The Wars Of The Jews - Book II
CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF SIXTY-NINE YEARS
FROM THE DEATH OF HEROD TILL VESPASIAN WAS SENT TO SUBDUE THE JEWS
BY NERO
CHAPTER 1
ARCHELAUS MAKES A FUNERAL FEAST FOR THE PEOPLE, ON THE ACCOUNT OF
HEROD. AFTER
WHICH A GREAT TUMULT IS RAISED BY THE MULTITUDE AND HE SENDS
THE SOLDIERS OUT
UPON THEM, WHO DESTROY ABOUT THREE THOUSAND OF THEM
1. NOW the necessity which Archelaus was under of taking a journey
to Rome was the occasion of new disturbances; for when he had mourned for
his father seven days, (1) and had given a very expensive funeral feast
to the multitude, (which custom is the occasion of poverty to many of the
Jews, because they are forced to feast the multitude; for if any one omits
it, he is not esteemed a holy person,) he put on a white garment, and went
up to the temple, where the people accosted him with various acclamations.
He also spake kindly to the multitude from an elevated seat and a throne
of gold, and returned them thanks for the zeal they had shown about his
father's funeral, and the submission they had made to him, as if he were
already settled in the kingdom; but he told them withal, that he would
not at present take upon him either the authority of a king, or the names
thereto belonging, until Caesar, who is made lord of this whole affair
by the testament, confirm the succession; for that when the soldiers would
have set the diadem on his head at Jericho, he would not accept of it;
but that he would make abundant requitals, not to the soldiers only, but
to the people, for their alacrity and good-will to him, when the superior
lords [the Romans] should have given him a complete title to the kingdom;
for that it should be his study to appear in all things better than his
father.
2. Upon this the multitude were pleased, and presently made a trial
of what he intended, by asking great things of him; for some
made a clamor that he would ease them in their taxes; others, that
he would take off the duties upon commodities; and some,
that he would loose those that were in prison; in all which cases
he answered readily to their satisfaction, in order to get the
good-will of the multitude; after which he offered [the proper]
sacrifices, and feasted with his friends. And here it was that a
great many of those that desired innovations came in crowds towards
the evening, and began then to mourn on their own
account, when the public mourning for the king was over. These lamented
those that were put to death by Herod, because they
had cut down the golden eagle that had been over the gate of the
temple. Nor was this mourning of a private nature, but the
lamentations were very great, the mourning solemn, and the weeping
such as was loudly heard all over the city, as being for
those men who had perished for the laws of their country, and for
the temple. They cried out that a punishment ought to be
inflicted for these men upon those that were honored by Herod; and
that, in the first place, the man whom he had made high
priest should be deprived; and that it was fit to choose a person
of greater piety and purity than he was.
3. At these clamors Archelaus was provoked, but restrained himself
from taking vengeance on the authors, on account of the
haste he was in of going to Rome, as fearing lest, upon his making
war on the multitude, such an action might detain him at
home. Accordingly, he made trial to quiet the innovators by persuasion,
rather than by force, and sent his general in a private
way to them, and by him exhorted them to be quiet. But the seditious
threw stones at him, and drove him away, as he came into
the temple, and before he could say any thing to them. The like
treatment they showed to others, who came to them after him,
many of which were sent by Archelaus, in order to reduce them to
sobriety, and these answered still on all occasions after a
passionate manner; and it openly appeared that they would not be
quiet, if their numbers were but considerable. And indeed, at
the feast of unleavened bread, which was now at hand, and is by
the Jews called the Passover, and used to he celebrated with
a great number of sacrifices, an innumerable multitude of the people
came out of the country to worship; some of these stood in
the temple bewailing the Rabbins [that had been put to death], and
procured their sustenance by begging, in order to support
their sedition. At this Archclaus was aftrighted, and privately
sent a tribune, with his cohort of soldiers, upon them, before the
disease should spread over the whole multitude, and gave orders
that they should constrain those that began the tumult, by
force, to be quiet. At these the whole multitude were irritated,
and threw stones at many of the soldiers, and killed them; but the
tribune fled away wounded, and had much ado to escape so. After
which they betook themselves to their sacrifices, as if they
had done no mischief; nor did it appear to Archelaus that the multitude
could be restrained without bloodshed; so he sent his
whole army upon them, the footmen in great multitudes, by the way
of the city, and the horsemen by the way of the plain, who,
falling upon them on the sudden, as they were offering their sacrifices,
destroyed about three thousand of them; but the rest of
the multitude were dispersed upon the adjoining mountains: these
were followed by Archelaus's heralds, who commanded
every one to retire to their own homes, whither they all went, and
left the festival.
CHAPTER 2.
ARCHELAUS GOES TO ROME WITH A GREAT NUMBER OF HIS KINDRED.
HE IS THERE ACCUSED
BEFORE CAESAR BY ANTIPATER; BUT IS SUPERIOR TO HIS
ACCUSERS IN JUDGMENT BY THE
MEANS OF THAT DEFENSE WHICH NICOLAUS MADE FOR HIM.
