on horse-
back, with a few of his attendants about him, to Seleucia [upon
Tigris]. So when Artabanus had slain a great number, and this
after he had gotten the victory by reason of the very great dismay
the barbarians were in, he retired to Ctesiphon with a great num-
ber of his people; and so he now reigned over the Parthians.
But Vonones fled away to Armenia; and as soon as he came
thither, he had an inclination to have the government of the
country given him, and sent ambassadors to Rome [for that pur-
pose]. But because Tiberius refused it him, and because he
wanted courage, and because the Parthian king threatened him,
and sent ambassadors to him to denounce war against him if he
proceeded; and because he had no way to take to regain any
other kingdom (for the people of authority among the Armeni-
ans about Niphates joined themselves to Artabanus), he deli-
vered up himself to Silanus, the president of Syria, who, out of
regard to his education at Rome, kept him in Syria, while Arta-
banus gave Armenia to Orodes, one of his own sons.
5. At this time died Antiochus, the king of Commagene;
whereupon the multitude contended with the nobility, and both
sent ambassadors [to Rome]; for the men of power were desi-
rous that their form of government might be changed into that
of a [Roman] province; as were the multitude desirous to be
under kings, as their fathers had been. So the senate made a
decree, that Germanicus should be sent to settle the affairs of
the east, fortune hereby taking a proper opportunity for depriv-
ing him of his life; for when he had been in the east, and settled
all affairs there, his life was taken away by the poison which Piso
gave him, as hath been related elsewhere *.
CHAP. III.
A Sedition of the Jews against Pontius Pilate. Concerning
Christ; and what befell Paulina and the Jews at Rome.
§ 1. But now Pilate, the procurator of Judea, removed the
army from Cesarea to Jerusalem, to take their winter quarters
there, in order to abolish the Jewish laws. So he introduced
Cæsar's effigies, which were upon the ensigns, and brought
them into the city; whereas our law forbids us the very making
of images: on which account the former procurators were wont
to make their entry into the city with such ensigns as had
not those ornaments. Pilate was the first who brought those
• This citation is now wanting.
C. III.
59
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
images to Jerusalem, and set them up there; which was done
without the knowledge of the people, because it was done in
the night time; but as soon as they knew it, they came in mul-
titudes to Cesarea, and interceded with Pilate many days, that
he would remove the images; and when he would not grant
their requests, because this would tend to the injury of Cæsar,
while yet they persevered in their request, on the sixth day
he ordered his soldiers to have their weapons privately, while
he came and sat upon his judgment seat; which seat was so
prepared in the open place of the city, that it concealed the
army that lay ready to oppress them; and when the Jews peti-
tioned him again, he gave a signal to the soldiers to encompass
them round, and threatened that their punishment should be no
less than immediate death, unless they would leave off disturb-
ing him, and go their ways home. But they threw themselves
upon the ground, and laid their necks bare, and said they would
take their death very willingly, rather than the wisdom of their
laws should be transgressed; upon which Pilate was deeply af-
fected with their firm resolution to keep their laws inviolable,
and presently commanded the images to be carried back from
Jerusalem to Cesarea.
*
2. But Pilate undertook to bring a current of water to Jeru-
salem, and did it with the sacred money, and derived the origin
of the stream from the distance of two hundred furlongs. How-
ever, the Jews were not pleased with what had been done
about this water; and many ten thousands of the people got
together, and made a clamour against him, and insisted that he
should leave off that design. Some of them also used reproaches,
and abused the man, as crowds of such people usually do. So
he habited a great number of his soldiers in their habit, who car-
ried daggers under their garments, and sent them to a place
where they might surround them. So he bid the Jews himself
!
* These Jews, as they are here called, whose blood Pilate shed on this occa-
sion, may very well be those very Galilean Jews whose blood Pilate had mingled
with their sacrifices; Luke, xiii. 1, 2; these tumults being usually excited at some
of the Jews' great festivals, when they slew abundance of sacrifices, and the Ga-
lileans being commonly much more busy in such tumults than those of Judea and
Jerusalem, as we learn from the history of Archelaus, Antiq. B. xvii. ch. ix.
sect. 3, and ch. x. sect. 2, 9; though indeed Josephus's present copies say not
one word of those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them,
'which the 4th verse of the same 13th chapter of St. Luke informs us of. But
since our gospel teaches us, Luke, xxiii. 6,7, that when Pilate heard of Galilee, he
asked whether Jesus were a Galilean? And as soon as he knew that he belonged to
Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod. And ver. 12. The same day Pilate
and Herod were made friends together; for before they had been at enmity between
themselves. Take the very probable key of this matter in the words of the
learned Noldius de Herod, No. 249. "The cause of the enmity between Herod
and Pilate (says he) seems to have been this, that Pilate had intermeddled
with the tetrarch's jurisdiction, and had slain some of his Galilean subjects;
Luke, xiii. 1; and, as he was willing to correct that error, he sent Christ to
Herod at this time."
60
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
go away; but they boldly casting reproaches upon him, he gave
the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed on;
who laid upon them much greater blows than Pilate had com-
manded them, and equally punished those that were tumultuous,
and those that were not; nor did they spare them in the least;
and since the people were unarmed, and were caught by men
prepared for what they were about, there were a great number
of them slain by this means, and others of them ran away
wounded. And thus an end was put to this sedition.
[ 3. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it
be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful
works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.
He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the
Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the sug-
gestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to
the cross*, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him;
for he appeared to them alive again the third day†; as the divine
prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful
things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named
from him, are not extinct at this day. ]
4. About the same time also another sad calamity put the
Jews into disorder, and certain shameful practices happened
about the temple of Isis that was at Rome. I will now first
take notice of the wicked attempt about the temple of Isis,
and will then give an account of the Jewish affairs. There was
at Rome a woman whese name was Paulina; one who, on
account of the dignity of her ancestors, and by the regular con-
duct of a virtuous life, had a great reputation: she was also
very rich; and although she were of a beautiful countenance,
and in that flower of her age, wherein women are the most gay,
yet did she lead a life of great modesty. She was married to
Saturninus, one that was every way answerable to her in an
excellent character. Dicius Mundus fell in love with this
woman, who was a man very high in the equestrian order; and
as she was of too great dignity to be caught by presents, and
had already rejected them, though they had been sent in great
abundance, he was still more inflamed with love to her, inso-
much that he promised to give her two hundred thousand Attic
drachmæ for one night's lodging; and when this would not pre-
vail upon her, and he was not able to bear this misfortune in
his amours, he thought it the best way to famish himself to
death for want of food, on account of Paulina's sad refusal :
and he determined with himself to die after such a manner, and
he went on with his purpose accordingly. Now Mundus had
a freed woman, who had been made free by his at her, whose
name was Ide, one skilful in all sorts of mischief. This woman
* A. D. 33. April 3.
+ April 5.
+
C. III.
61.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
was very much grieved at the young man's resolution to kill him-
self (for he did not conceal his intentions to destroy himself from
others), and came to him, and encouraged him by her discourse,
and made him to hope, by some promises she gave him, that he
might obtain a night's lodging with Paulina; and when he joy-
fully hearkened to her entreaty, she said, she wanted no more
than fifty thousand drachmæ for the entrapping of the woman.
So when she had encouraged the young man, and gotten as
much money as she required, she did not take the same methods
as had been taken before, because she perceived that the
woman was by no means to be tempted by money, but as she
knew that she was very much given to the worship of the god-
dess Isis, she devised the following stratagem: She went to
some of Isis's priests, and upon the strongest assurances [of
concealment], she persuaded them by words, but chiefly by the
offer of money, of 25,000 drachmæ in hand, and as much more
when the thing had taken effect, and told them the passion of
the young man, and persuaded them to use all means possible to
beguile the woman. So they were drawn in to promise so to do,
by that large sum of gold they were to have. Accordingly the
eldest of them went immediately to Paulina, and upon his
admittance, he desired to speak with her by herself. When that
was granted him, he told her, that "he was sent by the god
Anubis, who was fallen in love with her, and enjoined her to
come to him." Upon this she took the message very kindly,
and valued herself greatly upon this condescension of Anubis,
and told her husband, that she had a message sent her, and was
to sup and to lie with Anubis: so he agreed to her acceptance
of the offer, as fully satisfied with the chastity of his wife.
Accordingly she went to the temple, and after she had supped
there, and it was the hour to go to sleep, the priest shut the
doors of the temple, when, in the holy part of it, the lights were
also put out. Then did Mundus leap out (for he was hidden
therein), and did not fail of enjoying her, who was at his ser-
vice all the night long, as supposing he was the god; and when
he was gone away, which was before those priests who knew
nothing of this stratagem were stirring, Paulina came early to
her husband, and told him how the god Anubis had appeared
to her. Among her friends also she declared how great a value
she put upon this favour, who partly disbelieved the thing,
when they reflected on its nature, and partly were amazed at it,
as having no pretence for not believing it, when they considered
the modesty and the dignity of the person. But now on the
third day after what had been done, Mundus met Paulina, and
said, "Nay, Paulina, thou hast saved me two hundred thousand
drachmæ, which sum thou mightest have added to thy own
family; yet hast thou not failed to be at my service in the man-
62
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
ner I invited thee. As for the reproaches thou hast laid upon
Mundus, I value not the business of names; but I rejoice in
the pleasure I reaped by what I did, while I took to myself the
name of Anubis.” When he had said this, he went his way.
But now she began to come to the sense of the grossness of
what she had done, and rent her garments, and told her hus-
band of the horrid nature of this wicked contrivance, and prayed
him not to neglect to assist her in this case. So he discovered
the fact to the emperor: whereupon Tiberius inquired into the
matter thoroughly, by examining the priests about it, and
ordered them to be crucified as well as Ide, who was the occa-
sion of their perdition, and who had contrived the whole matter
which was so injurious to the woman. He also demolished the
temple of Isis, and gave order that her statue should be thrown
into the river Tiber; while he only banished Mundus, but did
no more to him, because he supposed that what crime he had
committed was done out of the passion of love. And these
were the circumstances which concerned the temple of Isis,
and the injuries occasioned by her priests. I now return to the
relation of what happened about this time to the Jews at
Rome, as I formerly told you I would.
5. There was a man who was a Jew, but had been driven
away from his own country by an accusation laid against him
for transgressing their laws, and by the fear he was under of
punishment for the same; but in all respects a wicked man.
He then living at Rome, professed to instruct men in the wis-
dom of the laws of Moses. He procured also three other men,
entirely of the same character with himself, to be his partners.
These men persuaded Fulvia, a woman of great dignity, and
one that had embraced the Jewish religion, to send purple and
gold to the temple at Jerusalem, and when they had gotten
them, they employed them for their own uses, and spent the
money themselves; on which account it was that they at first
required it of her. Whereupon Tiberius, who had been in-
formed of the thing by Saturninus, the husband of Fulvia, who
desired inquiry might be made about it, ordered all the Jews to
be banished out of Rome; at which the consuls listed four
thousand men out of them, and sent them to the island Sardinia;
but punished a greater number of them, who were unwilling to
become soldiers on account of keeping the laws of their fore-
fathers*. Thus were these Jews banished out of the city by the
wickedness of four men,
* Of the banishment of these 4000 Jews into Sardinia by Tiberius, see Sue-
tonius in Tiber. sect. 36. But as for Mr. Reland's note here, which supposes
that Jews could not, consistently with their laws, be soldiers, it is contradicted
by one branch of the history before us, and contrary to innumerable instances of
their fighting, and proving excellent soldiers in war; and indeed many of the
best of them, and even under heathen kings themselves, did so, those I mean who

ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
63
CHAP. IV.
How the Samaritans made a Tumult, and Pilate destroyed
many of them; how Pilate was accused, and what Things
were done by Vitellius relating to the Jews and the Parthians.
§ 1. BUT the nation of the Samaritans did not escape without
tumults. The man who excited them to it was one who
thought lying a thing of little consequence, and who contrived
every thing so that the multitude might be pleased; so he bid
them get together upon Mount Gerizzim, which is by them
looked upon as the most holy of all mountains, and assured
them, that when they were come thither, he would show them
those sacred vessels which were laid under that place, because
Moses* put them there. So they came thither armed, and
thought the discourse of the man probable; and as they abode
at a certain village, which was called Tirathaba, they got the
rest together to them, and desired to go up the mountain in a
great multitude together: but Pilate prevented their going up
by seizing upon the roads with a great band of horsemen and
footmen, who fell upon those that were gotten together in the
village, and when it came to an action, some of them they
slew, and others of them they put to flight, and took a great
many alive, the principal of which, and also the most potent
of those that fled away, Pilate ordered to be slain.
the
2. But when this tumult was appeased, the Samaritan senate
sent an embassy to Vitellius, a man that had been consul, and
who was now president of Syria, and accused Pilate of the
murder of those that were killed; for that they did not go to
Tirathaba in order to revolt from the Romans, but to escape
violence of Pilate. So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of his,
to take care of the affairs of Judea, and ordered Pilate to go to
Rome, to answer before the emperor to the accusation of the
Jews. So Pilate, when he had tarried ten years in Judea, made
haste to Rome, and this in obedience to the orders of Vitellius,
allowed them their rest on the Sabbath day, and other solemn festivals, and let
them live according to their own laws, as Alexander the Great and the Ptole-
mies of Egypt did. It is true, they could not always obtain those privileges,
and then they got excused as well as they could, or sometimes absolutely refused
to fight, which seems to have been the case here, as to the major part of the
Jews now banished, but nothing more. See several of the Roman decrees in
their favour as to such matters, B. xiv. ch. x.
* Since Moses never came himself beyond Jordan, nor particularly to Mount
Gerizzim, and since these Samaritans have a tradition among them related here
by Dr. Hudson, from Reland, who was very skilful in Jewish and Samaritan
learning, that in the days of Uzzi or Ozzi the high priest, 1 Chron. vi. 6, the ark
and other sacred vessels were, by God's command, laid up or hidden in Mount
Gerizzim, it is highly probable that this was the foolish foundation the present
Samaritans went upon in the sedition here described, and that we should read
here Qoɛwg, instead of Mwvoɛwc, in the text of Josephus.
64
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
1.
which he durst not contradict; but before he could get to Rome
Tiberius was dead.
3. But Vitellius came into Judea, and went up to Jerusalem;
it was at the time of that festival which is called the Passover.
Vitellius was there magnificently received, and released the in-
habitants of Jerusalem from all the taxes upon the fruits that
were bought and sold, and gave them leave to have the care of
the high priest's vestments, with all their ornaments, and to have
them under the custody of the priests in the temple, which power
they used to have formerly, although at this time they were laid
up in the tower of Antonia, the citadel so called, and that on
the occasion following: There was one of the [high] priests,
named Hyrcanus, and as there were many of that name, he was
the first of them; this man built a tower near the temple, and
when he had so done, he generally dwelt in it, and had these
vestments with him; because it was lawful for him alone to put
them on, and he had them there reposited when he went down into
the city, and took his ordinary garments. The same things were
continued to be done by his sons, and by their sons after them:
But when Herod came to be king he rebuilt this tower, which
was very conveniently situated, in a magnificent manner; and
because he was a friend to Antonius, he called it by the name
of Antonia. And as he found these vestments lying there, he
retained them in the same place, as believing, that while he
had them in his custody, the people would make no innovations
against him. The like to what Herod did was done by his son
Archelaus, who was made king after him; after whom the
Romans, when they entered on the government, took possession.
of these vestments of the high priest, and had them reposited in
a stone chamber under the seal of the priests, and of the keepers
of the temple, the captain of the guard lighting a lamp there
every day; and seven days* before a festival they were delivered
to them by the captain of the guard, when the high priest, hav-
ing purified them, and made use of them, laid them up again in
the same chamber where they had been laid up before, and this
the very next day after the feast was over. This was the prac-
tice at the three yearly festivals, and on the fast day; but Vitel-
lius put these garments into our own power, as in the days of
our forefathers, and ordered the captain of the guard not to
trouble himself to inquire where they were laid, or when they
were to be used; and this he did as an act of kindness to oblige
* This mention of the high priest's sacred garments received seven days before
a festival, and purified in those days against a festival, as having been polluted,
by being in the custody of heathens, in Josephus, agrees well with the traditions
of the Talmudists, as Reland here observes. Nor is there any question but the
three feasts here mentioned, were the Passover, Pentecost, and feast of Taber-
nacles; and the fast, so called by way of distinction, as Acts, xxvii. 9, was the
great day of expiation.
C. IV.
65
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
ļ
!
1
เ
the nation to him. Besides which, he also deprived Joseph, who
was also called Caiaphas, of the high priesthood, and appointed
Jonathan, the son of Ananus, the former high priest, to succeed
him. After which he took his journey back to Antioch.
4. Moreover, Tiberius sent a letter to Vitellius, and com-
manded him to make a league of friendship with Artabanus, the
king of Parthia; for while he was his enemy he terrified him,
because he had taken Armenia away from him, lest he should
proceed farther, and told him he should no otherwise trust him
than upon his giving him hostages, and especially his son Arta-
banus. Upon Tiberius's writing thus to Vitellius, by the offer
of great presents of money, he persuaded both the king of Iberia,
and the king of Albania, to make no delay, but to fight against
Artabanus; and although they would not do it themselves, yet
did they give the Scythians a passage through their country, and
opened the Caspian gates to them, and brought them upon
Artabanus. So Armenia was again taken from the Parthians,
and the country of Parthia was filled with war, and the prin-
cipal of their men were slain, and all things were in disorder
among them: the king's son also himself fell in these wars, to-
gether with many ten thousands of his army. Vitellius had
also sent such great sums of money to Artabanus's father's kins-
men and friends, that he had almost procured him to be slain by
the means of those bribes which they had taken. And when
Artabanus perceived that the plot laid against him was not to
be avoided, because it was laid by the principal men, and those
a great many in number, and that it would certainly take effect:
when he also estimated the number of those that were truly
faithful to him, as also of those who were already corrupted, but
were deceitful in the kindness they professed to him, and were
likely, upon trial, to go over to his enemies, he made his escape
to the upper provinces, where he afterward raised a great army
out of the Daba and Sacæ, and fought with his enemies, and
retained his principality.
5. When Tiberius had heard of these things, he desired to
have a league of friendship made between him and Artabanus,
and when, upon this invitation, he received the proposal kindly,
Artabanus and Vitellius went to Euphrates, and as a bridge was
laid over the river, they each of them came with their guards
about them, and met one another on the midst of the bridge.
And when they had agreed upon the terms of peace, Herod the
tetrarch erected a rich tent on the midst of the passage, and
made them a feast there. Artabanus also, not long afterward,
sent his son Darius, as an hostage, with many presents, among
which there was a man seven cubits tall, a Jew he was by birth,
and his name was Eleazar, who for his tallness was called a
giant. After which Vitellius went to Antioch, and Artabanus
VOL. III.
F
66
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
to Babylon; but Herod [the tetrarch], being desirous to give
Cæsar the first information that they had obtained hostages, sent
posts with letters, wherein he had accurately described all the
particulars, and had left nothing for the consular Vitellius to
inform him of. But when Vitellius's letters were sent, and
Cæsar had let him know that he was acquainted with the affairs
already, because Herod had given him an account of them before,
Vitellius was very much troubled at it; and supposing that he
had been thereby a greater sufferer than he really was, he kept up
a secret anger upon this occasion, till he could be revenged on
him, which he was after Caius had taken the government.
6. About this time it was that Philip, Herod's brother, de-
parted this life, in the twentieth year* of the reign of Tiberius,
after he had been tetrarch of Trachonitis and Gaulanitis, and of
the nation of the Bataneans also, thirty-seven years. He had
showed himself a person of moderation and quietness in the con-
duct of his life and government; he constantly lived in that country
which was subject to him; he used to make his progress with
a few chosen friends; his tribunal also, on which he sat in judg-
ment, followed him in his progress; and when any one met him
who wanted his assistance, he made no delay, but had his tri-
bunal set down immediately, wheresoever he happened to be,
and sat down upon it, and heard his complaint; he there ordered
the guilty that were convicted to be punished, and absolved those
that had been accused unjustly. He died at Julius; and when
he was carried to that monument which he had already erected
for himself beforehand, he was buried with great pomp. His
principality Tiberius took, for he left no sons behind him, and
added it to the province of Syria; but gave order that the tributes
which arose from it should be collected, and laid up in that
his tetrarchy.
* This calculation from all Josephus's Greek copies is exactly right; for since
Herod died about September, in the 4th year before the Christian æra, and
Tiberius began, as is well known, Aug. 19. A. D. 14, it is evident that the 37th
year of Philip, reckoned from his father's death, was the 20th of Tiberius, or
near the end of A. D. 33, (the very year of our Saviour's death also, or however
in the beginning of the next year, A. D. 34). This Philip the tetrarch seems to
have been the best of all the posterity of Herod, for his love of peace, and his
love of justice.
+ An excellent example this.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
67
1
i
CHAP. V.
Herod the Tetrarch makes War with Aretas, the King of Ara-
bia, and is beaten by him; as also concerning the Death of
John the Baptist; how Vitellius went up to Jerusalem: to-
gether with some Account of Agrippa, and of the Posterity of
Herod the Great.
§ 1. ABOUT this time Aretas, the king of Arabia Petrea, and
Herod, had a quarrel on the account following: Herod the
tetrarch had married the daughter of Aretas, and had lived with
her a great while; but when he was once at Rome, he lodged
with Herod*, who was his brother indeed, but not by the same
mother; for this Herod was the son of the high priest Simon's
daughter. However, he fell in love with Herodias, this last
Herod's wife, who was the daughter of Aristobulus their brother,
and the sister of Agrippa the Great. This man ventured to talk
to her about a marriage between them, which address, when she
admitted, an agreement was made for her to change her habita-
tion, and come to him as soon as he should return from Rome:
one article of this marriage also was this, that he should divorce
Aretas's daughter. So Antipas, when he had made this agree-
ment, sailed to Rome: but when he had done there the business
he went about, and was returned again, his wife having discovered
the agreement he had made with Herodias, and having learned it
before he had notice of her knowledge of the whole design, she
desired him to send her to Macherus, which is a place in the
borders of the dominions of Aretas and Herod, without inform-
ing him of any of her intentions. Accordingly Herod sent her
thither, as thinking his wife had not perceived any thing: now
she had sent a good while before to Macherus, which was sub-
ject to her father, and so all things necessary for her journey were
made ready for her by the general of Aretas's army; and by that
means she soon came into Arabia, under the conduct of several
generals, who carried her from one to another successively; and
she soon came to her father, and told him of Herod's intentions.
So Aretas made this the first occasion of his enmity between him
* This Herod seems to have had the additional name of Philip, as Antipas
was named Herod-Antipas, and as Antipas and Antipater seem to be in a man-
ner the very same name, yet were the names of two sons of Herod the Great ;
so might Philip the tetrarch and this Herod-Philip be two different sons of the
same father, all which Grotius observes on Matt. xiv. 3. Nor was it, as I agree
with Grotius and others of the learned, Philip the tetrarch, but this Herod-
Philip, whose wife Herod the tetrarch had married, and that in her first hus-
band's lifetime, and when her first husband had issue by her; for which adul-
terous and incestuous marriage, John the Baptist justly reproved Herod the
tetrarch, and for which reproof Salome, the daughter of Herodias, by her first
husband Herod-Philip, who was still alive, occasioned him to be unjustly be-
headed.
F 2
68
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
and Herod, who had also some quarrel with him about their
limits at the country of Gemalitis. So they raised armies on
both sides, and prepared for war, and sent their generals to fight
instead of themselves; and when they had joined battle, all
Herod's army was destroyed by the treachery of some fugitives,
who, though they were of the tetrarchy of Philip, joined with
Herod's army. So Herod wrote about these affairs to Tiberius,
who, being very angry at the attempt made by Aretas, wrote to
Vitellius, to make war upon him, and either to take him alive,
and bring him to him in bonds, or to kill him, and send him his
head. This was the charge that Tiberius gave to the president
of Syria.
2. Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of
Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punish-
ment of what he did against John, who was called the Baptist;
for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the
Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one an-
other, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism: for
that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if
they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the re-
mission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body:
supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand
by righteousness. Now when [many] others came in crowds
about him, for they were greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing
his words, Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had
over the people, might put it into his power and inclination to
raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should
advise), thought it best by putting him to death, to prevent any
mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties,
by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should
be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's
suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned,
and was there put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that
the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon
Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure to him.
3. So Vitellius prepared to make war with Aretas, having
with him two legions of armed men; he also took with him
all those of light armature, and of the horsemen which be-
longed to them, and were drawn out of those kingdoms which
were under the Romans, and made haste for Petra, and came to
Ptolemais. But as he was marching very busily, and leading his
army through Judea, the principal men met him, and desired
that he would not thus march through their land; for that the
laws of their country would not permit them to overlook those
images which were brought into it, of which there were a great
many in their ensigns; so he was persuaded by what they said,
and changed that resolution of his, which he had before taken
ช
!
1
1
C.V.
69
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
in that matter. Whereupon he ordered the army to march along
the great plain, while he himself, with Herod the tetrarch, and
his friends, went up to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice to God, an
ancient festival of the Jews being then just approaching; and
when he had been there, and been honourably entertained by the
multitude of the Jews, he made a stay there for three days, within
which time he deprived Jonathan of the high priesthood, and
gave it to his brother Theophilus. But when on the fourth day,
letters came to him, which informed him of the death of Tiberius,
he obliged the multitude to take an oath of fidelity to Caius; he
also recalled his army, and made them every one to go home,
and take their winter quarters there, since upon the devolution
of the empire upon Caius, he had not the like authority of
making this war which he had before. It was also reported,
that when Aretas heard of the coming of Vitellius to fight him,
he said, upon his consulting the diviners, that it was impossible
that this army of Vitellius's could enter Petra; for that one of
the rulers would die; either he that gave orders for the war, or
he that was marching at the other's desire, in order to be sub-
servient to his will, or else he against whom this army was pre-
pared. So Vitellius truly retired to Antioch; but Agrippa, the
son of Aristobulus, went up to Rome a year before the death of
Tiberius, in order to treat of some affairs with the emperor, if
he might be permitted so to do. I have now a mind to describe
Herod and his family, how it fared with them, partly because
it is suitable to this history to speak of that matter, and partly
because this thing is a demonstration of the interposition of
Providence, how a multitude of children is of no advantage, no
more than any other strength that mankind set their hearts upon,
besides those acts of piety which are done towards God; for it
happened, that within the revolution of a hundred years, the
posterity of Herod, which were a great many in number, were,
excepting a few, utterly destroyed. One may well apply this
for the instruction of mankind, and learn thence how unhappy
they were; it will also show us the history of Agrippa, who, as
he was a person most worthy of admiration, so was he from a
private man, beyond all the expectation of those that knew him,
advanced to great power and authority. I have said something
of them formerly, but I shall now also speak accurately about
them.
4. Herod the Great had two daughters by Mariamne, the
[grand] daughter of Hyrcanus; the one was Salampsio, who
* Whether this sudden extinction of almost the entire lineage of Herod the
Great, which was very numerous, as we are both here and in the next section
informed, was not in part as a punishment for the gross incests they were fre-
quently guilty of, in marrying their own nephews and nieces, well deserves to
be considered. See Levit. xviii. 6, 7; xxi. 10, and Noldius, De Herod. No. 269,
270.
t
i
B. XVIII.
70
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
was married to Phasaelus her first cousin, who was himself the
son of Phasaelus, Herod's brother; her father making the
match: the other was Cypros, who was herself married also to
her first cousin Antipater, the son of Salome, Herod's sister.
Phasaelus had five children by Salampsio, Antipater, Herod,
and Alexander; and two daughters, Alexandra and Cypros;
which last, Agrippa the son of Aristobulus married; and
Timius of Cyprus married Alexandra: he was a man of note,
but had by her no children. Agrippa had by Cypros two sons
and three daughters, which daughters were named Bernice,
Mariamne, and Drusilla; but the names of the sons were
Agrippa and Drusus, of which Drusus died before he came to
the years of puberty; but their father Agrippa was brought up
with his other brethren, Herod and Aristobulus; for these were
also the sons of the son of Herod the Great, by Bernice; but
Bernice was the daughter of Costoharus and of Salome, who
was Herod's sister, Aristobulus left these infants, when he was
slain by his father, together with his brother Alexander, as we
have already related. But when they were arrived at the years
of puberty, this Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married Ma-
riamne, the daughter of Olympias, who was daughter of Herod
the king, and of Joseph, the son of Joseph who was brother to
Herod the king, and had by her a son, Aristobulus: but Aristo-
bulus, the third brother of Agrippa, married Jotape, the daugh-
ter of Sampsigeramus, king of Emesa*; they had a daughter
who was deaf, whose name also was Jotape; and these hitherto
were the children of the male line. But Herodias, their sister,
was married to Herod [Philip], the son of Herod the Great,
who was born of Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the high
priest, who had a daughter Salome; after whose birth Hero-
dias took upon her to confound the laws of our country; and
divorced herself from her husband while he was alive, and was
married to Herod [Antipas], her husband's brother by the
father's side; he was tetrarch of Galilee: but her daughter
Salome was married to Philip, the son of Herod, and tetrarch
of Trachonitis; and as he died childless, Aristobulus, the son
of Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married her; they had three
sons, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus: and this was the pos-
terity of Phasaelus and Salampsio. But the daughter of Anti-
pater by Cypros, was Cypros, whom Alexis Selcias, the son of
Alexas, married; they had a daughter, Cypros; but Herod and
Alexander, who, as we told you, were the brothers of Anti-
pater, died childless. As to Alexander, the son of Herod the
king, who was slain by his father; he had two sons, Alexander
and Tigranes, by the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappa-
docia Tigranes, who was king of Armenia, was accused at
* There are coins still extant of this Emesa, as Spanheim informs us.
!
C. V.
7!
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
Rome, and died childless; Alexander had a son of the same
name with his brother Tigranes, and was sent to take posses-
sion of the kingdom of Armenia by Nero: he had a son Alex-
ander, who married Jotape*, the daughter of Antiochus, king of
Commagena; Vespasian made him king of an island in Cilicia.
But these descendants of Alexander, soon after their birth,
deserted the Jewish religion, and went over to that of the
Greeks; but for the rest of the daughters of Herod the king, it
happened that they died childless. And as these descendants of
Herod, whom we have enumerated, were in being at the same
time that Agrippa the Great took the kingdom, and I have now
given an account of them, it now remains that I relate the
several hard fortunes which befell Agrippa, and how he got clear
of them, and was advanced to the greatest height of dignity
and power.
CHAP. VI.
Of the Navigation of King Agrippa to Rome, to Tiberius
Cæsar: and how, upon his being accused by his own Freed-
man, he was bound: how also he was set at Liberty by Caius,
after Tiberius's Death, and was made King of the Tetrarchy
of Philip.
§ 1. A LITTLE before the death of Herod the king, Agrippa
lived at Rome, and was generally brought up and conversed
with Drusus, the emperor Tiberius's son; and contracted a
friendship with Antonia, the wife of Drusus the Great, who had
his mother Bernice in great esteem, and was very desirous of
advancing her son. Now, as Agrippa was by nature magnani-
mous and generous in the presents he made, while his mother
was alive, this inclination of his mind did not appear, that he
might be able to avoid her anger for such his extravagance; but
when Bernice was dead, and he was left to his own conduct, he
spent a great deal extravagantly in his daily way of living, and a
great deal in the immoderate presents he made, and those chiefly
among Cæsar's freedmen, in order to gain their assistance, inso-
much that he was in a little time reduced to poverty, and could
not live at Rome any longer. Tiberius also forbade the friends
of his deceased son to come into his sight, because on seeing
them he should be put in mind of his son, and his grief would
thereby be revived.
2. For these reasons he went away from Rome, and sailed
to Judea, but in evil circumstances, being dejected with the loss
of that money which he once had, and because he had not
wherewithal to pay his creditors, who were many in number,
* Spanheim also informs us of a coin still extant of this Jotape, daughter of
the king of Commagena.
72
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
and such as gave him no room for escaping them. Whereupon
he knew not what to do; so, for shame of his present condi-
tion, he retired to a certain tower, at Malatha, in Idumea, and
had thoughts of killing himself; but his wife Cypros perceived
his intentions, and tried all sorts of methods to divert him from
taking such a course: so she sent a letter to his sister Herodias,
who was now the wife of Herod the tetrarch, and let her know
Agrippa's present design, and what necessity it was which drove
him thereto, and desired her as a kinswoman of his, to give him
her help, and to engage her husband to do the same, since she
saw how she alleviated these her husband's troubles all she
could, although she had not the like wealth to do it withal. So
they sent for him, and allotted him Tiberias for his habitation,
and appointed him some income of money for his maintenance,
and made him a magistrate of that city, by way of honour to
him. Yet did not Herod long continue in that resolution of
supporting him, though even that support was not sufficient for
him; for as once they were at a feast at Tyre, and in their cups,
and reproaches were cast upon one another, Agrippa thought
that was not to be borne, while Herod hit him in the teeth with
his poverty, and with his owing his necessary food to him. So
he went to Flaccus, one that had been consul, and had been a
very great friend to him at Rome formerly, and was now presi-
dent of Syria.
3. Hereupon Flaccus received him kindly, and he lived with
him. Flaccus had also with him there Aristobulus, who was
indeed Agrippa's brother, but was at variance with him; yet
did not their enmity to one another hinder the friendship of
Flaccus to them both, but still they were honourably treated by
him. However, Aristobulus did not abate of his ill will to
Agrippa, till at length he brought him into ill terms with Flac-
cus: the occasion of bringing on which estrangement was this:
the Damascens were at difference with the Sidonians about their
limits, and when Flaccus was about to hear the cause between
them, they understood that Agrippa had a mighty influence
upon him; so they desired that he would be of their side,
and for that favour promised him a great deal of money;
so he was zealous in assisting the Damascens as far as he was
able. Now Aristobulus had gotten intelligence of this promise
of money to him, and accused him to Flaccus of the same; and
when, upon a thorough examination of the matter, it appeared
plainly so to be, he rejected Agrippa out of the number of his
friends. So he was reduced to the utmost necessity, and came
to Ptolemais; and because he knew not where else to get a
livelihood, he thought to sail to Italy; but as he was restrained
from so doing by want of money, he desired Marsyas, who was
his freedman, to find some method for procuring him so much
C. VI.
73
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
as he wanted for that purpose, by borrowing such a sum of
some person or other. So Marsyas desired of Peter, who was
the freedman of Bernice, Agrippa's mother, and by the right of
her testament was bequeathed to Antonia, to lend him so much
upon Agrippa's own bond and security; but he accused Agrip-
pa of having defrauded him of certain sums of money, and so
obliged Marsyas, when he made the bond of 20,000 Attic
drachmæ, to accept of 2,500 drachmæ less than what he de-
sired, which the other allowed of, because he could not help it.
Upon the receipt of this money, Agrippa came to Anthedon,
and took shipping, and was going to set sail; but Herennius
Capito, who was the procurator of Jamnia, sent a band of sol-
diers to demand of him 300,000 drachmæ of silver, which were
by him owing to Cæsar's treasury while he was at Rome, and so
forced him to stay. He then pretended that he would do as he
bid him: but when night came on, he cut his cables, and went
off, and sailed to Alexandria, where he desired Alexander the
alabarch† to lend him 200,000 drachmæ: but he said he would
not lend it to him, but would not refuse it Cypros, as greatly
astonished at her affection to her husband, and at the other in-
stances of her virtue; so she undertook to repay it. Accord-
ingly, Alexander paid them five talents at Alexandria, and pro-
mised to pay him the rest of that sum at Dicearchi [Puteoli];
and this he did out of the fear he was in that Agrippa would
soon spend it. So this Cypros set her husband free, and dis-
missed him to go on with his navigation to Italy, while she and
her children departed for Judea.
4. And now Agrippa was come to Puteoli, whence he wrote
a letter to Tiberius Cæsar, who then lived at Capreæ, and told
him that he was come so far in order to wait on him and to pay
him a visit; and desired that he would give him leave to come
over to Capreæ; so Tiberius made no difficulty, but wrote to
him in an obliging way in other respects, and withal told him
he was glad of his safe return, and desired him to come to Ca-
preæ; and when he was come, he did not fail to treat him as
kindly as he had promised him in his letter to do. But the
next day came a letter to Cæsar from Herennius Capito, to in-
form him that Agrippa had borrowed 300,000 drachmæ and not
paid it at the time appointed; but, when it was demanded of
him, he ran away like a fugitive, out of the places under his
government, and put it out of his power to get the money of
him. When Cæsar had read the letter, he was much troubled
at it, and gave order that Agrippa should be excluded from his
* Spanheim observes, that we have here an instance of the Attic quantity of
use money, which was the eighth part of the original sum, or 124 per cent. for such
is the proportion of 2,500 to 20,000.
+ The governor of the Jews there.
1
74
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
•
presence, until he had paid that debt: upon which he was no
way daunted at Cæsar's anger, but entreated Antonia, the mother
of Germanicus, and of Claudius, who was afterward Cæsar
himself, to lend him those 300,000 drachmæ, that he might not
be deprived of Tiberius's friendship; so, out of regard to the
memory of Bernice, his mother (for those two women were very
familiar with one another), and out of regard to his and Clau-
dius's education together, she lent him the money; and upon
the payment of this debt, there was nothing to hinder Tiberius's
friendship to him. After this Tiberius Cæsar recommended
to him his grandson*, and ordered that he should always
accompany him when he went abroad. But upon Agrippa's
kind reception by Antonia, he betook himself to pay his respects
to Caius, who was her grandson, and in very high reputation
by reason of the good will they bare his fathert. Now there
was one Thallus, a freedman of Cæsar, of whom he borrowed
a million of drachmæ, and thence repaid Antonia the debt he
owed her, and by spending the overplus in paying his court to
Caius, became a person of great authority with him.
5. Now, as the friendship which Agrippa had for Caius was
come to a great height, there happened some words to pass be-
tween them, as they once were in a chariot together, concerning
Tiberius; Agrippa praying [to God] (for they two sat by them-
selves), that "Tiberius might soon go off the stage, and leave
the government to Caius, who was in every respect more wor-
thy of it." Now Eutychus, who was Agrippa's freedman,
and drove his chariot, heard these words, and at that time said
nothing of them; but when Agrippa accused him of stealing
some garments of his (which was certainly true), he ran away
from him: but when he was caught, and brought before Piso,
who was governor of the city, and the man was asked, why he
ran away? he replied that he had somewhat to say to Cæsar, that
tended to his security, and preservation: So Piso bound him,
and sent him to Capreæ. But Tiberius, according to his usual
custom, kept him still in bonds, being a delayer of affairs, if
there ever was any other king or tyrant that was so; for he did
not admit ambassadors quickly, and no successors were dis-
patched away to governors or procurators of the provinces, that
had been formerly sent, unless they were dead: whence it was,
that he was so negligent in hearing the causes of prisoners; in-
somuch, that when he was asked by his friends, what was the
reason of his delay, in such cases? he said, that "he delayed
to hear ambassadors, lest upon their quick dismission, other
ambassadors should be appointed, and return upon him; and
so he should bring trouble upon himself in their public recep-
tion and dismission: that he permitted those governors, who
* Tiberius junior.
+ Germanicus.
C. VI.
75
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
י
had been sent once to their governments [to stay there a great
while], out of regard to the subjects that were under them; for
that all governors are naturally disposed to get as much as they
can, and that those who are not to fix there, but to stay a short
time, and that at an uncertainty when they shall be turned out,
do the more severely hurry themselves on to fleece the people:
but that, if their government be long continued to them, they are
at last satiated with the spoils, as having gotten a vast deal, and
so become at length less sharp in their pillaging; but that, if
successors are sent quickly, the poor subjects, who are exposed
to them as a prey, will not be able to bear the new ones,
while they shall not have the same time allowed them, wherein
their predecessors had filled themselves, and so grow more
unconcerned about getting more; and this because they are
removed before they have had time [for their oppressions].
He gave them an example to show his meaning: A great num-
ber of flies came about the sore places of a man that had been
wounded; upon which one of the standers-by pitied the man's
misfortunes, and thinking he was not able to drive those flies
away himself, was going to drive them away for him; but he
prayed him to let them alone: the other, by way of reply, asked
him the reason of such a preposterous proceeding, in preventing
relief from his present misery: to which he answered, If thou
drivest these flies away, thou wilt hurt me worse, for, as these
are already full of my blood, they do not crowd about me, nor
pain me so much as before, but are sometimes more remiss,
while the fresh ones that come almost famished, and find me
quite tired down already, will be my destruction. For this cause,
therefore, it is, that I am myself careful not to send such new
governors perpetually to those my subjects, who are already suf-
ficiently harassed by many oppressions, as may, like these flies,
farther distress them; and so, besides their natural desire of gain,
may have this additional incitement to it, that they expect to be
suddenly deprived of that pleasure which they take in it." And,
as a farther attestation to what I say of the dilatory nature of
Tiberius, I appeal to this his practice itself; for although he
were emperor twenty-two years, he sent in all but two procura-
tors to govern the nation of the Jews, Gratus, and his successor
in the government, Pilate. Nor was he in one way of acting
with respect to the Jews, and in another with respect to the rest
of his subjects. He farther informed them, that even in the
hearing of the causes of prisoners, he made such delays, "be-
cause immediate death to those that must be condemned to die
would be an alleviation of their present miseries, while those
wicked wretches have not deserved any such favour; but I do
it that, by being harassed with the present calamity, they may
undergo greater misery."
76
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
6. On this account it was that Eutychus could not obtain a
hearing, but was kept still in prison. However, some time af-
terward, Tiberius came from Capreæ to Tusculanum, which is
about a hundred furlongs from Rome. Agrippa then desired
of Antonia, that she would procure a hearing for Eutychus, let
the matter whereof he accused him prove what it would. Now
Antonia was greatly esteemed by Tiberius on all accounts, from
the dignity of her relation to him, who had been his brother
Drusus's wife, and from her eminent chastity*; for though she
were still a young woman, she continued in her widowhood, and
refused all other matches, although Augustus had enjoined her
to be married to somebody else; yet did she all along preserve
her reputation free from reproach. She had also been the great-
est benefactress to Tiberius, when there was a very dangerous
plot laid against him by Sejanus, a man who had been her hus-
band's friend, and who had the greatest authority, because he
was general of the army, and when many members of the senate
and many of the freedmen joined with him, and the soldiery was
corrupted, and the plot was come to a great height. Now Se-
janus bad certainly gained his point, had not Antonia's boldness
been more wisely conducted than Sejanus's malice; for when
she had discovered his designs against Tiberius, she wrote him
an exact account of the whole, and gave the letter to Pallus, the
most faithful of her servants, and sent him to Capreæ to Tibe-
rius, who, when he understood it, slew Sejanus and his confede-
rates; so that Tiberius, who had her in great esteem before,
now looked upon her with still greater respect, and depended
upon her in all things. So, when Tiberius was desired by this
Antonia to examine Eutychus, he answered, "If indeed Euty-
chus had falsely accused Agrippa in what he hath said of him,
he hath had sufficient punishment by what I have done to him
already; but if, upon examination, the accusation appears to be
* This high commendation of Antonia for marrying but once, given here, and
supposed elsewhere, Antiq. B. xvii. ch. xiii. sect. 4, and this notwithstanding
the strongest temptations, shows how bonourable single marriages were both
among the Jews and Romans, in the days of Josephus and of the apostles, and
takes away much of that surprise which the modern Protestants have at those
laws of the apostles, where no widows, but those who have been the wives of
one husband only, are taken into the church list; and no bishops, priests, or dea-
cons, are allowed to marry more than once, without leaving off to officiate as
clergymen any longer. See Luke, ii. 36; 1 Tim. v. 11,12; iii. 2, 12; Tit. i. 6;
Constitut. Apost. B. ii. sect. 1, 2; B. vi. sect. 17; Can. B. xvii.; Grot. in Loc.
ii. 36; and Respons. ad Cousult. Cassand. p. 44, and Cotelet. in Constitut. B.
vi. sect. 17. And note, that Tertullian owns this law, against second marriages
of the clergy, had been once at least executed in his time; and heavily complains
elsewhere, that the breach thereof had not been always punished by the Catho⚫
lics, as it ought to have been. Jerom, speaking of the ill reputation of marry-
ing twice, says, that no such person could be chosen into the clergy in his days;
which Augustine testifies also: and for Epiphanius, rather earlier, he is clear and
full to the same purpose, and says, that law obtained over the whole Catholic
church in his days; as the places in the forecited authors inform us.
C. VI.
77
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
true, let Agrippa have a care, lest, out of desire of punishing
his freedman, he do not rather bring a punishment upon himself."
Now when Antonia told Agrippa of this, he was still much more
pressing that the matter might be examined into; so Antonia,
upon Agrippa's lying hard at her continually to beg this favour,
took the following opportunity; as Tiberius once lay at his ease,
upon his sedan, and was carried about, and Caius her grandson,
and Agrippa were before him after dinner, she walked by the
sedan, and desired him to call-Eutychus, and have him examined:
to which he replied: "O Antonia, the gods are my witnesses,
that I am induced to do what I am going to do, not by my own
inclination, but because I am forced to it by thy prayers." When
he had said this, he ordered Macro, who succeeded Sejanus, to
bring Eutychus to him; accordingly, without any delay, he was
brought. Then Tiberius asked him, what he had to say against
a man who had given him his liberty? Upon which he said,
"O my lord, this Caius, and Agrippa with him, were once
riding in a chariot, when I sat at their feet, and among many
other discourses that passed, Agrippa said to Caius, O that the
day would once come, when this old fellow will die, and name
thee for the governor of the habitable earth! For then this Ti-
berius, his grandson, would be no hinderance, but would be
taken off by thee, and that earth would be happy, and I happy
also." Now Tiberius took these to be truly Agrippa's words,
and bearing a grudge withal at Agrippa, because when he had
commanded him to pay his respects to Tiberius, his grandson,
and the son of Drusus, Agrippa had not paid him that respect,
but disobeyed his commands, and transferred all his regard to
Caius; he said to Macro, "Bind this man.” But Macro not
distinctly knowing which of them it was whom he bid him bind,
and not expecting that he would have any such thing done to
Agrippa, he forbore, and came to ask more distinctly what it
was that he said? But when Cæsar had gone round the hippo-
drome, he found Agrippa standing: "For certain," said he,
"Macro, this is the man I meant to have bound:" and
when he still asked, "Which of these is to be bound?" he said
"Agrippa." Upon which Agrippa betook himself to make sup-
plication for himself, putting him in mind of his son, with whom
he was brought up, and of Tiberius [his grandson], whom he
had educated; but all to no purpose: for they led him about
bound even in his purple garments. It was also very hot wea-
ther, and they had but little wine to their meal, so that he was
very thirsty; he was also in a sort of agony, and took this treat-
ment of him heinously; as he therefore saw one of Caius's
slaves, whose name was Thaumastus, carrying some water in a
vessel, he desired that he would let him drink; so the servant
gave him some water to drink, and he drank heartily, and said,
78
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
۶
"O thou boy, this service of thine to me will be for thy advan-
tage; for, if I once get clear of these my bonds, I will soon pro-
cure thee thy freedom of Caius, who hast not been wanting to
minister to me now I am in bonds, in the same manner as when
I was in my former state and dignity." Nor did he deceive him
in what he promised him, but made him amends for what he had
now done; for, when afterward Agrippa was come to the king-
dom, he took particular care of Thaumastus, and got him his
liberty from Caius, and made him the steward over his own es-
tate: and when he died, he left him to Agrippa his son, and to
Bernice his daughter, to minister to them in the same capacity.
The man also grew old in that honourable post, and therein
died. But all this happened a good while later.
7. Now Agrippa stood in his bonds before the royal palace,
and leaned on a certain tree for grief, with many others who were
in bonds also; and as a certain bird sat upon the tree on which
Agrippa leaned (the Romans call this bird bubo), [an owl); one
of those that were bound, a German by nation, saw him, and
asked a soldier who that man in purple was; and when he was
informed that his name was Agrippa, and that he was by nation
a Jew, and one of the principal men of that nation, he asked leave
of the soldier to whom he was bound*, to let him come nearer
to him, to speak with him; for that he had a mind to inquire of
him about some things relating to his country; which liberty
when he had obtained, and as he stood near him, he said thus
to him by an interpreter, that " this sudden change of thy con-
dition, O young man, is grievous to thee, as bringing on thee a
manifold and very great adversity; nor wilt thou believe me,
when I foretell how thou wilt get clear of this misery, which
thou art now under, and how Divine Providence will provide
for thee. Know, therefore (and I appeal to my own country
gods, as well as to the gods of this place, who have awarded these
bonds to us), that all I am going to say about thy concerns shall
neither be said for favour nor bribery, nor out of an endeavour
to make thee cheerful without cause; for such predictions, when
they come to fail, make the grief at last, and in earnest, more bit-
ter than if the party had never heard of any such thing. How-
ever, though I run the hazard of my own self, I think it fit to
declare to thee the prediction of the gods. It cannot be that
thou shouldest long continue in these bonds; but thou wilt soon
be delivered from them, and wilt be promoted to the highest dig-
nity and power, and thou wilt be envied by all those who now
pity thy hard fortune and thou wilt be happy till thy death, and
wilt leave that thine happiness to the children whom thou shalt
:
* Dr. Hudson here takes notice, out of Seneca, Epistle v. that this was the
custom of Tiberius, to couple the prisoner and the soldier that guarded him to-
gether in the same chain.
C. VI.
79
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
have. But do thou remember, when thou seest this bird again,
that thou wilt then live but five days longer. This event will
be brought to pass by that God who hath sent this bird hither
to be a sign unto thee. And I cannot but think it unjust to
conceal from thee what I foreknow concerning thee, that, by thy
knowledge beforehand what happiness is coming upon thee, thou
mayest not regard thy present misfortunes. But, when this hap-
piness shall actually befall thee, do not forget what misery I am
in myself, but endeavour to deliver me." So, when the German
had said this, he made Agrippa laugh at him as much as he
afterwards appeared worthy of admiration. But now Antonia
took Agrippa's misfortune to heart; however, to speak to Tibe-
rius on his behalf, she took to be a very difficult thing, and indeed
quite impracticable, as to any hope of success; yet did she pro-
cure of Macro, that the soldiers that kept him should be of a
gentle nature, and that the centurion who was over them, and
was to diet with him, should be of the same disposition; and that
he might have leave to bathe himself every day, and that his
freedmen and friends might come to him, and that other things
that tended to ease him might be indulged him. So his friend
Silas came into him, and two of his freedmen, Marsyas and
Stechus, brought him such sorts of food as he was fond of, and
indeed took great care of him; they also brought him garments,
under pretence of selling them, and, when night came on, they
laid them under him; and the soldiers assisted them, as Macro
had given them order to do beforehand. And this was Agrippa's
condition for six months' time, and in this case were his affairs.
8. But for Tiberius, upon his return to Capreæ, he fell sick.
At first his distemper was but gentle; but, as that distemper in-
creased upon him, he had small or no hopes of recovery. Here-
upon he bid Euodus, who was that freedman whom he most of
all respected, to bring the children * to him; for that he wanted
to talk to them before he died. Now he had at present no sons
of his own alive; for Drusus, who was his only son, was dead;
but Drusus's son Tiberius was still living, whose additional name
was Gemellus: there was also living Caius, the son of Germa-
nicus, who was the son of his brother [Drusus]. He was now
grownup, and had had a liberal education, and was well improved
by it, and was in esteem and favour with the people on account
of the excellent character of his father Germanicus, who had
attained the highest honour among the multitude, by the firmness
of his virtuous behaviour, by the easiness and agreeableness of
his conversing with the multitude, and because the dignity he
was in did not hinder his familiarity with them all, as if they were
* Tiberius his own grandson, and Caius his brother Drusus's grandson.
+ So I correct Josephus's copy, which calls Germanicus his brother, who was
his brother's son.
80
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
his equals; by which behaviour he was not only greatly esteemed
by the people and the senate, but by every one of those nations
that were subject to the Romans; some of which were affected,
when they came to him, with the gracefulness of their reception
by him, and others were affected in the same manner by the
report of the others that had been with him; and upon his death
there was a lamentation made by all men; not such a one as was
to be made in way of flattery to their rulers, while they did but
counterfeit sorrow, but such as was real; while every body
grieved at his death as if they had lost one that was near to them.
And truly such had been his easy conversation with men, that it
turned greatly to the advantage of his son among all; and among
others, the soldiery were so peculiarly affected to him, that they
reckoned it an eligible thing, if need were, to die themselves, if
he might but attain to the government.
9. But when Tiberius had given order to Euodus to bring the
children to him the next day in the morning, he prayed to his
country gods to show him a manifest signal, which of those chil-
dren should come to the government; being very desirous to
leave it to his son's son, but still depending upon what God
should foreshow concerning them, more than upon his own opi-
nion and inclination: so he made this to be the omen, that the
government should be left to him who should come to him first
the next day. When he had thus resolved within himself, he
sent to his grandson's tutor, and ordered him to bring the child
to him early in the morning, as supposing that God would per-
mit him to be made emperor. But God proved opposite to his
designation; for while Tiberius was thus contriving matters, and
as soon as it was at all day, he bid Euodus to call in that child
which should be there ready. So he went out, and found Caius
before the door, for Tiberius was not yet come, but staid waiting
for his breakfast; for Euodus knew nothing of what his lord in-
tended; so he said to Caius, "Thy father calls thee,” and then
brought him in. As soon as Tiberius saw Caius, and not be-
fore, he reflected on the power of God, and how the ability of
bestowing the government on whom he would was entirely taken
from him; and thence he was not able to establish what he had
intended. So he greatly lamented that this power of establish-
ing what he had before contrived was taken from him, and that
his grandson Tiberius was not only to lose the Roman empire
by this fatality, but his own safety also, because his preservation
would now depend upon such as would be more potent than
himself, who would think it a thing not to be borne, that a kins-
man should live with him, and so his relation would not be able
to protect him but he would be feared and hated by him that
had the supreme authority, partly on account of his being next
to the empire, and partly on account of his perpetually con-
C. VI.
81
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
triving to get the government, both in order to preserve himself,
and to be at the head of affairs also. Now Tiberius had been
very much given to astrology *, and the calculation of nativities,
and had spent his life in the esteem of what predictions had
proved true, more than those whose profession it was. Accord-
ingly, when he once saw Galba coming in to him, he said to his
most intimate friends, that "there came in a man that would
one day have the dignity of the Roman empire. So that this
Tiberius was more addicted to all such sorts of diviners than any
other of the Roman emperors, because he had found them to
have told him truth in his own affairs. And indeed he was now
in great distress upon this accident that had befallen him, and
was very much grieved at the destruction of his son's son, which
he foresaw and complained of himself, that he should have made
use of such a method of divination beforehand, while it was in
his power to have died without grief by his knowledge of futu-
rity; whereas he was now tormented by this foreknowledge of
the misfortune of such as were dearest to him, and must die under
that torment. Now, although he were disordered at this unex-
pected revolution of the government to those for whom he did not
intend it, he spake thus to Caius, though unwillingly and against
his own inclination: "O child! although Tiberius be nearer re-
lated to me than thou art, I, by my own determination, and the
conspiring suffrage of the gods, do give, and put into thy hand,
the Roman empire; and I desire thee never to be unmindful
when thou comest to it, either of my kindness to thee, who set
thee in so high a dignity, or of thy relation to Tiberius. But as
thou knowest that I am, together with, and after the gods, the
procurer of so great happiness to thee, so I desire that thou wilt
make me a return for my readiness to assist thee, and wilt take care
of Tiberius because of his near relation to thee. Besides which
thou art to know, that, while Tiberius is alive, he will be a secu-
rity to thee, both as to empire and as to thy own preservation
but, if he die, that will be but a prelude to thy own misfortunes;
for, to be alone, under the weight of such vast affairs, is very
dangerous; nor will the gods suffer those actions which are un-
justly done, contrary to that law which directs men to act other-
wise, to go off unpunished." This was the speech which Tibe-
rius made, which did not persuade Caius to act accordingly,
although he promised so to do; but when he was settled in the
government, he took off this Tiberius, as was predicted by the
other Tiberius; as he was also himself in no long time after-
ward slain by a secret plot laid against him.
·
;
10. So when Tiberius had at this time appointed Caius to be
his successor, he outlived but a few days, and then died, after he
* This is a known thing among the Roman historians and poets, that Tiberius
was greatly given to astrology and divination.
VOL. III.
G
82
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
had held the government twenty-two years five months and three
days: now Caius was the fourth emperor. But when the Ro-
mans understood that Tiberius was dead, they rejoiced at the
good news, but had not courage to believe it; not because they
were unwilling it should be true; for they would have given
large sums of money that it might be so, but because they were
afraid that if they had showed their joy when the news proved
false, their joy should be openly known, and they should be ac-
cused for it, and be thereby undone. For this Tiberius had
brought a vast number of miseries on the best families of the
Romans, since he was easily inflamed with passion in all cases,
and was of such a temper as rendered his anger irrevocable till
he had executed the same, although he had taken a hatred against
men without reason; for he was by nature fierce in all the sen-
tences he gave, and made death the penalty for the slightest
offences; insomuch that when the Romans heard the rumour
about his death gladly, they were restrained from the enjoyment
of that pleasure by the dread of such miseries as they foresaw
would follow, if their hopes proved ill grounded. Now Mar-
syas, Agrippa's freedman, as soon as he heard of Tiberius's
death, came running to tell Agrippa the news; and finding him
going out to the bath, he gave him a nod, and said in the Hebrew
tongue, "The lion* is dead;" who understanding his meaning,
and being overjoyed at the news," Nay," said he," but all sorts
of thanks and happiness attend thee for this news of thine; only
wish that what thou sayest may prove true." Now the centu-
rion, who was set to keep Agrippa, when he saw with what
haste Marsyas came, and what joy Agrippa had from what he
said, he had a suspicion that his words implied some great inno-
vation of affairs, and he asked them about what was said. They
at first diverted the discourse; but upon his farther pressing,
Agrippa, without more ado, told him, for he was already become
his friend; so he joined with him in that pleasure which this
news occasioned, because it would be fortunate to Agrippa, and
made him a supper. But as they were feasting, and the cups
went about, there came one who said, that "Tiberius was still
alive, and would return to the city in a few days." At which
news the centurion was exceedingly troubled, because he had
done what might cost him his life, to have treated so joyfully a
prisoner, and this upon the news of the death of Cæsar; so he
thrust Agrippa from the couch whereon he lay, and said, “Dost
thou think to cheat me by a lie about the emperor without
* This name of a lion is often given to tyrants, especially by the Jews, such as
Agrippa, and probably his freedman Marsyas, in effect, were. Ezek. xix. 1—
9; Esth. xiv. 13; 2 Tim. iv. 17. They are also sometimes compared to, or
represented by, wild beasts, of which the lion is the principal. Dan. vii. 3-8;
Apoc. xiii. 1, 2.
1
1
C. VI.
83
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
punishment? And shalt not thou pay for this thy malicious report
at the price of thine head?" When he had so said, he ordered
Agrippa to be bound again (for he had loosed him before), and
kept a severer guard over him than formerly, and in that evil
condition was Agrippa that night; but the next day the rumour
increased in the city, and confirmed the news that Tiberius was
certainly dead; insomuch that men durst now openly and freely
talk about it; nay, some offered sacrifices on that account.
Several letters also came from Caius, one of them to the senate,
which informed them of the death of Tiberius, and of his own
entrance on the government; another to Piso, the governor of
the city, which told him the same thing. He also gave order
that Agrippa should be removed out of the camp, and go to that
house where he lived before he was put in prison; so that he
was now out of fear as to his own affairs; for although he were
still in custody, yet was it now with ease to his own affairs. Now
as soon as Caius was come to Rome, and had brought Tibe-
rius's dead body with him, and had made a sumptuous funeral
for him, according to the laws of his country, he was much dis-
posed to set Agrippa at liberty that very day, but Antonia hin-
dered him; not out of any ill will to the prisoner, but out of
regard to decency in Caius, lest that should make men believe
that he received the death of Tiberius with pleasure, when he
loosed one whom he bound immediately. However, there did
not many days pass ere he sent for him to his house, and had
him shaved, and made him change his raiment, after which he
put a diadem upon his head, and appointed him to be king of
the tetrarchy of Philip. He also gave him the tetrarchy of
Lysanias*, and changed his iron chain for a golden one of equal
weight. He also sent Marullus to be procurator of Judea.
11. Now in the second year of the reign of Caius Cæsar,
Agrippa desired leave to be given him to sail home, and settle
the affairs of his government, and he promised to return again,
when he had put the rest in order, as it ought to be put. So,
upon the emperor's permission, he came into his own country,
and appeared to them all unexpectedly as a king, and thereby
demonstrated to the men that saw him the power of fortune,
when they compared his former poverty with his present happy
affluence; so some called him a happy man, and others could not
well believe that things were so much changed with him for the
better.
* Although Caius now promised to give Agrippa the tetrarchy of Lysanias,
yet was it not all actually conferred upon him till the reign of Claudius, as we
learn, Antiq. B. xix. chap. v. sect. 1.
G. 2
84
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
CHAP. VII.
How Herod the Tetrarch was banished.
§ 1. BUT Herodias, Agrippa's sister, who now lived as wife to
that Herod who was tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, took this
authority of her brother in an envious manner, particularly when
she saw that he had a greater dignity bestowed on him than her
husband had; since when he ran away, it was because he was in
a way of dignity, and of great good fortune. She was therefore
grieved, and much displeased at so great a mutation of his af-
fairs, and chiefly when she saw him marching among the multi-
tude with the usual ensigns of royal authority, she was not able
to conceal how miserable she was, by reason of the envy she had
towards him; but she excited her husband, and desired him that
he would sail to Rome to court honours equal to his: for she
said, that “she could not bear to live any longer, while Agrippa,
the son of that Aristobulus who was condemned to die by his
father, one that came to her husband in such extreme poverty,
that the necessaries of life were forced to be entirely supplied
him day by day; and when he fled away from his creditors by
sea, he now returned a king; while he was himself the son of a
king, and while the near relation he bare to royal authority
called upon him to gain the like dignity, he sat still, and was
contented with a privater life. But then, Herod, although thou
wast formerly not concerned to be in a lower condition than thy
father, from whom thou wast derived, had been; yet do thou
now seek after the dignity which thy kinsman hath attained to;
and do not thou bear this contempt, that a man who admired
thy riches should be in greater honour than thyself, nor suffer
his poverty to show itself able to purchase greater things than
our abundance, nor do thou esteem it other than a shameful
thing to be inferior to one who, the other day, lived upon thy
charity. But let us go to Rome, and let us spare no pains nor
expenses, either of silver or gold, since they cannot be kept for
any better use than for the obtaining of a kingdom.”
2. But for Herod, he opposed her request at this time out of
the love of ease, and having a suspicion of the trouble he should
have at Rome; so he tried to instruct her better. But the more
she saw him draw back, the more she pressed him to it, and
desired him to leave no stone unturned in order to be king: and
at last she left not off till she engaged him, whether he would
or not, to be of her sentiments, because he could no otherwise
avoid her importunity. So he got all things ready, after as
sumptuous a manner as he was able, and spared for nothing, and
went up to Rome, and took Herodias along with him. But
Agrippa, when he was made sensible of their intentions and
pre-
C. VII.
85
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
*
?
parations, he also prepared to go thither; and as soon as he
heard they set sail, he sent Fortunatus, one of his freedmen, to
Rome, to carry presents to the emperor, and letters against
Herod, and to give Caius a particular account of those matters,
if he should have an opportunity. This man followed Herod
so quick, and had so prosperous a voyage, and came so little
after Herod, that while Herod was with Caius he came himself,
and delivered his letters; for they both sailed to Dicearchia, and
found Caius at Baiæ, which is itself a little city of Campania,
at the distance of about five furlongs from Dicearchia, There
are in that place royal palaces, with sumptuous apartments,
every emperor still endeavouring to outdo his predecessor's mag-
nificence; the place also affords warm baths, that spring out of
the ground of their own accord, which are of advantage for the
recovery of the health of those that make use of them, and
besides they minister to men's luxury also. Now Caius saluted
Herod, for he first met with him, and then looked upon the
letters which Agrippa had sent him, and which were written in
order to accuse Herod; wherein he accused him, that he had
been in confederacy with Sejanus, against Tiberius's goverment,
and that he was now confederate with Artabanus the king of
Parthia, in opposition to the government of Caius; as a demon-
stration of which he alleged, that he had armour sufficient for
seventy thousand men ready in his armoury. Caius was moved
at this information, and asked Herod whether what was said
about the armour was true: and when he confessed there was
such armour there, for he could not deny the same, the truth of
it being notorious, Caius took that to be a sufficient proof of the
accusation, that he intended to revolt. So he took away from
him his tetrarchy, and gave it by way of addition to Agrippa's
kingdom; he also gave Herod's money to Agrippa; and, by
way of punishment, awarded him a perpetual banishment, and
appointed Lyons, a city of Gaul, to be his place of habitation.
But when he was informed that Herodias was Agrippa's sister,
he made her a present of what money was her own, and told
her, that "it was her brother who prevented her being put
under the same calamity with her husband." But she made this
reply: "Thou, indeed, O emperor, actest after a magnificent
manner, and as becomes thyself in what thou offerest me; but
the kindness which I have for my husband hinders me from par-
taking of the favour of thy gift; for it is not just, that I, who
have been made a partner in his prosperity, should forsake him
in his misfortunes." Hereupon Caius was angry at her, and
sent her with Herod into banishment, and gave her estate to
Agrippa. And thus did God punish Herodias for her envy at
her brother, and Herod also for giving ear to the vain discourses
of a woman. Now Caius managed public affairs with great
86
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
magnanimity, during the first and second year of his reign, and
behaved himself with such moderation that he gained the good
will both of the Romans themselves, and of his other subjects.
But in process of time he went beyond the bounds of human
nature, in his conceit of himself, and, by reason of the vastness
of his dominions, made himself a god, and took upon himself to
act in all things to the reproach of the Deity itself.
CHAP. VIII.
Concerning the Embassage* of the Jews to Caius; and how
Caius sent Petronius into Syria to make War against the
Jews, unless they would receive his Statue.
§ 1. THERE was now a tumult arisen at Alexandria, between
the Jewish inhabitants and the Greeks; and three ambassadors†
were chosen out of each party that were at variance, who came
to Caius. Now one of these ambassadors from the people of
Alexandria was Apion, who uttered many blasphemies against
the Jews; and among other things that he said, he charged them
with neglecting the honours that belonged to Cæsar; for that
while all who were subject to the Roman empire built altars
and temples to Caius, and in other regards universally received
him as they received the gods; these Jews alone thought it a
dishonourable thing for them to erect statues in honour of him,
as well as to swear by his name. Many of these severe things
were said by Apion, by which he hoped to provoke Caius to
anger at the Jews, as he was likely to be; but Philo, the prin-
cipal of the Jewish ambassage, a man eminent on all accounts,
brother to Alexander the alabarch, and one not unskilful in
philosophy, was ready to betake himself to make his defence
* This is a most remarkable chapter, as containing such instances of the in-
terposition of Providence, as have been always very rare among the other
idolatrous nations, but of old very many among the posterity of Abraham, the
worshippers of the true God; nor do these seem much inferior to those in the
Old Testament, which are the more remarkable, because, among all their other
follies and vices, the Jews were not at this time idolaters; and the deliverances
here mentioned were done in order to prevent their relapse into that idolatry.
+ Josephus here assures us, that the ambassadors from Alexandria to Caius
were on each part no more than three in number, for the Jews and for the Gen-
tiles, which are but six in all; whereas Philo, who was the principal ambassador
from the Jews, as Josephus here confesses (as was Apion, for the Gentiles), says,
the Jews' ambassadors were themselves no fewer than five, towards the end of
his legation to Caius; which, if there be no mistake in the copies, must be sup-
posed the truth; nor, in that case, would Josephus have contradicted so authentic
a witness, had he seen that account of Philo's, which that he ever did does not
appear.
‡ This Alexander, the alabarch, or governor of the Jews at Alexandria, and
brother to Philo, is supposed by Bishop Pearson, in Act. Apost. p. 41, 42, to be
the same with that Alexander who is mentioned by St. Luke, as of the kindred
of the high priests, Acts, iv. 6.
C. VIII.
87
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
against those accusations; but Caius prohibited him, and bade
him begone: he was also in such a rage that it openly appeared
he was about to do them some very great mischief. So Philo
being thus affronted went out, and said to those Jews who were
about him, that "they should be of good courage, since Caius's
words indeed showed anger at them, but in reality had already
set God against himself."
2. Hereupon Caius, taking it very heinously that he should
be thus despised by the Jews alone, sent Petronius to be pre-
sident of Syria, and successor in the government to Vitellius,
and gave him order to make an invasion into Judea, with a great
body of troops, and if they would admit of his statue willingly,
to erect it in the temple of God; but if they were obstinate, to
conquer them by war, and then to do it. Accordingly Petronius
took the government of Syria, and made haste to obey Cæsar's
epistle. He got together as great a number of auxiliaries as he
possibly could, and took with him two legions of the Roman
army, and came to Ptolemais, and there wintered, as intending
to set about the war in the spring. He also wrote word to
Caius what he had resolved to do, who commended him for his
alacrity, and ordered him to go on, and to make war with them,
in case they would not obey his commands. But there came
many ten thousands of the Jews to Petronius to Ptolemais, to
offer their petitions to him, that " he would not compel them to
transgress and violate the law of their forefathers; but if, said
they, thou art entirely resolved to bring this statue, and erect it,
do thou first kill us, and then do what thou hast resolved on; for
while we are alive, we cannot permit such things as are forbid-
den us to be done by the authority of our legislator, and by our
forefathers' determination, that such prohibitions are instances
of virtue." But Petronius was angry at them, and said, "If
indeed I were myself emperor, and were at liberty to follow my
own inclination, and then had designed to act thus, these your
words would be justly spoken to me; but now Cæsar hath sent
to me, I am under the utmost necessity of being subservient to
his decrees, because a disobedience to them will bring upon me
inevitable destruction." Then the Jews replied, "Since there-
fore thou art so disposed, O Petronius, that thou wilt not dis-
obey Caius's epistles, neither will we transgress the commands
of our law; and as we depend upon the excellency of our laws,
and, by the labours of our ancestors, have continued hitherto
without suffering them to be transgressed, we dare not by any
means suffer ourselves to be so timorous as to transgress those
laws out of the fear of death, which God hath determined are
for our advantage; and if we fall into misfortunes, we will bear
them in order to preserve our laws, as knowing, that those who
expose themselves to dangers have good hope of escaping them,
88
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
because God will stand on our side, when out of regard to him
we undergo afflictions, and sustain the uncertain turns of fortune.
But if we should submit to thee, we should be greatly reproached
for our cowardice, as thereby showing ourselves ready to trans-
gress our law; and we should incur the great anger of God also,
who, even thyself being judge, is superior to Caius."
3. When Petronius saw by their words that their determina-
tion was hard to be removed, and that, without a war, he should
not be able to be subservient to Caius in the dedication of his
statue, and that there must be a great deal of blood shed, he
took his friends, and the servants that were about him, and
hasted to Tiberias, as wanting to know in what posture the
affairs of the Jews were; and many ten thousands of the Jews
met Petronius again, when he was come to Tiberias. These
thought they must run a mighty hazard if they should have a
war with the Romans, but judged that the transgression of the
law was of much greater consequence, and made supplication
to him that he would by no means reduce them to such dis-
tresses, nor defile their city with the dedication of the statue.
Then Petronius said to them, "Will you then make war with
Cæsar, without considering his great preparations for war, and
your own weakness?" They replied, "We will not by any
means make war with him, but still we will die before we see
our laws transgresssed." So they threw themselves down upon
their faces, and stretched out their throats, and said they were.
ready to be slain: and this they did for forty days together, and
in the mean time left off the tilling of their ground, and that
while the season* of the year required them to sow it. Thus
they continued firm in their resolution, and proposed to them-
selves to die willingly, rather than to see the dedication of the
statue.
4. When matters were in this state, Aristobulus, king Agrippa's
brother, and Helcias the Great, and the other principal men of
that family with them, went in unto Petronius, and besought
him, That" since he saw the resolution of the multitude, he
would not make any alteration, and thereby drive them to de-
spair; but would write to Caius, that the Jews had an insupe-
rable averseness to the reception of the statue, and how they
continued with him, and left off the tillage of their ground; that
they were not willing to go to war with him, because they were
not able to do it, but were ready to die with pleasure, rather
than suffer their laws to be transgressed; and how, upon the
Jands continuing unsown, robberies would grow up, on the in-
* What Josephus here, and sect. 6, relates as done by the Jews, before seed
time, is in Philo, not far off the time when the corn was ripe, who, as Le Clerc
notes, differ here one from the other. This is another indication that Josephus,
when he wrote this account, had not seen Philo's Legat. ad Caium, otherwise he
would hardly have herein differed from him.
C. VII.
89
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
2
ability they would be under of paying their tributes; and that
perhaps Caius might be thereby moved to pity, and not order
any barbarous action to be done to them, nor think of destroying
the nation that if he continues inflexible in his former opinion
to bring a war upon them, he may then set about it himself.”
And thus did Aristobulus, and the rest with him, supplicate
Petronius. So Petronius*, partly on account of the pressing
instances which Aristobulus and the rest with him made, and
because of the great consequence of what they desired, and the
earnestness wherewith they made their supplication; partly on
account of the firmness of the opposition made by the Jews,
which he saw, while he thought it a horrible thing for him to
be such a slave to the madness of Caius, as to slay so many ten
thousand men, only because of their religious disposition towards
God, and after that to pass his life in expectation of punish-
ment; Petronius, I say, thought it much better to send to Caius,
and to let him know how intolerable it was to him to bear the
anger he might have against him for not serving him sooner, in
obedience to his epistle, for that perhaps he might persuade
him; and that if his mad resolution continued, he might then
begin the war against them; nay, that in case he should turn
his hatred against himself, it was fit for virtuous persons even to
die for the sake of such vast multitudes of men. Accordingly
he determined to hearken to the petitioners in this matter.
·
5. He then called the Jews together to Tiberias, who came,
many ten thousands in number; he also placed that army he
now had with him opposite to them; but did not discover his
own meaning, but the commands of the emperor, and told them,
That "his wrath would without delay be executed on such as
had the courage to disobey what he had commanded, and this
immediately: and that it was fit for him, who had obtained so
great a dignity by his grant, not to contradict him in any thing:
yet," said he, "I do not think it just to have such a regard to
my own safety and honour, as to refuse to sacrifice them for
your preservation, who are so many in number, and endeavour
to preserve the regard that is due to your law, which, as it hath
come down to you from your forefathers, so do you esteem it
worthy of your utmost contention to preserve it: nor, with the
supreme assistance and power of God, will I be so hardy as to
suffer your temple to fall into contempt by the means of the
imperial authority. I will therefore send to Caius, and let him
* This Publius Petronius was after this, still president of Syria under Clau-
dius, and, at the desire of Agrippa, published a severe decree against the inha-
bitants of Dora, who, in a sort of imitation of Caius, had set up a statue of
Claudius in a Jewish synagogue there. This decree is extant, B. xix. ch. vi.
sect. 3, and greatly confirms the present accounts of Josephus, as to the other
decrees of Claudius, relating to the like Jewish affairs, B. xix. ch. v. sect. 2, 3,
to which I refer the inquisitive reader.
90
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
know what your resolutions are, and will assist your suit as far
as I am able, that you may not be exposed to suffer on account
of the honest designs you have proposed to yourselves: and may
God be our assistant, for his authority is beyond all the con-
trivance and power of men ; and may he procure you the pre-
servation of your ancient laws, and may not he be deprived,
though without your consent, of his accustomed honours. But
if Caius be irritated, and turn the violence of his rage upon me,
I will rather undergo all that danger and that affliction that may
come either on my body or my soul, than see so many of you to
perish, while you are acting in so excellent a manner. Do you,
therefore, every one of you, go your way about your own occu-
pations, and fall to the cultivation of your ground: I will myself
send to Rome, and will not refuse to serve you in all things, both
by myself and by my friends."
6. When Petronius had said this, and had dismissed the as-
sembly of the Jews, he desired the principal of them to take
care of their husbandry, and to speak kindly to the people, and
encourage them to have good hope of their affairs. Thus did
he readily bring the multitude to be cheerful again. And now
did God show his presence* to Petronius, and signify to him,
that he would afford him his assistance in his whole design; for
he had no sooner finished the speech that he made to the Jews,
but God sent down great showers of rain, contrary to human
expectation; for that day was a clear day, and gave no sign, by
the appearance of the sky, of any rain; nay, the whole year had
been subject to a great drought, and made men despair of any
water from above, even when at any time they saw the heavens
overcast with clouds; insomuch that when such a great quantity
of rain came, and that in an unusual manner, and without any
other expectation of it, the Jews hoped that Petronius would by
no means fail in his petition for them. But as to Petronius, he
was mightily surprised when he perceived that God evidently
took care of the Jews, and gave very plain signs of his appear-
ance†, and this to such a degree that those that were in earnest
much inclined to the contrary, had no power left to contradict
it. This was also among those other particulars which he
wrote to Caius, which all tended to dissuade him, and by all
means to entreat him not to make so many ten thousands of
these men go distracted; whom if he should slay (for without
Josephus here uses the solemn New Testament words, παρέσια, and έπιφα-
vɛia, the presence and appearance of God, for the extraordinary manifestation of
his power and providence to Petronius, by sending rain in a time of distress,
immediately upon the resolution he had taken to preserve the temple unpol-
luted at the hazard of his own life, without any other miraculous appearance
at all in that case; which well deserves to be taken notice of here, and greatly
illustrates several texts, both in the Old and New Testament.
+ See the preceding note.
C. VIII.
91
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
།
war they would by no means suffer the laws of their worship to
be set aside), he would lose the revenue they paid him, and
would be publicly cursed by them for all future ages. More-
over, that God, who was their governor, had showed his power
most evidently on their account, and that such a power of his
as left no room for doubt about it. And this was the business
that Petronius was now engaged in.
7. But king Agrippa, who now lived at Rome, was more and
more in the favour of Caius; and when he had once made him
a supper, and was careful to exceed all others both in expenses,
and in such preparations as might contribute most to his plea-
sure; nay, it was so far from the ability of others, that Caius
himself could never equal, much less exceed it (such care had
he taken beforehand to exceed all men, and particularly to make
all agreeable to Cæsar): hereupon Caius admired his under-
standing and magnificence, that he should force himself to do
all to please him, even beyond such expenses as he could bear,
and was desirous not to be behind Agrippa in that generosity,
which he exerted in order to please him. So Caius, when he
had drank wine plentifully, and was merrier than ordinary, said
thus during the feast, when Agrippa had drunk to him: “I
knew before now * how great a respect thou hast had for me,
and how great kindness thou hast showed me, though with those
hazards to thyself, which thou underwentest under Tiberius on
that account; nor hast thou omitted any thing to show thy good
will towards us, even beyond thy ability, whence it would be a
base thing for me to be conquered by thy affection. I am there-
fore desirous to make thee amends for every thing, in which I
have been any way formerly deficient, for all that I have be-
stowed on thee, that may be called my gifts, is but little. Every
thing that may contribute to thy happiness shall be at thy ser-
vice, and that cheerfully, and so far as my ability will reach."
And this was what Caius said to Agrippa, thinking he would
ask for some large country, or the revenues of certain cities.
But although he had prepared beforehand what he would ask,
yet had he not discovered his intentions, but made this answer
to Caius immediately: That "it was not out of any expectation
of gain that he formerly paid his respects to him, contrary to the
commands of Tiberius, nor did he now do any thing relating to
him out of regard to his own advantage, and in order to receive
any thing from him; that the gifts he had already bestowed
upon him were great, and beyond the hopes of even a craving
man; for although they may be beneath thy power [who art the
donor], yet are they greater than my inclination and dignity, who
am the receiver." And as Caius was astonished at Agrippa's
* This behaviour of Caius to Agrippa is very like that of Herod Antipas, his
uncle, to Herodias, Agrippa's sister, about John the Baptist, Matt. xiv. 6—11.
92
B. XVIII.
+
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
inclinations, and still the more pressed him to make his request
for somewhat which he might gratify him with, Agrippa replied,
"Since thou, O my lord, declarest such is thy readiness to grant,
that I am worthy of thy gifts, I will ask nothing relating to my
own felicity; for what thou hast already bestowed on me has
made me excel therein; but I desire somewhat which may make
thee glorious for piety, and render the divinity assistant to thy
designs, and may be for an honour to me among those that in-
quire about it, as showing that I never once fail of obtaining
what I desire of thee; for my petition is this, That thou wilt
no longer think of the dedication of that statue which thou hast
ordered to be set up in the Jewish temple by Petronius."
""
8. And thus did Agrippa venture to cast the die upon this OC-
casion, so great was the affair in his opinion, and in reality,
though he knew how dangerous a thing it was so to speak; for
had not Caius approved of it, it had tended to no less than the
loss of his life. So Caius, who was mightily taken with
Agrippa's obliging behaviour, and on other accounts thinking it
a dishonourable thing to be guilty of falsehood before so many
witnesses, in points wherein he had with such alacrity forced
Agrippa to become a petitioner, and that it would look as if he
had already repented of what he had said, and because he greatly
admired Agrippa's virtue, in not desiring him at all to augment
his own dominions, either with larger revenues, or other autho-
rity, but took care of the public tranquillity, of the laws, and of
the divinity itself, he granted him what he had requested. He
also wrote thus to Petronius, " commending him for his assem-
bling his army, and then consulting him about those affairs. If
therefore, said he, thou hast already erected my statue, let it stand;
but if thou hast not yet dedicated it, do not trouble thyself farther
about it, but dismiss thy army, go back, and take care of those
affairs which I sent thee about at first; for I have now no oc-
casion for the erection of that statue. This I have granted as
a favour to Agrippa, a man whom I honour so very greatly that
I am not able to contradict what he would have, or what he de-
sired me to do for him." And this was what Caius wrote to
Petronius, which was before he received his letter, informing
him that the Jews were very ready to revolt about the statue,
and that they seemed resolved to threaten war against the
Romans, and nothing else. When therefore Caius was much
displeased that any attempt should be made against his govern-
ment, as he was a slave to base and vicious actions on all occa-
sions, and had no regard to what was virtuous and honourable,
and against whomsoever he resolved to show his anger, and that
for any cause whatsoever, he suffered not himself to be re-
strained by any admonition, but thought the indulging his anger
to be a real pleasure, he wrote thus to Petronius: "Seeing thou
$
C. VIII.
93
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
esteemest the presents made thee by the Jews to be of greater
value than my commands, and art grown insolent enough to be
subservient to their pleasure, I charge thee to become thy own
judge, and to consider what thou art to do, now thou art under
my displeasure; for I will make thee an example to the present
and to all future ages, that they may not dare to contradict the
commands of their emperor."
9. This was the epistle which Caius wrote to Petronius, but
Petronius did not receive it while Caius was alive; that ship
which carried it sailing so slow, that other letters came to Petro-
nius before this, by which he understood that Caius was dead;
for God would not forget the dangers Petronius had undertaken
on account of the Jews, and of his own honour. But when he
had taken away Caius out of his indignation of what he had so
insolently attempted in assuming to himself divine worship, both
Rome and all that dominion conspired with Petronius, especially
those that were of the senatorian order, to give Caius his due
reward, because he had been unmercifully severe to them; for
he died not long after he had written to Petronius that epistle
which threatened him with death. But as for the occasion of
his death, and the nature of the plot against him, I shall relate
them in the progress of this narration. Now that epistle which
informed Petronius of Caius's death came first, and a little after-
ward came that which commanded him to kill himself with his
own hands.
Whereupon he rejoiced at this coincidence as to
the death of Caius, and admired God's providence, who without
the least delay, and immediately, gave him a reward for the regard
he had to the temple, and the assistance he afforded the Jews
for avoiding the dangers they were in. And by this means Pe-
tronius escaped that danger of death which he could not foresee.
CHAP. IX.
What befell the Jews that were in Babylon, on Occasion of
Asineus and Anileus, two Brethren.
§ 1. A VERY sad calamity now befell the Jews that were in
Mesopotamia, and especially those that dwelt in Babylonia.
Inferior it was to none of the calamities which had gone before,
and came together with a great slaughter of them, and that
greater than any upon record before: concerning all which I
shall speak accurately, and shall explain the occasions whence
these miseries came upon them. There was a city of Babylonia
called Neerda; not only a very populous one, but one that had
a good and large territory about it, and, besides its other ad-
vantages, full of men also. It was, besides, not easily to be as-
saulted by enemies, from the river Euphrates encompassing it
94
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
all round, and from the walls that were built about it. There
was also the city Nisibis, situate on the same current of the river.
For which reason the Jews, depending on the natural strength
of these places, deposited in them that half shekel which every
one, by the custom of our country, offers unto God, as well as
they did other things devoted to him; for they made use of these
cities as a treasury, whence, at a proper time, they were trans-
mitted to Jerusalem; and many ten thousand men undertook the
carriage of those donations, out of fear of the ravages of the
Parthians, to whom the Babylonians were then subject. Now
there were two men, Asineus and Anileus, of the city Neerda
by birth, and brethren to one another. They were destitute of
a father, and their mother put them to learn the art of weaving
curtains, it not being esteemed a disgrace among them for men
to be weavers of cloth. Now he that taught them that art, and
was set over them, complained that they came too late to their
work, and punished them with stripes; but they took this just
punishment as an affront, and carried off all the weapons which
were kept in that house, which were not a few; and went into
a certain place where was a partition of the rivers, and was a
place naturally very fit for the feeding of cattle, and for pre-
serving such fruits as were usually laid up against winter. The
poorest sort of the young men also resorted to them, whom they
armed with the weapons they had gotten, and became their cap-
tains; and nothing hindered them from being their leaders into
mischief; for as soon as they were become invincible, and had
built them a citadel, they sent to such as fed cattle, and ordered
them to pay them so much tribute out of them as might be suf-
ficient for their maintenance; proposing also that they would
be their friends, if they would submit to them, and that they
would defend them from all their other enemies on every side,
but that they would kill the cattle of those that refused to obey
them. So they hearkened to their proposals (for they could do
nothing else), and sent them as many sheep as were required of
them; whereby their forces grew greater, and they became lords
over all they pleased, because they marched suddenly, and did
them a mischief; insomuch that every body who had to do with
them chose to pay them respect, and they became formidable to
such as came to assault them, till the report about them came
to the ears of the king of Parthia himself.
•
2. But when the governor of Babylonia understood this, and
had a mind to put a stop to them, before they grew greater, and
before greater mischiefs should arise from them, he got together
as great an army as he could, both of Parthians and Babyloni-
ans, and marched against them, thinking to attack them and
destroy them, before any one should carry them the news that
he had got an army together. He then encamped at a lake, and
C. IX.
95
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
lay still; but on the next day (it was the Sabbath, which is among
the Jews a day of rest from all sorts of work), he supposed that
the enemy would not dare to fight him thereon, but that he should
take them and carry them away prisoners without fighting. He
therefore proceeded gradually, and thought to fall upon them on
the sudden. Now Asineus was sitting with the rest, and their
weapons lay by them; upon which he said, "Sirs, I hear a neigh-
ing of horses; not of such as are feeding, but such as have men
on their backs: I also hear such a noise of their bridles, that I
am afraid that some enemies are coming upon us to encompass
us round. However, let somebody go to look about, and make
report of what reality there is in the present* state of things;
and may what I have said prove a false alarm." And when he
said this, some of them went out to spy out what was the mat-
ter, and they came again immediately and said to him, that "nei-
ther hast thou been mistaken in telling us what our enemies
were doing, nor will those enemies permit us to be injurious to
people any longer. We are caught by their intrigues like brute
beasts, and there is a large body of cavalry marching upon us,
while we are destitute of hands to defend ourselves withal, be-
cause we are restrained from doing it by the prohibition of our
law, which obliges us to rest [on this day]." But Asineus did
not by any means agree with the opinion of his spy as to what
was to be done, but thought it more agreeable to the law to pluck
up their spirits in this necessity they were fallen into, and break
their law by avenging themselves, although they should die in
the action, than by doing nothing to please their enemies in sub-
mitting to be slain by them. Accordingly he took up his wea-
pons, and infused courage into those that were with him to act
as courageously as himself. So they fell upon their enemies,
and slew a great many of them, because they despised them, and
came as to a certain victory, and put the rest to flight.
3. But when the news of this fight came to the king of Par-
thia, he was surprised at the boldness of these brethren, and
was desirous to see them, and speak with them. He therefore
sent the most trusty of all his guards to say thus to them: "That
king Artabanus, although he hath been unjustly treated by you,
who have made an attempt against his government, yet hath he
more regard to your courageous behaviour than to the anger he
bears to you, and hath sent me to give his right hand and
* 'Evɛsykotwv is here, and in very many other places of Josephus, immediately
at hand, and is to be so expounded, 2 Thess. ii. 2, when some falsely pretended
that St. Paul had said, either by word of mouth, or by an epistle, or by both,
that the day of Christ was immediately at hand; for still St. Paul did then plainly
think that day not very many years future.
+ The joining of the right hands was esteemed among the Persians [and Par-
thians] in particular, a most inviolable obligation to fidelity, as Dr. Hudson here
observes, and refers to the commentary on Justin, B. xi. ch. xv. for its confirma-
tion. We often meet with the like use of it in Josephus.
1
96
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
security; and he permits you to come to him safely, and with-
out any violence upon the road; and he wants to have you ad-
dress yourselves to him as his friends, without meaning any guile
or deceit to you. He also promises to make you presents, and
to pay you those respects which will make an addition of his
power to your courage, and thereby be of advantage to you."
Yet did Asineus himself put off his journey thither, but sent his
brother Anileus with all such presents as he could procure. So
he went, and was admitted to the king's presence; and when
Artabanus saw Anileus coming alone, he inquired into the
reason why Asineus avoided to come along with him; and when
he understood that he was afraid, and staid by the lake, he took
an oath by the gods of his country, that he would do them no
harm, if they came to him upon the assurances he gave them,
and gave him his right hand *. This is of the greatest force
there with all these barbarians, and affords a firm security to
those who converse with them; for none of them will deceive
you, when once they have given you their right hands, nor will
any one doubt of their fidelity when that is once given, even though
they were before suspected of injustice. When Artabanus had
done this, he sent away Anileus to persuade his brother to come
to him. Now this the king did, because he wanted to curb his
own governors of provinces by the courage of these Jewish bre-
thren, lest they should make a league with them; for they were
ready for a revolt, and were disposed to rebel, had, they been
sent on an expedition against them. He was also afraid, lest
when he was engaged in a war in order to subdue those gover-
nors of provinces that had revolted, the party of Asineus, and
those in Babylonia, should be augmented, and either make war
upon him, when they should hear of that revolt, or, if they should
be disappointed in that case, they would not fail of doing further
mischief to him.
4. When the king had these intentions, he sent away Anileus,
and Anileus prevailed on his brother [to come to the king], when
he had related to him the king's good will, and the oath that he
had taken. Accordingly they made haste to go to Artabanus,
who received them, when they were come, with pleasure, and
admired Asineus's courage in the actions he had done; and this
because he was a little man to see to, and at first sight appeared
contemptible also, and such as one might deem a person of no
value at all. He also said to his friends, how, upon the compa-
rison, he showed his soul to be in all respects superior to his body,
and when, as they were drinking together, he once showed Asi-
neus to Abdagases, one of the generals of his army, and told him
his name, and described the great courage he was of in war, and
Abdagases had desired leave to kill him, and thereby to inflict on
* See the preceding note.
C. IX.
97
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
him a punishment for those injuries he had done to the Parthian
government, the king replied, "I will never give thee leave to
kill a man who hath depended on my faith; especially not after
I have sent him my right hand, and endeavoured to gain his be-
lief by oaths made by the gods. But if thou beest a truly war-
like man, thou standest not in need of my perjury. Go thou,
then, and avenge the Parthian government; attack this man,
when he is returned back, and conquer him by the forces that are
under thy command, without my privity." Hereupon the king
called for Asineus, and said to him, "It is time for thee, O thou
young man, to return home, and not provoke the indignation of
my generals in this place any farther, lest they attempt to murder
thee, and that without my approbation. I commit to thee the
country of Babylonia in trust, that it may, by thy care, be pre-
served free from robbers, and from other mischiefs. I have kept
my faith inviolable to thee, and that not in trifling affairs, but
in those that concerned thy safety, and do therefore deserve thou
shouldst be kind to me." When he had said this, and given Äsi-
neus some presents, he sent him away immediately; who, when
he was come home, built fortresses, and became great in a little
time, and managed things with such courage and success, as no
other person, that had no higher a beginning, ever did before him.
Those Parthian governors also, who were sent that way, paid
him great respect; and the honour that was paid him by the
Babylonians seemed to them too small, and beneath his deserts,
although he were in no small dignity and power there: nay, in-
deed, all the affairs of Mesopotamia depended upon him, and
he more and more flourished in this happy condition of his for
fifteen years.
·
5. But as their affairs were in so flourishing a state, there
sprang up a calamity among them on the following occasion.
When once they had deviated from that course of virtue whereby
they had gained so great power, they affronted and transgressed
the laws of their forefathers, and fell under the dominion of their
lusts and pleasures. A certain Parthian, who came as general
of an army into those parts, had a wife following him, who had
a vast reputation for other accomplishments, and particularly
was admired above all other women for her beauty; Anileus, the
brother of Asineus, either heard of that her beauty from others,
or perhaps saw her himself also, and so became at once her
lover and her enemy; partly because he could not hope to enjoy
this woman but by obtaining power over her as a captive, and
partly because he thought he could not conquer his inclinations
for her; as soon therefore as her husband had been declared an
enemy to them, and was fallen in the battle, the widow of the
deceased was married to this her lover. However, this woman
did not come into their house without producing great misfor-
VOL. III.
H
98
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
*
tunes both to Anileus himself, and to Asineus also; but brought
great mischiefs upon them on the occasion following. Since
she was led away captive, upon the death of her husband, she
concealed the images of those gods which were their country
gods, common to her husband and to herself: now it is the cus-
tom of that country for all to have the idols they worship, in
their own houses, and to carry them along with them when they
go into a foreign land; agreeably to which custom of theirs, she
carried her idols with her. Now at first she performed her wor-
ship to them privately, but when she was become Anileus's
married wife, she worshiped them in her accustomed manner,
and with the same appointed ceremonies which she used in her
former husband's days; upon which their most esteemed friends
blamed him at first that he did not act after the manner of the
Hebrews, nor perform what was agreeable to their laws, in mar-
rying a foreign wife, and one that transgressed the accurate
appointments of their sacrifices and religious ceremonies: that
he ought to consider, lest by allowing himself in many pleasures
of the body, he might lose his principality, on account of the
beauty of a wife, and that high authority which, by God's bless-
ing, he had arrived at. But when they prevailed not at all upon
him, he slew one of them for whom he had the greatest respect,
because of the liberty he took with him; who, when he was
dying, out of regard to the laws, imprecated a punishment upon
his murderer Anileus, and upon Asineus also, and that all their
companions might come to a like end from their enemies; upon
the two first, as the principal actors of this wickedness, and upon
the rest as those that would not assist him when he suffered in
the defence of their laws. Now these latter were sorely grieved,
yet did they tolerate these doings, because they remembered that
they had arrived at their present happy state by no other means
than their fortitude. But when they also heard of the worship
of those gods whom the Parthians adore, they thought that the
injury that Anileus offered to their laws was to be borne no lon-
ger; and a great number of them came to Asineus, and loudly
complained of Anileus, and told him that "it had been well that
he had of himself seen what was advantageous to them, but that
however it was now high time to correct what had been done
amiss, before the crime that had been committed proved the ruin
of himself and of all the rest of them. They added, that the
marriage of this woman was made without their consent, and
without a regard to their old laws; and that the worship which
* This custom of the Mesopotamians to carry their household gods along with
them wherever they travelled is as old as the days of Jacob, when Rachel his
wife did the same, Gen. xxxi. 19, 30–35; nor is it to pass here unobserved,
what great miseries came on these Jews, because they suffered one of their leaders
to marry an idolatrous wife, contrary to the law of Moses. Of which matter,
see the note on B. xix. ch. v. sect. 3.
C. IX.
99
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
أ
t
this woman paid [to her gods] was a reproach to the God whom
they worshiped." Now Asineus was sensible of his brother's
offence, that it had been already the cause of great mischiefs,
and would be so for the time to come; yet did he tolerate the
same from the good will he had to so near a relation, and for-
giving it to him, on account that his brother was quite overborne
by his wicked inclinations. But as more and more still came
about him every day, and the clamours about it became greater,
he at length spake to Anileus about these clamours, reproving
him for his former actions, and desiring him for the future to
leave them off, and send the woman back to her relations. But
nothing was gained by these reproofs: for as the woman per-
ceived that a tumult was made among the people on her account,
and was afraid for Anileus, lest he should come to any harm for
his love to her, she infused poison into Asineus's food, and
thereby took him off, and was now secure of prevailing, when
her lover was to be judge of what should be done about her.
•
6. So Anileus took the government upon himself alone, and
led his army against the villages of Mithridates, who was a man
of principal authority in Parthia, and had married king Artaba-
nus's daughter: he also plundered them; and among that prey
was found much money, and many slaves, as also a great number
of sheep, and many other things, which, when gained, make
men's condition happy. Now when Mithridates, who was there
at this time, heard that his villages were taken, he was very much
displeased to find that. Anileus had first begun to injure him,
and to affront him in his present dignity, when he had not offered
any injury to him beforehand; and he got together the greatest
body of horsemen he was able, and those out of that number
which were of an age fit for war, and came to fight Anileus
and when he was arrived at a certain village of his own, he lay
still there, as intending to fight him on the day following, be-
cause it was the Sabbath, the day on which the Jews rest. And
when Anileus was informed of this by a Syrian stranger of ano-
ther village, who not only gave him an exact account of other
circumstances, but told him where Mithridates would have a
feast, he took his supper at a proper time, and marched by
night, with an intent of falling upon the Parthians while they
were unapprized what they should do; so he fell upon them
about the fourth watch of the night, and some of them he slew
while they were asleep, and others he put to flight, and took
Mithridates alive, and set him naked upon an ass*, which among
;
* This custom in Syria and Mesopotamia, of setting men upon an ass, by way
of disgrace, is still kept up at Damascus in Syria; where, in order to show their
despite against the Christians, the Turks will not suffer them to hire horses, but
asses only, when they go abroad to see the country, as Mr. Maundrell assures
us, page 128.
100
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
the Parthians is esteemed the greatest reproach possible. And
when he had brought him into a wood with such a resolution,
and his friends desired him to kill Mithridates, he soon told them
his own mind to the contrary, and said that "it was not right to
kill a man who was of one of the principal families among the
Parthians, and greatly honoured with matching into the royal
family; that so far as they had hitherto gone was tolerable; for
although they had injured Mithridates, yet if they preserved his
life, this benefit would be remembered by him to the advantage
of those that gave it him; but that if he were once put to death,
the king would not be at rest till he had made a great slaughter
of the Jews that dwelt at Babylon; to whose safety we ought to
have a regard, both on account of our relation to them, and be-
cause, if any misfortune befall us, we have no other place to
retire to, since he hath gotten the flower of their youth under
him." By this thought, and this speech of his made in council,
he persuaded them to act accordingly; so Mithridates was let
go. But when he was gone away, his wife reproached him,
that although he was son-in-law to the king, he neglected to
avenge himself on those that had injured him, while he took no
care about it, but was contented to have been made a captive
by the Jews, and to have escaped them: and she bid him "either
to go back like a man of courage, or else, she sware by the gods
of their royal family, that she would certainly dissolve her mar-
riage with him." Upon which, partly because he could not bear
the daily trouble of her taunts, and partly because he was afraid
of her insolence, lest she should in earnest dissolve their mar-
riage, he unwillingly, and against his inclinations, got together
again as large an army as he could, and marched along with
them, as himself thinking it a thing not to be borne any longer,
that he, a Parthian, should owe his preservation to the Jews,
when they had been too hard for him in the war.
7. But as soon as Anileus understood that Mithridates was
marching with a great army against him, he thought it too igno-
minious a thing to tarry about the lakes, and not to take the first
opportunity of meeting his enemies; and he hoped to have the
same success, and to beat their enemies as they did before; as
also he ventured boldly upon the like attempts. Accordingly
he led out his army, and a great many more joined themselves
to that army, in order to betake themselves to plunder other
people, and in order to terrify the enemy again by their numbers.
But when they had marched ninety furlongs, while the road had
been through dry [and sandy] places, and about the midst of the
day, they were become very thirsty; and Mithridates appeared,
and fell upon them, as they were in distress for want of water,
on which account, and on account of the time of the day, they
were not able to bear their weapons. So Anileus. and his
1
C. IX.
101
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
1
men were put to an ignominious route, while men in despair
were to attack those that were fresh, and in good plight; so
a great slaughter was made, and many ten thousands fell.
Now Anileus, and all that stood firm about him, ran away,
as fast as they were able, into a wood, and afforded Mi-
thridates the pleasure of having gained a great victory over
them. But there now came in to Anileus a conflux of bad
men, who regarded their own lives very little, if they might but
gain some present ease; insomuch that they, by thus coming to
him, compensated the multitude of those that perished in the
fight. Yet were not these men like to those that fell, because
they were rash, and unexercised in war; however, with these he
came upon the villages of the Babylonians, and a mighty devas-
tation of all things was made there by the injuries that Anileus
did them. So the Babylonians, and those that had already been
in the war, sent to Neerda to the Jews there, and demanded
Anileus. But although they did not agree to their demands (for
if they had been willing to deliver him up, it was not in their
power so to do), yet did they desire to make peace with them.
To which the other replied, that they also wanted to settle con-
ditions of peace with them, and sent men together with the
Babylonians, who discoursed with Anileus about them.
the Babylonians, upon taking a view of his situation, and having
learned where Anileus and his men lay, fell secretly upon them
as they were drunk, and fallen asleep, and slew all that they
caught of them, without any fear, and killed Anileus himself
also.
•
But
8. The Babylonians were now freed from Anileus's heavy
incursions, which had been a great restraint to the effects of that
hatred they bore to the Jews; for they were almost always at
variance, by reason of the contrariety of their laws; and which
party soever grew boldest before the other, they assaulted the
other; and at this time in particular it was, that upon the ruin
of Anileus's party, the Babylonians attacked the Jews, which
made those Jews so vehemently to resent the injuries they re-
ceived from the Babylonians, that being neither able to fight
them, nor bearing to live with them, they went to Seleucia, the
principal city of those parts, which was built by Seleucus Nica-
tor.
It was inhabited by many of the Macedonians, but by
more of the Grecians; not a few of the Syrians also dwelt there;
and thither did the Jews fly, and live there five years without any
misfortunes. But on the sixth year a pestilence came upon these
at Babylon, which occasioned new removals of men's habitations
out of that city; and because they came to Seleucia, it happened
that a still heavier calamity came upon them on that account,
which I am going to relate immediately.
9. Now the way of living of the people of Seleucia, which
102
B. XVIII.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
J
were Greeks and Syrians, was commonly quarrelsome, and full
of discord, though the Greeks were too hard for the Syrians.
When therefore the Jews were come thither, and dwelt among
them, there arose a sedition, and the Syrians were too hard for
the other, by the assistance of the Jews, who are men that
despise dangers, and very ready to fight upon any occasion.
Now when the Greeks had the worst in this sedition, and saw
that they had but one way of recovering their former authority,
and that was, if they could prevent the agreement between the
Jews and the Syrians, they every one discoursed with such of the
Syrians as were formerly their acquaintance, and promised they
would be at peace and friendship with them. Accordingly they
gladly agreed so to do; and when this was done by the princi-
pal men of both nations, they soon agreed to a reconciliation,
and when they were so agreed, they both knew that the great
design of such their union would be their common hatred to the
Jews. Accordingly they fell upon them, and slew about fifty
thousand of them; nay, the Jews were all destroyed, excepting
a few who escaped, either by the compassion which their friends
or neighbours afforded them in order to let them fly away. These
retired to Ctesiphon a Grecian city, and situated near to Seleu-
cia, where the king [of Parthia] lives in winter every year, and
where the greatest part of his riches are deposited; but the Jews
had here no certain settlement, those of Seleucia having little
concern for the king's honour. Now the whole nation of the
Jews were in fear both of the Babylonians and of the Seleu-
cians, because all the Syrians that live in those places agreed
with the Seleucians in the war against the Jews; so the most of
them gathered themselves together, and went to Neerda and
Nisibis, and obtained security there by the strength of these
cities; besides which their inhabitants, who were a great many,
were all warlike men. And this was the state of the Jews at
this time in Babylonia.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
103
BOOK XIX.
CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF THREE YEARS AND A HALF.
From the Departure of the Jews out of Babylon to Fadus the
Roman Procurator.
CHAP. I.
How Caius* was slain by Cherea.
§ 1. Now this Caius† did not demonstrate his madness in
offering injuries only to the Jews at Jerusalem, or to those that
dwelt in the neighbourhood, but suffered it to extend itself
through all the earth and sea, so far as was in subjection to the
Romans, and filled it with ten thousand mischiefs; so many
indeed in number as no former history relates. But Rome
itself felt the most dismal effects of what he did, while he
deemed that not to be any way more honourable than the rest
of the cities; but he pulled and haled its other citizens, but
especially the senate, and particularly the nobility, and such as
had been dignified by illustrious ancestors; he also had ten
thousand devices against such of the equestrian order, as it was
styled, who were esteemed by the citizens equal in dignity and
wealth with the senators, because out of them the senators were
themselves chosen; these he treated after an ignominious man-
ner, and removed them out of his way, while they were at once
slain and their wealth plundered; because he slew men gene-
rally in order to seize on their riches. He also asserted his
own divinity, and insisted on greater honours to be paid him by
his subjects than are due to mankind. He also frequented that
temple of Jupiter which they style the Capitol, which is with
* In this and the three next chapters, we have, I think, a larger and more
distinct account of the slaughter of Caius, and the succession of Claudius, than
we have of any such ancient facts whatsoever elsewhere. Some of the occasions
of which probably were, Josephus's bitter hatred against tyranny, and the plea-
sure he took in giving the history of the slaughter of such a barbarous tyrant as
was this Caius Caligula, as also the deliverance his own nation had by that slaugh-
ter, of which he speaks, sect. 2, together with the great intimacy he had with
Agrippa junior, whose father was deeply concerned in the advancement of
Claudius, upon the death of Caius; from which Agrippa junior, Josephus might
be fully informed of this history.