1. ARCHELAUS went down now to the sea-side, with his mother and his
friends, Poplas, and Ptolemy, and Nicolaus, and left
behind him Philip, to be his steward in the palace, and to take
care of his domestic affairs. Salome went also along with him
with her sons, as did also the king's brethren and sons-in-law.
These, in appearance, went to give him all the assistance they
were able, in order to secure his succession, but in reality to
accuse him for his breach of the laws by what he had done at the
temple.
2. But as they were come to Cesarea, Sabinus, the procurator of Syria,
met them; he was going up to Judea, to secure Herod's
effects; but Varus, [president of Syria,] who was come thither,
restrained him from going any farther. This Varus Archelaus had
sent for, by the earnest entreaty of Ptolemy. At this time, indeed,
Sabinus, to gratify Varus, neither went to the citadels, nor did
he shut up the treasuries where his father's money was laid up,
but promised that he would lie still, until Caesar should have
taken cognizance of the affair. So he abode at Cesarea; but as soon
as those that were his hinderance were gone, when Varus
was gone to Antioch, and Archclaus was sailed to Rome, he immediately
went on to Jerusalem, and seized upon the palace.
And when he had called for the governors of the citadels, and the
stewards [of the king's private affairs], he tried to sift out the
accounts of the money, and to take possession of the citadels. But
the governors of those citadels were not unmindful of the
commands laid upon them by Archelaus, and continued to guard them,
and said the custody of them rather belonged to Caesar
than to Archelaus.
3. In the mean time, Antipas went also to Rome, to strive for the
kingdom, and to insist that the former testament, wherein he
was named to be king, was valid before the latter testament. Salome
had also promised to assist him, as had many of
Archelaus's kindred, who sailed along with Archelaus himself also.
He also carried along with him his mother, and Ptolemy, the
brother of Nicolaus, who seemed one of great weight, on account
of the great trust Herod put in him, he having been one of his
most honored friends. However, Antipas depended chiefly upon Ireneus,
the orator; upon whose authority he had rejected
such as advised him to yield to Archelaus, because he was his elder
brother, and because the second testament gave the
kingdom to him. The inclinations also of all Archelaus's kindred,
who hated him, were removed to Antipas, when they came to
Rome; although in the first place every one rather desired to live
under their own laws [without a king], and to be under a
Roman governor; but if they should fail in that point, these desired
that Antipas might be their king.
4. Sabinus did also afford these his assistance to the same purpose
by letters he sent, wherein he accused Archelaus before
Caesar, and highly commended Antipas. Salome also, and those with
her, put the crimes which they accused Archelaus of in
order, and put them into Caesar's hands; and after they had done
that, Archelaus wrote down the reasons of his claim, and, by
Ptolemy, sent in his father's ring, and his father's accounts. And
when Caesar had maturely weighed by himself what both had to
allege for themselves, as also had considered of the great burden
of the kingdom, and largeness of the revenues, and withal the
number of the children Herod had left behind him, and had moreover
read the letters he had received from Varus and Sabinus
on this occasion, he assembled the principal persons among the Romans
together, (in which assembly Caius, the son of
Agrippa, and his daughter Julias, but by himself adopted for his
own son, sat in the first seat,) and gave the pleaders leave to
speak.
5. Then stood up Salome's son, Antipater, (who of all Archelaus's
antagonists was the shrewdest pleader,) and accused him in
the following speech: That Archelaus did in words contend for the
kingdom, but that in deeds he had long exercised royal
authority, and so did but insult Caesar in desiring to be now heard
on that account, since he had not staid for his determination
about the succession, and since he had suborned certain persons,
after Herod's death, to move for putting the diadem upon his
head; since he had set himself down in the throne, and given answers
as a king, and altered the disposition of the army, and
granted to some higher dignities; that he had also complied in all
things with the people in the requests they had made to him as
to their king, and had also dismissed those that had been put into
bonds by his father for most important reasons. Now, after all
this, he desires the shadow of that royal authority, whose substance
he had already seized to himself, and so hath made Caesar
lord, not of things, but of words. He also reproached him further,
that his mourning for his father was only pretended, while he
put on a sad countenance in the day time, but drank to great excess
in the night; from which behavior, he said, the late
disturbance among the multitude came, while they had an indignation
thereat. And indeed the purport of his whole discourse
was to aggravate Archelaus's crime in slaying such a multitude about
the temple, which multitude came to the festival, but were
barbarously slain in the midst of their own sacrifices; and he said
there was such a vast number of dead bodies heaped together
in the temple, as even a foreign war, that should come upon them
[suddenly], before it was denounced, could not have heaped
together. And he added, that it was the foresight his father had
of that his barbarity which made him never give him any hopes
of the kingdom, but when his mind was more infirm than his body,
and he was not able to reason soundly, and did not well
know what was the character of that son, whom in his second testament
he made his successor; and this was done by him at a
time when he had no complaints to make of him whom he had named
before, when he was sound in body, and when his mind
was free from all passion. That, however, if any one should suppose
Herod's judgment, when he was sick, was superior to that
at another time, yet had Archelaus forfeited his kingdom by his
own behavior, and those his actions, which were contrary to the
law, and to its disadvantage. Or what sort of a king will this man
be, when he hath obtained the government from Caesar, who
hath slain so many before he hath obtained it!
6. When Antipater had spoken largely to this purpose, and had produced
a great number of Archelaus's kindred as witnesses,
to prove every part of the accusation, he ended his discourse. Then
stood up Nicolaus to plead for Archelaus. He alleged that
the slaughter in the temple could not be avoided; that those that
were slain were become enemies not to Archelaus's kingdom,
only, but to Caesar, who was to determine about him. He also demonstrated
that Archelaus's accusers had advised him to
perpetrate other things of which he might have been accused. But
he insisted that the latter testament should, for this reason,
above all others, be esteemed valid, because Herod had therein appointed
Caesar to be the person who should confirm the
succession; for he who showed such prudence as to recede from his
own power, and yield it up to the lord of the world,
cannot be supposed mistaken in his judgment about him that was to
be his heir; and he that so well knew whom to choose for
arbitrator of the succession could not be unacquainted with him
whom he chose for his successor.
7. When Nicolaus had gone through all he had to say, Archelaus came,
and fell down before Caesar's knees, without any
noise; - upon which he raised him up, after a very obliging manner,
and declared that truly he was worthy to succeed his father.
However, he still made no firm determination in his case; but when
he had dismissed those assessors that had been with him
that day, he deliberated by himself about the allegations which
he had heard, whether it were fit to constitute any of those
named in the testaments for Herod's successor, or whether the government
should be parted among all his posterity, and this
because of the number of those that seemed to stand in need of support
therefrom.
CHAPTER 3.
THE JEWS FIGHT A GREAT BATTLE WITH SABINUS'S SOLDIERS, AND
A GREAT DESTRUCTION IS
MADE AT JERUSALEM.
1. NOW before Caesar had determined any thing about these affairs,
Malthace, Arehelaus's mother, fell sick and died. Letters
also were brought out of Syria from Varus, about a revolt of the
Jews. This was foreseen by Varus, who accordingly, after
Archelaus was sailed, went up to Jerusalem to restrain the promoters
of the sedition, since it was manifest that the nation would
not he at rest; so he left one of those legions which he brought
with him out of Syria in the city, and went himself to Antioch. But
Sabinus came, after he was gone, and gave them an occasion of making
innovations; for he compelled the keepers of the
citadels to deliver them up to him, and made a bitter search after
the king's money, as depending not only on the soldiers which
were left by Varus, but on the multitude of his own servants, all
which he armed and used as the instruments of his
covetousness. Now when that feast, which was observed after seven
weeks, and which the Jews called Pentecost, (i. e. the
50th day,) was at hand, its name being taken from the number of
the days [after the passover], the people got together, but not
on account of the accustomed Divine worship, but of the indignation
they had ['at the present state of affairs']. Wherefore an
immense multitude ran together, out of Galilee, and Idumea, and
Jericho, and Perea, that was beyond Jordan; but the people
that naturally belonged to Judea itself were above the rest, both
in number, and in the alacrity of the men. So they distributed
themselves into three parts, and pitched their camps in three places;
one at the north side of the temple, another at the south
side, by the Hippodrome, and the third part were at the palace on
the west. So they lay round about the Romans on every side,
and besieged them.
2. Now Sabinus was aftrighted, both at their multitude, and at their
courage, and sent messengers to Varus continually, and
besought him to come to his succor quickly; for that if he delayed,
his legion would be cut to pieces. As for Sabinus himself, he
got up to the highest tower of the fortress, which was called Phasaelus;
it is of the same name with Herod's brother, who was
destroyed by the Parthians; and then he made signs to the soldiers
of that legion to attack the enemy; for his astonishment was
so great, that he durst not go down to his own men. Hereupon the
soldiers were prevailed upon, and leaped out into the
temple, and fought a terrible battle with the Jews; in which, while
there were none over their heads to distress them, they were
too hard for them, by their skill, and the others' want of skill,
in war; but when once many of the Jews had gotten up to the top
of the cloisters, and threw their darts downwards, upon the heads
of the Romans, there were a great many of them destroyed.
Nor was it easy to avenge themselves upon those that threw their
weapons from on high, nor was it more easy for them to
sustain those who came to fight them hand to hand.
3. Since therefore the Romans were sorely afflicted by both these
circumstances, they set fire to the cloisters, which were
works to be admired, both on account of their magnitude and costliness.
Whereupon those that were above them were
presently encompassed with the flame, and many of them perished
therein; as many of them also were destroyed by the enemy,
who came suddenly upon them; some of them also threw themselves
down from the walls backward, and some there were
who, from the desperate condition they were in, prevented the fire,
by killing themselves with their own swords; but so many of
them as crept out from the walls, and came upon the Romans, were
easily mastere by them, by reason of the astonishment they
were under; until at last some of the Jews being destroyed, and
others dispersed by the terror they were in, the soldiers fell
upon the treasure of God, which w now deserted, and plundered about
four hundred talents, Of which sum Sabinus got
together all that was not carried away by the soldiers.