+ Called Caligula by the Romans.
104
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
them the most holy of all their temples, and had boldness enough
to call himself the brother of Jupiter. And other pranks he
did like a madman; as when he laid a bridge from the city
Dicearchia, which belongs to Campania, to Misenum, another
city upon the seaside, from one promontory to another, of the
length of thirty furlongs as measured over the sea. And this
was done, because he esteemed it to be a most tedious thing to
row over it in a small ship, and thought withal, that it became
him to make that bridge, since he was lord of the sea, and
might oblige it to give marks of obedience as well as the earth;
so he enclosed the whole bay within his bridge, and drove his
chariot over it, and thought that, as he was a god, it was fit for
him to travel over such roads as this was. Nor did he abstain
from the plunder of any of the Grecian temples, and gave order
that all the engravings and sculptures, and the rest of the orna-
ments of the statues and donations therein dedicated, should be
brought to him, saying, that "the best things ought to be set
no where but in the best place, and that the city of Rome was
that best place." He also adorned his own house and his gar-
dens with the curiosities brought from those temples, together
with the houses he lay at when he travelled all over Italy:
whence he did not scruple to give a command, that the statue of
Jupiter Olympius, so called because he was honoured at the
Olympian games by the Greeks, which was the work of Phidias
the Athenian, should be brought to Rome. Yet did not he
compass his end, because the architects told Memmius Regu-
lus, who was commanded to remove that statue of Jupiter, that
the workmanship was such as would be spoiled, and would not
bear the removal. It was also reported that Memmius, both
on that account, and on account of some such mighty prodigies
as are of an incredible nature, put off the taking it down, and
wrote to Caius those accounts, as his apology for not having
done what his epistle required of him; and that when he was
thence in danger of perishing, he was saved by Caius's being
dead himself, before he had put him to death.
2. Nay, Caius's madness came to this height, that when he
had a daughter born he carried her into the Capitol, and put her
upon the knees of the statue, and said, that the child was com-
mon to him and to Jupiter, and determined that she had two
fathers, but which of those fathers were the greatest, he left
undetermined; and yet mankind bore him in such his pranks.
He also gave leave to slaves to accuse their masters of any
crimes whatsoever they pleased: for all such accusations were
terrible, because they were in great part made to please him,
and at his suggestion; insomuch that Pollux, Claudius's slave,
had the boldness to lay an accusation against Claudius himself,
and Caius was not ashamed to be present at his trial of life
C. 1.
105
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
and death, to hear that trial of his own uncle, in hopes of being
able to take him off, although he did not succeed to his mind.
But when he had filled the whole habitable world, which he
governed, with false accusations and miseries, and had occa-
sioned the greatest insult of slaves against their masters, who
indeed in great measure ruled them, there were many secret
plots now laid against him; some in anger, and in order for
men to revenge themselves, on account of the miseries they had
already undergone from him; and others made attempts upon
him, in order to take him off before they should fall into such
great miseries, while his death came very fortunately for the
preservation of the laws of all men, and had a great influence
upon the public welfare; and this happened most happily for
our nation in particular, which had almost utterly perished if
he had not been suddenly slain. And I confess I have a mind
to give a full account of this matter, particularly because it will
afford great assurance of the power of God, and great comfort
to those that are under afflictions, and wise caution to those who
think their happiness will never end, nor bring them at length
to the most lasting miseries, if they do not conduct their lives
by the principles of virtue.
3. Now there were three several conspiracies made in order
to take off Caius, and each of these three were conducted by
excellent persons. Emilius Regulus, born at Corduba in
Spain, got some men together, and was desirous to take Caius
off, either by them or by himself. Another conspiracy there
was laid by them, under the conduct of Cherea Cassius, the tri-
bune [of the Pretorian band]; Minucianus Annius was also one
of great consequence amongst those that were prepared to op-
pose his tyranny. Now the several occasions of these men's
several hatred and conspiracy against Caius were these: Regu-
lus had indignation and hatred against all injustice, for he had
a mind naturally angry, and bold, and free, which made him not
conceal his counsels; so he communicated them to many of his
friends, and to others, who seemed to him persons of activity
and vigour Minucianus entered into this conspiracy, because
of the injustice done to Lepidus his particular friend, and one
of the best character of all the citizens, whom Caius had slain,
as also because he was afraid of himself, since Caius's wrath
tended to the slaughter of all alike; and for Cherea, he came
in, because he thought it a deed worthy of a free ingenuous man
to kill Caius, and was ashamed of the reproaches he lay under
from Caius, as though he were a coward; as also because he
was himself in danger every day from his friendship with him,
and the observance he paid him. These men proposed this
attempt to all the rest that were concerned, who saw the inju-
ries that were offered them, and were desirous that Caius's
106
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
slaughter might succeed by their mutual assistance of one ano-
ther, and they might themselves escape being killed by the taking
off Caius; that perhaps they should gain their point, and that
it would be a happy thing if they should gain it, to approve
themselves to so many excellent persons as earnestly wished to
be partakers with them in their design, for the delivery of the
city and of the government, even at the hazard of their own
lives. But still Cherea was the most zealous of them all, both
out of a desire of getting himself the greatest name, and also by
reason of his access to Caius's presence, with less danger because
he was tribune, and could therefore the more easily kill him.
4. Now at this time came on the horse races [Circensian
games]; the view of which games was eagerly desired by the
people of Rome; for they come with great alacrity into the
hyppodrome [circus] at such times, and petition their emperors,
in great multitudes, for what they stand in need of; who usually
did not think fit to deny them their requests, but readily and
gratefully granted them. Accordingly they most importunately
desired, that Caius would now ease them in their tributes, and
abate somewhat of the rigour of the taxes imposed upon them;
but he would not hear their petition; and, when their clamours
increased, he sent soldiers, some one way, and some another,
and gave order that they should lay hold on those that made the
clamours, and, without any more ado, bring them out, and put
them to death. These were Caius's commands, and those who
were commanded executed the same; and the number of those
who were slain on this occasion was very great. Now the
Now the peo-
ple saw this, and bore it so far, that they left off clamouring,
because they saw with their own eyes, that this petition to be
relieved, as to the payment of their money, brought immediate
death upon them. These things made Cherea more resolute to
go on with his plot, in order to put an end to this barbarity of
Caius against men. He then at several times thought to fall
upon Caius even as he was feasting; yet did he restrain himself
by some considerations; not that he had any doubt on him about
killing him, but as watching for a proper season, that the
attempt might not be frustrated, but that he might give the
blow so as might certainly gain his purpose.
·
5. Cherea had been in the army a long time, yet was he not
pleased with conversing so much with Caius. But Caius had
set him to require the tribute and other dues, which, when not
paid in due time, were forfeited to Cæsar's treasury; and he
had made some delays in requiring them, because those burdens
had been doubled, and had rather indulged his own mild dispo-
sition than performed Caius's command; nay, indeed, he pro-
voked Caius to anger by his sparing men, and pitying the
hard fortunes of those from whom he demanded the taxes, and
C. I.
107
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
Caius upbraided him with his sloth and effeminacy in being so
long about collecting the taxes. And indeed he did not only
affront him in other respects, but when he gave him the watch-
word of the day, to whom it was to be given by his place, he
gave him feminine words; and those of a nature very reproach-
ful; and these watchwords he gave out, as having been initiated
in the secrets of certain mysteries, which he had been himself
the author of. Now, although he had sometimes put on
women's clothes, and had been wrapt in some embroidered gar-
ments to them belonging, and done a great many other things, in
order to make the company mistake him for a woman; yet did
he, by way of reproach, object the like womanish behaviour to
Cherea. But when Cherea received the watchword from him,
he had indignation at it, but had greater indignation at the
delivery of it to others, as being laughed at by those that
received it; insomuch that his fellow-tribunes made him the
subject of their drollery; for they would foretell that he would
bring them some of his usual watchwords, when he was about
to take the watchword from Cæsar, and would thereby make
him ridiculous; on which accounts he took the courage of
assuming certain partners to him, as having just reasons for his
indignation against Caius. Now there was one Pompedius a
senator, and one who had gone through almost all posts in the
government, but otherwise an Epicurean, and for that reason
loved to lead an inactive life. Now Timidius, an enemy of
his, had informed Caius, that he had used indecent reproaches
against him, and had made use of Quinctilia for a witness to
them; a woman she was much beloved by many that fre-
quented the theatre, and particularly by Pompedius, on account
of her great beauty. Now this woman thought it a horrible thing
to attest to an accusation that touched the life of her lover,
which was also a lie. Timidius, however, wanted to have her
brought to the torture. Caius was irritated at this reproach
upon him, and commanded Cherea, without any delay, to tor-
ture Quinctilia, as he used to employ. Cherea in such bloody
matters, and those that required the torture, because he thought
he would do it the more barbarously, in order to avoid that
imputation of effeminacy which he had laid upon him. But
Quinctilia, when she was brought to the rack, trod upon the
foot of one of her associates, and let him know, that he might
be of good courage, and not be afraid of the consequence of
her tortures; for that she would bear them with magnanimity.
Cherea tortured this woman after a cruel manner; unwillingly
indeed, but because he could not help it. He then brought her,
without being in the least moved at what she had suffered, into
the presence of Caius, and that in such a state as was sad to
behold; and Caius, being somewhat affected with the sight of
•
1
+
108
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
Quinctilia, who had her body miserably disordered by the pains
she had undergone, freed both her and Pompedius of the crime
laid to their charge. He also gave her money to make her an
honourable amends, and comfort her for that maiming of her
body which she had suffered, and for her glorious patience under
such insufferable torments.
6. This matter sorely grieved Cherea, as having been the cause
as far as he could, or the instrument of those miseries to men,
which seemed worthy of consolation to Caius himself; on which
account he said to Clement and to Papinius (of whom Clement
was general of the army, and Papinius was a tribune): "To be
sure, O Clement, we have no way failed in our guarding the
emperor; for as to those that have made conspiracies against
his government, some have been slain by our care and pains,
and some have been by us tortured, and this to such a degree
that he hath himself pitied them. How great then is our virtue
in submitting to conduct his armies?" Clement held his peace,
but showed the shame he was under in obeying Caius's orders,
both by his eyes and his blushing countenance, while he thought
it by no means right to accuse the emperor in express words,
lest their own safety should be endangered thereby. Upon
which Cherea took courage, and spake to him without fear of
the dangers that were before him, and discoursed largely of the
sore calamities under which the city and the government then
laboured, and said, "We may indeed pretend in words, that
Caius is the person unto whom the cause of such miseries
ought to be imputed; but, in the opinion of such as are able
to judge uprightly, it is I, O Clement, and this Papinius, and
before us thou thyself, who bring these tortures upon the Ro-
mans, and upon all mankind. It is not done by our being sub-
servient to the commands of Caius, but it is done by our own
consent; for whereas it is in our power to put an end to the life
of this man, who hath so terribly injured the citizens and his
subjects, we are his guard in mischief and his executioners,
instead of his soldiers, and are the instruments of his cruelty.
We bear these weapons, not for our liberty, not for the Roman
government, but only for his preservation, who hath enslaved
both their bodies and their minds; and we are every day pol-
luted with the blood that we shed, and the torments we inflict
upon others; and this we do, till somebody becomes Caius's
instrument in bringing the like miseries upon ourselves. Nor
does he thus employ us, because he hath a kindness for us, but
rather because he hath a suspicion of us, as also because, when
abundance more have been killed (for Caius will set no bounds
to his wrath, since he aims to do all, not out of regard to justice,
but to his own pleasure), we shall also ourselves be exposed to
his cruelty; whereas we ought to be the means of confirming
C. I.
109
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
the security and liberty of all, and at the same time to resolve to
free ourselves from dangers.
""
7. Hereupon Clement openly commended Cherea's inten-
tions; but bid him "hold his tongue; for that in case his words
should get out among many, and such things should be spread
abroad as were fit to be concealed, the plot would come to be
discovered before it was executed, and they should be brought
to punishment; but that they should leave all to futurity, and
the hope which thence arose, that some fortunate event would
come to their assistance; that, as for himself, his age would not
permit him to make any attempt in that case. However, although
perhaps I could suggest what may be safer than what thou, Che-
rea, hast contrived and said, yet how is it possible for any one
to suggest what is more for thy reputation?" So Clement went
his way home, with deep reflections on what he had heard, and
what he had himself said. Cherea also was under a concern, and
went quickly to Comelius Sabinus, who was himself one of the
tribunes, and whom he otherwise knew to be a worthy man, and
a lover of liberty, and on that account very uneasy at the pre-
sent management of public affairs; he being desirous to come
immediately to the execution of what had been determined, and
thinking it right for him to propose it to the other, and afraid
lest Clement should discover them, and besides looking upon
delays and puttings off to be next to desisting from the enter-
prise.
·
8. But as all was agreeable to Sabinus, who had himself,
equally with Cherea, the same design, but had been silent for
want of a person to whom he could safely communicate that
design; so having now met with one, who not only promised to
conceal what he heard, but who had already opened his mind
to him, he was much more encouraged, and desired of Cherea,
that no delay might be made therein. Accordingly they went
to Minucianus, who was as virtuous a man, and as zealous to
do glorious actions as themselves, and suspected by Caius on
occasion of the slaughter of Lepidus; for Minucianus and Le-
pidus were intimate friends, and both in fear of the dangers that
they were under; for Caius was terrible to all the great men, as
appearing ready to act a mad part towards each of them in parti-
cular, and towards all of them in general: and these men were
afraid of one another, while they were yet uneasy at the posture
of affairs, but avoided to declare their mind and their hatred
against Caius to one another, out of fear of the dangers they
might be in thereby, although they perceived by other means
their mutual hatred against Caius, and on that account were not
averse to a mutual kindness one towards another.
9. When Minucianus and Cherea had met together, and
saluted one another (as they had been used in former conversa-
110
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
tions to give the upper hand to Minucianus, both on account of
his eminent dignity, for he was the noblest of all the citizens,
and highly commended by all men, especially when he made
speeches to them), Minucianus began first, and asked Cherea,
What was the watchword he had received that day from Caius ?
for the affront which was offered Cherea, in giving the watch-
words, was famous over the city. But Cherea made no delay,
so long as to reply to that question, out of the joy he had that
Minucianus would have such confidence in him as to discourse
with him. "But do thou," said he, " give me the watchword
of liberty. And I return thee my thanks, that thou hast so
greatly encouraged me to exert myself after an extraordinary
manner; nor do I stand in need of many words to encourage
me, since both thou and I are of the same mind, and partakers
of the same resolutions, and this before we have conferred toge-
ther. I have indeed but one sword girt on, but this one will
serve us both. Come on, therefore, let us set about the work.
Do thou go first, if thou hast a mind, and bid me follow thee;
or else I will go fisrt, and thou shalt assist me, and we will
assist one another, and trust one another. Nor is there a neces-
sity for even one sword to such as have a mind disposed to such
works, by which mind the sword uses to be successful. I am
zealous about this action, nor am I solicitous what I may myself
undergo; for I am not at leisure to consider the dangers that
may come upon myself, so deeply am I troubled at the slavery
our once free country is now under, and at the contempt cast
upon excellent laws, and at the destruction which hangs over all
men by the means of Caius. I wish that I may be judged by
thee, and that thou mayest esteem me worthy of credit in these
matters, seeing we are both of the same opinion, and there is
herein no difference between us.'
10. When Minucianus saw the vehemency with which Cherea
delivered himself, he gladly embraced him, and encouraged him
in his bold attempt, commending him, and embracing him; so
he let him go with his good wishes; and some affirm, that he
thereby confirmed Minucianus in the prosecution of what had
been agreed among them; for, as Cherea entered into the court,
the report runs, that a voice came from among the multitude to
encourage him, which bid him finish what he was about, and
take the opportunity that Providence afforded; and that Cherea
at first suspected that some one of the conspirators had betrayed
him, and he was caught, but at length perceived that it was by
way of exhortation. Whether somebody*, that was conscious
* Just such a voice, as this is related to be, came, and that from an unknown
original also, to the famous Polycarp, as he was going to martyrdom, bidding
him "play the man;" as the church of Smyrna assures us in their account
of that his martyrdom, sect. 9.
C. I.
111
ANTIQUITIES of the JEWS.
of what he was about, gave a signal for his encouragement, or
whether it were God himself, who looks upon the actions of men,
that encouraged him to go on boldly in his design, is uncertain.
The plot was now communicated to a great many, and they
were all in their armour; some of the conspirators being sena-
tors, and some of the equestrian order, and as many of the sol-
diery as were made acquainted with it; for there was not one of
them who would not reckon it a part of his happiness to kill
Caius, and on that account they were all very zealous in the
affair, by what means soever any one could come at it; that he
might not be behindhand in these virtuous designs, but might be
ready with all his alacrity or power, both by words and actions,
to complete this slaughter of a tyrant. And besides these, Cal-
listus also, who was a freedman of Caius, and was the only man
that had arrived at the greatest degree of power under him;
such a power, indeed, as was in a manner equal to the power
of the tyrant himself, by the dread that all men had of him, and
by the great riches he had acquired; for he took bribes most
plenteously, and committed injuries without bounds, and was
more extravagant in the use of his power in unjust proceedings
than any other. He also knew the disposition of Caius to be
implacable, and never to be turned from what he had resolved
on.
He had withal many other reasons why he thought himself
in danger, and the vastness of his wealth was not one of the least
of them; on which account he privately ingratiated himself with
Claudius, and transferred his courtship to him, out of this hope,
• that in case, upon the removal of Caius, the government should
come to him, his interest in such changes should lay a foundation
for his preserving his dignity under him, since he laid in before-
hand a stock of merit, and did Claudius good offices in his pro-
motion. He had also the boldness to pretend, that he had been
persuaded to make away with Claudius by poisoning him, but
had still invented ten thousand excuses for delaying to do it.
But it seems probable to me, that Callistus only counterfeited
this in order to ingratiate himself with Claudius; for if Caius
had been in earnest resolved to take off Claudius, he would not
have admitted of Callistus's excuse, nor would Callistus, if he
had been enjoined to do such an act as was desired by Caius,
have put it off, nor, if he had disobeyed those injunctions of his
master, had he escaped immediate punishment; while Claudius
was preserved from the madness of Caius by a certain divine
providence, and Callistus pretended to such a piece of merit as
he no way deserved.
11. However, the execution of Cherea's designs was put off
from day to day by the sloth of many therein concerned; for as
to Cherea himself, he would not willingly make any delay in that
execution, thinking every time a fit time for it; for frequent
112
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
opportunities offered themselves; as when Caius went up to the
Capitol to sacrifice for his daughter, or when he stood upon his
royal palace, and threw gold and silver pieces of money among
the people, he might be pushed down headlong, because the top
of the palace, that looks toward the market-place, was very
high; and also when he celebrated the mysteries, which he had
appointed at that time; for he was then no way secluded from
the people, but solicitous to do every thing carefully and de-
cently, and was free from all suspicion, that he should be then
assaulted by any body; and although the gods should afford him
no divine assistance to enable him to take away his life, yet had
he strength himself sufficient to dispatch Caius, even without a
sword. Thus was Cherea angry at his fellow-conspirators, for
fear they should suffer a proper opportunity to pass by; and
they were themselves sensible that he had just cause to be angry
at them, and that his eagerness was for their advantage; yet did
they desire he would have a little longer patience, lest upon any
disappointment they might meet with, they should put the city
into disorder, and an inquisition should be made after the con-
spiracy, and should render the courage of those that were to
attack Caius without success, while he would then secure him-
self more carefully than ever against them; that it would there-
fore be the best to set about the work when the shows were
exhibited in the palace. These shows were acted in honour of
that Cæsar* who first of all changed the popular government,
and transferred it to himself; galleries being fixed before the
palace, where the Romans that were Patricians became specta-
tors, together with their children and their wives, and Cæsar
himself was to be also a spectator; and they reckoned among
those many ten thousands, who would there be crowded into a
narrow compass, they should have a favourable opportunity to
make their attempt upon him as he came in; because his guards
that should protect him, if any of them should have a mind to
do it, would not here be able to give him any assistance.
12. Cherea consented to this delay; and when the shows were
exhibited, it was resolved to do the work the first day. But for-
tune, which allowed a farther delay to his slaughter, was too
hard for their foregoing resolution; and as three days of the re-
gular time for these shows were now over, they had much ado to
get the business done on the last day. Then Cherea called the
conspirators together, and spake thus to them: "So much time
passed away without effect is a reproach to us, as delaying to go
through such a virtuous design as we are engaged in; but more
fatal will this delay prove, if we be discovered, and the design be
* Here Josephus supposes that it was Augustus, and not Julius Cæsar, who
first changed the Roman commonwealth into a monarchy; for these shows were
in honour of Augustus, as we shall learn in the next section but one.
C. I.
113
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
་
frustrated; for Caius will then become more cruel in his unjust
proceedings. Do not we see how long we deprive all our friends
of their liberty, and give Caius leave still to tyrannize over them?
while we ought to have procured them security for the future, and,
by laying a foundation for the happiness of others, gain to our-
selves great admiration and honour for all time to come.' "Now,
while the conspirators had nothing tolerable to say by way
contradiction, and yet did not quite relish what they were doing,
but stood silent and astonished, he said farther, "O my brave
comrades, why do we make such delays? Do not you see that this
is the last day of these shows, and that Caius is about to go to
sea? for he is preparing to sail to Alexandria, in order to see
Egypt. Is it therefore for your honour to let a man go out of
your hands who is a reproach to mankind, and to permit him
to go after a pompous manner triumphing both at land and sea?
Shall not we be justly ashamed of ourselves, if we give leave to
some Egyptian or other, who shall think his injuries insufferable
to freemen, to kill him? As for myself, I will no longer bear
your slow proceedings, but will expose myself to the dangers of
the enterprise this very day, and bear cheerfully whatsoever shall
be the consequence of the attempt; nor, let them be ever so
great, will I put them off any longer; for to a wise and coura-
geous man, what can be more miserable that, while I am alive,
any one else should kill Caius, and deprive me of the honour of
so virtuous an action ?"
13. When Cherea had spoken thus, he zealously set about
the work, and inspired courage into the rest to go on with it,
and they were all eager to fall to it without farther delay. So
he was at the palace in the morning, with his equestrian sword
girt on him; for it was the custom that the tribunes should ask
for the watchword with their swords on, and this was the day on
which Cherea was, by custom, to receive the watchword; and
the multitude were already come to the palace, to be soon
enough for seeing the shows, and that in great crowds, and one
tumultuously crushing another, while Caius was delighted with
this eagerness of the multitude; for which reason there was no
order observed in the seating men, nor was any peculiar place
appointed for the senators, or for the equestrian order; but they
sat at random, men and women together, and the freemen
were mixed with the slaves. So Caius came out in a solemn
manner, and offered sacrifice to Augustus Cæsar, in whose
honour indeed these shows were celebrated. Now it happened,
upon the fall of a certain priest, that the garment of Asprenas,
a senator, was filled with blood, which made Caius laugh, al-
though this was an evident omen to Asprenas, for he was slain.
at the same time with Caius. It is also related, that Caius was
VOL. III.
I
!
114
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
that day, contrary to his usual custom, so very affable and good-
natured in his conversation, that every one of those that were
present were astonished at it. After the sacrifice was over,
Caius betook himself to see the shows, and sat down for that pur-
pose, as did also the principal of his friends sit near him. Now
the parts of the theatre were so fastened together as it used to
be every year, in the manner following: it had two doors, the
one door led to the open air, the other was for going into or
going out of the cloisters, that those within the theatre might not
be thereby disturbed; but out of one gallery there went an in-
ward passage, parted into partitions also, which led into another
gallery, to give room to the combatants, and to the musicians to
go out as occasion served. When the multitude were set down,
and Cherea, with the other tribunes, were set down also, and the
right corner of the theatre was allotted to Cæsar, one Vatinius,
a senator, commander of the pretorian band, asked of Cluvius,
one that sat by him, and was of consular dignity also, "Whether
he had heard any thing of news or not?" but took care that
nobody should hear what he said; and when Cluvius replied,
that he had heard no news," "Know then," said Vatinius,
"that the game of the slaughter of tyrants is to be played this
day." But Cluvius replied, "O brave comrade, hold thy peace,
lest some of the Achaians hear thy tale." And as there was
abundance of autumnal fruit thrown among the spectators, and
a great number of birds, that were of great value to such as pos-
sessed them, on account of their rareness, Caius was pleased
with the birds fighting for the fruits, and with the violence
wherewith the spectators seized upon them; and here he per-
ceived two prodigies that happened there; for an actor was in-
troduced, by whom a leader of robbers was crucified, and the
pantomime brought in a play called Cinyras, wherein he himself
was to be slain, as well as his daughter Myrrha, and wherein
a great deal of fictitious blood was shed, both about him that
was crucified, and also about Cinyras. It is also confessed,
that this was the same day wherein Pausanias, a friend of Philip,
the son of Amyntas who was king of Macedonia, slew him, as he
was entering into the theatre. And now Caius was in doubt
whether he should tarry to the end of the shows, because it was
the last day, or whether he should not go first to the bath, and to
dinner, and then return and sit down as before. Hereupon
Minucianus, who sat over Caius, and was afraid that the oppor-
tunity should fail them, got up, because he saw Cherea was al-
ready gone out, and made haste out, to confirm him in his re-
solution; but Caius took hold of his garment, in an obliging
way, and said to him, "O brave man, whither art thou going?"
Whereupon, out of reverence to Cæsar, as it seemed, he sat down
again; but his fear prevailed over him, and in a little time he
C. I.
115
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
got up again, and then Caius did no way oppose his going out,
as thinking that he went out to perform some necessities of
nature. And Asprenas, who was one of the confederates, per-
suaded Caius to go out to the bath, and to dinner, and then to
come in again, as desirous that what had been resolved on might
be brought to a conclusion immediately.
*
14. So Cherea's associates placed themselves in order, as the
time would permit them, and they were obliged to labour hard,
that the place which was appointed them should not be left by
them; but they had an indignation at the tediousness of the de-
lays, and that what they were about should be put off any longer,
for it was already about the ninth hour of the day; and Che-
rea, upon Caius's tarrying so long, had a great mind to go in,
and fall upon him in his seat, although he foresaw that this could
not be done without much bloodshed, both of the senators and
of those of the equestrian order that were present; and although
he knew this must happen, yet had he a great mind to do so, as
thinking it a right thing to procure security and freedom to all, at
the expense of such as might perish at the same time. And as
they were just going back into the entrance to the theatre, word
was brought them that Caius was arisen, whereby a tumult was
made; hereupon the conspirators thrust away the crowd, under
pretence as if Caius was angry at them, but in reality as desirous
to have a quiet place, that should have none in it to defend him
while they set about Caius's slaughter. Now Claudius, his uncle,
was gone out before, and Marcus Vicinius, his sister's husband,
as also Valerius of Asia: whom though they had had such a mind
to put out of their places, the reverence to their dignity hindered
them so to do; then followed Caius, with Paulus Arruntius; and
because Caius was now gotten within the palace, he left the direct
road, along which those his servants stood that were in waiting,
and by which road Claudius had gone out before; Caius turned
aside into a private narrow passage, in order to go to the place
for bathing, as also in order to take a view of the boys that came
out of Asia, who were sent thence, partly to sing hymns in these
mysteries which were now celebrated, and partly to dance in the
pyrric way of dancing upon the theatres. So Cherea met him,
and asked for the watchword; upon Caius's giving him one of
his ridiculous words, he immediately reproached him, and drew
his sword, and gave him a terrible stroke with it, yet was not
this stroke mortal. And although there be those that say, it
was so contrived on purpose by Cherea, that Caius should not
be killed at one blow, but should be punished more severely by
a multitude of wounds; yet does this story appear to me incre-
dible, because the fear men are under in such actions does not
* Suetonius says, Caius was slain about the seventh hour of the day: Josephus
about the ninth. The series of the narration favours Josephus.
1 2
116
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
1
allow them to use their reason. And if Cherea was of that mind,
I esteem him the greatest of all fools, in pleasing himself with
his spite against Caius, rather than immediately procuring safety
to himself and to his confederates from the dangers they were in;
because there might many things still happen for helping Caius's
escape, if he had not already given up the ghost; for certainly
Cherea would have regard, not so much to the punishment of
Caius, as to the affliction himself and his friends were in, while
it was in his power, after such success, to keep silent, and to
escape the wrath of Caius's defenders, and not leave it in un-
certainty whether he should gain the end he aimed at or not,
and after an unreasonable manner to act as if he had a mind to
ruin himself, and lose the opportunity that lay before him; but
every body may guess as he pleases about this matter. How-
ever, Caius was staggered with the pain that blow gave him;
for the stroke of the sword falling in the middle between the
shoulder and the neck, was hindered by the first bone of the breast
from proceeding any farther. Nor did he either cry out, in such
astonishment was he, nor did he call out for any of his friends:
whether it were that he had no confidence in them, or that his
mind was otherwise disordered, but he groaned under the pain
he endured, and presently went forward and fled; when Corne-
lius Sabinus, who was already prepared in mind so to do, thrust
him down upon his knee, where many of them stood round about
him, and struck him with their swords, and they cried out, and
encouraged one another all at once to strike him again; but all
agree that Aquila gave him the finishing stroke, which directly
killed him. But one may justly ascribe this act to Cherea; for
although many concurred in the act itself, yet was he the first
contriver of it, and began long before all the rest to prepare for
it, and was the first man that boldly spake of it to the rest; and
upon their admission of what he said about it, he got the dis-
persed conspirators together; he prepared every thing after a
prudent manner, and, by suggesting good advice, showed him-
self far superior to the rest, and made obliging speeches to them,
insomuch that he even compelled them all to go on, who other-
wise had not courage enough for that purpose; and when op-
portunity served to use his sword in hand, he appeared first of
all ready so to do, and gave the first blow in this virtuous slaugh-
ter; he also brought Caius easily into the power of the rest, and
almost killed him himself: insomuch that it is but just to ascribe
all the rest did, to the advice, and bravery, and labours of the
hands of Cherea.
15. Thus did Caius come to his end, and lay dead, by the
many wounds which had been given him. Now Cherea and his
associates, upon Caius's slaughter, saw that it was impossible for
them to save themselves, if they should all go the same way,
C. I. .
117
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
partly on account of the astonishment they were under; for it
was no small danger they had incurred by killing an emperor,
who was honoured and loved by the madness of the people, espe-
cially when the soldiers were likely to make a bloody inquiry
after his murderers. The passages also were narrow wherein
the work was done, which were also crowded with a great mul-
titude of Caius's attendants, and of such of the soldiers as were
of the emperor's guard that day; whence it was that they went
by other ways, and came to the house of Germanicus, the father
of Caius, whom they had now killed (which house adjoined to
the palace; for while the edifice was one, it was built in its
several parts by those particular persons who had been emper-
ors, and those parts bare the names of those that built them, or
the name of him who had begun to build any of its parts). So
they got away from the insults of the multitude, and then were
for the present out of danger, that is, so long as the misfortune
which had overtaken the emperor was not known. The Ger-
mans were the first who perceived that Caius was slain. These
Germans were Caius's guard, and carried the name of the country
whence they were chosen, and composed the Celtic legion. The
men of that country are naturally passionate, which is commonly
the temper of some other of the barbarous nations also, as being
not used to consider much about what they do; they are of
robust bodies, and fall upon their enemies as soon as ever they
are attacked by them, and which way soever they go, they per-
form great exploits. When, therefore, these German guards
understood that Caius was slain, they were very sorry for it,
because they did not use their reason in judging about public
affairs, but measured all by the advantages themselves received,
Caius being beloved by them because of the money he gave
them, by which he had purchased their kindness to him; so they
drew their swords, and Sabinus led them on. He was one of
the tribunes, not by the means of the virtuous actions of his
progenitors, for he had been a gladiator, but he had obtained
that post in the army by his having a robust body. So these
Germans marched along the houses in quest of Cæsar's murder-
ers, and cut Asprenas to pieces, because he was the first man
they fell upon, and whose garment it was that the blood of the
sacrifices stained, as I have said already, and which foretold
that this his meeting the soldiers would not be for his good.
Then did Norbanus meet them, who was one of the principal
nobility of the city, and could show many generals of armies
among his ancestors; but they paid no regard to his dignity; yet
was he of such great strength, that he wrested the sword of the
first of those that assaulted him out of his hands, and appeared
plainly not to be willing to die without a struggle for his life,
until he was surrounded by a great number of assailants, and died
118
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
by the multitude of the wounds which they gave him. The
third man was Anteius, a senator, and a few others with him.
He did not meet with these Germans by chance, as the rest did
before, but came to show his hatred to Caius, and because he
loved to see Caius lie dead with his own eyes, and took a plea-
sure in that sight; for Caius had banished Anteius's father, who
was of the same name with himself, and, not being satisfied with
that, he sent out his soldiers, and slew him; so he was come to
rejoice at the sight of him, now he was dead. But as the house
was now all in a tumult, when he was aiming to hide himself, he
could not escape that accurate search which the Germans made,
while they barbarously slew those that were guilty and those
that were not guilty, and this equally so. And thus were these
[three] persons slain.
16. But when the rumour that Caius was slain reached the
theatre, they were astonished at it, and could not believe it; even
some that entertained his destruction with great pleasure, and
were more desirous of its happening than almost any other satis-
faction that could come to them, were under such a fear, that
they could not believe it. There were those also who greatly.
distrusted it, because they were unwilling that any such, thing
should come to Caius; nor could believe it, though it were ever
so true, because they thought no man could possibly have so
much power as to kill Caius. These were the women, and the
children, and the slaves, and some of the soldiery. This last
sort had taken his pay, and in a manner tyrannized with him, and
had abused the best of the citizens, in being subservient to his
unjust commands, in order to gain honours and advantages to
themselves; but for the women, and the youth, they had been
inveigled with shows, and the fightings of the gladiators, and
certain distributions of flesh-meat among them, which things in
pretence were designed for the pleasing of the multitude, but in
reality to satiate the barbarous cruelty and madness of Caius. The
slaves also were sorry, because they were by Caius allowed to accuse
and to despise their masters, and they could have recourse to his
assistance, when they had unjustly affronted them; for he was
very easy in believing them against their masters, even when they
accused them falsely; and if they would discover what money their
masters had, they might soon obtain both riches and liberty, as the
rewards of their accusations, because the reward of these inform-
ers was the eighth* part of the the criminal's substance. As
to the nobles, although the report appeared credible to some of
them, either because they knew of the plot beforehand, or be-
cause they wished it might be true; however, they concealed not
* The rewards proposed by the Roman laws to informers were sometimes an
eighth part of the criminal's goods, as here, and sometimes a fourth part, as
Spanheim assures us, from Suetonius and Tacitus..
C. I.
119
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
only the joy they had at the relation of it, but that they had
heard any thing at all about it. These last acted so out of the
fear they had, that if the report proved false they should be
punished, for having so soon let men know their minds. But
those that knew Caius was dead, because they were partners with
the conspirators, they concealed all still more cautiously, as not
knowing one another's minds; and fearing lest they should speak
of it to some of those to whom the continuance of tyranny was
advantageous; and if Caius should prove to be alive, they might
be informed against and punished. And another report went
about, that although Caius had been wounded indeed, yet was
not he dead, but alive still, and under the physician's hands.
Nor was any one looked upon by another as faithful enough to
be trusted, and to whom any one would open his mind: for he
was either a friend to Caius, and therefore suspected to favour
his tyranny, or he was one that hated him, who therefore might
be suspected to deserve the less credit, because of his ill will to
him. Nay, it was said by some (and this indeed it was that de-
prived the nobility of their hopes, and made them sad), that
Caius was in a condition to despise the dangers he had been in,
and took no care of healing his wounds, but was gotten away
into the market place, and, bloody as he was, was making an
harangue to the people. And these were the conjectural reports
of those that were so unreasonable as to endeavour to raise
tumults, which they turned different ways, according to the
opinions of the hearers. Yet did they not leave their seats, for
fear of being accused, if they should go out before the rest; for
they should not be sentenced according to the real intention with
which they went out, but acording to the supposals of the ac-
cusers and of the judges.
17. But now a multitude of Germans had surrounded the
theatre with their swords drawn; all the spectators looked for
nothing but death, and at every one's coming in a fear seized
upon them, as if they were to be cut in pieces immediately; and
in great distress they were, as neither having courage enough to
go out of the theatre, nor believing themselves safe from dan-
gers if they tarried there. And when the Germans came upon
them, the cry was so great, that the theatre rang again with the
entreaties of the spectators to the soldiers, pleading that they
were entirely ignorant of every thing that related to such sedi-
tious contrivances, and that if there were already any sedition
raised, they knew nothing of it; they therefore begged that they
would spare them, and not punish those that had not the least
hand in such bold crimes as belonged to other persons, while
they neglected to search after such as had really done whatso-
ever it be that hath been done. Thus did these people appeal
to God, and deplore their infelicity with shedding of tears, and
120
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
beating their faces, and said every thing that the most imminent
danger, and the utmost concern for their lives, could dictate to
them. This brake the fury of the soldiers, and made them re-
pent of what they minded to do to the spectators, which would
have been the greatest instance of cruelty. And so it appeared
to even those savages, when they had once fixed the heads of
those that were slain with Asprenas upon the altar; at which
sight the spectators were sorely afflicted, both upon the consi-
deration of the dignity of the persons, and out of a commiseration
of their sufferings; nay, indeed, they were almost in as great
disorder at the prospect of the danger themselves were in, seeing
it was still uncertain whether they should entirely escape the like
calamity. Whence it was, that such as thoroughly and justly
hated Caius, could yet no way enjoy the pleasure of his death,
because they were themselves in jeopardy of perishing together
with him; nor had they hitherto any firm assurance of sur-
viving.
18. There was at this time one Euaristus Arruntius, a public
crier in the market, and therefore of a strong and audible voice,
who vied in wealth with the richest of the Romans, and was able
to do what he pleased in the city, both then and afterward.
This man put himself in the most mournful habit he could, al-
though he had a greater hatred against Caius than any one else;
his fear and his wise contrivance to gain his safety taught him so
to do, and prevailed over his present pleasure; so he put on
such a mournful dress as he would have done had he lost his
dearest friends in the world; this man came into the theatre, and
informed them of the death of Caius, and by this means put an
end to that state of ignorance the men had been in. Arruntius
also went round about the pillars, and called out to the Ger-
mans, as did the tribunes with him, bidding them put up their
swords, and telling them that Caius was dead. And this procla-
mation it was plainly which saved those that were collected
together in the theatre, and all the rest who any way met the
Germans; for while they had hopes that Caius had still any
breath in him, they abstained from no sort of mischief; and such
an abundant kindness they still had for Caius, that they would
willingly have prevented the plot against him, and procured his
escape from so sad a misfortune at the expense of their own
lives. But they now left off the warm zeal they had to punish
his enemies, now they were fully satisfied that Caius was dead,
because it was now in vain for them to show their zeal and
kindness to him, when he who should reward them was perished.
They were also afraid that they should be punished by the
senate, if they should go on in doing such injuries, that is,
in case the authority of the supreme governor should revert to
them. And thus at length a stop was put, though not without
C. I.
121
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
difficulty, to that rage which possessed the Germans on account
of Caius's death.
19. But Cherea was so much afraid for Minucianus, lest he
should light upon the Germans, now they were in their fury, that
he went and spake to every one of the soldiers, and prayed them
to take care of his preservation, and made himself great inquiry
about him, lest he should have been slain. And for Clement,
he let Minucianus go when he was brought to him, and, with
many other of the senators, affirmed the action was right, and
commended the virtue of those that contrived it, and had cou-
rage enough to execute it; and said, that tyrants do indeed
please themselves and look big for a while, upon having the
power to act unjustly; but do not however go happily out of
the world, because they are hated by the virtuous; and that
Caius, together with all this unhappiness, was become a conspi-
rator against himself, before these other men who attacked him
did so; and by becoming intolerable, in setting aside the wise
provision the laws had made, taught his dearest friends to treat
him as an enemy; insomuch, that, although in common discourse
these conspirators were those that slew Caius, yet that, in reality,
he lies now dead as perishing by his own self."
20. Now by this time the people in the theatre were arisen
from their seats, and those that were within made a very great
disturbance; the cause of which was this, that the spectators
were too hasty in getting away. There was also one Alcyon, a
physician, who hurried away, as if it were to cure those that were
wounded, and under that pretence, he sent those that were with
him to fetch what things were necessary for the healing those
wounded persons, but in reality to get them clear of the present
dangers they were in. Now the senate, during this interval, had
met, and the people also assembled together in the accustomed
forum, and were both employed in searching after the murderers
of Caius. The people did it very zealously, but the senate in
appearance only; for there was present Valerius of Asia, one
that had been consul; this man went to the people, as they were
in disorder, and very uneasy that they could not yet discover who
they were that had murdered the emperor; he was then ear-
nestly asked by them all, "Who it was that had done it ?" He
replied, "I wish I had been the man." The consuls* also pub-
lished an edict, wherein they accused Caius, and gave order to
the people then got together, and to the soldiers, to go home,
and gave the people hopes of the abatement of the oppressions
they lay under; and promised the soldiers, if they lay quiet as
they used to do, and would not go abroad to do mischief unjustly,
* These consuls are named in the War of the Jews, B. ii. ch. xi. sect. 1,
Sentius Saturninus, and Pomponius Secundus, as Spanheim notes here. The
speech of the former of them is set down in the next chapter, sect. 2.
122
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
that they would bestow rewards upon them; for there was rea-
son to fear lest the city might suffer harm by their wild and un-
governable behaviour, if they should once betake themselves to
spoil the citizens or plunder the temples. And now the whole
multitude of the senators were assembled together, and espe-
cially those that had conspired to take away the life of Caius,
who put on at this time an air of great assurance, and appeared
with great magnanimity, as if the administration of the public
affairs were already devolved upon them.
CHAP. II.
How the Senators determined to restore the Democracy; but the
Soldiers were for preserving the Monarchy. Concerning the
Slaughter of Caius's Wife and Daughter. A Character of
Caius's Morals.
§ 1. WH the public affairs were in this posture, Claudius was
on the sudden hurried away out of his house; for the soldiers had
a meeting together, and when they had debated about what was
to be done, they saw that a democracy was incapable of mana-
ging such a vast weight of public affairs; and that if it should
be set up, it would not be for their advantage: and in case any
one of those already in the government should obtain the supreme
power, it would in all respects be to their grief, if they were not
assisting to him in that advancement; that it would therefore be
right for them, while the public affairs were unsettled, to choose
Claudius emperor, who was uncle to the deceased Caius, and of
a superior dignity and worth to every one of those that were as-
sembled together in the senate, both on account of the virtues of
his ancestors, and of the learning he had acquired in his educa-
tion, and who, if once settled in the empire, would reward them
according to their deserts, and bestow largesses upon them.
These were their consultations, and they executed the same im-
mediately. Claudius was therefore seized upon suddenly by the
soldiery. But Cneas Sentius Saturninus, although he under-
stood that Claudius was seized, and that he intended to claim
the government, unwillingly indeed in appearance, but in reality
by his own free consent, stood up in the senate, and without
being dismayed, made an exhortatory oration to them, and such
a one indeed as was fit for men of freedom and generosity, and
spake thus:
2. "Although it be a thing incredible, O Romans, because of
the great length of time, that so unexpected an event hath hap-
pened, yet are we now in possession of liberty. How long in-
deed this will last is uncertain, and lies at the disposal of the
gods, whose grant it is; yet such it is as is sufficient to make us
C. II.
123
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
rejoice, and be happy for the present, although we may soon be
deprived of it; for one hour is sufficient to those that are ex-
ercised in virtue, wherein we may live with a mind accountable
only to ourselves, in our own country, now free, and governed
by such laws as this country once flourished under. As for
myself, I cannot remember our former time of liberty, as being
born after it was gone; but I am beyond measure filled with
joy at the thoughts of our present freedom. I also esteem those,
that were born and brought up in that our former liberty, happy
men, and that those men are worthy of no less esteem than the
gods themselves, who have given us a taste of it in this age;
and I heartily wish, that this quiet enjoyment of it, which we
have at present, might continue to all ages. However, this
single day may suffice for our youth, as well as for us that are
in years.
It will seem an age to our old men, if they might die
during its happy duration: it may also be for the instruction of the
younger sort, what kind of virtue those men, from whose loins
we are derived, were exercised in. As for ourselves, our busi-
ness is, during this space of time, to live virtuously, than which
nothing can be more to our advantage; which course of virtue
it is alone that can preserve our liberty; for, as to our ancient
state, I have heard of it by the relations of others; but as to our
later state, during my lifetime, I have known it by experience,
and learned thereby what mischief tyrannies have brought upon
this commonwealth, discouraging all virtue, and depriving per-
sons of magnanimity of their liberty, and proving the teachers
of flattery and slavish fear, because it leaves the public adminis-
tration not to be governed by wise laws, but by the humour of
those that govern. For since Julius Cæsar took it into his head
to dissolve our democracy, and, by overbearing the regular sys-
tem of our laws, to bring disorders into our administration, and
to get above right and justice, and to be a slave to his own in-
clinations, there is no kind of misery but what hath tended to
the subversion of this city; while all those that have succeeded
him have striven one with another to overthrow the ancient laws
of their country, and have left it destitute of such citizens as
were of generous principles; because they thought it tended to
their safety to have vicious men to converse withal, and not only
to break the spirits of those that were best esteemed for their
virtue, but to resolve upon their utter destruction. Of all which
emperors, who have been many in number, and who laid upon
us insufferable hardships during the times of their government,
this Caius, who hath been slain to-day, hath brought more ter-
rible calamities upon us than did all the rest, not only by exer-
cising his ungoverned rage upon his fellow-citizens, but also upon
his kindred and friends, and alike upon all others, and by inflict-
ing still greater miseries upon them, as punishments, which they
124
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
never deserved, he being equally furious against men and against
the gods. For tyrants are not content to gain their sweet plea-
sure, and this by acting injuriously, and in the vexation they bring
both upon men's estates, and their wives: but they look upon
that to be their principal advantage, when they can utterly over-
throw the entire families of their enemies; while all lovers of
liberty are the enemies of tyranny. Nor can those that patiently
endure what miseries they bring on them, gain their friendship:
for as they are conscious of the abundant mischiefs they have
brought on these men, and how magnanimously they have borne
their hard fortunes, they cannot but be sensible what evils they
have done, and thence only depend on security from what they
are suspicious of, if it may be in their power to take them quite
out of the world. Since then we are now gotten clear of such
great misfortunes, and are only accountable to one another (which
form of government affords us the best assurance of our present
concord, and promises us the best security from evil designs, and
will be most for our own glory in settling the city in good order),
you ought, every one of you in particular, to make provision for
his own, and, in general, for the public utility; or, on the con-
trary, they may declare their dissent to such things as have been
proposed, and this without any hazard of danger to come upon
them; because they have now no lord set over them, who, with-
out fear of punishment, could do mischief to the city, and had
an uncontrollable power to take off those that freely declared
their opinions. Nor has any thing so much contributed to this
increase of tyranny of late as sloth, and a timorous forbearance
of contradicting the emperor's will; while men had an over-great
inclination to the sweetness of peace, and had learned to live
like slaves, and as many of us as either heard of intolerable ca-
lamities that happened at a distance from us, or saw the miseries
that were near us, out of the dread of dying virtuously, endured
a death joined with the utmost infamy. We ought then, in the
first place, to decree the greatest honours we are able to those
that have taken off the tyrant, especially to Cherea Cassius.
for this one man, with the assistance of the gods, hath, by his
counsel and by his actions, been the procurer of our liberty.
Nor ought we to forget him now we have recovered our liberty,
who, under the foregoing tyranny, took counsel beforehand, and
beforehand hazarded himself for our liberties; but ought to de-
cree him proper honours, and thereby freely declare, that he
from the beginning acted with our approbation. And certainly
it is a very excellent thing, and what becomes freemen, to re-
quite their benefactors, as this man hath been a benefactor to us
all, though not at all like Cassius and Brutus, who slew Caius
Julius [Cæsar]; for those men laid the foundations of sedition
and civil wars in our city, but this man, together with his slaugh-
C. 11.
125
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
ter of the tyrant, hath set our city free from all those sad mise-
ries which arose from the tyranny*.”
3. And this was the purport of Sentius's oration, which was
received with pleasure by the senators, and by as many of the
equestrian order as were present. And now one Trebellius Max-
imus rose up hastily, and took off Sentius's finger a ring, which
had a stone, with the image of Caius engraved upon it, and
which, in his zeal in speaking, and his earnestness in doing what
he was about, as it was supposed, he had forgotten to take off
himself. This sculpture was broken immediately. But, as it
was now far in the night, Cherea demanded of the consuls the
watchword, who gave him this word, Liberty. These facts were
the subjects of admiration to themselves, and almost incredible:
for it was a hundred years since the democracy had been laid
aside, when this giving the watchword returned to the consuls;
for, before the city was subject to tyrants, they were the com-
manders of the soldiers. But, when Cherea had received that
watchword, he delivered it to those who were on the senate's
side, which were four regiments, who esteemed the government
without emperors to be preferable to tyranny.
So these went
away with their tribunes. The people also now departed very
joyful, full of hope and of courage, as having recovered their
former democracy, and were no longer under an emperor; and
Cherea was in a very great esteem with them.
4. And now Cherea was very uneasy that Caius's daughter
and wife were still alive, and that all his family did not perish
with him, since whosoever was left of them must be left for the
ruin of the city and of the laws. Moreover, in order to finish
this matter with the utmost zeal, and in order to satisfy his ha-
tred of Caius, he sent Julius Lupus, one of the tribunes, to kill
Caius's wife and daughter. They proposed this office to Lu-
pus as to a kinsman of Clement, that he might be so far a par-
taker of this murder of the tyrant, and might rejoice in the
virtue of having assisted his fellow-citizens, and that he might
appear to have been a partaker with those that were first in their
designs against him. Yet did this action appear to some of the
conspirators to be too cruel, as to this using such severity to a
woman, because Caius did more indulge his own ill nature than
use her advice in all that he did; from which ill nature it was
* In this oration of Sentius Saturninus, we may see the great value virtuous
men put upon public liberty, and the sad misery they underwent, while they were
tyrannized over by such emperors as Caius. See Josephus's own short but pithy
reflection at the end of the chapter: "So difficult," says he, "it is for those to
obtain the virtue that is necessary to a wise man, who have the absolute power
to do what they please without control.”
+ Hence we learn that, in the opinion of Saturninus, the sovereign authority
of the consuls and senate had been taken away just 100 years before the death
of Caius, A. D. 41, or on the 60th year before the Christian era, when the first
triumvirate began under Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus,
3
4
126
B. XIX,
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
that the city was in so desperate a condition with the miseries
that were brought on it, and the flower of the city was destroyed.
But others accused her of giving her consent to these things;
nay, they ascribed all that Caius had done to her as the cause
of it, and said, she had given a potion to Caius, which had made
him obnoxious to her, and had tied him down to love her by such
evil methods; insomuch that she, having rendered him distracted,
was become the author of all the mischiefs that had befallen the
Romans, and that habitable world which was subject to them.
So that at length it was determined that she must die; nor could
those of the contrary opinion at all prevail to have her saved;
and Lupus was sent accordingly. Nor was there any delay made
in executing what he went about, but he was subservient to those
that sent him on the first opportunity, as desirous to be no way
blamable in what might be done for the advantage of the peo-
ple. So, when he was come into the palace, he found Cesonia,
who was Caius's wife, lying by her husband's dead body, which
also lay down on the ground, and destitute of all such things as
the law allows to the dead, and all over herself besmeared with
the blood of her husband's wounds, and bewailing the great
affliction she was under, her daughter lying by her also; and
nothing else was heard in these her circumstances, but her com-
plaint of Caius, as if he had not regarded what she had often told
him of beforehand; which words of hers were taken in a different
sense even at that time, and are now esteemed equally ambigu-
ous by those that hear of them, and are still interpreted accord-
ing to the different inclinations of people. For some said that
the words denoted, that she had advised him to leave off his mad
behaviour and his barbarous cruelty to the citizens, and to go-
vern the public with moderation and virtue, lest he should perish
by the same way, upon their using him as he had used them.
But some said, that, as certain words had passed concerning the
conspirators, she desired Caius to make no delay, but immedi-
ately to put them all to death, and this whether they were guilty
or not, and that thereby he would be out of the fear of any
danger; and that this was what she reproached him for, when
she advised him so to do, but he was too slow and tender in the
matter. And this was what Cesonia said, and what the opinions
of men were about it. But when she saw Lupus approach, she
showed him Caius's dead body, and persuaded him to come
nearer, with lamentation and tears; and as she perceived that
Lupus was in disorder, and approached her in order to execute
some design disagreeable to himself, she was well aware for
what purpose he came, and stretched out her naked throat, and
that very cheerfully to him, bewailing her case, like one that
utterly despaired of her life, and bidding him not to boggle at
finishing the tragedy they had resolved upon relating to her.
C. II.
127
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS:
So she boldly received her death's wound at the hand of Lupus,
as did the daughter after her. So Lupus made haste to inform
Cherea of what he had done.
5. This was the end of Caius, after he had reigned four years
within four months. He was, even before he came to be em-
peror, ill natured, and one that had arrived at the utmost pitch
of wickedness; a slave to his pleasures, and a lover of calumny;
greatly affected by every terrible accident, and on that account of
a very murderous disposition, where he durst show it. He en-
joyed his exorbitant power to this only purpose, to injure those
who least deserved it, with unreasonable insolence, and got his
wealth by murder and injustice. He laboured to appear above
regarding either what was divine or agreeable to the laws, but
was a slave to the commendations of the populace; and what-
soever the laws determined to be shameful, and punished, that
he esteemed more honourable than what was virtuous. He was
unmindful of his friends, how intimate soever, and though they
were persons of the highest character; and, if he was once an-
gry at any of them, he would inflict punishment upon them on
the smallest occasions, and esteemed every man that endeavoured
to lead a virtuous life his enemy. And whatsoever he commanded
he would not admit of any contradiction to his inclinations;
whence it was that he had criminal conversation with his own
sister*; from which occasion chiefly it was also, that a bitter
hatred first sprung up against him among the citizens, that sort
of incest not having been known of a long time; and so this
provoked men to distrust him, and to hate him that was guilty
of it. And for any great or royal work that he ever did, which
might be for the present and for future ages, nobody can name
any such, but only the haven that he made about Rhegium and
Sicily, for reception of the ships that brought corn from Egypt;
which was indeed a work, without dispute, very great in itself,
and of very great advantage to the navigation. Yet was not this
work brought to perfection by him, but was the one half of it
left imperfect, by reason of his want of application to it; the
cause of which was this, that he employed his studies about use-
less matters, and that by spending his money upon such pleasures
as concerned no one's benefit but his own, he could not exert his
liberality in things that were undeniably of great consequence.
Otherwise he was an excellent orator, and thoroughly acquainted
with the Greek tongue, as well as with his own country or Ro-
man language. He was also able off hand and readily to give
* Spanheim here notes from Suetonius, that the name of Caius's sister, with
whom he was guilty of incest, was Drusilla; and that Suetonius adds, he was
guilty of the same crime with all his sisters also. He notes farther that Suetonius
omits the mention of the haven for ships, which our author esteems the only pub-
lic work for the good of the present and future ages which Caius left behind
him, though in an imperfect condition.
7
128
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
answers to compositions made by others, of considerable length
and accuracy. He was also more skilful in persuading others
to very great things than any one else, and this from a natural
affability of temper, which had been improved by much exercise
and pains-taking; for as he was the grandson* of the brother of
Tiberius, whose successor he was, this was a strong inducement
to his acquiring of learning, because Tiberius aspired after the
highest pitch of that sort of reputation; and Caius aspired after
the like glory for eloquence, being induced thereto by the let-
ters of his kinsman and his emperor. He was also among the
first rank of his own citizens. But the advantages he received
from his learning did not countervail the mischief he brought
upon himself in the exercise of his authority; so difficult it is for
those to obtain the virtue that is necessary for a wise man, who
have the absolute power to do what they please without control.
At the first he got himself such friends as were in all respects
the most worthy, and was greatly beloved by them, while he
imitated their zealous application to the learning and to the glo-
rious actions of the best men; but when he became insolent
towards them, they laid aside the kindness they had for him, and
began to hate him; from which hatred came that plot, which
they raised against him, and wherein he perished.
CHAP. III.
How Claudius was seized upon, and brought out of his House,
and brought to the Camp, and how the Senate sent an Embas-
sage to him.
§ 1. Now Claudius, as I said above, went out of that way along
which Caius was gone; and, as the family was in a mighty dis-
order upon the sad accident of the murder of Caius, he was in
great distress how to save himself, and was found to have hidden
himself in a certain narrow placet, though he had no other oc-
casion for suspicion of any dangers, besides the dignity of his
birth; for while he was a private man, he behaved himself with
moderation, and was contented with his present fortune, apply-
ing himself to learning, and especially to that of the Greeks,
and keeping himself entirely clear from every thing that might
bring on any disturbance. But as at this time the multitude
were under a consternation, and the whole palace was full of the
soldiers' madness, and the very emperor's guards seemed under
the like fear and disorder with private persons, the band called
* This Caius was the son of that excellent person Germanicus, who was the
son of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius the emperor.
+ This first place Claudius came to was inhabited, and called Hermeum, as
Spanheim here informs us from Suetonius in Claud, chap. x.
C. III.
129
1
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
pretorian, which was the purest part of the army, was in consul-
tation what was to be done at this juncture. Now all those that
were at this consultation had little regard to the punishment
Caius had suffered, because he justly deserved such his fortune;
but they were rather considering their own circumstances, how
they might take the best care of themselves, especially while the
Germans were busy in punishing the murderers of Caius; which
yet was rather done to gratify their own savage temper, than for
the good of the public: all which things disturbed Claudius, who
was afraid of his own safety, and this particularly because he
saw the heads of Asprenas and his partners carried about. His
station had been on a certain elevated place, whither a few steps
led him, and whither he had retired in the dark by himself.
But when Gratus, who was one of the soldiers that belonged to the
palace, saw him, but did not well know by his countenance who
he was because it was dark, though he could well judge that it
was a man who was privately there on some design, he came
nearer to him, and when Claudius desired that he would retire,
he discovered who he was, and owned him to be Claudius. So
he said to his followers, "This is a Germanicus*; come on, let
us choose him for our emperor." But when Claudius saw they
were making preparations for taking him away by force, and was
afraid they would kill him, as they had killed Caius, he besought
them to spare him, putting them in mind how quietly he had de-
meaned himself, and that he was unacquainted with what had
been done. Hereupon Gratus smiled upon him, and took him
by the right hand, and said, "Leave off, sir, these low thoughts
of saving yourself, while you ought to have greater thoughts, even
of obtaining the empire, which the gods, out of their concern
for the habitable world, by taking Caius out of the way, com-
mit to thy virtuous conduct. Go to, therefore, and accept of the
throne of thy ancestors." So they took him up and carried
him, because he was not then able to go on foot, such was his
dread and his joy at what was told him.
2. Now there was already gathered together about Gratus, a
great number of the guards; and when they saw Claudius car-
ried off, they looked with a sad countenance, as supposing that
he was carried to execution for the mischiefs that had been lately
done; while yet they thought him a man who never meddled with
public affairs all his life long, and one that had met with no
contemptible dangers under the reign of Caius; and some of
them thought it reasonable that the consuls should take cogni-
zance of these matters; and, as still more and more of the sol-
* How Claudius, another son of Drusus, which Drusus was the father of Ger-
manicus, could be here himself called Germanicus, Suetonius informs us, when he
assures us that, by a decree of the senate, the surname of Germanicus was be-'
stowed on Drusus, and his posterity also. In Claud. ch. i.
VOL. III.
K
130
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
diery got together, the crowd about him ran away, and Claudius
could hardly go on, his body was then so weak; and those who
carried his sedan, upon an inquiry that was made about his
being carried off, ran away and saved themselves, as despairing
of their lord's preservation. But when they were come into the
large court of the palace (which, as the report goes about it, was
inhabited first of all the parts of the city of Rome), and had just
reached the public treasury, many more soldiers came about
him as glad to see Claudius's face, and thought it exceeding
right to make him emperor, on account of their kindness for
Germanicus, who was his brother, and had left behind him a
vast reputation among all that were acquainted with him. They
reflected also on the covetous temper of the leading men of the
senate, and what great errors they had been guilty of when the
senate had the government formerly; they also considered the
impossibility of such an undertaking, as also what dangers they
should be in if the government should come to a single person,
and that such a one should possess it as they had no hand in ad-
vancing; and not to Claudius, who would take it as their grant,
and as gained by their good will to him, and would remember
the favours they had done him, and would make them a suffi-
cient recompense for the same.
!
3. These were the discourses the soldiers had one with an-
other by themselves, and they communicated them to all such
as came in to them. Now those that inquired about this matter
willingly embraced the invitation that was made them to join
with the rest; so they carried Claudius into the camp, crowding
about him as his guard, and encompassing him about; one chair-
man still succeeding another that their vehement endeavours
might not be hindered. But as to the populace and the senators,
they disagreed in their opinions. The latter were very desirous
to recover their former dignity, and were zealous to get clear of
the slavery that had been brought on them by the injurious
treatment of the tyrants, which the present opportunity afforded
them; but for the people, who were envious against them, and
knew that the emperors were capable of curbing their covetous
temper, and were a refuge from them, they were very glad that
Claudius had been seized upon, and brought to them; and
thought, that if Claudius were made emperor, he would prevent
a civil war, such as there was in the days of Pompey. But
when the senate knew that Claudius was brought into the camp
by the soldiers, they sent to him those of their body which had
the best character for their virtues, that they might inform him,
"that he ought to do nothing by violence, in order to gain the
government; that he who was a single person, one either already
or hereafter to be a member of their body, ought to yield to the
senate, which consisted of so great a number; that he ought to
1
C. III.
131
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
let the law take place in the disposal of all that related to the
public order, and to remember how greatly the former tyrants
had afflicted their city; and what dangers both he and they had
escaped under Caius; and that he ought not to hate the heavy
burden of tyranny, when the injury is done by others, while he
did himself wilfully treat his country after a mad and insolent
manner; that if he would comply with them, and demonstrate
that his firm resolution was to live quietly and virtuously, he
would have the greatest honours decreed to him that a free peo-
ple could bestow; and by subjecting himself to the law, would
obtain this branch of commendation, that he acted like a man
of virtue, both as a ruler and a subject; but that if he would act
foolishly, and learn no wisdom by Caius's death, they would not
permit him to go on; that a great part of the army was got to-
gether for them, with plenty of weapons, and a great number
of slaves, which they could make, use of; that good hope was a
great matter in such cases, as was also good fortune; and that
the gods would never assist any others but those that undertook
to act with virtue and goodness, who can be no other than such
as fight for the liberty of their country.'
4. Now these ambassadors, Veranius and Brocchus, who
were both of them tribunes of the people, made this speech to
Claudius, and falling down upon their knees, they begged of
him, that he would by no means throw the city into wars and
misfortunes; but when they saw what a multitude of soldiers
encompassed and guarded Claudius, and that the forces that
were with the consuls were, inc
of them, perfectly in-
considerable, they added, that if he did desire the government,
he should accept of it as given by the senate; that he would
prosper better, and be happier, if he came to it not by injustice,
but by the good will of those that would bestow it upon him."
CHAP. IV.
r
What Things King Agrippa did for Claudius; and how Clau-
dius, when he had taken the Government, commanded the
Murderers of Caius to be slain.
§ 1. Now Claudius, though he was sensible after what an in-
solent manner the senate had sent to him, yet did he, according
to their advice, behave himself for the present with moderation;
but not so far that he could not recover himself out of his fright;
so he was encouraged [to claim the government] partly by the
boldness of the soldiers, and partly by the persuasion of king
Agrippa, who exhorted him not to let such a dominion slip out
of his hands, when it came thus to him of its own accord. Now
this Agrippa, with relation to Caius, did what became one that
K 2
132
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
had been so much honoured by him; for he embraced Caius's
body after he was dead, and laid it upon a bed, and covered it
as well as he could, and went out to the guards, and told them
that Caius was still alive; but he said that they should call for
physicians, since he was very ill of his wounds. But when he
had learned that Claudius was carried away violently by the sol-
diers, he rushed through the crowd to him, and when he found
that he was in disorder, and ready to resign up the government
to the senate, he encouraged him, and desired him to keep the go-
vernment; but when he had said this to Claudius, he retired home.
And upon the senate's sending for him, he anointed his head
with ointment, as if he had lately accompanied with his wife,
and had dismissed her, and then came to them: he also asked of
the senators what Claudius did; who told him the present state
of affairs, and then asked his opinion about the settlement of the
public. He told them in words, that he was ready to lose his
life for the honour of the senate, but desired them to consider
what was for their advantage, without any regard to what was
most agreeable to them; for that those who grasp at govern-
ment will stand in need of weapons, and soldiers to guard them,
unless they will set up without any preparation for it; and so
fall into danger. And when the senate replied, that "they would
bring in weapons in abundance, and money, and that, as to an
army, a part of it was already collected together for them, and
they would raise a larger one by giving the slaves their liberty."
Agrippa made answer:- "O senators! may you be able to
compass what you have a mind to; yet will I immediately tell
you my thoughts, because they tend to your preservation; take
notice then, that the army which will fight for Claudius has been
long exercised in warlike affairs; but our army will be no better
than a rude multitude of raw men, and those such as have been
unexpectedly made free from slavery, and ungovernable; we
must then fight against those that are skilful in war, with men
who know not so much as how to draw their swords. So that
my opinion is, that we should send some persons to Claudius,
to persuade him to lay down the government, and I am ready
to be one of your ambassadors."
2. Upon this speech of Agrippa the senate complied with
him, and he was sent among others, and privately informed
Claudius of the disorder the senate was in, and gave him instruc-
tions to answer them in a somewhat commanding strain, and as
one invested with dignity and authority. Accordingly Claudius
said to the ambassadors, that "he did not wonder the senate
had no mind to have an emperor over them, because they had
been harassed by the barbarity of those that had formerly been
at the head of their affairs; but that they should taste of an
equitable government under him, and moderate times, while he
}
C. IV.
138
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
:
should only be their ruler in name, but the authority should be
equally common to them all; and since he had passed through
many and various scenes of life before their eyes, it would be
good for them not to distrust him." So the ambassadors, upon
their hearing this his answer, were dismissed. But Claudius dis-
coursed with the army which was there gathered together, who
took oaths that they would persist in their fidelity to him; upon
which he gave the guards every man five thousand* drachmæ
apiece, and a proportionable quantity to their captains, and pro-
mised to give the same to the rest of the armies wheresoever
they were.
3. And now the consuls called the senate together into the
temple of Jupiter the Conqueror, while it was still night; but
some of those senators concealed themselves in the city, being
uncertain what to do upon the hearing of this summons; and
some of them went out of the city to their own farms, as fore-
seeing whither the public affairs were going, and despairing. of
liberty: nay, these supposed it much better for them to be slaves
without danger to themselves, and to live a lazy and inactive life,
than, by claiming the dignity of their forefathers, to run the
hazard of their own safety. However, a hundred and no more
were gotten together; and as they were in consultation about the
present posture of affairs, a sudden clamour was made by the
soldiers that were on their side, "desiring that the senate would
choose them an emperor, and not bring the government into
ruin by setting up a multitude of rulers." So they fully declared
themselves to be for the giving the government not to all, but to
one; but they gave the senate leave to look out for a person
worthy to be set over them; insomuch that now the affairs of
the senate were much worse than before; because they had not
only failed in the recovery of their liberty, which they boasted
themselves of, but were in dread of Claudius also. Yet were
there those that hankered after the government, both on account
of the dignity of their families, and that accruing to them by
their marriages; for Marcus Minucianus was illustrious, both
by his own nobility, and by his having married Julia, the sister
of Caius, who accordingly was very ready to claim the govern-
ment, although the consuls discouraged him, and made one delay
after another in proposing it; that Minucianus also, who was
one of Caius's murderers, restrained Valerius of Asia from think-
ing of such things; and a prodigious slaughter there had been,
if leave had been given to these men to set up for themselves,
F
* This number of drachmæ to be distributed to each private soldier, 5000
drachmæ, equal to 20,000 sesterces, or £161. sterling, seems much too large, and
directly contradicts Suetonius, chap. x. who makes them in all but 15 sestercés,
or 2s. 4d. Yet might Josephus have this number from Agrippa junior, though
I doubt the thousands, or at least the hundreds, have been added by the trans-
cribers, of which we have had several examples already in Josephus.
134
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
1
and oppose Claudius. There were also a considerable number
of gladiators besides, and of those soldiers who kept watch by
night in the city, and rowers of ships, who all ran unto the camp;
insomuch that of those who put in for the government, some left
off their pretensions in order to spare the city, and others out of
fear for their own persons.
4. But as soon as ever it was day, Cherea, and those that
were with him, came into the senate, and attempted to make
speeches to the soldiers. However, the multitude of those sol-
diers, when they saw that they were making signals for silence
with their hands, and were ready to begin to speak to them,
grew tumultuous, and would not let them speak at all, because
they were all zealous to be under a monarchy; and they de-
manded of the senate one for their ruler, as not enduring any
longer delays; but the senate hesitated about either their own
governing, or how they should themselves be governed, while
the soldiers would not admit them to govern, and the murderers
of Caius would not permit the soldiers to dictate to them. When
they were in these circumstances, Cherea was not able to con-
tain the anger he had, and promised, that if they desired an
emperor, he would give them one, if any one would bring him
the watchword from Eutychus. Now this Eutychus was cha-
rioteer of the greenband faction, styled Prasine, and a great
friend of Caius; who used to harass the soldiery with building
stables for the horses, and spent his time in ignominious labours,
which occasioned Cherea to reproach them with him, and to
abuse them with much other scurrilous language; and told them
" he would bring them the head of Claudius; and that it was an
amazing thing that after their former madness, they should com-
mit their government to a fool." Yet were not they moved with
his words, but drew their swords, and took up their ensigns, and
went to Claudius, to join in taking the oath of fidelity to him.
So the senate were left without any body to defend them, and the
very consuls differed nothing from private persons. They were
also under consternation and sorrow, men not knowing what
would become of them, because Claudius was very angry at
them; so they fell a reproaching one another, and repented of
what they had done. At which juncture Sabinus, one of Caius's
murderers, threatened that he would sooner come into the midst
of them and kill himself, than consent to make Claudius emperor,
and see slavery returning upon them; he also abused Cherea for
loving his life too well, while he who was the first in his con-
tempt of Caius, could think it a good thing to live, when, even
by all that they had done for the recovery of their liberty, they
found it impossible to do it. But Cherea said, he had no man-
ner of doubt upon him about killing himself; that yet he would
first sound the intentions of Claudius before he did it.
C. 1V.
135
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
5. These were the debates [about the senate]; but in the
camp every body was crowding on all sides to pay their court to
Claudius; and the other consul, Quintus Pomponius, was re-
proached by the soldiery, as having rather exhorted the senate to
recover their liberty; whereupon they drew their swords, and were
going to assault him; and they had done it, if Claudius had not
hindered them, who snatched the consul out of the danger he was
in, and set him by him. But he did not receive that part of the
senate which was with Quintus in the like honourable manner;
nay, some of them received blows, and were thrust away as they
came to salute Claudius; nay, Aponius went away wounded, and
they were all in danger. However, king Agrippa went up to
Claudius, and desired he would treat the senators more gently;
for if any mischief should come to the senate, he would have no
others over whom to rule. Claudius complied with him, and called
the senate together into the palace, and was carried thither him-
self through the city, while the soldiery conducted him, though
this was to the great vexation of the multitude; for Cherea and
Sabinus, two of Caius's murderers, went in the fore-front of
them, in an open manner, while Pollio, whom Claudius a little
before had made captain of his guards, had sent them an epis-
tolary edict, to forbid them to appear in public. Then did
Claudius, upon his coming to the palace, get his friends toge-
ther, and desired their suffrages about Cherea. They said, that
the work he had done was a glorious one, but they accused him
that he did it of perfidiousness, and thought it just to inflict
the punishment [of death] upon him, to discountenance such
actions for the time to come. So Cherea was led to his execu-
tion, and Lupus, and many other Romans with him. Now it is
reported, that Cherea bore this calamity courageously; and this,
not only by the firmness of his own behaviour under it, but by
the reproaches he laid upon Lupus, who fell into tears; for
when Lupus laid his garment aside and complained of the cold*,
he said, that cold was never hurtful to Lupus [i. e. a wolf]. And
as a great many men went along with them to see the sight,
when Cherea came to the place, he asked the soldier who was
to be their executioner, whether this office was what he was
used to? or whether this was the first time of his using his sword
in that manner, and desired him to bring him that very sword
with which he himself slew Caius. So he was happily killed at
one stroke. But Lupus did not meet with such good fortune in
going out of the world, since he was timorous, and had many
blows levelled at his neck, because he did not stretch it out
boldly [as he ought to have done].
* The piercing cold, here complained of by Lupus, agrees well to the time of
the year when Claudius began his reign; it being for certain about the months
of November, December, or January, and most probably a few days after Jan.
24th, and a few days before the Roman Parentalia.
C
136
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
6. Now a few days after this, as the parental solemnities
were just at hand, the Roman multitude made their usual obla-
tions to their several ghosts, and put portions into the fire in
honour of Cherea, and besought him to be merciful to them,
and not continue his anger against them for their ingratitude.
And this was the end of the life that Cherea came to. But for
Sabinus, although Claudius not only set him at liberty, but gave
him leave to retain his former command in the army, yet did he
think it would be unjust in him to fail of performing his obliga-
tions to his fellow confederates; so he fell upon his sword, and
killed himself, the wound reaching up to the very hilt of the
sword*.
CHAP. V.
How Claudius restored to Agrippa his Grandfather's King-
doms, and augmented his Dominions: and how he published
an Edict in Behalf of the Jews.
§ 1. Now when Claudius had taken out of the way all those
soldiers whom he suspected, which he did immediately, he pub-
lished an edict, and therein confirmed that kingdom to Agrippa
which Caius had given him, and therein commended the king
highly. He also made an addition to it of all that country over
which Herod, who was his grandfather, had reigned, that is,
Judea and Samaria: and this he restored to him as due to his
family. But for Abila† of Lysanias, and all that lay at Mount
*It is both here and elsewhere very remarkable, that the murderers of the
vilest tyrants, who yet highly deserved to die, when those murderers were under
oaths or other the like obligations of fidelity to them, were usually revenged,
and the murderers were cut off themselves, and that after a remarkable man-
ner; and this sometimes, as in the present case, by those very persons who
were not sorry for such murders, but got kingdoms by them. The examples are
very numerous both in sacred and profane histories, and seem generally indica-
tions of divine vengeance on such murderers. Nor is it unworthy of remark,
that such murderers of tyrants do it usually on such ill principles, in such a cruel
manner, and as ready to involve the innocent with the guilty, which was the case
here, chap. i. sect. 14, and chap. ii. sect. 4, as justly deserved the divine ven-
geance upon them. Which seems to have been the case of Jehu also, when,
besides the house of Ahab, for whose slaughter he had a commission from God,
without any such commission, any justice or commiseration, he killed Ahab's
great men, and acquaintance, and priests, and forty-two of the kindred of Aha-
ziah, 2 Kings, x. 11—14. See Hos. i. 4. I do not mean here to condemn Ehud
or Judith, or the like executioners of God's vengeance on those wicked tyrants,
who had unjustly oppressed God's own people under their theocracy; who, as
they appear still to have had no selfish designs nor intentions to slay the inno-
cent, so had they still a divine commission, or a divine impulse, which was their
commission for what they did, Judg. iii. 15. 19, 20; Judith, ix. 2; Test. Levi.
sect. 5, in Authent. Rec. p. 312. See also p. 432.
+ Here St. Luke is in some measure confirmed, when he informs us, chap. iii.
1, that Lysanias was some time before tetrarch of Abilene, whose capital was
Abila; as he is farther confirmed by Ptolemy, the great geographer, which
Spanheim here observes, when he calls that city Abila of Lysanias. See the note
C. V.
137
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
Libanus, he bestowed them upon him, as out of his own territo-
ries. He also made a league with this Agrippa, confirmed by
oaths, in the middle of the forum, in the city of Rome: he also
took away from Antiochus that kingdom which he was pos-
sessed of, but gave him a certain part of Cilicia and Comma-
gena; he also set Alexander Lysimachus the alabarch, at
liberty, who had been his old friend, and steward to his mother
Antonia, but had been imprisoned by Caius, whose son [Mar-
cus] married Bernice, the daughter of Agrippa. But when
Marcus, Alexander's son, was dead, who had married her when
she was a virgin, Agrippa gave her in marriage to his brother
Herod, and begged for him of Claudius the kingdom of
Chalcis.
2. Now about this time there was a sedition between the
Jews and the Greeks, at the city of Alexandria; for when
Caius was dead, the nation of the Jews, which had been very
much mortified under the reign of Caius, and reduced to very
great distress by the people of Alexandria, recovered itself, and
immediately took up their arms to fight for themselves. So
Claudius sent an order to the president of Egypt to quiet that
tumult: he also sent an edict, at the request of king Agrippa
and king Herod, both to Alexandria and to Syria, whose con-
tents were as follows: "Tiberius Claudius Cæsar Augustus
Germanicus, high priest, and tribune of the people, ordains
thus: Since I am assured that the Jews of Alexandria, called
Alexandrians, have been joint inhabitants in the earliest times
with the Alexandrians, and have obtained from their kings equal
privileges with them, as is evident by the public records that are
in their possession, and the edicts themselves; and that after
Alexandria had been subjected to our empire by Augustus,
their rights and privileges have been preserved by those presi-
dents who have at divers times been sent thither; and that no
dispute had been raised about those rights and privileges, even
when Aquila was governor of Alexandria; and that when the
Jewish ethnarch was dead, Augustus did not prohibit the
making such ethnarchs, as willing that all men should be so
subject [to the Romans] as to continue in the observation of
their own customs, and not be forced to transgress the ancient
rules of their own country religion; but that in the time of
Caius, the Alexandrians became insolent towards the Jews that
were among them, which Caius, out of his great madness and
want of understanding, reduced the nation of the Jews very
low, because they would not transgress the religious worship of
on B. xvii. chap. xi. sect. 4, and Prid. at the years 36 and 22.
principality to have belonged to the land of Canaan originally, to
burying place of Abel, and referred to as such, Matt. xxiii. 35;
See Authent. Rec. Part ii. p. 883-885.
I esteem this
have been the
Lukę, xi. 51.
+
:
138
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
their country, and call him a god. I will, therefore, that the
nation of the Jews be not deprived of their rights and privileges,
on account of the madness of Caius; but that those rights and
privileges which they formerly enjoyed, be preserved to them,
and that they may continue in their own customs. And I
charge both parties to take very great care that no troubles
may arise after the promulgation of this edict."
3. And such were the contents of this edict on behalf of the
Jews that was sent to Alexandria. But the edict that was sent
into the other parts of the habitable earth was this which fol-
lows: "Tiberius Claudius Cæsar Augustus Germanicus, high
priest, tribune of the people, chosen consul the second time,
ordains thus: Upon the petition of king Agrippa and king
Herod, who are persons very dear to me, that I would grant
the same rights and privileges should be preserved to the Jews
which are in all the Roman empire, which I have granted to
those at Alexandria, I very willingly comply therewith; and
this grant I make not only for the sake of the petitioners, but as
judging those Jews for whom I have been petitioned worthy of
such a favour, on account of their fidelity and friendship to the
Romans. I think it also very just that no Grecian city should
be deprived of such rights and privileges, since they were pre-
served to them under the great Augustus. It will therefore be
fit to permit the Jews, who are in all the world under us, to
keep their ancient customs without being hindered so to do.
And I do now charge them also to use this my kindness to them
with moderation, and not to show a contempt of the super-
stitious observances of other nations, but to keep their own laws
only. And I will that this decree of mine be engraven on
tables by the magistrates of the cities and colonies, and muni-
cipal places, both those within Italy and those without it, both
kings and governors, by the means of their ambassadors, and
to have them exposed to the public for full thirty days, in such
a place whence it may plainly be read from the ground
CHAP. VI.
"
What Things were done by Agrippa at Jerusalem, when he was
returned back into Judea; and what it was that Petronius
wrote to the Inhabitants of Doris, in Behalf of the Jews.
§ 1. Now Claudius Cæsar, by these decrees of his which were
sent to Alexandria, and to all the habitable earth, made known
what opinion he had of the Jews. So he soon ṣent Agrippa
* This form was so known and frequent among the Romans, as Dr. Hudson
here tells us, from the great Selden, that it used to be thus represented at the bot-
tom of the edicts by the initial letters only, U. D. P. R. L. P. Unde De Plano
Recte Legi Possit, "Whence it may plainly be read from the ground."
C. V.
189
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
away to take his kingdom, now he was advanced to a more
illustrious dignity than before, and sent letters to the presidents
and procurators of the provinces, that they should treat him
very kindly. Accordingly he returned in haste, as was likely he
would, now he returned in so much greater prosperity than he
had before. He also came to Jerusalem, and offered all the
sacrifices that belonged to him, and omitted nothing* which the
law required; on which account he ordained that many of the
Nazarites should have their heads shorn. And for the golden
chain which had been given him by Caius, of equal weight with
that iron chain wherewith his royal hands had been bound, he
hung it up within the limits of the temple, over the treasury†,
that it might be a memorial of the severe fate he had lain under,
and a testimony of his change for the better; that it might be a
demonstration how the greatest prosperity may have a fall, and
that God sometimes raises up what is fallen down: for this chain
thus dedicated afforded a document to all men, that king Agrippa
had been once bound in a chain for a small cause, but reco-
vered his former dignity again; and a little while afterwards
got out of his bonds, and was advanced to be a more illustrious
king than he was before. Whence men may understand, that
all that partake of human nature, how great soever they are,
may fall; and that those that fall may gain their former illus-
trious dignity again.
2. And when Agrippa had entirely finished all the duties of
the divine worship, he removed Theophilus, the son of Ananus,
from the high priesthood, and bestowed that honour of his on
Simon, the son of Boethus, whose name was also Cantheras,
whose daughter king Herod had married, as I have related
above. Simon, therefore, had the [high] priesthood with his
brethren, and with his father, in like manner as the sons of
Simon, the son of Onias, who were three, had it formerly under
the government of the Macedonians, as we have related in a
former book.
3. When the king had settled the high priesthood after this
manner, he returned the kindness which the inhabitants of
Jerusalem had showed him; for he released them from the tax
*Josephus shows both here and ch. vii. sect. 3, that he had a much greater
opinion of king Agrippa I. than Simon the learned Rabbi, than the people of
Cesarea and Sebaste, chap. vii. sect. 4, and ch. ix. sect. 1, and indeed than his
double dealing between the senate and Claudius, ch. iv. sect. 2, than his slaugh-
ter of James, the brother of John, and his imprisonment of Peter, or his vain-
glorious behaviour before he died, 'both in Acts, xii. 1, 2, 3, and here, ch. iv.
sect. 1, will justify or allow. Josephus's character was probably taken from
his son Agrippa, jun.
+ This treasury chamber seems to have been the very same in which our
Saviour taught, and where the people offered their charity money for the
repairs or other uses of the temple. ↑ Mark, xii. 41, &c.; Luke, xxi. 1; John,
viii. 20.
:
140
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
upon houses, every one of which paid it before, thinking it a
good thing to requite the tender affection of those that loved
him. He also made Silas the general of his forces, as a man
who had partaken with him in many of his troubles. But after
a very little while the young men of Doris, preferring a rash at-
tempt before piety, and being naturally bold and insolent, car-
ried a statue of Cæsar into a synagogue of the Jews, and erected
it there. This procedure of theirs greatly provoked Agrippa ;
for it plainly tended to the dissolution of the laws of his country.
So he came without delay to Publius Petronius, who was then
president of Syria, and accused the people of Doris. Nor did
he less resent what was done than did Agrippa; for he judged
it a piece of impiety to transgress the laws that regulate the ac-
tions of men. So he wrote the following letter to the people of
Doris, in an angry strain: "Publius Petronius, the president
under Tiberius Claudius Cæsar Augustus Germanicus, to the
magistrates of Doris, ordains as follows: Since some of you have
had the boldness, or madness rather, after the edict of Claudius
Cæsar Augustus Germanicus was published, for permitting the
Jews to observe the laws of their country, not to obey the same,
but have acted in entire opposition thereto, as forbidding the
Jews to assemble together in their synagogue, by removing Cæ-
sar's statue, and setting it up therein, and thereby have offended
not only the Jews, but the emperor himself, whose statue is more
commodiously placed in his own temple, than in a foreign one,
where is the place of assembling together; while it is but a part
of natural justice, that every one should have the power over
the places belonging peculiarly to themselves, according to the
determination of Cæsar; to say nothing of my own determination,
which it would be ridiculous to mention after the emperors's
edict, which gives the Jews leave to make use of their own cus-
toms, as also gives order, that they enjoy equally the rights of
citizens with the Greeks themselves. I therefore ordain, that
Proculus Vitellius the centurion bring those men to me, who,
contrary to Augustus's edict, have been so insolent as to do this
thing, at which those very men, who appear to be of principal
reputation among them, have an indignation also, and allege
for themselves, that it was not done with their consent, but
by the violence of the multitude, that they may give an ac-
count of what hath been done. I also exhort the principal
magistrates among them, unless they have a mind to have
this action esteemed to be done with their consent, to inform
the centurion of those that were guilty of it, and take care
that no handle be hence taken for raising a sedition or quar-
rel among them; which those seem to me to hunt after, who
encourage such doings; while both I myself, and king Agrippa,
for whom I have the highest honour, have nothing more under
G. VI.
14İ
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
:
our care, than that the nation of the Jews may have no occa-
sion given them of getting together under the pretence of aveng-
ing themselves, and become tumultuous. And that it may be
more publicly known what Augustus hath resolved about this
whole matter, I have subjoined those edicts which he hath lately
caused to be published at Alexandria, and which, although they
may be well known to all, yet did king Agrippa, for whom I
have the highest honour, read them at that time before my tri-
bunal, and pleaded that the Jews ought not to be deprived of
those rights which Augustus hath granted them. I therefore
charge you, that you do not, for the time to come, seek for any
occasion of sedition or disturbance, but that every one be allowed
to follow their own religious customs."
•
4. Thus did Petronius take care of this matter, that such a
breach of the law might be corrected, and that no such thing
might be attempted afterwards against the Jews. And now
king Agrippa took the [high] priesthood away from Simon
Cantheras, and put Jonathan, the son of Ananus, into it again,
and owned that he was more worthy of that dignity than the
other. But this was not a thing acceptable to him, to recover
that his former dignity. So he refused it, and said, "O king,
I rejoice in the honour thou hast for me, and take it kindly,
that thou wouldst give me such a dignity of thy own inclinatons,
although God hath judged that I am not at all worthy of
the high priesthood. I am satisfied with having once put on
the sacred garments; for I then put them on after a more
holy manner than I should now receive them again. But if
thou desirest that a person more worthy than myself should
have this honourable employment, give me leave to name thee
such a one.
I have a brother that is pure from all sin against
God, and of all offences against thyself; I recommend him
to thee, as one that is fit for this dignity.' So the king was
pleased with these words of his, and passed by Jonathan, and,
according to his brother's desire, bestowed the high priesthood
upon Matthias. Nor was it long before Marcus succeeded
Petronius as president of Syria.
CHAP. VII.
">
Concerning Silas, and on what Account it was that King
Agrippa was angry at him. How Agrippa began to encom-
pass Jerusalem with a Wall; and what Benefits he bestowed
on the Inhabitants of Berytus.
§ 1. Now Silas, the general of the king's horse, because he had
been faithful to him under all his misfortunes, and had never re-
fused to be a partaker with him in any of his dangers, but had
L
142
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
#
'
oftentimes undergone the most hazardous dangers for him, was
full of assurance, and thought he might expect a sort of equality
with the king, on account of the firmness of the friendship he had
showed to him. Accordingly, he would no where let the king sit
as his superior, and took the like liberty in speaking to him upon
all occasions; till he became troublesome to the king, when they
were merry together, extolling himself beyond measure, and
often putting the king in mind of the severity of fortune he had
undergone, that he might, by way of ostentation, demonstrate
what zeal he had showed in his service; and was continually
harping upon this string, what pains he had taken for him, and
much enlarged still upon that subject. The repetition of this so
frequently seemed to reproach the king, insomuch that he took
this ungovernable liberty of talking very ill at his hands. For
the commemoration of times, when men have been under igno-
miny, is by no means agreeable to them; and he is a very silly
man who is perpetually relating to a person what kindnesses he
hath done him. At last, therefore, Silas had so thoroughly pro-
voked the king's indignation, that he acted rather out of passion
than good consideration, and did not only turn Silas out of his
place, as general of his horse, but sent him in bonds into his own
country. But the edge of his anger wore off by length of time,
and made room for more just reasonings as to his judgment about
this man, and he considered how many labours he had under-
gone for his sake. So when Agrippa was solemnizing his birth-
day, and he gave festival entertainments to all his subjects, he
sent for Silas on the sudden to be his guest. But, as he was a
very frank man, he thought he had now a just handle given him`
to be angry; which he could not conceal from those that came
for him, but said to them, "What honour is this the king in-
vites me to, which I conclude will soon be over? For the king
hath not let me keep those original marks of the good will I
bore him, which I once had from him; but he hath plundered
me, and that unjustly also. Does he think, that I can leave off
that liberty of speech, which, upon the consciousness of my de-
serts, I shall use more loudly than before, and shall relate how
many misfortunes I have delivered him from? how many labours
I have undergone for him, whereby I procured him deliverance
and respect? as a reward for which I have borne the hardships
of bonds, and a dark prison. I shall never forget this usage.
Nay, perhaps, my very soul, when it is departed out of the body,
will not forget the glorious actions I did on his account." This
was the clamour he made, and he ordered the messengers to tell
it to the king. So he perceived that Silas was incurable in his
folly, and still suffered him to lie in prison.
2. As for the walls of Jerusalem, that were adjoining to the
new city [Bezetha], he repaired them at the expense of the public,
C. VII.
143
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
and built them wider in breadth and higher in altitude; and he
had made them too strong for all human power to demolish, un-
less Marcus, the then president of Syria, had by letter informed
Claudius Cæsar of what he was doing. And when Claudius
had some suspicion of attempts for innovation, he sent to Agrippa
to leave off the building of those walls presently. So he obeyed,
as not thinking it proper to contradict Claudius.
3. Now this king was by nature very beneficent, and liberal
in his gifts, and very ambitious to oblige people with such large
donations; and he made himself very illustrious by the many
chargeable presents he made them. He took delight in giving,
and rejoiced in living with good reputation. He was not at
all like that Herod who reigned before him; for that Herod
was ill natured, and severe in his punishments, and had no
mercy on them that he hated; and every one perceived, that he
was more friendly to the Greeks than to the Jews; for he
adorned foreign cities with large presents in money; with build-
ing them baths and theatres besides; nay, in some of those
places he erected temples, and porticoes in others; but he did
not vouchsafe to raise one of the least edifices in any Jewish
city, or make them any donation that was worth mentioning.
But Agrippa's temper was mild, and equally liberal to all men.
He was humane to foreigners, and made them sensible of his
liberality. He was in like manner rather of a gentle and com-
passionate temper. Accordingly he loved to live continually at
Jerusalem, and was exactly careful in the observance of the
laws of his country. He therefore kept himself entirely pure;
nor did any day pass over his head without its appointed
sacrifice.
4. However, there was a certain man of the Jewish nation
at Jerusalem, who appeared to be very accurate in the know-
ledge of the law. His name was Simon. This man got toge-
ther an assembly, while the king was absent at Cesarea, and
had the insolence to accuse him as not living holily, and that
he might justly be excluded out of the temple, since it belonged
only to native Jews. But the general of Agrippa's army in-
formed him, that Simon had made such a speech to the people.
So the king sent for him; and, as he was then sitting in the
theatre, he bid him sit down by him, and said to him with a low
and gentle voice, "What is there done in this place that is con-
trary to the law?" But he had nothing to say for himself, but
begged his pardon. So the king was more easily reconciled to
him than one could have imagined, as esteeming mildness a bet-
ter quality in a king than anger, and knowing that moderation is
more becoming in great men than passion. So he made Simon
a small present, and dismissed him.
5. Now, as Agrippa was a great builder in many places, he
144
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES of the Jews.
paid a peculiar regard to the people of Berytus; for he erected
a theatre for them, superior to many other of that sort both in
sumptuousness and elegance, as also an amphitheatre, built at
vast expenses; and, besides these, he built them baths and por-
ticoes, and spared for no costs in any of his edifices, to render
them both handsome and large. He also spent a great deal upon
their dedication, and exhibited shows upon them, and brought
thither musicians of all sorts, and such as made the most delight-
ful music of the greatest variety. He also showed his magni-
ficence upon the theatre, in his great number of gladiators; and
there it was that he exhibited the several antagonists, in order to
please the spectators; no fewer indeed than seven hundred men
to fight with seven hundred other men*; and allotted all the
malefactors he had for this exercise, that both the malefactors
might receive their punishment, and that this operation of war
might be a recreation in peace. And thus were these criminals
all destroyed at once.
CHAP. VIII.
What other Acts were done by Agrippa until his Death; and
after what Manner he died.
§ 1. WHEN Agrippa had finished what I have above related at
Berytus, he removed to Tiberias, a city of Galilee. Now he
was in great esteem among other kings. Accordingly there came
to him Antiochus, king of Commagena; Sampsigeramus, king
of Emesa; and Cotys, who was king of the lesser Armenia; and
Polemo, who was king of Pontus; as also Herod his brother,
who was king of Chalcis. All these he treated with agreeable
entertainments, and after an obliging manner, and so as to ex-
hibit the greatness of his mind, and so as to appear worthy of
those respects which the kings paid to him, by coming thus to
see him. However, while these kings staid with him, Marcus,
the president of Syria, came thither. So the king, in order to
preserve the respect that was due to the Romans, went out of
the city to meet him, as far as seven furlongs. But, this proved
to be the beginning of a difference between him and Marcus
for he took with him in his chariot those other kings as his asses-
sors. But Marcus had a suspicion what the meaning could be
of so great a friendship of these kings one with another, and did
not think so close an agreement of so many potentates to be for
the interest of the Romans. He therefore sent some of his
domestics to every one of them, and enjoined them to go their
ways home without farther delay. This was very ill taken by
A strange number of condemned criminals to be under the sentence of death
at once; no fewer, it seems, than 1400.
;
C. VIII.
145
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
Agrippa, who after that became his enemy. And now he took
the high priesthood away from Matthias, and made Elioneus,
the son of Cantheras, high-priest in his stead.
F
2. Now when Agrippa had reigned three years, over all Ju-
dea, he came to the city Cesarea, which was formerly called
Strato's Tower; and there he exhibited shows in honour of
Cæsar, upon his being informed that there was a certain festival
celebrated to make vows for his safety. At which festival a great
multitude was gotten together of the principal persons, and such
as were of dignity through his province. On the second day of
which shows he put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of
a contexture truly wonderful, and came into the theatre early in
the morning; at which time the silver of his garment being il-
luminated by the first reflection of the sun's rays upon it, shone
out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread
a horror over those that looked intently upon him; and presently
his flatterers cried out, one from one place and another from
another (though not for his good), that "he was a god;" and
they added, " be thou merciful to us; for although we have hi-
therto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth
own thee as superior to mortal nature." Upon this the king did
neither rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery.
But as
he presently afterward looked up, he saw an owl sitting on a
certain rope over his head, and immediately understood that this
bird was the messenger of ill tidings, as it had once been the
*
* We have a mighty cry made here by some critics, as if the great Eusebius
had on purpose falsified this account of Josephus, so as to make it agree with the
parallel account in the Acts of the Apostles; because the present copies of his
citation of it, Hist. Eccles. B. ii. ch. x. omit the words ßeßuva—¿ñì oxoivís,
Tivos, i. e. an owl-on a certain rope, which Josephus's present copies retain, and
only have the explicatory word ayyɛλov or angel; as if he meant that angel of
the Lord which St. Luke mentions as smiting Herod, Acts, xii. 23, and not that
owl which Josephus called an angel or messenger formerly of good, but now of
bad news, to Agrippa. This accusation is a somewhat strange one in the case of
the great Eusebius, who is known to have so accurately and faithfully produced
a vast number of other ancient records, and particularly not a few out of our Jo-
sephus also, without any suspicion of prevarication. Now, not to allege how
uncertain we are, whether Josephus's and Eusebius's copies of the fourth century
were just like the present in this clause, which we have no distinct evidence of,
the following words, preserved still in Eusebius, will not admit of any such ex-
position. “This [bird] (says Eusebius), Agrippa presently perceived to be the
cause of ill fortune, as it was once of good fortune to him;" which can only
belong to that bird the owl, which, as it had formerly foreboded his happy de-
liverance from imprisonment, Antiq. b. xviii. ch. vi. sect. 7; so was it then
foretold to prove afterward the unhappy forerunner of his death in five days
time. If the improper word airɩov, or cause, be changed for Josephus's proper
word ἄγγελον angel or messenger, and the foregoing words, βεβῶνα—ἐπὶ σχοινίου
Tiyos, be inserted, Eusebius's text will truly represent that in Josephus. Had this
imperfection been in some heathen author, that was in good esteem with our
modern critics, they would have readily corrected these, as barely errors in the
copies; but being in an ancient Christian writer, not so well relished by many
of those critics, nothing will serve but the ill grounded supposal of wilful corrup-
tion and prevarication.
+ VOL. 11I.
L
146
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
C
messenger of good tidings to him; and fell into the deepest sor-
row. A severe pain also arose in his belly, and began in a most
violent manner. He therefore looked upon his friends, and said,
"I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart
this life; while providence thus reproves the lying words you
just now said to me; and I, who was by you called immortal,
am immediately to be hurried away by death. But I am bound
to accept of what Providence allots, as it pleases God; for we
have by no means lived ill, but in a splendid and happy man-
ner." When he said this, his pain was become violent. Ac-
cordingly he was carried into the palace; and the rumour went
abroad every where, that he would certainly die in a little time.
But the multitude presently sat in sackcloth, with their wives and
children, after the law of their country, and besought God for
the king's recovery. All places were also full of mourning and
lamentation. Now the king rested in a high chamber, and as
he saw them below lying prostrate on the ground, he could not
himself forbear weeping. And when he had been quite worn
out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life,
being in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and in the seventh year
of his reign; for he reigned four years under Caius Cæsar, three
of them were over Philip's tetrarchy only, and on the fourth he
had that of Herod added to it: and he reigned, besides those,
three years under the reign of Claudius Cæsar. In which time
he reigned over the forementioned countries, and also had Judea
added to them, as well as Samaria and Cesarea. The revenues
that he received out of them were very great, no less than twelve
millions of drachmæ *. Yet did he borrow great sums from
others: for he was so very liberal, that his expenses exceeded
his incomes, and his generosity was boundless †.
#!.
3. But before the multitude were made acquainted with Agrip-
pa's being expired, Herod, the king of Chalcis, and Helcias, the
master of his horse, and the king's friend, sent Aristo, one of the
king's most faithful servants, and slew Silas, who had been their
enemy, as if it had been done by the king's own command.
* This sum of 12,000,000 drachmæ, which is equal to 3,000,000 shekels, i. e.
at 2s. 10d. a shekel, equal to 425,000% sterling, was Agrippa the Great's yearly
income, or about three quarters of his grandfather Herod's income; he having
abated the tax upon houses at Jerusalem, ch. vi. sect. 3, and was not so tyranni-
cal as he had been to the Jews. See the note on Antiq. B. xvii. ch. xi. sect. 4.
A large sum this! but not, it seems, sufficient for his extravagant expenses.
+ Reland takes notice here, not improperly, that Josephus omits the reconci-
liation of this Herod Agrippa to the Tyrians and Sidonians, by the means of
Blastus the king's chamberlain, mentioned Acts, xii. 20. Nor is there any history
in the world so complete, as to omit nothing that other historians take notice of,
unless the one be taken out of the other and accommodated to it.
1
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
147
t
CHAP. IX.
What Things were done after the Death of Agrippa; and how
Claudius, on account of the Youth and Unskilfulness of Agrip-
pa junior, sent Cuspius Fadus to be Procurator of Judea
and of that entire Kingdom.
§ 1. AND thus did king Agrippa depart this life. But he left
behind him a son, Agrippa by name, a youth in the seventeenth
year of his age, and three daughters; one of which, Bernice, was
married to Herod his father's brother, and was sixteen years
old: the other two, Mariamne and Drusilla, were still virgins;
the former was ten years old, and Drusilla' six. Now these his
daughters were thus espoused by their father, Mariamne to Ju-
lius Archelaus Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus, the son of
Chelcias; and Drusilla to the king of Commagena. But when
it was known that Agrippa was departed this life, the inhabitants
of Cesarea and Sebaste forgot the kindness he had bestowed on
them, and acted the part of the bitterest enemies; for they cast
such reproaches upon the deceased as are not fit to be spoken
of; and so many of them as were then soldiers, which were a
great number, went to his house, and hastily carried off the sta-
tues* of the king's daughters, and all at once carried them into
the brothel houses, and when they had set them on the tops of
those houses, they abused them to the utmost of their power, and
did such things to them as are too indecent to be related. They
also laid themselves down in public places, and celebrated ge-
neral feastings, with garlands on their heads, and with ointments
and libations to Charon, and drinking to one another for joy
that the king was expired. Nay, they were not only unmindful
of Agrippa, who had extended his liberality to them in abund-
ance, but of his grandfather Herod also, who had himself re-
built their cities, and had raised them havens and temples at vast
expenses.
2. Now Agrippa, the son of the deceased, was at Rome, and
brought up with Claudius Cæsar. And when Cæsar was in-
formed that Agrippa was dead, and that the inhabitants of Se-
baste and Cesarea had abused him, he was sorry for the first
news, and was displeased at the ingratitude of those cities. . He
was therefore disposed to send Agrippa junior away presently
to succeed his father in the kingdom, and was willing to confirm
him in it by his oath. But those freedmen and friends of his,
who had the greatest authority with him, dissuaded him from it,
and said, that it was a dangerous experiment to permit so large
Photius, who made an extract out of this section, says, they were not the
statues or images, but the Jadies themselves, which were thus basely abused by
the soldiers. Cod. ccxxxviii.
L 2
148
B. XIX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
""
a kingdom to come under the government of so very young a
man, and one hardly yet arrived at the years of discretion, who
would not be able to take sufficient care of its administration;
while the weight of a kingdom is heavy enough to a grown man.
So Cæsar thought what they said to be reasonable. Accord-
ingly he sent Cuspius Fadus to be procurator of Judea, and of
the entire kingdom, and paid that respect to the deceased, as not
to introduce Marcus, who had been at variance with him, into
his kingdom. But he determined, in the first place, to send
orders to Fadus, that he should chastise the inhabitants of Ce-
sarea and Sebaste for those abuses they had offered to him that
was deceased, and their madness towards his daughters that wère
still alive; and that he should remove that body of soldiers that
were at Cesarea and Sebaste, with the five regiments, into Pon-
tus, that they might do their military duty there, and that he
should choose an equal number of soldiers out of the Roman
legions that were in Syria, to supply their place. Yet were not
those that had such orders actually removed; for by sending am-
bassadors to Claudius, they mollified him, and got leave to abide
in Judea still; and these were the very men that became the
source of very great calamities to the Jews in after times, and
sowed the seeds of that war which began under Florus; whence
it was, that when Vespasian had subdued the country, he re-
moved them out of his province, as we shall relate hereafter*.
BOOK XX.
CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF TWENTY-TWO YEARS.
From Fadus the Procurator to Florus.
CHAP. I.
A Sedition of the Philadelphians against the Jews; and also
concerning the Vestments of the High Priest.
§ 1. UPON the death of king Agrippa, which we have related in
the foregoing book, Claudius Cæsar sent Cassius Longinus, as
successor to Marcus, out of regard to the memory of king Agrip-
pa, who had often desired of him by letters, while he was alive,
that he would not suffer Marcus to be any longer president of
Syria. But Fadus, as soon as he was come procurator into Ju-
dea, found quarrelsome doings between the Jews that dwelt in
Perea, and the people of Philadelphia, about their borders, at
*This history is now wanting,

C. I.
149
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
a village called Mia, that was filled with men of a warlike tem-
per; for the Jews of Perea had taken up arms without the con-
sent of their principal men, and had destroyed many of the
Philadelphians. When Fadus was informed of this procedure
it provoked him very much that they had not left the determi-
nation of the matter to him, if they thought that the Philadel-
phians had done them any wrong, but had rashly taken up arms
against them. So he seized upon three of their principal men,
who were also the causes of this sedition, and ordered them to
be bound, and afterward had one of them slain, whose name was
Hannibal, and he banished the other two, Amram and Eleazar.