4. However, this destruction of the works [about the temple], and
of the men, occasioned a much greater number, and those of
a more warlike sort, to get together, to oppose the Romans. These
encompassed the palace round, and threatened to deploy
all that were in it, unless they went their ways quickly; for they
promised that Sabinus should come to no harm, if he would go
out with his legion. There were also a great many of the king's
party who deserted the Romans, and assisted the Jews; yet did
the most warlike body of them all, who were three thousand of the
men of Sebaste, go over to the Romans. Rufus also, and
Gratus, their captains, did the same, (Gratus having the foot of
the king's party under him, and Rufus the horse,) each of whom,
even without the forces under them, were of great weight, on account
of their strength and wisdom, which turn the scales in
war. Now the Jews in the siege, and tried to break down walls of
the fortress, and cried out to Sabinus and his party, that they
should go their ways, and not prove a hinderance to them, now they
hoped, after a long time, to recover that ancient liberty
which their forefathers had enjoyed. Sabinus indeed was well contented
to get out of the danger he was in, but he distrusted the
assurances the Jews gave him, and suspected such gentle treatment
was but a bait laid as a snare for them: this consideration,
together with the hopes he had of succor from Varus, made him bear
the siege still longer.
CHAPTER 4.
HEROD'S VETERAN SOLDIERS BECOME TUMULTUOUS. THE ROBBERIES
OF JUDAS. SIMON AND
ATHRONOEUS TAKE THE NAME OF KING UPON THEM.
1. AT this time there were great disturbances in the country, and
that in many places; and the opportunity that now offered itself
induced a great many to set up for kings. And indeed in Idumea two
thousand of Herod's veteran soldiers got together, and
armed and fought against those of the king's party; against whom
Achiabus, the king's first cousin, fought, and that out of some
of the places that were the most strongly fortified; but so as to
avoid a direct conflict with them in the plains. In Sepphoris also,
a city of Galilee, there was one Judas (the son of that arch-robber
Hezekias, who formerly overran the country, and had been
subdued by king Herod); this man got no small multitude together,
and brake open the place where the royal armor was laid
up, and armed those about him, and attacked those that were so earnest
to gain the dominion.
2. In Perea also, Simon, one of the servants to the king, relying
upon the handsome appearance and tallness of his body, put a
diadem upon his own head also; he also went about with a company
of robbers that he had gotten together, and burnt down
the royal palace that was at Jericho, and many other costly edifices
besides, and procured himself very easily spoils by rapine,
as snatching them out of the fire. And he had soon burnt down all
the fine edifices, if Gratus, the captain of the foot of the king's
party, had not taken the Trachonite archers, and the most warlike
of Sebaste, and met the man. His footmen were slain in the
battle in abundance; Gratus also cut to pieces Simon himself, as
he was flying along a strait valley, when he gave him an oblique
stroke upon his neck, as he ran away, and brake it. The royal palaces
that were near Jordan at Betharamptha were also burnt
down by some other of the seditious that came out of Perea.
3. At this time it was that a certain shepherd ventured to set himself
up for a king; he was called Athrongeus. It was his strength
of body that made him expect such a dignity, as well as his soul,
which despised death; and besides these qualifications, he had
four brethren like himself. He put a troop of armed men under each
of these his brethren, and made use of them as his generals
and commanders, when he made his incursions, while he did himself
act like a king, and meddled only with the more important
affairs; and at this time he put a diadem about his head, and continued
after that to overrun the country for no little time with his
brethren, and became their leader in killing both the Romans and
those of the king's party; nor did any Jew escape him, if any
gain could accrue to him thereby. He once ventured to encompass
a whole troop of Romans at Emmaus, who were carrying
corn and weapons to their legion; his men therefore shot their arrows
and darts, and thereby slew their centurion Arius, and
forty of the stoutest of his men, while the rest of them, who were
in danger of the same fate, upon the coming of Gratus, with
those of Sebaste, to their assistance, escaped. And when these men
had thus served both their own countrymen and foreigners,
and that through this whole war, three of them were, after some
time, subdued; the eldest by Archelaus, the two next by falling
into the hands of Gratus and Ptolemeus; but the fourth delivered
himself up to Archelaus, upon his giving him his right hand for
his security. However, this their end was not till afterward, while
at present they filled all Judea with a piratic war.
CHAPTER 5.
VARUS COMPOSES THE TUMULTS IN JUDEA AND CRUCIFIES ABOUT
TWO THOUSAND OF THE
SEDITIOUS.
1. UPON Varus's reception of the letters that were written by Sabinus
and the captains, he could not avoid being afraid for the
whole legion [he had left there]. So he made haste to their relief,
and took with him the other two legions, with the four troops
of horsemen to them belonging, and marched to Ptolenlais; having
given orders for the auxiliaries that were sent by the kings
and governors of cities to meet him there. Moreover, he received
from the people of Berytus, as he passed through their city,
fifteen hundred armed men. Now as soon as the other body of auxiliaries
were come to Ptolemais, as well as Aretas the
Arabian, (who, out of the hatred he bore to Herod, brought a great
army of horse and foot,) Varus sent a part of his army
presently to Galilee, which lay near to Ptolemais, and Caius, one
of his friends, for their captain. This Caius put those that met
him to flight, and took the city Sepphoris, and burnt it, and made
slaves of its inhabitants; but as for Varus himself, he marched
to Samaria with his whole army, where he did not meddle with the
city itself, because he found that it had made no commotion
during these troubles, but pitched his camp about a certain village
which was called Aras. It belonged to Ptolemy, and on that
account was plundered by the Arabians, who were very angry even
at Herod's friends also. He thence marched on to the
village Sampho, another fortified place, which they plundered, as
they had done the other. As they carried off all the money
they lighted upon belonging to the public revenues, all was now
full of fire and blood-shed, and nothing could resist the plunders
of the Arabians. Emnaus was also burnt, upon the flight of its inhabitants,
and this at the command of Varus, out of his rage at
the slaughter of those that were about Arias.
2. Thence he marched on to Jerusalem, and as soon as he was but seen
by the Jews, he made their camps disperse themselves;
they also went away, and fled up and down the country. But the citizens
received him, and cleared themselves of having any
hand in this revolt, and said that they had raised no commotions,
but had only been forced to admit the multitude, because of
the festival, and that they were rather besieged together with the
Romans, than assisted those that had revolted. There had
before this met him Joseph, the first cousin of Archelaus, and Gratus,
together with Rufus, who led those of Sebaste, as well as
the king's army: there also met him those of the Roman legion, armed
after their accustomed manner; for as to Sabinus, he durst
not come into Varus's sight, but was gone out of the city before
this, to the sea-side. But Varus sent a part of his army into the
country, against those that had been the authors of this commotion,
and as they caught great numbers of them, those that
appeared to have been the least concerned in these tumults he put
into custody, but such as were the most guilty he crucified;
these were in number about two thousand.
3. He was also informed that there continued in Idumea ten thousand
men still in arms; but when he found that the Arabians did
not act like auxiliaries, but managed the war according to their
own passions, and did mischief to the country otherwise than he
intended, and this out of their hatred to Herod, he sent them away,
but made haste, with his own legions, to march against those
that had revolted; but these, by the advice of Achiabus, delivered
themselves up to him before it came to a battle. Then did
Varus forgive the multitude their offenses, but sent their captains
to Caesar to be examined by him. Now Caesar forgave the
rest, but gave orders that certain of the king's relations (for
some of those that were among them were Herod's kinsmen) should
be put to death, because they had engaged in a war against a king
of their own family. When therefore Varus had settled
matters at Jerusalem after this manner, and had left the former
legion there as a garrison, he returned to Antioch.
CHAPTER 6.
THE JEWS GREATLY COMPLAIN OF ARCHELAUS AND DESIRE THAT THEY
MAY BE MADE SUBJECT
TO ROMAN GOVERNORS. BUT WHEN CAESAR HAD
HEARD WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY, HE
DISTRIBUTED HEROD'S DOMINIONS AMONG HIS SONS ACCORDING
TO HIS OWN PLEASURE.
1. BUT now came another accusation from the Jews against Archelaus
at Rome, which he was to answer to. It was made by
those ambassadors who, before the revolt, had come, by Varus's permission,
to plead for the liberty of their country; those that
came were fifty in number, but there were more than eight thousand
of the Jews at Rome who supported them. And when
Caesar had assembled a council of the principal Romans in Apollo's
(2) temple, that was in the palace, (this was what he had
himself built and adorned, at a vast expense,) the multitude of
the Jews stood with the ambassadors, and on the other side
stood Archelaus, with his friends; but as for the kindred of Archelaus,
they stood on neither side; for to stand on Archelaus's
side, their hatred to him, and envy at him, would not give them
leave, while yet they were afraid to be seen by Caesar with his
accusers. Besides these, there were present Archelaus's brother
Philip, being sent thither beforehand, out of kindness by Varus,
for two reasons: the one was this, that he might be assisting to
Archelaus; and the other was this, that in case Caesar should
make a distribution of what Herod possessed among his posterity,
he might obtain some share of it.