Tholomy also, the arch-robber, was after some time brought to
him bound, and slain, but not till he had done a world of mis-
chief to Idumea and the Arabians. And indeed, from that time
Judea was cleared of robberies by the care and providence of
Fadus. He also at this time sent for the high priests and the
principal citizens of Jerusalem, and this at the commands of the
emperor, and admonished them, that they should lay up the long
garment, and the sacred vestment, which it is customary for no-
body but the high priest to wear, in the tower of Antonia, that
it might be under the power of the Romans, as it had been for-
merly. Now the Jews durst not contradict what he had said,
but desired Fadus, however, and Longinus (which last was come
to Jerusalem, and had brought a great army with him, out of a
fear that the [rigid] injunctions of Fadus should force the Jews
to rebel), that they might, in the first place, have leave to send
ambassadors to Cæsar to petition him, that they may have the
holy vestments under their own power; and that, in the next
place, they would tarry till they knew what answer Claudius
would give to that their request. So they replied, that they
would give them leave to send their ambassadors, provided they
would give them their sons as pledges [for their peaceable beha-
viour]. And when they had agreed so to do, and had given them
the pledges they desired, the ambassadors were sent accordingly.
But when, upon their coming to Rome, Agrippa junior, the
son of the deceased, understood the reason why they came (for
he dwelt with Claudius Cæsar as we said before), he besought
Cæsar to grant the Jews their request about the holy vestments,
and to send a message to Fadus accordingly.
2. Hereupon Claudius called for the ambassadors, and told
them, that "he granted their request; and bade them to return
their thanks to Agrippa for this favour, which had been be-
stowed on them upon his entreaty. And, besides these answers
of his, he sent the following letter by them: "Claudius Cæsar
Germanicus, tribune of the people the fifth time, and designed
consul the fourth time, and imperator the tenth time, the father
of his country, to the magistrates, senate, and people, and the
whole nation of the Jews, sendeth greeting: Upon the repre-
150
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
in an
sentation of your ambassadors to me by Agrippa, my friend,
whom I have brought up, and have now with me, and who is a
person of very great piety, who are come to give me thanks for
the care I have taken of your nation, and to entreat me,
earnest and obliging manner, that they may have the holy vest-
ments, with the crown belonging to them, under their power;
I grant their request, as that excellent person Vitellius, who is
very dear to me, had done before me. And I have complied
with your desire, in the first place out of regard to that piety
which I profess, and because I would have every one worship
God according to the laws of their own country; and this I do
also because I shall hereby highly gratify king Herod and Agrippa
junior, whose sacred regards to me, and earnest good will to you,
I am well acquainted with, and with whom I have the greatest
friendship, and whom I highly esteem, and look on as persons
of the best character. Now I have written about these affairs
to Cuspius Fadus, my procurator. The names of those that
brought me your letter are Cornelius, the son of Cero, Trypho,
the son of Theudio, Dorotheus, the son of Nathaniel, and John,
the son of John. This letter is dated before the fourth of the
calends of July, when Rufus and Pompeius Sylvanus are con-
suls."
3. Herod also, the brother of the deceased Agrippa, who
was then possessed of the royal authority over Chalcis, peti-
tioned Claudius Cæsar for the authority over the temple, and
the money of the sacred treasure, and the choice of the high
priests, and obtained all that he petitioned for. So that after
that time this authority continued among all his descendants till
the end of the war*. Accordingly Herod removed the last high
priest, called Cantheras, and bestowed that dignity on his suc-
cessor Joseph, the son of Camus.
CHAP. II.
How Helena, the Queen of Adiabene, and her Son Izates,
embraced the Jewish Religion; and how Helena supplied the
Poor with Corn, when there was a great Famine at Jeru-
salem.
1. ABOUT this time it was that Helena, queen of Adiabene,
and her son Izates, changed their course of life, and embraced
the Jewish customs, and this on the occasion following: Mono-
bazus, the king of Adiabene, who had also the name of Bazeus,
fell in love with his sister Helena, and took her to be his wife,
* Here is some error in the copies, or mistake in Josephus; for the power
of appointing high priests, after Herod king of Chalcis was dead, and Agrippa
junior was made king of Chalcis in his room, belonged to him, and he exercised
the same all along till Jerusalem was destroyed, as Josephus elsewhere informs
us, ch, viii. sect. 8, 11, ch. ix. sect. 1, 4, 6, 7.
C. II.
151
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
and begat her with child. But as he was in bed with her one
night, he laid his hand upon his wife's belly, and fell asleep, and
seemed to hear a voice, which bid him take his hand off his
wife's belly, and not hurt the infant that was therein, which by
God's providence would be safely born, and have a happy
end. This voice put him into disorder; so he awaked imme-
diately, and told the story to his wife; and when his son was
born, he called him Izates. He had indeed Monobazus, his
elder brother, by Helena also, as he had other sons by other
wives besides. Yet did he openly place all his affections on
this his only begotten son* Izates, which was the origin of
that envy which his other brethren, by the same father, bore
to him; while on this account they hated him more and more,
and were all under great affliction that their father should pre-
fer Izates before them. Now, although their father was very
sensible of these their passions, yet did he forgive them, as not
indulging those passions out of an ill disposition, but out of
a desire each of them had to be beloved by their father. How-
ever, he sent Izates with many presents to Abennerig, the king
of Charax Spasini, and that out of the great dread he was in
about him, lest he should come to some misfortune, by the
hatred his brethren bore him; and he committed his son's pre-
servation to him. Upon which Abennerig gladly received the
young man, and had a great affection for him, and married him
to his own daughter, whose name was Samacha; he also be-
stowed a country upon him, from which he received large
revenues.
2. But when Monobazus was grown old, and saw that he
had but a little time to live, he had a mind to come to the sight
of his son before he died. So he sent for him, and embraced
him after the most affectionate manner, and bestowed on him
the country called Carre; it was a soil that bare amomum in
great plenty; there are also in it the remains of that ark, wherein
it is related that Noah escaped the deluge, and where they are
still shown to such as are desirous to see themt. Accordingly
Izates abode in that country until his father's death. But the
very day that Monobazus died, queen Helena sent for all the
grandees, and governors of the kingdom, and for those that had
the armies committed to their command: and when they were
come she made the following speech to them: "I believe
you are not unacquainted that my husband was desirous Izates
should succeed him in the government, and thought him worthy
so to do. However, I wait your determination; for happy is
Josephus here uses the word povoyɛvŋ, an only begotten son, for no other than
one best beloved, as does both the Old and New Testament, I mean where there
were one or more sons besides, Gen. xxii. 2, Heb. xi. 17. See the note on B. i.
ch. xiii: sect. 1.
+ It is here very remarkable, that the remains of Noah's ark were believed
to be still in being in the days of Josephus. See the note on B. i. ch. iii. sect. 5.
152
B. XX.
Antiquities of the JeŵS,
66
he who receives a kingdom, not from a single person only, but
from the willing suffrages of a great many. This she said in
order to try those that were invited, and to discover their senti-
ments. Upon the hearing of which, they first of all paid their
homage to the queen, as their custom was, and then they said,
that they confirmed the king's determination, and would sub-
mit to it; and they rejoiced that Izates's father had preferred
him before the rest of his brethren, as being agreeable to all their
wishes: but that they were desirous first of all to slay his
brethren and kinsmen, that so the government might come
securely to Izates; because if they were once destroyed, all
that fear would be over which might arise from their hatred and
envy to him." Helena replied to this, that "she returned them
her thanks for their kindness to herself, and to Izates; but
desired that they would however, defer the execution of this
slaughter of Izates's brethren till he should be there himself,
and give his approbation to it." So since these men had not
prevailed with her, when they advised her to slay them, they
exhorted her at least to keep them in bonds till he should come,
and that for their own security; they also gave her counsel to
set up some one whom she could put the greatest trust in, as a
governor of the kingdom in the mean time. So queen Helena
complied with this counsel of theirs, and set up Monobazus,
the eldest son, to be king, and put the diadem upon his head,
and gave him his father's ring, with its signet; as also the orna-
ment which they call Sampser, and exhorted him to administer
the affairs of the kingdom till his brother should come; who
came suddenly upon his hearing that his father was dead, and
succeeded his brother Monobazus, who resigned up the govern-
ment to him.
3. Now during the time Izates abode at Charax Spasini, a
certain Jewish merchant, whose name was Ananias, got among
the women that belonged to the king, and taught them to wor-
ship God according to the Jewish religion. He, moreover, by
their means, became known to Izates, and persuaded him in like
manner to embrace that religion; he also, at the earnest en-
treaty of Izates, accompanied him when he was sent for by his
father to come to Adiabene: it also happened, that Helena,
about the same time was instructed by a certain other Jew, and
went over to them. But when Izates had taken the kingdom,
and was come to Adiabene, and there saw his brethren, and
other kinsmen in bonds, he was displeased at it; and as he
thought it an instance of impiety either to slay or to imprison
them, but still thought it a hazardous thing for to let them have
their liberty, with the remembrance of the injuries that had
been offered them, he sent some of them and their children for
hostages to Rome, to Claudius Cæsar, and sent the others to
Artabanus, the king of Parthia, with the like intentions.
C. II.
153
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
4. And when he perceived that his mother was highly pleased
with the Jewish customs, he made haste to change, and to
embrace them entirely; and as he supposed that he could not
be thoroughly a Jew unless he were circumcised, he was ready
to have it done. But when his mother understood what he was
about, she endeavoured to hinder him from doing it, and said to
him, that "this thing would bring him into danger; and that, as
he was a king, he would thereby bring himself into great odium
among his subjects, when they should understand that he was
so fond of rites that were to them strange and foreign; and that
they would never bear to be ruled over by a Jew." This it was
that she said to him, and for the present persuaded him to for-
bear. And when he had related what she had said to Ananias,
he confirmed what his mother had said, and when he had also
threatened to leave him, unless he complied with him, he went
away from him, and said, that "he was afraid lest such an action
being once become public to all, he should himself be in danger
of punishment, for having been the occasion of it, and having been
the king's instructor in actions that were of ill reputation; and
he said, that he might worship God without being circumcised,
even though he did resolve to follow the Jewish law entirely,
which worship of God was of a superior nature to circum-
cision." He added, that "God would forgive him, though he
did not perform the operation, while it was omitted out of neces-
sity, and for fear of his subjects." So the king at that time
complied with these persuasions of Ananias. But afterwards,
as he had not quite left off his desire of doing this thing, a cer-
tain other Jew, that came out of Galilee, whose name was Elea-
zar, and who was esteemed very skilful in the learning of his
country, persuaded him to do the thing; for as he entered into
his palace to salute him, and found him reading the law of
Moses, he said to him, "Thou dost not consider, O king, that
thou unjustly breakest the principal of those laws, and art
injurious to God himself [by omitting to be circumcised]: for
thou oughtest not only to read them, but chiefly to practise what
they enjoin thee. How long wilt thou continue uncircumcised?
But if thou hast not yet read the law about circumcision, and
dost not know how great impiety thou art guilty of by neg-
lecting it, read it now." When the king had heard what he
said, he delayed the thing no longer, but retired to another room,
and sent for a surgeon, and did what he was commanded to do.
He then sent for his mother, and Ananias his tutor, and informed
them that he had done the thing; upon which they were pre-
sently struck with astonishment and fear, and that to a great
degree, lest the thing should be openly discovered and cen-
sured, and the king should hazard the loss of his kingdom, while
his subjects would not bear to be governed by a man who was
so zealous in another religion; and lest they should themselves
154
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
run some hazard, because they would be supposed the occasion
of his so doing. But it was God* himself who hindered what
they feared from taking effect; for he preserved both Izates him-
self, and his sons, when they fell into many dangers, and pro-
cured their deliverance when it seemed to be impossible, and
demonstrated thereby, that the fruit of piety does not perish as
to those that have regard to him, and fix their faith upon him
only. But these events we shall relate hereafter.
5. But as to Helena, the king's mother, when she saw that
the affairs of Izates's kingdom were in peace, and that her son
was a happy man, and admired among all men, and even among
foreigners, by the means of God's providence over him, she had
a mind to go to the city Jerusalem, in order to worship at that
temple of God which was so very famous among all men, and
to offer her thank-offerings there. So she desired her son to
give her leave to go thither: upon which he gave his consent to
what she desired very willingly, and made great preparation for
her dismission, and gave her a great deal of money, and she went
down to the city Jerusalem, her son conducting her on her jour-
ney a great way. Now her coming was of very great advantage
to the people of Jerusalem; for whereas a famine did oppress
them at that time, and many people died for want of what was
necessary to procure food withal, queen Helena sent some of
her servants to Alexandria with money to buy a great quantity of
corn, and others of them to Cyprus, to bring a cargo of dried
figs. And as soon as they were come back, and had brought
those provisions, which was done very quickly, she distributed
food to those that were in want of it, and left a most excellent
memorial behind her of this benefaction, which she bestowed on
our whole nation. And when her son Izates was informed of
this famine, he sent great sums of money to the principal men
in Jerusalem. However, what favours this queen and king con-
ferred upon our city Jerusalem shall be farther related hereafter.
* Josephus is very full and express in these three chapters, iii. iv. and v. in
observing how carefully Divine Providence preserved this Izates, king of Adi-
abene and his sons, while he did what he thought was his bounden duty, notwith-
standing the strongest political motives to the contrary.
+ This farther account of the benefactions of Izates and Helena to the Jeru-
salem Jews, which Josephus here promises, is, I think, no where performed by
him in his present works. But of this terrible famine itself in Judea, take Dr.
Hudson's note here ;-"This (says he) is that famine foretold by Agabus, Acta,
xi. 28, which happened when Claudius was consul the fourth time; and not that
other which happened when Claudius was consul the second time, and Cæsina was
his colleague, as Scaliger says upon Eusebius, p. 174." Now when Josephus had
said a little afterward, ch. v. sect. 2, that "Tiberius Alexander succeeded Cus-
pius Fadus as procurator," he immediately subjoins, "That under these procu-
rators there happened a great famine in Judea.” Whence it is plain that this
famine continued for many years, on account of its duration under those two pro-
curators. Now Fadus was not sent into Judea till after the death of king Agrip-
pa, i. e. towards the latter end of the fourth year of Claudius: so that this
famine foretold by Agabus, happened upon the 5th, 6th, and 7th years of Clau-
dius, as says Valesius on Euseb. ii. 12. Of this famine also, and queen Helena's
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
155
CHAP. III.
How Artabanus, the King of Parthia, out of Fear of the se-
cret Contrivances of his Subjects against him, went to Izates,
and was by him reinstated in his Government; as also how
Bardanes his Son denounced War against Izates.
§ 1. But now Artabanus, king of the Parthians, perceiving
that the governors of the provinces had framed a plot against
him, did not think it safe for him to continue among them, but
resolved to go to Izates, in hopes of finding some way for his
preservation by his means, and, if possible, for his return to his
own dominions. So he came to Izates, and brought about a
thousand of his kindred and servants with him, and met him
upon the road, while he well knew Izates, but Izates did not
know him. When Artabanus stood near him, and, in the first
place, worshiped him, according to the custom, he then said to
him: "O king, do not thou overlook me thy servant, nor do thou
proudly reject the suit I make thee; for as I am reduced to a
low estate, by the change of fortune, and of a king am become
a private man, I stand in need of thy assistance. Have regard,
therefore, unto the uncertainty of fortune, and esteem the care
thou shalt take of me to be taken of thyself also for if I be
neglected, and my subjects go off unpunished, many other sub-
jects will become the more insolent towards other kings also,
And this speech Artabanus made with tears in his eyes, and
with a dejected countenance. Now as soon as Izates heard Arta-
banus's name, and saw him stand as a supplicant before him, he
leaped down from his horse immediately, and said to him,
"Take courage, O king, nor be disturbed at thy present cala-
mity, as if it were incurable; for the change of thy sad condition
shall be sudden; for thou shalt find me to be more thy friend
and thy assistant than thy hopes can promise thee; for I will ei-
ther reestablish thee in the kingdom of Parthia, or lose my own."
""
2. When he had said this, he set Artabanus upon his horse, and
followed him on foot, in honour of a king whom he owned as
greater than himself; which, when Artabanus saw, he was very
uneasy at it, and sware, by his present fortune and honour, that
he would get down from his horse, unless Izates would get upon
his horse again, and go before him. So he complied with his
desire, and leaped upon his horse; and when he had brought him
to his royal palace, he showed him all sorts of respect when they
sat together, and he gave him the upper place at festivals also,
as regarding not his present fortune, but his former dignity, and
supplies, and her monument, see Moses Chorenensis, p. 144, 145, where it is ob-
served in the notes, that Pausanias mentions that her monument also.
156
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
that upon this consideration also, that the changes of fortune
are common to all men. He also wrote to the Parthians, to
persuade them to receive Artabanus again: and gave them his
right hand and his faith, that he should forget what was past
and done, and that he would undertake for this as a mediator be-
tween them. Now the Parthians did not themselves refuse to
receive him again, but pleaded that it was not now in their power
so to do; because they had committed the government to ano-
ther person, who had accepted of it, and whose name was Cin-
namus, and that they were afraid lest a civil war should arise on
this account. When Cinnamus understood their intentions, he
wrote to Artabanus himself, for he had been brought up by him,
and was of a nature good and gentle also, and desired him to put
confidence in him, and to come and take his own dominions again.
Accordingly Artabanus trusted him, and returned home; when
Cinnamus met him, worshiped him, and saluted him as king, and
took the diadem off his own head, and put it on the head of
Artabanus.
3. And thus was Artabanus restored to his kingdom again by
the means of Izates, when he had lost it by the means of the
grandees of the kingdom. Nor was he unmindful of the bene-
fits he had conferred upon him, but rewarded him with such
honours as were of greatest esteem among them; for he gave
him leave to wear his tiara upright*, and to sleep upon a golden
bed, which are privileges and marks of honour peculiar to the
kings of Parthia. He also cut off a large and fruitful country.
from the king of Armenia, and bestowed it upon him. The name
of the country is Nisibis, wherein the Macedonians had formerly
built that city which they called Antioch of Mygdonia. And
these were the honours that were paid Izates by the king of the
Parthians.
1
4. But in no long time, Artabanus died, and left his kingdom
to his son Bardanes. Now this Bardanes came to Izates, and
would have persuaded him to join him with his army, and to as-
sist him in the war he was preparing to make with the Romans;
but he could not prevail with him. For Izates so well knew the
strength and good fortune of the Romans, that he took Bar-
danes to attempt what was impossible to be done; and having
besides sent his sons, five in number, and they but young also,
to learn accurately the language of our nation, together with our
learning, as well as he had sent his mother to worship at our tem-
ple, as I have said already, was the more backward to a com-
pliance; and restrained Bardanes, telling him perpetually of the
great armies and famous actions of the Romans, and thought
* This privilege of wearing the tiara upright, or with the tip of the cone erect,
is known to have been of old peculiar to (great) kings, from Xenophon and
others, as Dr. Hudson observes here.
C. III.
157
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
1.
thereby to terrify him, and desired thereby to hinder him from
that expedition. But the Parthian king was provoked at this
his behaviour, and denounced war immediately against Izates.
Yet did he gain no advantage by this war, because God cut off
all his hopes therein; for the Parthians, perceiving Bardanes's
intentions, and how he had determined to make war with the
Romans, slew him, and gave his kingdom to his brother Gotar-
He also, in no long time, perished by a plot made against
him, and Vologases, his brother, succeeded him, who committed
two of his provinces to two of his brothers, by the same father;
that of the Medes to the elder, Pacorus; and Armenia to the
younger, Tiridates.
zes.
CHAP. IV.
How Izates was betrayed by his own Subjects, and fought against
by the Arabians; and how Izates, by the Providence of God,
was delivered out of their Hands.
§ 1. Now when the king's brother Monobazus, and his other
kindred, saw how Izates, by his piety to God, was become
greatly. esteemed by all men, they also had a desire to leave the
religion of their country, and to embrace the customs of the
Jews; but that act of theirs was discovered by Izates's subjects.
Whereupon the grandees were much displeased, and could not
contain their anger at them; but had an intention, when they
should find a proper opportunity, to inflict a punishment upon
them. Accordingly they wrote to Abia, king of the Arabians,
and promised him great sums of money, if he would make an
expedition against their king; and they farther promised him,
that, on the first onset, they would desert their king, because
they were desirous to punish him, by reason of the hatred he had
to their religious worship: then they obliged themselves by oaths
to be faithful to each other, and desired that he would make
haste in this design. The king of Arabia complied with their
desires, and brought a great army into the field, and marched
against Izates; and, in the beginning of the first onset, and be-
fore they came to a close fight, those grandees, as if they had a
panic terror upon them, all deserted Izates, as they had agreed
to do, and, turning their backs upon their enemies, ran away.
Yet was not Izates dismayed at this; but when he understood
that the grandees had betrayed him, he also retired into his camp,
and made inquiry into the matter; and as soon as he knew who
they were that had made this conspiracy with the king of Ara-
bia, he cut off those that were found guilty; and renewing the
fight on the next day, he slew the greatest part of his enemies,
and forced all the rest to betake themselves to flight. He also
158
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
ļ
pursued their king, and drove him into a fortress called Arsa-
mus, and, following on the siege vigorously, he took that for-
tress. And when he had plundered it of all the prey that was
in it, which was not small, he returned to Adiabene: yet did not
he take Abia alive; because, when he found himself encom-
passed on every side, he slew himself.
2. But although the grandees of Adiabene had failed in their
first attempt, as being delivered up by God into their king's
hands, yet would they not even then be quiet, but wrote again
to Vologases, who was then king of Parthia, and desired that he
would kill Izates, and set over them some other potentate, who
should be of a Parthian family; for they said, that "they hated
their own king for abrogating the laws of their forefathers, and
embracing foreign customs." When the king of Parthia heard
this, he boldly made war upon Izates; and as he had no just
pretence for this war, he sent to him, and demanded back those
honourable privileges which had been bestowed on him by his
father, and threatened, on his refusal, to make war upon him.
Upon hearing of this, Izates was under no small trouble of mind
as thinking it would be a reproach upon him to appear to resign
those privileges that had been bestowed upon him, out of cow-
ardice; yet because he knew, that, though the king,of Parthia
should receive back those honours, yet would he not be quiet,
he resolved to commit himself to God, his protector, in the pre-
sent danger he was in of his life; and as he esteemed him to be
his principal assistant, he entrusted his children and his wives to a
very strong fortress, and laid up his corn in his citadels, and set
the hay and the grass on fire. And when he had thus put things
in order as well as he could, he awaited the coming of the enemy.
And when the king of Parthia was come, with a great army of
footmen and horsemen, which he did sooner than was expected,
(for he marched in great haste), and had cast up a bank at the
river that parted Adiabene from Media; Izates also pitched his
camp not far off, having with him six thousand horsemen. But
there came a messenger to Izates, sent by the king of Parthia,
who told him "how large his dominions were, as reaching from
the river Euphrates to Bactria, and enumerated that king's sub-
jects: he also threatened him that he should be punished, as a
person ungrateful to his lords; and said, that the God whom he
worshiped could not deliver him out of the king's hands."
When the messenger had delivered this his message, Izates re-
plied, that "he knew the king of Parthia's power was much
greater than his own; but that he knew also that God was much
more powerful than all men." And when he had returned him
this answer, he betook himself to make supplication* to God,
* This mourning, and fasting, and praying, used by Izates, with prostration of
his body, and ashes upon his head, are plain signs that he was become either a
C. IV.
159
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
and threw himself upon the ground, and put ashes upon his head,
in testimony of his confusion, and fasted, together with his
wives and children. When he called upon God, and said, "O
Lord and Governor, if I have not in vain committed myself to
thy goodness, but have justly determined that thou only art the
Lord and principal of all beings, come now to my assistance, and
defend me from my enemies, not only on my own account, but
on account of their insolent behaviour with regard to thy power,
while they have not feared to lift up their proud and arrogant
tongue against thee." Thus did he lament and bemoan himself.
with tears in his eyes; whereupon God heard his prayer. And
immediately that very night Vologases received letters, the con-
tents of which were these, that a great band of Daha and Sahæ,
despising him now he was gone so long a journey from home,
had made an expedition, and laid Parthia waste; so that he [was
forced to] retire back without doing any thing. And thus it was
that Izate sescaped the threatenings of the Parthians, by the pro-
vidence of God.
+
3. It was not long ere Izates died, when he had completed
fifty-five years of his life, and had ruled his kingdom twenty-four
years. He left behind him twenty-four sons, and twenty-four
daughters. However, he gave order that his brother Monoba-
zus should succeed in the government, thereby requiting him,
because while he was himself absent, after their father's death,
he had faithfully preserved the government for him. But when
Helena, his mother, heard of her son's death, she was in great
uneasiness, as was but natural upon her loss of such a most du-
tiful son; yet was it a comfort to her, that she heard the succes-
sion came to her eldest son. Accordingly she went to him in
haste; and when she was come into Adiabene, she did not long
outlive her son Izates. But Monobazus sent her bones, as well
as those of Izates, his brother, to Jerusalem, and gave order that
they should be buried at the pyramids*, which their mother had
erected; they were three in number, and distant no more than
three furlongs, from the city of Jerusalem. But for the actions.
of Monobazus the king, which he did during the rest of his life,
we will relate them hereafter +.
藏
​Jew, or an Ebionite Christian, who indeed differed not much from proper Jews.
See chap. vi. sect. 1. However his supplications were heard, and he was provi-
dentially delivered from that imminent danger he was in.
* These pyramids or pillars, erected by Helena, queen of Adiabene, near Je-
rusalem, three in number, are mentioned by Eusebius in his Eccles. Hist. B. ii.
ch. 12; for which Dr. Hudson refers us to Valesius's notes upon, that place.
They are also mentioned by Pausanias, as hath been already noted, chap. ii. sect.
6. Reland guesses that that now called Absalom's pillar may be one of them.
+ This account is now wanting.
I
160
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES ÓF THE JEWS.
CHAP. V.
Concerning Theudas, and the Sons of Judas the Galilean; as
also what Calamity fell upon the Jews on the Day of the
Passover.
*
§ 1. Now it came to pass, while Fadus was procurator of
Judea, that a certain magician, whose name was Theudas
persuaded a great part of the people to take their effects with
them, and follow him to the river Jordan; for he told them he
was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, divide
the river, and afford them an easy passage over it; and many
were deluded by his words. However, Fadus did not permit
him to make any advantage of his wild attempt, but sent a
troop of horsemen out against them; who, falling upon them
unexpectedly, slew many of them, and took many of them alive.
They also took Theudas alive, and cut off his head, and carried
it to Jerusalem. This was what befell the Jews in the time of
Cuspius Fadus's government.
And
2. Then came Tiberius Alexander as successor to Fadus; he
was the son of Alexander the alabarch of Alexandria, which
Alexander was a principal person among all his contempora-
ries, both for his family and wealth: he was also more eminent
for his piety than this his son Alexander, for he did not con-
tinue in the religion of his country. Under these procurators
that great famine happened in Judea, in which queen Helena
bought corn in Egypt at a great expense, and distributed it to
those that were in want, as I have related already.
besides this, the sons of Judas of Galilee were now slain; I
mean of that Judas who caused the people to revolt, when
Cyreniús came to take an account of the estates of the Jews, as
we have showed in a foregoing book. The names of those sons
were James and Simon, whom Alexander commanded to be
crucified. But now Herod, king of Chalcis, removed Joseph,
the son of Camydus, from the high priesthood, and made Ana-
nias, the son of Nebedus, his successor. And now it was that
Cumanus came a successor to Tiberius Alexander; as also that
Herod, brother of Agrippa the great king, departed this life, in
the eighth year of the reign of Claudius Cæsar. He left behind
him three sons, Aristobulus, whom he had by his first wife, with
Bernictanus and Hircanus, both whom he had by Bernice his
brother's daughter. But Claudius Cæsar bestowed his domi-
nions on Agrippa junior.
* This Theudas, who arose under Fadus the procurator, about A. D. 45 or
46, could not be that Theudas who arose in the days of the taxing, under Cyre-
nius; or about A. D. 7. Acts, v. 36, 37. Who that earlier Theudas was, see the
note on B. xvii. ch. x. sect. 5.
C. V.
161
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
3. Now, while the Jewish affairs were under the administra-
tion of Cumanus, there happened a great tumult at the city of
Jerusalem, and many of the Jews perished therein. But I shall
first explain the occasion whence it was derived. When that
feast which is called the Passover was at hand, at which time
our custom is to use unleavened bread, and a great multitude
was gathered together from all parts to that feast, Cumanus
was afraid lest some innovation should then be made by them;
so he ordered that one regiment of the army should take their
arms, and stand in the temple cloisters, to repress any attempts
of innovation, if perchance any such should begin; and this was
no more than what the former procurators of Judea did at such
festivals. But on the fourth day of the feast, a certain soldier
let down his breeches, and exposed his privy members to the
multitude, which put those that saw him into a furious rage,
and made them cry out, that this impious action was not done to
reproach them, but God himself; nay, some of them reproached
Cumanus, and pretended that the soldier was set on by him,
which when Cumanus heard, he was also himself not a little
provoked at such reproaches laid upon him; yet did he exhort
them to leave off such seditious attempts, and not to raise a
tumult at the festival. But when he could not induce them to
be quiet, for they still went on in their reproaches to him, he
gave order that the whole army should take their entire armour,
and come to Antonia, which was a fortress, as we have said
already, which overlooked the temple; but when the multitude
saw the soldiers there, they were affrighted at them, and ran
away hastily; but as the passages out were but narrow, and as
they thought their enemies followed them, they were crowded
together in their flight, and a great number were pressed to
death in those narrow passages; nor indeed was the number
fewer than twenty thousand that perished in this tumult. So
instead of a festival they had at last a mournful day of it; and
they all of them forgot their prayers and sacrifices, and betook
themselves to lamentation and weeping; so great an affliction
did the impudent obsceneness of a single soldier bring upon
them*.
4. Now before this their first mourning was over, another mis-
chief befell them also: for some of those that raised the fore-
going tumult, when they were travelling along the public road,
about a hundred furlongs from the city, robbed Stephanus, a
servant of Cæsar, as he was journeying, and plundered him of
all that he had with him. Which things when Cumanus heard
*This, and many more tumults and seditions, which arose at the Jewish fes-
tivals, in Josephus, illustrate that cautious procedure of the Jewish governors,
when they said, Matt. xxvi. 5. "Let us not take Jesus on the feast-day, lest
there be an uproar among the people;" as Reland well observes on this place.
Josephus also takes notice of the same thing, Of the War, B. i. ch. iv. sect. 3.
VOL. III.
C.
M
162
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
of, he sent soldiers immediately, and ordered them to plunder
the neighbouring villages, and to bring the most eminent per-
sons among them in bonds to him. Now as this devastation was
making, one of the soldiers seized the laws of Moses that lay in
one of those villages, and brought them out before the eyes of
all present, and tore them to pieces; and this was done with
reproachful language, and much scurrility. Which things when
the Jews heard of, they ran together, and that in great numbers,
and came down to Cesarea, where Cumanus then was, and
besought him, that he would avenge, not themselves, but God
himself, whose laws had been affronted; for that they could not
bear to live any longer, if the laws of their forefathers must be
affronted after this manner. Accordingly Cumanus, out of fear
lest the multitude should go into a sedition, and by the advice
of his friends also, took care that the soldier who had offered
the affront to the laws should be beheaded, and thereby put
a stop to the sedition which was ready to be kindled a second
time.
CHAP. VI.
How there happened a Quarrel between the Jews and the Sama-
ritans, and how Claudius put an End to their Differences.
§ 1. Now there arose a quarrel between the Samaritans and the
Jews on the occasion following: it was the custom of the Gali-
leans, when they came to the holy city at the festivals, to take
their journeys through the country of the Samaritans *; and at
this time there lay, in the road they took, a village that was called
Ginea, which was situated in the limits of Samaria and the great
plain, where certain persons thereto belonging fought with the
Galileans, and killed a great many of them. But when the
principal of the Galileans were informed of what had been
done, they came to Cumanus, and desired him to avenge the
murder of those that were killed; but he was induced by the
Samaritans, with money, to do nothing in the matter: upon
which, the Galileans were much displeased, and persuaded the
multitude of the Jews to betake themselves to arms, and to
regain their liberty, saying that "slavery was in itself a bitter
thing, but that when it was joined with direct injuries, it was
perfectly intolerable." And when their principal men endea-
voured to pacify them, and promised to endeavour to persuade
Cumanus to avenge those that were killed, they would not hear-
* This constant passage of the Galileans through the country of Samaria, as
they went to Judea and Jerusalem, illustrates several passages in the gospels to
the same purpose, as Dr. Hudson rightly observes. See Luke, xvii. 11; John,
iv. 4. See also Josephus in his own life, sect. 52, where that journey is deter-
mined to three days.
C. VI.
163
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
ken to them, but took their weapons, and entreated the assist-
ance of Eleazar, the son of Dineus, a robber, who had many
years made his abode in the mountains; with which assistance
they plundered many villages of the Samaritans. When Cuma-
nus heard of this action of theirs, he took the band of Sebaste,
with four regiments of footmen, and armed the Samaritans, and
marched out against the Jews, and caught them, and slew many
of them, and took a great number of them alive; whereupon
those that were the most eminent persons at Jerusalem, and
that both in regard of the respect that was paid them and the
families they were of, as soon as they saw to what a height things
were gone, put on sackcloth and heaped ashes upon their heads;
and by all possible means besought the seditious, and persuaded
them that they would set before their eyes the utter subversion *
of their country, the conflagration of their temple, and the sla-
very of themselves, their wives, and children, which would be
the consequences of what they were doing; and would alter
their minds, would cast away their weapons, and for the future
be quiet, and return to their own homes. These persuasions of
theirs prevailed upon them. So the people dispersed them-
selves, and the robbers went away again to their places of
strength; and after this time all Judea was overrun with rob-
beries.
2. But the principal of the Samaritans went to Ummidius
Quadratus, the president of Syria, who at that time. was at
Tyre, and accused the Jews of setting their villages on fire, and
plundering them; and said withal, that "they were not so much
displeased at what they had suffered, as they were at the con-
tempt thereby showed the Romans; while, if they had received
any injury, they ought to have made them the judges of what
had been done, and not presently to make such devastation, as
if they had not the Romans for their governors; on which ac-
count they came to him, in order to obtain that vengeance they
wanted." This was the accusation which the Samaritans brought
against the Jews. But the Jews affirmed that the Samaritans
were the authors of this tumult and fighting; and that, in the
first place, Cumanus had been corrupted by their gifts, and
passed over the murder of those that were slain in silence.
Which allegations when Quadratus heard, he put off the hear-
ing of the cause, and promised that he would give sentence
when he should come into Judea, and should have a more exact
knowledge of the truth of that matter. So these men went
Our Saviour had foretold that the Jews' rejection of his gospel would bring
upon them, among other miseries, these three, which they themselves here show
-they expected would be the consequences of their present tumults and seditions;
the utter subversion of their country, the conflagration of their temple, and the
slavery of themselves, their wives, and children. See Luke, xxi. 6-24.
+
M 2
164
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
1
away without success. Yet was it not long ere Quadratus came
to Samaria; where, upon hearing the cause, he supposed that
the Samaritans were the authors of that disturbance. But,
when he was informed that certain of the Jews were making
innovations, he ordered those to be crucified whom Cumanus
had taken captives. From whence he went to a certain village
called Lydda, which was not less than a city in largeness, and
there heard the Samaritan cause a second time before his tri-
bunal; and there learned from a certain Samaritan, that one of
the chief of the Jews, whose name was Dortus, and some other
innovators with him, four in number, persuaded the multitude to
a revolt from the Romans; whom Quadratus ordered to be put
to death: but still he sent away Ananias the high priest, and
Ananus, the commander [of the temple], in bonds to Rome, to
give an account of what they had done to Claudius Cæsar. He
also ordered the principal men, both of the Samaritans and of
the Jews, as also Cumanus the procurator, and Celer the tri-
bune, to go to Italy to the emperor, that he might hear their
cause, and determine their differences one with another. But
he came again to the city of Jerusalem, out of his fear that the
multitude of the Jews should attempt some innovations; but he
found the city in a peaceable state, and celebrating one of the
usual festivals of their country to God. So he believed that
they would not attempt any innovations, and left them at the
celebration of the festival, and returned to Antioch.
3. Now Cumanus, and the principal of the Samaritans, who
were sent to Rome, had a day appointed them by the emperor,
whereon they were to have pleaded their cause about the quar-
rels they had one with another. But now Cæsar's freedmen
and his friends were very zealous on the behalf of Cumanus
and the Samaritans; and they had prevailed over the Jews, un-
less Agrippa junior, who was then at Rome, had seen the prin-
cipal of the Jews hard set, and had earnestly entreated Agrip-
pina, the emperor's wife, to persuade her husband to hear the
cause, so as was agreeable to his justice, and to condemn those
to be punished who were really the authors of this revolt from
the Roman government. Whereupon Claudius was so well dis-
posed beforehand, that when he had heard the cause, and found
that the Samaritans had been the ringleaders in those mischievous
doings, he gave order, that those who came up to him should
be slain, and that Cumanus should be banished. He also gave
order, that Celer the tribune should be carried back to Jerusa-
lem, and should be drawn through the city in the sight of all the
people, and then should be slain.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
165
2
CHAP. VII.
Felix is made Procurator of Judea; as also concerning Agrippa
junior, and his Sisters.
§ 1. So Claudius sent Felix, the brother of Pallans, to take
care of the affairs of Judea; and when he had already com-
pleted the twelfth year of his reign, he bestowed upon Agrippa
the tetrarchy of Philip and Batanea, and added thereto Tracho-
nitis, with Abila; which last had been the tetrarchy of Lysanias;
but he took from him Chalcis, when he had been governor
thereof four years. And when Agrippa had received these
countries as the gift of Cæsar, he gave his sister Drusilla in
marriage to Azizus, king of Emesa, upon his consent to be cir-
cumcised; for Epiphanes, the son of king Antiochus, had refused
to marry her, because, after he had promised her father formerly
to come over to the Jewish religion, he would not now perform
that promise. He also gave Mariamne in marriage to Arche-
laus, the son of Helcias, to whom she had been betrothed for-
merly by Agrippa her father; from which marriage was derived
a daughter, whose name was Bernice.
2. But for the marriage of Drusilla with Azizus, it was in no
long time afterward dissolved upon the following occasion:
while Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and
fell in love with her; for she did indeed exceed all other
women in beauty; and he sent to her a person whose name was
Simon*, one of his friends, a Jew he was, and by birth a
* This Simon, a friend of Felix, a Jew, born in Cyprus, though he pretended
to be a magician, and seems to have been wicked enough, could hardly be that
famous Simon the magician, in the Acts of the Apostles, viii. 9, &c. as some are
ready to suppose. This Simon mentioned in the Acts was not properly a Jew,
but a Samaritan, of the town of Gittæ, in the country of Samaria, as the Apos-
tolical Constitutions, vi. 7, the Recognitions of Clement, ii. 6, and Justin Mar-
tyr, himself born in the country of Samaria, Apology, i. 34, inform us.
He was
also the author, not of any ancient Jewish, but of the first Gentile heresies, as
the forementioned authors assure us. So I suppose him a different person from
the other. I mean this only upon the hypothesis, that Josephus was not misin-
formed as to his being a Cypriot Jew; for otherwise the time, the name, the
profession, and the wickedness of them both would strongly incline one to be-
lieve them the very same. As to that Drusilla, the sister of Agrippa junior, as
Josephus informs us here, and a Jewess, as St. Luke informs us, Acts, xxiv. 24,
whom this Simon mentioned by Josephus persuaded to leave her former hus-
band, Azizus, king of Emesa, a proselyte of justice, and to marry Felix, the
heathen procurator of Judea; Tacitus, Hist. v. 9, supposes her to be a heathen,
and the grand-daughter of Antonius and Cleopatra, contrary both to St. Luke
and Josephus. Now Tacitus lived somewhat too remote, both as to time and
place, to be compared with either of those Jewish writers, in a matter con-
cerning the Jews in Judea in their own days, and concerning a sister of Agrippa
junior, with which Agrippa Josephus was himself so well acquainted. It is pro-
bable that Tacitus may say true when he informs us that this Felix (who had in-
all three wives or queens, as Suetonius in Claudius, sect. 28, assures us), did once
marry such a grandchild of Antonius and Cleopatra, and finding the name of
one of them to have been Drusilla, he mistook her for that other wife, whose
name he did not know.
1
1
166
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
1
Cypriot, and one who pretended to be a magician, and endea-
voured to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and
marry him; and promised, that if she would not refuse him, he
would make her a happy woman. Accordingly she acted ill,
and because she was desirous to avoid her sister Bernice's envy,
for she was very ill treated by her on account of her beauty,
was prevailed upon to transgress the laws of her forefathers,
and to marry Felix; and when he had had a son by her, he
named him Agrippa. But after what manner that young man,
with his wife, perished at the conflagration* of the mountain Ve-
suvius, in the days of Titus Cæsar, shall be related hereafter †.
1
3. But as for Bernice, she lived a widow a long while after
the death of Herod [king of Chalcis], who was both her hus-
band and her uncle; but, when the report went that she had
criminal conversation with her brother [Agrippa junior], she
persuaded Polemo, who was king of Cilicia, to be circumcised,
and to marry her, as supposing, that by this means she should
prove those calumnies upon her to be false; and Polemo was
prevailed upon, and that chiefly on account of her riches. Yet
did not this matrimony endure long; but Bernice left Polemo,
and, as was said, with impure intentions. So he forsook at
once this matrimony and the Jewish religion: and at the same
time Mariamne put away Archelaus, and was married to Deme-
trius, the principal man among the Alexandrian Jews, both for
his family and his wealth; and indeed he was then their ala-
barch. So she named her son, whom she had by him, Agrip-
pinus. But of all these particulars we shall hereafter treat more
exactly t
f
CHAP. VIII.
After what Manner, upon the Death of Claudius, Nero suc-
ceeded in the Government; as also what barbarous Things
he did. Concerning the Robbers, Murderers, and Impostors,
that arose while Felix and Festus æere Procurators of Judea.
§ 1. Now Claudius Cæsar died when he had reigned thirteen years
eight months and twenty days §; and a report went about that
he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina. Her father was Ger-
* This eruption of Vesuvius was one of the greatest we have in history. See
Bianchini's curious and important observations on this Vesuvius, and its seven
several great eruptions, with their remains vitrified, and still existing, in so many
different strata under ground, till the diggers came to the antediluvian waters,
with their proportionable interstices, implying the deluge to have been above
2,500 years before the Christian æra, accordingly to our exactest chronology.
This also is now wanting.
+ This is now wanting.
§ This duration of the reign of Claudius agrees with Dio, as Dr. Hudson here
remarks; as he also remarks, that Nero's name, which was at first L. Domitius
Enobarbus, after Claudius had adopted him, was Nero Claudius Cæsar Drusus
Germanicus.
C. VIII.
167
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
manicus, the brother of Cæsar. Her husband was Domitius
Ænobarbus, one of the most illustrious persons that was in the
city of Rome; after whose death, and her own long continu-
ance in widowhood, Claudius took her to wife. She brought
along with her a son, Domitius, of the same name with his
father. He had before this slain his wife Messalina out of jea-
lousy, by whom he had his children Britannicus and Octavia;
their eldest sister was Antonia, whom he had by Pelina his first
wife. He also married Octavia to Nero; for that was the
name that Cæsar gave him afterward, upon his adopting him
for his son.
2. But now Agrippina was afraid, lest, when Britannicus
should come to man's estate, he should succeed his father in
the government, and desired to seize upon the principality
beforehand for her own son [Nero]; upon which the report
went, that she thence compassed the death of Claudius. Ac-
cordingly she sent Burrhus, the general of the army, imme-
diately, and with him the tribunes, and such also of the freedmen
as were of the greatest authority, to bring Nero away into the
camp, and to salute him emperor. And when Nero had thus
obtained the government, he got Britannicus to be so poisoned
that the multitude should not perceive it; although he publicly
put his own mother to death not long afterward, making her
this requital, not only for being born of her, but for bringing it
so about by her contrivances, that he obtained the Roman
empire. He also slew Octavia his own wife, and many other
illustrious persons, under this pretence, that they plotted against
him.
3. But I omit any farther discourse about these affairs; for
there have been a great many who have composed the history
of Nero; some of which have departed from the truth of facts
out of favour, as having received benefits from him; while
others out of hatred to him, and the great ill will which they
bare him, have so impudently raved against him with their lies,
that they justly deserve to be condemned. Nor do I wonder at
such as have told lies of Nero, since they have not in their
writings preserved the truth of history as to those facts that were
earlier than his time, even when the actors could have no way
incurred their hatred, since those writers lived a long time after
them. But as to these that have no regard to truth, they may
write as they please; for in that they take delight: but as to
ourselves, who have made truth our direct aim, we shall briefly
touch upon what only belongs remotely to this undertaking, but
shall relate what hath happened to us Jews with great accuracy,
and shall not grudge our pains in giving an account both of the
calamities we have suffered, and of the crimes we have been
guilty of. I will now therefore return to the relation of our own
affairs.
168
. B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
4. For in the first year of the reign of Nero, upon the death
of Azizus, king of Emesa, Söemus* his brother succeeded in his
kingdom, and Aristobulus, the son of Herod, king of Chalcis, was
intrusted by Nero with the government of the Lesser Armenia.
Cæsar also bestowed on Agrippa a certain part of Galilee, Ti-
berias and Taricheæ, and ordered them to submit to his juris-
diction. He gave him also Julias, a city of Perea, with fourteen
villages that lay about it.
5. Now, as for the affairs of the Jews, they grew worse and
worse continually, for the country was again filled with robbe-
ries, and impostors who deluded the multitude. Yet did Felix
catch, and put to death, many of those impostors every day, to-
gether with the robbers. He also caught Eleazar, the son of
Dineas, who had gotten together a company of robbers: and
this he did by treachery, for he gave him assurance, that he
should suffer no harm, and thereby persuaded him to come to
him; but when he came he bound him, and sent him to Rome.
Felix also bore an ill will to Jonathan the high priest, because
he frequently gave him admonitions about governing the Jewish
affairs better than he did, lest he should himself have complaints
made of him by the multitude, since he it was who had desired
Cæsar to send him as procurator of Judea. So Felix contrived
a method whereby he might get rid of him, now he was become
so continually troublesome to him; for such continual admoni-
tions are grievous to those who are disposed to act unjustly.
Wherefore Felix persuaded one of Jonathan's most faithful
friends, a citizen of Jerusalem, whose name was Doras, to bring
the robbers upon Jonathan, in order to kill him; and this he
did by promising to give him a great deal of money for so doing.
Doras complied with the proposal, and contrived matters so that
the robbers might murder him after the following manner: cer-
tain of those robbers went up to the city, as if they were going
to worship God, while they had daggers under their garments,
and by thus mingling themselves among the multitude, they slew
Jonathan‡, and as this murder was never avenged, the robbers
* This Söemus is elsewhere mentioned [by Josephus in his own Life, sect. 11,
as also] by Dio Cassius and Tacitus, as Dr. Hudson informs us.
+ This agrees with Josephus's frequent accounts elsewhere in his own Life,
that Tiberias, and Taricheæ, and Gamala were under this Agrippa junior, till
Justus, the son of Pistus, seized upon them for the Jews upon the breaking out
of the war.
This treacherous and barbarous murder of the good high priest Jonathan, by
the contrivance of this wicked procurator Felix, was the immediate occasion of
the ensuing murders by the Sicarii or ruffians, and one great cause of the follow-
ing horrid cruelties and miseries of the Jewish nation, as Josephus here supposes,
whose excellent reflection on the gross wickedness of that nation, as the direct
cause of their terrible destruction, is well worthy the attention of every Jewish
and of every Christian reader. And, since we are soon coming to the catalogue
of the Jewish high priests, it may not be amiss, with Reland, to insert this Jona-
than among them, and to transcribe his particular catalogue of the last twenty,
1
C. VIII.
169
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
went up with the greatest security at the festivals after this time,
and having weapons concealed in like manner as before, and
mingling themselves among the multitude, they slew certain of
their own enemies, and were subservient to other men for
money, and slew others, not only in remote parts of the city, but
in the temple itself also; for they had the boldness to murder
men there, without thinking of the impiety of which they were
guilty. And this seems to me to have been the reason why God,
out of his hatred of these men's wickedness, rejected our city,
and, as for the temple, he no longer esteemed it sufficiently pure
for him to inhabit therein, but brought the Romans upon us, and
threw a fire upon the city to purge it, and brought upon us, our
wives, and children, slavery, as desirous to make us wiser by our
calamities.
6. These works, that were done by the robbers, filled the city
with all sorts of impiety. And now these impostors* and de-
ceivers persuaded the multitude to follow them into the wilder-
ness, and pretended that they would exhibit manifest wonders
and signs, that should be performed by the providence of God.
And many that were prevailed on by them suffered the punish-
ments of their folly; for Felix brought them back, and then
punished them. Moreover, there came out of Egypt about this
time to Jerusalem, one that said he was a prophet, and advised
the multitude of the common people to go along with him to
the Mount of Olives, as it was called, which lay over against the
city, and at the distance of five furlongs. He said farther, that
he would show them from hence, how, at his command, the
eight high priests, taken out of Josephus, and begin with Ananelus, who was
made by Herod the Great, See Antiq. B. xv. ch. ii. sect. 4, and the note there.
1. Ananelus.
15. Theophilus, his brother, and son of
2. Aristobulus.
3. Jesus, the son of Fabus.
4. Simon, the son of Boethus.
5. Matthias, the son of Theophilus.
6. Joazar, the son of Boethus.
7. Eleazar, the son of Boethus.
8. Jesus, the son of Sie.
Ananns.
16. Simon, the son of Boethus.
17. Matthias, the brother of Jonathan,
and son of Ananus.
18. Aljoneus.
19. Josephus, the son of Camydus.
20. Ananias, the son of Nebedeus.
9. [Annas, or] Ananus, the son of 21. Jonathas.
Seth.
10. Ismael, the son of Fabus.
11. Eleazar, the son of Ananus.
12. Simon, the son of Camithus.
13. Josephus Caiaphas, the son-in-law
to Ananus.
14. Jonathan, the son of Ananus.
22. Ismael, the son of Fabi.
23. Joseph Cabi, the son of Simon.
24. Ananus, the son of Ananus.
25. Jesus, the son of Damneus.
26. Jesus, the son of Gamaliel.
27. Matthias, the son of Theophilus.
28. Phannias, the son of Samuel.
As for Ananus and Joseph Caiaphas, here mentioned about the middle of this
catalogue, they are no other than those Annas and Caiaphas, so often mentioned
in the four gospels; and that Ananias, the son of Nebedeus, was that high priest
before whom St. Paul pleaded his own cause, Acts, xxiv.
* Of these Jewish impostors and false prophets, with many other circum-
stances and miseries of the Jews, till their utter destruction, foretold by our
Saviour, see Lit. Accompl. of Proph. p. 58–75.
+ Of this Egyptian impostor, and the number of his followers in Josephus, see
Acts, xxi. 38.
170
.B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
walls of Jerusalem would fall down; and he promised them,
that he would procure them an entrance into the city through
those walls, when they were fallen down. Now, when Felix was
informed of these things, he ordered his soldiers to take their
weapons, and came against them with a great number of horse-
men and footmen from Jerusalem, and attacked the Egyptian,
and the people that were with him. He also slew four hundred
of them, and took two hundred alive. But the Egyptian him-
self escaped out of the fight, but did not appear any more.
And again the robbers stirred up the people to make war with
the Romans, and said, they ought not to obey them at all; and
when any persons would not comply with them, they set fire to
their villages, and plundered them.
7. And now it was that a great sedition arose between the
Jews that inhabited Cesarea and the Syrians who dwelt there also,
concerning their equal right to the privileges belonging to citi-
zens; for the Jews claimed the preeminence, because Herod
their king was the builder of Cesarea, and because he was by
birth a Jew. Now the Syrians did not deny what was alleged
about Herod; but they said, that Cesarea was formerly called
Strato's Tower, and that then there was not one Jewish inhabi-
tant. When the presidents of that country heard of these disor-
ders, they caught the authors of them on both sides, and
tormented them with stripes, and by that means put a stop to the
disturbance for a time. But the Jewish citizens, depending on
their wealth, and on that account despising the Syrians, re-
proached them again, and hoped to provoke them by such
reproaches. However, the Syrians, though they were inferior
in wealth, yet valuing themselves highly on this account, that
the greatest part of the Roman soldiers that were there were
either of Cesarea or of Sebaste, they also for some time used
reproachful language to the Jews also; and thus it was, till at
length they came to throwing stones at one another, and seve-
ral were wounded, and fell on both sides, though the Jews were
still the conquerors. But when Felix saw that this quarrel was
become a kind of war, he came upon them on the sudden, and
desired the Jews to desist; and when they refused so to do, he
armed his soldiers, and sent them out upon them, and slew many
of them, and took more of them alive, and permitted his soldiers
to plunder some of the houses of the citizens, which were full
of riches. Now those Jews that were more moderate, and of
principal dignity among them, were afraid of themselves, and
desired of Felix that he would sound a retreat to his soldiers, and
spare them for the future, and afford them room for repentance,
for what they had done; and Felix was prevailed upon to do so.
8. About this time king Agrippa gave the high priesthood to
Ismael, who was the son of Fabi. And now arose a sedition
between the high priests and the principal men of the multitude
C. VIII.
171
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
8
of Jerusalem; each of which got them a company of the bold-
est sort of men, and of those that loved innovations, about them,
and became leaders to them; and when they struggled together,
they did it by casting reproachful words against one another, and
by throwing stones also. And there was nobody to reprove them,
but these disorders were done after a licentious manner in the
city, as if it had no government over it. And such was the im-
pudence* and boldness that had seized on the high priests, that
they had the hardiness to send their servants into the threshing-
floors, to take away those tithes that were due to the priests; in-
somuch that it so fell out, that the poorer sort of the priests died
for want. To this degree did the violence of the seditious pre-
vail over all right and justice!
9. Now when Porcius Festus was sent as successor to Felix,
by Nero, the principal of the Jewish inhabitants of Cesarea went
up to Rome to accuse Felix; and he had certainly been brought
to punishment, unless Nero had yielded to the importunate soli-
citations of his brother Pallas, who was at that time had in the
greatest honour by him. Two of the principal Syrians in Cesa-
rea persuaded Burrhus, who was Nero's tutor, and secretary for
his Greek epistles, by giving him a great sum of money, to dis-
annul that equality of the Jewish privileges of citizens which
they hitherto enjoyed. So Burrhus, by his solicitations, obtained
leave of the emperor, that an epistle should be written to that
purpose. This epistle became the occasion of the following
miseries that befell our nation; for when the Jews of Cesarea
were informed of the contents of this epistle to the Syrians, they
were more disorderly than before, till a war was kindled.
10. Upon Festus's coming into Judea, it happened that Ju-
dea was afflicted by the robbers, while all the villages were set
on fire, and plundered by them. And then it was that the Si-
carii, as they were called, who were robbers, grew numerous.
They made use of small swords, not much different in length
from the Persian acinaca, but somewhat crooked, and like the
Roman sice [or sickles], as they were called; and from those
weapons these robbers got their denomination; and with those
weapons they slew a great many: for they mingled themselves
among the multitude at their festivals, when they were come up
in crowds from all parts to the city to worship God, as we said
before, and easily slew those that they had a mind to slay. They
also came frequently upon the villages belonging to their ene-
mies, with their weapons, and plundered them, and set them on
fire. So Festus sent forces, both horsemen and footmen, to fall
upon those that had been seduced by a certain impostor, who
* The wickedness here was very peculiar and extraordinary, that the high
priests should so oppress their brethren the priests, as to starve the poorest of
them to death. See the like presently, ch. ix. sect. 2. Such fatal crimes are
covetousness and tyranny in the clergy, as well as in the laity, in all ages.
172
.B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
promised them deliverance and freedom from the miseries they
were under, if they would but follow him as far as the wilder-
Accordingly those forces that were sent destroyed both
him that had deluded them, and those that were his followers
also.
ness.
11. About the same time king Agrippa built himself a very
large dining-room in the royal palace at Jerusalem, near to the
portico. Now this palace had been erected of old by the chil-
dren of Asamoneus, and was situated upon an elevation, and
afforded a most delightful prospect to those that had a mind to
take a view of the city, which prospect was desired by the king;
and there he could lie down, and eat, and thence observe what
was done in the temple; which thing when the chief men of
Jerusalem saw, they were very much displeased at it; for it was
not agreeable to the institutions of our country or law, that what
was done in the temple should be viewed by others, especially
what belonged to the sacrifices. They therefore erected a wall
upon the uppermost building which belonged to the inner court
of the temple towards the west: which wall when it was built,
did not only intercept the prospect of the dining-room in the pa-
lace, but also of the western cloisters that belonged to the outer
court of the temple also, where it was that the Romans kept
guards for the temple at the festivals. At these doings both king
Agrippa, and principally Festus the procurator, were much dis-
pleased; and Festus ordered them to pull the wall down again :
but the Jews petitioned him to give them leave to send an em-
bassage about this matter to Nero; for they said they could not
endure to live if any part of the temple should be demolished;
and when Festus had given them leave so to do, they sent ten of
their principal men to Nero, as also Ismael the high priest, and
Helcías the keeper of the sacred treasure. And when Nero had
heard what they had to say, he not only forgave them* what they
had already done, but also gave them leave to let the wall they
had built stand. This was granted them in order to gratify Pop-
pea, Nero's wife, who was a religious woman, and had requested
these favours of Nero, and who gave orders to the ten ambassa-
dors to go their way home; but retained Helcias and Ismael as
hostages with herself. As soon as the king heard this news, he
gave the high priesthood to Joseph, who was called Cabi, the
son of Simeon, formerly high priest.
* We have here one eminent example of Nero's mildness and goodness in his
government towards the Jews, during the first five years of his reign, so famous
in antiquity; we have perhaps another in Josephus's own Life, sect. 3; and a
third, though of a very different nature here, in sect. 9, just before. However,
both the generous acts of kindness were obtained of Nero by his queen Poppea,
who was a religious lady, and perhaps privately a Jewish proselyte, and so were
not owing entirely to Nero's own goodness.
1
·
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
173
CHAP. IX.
Concerning Albinus, under whose Procuratorship James was
slain; as also what Edifices were built by Agrippa.
§ 1. AND now Cæsar, upon hearing of the death of Festus, sent
Albinus into Judea, as procurator. But the king deprived Jo-
seph of the high priesthood, and bestowed the succession to that
dignity on the son of Ananus, who was also himself called Ana-
nus. Now the report goes, that this eldest Ananus proved a
most fortunate man; for he had five sons, who had all performed
the office of a high priest to God, and who had himself enjoyed
that dignity a long time formerly, which had never happened to
any other of our high priests. But this younger Ananus, who, as
we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold
man in his temper, and very insolent: he was also of the sect
of the Sadducees*, who are very rigid in judging offenders above
all the rest of the Jews, as we have already observed; when there-
fore Ananus was of this disposition, he thought he had now a
proper opportunity [to exercise his authority]. Festus was now
dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the
sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of
Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and
some others [or some of his companions]. And when he had
formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he
delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the
most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy
at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also
sent to the king [Agrippa], desiring him to send to Ananus that
he should act so no more, for that what he had already done was
not to be justified: nay, some of them went also to meet Albi-
nus, as he was upon his journey from Alexandria, and informed
him, that it was not lawful for Ananus to assemble a sanhedrim
without his consent. Whereupon Albinus complied with what
they said, and wrote in anger to Ananus, and threatened that
he would bring him to punishment for what he had done; on
It hence evidently appears, that Sadducees might be high priests in the days
of Josephus, and that these Sadducees were usually very severe and inexorable
judges, while the Pharisees were much milder, and more merciful, as appears by
Reland's instances in his note on this place, and on Josephus's Life, sect. 34; and
those taken from the New Testament, from Josephus himself, and from the rab-
bins; nor do we meet with any Sadducees later than this high priest in all Jo-
sephus.
+ Of this condemnation of James the Just, and its causes, as also that he did
not die till long afterwards, see Prim. Christ. Revived, vol. iii. ch. 43-46. The
sanhedrim condemned our Saviour, but could not put him to death without the
approbation of the Roman procurator; nor could therefore Ananias and his
sanhedrim do more here, since they never had Albinus's approbation for the put-
ting this James to death.
1
*
174
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWws.
which account king Agrippa took the high priesthood from him,
when he had ruled but three months, and made Jesus, the son
of Damneus, high priest.
2. Now as soon as Albinus was come to the city of Jerusa-
lem, he used all his endeavours and care that the country might
be kept in peace, and this by destroying many of the Sicarii.
But as for the high priest Ananias *, he increased in glory every
day, and this to a great degree, and had obtained the favour and
esteem of the citizens in a signal manner, for he was a great
hoarder up of money; he therefore cultivated the friendship of
Albinus, and of the high priest [Jesus], by making them presents;
he had also servants who were very wicked, who joined them-
selves to the boldest sort of the people, and went to the thresh-
ing-floors, and took away the tithes that belonged to the priests
by violence, and did not refrain from beating such as would not
give these tithes to them. So the other high priests acted in the
like manner, as did those his servants, without any one's being
able to prohibit them; so that [some of the] priests, that of old
were wont to be supported with those tithes, died for want of
food.
3. But now the Sicarii went into the city by night, just be-
fore the festival, which was now at hand, and took the scribe be-
longing to the governor of the temple, whose name was Eleazar,
who was the son of Ananus [Ananias] the high priest, and bound
him, and carried him away with them; after which they sent to
Ananias, and said, that they would send the scribe to him, if he
would persuade Albinus to release ten of those prisoners which
he had caught of their party; so Ananias was plainly forced to
persuade Albinus, and gained his request of him. This was the
beginning of greater calamities, for the robbers perpetually con-
trived to catch some of Ananias's servants, and when they had
taken them alive, they would not let them go, till they thereby
recovered some of their own Sicarii. And as they were again
become no small number, they grew bold, and were a great
affliction to the whole country.
4. About this time it was that king Agrippa built Cesarea
Philippi larger than it was before, and, in honour of Nero,
* This Ananias was not the son of Nebedeus, as I take it, but he who was
called Annas, or Ananus the elder, the 9th in the catalogue, and who had been
esteemed high priest for a long time, and, besides Caiaphas his son-in-law, had
five of his own sons high priests after him, which were those of numbers 11, 14,
15, 17, 24, in the foregoing catalogue. Nor ought we to pass slightly over what
Josephus here says of this Annas or Ananias, that he was high priest a long time
before his children were so; he was the son of Seth, and is set down first for high
priest in the foregoing catalogue, under number 9. He was made by Quirinus,
and continued till Ismael, the 10th in number, for about twenty-three years, which
long duration of his high priesthood, joined to the succession of his son-in-law, and
five children of his own, made him a sort of perpetual high priest, and was per-
haps the occasion that former high priests kept their titles ever afterwards; for
I believe it is hardly met with before him.
C. IX.
175
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
named it Neronias. And when he had built a theatre at Bery-
tus, with vast expenses, he bestowed on them shows, to be
exhibited every year, and spent therein many ten thousand
[drachmæ]: he also gave the people a largess of corn, and dis-
tributed oil among them, and adorned the entire city with sta-
tues of his own donation, and with original images made by
ancient hands; nay, he almost transferred all that was most
ornamental in his own kingdom thither. This made him more
than ordinarily hated by his subjects; because he took those things
away that belonged to them, to adorn a foreign city. And now
Jesus, the son of Gamaliel, became the successor of Jesus, the
son of Damneus, in the high priesthood, which the king had
taken from the other; on which account a sedition arose be-
tween the high priests, with regard to one another; for they got
together bodies of the boldest sort of the people, and fre-
quently came from reproaches to throwing of stones at each
other. But Ananias was too hard for the rest by his riches,
which enabled him to gain those that were most ready to receive.
Costobarus also, and Saulus, did themselves get together a mul-
titude of wicked wretches, and this because they were of the
royal family; and so they obtained favour among them, because
of their kindred to Agrippa: but still they used violence with
the people, and were very ready to plunder those that were
weaker than themselves. And from that time it principally came
to pass, that our city was greatly disordered, and that all things
grew worse and worse among us.
5. But when Albinus heard that Gessius Florus was coming
to succeed him, he was desirous to appear to do somewhat that
might be grateful to the people of Jerusalem; so he brought out
all those prisoners who seemed to him to be the most plainly
worthy of death, and ordered them to be put to death accord-
ingly. But as to those who had been put into prison on some
trifling occasions, he took money of them, and dismissed them;
by which means the prisons were indeed emptied, but the coun-
try was filled with robbers.
6. Now as many of the Levites*, which is a tribe of ours, as
were singers of hymns, persuaded the king to assemble a san-
hedrim, and to give them leave to wear linen garments, as well
as the priests; for they said, that this would be a work worthy
the times of his government, that he might have a memorial of
such a novelty, as being his doing. Nor did they fail of obtain-
ing their desire; for the king, with the suffrages of those that
came into the sanhedrim, granted the singers of hymns this pri-
* This insolent petition of some of the Levites, to wear the sacerdotal gar-
ments when they sung hymns to God in the temple, was very probably owing to
the great depression and contempt the haughty high priest had now brought their
brethren the priests into; of which see ch. viii. sect. 8; and ch. ix. sect. 2.

176
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
,
vilege, that they might lay aside their former garments, and wear
such a linen one as they desired; and as a part of this tribe mi-
nistered in the temple, he also permitted them to learn those
hymns as they had besought him for. Now all this was contrary
to the laws of our country, which whenever they have been
transgressed, we have never been able to avoid the punishment
of such transgressions.
7. And now it was that the temple* was finished. So when
the people saw that the workmen were unemployed, who were
above eighteen thousand, and that they, receiving no wages, were
in want, because they had earned their bread by their labours
about the temple; and while they were unwilling to keep by
them the treasures that were there deposited, out of fear of [their
being carried away by] the Romans; and while they had a re-
gard to the making provision for the workmen, they had a mind
to expend those treasures upon them; for if any one of them
did but labour for a single hour, he received his pay immediately;
so they persuaded him to rebuild the eastern cloisters. These
cloisters belonged to the outer court, and were situated in a deep
valley, and had walls that reached four hundred cubits [in length],
and were built of square and very white stones, the length of
each of which stones was twenty cubits, and their height six cu-
bits. This was the work of king Solomont, who first of all built
the entire temple. But king Agrippa, who had the care of the
temple committed to him by Claudius Cæsar, considering that it
is easy to demolish any building, but hard to build it up again,
and that it was particularly hard to do it to these cloisters, which
would require a considerable time, and great sums of money, he
denied the petitioners their request about that matter: but he did
not obstruct them when they desired the city might be paved
with white stone. He also deprived Jesus, the son of Gamaliel,
of the high priesthood, and gave it to Matthias, the son of The-
ophilus, under whom the Jews' war with the Romans took its
beginning.
CHAP. X.
An Enumeration of the High Priests.
many
§ 1. AND now I think it proper and agreeable to this history,
to give an account of our high priests; how they began, and
who those are which are capable of that dignity, and how
of them there had been at the end of the war. In the first place,
* Of this finishing, not of the Naos, or holy-house, but of the pov, or courts,
about it, called in general the temple, see the note on B. xvii. ch. x. sect. 2.
+ Of these cloisters of Solomon, see the description of the temple, cb. xiii.
They seem, by Josephus's words, to have been built from the bottom of the
valley.
C. X.
177
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
therefore, history informs us, that Aaron, the brother of Moses,
officiated to God as a high priest, and that after his death his
sons succeeded him immediately; and that this dignity hath been
continued down from them to all their posterity. Whence it is
the custom of our country, that no one should take the high
priesthood of God, but he who is of the blood of Aaron, while
every one that is of another stock, though he were a king, can
never obtain that high priesthood. Accordingly, the number of
all the high priests from Aaron, of whom we have spoken al-
ready, as of the first of them, until Phanas, who was made high
priest during the war by the seditious, was eighty-three; of whom
thirteen officiated as high priests in the wilderness, from the days
of Moses, while the tabernacle was standing, until the people
came into Judea, when king Solomon erected the temple to God:
for at the first they held the high priesthood till the end of their
life, although afterward they had successors while they were alive.
Now these thirteen, who were the descendants of two of the sons
of Aaron, received this dignity by succession, one after another;
for their form of government was an aristocracy, and after that
a monarchy, and in the third place the government was regal.
Now the number of years during the rule of these thirteen, from
the day when our fathers departed out of Egypt, under Moses
their leader, until the building of that temple which king Solo-
mon erected at Jerusalem, were six hundred and twelve. After
those thirteen high priests, eighteen took the high priesthood at
Jerusalem, one in succession to another, from the days of king
Solomon.until Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made an ex-
pedition against that city and burnt the temple, and removed our
nation into Babylon, and then took Josedek the high priest cap-
tive; the times of these high priests was four hundred sixty-six
years six months and ten days, while the Jews were still under
the regal government. But after the term of the seventy years'
captivity under the Babylonians, Cyrus, king of Persia, sent the
Jews from Babylon to their own land again, and gave them leave
to rebuild their temple; at which time Jesus, the son of Jose-
dek, took the high priesthood over the captives when they were
returned home. Now he and his posterity, who were in all fif-
teen, until king Antiochus Eupator, were under a democratical
government for four hundred and fourteen years; and then the
forementioned Antiochus, and Lysias the general of his army,
deprived Onias, who was also named Menelaus, of the high
priesthood, and slew him at Berea, and, driving away the son [of
Onias the third], put Jacimus into the place of the high priest,
one that was indeed. of the stock of Aaron, but not of the family
of Onias. On which account Onias, who was the nephew of
Onias that was dead, and bore the same name with his father,
came into Egypt, and got into the friendship of Ptolemy Phi-
VOL. III.
N
178
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
lometer, and of Cleopatra his wife, and persuaded them to make
him the high priest of that temple which he built to God in the
prefecture of Heliopolis, and this in imitation of that at Jerusa-
lem; but as for that temple which was built in Egypt, we have
spoken of it frequently already. Now when Jacimus had re-
tained the high priesthood three years, he died, and there was
no one that succeeded him, but the city continued seven years
without a high priest; but then the posterity of the sons of Asa-
moneus, who had the government of the nation conferred upon
them, when they had beaten the Macedonians in war, appointed
Jonathan to be their high priest, who ruled over them seven
years. And when he had been slain by the treacherous contri-
vance of Trypho, as we have related somewhere, Simon. his
brother took the high priesthood; and when he was destroyed
at a feast by the treachery of his son-in-law, his own son, whose
name was Hyrcanus, succeeded him, after he had held the high
priesthood one year longer than his brother. This Hyrcanus en-
joyed that dignity thirty years, and died an old man, leaving the
succession to Judas, who was also called Aristobulus, whose
brother Alexander was his heir; which Judas died of a sore dis-
temper, after he had kept the priesthood, together with the royal
authority, for this Judas was the first that put on his head a dia-
dem, for one year. And when Alexander had been both king
and high priest twenty-seven years, he departed this life, and
permitted his wife Alexandra to appoint him that should be high
priest; so she gave the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, but retained
the kingdom herself nine years, and then departed this life. The
like duration [and no longer] did her son Hyrcanus enjoy the
bigh priesthood; for after her death his brother Aristobulus
fought against him, and beat him, and deprived him of his prin-
cipality; and he did himself both reign, and perform the office
of high priest to God. But when he had reigned three years
and as many months, Pompey came upon him, and not only took
the city of Jerusalem by force, but put him and his children in
bonds, and sent them to Rome. He also restored the high priest-
hood to Hyrcanus, and made him governor of the nation, but
forbade him to wear a diadem... This Hyrcanus ruled, besides
his first nine years, twenty-four years more, when Barzapharnes
and Pacorus, the generals of the Parthians, passed over Eu-
phrates, and fought with Hyrcanus, and took him alive, and
made Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, king; and when he had
reigned three years and three months, Sosius and Herod be-
sieged him, and took him, when Antony had him brought to
Antioch, and slain there. Herod was then made king by the
Romans, but did no longer appoint high priests out of the family
of Asamoneus; but made certain men to be so that were of no
eminent families, but barely of those that were priests, excepting
7
C. X.
179
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
that he once gave that dignity to Aristobulus; for when he had
made this Aristobulus, the grandson of that Hyrcanus who was
taken by the Parthians, and had taken his sister Mariamne to
wife, he thereby aimed to win the good will of the people, who
had a kind remembrance of Hyrcanus [his grandfather]. Yet
did he afterward, out of his fear lest they should all bend their
inclinations to Aristobulus, put him to death, and that by con-
triving how to have him suffocated, as he was swimming at Jeri-
cho, as we have already related that matter; but after this man he
never intrusted the high priesthood to the posterity of the sons of
Asamoneus. Archelaus also, Herod's son, did like his father in
the appointment of the high priests, as did the Romans also,
who took the government over the Jews into their hands after-
ward. Accordingly the number of the high priests, from the
days of Herod until the day when Titus took the temple and
the city, and burned them, were in all twenty-eight; the time
also that belonged to them was a hundred and seven years.
Some of these were the political governors of the people under
the reign of Herod, and under the reign of Archelaus his son,
although after their death the government became an aristocracy,
and the high priests were intrusted with a dominion over the
nation. And thus much may suffice to be said concerning our
high priests.
CHAP. XI.
Concerning Florus the Procurator, who necessitated the Jews
to take up Arms against the Romans. The Conclusion.
§ 1. Now Gessius Florus, who was sent as successor to Al-
binus by Nero, filled Judea with abundance of miseries. He
was by birth of the city Clazomenæ, and brought along with
him his wife Cleopatra (by whose friendship with Poppea,
Nero's wife, he obtained this government), who was no way
different from him in wickedness. This Florus was so wicked,
and so violent in the use of his authority, that the Jews took
Albinus to have been [comparatively] their benefactor; so ex-
cessive were the mischiefs that he brought upon them. For
Albinus concealed his wickedness, and was careful that it might
not be discovered to all men; but Gessius Florus, as though he
had been sent on purpose to show his crimes to every body,
made a pompous ostentation of them to our nation, as never
omitting any sort of violence, nor any unjust sort of punishment;
for he was not to be moved by pity, and never was satisfied with
any degree of gain that came in his way; nor had he any more
regard to great than to small acquisitions, but became a partner
with the robbers themselves. For a great many fell then into
N 2
180
B. XX.
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
that practice without fear, as having him for their security, and
depending on him, that he would save them harmless in their parti-
cular robberies; so that there were no bounds set to the nation's
miseries; but the unhappy Jews, when they were not able to
bear the devastations which the robbers made among them, were
all under a necessity of leaving their own habitations, and of fly-
ing away, as hoping to dwell more easily any where else in the
world among foreigners [than in their own country]. And what
need I say any more upon this head? since it was this Florus
who necessitated us to take up arms against the Romans, while
we thought it better to be destroyed at once, than by little and
little. Now this war began in the second year of the government
of Florus, and the twelfth year of the reign of Nero. But then
what actions we were forced to do, or what miseries we were en-
abled to suffer, may be accurately known by such as will peruse
those books which I have written about the Jewish War.
2. I shall now, therefore, make an end here of my Antiqui-
ties; after the conclusion of which events, I began to write that
account of the War; and these Antiquities contain what hath
been delivered down to us from the original creation of man,
until the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, as to what hath be-
fallen us Jews, as well in Egypt as in Syria, and in Palestine,
and what we have suffered from the Assyrians and Babylonians,
and what afflictions the Persians and Macedonians, and after
them the Romans, have brought upon us; for I think I may say
that I have composed this history with sufficient accuracy in all
things. I have attempted to enumerate those high priests that
we have had during the interval of two thousand years; I have
also carried down the succession of our kings, and related their
actions, and political administration, without [considerable]
errors, as also the power of our monarchs; and all according to
what is written in our sacred books; for this it was that I
mised to do in the beginning of this history. And I am so bold
as to say, now I have so completely perfected the work I pro-
posed to myself to do, that no other person, whether he were a
Jew or a foreigner, had he ever so great an inclination to it, could
so accurately deliver these accounts to the Greeks as is done in
these books. For those of my own nation freely acknowledge,
that I far exceed them in the learning belonging to Jews; I have
also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the
Greeks, and understand the elements of the Greek language,
although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own
tongue that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness;
for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of
many nations, and so adorn their discourses with the smoothness
of their periods; because they look upon this sort of accomplish-
ment as common, not only to all sorts of freemen, but to as
·
pro-
C. XI.
181
ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS.
many of the servants as please to learn them.
But they give
him the testimony of being a wise man, who is fully acquainted
with our laws, and is able to interpret their meaning; on which
account, as there have been many who have done their endea-
vours with great patience to obtain this learning, there have yet
hardly been so many as two or three that have succeeded therein,
who were immediately well rewarded for their pains.
*
3. And now it will not be perhaps an invidious thing, if I
treat briefly of my own family, and of the actions of my own life,
while there are still living such as can either prove what I say to
be false, or can attest that it is true; with which accounts I shall
put an end to these Antiquities; which are contained in twenty
books, and sixty thousand verses. And if God permit me, I
will briefly run over this war again, with what befell us therein
to this very day, which is the thirteenth year of the reign of
Cæsar Domitian, and the fifty-sixth year of my own life. I
have also an intention to write three books concerning our Jewish
opinions about God and his essence, and about our laws; why,
according to them, some things are permitted us to do, and
others are prohibited.
* What Josephus here declares his intention to do, if God permitted, to give
the public again an abridgment of the Jewish War, and to add, what befell them
farther to that very day, the 13th of Domitian, or A. D. 93, is not, that I have ob-
served, taken distinct notice of by any; nor do we ever hear of it elsewhere,
whether he performed what he now intended or not. Some of the reasons of this
design of his might possibly be his observation of the many errors he had been
guilty of in the two first of those seven books of the War, which were written
when he was comparatively young, and less acquainted with the Jewish Anti-
quities than he now was, and in which abridgment we might have hoped to find
those many passages which himself, as well as those several passages which others
refer to, as written by him, but which are not extant in his present works. How-
ever, since many of his own references to what he had written elsewhere, as well
as most of his own errors, belong to such early times as could not well come into
this abridgment of the Jewish War; and since none of those that quote things not
now extant in his works, including himself as well as others, ever cite any such
abridgment, I am forced rather to suppose that he never did publish any such
work at all, I mean as distinct from his own life, written by himself, for an Ap-
pendix to these Antiquities, and this at least above seven years after these Anti-
quities were finished. Nor indeed does it appear to me, that Josephus ever
published that other work bere mentioned, as intended by him for the public
also. I mean the three or four books concerning God and his essence, and con-
cerning the Jewish laws; why, according to them, some things were permitted the
Jews, and others prohibited; which last seems to be the same work which Jose-
phus had also promised, if God permitted, at the conclusion of his preface to
these Antiquities; nor do I suppose that he ever published any of them. The
death of all his friends at court, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, and the coming
of those he had no acquaintance with to the crown, I mean Nerva and Trajan,
together with his removal from Rome to Judea, with what followed it, might
easily interrupt such his intentions, and prevent his publication of those works.
1
•
THE
LIFE
OF
FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
1
§ 1. THE family from which I am derived is not an ignoble
one, but hath descended all along from the priests; and as no-
bility among several people is of a different origin, so, with us,
to be of the sacerdotal dignity is an indication of the splendour
of a family. Now I am not only sprung from a sacerdotal
family in general, but from the first of the twenty-four courses*:
and as among us there is not only a considerable difference
between one family of each course and another, I am of the
chief family of that first course also; nay, farther, by my mo-
ther I am of the royal blood; for the children of Asamoneus,
from whom that family was derived, had both the office of the
high priesthood, and the dignity of a king, for a long time to-
gether. I will accordingly set down my progenitors in order.
My grandfather's father was named Simon, with the addition of
Psellus: he lived at the same time with that son of Simon the
high priest, who first of all the high priests was named Hyrcanus.
This Simon Psellus had nine sons, one of which was Matthias,
called Ephlias; he married the daughter of Jonathan the high
priest, which Jonathan was the first of the sons of Asamoneus,
who was high priest, and was the brother of Simon the high
priest also. This Matthias had a son called Matthias Curtus,
and that in the first year of the government of Hyrcanus; his
son's name was Joseph, born in the ninth year of the reign of
Alexandra: his son Matthias was born in the tenth year of the
reign of Archelaus; as was I born to Matthias on the first year
of the reign of Caius Cæsar. I have three sons; Hyrcanus the
* We may hence correct the error of the Latin copy of the second book against
Apion, sect. 7, 8 (for the Greek is there lost), which says, there were then only
four tribes or courses of the priests, instead of twenty-four. Nor is this testimony
to be disregarded, as if Josephus there contradicted what he had affirmed here;
because even the account there given better agrees to twenty-four than to four
courses; while he says, that each of those courses contained above 5000 men,
which, multiplied by only four, will make not many more than 20,000 priests;
whereas the number 120,000, as multiplied by twenty-four, seems much the most
probable, they being about one-tenth of the whole people, even after the capti-
vity. See Ezra, ii. 36—39, Nehem. vii. 33–42; 1 Esd. v. 24, 25; with Ezra,
ii. 64; Nehem. vii. 66; 1 Esd. v. 41. Nor will this common reading or notion
of but four courses of priests agree with Josephus's own farther assertion else-
where, Antiq. B. vii. ch. xiv. sect. 7, that David's partition of the priests into
twenty-four courses had continued to that day.
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
183
--
eldest was born on the fourth year of the reign of Vespasian, as
was Justus born on the seventh, and Agrippa on the ninth.
Thus have I set down the genealogy of my family as I have
found it described in the public records, and so bid adieu to
those who calumniate me [as of a lower original].
2. Now my father Matthias was not only eminent on account
of his nobility, but had a higher commendation on account of
his righteousness, and was in great reputation in Jerusalem, the
greatest city we have. I was myself brought up with my brother,
whose name was Matthias, for he was my own brother, by both
father and mother; and I made mighty proficiency in the im-
provements of my learning, and appeared to have both a great
memory and understanding. Moreover, when I was a child,
and about fourteen years of age, I was commended by all for
the love I had to learning; on which account, the high priests,
and principal men of the city came then frequently to me toge-
ther, in order to know my opinion about the accurate under-
standing of points of the law. And when I was about sixteen
years old, I had a mind to make trial of the several sects that
were among us. These sects are three: the first is that of the
Pharisees, the second that of the Sadducees, and the third
that of the Essens, as we have frequently told you; for I
thought that by this means I might choose the best, if I were
once acquainted with them all so I contented myself with
hard fare, and underwent great difficulties, and went through
them all. Nor did 1 content myself with these trials only,
but when I was informed that one, whose name was Ba-
nus, lived in the desert, and used no other clothing than grew
upon trees, and had no other food than what grew of its own
accord, and bathed himself in cold water frequently, both by
night and by day, in order to preserve his chastity, I imitated
him in those things, and continued with him three years t. So
when I had accomplished my desires, I returned back to the
city, being now nineteen years old, and began to conduct my-
self according to the rules of the sect of the Pharisees, which is
of kin to the sect of the Stoics, as the Greeks call them.
* An eminent example of the care of the Jews about their genealogies, espe-
cially as to the priests. See Contr. Ap. B. i. chap. vii.
+ When Josephus here says, that from sixteen to nineteen, or for three years,
he made trial of the three Jewish sects, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the
Essens, and yet says presently, in all our copies, that he stayed besides with one
particular ascetic, called Banus πap àvтw, with him, and this still before he was
nineteen, there is little room left for his trial of the three other sects. I sup-
pose, therefore, that for πap άvrw, with him, the old reading might be rap
άvroic, with them; which is a very small emendation, and takes away the diffi-
culty before us. Nor is Dr. Hudson's conjecture, hinted at by Mr. Hall, in his
preface to the Doctor's edition of Josephus, at all improbable, that this Banus,
by this his description, might well be a follower of John the Baptist, and that
from him Josephus might easily imbibe such notions as afterwards prepared him
to have a favourable opinion of Jesus Christ himself, who was attested to by
John the Baptist.
184
the life of fLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
3. But when I was in the twenty-sixth year of my age, it
happened that I took a voyage to Rome, and this on the occa-
sion which I shall now describe. At the time when Felix was
procurator of Judea, there were certain priests of my acquaint-
ance, and very excellent persons they were, whom on a small
and trifling occasion he had put into bonds, and sent to Rome
to plead their cause before Cæsar. These I was desirous to pro-
cure deliverance for, and that especially because I was informed
that they were not unmindful of piety towards God even under
their afflictions, but supported themselves with figs and nuts*.
Accordingly I came to Rome, though it were through a great num-
ber of hazards by sea: for, as our ship was drowned in the Adri-
atic sea, we that were in it, being about six hundred in number†,
swam for our lives all the night; when upon the first appear-
ance of the day, and upon our sight of a ship of Cyrene, I and
some others, eighty in all, by God's providence, prevented the
rest, and were taken up into the other ship. And when I had
thus escaped, and was come to Dicearchia, which the Italians
call Puteoli, I became acquainted with Aliturius, an actor of
plays, and much beloved by Nero, but a Jew by birth; and
through his interest became known to Poppea, Cæsar's wife,
and took care as soon as possible to entreat her to procure, that
the priests might be set at liberty. And when, besides this
favour, I had obtained many presents from Poppea, I returned
home again.
4. And now I perceived innovations were already begun, and
that there were a great many very much elevated in hopes of a
revolt from the Romans. I therefore endeavoured to put a
stop to these tumultuous persons, and persuaded them to change
their minds; and laid before their eyes against whom it was
that they were going to fight, and told them that they were
inferior to the Romans, not only in martial skill, but also in
good fortune; and desired them not rashly, and after the most
foolish manner, to bring on the dangers of the most terrible mis-
chiefs upon their country, upon their families, and upon them-
selves. And this I said with vehement exhortations, because I
foresaw that the end of such a war would be most unfortunate
to us.
But I could not persuade them; for the madness of
desperate men was quite too hard for me.
5. I was then afraid, lest by inculcating these things so often,
* We may note here, that religious men among the Jews, or at least those
that were priests, were sometimes ascetics also, and like Daniel and his com-
panions in Babylon, Dan. i. 8-16, ate no flesh, but figs and nuts, &c. only.
This was like the epopayia, or austere diet of the Christian ascetics in Passion
week. Constitut. v. 18.
+ It hath been thought the number of Paul and his companions on shipboard,
Acts, xxvii. 38, which are two hundred and seventy-six in our copies, are too
many; whereas we find here that Josephus and his companions, a very few years
after the other, were about six hundred.
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
185
I should incur their hatred and their suspicions, as if I were of
our enemies' party, and should run into the danger of being
seized by them and slain, since they were already possessed of
Antonia, which was the citadel; so I retired into the inner
court of the temple. Yet did I go out of the temple again,
after Manahem and the principal of the band of robbers were
put to death, when I abode among the high priests and the chief
of the Pharisees. But no small fear seized upon us when we
saw the people in arms, while we ourselves knew not what we
should do, and were not able to restrain the seditious. How-
ever, as the danger was directly upon us, we pretended that we
were of the same opinion with them, but only advised them to
be quiet for the present, and to let the enemy go away, still
hoping that Gessius [Florus] would not be long ere he came,
and that with great forces, and so put an end to these seditious
proceedings.
6. But upon his coming and fighting, he was beaten, and a
great many of those that were with him fell. And this disgrace
which Gessius [with Cestius] received, became the calamity of
our whole nation; for those that were fond of the war were so
far elevated with this success, that they had hopes of finally
conquering the Romans. Of which war another occasion was
ministered, which was this: Those that dwelt in the neighbour-
ing cities of Syria seized upon such Jews as dwelt among them,
with their wives and children, and slew them, when they had not
the least occasion of complaint against them; for they did nei-
ther attempt any innovation or revolt from the Romans, nor had
they given any marks of hatred or treacherous designs towards
the Syrians. But what was done by the inhabitants of Scytho-
polis was the most impious and most highly criminal of all*;
for, when the Jews their enemies came upon them from with-
out, they forced the Jews that were among them to bear arms
against their own countrymen, which it is unlawful for us to
dot; and when, by their assistance, they had joined battle with
those who attacked them, and had beaten them, after that vic-
tory, they forgot the assurances they had given these their fel-
low citizens and confederates, and slew them all, being in num-
ber many ten thousands [13,000]. The like miseries were
undergone by those Jews that were the inhabitants of Damascus.
But we have given a more accurate account of these things in
the books of the Jewish War. I only mention them now,
* See Of the War, B. ii. ch. xviii. sect. 3.
+ The Jews might collect this unlawfulness of fighting against their brethren
from that law of Moses, Levit. xix. 16, “ Thou shalt not stand against the blood
of thy neighbour;" and that, ver. 17, "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any
grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself;" as well as from many other places in the Pentateuch and Prophets.
See Antiq. B. viii. ch. viii. sect. 3.
186
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEphus.
✓
because I would demonstrate to my readers, that the Jews' war
with the Romans was not voluntary, but that, for the main, they
were forced by necessity to enter into it.
7. So when Gessius had been beaten, as we have said already,
the principal men of Jerusalem, seeing that the robbers and
innovators had arms in great plenty, and fearing lest they, while
they were unprovided of arms, should be in subjection to their
enemies, which also came to be the case afterward; and, being
informed that all Galilee had not yet revolted from the Romans,
but that some part of it was still quiet, they sent me and two
others of the priests, who were men of excellent characters,
Joazar and Judas, in order to persuade the ill men there to lay
down their arms, and to teach them this lesson, that it were
better to have those arms reserved for the most courageous men
that the nation had [than to be kept there]; for that it had been
resolved, that those our best men should always have their arms
ready against futurity, but still so, that they should wait to see
what the Romans would do.
S. When I had, therefore, received these instructions, I came
into Galilee, and found the people of Sepphoris in no small
agony about their country, by reason that the Galileans had
resolved to plunder it, on account of the friendship they had
with the Romans, and because they had given their right hand,
and made a league with Cestius Gallus, the president of Syria.
But I delivered them all out of the fear they were in, and per-
suaded the multitude to deal kindly with them, and permitted
them to send to those that were their own hostages with Ges-
sius, to Dora, which is a city of Phoenicia, as often as they
pleased; though I still found the inhabitants of Tiberias ready
to take arms, and that on the occasion following:
9. There were three factions in this city. The first was com-
posed of men of worth and gravity; of these Julius Capellus
was the head. Now he, as well as all his companions, Herod
the son of Miarus, and Herod the son of Gamalus, and Comp-
sus the son of Compsus (for as to Compsus's brother Crispus,
who had once been governor of the city under the great king*
[Agrippa], he was beyond Jordan in his own possessions); all
these persons beforenamed gave their advice that the city should
then continue in their allegiance to the Romans and to the king.
But Pistus, who was guided by his son Justus, did not acqui-
esce in that resolution; otherwise he was himself naturally of a
good and virtuous character. But the second faction was com-
posed of the most ignoble persons, and was determined for war.
But as for Justus, the son of Pistus, who was the head of the
third faction, although he pretended to be doubtful about going
·
* That this Herod Agrippa, the father, was of old called a Great King, as
here, appears by his coins still remaining, to which Havercamp refers us.
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
187
1
to war, yet was he really desirous of innovation, as supposing
that he should gain power to himself by the change of affairs.
He therefore came into the midst of them, and endeavoured to
inform the multitude, that " the city Tiberias had ever been a
city of Galilee, and that in the days of Herod the tetrarch, who
had built it, it had obtained the principal place, and that he had
ordered that the city Sepphoris should be subordinate to the
city Tiberias; that they had not lost this preeminence even
under Agrippa the father, but had retained it until Felix was
procurator of Judea. But he told them, that now they had
been so unfortunate as to be made a present by Nero to.
Agrippa junior; and that, upon Sepphoris's submission of itself
to the Romans, that was become the capital city of Galilee, and
that the royal treasury and the archives were now removed from
them." When he had spoken these things, and a great_many
more, against king Agrippa, in order to provoke the people to a
revolt, he added, that "this was the time for them to take
arms, and join with the Galileans as their confederates (whom
they might command, and who would now willingly assist them,
out of the hatred they bare to the people of Sepphoris, because
they preserved their fidelity to the Romans), and to gather a
great number of forces in order to punish them." And, as he
said this, he exhorted the multitude [to go to war]; for his abi-
lities lay in making harangues to the people, and in being too
hard in his speeches for such as opposed him, though they
advised what was more to their advantage, and this by his crafti-
ness and his fallacies; for he was not unskilful in the learning
of the Greeks, and in dependence on that skill it was, that he
undertook to write a history of these affairs, as aiming by this
way of haranguing to disguise the truth. But as to this man,
and how ill were his character and conduct of life, and how he
and his brother were, in great measure, the authors of our de-
struction, I shall give the reader an account in the progress of
my narration. So when Justus had, by his persuasions, pre-
vailed with the citizens of Tiberias to take arms; nay, and had
forced a great many so to do against their wills, he went out,
and set the villages that belonged to Gadara and Hippos on
fire which villages were situated on the borders of Tiberias
and of the region of Scythopolis.
10. And this was the state Tiberias was now in. But as for
Gischala, its affairs were thus: When John, the son of Levi,
saw some of the citizens much elevated upon their revolt from
the Romans, he laboured to restrain them, and entreated them,
that they would keep their allegiance to them. But he could
not gain his purpose, although he did his endeavours to the
utmost; for the neighbouring people of Gadara, and Gabara,
and Sogana, with the Tyrians, got together a great army, and
188
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
fell upon Gischala, and took Gischala by force, and set it on
fire; and when they had entirely demolished it, they returned
home. Upon which John was so enraged, that he armed all his
men, and joined battle with the people forementioned, and
rebuilt Gischala after a manner better than before, and fortified
it with walls for its future security.
11. But Gamala persevered in its allegiance to the Romans,
for the reason following: Philip, the son of Jacimus, who was
their governor under king Agrippa, had been unexpectedly pre-
served when the royal palace at Jerusalem had been besieged;
but, as he fled away, had fallen into another danger, and that
was of being killed by Manahem, and the robbers that were
with him; but certain Babylonians, who were of his kindred,
and were then in Jerusalem, hindered the robbers from execut-
ing their design. So Philip staid there four days, and fled away
on the fifth, having disguised himself with fictitious hair, that he
might not be discovered; and when he was come to one of the
villages to him belonging, but one that was situated at the bor-
ders of the citadel of Gamala, he sent to some of those that
were under him, and commanded them to come to him. But
God himself hindered that his intention, and this for his own
advantage also; for had it not so happened, he had certainly
perished. For, a fever having seized upon him immediately, he
wrote to Agrippa and Bernice, and gave them to one of his
freedmen to carry them to Varus, who at this time was procu-
rator of the kingdom, which the king and his sister had intrusted
him withal, while they were gone to Berytus with an intention
of meeting Gessius. When Varus had received these letters of
Philip, and had learned that he was preserved, he was very
uneasy at it, as supposing that he should appear useless to the
king and his sister, now Philip was come. He therefore pro-
duced the carrier of the letters before the multitude, and accused
him of forging the same; and said, that he spake falsely, when
he related that Philip was at Jerusalem fighting among the Jews
against the Romans. So he slew him.
So he slew him. And when this freed-
man of Philip did not return again, Philip was doubtful what
should be the occasion of his stay, and sent a second messenger
with letters, that he might, upon his return, inform him what
had befallen the other that had been sent before, and why he
tarried so long. Varus accused this messenger also, when he
came, of telling a falsehood, and slew him. For he was puffed
up by the Syrians that were at Cesarea, and had great expecta-
tions; for they said, that Agrippa would be slain by the Ro-
mans for the crimes which the Jews had committed, and that he
should himself take the government, as derived from their kings;
for Varus was, by the confession of all, of the royal family, as
being a descendant of Sohemus, who had enjoyed a tetrarchy
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
189
¿
about Libanus; for which reason it was that he was puffed up,
and kept the letters to himself. He contrived also that the
king should not meet with those writings, by guarding all the
passes, lest any one should escape and inform the king what
had been done. He moreover slew many of the Jews, in order
to gratify the Syrians of Cesarea. He had a mind also to join
with the Trachonites in Batanea, and to take up arms and make
an assault upon the Babylonian Jews that were at Ecbatana;
for that was the name they went by. He therefore called to
him twelve of the Jews of Cesarea, of the best character, and
ordered them to go to Ecbatana, and inform their countrymen
who dwelt there, that Varus hath heard that "you intend to
march against the king; but, not believing that report, he hath
sent us to persuade you to lay down your arms, and that this
compliance will be a sign, that he did well not to give credit to
those that raised the report concerning you." He also enjoined
them to send seventy of their principal men to make a defence
for them as to the accusation laid against them. So when the
twelve messengers came to their countrymen at Ecbatana, and
found that they had no designs of innovation at all, they per-
suaded them to send the seventy men also; who, not at all sus-
pecting what would come, sent them accordingly. So these
seventy * went down to Cesarea, together with the twelve *
ambassadors, where Varus met them with the king's forces,
and slew them all, together with the [twelve] ambassadors, and
made an expedition against the Jews of Ecbatana. But one
there was of the seventy who escaped, and made haste to inform
the Jews of their coming; upon which they took their arms, with
their wives and children, and retired to the citadel of Gamala,
leaving their own villages full of all sorts of good things, and
having many ten thousands of cattle therein. When Philip was
informed of these things, he also came to the citadel of Gamala;
and when he was come, the multitude cried aloud, and desired
him to resume the government, and to make an expedition
against Varus, and the Syrians of Cesarea; for it was reported
that they had slain the king. But Philip restrained their zeal,
and put them in mind of the benefits the king had bestowed
upon them; and told them how powerful the Romans were, and
said it was not for their advantage to make war with them; and
at length he prevailed with them. But now, when the king was
acquainted with Varus's design, which was to cut off the Jews
of Cesarea, being many ten thousands, with their wives and
children, and all in one day, he called to him Equiculus Mo-
dius, and sent him to be Varus's successor, as we have else-
where related. But still Philip kept possession of the citadel
:
* The famous Jewish numbers of twelve and seventy are here remarkable.
190
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JÓSEPHUS.
of Gamala, and of the country adjoining to it; which thereby
continued in their allegiance to the Romans.
12. Now as soon as I was come into Galilee, and had
learned this state of things by the information of such as told
me of them, I wrote to the sanhedrim at Jerusalem about them,
and required their direction what I should do. Their direction
was, that I should continue there, and that, if my fellow legates
were willing, I should join with them in the care of Galilee.
But those my fellow legates, having gotten great riches from
those tithes, which as priests were their dues, and were given to
them, determined to return to their own country. Yet when I
desired them to stay so long, that we might first settle the public
affairs, they complied with me. So I removed, together with
them, from the city of Sepphoris, and came to a certain village
called Bethmaus, four furlongs distant from Tiberias; and
thence I sent messengers to the senate of Tiberias, and desired
that the principal men of the city would come to me: and when
they were come, Justus himself being also with them, I told
them, that I was sent to them by the people of Jerusalem as a
legate, together with these other priests, in order to persuade
them to demolish that house which Herod the tetrarch had built
there, and which had the figures of living creatures in it,
although our laws have forbidden us to make any such figures;
and I desired, that they would give us leave so to do imme-
diately. But for a good while Capellus, and the principal men
belonging to the city, would not give us leave, but were at
length entirely overcome by us, and were induced to be of our
opinion. So Jesus the son of Sapphias, one of those whom
we have already mentioned as the leader of a seditious tumult
of mariners and poor people, prevented us, and took with him
certain Galileans, and set the entire palace on fire, and thought
he should get a great deal of money thereby, because he saw
some of the roofs gilt with gold. They also plundered a great
deal of the furniture, which was done without our approbation;
for, after we had discoursed with Capellus and the principal men
of the city, we departed from Bethmaus, and went into the
Upper Galilee. But Jesus and his party slew all the Greeks
that were inhabitants of Tiberias, and as many others as were
their enemies before the war began.
*
י
13. When I understood this state of things, I was greatly
provoked, and went down to Tiberias, and took all the care I
could of the royal furniture, to recover all that could be reco-
vered from such as had plundered it. They consisted of candle-
sticks made of Corinthian brass, and of royal tables, and of a
great quantity of uncoined silver; and I resolved to preserve
whatsoever came to my hand for the king. So I sent for ten of
the principal men of the senate, and for Capellus, the son of
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
191
L
L
..
Antyllus, and committed the furniture to them, with this charge,
that they should part with it to nobody else but to myself.
From thence I and my fellow legates went to Gischala to John,
as desirous to know his intentions, and soon saw that he was for
innovations, and had a mind to the principality; for he desired
me to give him authority to carry off that corn which belonged
to Cæsar, and lay in the villages of Upper Galilee; and he pre-
tended that he would expend what it came to in building the
walls of his own city. But when I perceived what he endea-
voured at, and what he had in his mind, I said I would not
permit him so to do; for that I thought either to keep it for the
Romans, or for myself, now I was intrusted with the public
affairs there by the people of Jerusalem. But, when he was
not able to prevail with me, he betook himself to my fellow
legates; for they had no sagacity in providing for futurity, and
were very ready to take bribes. So he corrupted them with
money to decree, that all that corn which was within his pro-
vince should be delivered to him; while I, who was but one,
was outvoted by two, and held my tongue. Then did John
introduce another cunning contrivance of his; for he said, that
those Jews who inhabited Cesarea Philippi, and were shut up
by the order of the king's deputy there, had sent to him to desire
him, that since they had no oil that was pure for their use, he
would provide a sufficient quantity of such oil that came from
the Greeks, and thereby transgress their own laws. Now this
was said by John, not out of his regard to religion, but out of
his most-flagrant desire of gain; for he knew, that two sextaries
were sold with them of Cesarea for one drachma, but that at
Gischala fourscore sextaries were sold for four sextaries.
he gave order, that all the oil which was there should be carried
away, as having my permission for so doing; which yet I did
not grant him voluntarily, but only out of fear of the multitude,
since, if I had forbidden him, I should have been stoned by
them. When I had therefore permitted this to be done by
John, he gained vast sums of money by this his knavery.
So
14. But when I had dismissed my fellow legates, and sent
them back to Jerusalem, I took care to have arms provided, and
the cities fortified. And when I had sent for the most hardy
among the robbers, I saw that it was not in my power to take
their arms from them; but I persuaded the multitude to allow
them money as pay, and told them, it was better for them to give
them a little willingly, rather than to [be forced to] overlook them
when they plundered their goods from them. And when I had
obliged them to take an oath not to come into that country,
unless they were invited to come, or else when they had not
their pay given them, I dismissed them, and charged them nei-
ther to make an expedition against the Romans, nor against
192
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
those their neighbours that lay round about them; for my first
care was to keep Galilee in peace. So I was willing to have.
the principal of the Galileans, in all seventy, as hostages for
their fidelity, but still under the notion of friendship. Accord-
ingly I made them my friends and companions as I journeyed,
and set them to judge causes; and with their approbation it was
that I gave my sentences, while I endeavoured not to mistake
what justice required, and to keep my hands clear of all bribery
in those determinations..
15. I was now about the thirtieth year of my age; in which
time of life it is a hard thing for any one to escape the calum-
nies of the envious, although he restrain himself from fulfilling
any unlawful desires, especially where a person is in great
authority. Yet did I preserve every woman free from injuries;
and, as to what presents were offered me, I despised them, as
not standing in need of them. Nor indeed would I take those
tithes, which were due to me as a priest, from those that
brought them. Yet do I confess, that I took part of the spoils
of those Syrians which inhabited the cities that adjoined to us,
when I had conquered them, and that I sent them to my kindred
at Jerusalem; although, when I twice took Sepphoris by force,
and Tiberias four times, and Gadara once, and when I had
subdued and taken John, who often laid treacherous snares for
me, I did not punish [with death] either him or any of the peo-
ple forenamed, as the progress of this discourse will show. And
on this account I suppose it was that God*, who is never
unacquainted with those that do as they ought to do, delivered
me still out of the hands of these my enemies, and afterwards
preserved me when I fell into those many dangers which I shall
relate hereafter.
16. Now the multitude of the Galileans had that great kind-
ness for me, and fidelity to me, that when their cities were taken
by force, and their wives and children carried into slavery, they
did not so deeply lament for their own calamities, as they were
solicitous for my preservation. But when John saw this, he
envied me, and wrote to me, desiring that I would give him
leave to come down, and make use of the hot baths at Tiberias
for the recovery of the health of his body. Accordingly I did
not hinder him, as having no suspicion of any wicked designs of
his; and I wrote to those to whom I had committed the admi-
nistration of the affairs of Tiberias, by name, that they should
provide a lodging for John, and for such as should come with
* Our Josephus shows, both here and everywhere, that he was a most reli-
gious person, and one that had a deep sense of God and his providence upon his
mind, and ascribed all his numerous and wonderful escapes and preservations, in
times of danger, to God's blessing him, and taking care of him, and this on
account of his acts of piety, justice, humanity, and charity to the Jews his
brethren.
ر
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
193
him, and should procure him what necessaries soever he should
stand in need of. Now at this time my abode was in a village
of Galilee, which is named Cana.
17. But when John was come to the city of Tiberias, he per-
suaded the men to revolt from their fidelity to me, and to
adhere to him; and many of them gladly received that invitation
of his, as ever fond of innovations, and by nature disposed to
changes, and delighting in seditions: but they were chiefly Jus-
tus and his father Pistus, that were earnest for their revolt from
me, and their adherence to John. But I came upon them, and
prevented them; for a messenger had come to me from Silas,
whom I had made governor of Tiberias, as I have said already,
and had told me of the inclinations of the people of Tiberias,
and advised me to make haste thither: for that, if I made any
delay, the city would come under another's jurisdiction. Upon
the receipt of this letter of Silas, I took two hundred men along
with me, and travelled all night, having sent before a mes-
senger to let the people of Tiberias know that I was coming to
them. When I came near to the city, which was early in the
morning, the multitude came out to meet me; and John came
with them, and saluted me, but in a most disturbed manner, as
being afraid that my coming was to call him to an account for
what I was now sensible he was doing. So he in great haste
went to his lodging. But when I was in the open place of the
city, having dismissed the guards I had about me, excepting
one, and ten armed men that were with him, I attempted.
to make a speech to the multitude of the people of Tiberias;
and, standing on a certain elevated place, I entreated them not
to be so hasty in their revolt; for that such a change in their
behaviour would be to their reproach, and that they would then
justly be suspected by those that should be their governors here-
after, as if they were not likely to be faithful to them neither.