2. And now, upon the permission that was given the accusers to speak,
they, in the first place, went over Herod's breaches of
their law, and said that be was not a king, but the most barbarous
of all tyrants, and that they had found him to be such by the
sufferings they underwent from him; that when a very great number
had been slain by him, those that were left had endured such
miseries, that they called those that were dead happy men; that
he had not only tortured the bodies of his subjects, but entire
cities, and had done much harm to the cities of his own country,
while he adorned those that belonged to foreigners; and he
shed the blood of Jews, in order to do kindnesses to those people
that were out of their bounds; that he had filled the nation full
of poverty, and of the greatest iniquity, instead of that happiness
and those laws which they had anciently enjoyed; that, in short,
the Jews had borne more calamities from Herod, in a few years, than
had their forefathers during all that interval of time that
had passed since they had come out of Babylon, and returned home,
in the reign of Xerxes (3) that, however, the nation was
come to so low a condition, by being inured to hardships, that they
submitted to his successor of their own accord, though he
brought them into bitter slavery; that accordingly they readily
called Archelaus, though he was the son of so great a tyrant, king,
after the decease of his father, and joined with him in mourning
for the death of Herod, and in wishing him good success in that
his succession; while yet this Archelaus, lest he should be in danger
of not being thought the genuine son of Herod, began his
reign with the murder of three thousand citizens; as if he had a
mind to offer so many bloody sacrifices to God for his
government, and to fill the temple with the like number of dead
bodies at that festival: that, however, those that were left after so
many miseries, had just reason to consider now at last the calamities
they had undergone, and to oppose themselves, like
soldiers in war, to receive those stripes upon their faces [but
not upon their backs, as hitherto]. Whereupon they prayed that the
Romans would have compassion upon the [poor] remains of Judea, and
not expose what was left of them to such as
barbarously tore them to pieces, and that they would join their
country to Syria, and administer the government by their own
commanders, whereby it would [soon] be demonstrated that those who
are now under the calumny of seditious persons, and
lovers of war, know how to bear governors that are set over them,
if they be but tolerable ones. So the Jews concluded their
accusation with this request. Then rose up Nicolaus, and confuted
the accusations which were brought against the kings, and
himself accused the Jewish nation, as hard to be ruled, and as naturally
disobedient to kings. He also reproached all those
kinsmen of Archelaus who had left him, and were gone over to his
accusers.
3. So Caesar, after he had heard both sides, dissolved the assembly
for that time; but a few days afterward, he gave the one
half of Herod's kingdom to Archelaus, by the name of Ethnarch, and
promised to make him king also afterward, if he rendered
himself worthy of that dignity. But as to the other half, he divided
it into two tetrarchies, and gave them to two other sons of
Herod, the one of them to Philip, and the other to that Antipas
who contested the kingdom with Archelaus. Under this last was
Perea and Galilee, with a revenue of two hundred talents; but Batanea,
and Trachonitis, and Auranitis, and certain parts of
Zeno's house about Jamnia, with a revenue of a hundred talents,
were made subject to Philip; while Idumea, and all Judea, and
Samaria were parts of the ethnarchy of Archelaus, although Samaria
was eased of one quarter of its taxes, out of regard to their
not having revolted with the rest of the nation. He also made subject
to him the following cities, viz. Strato's Tower, and
Sebaste, and Joppa, and Jerusalem; but as to the Grecian cities,
Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, he cut them off from the
kingdom, and added them to Syria. Now the revenue of the country
that was given to Archelaus was four hundred talents.
Salome also, besides what the king had left her in his testaments,
was now made mistress of Jamnia, and Ashdod, and
Phasaelis. Caesar did moreover bestow upon her the royal palace
of Ascalon; by all which she got together a revenue of sixty
talents; but he put her house under the ethnarchy of Archelaus.
And for the rest of Herod's offspring, they received what was
bequeathed to them in his testaments; but, besides that, Caesar
granted to Herod's two virgin daughters five hundred thousand
[drachmae] of silver, and gave them in marriage to the sons of Pheroras:
but after this family distribution, he gave between them
what had been bequeathed to him by Herod, which was a thousand talents,
reserving to himself only some inconsiderable
presents, in honor of the deceased.
CHAPTER 7.
THE HISTORY OF THE SPURIOUS ALEXANDER. ARCHELAUS IS BANISHED
AND GLAPHYRA DIES,
AFTER WHAT WAS TO HAPPEN TO BOTH OF THEM HAD
BEEN SHOWED THEM IN DREAMS.
1. In the meantime, there was a man, who was by birth a Jew, but
brought up at Sidon with one of the Roman freed-men, who
falsely pretended, on account of the resemblance of their countenances,
that he was that Alexander who was slain by Herod.
This man came to Rome, in hopes of not being detected. He had one
who was his assistant, of his own nation, and who knew
all the affairs of the kingdom, and instructed him to say how those
that were sent to kill him and Aristobulus had pity upon them,
and stole them away, by putting bodies that were like theirs in
their places. This man deceived the Jews that were at Crete, and
got a great deal of money of them for traveling in splendor; and
thence sailed to Melos, where he was thought so certainly
genuine, that he got a great deal more money, and prevailed with
those that had treated him to sail along with him to Rome. So
he landed at Dicearchia, [Puteoli,] and got very large presents
from the Jews who dwelt there, and was conducted by his
father's friends as if he were a king; nay, the resemblance in his
countenance procured him so much credit, that those who had
seen Alexander, and had known him very well, would take their oaths
that he was the very same person. Accordingly, the
whole body of the Jews that were at Rome ran out in crowds to see
him, and an innumerable multitude there was which stood
in the narrow places through which he was carried; for those of
Melos were so far distracted, that they carried him in a sedan,
and maintained a royal attendance for him at their own proper charges.
2. But Caesar, who knew perfectly well the lineaments of Alexander's
face, because he had been accused by Herod before
him, discerned the fallacy in his countenance, even before he saw
the man. However, he suffered the agreeable fame that went
of him to have some weight with him, and sent Celadus, one who well
knew Alexander, and ordered him to bring the young
man to him. But when Caesar saw him, he immediately discerned a
difference in his countenance; and when he had discovered
that his whole body was of a more robust texture, and like that
of a slave, he understood the whole was a contrivance. But the
impudence of what he said greatly provoked him to be angry at him;
for when he was asked about Aristobulus, he said that he
was also preserved alive, and was left on purpose in Cyprus, for
fear of treachery, because it would be harder for plotters to
get them both into their power while they were separate. Then did
Caesar take him by himself privately, and said to him, "I will
give thee thy life, if thou wilt discover who it was that persuaded
thee to forge such stories." So he said that he would discover
him, and followed Caesar, and pointed to that Jew who abused the
resemblance of his face to get money; for that he had
received more presents in every city than ever Alexander did when
he was alive. Caesar laughed at the contrivance, and put
this spurious Alexander among his rowers, on account of the strength
of his body, but ordered him that persuaded him to be put
to death. But for the people of Melos, they had been sufficiently
punished for their folly, by the expenses they had been at on
his account.
3. And now Archelaus took possession of his ethnarchy, and used not
the Jews only, but the Samaritans also, barbarously; and
this out of his resentment of their old quarrels with him. Whereupon
they both of them sent ambassadors against him to Caesar;
and in the ninth year of his government he was banished to Vienna,
a city of Gaul, and his effects were put into Caesar's
treasury. But the report goes, that before he was sent for by Caesar,
he seemed to see nine ears of corn, full and large, but
devoured by oxen. When, therefore, he had sent for the diviners,
and some of the Chaldeans, and inquired of them what they
thought it portended; and when one of them had one interpretation,
and another had another, Simon, one of the sect of Essens,
said that he thought the ears of corn denoted years, and the oxen
denoted a mutation of things, because by their ploughing they
made an alteration of the country. That therefore he should reign
as many years as there were ears of corn; and after he had
passed through various alterations of fortune, should die. Now five
days after Archelaus had heard this interpretation he was
called to his trial.
4. I cannot also but think it worthy to be recorded what dream Glaphyra,
the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, had,
who had at first been wife to Alexander, who was the brother of
Archelaus, concerning whom we have been discoursing. This
Alexander was the son of Herod the king, by whom he was put to death,
as we have already related. This Glaphyra was
married, after his death, to Juba, king of Libya; and, after his
death, was returned home, and lived a widow with her father.
Then it was that Archelaus, the ethnarch, saw her, and fell so deeply
in love with her, that he divorced Mariamne, who was then
his wife, ,and married her. When, therefore, she was come into Judea,
and had been there for a little while, she thought she saw
Alexander stand by her, and that he said to her; "Thy marriage with
the king of Libya might have been sufficient for thee; but
thou wast not contented with him, but art returned again to my family,
to a third husband; and him, thou impudent woman, hast
thou chosen for thine husband, who is my brother. However, I shall
not overlook the injury thou hast offered me; I shall [soon]
have thee again, whether thou wilt or no." Now Glaphyra hardly survived
the narration of this dream of hers two days.
CHAPTER 8.
ARCHELAUS'S ETHNARCHY IS REDUCED INTO A [ROMAN] PROVINCE. THE SEDITION
OF JUDAS OF
GALILEE. THE THREE SECTS.
1. AND now Archelaus's part of Judea was reduced into a province,
and Coponius, one of the equestrian order among the
Romans, was sent as a procurator, having the power of [life and]
death put into his hands by Caesar. Under his administration it
was that a certain Galilean, whose name was Judas, prevailed with
his countrymen to revolt, and said they were cowards if they
would endure to pay a tax to the Romans and would after God submit
to mortal men as their lords. This man was a teacher of a
peculiar sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of those
their leaders.
2. For there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers
of the first of which are the Pharisees; of the second,
the Sadducees; and the third sect, which pretends to a severer discipline,
are called Essens. These last are Jews by birth, and
seem to have a greater affection for one another than the other
sects have. These Essens reject pleasures as an evil, but esteem
continence, and the conquest over our passions, to be virtue. They
neglect wedlock, but choose out other persons children,
while they are pliable, and fit for learning, and esteem them to
be of their kindred, and form them according to their own
manners. They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage, and
the succession of mankind thereby continued; but they guard
against the lascivious behavior of women, and are persuaded that
none of them preserve their fidelity to one man.
3. These men are despisers of riches, and so very communicative as
raises our admiration. Nor is there any one to be found
among them who hath more than another; for it is a law among them,
that those who come to them must let what they have be
common to the whole order, - insomuch that among them all there
is no appearance of poverty, or excess of riches, but every
one's possessions are intermingled with every other's possessions;
and so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the
brethren. They think that oil is a defilement; and if any one of
them be anointed without his own approbation, it is wiped off his
body; for they think to be sweaty is a good thing, as they do also
to be clothed in white garments. They also have stewards
appointed to take care of their common affairs, who every one of
them have no separate business for any, but what is for the
uses of them all.