18. But, before I had spoken all I designed, I heard one of
my own domestics bidding me come down; for that it was not
a proper time to take care of retaining the good will of the
people of Tiberias, but to provide for my own safety, and
escape my enemies there; for John had chosen the most trusty
of those armed men that were about him, out of those thousand
that he had with him, and had given them orders, when he sent
them, to kill me, having learned that I was alone, excepting
some of my domestics. So those that were sent came as they
were ordered; and they had executed what they came about,
had I not leaped down from the elevation I stood on, and with
one of my guards, whose name was James, been carried [out of
the crowd] upon the back of one Herod of Tiberias, and guided
by him down to the lake, where I seized a ship, and got into it,
and escaped my enemies unexpectedly, and came to Tarichea.
VOL. III.
T
O
1
194
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
·
19. Now as soon as the inhabitants of that city understood
the perfidiousness of the people of Tiberias, they were greatly
provoked at them. So they snatched up their arms, and desired
me to be their leader against them; for they said they would
avenge their commander's cause upon them. They also carried
the report of what had been done to me to all the Galileans, and
eagerly endeavoured to irritate them against the people of Tibe-
rias, and desired that vast numbers of them would get together,
and come to them, that they might act in concert with their
commander what should be determined as fit to be done. Ac-
cordingly the Galileans came to me in great numbers from all
parts with their weapons, and besought me to assault Tiberias,
to take it by force, and to demolish it, till it lay even with the
ground, and then to make slaves of its inhabitants, with their
wives and children.. Those that were Josephus's friends also,
and had escaped out of Tiberias, gave him the same advice. But
I did not comply with them, thinking it a terrible thing to begin
a civil war among them; for I thought, that this contention ought
not to proceed farther than words: nay, I told them that it was
not for their own advantage to do what they would have me to
do, while the Romans expected no other than that we should
destroy one another by our mutual seditions. And by saying this
I put a stop to the anger of the Galileans.
20. But now John was afraid for himself, since his treachery
had proved unsuccessful. So he took the armed men that were
about him, and removed from Tiberias to Gischala, and wrote
to me to apologize for himself concerning what had been done,
as if it had been done without his approbation, and desired me
to have no suspicion of him to his disadvantage. He also added
oaths and certain horrible curses upon himself, and supposed he
should be thereby believed in the points he wrote about to me.
1
21. But now another great number of the Galileans came
together again with their weapons, as knowing the man, how
wicked and how sadly perjured he was, and desired me to lead
them against him, and promised me that they would utterly de-
stroy both him and Gischala. Hereupon I professed that I was
obliged to them for their readiness to serve me, and that I would
more than requite their good will to me. However, I entreated
them to restrain themselves, and begged of them to give me leave
to do what I intended, which was to put an end to these trou-
bles without bloodshed; and when I had prevailed with the
multitude of the Galileans to let me do so, I came to Sepphoris.
22. But the inhabitants of this city, having determined to
continue in their allegiance to the Romans, were afraid of my
coming to them, and tried, by putting me upon another action, to
divert me, that they might be freed from the terror they were in.
Accordingly they sent to Jesus, the captain of those robbers, who
the life of FLAVIUS JOSEphus.
195
were in the confines of Ptolemais, and promised to give him a
great deal of money, if he would come with those forces he
had with him, which were in number eight hundred, and fight
with us. Accordingly he complied with what they desired, upon
the promises they had made him, and was desirous to fall upon
us when we were unprepared for him, and knew nothing of his
coming beforehand. So he sent to me, and desired that I would
give him leave to come and salute me. When I had given him
that leave, which I did without the least knowledge of his trea-
cherous intentions beforehand, he took his band of robbers, and
made haste to come to me. Yet did not this his knavery suc-
ceed well at last; for, as he was already nearly approaching,
one of those with him deserted him, and came to me, and told
me what he had undertaken to do. When I was informed of
this, I went into the market-place, and pretended to know no-
thing of his treacherous purpose. I took with me many Gali-
leans that were armed, as also some of those of Tiberias: and,
when I had given orders that all the roads should be carefully
guarded, I charged the keepers of the gates to give admittance
to none but to Jesus, when he came with the principal of his
men, and to exclude the rest; and in case they aimed to force
themselves in, to use stripes [in order to repel them]. Accord-
ingly, those that had received such a charge did as they were
bidden, and Jesus came in with a few others; and when I had
ordered him to throw down his arms immediately, and told him,
that if he refused so to do, he was a dead man, he, seeing armed
men standing all round about him, was terrified, and complied;
and as for those of his followers that were excluded, when they
were informed that he was seized, they ran away. I then called
Jesus to me by himself, and told him, that "I was not a stranger
to that treacherous design he had against me, nor was I ignorant
by whom he was sent for; that, however, I would forgive what
he had done already, if he would repent of it, and be faithful
to me hereafter." And thus upon his promise to do all that
I desired, I let him go, and gave him leave to get those whom
he had formerly had with him together again. But I threatened
the inhabitants of Sepphoris, that, if they would not leave off their
ungrateful treatment of me, I would punish them sufficiently.
23. At this time it was that two great men, who were under
the jurisdiction of the king [Agrippa], came to me out of the
region of Trachonitis, bringing their horses and their arms, and
carrying with them their money also; and when the Jews would
force them to be circumcised, if they would stay among them, I
would not permit them to have any force put upon them, but
said to them*, "Every one ought to worship God according to
Josephus's opinion is here well worth noting, that every one is to be per-
mitted to worship God according to his own conscience, and is not to be com-
02
196
THE LIFE OF FLAVius Josephus.
his own inclinations, and not to be constrained by force; and
that these men, who had fled to us for protection, ought not to
be so treated as to repent of their coming hither." And when I
had pacified the multitude, I provided for the men that were
come to us whatsoever it was they wanted, according to their
usual way of living, and that in great plenty also.
-
24. Now king Agrippa. sent an army to make themselves mas-
ters of the citadel of Gamala, and over it Equicolus Modius;
but the forces that were sent were not enough to encompass the
citadel quite round, but lay before it in the open places and be-
sieged it. But when Ebutius the decurion, who was intrusted
with the government of the great plain, heard that I was at Si-
monias, a village situated in the confines of Galilee, and was
distant from him sixty furlongs, he took a hundred horsemen that
were with him by night, and a certain number of footmen, about
two hundred, and brought the inhabitants of the city Gibea along
with him as auxiliaries, and marched in the night, and came to
the village where I abode. Upon this, I pitched my camp over
against him, which had a great number of forces in it: but Ebu-
tius tried to draw us down into the plain, as greatly depending
on his horsemen; but we would not come down: for when I
was satisfied of the advantage that his horse would have if we
came down into the plain, while we were all footmen, I resolved
to join battle with the enemy where I was. Now Ebutius and
his party made a courageous opposition for some time; but when
he saw that his horse were useless to him in that place, he retired
back to the city Gibea, having lost three of his men in the fight.
So I followed him directly with two thousand armed men; and
when I was at the city Besara, that lay in the confines of Ptole-
mais, but twenty furlongs from Gibea where Ebutius abode, I
placed my armed men on the outside of the village, and gave or-
ders that they should guard the passes with great care, that the
enemy might not disturb us, until we should have carried off the
corn, a great quantity of which lay there it belonged to Bernice
the queen, and had been gathered together out of the neighbour-
ing villages into Besara; so I loaded my camels and asses, a
great number of which I had brought along with me, and sent
the corn into Galilee. When I had done this, I offered Ebutius
battle; but when he would not accept of the offer, for he was
terrified at our readiness and courage, I altered my route, and
marched. towards Neopolitanus, because I had heard that the
country about Tiberias was laid waste by him. This Neopoli-
tanus was captain of a troop of horse, and had the custody of
pelled in matters of religion; as one may here observe, on the contrary, that the
rest of the Jews were still for obliging all those who married Jews to be circum-
cised, and become Jews, and were ready to destroy all that would not submit to
do so.
See sect. 31, and Luke, ix. 54.
:
་
}
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
197
Scythopolis intrusted to his care by the enemy; and when I had
hindered him from doing any further mischief to Tiberias, I set
myself to make provision for the affairs of Galilee.
་
25. But when John, the son of Levi, who, as we before told
you, abode at Gischala, was informed høw all things had suc-
ceeded to my mind, and that I was much in favour with those
that were under me; as also that the enemy were greatly afraid
of me, he was not pleased with it, as thinking my prosperity
tended to his ruin. So he took up a bitter envy and enmity
against me; and hoping, that if he could inflame those that were
under me to hate me, he should put an end to the prosperity I
was in, he tried to persuade the inhabitants of Tiberias and of
Sepphoris (and for those of Gabara he supposed they would be
also of the same mind with the others), which were the greatest
cities of Galilee, to revolt from their subjection to me, and to be
of his party; and told them that he would command them better
than I did. As for the people of Sepphoris, who belonged to
neither of us, because they had chosen to be in subjection to the
Romans, they did not comply with his proposal; and for those
of Tiberias, they did not indeed so far comply as to make a re-
volt from under me, but they agreed to be his friends, while the
inhabitants of Gabara did go over to John; and it was Simon
that persuaded them so to do; one who was both the principal
man in the city, and a particular friend and companion of John.
It is true, these did not openly own the making a revolt, because
they were in great fear of the Galileans, and had frequent expe-
rience of the good will they bore to me; yet did they privately
watch for a proper opportunity to lay snares for me; and in-
deed I thereby came into the greatest danger, on the occasion
following:
26. There were some bold young men of the village Daba-
ritta, who observed that the wife of Ptolemy, the king's procu-
rator, was to make a progress over the great plain with a mighty
attendance, and with some horsemen that followed, as a guard to
them, and this out of a country that was subject to the king and
queen, into the jurisdiction of the Romans; and fell upon them
on the sudden, and obliged the wife of Ptolemy to fly away, and
plundered all the carriages. They also came to me to Taricheæ,
with four mules loading of garments, and other furniture; and
the weight of the silver they brought was not small, and there
were five hundred pieces of gold also. Now I had a mind to
preserve these spoils for Ptolemy, who was my countryman; and
it is prohibited us by our laws even to spoil our enemies*
: so I
* How Josephus could say here that the Jewish laws forbade them to "spoil
even their enemies," while yet, a little before his time, our Saviour bad men-
tioned it as then a current maxim with them, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour,
and hate thine enemy," Matt. v.43, is worth our inquiry. I take it that Josephus,
198
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
said to those that brought these spoils, that they ought to be
kept in order to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem with them, when
they came to be sold. But the young men took it very ill that
they did not receive a part of those spoils for themselves, as they
expected to have done; so they went among the villages, in the
neighbourhood of Tiberias, and told the people, that I was going
to betray their country to the Romans, and that I used deceitful
language to them, when I said, that what had been thus gotten
by rapine should be kept for the rebuilding of the walls of the
city of Jerusalem; although I had resolved to restore these spoils
again to their former owner. And indeed they were herein not
mistaken as to my intentions; for when I had gotten clear of
them, I sent for two of the principal men, Dassion, and Janneus
the son of Levi, persons that were among the chief friends of the
king, and commanded them to take the furniture that had been
plundered, and to send it to him; and I threatened that I would
order them to be put to death by way of punishment, if they dis-
covered this my command to any other person.
27. Now when all Galilee was filled with this rumour, that
their country was about to be betrayed by me to the Romans,
and when all men were exasperated against me, and ready to bring
me to punishment, the inhabitants of Taricheæ did also them-
selves suppose that what the young men said was true, and per-
suaded my guards and armed men to leave me when I was asleep,
and to come presently to the hippodrome, in order there to take
counsel against me their commander. And when they had pre-
vailed with them, and they were gotten together, they found there
a great company assembled already, who all joined in one cla-
mour, to bring the man, who was so wicked to them as to betray
them, to his due punishment; and it was Jesus the son of Sap-
phias, who principally set them on. He was ruler in Tiberias,
a wicked man, and naturally disposed to make disturbances in
matters of consequence; a seditious person he was indeed, and
an innovator beyond every body else. He then took the laws of
Moses into his hands, and came into the midst of the people,
and said, "O my fellow-citizens, if you are not disposed to hate
Josephus on your own account, have regard however to these
laws of your country, which your commander in chief is going
to betray; hate him therefore on both these accounts, and bring
the man who hath acted thus insolently to his deserved punishment.
having been now for many years an Ebionite Christian, had learned this inter-
pretation of the law of Moses from Christ, whom he owned for the true Messiah,
as it follows in the succeeding verses, which, though he might not read in St.
Matthew's gospel, yet might he bave read much the same exposition in their own
Ebionite or Nazarene gospel itself; of which improvements made by Josephus,
after he was become a Christian, we have already had several examples in this
his life, sect. 3, 13, 15, 19, 21, 23; and shall have many more therein before its
conclusion, as well as we have them elsewhere in all his later writings.
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
199
28. When he had said this, and the multitude had openly ap-
plauded him for what he had said, he took some of the armed
men, and made haste away to the house in which I lodged, as if
he would kill me immediately, while I was wholly insensible of
all till this disturbance happened; and, by reason of the pains I
had been taking, was fallen fast asleep. But Simon, who was
intrusted with the care of my body, and was the only person that
stayed with me, and saw the violent incursion the citizens made
upon me, he awaked me, and told me of the danger I was in,
and desired me to let him kill me, that I might die bravely and
like a general, before my enemies came in, and forced me [to
kill myself], or killed me themselves. Thus did he discourse to
me; but I committed the care of my life to God, and made
haste to go out to the multitude. Accordingly I put on a black
garment, and hung my sword at my neck, and went by such a
different way to the hippodrome, wherein I thought none of my
adversaries would meet me; so I appeared among them on the
sudden, and fell down flat on the earth, and bedewed the ground
with my tears: then I seemed to them all an object of com-
passion. And when I perceived the change that was made in
the multitude,.I tried to divide their opinions, before the armed
men should return from my house: so I granted them that I had
been as wicked as they supposed me to be, but still I entreated
them to let me first inform them for what use I had kept that
money which arose from the plunder, and that they might then
kill me if they pleased; and upon the multitude's ordering me
to speak, the armed men came upon me, and when they saw me,
they ran to kill me: but when the multitude bid them hold their
hands, they complied, and expected that as soon as I should own
to them that I kept the money for the king, it would be looked
on as a confession of my treason, and they should then be al-
lowed to kill me.
29. When therefore silence was made by the whole multitude,
I spake thus to them: "O my countrymen, I refuse not to die,
if justice so require. However, I am desirous to tell you the
truth of this matter before I die; for as I know that this city of
yours [Tarichea] was a city of great hospitality, and filled with
abundance of such men as have left their own countries, and are
come hither to be partakers of your fortune whatever it be, I had
a mind to build walls about it, out of this money, for which you
are so angry with me, while yet it was to be expended in build-
ing your own walls." Upon my saying this, the people of Ta-
riches and the strangers cried out, that "they gave me thanks,
and desired me to be of good courage. Although the Gali-
leans and the people of Tiberias continued in their wrath against
me, insomuch that there arose a tumult among them, while some
threatened to kill me, and some bid me not to regard them; but
$
200
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
when. I promised them that I would build them walls at Tiberias,
and at other cities that wanted them, they gave credit to what
I promised, and returned every one to his own home. So I
escaped the forementioned danger, beyond all my hopes, and
returned to my own house, accompanied with my friends, and
twenty armed men also.
#
·
A
30. However, those robbers and other authors of this tumult,
who were afraid on their own account, lest I should punish them
for what they had done, took six hundred armed men, and came to
the house where I abode, in order to set it on fire. When this
their insult was told me, I thought it indecent for me to run
away, and I resolved to expose myself to danger, and to act
with some boldness; so I gave order to shut the doors, and went
up into an upper room, and desired that they would send some
of their men in to receive the money [from the spoils]; for
I told them they would then have no occasion to bẹ angry with
me; and when they had sent in one of the boldest men of them
all, I had him whipped severely, and I commanded that one of
his hands should be cut off, and hung about his neck; and in
this case was he put out to those that sent him. At which pro-
cedure of mine they were greatly affrighted, and in no small
consternation, and were afraid that they should themselves be
served in like manner, if they stayed there: for they supposed
that I had in the house more armed men than they had them-
selves; so they ran away immediately, while I, by the use of
this stratagem, escaped this their second treacherous design
against me.
•
31. But there were still some that irritated the multitude
against me, and said, that those great men that belonged to the
king ought not to be suffered to live, if they would not change
their religion to the religion of those to whom they fled for safety:
they spake reproachfully of them also, and said, that they were
wizards*, and such as called in the Romans upon them. So the
multitude was soon deluded by such plausible pretences as were
agreeable to their own inclinations, and were prevailed on by
them. But when I was informed of this, I instructed the mul-
titude again, that those that fled to them for refuge ought not to
be persecuted; I also laughed at the allegation about witch-
craft*, and told them that the Romans would not maintain so
many ten thousand soldiers, if they could overcome their ene-
mies by wizards. Upon my saying this, the people assented
for a while; but they returned again afterward, as irritated by
some ill people against the great men: nay, they once made
an assault upon the house in which they dwelt at Taricheæ, in
order to kill them; which when I was informed of, I was afraid
*
•
* Here we may observe the vulgar Jewish notion of witchcraft; but that our
Josephus was too wise to give any countenance to it.
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
201
.
4
lest so horrid a crime should take effect, and nobody else would
make that city their refuge any more. I therefore came myself,
and some others with me, to the house where these great men
lived, and locked the doors, and had a trench drawn from their
house leading to the lake, and sent for a ship, and embarked
therein with them, and sailed to the confines of Hippos; I also
paid them the value of their horses, nor in such a flight could
I have their horses brought to them. I then dismissed them,
and begged of them earnestly that they would courageously bear
this distress which befell them. I was also myself greatly dis-
pleased that I was compelled to expose those that had fled to
me to go again into an enemy's country; yet did I think it more
eligible that they should perish among the Romans, if it should
so happen, than in the country that was under my jurisdiction.
However, they escaped at length, and king Agrippa forgave
them their offences. And this was the conclusion of what con-
cerned these men.
32. But as for the inhabitants of the city of Tiberias, they
wrote to the king, and desired him to send them forces sufficient
to be a guard to their country; for that they were desirous to
come over to him: this was what they wrote to him. But when
I came to them, they desired me to build their walls, as I had
promised them to do: for they had heard that the walls of Ta-
richeæ were already built: I agreed to their proposal accord-
ingly. And when I had made preparation for their entire building,
I gave order to the architects to go to work; but on the third
day, when I was gone to Taricheæ, which was thirty furlongs
distant from Tiberias, it so fell out, that some Roman horsemen
were discovered on their march, not far from the city, which
made it to be supposed that the forces were come from the king;
upon which they shouted, and lifted up their voices in commen-
dations of the king, and in reproaches against me. Hereupon
one came running to me, and told me what their dispositions
were, and that they had resolved to revolt from me; upon hear-
ing which news I was very much alarmed; for I had already sent
away my armed men from Tarichea to their own homes; be-
cause the next day was our Sabbath; for I would not have the
people of Taricheæ be disturbed [on that day] by a multitude of
soldiers; and indeed, whenever I sojourned at that city, I never
took any particular care for a guard about my own body, because
I had had frequent instances of the fidelity its inhabitants bore
I had now about me no more than seven armed men,
besides some friends, and was doubtful what to do; for to send
to recall my own forces I did not think proper, because the pre-
sent day was almost over, and had those forces been with me, I
could not take up arms on the next day, because our laws forbid
us so to do, even though our necessity should be very great; and
to me.
202
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
if I should permit the people of Taricheæ, and the strangers with
them, to guard the city, I saw that they would not be sufficient
for that purpose, and I perceived that I should be obliged to de-
lay my assistance a great while; for I thought with myself that
the forces that came from the king would prevent me, and that
I should be driven out of the city. I considered, therefore, how
to get clear of these forces by a stratagem; so I immediately
placed those my friends of Tarichea, on whom I could best con-
fide, at the gates, to watch those very carefully who went out at
those gates; I also called to me the heads of families, and bid
every one of them to seize upon a ship *, to go on board it, and
to take a master with them, and follow him to the city of Tibe-
rias. I also myself went on board one of those ships, with my
friends, and the seven armed men already mentioned, and sailed
for Tiberias.
33. But now, when the people of Tiberias perceived that there
were no forces come from the king, and yet saw the whole lake
full of ships, they were in fear what would become of their city,
and were greatly terrified, as supposing that the ships were full
of men on board; so they then changed their minds, and threw
down their weapons, and met me with their wives and children,
and made acclamations to me, with great commendations; for
they imagined that I did not know their former inclinations [to
have been against me]; so they persuaded me to spare the city.
But when I was come near enough, I gave order to the masters
of the ships to cast anchor a good way off the land, that the peo-
ple of Tiberias might not perceive that the ships had no men
on board; but I went nearer to the people in one of the ships,
and rebuked them for their folly, and that they were so fickle as,
without any just occasion in the world, to revolt from their fide-
lity to me. However, I assured them that I would entirely for-
give them for the time to come, if they would send ten of the
ringleaders of the multitude to me; and when they complied rea-
dily with this proposal, and sent me the men forementioned, I
put them on board a ship, and sent them away to Taricheæ, and
ordered them to be kept in prison.
34. And by this stratagem it was that I gradually got all the
senate of Tiberias into my power, and sent them to the city fore-
mentioned, with many of the principal men among the populace;
and those not fewer in number than the other. But when the
multitude saw into what great miseries they had brought them-
selves, they desired me to punish the author of this sedition; his
name was Clitus, a young man, bold and rash in his undertak-
* In this section, as well as sect. 18, and sect. 33, those small vessels that sailed
on the sea of Galilee, are called by Josephus Nñjeç, and IIλola, and Ekapŋ, i. e.
plainly, ships,so that we need not wonder at our Evangelists, who still call them
ships, nor ought we to render them boats, as some do. Their number was in all
230, as we learn from our author elsewhere, Of the War, B. ii. chap, xxi. sect. 8.
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
203
ings. Now, since I thought it not agreeable to piety to put one
of my own people to death, and yet found it necessary to punish
him, I ordered Levi, one of my own guards, to go to him, and
cut off one of Clitus's hands; but as he that was ordered to do
this was afraid to go out of the ship alone, among so great a
multitude, I was not willing that the timorousness of the soldier
should appear to the people of Tiberias. So I called to Clitus
himself, and said to him, "Since thou deservest to lose both
thine hands, for thy ingratitude to me, be thou thine own exe-
cutioner, lest, if thou refusest so to be, thou undergo a worse
punishment." And, when he earnestly begged of me to spare
him one of his hands, it was with difficulty that I granted it. So
in order to prevent the loss of both his hands, he willingly took
his sword, and cut off his own left hand; and this put an end to
the sedition.
35. Now the men of Tiberias, after I was gone to Taricheæ,
perceived what stratagem I had used against them, and they ad-
mired how I had put an end to their foolish sedition, without
shedding of blood. But now, when I had sent for some of those
multitudes of the people of Tiberias out of prison, among whom
were Justus and his father Pistus, I made them to sup with me,
and during our supper time I said to them, that I knew the
power of the Romans was superior to all others, but did not say
so [publicly] because of the robbers. So I advised them to do
as I did, and to wait for a proper opportunity, and not to be
uneasy at my being their commander; for that they could not
expect to have another who would use the like moderation that
I had done. I also put Justus in mind how the Galileans had
cut off his brother's hands, before ever I came to Jerusalem, upon
an accusation laid against him, as if he had been a rogue, and
had forged some letters; as also how the people of Gamala, in
a sedition they raised against the Babylonians, after the depar-
ture of Philip, slew Chares, who was a kinsman of Philip, and
withal how they had wisely punished Jesus, his brother Justus's
sister's husband [with death]. When I had said this to them during
supper time, I in the morning ordered Justus, and all the rest
that were in prison, to be loosed out of it, and sent away.
36. But before this it happened, that Philip, the son of Ja-
cimus, went out of the citadel of Gamala upon the following
occasion: when Philip had been informed that Varus was put
out of his government by king Agrippa, and that Modius Equi-
colus, a man that was of old his friend and companion, was come
to succeed him, he wrote to him, and related what turns of for-
tune he had had, and desired him to forward the letters he sent
to the king and queen. Now when Modius had received these
letters, he was exceeding glad, and sent the letters to the king and
queen, who were then about Berytus. But when king Agrippa
1
204
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
:
knew that the story about Philip was false (for it had been given
out, that the Jews had begun a war with the Romans, and that
this Philip had been their commander in that war), he sent some
horsemen to conduct Philip to him, and, when he was come, he
saluted him very obligingly, and showed him to the Roman com-
manders, and told them that this was the man of whom the re-
port had gone about as if he had revolted from the Romans.
He also bid him take some horsemen with him, and to go quickly
to the citadel of Gamala, and to bring out thence all his domes-
tics, and to restore the Babylonians to Batanea again. He also
gave it him in charge to take all possible care that none of his
subjects should be guilty of making any innovation. Accord-
ingly, upon these directions from the king, he made haste to
do what he was commanded.
•
37. Now there was one Joseph, the son of a female physician,
who excited a great many young men to join with him. He also
insolently addressed himself to the principal persons at Gamala,
and persuaded them to revolt from the king, and take up arms,
and gave them hopes that they should, by his means, recover
their liberty.
And some they forced into the service, and those
that would not acquiesce in what they had resolved on, they
slew. They also slew Chares, and with him Jesus, one of his
kinsmen, and a brother of Justus of Tiberias, as we have al-
ready said. Those of Gamala also wrote to me, desiring me to
send them an armed force, and workmen to raise up the walls of
their city; nor did I reject either of their requests. The region
of Gaulonitis did also revolt from the king, as far as the village
Solyma. I also built a wall about Seleucia and Soganni, which
are villages naturally of very great strength. Moreover, I in
like manner walled several villages of Upper Galilee, though
they were very rocky of themselves. Their names are Jamnia,
and Meroth, and Achabare. I also fortified, in the Lower Ga-
lilee, the cities Taricheæ, Tiberias, Sepphoris, and the villages,
the cave of Arbela, Bersobe, Selamin, Jotapata, Caphareccho,
and Sigo, and Japha, and Mount Tabor*. I also laid up a
great quantity of corn in these places, and arms withal, that
might be for their security afterward.
38. But the hatred that John, the son of Levi, bore to me,
grew now more violent, while he could not bear my prosperity
with patience. So he proposed to himself, by all means possi-
ble, to make away with me, and built the walls of Gischala,
which was the place of his nativity. He then sent his brother
Simon, and Jonathan, the son of Sisenna, and about a hundred
armed men, to Jerusalem, to Simon the son of Gamaliel†, in
* Part of these fortifications on Mount Tabor may be those still remaining,
and which were seen lately by Mr. Maundrel. See his Travels, p. 112.
+ This Gamaliel may be the very same that is mentioned by the rabbins in the
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
205:
།
order to persuade him to induce the commonalty of Jerusalem
to take from me the government over the Galileans, and to give
their suffrages for conferring that authority upon him. This Si-
mon was of the city Jerusalem, and of a very noble family, of
the sect of the Pharisees, which are supposed to excel others in
the accurate knowledge of the laws of their country. He was a
man of great wisdom and reason, and capable of restoring pub-
lic affairs by his prudence, when they were in an ill posture. He
was also an old friend and companion of John; but at that time
he had a difference with me. When therefore he had received
such an exhortation, he persuaded the high priests, Ananus, and
Jesus the son of Gamala, and some others of the same seditious
faction, to cut me down, now I was growing so great, and not to
overlook me while I was aggrandizing myself to the height of
glory; and he said, that it would be for the advantage of the Ga-
lileans, if I were deprived of my government there. Ananus also,
and his friends, desired them to make no delay about the mat-
ter, lest I should get the knowledge of what was doing too soon,
and should come and make an assault upon the city with a great
army. This was the counsel of Simon; but Ananus the high
priest demonstrated to them, that this was not an easy thing to
be done, because many of the high priests, and of the rulers of
the people, bore witness that I had acted like an excellent gene-
ral, and that it was the work of ill men to accuse one against whom
they had nothing to say.
39. When Simon heard Ananus say this, he desired that the
messengers would conceal the thing, and not let it come among
many, for that he would take care to have Josephus removed out
of Galilee very quickly. So he called for John's brother [Simon],
and charged him, that they should send presents to Ananus and
his friends; for, as he said, they might probably by that means
persuade them to change their minds. And indeed Simon did
at length thus compass what he aimed at, for Ananus, and
those with him, being corrupted by bribes, agreed to expel me
out of Galilee, without making the rest of the citizens acquainted
with what they were doing. Accordingly they resolved to send
men of distinction as to their families, and of distinction as to
their learning also. Two of these were of the populace, Jona-
than* and Ananias, by sect Pharisees; while the third, Jozar,
was of the stock of the priests, and a Pharisee also; and Simon,
the last of them, was of the youngest of the high priests. These
had it given them in charge, that, when they were come to the
Mishna, in Juchasin, and in Porta Mosis, as is observed in the Latin notes.´ He
might be also that Gamaliel II. whose grandfather was Gamaliel 1. who is men-
tioned Acts, v. 34, and at whose feet St. Paul was brought up, Acts, xxii. 3. See
Prid. at the year 446.
* This Jonathan is also taken notice of in the Latin notes, as the same thati s
mentioned by the rabbins in Porta Mosis.
206
the life of fLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
multitude of the Galileans, they should ask them what was the
reason of their love to me? and if they said, that it was because
I was born at Jerusalem, that they should reply, that they four
were all born at the same place; and if they should say, it was
because I was well versed in their law, they should reply, that
neither were they unacquainted with the practices of their coun-
try; but if, besides these, they should say, they loved me because
I was a priest, they should reply, that two of these were priests
also.
40. Now, when they had given Jonathan and his companions
these instructions, they gave them forty thousand [drachmæ] out
of the public money: but when they heard that there was a cer-
tain Galilean that then sojourned at Jerusalem, whose name was
Jesus, who had about him a band of six hundred armed men,
they sent for him, and gave him three months' pay, and gave him
orders to follow Jonathan and his companions, and be obedient
to them. They also gave money to three hundred men that were
citizens of Jerusalem, to maintain them all, and ordered them also
to follow the ambassadors; and when they had complied, and
were gotten ready for the march, Jonathan and his companions
went out with them, having along with them John's brother, and
a hundred armed men. The charge that was given them by those
that sent them was this, that if I would voluntarily lay down my
arms, they should send me alive to the city Jerusalem; but that
in case I opposed them, they should kill me, and fear nothing:
for that it was their command for them so to do. They also wrote
to John to make all ready for fighting me, and gave orders to the
inhabitants of Sepphoris, and Gabara, and Tiberias, to send aux-
iliaries to John.
41. Now as my father wrote me an account of this (for
Jesus, the son of Gamala, who was present in that council, a
friend and companion of mine, told him of it), I was very
much
troubled, as discovering thereby, that my fellow citizens proved
so ungrateful to me, as, out of envy, to give order that I should
be slain; my father earnestly pressed me also in his letter to
come to him, for that he longed to see his son before he died.
I informed my friends of these things, and that in three days'
time I should leave the country, and go home. Upon hearing
this they were all very sorry, and desired me, with tears in their
eyes, not to leave them to be destroyed; for so they thought
they should be, if I were deprived of the command over them:
but as I did not grant their request, but was taking care of my
own safety, the Galileans, out of their dread of the conse-
quences of my departure, that they should then be at the mercy
of the robbers, sent messengers over all Galilee to inform them
of my resolution to leave them. Whereupon, as soon as they
heard it, they got together in great numbers, from all parts,
4
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
207
with their wives and children; and this they did, as it appeared to
me, not more out of their affection to me, than out of their fear on
their own account; for while I staid with them, they supposed
that they should suffer no harm. So they all came into the
great plain, wherein I lived, the name of which was Asochis.
42. But wonderful it was what a dream I saw that very
night; for when I had betaken myself to my bed, as grieved
and disturbed at the news that had been written to me, it seemed
to me, that a certain person stood by me*, and said "O Jose-
phus! leave off to afflict thy soul, and put away all fear; for
what now grieves thee will render thee very considerable, and in
all respects most happy; for thou shalt get over not only these
difficulties, but many others, with great success. However, be
not cast down, but remember that thou art to fight with the
Romans." When I had seen this dream, I got up with an
intention of going down to the plain. Now when the whole
multitude of the Galileans, among whom were the women and
children, saw me, they threw themselves down upon their faces,
and, with tears in their eyes, besought me not to leave them
exposed to their enemies, nor to go away and permit their coun-
try to be injured by them. But when I did not comply with
their entreaties, they compelled me to take an oath, that I
would stay with them: they also cast abundance of reproaches
upon the people of Jerusalem, that they would not let their
country enjoy peace.
*
43. When I heard this, and saw what sorrow the people were
in, I was moved with compassion to them, and thought it
became me to undergo the most manifest hazards for the sake
of so great a multitude; so I let them know I would stay with
them. And when I had given order that five thousand of them
should come to me armed, and with provisions for their mainte-
nance, I sent the rest away to their own homes; and when those five
thousand were come, I took them, together with three thousand
of the soldiers that were with me before, and eighty horsemen,
and marched to the village of Chabolo, situated in the confines
of Ptolemais, and there kept my forces together, pretending to
get ready to fight with Placidus, who was come with two cohorts
of footmen, and one troop of horsemen, and was sent thither by
Cestius Gallus, to burn those villages of Galilee that were near
Ptolemais. Upon whose casting up a bank before the city
Ptolemais, I also pitched my camp at about the distance of
sixty furlongs from that village. And now we frequently
brought out our forces as if we would fight, but proceeded no
* This I take to be the first of Josephus's remarkable or divine dreams, which
were predictive of the great things that afterwards came to pass: of which see
more in the note on Antiq. B. iii. ch. viii. sect. 9. The other is in the War,
B. iii. ch. viii. sect. 3. 9.
208-
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
.!
1
farther than skirmishes at a distance; for when Placidus per-
ceived that I was earnest to come to a battle, he was afraid, and
avoided it. Yet did he not remove from the neighbourhood of
Ptolemais.
44. About this time it was that Jonathan and his fellow-
legates came. They were sent, as we have said already, by
Simon, and Ananus the high priest. And Jonathan contrived
how he might catch me by treachery; for he durst not make any
attempt upon me openly. So he wrote me the following
epistle: "Jonathan, and those that are with him, and are sent
by the people of Jerusalem to Josephus, send greeting. We
are sent by the principal men of Jerusalem, who have heard
that John of Gischala hath laid many snares for thee, to rebuke
him, and to exhort him to be subject to thee hereafter. We are
also desirous to consult with thee about our common concerns,
and what is fit to be done. We therefore desire thee to come
to us quickly, and to bring only a few men with thee, for this
village will not contain a great number of soldiers." Thus it
was that they wrote, as expecting one of these two things,
either that I should come without armed men, and then they
should have me wholly in their power; or, if I came with a great
number, they should judge me to be a public enemy. Now it
was a horseman who brought the letter, a man at other times
bold, and one that had served in the army under the king. It
was the second hour of the night that he came, when I was
feasting with my friends, and the principal of the Galileans.
This man, upon my servant's telling me, that a certain horse-
man of the Jewish nation was come, he was called in at my
command, but did not so much as salute me at all, but held out
a letter and said, "This letter is sent thee by those that are
come from Jerusalem. Do thou write an answer to it quickly, for
I am obliged to return to them very soon." Now my guests could
not but wonder at the boldness of the soldier. But I desired
him to sit down and sup with us; but when he refused so to do,
I held the letter in my hands as I received it, and fell a talking
with my guests about other matters. But a few hours after-
wards I got up, and, when I had dismissed the rest to go to
their beds, I bid only four of my intimate friends to stay, and
ordered my servant to get some wine ready. I also opened the
letter so that nobody could perceive it; and, understanding
thereby presently the purport of the writing, I sealed it up
again, and appeared as if I had not yet read it, but only held it
in my hands. I ordered twenty drachmæ should be given the
soldier, for the charges of his journey; and when he took the
money, and said he thanked me for it, I perceived that he loved
money, and that he was to be caught chiefly by that means, and
I said to him, "If thou wilt but drink with us, thou shalt have
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
209
a drachmæ for every glass thou drinkest.” So he gladly em-
braced this proposal, and drank a great deal of wine, in order to
get the more money, and was so drunk, that at last he could not
keep the secrets he was intrusted with, but discovered them,
without my putting questions to him, viz. that a treacherous
design was contrived against me, and that I was doomed to die
by those that sent him. When I heard this, I wrote back this
answer: "Josephus, to Jonathan and those that are with him,
sendeth greeting. Upon the information that you are come in
health into Galilee, I rejoice, and this especially, because I can
now resign the care of public affairs here into your hands, and
return into my native country, which is what I have desired to do
a great while; and I confess I ought not only to come to you
as far as Xaloth, but farther, and this without your commands.
But I desire you to excuse me, because I cannot do it now,
since I watch the motions of Placidus, who hath a mind to go
up into Galilee; and this I do here at Chabolo. Do you
therefore, on the receipt of this epistle, come hither to me.
Fare you well."
45. When I had written thus, and given the letter to be car-
ried by the soldier, I sent along with him thirty of the Gali-
leans of the best characters, and gave them instructions to salute
those ambassadors, but to say nothing else to them. I also
gave orders to as many of those armed men, whom I esteemed
most faithful to me, to go along with the others, every one with
him whom he was to guard, lest some conversation might pass
between those whom I sent and those that were with Jonathan.
So these men went [to Jonathan]. But, when Jonathan and
his partners had failed in this their first attempt, they sent me
another letter, the contents whereof were as follows: "Jona-
than and those with him to Josephus send greeting. We require
thee to come to us to the village Gabaroth, on the third day,
without any armed men, that we may hear what thou hast to lay
to the charge of John [of Gischala]." When they had written
this letter, they saluted the Galileans whom I sent, and came to
Japha, which was the largest village of all Galilee, and encom-
passed with very strong walls, and had a great number of inha-
bitants in it. There the multitude of men with their wives and
children met them, and exclaimed loudly against them, and
desired them to be gone, and not to envy them the advantage of an
excellent commander. With these clamours Jonathan and his
partners were greatly provoked, although they durst not show their
anger openly: so they made them no answer, but went to other
villages. But still the same clamours met them from all the
people, who said, "Nobody should persuade them to have any
other commander besides Josephus." So Jonathan and his
partners went away from them without success, and came to
VOL. III.
P
210
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHus.
Sepphoris, the greatest city of all Galilee. Now the men of
that city who inclined to the Romans in their sentiments, met
them indeed, but neither praised nor reproached me; and when
they were gone down from Sepphoris to Asochis, the people of
that place made a clamour against them, as those of Japha had
done. Whereupon they were able to contain themselves no
longer, but ordered the armed men that were with them to beat
those that made the clamour with their clubs. And when they
came to Gabara, John met them, with three thousand armed
men; but, as I understood by their letter, that they had resolved
to fight against me, I arose from Chabolo, with three thousand
armed men also, but left in my camp one of my fastest friends,
and came to Jotapata, as desirous to be near them, the distance
being no more than forty furlongs. Whence I wrote thus to
them: "If you are very desirous that I should come to you,
you know there are two hundred and forty cities and villages in
Galilee, I will come to any of them which you please, excepting
Gabara and Gischala; the one of which is John's native city,
and the other in confederacy and friendship with him."
46. When Jonathan and his partners had received this letter,
they wrote me no more answers, but called a council of their
friends together, and taking John into their consultation, they
took counsel together by what means they might attack me.
John's opinion was, that they should write to all the cities and
villages that were in Galilee; for that there must be certainly
one or two persons in every one of them that was at variance
with me, and that they should be invited to come to oppose me
as an enemy.
He would also have them send this resolution of
theirs to the city Jerusalem, that its citizens, upon the know-
ledge of my being adjudged to be an enemy by the Galileans,
might themselves also confirm that determination. He said alsò,
that when this was done, even those Galileans who were well
affected to me would desert me out of fear. When John had
given them this counsel, what he had said was very agreeable to
the rest of them. I was also made acquainted with these affairs
about the third hour of the night, by the means of one Sac-
cheus, who had belonged to them, but now deserted them and .
came over to me, and told me what they were about; so I per-
ceived that no time was to be lost. Accordingly I gave com-
mand to Jacob, an armed man of my guard, whom I esteemed
faithful to me, to take two hundred men, and to guard the pas-
sages that led from Gabara to Galilee, and to seize upon the
passengers, and send them to me, especially such as were caught
with letters about them: I also sent Jeremias himself, one of
my friends, with six hundred armed men, to the borders of
Galilee, in order to watch the roads that led from this country
to the city Jerusalem, and gave him charge to lay hold of such
•
4
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
211
as travelled with letters about them, to keep the men in bonds
upon the place, but to send me the letters.
47. When I had laid these commands upon them, I gave them
orders, and bid them to take their arms and bring three days
provision with them, and be with me the next day. I also
parted those that were about me into four parts, and ordained
those of them that were most faithful to me to be a guard to my
body. I also set over them centurions, and commanded them
'to take care that not a soldier which they did not know should
mingle himself among them. Now on the fifth day following,
when I was in Gabaroth, I found the entire plain that was
before the village full of armed men, who were come out of
Galilee to assist me; many others of the multitude also, out of
the village, ran along with me. But as soon as I had taken my
place, and began to speak to them, they all made an acclama-
tion, and called me the benefactor and saviour of the country.
And when I had made them my acknowledgments, and thanked
them [for their affection to me], I also advised them to fight*
with nobody, nor to spoil the country; but to pitch their tents
in the plain, and be content with their sustenance they had
brought with them; for I told them that I had a mind to compose
these troubles without shedding any blood. Now it came to
pass, that on the very same day those who were sent by John
with letters, fell among the guards whom I had appointed to
watch the roads; so the men were themselves kept upon the
place, as my orders were, but I got the letters, which were full
of reproaches and lies; and I intended to fall upon these men
without saying a word of these matters to any body.
48. Now as soon as Jonathan and his companions heard of my
coming, they took all their own friends, and John with them, and
retired to the house of Jesus, which indeed was a large castle, and
no way unlike a citadel; so they privately laid a band of armed men
therein, and shut all the other doors but one, which they kept open;
and they expected that I should come out of the road to them,
to salute them. And indeed they had given orders to the armed
men, that when I came they should let nobody besides me come
in, but should exclude others; as supposing that, by this means,
they should easily get me under their power: but they were
deceived in their expectation; for I perceived what snares they
had laid for me. Now as soon as I was got off my journey, I
took up my lodgings over against them, and pretended to be
asleep; so Jonathan and his party thinking that I was really
asleep, and at rest, made haste to go down into the plain, to
Josephus's directions to his soldiers here are much the same that John the
Baptist gave, Luke, iii. 14, “ Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely,
and be content with your wages." Whence Dr. Hudson confirms this conjec-
ture, that Josephus, in some things, was, even now, a follower of John the Bap-
tist; which is no way improbable. See the note on sect. 2.
P 2
212
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
persuade the people that I was an ill governor. But the matter
proved otherwise, for upon their appearance, there was a cry
made by the Galileans immediately, declaring their good opinion
of me as their governor; and they made a clamour against
Jonathan and his partners, for coming to them when they had
suffered no harm, and as though they would overturn their
happy settlement; and desired them by all means to go back
again, for that they would never be persuaded to have any other
to rule over them but myself. When I heard of this, I did not
fear to go down into the midst of them; I went therefore my-
self down presently to hear what Jonathan and his companions
said. As soon as I appeared, there was immediately an accla-
mation made to me by the whole multitude, and a cry in my
commendation by them, who confessed their thanks was owing
to me for my good government of them.
49. When Jonathan and his companions heard this, they
were in fear of their own lives, and in danger lest they should
be assaulted by the Galileans on my account; so they con-
trived how they might run away. But as they were not able
to get off, for I desired them to stay, they looked down with
concern at my words to them. I ordered therefore the mul-
titude to restrain entirely their acclamations, and placed the
most faithful of my armed men upon the avenues, to be a
guard to us, lest John should unexpectedly fall upon us; and
I encouraged the Galileans to take their weapons, lest they
should be disturbed at their enemies, if any sudden insult should
be made upon them. And then, in the first place, I put Jona-
than and his partners in mind of their [former] letter, and after
what manner they had written to me, and declared they were
sent by the common consent of the people of Jerusalem, to
make up the differences I had with John, and how they had
desired me to come to them; and as I spake thus, I publicly
showed that letter they had written, till they could not at all
deny what they had done, the letter itself convicting them.
then said, “Ŏ Jonathan, and you that are sent with him as his
colleagues, if I were to be judged as to my behaviour, compared
with that of John's, and had brought no more than two or
three witnesses,, good men and true, it is plain you had been
forced, upon the examination of their characters beforehand, to
discharge the accusations: that therefore you may be informed
that I have acted well in the affairs of Galilee, I think three
witnesses too few to be brought by a man that hath done as he
ought to do; so I give you all these for witnesses. Inquire of
*
We here learn the practice of the Jews, in the days of Josephus, to inquire
into the characters of witnesses, before they were admitted, and that their num-
ber ought to be three, or two at the least, also exactly as in the law of Moses,
and in the Apostolical Constitutions, B. ii. ch. xxxvii. See Horeb Covenant
Revived, page 97, 98.
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
213
them* how I have lived, and whether I have not behaved
myself with all decency, and after a virtuous manner among
them. And I further conjure you, Ọ Galileans, to hide no part
of the truth, but to speak before these men as before judges,
whether I have in any thing acted otherwise than well.”
50. While I was thus speaking, the united voices of all the
people joined together, and called me their benefactor and
saviour, and attested to my former behaviour, and exhorted me
to continue so to do hereafter; and they all said, upon their
oaths, that their wives had been preserved free from injuries,
and that no one had ever been aggrieved by me.
After this, I
read to the Galileans two of those epistles which had been sent
by Jonathan and his colleagues, and which those whom I had
appointed to guard the road had taken, and sent to me. These
were full of reproaches and of lies, as if I had acted more like a
tyrant than a governor against them, with many other things
besides therein contained, which were no better indeed than
impudent falsities. I also informed the multitude how I came
by these letters, and that those who carried them delivered them
up voluntarily; for I was not willing that my enemies should
know any thing of the guards I had set, lest they should be
afraid, and leave off writing hereafter.
51. When the multitude heard these things, they were greatly
provoked at Jonathan, and his colleagues that were with him,
and were going to attack them and kill them; and this they had
certainly done, unless I had restrained the anger of the Gali-
leans, and said, That "I forgave Jonathan and his colleagues
what was past, if they would repent, and go to their own coun-
try, and tell those who sent them the truth, as to my conduct."
When I had said this, I let them go, although I knew they
would do nothing of what they had promised. But the multi-
tude were very much enraged against them, and entreated me to
give them leave to punish them for their insolence; yet did I try
all methods to persuade them to spare the men; for I knew
that every instance of sedition was pernicious to the public wel-
fare. But the multitude were too angry with them to be dis-
suaded, and all of them went immediately to the house in which
Jonathan and his colleagues abode. However, when I perceived
that their rage could not be restrained, I got on horseback, and
ordered the multitude to follow me to the village Sogane, which
was twenty furlongs off Gabara; and, by using this stratagem,
I so managed myself, as not to appear to begin a civil war among
them.
* This appeal to the whole body of the Galileans by Josephus, and the testi-
mony they gave him of integrity in his conduct, as their governor, is very like
that appeal and testimony in the case of the prophet Samuel, 1 Sam. xii. 1—5,
and perhaps was done by Josephus in imitation of him.
گر
214
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
52. But when I was come near Sogane, I caused the multi-
tude to make a halt, and exhorted them not to be so easily pro-
voked to anger, and to the inflicting such punishments as could
not be afterwards recalled: I also gave order, that a hundred
*men who were already in years, and were principal men among
them, should get themselves ready to go to the city Jerusalem,
and should make a complaint before the people, of such as raised
seditions in the country. And I said to them, that "in case they
be moved with what you say, you shall desire the community to
write to me, and to enjoin me to continue in Galilee, and to order
Jonathan and his colleagues to depart out of it." When I had
suggested these instructions to them, and while they were getting
themselves ready as fast as they could, I sent them on this errand
the third day after they had been assembled; I also sent five hun-
dred armed men with them [as a guard]. I then wrote to my
friends in Samaria, to take care that they might safely pass through
the country: for Samaria was already under the Romans, and it
was absolutely necessary for those that go quickly [to Jerusalem]
to pass through that country; for in that road you may, in
three days time, go from Galilee to Jerusalem. I also went
myself, and conducted the old men as far as the bounds of Gali-
lee, and set guards in the roads, that it might not be easily known
by any one that these men were gone. And when I had thus
done, I went and abode at Japha.
53. Now Jonathan and his colleagues having failed of accom-
plishing what they would have done against me, they sent John
back to Gischala, but went themselves to the city Tiberias, ex-
pecting it would submit itself to them; and this was founded on
a letter which Jesus, their then governor, had written them, pro-
mising, that if they came, the multitude would receive them, and
choose to be under their government; so they went their ways
with this expectation. But Silas, who, as I said, had been left
curator of Tiberias by me, informed me of this, and desired me
to make haste thither. Accordingly I complied with his advice
immediately, and came thither; but found myself in danger of
my life, from the following occasion: Jonathan and his col-
leagues had been at Tiberias, and had persuaded a great many
of such as had a quarrel with me to desert me; but when they
heard of my coming they were in fear for themselves, and came
to me, and when they had saluted me, they said, that I was a
happy man in having behaved myself so well in the government
of Galilee; and they congratulated me upon the honours that
were paid me: for they said, that my glory was a credit to them,
since they had been my teachers and fellow-citizens; and they
said farther, that it was but just that they should prefer my friend-
ship to them rather than John's, and that they would have imme-
diately gone home, but that they staid that they might deliver
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
215
up John into my power; and when they said this they took their
oaths of it, and those such as are most tremendous amongst us,
and such as I did not think fit to disbelieve. However, they de-
sired me to lodge somewhere else; because the next day was
the Sabbath, and that it was not fit the city of Tiberias should
be disturbed [on that day.]
54. So I suspected nothing, and went away to Taricheæ; yet
did I withal leave some to make inquiry in the city how matters
went,' and whether any thing was said about me; I also set many
persons all the way that led from Tarichea to Tiberias, that they
might communicate from one to another, if they learned any news
from those that were left in the city. On the next day, therefore,
they all came into the Proseucha*; it was a large edifice, and
capable of receiving a great number of people: thither Jona-
than went in, and though he durst not openly speak of a revolt,
yet did he say that their city stood in need of a better governor
than it then had. But Jesus, who was the ruler, made no scru-
ple to speak out, and said openly, "O fellow citizens! it is bet-
ter for you to be in subjection to four than to one; and those
such as are of high birth, and not without reputation for their
wisdom;" and pointed to Jonathan and his colleagues. Upon
`his saying this, Justus came in and commended him for what he
had said, and persuaded some of the people to be of his mind
also. But the multitude were not pleased with what was said,
and had certainly gone into a tumult, unless the sixth hour which
was now come had dissolved the assembly, at which hour our
law requires us to go to dinner on Sabbath days: so Jonathan
and his colleagues put off their council till the next day, and
went off without success. When I was informed of these affairs,
I determined to go to the city of Tiberias in the morning. Ac-
cordingly, on the next day, about the first hour of the day, I came
from Taricheæ, and found the multitude already assembled in
the Proseucha; but on what account they had gotten together,
those that were assembled did not know. But when Jonathan
and his colleagues saw me there unexpectedly, they were in dis-
order; after which they raised a report of their own contrivance,
that Roman horsemen were seen at a place called Union, in the
borders of Galilee, thirty furlongs distant from the city. Upon
which report Jonathan and his colleagues cunningly exhorted me
not to neglect this matter, nor to suffer the land to be spoiled
by the enemy. And this they said with a design to remove me
out of the city, under the pretence of the want of extraordinary
assistance, while they might dispose the city to be my enemy.
* It is worth noting here, that there was now a great Proseucha, or place of
prayer, in the city Tiberias itself, though such Proseucha used to be out of cities,
as the synagogues were within them; of them see Le Moyne on Polycarp's epis-
tle, page 76. It is also worth our remark, that the Jews in the days of Josephus
used to dine at the sixth hour or noon; and that in obedience to their notions of
the law of Moses also..
216
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
55. As for myself, although I knew of their design, yet did
I comply with what they proposed, lest the people of Tiberias,
should have occasion to suppose, that I was not careful of their
security. I therefore went out: but when I was at the place, I
found not the least footsteps of any enemy, so I returned as fast
as ever I could, and found the whole council assembled, and the
body of the people gotten together, and Jonathan and his col-
leagues bringing vehement accusations against me, as one who
had no concern to ease them of the burdens of war, and as one that
lived luxuriously. And as they were discoursing thus, they pro-
duced four letters as written to them, from some people that lived
at the borders of Galilee, imploring that they would come to
their assistance, for that there was an army of Romans, both horse-
men and footmen, who would come and lay waste the country on
the third day; they desired them also to make haste, and not to
overlook them. When the people of Tiberias heard this, they
thought they spake truth, and made a clamour against me,
and said, I ought not to sit still, but to go away to the assist-
ance of their countrymen. Hereupon I said (for I understood
the meaning of Jonathan and his colleagues), that I was ready
to comply with what they proposed, and without delay to march
to the war which they spake of; yet did I advise them, at the
same time, that since these letters declared that the Romans
would make their assault in four several places, they should part
their forces into five bodies, and make Jonathan and his col-
leagues generals of each body of them, because it was fit for
brave men, not only to give counsel, but to take the place of
leaders, and assist their countrymen when such a necessity
pressed them; for, said I, it is not possible for me to lead more
than one party. This advice of mine greatly pleased the multi-
tude; so they compelled them to go forth to the war、 But their
designs were put into very much disorder, because they had not
done what they designed to do, on account of my stratagem,
which was opposite to their undertakings.
56. Now there was one, whose name was Ananias, a wicked
man he was, and very mischievous: he proposed that a general
religious fast should be appointed the next day, for all the
people, and gave order that at the same hour they should come
to the same place without any weapons, to make it manifest be-
fore God, that while they obtained his assistance they thought all
these weapons useless. This he said, not out of piety, but that
they might catch me and my friends unarmed. Now I was here-
upon forced to comply, lest I should appear to despise a propo-
sal that tended to piety. As soon, therefore, as we were gone
home, Jonathan and his colleagues wrote to John, to come to
* One may observe here, that this lay Pharisee Ananias, as we have seen he
was, sect. 39, took upon him to appoint a fast at Tiberias, and was obeyed;
though indeed it was not out of religion, but knavish policy.
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
217
t
them in the morning, and desiring him to come with as many
soldiers as he possibly could, for that they should then be able
easily to get me into their hands, and to do all they desired to
do. When John had received this letter, he resolved to comply
with it. As for myself, on the next day, I ordered two of the
guards of my body, whom I esteemed the most courageous, and
most faithful, to hide daggers under their garments, and to go
along with me, that we might defend ourselves, if any attack
should be made upon us by our enemies. I also myself took my
breast-plate, and girded on my sword, so that it might be, as far
as it was possible, concealed, and came into the Proseucha.
57. Now Jesus, who was the ruler, commanded that they
should exclude all that came with me, for he kept the door him-
self, and suffered none but his friends to go in. And while we
were engaged in the duties of the day, and had betaken ourselves
to our prayers, Jesus got up, and inquired of me what was be-
come of the vessels that were taken out of the king's palace, when
it was burnt down, [and] of that uncoined silver; and in whose
possession they now were? This he said, in order to drive away
time till John should come. I said that Capellus, and the ten
principal men of Tiberias, had them all; and I told him that
they might ask them whether I told a lie or not. And when they
said they had them, he asked me, what is become of those twenty
pieces of gold which thou didst receive upon the sale of a certain
weight of uncoined money? I replied, that I had given them
to those ambassadors of theirs, as a maintenance for them, when
they were sent by them to Jerusalem. So Jonathan and his
colleagues said, that I had not done well to pay the ambassadors
out of the public money. And when the multitude were very
angry at them for this, for they perceived the wickedness of the
men, I understood that a tumult was going to arise; and being
desirous to provoke the people to a greater rage against the men,
I said, "But if I have not done well in paying our ambassadors
out of the public stock, leave off your anger at me, for I will
repay the twenty pieces of gold myself."
58. When I had said this, Jonathan and his colleagues held
their peace; but the people were still more irritated against
them, upon their openly showing their unjust ill will to me.
When Jesus saw this change in the people, he ordered them to
depart, but desired the senate to stay; for that they could not
examine things of such a nature in a tumult; and, as the people
were crying out that they would not leave me alone, there came
one and told Jesus and his friends privately, that John and his
armed men were at hand; whereupon Jonathan and his col-
leagues, being able to contain themselves no longer (and perhaps
the providence of God hereby procuring my deliverance; for,
had not this been so, I had certainly been destroyed by John),
218
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
***
said, "O you people of Tiberias, leave off this inquiry about
the twenty pieces of gold; for Josephus hath not deserved to
die for them, but he hath deserved it by his desire of tyrannizing,
and by cheating the multitude of the Galileans with his speeches,
in order to gain the dominion over them." When he had said
this, they presently laid hands upon me, and endeavoured to kill
me; but, as soon as those that were with me saw what they did,
they drew their swords, and threatened to smite them, if they
offered any violence to me. The people also took up stones, and
were about to throw them at Jonathan; and so they snatched
me from the violence of my enemies.
59. But, as I was gone out a little way, I was just upon
meeting John, who was marching with his armed men. So I
was afraid of him and turned aside, and escaped by a narrow
passage to the lake, and seized on a ship, and embarked in it,
and sailed over to Taricheæ. So, beyond my expectation, I es-
caped this danger. Whereupon I presently sent for the chief of
the Galileans, and told them after what manner, against all faith
given, I had been very near to destruction from Jonathan and
his colleagues, and the people of Tiberias. Upon which the
multitude of the Galileans were very angry, and encouraged me
to delay no longer to make war upon them, but to permit them
to go against John, and utterly to destroy him, as well as Jona-
than and his colleagues. However, I restrained them, though
they were in such a rage, and desired them to tarry awhile, till
we should be informed what orders those ambassadors that were
sent by them to the city of Jerusalem, should bring thence; for
I told them that it was best for them to act according to their
determination: whereupon they were prevailed on. At which
time also, John, when the snares he had laid did not take effect,
returned back to Gischala.
60. Now in a few days those ambassadors whom we had sent,
came back again and informed us, that the people were greatly
provoked at Ananus, and Simon the son of Gamaliel, and their
friends; that, without any public determination, they had sent
to Galilee, and had done their endeavours that I might be turned
out of the government. The ambassadors said farther, that the
people were ready to burn their houses. They also brought let-
ters, whereby the chief men of Jerusalem, at the earnest petition
of the people, confirmed me in the government of Galilee, and
enjoined Jonathan and his colleagues to return home quickly.
When I had gotten these letters, I came to the village Arbela,
where I procured an assembly of the Galileans to meet, and bid
the ambassadors declare to them the anger of the people of Je-
rusalem at what had been done by Jonathan and his colleagues,
and how much they hated their wicked doings, and how they had
confirmed me in the government of their country; as also what
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
219
related to the order they had in writing for Jonathan and his col-
leagues to return home. So I immediately sent them the letter,
and bid him that carried it to inquire, as well as he could, how
they intended to act [on this occasion].
61. Now when they had received that letter, and were thereby
greatly disturbed, they sent for John, and for the senators of Ti-
berias, and for the principal men of the Gabarens, and proposed
to hold a council, and desired them to consider what was to be
done by them. However, the governors of Tiberias were greatly
disposed to keep the government to themselves; for they said it
was not fit to desert their city now it was committed to their trust,
and that otherwise I should not delay to fall upon them; for they
pretended falsely that so I had threatened to do. Now John
was not only of their opinion, but advised them that two of them
should go to accuse me before the multitude [at Jerusalem], that
I do not manage the affairs of Galilee as I ought to do, and that
they would easily persuade the people, because of their dignity,
and because the whole multitude are very mutable. When there-
fore it appeared that John had suggested the wisest advice to
them, they resolved that two of them, Jonathan and Ananias,
should go to the people of Jerusalem, and the other two [Simon
and Joazar] should be left behind to tarry at Tiberias. They
also took along with them a hundred soldiers for their guard.
62. However, the governors of Tiberias took care to have
their city secured with walls, and commanded their inhabitants
to take their arms. They also sent for a great many soldiers
from John to assist them against me, if there should be occasion
for them. Now John was at Gischala. Jonathan therefore,
and those that were with him, when they were departed from
Tiberias, and as soon as they were come to Dabaritta, a village
that lay in the utmost parts of Galilee, in the great plain, they
about midnight fell among the guards I had set, who both com-
manded them to lay aside their weapons, and kept them in bonds
upon the place, as I had charged them to do. This news was
written to me by Levi, who had the command of that guard
committed to him by me. Hereupon I said nothing of it for
two days; and, pretending to know nothing about it, I sent a
message to the people of Tiberias, and advised them to lay
their arms aside, and to dismiss their men, that they might go
home. But supposing that Jonathan, and those that were with
him, were already arrived at Jerusalem, they made reproachful
answers to me; yet was I not terrified thereby, but contrived
another stratagem against them; for I did not think it agreeable
with piety to kindle the fire of war against the citizens. As I
was desirous to draw those men away from Tiberias, I chose out
ten thousand of the best of my armed men and divided them into
three bodies, and ordered them to go privately, and lie still as
{
220
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
an ambush in the villages. I also led a thousand into another
village, which lay indeed in the mountains, as did the others, but
only four furlongs distant from Tiberias, and gave orders, that
when they saw my signal, they should come down immediately:
while I myself lay with my soldiers in the sight of every body.
Hereupon the people of Tiberias, at the sight of me, came run-
ning out of the city perpetually, and abused me greatly. Nay,
their madness was come to that height, that they made a decent
bier for me, and standing about it, they mourned over me in the
way of jest and sport; and I could not but be myself in a plea-
sant humour upon the sight of this madness of theirs.
63. And now, being desirous to catch Simon by a wile, and
Joazar with him, I sent a message to them, and desired them to
come a little way out of the city, with many of their friends to
guard them; for I said I would come down to them, and make a
league with them, and divide the government of Galilee with them.
Accordingly Simon was deluded on account of his imprudence,
and out of the hopes of gain, and did not delay to come; but
Joazar suspecting snares were laid for him, staid behind. So
when Simon was come out, and his friends with him for his guard,
I met him, and saluted him with great civility, and professed that
I was obliged to him for his coming up to me; but a little while
afterward I walked along with him, as though I would say some-
thing to him by himself, and, when I had drawn him a good way
from his friends, I took him about the middle, and gave him to
my friends that were with me, to carry him into a village; and,
commanding my armed men to come down, I with them made
an assault upon Tiberias. Now as the fight grew hot on both
sides, and the soldiers belonging to Tiberias were in a fair way
to conquer me (for my armed men were already fled away), I
saw the posture of my affairs; and encouraging those that were
with me, I pursued those of Tiberias, even when they were
already conquerors, into the city. I also sent another band of
soldiers into the city by the lake, and gave them orders to set on
fire the first house they could sieze upon. When this was done,
the people of Tiberias thought that their city was taken by force,
and so threw down their arms for fear, and implored, they, their
wives and children, that I would spare their city. So I was over-
persuaded by their entreaties, and restrained the soldiers from the
vehemency with which they pursued them; while I myself, upon
the coming on of the evening, returned back with my soldiers,
and went to refresh myself. I also invited Simon to sup with
me, and comforted him on occasion of what had happened; and
I promised that I would send him safe and secure to Jerusalem,
and withal would give him provisions for his journey thither.
64. But on the next day I brought ten thousand armed men
with me, and came to Tiberias. I then sent for the principal
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
221
men of the multitude into the public place, and enjoined them
to tell me who were the authors of the revolt; and when they
had told me who the men were, I sent them bound to the city
Jotapata. But as to Jonathan and Ananias, I freed them from
their bonds, and gave them provisions for their journey, together
with Simon and Joazar, and five hundred armed men who should
guard them, and so I sent them to Jerusalem. The people of
Tiberias also came to me again, and desired that I would for-
give them for what they had done, and they said they would amend
what they had done amiss with regard to me, by their fidelity for
the time to come; and they besought me to preserve what spoils
remained upon the plunder of the city, for those that had lost
them. Accordingly I enjoined those that had got them to bring
them all before us: and when they did not comply for a great
while, and I saw one of the soldiers that were about me with a
garment on that was more splendid than ordinary, I asked him
whence he had it? and when he replied, that he had it out of the
plunder of the city, I had him punished with stripes; and I threat-
ened all the rest to inflict a severer punishment upon them, un-
less they produced before us whatsoever they had plundered;
and when a great many spoils were brought together, I restored
to every one of Tiberias what they claimed to be their own.
65. And now I am come to this part of my narration, I have
a mind to say a few things to Justus, who hath himself written a
history concerning these affairs; as also to others who profess to
write history, but have little regard to truth, and are not afraid,
either out of ill will or good will to some persons, to relate false-
hoods. These men do, like those who compose forged deeds
and conveyances; and because they are not brought to the like
punishment with them, they have no regard to truth. When
therefore Justus undertook to write about these facts, and about
the Jewish war, that he might appear to have been an industrious
man,
he falsified in what he related about me, and could not
speak truth even about his own country; whence it is, that
being belied by him, I am under a necessity to make my defence;
and so I shall say what I have concealed till now. And let no
one wonder that I have not told the world these things a great
while ago. For although it be necessary for an historian to
write the truth, yet is such a one not bound severely to animad-
vert on the wickedness of certain men; not out of any favour to
them, but out of an author's own moderation. How then comes
it to pass, O Justus, thou most sagacious of writers (that I may
address myself to him as if he were here present), for so thou
boastest of thyself, that I and the Galileans have been the au-
thors of that sedition which thy country engaged in, both against
the Romans and against the king [Agrippa junior]? For before
ever I was appointed governor of Galilee by the community of
222
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
|
you
Jerusalem, both thou, and all the people of Tiberias, had not
only taken up arms, but had made war with Decapolis of Syria.
Accordingly, thou hadst ordered their villages to be burnt, and a
domestic servant of thine fell in the battle. Nor is it I only who
say this; but so it is written in the commentaries of Vespasian
the emperor, as also how the inhabitants of Decapolis came cla-
mouring to Vespasian at Ptolemais, and desired that thou, who
wast the author [of that war] mightest be brought to punishment.
And thou hadst certainly been punished at the command of Ves-
pasian, had not king Agrippa, who had power given him to have
thee put to death, at the earnest entreaty of his sister Bernice,
changed the punishment of death into a long imprisonment. Thy
political administration of affairs afterwards does also clearly dis-
cover both thy other behaviour in life, and that thou wast the
occasion of thy country's revolt from the Romans; plain signs
of which I shall produce presently. I have also a mind to say
a few things to the rest of the people of Tiberias on thy account,
and to demonstrate to those that light upon this history, that
bear no good will neither to the Romans, nor to the king. To
be sure, the greatest cities of Galilee, O Justus, were Sepphoris,
and thy country Tiberias. But Sepphoris, situated in the very
midst of Galilee, and having many villages about it, and able with
ease to have been bold and troublesome to the Romans, if they
had so pleased, yet did it resolve to continue faithful to those their
masters, and at the same time excluded me out of their city, and
prohibited all their citizens from joining with the Jews in the
war, and that they might be out of danger from me, they by a
wile got leave of me to fortify their city with walls: they also, of
their own accord, admitted of a garrison of Roman legions, sent
them by Cestus Gallus, who was then president of Syria, and so
had me in contempt, though I was then very powerful, and all
were greatly afraid of me; and at the same time that the great-
est of our cities, Jerusalem, was besieged, and that temple of
ours, which belonged to us all, was in danger of falling under
the enemy's power, they sent no assistance thither, as not willing
to have it thought they would bear arms against the Romans.
But as for thy country, O Justus, situated upon the lake of Ge-
nesareth, and distant from Hippos thirty furlongs, from Gadara
sixty, and from Scythopolis, which was under the king's jurisdic-
tion, a hundred and twenty; when there was no Jewish city near,
it might easily have preserved its fidelity [to the Romans], if
it had so pleased them to do; for the city and its people had
plenty of weapons. But, as thou sayst, I was then that author
[of their revolt]. And pray, O Justus, who was the author af-
terwards. For thou knowest that I was in the power of the
Romans before Jerusalem was besieged, and before the same
time Jotapata was taken by force, as well as many other for-
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
223
It was
tresses, and a great many of the Galileans fell in the war.
therefore then a proper time, when you were certainly freed from
any fear on my account, to throw away your weapons, and to
demonstrate to the king and to the Romans, that it was not of
choice, but as forced by necessity, that you fell into the war
against them; but you staid till Vespasian came himself as far
as your walls, with his whole army; and then you did indeed lay
aside your weapons out of fear, and your city had for certain been
taken by force, unless Vespasian had complied with the king's
supplication for you, and had excused your madness.
It was
not I, therefore, who was the author of this, but your own incli-
nations to war. Do not you remember how often I got you un-
der my power, and yet put none of you to death? nay, you once
fell into a tumult one against another, and slew one hundred and
eighty-five of your citizens, not on account of your good will to
the king and to the Romans, but on account of your own wick-
edness, and this while I was besieged by the Romans in Jota-
pata. Nay indeed, were there not reckoned up two thousand
of the people of Tiberias, during the siege of Jerusalem, some
of which were slain, and the rest caught and carried captives?
But thou wilt pretend that thou didst not engage in the war, since
thou didst flee to the king. Yes, indeed, thou didst flee to him;
but I say it was out of fear of me. Thou sayst indeed, that it is
I who am a wicked man. But then, for what reason was it that
king Agrippa, who procured thee thy life when thou wast con-
demned to die by Vespasian, and who bestowed so much riches
upon thee, did twice afterward put thee into bonds, and as often
obliged thee to run away from thy country, and, when he had
once ordered thee to be put to death, he granted thee a pardon
at the earnest desire of Bernice? and, when (after so many of thy
wicked pranks) he had made thee his secretary, he caught thee
falsifying his epistles, and drove thee away from his sight. But
I shall not inquire accurately into these matters of scandal against
thee. Yet cannot I but wonder at thy impudence, when thou
hast the assurance to say that thou hast better related these affairs
[of the war] than have all the others that have written about them,
whilst thou didst not know what was done in Galilee; for thou
wast then at Berytus with the king: nor didst thou know how much
the Romans suffered at the siege of Jotapata, or what miseries
they brought upon us; nor couldst thou learn by inquiry what
I did during that siege myself; for all those that might afford
such information were quite destroyed in that siege.
haps thou wilt say, thou hast written of what was done against
the people of Jerusalem exactly. But how should that be? for
neither wast thou concerned in that war, nor hast thou read the
commentaries of Cæsar; of which we have evident proof, be-
cause thou hast contradicted those commentaries of Cæsar in thy
But per-
224
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEFAUS.
•
history. But if thou art so hardy as to affirm that thou hast
written that history better than all the rest, why didst thou not
publish thy history while the emperors Vespasian and Titus, the
generals in that war, as well as king Agrippa and his family, who
were men very well skilled in the learning of the Greeks, were
all alive? for thou hast had it written these twenty years, and
then mightst thou have had the testimony of thy accuracy. But
now, when these men are no longer with us, and thou thinkest
thou canst not be contradicted, thou venturest to publish it.
But then I was not in like manner afraid of my own writing,
but I offered my books to the emperors themselves, when the
facts were almost under men's eyes; for I was conscious to my-
self, that I had observed the truth of the facts; and as I expected
to have their attestation to them, so I was not deceived in such
expectation. Moreover, I immediately presented my history to
many other persons, some of which were concerned in the war,
as was king Agrippa, and some of his kindred. Now the em-
peror Titus was so desirous that the knowledge of these affairs
should be taken from the books alone, that he subscribed his
own hand to them, and ordered that they should be published;
and for king Agrippa, he wrote me sixty-two letters, and attested
to the truth of what I had therein delivered; two of which let-
ters I have here subjoined, and thou mayst thereby know their
contents. "King Agrippa to Josephus, his dear friend, sendeth
greeting. I have read over thy book with great pleasure, and it
appears to me, that thou hast done it much more accurately, and
with greater care, than have the other writers. Send me the rest
of these books. Farewell, my dear friend." "King Agrippa
to Josephus, his dear friend, sendeth greeting. It seems by what
thou hast written, that thou standest in need of no instruction,
in order to our information from the beginning, However, when
thou comest to me, I will inform thee of a great many things
which thou dost not know." So when this history was per-
fected, Agrippa, neither by way of flattery, which was not agree-
able to him, nor by way of irony, as thou wilt say (for he was
entirely a stranger to such an evil disposition of mind), but he
wrote thus by way of attestation to what was true, as all that read
histories may do. And so much shall be said concerning Jus-
tus*, which I am obliged to add by way of digression.
* The character of this history of Justus of Tiberias, the rival of our Jose-
phus, which is now lost, with its only remaining fragment, are given us by a very
able critic, Photius, who read that history. It is in the 33rd code of his Biblio-
theca, and runs thus; "I have read (says Photius) the chronology of Justus of
Tiberias, whose title is this, [The chronology of] the Kings of Judah, which suc-
ceeded one another. This [Justus] came out of the city Tiberias in Galilee. He
begins his history from Moses, and ends it not till the death of Agrippa, the
seventh [ruler] of the family of Herod, and the last king of the Jews; who took
the government under Claudius, had it augmented under Nero, and still more
augmented by Vespasian. He died in the third year of Trajan, where also his
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
225
66. Now when I had settled the affairs of Tiberias, and had
assembled my friends as a Sanhedrim, I consulted what I
should do as to John. Whereupon it appeared to be the
opinion of all the Galileans, that I should arm them all, and
march against John, and punish him as the author of all the dis-
orders that had happened. Yet was I not pleased with their
determination; as purposing to compose these troubles without
bloodshed. Upon this I exhorted them to use the utmost care
to learn the names of all that were under John; which when
they had done, and I thereby was apprized who the men were, I
published an edict, wherein I offered security and my right hand
to such of John's party as had a mind to repent; and I allowed
twenty days time to such as would take this most advantageous
course for themselves. I also threatened, that unless they threw
down their arms, I would burn their houses, and expose their
goods to public sale. When the men heard of this, they were in
no small disorder, and deserted John; and, to the number of
four thousand, threw down their arms, and came to me. So
that no others staid with John but his own citizens, and about
fifteen hundred strangers that came from the metropolis of
Tyre: and, when John saw that he had been outwitted by my
stratagem, he continued afterward in his own country, and was
in great fear of me.
67. But about this time it was that the people of Sepphoris
grew insolent, and took up arms, out of a confidence they had in
the strength of their walls, and because they saw me engaged in
other affairs also. So they sent to Cestius Gallus, who was
president of Syria, and desired that he would either come
quickly to them, and take their city under his protection, or
send them a garrison. Accordingly Gallus promised them to
come, but did not send word when he would come: and, when
I had learned so much, I took the soldiers that were with me,
and made an assault upon the people of Sepphoris, and took
the city by force. The Galileans took this opportunity, as
thinking they had now a proper time for showing their hatred to
them, since they bore ill will to that city also. They then
exerted themselves, as if they would destroy them all utterly,
history ends. He is very concise in his language, and slightly passes over those
affairs that were most necessary to be insisted on; and being under the Jewish
prejudices, as indeed he was himself also a Jew by birth, he makes not the least
mention of the appearance of Christ, or what things happened to him, or of the
wonderful works that he did. He was the son of a certain Jew whose name was
Pistus. He was a man, as he is described by Josephus, of a most profligate
character; a slave both to money and to pleasures. In public affairs he was
opposite to Josephus; and it is related, that he laid many plots against him, but
that Josephus, though he had his enemy frequently under his power, did only
reproach him in words, and so let him go without farther punishment. He says
also, that the history which this man wrote is, for the main, fabulous, and chiefly
as to those parts where he describes the Roman war with the Jews, and the
taking of Jerusalem."
VOL. III.
Q
Dor M
*
226
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
•
with those that sojourned there also. So they ran upon them,
and set their houses on fire, as finding them without inhabitants;
for the men out of fear rau together to the citadel. So the
Galileans carried off every thing, and omitted no kind of deso-
lation which they could bring upon their countrymen. When I
saw this, I was exceedingly troubled at it, and commanded them
to leave off, and put them in mind that it was not agreeable to
piety to do such things to their countrymen: but since they nei-
ther would hearken to what I exhorted, nor to what I com-
manded them to do (for the hatred they bore to the people there
was too hard for my exhortations to them), I bid those my
friends, who were most faithful to me, and were about me, to
give out reports, as if the Romans were falling upon the other
part of the city with a great army; and this I did, that, by such
a report being spread abroad, I might restrain the violence of the
Galileans, and preserve the city of Sepphoris. And at length
this stratagem had its effect; for, upon hearing this report, they
were in fear for themselves, and so they left off plundering, and
ran away; and this more especially, because they saw me, their
general, do the same also; for, that I might cause this report to
be believed, I pretended to be in fear as well as they. Thus
were the inhabitants of Sepphoris unexpectedly preserved by
this contrivance of mine.
68. Nay indeed, Tiberias had like to have been plundered by
the Galileans also upon the following occasion: the chief men
of the senate wrote to the king, and desired that he would come
to them, and take possession of their city. The king promised
to come, and wrote a letter in answer to theirs, and gave it to
one of his bed-chamber, whose name was Crispus, and who
was by birth a Jew, to carry it to Tiberias. When the Gali-
leans knew that this man carried such a letter, they caught him,
and brought him to me; but as soon as the whole multitude
heard of it, they were enraged, and betook themselves to their
arms. So a great many of them got together from all quarters
the next day, and came to the city Asochis, where I then lodged,
and made heavy clamours, and called the city Tiberias a traitor
to them, and a friend to the king; and desired leave of me to go
down and utterly destroy it; for they bore the like ill will to
the people of Tiberias, as they did to those of Sepphoris.
69. When I heard this, I was in doubt what to do, and hesi-
tated by what means I might deliver Tiberias from the rage of
the Galileans; for I could not deny that those of Tiberias had
written to the king, and had invited him to come to them; for
his letters to them in answer thereto would fully prove the
truth of that. So I sat a long time musing with myself, and
then said to them, "I know well enough that the people of
Tiberias have offended; nor shall I forbid you to plunder the
city
However, such things ought to be done with discretion;
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
227
for they of Tiberias have not been the only betrayers of our
liberty, but many of the most eminent patriots of the Galileans,
as they pretended to be, have done the same. Tarry therefore
till I shall thoroughly find out those authors of our danger, and
then you shall have them all at once under your power, with all
such as you shall yourselves bring in also." Upon my saying
this I pacified the multitude, and they left off their anger, and
went their ways; and I gave orders that he who brought the
king's letters should be put into bonds; but in a few days I
pretended that I was obliged, by a necessary affair of my own,
to go out of the kingdom. I then called Crispus privately, and
ordered him to make the soldier that kept him drunk, and to run
away to the king. So when Tiberias was in danger of being
utterly destroyed a second time, it escaped the danger by my
skilful management, and the care that I had for its preser-
vation...
70. About this time it was that Justus, the son of Pistus,
without my knowledge, ran away to the king; the occasion of
which I will here relate. Upon the beginning of the war between
the Jews. and the Romans, the people of Tiberias resolved to
submit to the king, and not to revolt from the Romans; while
Justus tried to persuade them to betake themselves to their arms,
as being himself desirous of innovations, and having hopes of
obtaming the government of Galilee, as well as of his own
country [Tiberias] also. Yet did he not obtain what he hoped
for; because the Galileaus bore ill will to those of Tiberias, and
this on account of their anger at what miseries they had suf-
fered from them before the war; thence it was, that they would
not endure that Justus should be their governor. I myself also,
who had been entrusted by the community of Jerusalem with
the government of Galilee, did frequently come to that degree
of rage at Justus, that I had almost resolved to kill him, as not
able to bear his mischievous disposition. He was therefore
much afraid of me, lest at length my passion should come
to extremity; so he went to the king, as supposing that he
should dwell better, and more safely with him.
J
*71. Now when the people of Sepphoris had, in so surprising
a manner, escaped their first danger, they sent to Cestius Gallus,
and desired him to come to them immediately, and take possession
of their city, or else to send forces sufficient to repress all their
enemies' incursions upon them; and at the last they did prevail
with Gallus to send them a considerable army, both of horse
and foot, which came in the night-time, and which they admitted
into the city. But when the country round about it was
harassed by the Roman army, I took those soldiers that were
about me, and came to Garisme; where I cast up a bank, a
good way off the city Sepphoris; and when I was at twenty
Q 2
228
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
furlongs distance, I came upon it by night, and made an assault
upon its walls with my forces; and when I had ordered a con-
siderable number of my soldiers to scale them with ladders, I
became master of the greatest part of the city. But soon after,
our unacquaintedness with the places forced us to retire, after
we had killed twelve of the Roman footmen, and two horsemen,
and a few of the people of Sepphoris, with the loss of only a
single man of our own. And when it afterwards came to a
battle in the plain against the horsemen, and we had undergone
the dangers of it courageously for a long time, we were beaten;
for upon the Romans encompassing me about, my soldiers were
afraid, and fled back. There fell in that battle one of those
that had been entrusted to guard my body; his name was Justus,
who at this time had the same post with the king. At the same
time also, there came forces, both horsemen and footmen, from
the king, and Sylla their commander, who was the captain of this
guard; this Sylla pitched his camp at five furlongs distance from
Julias, and set a guard upon the roads, both that which led to Cana,
and that which led to the fortress Gamala, that he might hinder
their inhabitants from getting provisions out of Galilee.
72. As soon as I had gotten intelligence of this, I sent two
thousand armed men, and a captain over them, whose name
was Jeremiah, who raised a bank a furlong off Julias, near to
the river Jordan, and did no more than skirmish with the
enemy; till I took three thousand soldiers myself, and came
to them. But on the next day, when I had laid an ambush
in a certain valley, not far from the banks, I provoked those
that belonged to the king to come to a battle, and gave orders
to my own soldiers to turn their backs upon them, until they
should have drawn the enemy away from their camp, and
brought them out into the field, which was done accordingly;
for Sylla, supposing that our party did really run away, was
ready to pursue them, when our soldiers that lay in ambush
took them on their backs, and put them all into great disorder.
I also immediately made a sudden turn with my own forces, and
met those of the king's party, and put them to flight. And I
had performed great things that day, if á certain fate had not
been my hinderance; for the horse on which I rode, and upon
whose back I fought, fell into a quagmire, and threw me on the
ground, and I was bruised on my wrist, and carried into a village
named Cepharnome or Capernaum. When my soldiers heard
of this, they were afraid I had been worse hurt than I was; and
so they did not go on with their pursuit any farther, but returned
very great concern for me. I therefore sent for the physi-
cians, and while I was under their hand, I continued feverish that
day; and, as the physicians directed, I was at night removed to
Taricheæ.
in
75. When Sylla and his party were informed what had hap-
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
229
pened to me, they took courage again; and understanding that
the watch was negligently kept in our camp, they by night
placed a body of horsemen in ambush beyond Jordan, and when
it was day they provoked us to fight; and as we did not refuse
it, but came into the plain, their horsemen appeared out of that
ambush in which they had lain, and put our men into disorder,
and made them run away; so they slew six men of our side.
Yet did they not go off with the victory at last; for when they
heard that some armed men were sailed from Taricheæ to Julias
they were afraid and retired.
·
74. It was not now long before Vespasian came to Tyre,
and king Agrippa with him; but the Tyrians began to speak
reproachfully of the king, and called him an enemy to the Ro-
mans. For they said, that Philip, the general of his army, had
betrayed the royal palace, and the Roman forces that were in
Jerusalem, and that it was done by his command. When Ves-
pasian heard this report, he rebuked the Tyrians, for abusing a
man who was both a king, and a friend to the Romans; but he
exhorted the king to send Philip to Rome, to answer for what
he had done before Nero. But when Philip was sent thither,
he did not come into the sight of Nero, for he found him very
near death on account of the troubles that then happened, and
a civil war; and so he returned to the king. But when Ves-
pasian was come to Ptolemais, the chief men of Decapolis of
Syria made a clamour against Justus of Tiberias, because he
had set their villages on fire: so Vespasian delivered him to the
king, to be put to death by those under the king's jurisdiction;
yet did the king [only] put him into bonds, and concealed what
he had done from Vespasian, as I have before related. But
the people of Sepphoris met Vespasian, and saluted him, and
had forces sent them, with Placidus their commander: he also
went up with them, as I also followed them, till Vespasian
came into Galilee. As to which coming of his, and after what
manner it was ordered, and how he fought his first battle with
me near the village of Taricheæ, and how from thence they
went to Jotapata, and how I was taken alive and bound, and
how I was afterwards loosed, with all that was done by me in
the Jewish war, and during the siege of Jerusalem, I have
accurately related them in the books concerning the War of the
Jews. However, it will, I think, be fit for me to add now
an account of those actions of my life, which I have not related
in that book of the Jewish War.
75. For when the siege of Jotapata was over, and I was
among the Romans, I was kept with much care, by means of
the great respect that Vespasian showed me. Moreover, at his
command I married a virgin*, who was from among the cap-
* Here Josephus, a priest, honestly confesses that he did that at the command
of Vespasian, which he had before told us was not lawful for a priest to do by
230
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
tives of that country: yet did she not live with me long, but
was divorced, upon my being freed from my bonds, and my
going to Alexandria. However, I married another wife at
Alexandria, and was thence sent, together with Titus, to the
siege of Jerusalem, and was frequently in danger of being put
to death while both the Jews were very desirous to get me
under their power, in order to have me punished; and the
Romans also, whenever they were beaten, supposed that it was
occasioned by my treachery, and made continual clamours to the
emperors, and desired that they would bring me to that punish-
ment, as a traitor to them: but Titus Cæsar was well acquainted
with the uncertain fortune of war, and returned no answer to
the soldiers' vehement solicitations against me. Moreover,
when the city of Jerusalem was taken by force, Titus Cæsar
persuaded me frequently to take whatsoever I would out of the
ruins of my country, and said, that he gave me leave so to do.
But when my country was destroyed, I thought nothing else to
be of any value, which I could take and keep as a comfort under
my calamities; so I made this request to Titus, that my family
might have their liberty; I had also the holy books by Titus's
concession. Nor was it long after that I asked of him the life
of my brother, and of fifty friends with him, and was not denied.
When I also went once to the temple, by the permission of
Titus, where there were a great multitude of captive women
and children, I got all those that I remembered as among my
own friends and acquaintance to be set free, being in number
about one hundred and ninety; and so I delivered them without
their paying any price of redemption, and restored them to their
former fortune. And when I was sent by Titus Cæsar with
Cerealius, and a thousand horsemen, to a certain village called
Thecoa, in order to know whether it were a place fit for a
camp, as I came back, I saw many captives crucified, and remem-
bered three of them as my former acquaintance. I was very
sorry at this in my mind, and went with tears in my eyes to
Titus, and told him of them; so he immediately commanded
them to be taken down, and to have the greatest care taken of
them in order to their recovery; yet two of them died under the
physician's hands, while the third recovered.
76. But when Titus had composed the troubles in Judea,
and conjectured that the lands which I had in Judea would
bring me in no profit, because a garrison to guard the country
was afterwards to pitch there, he gave me another country in
the plain. And when he was going away to Rome, he made
the law of Moses, Antiq. B. iii. ch. xii. sect. 2. I mean the taking a captive
woman to wife. See also against Apion, B. i. ch. vii. But he seems to have
been quickly sensible that his compliance with the command of an emperor
would not excuse him, for he soon put her away, as Reland justly observes here.
* Of this most remarkable clause, and its most important consequences, see
Essay on the Old Testament, page 193-195.
THE LIFE OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS.
231
choice of me to sail along with him, and paid me great respect:
and when we were come to Rome, I had great care taken of me
by Vespasian; for he gave me an apartment in his own house,
which he lived in before he came to the empire. He also
honoured me with the privilege of a Roman citizen; and gave
me an annual pension; and continued to respect me to the end
of his life, without any abatement of his kindness to me; which
very thing made me envied, and brought me into danger; for a
certain Jew, whose name was Jonathan, who had raised a tumult
in Cyrene, and had persuaded two thousand men of that coun-
try to join with him, was the occasion of their ruin. But when
he was bound by the governor of that country, and sent to the
emperor, he told him, that I had sent him both weapons and
money. However, he could not conceal his being a liar from
Vespasian, who condemned him to die; according to which sen-
tençe he was put to death. Nay, after that, when those that
envied my good fortune did frequently bring accusations against
me, by God's providence I escaped them all. I also received
from Vespasian no small quantity of land, as a free gift in Judea;
about which time I divorced my wife also, as not pleased with
her behaviour, though not till she had been the mother of three
children, two of which are dead, and one, whom I named Hyr-
canus, is alive. After this I married a wife who had lived at
Crete, but a Jew by birth; a woman she was of eminent
parents, and such as were the most illustrious in all the country,
and whose character was beyond that of most other women, as
her future life did demonstrate. By her I had two sons, the
elder was named Justus, and the next Simonides, who was also
named Agrippa. And these were the circumstances of my
domestic affairs. However, the kindness of the emperor to me
continued still the same: for when Vespasian was dead, Titus,
who succeeded him in the government, kept up the same respect
for me which I had from his father; and when I had frequent
accusations laid against me, he would not believe them. And
Domitian, who succeeded, still augmented his respects to me;
for he punished those Jews that were my accusers, and gave
command that a servant of mine, who was an eunuch, and my
accuser, should be punished. He also made that country I had
in Judea, tax free; which is a mark of the greatest honour to
him who hath it; nay, Domitia, the wife of Cæsar, continued to
do me kindnesses. And this is the account of the actions' of my
whole life: and let others judge of my character by them as
they please. But to thee, O Epaphroditus*, thou most excel-
lent of men, do I dedicate all this treatise of our Antiquities ;
and so, for the present, I here conclude the whole.
.
* Of this Epaphroditus, see the note on the Preface to the Antiquities.
1
1
THE JEWISH WAR:
OR,
THE HISTORY
OF THE
DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.
PREFACE.
§ 1*. WHEREAS the war which the Jews made with the Ro-
mans hath been the greatest of all those not only that have been
in our times, but in a manner of those that ever were heard
of; both of those wherein cities have fought against cities, or
nations against nations; while some men, who were not con-
cerned in the affairs themselves, have gotten together vain and
contradictory stories by hearsay, and have written them down
after a sophistical manner; and while those that were there pre-
sent have given false accounts of things, and this either out of a
humour of flattery to the Romans, or of hatred towards the
Jews; and while their writings 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, to translate those books
into the Greek tongue, which I formerly composed in the lan-
guage of our country, and sent to the Upper Barbarians†: I
* I have already observed more than once, that this history of the Jewish
war was Josephus's first work, and published about A. D. 75, when he was but
38 years of age: and that when he wrote it he was not thoroughly acquainted
with several circumstances of history from the days of Antiochus Epiphanes,
with which it begins, till nearly his own times, contained in the first and former
part of the second book, and so committed many involuntary errors therein.
That he published his Antiquities 18 years afterward, in the 13th year of Domi-
tian, A. D. 93, when he was much more completely acquainted with those
ancient times, and after he had perused those most authentic histories, the first
book of Maccabees, and the chronicles of the priesthood of John Hyrcanus, &c.
That, accordingly, be then reviewed those parts of this work, and gave the pub-
lic a more faithful, complete, and accurate account of the facts therein related,
and honestly corrected the errors he had before run into.
+ Who these Upper Barbarians, remote from the sea, were, Josephus himself
will inform us, sect. 2, viz. the Parthians and Babylonians, and remotest Ara-
bians [or the Jews among them]; besides the Jews beyond Euphrates, and the
ť
3.
PREFACE.
233
Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also,
and one who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was
forced to be present at what was done afterwards [am the
author of this work].
2. Now at the time when this great concussion of affairs
happened, the affairs of the Romans were themselves in great
disorder. Those Jews also who were for innovations then arose
when the times were disturbed; they were also in a flourishing
condition for strength and riches, insomuch that the affairs of
the east were then exceedingly tumultuous, while some hoped
for gain, and others were afraid of loss in such troubles; for the
Jews hoped that all of their nation which were beyond Eu-
phrates would have raised an insurrection together with them.
The Gauls also, in the neighbourhood of the Romans, were in
motion, and the Celta were not quiet; but all was in disorder
after the death of Nero. And the opportunity now offered
induced many to aim at the royal power; and the soldiery
affected change, out of the hopes of getting money. I thought
it, therefore, an absurd thing to see the truth falsified in affairs
of such great consequence, and to take no notice of it; but to
suffer those Greeks and Romans that were not in the wars to be
ignorant of these things, and to read either flatteries or fictions,
while the Parthians, and Babylonians, and the remotest Ara-
bians, and those of our nation beyond Euphrates, with the
Adiabeni, by my means knew accurately both whence the war
begun, what miseries it brought upon us, and after what manner
it ended.
3. It is true, these writers have the confidence to call their
accounts histories; wherein yet they seem to me to fail of their
own purpose, as well as to relate nothing that is sound. For
they have a mind to demonstrate the greatness of the Romans,
while they still diminish and lessen the actions of the Jews; as
not discerning how it cannot be that those must appear to be
great, who have only conquered those that were little. Nor are
they ashamed to overlook the length of the war, the multitude of
the Roman forces who so greatly suffered in it, or the might of
the commanders, whose great labours about Jerusalem will be
deemed inglorious, if what they achieved be reckoned but a small
matter.
4. However, I will not go into the other extreme, out of op-
position to these men who extol the Romans, nor will I deter-
mine to raise the actions of my countrymen too high; but I will
prosecute the actions of both parties with accuracy. Yet shall
Adiabeni or Assyrians. Whence we also learn that these Parthians, Babylo-
nians, the remotest Arabians [or at least the Jews among them], as also the
Jews beyond Euphrates, and the Adiabeni or Assyrians, understood Josephus's
Hebrew, or rather Chaldaic books of the Jewish War, before they were put into
the Greek language.
234
PREFACE.
*
I suit my language to the passions I am under, as to the affairs
I describe; and must be allowed to indulge some lamentations
upon the miseries undergone by my own country: for that it
was a seditious temper of our own that destroyed it, and that
they were the tyrants among the Jews who brought the Roman
power upon us, who unwillingly attacked us, and occasioned the
burning of our holy temple, Titus Cæsar, who destroyed it, is
himself a witness, who, during the entire war, pitied the people
who were kept under by the seditious, and did often voluntarily
delay the taking of the city, and allowed time to the siege, in
order to let the authors have opportunity for repentance. But
if any one makes an unjust accusation against us, when we speak
so passionately about the tyrants or the robbers, or sorely bewail
the misfortunes of our country, let him indulge my affections
herein, though it be contrary to the rules for writing history;
because it had so come to pass that our city Jerusalem had ar-
rived at a higher degree of felicity than any other city under the
Roman government, and yet at last fell into the sorest of cala-
mities again. Accordingly, it appears to me, that the* misfor-
tunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, if they be
compared to these of the Jews, are not so considerable as they
were; while the authors of them were not foreigners neither.
This makes it impossible for me to contain my lamentations.
But if any one be inflexible in his censures of me, let him attri-
bute the facts themselves to the historical part, and the lamen-
tations to the writer himself only.
5. However, I may justly blame the learned men among the
Greeks, who when such great actions have been done in their
own times, which upon the comparison quite eclipse the old
wars, do yet sit as judges of those affairs, and pass bitter cen-
sures upon the labours of the best writers of antiquity; which
moderns, although they may be superior to the old writers in elo-
quence, yet are they inferior to them in the execution of what
they intended to do: while these also write new histories about
the Assyrians and Medes, as if the ancient writers had not
described their affairs as they ought to have done, although these
be as far inferior to them in abilities, as they are different in their
notions from them: for of old every one took upon them to write
what happened in his own time; where their immediate con-
cern in the actions made their promises of value: and where it
must be reproachful to write lies, when they must be known by
the readers to be such. But then, an undertaking to preserve
the memory of what hath not been before recorded, and to repre-
* That these calamities of the Jews, who were our Saviour's murderers, were
to be the greatest that had ever been since the beginning of the world, our Sa-
viour had directly foretold, Matt. xxiv. 21; Mark, xiii. 19; Luke, xxi. 23, 24;
and that they proved to be such accordingly, Josephus is here a most authentic
witness.
啰
​PREFACE.
235
sent the affairs of one's own time to those that come afterwards,
is really worthy of praise and commendation. Now he is to be es-
teemed to have taken good pains in earnest, not who does no more
than change the disposition and order of other men's works, but he
who not only relates what had not been related before, but com-
poses an entire body of history of his own: accordingly, I have
been at great charges, and have taken very great pains [about this
history], though I be a foreigner; and do dedicate this work, as a
memorial of great actions, both to the Greeks and to the Barba-
rians. But for some of our own principal men, their mouths
are wide and open, and their tongues loosed presently, for gain
and lawsuits, but quite muzzled up when they are to write his-
tory, where they must speak truth, and gather facts together with
a great deal of pains; and so they leave the writing such histo-
ries to weaker people, and to such as are not acquainted with
the actions of princes. Yet shall the real truth of historical facts
be preferred by us, how much soever it be neglected among the
Greek historians.
4
6. To write concerning the antiquities of the Jews, who they
were [originally], and how they revolted from the Egyptians, and
what country they travelled over, and what countries they seized
upon afterward, and how they were removed out of them, I think
this not to be a fit opportunity, and on other accounts also su-
perfluous; and this because many Jews before me have com-
posed the histories of our ancestors very exactly, as have some
of the Greeks done it also, and have translated our histories into
their own tongue, and have not much mistaken the truth in their
histories. But then, where the writers of these affairs, and our
prophets leave off, thence shall I take my rise, and begin my
history. Now as to what concerns that war, which happened
in my own time, I will go over it very largely, and with all the
diligence I am able; but for what preceded mine own age, that
I shall run over very briefly.
7. [For example, I shall relate] how Antiochus, who was
named Epiphanes, took Jerusalem by force, and held it three
years and three months, and was then ejected out of the country
by the sons of Asamoneus; after that, how their posterity quar-
relled about the government, and brought upon their settlement
the Romans and Pompey; how Herod also, the son of Antipa-
ter, dissolved their government, and brought Sosius upon them;
as also, how our people made a sedition upon Herod's death,
while Augustus was the Roman emperor, and Quintilius Varus
was in that country; and how the war broke out in the twelfth
year of Nero, with what happened to Cestius, and what places
the Jews assaulted in an hostile manner in the first sallies of the
war...
8. As also, [I shall relate] how they built walls about the
236
PREFACE.
neighbouring cities; and how Nero, upon Cestius's defeat, was
in fear of the entire event of the war, and thereupon made Ves-
pasian general in this war; and how this Vespasian, with the
elder* of his sons, made an expedition into the country of Judea;
what was the number of the Roman army that he made use of;
and how many of his auxiliaries were cut off in all Galilee ; and
how he took some of its cities entirely, and by force, and others
of them by treaty, and on terms. Now when I am come so far,
I shall describe the good order of the Romans in war, and the
discipline of their legions; the amplitude of both the Galilees,
with its nature, and the limits of Judea. And, besides this, I'
shall particularly go over what is peculiar to the country, the
lakes and fountains that are in them, and what miseries happened
to every city as they were taken; and all this with accuracy, as I
saw the things done or suffered in them. For I shall not con-
ceal any of the calamities I myself endured, since I shall relate
them to such as know the truth of them.
9. After this, [I shall relate] how, when the Jews' affairs were
become very bad, Nero died, and Vespasian, when he was going
to attack Jerusalem, was called back to take the government
upon him; what signs happened to him relating to his gaining
that government, and what mutations of government then hap-
pened at Rome, and how he was unwillingly made emperor by
his soldiers, and how upon his departure to Egypt, to take upon
him the government of the empire, the affairs of the Jews became
very tumultuous; as also how the tyrants rose up against them,
and fell into dissensions amongst themselves.
10. Moreover, [I shall relate] how Titus marched out of Egypt
into Judea the second time; as also how, and where, and how
many forces he got together: and in what state the city was by
the means of the seditious at his coming; what attacks he made
and how many ramparts he cast up; of the three walls that en-
compassed the city, and of their measures; of the strength of the
city, and the structure of the temple and holy house; and besides,
the measures of those edifices, and of the altar, and all accurately
determined. A description also of certain of their festivals, and
seven† purifications of purity, and the sacred ministrations of the
priests, with the garments of the priests, and of the high priests,
and of the nature of the most holy place of the temple, without
concealing any thing, or adding any thing to the known truth of
things.
11. After this, I shall relate the barbarity of the tyrants to-
wards the people of their own nation, as well as the indulgence
* Titus.
+ These 7, or rather 5, degrees of purity, or purification, are enumerated here
after, B. v. ch. v. § 6. The Rabbins make 10 degrees of them, as Reland there
informs us,
PREFACE.
237
of the Romans in sparing foreigners; and how often Titus, out
of his desire to preserve the city and the temple, invited the sedi-
tious to come to terms of accommodation. I shall distinguish
also the sufferings of the people and their calamities; how far
they were afflicted by the sedition, and how far by the famine,
and at length were taken. Nor shall I omit to mention the mis-
fortunes of the deserters, nor the punishment inflicted on the cap-
tives; as also, how the temple was burnt, against the consent of
Cæsar, and how many sacred things that had been laid up in the
temple were snatched out of the fire; the destruction also of the
entire city, with the signs and wonders that went before it; and
the taking of the tyrants captives, and the multitude of those that
were made slaves, and into what different misfortunes they were
every one distributed. Moreover, what the Romans did to the
remains of the war, and how they demolished the strong holds
that were in the country, and how Titus went over the whole
country, and settled its affairs; together with his return into Italy,
and his triumph.
12. I have comprehended all these things in seven books; and
have left no occasion for complaint or accusation to such as have
been acquainted with this war; and I have written it down for
the sake of those that love truth, but not for those that please
themselves [with fictitious relations]. And I will begin my ac-
count of these things with what I call my First Chapter.
:
直
​THE JEWISH WAR.
BOOK I.
CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN
YEARS.
From the Taking of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes, to the
Beath of Herod the Great.
CHAP. I.
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. Ar the same time that Antiochus, who was called Epi-
phanes, had a quarrel with the sixth Ptolemy about his right to
the whole country of Syria, a great sedition fell among the men
of power in Judea, and they had a contention about obtaining
the government; while each of those that were of dignity could
not endure to be subject to their equals. However, Onias, one
of the high priests, got the better, and cast the sons of Tobias out
of the city, who fled to Antiochus, and besought him to make use
of them for his leaders, and to make an expedition into Judea.
The king, being thereto disposed beforehand, complied with them
and came upon the Jews with a great army, and took their city
by force, and slew a great multitude of those that favoured Pto-
lemy, and sent out his soldiers to plunder them without mercy.
He also spoiled the temple, and put a stop to the constant prac-
tice of offering a daily sacrifice of expiation for three years and
six months. But Onias the high priest fled to Ptolemy, and re-
ceived a place from him in the Nomus of Heliopolis, where he
built a city resembling Jerusalem, and a temple that was like*
* I see little difference in the several accounts in Josephus about the Egyp-
tian temple Onion, of which large complaints are made by his commentators.
Onias, it seems, hoped to have made it very like that at Jerusalem, and of the
same dimensions; and so he appears to have really done as far as he was able,
and thought proper. Of this temple, see Antiq. B. xiii. ch. iii. § 1, 2,3; and
Of the War, B. vii. ch. x. § 3.
C. I.
239
THE JEWISH WAR.
苇
​its temple, concerning which we shall speak more in its proper
place hereafter.
2. Now Antiochus was not satisfied either with his unexpected
taking the city, or with its pillage, or with the great slaughter he
had made there; but being overcome with his violent passions,
and remembering what he had suffered during the siege, he com-
pelled the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country, and to keep
their infants uncircumcised, and to sacrifice swine's flesh upon
the altar; against which they all opposed themselves, and the
most approved among them were put to death. Bacchides also,
who was sent to keep the fortresses, having these wicked com-
mands joined to his own natural barbarity, indulged all sorts of
the extremest wickedness, and tormented the worthiest of the in-
habitants, man by man, and threatened the city every day with
open destruction, till at length he provoked the poor sufferers
by the extremity of his wicked doings to avenge themselves.
3. Accordingly, Matthias, the son of Asamoneus, one of the
priests who lived in a village called Modin, armed himself, toge-
ther with his own family, which had five of his own sons in it, and
slew Bacchides with daggers; and thereupon, out of the fear of
the many garrisons [of the enemy], he fled to the mountains; and
so many of the people followed him, that he was encouraged to
come down from the mountains, and to give battle to Antiochus's
generals, when he beat them, and drove them out of Judea. So
he came to the government by this his success, and became the
prince of his own people by their own free consent, and then
died, leaving the government to Judas his eldest son.
4. Now Judas, supposing that Antiochus would not lie still,
gathered an army out of his own countrymen, and was the first
that made a league of friendship with the Romans, and drove Epi-
phanes out of the country when he had made a second expedition
into it, and this by giving him a great defeat there; and when he
was warmed by this great success, he made an assault upon the
garrison that was in the city, for it had not been cut off hitherto ;
so he ejected them out of the upper city, and drove the soldiers
into the lower, which part of the city was called the Citadel.
He then got the temple under his power, and cleansed the whole
place, and walled it round about, and made new vessels for sa-
cred ministrations, and brought them into the temple, because
the former vessels had been profaned. He also built another
altar, and began to offer the sacrifices; and when the city had
already received its sacred constitution again, Antiochus died;
whose son Antiochus succeeded him in the kingdom, and in his
hatred to the Jews also.
5. So this Antiochus got together fifty thousand footmen, and
five thousand horsemen, and fourscore elephants, and marched
through Judea, into the mountainous parts. He then took Beth-

240
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
书
​sura, which was a small city; but at a place called Bethzacha-
rias, where the passage was narrow, Judas met him with his
army. However, before the forces joined battle, Judas's brother
Eleazar, seeing the very highest of the elephants adorned with a
large tower, and with military trappings of gold to guard him, and
supposing that Antiochus himself was upon him, he ran a great
way before his own army, and, cutting his way through the ene-
mies' troops, he got up to the elephant; yet could he not reach
him who seemed to be the king, by reason of his being so high;
but still he ran his weapon into the belly of the beast, and brought
him down upon himself, and was crushed to death, having done
no more than attempted great things, and showed that he preferred
glory before life. Now he that governed the elephant was but
a private man; and had he proved to be Antiochus, Eleazar
had performed nothing more by this bold stroke than that it
might appear he chose to die, when he had the bare hope of
thereby doing a glorious action; nay, this disappointment proved
an omen to his brother [Judas] how the entire battle would end.
It is true that the Jews fought it out bravely for a long time, but
the king's forces being superior in number, and having fortune on
their side, obtained the victory. And when a great many of his
men were slain, Judas took the rest with him, and fled to the to-
parchy of Gophna. So Antiochus went to Jerusalem, and stayed
there but a few days, for he wanted provisions, and so he went
his way. He left indeed a garrison behind him, such as he thought
sufficient to keep the place, but drew the rest of his army off, to
take their winter quarters in Syria.
6. Now after the king was departed, Judas was not idle; for
as many of his own nation came to him, so did he gather those
that had escaped out of the battle together, and gave battle again
to Antiochus's generals at a village called Adasa: and being too
hard for his enemies in the battle, and killing a great number of
them, he was at last himself slain also. Nor was it many days
afterward that his brother John had a plot laid against him by
Antiochus's party, and was slain by them.
CHAP. II.
Concerning the Successors of Judas, who were Jonathan, and
Simeon, and John Hyrcanus.
§ 1. WHEN Jonathan, who was Judas's brother, succeeded him,
he behaved himself with great circumspection in other respects
with relation to his own people; and he corroborated his autho-
rity by preserving his friendship with the Romans. He also made
a league with Antiochus's son. Yet was not all this sufficient
for his security; for the tyrant Trypho, who was guardian to
1
C. II.
241
THE JEWISH WAR.
Antiochus's son, laid a plot against him; and, besides that endea-
voured to take off his friends, and caught Jonathan by a wile, as
he was going to Ptolemais to Antiochus, with a few persons in
his company, and put him in bonds, and then made an expedition
against the Jews; but when he was afterward driven away by
Simeon, who was Jonathan's brother, and was enraged at his
defeat, he put Jonathan to death.
•
2. However, Simeon managed the public affairs after a cou-
rageous manner, and took Gazara, and Joppa, and Jamnia,
which were cities in the neighbourhood. He also got the gar-
rison under, and demolished the citadel. He was afterward an
auxiliary to Antiochus against Trypho, whom he besieged in
Dora, before he went on his expedition against the Medes: yet
could not he make the king ashamed of his ambition, though he.
had assisted him in killing Trypho; for it was not long ere An-
tiochus sent Cendebeus his general with an army to lay waste
Judea, and to subdue Simeon: yet he, though he were now in
years, conducted the war as if he were a much younger man.
He also sent his sons with a band of strong men against Antio-
chus, while he took part of the army himself with him, and fell
upon him from another quarter: he also laid a great many inen
in ambush in many places of the mountains, and was superior in
all his attacks upon them; and when he had been conqueror
after so glorious a manner, he was made high priest, and also
freed the Jews from the dominion of the Macedonians, after a
hundred and seventy years of the empire [of Seleucus].
3. This Simeon also had a plot laid against him, and was
slain at a feast by his son-in-law Ptolemy, who put his wife and
two sons into prison, and sent some persons to kill John, who
was also called Hyrcanus. But when the young man was in-
formed of their coming beforehand, he made haste to get to the
city, as having a very great confidence in the people there, both
on account of the memory of the glorious actions of his father,
and of the hatred they could not but bear to the injustice of Pto-
lemy. Ptolemy also made an attempt to get into the city by ano-
ther gate, but was repelled by the people, who had just then
admitted of Hyrcanus; so he retired presently to one of the for-
tresses that were above Jericho, which was called Dagon. Now
when Hyrcanus had received the high priesthood, which his
father had held before, and had offered sacrifice to God, he made
Why this John the son of Simeon, the high priest, and governor of the Jews,
was called Hyrcanus, Josephus no where informs us; nor is he called other than
John at the end of the first book of the Maccabees. However, Sixtus Senensis,
when he gives us an epitome of the Greek version of the book here abridged by
Josephus, or of the chronicles of this John Hyrcanus, then extant, assures us that
he was called Hyrcanus, from his conquest of one of that name. See Authent.
Rec. Part i. p. 207. But of this younger Antiochus, see Dean Aldrich's note
here.
VOL. II.
R
242.
·B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
.
great haste to attack Ptolemy, that he might afford relief to his
mother and brethren.
4. So he laid siege to the fortress, and was superior to Ptole-
my in other respects, but was overcome by him as to the just
affection [he had for his relations]; for when Ptolemy was dis-
tressed, he brought forth his mother and his brethren, and set
them upon the wall, and beat them with rods in every body's
sight, and threatened, that, unless he would go away immediately,
he would throw them down headlong; at which sight Hyrcanus's
commiseration and concern were too hard for his anger. But
his mother was not dismayed, neither at the stripes she received,
nor at the death with which she was threatened; but stretched
out her hands, and prayed her son not to be moved with the in-
juries that she suffered, to spare the wretch; since it was to her
better to die by the means of Ptolemy, than to live ever so long
provided he might be punished for the injuries he had done to
their family. Now John's case was this. When he considered
the courage of his mother, and heard her entreaty, he set about
his attacks; but when he saw her beaten, and torn to pieces with
the stripes, he grew feeble, and was entirely overcome by his
affections. And as the siege was delayed by this means, the year
of rest came on, upon which the Jews rest every seventh year,
as they do on every seventh day. On this year, therefore, Pto-
lemy was freed from being besieged, and slew the brethren of
John, with their mother, and fled to Zeno, who was also called
Cotylas, who was the tyrant of Philadelphia.
5. And now Antiochus was so angry at what he had suffered
from Simeon, that he made an expedition into Judea, and sat
down before Jerusalem, and besieged Hyrcanus; but Hyrcanus
opened the sepulchre of David, who was the richest of all kings,
and took thence about three thousand talents in money, and
induced Antiochus, by the promise of three thousand talents, to
raise the siege. Moreover, he was the first of the Jews that had
money enough, and began to hire foreign auxiliaries also.
6. However, at another time, when Antiochus was gone upon
an expedition against the Medes, and so gave Hyrcanus an op-
portunity of being revenged upon him, he immediately made an
attack upon the cities of Syria, as thinking, what proved to be
the case with them, that he should find them empty of good troops.
So he took Medaba and Samea, with the towns in their neigh-
bourhood, as also Shechem and Gerizzim; and besides these [he
subdued] the nation of the Chutheans, who dwelt round about
that temple which was built in imitation of the temple at Jeru-
salem; he also took a great many other cities of Idumea, with
Adoreon and Marissa.
7. He also proceeded as far as Samaria, where is now the
city Sebaste, which was built by Herod the king, and encom-
C. II.
243
THE JEWISH WAR.
passed it all round with a wall, and set his sons, Aristobulus and
Antigonus, over the siege, who pushed it on so hard, that a fa-
mine so far prevailed within the city, that they were forced to eat
what never was esteemed food. They also invited Antiochus,
who was called Cyzicenus, to come to their assistance; whereupon
he got ready, and complied with their invitation, but was beaten
by Aristobulus and Antigonus; and, indeed, he was pursued as
far as Scythopolis by these brethren, and fled away from them.
So they returned back to Samaria, and shut the multitude again
within the wall; and when they had taken the city, they demolished
it, and made slaves of its inhabitants. And as they had still great
success in their undertakings, they did not suffer their zeal to cool,
but marched with an army as far as Scythopolis, and made an
incursion upon it, and laid waste all the country that lay within
Mount Carmel.
8. But then these successes of John and of his sons made
them be envied, and occasioned a sedition in the country; and
many there were who got together and would not be at rest till
they brake out into open war, in which war they were beaten.
So John lived the rest of his life very happily, and administered
the government after a most extraordinary manner, and this for
thirty-three entire years together. He died, leaving five sons be-
hind him. He was certainly a very happy man, and afforded no
occasion to have any complaint made of fortune on his account.
He it was who alone had three of the most desirable things in
the world, the government of his nation, and the high priest-
hood, and the gift of prophecy: for the Deity conversed with him,
and he was not ignorant of any thing that was to come afterward,
insomuch that he foresaw and foretold that his two eldest sons
would not continue masters of the government; and it will highly
deserve our narration, to describe their catastrophe, and how far
inferior these men were to their father in felicity.
CHAP. III.
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, Aris-
tobulus, changed the government into a kingdom, and was the
first that put a diadem about his head, four hundred seventy and
one years and three months after our people came down into this
country, when they were set free from the Babylonian slavery.
Now of his brethren he appeared to have an affection for Anti-
gonus, who was next to him, and made him his equal: but for
R 2
244
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
the rest, he bound them, and put them in prison. He also put
his mother in bonds, for her contesting the government with him;
for John had left her to be the governess of the public affairs.
He also proceeded to that degree of barbarity as to cause her to
be pined to death in prison.
•
2. But vengeance circumvented him in the affair of his bro-
ther Antigonus, whom he loved, and whom he made his partner
in the kingdom; for he slew him by the means of the calumnies
which ill men about the palace contrived against him. At first,
indeed, Aristobulus would not believe their reports, partly out of
the affection he had for his brother, and partly because he thought
that a great part of these tales were owing to the envy of the re-
laters: however, as Antigonus came once in a splendid manner
from the army to that festival, wherein our ancient custom is to
make tabernacles for God, it happened in those days that Aris-
tobulus was sick, and that, at the conclusion of the feast, Antigo-
nus came up to it, with his armed men about him; and this when
he was adorned in the finest manner possible, and that, in a great
measure, to pray to God on the behalf of his brother. Now at
this very time it was that these ill men came to the king, and told
him in what a pompous manner the armed men came, and with
what insolence Antigonus marched, and that such his insolence
was too great for a private person; and that, accordingly, he was
come with a great band of men to kill him; for that he could not
endure this bare enjoyment of royal honour, when it was in his
power to take the kingdom himself.
3. Now Aristobulus, by degrees and unwillingly, gave credit
to these accusations: accordingly, he took care not to discover
his suspicion openly, though he provided to be secure against
any accidents: so he placed the guards of his body in a certain
dark subterranean passage; for he lay sick in a place called
formerly the Citadel, though afterwards its name was changed
to Antonia; and he gave orders, that if Antigonus came un-
armed, they should let him alone; but if he came to him in his
armour, they should kill him. He also sent some to let him
know beforehand, that he should come unarmed. But, upon this
occasion, the queen very cunningly contrived the matter with
those that plotted his ruin; for she persuaded those that were
sent to conceal the king's message: but to tell Antigonus, how
his brother had heard he had got a very fine suit of armour, made
with fine martial ornaments, in Galilee; and because his present
sickness hindered him from coming, and seeing all that finery,
he very much desired to see him now in his armour; because,
said he, in a little time thou art going away from me.
4. As soon as Antigonus heard this, the good temper of his
brother not allowing him to suspect any harm from him, he came
· along with his armour on, to show it to his brother; but when
C. III.
245
THE JEWISH WAR.
he was going along that dark passage, which was called Strato's
Tower, he was slain by the body guards, and became an eminent
instance how calumny destroys all good will and natural affec-
tion, and how none of our good affections are strong enough to
resist envy perpetually.
5. And truly any one would be surprised at Judas upon this
occasion. He was of the sect of the Essens, and had never failed
or deceived men in his predictions before. Now this man saw
Antigonus as he was passing along by the temple, and cried out
to his acquaintance (they were not a few who attended upon him
as his scholars)," O strange! said he; it is good for me to die
now, since truth is dead before me, and somewhat that I have
foretold hath proved false; for this Antigonus is this day alive,
who ought to have died this day; and the place where he ought
to be slain, according to that fatal decree, was Strato's Tower,
which is at the distance of six hundred furlongs from this place,
and yet four hours of this day are over already, which point of
time renders the prediction impossible to be fulfilled." And
when the old man had said this, he was dejected in his mind, and
so continued. But in a little time news came, that Antigonus was
slain in a subterraneous place, which was itself also called Stra-
to's Tower, by the same name with that Cæsarea which lay by
the sea side; and this ambiguity it was which caused the pro-
phet's disorder.
6. Hereupon Aristobulus repented of the great crime he had
been guilty of, and this gave occasion to the increase of his dis-
temper. He also grew worse and worse, and his soul was con-
stantly disturbed at the thoughts of what he had done, till his very
bowels being torn to pieces by the intolerable grief he was un-
der, he threw up a great quantity of blood. And, as one of those
servants that attended him carried out that blood, he, by some
supernatural providence, slipped and fell down in the very place
where Antigonus had been slain; and so he spilt some of the
murderer's blood upon the spots of the blood of him that had
been murdered, which still appeared. Hereupon a lamentable
cry arose among the spectators, as if the servant had spilled the
blood on purpose in that place: and as the king heard that cry,
he inquired what was the cause of it? And while nobody durst
tell him, he pressed them so much the more to let him know
what was the matter; so at length, when he had threatened them,
and forced them to speak out, they told; whereupon he burst
out into tears, and groaned, and said," So I perceive I am not
like to escape the all-seeing eye of God, as to the great crimes I
have committed: but the vengeance of the blood of my kinsman
pursues me hastily. O thou most impudent body, how long wilt
thou retain a soul that ought to die on account of that punish-
'ment it ought to suffer for a mother and a brother slain? How
·
246
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
long shall I myself spend my blood drop by drop? Let them take
it all at once; and let their ghosts no longer be disappointed by
a few parcels of my bowels offered to them." As soon as he
had said these words, he presently died, when he had reigned no
longer than a year.
CHAP. IV.
What Actions were done by Alexander Janneus, who reigned
Twenty-seven Years.
§ 1. AND now the king's wife loosed the king's brethren, and
made Alexander king, who appeared both elder in age and more
moderate in his temper than the rest; who, when he came to the
government, slew the one of his brethren, as affecting to govern
himself, but had the other of them in great esteem, as loving a
quiet life, without meddling with public affairs.
2. Now it happened that there was a battle between him and
Ptolemy, who was called Lathyrus, who had taken the city Aso-
chis. He, indeed, slew a great many of his enemies, but the
victory rather inclined to Ptolemy. But when this Ptolemy was
pursued by his mother Cleopatra, and retired into Egypt, Alexan-
der besieged Gadara, and took it; as also he did Amathus, which
was the strongest of all the fortresses that were about Jordan,
and therein were the most precious of all the possessions of
Theodorus, the son of Zeno. Whereupon Theodorus marched
against him, and took what belonged to himself, as well as the
king's baggage, and slew ten thousand of the Jews. However,
Alexander recovered this blow, and turned his force towards the
maritime parts, and took Raphia, and Gaza, with Anthedon also,
which was afterwards called Agrippias by king Herod.
3. But when he had made slaves of the citizens of all these
cities, the nation of the Jews made an insurrection against him
at a festival; for at those feasts seditions are generally begun,
and it looked as if he should not be able to escape the plot they
had laid for him, had not his foreign auxiliaries, the Pisidians
and Cilicians, assisted him; for as to the Syrians, he never ad-
mitted them among his mercenary troops, on account of their
innate enmity against the Jewish nation. And when he had slain
more than six thousand of the rebels, he made an incursion into
Arabia, and when he had taken that country, together with the
Gileadites and Moabites, he enjoined them to pay him tribute,
and returned to Amathus; and as Theodorus was surprised at his
great success, he took the fortress, and demolished it.
4. However, when he fought with Obodus, king of the Ara-
bians, who had laid an ambush for him near Golan, and a plot
against him, he lost his entire army, which was crowded together
C. IV.
247
THE JEWISH WAR.
in a deep valley, and broken to pieces by the multitude of ca-
mels. And when he had made his escape to Jerusalem, he pro-
voked the multitude, which hated him before, to make an insur-
rection against him, and this on account of the greatness of the
calamity that he was under. However, he was then too hard for
them, and in the several battles that were fought on both sides,
he slew not fewer than fifty thousand of the Jews in the interval
of six years. Yet had he no reason to rejoice in these victories,
since he did but consume his own kingdom, till at length he fell
off fighting, and endeavoured to come to a composition with them,
by talking with his subjects. But this mutability and irregularity
of his conduct made them hate him still more. And when he
asked them, why they so hated him, and what he should do in
order to appease them? they said, by killing himself; for that
it would be then all they could do to be reconciled to him, who
had done such tragical things to them, even when he was dead.
At the same time they invited Demetrius, who was called Euce-
rus, to assist them; and as he readily complied with their re-
quest, in hopes of great advantages, and came with his army, the
Jews joined with those their auxiliaries about Shechem.
+
.
5. Yet did Alexander meet both these forces with one thou-
sand horsemen, and eight thousand mercenaries, that were on
foot. He had also with him that part of the Jews which fa-
voured him, to the number of ten thousand: while the adverse
party had three thousand horsemen and fourteen thousand foot-
men. Now, before they joined battle, the kings made procla-
mation, and endeavoured to draw off each other's soldiers, and
make them revolt; while Demetrius hoped to induce Alexan-
der's mercenaries to leave him, and Alexander hoped to induce
the Jews that were with Demetrius to leave him. But since
neither the Jews would leave off their rage, nor the Greeks prove
unfaithful, they came to an engagement, and to a close fight, with
their weapons. In which battle Demetrius was the conqueror,
although Alexander's mercenaries showed the greatest exploits,
both in soul and body. Yet did the upshot of this battle prove
different from what was expected, as to both of them; for nei-
ther did those that invited Demetrius to come to them continue
firm to him though he were conqueror; and six thousand Jews,
out of pity to the change of Alexander's condition, when he was
fled to the mountains, came over to him. Yet could not Deme-
trius bear this turn of affairs, but supposing that Alexander was
already become a match for him again, and that all the nation
would [at length] run in to him, he left the country, and went
his way.
6. However, the rest of the [Jewish] multitude did not lay
aside their quarrels with him, when the [foreign] auxiliaries were
gone; but they had a perpetual war with Alexander, until he had
248
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
slain the greatest part of them, and driven the rest into the city
Bemeselis; and when he had demolished that city, he carried
the captives to Jerusalem. Nay, his rage was grown so extrava-
gant, that his barbarity proceeded to the degree of impiety: for
when he had ordered eight hundred to be hung upon crosses in
the midst of the city, he had the throats of their wives and chil-
dren cut before their eyes; and these executions he saw as he
was drinking, and lying down with his concubines. Upon which
so deep a surprise seized on the people, that eight thousand of
his opposers fled away, the very next night, out of all Judea,
whose flight was only terminated by Alexander's death: so at
last, though not till late, and with great difficulty, he, by such
actions, procured quiet to his kingdom, and left off fighting any
more.
7. Yet did that Antiochus, who was also called Dionysus, be-
come an origin of troubles again. This man was the brother of
Demetrius, and the last* of the race of the Seleucidæ. Alex-
ander was afraid of him, when he was marching against the Ara-
bians; so he cut a deep trench between Antipatris, which was
near the mountains, and the shores of Joppa; he also erected a
high wall before the trench, and built wooden towers, in order
to hinder any sudden approaches. But still he was not able to
exclude Antiochus; for he burnt the towers, and filled up the
trenches, and marched on with his army. And as he looked upon
taking his revenge on Alexander, for endeavouring to stop him,
as a thing of less consequence, he marched directly against the
Arabians, whose king retired into such parts of the country as
were fittest for engaging the enemy, and then, on the sudden, made
his horse turn back, which were in number ten thousand, and fell
upon Antiochus's army, while they were in disorder, and a terri-
ble battle ensued. Antiochus's troops, so long as he was alive,
fought it out, although a mighty slaughter was made among them
by the Arabians; but when he fell, for he was in the forefront,
in the utmost danger in rallying his troops, they all gave ground,
and the greatest part of his army were destroyed, either in the
action or in the flight; and for the rest who fled to the village of
Cana, it happened that they were all consumed by want of neces-
saries, a few only excepted.
8. About this time it was that the people of Damascus, out
of their hatred to Ptolemy, the son of Menneus, invited Aretas
[to take the government], and made him king of Celesyria. This
man also made an expedition against Judea, and beat Alexan-
der in battle, but afterwards retired by mutual agreement. But
* Josephus here calls this Antiochus the last of the Seleucidæ, although there
remained still a shadow of another king of that family, Antiochus Asiaticus, or
Commagenus, who reigued, or rather lay hid, till Pompey quite turned him out,
as Dean Aldrich here notes, from Appian and Justin.
T
C. IV.
249
THE JEWISH WAR.
¿
Alexander, when he had taken Pella, marched to Gerasa again,
out of the covetous desire he had of Theodorus's possessions:
and when he had built a triple wall about the garrison, he took
the place by force. He also demolished Golan and Seleucia,
and what was called the valley of Antiochus; besides which he
took the strong fortress of Gamala, and stripped Demetrius,
who was governor therein, of what he had, on account of the
many crimes laid to his charge, and then returned into Judea,
after he had been three whole years in this expedition. And now
he was kindly received of the nation, because of the good suc-
cess he had. So when he was at rest from war, he fell into a
distemper; for he was afflicted with a quartan ague, and sup-
posed that by exercising himself again in martial affairs, he should
get rid of his distemper; but by making such expeditions at un-
seasonable times, and forcing his body to undergo greater hard-
ships than it was able to bear, he brought himself to his end.
He died, therefore, in the midst of his troubles, after he had
reigned seven and twenty years.
1
ป
CHAP. V.
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,
placing the greatest confidence in the Jews, that they would now
readily submit to her; because she had been very averse to such
cruelty as he had treated them with, and had opposed his viola-
tion of their laws, and had thereby got the good will of the
people. Nor was he mistaken as to his expectations; for this
woman kept the dominion, by the opinion that the people had
of her piety, for she chiefly studied the ancient customs of her
country, and cast those men out of the government that offended
against their holy laws. And as she had two sons by Alexander,
she made Hyrcanus the elder high priest, on account of his
age; as also, besides that, on account of his inactive temper, no
way disposing him to disturb the public. But she retained the
younger, Aristobulus, with her, as a private person, by reason of
the warmth of his temper.
2. And now the Pharisees joined themselves to her, to assist
her in the government. These are a certain sect of Jews, that
appear more religious than others, and seem to interpret the laws
more accurately. Now Alexandra hearkened to them to an ex-
traordinary degree, as being herself a woman of great piety to-
wards God. But these Pharisees artfully insinuated themselves
into her favour by little and little, and became themselves the
real administrators of the public affairs: they banished and re-
250
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
duced whom they pleased; they bound and loosed [men] at their
pleasure*+; and, to say all at once, they had the enjoyment of
the royal authority, whilst the expenses and the difficulties of it
belonged to Alexandra. She was a sagacious woman in the ma-
nagement of great affairs, and intent always upon gathering sol-
diers together; so that she increased the army the one-half, and
procured a great body of foreign troops, till her own nation be-
came not only very powerful at home, but terrible also to foreign
potentates, while she governed other people, and the Pharisees
governed her.
3. Accordingly, they themselves slew Diogenes, a person of
figure, and one that had been a friend to Alexander; and accused
him as having assisted the king with his advice for crucifying the
eight hundred men [before mentioned]. They also prevailed
with Alexandra to put to death the rest of those who had irritated
him against them. Now she was so superstitious as to comply
with their desires, and, accordingly, they slew whom they pleased
themselves; but the principal of those that were in danger fled
to Aristobulus, who persuaded his mother to spare the men on
account of their dignity, but to expel them out of the city, un-
less she took them to be innocent; so they were suffered to go
unpunished, and were dispersed all over the country. But when
Alexandra sent out her army to Damascus, under pretence that
Ptolemy was always oppressing that city, she got possession of
it; nor did it make any considerable resistance. She also pre-
vailed with Tigranes, king of Armenia, who lay with his troops
about Ptolemais, and besieged‡ Cleopatra, by agreements and
presents to go away. Accordingly, Tigranes soon arose from
the siege, by reason of those domestic tumults which happened
upon Lucullus's expedition into Armenia.
4. In the meantime Alexandra fell sick, and Aristobulus her
younger son took hold of this opportunity, with his domestics,
of which he had a great many, who were all of them his friends
on account of the warmth of their youth, and got possession of
all the fortresses. He also used the sums of money he found in
them, to get together a number of mercenary soldiers, and made
himself king; and, besides this, upon Hyrcanus's complaint to
* Matt. xvi. 19; xviii. 18.
+ Here we have the oldest and most authentic Jewish exposition of binding
and loosing, for punishing or absolving men, not for declaring actions lawful or
unlawful, as some more modern Jews and Christians vainly pretend.
‡ Strabo, B. xvi. p. 740, relates, that this Selene Cleopatra was besieged by
Tigranes, not in Ptolemais, as here, but after she had left Syria in Seleucia, a
citadel in Mesopotamia; and adds, that when he had kept her awhile in prison,
he put her to death. Dean Aldrich supposes here that Strabo contradicts Jose-
phus, which does not appear to me; for although Josephus says both here and in
the Antiquities, B. xiii.ch. xvi. sect. 4, that Tigranes besieged her now in Ptole-
mais, and that he took the city, as the Antiquities inform us, yet does he no where
intimate that he now took the queen herself; so that both the narrations of Stra-
bo and Josephus may still be truc notwithstanding.
·
C. v.
251
THE JEWISH WAR.
his mother, she compassionated his case, and put Aristobulus's
wife and sons under restraint in Antonia, which was a fortress
that joined to the north part of the temple. It was, as I have
already said, of old called the Citadel, but afterwards got the
name of Antonia, when Antony was lord [of the east], just as
the other cities, Sebaste and Agrippias, had their names changed,
and these given them, from Sebastus and Agrippa. But Alex-
andra died before she could punish Aristobulus, for his disinhe-
riting his brother, after she had reigned nine years.
ر
CHAP. VI.
When Hyrcanus, who was Alexander's Heir, receded from his
Claim of the Crown, Aristobulus is made King: and after-
ward the same Hyrcanus, by the means of Antipater, is brought
back by Aretas. At last Pompey is made the Arbitrator of
the Dispute between the Brothers.
§ 1. Now Hyrcanus was heir to the kingdom, and to him did
his mother commit it before she died: but Aristobulus was su-
perior to him in power and magnanimity; and when there was a
battle between them, to decide the dispute about the kingdom,
near Jericho, the greatest part deserted Hyrcanus, and went over
to Aristobulus: but Hyrcanus, with those of his party who
stayed with him, fled to Antonia, and got into his power the hos-
tages that might be for his preservation (which were Aristobu-
lus's wife, with her children), but they came to an agreement
before things should come to extremities, that Aristobulus should
be king, and Hyrcanus should resign that up, but retain all the
rest of his dignities, as being the king's brother. Hereupon they
were reconciled to each other in the temple, and embraced one
another in a very kind manner, while the people stood round about
them they also changed their houses, while Aristobulus went to
the royal palace, and Hyrcanus retired to the house of Aristo-
bulus.
2. Now those other people which were at variance with Aris-
tobulus were afraid upon his expected obtaining the government;
and especially this concerned Antipater, whom Aristobulus hated
of old. He was by birth an Idumean*, and one of the princi-
pal of that nation, on account of his ancestors and riches, and
other authority to him belonging: he also persuaded Hyrcanus
to fly to Aretas, the king of Arabia, and to lay claim to the king-
dom; as also he persuaded Aretas to receive Hyrcanus, and to
bring him back to his kingdom: he also cast great reproaches
upon Aristobulus as to his morals, and gave great commendation
* That this Antipater, the father of Herod the Great, was an Idumean, as
Josephus affirms here, see the note on Antiq. B. xiv. ch. xv. sect. 2.
1
252
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
to Hyrcanus, and exhorted Aretas to receive him; and told him
how becoming a thing it would be for him, who ruled so great a
kingdom, to afford his assistance to such as are injured; alleging
that Hyrcanus was treated unjustly, by being deprived of that do-
minion which belonged to him by the prerogative of his birth.
And when he had predisposed them both to do what he would
have them, he took Hyrcanus by night, and ran away from the
city; and, continuing his flight with great swiftness, he escaped
to the place called Petra, which is the royal seat of the king of
Arabia, where he put Hyrcanus into Aretas's hand; and by dis-
coursing much with him, and gaining upon him with many pre-
sents, he prevailed with him to give him an army that might restore
him to his kingdom. This army consisted of fifty thousand foot-
men and horsemen, against which Aristobulus was not able to
make resistance, but was deserted in his first onset, and was driven
to Jerusalem: he also had been taken at first by force, if Scaurus,
the Roman general, had not come and seasonably interposed him-
self, and raised the siege. This Scaurus was sent into Syria from
Armenia by Pompey the Great, when he fought against Tigranes;
so Scaurus came to Damascus, which had been lately taken by
Metellus and Lollius, and caused them to leave the place; and,
upon his hearing how the affairs of Judea stood, he made haste
thither as to a certain booty.
3. As soon, therefore, as he was come into the country, there
came ambassadors from both the brothers, each of them desiring
his assistance; but Aristobulus's three hundred talents had more
weight with him than the justice of the cause; which sum when
Scaurus had received, he sent a herald to Hyrcanus and the Ara-
bians, and threatened them with the resentment of the Romans
and of Pompey unless they would raise the siege. So Aretas was
terrified, and retired out of Judea to Philadelphia, as did Scaurus
return to Damascus again: nor was Aristobulus satisfied with
escaping [out of his brother's hands], but gathered all his forces.
together, and pursued his enemies, and fought them at a place
called Papyron, and slew above six thousand of them, and, toge-
ther with them, Antipater's brother, Phalion.
4. When Hyrcanus and Antipater were thus deprived of their
hopes from the Arabians, they transferred the same to their ad-
versaries; and because Pompey had passed through Syria, and
was come to Damascus, they fled to him for assistance; and,
without any bribes *, they made the same equitable pleas that
* It is somewhat probable, as Havercamp supposes, and partly Spanheim also,
that the Latin copy is here the truest, that Pompey did take the many presents
offered him by Hyrcanus, as he would have done the others from Aristobulus,
sect. 6; although his remarkable abstinence from the 2000 talents that were in
the Jewish temple, when he took it a little afterward, ch. vii. sect. 6; and
Antiq. B. xiv. ch. iv. sect. 4, will hardly permit us to desert the Greek copies,
all which agree that he did not take them.
C. VI.
253
THE JEWISH WAR.
they had used to Aretas, and besought him to hate the violent
behaviour of Aristobulus, and to bestow the kingdom on him to
whom it justly belonged, both on account of his good character
and on account of his superiority in age. However, neither was
Aristobulus wanting to himself in this case, as relying on the
bribes that Scaurus had received: he was also there himself
and adorned himself after a manner the most agreeable to
royalty that he was able. But he soon thought it beneath him
to come in such a servile manner, and could not endure to serve
his own ends in a way so much more abject than he was used
to; so he departed from Diospolis.
5. At this his behaviour Pompey had great indignation: Hyr-
canus also and his friends made great intercession to Pompey;
so he took not only his Roman forces, but many of his Syrian
auxiliaries, and marched against Aristobulus. But when he had
passed by Pella and Scythopolis, and was come to Corea, where
you enter into the country of Judea, when you go up to it through
the Mediterranean parts, he heard that Aristobulus was fled to
Alexandrium, which is a strong hold fortified with the utmost
magnificence, and situated upon a high mountain; and he sent
to him, and commanded him to come down. Now his inclina-
tion was to try his fortune in a battle, since he was called in
such an imperious manner, rather than to comply with that call.
However, he saw the multitude were in great fear, and his
friends exhorted him to consider what the power of the Romans
was, and how it was irresistible; so he complied with their ad-
vice, and came down to Pompey; and when he had made a long
apology for himself, and for the justness of his cause in taking
the government, he returned to the fortress. And when his bro-
ther invited him again [to plead his cause], he came down and
spake about the justice of it, and then went away without any
hinderance from Pompey; so he was between hope and fear.
And when he came down, it was to prevail with Pompey to
allow him the government entirely; and when he went up to the
citadel, it was that he might not appear to debase himself too
low. However, Pompey commanded him to give up his forti-
fied places, and forced him to write to every one of their gover-
nors to yield them up; they having had this charge given them,
to obey no letters but what were of his own handwriting. Ac-
cordingly, he did what he was ordered to do; but had still an
indignation at what was done, and retired to Jerusalem, and
prepared to fight with Pompey.
6. But Pompey did. not give him time to make any prepara-
tions [for a siege], but followed him at his heels: he was also
obliged to make haste in his attempt, by the death of Mithri-
dates, of which he was informed about Jericho. Now here is
the most fruitful country of Judea, which bears a vast number
254
B. 1.
THE JEWISH WAR.
}
of palm-trees*, besides the balsam-tree, whose sprouts they
cut up with sharp stones, and at the incisions they gather the
juice, which drops down like tears. So Pompey pitched his
camp in that place one night, and then hasted away the next
morning to Jerusalem: but Aristobulus was so affrighted at his
approach, that he came and met him by way of supplication: he
also promised him money, and that he would deliver up both
himself and the city into his disposal, and thereby mitigated the
anger of Pompey. Yet did not he perform any of the condi-
tions he had agreed to; for Aristobulus's party would not so
much as admit Gabinius into the city, who was sent to receive
the money that he had promised.
CHAP. VII.
How Pompey had the City 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 Aris-
tobulus into custody. And when he was come to the city he
looked about where he might make his attack; for he saw the
walls were so firm, that it would be hard to overcome them, and
that the valley before the walls was terrible; and that the tem-
ple, which was within that valley, was itself encompassed with a
very strong wall, insomuch that if the city were taken, that temple
would be a second place of refuge for the enemy to retire to.
2. Now as he was long in deliberating about this matter, a
sedition arose among the people within the city; Aristobulus's
party being willing to fight, and to set their king at liberty, while
the party of Hyrcanus were for opening the gates to Pompey;
and the dread the people were in occasioned these last to be a
very numerous party, when they looked upon the excellent order
the Roman soldiers were in. So Aristobulus's party was worsted,
and retired into the temple, and cut off the communication be-
tween the temple and the city, by breaking down the bridge that
joined them together, and prepared to make an opposition to
the utmost; but as the others had received the Romans into the
city, and had delivered up the palace to him, Pompey sent Piso,
one of his great officers, into that palace with an army, who dis-
tributed a garrison about the city, because he could not persuade
any one of those that had fled to the temple to come to terms of
accommodation: he then disposed all things that were round
* Of the famous palm-trees and balsam about Jericho and Engaddi, see the
notes in Havercamp's edition, both here and B. ii. ch, ix. sect. 1. They are
somewhat too long to be transcribed in this place.
C. VII.
255
THE JEWISH WAR.
about them so as might favour their attacks, as having Hyrcanus's
party very ready to afford them both counsel and assistance.
3. But Pompey himself filled up the ditch that was on the
north side of the temple, and the entire valley also, the army
itself being obliged to carry the materials for that purpose. And,
indeed, it was a hard thing to fill up that valley by reason of its
immense depth, especially as the Jews used all the means pos-
sible to repel them from their superior station: nor had the
Romans succeeded in their endeavour, had not Pompey taken
notice of the seventh days, on which the Jews abstain from all
sorts of work on a religious account, and raised his bank, but
restrained his soldiers from fighting on those days; for the Jews
only acted defensively on Sabbath days. But as soon as Pom-
pey had filled up the valley, he erected high towers upon the
bank, and brought those engines which they had fetched from
Tyre near to the wall, and tried to batter it down; and the
slingers of stones beat off those that stood above them, and drove
them away: but the towers on this side of the city made very
great resistance, and were, indeed, extraordinary both for large-
ness and magnificence.
4. Now here it was that, upon the many hardships which the
Romans underwent, Pompey could not but admire not only at
the other instances of the Jews' fortitude, but especially that
they did not at all intermit their religious services, even when
they were encompassed with darts on all sides; for, as if the
city were in full peace, their daily sacrifices and purifications,
and every branch of their religious worship, was still performed
to God with the utmost exactness. Nor, indeed, when the tem-
ple was actually taken, and they were every day slain about the
altar, did they leave off the instances of their divine worship that
were appointed by their law; for it was in the third month of
the siege before the Romans could even, with great difficulty,
overthrow one of the towers, and get into the temple. Now
he that first of all ventured to get over the wall was Faustus
Cornelius, the son of Sylla; and next after him were two cen-
turions, Furius and Fabius; and every one of these was followed
by a cohort of his own, who encompassed the Jews on all sides
and slew them, some of them as they were running for shelter to
the temple, and others as they, for a while, fought in their own
defence.
5. And now did many of the priests, even when they saw their
enemies assailing them with swords in their hands, without any
disturbance, go on with their divine worship, and were slain
while they were offering their drink-offerings and burning their
incense, as preferring the duties about their worship to God be-
fore their own preservation. The greatest part of them were
slain by their own countrymen of the adverse faction, and an
256
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
innumerable multitude threw themselves down precipices: nay,
some there were who were so distracted among the insuperable
difficulties they were under, that they set fire to the buildings that
were near to the wall, and were burnt together with them. Now
of the Jews were slain twelve thousand; but of the Romans
very few were slain, but a greater number was wounded.
6. But there was nothing that affected the nation so much in
the calamities they were then under, as that their holy place,
which had been hitherto seen by none, should be laid open to
strangers; for Pompey *, and those that were about him, went
into the temple itself, whither it was not lawful for any to enter
but the high priest, and saw what was reposited therein, the
candlestick with its lamps, and the table, and the pouring ves-
sels, and the censers, all made entirely of gold, as also a great
quantity of spices heaped together, with two thousand talents of
sacred money. Yet did not he touch that money, nor any thing
else that was there reposited: but he commanded the ministers
about the temple, the very next day after he had taken it, to
cleanse it, and to perform their accustomed sacrifices. More-
over, he made Hyrcanus high priest, as one that not only in other
respects had showed great alacrity on his side during the siege,
but as he had been the means of hindering the multitude that
was in the country from fighting for Aristobulus, which they
were otherwise very ready to have done; by which means he
acted the part of a good general, and reconciled the people to
him more by benevolence than by terror. Now among the
captives Aristobulus's father-in-law was taken, who was also
his uncle so those that were the most guilty he punished with
decollation: but rewarded Faustus, and those with him that had
fought so bravely, with glorious presents, and laid a tribute upon
the country, and upon Jerusalem itself.
7. He also took away from the nation all those cities they had
formerly taken, and that belonged to Celesyria, and made them
subject to him that was at that time appointed to be the Roman
president there, and reduced Judea within its proper bounds.
He also rebuilt Gadara†, that had been demolished by the Jews,
in order to gratify one Demetrius, who was of Gadara, and was
one of his own freedmen. He also made other cities free from
their dominion that lay in the midst of the country, such, I mean,
as they had not demolished before that time, Hippos and Scy-
thopolis, as also Pella, and Samaria, and Marissa: and, besides
these, Ashdod, and Jamnia, and Arethusa; and in like manner
* Thus, says Tacitus, Cn. Pompeius first of all subdued the Jews, and went
into their temple, by right of conquest, Hist. B. v. ch. ix ; nor did he touch any
of its riches, as has been observed on the parallel place of the Antiquities,
B. xiv. ch. iv. sect 4; out of Cicero himself.
+ The coin of this Gadara still extant, with its date from this era, is a certain
evidence of this its rebuilding by Pompey, as Spanheim here assures us.
}
.C. VII.
257
THE JEWISH WAR.
$
dealt he with the maritime cities, Gaza, and Joppa, and Dora,
and that which was anciently called Strato's Tower, but was
afterward rebuilt with most magnificent edifices, and had its
name changed to Cæsarea by King Herod: all which he re-
stored to their own citizens, and put them under the province
of Syria; which province, together with Judea and the coun-
tries as far as Egypt and Euphrates, he committed to Scaurus as
their governor, and gave him two legions to support him; while
he made all the haste he could himself to go through Cilicia, in
his way to Rome, having Aristobulus and his children along with
him as his captives. They were two daughters and two sons;
the one of which sons, Alexander, ran away as he was going,
but the younger, Antigonus, with his sisters, were carried to
Rome.
·
CHAP. VIII.
Alexander, the Son of Aristobulus, who ran away from Pom-
pey, 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 Gabi-
nius, Crassus, and Cassius.
1. IN the meantime Scaurus made an expedition into Arabia,
but was stopped by the difficulty of the places about Petra.
However, he laid waste the country about Pella, though even
there he was under great hardship; for his army was afflicted
with famine: in order to supply which want, Hyrcanus afforded
him some assistance, and sent him provisions by the means of
Antipater; whom also Scaurus sent to Aretas, as one well ac-
quainted with him, to induce him to pay him money to buy his
peace. The king of Arabia* complied with the proposal, and
gave him three hundred talents: upon which Scaurus drew his
army out of Arabia.
2. But as for Alexander, the son of Aristobulus who ran
away from Pompey, in some time he got a considerable band of
men together, and lay heavy upon Hyrcanus, and overran Judea,
and was likely to overturn him quickly; and, indeed, he had
come to Jerusalem, and had ventured to rebuild its wall that was
* Take the like attestation to the truth of this submission of Aretas, king of
Arabia, to Scaurus the Roman general, in the words of Dean Aldrich.-
"Hence," says he, "is derived that old and famous Denarius belonging to the
Emilian family [represented in Havercamp's edition], wherein Aretas appears
in a posture of supplication, and taking hold of a camel's bridle with his left
hand, and with his right hand presenting a branch of the frankincense tree, with
this inscription, M. SCAURUS EX S. C., and beneath, REX ARETAS.”
VOL. III.
S
'
258
. B. 1.
THE JEWISH WAR.
thrown down by Pompey, had not Gabinius, who was sent as
successor to Scaurus into Syria, showed his bravery, as in many
other points, so in making an expedition against Alexander;
who, as he was afraid that he would attack him, so he got toge-
ther a large army, composed of ten thousand armed footmen and
fifteen hundred horsemen. He also built walls about proper
places, Alexandrium, and Hyrcanium, and Macherus, that lay
upon the mountains of Arabia.
3. However, Gabinius sent before him Marcus Antonius, and
followed himself with his whole army; but for the select body
of soldiers that were about Antipater, and another body of Jews
under the commands of Malichus and Pitholaus, these joined
themselves to those captains that were about Marcus Anto-
nius; and met Alexander: to which body came Gabinius with
his main army soon afterward; and as Alexander was not able
to sustain the charge of the enemies' forces, now they were
joined, he retired. But when he was come near to Jerusalem,
he was forced to fight, and lost six thousand men in the battle;
three thousand of which fell down dead, and three thousand were
taken alive; so he fled with the remainder to Alexandrium.
4. Now when Gabinius was come to Alexandrium, because
he found a great many there encamped, he tried, by promising
them pardon for their former offences, to induce them to come
over to him, before it came to a fight; but when they would
hearken to no terms of accommodation, he slew a great number
of them, and shut up a great number in the citadel. Now Mar-
cus Antonius, their leader, signalized himself in this battle, who
as he always showed great courage, so did he never show it so
much as now; but Gabinius, leaving forces to take the citadel,
went away himself, and settled the cities that had not been
demolished, and rebuilt those that had been destroyed.
cordingly, upon his injunctions, the following cities were re-
stored, Scythopolis, and Samaria, and Anthedon, and Apol-
lonia, and Jamnia, and Raphia, and Marissa, and Adoreus, and
Gamala, and Ashdod, and many others; while a great number of
men readily ran to each of them, and became their inhabitants.
5. When Gabinius had taken care of these cities, he returned
to Alexandrium, and pressed on the siege. So when Alexander
despaired of ever obtaining the government, he sent ambassadors
to him, and prayed him to forgive what he had offended him
in, and gave up to him the remaining fortresses, Hyrcanium.
and Macherus, as he put Alexandrium into his hands afterwards:
all which Gabinius demolished, at the persuasion of Alexander's
mother, that they might not be receptacles of men in a second
She was now there in order to mollify Gabinius, out of
her concern for her relations that were captives at Rome, which
were her husband and her other children. After this Gabinius
war.
C. VIII.
259
THE JEWISH WAR.
brought Hyrcanus to Jerusalem, and committed the care of the
temple to him; but ordained the other political government to
be by an aristocracy. He also parted the whole nation into
five conventions, assigning one portion to Jerusalem, another
to Gadara; that another should belong to Amathus, a fourth to
Jericho, and to the fifth division was allotted Sepphoris, a city
of Galilee. So the people were glad to be thus freed from
monarchical government, and were governed for the future by
an aristocracy.
•
6. Yet did Aristobulus afford another foundation for new dis-
turbances. He fled away from Rome, and got together again
many of the Jews that were desirous of a change, such as had
borne an affection to him of old: and when he had taken
Alexandrium in the first place, he attempted to build a wall
about it; but as soon a Gabinius had sent an army against him
under Sisenna, and Antonius, and Servilius, he was aware of it,
and retreated to Macherus. And as for the unprofitable mul-
titude, he dismissed them, and only marched on with those that
were armed, being to the number of eight thousand, among
whom was Pitholaus, who had been the lieutenant at Jerusalem,
but deserted to Aristobulus with a thousand of his men: so the
Romans followed him; and when it came to a battle, Aristo-
bulus's party for a long while fought courageously; but at
length they were overborne by the Romans, and of them five
thousand fell down dead, and about two thousand fled to a
certain little hill; but the thousand that remained with Aristo-
bulus broke through the Roman army, and marched together to
Macherus; and when the king had lodged the first night upon
its ruins, he was in hopes of raising another army, if the war
would but cease a while: accordingly he fortified that strong
hold, though it were done after a poor manner. But the
Romans falling upon him, hè resisted even beyond his abilities
for two days, and then was taken, and brought a prisoner to
Gabinius, with Antigonus his son, who had fled away together
with him from Rome, and from Gabinius he was carried to
Rome again: Wherefore, the senate put him under confine-
ment, but returned his children back into Judea, because Gabi-
nius informed them by letters that he had promised Aristobulus's
mother to do so, for her delivering the fortresses up to him.
+
7. But now as Gabinius was marching to the war against the
Parthians, he was hindered by Ptolemy, whom, upon his return
from Euphrates, he brought back into Egypt, making use of
Hyrcanus and Antipater to provide every thing that was neces-
sary for this expedition; for Antipater furnished him with
money, and weapons, and corn, and auxiliaries; he also pre-
vailed with the Jews that were there, and guarded the avenues
at Pelusium, to let them pass. But now upon Gabinius's
$ 2
860
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
absence, the other part of Syria was in motion, and Alexander
the son of Aristobulus, brought the Jews to a revolt again.
Accordingly, he got together a very great army, and set about
killing all the Romans that were in the country: hereupon Ga-
binius was afraid (for he was come back already out of Egypt
and obliged to come back quickly by these tumults), and sent
Antipater, who prevailed with some of the revolters to be quiet.
However, thirty thousand still continued with Alexander, who
was himself eager to fight also: accordingly, Gabinius went
out to fight; when the Jews met him, and as the battle was
fought near mount Tabor, ten thousand of them were slain, and
the rest of the multitude dispersed themselves and fled away.
So Gabinius came to Jerusalem, and settled the government as
Antipater would have it; thence he marched, and fought and
beat the Nabateans: as for Mithridates and Órsanes, who fled
out of Parthia, he sent them away privately, but gave it out
among the soldiers that they had run away.
8. In the meantime Crassus came as successor to Gabinius
in Syria. He took away all the rest of the gold belonging to
the temple of Jerusalem, in order to furnish himself for his ex-
pedition against the Parthians. He also took away the two
thousand talents which Pompey had not touched; but when he
had passed over Euphrates, he perished himself and his army
with him; concerning which affairs this is not a proper time to
speak [more largely].
9. But now Cassius, after Crassus, put a stop to the Par-
thians, who were marching in order to enter Syria. Cassius
had fled into that province, and, when he had taken possession
of the same, he made a hasty march into Judea; and, upon his
taking Taricheæ, he carried thirty thousand Jews into slavery.
He also slew Pitholaus, who had supported the seditious fol-
lowers of Aristobulus; and it was Antipater who advised him
so to do. Now this Antipater married a wife of an eminent.
family among the Arabians, whose name was Cypros, and had
four sons born to him by her, Phasaelus and Herod, who was
afterwards king, and, besides these, Joseph and Pheroras; and
he had a daughter whose name was Salome. Now as he made
himself friends among the men of power everywhere, by the
kind offices he did them, and the hospitable manner that he
treated them, so did he contract the greatest friendship with the
king of Arabia, by marrying his relation, insomuch, that when he
nade war with Aristobulus, he sent and intrusted his children
with him. So when Cassius had forced Alexander to come to
terms and to be quiet, he returned to Euphrates, in order to
prevent the Parthians from repassing it; concerning which
matter* we shall speak elsewhere.
* This citation is now wanting.
THE JEWISH WAR.
261
CHAP. IX.
Aristobulus is taken off by Pompey's Friends, as is his Son
Alexander by Scipio. Antipater cultivates a Friendship
with Cæsar after Pompey's Death; he also performs great
Actions in that War wherein he assisted Mithridates.
§ 1. Now upon the flight of Pompey and of the senate beyond
the Ionian sea, Cæsar got Rome and the empire under his
power, and released Aristobulus from his bonds. He also
committed two legions to him, and sent him in haste into Syria,
as hoping that, by his means, he should easily conquer that
country and the parts adjoining to Judea. But envy prevented
any effect of Aristobulus's alacrity and the hopes of Cæsar; for
he was taken off by poison, given him by those of Pompey's
party; and for a long while he had not so much as a burial
vouchsafed him in his own country; but his dead body lay
[above ground], preserved in honey, until it was sent to the Jews
by Antony, in order to be buried in the royal sepulchres.
2. His son Alexander also was beheaded by Scipio at An-
tioch, and that by the command of Pompey, and upon an accu-
sation laid against him before his tribunal, for the mischiefs he
had done to the Romans. But Ptolemy, the son of Meneus,
who was then ruler of Chalcis under Libanus, took his brethren
to him, by sending his son Philippio for them to Ascalon, who
took Antigonus, as well as his sisters, away from Aristobulus's
wife, and brought them to his father: and falling in love with
the youngest daughter, he married her, and was afterwards slain
by his father on her account: for Ptolemy himself, after he had
slain his son, married her, whose name was Alexandra; on
account of which marriage he took the greater care of her
brother and sister.
S. Now after Pompey was dead, Antipater changed sides,
and cultivated a friendship with Cæsar. And since Mithridates
of Pergamus, with the forces he led against Egypt, was excluded
from the avenues about Pelusium, and was forced to stay at
Ascalon, he persuaded the Arabians, among whom he had lived,
to assist him, and came himself to him at the head of three
thousand armed men. He also encouraged the men of power
in Syria to come to his assistance, as also of the inhabitants of
Libanus, Ptolemy, and Jamblicus, and another Ptolemy; by
which means the cities of that country came readily into this
war; insomuch that Mithridates ventured now, in dependence
upon the additional strength that he had gotten by Antipater, to
march forward to Pelusium; and when they refused him a pas
sage through it, he besieged the city; in the attack of which
place Antipater principally signalized himself, for he brought
.
262
B. 1.
THE JEWISH WAR.
down that part of the wall which was over against him, and
leaped first of all into the city with the men that were about him.
4. Thus was Pelusium taken. But still as they were march-
ing on, those Egyptian Jews that inhabited the country, called
the country of Onias, stopped them. Then did Antipater not
only persuade them not to stop them, but to afford provisions
for their army; on which account, even the people about
Memphis would not fight against them, but of their own accord
joined Mithridates. Whereupon he went round about Delta,
and fought the rest of the Egyptians at a place called the Jews'
Camp: nay, when he was in danger in the battle, with all his
right wing, Antipater wheeled about, and came along the bank
of the river to him; for he had beaten those that opposed him
as he led the left wing. After which success he fell upon those
that pursued Mithridates, and slew a great many of them, and
pursued the remainder so far that he took their camp, while he
lost no more than fourscore of his own men; as Mithridates
lost during the pursuit that was made after him about eight
hundred. He was also himself saved unexpectedly, and be-
came an irreproachable witness to Cæsar of the great actions of
Antipater.
5. Whereupon Cæsar encouraged Antipater to undertake
other hazardous enterprises for him, and that by giving him
great commendations and hopes of reward: in all which enter-
prises he readily exposed himself to many dangers, and became
a most courageous warrior, and had many wounds almost all
over his body, as demonstrations of his valour. And when
Cæsar had settled the affairs of Egypt, and was returning into
Syria again, he gave him the privilege of a Roman citizen, and
freedom from taxes, and rendered him an object of admiration
by the honours and marks of friendship he bestowed upon him.
On this account it was also that he confirmed Hyrcanus in the
high priesthood.
CHAP. X.
Casar makes Antipater Procurator of Judea; as does Antipa-
ter 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 ac-
quitted. Sextus Cæsar is treacherously killed by Bassus; and
is succeeded by Marcus.
§ 1. ABOUT this time it was that Antigonus, the son of Aris-
tobulus, came to Cæsar, and became, in a surprising manner,
the occasion of Antipater's farther advancement: for whereas
he ought to have lamented that his father appeared to have been
C. X.
263
THE JEWISH WAR.
poisoned on account of his quarrels with Pompey, and to have
complained of Scipio's barbarity towards his brother, and not
to mix any invidious passion when he was suing for mercy; be-
sides those things, he came before Cæsar, and accused Hyrcanus
and Antipater, how they had driven him and his brethren en-
tirely out of their native country, and had acted, in a great many
instances, unjustly and extravagantly with relation to their nation;
and that as to the assistance they had sent him into Egypt, it
was not done out of good will to him, but out of the fear they
were in from former quarrels, and in order to gain pardon for
their friendship to [his enemy] Pompey.
2. Hereupon Antipater threw away his garments, and showed
the multitude of the wounds he had, and said, that "as to his
good will to Cæsar, he had no occasion to say a word, because
his body cried aloud, though he said nothing himself; that he
wondered at Antigonus's boldness, while he was himself no
other than the son of an enemy to the Romans, and of a fugitive,
and had it by inheritance from his father to be fond of innova-
tions and seditions, that he should undertake to accuse other
men before the Roman governor, and endeavour to gain some
advantages to himself, when he ought to be contented that he
was suffered to live; for that the reason of his desire of govern-
ing public affairs was not so much because he was in want of
it, but because, if he could once obtain the same, he might stir
up a sedition among the Jews, and use what he should gain from
the Romans to the disservice of those that gave it him.
3. When Cæsar heard this, he declared Hyrcanus to be the
most worthy of the high priesthood, and gave leave to Anti-
pater to choose what authority he pleased; but he left the de-
termination of such dignity to him that bestowed the dignity
upon him; so he was constituted procurator of all Judea, and
obtained leave moreover to rebuild* those walls of his country
that had been thrown down. These honorary grants Cæsar
sent orders to have engraved in the Capitol, that they might
stand there as indications of his own justice. and of the virtue
of Antipater.
4. But as soon as Antipater had conducted Cæsar out of
Syria, he returned to Judea; and the first thing he did was to
rebuild that wall of his own country [Jerusalem] which Pompey
had overthrown, and then to go over the country, and to quiet
the tumults that were therein; where he partly threatened and
* What is here noted by Hudson and Spanheim, that his grant of leave to re-
build the walls of the cities of Judea was made by Julius Cæsar, not as here to
Antipater, but to Hyrcanus, Antiq. B. xiv. chap. viii. sect. 5, has hardly an ap-
pearance of a contradiction; Antipater being now, perhaps, considered only as
Hyrcanus's deputy and minister; although he afterwards made a cipher of
Hyrcanus, and under great decency of behaviour to him took the real authority
to himself.
+
264
THE JEWISH WAR.
B. I.
1
i
partly advised every one, and told them, that, "in case they
would submit to Hyrcanus, they would live happily and peace-
ably, and enjoy what they possessed, and that with universal
peace and quietness: but that, in case they hearkened to such
as had some frigid hopes, by raising new troubles, to get them-
selves some gain, they should then find him to be their lord
instead of their procurator; and find Hyrcanus to be a tyrant
instead of a king; and both the Romans and Cæsar to be their
enemies instead of rulers; for that they would not suffer him to
be removed from the government whom they had made their
governor." And at the same time that he said this, he settled
the affairs of the country by himself, because he saw that Hyr-
canus was inactive, and not fit to manage the affairs of the king-
dom. So he constituted his eldest son Phasaelus governor of
Jerusalem and of the parts about it; he also sent his next
son Herod, who was very young*, with equal authority into
Galilee.
5. Now Herod was an active man, and soon found proper
materials for his active spirit to work upon. As, therefore, he
found that Hezekias, the head of the robbers, ran over the neigh-
bouring parts of Syria, with a great band of men, he caught him
and slew him, and many more of the robbers with him; which
exploit was chiefly grateful to the Syrians, insomuch that hymns
were sung in Herod's commendation, both in the villages and
in the cities, as having procured their quietness, and having pre-
served what they possessed to them; on which occasion he
became acquainted with Sextus Cæsar, a kinsman of the great
Cæsar, and president of Syria. A just emulation of his glorious
actions excited Phasaelus also to imitate him. Accordingly, he
procured the goodwill of the inhabitants of Jerusalem by his
own management of the city affairs, and did not abuse his power
in any disagreeable manner; whence it came to pass, that the
nation paid Antipater the respects that were due only to a king,
and the honours they all yielded him were equal to the honours
due to an absolute lord; yet did he not abate any part of that
good will or fidelity which he owed to Hyrcanus.
י
6. However, he found it impossible to escape envy in such
his prosperity; for the glory of these young men affected even
Hyrcanus himself already privately, though he said nothing of it
to any body but what he principally was grieved at was the
great actions of Herod, and that so many messengers came one
before another, and informed him of the great reputation he got
in all bis undertakings. There were also many people in the
royal palace itself who inflamed his envy at him; those, I mean,
* Or 25 years of age.
on B. xiv. ch. ix. sect. 2;
B. xvii. p. 725.
See the note on Antiq. B. i. chap. xii. sect. 3; and
and Of the War, B. ii. ch. xi. sect. 6; and Polyb.
C. X.
265
THE JEWISH WAR.
who were obstructed in their designs by the prudence either of
the young men or of Antipater. These men said, that by com-
mitting the public affairs to the management of Antipater and of
his sons,
he sat down with nothing but the bare name of a king
without any of its authority; and they asked him how long he
would so far mistake himself, as to breed up kings against his
own interest? for that they did not now conceal their govern-
ment of affairs any longer, but were plainly lords of the nation,
and had thrust him out of his authority: that this was the case
when Herod slew so many men without his giving him any com-
mand to do it, either by word of mouth or by his letter, and this
in contradiction to the law of the Jews; who, therefore, in case
he be not a king but a private man, still ought to come to his
trial, and answer it to him, and to the laws of his country, which
do not permit any one to be killed till he hath been condemned
in judgment.
•
7. Now Hyrcanus was by degrees inflamed with these dis-
courses, and at length could bear no longer, but he summoned
Herod to take his trial: accordingly, by his father's advice, and
as soon as the affairs of Galilee would give him leave, he came
up [to Jerusalem], when he had first placed garrisons in Galilee:
however, he came with a sufficient body of soldiers, so many,
indeed, that he might not appear to have with him an army able
to overthrow Hyrcanus's government, nor yet so few as to expose
him to the insults of those that envied him. However, Sextus
Cæsar was in fear for the young man, lest he should be taken
hold of by his enemies, and be brought to punishment: so he sent
some to denounce expressly to Hyrcanus, that he should acquit
Herod of the capital charge against him; who acquitted him
accordingly, as being otherwise inclined also so to do, for he
loved Herod.
8. But Herod, supposing that he had escaped punishment
with the consent of the king, retired to Sextus to Damascus, and
got every thing ready in order not to obey him, if he should
summons him again; whereupon those that were evil disposed
irritated Hyrcanus, and told him, that Herod was gone away in
anger, and was prepared to make war upon him; and as the
king believed what they said, he knew not what to do, since he
saw his antagonist was stronger than he was himself. And now,
since Herod was made general of Celesyria and Samaria by
Sextus Cæsar, he was formidable, not only from the good
will which the nation bore him, but by the power he himself
had; insomuch that Hyrcanus fell into the utmost degree of
terror, and expected he would presently march against him with
his army.
9. Nor was he mistaken in the conjecture he made; for
Herod got his army together out of the anger he bare him for
his threatening him with the accusation in a public court, and
266
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
1
led it to Jerusalem, in order to throw Hyrcanus down from his
kingdom; and this he had soon done, unless his father and bro-
ther had gone out together, and broken the force of his fury;
and this by exhorting him to carry his revenge no farther than to
threatening and affrighting, but to spare the king, under whom
he had been advanced to such a degree of power; and that he
ought not to be so much provoked at his being tried, as to forget
to be thankful that he was acquitted; nor so long to think upon
what was of a melancholy nature, as to be ungrateful for his
deliverance; and if we ought to reckon that God is the arbi-
trator of success in war, an unjust cause is of more disadvantage
than any army can be of advantage; and that therefore he ought
not to be entirely confident of success in a case where he is to
fight against his king, his supporter, and one that had often been
his benefactor, and that had never been severe to him, any other-
wise than as he had hearkened to evil counsellors, and this no
farther than by bringing a shadow of injustice upon him. So
Herod was prevailed upon by these arguments, and supposed
that what he had already done was sufficient for his future hopes,
and that he had enough shown his power to the nation.
10. In the meantime there was a disturbance among the
Romans about Apamia, and a civil war occasioned by the trea-
cherous* slaughter of Sextus Cæsar by Cecilius Bassus, which
he perpetrated out of his good will to Pompey; he also took the
authority over his forces; but as the rest of Cæsar's commanders
attacked Bassus with their whole army, in order to punish him
for his murder of Cæsar, Antipater also sent them assistance by
his sons, both on account of him that was murdered, and on
account of that Cæsar who was still alive, both of which were
their friends; and as this war grew to be of a considerable
length, Marcus came out of Italy as successor to Sextus.
CHAP. XI.
Herod is made Procurator of all Syria; Malichus is afraid of
him, and takes Antipater off by Poison; whereupon the Tri-
bunes of the Soldiers are prevailed with to kill him.
§ 1. THERE was at this time a mighty war raised among the
Romans, upon the sudden and treacherous slaughter of Čæsar
by Cassius and Brutus, after he had held the government for
three years and seven months †. Upon this murder there were
* Many writers of the Roman history give an account of this murder of Sex-
tus Cæsar, and of the war of Apamia upon that occasion. They are cited in
Dean Aldrich's note.
+ In the Antiquities, B. xiv. ch. xi. sect. 1, the duration of the reign of Julius
Cæsar is 3 years 6 months, but here 3 years 7 months, beginning rightly, says
Dean Aldrich, from his second dictatorship. It is probable the real duration
might be 3 years and between 6 and 7 months.
C. XI.
267
THE JEWISH WAR.
very great agitations; and the great men were mightily at dif-
ference one with another, and every one betook himself to that
party where they had the greatest hopes of their own of advan-
cing themselves. Accordingly, Cassius came into Syria, in order
to receive the forces that were at Apamia, where he procured a
reconciliation between Bassus and Marcus, and the legions
which were at difference with him; so he raised the siege of
Apamia, and took upon him the command of the army, and
went about exacting tribute of the cities, and demanding their
money to such a degree as they were not able to bear.
·
•
2. So he gave command that the Jews should bring in
seven hundred talents; whereupon Antipater, out of his dread
of Cassius's threats, parted the raising of this sum among his
sons, and among others of his acquaintance, and to be done
immediately; and among them he required one Malichus, who
was at enmity with him, to do his part also, which necessity
forced him to do. Now Herod, in the first place, mitigated the
passion of Cassius, by bringing his share out of Galilee, which
was a hundred talents, on which account he was in the highest
favour with him; and when he reproached the rest for being
tardy, he was angry at the cities themselves: so he made slaves
of Gophna, and Emmaus, and two others of less note; nay, he
proceeded as if he would kill Malichus, because he had not
made greater haste in exacting his tribute; but Antipater pre-
vented the ruin of this man, and of the other cities, and got into
Cassius's favour*, by bringing in a hundred talents immediately.
3. However, when Cassius was gone, Malichus forgot the kind-
ness that Antipater had done him, and laid frequent plots against
him that had saved him, as making haste to get him out of the
way, who was an obstacle to his wicked practices; but Anti-
pater was so much afraid of the power and cunning of the man,
that he went beyond Jordan in order to get an army to guard
himself against his treacherous designs: but when Malichus was
caught in his plot, he put upon Antipater's sons by his impu-
dence; for he thoroughly deluded Phasaelus, who was the guar-
dian of Jerusalem, and Herod who was intrusted with the wea-
pons of war, and this by a great many excuses and oaths, and
persuaded them to procure his reconciliation to his father. Thus
was he preserved again by Antipater, who dissuaded Marcus,
the then president of Syria, from his resolution of killing Mali-
chus on account of his attempts for innovation.
* It appears evidently by Josephus's accounts, both here and in his Anti-
quities, B. xiv. ch. xi. sect. 2, that this Cassius, one of Cæsar's murderers, was a
bitter oppressor and exacter of tribute in Judea. These 700 talents amount to
300,000%. sterling, and are about half the yearly revenues of King Herod after-
wards. See the note on Antiq. B. xvii. ch. xi. sect. 4. It also appears, that
Galilee then paid no more than 100 talents, or the 7th part of the entire sum to
be levied in all the country.
·
B. 1.
268
THE JEWISH WAR..
·
4. Upon the war between Cassius and Brutus, on one side,
against the younger Cæsar [Augustus] and Antony, on the
other, Cassius and Marcus got together an army out of Syria;
and because Herod was likely to have a great share in providing
necessaries, they then made him a procurator of all Syria, and
gave him an army of foot and horse. Cassius promised him
also, that after the war was over, he would make him king of
Judea: but it so happened, that the power and hopes of his
son became the cause of his perdition; for as Malichus was
afraid of this, he corrupted one of the king's cupbearers with
money to give a poisoned potion to Antipater; so he became a
sacrifice to Malichus's wickedness, and died at a feast. He was
a man in other respects active in the management of affairs, and
one that recovered the government to Hyrcanus, and preserved
it in his hands.
5. However, Malichus, when he was suspected of poisoning
Antipater, and when the multitude were angry at him for it,
denied it, and made the people believe he was not guilty. He
also prepared to make a greater figure, and raised soldiers; for
he did not suppose that Herod would be quiet, who, indeed
came upon him with an army presently, in order to revenge his
father's death; but upon hearing the advice of his brother Pha-
saelus not to punish him in an open manner, lest the multitude
should fall into a sedition, he admitted of Malichus's apology,
and professed that he cleared him of that suspicion: he also
made a pompous funeral for his father.
•
6. So Herod went to Samaria, which was then in a tumult,
and settled the city in peace; after which, at the [Pentecost]
festival, he returned to Jerusalem, having his armed men with
him; hereupon Hyrcanus, at the request of Malichus, who
feared his approach, forbade them to introduce foreigners to
mix themselves with the people of the country, while they were
purifying themselves: but Herod despised the pretence, and
him that gave that command, and came in by night: upon
• which Malichus came to him, and bewailed Antipater; Herod
also made him believe [he admitted of his lamentation as real],
although he had much ado to restrain his passion at him: how-
ever, he did himself bewail the murder of his father, in his let-
ter to Cassius, who on other accounts, also hated Malichus;
Cassius sent him word back, that he should avenge his father's
death upon him, and privately gave order to the tribunes that
were under him, that they should assist Herod in a righteous
action he was about.
7. And because, upon the taking of Laodicea by Cassius, the
men of power were gotten together from all quarters, with pre-
sents and crowns in their hands, Herod allotted this time for
the punishment of Malichus. When Malichus suspected that,
C. II.
269
THE JEWISH WAR.
1
and was at Tyre, he resolved to withdraw his son privately from
among the Tyrians, who was a hostage there, while he got ready
to fly away into Judea; the despair he was in of escaping ex-
cited him to think of greater things; for he hoped that he
should raise the nation to a revolt from the Romans, while Cas-
sius was busy about the war against Antony, and that he should
easily depose Hyrcanus, and get the crown for himself.
8. But fate laughed at the hopes he had; for Herod foresaw
what he was so zealous about, and invited both Hyrcanus and
him to supper; but calling one of the principal servants that
stood by him to him, he sent him out, as though it were to get
things ready for supper, but in reality, to give notice beforehand
about the plot that was laid against him: accordingly, they
called to mind what orders Cassius had given them, and went
out of the city with their swords in their hands, upon the sea-
shore, where they encompassed Malichus round about, and
killed him with many wounds: upon which Hyrcanus was im-
mediately affrighted, till he swooned away, and fell down at the
surprise he was in; and it was with difficulty that he was re-
covered; when he asked, who it was that had killed Malichus?
and when one of the tribunes replied, that it was done by the
command of Cassius, "Then, said he, Cassius hath saved both
me and my country, by cutting off one that was laying plots
against them both." Whether he spake according to his own
sentiments, or whether his fear was such, that he was obliged to
commend the action by saying so, is uncertain; however, by this
method Herod inflicted punishment upon Malichus.
CHAP. XII.
Phasaelus is too hard for Felix; Herod also overcomes Anti-
gonus in battle; and the Jews accuse both Herod and Pha-
saelus; but Antonius acquits them, and makes them Tetrarchs.
§ 1. WHEN Cassius was gone out of Syria, another sedition
arose at Jerusalem, wherein Felix assaulted Phasaelus with an
army, that he might revenge the death of Malichus upon Herod,
by falling upon his brother. Now Herod happened then to be
with Fabius, the governor of Damascus; and as he was going to
his brother's assistance, he was detained by sickness: in the
meantime Phasaelus was by himself too hard for Felix, and re-
proached Hyrcanus on account of his ingratitude, both for what
assistance he had afforded Malichus, and for overlooking Mali-
chus's brother, when he possessed himself of the fortresses; for
he had gotten a great many of them already, and among them
the strongest of them all, Masada.
+
2. However, nothing could be sufficient for him against the
270
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
force of Herod, who, as soon as he was recovered, took the other
fortresses again, and drove him out of Masada in the posture
of a supplicant: he also drove away Marion the tyrant of the
Tyrians out of Galilee, when he had already possessed himself
of three fortified places; but as to those Tyrians whom he had
caught, he preserved them all alive; nay, some of them he gave
presents to, and so sent them away, and thereby procured good
will to himself from the city, and hatred to the tyrant. Marion
had, indeed, obtained that tyrannical power of Cassius, who * set
tyrants over all Syria; and out of his hatred to Herod it was
that he assisted Antigonus the son of Aristobulus, and princi-
pally on Fabius's account, whom Antigonus had made his as-
sistant by money, and had him, accordingly, on his side when he
made his descent; but it was Ptolemy, the kinsman of Antigo-
nus, that supplied all that he wanted.
3. When Herod had fought against these in the avenues of
Judea, he was conqueror in the battle, and drove away Antigo-
nus, returning to Jerusalem beloved by every body for the glori-
ous actions he had done; for those who did not before favour
him, did join themselves to him now, because of his marriage
into the family of Hyrcanus; for as he had formerly married a
wife out of his own country of no ignoble blood, who was called
Doris, of whom he begat Antipater; so did he now marry
Mariamne the daughter of Alexander, the son of Aristobulus,
and the grand-daughter of Hyrcanus, and was become thereby a
relation of the king.
4. But when Cæsar and Antony had slain Cassius near Phi-
lippi, and Cæsar was gone to Italy, and Antony to Asia, amongst
the rest of the cities which sent ambassadors to Antony unto
Bithynia, the great men of the Jews came also, and accused
Phasaelus and Herod that they kept the government by force,
and that Hyrcanus had no more than an honourable name.
Herod appeared ready to answer this accusation; and, having
made Antony his friend by the large sums of money which he
gave him, he brought him to such a temper, as not to hear the
others speak against him; and thus did they part at this time.
5. However, after this there came a hundred of the principal
men among the Jews to Daphne by Antioch to Antony, who
was already in love with Cleopatra to the degree of slavery:
these Jews put those men that were the most potent both in
dignity and eloquence foremost, and accused the brethren +.
But Messala opposed them, and defended the brethren, and that
while Hyrcanus stood by him, on account of his relation to
* Here we see that Cassius set tyrants over all Syria; so that his assisting to
destroy Cæsar does not seem to have proceeded from his true zeal for public
liberty, but from a desire to be a tyrant himself.
+ Phasaelus and Herod.
C. XII.
271
THE JEWISH WAR.
them. When Antony had heard both sides, he asked Hyrcanus,
which party was the fittest to govern? who replied, that Herod
and his party were the fittest. Antony was glad of that an-
swer; for he had been formerly treated in an hospitable and
obliging manner by his father Antipater, when he marched into
Judea with Gabinius; so he constituted the brethren tetrarchs,
and committed to them the government of Judea.
6. But when the ambassadors had indignation at this proce-
dure, Antony took fifteen of them, and put them into custody,
whom he was also going to kill presently, and the rest he drove
away with disgrace; on which occasion a still greater tumult
arose at Jerusalem; so they sent again a thousand ambassadors
to Tyre, where Antony now abode, as he was marching to Jeru-
salem: upon these men, who made a clamour, he sent out the
governor of Tyre, and ordered him to punish all that he could
catch of them, and to settle those in the administration whom he
had made tetrarchs.
Я
7. But before this, Herod and Hyrcanus went out upon the
sea-shore, and earnestly desired of these ambassadors that they
would neither bring ruin upon themselves, nor war upon their
native country by their rash contentions; and when they grew
still more outrageous, Antony sent out armed men, and slew
great many, and wounded more of them; of whom those that
were slain were buried by Hyrcanus, as were the wounded put
under the care of physicians by him: yet would not those that
had escaped be quiet still, but put the affairs of the city into
such disorder, and so provoked Antony, that he slew those whom
he had in bonds also.
CHAP. XIII.
The Parthians bring Antigonus back into Judea, and cast
Hyrcanus and Phasaelus into Prison. The Flight of Herod
and the Taking of Jerusalem, and what Hyrcanus and
Phasaelus suffered.
§ 1. Now two years afterward, when Barzapharnes, a governor
among the Parthians, and Pacorus, the king's son, had pos-
sessed themselves of Syria, and when Lysanias had already suc-
ceeded upon the death of his father Ptolemy, the son of Men-
neus, in the government [of Chalcis], he prevailed with the
governor, by a promise of a thousand talents and five hundred
women, to bring back Antigonus to his kingdom, and to turn
Hyrcanus out of it. Pacorus was by these means induced so
to do, and marched along the sea-coast, while he ordered Bar-
zapharnes to fall upon the Jews as he went along the Mediter-
ranean part of the country; but of the maritime people, the
272
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
*
Tyrians would not receive Pacorus, although those of Ptole-
mais and Sidon had received him; so he committed a troop of
his horse to a certain cupbearer belonging to the royal family,
of his own name [Pacorus], and gave him orders to march into
Judea, in order to learn the state of affairs among their enemies,
and to help Antigonus when he should want his assistance.
2. Now as these men where ravaging Carmel, many of the
Jews ran together to Antigonus, and showed themselves ready to
make an incursion into the country; so he sent them before into
that place called Drymus* [the woodland], to seize upon the
place; whereupon a battle was fought between them; and they
drove the enemy away and pursued them, and ran after them as
far as Jerusalem, and as their numbers increased they proceeded
as far as the king's palace; but as Hyrcanus and Phasaelus re-
ceived them with a strong body of men, there happened a battle
in the market-place, in which Herod's party beat the enemy,
and shut them up in the temple, and set sixty men in the houses
adjoining as a guard on them. But the people that were tumul-
tuous against the brethren came in and burnt those men; while
Herod, in his rage for killing them, attacked and slew many of
the people, till one party made incursions on the other by turns,
day by day, in the way of ambushes, and slaughters were made
continually among them.
3. Now when that festival which we call Pentecost was at
hand, all the places about the temple, and the whole city, was
full of a multitude of people that were come out of the country,
and which were the greatest part of them armed also, at which
time Phasaelus guarded the wall, and Herod with a few guarded
the royal palace; and when he made an assault upon his ene-
mies, as they were out of their ranks, on the north quarter of the
city, he slew a very great number of them, and put them all to
flight; and some of them he shut up within the city, and others
within the outward rampart. In the meantime, Antigonus de-
sired that Pacorus might be admitted to be a reconciler between
them; and Phasaelus was prevailed upon to admit the Parthians
into the city with five hundred horse, and to treat him in an hos-
pitable manner, who pretended that he came to quell the tumult,
but in reality he came to assist Antigonus: however, he laid a
plot for Phasaelus, and persuaded him to go as an ambassador
to Barzapharnes, in order to put an end to the war, although
Herod was very earnest with him to the contrary, and exhorted
him to kill the plotter, but not expose himself to the snares he
had laid for him, because the barbarians. are naturally perfidious.
* This large and noted wood or woodland belonging to Carmel, called Apvµog
by the Septuagint, is mentioned in the Old Testament, 2 Kings, xix. 23, and Isa.
xxviii. 24, and by Strabo, B. xvi. p. 758, as both Aldrich and Spanheim here
remark very pertinently.
C. XIII.
1
THE JEWISH WAR.
273
However, Pacorus went out and took Hyrcanus with him, that
he might be the less suspected; he also left some of the horse-
men*, called the Freemen, with Herod, and conducted Phasae-
lus with the rest.
4. But now when they were come to Galilee, they found that
the people of that country had revolted and were in arms, who
came very cunningly to their leader, and besought him to con-
ceal his treacherous intentions by an obliging behaviour to them:
accordingly, he at first made them presents, and afterward as
they went away laid ambushes for them; and when they were
come to one of the maritime cities called Ecdippon, they per-
ceived that a plot was laid for them; for they were there in-
formed of the promise of a thousand talents, and how Antigo-
nus had devoted the greatest number of the women that were
with him, among the five hundred, to the Parthians: they also
perceived that an ambush was always laid for them by the bar-
barians in the nighttime: they had been also seized upon before
this, unless they had waited for the seizure of Herod first at Jeru-
salem, because if he were once informed of this treachery of
theirs, he would take care of himself; nor was this a mere report,
but they saw the guards already not far off them.
5. Nor would Phasaelus think of forsaking Hyrcanus and
flying away, although Ophelius earnestly persuaded him to it;
for this man had learned the whole scheme of the plot from
Saramalla, the richest of all the Syrians. But Phasaelus went
up to the Parthian governor, and reproached him to his face for
laying this treacherous plot against them, and chiefly because he
had done it for money; and he promised him, that he would
give him more money for their preservation than Antigonus had
promised to give for the kingdom. But the sly Parthian endea-
voured to remove all this suspicion by apologies and by oaths,
and then went [to the other] Pacorus; immediately after which
those Parthians who were left, and had it in charge, seized upon
Phasaelus and Hyrcanus, who could do no more than curse their
perfidiousness and their perjury.
6. In the meantime the cupbearer was sent [back], and laid
a plot how to seize upon Herod, by deluding him, and getting
him out of the city, as he was commanded to do. But Herod
suspected the barbarians from the beginning; and having then
received intelligence that a messenger, who was to bring him the
letters that informed him of the treachery intended, had fallen
among the enemy, he would not go out of the city, though
Pacorus said very positively that he ought to go out and meet
*These accounts, both here and Antiq. B. xiv. ch. xiii. sect. 5, that the Par-
thians fought chiefly on horseback, and that only some few of their soldiers were
freedmen, perfectly agree with Trogus Pompeius, in Justin, B. xli. 2, 3, as Dean
Aldrich well observes on this place.
VOL. III.
T
}
274
: B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
·
•
the messengers that brought the letters, for, that the enemy had
not taken them; and that the contents of them were not accounts
of any plots upon them, but of what Phasaelus had done: yet
had he heard from others that his brother was seized; and Alex-
andra*, the shrewdest woman in the world, Hyrcanus's daugh-
ter, begged of him that he would not go out, nor trust himself
to those barbarians, who now were come to make an attempt
upon him openly.
7. Now as Pacorus and his friends were considering how
they might bring their plot to bear privately, because it was not
possible to circumvent a man of so great prudence by openly
attacking him, Herod prevented them, and went off with the
persons that were the most nearly related to him by night, and
this without their enemies being apprized of it. But as soon as
the Parthians perceived it, they pursued after them; and as he
gave orders for his mother and sister, and the young woman who
was betrothed to him, with her mother, and his youngest bro-
ther, to make the best of their way, he himself, with his servants,
took all the care they could to keep off the barbarians; and
when, at every assault, he had slain a great many of them, he
came to the strong hold of Masada.
8. Nay, he found by experience that the Jews fell more
heavily upon him than did the Parthians, and created him
troubles perpetually, and this ever since he was gotten sixty
furlongs from the city: these sometimes brought it to a sort of
a regular battle. Now in the place where Herod beat them
and killed' a great number of them, there he afterward built a
citadel, in memory of the great actions he did there, and adorned
it with the most costly palaces, and erected very strong fortifica-
tions, and called it from his own name Herodium. Now as
they were in their flight many joined themselves to him every
day; and at a place called Thressa of Idumea, his brother
Joseph met him, and advised him to ease himself of a great
number of his followers; because Masada would not contain
so great a multitude, which were above nine thousand. Herod
complied with this advice, and sent away the most cumbersome
part of his retinue, that they might go into Idumea, and gave
them provisions for their journey; but he got safe to the for-
tress, with his nearest relations, and retained with him only the
stoutest of his followers; and there it was that he left eight
hundred of his men as a guard for the women, and provisions
sufficient for a siege, but he made haste himself to Petrea of
Arabia.
9. As for the Parthians in Jerusalem, they betook themselves
to plundering, and fell upon the houses of those that were fled,
and upon the king's palace, and spared nothing but Hyrcanus's
* Mariamne here, in the copies.
C. XIII.
275
THE JEWISH WAR.
money, which was not above three hundred talents. They light
on other men's money also, but not on so much as they hoped
for; for Herod, having a long while had a suspicion of the per-
fidiousness of the barbarians, had taken care to have what was
most splendid among his treasures conveyed into Idumea, as
every one belonging to him had in like manner done also. But
the Parthians proceeded to that degree of injustice, as to fill all
the country with war without denouncing it, and to demolish
the city Marissa, and not only to set up Antigonus for king, but
to deliver Phasaelus and Hyrcanus bound into his hands, in
order to their being tormented by him. Antigonus himself also
bit off Hyrcanus's ears with his own teeth, as he fell down upon
his knees to him, that so he might never be able, upon any muta-
tion of affairs, to take the high priesthood again; for the high
priests that officiated were to be complete and without blemish.
10. However, he failed in his purpose of abusing Phasaelus,
by reason of his courage; for though he neither had the com-
mand of his sword nor of his hands, he prevented all abuses by
dashing his head against a stone; so he demonstrated himself to
be Herod's own brother, and Hyrcanus a most degenerate rela-
tion, and died with great bravery, and made the end of his life
agreeable to the actions of it. There is also another report
about his end, viz. that he recovered of that stroke, and that a
surgeon, who was sent by Antigonus to heal him, filled the
wound with poisonous ingredients, and so killed him; which-
soever of these deaths he came to, the beginning of it was glori-
ous. It is also reported, that before he expired he was informed
by a certain poor woman, how Herod had escaped out of their
hands, and that he said thereupon,-"I now die with comfort,
since I leave behind me one alive that will avenge me of mine
enemies."
11. This was the death of Phasaelus; but the Parthians, al-
though they had failed of the women they chiefly desired, yet
did they put the government of Jerusalem into the hands of
Antigonus, and took away Hyrcanus, and bound him, and car-
ried him to Parthia.
CHAP. XIV.
When Herod is rejected in Arabia, he makes haste to Rome,
where Antony and Cæsar join their Interest to make him
King of the Jews.
§ 1. Now Herod did the more zealously pursue his journey
into Arabia, as making haste to get money of the king, while
his brother was yet alive; by which money alone it was that he
hoped to prevail upon the covetous temper of the barbarians to
T 2
276
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
spare Phasaelus; for he reasoned thus with himself, that if the
Arabian king was too forgetful of his father's friendship with
him, and was too covetous to make him a free gift, he would,
however, borrow of him as much as might redeem his brother,
and put into his hands, as a pledge, the son of him that was to
be redeemed: accordingly, he led his brother's son along with
him, who was of the age of seven years. Now he was ready to
give three hundred talents for his brother, and intended to desire
the intercession of the Tyrians to get them accepted; however,
fate had been too quick for his diligence; and since Phasaelus
was dead, Herod's brotherly love was now in vain. Moreover,
he was not able to find any lasting friendship among the Ara-
bians; for their king, Malichus, sent to him immediately, and
commanded him to return back out of his country, and used
the name of the Parthians as a pretence for so doing, as though
these had denounced to him by their ambassadors to cast Herod
out of Arabia; while in reality they had a mind to keep back
what they owed to Antipater, and not be obliged to make re-
quitals to his sons for the free gifts the father had made them.
He also took the impudent advice of those who, equally with
himself, were willing to deprive Herod of what Antipater had
deposited among them; and these men were the most potent of
all whom he had in his kingdom.
2. So when Herod had found that the Arabians were his ene-
mies, and this for those very reasons whence he hoped they would
have been the most friendly, and had given them such an answer
as his passion suggested, he returned back and went for Egypt.
Now he lodged the first evening at one of the temples of that
country, in order to meet with those whom he left behind; but
on the next day word was brought him, as he was going to Rhi-
nocurura, that his brother was dead, and how he came by his death;
and when he had lamented him as much as his present circum-
stances would bear, he soon laid aside such cares, and proceeded
on his journey. But now, after some time, the king of Arabia
repented of what he had done, and sent presently away messen-
gers to call him back; Herod had prevented them, and was come
to Pelusium, where he could not obtain a passage from those
that lay with the fleet; so he besought their captains to let him
go by them accordingly, out of the reverence they bore to the
fame and dignity of the man, they conducted him to Alexandria;
and when he came into the city, he was received by Cleopatra
with great splendour, who hoped he might be persuaded to be
commander of her forces in the expedition she was now about; but
he rejected the queen's solicitations: and being neither affrighted
at the height of that storm which then happened, nor at the
tumults that were now in Italy, he sailed for Rome.
3. But as he was in peril about Pamphilia, and obliged to
1
C. XIV.
277
THE JEWISH WAR.
1
cast out the greatest part of the ship's lading, he with difficulty
got safe to Rhodes, a place which had been grievously harassed
in the war with Cassius. He was there received by his friends,
Ptolemy and Sappinius; and although he was then in want of
money, he fitted up a three decked ship of very great magnitude,
wherein he and his friends sailed to Brundusium*, and went
thence to Rome with all speed; where he first of all went to
Antony, on account of the friendship his father had with him, and
laid before him the calamities of himself and his family, and that
he had left his nearest relations besieged in a fortress, and had
sailed to him through a storm, to make supplication to him for
assistance.
4. Hereupon Antony was moved to compassion at the change
that had been made in Herod's affairs, and this both upon. liis
calling to mind how hospitably he had been treated by Antipa-
ter, but more especially on account of Herod's own virtue; so he
then resolved to get him made king of the Jews, whom he had
himself formerly made tetrarch. The contest also that he had
with Antigonus was another inducement, and that of no less
weight than the great regard he had for Herod; for he looked
upon Antigonus as a seditious person, and an enemy of the Ro-
mans: and as for Cæsar, Herod found him better prepared than
Antony, as remembering very fresh the wars he had gone through
together with his father, the hospitable treatment he had met with
from him, and the entire good will he had shown to him, besides
the activity which he saw in Herod himself. So he called the
senate together, wherein Messalas, and after him Aratinus, pro-
duced Herod before them, and gave a full account of the merits
of his father, and his own good will to the Romans. At the
same time they demonstrated, that Antigonus was their enemy,
not only because he soon quarrelled with them, but because he
now overlooked the Romans, and took the government by the
means of the Parthians. These reasons greatly moved the se-
nate; at which juncture Antony came in, and told them that it
was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod should be
king; so they all gave their votes for it. And, when the senate
was separated, Antony and Cæsar went out, with Herod between
them; while the consul and the rest of the magistrates went be-
fore them, in order to offer sacrifices and to lay the decree in the
Capitol: Antony also made a feast for Herod on the first day of
his reign.
* This Brentesium, or Brundusium, bas coins still preserved, on which is writ-
ten BPENAHΣIOON, as Spanheim informs us.
、
278
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
CHAP. XV.
Antiogonus besieges those that were in Masada, whom Herod
frees from Confinement, when he came back from Rome, and
presently marches to Jerusalem, where he finds Silo corrupted
by Bribes.
1. Now during this time, Antigonus besieged those that were
in Masada, who had all other necessaries in sufficient quantity,
but were in want of water; on which account Joseph, Herod's
brother, was disposed to run away to the Arabians, with two hun-
dred of his own friends, because he had heard that Malichus re-
pented of his offences with regard to Herod; and he had been
so quick as to have been gone out of the fortress already, unless,
on that very night when he was going away, there had fallen a
great deal of rain, insomuch that his reservoirs were full of wa-
ter, and so he was under no necessity of running away.
After
which, therefore, they made an irruption upon Antigonus's party,
and slew a great many of them, some in open battles and some
in private ambush; nor had they always success in their attempts,
for sometimes they were beaten and ran away.
with
2. In the meantime 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 pretence, indeed, to
assist Joseph and his party, but in reality to get money of Anti-
gonus: and when he had pitched his camp very near to Jerusa-
lem, as soon as he had got money enough, he went away
the greatest part of his forces; yet still did he leave Silo with
some part of them, lest if he had taken them all away, his taking
of bribes might have been too openly discovered. Now Antigo-
nus hoped that the Parthians would come again to his assist-
ance, and, therefore, cultivated a good understanding with Silo
in the meantime, lest any interruption should be given to his
hopes.
3. Now by this time Herod had sailed out of Italy, and was
come to Ptolemais; and as soon as he had gotten together no
small army of foreigners and of his own countrymen, he marched
through Galilee against Antigonus, wherein he was assisted by
Ventidius and Silo, both whom Dellius*, a person sent by
Antony, persuaded to bring Herod [into his kingdom]. Now
Ventidius was at this time among the cities, and composing the
disturbances which had happened by means of the Parthians, as
was Silo in Judea corrupted by the bribes that Antigonus had
given him; yet was not Herod himself destitute of power, but the
number of his forces increased every day as he went along; and
* This Dellius is famous, or rather infamous, in the history of Mark Antony,
as Spanheim and Aldrich here note, from the coins of Plutarch and Dio.
•
C. XV.
279
THE JEWISH WAR.
all Galilee, with few exceptions, joined themselves to him. So
he proposed to himself to set about his most necessary enterprise,
and that was Masada, in order to deliver his relations from the
siege they endured. But still Joppa stood in his way, and hin-
dered his going thither; for it was necessary to take that city first,
which was in the enemies' hands, that when he should go to Je-
rusalem no fortress might be left in the enemies' power behind
him. Silo also willingly joined him, as having now a plausible
occasion of drawing off his forces [from Jerusalem]: and when
the Jews pursued him, and pressed upon him [in his retreat],
Herod made an excursion upon them with a small body of his
men, and soon put them to flight, and saved Silo, when he was
in distress.
*
4. After this Herod took Joppa, and then made haste to
Masada to free his relations. Now as he was marching many
came in to him, induced some 'by their friendship to his father,
soine by the reputation he had already gained himself, and some
in order to repay the benefits they had received from them both;
but still what engaged the greatest number on his side was the
hopes from him when he should be established in his kingdom;
so that he had gotten together already an army hard to be con-
quered. But Antigonus laid an ambush for him as he marched
out, in which he did little or no harm to his enemies. However,
he easily recovered his relations again that were in Masada, as
well as the fortress Ressa, and then marched to Jerusalem, where
the soldiers that were with Silo joined themselves to his own, as
did many out of the city, from a dread of his power.
1
5. Now when he had pitched his camp on the west side of the
city, the guards that were there shot their arrows, and threw their
darts at them, while others ran out in companies, and attacked
those in the forefront; but Herod commanded proclamation to
be made at the wall, that "he was come for the good of the
people and the preservation of the city, without any design to be
revenged on his open enemies, but to grant oblivion to them,
though they had been the most obstinate against him."
Now
the soldiers that were for Antigonus made a contrary clamour,
and did neither permit any body to hear that proclamation, nor
to change their party; so Antigonus gave order to his forces
to beat the enemy from the walls: accordingly, they soon threw
their darts at them from the towers, and put them to flight.
6. And here it was that Silo discovered he had taken bribes;
for he set many of the soldiers to clamour about their want of
necessaries, and to require their pay, in order to buy themselves
food, and to demand that he would lead them into places conve-
nient for their winter quarters, because all the parts about the
city were laid waste by the means of Antigonus's army, which
had taken all things away. By this he moved the army, and at-
280
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
tempted to get them off the siege; but Herod went to the cap-
tains that were under Silo, and to a great many of the soldiers
and begged of them not to leave him, who was sent thither by
Cæsar, and Antony, and the senate; for that he would take care
to have their wants supplied that very day. After the making
of which entreaty he went hastily into the country, and brought
thither so great an abundance of necessaries, that he cut off all
Silo's pretences; and in order to provide that for the following
days they should not want supplies, he sent to the people that
were about Samaria (which city had joined itself to him) to bring
corn, and wine, and oil, and cattle, to Jericho. When Antigo-
nus heard of this, he sent some of his party with orders to hinder,
and lay ambushes for these collectors of corn. This command
was obeyed; and a great multitude of armed men were gathered
together about Jericho, aud lay upon the mountains, to watch
those that brought the provisions. Yet was not Herod idle, but
took with him ten cohorts, five of them were Romans and five
were Jewish cohorts, together with some mercenary troops in-
termixed among them, and besides those a few horsemen, and
came to Jericho, and when he came he found the city deserted;
but that there were five hundred men, with their wives and chil-
dren, who had taken possession of the tops of the mountains;
these he took, and dismissed them, while the Romans fell upon
the rest of the city, and plundered it, having found the houses
full of all sorts of good things. So the king left a garrison at
Jericho, and came back, and sent the Roman army into those
cities which were come over to him, to take their winter quarters
there, viz into Judea, [or Idumea], and Galilee, and Samaria.
Antigonus also by bribes obtained of Silo to let a part of his
army be received at Lydda, as a compliment to Antonius.
CHAP. XVI.
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 by sending his brother Joseph thither,
that no innovation might be made by Antigonus. He also re-
moved his mother, and all his relations who had been in Masada,
to Samaria; and when he had settled them securely, he marched
to take the remaining parts of Galilee, and to drive away the
garrisons placed there by Antigonus.
C. XVI.
281
THE JEWISH WAR.
2. But when Herod had reached Sepphoris*, in a very great
snow, he took the city without any difficulty, the guards, that
should have kept it, flying away before it was assaulted; where
he gave an opportunity to his followers that had been in distress
to refresh themselves, there being in that city a great abundance
of necessaries. After which he hasted away to the robbers that
were in the caves, who overran a great part of the country, and
did as great mischief to its inhabitants as a war itself could have
done. Accordingly, he sent beforehand three cohorts of footmen
and one troop of horsemen to the village Arbela, and came him-
self forty† days afterwards, with the rest of his forces. Yet were
not the enemy affrighted at his assault, but met him in arms, for
their skill was that of warriors, but their boldness was the bold-
ness of robbers: when, therefore, it came to a pitched battle,
they put to flight Herod's left wing with their right one; but
Herod, wheeling about on the sudden from his own right wing,
came to their assistance, and both made his own left wing return
back from its flight, and fell upon the pursuers, and cooled their
courage, till they could not bear the attempts that were made
directly upon them, and so turned back and ran away.
3. But Herod followed them, and slew them as he followed
them, and destroyed a great part of them, till those that remained
were scattered beyond the river [Jordan], and Galilee was freed
from the terrors they had been under, excepting from those that
remained and lay concealed in caves, which required longer time
ere they could be conquered: in order to which Herod, in the
the first place, distributed the fruits of their former labours to
the soldiers, and gave every one of them a hundred and fifty
drachmæ of silver, and a great deal more to their commanders,
and sent them into their winter quarters. He also sent to his
youngest brother Pheroras to take care of a good market for
them, where they might buy themselves provisions, and to build
a wall about Alexandrium; who took care of both those injunc-
tions accordingly.
4. In the meantime Antony abode at Athens, while Ventidius
called for Silo and Herod to come to the war against the Par-
thians, but ordered them first to settle the affairs of Judea; so
Herod willingly dismissed Silo to go to Ventidius, but he made
an expedition himself against those that lay in the caves. Now
these caves were in the precipices of craggy mountains, and
* This Sepphoris, the metropolis of Galilee, so often mentioned by Josephus,
has coins still remaining, ΣEQPHNON, as Spanheim here informs us.
+ This way of speaking after 40 days, is interpreted by Josephus himself on
the 40th day; Antiq. B. xiv. chap. xv. sect. 4. in like manner, when Josephus
says, chap. xxxiii. sect. 8, that Herod lived after he had ordered Antipater to be
slain 5 days, this is by himself interpreted, Antiq. B. xvii. chap. vii. sect. 1, that
he died on the 5th day afterward. So also what is in this book, chap. xiii. sect 1,
after two years, is, Antiq. B. xiv. chap. xiii. sect. 3, on the second year. And Dean
Aldrich here notes that this way of speaking is familiar in Josephus.
282
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
A
could not be come at from any side, since they had only some
winding pathways very narrow, by which they got up to them;
but the rock that lay on their front had beneath it valleys of a
vast depth, and of an almost perpendicular declivity; insomuch
that the king was doubtful for a long time what to do, by reason
of a kind of impossibility there was of attacking the place. Yet
did he at length make use of a contrivance that was subject to
the utmost hazard; for he let down the most hardy of his men
in chests, and set them at the mouths of the dens. Now these
men slew the robbers and their families, and when they made
any resistance they sent in fire upon them [and burnt them];
and as Herod was desirous of saving some of them, he had pro-
clamation made that they should come and deliver themselves
up to him; but not one of them came willingly to him; and of
those that were compelled to come, many preferred death to
captivity. And here a certain old man, the father of seven
children, whose children, together with their mother, desired
him to give them leave to go out, upon the assurance and right
hand that was offered them, slew them after the following man-
ner. He ordered every one of them to go out, while he stood
himself at the cave's mouth, and slew that son of his perpetually
who went out. Herod was near enough to see this sight, and
his bowels of compassion were moved at it, and he stretched
out his right hand to the old man, and besought him to spare
his children; yet did not he relent at all upon what he said,
but over and above reproached Herod on the lowness of his
descent, and slew his wife, as well as his children; and when
he had thrown their dead bodies down the precipice, he at last
threw himself down after them.
5. By this means Herod subdued these caves, and the robbers
that were in them. He then left there a part of his army, as
many as he thought sufficient, to prevent any sedition, and made
Ptolemy their general, and returned to Samaria: he led also
with him three thousand armed footmen and six hundred horse-
men against Antigonus. Now here those that used to raise tu-
mults in Galilee, having liberty so to do upon his departure, fell
unexpectedly upon Ptolemy, the general of his forces, and slew
him they also laid the country waste, and then retired to the
bogs, and to places not easily to be found. But when Herod
was informed of this insurrection, he came to the assistance of
the country immediately, and destroyed a great number of the
seditious, and raised the sieges of all those fortresses they had
besieged he also exacted the tribute of a hundred talents of
his enemies, as a penalty for the mutations they had made in the
country.
:
6. By this time the Parthians being already driven out of the
country, and Pacorus slain, Ventidius, by Antony's command,
C. XVI.
283
THE JEWISH WAR.
1.
sent a thousand horsemen and two legions, as auxiliaries to
Herod, against Antigonus. Now Antigonus besought Macheras,
who was their general, by letter to come to his assistance, and
made a great many mournful complaints about Herod's violence
and about the injuries he did to the kingdom, and promised to
give him money for such his assistance: but he complied not
with his invitation to betray his trust; for he did not contemn
him that sent him, especially while Herod gave him more money
[than the other offered]. So he pretended friendship to Anti-
gonus, but came as a spy to discover his affairs, although he did
not therein comply with Herod, who dissuaded him from so
doing. But Antigonus perceived what his intentions were be-
forehand, and excluded him out of the city, and defended him-
self against him as against an enemy from the walls, till Ma-
cheras was ashamed of what he had done, and retired to Emmaus
to Herod; and as he was in a rage at his disappointment, he
slew all the Jews whom he met with, without sparing those that
were for Herod, but using them all as if they were for Antigonus.
7. Hereupon Herod was very angry at him, and was going to
fight against Macheras as his enemy; but he restrained his
indignation, and marched to Antony to accuse Macheras of
naladministration. But Macheras was made sensible of his
offences, and followed after the king immediately, and earnestly
begged and obtained that he would be reconciled to him. How-
ever, Herod did not desist from his resolution of going to Anto-
ny: but when he heard that he was besieging Samosata* with
a great army, which is a strong city near to Euphrates, he made
the greater haste, as observing that this was a proper opportu-
nity for showing at once his courage, and for doing what would
greatly oblige Antony. Indeed, when he came, he soon made
an end of that siege, and slew a great number of the barbarians,
and took from them a large prey; insomuch that Antony, who
admired his courage formerly, did now admire it still more.
Accordingly, he heaped many more honours upon him, and
gave him more assured hopes that he should gain his kingdom:
and now King Antiochus was forced to deliver up Samosata.
* This Samosata, the metropolis of Comagena, is well known from its coins, as
Spanheim here assures us. Dean Aldrich also confirms what Josephus here notes,
that Herod was a great means of taking the city by Antony, and that from Plu-
tarch and Dio.
284
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
CHAP. XVII.
The Death of Joseph [Herod's Brother], which had been signi-
fied 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 meantime Herod's affairs in Judea were in an ill
state. He had left his brother Joseph with full power, but had
charged him to make no attempts against Antigonus till his re-
turn; for that Macheras would not be such an assistant as he
could depend on, as it appeared by what he had done already;
but as soon as Joseph had heard that his brother was at a very
great distance, he neglected the charge he had received, and
marched towards Jericho with five cohorts which Macheras sent
with him. This movement was intended for seizing on the corn,
as it was now in the midst of summer; but when his enemies
attacked him in the mountains, and in places which were difficult.
to pass, he was both killed himself, as he was very bravely fight-
ing in the battle, and the entire Roman cohorts were destroyed;
for these cohorts were new raised men, gathered out of Syria, and
there was no mixture of those called veteran soldiers among them,
who might have supported those that were unskilful in war.
2. This victory was not sufficient for Antigonus, but he pro-
ceeded to that degree of rage as to treat the dead body of Jo-
seph barbarously; for when he had gotten possession of the
bodies of those that were slain, he cut off his head, although
his brother Pheroras would have given fifty talents as a price of
redemption for it. And now the affairs of Galilee were put
into such disorder after this victory of Antigonus, that those of
Antigonus's party brought the principal men that were on He-
rod's side to the lake, and there drowned them. There was a
great change made also in Idumea, where Macheras was build-
ing a wall about one of the fortresses, which was called Gittha.
But Herod had not yet been informed of these things; for after
the taking of Samosata, and when Antony had set Sosius over
the affairs of Syria, and given him orders to assist Herod against
Antigonus, he departed into Egypt; but Sosius sent two legions
before him into Judea to assist Herod, and followed himself
soon after with the rest of his army.
3. Now when Herod was at Daphne, by Antioch, he had
some dreams which clearly foreboded his brother's death; and
as he leaped out of his bed in a disturbed manner, there came
messengers that acquainted him with that calamity. So when
he had lamented this misfortune for awhile, he put off the main

C. XVII.
285
THE JEWISH WAR.
1
part of his mourning, and made haste to march against his ene-
mies; and when he had performed a march that was above his
strength, and was gone as far as Libanus, he got him eight hun-
dred men of those that lived near to that mountain as his assis-
tants, and joined with him one Roman legion, with which, before
it was day, he made an irruption into Galilee, and met his ene-
mies, and drove them back to the place which they had left.
He also made an immediate and continued attack upon the for-
tress. Yet was he forced by a most terrible storm to pitch his
camp in the neighbouring villages before he could take it: but
when, after a few days time, the second legion that came from
Antony joined themselves to him, the enemy were affrighted at
his power, and left their fortifications in the nighttime.
4. After this he marched through Jericho, as making what
haste he could to be avenged on his brother's murderers; where
happened to him a providential sign, out of which, when he
had unexpectedly escaped, he had the reputation of being very
dear to God; for that day there feasted with him many of the
principal men, and after that feast was over, and all the guests
were gone out, the house fell down immediately. And as he
judged this to be a common signal of what dangers he should
undergo, and how he should escape them in the war that he was
going about, he in the morning set forward with his army, when
about six thousand of his enemies came running down from the
mountains, and began to fight with those in his forefront; yet
durst they not be so very bold as to engage the Romans hand
to hand, but threw stones and darts at them at a distance; by
which means they wounded a considerable number; in which
action Herod's own side was wounded with a dart.
5. Now as Antigonus had a mind to appear to exceed Herod,
not only in the courage but in the number of his men, he sent
Pappus, one of his companions, with an army against Samaria,
whose fortune it was to oppose Macheras; but Herod overran
the enemies' country, and demolished five little cities, and de-
stroyed two thousand men that were in them, and burned their
houses, and then returned to his camp; but his head quarters
were at the village called Cana.
6. Now a great multitude of Jews resorted to him every day,
both out of Jericho and the other parts of the country. Some
were moved so to do out of their hatred to Antigonus, and some
out of regard to the glorious actions Herod had done; but
others were led on by an unreasonable desire of change; so he
fell upon them immediately. As for Pappus and his party,
they were not terrified either at their number or at their zeal,
but marched out with great alacrity to fight them, and it came
to a close fight. Now other parts of their army made resistance.
286
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
for awhile; but Herod running the utmost hazard, out of the
rage he was in at the murder of his brother, that he might be
avenged on those that had been the authors of it, soon beat those
that opposed him; and after he had beaten them, he always
turned his force against those that stood to it still, and pursued
them all; so that a great slaughter was made, while some were
forced back into that village whence they came out he also
pressed hard upon the hindermost, and slew a vast number of
them he also fell into the village with the enemy, where every
house was filled with armed men, and the upper rooms were
crowded above with soldiers for their defence; and when he had
beaten those that were on the outside, he pulled the houses to
pieces, and plucked out those that were within: upon many he
had the roofs shaken down, whereby they perished by heaps;
and as for those that fled out of the ruins, the soldiers received
them with their swords in their hands; and the multitude of
those slain and lying on heaps was so great, that the conquerors
could not pass along the roads. Now the enemy could not
bear this blow, so that when the multitude of them which was
gathered together saw that those in the village were slain, they
dispersed themselves and fled away; upon the confidence of
which victory Herod had marched immediately to Jerusalem,
unless he had been hindered by the depth of winter's [coming
on]. This was the impediment that lay in the way of this his entire
glorious progress, and was what hindered Antigonus from being
now conquered, who was already disposed to forsake the city.
J
7. Now when at the evening Herod had already dismissed
his friends to refresh themselves after their fatigue, and when
he was gone himself, while he was still hot in his armour, like a
common soldier to bathe himself, and had but one servant that
attended him, and before he was gotten into the bath, one of
the enemies met him in the face with a sword in his hand, and
then a second, and then a third, and after that more of them;
these were men who had run away out of the battle into the
bath in their armour, and they had lain there for some time in
great terror, and in privacy; and when they saw the king, they
trembled for fear, and ran by him in a fright (although he were
naked), and endeavoured to get off into the public road: now
there was by chance nobody else at hand that might seize upon
these men, and for Herod, he was contented to have come to
no harm himself, so that they all got away in safety.
8. But on the next day Herod had Pappus's head cut off,
who was the general for Antigonus, and was slain in the battle,
and sent it to his brother Pheroras, by way of punishment for
their slain brother, for he was the man that slew Joseph. Now
as winter was going off, Herod marched to Jerusalem, and
C. XVII.
287
THE JEWISH WAR.
1
brought his army to the wall of it; this was the third year since
he had been made king at Rome: so he pitched his camp be
fore the temple, for on that side it might be besieged; and there
it was that Pompey took the city. So he parted the work
among the army, and demolished the suburbs, and raised three
banks, and gave orders to have towers built upon those banks,
and left the most laborious of his acquaintance at the works. But
he went himself to Samaria, to take the daughter of Alexander,
the son of Aristobulus, to wife, who had been betrothed to him
before, as we have already said; and thus he accomplished this
by the by, during the siege of the city, for he had his enemies in
great contempt already.
•
4
9. When he had thus married Mariamne, he came back to
Jerusalem with a greater army; Sosius also joined him with a
large army, both of horsemen and footmen, which he sent before
him through the midland parts, while he marched himself along
to Phoenicia; and when the whole army was gotten together,
which were eleven regiments of footmen and six thousand horse-
men, besides the Syrian auxiliaries, which was no small part of
the army, they pitched their camp near to the north wall. He-
rod's dependence was upon the decree of the senate, by which
he was made king, and Sosius relied upon Antony, who sent the
army that was under him to Herod's assistance.
庐
​CHAP XVIII.
How Herod and Sosius took Jerusalem by Force; and what
Death Antigonus came to. Also concerning Cleopatra's ava-
ricious Temper.
§ 1. Now the multitude of the Jews that were in the city were
divided into several factions; for the people that crowded about
the temple, being the weakest part of them, gave it out, that as
the times were, he was the happiest and most religious man who
should die first. But as to the more bold and hardy men they
got together in bodies, and fell a robbing others, after various
manners; and these particularly plundered the places that were
about the city, and this because there was no food left either for
the horses or the men; yet some of the warlike men who were
used to fight regularly were appointed to defend the city during
the siege, and these drove those that raised the banks away from
the wall; and these were always inventing one engine or another
to be a hinderance to the engines of the enemy, nor had they
so much success any way as in the mines under ground.
2. Now as for the robberies which were committed the king
contrived that ambushes should be so laid that they might re-
strain their excursions; and as for the want of provisions, he
288
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
provided that they should be brought to them from great dis-
tances. He was also too hard for the Jews, by the Romans'
skill in the art of war, although they were bold to the utmost
degree. Now they durst not come to a plain battle with the Ro-
mans, which was certain death; but through their mines under
ground they would appear in the midst of them on the sudden,
and before they could batter down one wall they built them an-
other in its stead; and, to sum up all at once, they did not show
any want either of painstaking or of contrivances, as having re-
solved to hold out to the very last. Indeed, though they had
so great an army lying round about them, they bore a siege of
five months, till some of Herod's chosen men ventured to get
upon the wall, and fell into the city, as did Sosius's centurions
after them; and now they first of all seized upon what was about
the temple; and upon the pouring in of the army there was
slaughter of vast multitudes every where, by reason of the rage
the Romans were in at the length of the siege, and by reason
that the Jews, who were about Herod, earnestly endeavoured
that none of their adversaries might remain; so they were cut
to pieces by great multitudes, as they were crowded together in
narrow streets and in houses, or were running away to the tem-
ple; nor was there any mercy shown either to infants, or to the
aged, or to the weaker sex; insomuch that although the king
sent about, and desired them to spare the people, nobody could
be persuaded to withhold their right hand from slaughter, but
they slew people of all ages like madmen. Then it was that
Antigonus, without any regard to his former or to his present
fortune, came down from the citadel, and fell down at Sosius's
feet, who, without pitying him at all, upon the change of his
condition, laughed at him beyond measure, and called him An-
tigona*. Yet did he not treat him like a woman, or let him go
free, but put him into bonds, and kept him in custody.
3. But Herod's concern at present, now he had gotten his
enemies under his power, was to restrain the zeal of his foreign
auxiliaries; for the multitude of the strange people were very
eager to see the temple, and what was sacred in the holy house
itself; but the king endeavoured to restrain them, partly by his
exhortations, partly by his threatenings, nay, partly by force, as
thinking the victory worse than a defeat to him, if any thing that
ought not to be seen were seen by them. He also forbade, at
the same time, the spoiling of the city, asking Sosius, in the most
earnest manner, whether the Romans by thus emptying the city
of money and men had a mind to leave him king of a desert;
and told him, that "he judged the dominion of the habitable
earth too small a compensation for the slaughter of so many
citizens." And when Sosius said, "that it was but just to allow
* i. e. a woman, not a man.
C. XVIII.
289
THE JEWISH WAR.
the soldiers this plunder, as a reward for what they suffered dur-
ing the siege ;" Herod made answer, that "he would give every
one of the soldiers a reward out of his own money." So he
purchased the deliverance of his country, and performed his pro-
mises to them, and made presents after a magnificent manner to
each soldier, and proportionably to their commanders, and with
a most royal bounty to Sosius himself, whereby nobody went
away but in a wealthy condition. Hereupon Sosius dedicated a
crown of gold to God, and then went away from Jerusalem,
leading Antigonus away in bonds to Antony: then did the axe*
bring him to his end, who still had a fond desire of life, and some
frigid hopes of it to the last, but by his cowardly behaviour well
deserved to die by it.
4. Hereupon king Herod distinguished the multitude that was
in the city; and for those that were of his side he made them
still more his friends by the honours he conferred on them; but
for those of Antigonus's party he slew them; and as his money
ran low, he turned all the ornaments he had into money, and sent
it to Antony, and to those about him. Yet could he not hereby
purchase an exemption from all his sufferings; for Antony was
now bewitched by his love to Cleopatra, and was entirely con-
quered by her charms. Now Cleopatra had put to death all
her kindred, till no one near to her in blood remained alive, and
after that she fell a slaying those no way related to her. So she
calumniated the principal men among the Syrians to Antony, and
persuaded him to have them slain, that so she might easily gain
to be mistress of what they had; nay, she extended her avaricious
humour to the Jews and Arabians, and secretly laboured to have
Herod and Malichus, the kings of both those nations, slain by
his order.
5. Now as to these her injunctions to Antony, he complied
in part; for though he esteemed it too abominable a thing to kill
such good and great kings, yet was he thereby alienated from the
friendship he had for them. He also took away a great deal of
their country; nay, even the plantation of palm-trees at Jericho,
where also grows the balsam-tree, and bestowed them upon her;
as also all the cities on this side the river Eleutherus, Tyre
and Sidon† excepted. And when she was become mistress of
these, and had conducted Antony on his expedition against the
Parthians as far as Euphrates, she came by Apamia and Damas-
* This death of Antigonus is confirmed by Plutarch and Strabo; the latter of
whom is cited for it by Josephus himself, Antiq. B. xv. ch. i. sect. 2, as Dean Al-
drich here observes.
+ This ancient liberty of Tyre and Sidon under the Romans, taken notice of by
Josephus, both here and Antiq. B. xv.ch. iv. sect. 1, is confirmed by the testimony
of Strabo, B. xvi. page 757, as Dean Aldrich remarks; although, as he justly adds,
this liberty lasted but a little while longer, when Augustus took it away from
them.
VOL. III.
+
U
290
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
cus into Judea; and there did Herod pacify her indignation at
him by large presents. He also hired of her those places that
had been torn away from his kingdom, at the yearly rent of two
hundred talents. He conducted her also as far as Pelusium, and
paid her all the respects possible. Now it was not long after
this that Antony was come back from Parthia, and led with him
Artabazes, Tigranes's son, captive, as a present for Cleopatra;
for this Parthian was presently given her, with his money, and
all the prey that was taken with him.
CHAP. XIX.
How Antony, at the Persuasion of Cleopatra, sent Herod to
fight against the Arabians; and how, 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 pre-
pared to come to the assistance of Antony, as being already freed
from his troubles in Judea, and having gained Hyrcania, which
was a place that was held by Antigonus's sister. However, he
was cunningly hindered from partaking of the hazards that An-
tony went through by Cleopatra; for since, as we have already
noted, she had laid a plot against the kings [of Judea and Ara-
bia], she prevailed with Antony to commit the war against the
Arabians to Herod, that so, if he got the better, she might be-
come mistress of Arabia, or, if he were worsted, of Judea; and
that she might destroy one of these kings by the other.
2. However, this contrivance tended to the advantage of He-
rod; for at the very first he took hostages from the enemy, and
got together a great body of horse, and ordered them to march
against them about Diospolis; and he conquered that army, al-
though it fought resolutely against him. After which defeat the
Arabians were in great motion, and assembled themselves toge-
ther at Kanatha, a city of Celesyria, in vast multitudes, and
waited for the Jews. And when Herod was come thither, he
tried to manage this war with particular prudence, and gave or-
ders that they should build a wall about their camp: yet did not
the multitude comply with these orders, but were so emboldened
by their foregoing victory, that they presently attacked the Ara-
bians, and beat them at the first onset, and then pursued them;
yet were there snares laid for Herod in that pursuit; while Athe-
nio, who was one of Cleopatra's generals, and always an añta-
gonist to Herod, sent out of Kanatha the men of that country
against him; for, upon this fresh onset, the Arabians took cou-
rage, and returned back, and both joined their numerous forces
about stony places that were hard to be gone over, and there
C. XIX.
291
THE JEWISH WAR.
put Herod's men to the rout, and made a great slaughter of them:
but those that escaped out of the battle fled to Ormiza, where
the Arabians surrounded their camp, and took it, with all the
men in it.
S. In a little time after this calamity, Herod came to bring
them succours; but he came too late. Now the occasion of that
blow was this, that the officers would not obey orders; for had
not the fight begun so suddenly, Athenio had not found a proper
season for the snares he laid for Herod: however, he was even
with the Arabians afterward, and overran their country, and did
them more harm than their single victory could compensate. But
as he was avenging himself on his enemies, there fell upon him
another providential calamity; for in the seventh year* of his
reign, when the war about Actium was at the height, at the be-
ginning of the spring, the earth was shaken, and destroyed an
immense number of cattle, with thirty thousand men; but the
army received no harm, because it lay in the open air. In the
mean time the fame of this earthquake elevated the Arabians to
greater courage, and this by augmenting it to a fabulous height,
as is constantly the case in melancholy accidents, and pretending
that all Judea was overthrown: upon this supposal, therefore, that
they should easily get a land that was destitute of inhabitants into
their power, they first sacrificed those ambassadors who were
come to them from the Jews, and then marched into Judea im-
mediately. Now the Jewish nation were affrighted at this inva-
sion, and quite dispirited at the greatness of their calamities one
after another; whom yet Herod got together, and endeavoured to
encourage to defend themselves by the following speech which
he made to them:
4. "The present dread you are under seems to me to have
seized upon you very unreasonably. It is true, you might justly
be dismayed at that providential chastisement which hath befal-
len you; but to suffer yourselves to be equally terrified at the in-
vasion of men is unmanly. As for myself, I am so far from being
affrighted at our enemies after this earthquake, that I imagine
that God hath thereby laid a bait for the Arabians, that we may
be avenged on them; for their present invasion proceeds more
from our accidental misfortunes, than that they have any great
dependance on their weapons, or their own fitness for action,
* This seventh year of the reign of Herod [from the conquest, or death of An-
tigonus], with the great earthquake in the beginning of the same spring, which
are here fully implied to be not much before the fight at Actium, between Octa-
vius and Antony, and which is known from the Roman historians to have been in
the beginning of September, in the 31st year before the Christian era, determines
the chronology of Josephus as to the reign of Herod, viz. that he began in the
year 37, beyond rational contradiction. Nor is it quite unworthy of our notice,
that the seventh year of the reign of Herod, or the 31st before the Christian era,
contained the latter part of a Sabbatic year; on which Sabbatic year, therefore,
it is plain this great earthquake happened in Judea.
U 2
292
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
Now that hope which depends not on men's own power, but on
others' ill success, is a very ticklish thing: for there is no certainty
among men either in their bad or good fortunes; but we may
easily observe that fortune is mutable, and goes from one side to
another: and this you may readily learn from examples among
yourselves; for when you were once victors in the former fight,
your enemies overcame you at last; and very likely it will now
happen so, that these who think themselves sure of beating you
will themselves be beaten. For when men are very confident,
they are not upon their guard, while fear teaches men to act with
caution; insomuch that I venture to prove, from your very ti-
morousness, that you ought to take courage; for when you were
more bold than you ought to have been, and than I would have
had you, and marched on, Athenio's treachery took place; but
your present slowness and seeming dejection of mind is to me a
pledge and assurance of victory. And, indeed, it is proper be-
forehand to be thus provident; but when we come to action,
we ought to erect our minds, and to make our enemies, be they
ever so wicked, believe that neither any human, no, nor any pro-
vidential misfortune, can ever depress the courage of Jews while
they are alive; nor will any of them ever overlook an Arabian,
or suffer such a one to become lord of his good things, whom he
has in a manner taken captive, and that many times also. And
do not you disturb yourselves at the quaking of inanimate crea-
tures, nor do you imagine that this earthquake is another sign of
another calamity; for such affections of the elements are accord-
ing to the course of nature, nor does it import any thing farther to
men, than what mischief it does immediately of itself. Perhaps
there may come some short sign beforehand in the case of pes-
tilences, and famines, and earthquakes; but these calamities them-
selves have their force limited by themselves [without foreboding
any other calamity]. And, indeed, what greater mischief can
the war, though it should be a violent one, do to us than the
earthquake hath done? Nay, there is a signal of our enemies'
destruction visible, and that a very great one also; and this is not
a natural one, nor derived from the hand of foreigners neither,
but it is this, that they have barbarously murdered our ambassa-
dors, contrary to the common law of mankind; and they have
destroyed so many, as if they esteemed them sacrifices for God
in relation to this war. But they will not avoid his great eye,
nor his invincible right hand; and we shall be revenged of them
presently, in case we still retain any of the courage of our fore-
fathers, and rise up boldly to punish these covenant-breakers.
Let
every one, therefore, go on and fight, not so much for his wife
or his children, or for the danger his country is in, as for these
ambassadors of ours: those dead ambassadors will conduct this
war of ours better than we ourselves who are alive. And if you
C. XIX.
293
THE JEWISH WAR.
will be ruled by me, I will myself go before you into danger;
for you know this well enough, that your courage is irresistible
unless you hurt yourselves by acting rashly*."
5. When Herod had encouraged them by this speech, and he
saw with what alacrity they went, he offered sacrifice to God;
and after that sacrifice he passed over the river Jordan with his
army, and pitched his camp about Philadelphia, near the enemy,
and about a fortification that lay between them. He then shot
at them at a distance, and was desirous to come to an engage-
ment presently; for some of them had been sent beforehand to
seize upon that fortification: but the king sent some who im-
mediately beat them out of the fortification, while he himself
went in the forefront of the army, which he put in battle array
every day, and invited the Arabians to fight. But as none of
them came out of their camp, for they were in a terrible fright,
and their general, Elthemus, was not able to say a word for
fear; so Herod came upon them, and pulled their fortification
to pieces, by which means they were compelled to come out to
fight, which they did in disorder, and so that the horsemen and
footmen were mixed together. They were, indeed, superior to
the Jews in number, but inferior in their alacrity, although they
were obliged to expose themselves to danger by their very de-
spair of victory.
6. Now while they made opposition they had not a great
number slain; but as soon as they turned their backs, a great
many were trodden to pieces by the Jews, and a great many by
themselves, and so perished, till five thousand were fallen down
dead in their flight, while the rest of the multitude prevented
their immediate death by crowding into the fortification. Herod
encompassed these round and besieged them; and while they
were ready to be taken by their enemies in arms, they had ano-
ther additional distress upon them, which was thirst and want of
water; for the king was above hearkening to their ambassadors,
and when they offered five hundred talents as the price of their
redemption, he pressed still harder upon them. And as they
were burnt up by their thirst, they came out and voluntarily
delivered themselves up by multitudes to the Jews, till in five
days time four thousand of them were put into bonds; and on
the sixth day the multitude that were left despaired of saving
themselves, and came out to fight; with these Herod fought and
slew again about seven thousand, insomuch that he punished
Arabia so severely, and so far extinguished the spirits of the men,
that he was chosen by the nation for their ruler.
* This speech of Herod is set down twice by Josephus, here and Antiq. B. xv.
ch. v. sect. 3, to the very same purpose, but by no means in the same words;
whence it appears, that the sense was Herod's, but the composition Josephus's,
294
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
CHAP. XX.
Herod is confirmed in his Kingdom by Cæsar, and cultivates a
Friendship with the Emperor by magnificent Presents; while
Cæsar returns his Kindness by bestowing on him that Part of
his Kingdom which had been taken away from it by Cleopa-
tra, with the Addition of Zenodorus's Country also.
§ 1. BUT now Herod was under an immediate concern about a
most important affair, on account of his friendship with Antony,
who was already overcome at Actium by Cæsar; yet he was
more afraid than hurt; for Cæsar did not think he had quite
undone Antony, while Herod continued his assistance to him.
However, the king resolved to expose himself to dangers: ac-
cordingly, he sailed to Rhodes, where Cæsar then abode, and
came to him without his diadem, and in the habit and appear-
ance of a private person, but in his behaviour as a king. So he
concealed nothing of the truth, but spake thus before his face:
-"O Cæsar, as I was made king of the Jews by Antony, so
do I profess that I have used my royal authority in the best
manner, and entirely for his advantage; nor will I conceal this
farther, that thou hadst certainly found me in arms, and an in-
separable companion of his, had not the Arabians hindered me.
However, I sent him as many auxiliaries as I was able, and
many ten thousand [cori] of corn. Nay, indeed, I did not
desert my benefactor after the blow that was given him at Ac-
tium; but I gave him the best advice I was able, when I was
no longer able to assist him in the war; and I told him that
there was but one way of recovering his affairs, and that was to
kill Cleopatra; and I promised him, that if she were once dead,
I would afford him money and walls for his security, with an
army and myself to assist him in his war against thee: but his
affections for Cleopatra stopped his ears, as did God himself
also, who hath bestowed the government on thee. I own my-
self also to be overcome together with him, and with this last
fortune I have laid aside my diadem, and am come hither to
thee, having my hopes of safety in thy virtue; and I desire that
thou wilt first consider how faithful a friend, and not whose
friend I have been."
2. Cæsar replied to him thus:-"Nay, thou shalt not only
be in safety, but shalt be a king, and that more firmly than thou
wert before; for thou art worthy to reign over a great many
subjects, by reason of the fastness of thy friendship: and do
thou endeavour to be equally constant in thy friendship to me,
upon my good success, which is what I depend upon from the
generosity of thy disposition. However, Antony hath done well
in preferring Cleopatra to thee; for by this means we have
C. XX.
295
THE JEWISH WAR.
gained thee by her madness, and thus thou hast begun to be my
friend before I began to be thine; on which account Quintus
Dedius hath written to me, that thou sentest him assistance
against the gladiators. I do, therefore, assure thee, that I will
confirm the kingdom to thee by decree: I shall also endeavour
to do thee some farther kindness hereafter, that thou mayest find
no loss in the want of Antony."
3. When Cæsar had spoken such obliging things to the king,
and had put the diadem again about his head, he proclaimed
what he had bestowed on him by a decree, in which he enlarged
in the commendation of the man after a magnificent manner.
Whereupon Herod obliged him to be kind to him by the pre-
sents he gave him, and he desired him to forgive Alexander, one
of Antony's friends, who was become a supplicant to him. But
Cæsar's anger against him prevailed, and he complained of the
many and very great offences the man whom he petitioned for
had been guilty of, and by that means he rejected his petition.
After this Cæsar went for Egypt through Syria, when Herod
received him with royal and rich entertainments; and then did
he first of all ride along with Cæsar, as he was reviewing his
army about Ptolemais, and feasted him with all his friends, and
then distributed among the rest of the army what was necessary
to feast them withal. He also made a plentiful provision of
water for them, when they were to march as far as Pelusium,
through a dry country, which he did also in like manner at their
return thence: nor were there any necessaries wanting to that
army. It was, therefore, the opinion both of Cæsar and of his
soldiers, that Herod's kingdom was too small for those generous
presents he made them; for which reason, when Cæsar was
come into Egypt, and Cleopatra and Antony were dead, he did
not only bestow other marks of honour upon him, but made an
addition to his kingdom, by giving him not only the country
which had been taken from him by Cleopatra, but besides that
Gadara, and Hippos, and Samaria; and moreover, of the mari-
time cities Gaza*, and Anthedon, and Joppa, and Strato's
Tower. He also made him a present of four hundred Galls
[Galatians] as a guard for his body, which they had been to
Cleopatra before. Nor did any thing so strongly induce Cæsar
to make these presents, as the generosity of him that received
them.
4. Moreover, after the first games at Actium, he added to his
* Since Josephus both here, and in his Antiq. B. xv. ch. vii. sect. 3, reckons
Gaza, which had been a free city, among the cities given Herod by Augustus,
and yet implies that Herod had made Costobarus a governor of it before, Antiq.
B. xv. chap. vii. sect. 9; Harduin has some pretence for saying that Josephus
here contradicted himself. But, perhaps, Herod thought he had sufficient autho-
rity to put a governor into Gaza, after he was made tetrarch or king, in times
of war, before the city was entirely delivered into his hands by Augustus.
296
B.I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
F
kingdom both the region called Trachonitis, and what lay in its
neighbourhood, Batanea, and the country of Auranitis; and that
on the following occasion.-Zenodorus, who had hired the house
of Lysanias, had all along sent robbers out of Trachonitis among
the Damascens, who thereupon had recourse to Varro, the pre-
sident of Syria, and desired of him that he would represent the
calamity they were in to Cæsar: when Cæsar was acquainted
with it, he sent back orders that this nest of robbers should be
destroyed. Varro, therefore, made an expedition against them,
and cleared the land of those men, and took it away from Zeno-
dorus. Cæsar did also afterward bestow it on Herod, that it
might not again become a receptacle for those robbers that had
come against Damascus. He also made him a procurator of
all Syria, and this on the tenth year afterward, when he came
again into that province; and this was so established, that the
other procurators could not do any thing in the administration
without his advice; but when Zenodorus was dead, Cæsar be-
stowed on him all that land which lay between Trachonitis and
Galilee. Yet what was still of more consequence to Herod, he
was beloved by Cæsar next after Agrippa, and by Agrippa next
after Cæsar; whence he arrived at a very great degree of feli-
city. Yet did the greatness of his soul exceed it, and the
main part of his magnanimity was extended to the promotion.
of piety.
CHAP. XXI.
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
favourable to him.
§ 1. ACCORDINGLY, in the sixteenth year of his reign, Herod
rebuilt the temple, and encompassed a piece of land about it
with a wall, which land was twice as large as that before en-
closed. The expenses he laid out upon it were vastly large
also, and the riches about it were unspeakable. A sign of
which you have in the great cloisters that were erected about
the temple, and the citadel * which was on its north side. The
cloisters he built from the foundation, but the citadel he re-
* This fort was first built, as is supposed, by John Hyrcanus, see Prid. at the
year 207, and called Baris, the Tower or Citadel. It was afterwards rebuilt,
with great improvements, by Herod, under the government of Antonius, and
was named from him the Tower of Antonia; and about the time when Herod
rebuilt the temple, he seems to have put his last hand to it. See Antiq. B. xviii.
ch. v. sect. 4; Öf the War, B. i. ch. iii. sect. 3; and ch. v. sect. 4. It lay on the
north-west side of the temple, and was a quarter as large.
:
c. xxi.
297
THE JEWISH WAR.
paired at a vast expense; nor was it other than a royal palace,
which he called Antonia, in honour of Antony. He also built
himself a palace in the upper city, containing two very large
and most beautiful apartments; to which the holy house itself.
could not be compared [in largeness]. The one apartment he
named Cæsareum, and the other Agrippium, from his [two
great] friends.
2. Yet did he not preserve their memory by particular build-
ings only, with their names given them, but his generosity went
as far as entire cities; for when he had built a most beautiful
wall round a country in Samaria, twenty furlongs long, and had
brought six thousand inhabitants into it, and had allotted to it a
most fruitful piece of land, and in the midst of this city, thus
built, had erected a very large temple to Cæsar, and had laid
round about it a portion of sacred land of three furlongs and a
half, he called the city Sebaste, from Sebastus or Augustus, and
settled the affairs of the city after a most regular manner.
3. And when Cæsar had further bestowed upon him another
additional country, he built there also a temple of white marble,
hard by the fountains of Jordan: the place is called Panium,
where is a top of a mountain that is raised to an immense
height, and at its side, beneath, or at its bottom, a dark cave
opens itself; within which there is a horrible precipice, that
descends abruptly to a vast depth: it contains a mighty quantity
of water, which is immoveable; and when any body lets down
any thing to measure the depth of the earth beneath the water,
no length of cord is sufficient to reach it. Now the fountains
of Jordan rise at the roots of this cavity outwardly; and, as
some think, this is the utmost origin of Jordan; but we shall
speak of that matter more accurately in our following history.
4. But the king erected other places at Jericho also, between
the citadel Cypros and the former palace, such as were better
and more useful than the former for travellers, and named them
from the same friends of his. To say all at once, there was not
any place of his kingdom fit for the purpose that was permitted
to be without somewhat that was for Cæsar's honour; and when
he had filled his own country with temples, he poured out the
like plentiful marks of esteem into his province, and built many
cities, which he called Cæsareas.
5. And when he observed that there was a city by the sea-
side, that was much decayed (its name was Strato's Tower),
but that the place, by the happiness of its situation, was capa-.
ble of great improvements from his liberality, he rebuilt it all
with white stone, and adorned it with several most splendid
palaces, wherein he especially demonstrated his magnanimity :
for the case was this, that all the seashore between Dora and
Joppa, in the middle between which this city is situated, had no
298
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR,
•
good haven, insomuch that every one that sailed from Phoenicia
for Egypt was obliged to lie in the stormy sea, by reason of the
south winds that threatened them; which winds if it blew but
a little fresh, such vast waves are raised, and dash upon the
rocks, that upon their retreat the sea is in a great ferment for a
long way. But the king by the expenses he was at, and the
liberal disposal of them, overcame nature, and built a haven
larger than was the Pyreum* [at Athens]; and in the inner re-
tirements of the water he built other deep stations [for the ships
also.]
6. Now, although the place where he built was greatly oppo-
site to his purposes, yet did he so fully struggle with that dif-
ficulty, that the firmness of his building could not easily be con-
quered by the sea; and the beauty and ornament of the works
was such, as though he had not had any difficulty in the opera-
tion; for when he had measured out as large a space as we have
before mentioned, he let down stones into twenty fathom water,
the greatest part of which were fifty feet in length, and nine in
depth, and ten in breadth, and some still larger. But when the
haven was filled up to that depth, he enlarged that wall which
was thus already extant above the sea, till it was two hundred
feet wide; one hundred of which had buildings before it, in
order to break the force of the waves, whence it was called
Procumatia, or the first breaker of the waves; but the rest of
the space was under a stone wall that ran round it. On this
wall were very large towers, the principal and most beautiful of
which was called Drusium from Drusus, who was son-in-law to
Cæsar.
7. There were also a great number of arches where the mari-
ners dwelt; and all the place before them round about was a large
valley, or walk, for a key [or landing place] to those that came
on shore; but the entrance was on the north, because the north
wind was there the most gentle of all the winds. At the mouth
of the haven were on each side three great Colossi, supported
by pillars, where those Colossi that are on your left hand, as
you sail into the port, are supported by a solid tower, but those
on the right hand are supported by two upright stones joined
together, which stones were larger than that tower which was
on the other side of the entrance. Now there were continual
edifices joined to the haven, which were also themselves of
white stone; and to this haven did the narrow streets of the city
lead, and were built at equal distances one from another. And
* That Josephus speaks truth when he assures us, that "the haven of this
Cæsarea was made by Herod not less, nay rather larger, than that famous haven
at Athens, called the Pyreum," will appear, says Dean Aldrich, to him who
compares the description of that at Athens in Thucydides and Pausanias with
this of Cæsarea in Josephus here, and in the Antiq. B. xv. ch. ix. sect. 6; and
B. xvii. ch. ix. sect. 1.
C. XXI.
299
THE JEWISH WAR.
over against the mouth of the haven, upon an elevation, there
was a temple for Cæsar, which was excellent both in beauty
and largeness; and therein was a Colossus of Cæsar, not less
than that of Jupiter Olympius, which it was made to resemble.
The other Colossus of Rome was equal to that of Juno at
Argos. So he dedicated the city to the province, and the haven
to the sailors there; but the honour of the building he ascribed
to Cæsar*, and named it Cæsarea accordingly.
8. He also built the other edifices, the amphitheatre, and
theatre, and market-place, in a manner agreeable to that deno-
mination; and appointed games every fifth year, and called
them, in like manner, Cæsar's Games; and he first himself pro-
posed the largest prizes upon the hundred ninety second Olym-
piad; in which not only the victors themselves, but those that
came next to them, and even those that came in the third place,
were partakers of his royal bounty. He also rebuilt Anthedon,
a city that lay on the coast, and had been demolished in the
wars, and named it Agrippeum. Moreover, he had so very
great a kindness for his friend Agrippa, that he had his name
engraven upon that gate which he had himself erected in the
temple.
9. Herod was also a lover of his father, if any other person
ever was so; for he made a monument for his father, even that
city which he built in the finest plain that was in his kingdom,
and which had rivers and trees in abundance, and named it
Antipatris. He also built a wall about a citadel that lay above
Jericho, and was a very strong and very fine building, and dedi-
cated it to his mother, and called it Cypros. Moreover, he
dedicated a tower that was at Jerusalem, and called it by the
name of his brother Phasaelus, whose structure, and largeness,
and magnificence, we shall describe hereafter. He also built
another city in the valley that leads northward from Jericho, and
named it Phasaelis.
10. And as he transmitted to eternity his family and friends,
so did he not neglect a memorial for himself, but built a fortress
upon a mountain towards Arabia, and named it from himself
Herodium†; and he called that hill that was of the shape of a
woman's breast, and was sixty furlongs distant from Jerusalem,
by the same name. He also bestowed much curious art upon
* These buildings of cities by the name of Cæsar, and institution of solemn
games in honour of Augustus Cæsar, as here and in the Antiquities related of
Herod by Josephus, the Roman historians attest to as things then frequent in the
provinces of that empire, as Dean Aldrich observes on this chapter.
+ There were two cities or citadels called Herodiums in Judea, and both
mentioned by Josephus, not only here, but Antiq. B. xiv. ch. xiii. sect. 9; B. xv.
ch. ix, sect. 6: Of the War, B. i. ch. xiii. sect. 8; B. iii. ch. iii. sect. 5. One
of them was 200, and the other 60 furlongs distant from Jerusalem. One of
them is mentioned by Pliny, Hist. Nat. B. v. ch. xiv. as Dean Aldrich observes
here.
300
B. 1.
THE JEWISH WAR.
it, with great ambition, and built round towers all about the top
of it, and filled up the remaining space with most costly palaces
round about, insomuch that not only the sight of the inner apart-
ments was splendid, but great wealth was laid out on the out-
ward walls, and partitions, and roofs also. Besides this, he
brought a mighty quantity of water from a great distance, and
at vast charges, and raised an ascent to it of two hundred steps
of the whitest marble; for the hill was itself moderately high,
and entirely factitious. He also built other palaces about the
roots of the hill, sufficient to receive the furniture that was put
into them, with his friends also, insomuch that on account of its
containing all necessaries, the fortress might seem to be a city,
but by the bounds it had, a palace only.
11. And when he had built so much, he showed the great-
ness of his soul to no small number of foreign cities. He built
places for exercise at Tripoli, and Damascus, and Ptolemais;
he built a wall about Byblus; as also large rooms, and cloisters,
and temples, and market-places at Berytus and Tyre, with thea-
tres at Sidon and Damascus. He also built aqueducts for those
Laodiceans who lived by the seaside; and for those of Ascalon
he built baths and costly fountains, as also cloisters round a
court, that were admirable both for their workmanship and
largeness. Moreover, he dedicated groves and meadows to
some people; nay, not a few cities there were who had lands
of his donation, as if they were parts of his own kingdom. He
also bestowed annual revenues, and those for ever also, on the
settlements for exercises, and appointed for them, as well as for
the people of Cos, that such rewards should never be wanting.
He also gave corn to all such as wanted it, and conferred upon
Rhodes large sums of money for building ships; and this he did
in many places, and frequently also. And when Apollo's tem-
ple had been burnt down, he rebuilt it at his own charges, after
a better manner than it was before. What need I speak of the
presents he made to the Lycians and Samnians? or of his great
liberality through all Ionia? and that according to every body's
wants of them. And are not the Athenians, and Lacedemo-
nians, and Nicopolitans, and that Pergamus which is in Mysia,
full of donations that Herod presented them withal? And as
for that large open place belonging to Antioch in Syria, did not
he pave it with polished marble, though it were twenty furlongs
long? and this when it was shunned by all men before, because
it was full of dirt and filthiness, when he besides adorned the
same place with a cloister of the same length.
12. It is true, a man may say these were favours peculiar to
those particular places, on which he bestowed his benefits; but
then what favours he bestowed on the Eleans was a donation
not only in common to all Greece, but to all the habitable earth,
C. XXI.
901
THE JEWISH WAR.
as far as the glory of the Olympic games reached. For when he
perceived that they were come to nothing, for want of money,
and that the only remains of ancient Greece were in a manner
gone, he not only became one of the combatants in that return
of the fifth year games, which in his sailing to Rome he happened
to be present at, but he settled upon them revenues in money for
perpetuity, insomuch that his memorial as a combatant there can
never fail. It would be an infinite task if I should go over
his payments of people's debts, or tributes for them, as he
eased the people of Phasaelus, of Batanea, and of the small
cities about Cilicia, of those annual pensions they before paid.
However, the fear he was in much disturbed the greatness of his
soul, lest he should be exposed to envy, or seem to hunt after
greater things than he ought, while he bestowed more liberal
gifts upon these cities than did their owners themselves.
13. Now Herod had a body suited to his soul, and was ever a
most excellent hunter, where he generally had good success, by
the means of his great skill in riding horses; for in one day he
caught forty wild beasts*: that country breeds also bears, and
the greatest part of it is replenished with stags and wild asses.
He was also such a warrior as could not be withstood; many
men, therefore, there are who have stood amazed at his readiness
in his exercises, when they saw him throw the javelin directly
forward, and to shoot the arrow upon the mark. And then be-
sides these performances of his, depending on his own strength
of mind and body, fortune was also very favourable to him; for
he seldom failed of success in his wars; and when he failed, he
was not himself the occasion of such failings, but he either was
betrayed by some, or the rashness of his own soldiers procured
his defeat.
CHAP. XXII.
The Murder of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus, the High Priests ;
as also of Mariamne the Queen.
§ 1. HOWEVER, fortune was avenged on Herod in his external
great successes, by raising him up domestic troubles; and he
began to have wild disorders in his family, on account of his wife,
of whom he was so very fond. For when he came to the govern-
ment, he sent away her whom he had before married when he
was a private person, and who was born at Jerusalem, whose
name was Doris, and married Mariamne, the daughter of Alex-
ander, the son of Aristobulus: on whose account disturbances
* Here seems to be a small defect in the copies, which describe the wild beats
which were hunted in a certain country by Herod, without naming any such
country at all.
302
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
arose in his family, and that in part very soon, but chiefly after
his return from Rome. For first of all he expelled Antipater,
the son of Doris, for the sake of his sons by Mariamne, out of
the city, and permitted him to come thither at no other times than
at the festivals. After this he slew his wife's grandfather, Hyr-
canus, when he was returned out of Parthia to him, under this
pretence, that he suspected him of plotting against him. Now
this Hyrcanus had been carried captive to Barzapharnes, when he
overran Syria: but those of his own country beyond Euphrates
were desirous he would stay with them, and this out of the com-
miseration they had for his condition; and had he complied with
their desires, when they exhorted him not to go over the river to
Herod, he had not perished: but the marriage of his grandaugh-
ter [to Herod] was his temptation; for as he relied upon him, and
was overfond of his own country, he came back to it. Herod's
provocation was this, not that Hyrcanus made any attempt to
gain the kingdom, but that it was fitter for him to be their king
than for Herod.
2. Now of the five children which Herod had by Mariamne,
two of them were daughters and three were sons; and the
youngest of these sons was educated at Rome, and there died;
but the two eldest he treated as those of royal blood, on account
of the nobility of their mother, and because they were not born
till he was king. But then what was stronger than all this, was
the love that he bare to Mariamne, and which inflamed him every
day to a great degree, and so far conspired with the other motives,
that he felt no other troubles on account of her he loved so en-
tirely. But Mariamne's hatred to him was not inferior to his
love, to her. She had, indeed, but too just a cause of indignation
from what he had done, while her boldness proceeded from his
affection to her; so she openly reproached him with what he had
done to her grandfather Hyrcanus, and to her brother Aristobu-
lus: for he had not spared this Aristobulus, though he were but
a child; for when he had given him the high priesthood at the
age of seventeen, he slew him quickly after he had conferred that
dignity upon him; but when Aristobulus had put on the holy
vestments, and had approached to the altar, at a festival, the
multitude in great crowds fell into tears: whereupon the child
was sent by night to Jericho, and was there dipped by the Galls,
at Herod's command, in a pool till he was drowned.
3. For these reasons Mariamne reproached Herod, and his
sister and mother, after a most contumelious manner, while he
was dumb on account of his affection for her; yet had the women
great indignation at her, and raised a calumny against her, that
she was false to his bed; which thing they thought most likely
to move Herod to anger. They also contrived to have many
other circumstances believed, in order to make the thing more
C. XXII.
303
THE JEWISH WAR.
credible, and accused her of having sent her picture into Egypt
to Antony; and that her lust was so extravagant, as to have thus
showed herself, though she was absent, to a man that ran mad
after women, and to a man that had it in his power to use vio-
lence to her. This charge fell like a thunderbolt upon Herod,
and put him into disorder, and that especially, because his love
to her occasioned him to be jealous; and because he considered
with himself that Cleopatra was a shrewd woman, and that on
her account Lysanias the king was taken off, as well as Malichus
the Arabian; for his fear did not only extend to the dissolving
of his marriage, but to the danger of his life.
4. When, therefore, he was about to take a journey abroad, he
committed his wife to Joseph, his sister Salome's husband, as to
one who would be faithful to him, and bare him good will on
account of their kindred; he also gave him a secret injunction,
that if Antony slew him, he should slay her. But Joseph, with-
out any ill design, and only in order to demonstrate the king's
love to his wife, how he could not bear to think of being sepa-
rated from her, even by death itself, he discovered this grand
secret to her; upon which, when Herod was come back, and as
they talked together, confirmed his love to her by many oaths,
and assured her that he had never such an affection for any other
woman as he had for her; "Yes, says she, thou didst to be sure
demonstrate thy love to me by the injunctions thou gavest Jo-
seph, when thou commandest him to kill me *"
5. When he heard that this grand secret was discovered, he
was like a distracted man, and said, that Joseph would never have
disclosed that injunction of his, unless he had debauched her.
His passion also made him stark mad, and leaping out of his bed,
he ran about the palace after a wild manner; at which time his
sister Salome took the opportunity also to blast her reputation,
and confirmed his suspicion about Joseph; whereupon, out of
his ungovernable jealousy and rage, he commanded both of them
to be slain immediately; but as soon as ever his passion was
over, he repented of what he had done, and as soon as his anger
was worn off, his affections were kindled again. And, indeed,
the flame of his desires for her was so ardent, that he could not
think she was dead, but would appear under his disorders to speak
to her as if she were still alive, till he were better instructed by
time, when his grief and trouble, now she was dead, appeared as
great as his affection had been for her while she was living.
* Here is either a defect or a great mistake in Josephus's present copies or
memory; for Mariamne did not now reproach Herod with this his first injunction
to Joseph to kill her, if he himself were slain by Antony, but that he had given
the like command a second time to Soemus also, when he was afraid of being
slain by Augustus, Ant. B. xv. ch. iii. sect. 5.
304
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
CHAP. XXIII.
Calumnies against the Sons of Mariamne. Antipater is pre-
ferred before them. They are accused before Casar, and
Herod is reconciled to them.
§ 1. Now Mariamne's sons were heirs to that hatred which had
been borne their mother; and when they considered the great-
ness of Herod's crime towards her, they were suspicious of him
as of an enemy of theirs; and this first while they were educated
at Rome, but still more when they were returned to Judea. This
temper of theirs increased upon them as they grew up to be men;
and when they were come to an age fit for marriage, the one
of them married their aunt Salome's daughter, which Salome had
been the accuser of their mother; the other married the daugh-
ter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia. And now they used bold-
ness in speaking, as well as bore hatred in their minds. Now
those that calumniated them took a handle from such their bold-
ness, and certain of them spake now more plainly to the king
that there were treacherous designs laid against him by both his
sons, and he that was son-in-law to Archelaus, relying upon his
father-in-law, was preparing to fly away, in order to accuse Herod
before Cæsar: and when Herod's head had been long enough
filled with these calumnies, he brought Antipater whom he had
by Doris into favour again, as a defence to him against his other
sons, and began all the ways he possibly could to prefer him
before them.
2. But these sons were not able to bear this change in their
affairs; but when they saw him that was born of a mother of no
family, the nobility of their birth made them unable to contain
their indignation; but whensoever they were uneasy, they showed
the anger they had at it. And as these sons did day after day im-
prove in that their anger, Antipater already exercised all his own
abilities, which were very great, in flattering his father, and in con-
triving many sorts of calumnies against his brethren; while he
told some stories of them himself, and put it upon other proper
persons to raise other stories against them, till at length he en-
tirely cut his brethren off from all hopes of succeeding to the
kingdom; for he was already publicly put into his father's will
as his successor. Accordingly, he was sent with royal ornaments
and other marks of royalty, to Cæsar, excepting the diadem. He
was also able in time to introduce his mother again into Mari-
amne's bed. The two sorts of weapons he made use of against
his brethren were flattery and calumny, whereby he brought mat-
ters privately to such a pass, that the king had thoughts of put-
ting his sons to death.
3. So the father drew Alexander as far as Rome, and charged
C. XXIII.
305
THE JEWISH WAR.
him with an attempt of poisoning him before Cæsar. Alexander
could hardly speak for lamentation; but having a judge that was
more skilful than Antipater, and more wise than Herod, he
modestly avoided laying any imputation upon his father, but with
great strength of reason confuted the calumnies laid against him:
and when he had demonstrated the innocency of his brother, who
was in the like danger with himself, he at last bewailed the craf-
tiness of Antipater, and the disgrace they were under. He was
enabled also to justify himself, not only by a clear conscience,
which he carried within him, but by his eloquence; for he was
a shrewd man in making speeches. And upon his saying at last,
that if his father objected this crime to them, it was in his power
to put them to death, he made all the audience weep; and he
brought Cæsar to that pass as to reject the accusations, and to
reconcile their father to them immediately. But the conditions
of this reconciliation were these, that they should in all things be
obedient to their father, and that he should have the power to
leave the kingdom to which of them he pleased.
4. After this the king came back from Rome, and seemed to
have forgiven his sons upon these accusations; but still so that he
was not without his suspicions of them. They were followed by
Antipater, who was the fountain head of those accusations; yet
did not he openly discover his hatred to them, as revering him
that had reconciled them. But as Herod sailed by Cilicia, he
touched at Eleusa*, where Archelaus treated them in the most
obliging manner, and gave him thanks for the deliverance of his
son-in-law, and was much pleased at their reconciliation; and
this the more, because he had formerly written to his friends at
Rome, that they should be assisting to Alexander at his trial. So
he conducted Herod as far as Zephyrium, and made him presents
to the value of thirty talents.
5. Now when Herod was come to Jerusalem, he gathered the
people together, and presented to them his three sons, and gave
them an apologetic account of his absence, and "thanked God
greatly, and thanked Cæsar greatly also, for settling his house
when it was under disturbances, and had procured concord
among his sons, which was of greater consequence than the king-
dom itself, and which I will render still more firm; for Cæsar
hath put it into my power to dispose of the government, and to
appoint my successor. Accordingly, in way of requital for his
kindness, and in order to provide for mine own advantage, I do
declare that these three sons of mine shall be kings. And in the
first place, I pray for the approbation of God to what I am about;
* That this island Eleusa, afterward called Sebaste, near-Cilicia, had in it the
royal palace of this Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, Strabo testifies, B. xv. page
671. Stephanus of Byzantium also calls it "An island of Cilicia, which is now
Sebaste;" both whose testimonies are pertinently cited here by Dr. Hudson. See
the same history, Antiq. B. xvi. ch. x. sect. 7.
VOL. III.
X
306
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR,
and, in the next place, I desire your approbation also. The age
of one of them, and the nobility of the other two, shall procure
them the succession. Nay, indeed, my kingdom is so large, that
it may be sufficient for more kings. Now do you keep those in
their places whom Cæsar hath joined and their father hath ap-
pointed; and do not you pay undue or unequal respects to them,
but to every one according to the prerogative of their births; for
he that pays such respects unduly will thereby not make him
that is honoured beyond what his age requires so joyful, as he
will make him that is dishonoured sorrowful. As for the kin-
dred and friends that are to converse with them, I will appoint
them to each of them, and will so constitute them, that they may
be securities for their concord; as well knowing that the ill tem-
pers of those with whom they converse will produce quarrels and
contentions among them; but that, if these with whom they con-
verse be of good tempers, they will preserve their natural affec-
tions for one another. But still I desire, that not these only, but
all the captains of my army, have for the present their hopes
placed on me alone; for I do not give away my kingdom to these
my sons, but give them royal honours only; whereby it will come
to pass, that they will enjoy the sweet parts of government as
rulers themselves, but that the burden of administration will rest
upon myself whether I will or not. And let every one consider
what age I am of, how I have conducted my life, and what piety
I have exercised; for my age is not so great that men may soon
expect the end of my life; nor have I indulged such a luxurious
way of living as cuts men off when they are young: and we have
been so religious towards God, that we [have reason to hope
we] may arrive at a very great age. But for such as cultivate a
friendship with my sons, so as to aim at my destruction, they shall
be punished by me on their account. I am not one who envy
my own children, and, therefore, forbid men to pay them great
respect; but I know that such [extravagant] respects are the way
to make them insolent. And if every one that comes near them
does but revolve this in his mind, that if he prove a good man,
he shall receive a reward from me, but that if he prove sedi-
tious, his ill intended complaisance shall get him nothing from
him to whom it is shown; I suppose they will all be of my side,
that is, of my sons' side; for it will be for their advantage that I
reign, and that I be at concord with them. But do you, O my
good children, reflect upon the holiness of nature itself, by whose
means natural affection is preserved even among wild beasts: in
the next place, reflect upon Cæsar, who hath made this recon-
ciliation among us; and, in the third place, reflect upon me, who
entreat you to do what I have power to command you; continue
brethren. I give you royal garments and royal honours; and I
pray to God to preserve what I have determined, in case you be
C. XXIII.
$07
THE JEWISH WAR,
at concord one with another." When the king had thus spoken,
and had saluted every one of his sons after an obliging manner,
he dismissed the multitude; some of which gave their assent to
what he had said, and wished it might take effect accordingly;
but for those who wished for a change of affairs, they pretended
they did not so much as hear what he said.
CHAP. XXIV.
The Malice of Antipater and Doris. Alexander is very uneasy
on Glaphyra's 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 accom-
panied these brethren when they parted, and the suspicions they
had one of the other grew worse. Alexander and Aristobulus
were much grieved that the privilege of the first-born was con-
firmed to Antipater; as was Antipater very angry at his brethren
that they were to succeed him. But then this last being of a
disposition that was mutable and politic, he knew how to hold
his tongue, and used a great deal of cunning, and thereby con-
cealed the hatred he bore to them; while the former, depending
on the nobility of their births, had every thing upon their tongues
which was in their minds. Many also there were who provoked
them farther, and many of their [seeming] friends insinuated
themselves into their acquaintance to spy out what they did.
Now every thing that was said by Alexander was presently
brought to Antipater, and from Antipater it was brought to
Herod with additions. Nor could the young man say any thing,
in the simplicity of his heart, without giving offence, but what
he said was still turned to calumny against him. And if he had
been at any time a little free in his conversation, great imputa-
tions were forged from the smallest occasions. Antipater also
was perpetually setting some to provoke him to speak, that
the lies he raised of him might seem to have some foundation
of truth; and if among the many stories that were given out,
but one of them could be proved true, that was supposed to
imply the rest to be true also. And as to Antipater's friends,
they were all either naturally so cautious in speaking, or had
been so far bribed to conceal their thoughts, that nothing of these
grand secrets got abroad by their means. Nor should one be
mistaken if he called the life of Antipater a mystery of wicked-
ness; for he either corrupted Alexander's acquaintance with
money, or got into their favour by flatteries; by which two
means he gained all his designs, and brought them to betray
their master, and to steal away, and reveal what he either did or
x 2
308
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
•
said. Thus did he act a part very cunningly in all points, and
wrought himself a passage by his calumnies with the greatest
shrewdness; while he put on a face as if he were a kind brother
to Alexander and Aristobulus, but suborned other men to in-
form of what they did to Herod. And when any thing was told
against Alexander, he would come in, and pretend [to be of his
side], and would begin to contradict what was said; but would
afterward contrive matters so privately, that the king should
have an indignation at him. His general aim was this, to lay a
plot, and to make it believed that Alexander lay in wait to kill
his father; for nothing afforded so great a confirmation to these
calumnies as did Antipater's apologies for him.
:
2. By these methods Herod was inflamed, and as much as his
natural affection to the young men did every day diminish, so
much did it increase towards Antipater. The courtiers also in-
clined to the same conduct, some of their own accord and others
by the king's injunction, as particularly did Ptolemy, the king's
dearest friend, as also the king's brethren and all his children;
for Antipater was all in all: and what was the bitterest part of
all to Alexander, Antipater's mother was also all in all she
was one that gave counsel against them, and was more harsh
than a stepmother, and one that hated the queen's sons more
than is usual to hate sons-in-law. All men did, therefore, al-
ready pay their respects to Antipater, in hopes of advantage;
and it was the king's command which alienated every body [from
the brethren], he having given this charge to his most intimate
friends, that they should not come near, nor pay any regard to
Alexander or to his friends. Herod was also become terrible,
not only to his domestics about the court, but to his friends
abroad; for Cæsar had given such a privilege to no other king
as he had given to him, which was this, that he might fetch back
any one that fled from him, even out of a city that was not under
his own jurisdiction. Now the young men were not acquainted
with the calumnies raised against them; for which reason they
could not guard themselves against them, but fell under them;
for their father did not make any public complaints against either
of them: though in a little time they perceived how things were
by his coldness to them, and by the great uneasiness he showed
upon any thing that troubled him. Antipater had also made
their uncle Pheroras to be their enemy, as well as their aunt
Salome, while he was always talking with her, as with a wife,
and irritating her against them. Moreover, Álexander's wife,
Glaphyra, augmented his hatred against them, by deriving her
nobility and genealogy [from great persons], and pretending that
she was a lady superior to all others in that kingdom, as being
derived by her father's side from Temenus, and by her mother's
side from Darius, the son of Hystaspes. She also frequently
C. XXIV.
309
THE JEWISH WAR,
ท
reproached Herod's sister and wives with the ignobility of their
descent; and that they were every one chosen by him for their
beauty, but not for their family. Now those wives of his were
not a few; it being of old permitted to the Jews to marry many
wives*; and this king delighting in many, all which hated Alex-
ander on account of Glaphyra's boasting and reproaches.
3. Nay, Aristobulus had raised a quarrel between himself and
Salome, who was his mother-in-law, besides the anger he had con-
ceived at Glaphyra's reproaches; for he perpetually upbraided
his wife with the meanness of her family, and complained, that
as he had married a woman of low family, so had his brother
Alexander married one of royal blood. At this Salome's daugh-
ter wept, and told it her, with this addition, that Alexander
threatened the mothers of his other brethren, that when he
should come to the crown he would make them weave with
their maidens, and would make those brothers of his country
schoolmasters; and brake this jest upon them, that they had
been very carefully instructed to fit them for such an employ-
ment. Hereupon Salome could not contain her anger, but told
all to Herod: nor could her testimony be suspected, since it was
against her own son-in-law. There was also another calumny that
ran abroad, and inflamed the king's mind; for he heard that these
sons of his were perpetually speaking of their mother, and, among
their lamentations for her, did not abstain from cursing him; and
that when he made presents of any of Mariamne's garments to his
later wives, these threatened, that in a little time, instead of royal
garments, they would clothe them in no better than haircloth.
4. Now upon these accounts, though Herod was somewhat
afraid of the young men's high spirit, yet did he not despair of
reducing them to a better mind; but before he went to Rome,
whither he was now going by sea, he called them to him, and
partly threatened them a little as a king; but for the main he
admonished them as a father, and exhorted them to love their
brethren; and told them, that he would pardon their former
offences, if they would amend for the time to come.
But they
refuted the calumnies that had been raised of them, and said
they were false; and alleged that their actions were sufficient for
their vindication; and said withal, that he himself ought to shut
his ears against such tales, and not be too easy in believing them,
* That it was an immemorial custom among the Jews, and their forefathers, the
patriarchs, to have sometimes more wives, or wives and concubines, than one at the
same time, and that this polygamy was not directly forbidden in the law of Moses,
is evident; but that polygamy was ever properly and distinctly permitted in that
law of Moses, in the places here cited by Dean Aldrich, Deut. xvii. 16, 17, or
xxi. 15, or indeed, any where else does not appear to me. And what our Saviour
says about the common Jewish divorces, which may lay much greater claim to
such a permission than polygamy, seems to me true in this case also; that Moses
for the hardness of their hearts suffered them to have several wives at the same
time, but that from the beginning it was not so, Matt. xix. 8; Mark, x. 5.
310
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
for that there would never be wanting those that would tell lies
to their disadvantage, as long as any would give ear to them.
5. When they had thus soon pacificed him, as being their fa-
ther, they got clear of the present fear they were in. Yet did
they see occasion for sorrow in some time afterward; for they
knew that Salome as well as their uncle Pheroras were their
enemies, who were both of them heavy and severe persons, and
especially Pheroras, who was a partner with Herod in all the
affairs of the kingdom, excepting his diadem. He had also a
hundred talents of his own revenue, and enjoyed the advantage
of all the land beyond Jordan, which he had received as a gift
from his brother, who had asked of Cæsar to make him a tetrarch,
as he was made accordingly. Herod had also given him a wife
out of the royal family, who was no other than his own wife's
sister, and after her death had solemnly espoused to him his own
eldest daughter, with a dowry of three hundred talents; but Phe-
roras refused to consummate this royal marriage, out of his affec-
tion to a maid servant of his. Upon which account Herod was
very angry, and gave that daughter in marriage to a brother's
son of his [Joseph], who was slain afterward by the Parthians:
but in some time he laid aside his anger against Pheroras, and
pardoned him, as one not able to overcome his foolish passion
for the maid servant.
6. Nay, Pheroras had been accused long before, while the
queen [Mariamne] was alive, as if he were in a plot to poison
Herod; and there came then so great a number of informers,
that Herod himself, though he was an exceeding lover of his
brethren, was brought to believe what was said, and to be afraid
of it also: and when he had brought many of those that were
under suspicion to the torture, he came at last to Pheroras's own
friends; none of which did openly confess the crime, but they
owned that he had made preparations to take her whom he
loved, and run away to the Parthians. Costobarus also, the
husband of Salome, to whom the king had given her in marri-
age, after her former husband had been put to death for adul-
tery, was instrumental in bringing about this contrivance and
flight of his. Nor did Salome escape all calumny upon herself:
for her brother Pheroras accused her, that she had made an
agreement to marry Sylleus, the procurator of Obodas, king of
Arabia, who was at bitter enmity with Herod; but when she
was convicted of this, and of all that Pheroras had accused her,
she obtained her pardon. The king also pardoned Pheroras
himself the crimes he had been accused of.
7. But the storm of the whole family was removed to Alex-
ander, and all of it rested upon his head. There were three
eunuchs who were in the highest esteem with the king, as was
plain by the offices they were in about him; for one of them
C. XXIV.
311
THE JEWISH WAR.
*
was appointed to be his butler, another of them got his supper
ready for him, and the third put him into bed, and lay down by
him. Now Alexander had prevailed with these men by large
gifts to let him use them after an obscene manner; which when
it was told to the king, they were tortured, and found guilty,
and presently confessed the criminal conversation he had with
them. They also discovered the promises by which they were
induced so to do, and how they were deluded by Alexander,
who had told them, that "they ought not to fix their hopes
upon Herod, an old man, and one so shameless as to colour his
hair, unless they thought that would make him young again; but
that they ought to fix their attention on him, who was to be his
successor in the kingdom, whether he would or not; and who
in no long time would avenge himself on his enemies, and make
his friends happy and blessed, and themselves in the first place:
that the men of power did already pay respect to Alexander pri-
vately, and that the captains of the soldiery and the officers did
secretly come to him."
8. These confessions did so terrify Herod, that he durst not
immediately publish them; but he sent spies abroad privately by
night and by day, who should make a close inquiry after all that
was done and said; and when any were but suspected [of trea-
son], he put them to death, insomuch that the palace was full
of horribly unjust proceedings; for every body forged calumnies,
as they were themselves in a state of enmity or hatred against
others; and many there were who abused the king's bloody pas-
sion to the disadvantage of those with whom they had quarrels,
and lies were easily believed, and punishments were inflicted
sooner than the calumnies were forged: he who had just then
been accusing another, was accused himself, and was led away
to execution, together with him whom he had convicted; for
the danger the king was in of his life made examinations be very
short. He also proceeded to such a degree of bitterness, that
he could not look on any of those that were not accused with a
pleasant countenance, but was in the most barbarous disposition
towards his own friends. Accordingly, he forbade a great many
of them to come to court, and to those whom he had not power
to punish actually he spake harshly; but for Antipater, he in-
sulted Alexander, now he was under his misfortunes, and got a
stout company of his kindred together, and raised all sorts of
calumny against him: and for the king, he was brought to such
a degree of terror by those prodigious slanders and contrivances,
that he fancied he saw Alexander coming to him with a drawn
sword in his hand; so he caused him to be seized upon immedi-
ately and bound, and fell to examining his friends by torture,
many of whom died [under the torture], but would discover no-
thing, nor say any thing against their consciences; but some of
}
t
312
B. 1.
THE JEWISH`WAR.
E
them, being forced to speak falsely by the pains they endured,
said that Alexander, and his brother Aristobulus, plotted against
him, and waited for an opportunity to kill him as he was hunt-
ing, and then to fly away to Rome. These accusations, though
they were of an incredible nature, and only framed upon the
great distress they were in, were readily believed by the king,
who thought it some comfort to him, after he had bound his
son, that it might appear he had not done it unjustly.
•
CHAP. XXV.
Archelaus procures a Reconciliation between Alexander,
Pheroras, and Herod.
1. Now as to Alexander, since he perceived it impossible to
persuade his father [that he was innocent], he resolved to meet
his calamities how severe soever they were; so he composed
four books against his enemies, and confessed that he had been
in a plot; but declared withal that the greatest part [of the
courtiers] were in a plot with him, and chiefly Pheroras and
Salome; nay, that Salome once came, and forced him to lie with
her in the nighttime, whether he would or not. These books
were put into Herod's hands, and made a great clamour against
the men in power. And now it was that Archelaus came hastily
into Judea, as being affrighted for his son-in-law and his daugh-
ter; and he came as a proper assistant, and in a very prudent
manner, and by a stratagem he obliged the king not to execute
what he had threatened; for when he was come to him, he cried
out,-" Where in the world is this wretched son-in-law of mine?
Where shall I see that head of his which contrived to murder
his father, which I will tear to pieces with my own hands. I will
do the same also to my daughter, who hath such a fine husband:
for although she be not a partner in the plot, yet, by being the
wife of such a creature, she is polluted. And I cannot but ad-
mire at thy patience, against whom this plot is laid, if Alexander
be still alive; for as I came with what haste I could from Cap-
padocia, I expected to find him put to death for his crimes long
ago; but still in order to make an examination with thee about
my daughter, whom out of regard to thee, and thy dignity, I had
espoused to him in marriage; but now we must take counsel
about them both; and if thy paternal affection be so great, that
thou canst not punish thy son, who hath plotted against thee,
let us change our right hands, and let us succeed one to the other
in expressing our rage upon this occasion."
1
2. When he had made this pompous declaration, he got
Herod to remit of his anger, though he were in disorder; who
thereupon gave him the books which Alexander had composed
C. XXV.
313
THE JEWISH WAR.
to be read by him, and as he came to every head, he considered
of it, together with Herod. So Archelaus took hence the occa-
sion for that stratagem which he made use of, and by degrees
he laid the blame on those men whose names were in these
books, and especially upon Pheroras; and when he saw that
the king believed him [to be in earnest], he said,-" We must
consider whether the young man be not himself plotted against
by such a number of wicked wretches, and not thou plotted
against by the young man; for I cannot see any occasion for
his falling into so horrid a crime, since he enjoys the advantages
of royalty already, and has the expectation of being one of thy
successors; I mean this, unless there were some persons that
persuade him to it, and such persons as make an ill use of the
facility they know there is to persuade young men; for by such
persons not only young men are sometimes imposed upon, but
old men also, and by them sometimes are the most illustrious
families and kingdoms overturned."
3. Herod assented to what he had said, and, by degrees,
abated of his anger against Alexander; but was more angry
at Pheroras; for the principal subject of the four books was
Pheroras, who perceiving that the king's inclinations changed
on a sudden, and that Archelaus's friendship could do every
thing with him, and that he had no honourable method of pre-
serving himself, he procured his safety by his impudence. So
he left Alexander, and had recourse to Archelaus, who told him,
that " he did not see how he could get him excused, now he
was directly caught in so many crimes, whereby it was evidently
demonstrated that he had plotted against the king, and had been
the cause of those misfortunes which the young man was now
under, unless he would moreover leave off his cunning knavery,
and his denials of what he was charged withal, and confess the
charge, and implore pardon of his brother, who still had a kind-
ness for him; but that if he would do so, he would afford him
all the assistance he was able."
:
4. With this advice Pheroras complied, and, putting himself
into such a habit as might most move compassion, he came with
black cloth upon his body, and tears in his eyes, and threw
himself down at Herod's feet, and begged his pardon for what
he had done; and confessed that he had acted very wickedly,
and was guilty of every thing that he had been accused of, and
lamented that disorder of his mind and distraction which his
love to a woman, he said, had brought him to. So when Arche-
laus had brought Pheroras to accuse and bear witness against
himself, he then made an excuse for him, and mitigated Herod's
anger towards him, and this by using certain domestical examples;
"for that when he had suffered much greater mischiefs from a
brother of his own, he preferred the obligations of nature before
314
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR,
·
the passion of revenge: because it is in kingdoms as it is in
gross bodies, where some member or other is ever swelled by
the body's weight, in which case it is not proper to cut off such
member, but to heal it by a gentle method of cure."
5. Upon Archelaus's saying this, and much more to the same
purpose, Herod's displeasure against Pheroras was mollified;
yet did he persevere in his own indignation against Alexander,
and said, he would have his daughter divorced, and taken away
from him, and this till he had brought Herod to that pass, that,
contrary to his former behaviour to him, he petitioned Archelaus
for the young man, and that he would let his daughter continue
espoused to him: but Archelaus made him strongly believe that
he would permit her to be married to any one else, but not to
Alexander, because he looked upon it as a very valuable advan-
tage, that the relation they had contracted by that affinity, and
the privileges that went along with it, might be preserved. And
when the king said, that his son would take it for a great favour
to him, if he would not dissolve that marriage, especially since
they had already children between the young man and her, and
since that wife of his was so well beloved by him, and that as
while she remains his wife she would be a great preservative to
him, and keep him from offending, as he had formerly done; so
if she should be once torn away from him, she would be the
cause of his falling into despair; because such young men's
attempts are best mollified, when they are diverted from them
by settling their affections at home. So Archelaus complied
with what Herod desired, but not without difficulty, and was
both himself reconciled to the young man, and reconciled his
father to him also. However, he said he must, by all means,
be sent to Rome to discourse with Cæsar, because he had already
written a full account to him of this whole matter.
6. Thus a period was put to Archelaus's stratagem, whereby
he delivered his son-in-law out of the dangers he was in; but
when these reconciliations were over, they spent their time in
feastings and agreeable entertainments. And when Archelaus
was going away, Herod made him a present of seventy talents,
with a golden throne set with precious stones, and some eunuchs,
and a concubine who was called Pannychis. He also paid due
honours to every one of his friends according to their dignity.
In like manner did all the king's kindred, by his command, make
glorious presents to Archelaus; and so he was conducted on his
way by Herod and his nobility as far as Antioch.
THE JEWISH WAK.
315
CHAP. XXVI.
How Eurycles* calumniated the Sons of Mariamne: and how
Euaratus of Cos's Apology for them had no Effect.
§ 1. Now a little afterward there came into Judea a man that
was much superior to Archelaus's stratagems, who did not only
overturn that reconciliation that had been so wisely made with
Alexander, but proved the occasion of his ruin. He was a
Lacedemonian, and his name was Eurycles. He was so cor-
rupt a man, that, out of the desire of getting money, he chose to
live under a king, for Greece could not suffice his luxury. He
presented Herod with splendid gifts, as a bait which he laid in
order to compass his ends, and quickly received them back
again manifold; yet did he esteem bare gifts as nothing, unless
he imbrued the kingdom in blood by his purchases. Accord-
ingly, he imposed upon the king by flattering him, and by talking
subtilely to him, as also by the lying encomiums which he made
upon him; for as he soon perceived Herod's blind side, so he
said and did every thing that might please him, and thereby
became one of his most intimate friends; for both the king and
all that were about him had a great regard for this Spartant, on
account of his country.
2. Now as soon as this fellow perceived the rotten parts of
the family, and what quarrels the brothers had one with another,
and in what disposition the father was towards each of them, he
chose to take his lodging at the first in the house of Antipater,
but deluded Alexander with a pretence of friendship to him, and
falsely claimed to be an old acquaintance of Archelaus; for
which reason he was presently admitted into Alexander's fami-
liarity as a faithful friend. He also soon recommended himself
to his brother Aristobulus. And when he had thus made trial
of these several persons, he imposed upon one of them by one
method, and upon another by another. But he was principally
hired by Antipater, and so betrayed Alexander, and this by
reproaching Antipater, because, while he was the eldest son, he
overlooked the intrigues of those who stood in the way of his
expectations; and by reproaching Alexander, because he who
* This vile fellow, Eurycles the Lacedemonian, seems to have been the same
who is mentioned by Plutarch, as 25 years before a companion to Mark Antony,
and as living with Herod; whence he might easily insinuate himself into the
acquaintance of Herod's sons, Antipater and Alexander, as Usher, Hudson, and
Spanheim justly suppose. The reason why his being a Spartan rendered him
acceptable to the Jews, as we here see he was, is visible from the public records
of the Jews and Spartans, owning those Spartans to be of kin to the Jews, and
derived from their common ancestor Abraham, the first patriarch of the Jewish
nation. Antiq. B. xii. chap. iv. sect. 10; B. xiii. chap. v. sect. 8, and 1 Macc.
B. xii. chap. vii.

+ See the preceding note.
+
316
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
was born of a queen, and was married to a king's daughter,
permitted one that was born of a mean woman to lay claim to
the succession, and this when he had Archelaus to support him
in the most complete manner. Nor was his advice thought to
be other than faithful by the young man, because of his pre-
tended friendship with Archelaus: on which account it was,
that Alexander lamented to him Antipater's behaviour with
regard to himself, and this without concealing any thing from
him; and how it was no wonder if Herod, after he had killed
their mother, should deprive them of her kingdom. Upon this
Eurycles pretended to commiserate his condition, and to grieve
with him. He also, by a bait that he laid for him, procured
Aristobulus to say the same things. Thus did he inveigle both
the brothers to make complaints of their father, and then went
to Antipater, and carried these grand secrets to him. He also
added a fiction of his own, as if his brothers had laid a plot
against him, and were almost ready to come upon him with their
drawn swords. For this intelligence he received a great sum of
money, and on that account he commended Antipater before
his father, and at length undertook the work of bringing Alex-
ander and Aristobulus to their graves, and accused them before
their father. So he came to Herod, and told him, that "he
would save his life, as a requital for the favours he had received
from him, and would preserve his light [of life] by way of retri-
bution for his kind entertainment: for that a sword, had been
long whetted, and Alexander's right hand had been long stretched
out against him; but that he had laid impediments in his way,
which prevented his speed, and that by pretending to assist him
in his design; how Alexander said, that Herod was not con-
tented to reign in a kingdom that belonged to others, and to
make dilapidations in their mother's government, after he had
killed her; but besides all this, that he introduced a spurious
successor, and proposed to give the kingdom of their ancestors
to that pestilent fellow Antipater: that he would now appease
the ghosts of Hyrcanus and Mariamne, by taking vengeance on
him; for that it was not fit for him to take the succession to the
government from such a father without bloodshed: that many
things happen every day to provoke him so to do, insomuch that
he can say nothing at all, but it affords occasion for calumny
against him; for that if any mention be made of nobility of
birth, even in other cases, he is abused unjustly, while his father
would say, that nobody, to be sure, is of noble birth but Alex-
ander, and that his father was inglorious for want of such nobi-
lity. If they be at any time hunting, and he says nothing, he
gives offence; and if he commends any body, they take it in
way of jest: that they always find their father unmercifully
severe, and to have no natural affection for any of them but for
C. XXVI.
3.17
THE JEWISH WAR.
Antipater; on which accounts, if his plot does not take, he is
very willing to die; but that in case he kills his father, he
hath sufficient opportunities for saving himself. In the first
place, he hath Archelaus his father-in-law, to whom he can
easily fly; and, in the next place, he hath Cæsar, who hath never
known Herod's character to this day; for that he shall not
appear then before him with that dread he used to do, when his
father was there to terrify him: and that he will not then pro-
duce the accusations that concerned himself alone, but would,
in the first place, openly insist on the calamities of their nation,
and how they are taxed to death, and in what ways of luxury and
wicked practices that wealth is spent, which was gotten by blood-
shed; what sort of persons they are that get our riches, and to
whom those cities belong upon whom he bestows his favours:
that he would have inquiry made what became of his grandfather
[Hyrcanus], and his mother [Mariamne]; and would openly
proclaim the gross wickedness that was in the kingdom; on
which accounts he should not be deemed a parricide.
""
3. When Eurycles had made this portentous speech, he greatly
commended Antipater, as the only child that had an affection
for his father, and on that account was an impediment to the
other's plot against him. Hereupon the king, who had hardly
repressed his anger upon the former accusations, was exasperated
to an incurable degree. At which time Antipater took another
occasion to send in other persons to his father to accuse his
brethren, and to tell him, that they had privately discoursed with
Jucundus and Tyrannus, who had once been masters of the
horse to the king, but for some offences had been put out of that
honourable employment. Herod was in a very great rage at
these informations, and presently ordered those men to be tor-
tured: yet did not they confess any thing of what the king had
been informed; but a certain letter was produced, as written by
Alexander to the governor of a castle, to desire him to receive
him and Aristobulus into the castle when he had killed his father.
and to give them weapons and what other assistance he could
upon that occasion. Alexander said, that this letter was a forgery
of Diophantus's. This Diophantus was the king's secretary,
a bold man, and cunning in counterfeiting any one's hand; and
after he had counterfeited a great number, he was at last put to
death for it. Herod did also order the governor of the castle to
be tortured, but got nothing out of him of what the accusations
suggested.
4. However, although Herod found the proofs too weak, he
gave order to have his sons kept in custody: for till now they
had been at liberty. He also called that pest of his family, and
forger of all this vile accusation, Eurycles, his saviour and his
benefactor, and gave him a reward of fifty talents. Upon which
1
318
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
he prevented any accurate accounts that could come of what he
had done, by going immediately into Cappadocia, and there he
got money of Archelaus, having the impudence to pretend that
he had reconciled Herod to Alexander. He thence passed over
into Greece, and used what he had thus wickedly gotten to the
like wicked purposes. Accordingly, he was twice accused before
Cæsar, that he had filled Achaia with sedition, and had plun-
dered its cities; and so he was sent into banishment. And thus
was he punished for what wicked actions he had been guilty of
about Aristobulus and Alexander.
5. But it will be now worth while to put Euaratus of Cos in
opposition to this Spartan; for as he was one of Alexander's
most intimate friends, and came to him in his travels at the same
time that Eurycles came, so the king put the question to him,
whether those things of which Alexander was accused were
true? He assured him upon oath, that he had never heard any
such things from the young men: yet did this testimony avail
nothing for the clearing those miserable creatures; for Herod
was only disposed and most ready to hearken to what made
against them; and every one was most agreeable to him that
would believe they were guilty, and showed their indignation
at them.
CHAP. XXVII.
Herod, by Casar's Direction, accuses his Sons at Berytus.
They are not produced before the Court, but yet are con-
demned: and in a little Time they are sent to Sebaste, and
strangled there.
§ 1. MOREOVER, Salome exasperated Herod's cruelty against
his sons
for Aristobulus was desirous to bring her, who was his
mother-in-law, and his aunt, into the like dangers with them-
selves; so he sent to her, to take care of her own safety, and
told her, that the king was preparing to put her to death, on
account of the accusation that was laid against her, as if when
she formerly endeavoured to marry herself to Sylleus the Arabian,
she had discovered the king's grand secrets to him, who was the
king's enemy: and this it was that came as the last storm, and
entirely sunk the young men, when they were in great danger be-
fore. For Salome came running to the king, and informed him of
what admonition had been given her; whereupon he could bear
no longer, but commanded both the young men to be bound,
and kept the one asunder from the other. He also sent Volum-
nius, the general of his army, to Cæsar immediately, as also his
friend Olympus with him, who carried the information in writing
along with them. Now as soon as these had sailed to Rome,
{
C. XXVII.
319.
THE JEWISH WAR.
and delivered the king's letters to Cæsar, Cæsar was mightily
troubled at the case of the young men: yet did not he think he
ought to take the power from the father of condemning his
sons; so he wrote back to him, and appointed him to have the
power over his sons; but said withal, that "he would do well
to make an examination into this matter of the plot laid against
him in a public court, and to take for his assessors his own
kindred and the governors of the province: and if those sons be
found guilty, to put them to death; but if they appear to have
thought of no more than flying away from him, that he should
moderate their punishment."
2. With these directions Herod complied, and came to Berytus,
where Cæsar had ordered the court to be assembled, and got
the judicature together. The presidents sat first, as Cæsar's
letter had appointed, who were Saturninus and Pedanius, and
their lieutenants that were with them, with whom was the pro-
curator Volumnius also; next to them sat the king's kinsmen
and friends, with Salome also, and Pheroras; after whom sat
the principal men of all Syria, excepting Archelaus; for Herod
had a suspicion of him, because he was Alexander's father-in-
law. Yet did not he produce his sons in open court; and this
was done very cunningly, for he knew well enough that had they
but appeared only, they would certainly have been pitied; and
if withal they had been suffered to speak, Alexander would
easily have answered what they were accused of; but they were
in custody at Platane, a village of the Sidonians.
3. So the king got up, and inveighed against his sons as if
they were present: and as for that part of the accusation that
they had plotted against him, he urged it but faintly, because he
was destitute of proofs; but he insisted before the assessors on
the reproaches, and jests, and injurious carriage, and ten thousand
the like offences against him, which were heavier than death
itself; and when nobody contradicted him, he moved them to
pity his case, as though he had been condemned himself, now he
had gained a bitter victory against his sons.
So he asked every
one's sentence, which sentence was first of all given by Satur-
ninus, and was this, that he condemned the young men, but not
to death; for that it was not fit for him, who had three sons of
his own now present, to give his vote for the destruction of the
sons of another. The two lieutenants also gave the like vote;
some others there were also who followed their example; but
Volumnius began to vote on the more melancholy side, and all
those that came after him condemned the young men to die,
some out of flattery and some out of hatred to Herod, but none
out of indignation at their crimes. And now all Syria and Judea
was in great expectation, and waited for the last act of this
tragedy; yet did nobody suppose that Herod would be so bar-
320
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
barous as to murder his children: however, he carried them
away to Tyre, and thence sailed to Cæsarea, and deliberated
with himself what sort of death the young men should suffer.
4. Now there was a certain old soldier of the king's whose
name was Tero, who had a son that was very familiar with, and
a friend to Alexander, and who himself particularly loved the
young men. This soldier was in a manner distracted out of the
excess of the indignation he had at what was doing; and at first
he cried out aloud as he went about," That justice was
trampled under foot; that truth was perished, and nature con-
founded; and that the life of man was full of iniquity," and
every thing else that passion could suggest to a man who spared
not his own life; and at last he ventured to go to the king, and
said,- " Truly, I think thou art a most miserable man, when
thou hearkenest to most wicked wretches, against those that ought
to be dearest to thee; since thou hast frequently resolved that
Pheroras and Salome should be put to death, and yet believest
them against thy sons; while these, by cutting off the succession
of thine own sons, leave all wholly to Antipater, and thereby
choose to have thee such a king as may be thoroughly in their
own power. However, consider whether this death of Anti-
pater's brethren will not make him hated by the soldiers; for
there is nobody but commiserates the young men, and of the
captains a great many show their indignation at it openly."
Upon his saying this, he named those that had such indignation;
but the king ordered those men, with Tero himself and his son,
to be seized upon immediately.
5. At which time there was a certain barber, whose name was
Trypho. This man leaped out from among the people in a kind
of madness, and accused himself, and said," This Tero endea-
voured to persuade me also to cut thy throat with my razor,
when I trimmed thee, and promised that Alexander should give
me large presents for so doing." When Herod heard this, he
examined Tero, with his son and the barber, by the torture; but
as the others denied the accusations, and he said nothing farther,
Herod gave order that Tero should be racked more severely;
but his son, out of pity to his father, promised to discover the
whole to the king, if he would grant [that his father should be
no longer tortured]: when he had agreed to this, he said, that
"his father, at the persuasion of Alexander, had an intention to
kill him." Now some said this was forged, in order to free his
father from his torments, and some said it was true.
6. And now Herod accused the captains and Tero in an
assembly of the people, and brought the people together in a
body against them; and, accordingly, there were they put to
death, together with [Trypho] the barber: they were killed by
the pieces of wood and the stones that were thrown at them.
C. XXVII.
321
THE JEWISH WAR.
He also sent his sons to Sebaste, a city not far from Cæsarea,
and ordered them to be there strangled; and as what he had
ordered was executed immediately, so he commanded that their
dead bodies should be brought to the fortress Alexandrium, to
be buried with Alexander, their grandfather by the mother's
side. And this was the end of Alexander and Aristobulus.
CHAP. XXVIII.
How Antipater is hated of all Men; and how the King espouses
the Sons of those that had been slain to his Kindred; but that
Antipater made him change them for other Women. Of
Herod's Marriages and Children.
§ 1. BUT an intolerable hatred fell upon Antipater from the
nation, though he had now an indisputable title to the succes-
sion; because they all knew that he was the person who con-
trived all the calumnies against his brethren. However, he
began to be in a terrible fear, as he saw the posterity of those
that had been slain growing up; for Alexander had two sons
by Glaphyra, Tigranes and Alexander; and Aristobulus had
Herod, and Agrippa, and Aristobulus his sons, with Herodias
and Mariamne his daughters, and all by Bernice, Salome's
daughter; as for Glaphyra, Herod, as soon as he had killed
Alexander, sent her back, together with her portion, to Cappa-
docia. He married Bernice, Aristobulus's daughter, to Anti-
pater's uncle by his mother; and it was Antipater, who in order
to reconcile her to him, when she had been at variance with him,
contrived this match: he also got into Pheroras's favour, and
into the favour of Cæsar's friends, by presents, and other ways
of obsequiousness, and sent no small sums of money to Rome:
Saturninus also, and his friends in Syria, were all well replen-
ished with the presents he made them; yet the more he gave
the more he was hated, as not making these presents out of
generosity, but spending his money out of fear. Accordingly,
it so fell out, that the receivers bore him no more good will
than before, but that those to whom he gave nothing were his
more bitter enemies. However, he bestowed his money every
day more and more profusely, on observing that, contrary to his
expectations, the king was taking care about the orphans, and
discovering at the same time his repentance for killing their
fathers, by his commiseration of those that sprang from them.
2. Accordingly, Herod got together his kindred and friends,
and set before them the children, and with his eyes full of tears,
said thus to them." It was an unlucky fate that took away
from me these children's fathers, which children are recommended
to me by that natural commiseration which their orphan condi-
VOL. III.
Y
322
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
tion requires: however, I will endeavour, though I have been
a most unfortunate father, to appear a better grandfather, and to
leave these children such curators after myself as are dearest to
me. I, therefore, betroth thy daughter, Pheroras, to the elder
of these brethren, the children of Alexander, that thou mayest
be obliged to take care of them. I also betroth to thy son,
Antipater, the daughter of Aristobulus: be thou, therefore, a
father to that orphan, and my son Herod [Philip] shall have her
sister, whose grandfather, by the mother's side, was high priest.
And let every one that loves me be of my sentiments in these
dispositions, which none that hath an affection for me will
abrogate. And I pray God that he will join these children
together in marriage, to the advantage of my kingdom and of
my posterity, and may he look down with eyes more serene upon
them, than he looked upon their fathers."
3. While he spake these words, he wept, and joined the
children's right hands together; after which he embraced them
every one after an affectionate manner, and dismissed the assem-
bly. Upon this, Antipater was in great disorder immediately,
and lamented publicly at what was done; for he supposed that
this dignity which was conferred on these orphans was for his
own destruction, even in his father's lifetime; and that he should
run another risk of losing the government, if Alexander's sons
should have both Archelaus [a king] and Pheroras a tetrarch to
support them. He also considered how he was himself hated
by the nation, and how they pitied these orphans; how great
affection the Jews bare to those brethren of his when they were
alive, and how gladly they remembered them now they had
perished by his means. So he resolved by all the ways possible
to get these espousals dissolved.
4. Now he was afraid of going subtilely about this matter with
his father, who was hard to be pleased, and was presently moved
upon the least suspicion: so he ventured to go to him directly,
and to beg of him before his face, not to deprive him of that
dignity which he had been pleased to bestow upon him, and that
he might not have the bare name of a king, while the power was
in other persons; for that he should never be able to keep the
government, if Alexander's son was to have both his grandfather
Archelaus and Pheroras for his curators; and he besought him
earnestly, since there were so many of the royal family alive, that
he would change those [intended] marriages. Now the king had
nine* wives, and children by seven of them; Antipater was him-
self born of Doris, and Herod [Philip] of Mariamne, the high
* Dean Aldrich takes notice here, that those nine wives of Herod were alive
at the same time; and that if the celebrated Mariamne, who was now dead, be
reckoned, those wives were in all ten. [Yet it is remarkable that he had no
more than fifteen children by them all].
C. XXVIII.
323
THE JEWISH WAR.
priest's daughter; Antipas also, and Archelaus, were by Mal-
thace, the Samaritan, as was his daughter Olympias, which his
brother Joseph's* son had married; by Cleopatra of Jerusalem
he had Herod and Philip, and by Pallas Phasaelus; he had also
two daughters, Roxana and Salome, the one by Phedra, and the
other by Elpis; he had also two wives that had no children, the
one his first cousin, and the other his niece; and besides these
he had two daughters, the sisters of Alexander and Aristobulus,
by Mariamne. Since, therefore, the royal family was so numer-
ous, Antipater prayed him to change these [intended] marriages.
5. When the king perceived what disposition he was in
towards these orphans, he was angry at it, and a suspicion came
into his mind, as to those sons whom he had put to death, whether
that had not been brought about by the false tales of Antipater;
so at that time he made Antipater a long and a peevish answer,
and bid him be gone. Yet was he afterwards prevailed upon
cunningly by his flatteries, and changed the marriages: he mar-
ried Aristobulus's daughter to him, and his son to Pheroras's
daughter.
6. Now one may learn in this instance how very much this
flattering Antipater could do, even what Salome in the like cir-
cumstances could not do; for when she who was his sister, and
who by the means of Julia, Cæsar's wife, earnestly desired leave
to be married to Sylleus the Arabian, Herod swore he would
esteem her his bitter enemy, unless she would leave off that
project: he also caused her, against her own consent, to be mar-
ried to Alexas, a friend of his; and that one of her daughters
should be married to Alexas's son, and the other to Antipater's
uncle by the mother's side. And for the daughters the king had
by Mariamne, the one was married to Antipater, his sister's son,
and the other to his brother's son Phasaelus.
CHAP. XXIX.
Antipater becomes intolerable.
Herod's Testament with him.
He is sent to Rome, and carries
Pheroras leaves his Brother,
that he may keep his Wife. He dies at Home.
§ 1. Now when Antipater had cut off the hopes of the orphans,
and had contracted such affinities as would be most for his own
advantage, he proceeded briskly, as having a certain expectation
of the kingdom; and as he had now assurance added to his wick-
* To prevent confusion, it may not be amiss, with Dean Aldrich, to distin-
guish between four Josephs in the history of Herod. 1. Joseph, Herod's uncle, and
the [second] husband of his sister Salome, slain by Herod, on account of Mari-
amne. 2. Joseph, Herod's questor, 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.
Y 2
324
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
1
edness he became intolerable; for not being able to avoid the
hatred of all people, he built his security upon the terror he struck
into them. Pheroras also assisted him in his designs, looking
upon him as already fixed in the kingdom. There was also a
company of women in the court, which excited new disturbances;
for Pheroras's wife, together with her mother and sister, as also
Antipater's mother, grew very impudent in the palace. She also
was so insolent as to affront the king's two daughters*, on which
account the king hated her to a great degree; yet although these
women were hated by him, they domineered over others: there
was only Salome who opposed their good agreement, and in-
formed the king of their meetings, as not being for the advantage
of his affairs. And when those women knew what calumnies she
had raised against them, and how much Herod was displeased,
they left off their public meetings and friendly entertainments of
one another: nay, on the contrary, they pretended to quarrel one
with another when the king was within hearing. The like dissi-
mulation did Antipater make use of; and when matters were
public, he opposed Pheroras; but still they had private cabals
and merry meetings in the nighttime; nor did the observation
of others do any more than confirm their mutual agreement.
However, Salome knew every thing they did, and told every thing
to Herod.
2. But he was inflamed with anger at them. and chiefly at
Pheroras's wife; for Salome had principally accused her. So
he got an assembly of his friends and kindred together, and there
accused this woman of many things, and particularly of the
affronts she had offered his daughters; and that she had supplied
the Pharisees with money, by way of rewards for what they had
done against him, and had procured his brother to become his
enemy, by giving him love-potions. At length he turned his
speech to Pheroras, and told him, that " he would give him his
choice of these two things, whether he would keep in with him
his brother, or with his wife ?" And when Pheroras said that he
would die rather than forsake his wife, Herod not knowing what
to do farther in that matter, turned his speech to Antipater, and
charged him to have no intercourse either with Pheroras's wife,
* These daughters of Herod, whom Pheroras's wife affronted, were Salome and
Roxane, two virgins, who were born to him of his two wives, Elpis and Phedra.
See Herod's genealogy, Antiq. B. xvii. ch. 1. sect. 3.
+ This strange obstinacy of Pheroras in retaining his wife, who was one of a
low family, and refusing to marry one nearly related to Herod, though he so ear-
nestly desired it, as also that wife's admission to the counsels of the other great
court ladies, together with Herod's own importunity as to Pheroras's divorce and
other marriage, all so remarkable here or in the Antiquities, B. xvii. ch. ii. sect.
4, and ch. iii. sect. 3, cannot be well accounted for, but on the supposal that Phe-
roras believed, and Herod suspected, that the Pharisees' prediction, as if the
crown of Judea should be translated from Herod to Pheroras's posterity, and
that most probably to Pheroras's posterity by this his wife, also would prove.
true. See Antiq. B. xvii. ch. ii. sect. 4. and ch. iii. sect. 1.
C. XXIX.
325
THE JEWISH WAR.
*
or with Pheroras himself, or with any one belonging to her. Now
though Antipater did not transgress that his injunction publicly,
yet did he in secret come to their night-meeting; and because
he was afraid that Salome observed what he did, he procured,
by the means of his Italian friends, that he might go and live at
Rome: for when they wrote that it was proper for Antipater to
be sent to Cæsar for some time, Herod made no delay, but sent
him, and that with a splendid attendance and a great deal of
money, and gave him his testament to carry with him, wherein
Antipater had the kingdom bequeathed to him, and wherein
Herod was named for Antipater's successor, that Herod, I mean,
who was the son of Mariamne, the high priest's daughter.
3. Sylleus also, the Arabian, sailed to Rome, without any re-
gard to Cæsar's injunctions, and this in order to oppose Antipa-
ter with all his might, as to that lawsuit which Nicolaus had with
him before. This Sylleus had also a great contest with Aretas
his own king; for he had slain many others of Aretas's friends,
and particularly Sohemus, the most potent man in the city Pe-
tra. Moreover, he had prevailed with Phabatus, who was Herod's
steward, by giving him a great sum of money, to assist him against
Herod; but when Herod gave him more, he induced him to leave
Sylleus, and by his means he demanded of him all that Cæsar had
required of him to pay. But when Sylleus paid nothing of what
he was to pay, and did also accuse Phabatus to Cæsar, and said
that he was not a steward for Cæsar's advantage, but for Herod's,
Phabatus was angry at him on that account, but was still in very
great esteem with Herod, and discovered Sylleus's grand secrets;
and told the king that Sylleus had corrupted Corinthus, one of
the guards of his body, by bribing him, and of whom he must
therefore have a care. Accordingly, the king complied; for this
Corinthus, though he were brought up in Herod's kingdom, yet
was he by birth an Arabian; so the king ordered him to be taken
up immediately, and not only him, but two other Arabians who
were caught with him; the one of them was Sylleus's friend, the
other the head of a tribe. These last being put to the torture,
confessed that they had prevailed with Corinthus, for a large sum
of money, to kill Herod; and when they had been farther exa-
mined before Saturninus the president of Syria, they were sent
to Rome.
4. However, Herod did not leave off importuning Pheroras,
but proceeded to force him to put away his wife: yet could he not
devise any way by which he could bring the woman herself to
punishment, although he had many causes of hatred to her, till
at length he was in such great uneasiness at her, that he cast both
her and his brother out of his kingdom. Pheroras took this
injury very patiently, and went away into his own tetrarchy [Pe-
rea beyond Jordan], and sware that there should be but one end
326
B. 1.
THE JEWISH WAR.
put to his flight, and that should be Herod's death: and that he
would never return while he was alive. Nor, indeed, would he
return when his brother was sick, although he earnestly sent for
him to come to him, because he had a mind to leave some injunc-
tions with him before he died; but Herod unexpectedly reco-
vered. A little afterward Pheroras himself fell sick, when Herod
showed great moderation; for he came to him, and pitied his
case, and took care of him; but his affection for him did him no
good, for Pheroras died a little afterward. Now though Herod
had so great an affection for him to the last day of his life, yet
was a report spread abroad that he had killed him by poison.
However, he took care to have his dead body carried to Jerusa-
lem, and appointed a very great mourning to the whole nation
for him, and bestowed a most pompous funeral upon him. And
this was the end that one of Alexander's and Aristobulus's mur-
derers came to.
CHAP. XXX.
When Herod made Inquiry about Pheroras's Death, a Dis-
covery was made that Antipater had prepared a poisonous
Draught for him. Herod casts Doris and her Accomplices,
as also Mariamne, out of the Palace, and blots her Son
Herod out of his Testament.
§ 1. BUT now the punishment was transferred unto the original
author Antipater, and took its rise from the death of Pheroras:
for certain of his freedmen came with a sad countenance to the
king, and told him, that "his brother had been destroyed by
poison, and that his wife had brought him somewhat that was
prepared after an unusual manner; and that, upon his eating it,
he presently fell into his distemper: that Antipater's mother
and sister two days before brought a woman out of Arabia that
was skilful in mixing such drugs, that she might prepare a love-
potion for Pheroras; and that instead of a love-potion, she had
given him deadly poison; and that this was done by the manage-
ment of Sylleus, who was acquainted with that woman.'
"
2. The king was deeply affected with so many suspicions,
and had the maid-servants, and some of the free women also,
tortured; one of which cried out in her agonies," May that
God that governs the earth and the heaven punish this author
of all these our miseries, Antipater's mother!" The king took
a handle from this confession, and proceeded to inquire farther
into the truth of the matter. So this woman discovered the
friendship of Antipater's mother to Pheroras and Antipater's
women, as also their secret meetings, and that Pheroras and
Antipater had drunk with them for a whole night together as
C. XXX.
$27
1
THE JEWISH WAR.
they returned from the king, and would not suffer any body,
either man-servant or maid-servant, to be there; while one of
the freewomen discovered the matter.
3. Upon this Herod tortured the maid-servants every one by
themselves separately, who all unanimously agreed in the fore-
going discoveries; and that, accordingly, by agreement they
went away, Antipater to Rome, and Pheroras to Perea; for
that they oftentimes talked to one another thus :— "That after
Herod had slain Alexander and Aristobulus, he would fall upon
them and upon their wives, because after he had not spared
Mariamne and her children, he would spare nobody; and that
for this reason it was best to get as far off the wild beast as they
were able." And that Antipater oftentimes lamented his own
case before his mother, and said to her, that "he had already
gray hairs upon his head, and that his father grew younger again
every day; and that, perhaps, death would overtake him before
he should begin to be a king in earnest; and that in case Herod
should die, which yet nobody knew when it would be, the en-
joyment of the succession could certainly be but for a little time;
for that these heads of Hydra, the sons of Alexander and Aris-
tobulus, were growing up: that he was deprived by his father
of the hopes of being succeeded by his children; for that his
successor after his death was not to be any one of his own sons,
but Herod the son of Mariamne: that in this point Herod was
plainly distracted, to think that his testament should therein
take place; for he would take care that not one of his posterity
should remain, because he was of all fathers the greatest hater
of his children. Yet does he hate his brother still worse, whence
it was that he awhile ago gave himself a hundred talents, that
he should not have any intercourse with Pheroras. And when
Pheroras said, wherein have we done him any harm? Antipater
replied, I wish he would but deprive us of all we have, and
leave us naked and alive only; but it is, indeed, impossible to
escape this wild beast, who is thus given to murder; who will
not permit us to love any person openly, although we be toge-
ther privately; yet may we be so openly too, if we have but the
courage and the hands of men.
>>
4. These things were said by the women upon the torture;
as also that Pheroras resolved to fly with them to Perea. Now
Herod gave credit to all they said, on account of the affair of the
hundred talents; for he had no discourse with any body about
them, but only with Antipater. So he vented his anger first of
all against Antipater's mother, and took away from her all the
ornaments which he had given her, which cost a great maný
talents, and cast her out of the palace a second time. He also
took care of Pheroras's women after their tortures, as being now
reconciled to them; but he was in great consternation himself,
328
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
1
and inflamed upon every suspicion, and had many innocent per-
sons led to the torture, out of his fear lest he should leave any
guilty person untortured..
5. And now it was that he betook himself to examine Anti-
pater of Samaria, who was the steward of [his son] Antipater;
and upon torturing him he learned, that Antipater had sent for
a potion of deadly poison for him out of Egypt, by Antiphilus
a companion of his: that Theudio, the uncle of Antipater, had
it from him, and delivered it to Pheroras; for that Antipater
had charged him to take his father off while he was at Rome,
and so free him from the suspicion of doing it himself: that
Pheroras also committed this potion to his wife. Then did
the king send for her, and bid her bring to him what she had
received immediately. So she came out of her house as if she
would bring it with her, but threw herself down from the top of
her house, in order to prevent any examination and torture from
the king. However, it came to pass, as it seems by the provi-
dence of God, when he intended to bring Antipater to punish-
ment, that she fell not upon her head, but upon other parts of
her body, and escaped. The king, when she was brought to
him, took care of her (for she was at first quite senseless upon
her fall), and asked her why she had thrown herself down? and
gave her his oath, that if she would speak the real truth, he
would excuse her from punishment; but that if she concealed
any thing, he would have her body torn to pieces by torments,
and leave no part of it to be buried.
(C
6. Upon this the woman paused a little, and then said,—
Why do I spare to speak of these grand secrets, now Phe-
roras is dead, that would only tend to save Antipater, who is all
our destruction? Hear then, O king, and be thou and God him-
self, who cannot be deceived, witnesses to the truth of what I
am going to say. When thou didst sit weeping by Pheroras as
he was dying, then it was that he called me to him, and said,
My dear wife, I have been greatly mistaken as to the disposi-
tion of my brother towards me, and have hated him that is so
affectionate to me, and have contrived to kill him who is in such
disorder for me before I am dead. As for myself, I receive the
recompense of my impiety; but do thou bring what poison was
left with us by Antipater, and which thou keepest in order to
destroy him, and consume it immediately in the fire in my sight,
that I may not be liable to the avenger in the invisible world.
This I brought as he bid me, and emptied the greatest part of
it into the fire, but reserved a little of it for my own use against
uncertain futurity, and out of my fear of thee.'
"
7. When she had said this, she brought the box, which had a
small quantity of this potion in it: but the king let her alone,
and transferred the tortures to Antiphilus's mother and brother,
C. XXX.
329
THE JEWISH WAR.
who both confessed that Antiphilus brought that box out of
Egypt, and that they had received the potion from a brother of
his, who was a physician at Alexandria. Then did the ghosts
of Alexander and Aristobulus go round all the palace, and be-
came the inquisitors and discoverers of what could not other-
wise have been found out, and brought such as were the freest
from suspicion to be examined; whereby it was discovered, that
Mariamne the high priest's daughter was conscious of this plot,
and her very brothers, when they were tortured, declared it so
to be. Whereupon the king avenged this insolent attempt of
the mother upon her son, and blotted Herod, whom he had by
her, out of his testament, who had been before named therein
as successor to Antipater.
CHAP. XXXI.
}
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 exa-
mination, in order to convict Antipater, who proved the con-
cluding attestation to Antipater's designs; for, indeed, he was
no other than his freedman. This man came and brought ano-
ther deadly potion, the poison of asps, and the juices of other
serpents, that if the first potion did not do the business, Phe-
roras and his wife might be armed with this also to destroy the
king. He brought also an addition to Antipater's insolent at-
tempts against his father, which was the letters which he wrote
against his brethren, Archelaus and Philip, which were the king's
sons, and educated at Rome, being yet youths, but of generous
dispositions. Antipater set himself to get rid of these as soon as
he could, that they might not be prejudicial to his hopes, and to
that end he forged letters against them in the name of his friends
at Rome. Some of these he corrupted by bribes to write how
they grossly reproached their father, and did openly bewail
Alexander and Aristobulus, and were uneasy at their being re-
called; for their father had already sent for them, which was the
very thing that troubled Antipater.
2. Nay, indeed, while Antipater was in Judea, and before he
was upon his journey to Rome, he gave money to have the like
letters sent against them from Rome, and then came to his
father, who as yet had no suspicion of him, and apologized for
his brethren, and alleged on their behalf, that some of the
things contained in those letters were false, and others of them
were only youthful errors. Yet at the same time that he ex-
pended a great deal of his money by making presents to such
as wrote against his brethren, did he aim to bring his accounts
330
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
into confusion, by buying costly garments and carpets of vari-
ous contextures, with silver and gold cups, and a great many
more curious things, that so among the very great expenses laid
out upon such furniture, he might conceal the money he had
used in hiring men [to write the letters]; for he brought in an
account of his expenses, amounting to two hundred talents, his
main pretence for which was the lawsuit he had been in with
Sylleus. So while all his rogueries, even those of a lesser sort
also, were covered by his greater villany, while all the examina-
tions by torture proclaimed his attempt to murder his father,
and the letters proclaimed his second attempt to murder his
brethren; yet did no one of those that came to Rome inform
him of his misfortunes in Judea, although seven months had in-
tervened between his conviction and his return, so great was the
hatred which they all bore to him. And, perhaps, they were
the ghosts of those brethren of his that had been murdered, that
stopped the mouths of those that intended to have told him.
He then wrote from Rome, and informed [his friends] that he
would soon come to them, and how he was dismissed with
honour by Cæsar.
3. Now the king being desirous to get this plotter against
him into his hands, and being also afraid lest he should some
way come to the knowledge how his affairs stood, and be upon
his guard, he dissembled his anger in his epistle to him, as in
other points he wrote kindly to him, and desired him to make
haste, because, if he came quickly, he would then lay aside the
complaints he had against his mother; for Antipater was not
ignorant that his mother had been expelled out of the palace.
However, he had before received a letter, which contained an
account of the death of Pheroras at Tarentum*, and made
great lamentations at it, for which some commended him, as being
for his own uncle; though probably this confusion arose on
account of his having thereby failed in his plot [on his father's
life], and his tears were more for the loss of him that was to
have been subservient therein, than for [an uncle] Pheroras:
moreover, a sort of fear came upon him as to his designs, lest
the poison should have been discovered. However, when he
was in Cilicia, he received the forementioned epistle from his
father, and made great haste accordingly. But when he had
sailed to Celendris, a suspicion came into his mind relating to
his mother's misfortunes, as if his soul foreboded some mischief
to itself. Those, therefore, of his friends which were the most
considerate, advised him not rashly to go to his father, till he
had learned what were the occasions why his mother had been
ejected, because they were afraid that he might be involved in
the calumnies that had been cast upon his mother: but those
* This Tarentum has coins still extant, as Reland informs us here in his notc.
C. XXXI.
331
THE JEWISH WAR.
that were less considerate, and had more regard to their own
desires of seeing their native country than to Antipater's safety,
persuaded him to make haste home, and not, by delaying his
journey, afford his father ground for an ill suspicion, and give a
handle to those that raised stories against him; for that in case
any thing had been moved to his disadvantage, it was owing to
his absence, which durst not have been done had he been pre-
sent. And they said it was absurd to deprive himself of certain
happiness for the sake of an uncertain suspicion, and not rather
to return to his father, and take the royal authority upon him,
which was in a state of fluctuation on his account only. Anti-
pater complied with this last advice, for Providence hurried him
on [to his destruction]. So he passed over the sea, and landed
at Sebastus, the haven of Cæsarea.
4. And here he found a perfect and unexpected solitude,
while every body avoided him, and nobody durst come at him;
for he was equally hated by all men; and now that hatred had
liberty to show itself, and the dread men were in of the king's
anger made men keep from him; for the whole city [of Jeru-
salem] was filled with the rumours about Antipater, and Anti-
pater himself was the only person who was ignorant of them;
for as no man was dismissed more magnificently when he began
his voyage to Rome, so was no man now received back with
greater ignominy. And, indeed, he began already to suspect
what misfortunes there were in Herod's family; yet did he cun-
ningly conceal his suspicion; and while he was inwardly ready
to die for fear, he put on a forced boldness of countenance.
Nor could he now fly any whither, nor had he any way of
emerging out of the difficulties which encompassed him; nor,
indeed, had he even there any certain intelligence of the affairs
of the royal family, by reason of the threats the king had given
out: yet had he some small hopes of better tidings; for, per-
haps, nothing had been discovered; or, if any discovery had
been made, perhaps he should be able to clear himself by im-
pudence and artful tricks, which were the only things he relied
upon for his deliverance.
5. And with these hopes did he screen himself, till he came
to the palace, without any friends with him; for these were
affronted, and shut out at the first gate. Now Varus, the pre-
sident of Syria, happened to be in the palace [at this juncture]:
so Antipater went in to his father, and, putting on a bold face,
he came near to salute him; but Herod stretched out his hands,
and turned his head away from him, and cried out,—“Even this
is an indication of a parricide, to be desirous to get me into his
arms, when he is under such heinous accusations. God con-
found thee, thou vile wretch, do not thou touch me, till thou
hast cleared thyself of these crimes that are charged upon thee.
332
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
I appoint thee a court where thou art to be judged, and this
Varus, who is very seasonably here, to be thy judge; and get
thou thy defence ready against to-morrow; for I give thee so
much time to prepare subtile excuses for thyself." And as
Antipater was so confounded that he was able to make no an-
swer to this charge, he went away; but his mother and wife
came to him, and told him of all the evidence he had gotten
against him. Hereupon he recollected himself and considered
what defence he should make against the accusations.
1
CHAP. XXXII.
Antipater is accused before Varus, and is convicted of laying a
Plot [against his Father] by the strongest Evidence. Herod
puts off his Punishment till he should be recovered, and in the
mean time alters his Testament.
§ 1. Now the day following the king assembled a court of his
kinsmen and friends, and called in Antipater's friends also:
Herod himself with Varus were the presidents; and Herod
called for all the witnesses, and ordered them to be brought in;
among whom some of the domestic servants of Antipater's
mother were brought in also, who had but a little while before
been caught, as they were carrying the following letter from her
to her son.
"Since all those things have been already disco-
vered by thy father, do not thou come to him unless thou canst
procure some assistance from Cæsar." When this and the other
witnesses were introduced, Antipater came in, and falling on his
face before his father's feet, he said," Father, I beseech thee
do not condemn me beforehand, but let thy ears be unbiased,
and attend to my defence; for if thou wilt give me leave, I will
demonstrate that I am innocent."
2. Hereupon Herod cried out to him to hold his peace, and
spake thus to Varus:-" I cannot but think that thou, Varus,
and every other upright judge, will determine that Antipater is
a vile wretch. I am also afraid that thou wilt abhor my ill
fortune, and judge me also myself worthy of all sorts of calamity,
for begetting such children; while yet I ought rather to be
pitied, who have been so affectionate a father to such wretched
sons; for when I had settled the kingdom on my former sons,
even when they were young, and when, besides the charges of
their education at Rome, I had made them the friends of Cæsar,
and made them envied by other kings, I found them plotting
against me; these have been put to death, and that, in great
measure, for the sake of Antipater; for as he was then young,
and appointed to be my successor, I took care chiefly to secure
him from danger: but this profligate wild beast, when he had
C. XXXII.
333
THE JEWISH WAR.
been over and above satiated with that patience which I showed
him, he made use of that abundance I had given him against
myself; for I seemed to him to live too long, and he was very
uneasy at the old age I was arrived at; nor could he stay any
longer, but would be a king by parricide. And justly am I served
by him for bringing him back out of the country to court, when
he was of no esteem before, and for thrusting out those sons of
mine that were born of the queen, and for making him a suc-
cessor to my dominions. I confess to thee, O Varus, the great
folly I was guilty of; for I provoked those sons of mine to act
against me, and cut off their just expectations for the sake of
Antipater; and, indeed, what kindness did I do to them that
could equal what I have done to Antipater; to whom I have,
in a manner, yielded up my royal authority while I am alive, and
whom I have openly named for the successor to my dominions
in my testament, and given him a yearly revenue of his own of
fifty talents, and supplied him with money to an extravagant
degree out of my own revenue; and when he was lately about
to sail to Rome, I gave him three hundred talents, and recom-
mended him, and him alone of all my children, to Cæsar, as his
father's deliverer. Now what crimes were those other sons of
mine guilty of like these of Antipater? and what evidence was
there brought against them so strong as there is to demonstrate
this son to have plotted against me? Yet does this parricide
presume to speak for himself, and hopes to obscure the truth by
his cunning tricks. Thou, O Varus, must guard thyself against
him; for I know the wild beast, and I foresee how plausibly he
will talk, and his counterfeit lamentation. This was he who
exhorted me to have a care of Alexander, when he was alive,
and not intrust my body with all men! This was he who came
to my very bed, and looked about lest any one should lay snares
for me! This was he who took care of my sleep, and secured
me from any fear of danger, who comforted me under the trouble
I was in upon the slaughter of my sons, and looked to see what
affection my surviving brethren bore me! This was my protector,
and the guardian of my body! And when I call to mind, O
Varus, his craftiness upon every occasion, and his art of dissem-
bling, I can hardly believe that I am still alive, and I wonder
how I have escaped such a deep plotter of mischief. However,
since some fate or other makes my house desolate, and perpetually
raises up those that are dearest to me against me, I will, with
tears, lament my hard fortune, and privately groan under my
lonesome condition; yet am I resolved that no one who thirsts
after my blood shall escape punishment, although the evidence
should extend itself to all my sons.
""
3. Upon Herod's saying this, he was interrupted by the con-
fusion he was in; but ordered Nicolaus, one of his friends, to
produce the evidence against Antipater. But in the mean time
334
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
Antipater lifted up his head (for he lay on the ground before his
father's feet), and cried out aloud," Thou, O father, hast made
my apology for me; for how can I be a parricide, whom thou
thyself confessest to have always had for thy guardian? Thou
callest my filial affection prodigious lies and hypocrisy; how,
then, could it be that I, who was so subtile in other matters,
should here be so mad as not to understand that it was not easy
that he who committed so horrid a crime could be concealed
from men, but impossible that he should be concealed from the
Judge of heaven, who sees all things, and is present everywhere?
or did not I know what end my brethren came to, on whom God
inflicted so great a punishment for their evil designs against
thee? And, indeed, what was there that could possibly provoke
me against thee? Could the hope of being a king do it? I was
a king already. Could I suspect hatred from thee? No. Was
not I beloved by thee? And what other fear could I have?
Nay, by preserving thee safe, I was a terror to others. Did I
want money? No; for who was able to expend so much as
myself? Indeed, father, had I been the most execrable of all
mankind, and had I had the soul of the most cruel wild beast,
must I not have been overcome with the benefits thou hadst be-
stowed upon me? whom, as thou thyself sayest, thou broughtest
[into the palace]; whom thou didst prefer before so many of
thy sons; whom thou madest a king in thine own lifetime; and
by the vast magnitude of the other advantages thou bestowedst
on me, thou madest me an object of envy. O miserable man!
that thou shouldst undergo this bitter absence, and thereby afford
a great opportunity for envy to arise against thee, and a long
space for such as were laying designs against thee! Yet was
I absent, father, on thy affairs, that Sylleus might not treat thee
with contempt in thine old age. Rome is a witness to my
filial
affection, and so is Cæsar, the ruler of the habitable earth, who
oftentimes called me Philopater*. Take here the letters he
hath sent thee; they are more to be believed than the calumnies
raised here: these letters are my only apology; these I use as
the demonstration of that natural affection I have to thee. Re-
member that it was against my own choice that I sailed [to
Rome], as knowing the latent hatred that was in the kingdom
against me. It was thou, O father, however unwillingly, who
hast been my ruin, by forcing me to allow time for calumnies
against me, and envy at me. However, I am come hither, and
am ready to hear the evidence there is against me. If I be a
parricide, I have passed by land and by sea without suffering any
misfortune on either of them: but this method of trial is no
advantage to me; for it seems, O father, that I am already
condemned both before God and before thee; and as I am
already condemned, I beg that thou wilt not believe the others
* A lover of his father.
1
C. XXXII.
335
THE JEWISH WAR.
that have been tortured, but let the fire be brought to torment
me; let the racks march through my bowels; have no regard
to any lamentations that this polluted body can make; for if I
be a parricide, I ought not to die without torture." Thus did
Antipater cry out with lamentation and weeping, and moved
all the rest, and Varus in particular, to commiserate his case.
Herod was the only person whose passion was too strong to
permit him to weep, as knowing that the testimonies against
him were true.
4. And now it was that, at the king's command, Nicolaus,
when he had premised a great deal about the craftiness of Anti-
pater, and had prevented the effects of their commiseration to
him, afterwards brought in a bitter and large accusation against
him, ascribing all the wickedness that had been in the kingdom
to him, and especially the murder of his brethren, and demon-
strated that they had perished by the calumnies he had raised
against them. He also said, that he had laid designs against
them that were still alive, as if they were laying plots for the
succession; and [said he] how can it be supposed that he who
prepared poison for his father should abstain from mischief as
to his brethren? He then proceeded to convict him of the
attempt to poison Herod, and gave an account in order of the "
several discoveries that had been made, and had great indignation
as to the affair of Pheroras, because Antipater had been for
making him murder his brother, and had corrupted those that
were dearest to the king, and filled the whole palace with wicked-
ness; and when he had insisted on many other accusations, and
the proofs for them, he left off.
5. Then Varus bid Antipater make his defence; but he lay
long in silence, and said no more but this," God is my witness
that I am entirely innocent." So Varus asked for the potion,
and gave it to be drunk by a condemned malefactor who was
then in prison, who died upon the spot. So Varus, when he
had had a very private discourse with Herod, and had written an
account of this assembly to Cæsar, went away, after a day's stay.
The king also bound Antipater, and sent away to inform Cæsar
of his misfortunes.
6. Now after this it was discovered that Antipater had laid a
plot against Salome also; for one of Antiphilus's domestic
servants came and brought letters from Rome, from a maid
servant of Julia [Cæsar's wife], whose name was Acme. By her
a message was sent to the king, that she had found a letter
written by Salome among Julia's papers, and had sent it to him
privately, out of her good will to him. This letter of Salome
contained the most bitter reproaches of the king, and the highest
accusations against him. Antipater had forged this letter, and
had corrupted Acme, and persuaded her to send it to Herod.
336.
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
This was proved by her letter to Antipater, for thus did this
woman write to him." As thou desirest, I have written a letter
to thy father, and have sent that letter, and am persuaded that
the king will not spare his sister when he reads it. Thou wilt
do well to remember what thou hast promised when all is accom-
plished."
7. When this epistle was discovered, and what the epistle
forged against Salome contained, a suspicion came into the
king's mind, that, perhaps, the letters against Alexander were
also forged: he was, moreover, greatly disturbed, and in a
passion, because he had almost slain his sister on Antipater's
account. He did no longer delay, therefore, to bring him to
punishment for all his crimes; yet when he was eagerly pur-
suing Antipater, he was restrained by a severe distemper he fell
into. However, he sent an account to Cæsar about Acme, and
the contrivances against Salome: he sent also for his testament
and altered it, and therein made Antipas king, as taking no care
of Archelaus and Philip, because Antipater had blasted their
reputations with him; but he bequeathed to Cæsar, besides
other presents that he gave him, a thousand talents; as also to
his wife, and children, and friends, and freedmen, about five
hundred: he also bequeathed to all others a great quantity of
land and of money, and showed his respects to Salome, his
sister, by giving her most splendid gifts. And this was what
was contained in his testament, as it was now altered.
CHAP. XXXIII.
The golden Eagle is cut to Pieces. Herod's Barbarity when he
was ready to die. He attempts to kill himself. He commands
Antipater to be slain. He survives him five Days, and then
dies.
§ 1. Now Herod's distemper became more and more severe to
him, and this because these his disorders fell upon him in his old
age, and when he was in a melancholy condition; for he was
already almost seventy years of age, and had been brought low
by the calamities that happened to him about his children,
whereby he had no pleasure in life, even when he was in health;
the grief also that Antipater was still alive aggravated his disease,
whom he resolved to put to death now, not at random, but as
soon as he should be well again, and resolved to have him slain
[in a públic manner].
2. There also now happened to him, among his other cala-
mities, a certain popular sedition. There were two men of
learning in the city [Jerusalem], who were thought the most
skilful in the laws of their country, and were, on that account,
C. XXXIII.
337
*
THE JEWISH WAR.
had in very great esteem all over the nation; they were, the one
Judas, the son of Sepphoris, and the other Matthias, the son of
Margalus. There was a great concourse of the young men to
these men, when they expounded the laws, and there got together
every day a kind of an army of such as were growing up to be
men. Now when these men were informed that the king was
wearing away with melancholy, and with a distemper, they
dropped words to their acquaintance how it was now a very
proper time to defend the cause of God, and to pull down what
had been erected contrary to the laws of their country; for it
was unlawful there should be any such thing in the temple as
images, or faces, or the like representation of any animal what-
soever. Now the king had put up a golden eagle over the great
gate of the temple, which these learned men exhorted them to
cut down, and told them, that if there should any danger arise,
it was a glorious thing to die for the laws of their country: be-
cause that the soul* was immortal, and that an eternal enjoy-
ment of happiness did await such as died on that account; while
the mean spirited, and those that were not wise enough to show.
a right love of their souls, preferred a death by a disease before
that which is the result of a virtuous behaviour.
3. At the same time that these men made this speech to their
disciples, a rumour was spread abroad that the king was dying,
which made the young men set about the work with greater
boldness: they, therefore, let themselves down from the top of
the temple with thick cords, and this at midday, and while a
great number of people were in the temple, and cut down that
golden eagle with axes. This was presently told to the king's
captain of the temple, who came running with a great body of
soldiers, and caught about forty of the young men, and brought
them to the king. And when he asked them, first of all, whether
they had been so hardy as to cut down the golden eagle? they
confessed they had done so; and when he had asked them, by
whose command they had done it? they replied, At the com-
mand of the law of their country; and when he farther asked
them, how they could be so joyful when they were to be put
to death? they replied, Because they should enjoy greater hap-
piness after they were dead*.
* Since in these two sections we have an evident account of the Jewish
opinions in the days of Josephus, about a future happy state, and the resurrec-
tion of the dead, as in the New Testament, John, xi. 24, I shall here refer to
the other places in Josephus, before he became a Catholic Christian, which con-
cern the same matters; Of the War, B. ii. ch. viii. sect. 10, 11; B. iii. ch. viii.
sect. 4; B. vii. ch. vi. sect. 7; Contr. Apion, B. ii. sect. 30: where we may
observe, that none of these passages are in his books of Antiquities, written
peculiarly for the use of the Gentiles, to whom he thought it not proper to insist
on topics so much out of their way as these were. Nor is this observation to be
omitted here, especially on account of the sensible difference we have now
before us in Josephus's representation of the arguments used by the rabbins to
VOL. III.
2
1
338
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
4. At this the king was in such an extravagant passion,
that he overcame his disease [for the time], and went out, and
spake to the people; wherein he made a terrible accusation
against those men, as being guilty of sacrilege, and as making
greater attempts under pretence of their law, and he thought
they deserved to be punished as impious persons. Whereupon
the people were afraid lest a great number should be found
guilty; and desired that when he had first punished those that
put them upon this work, and then those that were caught in it,
he would leave off his anger as to the rest. With this the king
complied, though not without difficulty, and ordered those that
had let themselves down, together with their rabbins, to be burnt
alive, but delivered the rest that were caught to the proper offi-
cers to be put to death by them.
5. After this the distemper seized upon his whole body, and
greatly disordered all his parts with various symptoms; for there
was a gentle fever upon him, and an intolerable itching over all
the surface of his body, and continued pains in his colon, and
dropsical tumours about his feet, and an inflammation of the ab-
domen, and a putrefaction of his privy member, that produced
worms. Besides which, he had a great difficulty of breathing
upon him, and could not breathe but when he sat upright, and
had a convulsion of all his members, insomuch that the diviners
said those diseases were a punishment upon him for what he had
done to the rabbins. Yet did he struggle with his numerous
disorders, and still had a desire to live, and hoped for recovery,
and considered of several methods of cure. Accordingly he went
over Jordan, and made use of those hot baths at Callirhoe which
run into the lake Asphaltitis, but are themselves sweet enough
to be drunk. And here the physicians thought proper to bathe
his whole body in warm oil, by letting it down into a large vessel
full of oil; whereupon his eyes failed him, and he came and went
as if he were dying; and as a tumult was then made by his ser-
vants, at their voice he revived again. Yet did he after this
despair of recovery, and gave orders that each soldier should
have fifty drachmæ apiece, and that his commanders and friends
should have great sums of money given them.
6. He then returned back and came to Jericho, in such a me-
persuade their scholars to hazard their lives for the vindication of God's law
against images, by Moses, as well as of the answers those scholars made to Herod,
when they were caught and ready to die for the same; I mean as compared with
the parallel arguments and answers represented in the Antiquities, B. xvii.
ch, vi. sect. 2, 3. A like difference between Jewish and Gentile notions the
reader will find in my notes on Antiquities, B. iii. ch. vii. sect. 7; B. xv. ch. ix.
sect. 1. See the like also in the case of the three Jewish sects in the Antiquities,
B. xiii. ch. v. sect 9, and ch. x. sect. 4, 5; B. xviii. ch. i. sect. 5, and compared
with this in his Wars of the Jews, B. ii. ch. viii. sect. 2—14. Nor does St. Paul
bimself reason to Gentries at Athens, Acts, xvii. 16, 34, as he does to Jews in
his epistles.
C. XXXIII.
339
THE JEWISH WAR.
lancholy state of body as almost threatened him with present
death, when he proceeded to attempt a horrid wickedness; for
he got together the most illustrious men of the whole Jewish
nation, out of every village, into a place called the Hippodrome,
and there shut them in. He then called for his sister Salome
and her husband Alexas, and made this speech to them:-“ I
know well enough that the Jews will keep a festival upon my
death: however, it is in my power to be mourned for on other
accounts, and to have a splendid funeral, if you will but be sub-
servient to my commands. Do but you take care to send sol-
diers to encompass these men that are now in custody, and slay
them immediately upon my death, and then all Judea, and every
family of them, will weep at it whether they will or no."
7. These were the commands he gave them; when there came
letters from his ambassadors at Rome, whereby information was
given, that Acme was put to death at Cæsar's command, and
that Antipater was condemned to die: however, they wrote
withal, that if Herod had a mind rather to banish him, Cæsar
permitted him so to do. So he for a little while revived, and
had a desire to live; but presently after he was overborne by
his pains, and was disordered by want of food, and by a convul
sive cough, and endeavoured to prevent a natural death; so he
took an apple, and asked for a knife; for he used to pare apples,
and eat them: he then looked round about to see that there was
nobody to hinder him and lift up his right hand, as if he would
stab himself; but Achiabus, his first cousin, came running to him
and held his hand, and hindered him from so doing; on which
occasion a very great lamentation was made in the palace, as if
the king were expiring. As soon as ever Antipater heard that,
he took courage, and, with joy in his looks, besought his keepers,
for a sum of money, to loose him, and let him go; but the prin-
cipal keeper of the prison did not only obstruct him in that his
intention, but ran and told the king what his design was: here-
upon the king cried out louder than his distemper would well
bear, and immediately sent some of his guards, and slew Anti-
pater; he also gave order to have him buried at Hyrcanium,
and altered his testament again, and therein made Archelaus, his
eldest son, and the brother of Antipas, his successor, and made
Antipas tetrarch.
8. So Herod, having survived the slaughter of his son five
days, died, having reigned thirty-four years since he caused
Antigonus to be slain, and obtained his kingdom; but thirty-
seven years since he had been made king by the Romans. Now,
as for his fortune, it was prosperous in all other respects, if ever
any other man could be so, since from a private man he ob-
tained a kingdom, and kept it so long, and left it to his own
sons; but still, in his domestic affairs he was a most unfortu-
z 2
340
B.- I¿
THE JEWISH WAR.
1
nate man. Now, before the soldiers knew of his death, Salome
and her husband came out and dismissed those that were in
bonds, whom the king had commanded to be slain, and told
them, that he had altered his mind, and would have every one
of them sent to their own homes. When these men were gone,
Salome told the soldiers [the king was dead], and got them,
and the rest of the multitude together, to an assembly, in the
amphitheatre at Jericho, where Ptolemy, who was intrusted by
the king with his signet-ring, came before them, and spake of
the happiness the king had attained, and comforted the multi-
tude, and read the epistle which had been left for the soldiers,
wherein he earnestly exhorted them to bear good will to his
successor; and after he had read the epistle, he opened and
read his testament, wherein Philip was to inherit Trachonitis
and the neighbouring countries, and Antipas was to be tetrarch,
as we said before, and Archelaus was made king. He had also
been commanded to carry Herod's ring to Cæsar, and the set-
tlements he had made sealed up, because Cæsar was to be lord
of all the settlements he had made, and was to confirm his testa-
ment; and he ordered that the dispositions he had made were to
be kept as they were in his former testament.
9. So there was an acclamation made to Archelaus, to con-
gratulate him upon his advancement, and the soldiers, with the
multitude, went round about in troops, and promised him their
good will, and, besides, prayed God to bless his government.
After this they betook themselves to prepare for the king's fu-
neral; and Archelaus omitted nothing of magnificence therein,
but brought out all the royal ornaments to augment the pomp of
the deceased. There was a bier all of gold, embroidered with
precious stones, and a purple bed of various contexture, with
the dead body upon it covered with purple; and a diadem was
put upon his head, and a crown of gold above it, and a sceptre
in his right hand; and near to the bier were Herod's sons, and
a multitude of his kindred; next to which came his guards, and
the regiment of Thracians, the Germans also, and Galls, all ac-
coutred as if they were going to war; but the rest of the army
went foremost, armed, and following their captains and officers
in a regular manner; after whom five hundred of his domestic
servants and freedmen followed with sweet spices in their hands:
and the body was carried two hundred furlongs to Herodium,
where he had given order to be buried. And this shall suffice
for the conclusion of the life of Herod.
T
=
THE JEWISH WAR.
341
BOOK II.
CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF SIXTY-NINE YEARS.
From the Death of Herod till Vespasian was sent to subdue the
Jews by Nero.
CHAP. I.
Archelaus makes a Funeral Feast for the People on Account of
Herod; after which a great Tumult is raised by the Multi-
tude, and he sends the Soldiers out upon them, who destroy
about three thousand of them..
§ 1. Now the necessity which Archelaus was under of taking
a journey to Rome was the occasion of new disturbances; for
when he had mourned for his father seven days*, and had given
a very expensive funeral feast to the multitude (which custom is
the occasion of poverty to many of the Jews, because they are
forced to feast the multitude; for if any one omits it, he is
not esteemed a holy person), he put on a white garment, and
went up to the holy temple, where the people accosted him
with various acclamations. He also spake kindly to the multi-
tude, from an elevated seat and a throne of gold, and returned
them thanks for the zeal they had shown about his father's
funeral, and the submission they had made to him, as if he were
already settled in the kingdom: but he told them withal, that
" he would not at present take upon him either the authority of
a king, or the names thereto belonging, until Cæsar, who is made
lord of this whole affair by his testament, confirms the succes-
sion; for that when the soldiers would have set the diadem on
his head at Jericho, he would not accept of it; but that he
would make abundant requitals, not to the soldiers only, but to
the people, for their alacrity and good will to him, when the
* Hear Dean Aldrich's note on this place." The law, or custom of the
Jews," says he, "requires seven days mourning for the dead, Antiq. B. xvii. ch.'
viii. sect. 4. Whence the author of the book of Ecclesiasticus, ch. xxii. 12, as-
signs seven days as the proper time of mourning for the dead, and ch. xxxviii. 17,
enjoins men to mourn for the dead, that they may not be evil spoken of; for as
Josephus says presently, if any one omits this mourning [funeral feast] he is not
esteemed a holy person. Now it is certain that such a seven days mourning has
been customary from times of the greatest antiquity, Gen. 1. 10. Funeral feasts
are also mentioned as of considerable antiquity, Ezek. xxiv. 17; Jer. xvi. 7;
Prov. xxxi. 6;· Deut. xxvi. 14; Josephus, Of the War, B. iii. ch. ix. sect. 5.'
342
B. 11.
THE JEWISH WAR.
superior lords [the Romans] should have given him a complete
title to the kingdom: for that it should be his study to appear
in all things better than his father."
2. Upon this the multitude were pleased, and presently made
a trial of what he intended, by asking great things of him: for
some made a clamour that he would ease them in their taxes;
others, that he would take off the duties upon commodities, and
some, that he would loose those that were in prison; in all
which cases he answered readily to their satisfaction, in order
to get the good will of the multitude; after which he offered
[the proper] sacrifices, and feasted with his friends. And here
it was that a great many of those who desired innovations came
in crowds towards the evening, and began then to mourn on
their own account, when the public mourning for the king was
over. These lamented those that were put to death by Herod,
because they had cut down the golden eagle that had been over
the gate of the temple. Nor was this mourning of a private
nature, but the lamentations were very great, the mourning so-
lemn, and the weeping such as was loudly heard all over the
city, as being for those men who had perished for the laws of
their country and for the temple. They cried out that a punish-
ment ought to be inflicted for these men upon those that were
honoured by Herod; and that, in the first place, the man whom
he had made high priest should be deprived, and that it was fit
to choose a person of greater piety and purity than he was.
3. At these clamours Archelaus was provoked, but restrained
himself from taking vengeance on the authors, on account of
the haste he was in of going to Rome, as fearing lest, upon his
making war on the multitude, such an action might detain him
at home. Accordingly he made trial to quiet the innovators by
persuasion rather than by force, and sent his general in a private
way to them, and by him exhorted them to be quiet. But the
seditious threw stones at him, and drove him away as he came
into the temple, and before he could say any thing to them.
The like treatment they showed to others who came to them
after him, many of which were sent by Archelaus in order to re-
duce them to sobriety, and these answered still on all occasions
after a passionate manner; and it openly appeared that they
would not be quiet, if their numbers were but considerable.
And, indeed, at the feast of unleavened bread, which was now
at hand, and is by the Jews called the Passover, and used to be
celebrated with a great number of sacrifices, an innumerable
multitude of the people came out of the country to worship:
some of these stood in the temple bewailing the rabbins [that
had been put to death], and procured their sustenance by beg-
ging, in order to support their sedition. At this Archelaus was
affrighted, and privately sent a tribune, with his cohort of sol-
C. I.
343
THE JEWISH WAR.
diers, upon them, before the disease should spread over the
whole multitude, and gave orders that they should constrain
those that began the tumult by force to be quiet. At these the
whole multitude were irritated, and threw stones at many of the
soldiers, and killed them: but the tribune fled away wounded,
and had much ado to escape so: after which they betook them-
selves to their sacrifices, as if they had done no mischief; nor
did it appear to Archelaus that the multitude could be restrained
without bloodshed; so he sent his whole army upon them, the
footmen in great multitudes by the way of the city, and the
horsemen by the way of the plain, who falling upon them on a
sudden, as they were offering their sacrifices, destroyed about
three thousand of them; but the rest of the multitude were dis-
persed upon the adjoining mountains: these were followed by
Archelaus's heralds, who commanded every one to retire to their
own homes, whither they all went, and left the festival.
CHAP. II.
Archelaus goes to Rome with a great Number of his Kindred.
He is there accused before Cæsar by Antipater; but is supe-
rior to his Accusers in Judgment, by the Means of that De-
fence which Nicolaus made for him.
§ 1. ARCHELAUS went down now to the seaside, with his mo-
ther and his friends, Poplas, and Ptolemy, and Nicolaus, and
left behind him Philip, to be his steward in the palace, and to
take care of his domestic affairs. Salome went out also along
with him with her sons, as did also the king's brethren and sons-
in-law. These, in appearance, went to give him all the assist-
ance they were able, in order to secure his succession, but in
reality to accuse him for his breach of the laws, by what he had
done at the temple.
2. But as they were come to Cæsarea, Sabinus the procura-
tor of Syria, met them: he was going up to Judea to secure
Herod's effects: but Varus [president of Syria], who was come
hither, restrained him from going any farther. This Varus Ar-
chelaus had sent for, by the earnest entreaty of Ptolemy. At
this time, indeed, Sabinus, to gratify Varus, neither went to the
citadels, nor did he shut up the treasuries where his father's
money was laid up, but promised that he would lie still, until
Cæsar should have taken cognizance of the affair. So he abode
at Cæsarea; but as soon as those that were his hinderance were
gone, when Varus was gone to Antioch, and Archelaus was
sailed to Rome, he immediately went on to Jerusalem, and
seized upon the palace. And when he had called for the go-
vernors of the citadels, and the stewards [of the king's private
344
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
J
affairs], he tried to sift out the accounts of the money, and to
take possession of the citadels. But the governors of those ci-
tadels were not uninindful of the commands laid upon them by
Archelaus, and continued to guard them, and said the custody
of them rather belonged to Cæsar than to Archelaus.
1
3. In the mean time Antipas went also to Rome, to strive for
the kingdom, aud to insist that the former testament, wherein he
was named to be the king, was valid before the latter testament.
Salome had also promised to assist him, as had many of Arche-
laus's kindred, who sailed along with Archelaus himself also.
He also carried along with him his mother, and Ptolemy the
brother of Nicolaus, who seemed one of great weight, on ac-
count of the great trust Herod put in him, he having been one
of his most honoured friends. However, Antipas depended
chiefly upon Irenæus, the orator; upon whose authority he had
rejected such as advised him to yield to Archelaus, because he
was his elder brother, and because the second testament gave
the kingdom to him. The inclinations also of all Archelaus's kin-
dred, who hated him, were removed to Antipas, when they came
to Rome, although, in the first place, every one rather desired
to live under their own laws [without a king], and to be under
a Roman governor; but if they should fail in that point, these
desired that Antipas might be their king.
4. Sabinus did also afford these his assistance to the same pur-
pose, by the letters he sent, wherein he accused Archelaus before
Cæsar, and highly commended Antipas. Salome also, and those
with her, put the crimes which they accused Archelaus of in
order, and put them into Cæsar's hands: and after they had done
that, Archelaus wrote down the reasons of his claim, and by Pto-
lemy sent in his father's ring and his father's accounts. And when
Cæsar had maturely weighed by himself what both had to allege
for themselves, as also had considered of the great burden of the
kingdom, and largeness of the revenues, and withal the number
of the children Herod had left behind him, and had, moreover,
read the letters he had received from Varus and Sabinus on this
occasion, he assembled the principal persons among the Romans
together (in which assembly Caius, the son of Agrippa, and his
daughter Julias, but by himself adopted for his own son, sat in
the first seat), and gave the pleaders leave to speak.
:
5. Then stood up Salome's son, Antipater (who of all Arche-
laus's antagonists was the shrewdest pleader), and accused him in
the following speech:-" That Archelaus did in words contend
for the kingdom, but that in deeds he had long exercised royal
authority; and so did but insult Cæsar in desiring to be now
heard on that account; since he had not staid for his determina-
tion about the succession, and since he had suborned certain
persons, after Herod's death, to move for putting the diadem
C. II.
345
THE JEWISH WAR.
▾
upon his head; since he had set himself down in the throne, and
given answers as a king, and altered the disposition of the army,
and granted to some higher dignities: that he had also complied
in all things with the people in the requests they had made to
him as to their king; and had also dismissed those that had been
put into bonds by his father, for most important reasons. Now,
after all this, he desires the shadow of that royal authority, whose
substance he had already seized to himself, and so hath made
Cæsar lord not of things but of words. He also reproached him
farther, that his mourning for his father was only pretended, while
he put on a sad countenance in the day time, but drank to great
excess in the night, from which behaviour, he said, the late dis-
turbances among the multitude came, while they had an indigna-
tion thereat. And, indeed, the purport of his whole discourse
was to aggravate Archelaus's crime in slaying such a multitude
about the temple, which multitude came to the festival, but were
barbarously slain in the midst of their own sacrifices; and he said
there was such a vast number of dead bodies heaped together in
the temple, as even a foreign war, that should come upon them
[suddenly], before it was denounced, could not have heaped
together. And he added, that it was the foresight his father had
of that his barbarity, which made him never give him any hopes
of the kingdom, but when his mind was more infirm than his body,
and he was not able to reason soundly, and did not well know
what was the character of that son whom in his second testament
he made his successor: and this was done by him at a time when
he had no complaints to make of him whom he had named be-
fore when he was sound in body, and when his mind was free
from all passion: that, however, if any one should suppose
Herod's judgment when he was sick was superior to that at ano-
ther time, yet had Archelaus forfeited his kingdom by his own
behaviour, and those his actions which were contrary to the law,
and to its disadvantage. Or what sort of a king will this man
be, when he hath obtained the government from Cæsar, who hath
slain so many before he hath obtained it?"
6. When Antipater had spoken largely to this purpose, and
had produced a great number of Archelaus's kindred as witnesses
to prove every part of the accusation, he ended his discourse.
Then stood up Nicolaus to plead for Archelaus. He alleged,
that "the slaughter in the temple could not be avoided: that
those that were slain were become enemies not to Archelaus's
kingdom only, but to Cæsar, who was to determine about him.
He also demonstrated, that Archelaus's accusers had advised him
to perpetrate other things, of which he might have been accused.
But he insisted that the latter testament should, for this reason
above all others, be esteemed valid, because Herod had therein
appointed Cæsar to be the person who should confirm the suc-
346
B. 11.
THE JEWISH WAR..
cession; for he who showed such prudence as to recede from his
own power, and yield it up to the lord of the world, cannot be
supposed mistaken in his judgment about him that was to be his
heir;
and be that so well knew whom to choose for arbitrator of
the succession, could not be unacquainted with him whom he
chose for his successor.”
7. When Nicolaus had gone through all he had to say, Arche-
laus came and fell down before Cæsar's knees, without any noise:
Upon which he raised him up, after a very obliging manner, and
declared, that truly he was worthy to succeed his father. How-
ever, he still made no firm determination in his case; but when
he had dismissed those assessors that had been with him that
day, he deliberated by himself about the allegations which he
had heard, whether it were fit to constitute any of those named
in the testaments, for Herod's successor, or whether the govern-
ment should be parted among all his posterity, and this because
of the number of those that seemed to stand in need of support
therefrom.
CHAP. III.
The Jews fight a great Battle with Sabinus's Soldiers, and a
great Destruction is made at Jerusalem.
§ 1. Now before Cæsar had determined any thing about these
affairs, Malthace, Archelaus's mother, fell sick and died. Let-
ters also were brought out of Syria from Varus about a revolt of
the Jews. This was foreseen by Varus, who, accordingly, after
Archelaus was sailed, went up to Jerusalem to restrain the pro-
moters of the sedition, since it was manifest that the nation would
not be at rest; so he left one of those legions which he brought
with him out of Syria in the city, and went himself to Antioch.
But Sabinus came after he was gone, and gave them an occasion
of making innovations; for he compelled the keepers of the cita-
dels to deliver them up to him, and made a bitter search after the
king's money, as depending not only on the soldiers which were
left by Varus, but on the multitude of his own servants, all which
he armed, and used as the instruments of his covetousness. Now
when that feast which was observed after seven weeks, and which
the Jews call Pentecost [i. e. the 50th day], was at hand, its name
being taken from the number of the days [after the passover], the
people got together, but not on account of the accustomed di-
vine worship, but of the indignation they had [at the present
state of affairs]. Wherefore an immense multitude ran together
out of Galilee and Idumea, and Jericho and Perea, that was
beyond Jordan; but the people that naturally belonged to Ju-
dea itself were above the rest, both in number and in the alacrity
C. III.
347
THE JEWISH WAR.
of the men. So they distributed themselves into three parts, and
pitched their camps in three places: one was at the north side
of the temple, another at the south side, by the Hippodrome,
and the third part were at the palace on the west. So they lay
round about the Romans on every side, and besieged them.
2. Now Sabinus was affrighted both at their multitude, and
at their courage, and sent messengers to Varus continually, and
besought him to come to his succour quickly, for that, if he de-
layed, his legion would be cut to pieces. As for Sabinus him-
self, he got up to the highest tower of the fortress, which was
called Phasaelus: it is of the same name with Herod's brother,
who was destroyed by the Parthians; and then he made signs to
the soldiers of that legion to attack the enemy: for his astonish-
ment was so great, that he durst not go down to his own men.
Hereupon the soldiers were prevailed upon, and leaped out into
the temple, and fought a terrible battle with the Jews; in which
while there were none over their heads to distress them, they
were too hard for them by their skill, and the others' want of skill
in war; but when once many of the Jews had gotten up to the
top of the cloisters, and threw their darts downwards upon the
heads of the Romans, there were a great many of them destroyed.
Nor was it easy to avenge themselves upon those that threw their
weapons from on high, nor was it more easy for them to sustain
those who came to fight them hand to hand.
3. Since therefore the Romans were sorely afflicted by both
these circumstances, they set fire to the cloisters, which were
works to be admired, both on account of their magnitude and
costliness: Whereupon those that were above them were pre-
sently encompassed with the flame, and many of them perished
therein; as many of them also were destroyed by the enemy, who
came suddenly upon them; some of them also threw themselves
down from the walls backward, and some there were who, from
the desperate condition they were in, prevented the fire by killing
themselves with their own swords; but so many of them as crept
out from the walls, and came upon the Romans, were easily
mastered by them, by reason of the astonishment they were under;
until at last some of the Jews being destroyed, and others dis-
persed by the terror they were in, the soldiers fell upon the trea-
sure of God, which was now deserted, and plundered about four
hundred talents, of which sum Sabinus got together all that was
not carried away by the soldiers.
4. However, this destruction of the works [about the temple],
and of the men, occasioned a much greater number, and those
of a more warlike sort, to get together to oppose the Romans.
These encompassed the palace round, and threatened to destroy.
all that were in it, unless they went their ways quickly: for they
promised that Sabinus should come to no harm, if he would go
3
348
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
F
out with his legion. There were also a great many of the king's
party, who deserted the Romans, and assisted the Jews: yet did
the most warlike body of them all, who were three thousand of
the men of Sebaste, go over to the Romans. Rufus also, and
Gratus, their captains, did the same (Gratus having the foot of
the king's party under him, and Rufus the horse); each of whom,
even without the forces under them, were of great weight on ac-
count of their strength and wisdom, which turn the scales in war.
Now the Jews persevered in the siege, and tried to break down
the walls of the fortress, and cried out to Sabinus and his party,
that they should go their ways, and not prove a hindrance to them,
now they hoped, after a long time, to recover that ancient liberty
which their forefathers had enjoyed. Sabinus, indeed, was well
contented to get out of the danger he was in, but he distrusted
the assurances the Jews gave him, and suspected such gentle
treatment was but a bait laid as a snare for them: this consider-
ation, together with the hopes he had of succour from Varus,
made him bear the siege still longer.
CHAP. IV.
Herod's veteran Soldiers become tumultuous. The Robberies of
Judas. Simon and Athrongeus take the Name of King upon
them.
§ 1. Ar this time there were great disturbances in the country,
and that in many places; and the opportunity that now offered
itself induced a great many to set up for kings. And, indeed,
in Idumea two thousand of Herod's veteran soldiers got toge-
ther, and armed themselves, and fought against those of the
king's party against whom Achiabus, the king's first cousin,
fought, and that out of some of the places that were the most
strongly fortified, but so as to avoid a direct conflict with them
in the plains. In Sepphoris also, a city of Galilee, there was
one Judas (the son of that arch-robber Hezekias, who formerly
overran the country, and had been subdued by King Herod);
this man got no small multitude together, and brake open the
place where the royal armour was laid up, and armed those
about him, and attacked those that were so earnest to gain the
dominion.
2. In Perea also, Simon, one of the servants to the king, re-
lying upon the handsome appearance and tallness of his body,
put a diadem upon his own head also: he also went about with
a company of robbers that he had gotten together, and burut
down the royal palace that was at Jericho, and many other
costly edifices besides, and procured himself very easily spoils by
rapine, as snatching them out of the fire. And he had soon
C. IV.
349
THE JEWISH WAR.
burnt down all the fine edifices, if Gratus, the captain of the
foot of the king's party, had not taken the Trachonite archers,
and the most warlike of Sebaste, and met the man. His foot-
men were slain in the battle in abundance; Gratus also cut to
pieces Simon himself as he was flying along a strait valley, when
he gave him an oblique stroke upon his neck, as he ran away,
and brake it. The royal palaces that were near Jordan at
Betharamptha were also burnt down by some of the seditious
that came out of Perea.
3. At this time it was that a certain shepherd ventured to set
himself up for a king; he was called Athrongeus. It was his
strength of body that made him expect such a dignity, as well
as his soul which despised death; and besides these qualifica-
tions, he had four brethren like himself. He put a troop of
armed men under each of these his brethren, and made use of
them as his generals and commanders, when he made his incur-
sions, while he did himself act like a king, and meddled only
with the more important affairs: and at this time he put a dia-
dem about his head, and continued after that to overrun the
country for no little time with his brethren, and became their
leader in killing both the Romans and those of the king's party;
nor did any Jew escape him, if any gain could accrue to him there-
by. He once ventured to encompass a whole troop of Romans
at Emmaus, who were carrying corn and weapons to their
legion: his men, therefore, shot their arrows and darts, and
thereby slew their centurion Arius, and forty of the stoutest of
his men, while the rest of them, who were in danger of the same
fate, upon the coming of Gratus, with those of Sebaste, to their
assistance, escaped. And when these men had thus served both
their own countrymen and foreigners, and that through this
whole war, three of them were after some time subdued, the
eldest by Archelaus, the two next by falling into the hands of
Gratus and Ptolemeus; but the fourth delivered himself up to
Archelaus, upon his giving him his right hand for his security.
However, this their end was not till afterward, while at present
they filled all Judea with a piratic war.
•
CHAP. V.
Varus composes the Tumults in Judea, and crucifies about two
thousand of the seditious.
§ 1. UPON Varus's reception of the letters that were written by
Sabinus and the captains, he could not avoid being afraid for the
whole legion [he had left there]. So he made haste to their
relief, and took with him the other two legions, with the four
troops of horsemen to them belonging, and marched to Ptole-
350
B. I.
THE JEWISH WAR.
mais, having given orders for the auxiliaries that were sent by
the kings and governors of cities to meet him there. Moreover,
he received from the people of Berytus, as he passed through
their city, fifteen hundred armed men. Now as soon as the
other body of auxiliaries were come to Ptolemais, as well as
Aretas the Arabian (who, out of the hatred he bore to Herod,
brought a great army of horse and foot), Varus sent a part of
his army presently to Galilee, which lay near to Ptolemais, and
Caius one of his friends for their captain. This Caius put
those that met him to flight, and took the city Sepphoris, and
burnt it, and made slaves of its inhabitants; but as for Varus
himself, he marched to Samaria with his whole army, where he
did not meddle with the city itself, because he found that it had
made no commotion during these troubles, but pitched his
camp about a certain village which was called Arus. It be-
longed to Ptolemy, and on that account was plundered by the
Arabians, who were very angry even at Herod's friends also.
He thence marched on to the village Sampho, another fortified
place, which they plundered, as they had done the other. As
they carried off all the money they light upon belonging to the
public revenues, all was now full of fire and bloodshed, and
nothing could resist the plunders of the Arabians. Emmaus
was also burnt, upon the flight of its inhabitants, and this at the
command of Varus, out of his rage at the slaughter of those that
were about Arus.
2. Thence he marched on to Jerusalem, and as soon as he
was but seen by the Jews, he made their camps disperse them-
selves: they also went away, and fled up and down the coun-
try; but the citizens received him, and cleared themselves of
having any hand in this revolt; and said, that they had raised
no commotions, but had only been forced to admit the multi-
tude because of the festival, and that they were rather besieged
together with the Romans, than assisted those that had revolted,
There had before this met him Joseph, the first cousin of Arche-
laus, and Gratus, together with Rufus, who led those of Se-
baste, as well as the king's army: there also met him those of
the Roman legion, armed after their acustomed manner; for as
to Sabinus, he durst not come into Varus's sight, but was gone
out of the city before this to the seaside: but Varus sent a part
of his army into the country against those that had been the
authors of this commotion; and as they caught great numbers
of them, those that appeared to have been the least concerned
in these tumults he put into custody, but such as were the most
guilty he crucified: these were in number about two thousand.
3. He was also informed that there continued in Idumea ten
thousand men still in arms; but when he found that the Ara-
bians did not act like auxiliaries, but managed the war accord-
c. v.
351
THE JEWISH WAR.
ing to their own passions, and did mischief to the country other-
wise than he intended, and this out of their hatred to Herod, he
sent them away, but made haste with his own legions, to march
against those that had revolted; but these, by the advice of
Archiabus, delivered themselves up to him before it came to a
battle. Then did Varus forgive the multitude their offences,
but sent their captains to Cæsar to be examined by him. Now
Cæsar forgave the rest; but gave orders that certain of the
king's relations (for some of those there were among them who
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 garison, he
returned to Antioch.
CHAP. VI.
The Jews greatly complain of Archelaus, and desire that they
may be made subject to the Roman Governors. But when
Casar had heard what they had to say, he distributed_He-
rod's Dominions among his Sons, according to his own Plea-
sure.
§ 1. But now came another accusation from the Jews against
Archelaus at Rome, which he was to answer to. It was made
by those ambassadors who, before the revolt, had come, by
Varus's permission, to plead for the liberty of their country:
those that came were fifty in number, but there were more
than eight thousand of the Jews at Rome who supported them.
And when Cæsar had assembled a council of the principal
Romans in Apollo's temple*, that was in the palace (this was
what he had himself built and adorned at a vast expense), the
multitude of the Jews stood with the ambassadors, and on the
other side stood Archelaus with his friends; but as for the kin-
dred of Archelaus, they stood on neither side; for to stand on
Archelaus's side, their hatred to him and envy at him would not
give them leave, while yet they were afraid to be seen by Cæsar
with his accusers. Besides these, there was present Arche-
laus's brother, Philip, being sent thither beforehand out of kind-
ness by Varus for two reasons; the one was this, that he might
be assisting to Archelaus; and the other was this, that in case
Cæsar should make a distribution of what Herod possessed
among his posterity, he might obtain some share of it.
2. And now, upon the permission that was given to the
* This holding a council in the temple of Apollo, in the emperor's palace at
Rome, by Augustus, and even the building of this temple magnificently by him-
self in that palace, are exactly agreeable to Augustus, in his elder years, as
Aldrich and Spanheim observe and prove from Suetonius and Propertius.
352
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
:
'
accusers to speak, they in the first place went over Herod's
breaches of their law, and said, that " he was not a king, but
the most barbarous of all tyrants, and that they had found him
to be such by the sufferings they underwent from him: that when
a very great number had been slain by him, those that were left
had endured such miseries, that they called those that were dead
happy men that he had not only tortured the bodies of his
subjects, but entire cities, and had done much harm to the cities
of his own country, while he adorned those that belonged to
foreigners; and he shed the blood of Jews, in order to do kind-
nesses to those people that were out of their bounds that he
had filled the nation full of poverty and of the greatest iniquity,
instead of that happiness and those laws which they had an-
ciently enjoyed: that, in short, the Jews had borne more cala-
mities from Herod in a few years, than had their forefathers
during all that interval of time that had passed since they had
come out of Babylon, and returned home, in the reign of
Xerxes*: that, however, the nation was come to so low a con-
dition, by being inured to hardships, that they submitted to his
successor of their own accord, though he brought them into
bitter slavery that, accordingly, they readily called Archelaus,
though he was the son of so great a tyrant, King, after the
decease of his father, and joined with him in mourning for the
death of Herod, and in wishing him good success in that his
succession; while yet this Archelaus, lest he should be in
danger of not being thought the genuine son of Herod, began
his reign with the murder of three thousand citizens, as if he
had a mind to offer so many bloody sacrifices to God for his
government, and to fill the temple with the like number of dead
bodies at that festival: that, however, those that were left after
so many miseries, had just reason to consider now at last the
calamities they had undergone, and to oppose themselves, like
soldiers in war, to receive those stripes upon their faces [but
not upon their backs, as hitherto]. Wherefore they prayed,
that the Romans would have compassion upon the [poor] re-
mains of Judea, and not expose what was left of them to such
as barbarously tore them to pieces, and that they would join
their country to Syria, and administer the government by their
own commanders; whereby it would [soon] be demonstrated,
that those who are now under the calumny of seditious persons,
and lovers of war, know how to bear governors, that are set over
them, if they be but tolerable ones." So the Jews concluded
their accusation with this request. Then rose up Nicolaus, and
confuted the accusations which were brought against the kings,
Here we have a strong confirmation that it was Xerxes, and not Artaxerxes,
under whom the main part of the Jews returned out of the Babylonian captivity,
i. e. in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The same thing is in the Antiquities,
B. xi. ch. v. sect. 1.
C. VI.
353
THE JEWISH. WAR.
п
and himself accused the Jewish nation as hard to be ruled, and
as naturally disobedient to kings. He also reproached all those
kinsmen of Archelaus who had left him, and were gone over to
his accusers.
3. So Cæsar, after he had heard both sides, dissolved the as-
sembly for that time; but a few days afterward he gave the one-
half of Herod's kingdom to Archelaus, by the name of Eth-
narch, and promised to make him king also afterward, if he
rendered himself worthy of that dignity. But as to the other
half, he divided it into two tetrarchies, and gave them to two
other sons of Herod, the one of them to Philip, and the other
to that Antipas who contested the kingdom with Archelaus.
Under this last was Perea and Galilee, with a revenue of two
hundred talents: but Batanea, and Trachonitis, and Auranitis,
and certain parts of Zeno's house about Jamnia, with a revenue
of a hundred talents, were made subject to Philip; while Idu-
mea, and all Judea and Samaria, were parts of the ethnarchy
of Archelaus, although Samaria was eased of one quarter of its
taxes, out of regard to their not having revolted with the rest of
the nation. He also made subject to him the following cities,
viz. Strato's Tower, and Sebaste, and Joppa, and Jerusalem;
but as to the Grecian cities, Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, he
cut them off from the kingdom, and added them to Syria. Now
the revenue of the country that was given to Archelaus was four
hundred talents. Salome also, besides what the king had left
her in his testaments, was now made mistress of Jamnia, and
Ashdod, and Phasaelis. Cæsar did, moreover, bestow upon
her the royal palace of Ascalon; by all which she got together
a revenue of sixty talents; but he put her house under the
ethnarchy of Archelaus. And for the rest of Herod's offspring,
they received what was bequeathed to them in his testaments;
but, besides that, Cæsar granted to Herod's two virgin daughters
five hundred thousand [drachmæ] of silver, and gave them in
marriage to the sons of Pheroras: but after this family distribu-
tion, he gave between them what had been bequeathed to him by
Herod, which was a thousand talents, reserving to himself only
some inconsiderable presents in honour of the deceased.
CHAP. VII.
The History of the spurious Alexander. Archelaus is banished,
and Glaphyra dies, after what was to happen to both of them
had been shown them in Dreams.
§ 1. IN the meantime there was a man, who was by birth a
Jew, but brought up at Sidon with one of the Roman freed-
men, who falsely pretended, on account of the resemblance of
VOL. III.
A A
354
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
,
their countenances, that he was that Alexander who was slain
by Herod. This man came to Rome in hopes of not being
detected. He had one who was his assistant, of his own na-
tion, and who knew all the affairs of the kingdom, and instructed
him to say how those that were sent to kill him and Aristobu-
lus had pity upon them, and stole them away, by putting bodies
that were like theirs in their places. This man deceived the
Jews that were at Crete, and got a great deal of money of them
for travelling in splendour; and thence sailed to Melos, where
he was thought so certainly genuine, that he got a great deal
more money, and prevailed with those that had treated him to
sail along with him to Rome. So he landed at Dicearchia
[Puteoli], and got very large presents from the Jews who dwelt
there, and was conducted by his father's friends as if he were a
king; nay, the resemblance in his countenance procured him so
much credit, that those who had seen Alexander, and had known
him very well, would take their oaths that he was the very same
person. Accordingly, the whole body of the Jews that were at
Rome ran out in crowds to see him, and an innumerable multi-
tude there was which stood in the narrow places through which
he was carried; for those of Melos were so far distracted, that
they carried him in a sedan, and maintained a royal attendance
for him at their own proper charges.
2. But Cæsar, who knew perfectly well the lineaments of
Alexander's face, because he had been accused by Herod be-
fore him, discerned the fallacy in his countenance even before
he saw the man. However, he suffered the agreeable fame that
went of him to have some weight with him, and sent Celadus,
one who well knew Alexander, and ordered him to bring the
young man to him. But when Cæsar saw him, he immediately
discerned a difference in his countenance; and when he had
discovered that his whole body was of a more robust texture,
and like that of a slave, he understood the whole was a contri-
vance. But the impudence of what he said greatly provoked
him to be angry at him; for when he was asked about Aristobu-
lus, he said, that "he was also preserved alive, and was left on
purpose in Cyprus, for fear of treachery, because it would be
harder for plotters to get them both into their power while they
were separate." Then did Cæsar take him by himself privately,
and said to him, "I will give thee thy life, if thou wilt discover
who it was that persuaded thee to forge such stories." So he
said that he would discover him; and followed Cæsar, and
pointed to that Jew who abused the resemblance of his face to
get money; for that he had received more presents in every city
than ever Alexander did while he was alive. Cæsar laughed at
the contrivance, and put this spurious Alexander among his
rowers, on account of the strength of his body, but ordered him
C. VII.
355
THE JEWISH WAR.
1
that persuaded him to be put to death. But for the people of
Melos, they had been sufficiently punished for their folly, by the
expenses they had been at on his account.
3. And now Archelaus took possession of his ethnarchy, and
used not the Jews only but the Samaritans also barbarously, and
this out of his resentment to their old quarrels with him.-
Whereupon they both of them sent ambassadors against him to
Cæsar; and in the ninth year of his government he was banished
to Vienna, a city of Gall, and his effects were put into Cæsar's
treasury. But the report goes, that before he was sent for by
Cæsar, he seemed to see nine ears of corn, full and large, but
devoured by oxen. When, therefore, he had sent for the divi-
ners, and some of the Chaldeans, and inquired of them what
they thought it portended; and when one of them had one in-
terpretation, and another had another, Simon, one of the sect
of the Essens, said, that "he thought the ears of corn denoted
years, and the oxen denoted a mutation of things, because by
their ploughing they made an alteration of the country: that,
therefore, he should reign as many years as there were ears of
corn, and after he had passed through various alterations of for-
tune, should die." Now five days after Archelaus had heard
this interpretation, he was called to his trial.
4. I cannot also but think it worthy to be recorded, what
dream Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappado-
cia, had, who had at first been wife to Alexander, who was the
brother of Archelaus, concerning whom we have been discours-
ing. This Alexander was the son of Herod the king, by whom
he was put to death, as we have already related. This Glaphyra
was married, after his death, to Juba, king of Libya, and after
his death, was returned home, and lived a widow with her father.
Then it was that Archelaus the ethnarch saw her, and fell so
deeply in love with her, that he divorced Mariamne, who was
then his wife, and married her. When, therefore, she was
come into Judea, and had been there for a little while, she
thought she saw Alexander stand by her, and that he said to
her," Thy marriage with the king of Libya might have been
sufficient for thee; but thou wast not contented with him, but
hast returned again to my family, to a third husband, and him,
thou impudent woman, hast thou chosen for thine husband who
is my brother. However, I shall not overlook the injury thou
hast offered me; I shall [soon] have thee again, whether thou
wilt or no." Now Glaphyra hardly survived the narration of
this dream of hers two days.
2
A A 2
356
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
CHAP. VIII.
Archelaus's Ethnarchy is reduced into a [Roman] Province.
The Sedition of Judas of Galilee. The Three Sects of the
Jews.
§ 1. AND now Archelaus's part of Judea was reduced into a
province; and Coponius, one of the equestrian order among
the Romans, was sent as a procurator, having the power of [life
and] death put into his hands by Cæsar. Under his adminis-
tration it was that a certain Galilean, whose name was Judas,
prevailed with his countrymen to revolt, and said they were
cowards, if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans, and
would, after God, submit to mortal men as their lords. This
man was a teacher of a peculiar sect of his own, and was not at
all like the rest of those their leaders.
2. For there are three philosophical sects among the Jews.
The followers of the first of which are the Pharisees, of the
second the Sadducees, and the third sect, which pretends to a
severer discipline, are called Essens. These last are Jews by
birth, and seem to have a greater affection for one another than
the other sects have. These Essens reject pleasures as an evil,
but esteem continence and the conquest over our passions to be
virtue. They neglect wedlock, but choose out other persons
children while they are pliable and fit for learning, and esteem
them to be of their kindred, and form them according to their
own manners. They do not absolutely deny the fitness of mar-
riage, and the succession of mankind thereby continued; but
they guard against the lascivious behaviour of women, and are
persuaded that none of them preserve their fidelity to one man.
3. These men are despisers of riches, and so very communi-
cative as raises our admiration. Nor is there any one to be
found among them, who hath more than another; for it is a law
among them, that those who come to them must let what they
have be common to the whole order, insomuch that among them
all there is no appearance of poverty or excess of riches, but
every one's possessions are intermingled with every other's pos-
sessions, and so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the
brethren. They think that oil is a defilement; and if any of
them be anointed, without his own approbation, it is wiped off
his body; for they think to be sweaty is a good thing, as they do
also to be clothed in white garments. They also have stewards
appointed to take care of their common affairs, who every one
of them have no separate business for any, but what is for the
uses of them all.
4. They have no one certain city, but many of them dwell in
every city; and if any of their sect come from other places,
C. VIII.
357
THE JEWISH WAR.
what they have lies open for them, just as if it were their own;
and they go into such as they never knew before, as if they had
been ever so long acquainted with them: For which reason they
carry nothing at all with them when they travel into remote
parts, though still they take their weapons with them, for fear
of thieves. Accordingly, there is, in every city where they live,
one appointed particularly to take care of strangers, and to pro-
vide garments and other necessaries for them. But the habit and
management of their bodies is such as children use who are in
fear of their masters. Nor do they allow the change of garments
or of shoes, till they be first entirely torn to pieces, or worn out
by time. Nor do they either buy or sell any thing to one
another, but every one of them gives what he hath to him that
wanteth it, and receives from him again in lieu of it what may
be convenient for himself; and although there be no requital
made, they are fully allowed to take what they want of whom-
soever they please.
5. And as for their piety towards God, it is very extraordi-
nary for before sunrising they speak not a word about profane
matters, but put up certain prayers, which they have received
from their forefathers, as if they made supplication for its rising.
After this every one of them are sent away by their curators to
exercise some of those arts wherein they are skilled, in which
they labour with great diligence till the fifth hour: After which
they assemble themselves together again into one place; and
when they have clothed themselves in white veils, they then
bathe their bodies in cold water. And after this purification is
over, they every one meet together in an apartment of their own,
into which it is not permitted to any one of another sect to
enter; while they go, after a pure manner, into the dining-room,
as into a certain holy temple, and quietly set themselves down;
upon which the baker lays them loaves in order: the cook also
brings a single plate of one sort of food, and sets it before every
one of them; but a priest says grace before meat, and it is un-
lawful for any one to taste of the food before grace be said.
The same priest, when he hath dined, says grace again after
meat; and when they begin and when they end they praise God,
as he that bestows their food upon them; after which they lay
aside their [white] garments, and betake themselves to their
labours again till the evening; then they return home to supper,
after the same manner, and if there be any strangers there, they
sit down with them. Nor is there ever any clamour or disturb-
ance to pollute their house, but they give every one leave to
speak in their turn; which silence thus kept in their house
appears to foreigners like some tremendous mystery; the cause
of which is that perpetual sobriety they exercise, and the same
settled measure of meat and drink that is allotted them, and that
such as is abundantly sufficient for them.
7
358
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
6. And truly, as for other things, they do nothing but accord-
ing to the injunctions of their curators; only these two things
are done among them at every one's own free will, which are to
assist those that want it, and to show mercy; for they are per-
mitted of their own accord to afford succour to such as deserve
it, when they stand in need of it, and to bestow food on those
that are in distress; but they cannot give any thing to their kin-
dred without the curators. They dispense their anger after a
just manner, and restrain their passion. They are eminent for
fidelity, and are the ministers of peace: whatsoever they say also
is firmer than an oath; but swearing is avoided by them, and
they esteem it worse than perjury*; for they say, that he who
cannot be believed, without [swearing by] God, is already con-
demned. They also take great pains in studying the writings of
the ancients, and choose out of them what is most for the advan-
tage of their soul and body, and they inquire after such roots
and medicinal stones as may cure their distempers.
-
7. But now, if any one hath a mind to come over to their
sect, he is not immediately admitted, but he is prescribed the
same method of living which they use for a year, while he con-
tinues excluded; and they give him also a small hatchet, and the
fore-mentioned girdle, and the white garment. And when he
hath given evidence, during that time, that he can observe their
continence, he approaches nearer to their way of living, and is
made a partaker of the waters of purification; yet is he not even
now admitted to live with them; for after this demonstration of
his fortitude, his temper is tried two more years, and if he appear
to be worthy, they then admit him into their society. And be-
fore he is allowed to touch their common food, he is obliged to
take tremendous oaths, that, in the first place, he will exercise
piety towards God, and then that he will observe justice towards
men, and that he will do no harm to any one, either of his own
accord, or by the command of others: that he will always hate
the wicked, and be assistant to the righteous: that he will ever
show fidelity to all men, and especially to those in authority;
because no one obtains the government without God's assist-
* This practice of the Essens, in refusing to swear, and esteeming swearing
on ordinary occasions worse than perjury, is delivered here in general words, as
are the parallel injunctions of our Saviour, Matt. v. 34; xxiii. 16; and of
St. James, v. 12; but all admit of particular exceptions, for solemn causes, and
on great and necessary occasions. Thus these very Essens, who here do so
zealously avoid swearing, are related, in the very next section, to admit none
till they take tremendous oaths to perform their several duties to God and to
their neighbour, without supposing they thereby break this rule not to swear at
all. The case is the same in Christianity, as we learn from the Apostolical Con-
stitutions, which, although they agree with Christ and St. James in forbidding to
swear in general, ch. v. 12; ch. vi. 23; yet do they explain it elsewhere, by
avoiding to swear falsely, and to swear often and in vain, ch. ii. 36; and again,
by not swearing at all, but withal adding, that if that cannot be avoided, to swear
truly, ch. vii. 2, which abundantly explain to us the nature of the measures of
this general injunction.
C. VIII.
359
THE JEWISH WAR.
ance; and that if he be in authority, he will at no time whatever
abuse his authority, nor endeavour to outshine his subjects,
either in his garments, or any other finery that he will be per-
petually a lover of truth, and propose to himself to reprove those
that tell lies that he will keep his hands clear from theft and
his soul from unlawful gains; and that he will neither conceal
any thing from those of his own sect, nor discover any of their
doctrines to others, no not though any one should compel him
so to do at the hazard of his life. Moreover, he swears to com-
municate their doctrines to no one any otherwise than as he
received them himself: that he will abstain from robbery, and
will equally preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the
names of the angels* [or messengers]. These are the oaths by
which they secure their proselytes to themselves.
8. But for those that are caught in any heinous sins, they
cast them out of their society; and he who is thus separated
from them, does often die after a miserable manner; for as he
is bound by the oath he hath taken, and by the customs he hath
been engaged in, he is not at liberty to partake of that food that
he meets with elsewhere, but is forced to eat grass, and to famish
his body with hunger, till he perish; for which reason they re-
ceive many of them again, when they are at their last gasp, out
of compassion to them, as thinking the miseries they have en-
dured till they came to the very brink of death, to be a sufficient
punishment for the sins they had been guilty of.
9. But in the judgments they exercise they are most accurate
and just, nor do they pass sentence by the votes of a court that
is fewer than a hundred. And as to what is once determined by
that number, it is unalterable. What they most of all honour,
after God himself, is the name of their legislator [Moses], whom
if any one blaspheme he is punished capitally. They also think
it a good thing to obey their elders and the major part. Ac-
cordingly, if ten of them be sitting together, no one of them will
speak while the other nine are against it. They also avoid spit-
ting in the midst of them, or on the right side. Moreover, they
are stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their
labours on the seventh day; for they not only get their food
* This mention of the names of angels, so particularly preserved by the
Essens, (if it means more than those messengers which were employed to bring
them the peculiar books of their sect), looks like a prelude to that worshipping
of angels blamed by St. Paul as superstitious, and unlawful in some such sort of
people as these Essens were, Coloss. ii. 8; as is the prayer to or towards the sun
for his rising every morning, mentioned before, sect. 5, very like those not much
later observances made mention of in the preaching of Peter, Authent. Rec.
Part ii. page 669; and regarding a kind of worship of angels, of the month,
and of the moon, and not celebrating the new moons, or other festivals, unless
the moon appeared; which, indeed, seems to me the earliest mention of any
regard to the moon's phasis in fixing the Jewish calendar; of which the Talmud
and later rabbins talk so much, and upon so little very ancient foundation.
360
B. 11.
THE JEWISH WAR.
ready the day before, that they may not be obliged to kindle a
fire on that day, but they will not remove any vessel out of its
place, nor go to stool thereon. Nay, on other days, they dig a
small pit a foot deep, with a paddle (which kind of hatchet is
given them, when they are first admitted among them), and
covering themselves round with their garment, that they may
not affront the divine rays of light, they ease themselves into
that pit; after which they put the earth that was dug out again
into the pit; and even this they do only in the more lonely
places, which they choose out for this purpose; and although
this easement of the body be natural, yet it is a rule with them
to wash themselves after it, as if it were a defilement to them.
10. Now after the time of their preparatory trial is over, they
are parted into four classes; and so far are the juniors inferior
to the seniors, that if the seniors should be touched by the
juniors, they must wash themselves, as if they had intermixed
themselves with the company of a foreigner. They are long-
lived also, insomuch that many of them live above a hundred
years, by means of the simplicity of their diet, nay, as I think,
by means of the regular course of life they observe also. They
contemn the miseries of life, and are above pain, by the gene-
rosity of their mind. And as for death, if it will be for their
glory, they esteem it better than living always; and, indeed, our
war with the Romans gave abundant evidence what great souls
they had in their trials, wherein, although they were tortured and
distorted, burnt and torn to pieces, and went through all kinds
of instruments of torment, that they might be forced either to
blaspheme their legislator or to eat what was forbidden them,
yet could they not be made to do either of them, no nor once
to flatter their tormentors, or to shed a tear; but they smiled in
their very pains, and laughed those to scorn who inflicted the
torments upon them, and resigned up their souls with great
alacrity, as expecting to receive them again.
11. For their doctrine is this, that bodies are corruptible, and
that the matter they are made of is not permanent; but that the
souls are immortal, and continue for ever; and that they come
out of the most subtile air, and are united to their bodies as to
prisons, into which they are drawn by a certain natural entice-
ment; but that when they are set free from the bonds of the
flesh, they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and
mount upward. And this is like the opinion of the Greeks,
that good souls have their habitations beyond the ocean, in a
region that is neither oppressed with storms of rain or snow, or
with intense heat; but that this place is such as is refreshed by
the gentle breathing of a west wind, that is perpetually blowing
from the ocean; while they allot to bad souls a dark and tem-
pestuous den, full of never ceasing punishments. And, indeed,
·
C. VIII.
361
THE JEWISH WAR.
the Greeks seem to me to have followed the same notion, when
they allot the islands of the blessed to their brave men, whom
they call heroes and demigods; and to the souls of the wicked
the region of the ungodly in Hades, where their fables relate
that certain persons, such as Sisyphus, and Tantalus, and Ixion,
and Tityus, are punished; which is built on this first supposi-
tion, that souls are immortal; and thence are those exhortations
to virtue, and dehortations from wickedness, collected, whereby
good men are bettered in the conduct of their life by the hope
they have of reward after their death, and whereby the vehement
inclinations of bad men to vice are restrained, by the fear and
expectation they are in, that although they should lie concealed
in this life, they should suffer immortal punishment after their
death. These are the divine doctrines of the Essens* about
the soul, which lay an unavoidable bait for such as have once
had a taste of their philosophy.
12. There are also those among them who undertake to fore-
tell+ things to come by reading the holy books, and using several
sorts of purifications, and being perpetually conversant in the
discourses of the prophets; and it is but seldom that they miss
in their predictions.
13. Moreover, there is another order of Essens, who agree
with the rest as to their way of living, and customs, and laws,
but differ from them in the point of marriage, as thinking that
by not marrying they cut off the principal part of human life,
which is the prospect of succession; nay, rather, that if all men
should be of the same opinion, the whole race of mankind would
fail. However, they try their spouses for three years; and if
they find that they have their natural purgations thrice, as trials
that they are likely to be fruitful, they then actually marry them.
But they do not use to accompany with their wives when they
are with child, as a demonstration that they do not marry out of
regard to pleasure, but for the sake of posterity. Now the wo-
men go into the baths with some of their garments on, as the
men do with somewhat girded about them. And these are the
customs of this order of Essens.
14. But then as to the two other orders at first mentioned, the
Pharisees are those who are esteemed most skilful in the exact
explication of their laws, and introduce the first sect. These
*Of these Jewish or Essene, and, indeed, Christian doctrines concerning
souls, both good and bad, in Hades, see that excellent discourse or homily of our
Josephus concerning Hades, at the end of vol. iv.
+ Dean Aldrich reckons up three examples of this gift of prophecy in several
of these Essens out of Josephus himself, viz. in the History of the War, B. i.
ch. iii. sect. 5, Judas foretold the death of Antigonus at Strato's Tower; B. ii.
cb. vii. sect. 3; Simon foretold that Archelaus should reign but nine or ten
years; and Antiq. B. xv. ch.'x. sect. 4, 5, Menehem foretold that Herod should
be king, and should reign tyrannically, and that for more than twenty or even
thirty years. All which came to pass accordingly.
1
362
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
ascribe all to fate [or providence] and to God, and yet allow,
that to act what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the
power of men; although fate does cooperate in every action.
They say, that all the souls are incorruptible, but that the souls*
of good men only are removed into other bodies, but that the
souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. But the
Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take
away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in
our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act
what is good or what is evil is at men's own choice; and that
the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act
as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal
duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades.
Moreover, the Pharisees are friendly to one another, and are for
the exercise of concord and regard for the public; but the beha-
viour of the Sadducees one towards another is in some degree
wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own party
is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this is what
I had to say concerning the philosophic sects among the Jews.
CHAP. IX.
The Death of Salome. The Cities which Herod and Philip
built. Pilate occasions Disturbances. Tiberius puts Agrippa
into Bonds; but Caius frees him from them, and makes him
King. Herod Antipas is banished.
1. AND now as the ethnarchy of Archelaus was fallen into a
Roman province, the other sons of Herod, Philip, and that
Herod who was called Antipas, each of them took upon them
* There is so much more here about the Essens than is cited from Josephus in
Porphyry and Eusebius, and yet so much less about the Pharisees and Sadducees,
the two other Jewish sects, than would naturally be expected in proportion to
the Essens or third sect, nay, than seems to be referred to by himself elsewhere,
that one is tempted to suppose Josephus had at first written less of the one and
more of the two others than his present copies afford us; as also, that by some
unknown accident our present copies are here made up of the larger edition in
the first case, and the smaller in the second. See the note in Havercamp's edi-
tion. However, what Josephus says in the name of the Pharisees, that only the
souls of good men go out of one body into another, although all souls are immor-
tal, and still the souls of the bad are liable to eternal punishment; as also what
he says afterward, Antiq. B. xviii. chap. i. sect. 3, that the soul's vigour ts immor-
tal; and that under the earth they receive rewards or punishments according as
their lives have been virtuous or vicious in the present world; that to the bad is
allotted an eternal prison, but that the good are permitted to live again in this.
world, are nearly agreeable to the doctrines of Christianity. Only Josephus's
rejection of the return of the wicked into other bodies, or into this world, which
he grants to the good, looks somewhat like a contradiction to St. Paul's account
of the doctrine of the Jews, that they themselves allow that there should be a re-
surrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust, Acts, ch, xxiv. 15. Yet be-
cause Josephus's account is that of the Pharisees, and St. Paul's that of the Jews
in general, and of himself, the contradiction is not very certain.
C. IX.
363
THE JEWISH WAR.
3
the administration of their own tetrarchies; for when Salome
died she bequeathed to Julia, the wife of Augustus, both her
toparchy, and Jamnia, also her plantation of palm-trees that
were at Phasaelis*. But when the Roman empire was trans-
lated to Tiberius, the son of Julia, upon the death of Augustus,
who had reigned fifty-seven years, six months, and two days, both
Herod and Philip continued in their tetrarchies; and the latter
of them built the city Cæsarea, at the fountains of Jordan, and in
the region of Paneas; as also the city of Julias, in the Lower
Gaulanitis. Herod also built the city Tiberias in Galilee, and
in Perea [beyond Jordan] another that was also called Julias.
2. Now Pilate, who was sent as procurator into Judea by Ti-
berius, sent by night those images of Cæsar that are called ensigns
into Jerusalem. This excited a very great tumult among the
Jews when it was day; for those that were near them were as-
tonished at the sight of them, as indications that their laws were
trodden under foot; for those laws do not permit any sort of
image to be brought into the city. Nay, besides the indignation
which the citizens had themselves at this procedure, a vast num-
ber of people came running out of the country. These came
zealously to Pilate to Cæsarea, and besought him to carry those
ensigns out of Jerusalem, and to preserve them their ancient
laws inviolable; but upon Pilate's denial of their request, they
fell down prostrate upon the ground, and continued immoveable
in that posture for five days and as many nights.
3. On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal in the open
market-place, and called to him the multitude, as desirous to
give them an answer; and then gave a signal to the soldiers
that they should all by agreement at once encompass the Jews
with their weapons; so the band of soldiers stood round about
the Jews in three ranks. The Jews were under the utmost
consternation at that unexpected sight: Pilate also said to them,
that they should be cut in pieces, unless they would admit of
Cæsar's images, and gave intimation to the soldiers to draw their
naked swords. Hereupon the Jews, as it were at one signal, fell
down in vast numbers together, and exposed their necks bare,
and cried out, that they were sooner ready to be slain, than that
their laws should be transgressed. Hereupon Pilate was greatly
* We have here in that Greek MS. which was once Alexander Petavius's, but
it is now in the library at Leyden, two most remarkable additions to the com-
mon copies, though deemed worth little remark by the editor; which upon the
mention of Tiberius's coming to the empire, inserts first the famous testimony of
Josephus concerning Jesus Christ, as it stands verbatim in the Antiquities, B.
xviii. chap. iii. sect. 3, with some parts of that excellent discourse or homily of
Josephus concerning Hades, annexed to the work. But what is here principally
to be noted is this, that in this homily, Josephus, having just mentioned Christ, as
God the Word, and the Judge of the world, appointed by the Father, &c. adds, that
he had himself elsewhere spoken about him more nicely or particularly.
364
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
$
4
}
surprised at their prodigious superstition, and gave order that
the ensigns should be presently carried out of Jerusalem.
4. After this he raised another disturbance, by expending that
sacred treasure which is called Corban* upon aqueducts, where-
by he brought water from the distance of four hundred furlongs.
At this the multitude had indignation; and when Pilate was come
to Jerusalem, they came about his tribunal and made a clamour
at it. Now when he was apprized aforehand of this disturbance,
he mixed his own soldiers in their armour with the multitude;
and ordered them to conceal themselves under the habits of pri-
vate men, and not, indeed, to use their swords, but with their
staves to beat those that made the clamour. He then gave the
signal from his tribunal [to do as he had bidden them]. Now
the Jews were so sadly beaten, that many of them perished by
the stripes they received, and many of them perished as trodden
to death by themselves; by which means the multitude was as-
tonished at the calamity of those that were slain, and held their
peace.
5. In the meantime Agrippa, the son of that Aristobulus who
had been slain by his father Herod, came to Tiberius to accuse
Herod the tetrarch; who not admitting of his accusation he
stayed at Rome, and cultivated a friendship with others of the
men of note, but principally with Caius the son of Germanicus,
who was then but a private person. Now this Agrippa, at a
certain time, feasted Caius; and as he was very complaisant to
him on several other accounts, he at length stretched out his
hands, and openly wished that Tiberius might die, and that he
might quickly see him emperor of the world. This was told to
Tiberius by one of Agrippa's domestics, who thereupon was
very angry, and ordered Agrippa to be bound, and had him very
ill treated in the prison for six months, until Tiberius died, after
he had reigned twenty-two years six months and three days.
6. But when Caius was made Cæsar, he released Agrippa
from his bonds, and made him king of Philip's tetrarchy, who
was now dead; but when Agrippa had arrived at that degree
of dignity, he inflamed the ambitious desires of Herod the te-
trarch, who was chiefly induced to hope for the royal authority
by his wife Herodias, who reproached him for his sloth, and
told him, that it was only because he would not sail to Cæsar
that he was destitute of that great dignity; for since Cæsar had
made Agrippa a king from a private person, much more would
he advance him from a tetrarch to that dignity. These argu-
ments prevailed with Herod, so that he came to Caius, by whom
* This use of corban, or oblation, as here applied to the sacred money dedi-
cated to God in the treasury of the temple, illustrates our Saviour's words, Mark,
vii. 11, 12.
C. IX.
365
THE JEWISH WAR.
he was punished for his ambition, by being banished into Spain;
for Agrippa followed him in order to accuse him; to whom also
Caius gave his tetrarchy by way of addition. So Herod died
in Spain, whither his wife had followed him.
CHAP. X.
Caius commands that his Statue should be set up in the Temple
itself; and what Petronius did thereupon.
§ 1. Now Caius Cæsar did so grossly abuse the fortune he had
arrived at, as to take himself to be a god, and to desire to be so
called also, and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of
his country. He also extended his impiety as far as the Jews.
Accordingly, he sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem, to
place his statues* in the temple: and commanded him, that, in
case the Jews would not admit of them, he would slay those
that opposed it, and carry all the rest of the nation into captivity:
but God concerned himself with these his commands.
ever, Petronius marched out of Antioch into Judea with three
legions and many Syrian auxiliaries. Now as to the Jews,
some of them could not believe the stories that spake of a war;
but those that did believe them were in the utmost distress how
to defend themselves; and the terror diffused itself presently
through them all; for the army was already come to Ptolemais.
How-
2. This Ptolemais is a maritime city of Galilee, built in the
great plain. It is encompassed with mountains; that on the
east side, sixty furlongs off, belongs to Galilee; but that on the
south belongs to Carmel, which is distant from it a hundred and
twenty furlongs; and that on the north is the highest of them all,
and is called by the people of the country the ladder of the Ty-
rians, which is at the distance of a hundred furlongs. The very
small river Belust runs by it, at the distance of two furlongs;
near which there is Memnon's‡ monument, and hath near it a
place no larger than a hundred cubits, which deserves admiration;
for the place is round and hollow, and affords such sand as glass
is made of: which place, when it hath been emptied by the many
ships there loaded, it is filled again by the winds, which bring
into it, as it were on purpose, that sand which lay remote, and
was no more than bare common sand, while this mine presently
* Tacitus owns that Caius commanded the Jews to place his effigies in their
temple, though he may be mistaken when he adds, that the Jews thereupon took
arms.
+ This account of the place near the mouth of the river Belus in Phenicia,
whence came that sand out of which the ancients made their glass, is a known
thing in history, particularly in Tacitus and Strabo, and more largely in Pliny.
This Memnon had several monuments, and one of them appears, both by
Strabo and Diodorus, to have been in Syria, and not improbably in this very
place.
366
B. II,
THE JEWISH WAR.
•
turns it into glassy sand. And what is to me still more wonder-
ful, that glassy sand which is superfluous, and is once removed
out of the place, becomes bare common sand again. And this
is the nature of the place we are speaking of.
3. But now the Jews got together in great numbers, with their
wives and children, into that plain that was by Ptolemais, and
made supplication to Petronius, first for their laws, and in the
next place for themselves. So he was prevailed upon by the mul-
titude of the supplicants, and by their supplications, and left his
army and the statues at Ptolemais, and then went forward into
Galilee, and called together the multitude, and all the men of
note, to Tiberias, and showed them the power of the Romans and
the threatenings of Cæsar; and, besides this, proved that their
petition was unreasonable, because, while all the nations in sub-
jection to them had placed the images of Cæsar in their several
cities among the rest of their gods, for them alone to oppose it
was almost like the behaviour of revolters, and was injurious to
Cæsar.
4. And when they insisted on their law, and the custom of their
country, and how it was not only not permitted them to make
either an image of God, or, indeed, of a man, and to put it in
any despicable part of their country, much less in the temple
itself, Petronius replied," And am not I also, said he, bound
to keep the law of my own lord? For if I trangress it, and spare
you, it is but just that I perish; while he that sent me, and not
I, will commence a war against you; for I am under command
as well as you." Hereupon the whole multitude cried out, that
"they were ready to suffer for their law." Petronius then quieted
them, and said to them," Will you, then, make war against
Cæsar;" The Jews said," We offer sacrifices twice every day
for Cæsar, and for the Roman people; but that if he would
place the images among them, he must first sacrifice the whole
Jewish nation; and that they were ready to expose themselves,
together with their children and wives, to be slain." At this Pe-
tronius was astonished; and pitied them on account of the inex-
pressible sense of religion the men were under, and that courage
of theirs which made them ready to die for it; so they were dis-
missed without success.
5. But on the following days he got together the men of
power privately and the multitude publicly, and sometimes he
used persuasions to them, and sometimes he gave them his advice,
but he chiefly made use of threatenings to them, and insisted upon
the power of the Romans and the anger of Caius; and besides,
upon the necessity he was himself under [to do as he was en-
joined]. But as they could be no way prevailed upon, and he
saw that the country was in danger of lying without tillage, for
it was about seed-time that the multitude continued for fifty days
C. X.
367
THE JEWISH WAR.
together idle; so he at last got them together, and told them,
that "it was best for him to run some hazard himself; for either
by the divine assistance, I shall prevail with Cæsar, and shall
myself escape the danger as well as you, which will be matter of
joy to us both: or, in case Cæsar continued in his rage, I will be
ready to expose my own life for such a great number as you are."
Whereupon he dismissed the multitude, who prayed greatly for
his prosperity; and he took the army out of Ptolemais, and
returned to Antioch; from whence he presently sent an epistle
to Cæsar, and informed him of the irruption he had made into
Judea, and of the supplications of the nation; and that unless
he had a mind to lose both the country and the men in it, he
must permit them to keep their law, and must countermand his
former injunction. Caius answered that epistle in a violent way,
and threatened to have Petronius put to death for his being so
tardy in the execution of what he had commanded. But it hap-
pened that those who brought Caius's epistle were tossed by a
storm, and were detained on the sea for three months, while
others that brought the news of Caius's death had a good 'voy-
age. Accordingly, Petronius "received the epistle concerning
Caius seven and twenty days before he received that which was
against himself.
CHAP. XI.
Concerning the Government of Claudius and the Reign of
Agrippa. Concerning the Death of Agrippa, and of Herod,
and what Children they both left behind them.
§ 1. Now when Caius had reigned three years and eight months,
and had been slain by treachery, Claudius was hurried away by
the armies that were at Rome to take the government upon him:
but the senate, upon the reference of the consuls Sentius Satur-
ninus and Pomponius Secundus, gave orders to the three regi-
ments of soldiers that stayed with them, to keep the city quiet,
and went up into the capitol, in great numbers, and resolved to
oppose Claudius by force, on account of the barbarous treat-
ment they had met with from Caius: and they determined either
to settle the nation under an aristocracy, as they had of old been
governed, or, at least, to choose by vote such a one for emperor
as might be worthy of it.
2. Now it happened that at this time Agrippa sojourned at
Rome, and that both the senate called him to consult with them,
and at the same time Claudius sent for him out of the camp, that
he might be serviceable to him as he should have occasion for
his service. So he perceiving that Claudius was in effect made
Cæsar already, went to him, who sent him as an ambassador to
368
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
the senate, to let them know what his intentions were; that "in
the first place, it was without his seeking that he was hurried away
by the soldiers; moreover, that he thought it was not just to
desert those soldiers in such their zeal for him; and that, if he
should do so, his own fortune would be in uncertainty: for that
it was a dangerous case to have been once called to the empire.
He added farther, that he would administer the government as a
good prince, and not like a tyrant; for that he would be satisfied
with the honour of being called emperor, but would, in every one
of his actions, permit them all to give him their advice; for that
although he had not been by nature for moderation, yet would
the death of Caius afford him a sufficient demonstration how so-
berly he ought to act in that station.'
""
""
3. This message was delivered by Agrippa: to which the
senate replied, that "since they had an army, and the wisest
consuls on their side, they would not endure a voluntary slavery.
And when Claudius heard what answer the senate had made, he
sent Agrippa to them again, with the following message, that
"he could not bear the thoughts of betraying them that had
given their oaths to be true to him; and that he saw he must
fight, though unwillingly, against such as he had no mind to fight,
that, however [if it must come to that], it was proper to choose
a place without the city for the war; because it was not agree-
able to piety to pollute the temples of their own city with the
blood of their own countrymen, and this only on occasion of
their imprudent conduct." And when Agrippa had heard this
message, he delivered it to the senators.
""
4. In the meantime one of the soldiers belonging to the senate
drew his sword, and cried out, "O my fellow soldiers, what is
the meaning of this choice of ours, to kill our brethren, and to
use violence to our kindred that are with Claudius? while we
may have him for our emperor whom no one can blame, and
who hath so many just reasons [to lay claim to the government];
and this with regard to those against whom we are going to fight.
When he had said this, he marched through the whole senate, and
carried all the soldiers along with him. Upon which all the patri-
cians were immediately in a great fright at their being thus deserted.
But still, because there appeared no other way whither they could
turn themselves for deliverance, they made haste the same way
with the soldiers, and went to Claudius. But those that had the
greatest luck in flattering the good fortune of Claudius betimes,
met them before the walls with their naked swords; and there
was reason to fear that those that came first might have been in
danger, before Claudius could know what violence the soldiers
were going to offer them, had not Agrippa run before, and told
him what a dangerous thing they were going about; and that
unless he restrained the violence of these men, who were in a fit
C. X1.
369
THE JEWISH WAR.
of madness against the patricians, he would lose those on whose
account it was most desirable to rule, and would be emperor
over a desert.
*
5. When Claudius heard this, he restrained the violence of
the soldiery, and received the senate into the camp, and treated
them after an obliging manner, and went out with them presently
to offer their thank-offerings to God, which were proper upon
his first coming to the empire. Moreover, he bestowed on
Agrippa his whole paternal kingdom immediately; and added to
it, besides those countries that had been given by Augustus to
Herod, Trachonitis and Auranitis, and still besides these that
kingdom which was called the kingdom of Lysanias. This gift
he declared to the people by a decree, but ordered the magis-
trates to have the donation engraved on tables of brass, and to
be set up in the capitol. He bestowed on his brother Herod,
who was also his son-in-law, by marrying [his daughter] Bernice,
the kingdom of Chalcis.
6. So now riches flowed in to Agrippa by his enjoyment of
so large a dominion, nor did he abuse the money he had on small
matters, but he began to encompass Jerusalem with such a wall
which, had it been brought to perfection, had made it impracti-
cable for the Romans to take it by siege; but his death, which
happened at Cæsarea, before he had raised the walls to their due
height, prevented him. He had then reigned three years, as he
had governed his tetrarchies three other years. He left behind
him three daughters, born to him by Cypros, Bernice, Mari-
amne, and Drusilla, and a son born of the same mother, whose
name was Agrippa: he was left a very young child, so that Clau-
dius made the country a Roman province, and sent Cuspius Fa-
dus to be its procurator, and after him Tiberius Alexander, who,
making no alteration of the ancient laws, kept the nation in
tranquillity. Now after this Herod the king of Chalcis died, and
left behind him two sons, born to him of his brother's daughter
Bernice; their names were Bernicianus and Hyrcanus. [He
also left behind him] Aristobulus, whom he had by his former
wife Mariamne. There was besides another brother of his that
died a private person; his name was also Aristobulus, who left
behind him a daughter whose name was Jotape: and these, as I
have formerly said, were the children of Aristobulus the son of
Herod, which Aristobulus and Alexander were born to Herod
by Mariamne, and were slain by him. But as for Alexander's
posterity, they reigned in Armenia.
VOL. III.
BB
1
?
370
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
དྭེ
1
CHAP. XII.
Many Tumults under Cumanus, which were composed by Qua-
dratus. 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, which
Cumanus took upon him the office of procurator of the rest,
which was a Roman province, and therein he succeeded Alex-
ander, under which Cumanus began the troubles, and the Jews'
ruin came on; for when the multitude were come together to
Jerusalem, to the feast of unleavened bread, and a Roman cohort
stood over the cloisters of the temple (for they always were armed,
and kept guard at the festivals, to prevent any innovation which
the multitude thus gathered together might make), one of the
soldiers pulled back his garment, and, couring down after an in-
decent manner, turned his breech to the Jews, and spake such
words as you may expect upon such a posture. At this the
whole multitude had indignation, and made a clamour to Cuma-
nus, that he would punish the soldier; while the rasher part of
the youth, and such as were naturally the most tumultuous, fell to
fighting, and caught up stones, and threw them at the soldiers:
upon which Cumanus was afraid lest all the people should make
an assault upon him, and sent to call for more armed men, who
when they came in great numbers into the cloisters, the Jews
were in a very great consternation; and being beaten out of the
temple, they ran into the city; and the violence with which they
crowded to get out was so great that they trod upon each other,
and squeezed one another, till ten thousand of them were killed,
insomuch that this feast became the cause of mourning to the
whole nation, and every family lamented [their own relations].
2. Now there followed after this another calamity, which arose
from a tumult made by robbers; for at the public road of Beth-
horon, one Stephen, a servant of Cæsar, carried some furniture,
which the robbers fell upon and seized: upon this Cumanus sent
men to go round about to the neighbouring villages, and to bring
their inhabitants to him bound, as laying it to their charge that
they had not pursued after the thieves and caught them. Now
here it was that a certain soldier finding the sacred book of the
law, tore it to pieces, and threw it into the fire*. Hereupon the
Jews were in great disorder, as if their whole country were in a
flame, and assembled themselves so many of them by their zeal
for their religion, as by an engine, and ran together with united
* Reland notes here, that the Talmud, in recounting ten sad accidents for which
the Jews ought to rend their garments, reckons this for one,
"When they hear
that the law of God is burnt.'
C. XII.
371
THE JEWISH WAR.
clamour to Cæsarea to Cumanus, and made supplication to him,
that he would not overlook this man, who had offered such an
affront to God, and to his law, but punish him for what he had
done. Accordingly, he perceiving that the multitude would not
be quiet unless they had a comfortable answer from him, gave
order that the soldier should be brought, and drawn through those
that required to have him punished to execution, which being
done, the Jews went their ways.
3. After this there happened a fight between the Galileans
and the Samaritans; it happened at the village called Geman,
which is situate in the great plain of Samaria, where, as a great
number of Jews were going up to Jerusalem to the feast [of ta-
bernacles], a certain Galilean was slain: and besides a vast
number of people ran together out of Galilee, in order to fight
with the Samaritans; but the principal men among them came
to Cumanus, and besought him, that, before the evil became
incurable, he would come into Galilee, and bring the authors of
this murder to punishment; for that there was no other way to
make the multitude separate without coming to blows. How-
ever, Cumanus postponed their supplications to the other affairs
he was then about, and sent the petitioners away without success.
4. But when the affair of this murder came to be told at Je-
rusalem, it put the multitude into disorder, and they left the feast,
and without any generals to conduct them they marched with
great violence to Samaria; nor would they be ruled by any of the
magistrates that were set over them, but they were managed by
one Eleazar, the son of Dineus, and by Alexander, in these their
thievish and seditious attempts. These men fell upon those that
were in the neighbourhood of the Acrabatene toparchy, and slew
them, without sparing any age, and set the villages on fire.
5. But Cumanus took one troop of horsemen, called the troop
of Sebaste, out of Cæsarea, and came to the assistance of those
that were spoiled: he also seized upon a great number of those
that followed Eleazar, and slew more of them. And as for the
rest of the multitude of those that went so zealously to fight with
the Samaritans, the rulers of Jerusalem ran out clothed with
sackcloth, and having ashes on their heads, and begged of them
to go their ways, lest by their attempt to revenge themselves upon
the Samaritans they should provoke the Romans to come against
Jerusalem; to have compassion upon their country and temple,
their children and their wives, and not bring the utmost dangers
of destruction upon them, in order to avenge themselves upon
one Galilean only. The Jews complied with these persuasions
of theirs, and dispersed themselves; but still there were a great
number who betook themselves to robbing, in hopes of impu-
nity, and rapines and insurrections of the bolder sort happened
over the whole country; and the men of power among the Sa-
1
BB 2
372
B. 11.
THE JEWISH WAR.·
maritans came to Tyre, to Ummidius Quadratus*, the president
of Syria, and desired that they that had laid waste the country
might be punished: the great men also of the Jews, and Jona-
than the son of Ananus, the high priest, came thither, and said,
that the Samaritans were the beginners of the disturbances, on
account of that murder they had committed; and that Cumanus
had given occasion to what had happened, by his unwillingness
to punish the original authors of that murder.
6. But Quadratus put both parties off for that time, and told
them, that when he should come to those places, he would make
a diligent inquiry after every circumstance. After which he went
to Cæsarea, and crucified all those whom Cumanus had taken
alive; and when from thence he was come to the city Lydda,
he heard the affair of the Samaritans, and sent for eighteen of
the Jews whom he had learned to have been concerned in that
fight, and beheaded them: but he sent two others of those that
were of the greatest power amongst them, and both Jonathan and
Ananias, the high priests, as also Ananus, the son of this Ana-
nias, and certain others that were eminent among the Jews, to
Cæsar; as he did in like manner by the most illustrious of the
Samaritans. He also ordered that Cumanus [the procurator],
and Celer the tribune, should sail to Rome, in order to give an
account of what had been done, to Cæsar. When he had finished
these matters, he went up from Lydda to Jerusalem, and finding
the multitude celebrating their feast of unleavened bread without
any tumult, he returned to Antioch.
7. Now when Cæsar at Rome had heard what Cumanus and
the Samaritans had to say (where it was done in the hearing of
Agrippa, who zealously espoused the cause of the Jews, as in
like manner many of the great men stood by Cumanus), he
condemned the Samaritans, and commanded that three of the
most powerful men among them should be put to death: he
banished Cumanus, and sent Celer bound to Jerusalem, to be
delivered over to the Jews to be tormented, that he should be
drawn round the city, and then beheaded.
8. After this Cæsar sent Felix†, the brother of Pallas, to be
* This Ummidius, or Numidius, or, as Tacitus calls him, Vinidius Quadratus,
is mentioned in an ancient inscription, still preserved, as Spanheim here informs
us, which calls him UMMIDIUS QUADRATUS.
+ Take the character of this Felix, (who is well known from the Acts of the
Apostles, particularly from his trembling, when St. Paul discoursed of righteous-
ness, chastity, and judgment to come, Acts, xxiv. 25, and no wonder, when we
have elsewhere seen that he lived in adultery with Drusilla, another man's wife,
Antiq. B. xx. ch. vii. sect. 1), in the words of Tacitus, produced here by Dean
Aldrich :-" Felix exercised," says Tacitus, "the authority of a king, with the
disposition of a slave, and relying upon the great power of his brother Pallas at
court, thought he might safely be guilty of all kinds of wicked practices.' Ob-
serve also the time when he was made procurator, A. D. 52, that when St. Paul
pleaded his cause before him, A. D. 58, he might have been many years a judge
unto that nation, as St. Paul says he had then been, Acts, xxiv. 10.
""
But as to
!
C. XII.
373
THE JEWISH WAR.
procurator of Galilee, and Samaria, and Perea, and removed
Agrippa from Chalcis unto a greater kingdom; for he gave
him the tetrarchy which had belonged to Philip, which con-
tained Batanea, Trachonitis, and Gaulanitis: he added to it
the kingdom of Lysanias, and that province [Abilene] which
Varus had governed. But Claudius himself, when he had ad-
ministered the government thirteen years eight months and
twenty days, died, and left Nero to be his successor in the
empire, whom he had adopted by his wife Agrippina's delu-
sions, in order to be his successor, although he had a son of his
own, whose name was Britannicus, by Messalina his former
wife, and a daughter whose name was Octavia, whom he had
married to Nero; he had also another daughter by Petina,
whose name was Antonia.
CHAP XIII.
Nero adds Four Cities to Agrippa's 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
Casarea.
§ 1. Now as to the many things in which Nero acted like a
madman, out of the extravagant degree of the felicity and riches
which he enjoyed, and by that means used his good fortune to
the injury of others; and after what manner he slew his bro-
ther, and wife, and mother, from whom his barbarity spread
itself to others that were most nearly related to him; and how,
at last, he was so distracted, that he became an actor in the
scenes, and upon the theatre, I omit to say any more about
them, because there are writers enough upon those subjects
everywhere; but I shall turn myself to those actions of his time
in which the Jews were concerned.
要
​2. Nero, therefore, bestowed the kingdoms of the Lesser
what Tacitus here says, that before the death of Cumanus, Felix was procurator
over Samaria only, does not well agree with St. Paul's words, who would hardly
have called Samaria a Jewish nation. In short, since what Tacitus here says is
about countries very remote from Rome, where he lived; since what he says of
two Roman procurators, the one over Galilee, the other over Samaria, at the
same time, is without all example elsewhere; and since Josephus, who lived at
that very time in Judea, appears to have known nothing of this procuratorship
of Felix, before the death of Cumanus, I much suspect the story itself is nothing
better than a mistake of Tacitus, especially when it seems not only omitted, but
contradicted by Josephus; as any one may find that compare their histories toge-
ther. Possibly Felix might have been a subordinate judge among the Jews some
time before under Cumanus; but that he was in earnest a procurator of Samaria
before, I do not believe. Bishop Pearson, as well as Bishop Lloyd, quote this
account, but with a doubtful clause; si fides Tacito, If we may believe Tacitus.
Pears. Annal. Paulin. page 8, Marshall's Tables, at A. D. 49.
374
B. 11.
THE JEWISH WAR.
Armenia upon Aristobulus, Herod's son, and he added to
Agrippa's kingdom four cities, with the toparchies to them be-
longing; I mean Abila, and that Julias which is in Perea,
Tarichea also, and Tiberias of Galilee; but over the rest of
Judea he made Felix procurator. This Felix took Eleazar
the arch-robber, and many that were with him, alive, when they
had ravaged the country for twenty years together, and sent
them to Rome: but as to the number of the robbers whom he
caused to be crucified, and of those who were caught among
them, and whom he brought to punishment, they were a multi-
tude not to be enumerated.
3. When the country was purged of these, there sprang up
another sort of robbers in Jerusalem, which were called Sicarii,
who slew men in the daytime, and in the midst of the city: this
they did chiefly at the festivals, when they mingled themselves
among the multitude, and concealed daggers under their gar-
ments, with which they stabbed those that were their enemies;
and when any fell down dead, the murderers became a part of
those that had indignation against them, by which means they
appeared persons of such reputation, that they could by no
means be discovered. The first man who was slain by them
was Jonathan the high priest, after whose death many were slain
every day, while the fear men were in of being so served was
more afflicting than the calamity itself, and while every body
expected death every hour, as men do in war, so men were
obliged to look before them, and to take notice of their ene-
mies at a great distance; nor, if their friends were coming to
them, durst they trust them any longer; but, in the midst of
their suspicions and guarding of themselves, they were slain.
Such was the celebrity of the plotters against them, and so cun-
ning was their contrivance.
4. There was also another body of wicked men gotten toge-
ther, not so impure in their actions, but more wicked in their
intentions, which laid waste the happy state of the city no less
than did these murderers. These were such men as deceived
and deluded the people under pretence of divine inspiration, but
were for procuring innovations and changes of the government;
and these prevailed with the multitude to act like madmen, and
went before them into the wilderness, as pretending that God
would there show them the signals of liberty. But Felix
thought this procedure was to be the beginning of a revolt; so
he sent some horsemen and footmen, both armed, who destroyed
a great number of them.
5. But there was an Egyptian false prophet that did the Jews
more mischief than the former; for he was a cheat, and pre-
tended to be a prophet also, and got together thirty thousand
* i. e. Herod, king of Chalcis.
C. XIII.
375
THE JEWISH WAR.
men that were deluded by him: these he led round about from
the wilderness to the mount which was called the Mount of
Olives, and was ready to break into Jerusalem by force from
that place; and if he could but once conquer the Roman gar-
rison, and the people, he intended to domineer over them by
the assistance of those guards of his that were to break into the
city with him. But Felix prevented his attempt, and met him
with his Roman soldiers, while all the people assisted him in
his attack upon them, insomuch that, when it came to a battle,
the Egyptians ran away, with a few others, whilst the greatest
part of those that were with him were either destroyed or taken
alive; but the rest of the multitude were dispersed every one to
their own homes, and there concealed themselves.
6. Now when these were quieted, it happened, as it does in
a diseased body, that another part was subject to an inflamma-
tion; for a company of deceivers and robbers got together, and
persuaded the Jews to revolt, and exhorted them to assert their
liberty, inflicting death on those that continued in obedience to
the Roman government, and saying, that such as willingly chose
slavery, ought to be forced from such their desired inclinations;
for they parted themselves into different bodies, and lay in wait
up and down the country, and plundered the houses of the great
men, and slew the men themselves, and set the villages on fire;
and this till all Judea was filled with the effects of their madness.
And thus the flame was every day more and more blown up, till
it came to a direct war.
7. There was also another disturbance at Cæsarea, those
Jews who were mixed with the Syrians that lived there raising
a tumult against them. The Jews pretended that the city was
theirs, and said that he who built it was a Jew, meaning King
Herod. The Syrians confessed also, that its builder was a Jew,
but they still said, however, that the city was a Grecian city;
for that he who set up statues and temples in it could not design
it for Jews: on which account both parties had a contest with
one another; and this contest increased so much, that it came
at last to arms, and the bolder sort of them marched out to
fight; for the elders of the Jews were not able to put a stop to
their own people that were disposed to be tumultuous, and the
Greeks thought it a shame for them to be overcome by the
Jews. Now these Jews exceeded the others in riches and
strength of body; but the Grecian part had the advantage of
assistance from the soldiery: for the greatest part of the Roman
garrison was raised out of Syria, and, being thus related to the
Syrian part, they were ready to assist it. However, the gover-
nors of the city were concerned to keep all quiet, and whenever
they caught those that were most for fighting on either side,
they punished them with stripes and bonds. Yet did not the
376
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
sufferings of those that were caught affright the remainder, or
make them desist; but they were still more and more exas-
perated, and deeper engaged in the sedition. And as Felix
came once into the market-place, and commanded the Jews,
when they had beaten the Syrians, to go their ways, and threat-
ened them if they would not, and they would not obey him, he
sent his soldiers out upon them, and slew a great many of them,
upon which it fell out that what they had was plundered. And
as the sedition still continued, he chose out the most eminent
men on both sides, as ambassadors to Nero, to argue about their
several privileges.
CHAP. XIV.
Festus succeeds Felix, who is succeeded by Albinus, as he is by
Florus; who, by the Barbarity of his Government, forces the
Jews into the War.
§ 1. Now it was that Festus succeeded Felix, as procurator,
and made it his business to correct those that made disturbances
in the country. So he caught the greatest part of the robbers,
and destroyed a great many of them. But then Albinus who
succeeded Festus did not execute his office as the other had
done e; nor was there any sort of wickedness that could be
named but he had a hand in it. Accordingly, he did not only,
in his political capacity, steal and plunder every one's substance,
nor did he only burden the whole nation with taxes, but he per-
mitted the relations of such as were in prison for robbery, and
had been laid there either by the senate of every city, or by the
former procurators, to redeem them for money; and nobody
remained in the prisons as a malefactor, but he who gave him
nothing. At this time it was that the enterprises of the sedi-
tious at Jerusalem were very formidable: the principal men
among them purchasing leave of Albinus to go on with their
seditious practices; while that part of the people who delighted
in disturbances joined themselves to such as had fellowship with
Albinus; and every one of these wicked wretches was encom-
passed with his own band of robbers, while he himself, like an
arch-robber or a tyrant, made a figure among his company, and
abused his authority over those about him, in order to plunder
those that lived quietly: the effect of which was this, that those
who lost their goods were forced to hold their peace, when they
had reason to show great indignation at what they had suffered;
but those who had escaped were forced to flatter him that de-
served to be punished, out of the fear they were in of suffering
equally with the others. Upon the whole, nobody durst speak
their minds, but tyranny was generally tolerated; and at this
C. XIV.
377
THE JEWISH WAR.
time were those seeds sown which brought the city to destruc-
tion.
2. And although such was the character of Albinus, yet did
Gessius Florus*, who succeeded him, demonstrate him to
have been a most excellent person, upon the comparison; for
the former did the greatest part of his rogueries in private, and
with a sort of dissimulation; but Gessius did his unjust actions
to the harm of the nation after a pompous manner: and, as
though he had been sent as an executioner to punish condemned
malefactors, he omitted no sort of rapine or of vexation: where
the case was really pitiable, he was most barbarous, and in things
of the greatest turpitude he was most impudent. Nor could any
one outdo him in disguising the truth, nor could any one con-
trive more subtle ways of deceit than he did. He, indeed,
thought it but a petty offence to get money out of single per-
sons; so he spoiled whole cities, and ruined entire bodies of
men at once, and did almost publicly proclaim it all the coun-
try over, that they had liberty given them to turn robbers, upon
this condition, that he might go shares with them in the spoils
they got. Accordingly, this his greediness of gain was the oc-
casion that entire toparchies were brought to desolation, and a
great many of the people left their own country, and fled into
foreign provinces.
3. And truly while Cestius Gallus was president of the pro-
vince of Syria, nobody durst do so much as send an embassage
to him against Florus; but when he was come to Jerusalem,
upon the approach of the feast of unleavened bread, the people
came about him not fewer in number than three millions+:
these besought him to commiserate the calamities of their na-
tion, and cried out upon Florus as the bane of their country.
But as he was present, and stood by Cestius, he laughed at their
words. However, Cestius, when he had quieted the multitude,
and had assured them that he would take care that Florus should
hereafter treat them in a more gentle manner, returned to An-
tioch: Florus also conducted him as far as Cæsarea, and de-
* Not long after this beginning of Florus, the wickedest of all the Roman
procurators of Judea, and the immediate occasion of the Jewish war, at the 12th
year of Nero, and the 17th of Agrippa, or A. D. 66, the history in the twenty
books of Josephus's Antiquities ends; although Josephus did not finish these
books till the 13th of Domitian, or A. D. 93, twenty-seven years afterward; as
he did not finish their Appendix, containing an account of his own life, till
Agrippa was dead, which happened in the 3d year of Trajan, or A. D. 100, as
I have several times observed before.
+ Here we may note, that 3,000,000 of the Jews were present at the pass-
over, A. D. 65, which confirms what Josephus elsewhere informs us of, that at a
passover a little later, they counted 256,500 paschal lambs, which at twelve to
each lamb, which is no immoderate calculation, come to 3,078,000. See B. vi.
ch. ix. sect. 3.
378
B. 11.
THE JEWISH WAR.
luded him, though he had at that very time the purpose of
showing his anger at the nation, and procuring a war upon
them, by which means alone it was that he supposed he might
conceal his enormities; for he expected that, if the peace con-
tinued, he should have the Jews for his accusers before Cæsar;
but that if he could procure them to make a revolt, he should
divert their laying lesser crimes to his charge, by a misery that
was so much greater; he, therefore, did every day augment their
calamities, in order to induce them to a rebellion.
4. Now at this time it happened that the Grecians at Cæsa-
rea had been too hard for the Jews, and had obtained of Nero
the government of the city, and had brought the judicial deter-
mination at the same time began the war, in the twelfth year
of the reign of Nero, and the seventeenth of the reign of
Agrippa, in the month Artemisius [Jyar]. Now the occasion
of this war was by no means proportionable to those heavy
calamities which it brought upon us: for the Jews that dwelt
at Cæsarea had a synagogue near a place, whose owner was a
certain Cæsarean Greek: the Jews had endeavoured frequently
to have purchased the possession of the place, and had offered
many times its value for its price; but as the owner overlooked
their offers, so did he raise other buildings upon the place, in
way of affront to them, and made working shops of them, and
left them but a narrow passage, and such as was very trouble-
some for them to go along to their synagogue. Whereupon the
warmer part of the Jewish youth went hastily to the workmen,
and forbade them to build there; but as Florus would not per-
mit them to use force, the great men of the Jews, with John the
publican, being in the utmost distress what to do, persuaded
Florus, with the offer of eight talents, to hinder the work. He
then, being intent upon nothing but getting money, promised
he would do for them all they desired of him, and then went
away from Cæsarea to Sebaste, and left the sedition to take its
full course, as if he had sold a license to the Jews to fight it
out.
5. Now on the next day, which was the seventh day of the
week, when the Jews were crowding apace to their synagogue,
a certain man of Cæsarea, of a seditious temper, got an earthen
vessel, and set it with the bottom upward, at the entrance of
that synagogue, and sacrificed birds *.
and sacrificed birds*. This thing provoked the
Jews to an incurable degree, because their laws were affronted,
* Take here Dr. Hudson's very pertinent note:-" By this action," says he,
"the killing of a bird over an earthen vessel, the Jews were exposed as a leprous
people; for that was to be done by their law in the cleansing of a leper. (Levit.
ch. xiv.) It is also known that the Gentiles reproached the Jews as subject to
the leprosy, and believed that they were driven out of Egypt on that account.
This that eminent person Mr. Reland suggested to me.”
C. XIV.
979
THE JEWISH WAR.
and the place was polluted: whereupon the sober and moderate
part of the Jews thought it proper to have recourse to their
governors again, while the seditious part, and such as were in
the fervour of their youth, were vehemently inflamed to fight.
The seditious also among the [Gentiles of] Cæsarea stood ready
for the same purpose; for they had, by agreement, sent the man
to sacrifice beforehand [as ready to support him]; so that it
soon came to blows. Hereupon Jucundus, the master of the
horse, who was ordered to prevent the fight, came thither, and
took away the earthen vessel, and endeavoured to put a stop to
the sedition; but when he was overcome by the violence of the
people of Cæsarea, the Jews caught up their books of the law,
and retired to Narbata, which was a place to them belonging,
distant from Cæsarea sixty furlongs. But John, and twelve of
the principal men with him, went to Florus to Sebaste, and
made a lamentable complaint of their case, and besought him
to help them; and, with all possible decency, put him in mind
of the eight talents they had given him; but he had the men
seized upon, and put in prison, and accused them for carrying
the books of the law out of Cæsarea.
6. Moreover, as to the citizens of Jerusalem, although they
took this matter very ill, yet did they restrain their passion: but
Florus acted herein as if he had been hired, and blew up the
war into a flame, and sent some to take seventeen talents out of
the sacred treasure, and pretended that Cæsar wanted them. At
this the people were in confusion immediately, and ran toge-
ther to the temple, with prodigious clamours, and called upon
Cæsar by name, and besought him to free them from the tyranny
of Florus. Some also of the seditious cried out upon Florus,
and cast the greatest reproaches upon him, and carried a basket
about, and begged some spills of money for him, as for one that
was destitute of possessions, and in a miserable condition. Yet
was he not made ashamed hereby of his love of money, but was
more enraged, and provoked to get still more; and instead of
coming to Cæsarea, as he ought to have done, and quenching
the flame of war which was beginning thence, and so taking
away the occasion of any disturbances, on which account it was
that he had received a reward [of eight talents], he marched
hastily with an army of horsemen and footmen against Jerusa-
lem, that he might gain his will by the arms of the Romans,
and might by his terror and by his threatenings bring the city
into subjection.
7. But the people were desirous of making Florus ashamed
of his attempt, and met his soldiers with acclamations, and put
themselves in order to receive him very submissively. But he
sent Capito, a centurion, beforehand, with fifty soldiers, to bid
*
:
380
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
them go back, and not now make a show of receiving him in an
obliging manner, whom they had so foully reproached before ;
and said, that it was incumbent on them, in case they had
generous souls and were free speakers, to jest upon him to his
face, and appear to be lovers of liberty, not only in words but
with their weapons also. With this message was the multitude
amazed, and upon the coming of Capito's horsemen into the
midst of them, they were dispersed before they could salute
Florus, or manifest their submissive behaviour to him. Accord-
ingly, they retired to their own houses, and spent that night in
fear and confusion of face.
8. Now at this time Florus took up his quarters at the palace;
and on the next day he had his tribunal set before it, and sat
upon it, when the high priests, and the men of power, and those
of the greatest eminence in the city, came all before that
tribunal; upon which Florus commanded them to deliver up to
him those that had reproached him, and told them, that they
should themselves partake of the vengeance to them belonging,
if they did not produce the criminals; but these demonstrated
that the people were peaceably disposed, and they begged for-
giveness for those that had spoken amiss; for that it was no
wonder at all that in so great a multitude there should be some
more daring' than they ought to be, and by reason of their
younger age foolish also; and that it was impossible to distin-
guish those that offended from the rest, while every one was
sorry for what he had done, and denied it out of fear of what
would follow: that he ought, however, to provide for the peace
of the nation, and to take such counsels as might preserve the
city for the Romans, and rather, for the sake of a great number
of innocent people, to forgive a few that were guilty, than for
the sake of a few of the wicked, to put so large and good a body
of men into disorder.
9. Florus was more provoked at this, and called out aloud to
the soldiers to plunder that which was called the Upper Market-
place, and to slay such as they met with. So the soldiers, taking
this exhortation of their commander in a sense agreeable to their
desire of gain, did not only plunder the place they were sent to,
but, forcing themselves into every house, they slew its inhabi-
tants; so the citizens fled along the narrow lanes, and the
soldiers slew those that they caught, and no method of plunder
was omitted: they also caught many of the quiet people, and
brought them before Florus, whom he first chastised with stripes,
and then crucified. Accordingly, the whole number of those
that were destroyed that day, with their wives and children (for
they did not spare even the infants themselves), was about three
thousand and six hundred. And what made this calamity the
C. XIV.
381
THE JEWISH WAR.
heavier was this new method of Roman barbarity: for Florus
ventured then to do what no one had done before, that is, to
have men of the equestrian order* whipped and nailed to the
cross before his tribunal; who although they were by birth Jews,
yet were they of Roman dignity notwithstanding.
CHAP. XV.
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 Alex-
andria, to congratulate Alexander upon his having obtained the
government of Egypt from Nero; but as his sister Bernice was
come to Jerusalem, and saw the wicked practices of the soldiers,
she was sorely affected at it, and frequently sent the masters of
her horse and her guards to Florus, and begged of him to leave
off these slaughters; but he would not comply with her request,
nor have any regard either to the multitude of those already
slain, or to the nobility of her that interceded, but only to the
advantage he should make by this plundering; nay, this violence
of the soldiers brake out to such a degree of madness, that it
spent itself on the queen herself; for they did not only torment
and destroy those whom they had caught under her very eyes,
but, indeed, had killed herself also, unless she had prevented
them by flying to the palace, and had stayed there all night with
her guards, which she had about her for fear of an insult from
the soldiers. Now she dwelt then at Jerusalem, in order to per-
form a vow+ which she had made to God; for it is usual with
those that had been either afflicted with a distemper, or with
other distresses, to make vows; and for thirty days before they
are to offer their sacrifices, to abstain from wine, and to shave
the hair off their head. Which things Bernice was now per-
forming, and stood barefoot before Florus's tribunal, and be-
sought him [to spare the Jews]. Yet could she' neither have
any
* Here we have examples of native Jews who were of the equestrian order
among the Romans, and so ought never to have been whipped or crucified,
according to the Roman laws. See almost the like case in St. Paul himself,
Acts, xxii. 25-29.
+ This vow which Bernice (here and elsewhere called queen, not only as
daughter and sister to two kings, Agrippa the Great and Agrippa junior, but the
widow of Herod, king of Chalcis) came now to accomplish at Jerusalem, was
not that of a Nazarite, but such a one as religious Jews used to make in hopes
of any deliverance from a disease, or other danger, as Josephus here intimates.
However, these thirty days' abode at Jerusalem, for fasting and preparation
against the oblation of a proper sacrifice, seems to be too long, unless it were
wholly voluntary in this great lady. It is not required in the law of Moses
relating to Nazarites, Numb. vi. and is very different from St. Paul's time for
such preparation, which was but one day, Acts, xxi. 26. So we want already
382
B. H.
THE JEWISH WAR.
any reverence paid to her, nor could she escape without some
danger of being slain herself.
2. This happened upon the sixteenth day of the month Arte-
misius [Jyar.]. Now on the next day the multitude, who were
in a great agony, ran together to the upper market-place, and
made the loudest lamentations for those that had perished; and
the greatest part of the cries were such as reflected on Florus ;
at which the men of power were affrighted, together with the
high priests, and rent their garments, and fell down before each
of them, and besought them to leave off, and not to provoke
Florus to some incurable procedure, besides what they had
already suffered. Accordingly, the multitude complied imme-
diately, out of reverence to those that had desired it of them,
and out of the hope they had that Florus would do them no
more injuries.
3. So Florus was troubled that the disturbances were over,
and endeavoured to kindle that flame again; and sent for the
high priests, with the other eminent persons, and said, the only
demonstration that the people would not make any other inno-
vations should be this, that they must go out and meet the
soldiers that were ascending from Cæsarea, whence two cohorts
were coming; and while these men were exhorting the multi-
tude so to do, he sent beforehand, and gave directions to the
centurions of the cohorts, that they should give notice to those
that were under them, not to return the Jews salutations; and
that if they made any reply to his disadvantage, they should
make use of their weapons. Now the high priests assembled
the multitude in the temple, and desired them to go and meet
the Romans, and to salute the cohorts very civilly, before their
miserable case should become incurable. Now the seditious
part would not comply with these persuasions; but the con-
sideration of those that had been destroyed made them incline to
those that were the boldest for action.
4. At this time it was that every priest and every servant of
God brought out the holy vessels, and the ornamental garments
wherein they used to minister about sacred things. The harpers
also, and the singers of hymns, came out with their instruments
the continuation of the Antiquities to afford us light here, as they have hitherto
done on so many occasions elsewhere. Perhaps in this age the traditions of the
Pharisees had obliged the Jews to this degree of rigour, not only as to these
thirty days' preparation, but as to the going barefoot all that time, which here
Bernice submitted to also. For we know that as God's and our Saviour's yoke'
is usually easy, and bis burden comparatively light, in such positive injunctions,
Matt. xi. 30, so did the Scribes and Pharisees sometimes bind upon men heavy
burdens, and grievous to be borne, even when they themselves would not touch them
with one of their fingers, Matt. xxiii. 4; Luke, xi. 46. However, Noldius well
observes, De Herod. No.404, 414, that Juvenal in his sixth satire alludes to this
remarkable penance or submission of this Bernice to Jewish discipline, and jests
upon her for it; as do Tacitus, Dio, Suetonius, and Sextus Aurelius, mention her
as one well known at Rome, ibid.
C. XV.
383
THE JEWISH WAR.
1
of music, and fell down before the multitude, and begged of
them that they would preserve those holy ornaments to them,
and not provoke the Romans to carry off those sacred treasures.
You might also see then the high priests themselves with dust
sprinkled in great plenty upon their heads, with bosoms deprived
of any covering but what was rent; these besought every one
of the eminent men by name, and the multitude in common,
that they would not for a small offence betray their country to
those that were desirous to have it laid waste, saying,—“ What
benefit will it bring to the soldiers to have a salutation from the
Jews? or what amendment of your affairs will it bring you, if
you do not now go out to meet them? and that if they saluted
them civilly, all handle would be cut off from Florus to begin a
war that they should thereby gain their country, and freedom
from all farther sufferings: and that, besides, it would be a sign
of great want of command of themselves, if they should yield to
a few seditious persons, while it was fitter for them, who were
so great a people, to force the others to act soberly."
5. By these persuasions, which they used to the multitude
and to the seditious, they restrained some by threatenings, and
others by the reverence that was paid them. After this they
led them out, and they met the soldiers quietly, and after a com-
posed manner; and when they were come up with them they
saluted them; but when they made no answer, the seditious
exclaimed against Florus, which was the signal given for falling
upon them. The soldiers, therefore, encompassed them pre-
sently, and struck them with their clubs; and as they fled away
the horsemen trampled them down, so that a great many fell
down dead by the strokes of the Romans, and more by their own
violence in crushing one another. Now there was a terrible
crowding about the gates, and while every body was making
haste to get before another, the flight of them all was retarded,
and a terrible destruction there was among those that fell down,
for they were suffocated, and broken to pieces by the multitude
of those that were uppermost; nor could any of them be distin-
guished by his relations in order to the care of his funeral; the
soldiers also who beat them fell upon those whom they overtook,
without showing them any mercy, and thrust the multitude
through the place called Bezetha*, as they forced their way,
* I take this Bezetha to be that small hill adjoining to the north side of the
temple, whereon was the hospital with five porticoes or cloisters, and beneath
which was the sheep-pools of Bethesda, into which an angel or messenger, at a
certain season, descended, and where he or they who were the first put into the
pool, were cured, John, v. 1, &c. This situation of Bezetha, in Josephus, on
the north side of the temple, and not far off the tower Antonia, exactly agrees
to the place of the same pool at this day; only the remaining cloisters are now
but three. See Maundrel, page 106. The entire buildings seem to have been
called the New City, and this part, where was the hospital, peculiarly Bezetha or
Bethesda. See ch. xix. sect. 4.
384
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
in order to get in and seize upon the temple and the tower
Antonia. Florus also, being desirous to get those places into
his possession, brought such as were with him out of the king's
palace, and would have compelled them to get as far as the
citadel [Antonia]; but his attempt failed; for the people imme-
diately turned back upon him and stopped the violence of his
attempt; and as they stood upon the tops of the houses, they
threw their darts at the Romans; who as they were sorely galled
thereby, because those weapons came from above, and they were
not able to make a passage through the multitude which stopped
up the narrow passages, they retired to the camp which was at
the palace.
6. But for the seditious, they were afraid lest Florus should
come again, and get possession of the temple through Antonia;
so they got immediately upon those cloisters of the temple that
joined to Antonia, and cut them down. This cooled the avarice
of Florus; for whereas he was eager to obtain the treasures of
God [in the temple], and on that account was desirous of get-
ting into Antonia, as soon as the cloisters were broken down,
he left off his attempt: he then sent for the high priests and the
sanhedrim, and told them, that he was, indeed, himself going
out of the city, but that he would leave them as large a garrison
as they should desire. Hereupon they promised that they would
make no innovations, in case they would leave them one band,
but not that which had fought with the Jews, because the multi-
tude bore ill will against that band on account of what they had
suffered from it; so he changed the band, as they desired, and,
with the rest of his forces, returned to Cæsarea.
CHAP. XVI.
Cestius sends Neapolitanus 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 Inten-
tions of making War with the Romans.
§ 1. HOWEVER, Florus contrived another way to oblige the
Jews to begin the war, and sent to Cestius, and accused the
Jews falsely of revolting [from the Roman government], and
imputed the beginning of the former fight to them, and pre-
tended that they had been the authors of that disturbance,
wherein they were only the sufferers. Yet were not the go-
vernors of Jerusalem silent upon this occasion, but did them-
selves write to Cestius, as did Bernice also, about the illegal
practices of which Florus had been guilty against the city; who,
upon reading both accounts, consulted with his captains [what
he should do]. Now some of them thought it best for Cestius
C. XVI.
385
THE JEWISH WAR.
to go up with his army, either to punish the revolt, if it was real,
or to settle the Roman affairs on a surer foundation, if the Jews
continued quiet under them; but he thought it best himself to
send one of his intimate friends beforehand, to see the state of
affairs, and to give him a faithful account of the intentions of
the Jews. Accordingly he sent one of his tribunes, whose name
was Neopolitanus, who met with king Agrippa, as he was re-
turning from Alexandria, at Jamnia, and told him who it was
that sent him, and on what errands he was sent.
*
2. And here it was that the high priests and men of power
among the Jews, as well as the Sanhedrim, came to congratulate
the king [upon his safe return]; and after they had paid him
their respects, they lamented their own calamities, and related
to him what barbarous treatment they had met with from Flo-
rus: at which barbarity Agrippa had great indignation, but
transferred after a subtle manner his anger towards those Jews
whom he really pitied, that he might beat down their high
thoughts of themselves, and would have them believe that they
had not been so unjustly treated, in order to dissuade them from
avenging themselves. So these great men, as of better under-
standing than the rest, and desirous of peace, because of the
possessions they had, understood that this rebuke which the king
gave them was intended for their good; but as to the people,
they came sixty furlongs out of Jerusalem, and congratulated
both Agrippa and Neopolitanus: but the wives of those that
had been slain came running first of all and lamenting. The
people also, when they heard their mourning, fell into lamenta-
tions also, and besought Agrippa to assist them: they also cried
out to Neopolitanus, and complained of the many miseries they
bad endured under Florus; and they showed them, when they
were come into the city, how the market-place was made deso-
late and the houses plundered. They then persuaded Neopoli-
tanus, by the means of Agrippa, that he would walk round the
city, with one servant only, as far as Siloam, that he might in-
form himself that the Jews submitted to all the rest of the Ro-
mans, and were only displeased at Florus, by reason of his ex-
ceeding barbarity to them. So he walked round, and had suffi-
cient experience of the good temper the people were in, and
then went up to the temple, where he called the multitude toge-
ther, and highly commended them for their fidelity to the Ro-
mans, and earnestly exhorted them to keep the peace; and hav-
ing performed such parts of divine worship at the temple as he
was allowed to do, he returned to Cestius.
3. But as for the multitude of the Jews, they addressed them-
selves to the king and to the high priests, and desired they might
have leave to send ambassadors to Nero against Florus, and not
by their silence afford a suspicion that they had been the occasion
VOL. III.
CC
•
386
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR,
of such great slaughters as had been made, and were disposed
to revolt, alleging that they should seem to have been the first
beginners of the war, if they did not prevent the report, by show-
ing who it was that began it; and it appeared openly, that they
would not be quiet, if any body should hinder them from send-
ing such an embassage. But Agrippa, although he thought it
too dangerous a thing for them to appoint men to go as the ac-
cusers of Florus, yet did not he think it fit for him to overlook
them, as they were in a disposition for war. He, therefore, called
the multitude together into a large gallery, and placed his sister
Bernice in the house of the Asamoneans, that she might be seen
by them, (which house was over the gallery, at the passage to the
upper city, where the bridge joined the temple to the gallery),
and spake to them as follows.-
4. *❝ Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed
to go to war with the Romans, and that the purer and more sin-
cere part of the people did not propose to live in peace, I had
not come out to you, nor been so bold as to give you counsel;
for all discourses that tend to persuade men to do what they
ought to do is superfluous, when the hearers are agreed to do the
contrary. But because some are earnest to go to war, because
they are young, and without experience of the miseries it brings,
and because some are for it, out of an unreasonable expecta-
tion of regaining their liberty, and because others hope to get by
it, and are, therefore, earnestly bent upon it, that in the confusion
of your affairs they may gain what belongs to those that are too
weak to resist them, I have thought proper to get you all toge-
ther, and to say to you what I think to be for your advantage;
* In this speech of King Agrippa we have an authentic account of the extent
and strength of the Roman empire when the Jewish war began. And this speech
with other circumstances in Josephus, demonstrate how wise and how great ļa
person this Agrippa was, and why Josephus elsewhere calls him Oavμaoi@ratos,
a most wonderful or admirable man, Contr. Ap. 1, 9. He is the same Agrippa
who said to Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, Acts xxvi. 28;
and of whom St. Paul said, He was expert in all the customs and questions of the
Jews, ver. 3. See another intimation of the limits of the same Roman empire,
Of the War, B. iii.ch. v. sect. 7. But what seems to me very remarkable here
is this, that when Josephus, in imitation of the Greeks and Romans, for whose
use he wrote his Antiquities, did himself frequently compose the speeches which
he put into others' mouths, they appear, by the politeness of their composition,
and their flights of oratory, to be not the real speeches of the persons concerned,
who usually were no orators, but of his own elegant composure: the speech be-
fore us is of another nature, full of undeniable facts, and composed in a plain
and unartful, but moving way; so that it appears to be king Aprippa's own speech,
and to have been given Josephus by Agrippa himself, with whom Josephus had
the greatest friendship. Nor may we omit Agrippa's constant doctrine here, that
this vast Roman empire was raised and supported by divine Providence; and
that, therefore, it was in vain for the Jews, or any others, to think of destroying
it. Nor may we neglect to take notice of Agrippa's solemn appeal to the angels
here used; the like appeals to which we have in St. Paul, 1 Tim. v. 21, and by
the apostles, in general, in the form of the ordination of bishops, Constitut.
Apost. viii. 4.
L
**
C. XVI.
387
THE JEWISH WAR.
¿
that so the former may grow wiser, and change their minds, and
that the best men may come to no harm by the ill conduct of
some others. And let not any one be tumultuous against me,
in case what they hear me say do not please them; for as to
those that admit of no cure, but are resolved upon a revolt, it
will still be in their power to retain the same sentiments after
my exhortation is over; but still my discourse will fall to the
ground even with relation to those that have a mind to hear me,
unless you all keep silence. I am well aware that many make
a tragical exclamation concerning the injuries that have been
offered you by your procurators, and concerning the glorious
advantages of liberty; but before I begin the inquiry, who you
are that must go to war? and who they are against whom you
must fight? I shall first separate those pretences that are by
some connected together; for if you aim at avenging yourselves
on those that have done you injury, why do you pretend this to
be a war for recovering your liberty. But if you think all ser-
vitude intolerable, to what purpose serves your complaint against
your particular governors? for if they treated you with modera-
tion, it would still be equally an unworthy thing to be in servi-
tude. Consider now the several cases that may be supposed,
how little occasion there is for your going to war. Your first
occasion is the accusations you have to make against your pro-
curators: now here you ought to be submissive to those in au-
thority, and not give them any provocation; but when you re-
proach men greatly for small offences, you excite those whom
you reproach to be your adversaries; for this will only make
them leave off hurting you privately, and with some degree of
modesty, and to lay what you have waste openly. Now nothing
so much damps the force of strokes as bearing them with pati-
ence, and the quietness of those who are injured diverts the in-
jurious persons from afflicting. But let us take it for granted,
that the Roman ministers are injurious to you, and are incurably
severe; yet they are not all the Romans who thus injure you;
nor hath Cæsar, against whom you are going to make war, in-
jured you: it is not by their command that any wicked governor
is sent to you; for they who are in the west cannot see those that
are in the east; nor, indeed, is it easy for them there even to hear
what is done in these parts. Now it is absurd to make war with
a great many for the sake of one; to do so with such mighty
people for a small cause; and this when these people are not
able to know of what you complain: nay such crimes as we
complain of may soon be corrected; for the same procurator
will not continue for ever; and probable it is, that the successors
will come with more moderate inclinations. But as for war, if
it be once begun, it is not easily laid down again, nor borne
without calamities coming therewith. However, as to the de-
#
1
>
-
c c 2
$88
'B. 11.
THE JEWISH WAR.
sire of recovering your liberty, it is unseasonable to indulge it
so late; whereas you ought to have laboured earnestly in old
time that you might never have lost it; for the first experience
of slavery was hard to be endured, and the struggle that you
might never have been subject to it would have been just; but
that slave that hath been once brought into subjection, and then
runs away, is rather a refractory slave than a lover of liberty; for it
was then the proper time for doing all that was possible, that you
might never have admitted the Romans [into your city], when
Pompey came first into the country. But so it was that our an-
cestors, and their kings, who were in much better circumstances
than we are, both as to money and [strong] bodies, and [valiant]
souls, did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman army.
And yet you, who have now accustomed yourselves to obedience
from one generation to another, and who are so much inferior
to those who first submitted in your circumstances, will venture
to oppose the entire empire of the Romans; while those Athe-
nians, who, in order to preserve the liberty of Greece, did once
set fire to their own city; who pursued Xerxes, that proud
prince, when he sailed upon the sea and walked upon the land,
and could not be contained by the seas, but conducted such an
army as was too broad for Europe, and made him run away like
a fugitive in a single ship, and brake so great a part of Asia as
the Lesser Salamis, are yet at this time servants to the Romans;
and those injunctions which are sent from Italy become laws to
the principal governing city of Greece. Those Lacedemonians
also, who got the great victories of Thermopyla and Platea, and
had Agesilaus [for their king], and searched every corner of Asia,
are contented to admit the same lords. Those Macedonians
also, who still fancy what great men their Philip and Alexander
were, and see that the latter had promised them the empire over
the world, these bear so great a change, and pay their obedience
to those whom fortune hath advanced in their stead. Moreover,
ten thousand other nations there are, who had greater reason
than we to claim their entire liberty, and yet do submit. You
are the only people who think it a disgrace to be servants to
those to whom all the world hath submitted. What sort of
army do you rely upon? What are the arms you depend on?
Where is your fleet, that may seize upon the Roman seas? And
where are those treasures which may be sufficient for your un-
dertakings? Do you suppose, I pray you, that you are to make
war with the Egyptians and with the Arabians? Will not you
carefully reflect upon the Roman empire? Will not you esti-
mate your own weakness? Hath not your army been often beaten
even by your neighbouring nations; while the power of the Ro-
mans is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth; nay, rather
they seek for somewhat still beyond that; for all Euphrates is
C. XVI.
389
THE JEWISH WAR.
not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Da-
nube on the north; and for their southern limit Libya hath been
searched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is
Cadiz their limit on the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for
another habitable earth beyond the ocean, and have carried their
arms as far as such British islands as were never known before.
What, therefore, do you pretend to? Are you richer than the
Gauls, stronger than the Germans, wiser than the Greeks, more
numerous than all men upon the habitable earth? What con-
fidence is it, that elevates you to oppose the Romans? Perhaps
it will be said, it is hard to endure slavery. Yes, but how much
harder is this to the Greeks, who are esteemed the noblest of all
people under the sun. These, though they inhabit in a large
country, are in subjection to six bundles of Roman rods. It is
the same case with the Macedonians, who have juster reasons to
claim their liberty than you have. What is the case of five hun-
dred cities of Asia? do not they submit to a single governor and
to the consular bundle of rods. What need I speak of the He-
niochi, and Cholchi, and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit
the Bosphorus, and the nations about Pontus and Meotis, who
formerly knew not so much as a lord of their own, but are now
subject to three thousand armed men, and where forty long
ships kept the sea in peace, which before was not navigable,
and very tempestuous? How strong a plea may Bythinia, and
Cappadocia, and the people of Pamphilia, the Lycians, and Ci-
licians, put in for liberty? But they are made tributary without
an army. What are the circumstances of the Thracians? whose
country extends in breadth five days journey and in length seven,
and is a much more harsh constitution, and much more defen-
sible than yours, and by the rigour of its cold sufficient to keep
off armies from attacking them; do not they submit to two
thousand men of the Roman garrisons? Are not the Illyrians,
who inhabit the country adjoining, as far as Dalmatia and the
Danube, governed by barely two legions? By which also they
put a stop to the incursions of the Dacians. And for the Dal-
matians, who have made such frequent insurrections in order to
regain their liberty, and who could never before be so thoroughly
subdued but that they always gathered their forces together
again, and revolted, yet are they now very quiet under one Ro-
man legion. Moreover, if great advantages might provoke any
people to revolt, the Gauls might do it best of all, as being so
thoroughly walled round by nature; on the east by the Alps,
on the north by the river Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean
mountains, and on the west by the ocean. Now although these
Gauls have such obstacles before them to prevent any attacks
upon them, and have no fewer than three hundred and five na-
tions among them, nay, have, as one may say, the fountains of
390
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
domestic happiness within themselves, and send out plentiful
streams of happiness over almost the whole world, these bear
to be tributary to the Romans, and derive their prosperous con-
dition from them: and they undergo this, not because they are
of effeminate minds, or because they are of an ignoble stock, as
having borne a war of eighty years, in order to preserve their
liberty, but by reason of the great regard they have to the power
of the Romans, and their good fortune, which is of greater effi-
cacy than their arms. These Gauls, therefore, are kept in ser-
vitude by twelve hundred soldiers, which are hardly so many as
are their cities; nor hath the gold dug out of the mines of Spain
been sufficient for the support of a war to preserve their liberty;
nor could their vast distance from the Romans by land and by
sea do it; nor could the martial tribes of the Lusitanians and
Spaniards escape; no more could the ocean, with its tide, which
yet was terrible to the ancient inhabitants. Nay, the Romans
have extended their arms beyond the pillars of Hercules, and
have walked among the clouds upon the Pyrenean mountains,
and have subdued these nations. And one legion is a sufficient
guard for these people, although they were so hard to be con-
quered, and at a distance so remote from Rome. Who is there
among you that hath not heard of the great number of the
Germans? You have, to be sure, yourselves seen them to be
strong and tall, and that frequently, since the Romans have them
among their captives every where; yet these Germans, who
dwell in an immense country, who have minds greater than
their bodies, and a soul that despises death, and who are in
rage more fierce than wild beasts, have the Rhine for the boun-
dary of their enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman legions.
Such of them as were taken captives became their servants;
and the rest of the entire nation was obliged to save themselves
by flight. Do you also, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem,
consider what a wall the Britons had; for the Romans sailed
away to them, and subdued them, while they were encompassed
by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not less than [the
continent of] this habitable earth; and four legions are a suffi-
cient guard to so large an island. And why should I speak much
more about this matter? while the Parthians, that most warlike
body of men, and lords of so many nations, and encompassed
with such mighty forces, send hostages to the Romans; where-
by you may see, if you please, even in Italy, the noblest nation
of the east, under the notion of peace, submitting to serve them.
Now, when almost all people under the sun submit to the Ro-
man arms, will you be the only people that make war against
them? and this without regarding the fate of the Carthaginians,
who, in the midst of the brags of the great Hannibal, and the
nobility of their Phoenician original, fell by the hand of Scipio.
C. XVI.
391
THE JEWISH WAR.
Nor, indeed, have the Cyreneans, derived from the Lacedemo-
nians, nor the Marmaridæ, a nation extended as far as the regions
uninhabitable for want of water, nor have the Syrtes, a place
terrible to such as barely hear it described, the Nasamons and
Moors, and the immense multitude of the Numidians, been able to
put a stop to the Roman valour. And as for the third part of the
habitable earth [Africa], whose nations are so many that it is not
easy to number them, and which is bounded by the Atlantic sea
and the pillars of Hercules, and feeds an innumerable multitude
of Ethiopians, as far as the Red Sea, these have the Romans
subdued entirely. And besides the annual fruits of the earth,
which maintain the multitude of the Romans for eight months
in the year, this, over and above, pays all sorts of tribute, and
affords revenue suitable to the necessities of the government:
nor do they, like you, esteem such injunctions a disgrace to
them, although they have but one Roman legion that abides
among them. And, indeed, what occasion is there for showing
you the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is
so easy to learn it from Egypt, in your neighbourhood? This
country is extended as far as the Ethiopians and Arabia the
Happy, and borders upon India: it hath seven millions five
hundred thousand men, besides the inhabitants of Alexandria,
as may be learned from the revenue of the poll-tax; yet is it
not ashamed to submit to the Roman government, although it
hath Alexandria as a grand temptation to a revolt, by reason it is
so full of people and of riches, and is, besides, exceeding large,
its length being thirty furlongs and its breadth not less than ten;
and it pays more tribute to the Romans in one month than you
do in a year; nay, besides what it pays in money, it sends corn
to Rome that supports it for four months [in the year]: it is also
walled round on all sides, either by almost impassable deserts, or
seas that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes; yet have
none of these things been found too strong for the Roman good
fortune; however, two legions that lie in that city are a bridle
both for the remoter parts of Egypt, and for the parts inhabited
by the more noble Macedonians. Where, then, are those people
whom you are to have for your auxiliaries? Must they come
from the parts of the world that are uninhabited? for all that
are in the habitable earth are [under the] Romans; unless any
of you extend his hopes as far as beyond Euphrates, and suppose
that those of your own nation that dwell in Adiabene will come
to your assistance; but certainly these will not embarrass them-
selves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if they should follow such
ill advice, will the Parthians permit them so to do; for it is their
concern to maintain the truce that is between them and the Ro-
mans, and they will be supposed to break the covenants between
them, if any under their government march against the Romans.
392
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
*
1
What remains, therefore, is this, that you have recourse to divine
assistance: but this is already on the side of the Romans; for
it is impossible that so vast an empire should be settled without
God's providence. Reflect upon it how impossible it is for
your zealous observation of your religious customs to be here
preserved, which are hard to be observed even when you fight
with those whom you are able to conquer; and how can you
then most of all hope for God's assistance, when, by being
forced to transgress his law, you will make him turn his face
from you? and if you do observe the custom of the Sabbath
days, and will not be prevailed on to do any thing thereon, you
will easily be taken, as were your forefathers by Pompey, who
was the busiest in his siege on those days on which the besieged
rested. But if in time of war you transgress the law of your
country, I cannot tell on whose account you will afterward go
to war; for your concern is but one, that you do nothing against
any of your forefathers, and how will you call upon God to
assist you when you are voluntarily transgressing against his re-
ligion? Now all men that go to war do it either as depending
on divine or on human assistance; but since your going to war
will cut off both those assistances, those that are for going to
war choose evident destruction. What hinders you from slay-
ing your children and wives with your own hands, and burning
this most excellent native city of yours? for by this mad prank
you will, however, escape the reproach of being beaten. But
it were best, O my friends, it were best, while the vessel is still
in the haven, to foresee the impending storm, and not to set sail
out of the port into the middle of the hurricanes; for we justly
pity those who fall into great misfortunes without foreseeing
them; but for him who rushes into manifest ruin, he gains re-
proaches [instead of commiseration]. But certainly no one can
imagine that you can enter into a war as by agreement, or that
when the Romans have got you under their power, they will
use you with moderation, or will not rather, for an example to
other nations, burn your holy city, and utterly destroy your
whole nation; for those of you who shall survive the war will
not be able to find a place whither to flee, since all men have
the Romans for their lords already, or are afraid they shall have
hereafter. Nay, indeed, the danger concerns not those Jews
that dwell here only, but those of them which dwell in other
cities also; for there is no people upon the habitable earth
which have not some portion of you among them, whom your
enemies will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account
also; and so every city which hath Jews in it will be filled
with slaughter, for the sake of a few men, and they who slay
them will be pardoned: but if that slaughter be not made by
them, consider how wicked a thing it is to take arms against
C. XVI.
393-
THE JEWISH WAR.
13
I
those that are so kind to you. Have pity, therefore, if not of
your children and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, and its
sacred walls; spare the temple, and preserve the holy house,
with its holy furniture, for yourselves; for if the Romans get
you under their power, they will no longer abstain from them,
when their former abstinence shall have been so ungratefully re-
quited. I call to witness your sanctuary, and the holy angels of
God, and this country common to us all, that I have not kept
back any thing that is for your preservation: and if you will fol-
low that advice which you ought to do, you will have that peace
which will be common to you and to me; but if you indulge
your passions, you will run those hazards which I shall be free
from."
5. When Agrippa had spoken thus, both he and his sister
wept, and by their tears repressed a great deal of the violence of
the people: but still they cried out,-" That they would not
fight against the Romans, but against Florus, on account of what
they had suffered by his means. To which Agrippa replied,
that" what they had already done was like such as make war
against the Romans; for you have not paid the tribute* which
is due to Cæsar; and you have cut off the cloisters [of the tem-
ple] from joining to the tower Antonia. You will, therefore,
prevent any occasion of revolt if you will but join these together
again, and if you will but pay your tribute; for the citadel does
not now belong to Florus, nor are you to pay the tribute money
to Florus."
CHAP. XVII.
How the War of the Jews with the Romans began; and con-
cerning Manahem.
§ 1. THIS advice the people hearkened to, and went up into the
temple, with the king and Bernice, and began to rebuild the
cloisters: the rulers also and senators divided themselves into
the villages, and collected the tributes, and soon got together
forty talents, which was the sum that was deficient. And thus
did Agrippa then put a stop to that war which was threatened;
moreover, he attempted to persuade the multitude to obey Florus,
until Cæsar should send one to succeed him; but they were
hereby more provoked, and cast reproaches upon the king, and
got him excluded out of the city; nay, some of the seditious had
the impudence to throw stones at him. So when the king saw
that the violence of those that were for innovations was not to
* Julius Cæsar had decreed, that the Jews of Jerusalem should pay an annual
tribute to the Romans, excepting the city Joppa, and for the Sabbatical year, as
Spanheim observes from the Antiq. B. xiv. ch. x. sect. 6.
C
394
B. 11.
THE JEWISH WAR.
be restrained, and being very angry at the contumelies he had
received, he sent their rulers, together with their men of power,
to Florus to Cæsarea, that he might appoint whom he thought
fit to collect the tribute in the country, while he retired into his
own kingdom.
2. And at this time it was that some of those that principally
excited the people to go to war, made an assault upon a certain
fortress called Masada. They took it by treachery, and slew the
Romans that were there, and put others of their party to keep
it. At the same time Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high
priest, a very bold youth, who was at that time governor of the
temple, persuaded those that officiated in the divine service to
receive no gift or sacrifice for any foreigner. And this was the
true beginning of our war with the Romans; for they rejected the
sacrifice of Cæsar on this account: and when many of the high
priests and principal men besought them not to omit the sacrifice
which it was customary for them to offer for their princes, they
would not be prevailed upon. These relied much upon their
multitude, for the most flourishing part of the innovators assisted
them; but they had the chief regard to Eleazar, the governor of
the temple.
3. Hereupon the men of power got together, and conferred
with the high priests, as did also the principal of the Pharisees:
and thinking all was at stake, and that their calamities were be--
coming incurable, took counsel what was to be done. Accord-
ingly, they determined to try what they could do with the seditious
by words, and assembled the people before the brazen gate, which
was that gate of the inner temple [court of the priests] which
looked towards the sunrising. And, in the first place, they
showed the great indignation they had at this attempt for a
revolt, and for their bringing so great a war upon their country:
after which they confuted their pretence as unjustifiable, and told
them, that "their forefathers had adorned their temple in great
part with donations bestowed on them by foreigners, and had
always received what had been presented to them from foreign
nations; and that they had been so far from rejecting any person's
sacrifice (which would be the highest instance of impiety), that
they had themselves placed those donations about the temple,
which were still visible, and had remained there so long a time:
that they did now irritate the Romans to take arms against them,
and invited them to make war upon them, and brought up novel
rules of a strange divine worship, and determined to run the hazard
of having their city condemned for impiety, while they would not
allow any foreigner, but Jews only, either to sacrifice or to wor-
ship therein. And if such a law should be introduced in the case
of a single private person only, he would have indignation at it,
as an instance of inhumanity determined against him: while they
C. XVII.
395
THE JEWISH WAR.
:
have no regard to the Romans or to Cæsar, and forbid even their
oblations to be received also: that, however, they cannot but fear,
lest by thus rejecting their sacrifices they shall not be allowed to
offer their own; and that this city will lose its principality, unless
they grow wiser quickly, and restore the sacrifices as formerly,
and, indeed, amend the injury [they have offered foreigners],
before the report of it comes to the ears of those that have been
injured."
4. And as they said these things, they produced those priests
that were skilful in the customs of their country, who made the
report, that "all their forefathers had received the sacrifices
from foreign nations." But still not one of the innovators would
hearken to what was said; nay, those that ministered about the
temple would not attend their divine service, but were preparing
matters for beginning the war. So the men of power, perceiving
that the sedition was too hard for them to subdue, and that the
danger which would arise from the Romans would come upon
them first of all, endeavoured to save themselves, and sent ambas-
sadors, some to Florus, the chief of which was Simon, the son of
Ananias, and others to Agrippa, among whom the most eminent
were Saul, and Antipas, and Costobarus, who were of the king's
kindred; and they desired of them both that they would come
with an army to the city, and cut off the sedition before it should
be too hard to be subdued. Now this terrible message was good
news to Florus; and because his design was to have a war kin-
dled, he gave the ambassadors no answer at all. But Agrippa was
equally solicitous for those that were revolting and for those
against whom the war was to be made, and was desirous to pre-
serve the Jews for the Romans, and the temple and metropolis
for the Jews: he was also sensible that it was not for his own
advantage that the disturbances should proceed; so he sent three
thousand horsemen to the assistance of the people, out of Aura-
nitis, and Batanea, and Trachonitis, and these under Darius the
master of his horse, and Philip the son of Jacimus, the general
of his army.
5. Upon this the men of power, with the high priests, as also
all the part of the multitude that were desirous of peace, took
courage, and seized upon the upper city [Mount Sion]; for the
seditious part had the lower city and the temple in their power:
so they made use of stones and slings perpetually against one
another, and threw darts continually on both sides; and some-
times it happened that they made excursions by troops, and fought
it out hand to hand, while the seditious were superior in boldness
but the king's soldiers in skill. These last strove chiefly to gain
the temple, and to drive those out of it who profaned it; as did
the seditious, with Eleazar, besides what they had already, labour
to gain the upper city. Thus were there perpetual slaughters on
396
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
both sides for seven days' time: but neither side would yield up
the parts they had seized on.
6. Now the next day was the festival of Xylophory, upon
which the custom was for every one to bring wood for the altar
(that there might never be a want of fuel for that fire which was
unquenchable, and always burning); upon that day they excluded
the opposite party from the observation of this part of religion.
And when they had joined to themselves many of the Sicarii,
who crowded in among the weaker people (that was the name for
such robbers as had under their bosoms swords called Sica), they
grew bolder, and carried their undertakings farther; insomuch
that the king's soldiers were overpowered by their multitude and
boldness, and so they gave way, and were driven out of the upper
city by force. The others then set fire to the house of Ananias
the high priest, and to the palaces of Agrippa and Bernice:
after which they carried the fire to the place where the archives
were reposited, and made haste to burn the contracts belonging
to their creditors, and thereby to dissolve their obligations for pay-
ing their debts; and this was done in order to gain the multitude
of those who had been debtors, and that they might persuade the
poorer sort to join in their insurrection with safety against the more
wealthy; so the keepers of the records fled away, and the rest set
fire to them. And when they had thus burnt down the nerves of
the city, they fell upon their enemies; at which time some of the
men of power and of the high priests went into the vaults under
ground, and concealed themselves, while others fled with the
king's soldiers to the upper palace, and shut the gates immediately;
among whom were Ananias the high priest and the ambassadors
that had been sent to Agrippa. And now the seditious were con-
tented with the victory they had gotten, and the buildings they had
burnt down, and proceeded no farther.
7. But on the next day, which was the fifteenth of the month
Lous [Ab], they made an assault upon Antonia, and besieged
the garrison which was in it two days, and then took the garri-
son and slew them, and set the citadel on fire; after which they
marched to the palace, whither the king's soldiers were fled, and
parted themselves into four bodies, and made an attack upon the
walls. As for those that were within it, no one had the courage
to sally out, because those that assaulted them were so numerous;
but they distributed themselves into the breast-works and turrets,
and shot at the besiegers, whereby many of the robbers fell under
the walls: nor did they cease to fight one with another, either by
night or by day, while the seditious supposed that those within
would grow weary for want of food, and those without supposed
the others would do the like by the tediousness of the siege..
8. In the meantime, on Manahem, the son of Judas that was
called the Galilean (who was a very cunning sophister, and had
C. XVII.
397
THE JEWISH WAR.
لم
formerly reproached the Jews under Cyrenius, that after God
they were subject to the Romans), took some of the men of note
with him, and retired to Masada, where he broke open king
Herod's armoury, and gave arms not only to his own people, but
to other robbers also. These he made use of for a guard, and
returned in the state of a king to Jerusalem: he became the
leader of the sedition, and gave orders for continuing the siege,
but they wanted proper instruments, and it was not practicable
to undermine the wall, because the darts came down upon them
from above. But still they dug a mine from a great distance
under one of the towers, and made it totter; and having done
that, they set on fire what was combustible, and left it, and when
the foundations were burnt below, the tower fell down suddenly.
Yet did they then meet with another wall that had been built
within, for the besieged were sensible beforehand of what they
were doing; and probably the tower shook as it was undermin-
ing; so they provided themselves of another fortification; which
when the besiegers unexpectedly saw, while they thought they
had already gained the place, they were under some consterna-
tion. However, those that were within sent to Manahem, and
to the other leaders of the sedition, and desired they might
go out upon a capitulation: this was granted to the king's sol-
diers and their own countrymen only, who went out accordingly ;
but the Romans that were left alone were greatly dejected, for
they were not able to force their way through such a multitude;
and to desire them to give them their right hand for their security,
they thought it would be a reproach to them; and besides, if they
should give it them, they durst not depend upon it; so they de-
serted their camp, as easily taken, and ran away to the royal
towers, that called Hippicus, that called Phasaelus, and that
called Mariamne. But Manahem and his party fell upon the
place whence the soldiers were fled, and slew as many of them
as they could catch, before they got up to the towers, and plun-
dered what they left behind them, and set fire to their camp.
This was executed on the sixth day of the month Gorpieus
[Elul].
9. But on the next day the high priest was caught, where he
had concealed himself in an aqueduct; he was slain, together
with Hezekiah his brother, by the robbers: hereupon the sedi-
tious besieged the towers, and kept them guarded, lest any one
of the soldiers should escape. Now the overthrow of the places
of strength, and the death of the high priest Ananias, so puffed
up Manahem, that he became barbarously cruel; and as he
thought he had no antagonist to dispute the management of
affairs with him, he was no better than an insupportable tyrant:
but Eleazar and his party, when words had passed between them,
how "it was not proper when they revolted from the Romans,
398
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
L
out of the desire of liberty, to betray that liberty to any of
their own people, and to bear a lord, who, though he should be
guilty of no violence, was yet meaner than themselves: as also,
that, in case they were obliged to set some one over their public
affairs, it was fitter they should give that privilege to any
one rather than to him," they made an assault upon him in the
temple: for he went up thither to worship in a pompous man-
ner, and adorned with royal garments, and had his followers with
him in their armour. But Eleazar and his party fell violently
upon him, as did also the rest of the people, and taking up stones
to attack him withal, they threw them at the sophister, and thought
that if he were once ruined, the entire sedition would fall to the
ground. Now Manahem and his party made resistance for a
while, but when they perceived that the whole multitude were
falling upon them, they fled which way every one was able:
those that were caught were slain, and those that hid themselves
were searched for. A few there were of them who privately
escaped to Masada, among whom was Eleazar, the son of Jai-
rus, who was of kin to Manahem, and acted the part of a tyrant
at Masada afterward: as for Manahem himself, he ran away to
the place called Ophla, and there lay skulking in private: but
they took him alive, and drew him out before them all: they
then tortured him with many sorts of torments, and after all slew
him, as they did by those that were captains under him also, and
particularly by the principal instrument of his tyranny, whose
name was Apsalom.
་
10. And, as I said, so far truly the people assisted them, while
they hoped this might afford some amendment to the seditious
practices; but the others were not in haste to put an end to the
war, but hoped to prosecute it with less danger, now they had
slain Manaĥem. It is true, that when the people earnestly
desired that they would leave off besieging the soldiers, they were
the more earnest in pressing it forward, and this till Metellius,
who was the Roman general, sent to Eleazar, and desired that
they would give them security to spare their lives only, but agreed
to deliver up their arms, and what else they had with them. The
others readily complied with their petition, sent to them Gorion,
the son of Nicodemus, and Ananias the son of Sadduk, and
Judas, the son of Jonathan, that they might give them the secu-
rity of their right hands and of their oaths; after which Metel-
lius brought down his soldiers, which soldiers while they were in
arms, were not meddled with by any of the seditious, nor was
there any appearance of treachery; but as soon as, according to
the articles of capitulation, they had all laid down their shields.
and their swords, and were under no farther suspicion of any harm,
but were going away, Eleazar's men attacked them after a violent
manner, and encompassed them round, and slew them, while they
C. XVII.
399
THE JEWISH WAR.
*
neither defended themselves, nor entreated for mercy, but only
cried out upon the breach of their articles of capitulation and
their oaths. And thus were all these men barbarously murdered
excepting Metellius; for when he entreated for mercy, and pro-
mised that he would turn Jew and be circumcised, they saved him
alive, but none else. This loss to the Romans was but light,
there being no more than a few slain out of an immense army:
but still it seemed to be a prelude to the Jews' own destruction,
while men made public lamentation when they saw that such
occasions were afforded for a war as were incurable; that the
city was all over polluted with such abominations, from which it
was but reasonable to expect some vengeance, even though they
should escape revenge from the Romans; so that the city was
filled with sadness, and every one of the moderate men in it were
under great disturbance, as likely themselves to undergo punish-
ment for the wickedness of the seditious; for, indeed, it so hap-
pened, that this murder was perpetrated on the Sabbath day, on
which day the Jews have a respite from their works on account
of divine worship.
CHAP. XVIII.
The Calamities and Slaughters that came upon the Jews.
§ 1. Now the people of Cæsarea had slain the Jews that were
among them on the very same day and hour [when the soldiers
were slain], which one would think must have come to pass by
the direction of Providence; insomuch that in one hour's time
above twenty thousand Jews were killed, and all Cæsarea was
emptied of its Jewish inhabitants; for Florus caught such as
ran away, and sent them in bonds to the galleys. Upon which
stroke that the Jews received at Cæsarea, the whole nation was
greatly enraged; so they divided themselves into several parties,
and laid waste the villages of the Syrians, and their neighbour-
ing cities, Philadelphia, and Sebonitis, and Gerasa, and Pella,
and Scythopolis, and after them Gadara and Hippos; and fall-
ing upon Gaulanitis, some cities they destroyed there, and some
they set on fire, and then went to Kedasa, belonging to the
Tyrians, and to Ptolemais, and to Gaba, and to Cæsarea; nor
was either Sebaste [Samaria] or Askalon able to oppose the
violence with which they were attacked; and when they had
burnt these to the ground, they entirely demolished Anthedon
and Gaza; many also of the villages that were about every one
of those cities were plundered, and an immense slaughter was
made of the men who were caught in them.
2. However, the Syrians were even with the Jews in the
multitude of the men whom they slew; for they killed those
400
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
+
whom they caught in their cities, and that not only out of the
hatred they bare them, as formerly, but to prevent the danger
under which they were from them; so that the disorders in all
Syria were terrible, and every city was divided into two armies
encamped one against another, and the preservation of the one
party was in the destruction of the other; so the daytime was
spent in shedding of blood, and the night in fear, which was of
the two the more terrible; for when the Syrians thought they
had ruined the Jews, they had the Judaizers in suspicion also;
and as each side did not care to slay those whom they only
suspected on the other, so did they greatly fear them when they
were mingled with the other, as if they were certainly foreigners.
Moreover, greediness of gain was a provocation to kill the
opposite party, even to such as had of old appeared very mild
and gentle towards them; for they without fear plundered the
effects of the slain, and carried off the spoils of those whom
they slew to their own houses, as if they had been gained in a
set battle; and he was esteemed a man of honour who got the
greatest share, as having prevailed over the greatest number of
his enemies. It was then common to see cities filled with dead
bodies, still lying unburied, and those of old men, mixed with
infants, all dead, and scattered about together: women also lay
amongst them, without any covering for their nakedness: you
might then see the whole province full of inexpressible cala-
mities, while the dread of still more barbarous practices which
were threatened, were everywhere greater than what had been
already perpetrated.
3. And thus far the conflict had been between Jews and
foreigners, but when they made excursions to Scythopolis, they
found Jews that acted as enemies: for as they stood in battle
array with those of Scythopolis, and preferred their own safety
before their relation to us, they fought against their own coun-
trymen; 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 nighttime,
and, to their great misfortune, should thereby make an apology
for themselves to their own people for their revolt from them.
So they commanded them, that in case they would confirm their
agreement, and demonstrate their fidelity to them, who were of
a different nation, they should go out of the city with their
families to a neighbouring grove; and when they had done as
they were commanded, without suspecting any thing, the people
of Scythopolis lay still for the interval of two days, to tempt
them to be secure; but on the third night they watched their
opportunity, and cut all their throats, some as they lay unguarded
and some as they lay asleep. The number that was slain was
above thirteen thousand, and then they plundered them of all
that they had.
L
L
C. XVIII.
401
THE JEWISH WAR.
4. It will deserve our relation what befell Simon; he was
the son of one Saul, a man of reputation among the Jews. This
man was distinguished from the rest by the strength of his body
and the boldness of his conduct, although he abused them both
to the mischieving of his countrymen; for he came every day
and slew a great many of the Jews of Scythopolis, and he
frequently put them to flight, and became himself alone the
cause of his army's conquering. But a just punishment over-
took him for the murders he had committed upon those of the
same nation with him; for when the people of Scythopolis
threw their darts at them in the grove, he drew his sword, but
did not attack any of the enemy; for he saw that he could do
nothing against such a multitude; but he cried out after a very
moving manner, and said,-"O you people of Scythopolis, I
deservedly suffer for what I have done with relation to you,
when I gave you such security of my fidelity to you, by slaying
so many of those that were related to me: wherefore we very
justly experience the perfidiousness of foreigners, while we acted
after a most wicked manner against our own nation. I will,
therefore, die, polluted wretch as I am, by mine own hands;
for it is not fit I should die by the hands of our enemies; and
let the same action be to me both a punishment for my great
crimes, and a testimony of my courage to my commendation,
that so no one of our enemies may have it to brag of, that he it
was that slew me, and no one may insult upon me as I fall.”
Now when he had said this, he looked round about him upon
his family with eyes of commiseration and of rage (that family
consisted of a wife and children, and his aged parents); so, in
the first place, he caught his father by his gray hairs, and ran
his sword through him, and after him he did the same to his
mother, who willingly received it; and after them he did the
like to his wife and children, every one almost offering them-
selves to his sword, as desirous to prevent being slain by their
enemies; so when he had gone over all his family, he stood
upon their bodies to be seen by all, and stretching out his right
hand, that his action might be observed by all, he sheathed his
entire sword into his own bowels. This young man was to be
pitied on account of the strength of his body and the courage
of his soul; but since he had assured foreigners of his fidelity
[against his own countrymen], he suffered deservedly.
5. Besides this murder at Scythopolis, the other cities rose
up against the Jews that were among them: those of Askalon
slew two thousand five hundred, and those of Ptolemais two
thousand, and put not a few into bonds; those of Tyre also put
a great number to death, but kept a great number in prison:
moreover, those of Hippos and those of Gadara did the like,
while they put to death the boldest of the Jews, but kept those
VOL. III.
D D
1
1
402
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
-
of whom they were most afraid in custody; as did the rest of
the cities of Syria, according as they every one either hated them
or were afraid of them; only the Antiochians, the Sidonians,
and Apamians spared those that dwelt with them, and would
not endure either to kill any of the Jews, or to put them in
bonds. And, perhaps, they spared them, because their own
number was so great that they despised their attempts; but I
think the greatest part of this favour was owing to their com-
miseration of those whom they saw to make no innovations.
As for the Gerasans, they did no harm to those that abode with
them, and for those who had a mind to go away, they conducted
them as far as their borders reached.
6. There was also a plot laid against the Jews in Agrippa's
kingdom; for he was himself gone to Cestius Gallus to Antioch,
but had left one of his companions, whose name was Noarus,
to take care of the public affairs; which Noarus was of kin to
king Sohemus*. Now there came certain men, seventy in
number, out of Batanea, who were the most considerable for
their families and prudence of the rest of the people; these
desired to have an army put into their hands, that if any tumult
should happen, they might have about them a guard sufficient to
restrain such as might rise up against them. This Noarus sent
out some of the king's armed men by night, and slew all those
[seventy] men; which bold action he ventured upon without the
consent of Agrippa, and was such a lover of money, that he
chose to be so wicked to his own countrymen, though he brought
ruin on the kingdom thereby; and thus cruelly did he treat that
nation, and this contrary to the laws also, until Agrippa was
informed of it, who did not, indeed, dare to put him to death,
out of regard to Sohemus, but still he put an end to his pro-
curatorship immediately. But as to the seditious, they took the
citadel which was called Cypros, and was above Jericho, and
cut the throats of the garrison, and utterly demolished the forti-
fications: this was about the same time that the multitude of
the Jews that were at Macherus persuaded the Romans who
were in garrison to leave the place, and deliver it up to them.
These Romans, being in great fear lest the place should be taken
by force, made an agreement with them to depart upon certain
conditions; and when they had obtained the security they de-
sired, they delivered up the citadel, into which the people of
Macherus put a garrison for their own security, and held it in
their own power.
7. But for Alexandria, the sedition of the people of the place
* Of this Sohemus we have mention made by Tacitus. We also learn from
Dio, that his father was king of the Arabians of Iturea, which Iturea is men-
tioned by [St. Luke, iii. 1] both, whose testimonies are quoted here by Dr. Hud-
son.
See Noldius, No. 371.
C. XVIII.
403
THE JEWISH WAR.
against the Jews was perpetual, and this from that very time
when Alexander [the Great], upon finding the readiness of the
Jews in assisting him against the Egyptians, and as a reward for
such their assistance, gave them equal privileges in this city with
the Grecians themselves; which honorary reward continued
among them under his successors, who also set apart for them a
particular place, that they might live without being polluted [by
the Gentiles], and were thereby not so much intermixed with
foreigners as before; they also gave them this farther privilege,
that they should be called Macedonians. Nay, when the Romans
got possession of Egypt, neither the first Cæsar, nor any one
that came after him, thought of diminishing the honours which
Alexander had bestowed on the Jews. But still conflicts per-
petually arose with the Grecians; and although the governors
did every day punish many of them, yet did the sedition grow
worse; but at this time especially, when there were tumults in
other places also, the disorders among them were put into a
greater flame; for when the Alexandrians had once a public
assembly, to deliberate about an embassage they were sending
to Nero, a great number of Jews came flocking to the theatre;
but when their adversaries saw them, they immediately cried
out, and called them their enemies, and said they came as spies
upon them; upon which they rushed out, and laid violent hands
upon them; and as for the rest, they were slain as they ran
away; but there were three men whom they caught, and hauled
them along, in order to have them burnt alive; but all the Jews
came in a body to defend them, who at first threw stones at the
Grecians, but after that they took lamps, and rushed with
violence into the theatre, and threatened that they would burn
the people to a man: and this they had soon done, unless
Tiberius Alexander, the governor of the city, had restrained
their passions. However, this man did not begin to teach them
wisdom by arms, but sent among them privately some of the
principal men, and thereby entreated them to be quiet, and not
provoke the Roman army against them; but the seditious made
a jest of the entreaties of Tiberius, and reproached him for so
doing.
8. Now when he perceived that those who were for innova-
tions would not be pacified till some great calamity should
overtake them, he sent out upon them those two Roman legions
that were in the city, and together with them five thousand
other soldiers, who, by chance, were come together out of
Libya, to the ruin of the Jews. They were also permitted not
only to kill them, but to plunder them of what they had, and to
set fire to their houses. These soldiers rushed violently into
that part of the city that was called Delta, where the Jewish
people lived together, and did as they were bidden, though not
+
DD 2
404
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
without bloodshed on their own side also; for the Jews got
together, and set those that were the best armed among them
in the forefront, and made resistance for a great while; but
when once they gave back they were destroyed unmercifully;
and this their destruction was complete, some being caught in
the open field, and others forced into their houses; which
houses were first plundered of what was in them, and then set
on fire by the Romans; wherein no mercy was shown to the
infants, and no regard had to the aged; but they went on in the
slaughter of persons of every age, till all the place was over-
flowed with blood, and fifty thousand of them lay dead upon
heaps: nor had the remainder been preserved, had they not
betaken themselves to supplication. So Alexander commise-
rated their condition, and gave orders to the Romans to retire:
accordingly, these being accustomed to obey orders, left off
killing at the first intimation; but the populace of Alexandria
bare, so very great a hatred to the Jews, that it was difficult to
recall them, and it was a hard thing to make them leave their
dead bodies.
9. And this was the miserable calamity which at this time
befell the Jews at Alexandria. Hereupon Cestius thought fit
no longer to lie still, while the Jews were everywhere up in
arms: so he took out of Antioch the twelfth legion entire, and
out of each of the rest he selected two thousand, with six co-
horts of footmen and four troops of horsemen, besides those
auxiliaries which were sent by the kings; of which Antiochus *
sent two thousand horsemen, and three thousand footmen, with
as many archers; and Agrippa sent the same number of foot-
men, and one thousand horsemen: Sohemus also followed with
four thousand, a third part whereof were horsemen, but most
part were archers, and thus did he march to Ptolemais. There
were also great numbers of auxiliaries gathered together from
the [free] cities, who had not, indeed, the same skill in martial
affairs, but made up in their alacrity, and in their hatred to the
Jews, what they wanted in skill. There came also along with
Cestius, Agrippa himself, both as a guide in his march over the
country, and a director what was fit to be done; so Cestius
took part of his forces, and marched hastily to Zabulon, a strong
city of Galilee, which was called the city of men, and divides
the country of Ptolemais from our nation: this he found de-
serted by its men, the multitude having fled to the mountains,
but full of all sorts of good things: those he gave leave to the
soldiers to plunder, and set fire to the city, although it was of
* Spanheim notes on the place, that this latter Antiochus, who was called
Epiphanes, is mentioned by Dio, lix. page 645, and that he is mentioned by
Josephus elsewhere twice also, B. v. ch. xi. sect. 3, and Antiq. B. xix. ch. viii.
sect. 1.
C. XVIII.
405
·
THE JEWISH WAR.
admirable beauty, and had its houses built like those in Tyre,
and Sidon, and Berytus. After this he overran all the country,
and seized upon whatsoever came in his way, and set fire to the
villages that were round about them, and then returned to Ptole-
mais. But when the Syrians, and especially those of Berytus,
were busy in plundering, the Jews pulled up their courage again,
for they knew that Cestius was retired, and fell upon those that
were left behind unexpectedly, and destroyed about two thou-
sand of them.
10. And now Cestius himself marched from Ptolemais and
came to Cæsarea; but he sent part of his army before him to
Joppa, and gave order, that if they could take that city [by sur-
prise], they should keep it; but that in case the citizens should
perceive they were coming to attack them, that they then should
stay for him and for the rest of the army. So some of them
made a brisk march by the seaside, and some by land, and so
coming upon them on both sides, they took the city with ease:
and as the inhabitants had made no provision aforehand for a
flight, nor had gotten any thing ready for fighting, the soldiers
fell upon them, and slew them all, with their families, and then
plundered and burnt the city. The number of the slain was
eight thousand four hundred. In like manner Cestius sent also
a considerable body of horsemen to the toparchy of Narbatene,
that adjoined to Cæsarea, who destroyed the country, and slew
a great multitude of its people; they also plundered what they
had, and burnt their villages.
J
11. But Cestius sent Gallus, the commander of the twelfth
legion, into Galilee, and delivered to him as many of his forces
as he supposed sufficient to subdue that nation. He was re-
ceived by the strongest city of Galilee, which was Sepphoris,
with acclamations of joy; which wise conduct of that city occa-
sioned the rest of the cities to be in quiet; while the seditious
part and the robbers ran away to that mountain which lies in the
very middle of Galilee, and is situated over against Sepphoris; it
is called Asamon. So Gallus brought his forces against them;
but while those men were in the superior parts above the Ro-
mans, they easily threw their darts upon the Romans, as they
made their approaches, and slew about two hundred of them.
But when the Romans had gone round the mountains, and were
gotten into the parts above their enemies, the others were soon
beaten; nor could they who had only light armour on sustain
the force of them that fought them armed all over; nor when
they were beaten could they escape the enemies' horsemen; in-
somuch that only some few concealed themselves in certain
places hard to be come at among the mountains, while the rest,
above two thousand in number, were slain.
406
1
THE JEWISH WAR.
B. II.
CHAP. XIX.
What Cestius did against the Jews; and how, upon his besieging
Jerusalem, he retreated from the City, without any just Occa-
sion in the World; as also, what severe Calamities he under-
went from the Jews in his Retreat.
§ 1. AND now Gallus, seeing nothing more that looked towards
an innovation in Galilee, returned with his army to Cæsarea:
but Cestius removed with his whole army, and marched to An-
tipatris. And when he was informed that there was a great
body of Jewish forces gotten together in a certain tower called
Aphek, he sent a party before to fight them; but this party dis-
persed the Jews by affrighting them, before it came to a battle:
so they came, and finding their camp deserted, they burnt it, as
well as the villages that lay about it. But when Cestius had
marched from Antipatris to Lydda, he found the city empty of
its men, for the whole multitude* were gone up to Jerusalem
to the feast of tabernacles; yet did he destroy fifty of those
that showed themselves, and burnt the city, and so marched
forwards; and ascending by Beth-horon, he pitched his camp
at a certain place called Gabao, fifty furlongs distant from
Jerusalem.
2. But as for the Jews, when they saw the war approaching
to their metropolis, they left the feast, and betook themselves to
their arms; and taking courage greatly from their multitude,
went in a sudden and disorderly manner to the fight, with a
great noise, and without any consideration had of the rest of the
seventh day, although the Sabbath was the day to which they
had the greatest regard; but that rage which made them forget
the religious observation [of the Sabbath] made them too hard
* Here we have an eminent example of that Jewish language, which Dr. Wall
truly observes we several times find used in the sacred writings; I mean where
the words all or whole multitude, &c. are used for much the greatest part only;
but not so as to include every person without exception; for when Josephus had
said that the whole multitude [all the males] of Lydda were gone to the feast of
tabernacles, he immediately adds, that, however, no fewer than fifty of them
appeared, and were slain by the Romans. Other examples somewhat like this
I have observed elsewhere in Josephus, but, as I think, none so remarkable as
this. See Wall's Critical Observations on the Old Testament, p. 49, 50.
We have also in this and the next section two eminent facts to be observed,
viz. the first example, that I remember in Josephus, of the onset of the Jews'
enemies upon their country when their males were gone up to Jerusalem to one
of their three sacred festivals, which, during the theocracy, God had promised to
preserve them from, Exod. xxxiv. 24. The second fact is this, the breach of
the Sabbath by the seditious Jews in an offensive fight, contrary to the univer-
sal doctrine and practice of their nation in these ages, and even contrary to
what they themselves afterward practised in the rest of this war. See the note
on Antiq. B. xvi. ch. ii. sect. 4.
k
C. XIX.
407
THE JEWISH WAR.
for their enemies in the fight: with such violence, therefore,
did they fall upon the Romans, as to break into their ranks, and
to march through the midst of them, making a great slaughter
as they went, insomuch that unless the horsemen and such part
of the footmen as were not yet tired in the action had wheeled
round, and succoured that part of the army which was not yet
broken, Cestius, with his whole army, had been in danger:
however, five hundred and fifteen of the Romans were slain, of
which number four hundred were footmen, and the rest horse-
men, while the Jews lost only twenty-two, of whom the most
valiant were the kinsmen of Monobazus, king of Adiabene, and
their names were Monobazus and Kenedius; and next to them
were Niger of Perea and Silas of Babylon, who had deserted
from King Agrippa to the Jews; for he had formerly served in
his army. When the front of the Jewish army had been cut
off, the Jews retired into the city; but still Simon, the son of
Giora, fell upon the backs of the Romans, as they were ascend-
ing up Beth-horon, and put the hindmost of the army into dis-
order, and carried off many of the beasts that carried the wea-
pons of war, and led them into the city. But as Cestius tarried
there three days, the Jews seized upon the elevated parts of the
city, and set watches at the entrances into the city, and appeared
openly resolved not to rest, when once the Romans should begin
to march.
3. And now when Agrippa observed that even the affairs of
the Romans were likely to be in danger, while such an immense
multitude of their enemies had seized upon the mountains round
about, he determined to try what the Jews would agree to by
words, as thinking that he should either persuade them all to
desist from fighting, or, however, that he should cause the sober
part of them to separate themselves from the opposite party.
So he sent Borceus and Phebus, the persons of his party that
were the best known to them, and promised them that Cestius
should give them his right hand to secure them of the Romans'
entire forgiveness of what they had done amiss, if they would
throw away their arms, and come over to them; but the sedi-
tious fearing lest the whole multitude, in hopes of security to
themselves, should go over to Agrippa, resolved immediately to
fall upon and kill the ambassadors: accordingly, they slew
Phebus before he said a word, but Borceus was only wounded,
and so prevented his fate by flying away: and when the people
were very angry at this, they had the seditious beaten with stones
and clubs, and drove them before them into the city.
4. But now Cestius, observing that the disturbances that
were begun among the Jews afforded him a proper opportunity
to attack them, took his whole army along with him, and put
the Jews to flight, and pursued them to Jerusalem. He then
408
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
pitched his camp upon the elevation called Scopus [or watch
tower], which was distant seven furlongs from the city; yet did
not he assault them in three days time, out of expectation that
those within might, perhaps, yield a little; and in the meantime
he sent out a great many of his soldiers into the neighbouring
villages, to seize upon their corn. And on the fourth day, which
was the thirtieth of the month Hyperbereteus [Tisri], when he
had put his army in array, he brought it into the city. Now for
the people, they were kept under by the seditious; but the sedi-
tious themselves were greatly affrighted at the good order of the
Romans, and retired from the suburbs, and retreated into the
inner part of the city and into the temple. But when Cestius
was come into the city, he set the part called Bezetha, which
is called Cenopolis [or the new city], on fire; as he did also to
the timber market; after which he came into the upper city,
and pitched his camp over against the royal palace; and had he
but at this very time attempted to get within the walls by force,
he had won the city presently, and the war had been put an end
to at once; but Tyrannicus Priscus, the muster-master of the
army, and a great number of the officers of the horse, had been
corrupted by Florus, and diverted him from that his attempt;
and that was the occasion that this war lasted so very long, and
thereby the Jews were involved in such incurable calamities.
5. In the meantime many of the principal men of the city
were persuaded by Ananus, the son of Jonathan, and invited
Cestius into the city, and were about to open the gates for him;
but he overlooked this offer, partly out of his anger at the Jews,
and partly because he did not thoroughly believe they were in
earnest; whence it was that he delayed the matter so long, that
the seditious perceived the treachery, and threw Ananus and
those of his party down from the wall, and pelting them with
stones, drove them into their houses; but they stood them-
selves at proper distances in the towers, and threw their darts at
those that were getting over the wall. Thus did the Romans
make their attack against the wall for five days, but to no pur-
pose: but on the next day Cestius took a great many of his
choicest men, and with them the archers, and attempted to
break into the temple at the northern quarter of it; but the
Jews beat them off from the cloisters, and repulsed them several
times when they were gotten near to the wall, till at length the
multitude of the darts cut them off, and made them retire: but
the first rank of the Romans rested their shields upon the wall,
and so did those that were behind them, and the like did those
that were still more backward, and guarded themselves with
what they call Testudo, [the back of] a tortoise, upon which
the darts that were thrown fell, and slided off without doing
them any harm; so the soldiers undermined the wall, without
C. XIX.
409
THE JEWISH WAR.
being themselves hurt, and got all things ready for setting fire
to the gate of the temple.
6. And now it was that a horrible fear seized upon the sedi-
tious, insomuch that many of them ran out of the city, as though
it were to be taken immediately; but the people upon this took
courage, and where the wicked part of the city gave ground,
thither did they come, in order to set open the gates, and to
admit Cestius as their benefactor, who, had he but continued
the siege a little longer, had certainly taken the city; but it was,
1 suppose, owing to the aversion* God had already at the city
and the sanctuary that he was hindered from putting an end to
the war that very day.
7. It then happened that Cestius was not conscious either
how the besieged despaired of success, nor how courageous the
people were for him; and so he recalled his soldiers from the
place, and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, with-
out having received any disgrace, he retired from the city, with-
out any reason in the world. But when the robbers perceived
this unexpected retreat of his, they resumed their courage, and
ran after the hinder parts of his army, and destroyed a consider-
able number of both their horsemen and footmen; and now
Cestius lay all night at the camp which was at Scopus, and as
he went off farther next day, he thereby invited the enemy to
follow him, who still fell upon the hindmost, and destroyed
them; they also fell upon the flank on each side of the army,
and threw darts upon them obliquely; nor durst those that were
hindmost turn back upon those who wounded them behind, as
imagining that the multitude of those that pursued them was
immense; nor did they venture to drive away those that pressed
upon them on each side, because they were heavy with their
arms, and were afraid of breaking their ranks to pieces, and
because they saw the Jews were light, and ready for making
incursions upon them. And this was the reason why the Ro-
mans suffered greatly, without being able to revenge themselves
upon their enemies; so they were galled all the way, and their
* There may another very important and very providential reason be here
assigned for this strange and foolish retreat of Cestius; which, if Josephus had
been now a Christian, he might probably have taken notice of also; and that is the
affording the Jewish Christians in the city an opportunity of calling to mind the
prediction and caution given them by Christ about 33½ years before, that when
they should see the abomination of desolation [the idolatrous Roman armies, with
the images of their idols in their ensigns, ready to lay Jerusalem desolate], stand
where it ought not, or in the holy place, or when they should see Jerusalem encom-
passed with armies, they should then flee to the mountains. By complying with
which those Jewish Christians fled to the mountains of Perea, and escaped this
destruction. See Lit. Accompl. of Proph. page 69, 70. Nor was there, per-
haps, any one instance of a more unpolitic, but more providential, conduct, than
this retreat of Cestius visible during this whole siege of Jerusalem; which yet
was providentially such a great tribulation, as had not been from the beginning
of the world to that time; no, nor ever should be. Ibid. page 70, 71.
410
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
ranks were put into disorder, and those that were thus put out
of their ranks were slain; among whom were Priscus, the
commander of the sixth legion, and Longinus, the tribune, and
Emilius Secundus, the commander of a troop of horsemen. So
it was not without difficulty that they got to Gabao, their for-
mer camp, and that not without the loss of a great part of their
baggage. There it was that Cestius staid two days, and was in
great distress to know what he should do in these circumstances;
but when, on the third day, he saw a still much greater number
of enemies, and all the parts round about him full of Jews, he
understood that his delay was to his own detriment, and that if
he stayed any longer there, he should have still more enemies
upon him.
8. That, therefore, he might fly the faster, he gave orders to
cast away what might hinder his army's march; so they killed
the mules, and other creatures, excepting those that carried their
darts and machines, which they retained for their own use, and
this principally because they were afraid lest the Jews should
seize upon them. He then made his army march on as far as
Beth-horon. Now the Jews did not so much press upon them
when they were in large open places, but when they were penned
up in their descent through narrow passages, then did some of
them get before, and hindered them from getting out of them,
and others of them thrust the hindermost down into the lower
places, and the whole multitude extended themselves over against
the neck of the passage, and covered the Roman army with their
darts. In which circumstances, as the footmen knew not how
to defend themselves, so the danger pressed the horsemen still
more: for they were so pelted, that they could not march along
the road in their ranks, and the ascents were so high that the ca-
valry were not able to march against the enemy; the precipices
also and valleys into which they frequently fell, and tumbled
down, were such on each side of them, that there were neither
place for their flight, nor any contrivance could be thought of
for their defence, till the distress they were at last in was so great,
that they betook themselves to lamentations, and to such mourn-
ful cries as men use in the utmost despair; the joyful acclama-
tions of the Jews also, as they encouraged one another, echoed
the sounds back again, these last composing a noise of those that
at once rejoiced and were in a rage. Indeed, things were come
to such a pass, that the Jews had almost taken Cestius's entire
army prisoners, had not the night come on, when the Romans
fled to Beth-horon, and the Jews seized upon all the places
round about them, and watched for their coming out [in the
morning.]
9. And then it was that Cestius, despairing of obtaining room
for a public march, contrived how he might best run away and
C. XIX.
411
THE JEWISH WAR.
when he had selected four hundred of the most courageous of
his soldiers, he placed them at the strongest of their fortifications,
and gave order, that when they went up to the morning guard,
they should erect their ensigns, that the Jews might be made to
believe that the entire army was there still, while he himself took
the rest of his forces with him, and marched without any noise
thirty furlongs. But when the Jews perceived, in the morning,
that the camp was empty, they ran upon those four hundred who
had deluded them, and immediately threw their darts at them, and
slew them, and then pursued after Cestius. But he had already
made use of a great part of the night in his flight, and still
marched quicker when it was day; insomuch that the soldiers
through the astonishment and fear they were in, left behind them
their engines for sieges and for throwing of stones, and a great
part of the instruments of war. So the Jews went on pursuing
the Romans as far as Antipatris: after which, seeing they could
not overtake them, they came back, and took the engines, and
spoiled the dead bodies, and gathered their prey together which
the Romans had left behind them, and came back running and
singing to their metropolis; while they had themselves lost a
few only, but had slain of the Romans five thousand and three
hundred footmen, and three hundred and eighty horsemen. This
defeat happened on the eighth day of the month Dius [Marhes-
van], in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero.
CHAP. XX.
Cestius sends Ambassadors to Nero. The People of Damascus
slay those Jews that lived with them. The People of Jerusa-
lem, after they had [left off] pursuing Cestius, return to the
City, and get Things ready for its Defence, and make a great
many Generals for their Armies, and particularly Josephus,
the Writer of these Books. Some Account of his Adminis-
tration.
§ 1. AFTER this calamity had befallen Cestius, many of the most
eminent of the Jews swam away from the city, as from a ship
when it was going to sink. Costobarus, therefore, and Saul, who
were brethren, together with Philip, the son of Jacimus, who
was the commander of King Agrippa's forces, ran away from
the city, and went to Cestius. But then how Antipas, who had
been besieged with them in the king's palace, but would not fly
away with them, was afterwards slain by the seditious, we shall
relate hereafter. However, Cestius sent Saul and his friends, at
their own desire, to Achaia, to Nero, to inform him of the great
distress they were in, and to lay the blame of their kindling the
war upon Florus, as hoping to alleviate his own danger, by pro-
voking his indignation against Florus.
412
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
!
.
܆
2. In the meantime, the people of Damascus, when they were
informed of the destruction of the Romans, set about the slaugh-
ter of those Jews that were among them; and as they had them
already cooped up together in the place of public exercises,
which they had done out of the suspicion they had of them, they
thought they should meet with no difficulty in the attempt: yet
did they distrust their own wives, which were almost all of them
addicted to the Jewish religion: on which account it was that
their greatest concern was how they might conceal these things
from them; so they came upon the Jews, and cut their throats,
as being in a narrow place, in number ten thousand, and all of
them unarmed, and this in one hour's time, without any body
to disturb them.
3. But as to those who had pursued after Cestius, when they
were returned back to Jerusalem, they overbore some of those
that favoured the Romans by violence, and some they persuaded
[by entreaties] to join with them, and got together in great num-
bers in the temple, and appointed a great many generals for the
war. Joseph also, the son of Gorion*, and Ananus the high
priest, were chosen as governors of all affairs within the city, and
with a particular charge to repair the walls of the city for they
did not ordain Eleazar the son of Simon to that office, although
he had gotten into his possession the prey they had taken from
the Romans, and the money they had taken from Cestius, toge-
ther with a great part of the public treasuries, because they saw
he was of a tyrannical temper, and that his followers were, in
their behaviour, like guards about him. However, the want they
were in of Eleazar's money, and the subtle tricks used by him,
brought all so about that the people were circumvented, and sub-
mitted themselves to his authority in all public affairs.
4. They also chose other generals for Idumea, Jesus the son
of Sapphias, one of the high priests, and Eleazar the son of Ana-
nias, the high priest; they also enjoined Niger, the then governor
of Idumeat, who was of a family that belonged to Perea, beyond
Jordan, and was thence called the Peraite, that he should be
obedient to those forenamed commanders.
Nor did they neg-
lect the care of other parts of the country; but Joseph the son
of Simon was sent as general to Jericho, as was Manasseh to
Perea, and John, the Essene, to the toparchy of Thamna; Lydda
* From this name of Joseph the son of Gorion, or Gorion the son of Joseph,
as B. iv. ch. iii. sect. 9. one of the governors of Jerusalem, who was slain at the
beginning of the tumults by the zealots, B. iv. ch. vi. sect. 1. the much later Jew-
ish author of a history of that nation takes his titles and yet personates our true
Josephus, the son of Matthias: but the cheat is too gross to be put upon the
learned world.
+ We may observe here, that the Idumeans, as having been proselytes of jus-
tice since the days of John Hyrcanus, during about 195 years, were now esteemed
as part of the Jewish nation, and here provided of a Jewish commander accord-
ingly. See the note upon Antiq. B. xiii, ch. ix. sect. 1.
C. XX.
413
THE JEWISH WAR.
But
was also added to his portion, and Joppa, and Emmaus.
John, the son of Matthias, was made governor of the topar-
chies of Gophnitica and Acrabatene, as was Josephus, the son
of Matthias, of both the Galilees. Gamala also, which was the
strongest city in those parts, was put under his command.
5. So every one of the other commanders administered the
affairs of his portion with what alacrity and prudence they were
masters of; but as to Josephus, when he came into Galilee, his
first care was to gain the good will of the people of that country,
as sensible that he should thereby have in general good success,
although he should fail in other points. And being conscious
to himself, that if he communicated part of his power to the
great men, he should make them his fast friends, and that he
should gain the same favour from the multitude, if he executed
his commands by persons of their own country, and with whom
they were well acquainted, he chose out seventy* of the most
prudent men, and those elders in age, and appointed them to be
rulers of all Galilee, as he chose seven judges in every city to
hear the lesser quarrels; for as to the greater causes, and those
wherein life and death were concerned, he enjoined they should
be brought to him and the seventy elders.
6. Josephus also, when he had settled these rules for deter-
mining causes by the law with regard to the people's dealings one
with another, betook himself to make provision for their safety,
against external violence; and as he knew the Romans would fall
upon Galilee, he built walls, in proper places, about Jotapata,
and Barsabee, and Salamis; and, besides these, about Capharec-
cho, and Japha, and Sigo, and what they call Mount Tabor, and
Taricheæ, and Tiberias. Moreover, he built walls about the
caves near the lake of Gennesar, which places lay in the Lower
Galilee: the same he did to the places of Upper Galilee, as well
We see here, and in Josephus's account of his own life, sect. 14, how exactly
he imitated his legislator Moses, or, perhaps, only obeyed what he took to be his
perpetual law, in appointing seven lesser judges, for smaller causes, in particular
cities, and, perhaps, for the first hearing of greater causes, with the liberty of an
appeal to seventy-one supreme judges, especially in those causes where life and
death were concerned; as Antiq. B. iv. ch. viii. sect. 14, and of his Life, sect. 14.
See also of the War, B. iv. ch. v. sect. 4. Moreover, we find, sect. 7, that he imi-
tated Moses, as well as the Romans, in the number and distribution of the subal-
tern officers of his army, as Exod. xviii. 25; Deut. i. 15; and in his charge
against the offences common amongst soldiers, as Deut. xxiii. 9, in all which he
showed his great wisdom, and piety, and skilful conduct in martial affairs. Yet
may we discern in his very high character of Ananus the high priest, B. iv. ch.
v. sect. 2, who seems to have been the same who condemned St. James, bishop of
Jerusalem, to be stoned, under Albinus the procurator, that when he wrote these
books of the war, he was not so much as an Ebionite Christian; otherwise he
would not have failed, according to his usual custom, to have reckoned this his
barbarous murder as a just punishment upon him for that his cruelty to the chief,
or, rather, only Christian bishop of the circumcision. Nor had he been then a
Christian, could he immediately have spoken so movingly of the causes of the
destruction of Jerusalem, without one word of either the condemnation of James
or crucifixion of Christ, as he did when he was become a Christian afterward.
J
414
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
to the rock called the Rock of the Achabari, and to Seph, and
Jamneth, and Meroth; and in Gaulanitis he fortified Seleucia,
and Sogane, and Galama; but as to those of Sepphoris, they were
the only people to whom he gave leave to build their own walls,
and this because he perceived they were rich and wealthy, and
ready to go to war, without standing in need of any injunctions
for that purpose. The case was the same with Gischala, which
had a wall built about it by John the son of Levi himself, but
with the consent of Josephus: but for the building of the rest
of the fortresses, he laboured together with all the other builders,
and was present to give all the necessary orders for that purpose.
He also got together an army out of Galilee of more than a
hundred thousand young men, all of which he armed with the
old weapons, which he had collected together and prepared for
them.
7. And when he considered that the Roman power became
invincible, chiefly by their readiness in obeying orders, and the
constant exercise of their arms, he despaired of teaching these
his men the use of their arms, which was to be obtained by ex-
perience; but observing that their readiness in obeying orders
was owing to the multitude of their officers, he made his parti-
tions in his army more after the Roman manner, and appointed
a great many subalterns. He also distributed the soldiers into
various classes, whom he put under captains of tens, and cap-
tains of hundreds, and then under captains of thousands; and,
besides these, he had commanders of larger bodies of men. He
also taught them to give the signals one to another, and to call
and recall the soldiers by the trumpets; how to expand the wings
of an army, and make them wheel about; and when one wing
hath had success, to turn again and assist those that were hard
set, and to join in the defence of what had most suffered. He
also continually instructed them in what concerned the courage
of the soul, and the hardiness of the body; and, above all, he
exercised them for war, by declaring to them distinctly the good
order of the Romans, and that they were to fight with men who
both by the strength of their bodies, and courage of their souls,
had conquered in a manner the whole habitable earth. He told
them, that he should make trial of the good order they would
observe in war, even before it came to any battle, in case they
would abstain from the crimes they used to indulge themselves
in, such as theft, and robbery, and rapine, and from defrauding
their own countrymen, and never to esteem the harm done to
those that were so near of kin to them to be any advantage to
themselves; for that wars are then managed the best when the
warriors preserve a good conscience; but that such as are ill
men in private life, will not only have those for enemies which
attack them, but God himself also for their antagonist.
C. XX.
415
THE JEWISH WAR.
8. And thus did he continue to admonish them. Now he
chose for the war such an army as was sufficient, that is, sixty
thousand footmen, and two hundred and fifty horsemen *: and,
besides these, on which he put the greatest trust, there were about
four thousand five hundred mercenaries: he had also six hundred
men as guards of his body. Now the cities easily maintained the
rest of his army, excepting the mercenaries; for every one of the
cities enumerated above sent out half their men to the army, and
retained the other half at home, in order to get provisions for
them; insomuch that the one part went to the war, and the other
part to their work, and so those that sent out their corn were
paid for it by those that were in arms, by that security which
they enjoyed from them.
CHAP. XXI.
Concerning John of Gischala. Josephus uses Stratagems against
the Plots John laid against him, and recovers certain Cities
which had revolted from him.
§ 1. Now as Josephus was thus engaged in the administration
of the affairs of Galilee, there arose a treacherous person, a man
of Gischala, the son of Levi, whose name was John. His cha-
racter was that of a very cunning and very knavish person,
beyond the ordinary rate of the other men of eminence there, and
for wicked practices he had not his fellow anywhere. Poor he
was at first, and for a long time his wants were a hinderance to
him in his wicked designs. He was a ready liar, and yet very
sharp in gaining credit to his fictions: he thought it a point of
virtue to delude people, and would delude even such as were the
dearest to him. He was a hypocritical pretender to humanity,
but where he had hopes of gain, he spared not the shedding of
blood: his desires were ever carried to great things, and he en-
couraged his hopes from these mean wicked tricks which he was
the author of. He had a peculiar knack at thieving; but in some
time he got certain companions in his impudent practices: at
first they were but few, but as he proceeded on in his evil course
they became still more and more numerous. He took care that
none of his partners should be easily caught in their rogueries,
but chose such out of the rest as had the strongest constitutions
of body, and the greatest courage of soul, together with great
skill in martial affairs; so he got together a band of four hundred
men, who came principally out of the country of Tyre, and were
vagabonds that had run away from its villages: and by the means
* I should think that an army of 60,000 footmen should require many more
than 250 horsemen; and we find Josephus had more horsemen under his command
than 250 in his future history. I suppose the number of the thousands is dropped
in our present copies.
*
416
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
of these he laid waste all Galilee, and irritated a considerable
number, who were in great expectation of a war then suddenly
to arise among them.
2. However, John's want of money had hitherto restrained
him in his ambition after command, and in his attempts to ad-
vance himself. But when he saw that Josephus was highly
pleased with the activity of his temper, he persuaded him, in
the first place, to intrust him with the repairing of the walls of
his native city [Gischala], in which work he got a great deal of
money from the rich citizens. He after that contrived a very
shrewd trick, and pretending that the Jews who dwelt in Syria
were obliged to make use of oil that was made by others than
those of their own nation, he desired leave of Josephus to send
oil to their borders: so he bought four amphora with such
Tyrian money as was of the value of four Attic drachmæ, and
sold every half amphora at the same price. And as Galilee was
very fruitful in oil, and was peculiarly so at that time, by send-
ing away great quantities, and having the sole privilege so to do,
he gathered an immense sum of money together, which money
he immediately used to the disadvantage of him who gave him
that privilege; and as he supposed, that if he could once over-
throw Josephus, he should himself obtain the government of
Galilee, so he gave order to the robbers that were under his
command, to be more zealous in their thievish expeditions, that
by the rise of many that desired innovations in the country, he
might either catch their general in his snares, as he came to the
country's assistance, and then kill him; or if he should overlook
the robbers, he might accuse him for his negligence to the people
of the country. He also spread abroad a report far and near,
that Josephus was delivering up the administration of affairs
to. the Romans; and many such plots did he lay in order to
ruin him.
3. Now at the same time that certain young men of the vil-
lage Dabaritta, who kept guard in the great plain, laid snares
for Ptolemy, who was Agrippa's and Bernice's steward, and
took from him all that he had with him, among which things
there were a great many costly garments, and no small number
of silver cups, and six hundred pieces of gold, yet were they not
able to conceal what they had stolen, but brought it all to Jo-
sephus to Taricheæ. Hereupon he blamed them for the violence
they had offered to the king and queen, and deposited what they
brought to him with Eneas, the most potent man of Taricheæ,
with an intention of sending the things back to the owners at
a proper time; which act of Josephus brought him into the
greatest danger: for those that had stolen the things had an
indignation at him, both because they gained no share of it for
themselves, and because they perceived beforehand what was
C. XXI.
417
THE JEWISH WAR.
66
Josephus's intention, and that he would freely deliver up what had
cost them so much pains to the king and queen. These ran
away by night to their several villages, and declared to all men
that Josephus was going to betray them: they also raised great
disorders in all the neighbouring cities, insomuch that in the
morning a hundred thousand armed men came running together,
which multitude was crowded together in the hippodrome at Ta-
richeæ, and made a very peevish clamour against him; while some
cried out, that "they should depose the traitor," and others that
they should burn him." Now John irritated a great many,
as did also one Jesus, the son of Sapphias, who was then gover-
nor of Tiberias. Then it was that Josephus's friends and the
guards of his body were so affrighted at this violent assault of the
multitude, that they all fled away but four; and as he was asleep
they awaked him, as the people were going to set fire to the
house. And although those four that remained with him per-
suaded him to run away, he was neither surprised at his being
himself deserted, nor at the great multitude that came against
him, but leaped out to them with his clothes rent, and ashes
sprinkled on his head, with his hands behind him, and his sword
hanging at his neck. At this sight his friends, especially those
of Taricheæ, commiserated his condition; but those that came
out of the country, and those in their neighbourhood, to whom
his government seemed burdensome, reproached him, and bid him
produce the money which belonged to them all immediately, and
to confess the agreement he had made to betray them for they
imagined, from the habit in which he appeared, that he would
deny nothing of what they suspected concerning him, and that
it was in order to obtain pardon that he had put himself entirely
into so pitiable a posture. But this humble appearance was only
designed as preparatory to a stratagem of his, who thereby con-
trived to set those that were so angry at him at variance one with
another about the things they were angry at.
However, he
promised he would confess all: hereupon he was permitted to
speak, when he said,—“ I did neither intend to send this money
back to Agrippa, nor to gain it myself; for I did never esteem
one that was your enemy to be my friend, nor did I look upon
what would tend to your disadvantage to be my advantage. But,
O you people of Taricheæ, I saw that your city stood in more
need than others of fortifications for your security, and that it
wanted money in order for the building it a wall. I was also
afraid lest the people of Tiberias and other cities should lay a
plot to seize upon these spoils; and, therefore, it was that I in-
tended to retain this money privately, that I might encompass
you with a wall. But if this does not please you, I will produce
what was brought me, and leave it to you to plunder it; but if
VOL. III.
E E
:
418
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
I have conducted myself so well as to please you, you may, if
you please, punish your benefactor."
4. Hereupon the people of Tarichea loudly commended him,
but those of Tiberias, with the rest of the company, gave him
hard names, and threatened what they would do to him; so both
sides left off quarrelling with Josephus, and fell on quarrelling
with one another. So he grew bold upon the dependence he had
on his friends, which were the people of Taricheæ, and about
forty thousand in number, and spake more freely to the whole
multitude, and reproached them greatly for their rashness, and
told them that "with this money he would build walls about
Taricheæ, and would put the other cities in a state of security
also; for that they should not want money, if they would but
agree for whose benefit it was to be procured, and would not
suffer themselves to be irritated against him who procured it for
them."
5. Hereupon the rest of the multitude that had been deluded
retired; but yet so that they went away angry, and two thousand
of them made an assault upon him in their armour; and as he
was already gone to his own house, they stood without, and
threatened him. On which occasion Josephus again used a se-
cond stratagem to escape them; for he got upon the top of his
house, and with his right hand desired them to be silent, and
said to them," I cannot tell what you would have, nor can
hear what you say, for the confused noise you make; but he said
that he would comply with all their demands, in case they
would but send some of their number in to him that might talk
with him about it." And when the principal of them, with their
leaders, heard this, they came into the house. He then drew
them to the most retired part of the house, and shut the door of
that hall where he put them, and then had them whipped, till
every one of their inward parts appeared naked. In the mean-
time, the multitude stood round the house, and supposed that he
had a long discourse with those that were gone in about what
they claimed of him. He had then the doors set open imme-
diately, and sent the men out all bloody, which so terribly af-
frighted those that had before threatened him, that they threw
away their arms and ran away.
6. But as for John, his envy grew greater [upon this escape of
Josephus], and he framed a new plot against him: he pretended
to be sick, and by a letter desired that Josephus would give him
leave to use the hot baths that were at Tiberias for the recovery
of his health. Hereupon Josephus, who hitherto suspected no-
thing of John's plots against him, wrote to the governors of the
city, that they would provide a lodging and necessaries for John;
which favours when he had made use of, in two days' time he did
C. XXI.
419
THE JEWISH WAR.
>
what he came about: some he corrupted with delusive frauds, and
others with money, and so persuaded them to revolt from Jose-
phus. This Silas, who was appointed guardian of the city by
Josephus, wrote to him immediately, and informed him of the
plot against him; which epistle, when Josephus had received, he
marched with great diligence all night, and came early in the
morning to Tiberias; at which time the rest of the multitude met
him. But John, who suspected that his coming was not for his
advantage, sent, however, one of his friends, and pretended that
he was sick, and that being confined to his bed he could not come
to pay him his respects. But as soon as Josephus had got the
people of Tiberias together in the Stadium, and tried to dis-
course with them about the letters that he had received, John
privately sent some armed men, and gave them orders to slay
him. But when the people saw that the armed men were about
to draw their swords, they cried out; at which cry Josephus
turned himself about, and when he saw that the swords were just
at his throat, he marched away in great haste to the sea shore,
and left off that speech which he was going to make to the peo-
ple, upon an elevation of six cubits high. He then seized on a
ship which lay in the haven, and leaped into it, with two of his
guards, and fled away into the midst of the lake.
7. But now the soldiers he had with him took up their arms
immediately, and marched against the plotters; but Josephus
was afraid lest a civil war should be raised by the envy of a few
men, and bring the city to ruin; so he sent some of his party to
tell them that they should do no more than provide for their own
safety; that they should not kill any body, nor accuse any, for
the occasion they had afforded [of a disorder]. Accordingly,
these men obeyed his orders, and were quiet; but the people of
the neighbouring country, when they were informed of this plot,
and of the plotter, they got together in great multitudes to op-
pose John. But he prevented their attempt, and fled away to
Gischala, his native city, while the Galileans came running out
of their several cities to Josephus; and as they were now become
many ten thousands of armed men, they cried out, that they were
come against John, the common plotter against their interest, and
would at the same time burn him, and that city which had re-
ceived him. Hereupon Josephus told them that he took their
good will to him kindly, but still he restrained their fury, and in-
tended to subdue his enemies by prudent conduct rather than by
slaying them so he excepted those of every city which had
joined in this revolt with John by name, who had readily been
showed him by those that came from every city, and caused pub-
lic proclamation to be made, that he would seize upon the effects
of those that did not forsake John within five days' time, and
would burn both their houses and their families with fire. Where-
420
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
upon three thousand of John's party left him immediately, who
came to Josephus, and threw their arms down at his feet. John
then betook himself, together with his two thousand Syrian run-
agates, from open attempts to more secret ways of treachery.
Accordingly, he privately sent messengers to Jerusalem to ac-
cuse Josephus as having too great power, and to let them know
that he would soon come, as a tyrant, to their metropolis, unless
they prevented him. This accusation the people were aware of
beforehand, but had no regard to it. However, some of the
grandees, out of envy, and some of the rulers also, sent money to
John privately, that he might be able to get together mercenary
soldiers, in order to fight Josephus they also made a decree of
themselves, and this for recalling him from his government; yet
did they not think that decree sufficient; so they sent withal two
thousand five hundred armed men, and four persons of the high-
est rank among them; Joazar, the son of Nomicus, and Ana-
nias, the son of Sadduk, as also Simon and Judas, the sons of
Jonathan, all very able men in speaking, that these persons might
withdraw the good will of the people from Josephus. These
had it in charge, that if he would voluntarily come away, they
should permit him to [come and] give an account of his conduct;
but if he obstinately insisted upon continuing in his government,
they should treat him as an enemy. Now Josephus's friends had
sent him word that an army was coming against him, but they
gave him no notice beforehand what the reason of their coming
was, that being only known among some secret counsels of his
enemies; and by this means it was that four cities revolted from
him immediately, Sepphoris, and Gamala, and Gischala, and Ti-
berias. Yet did he recover these cities without war; and when
he had routed those four commanders by stratagems, and had
taken the most potent of their warriors, he sent them to Jerusa-
lem and the people [of Galilee] had great indignation at them,
and were in a zealous disposition to slay not only these forces,
but those that sent them also, had not these forces prevented it
by running away.
8. Now John was detained afterward within the walls of Gis-
chala by the fear he was in of Josephus; but within a few days
Tiberias revolted again, the people within it inviting King Agrippa
[to return to the exercise of his authority there]. And when he
did not come at the time appointed, and when a few Roman
horsemen appeared that day, they expelled Josephus out of the
city. Now this revolt of theirs was presently known at Tari-
chea; and as Josephus had sent out all the soldiers that were
with him to gather corn, he knew not how either to march out
alone against the revolters, or to stay where he was, because he
was afraid the king's soldiers might prevent him if he tarried,
and might get into the city; for he did not intend to do any
!
C. XXI.
421
THE JEWISH WAR.
thing on the next day, because it was the Sabbath day, and
would hinder his proceeding. So he contrived to circumvent
the revolters by a stratagem; and, in the first place, he ordered
the gates of Tarichea to be shut, that nobody might go out and
inform [those of Tiberias] for whom it was intended, what stra-
tagem he was about: he then got together all the ships that
were upon the lake, which were found to be two hundred and
thirty, and in each of them he put no more than four mariners.
So he sailed to Tiberias with haste, and kept at such a distance
from the city that it was not easy for the people to see the ves-
sels, and ordered that the empty vessels should float up and
down there, while himself, who had but seven of his guards
with him, and those unarmed also, went so near as to be seen;
but when his adversaries, who were still reproaching him, saw
him from the walls, they were so astonished that they supposed
all the ships were full of armed men, and threw down their
arms, and by signals of intercession they besought him to spare
the city.
9. Upon this Josephus threatened them terribly, and reproach-
ed them, that when they were the first that took up arms against
the Romans, they should spend their force beforehand in civil
dissensions, and do what their enemies desired above all things;
and that, besides, they should endeavour so hastily to seize upon
him, who took care of their safety, and had not been ashamed
to shut the gates of their city against him that built their walls:
that, however, he would admit of any intercessors from then
that might make some excuse for them, and with whom he
would make such agreements as might be for the city's security.
Hereupon ten of the most potent men of Tiberias came down
to him presently; and when he had taken them into one of his
vessels, he ordered them to be carried a great way off from the
city. He then commanded that fifty others of their senate,
such as were men of the greatest eminence, should come to
him, that they also might give him some security on their be-
half. After which, under one new pretence or another, he
called forth others, one after another, to make the leagues be-
tween them. He then gave order to the masters of those ves-
sels which he had thus filled to sail away immediately for
Taricheæ, and to confine those men in the prison there; till at
length he took all their senate, consisting of six hundred per-
sons, and about two thousand of the populace, and carried
them away to Taricheæ.
10. And when the rest of the people cried out, that it was
one Clitus that was the chief author of this revolt, they desired
him to spend his anger upon him [only]; but Josephus, whose
intention it was to slay nobody, commanded one Levius, be-
longing to his guards, to go out of the vessel in order to cut off
1
422
B. II.
THE JEWISH WAR.
both Clitus's hands; yet was Levius afraid to go out by himself
alone to such a large body of enemies, and refused to go. Now
Clitus saw that Josephus was in a great passion in the ship, and
ready to leap out of it, in order to execute the punishment him-
self: he begged, therefore, from the shore, that he would leave
him one of his hands, which Josephus agreed to upon condition
that he would himself cut off the other hand; accordingly, he
drew his sword, and with his right hand cut off his left, so great
was the fear he was in of Josephus himself. And thus he took
the people of Tiberias prisoners, and recovered the city again
with empty ships* and seven of his guard. Moreover, a few
days afterward he retook Gischala, which had revolted with the
people of Sepphoris, and gave his soldiers leave to plunder it;
yet did he get all the plunder together, and restored it to the
inhabitants, and the like he did to the inhabitants of Sepphoris
and Tiberias. For when he had subdued those cities, he had a
mind, by letting them be plundered, to give them some good in-
struction, while at the same time he regained their good will by
restoring them their money again.
量
​CHAP. XXII.
The Jews make all ready for the War. And Simon the Son
of Gioras falls to plundering.
§ 1. AND thus were the disturbances of Galilee quieted, when,
upon their ceasing to prosecute their civil dissensions, they be-
took themselves to make preparations for the war with the
Romans. Now in Jerusalem the high priest Ananus, and as
many of the men of power as were not in the interest of the
Romans, both repaired the walls, and made a great many war-
like instruments, insomuch that in all parts of the city darts and
all sorts of armour were upon the anvil; although the multitude
of the young men were engaged in exercises, without any regu-
larity, and all places were full of tumultuous doings; but the
moderate sort were exceedingly sad, and a great many there
were, who, out of the prospect they had of the calamities that
were coming upon them, made great lamentations. There were
also such omens observed as were understood to be forerunners
of evils by such as loved peace, but were by those that kindled
the war interpreted so as to suit their own inclinations; and the
very state of the city, even before the Romans came against it,
was that of a place doomed to destruction. However, Ana-
* I cannot but think this stratagem of Josephus, which is related both here
and in his life, sect. 32, 33, to be one of the finest that ever was invented and
executed by any warrior whatsoever.
C. XXII.
423
THE JEWISH WAR.
nus's concern was this, to lay aside, for a while, the preparations
for the war, and to persuade the seditious to consult their own
interest, and to restrain the madness of those that had the name
of Zealots; but their violence was too hard for him, and what
end he came to we shall relate hereafter.
2. But as for the Acrabbene toparchy, Simon, the son of.
Gioras, got a great number of those that were fond of innova-
tions together, and betook himself to ravage the country; nor
did he only harass the rich men's houses, but tormented their
bodies, and appeared openly and beforehand to affect tyranny
in his government. And when an army was sent against him
by Ananus and the other rulers, he and his band retired to the
robbers that were at Masada, and staid there, and plundered the
country of Idumea with them, till both Ananus and his other
adversaries were slain, and until the rulers of that country were
so afflicted with the multitude of those that were slain, and with
the continual ravage of what they had, that they raised an army,
and put garrisons into the villages, to secure them from those
insults; and in this state were the affairs of Judea at that time.
END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.
C. and C. Whittingham, College House, Chiswick,
1
1
1

B 443907
DUPL
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 06699 3059