4. They have no one certain city, but many of them dwell in every
city; and if any of their sect come from other places, what
they have lies open for them, just as if it were their own; and
they go in to such as they never knew before, as if they had been
ever so long acquainted with them. For which reason they carry nothing
at all with them when they travel into remote parts,
though still they take their weapons with them, for fear of thieves.
Accordingly, there is, in every city where they live, one
appointed particularly to take care of strangers, and to provide
garments and other necessaries for them. But the habit and
management of their bodies is such as children use who are in fear
of their masters. Nor do they allow of the change of or of
shoes till be first torn to pieces, or worn out by time. Nor do
they either buy or sell any thing to one another; but every one of
them gives what he hath to him that wanteth it, and receives from
him again in lieu of it what may be convenient for himself; and
although there be no requital made, they are fully allowed to take
what they want of whomsoever they please.
5. And as for their piety towards God, it is very extraordinary;
for before sun-rising they speak not a word about profane
matters, but put up certain prayers which they have received from
their forefathers, as if they made a supplication for its rising.
After this every one of them are sent away by their curators, to
exercise some of those arts wherein they are skilled, in which
they labor with great diligence till the fifth hour. After which
they assemble themselves together again into one place; and when
they have clothed themselves in white veils, they then bathe their
bodies in cold water. And after this purification is over, they
every one meet together in an apartment of their own, into which
it is not permitted to any of another sect to enter; while they
go, after a pure manner, into the dining-room, as into a certain
holy temple, and quietly set themselves down; upon which the
baker lays them loaves in order; the cook also brings a single plate
of one sort of food, and sets it before every one of them;
but a priest says grace before meat; and it is unlawful for any
one to taste of the food before grace be said. The same priest,
when he hath dined, says grace again after meat; and when they begin,
and when they end, they praise God, as he that bestows
their food upon them; after which they lay aside their [white] garments,
and betake themselves to their labors again till the
evening; then they return home to supper, after the same manner;
and if there be any strangers there, they sit down with them.
Nor is there ever any clamor or disturbance to pollute their house,
but they give every one leave to speak in their turn; which
silence thus kept in their house appears to foreigners like some
tremendous mystery; the cause of which is that perpetual
sobriety they exercise, and the same settled measure of meat and
drink that is allotted them, and that such as is abundantly
sufficient for them.
6. And truly, as for other things, they do nothing but according
to the injunctions of their curators; only these two things are
done among them at everyone's own free-will, which are to assist
those that want it, and to show mercy; for they are permitted
of their own accord to afford succor to such as deserve it, when
they stand in need of it, and to bestow food on those that are
in distress; but they cannot give any thing to their kindred without
the curators. They dispense their anger after a just manner,
and restrain their passion. They are eminent for fidelity, and are
the ministers of peace; whatsoever they say also is firmer than
an oath; but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem it worse
than perjury (4) for they say that he who cannot be
believed without [swearing by] God is already condemned. They also
take great pains in studying the writings of the ancients,
and choose out of them what is most for the advantage of their soul
and body; and they inquire after such roots and medicinal
stones as may cure their distempers.
7. But now if any one hath a mind to come over to their sect, he
is not immediately admitted, but he is prescribed the same
method of living which they use for a year, while he continues excluded';
and they give him also a small hatchet, and the
fore-mentioned girdle, and the white garment. And when he hath given
evidence, during that time, that he can observe their
continence, he approaches nearer to their way of living, and is
made a partaker of the waters of purification; yet is he not even
now admitted to live with them; for after this demonstration of
his fortitude, his temper is tried two more years; and if he appear
to be worthy, they then admit him into their society. And before
he is allowed to touch their common food, he is obliged to take
tremendous oaths, that, in the first place, he will exercise piety
towards God, and then that he will observe justice towards men,
and that he will do no harm to any one, either of his own accord,
or by the command of others; that he will always hate the
wicked, and be assistant to the righteous; that he will ever show
fidelity to all men, and especially to those in authority, because
no one obtains the government without God's assistance; and that
if he be in authority, he will at no time whatever abuse his
authority, nor endeavor to outshine his subjects either in his garments,
or any other finery; that he will be perpetually a lover of
truth, and propose to himself to reprove those that tell lies; that
he will keep his hands clear from theft, and his soul from
unlawful gains; and that he will neither conceal any thing from
those of his own sect, nor discover any of their doctrines to
others, no, not though anyone should compel him so to do at the
hazard of his life. Moreover, he swears to communicate their
doctrines to no one any otherwise than as he received them himself;
that he will abstain from robbery, and will equally preserve
the books belonging to their sect, and the names of the angels (5)
[or messengers]. These are the oaths by which they secure
their proselytes to themselves.
8. But for those that are caught in any heinous sins, they cast them
out of their society; and he who is thus separated from them
does often die after a miserable manner; for as he is bound by the
oath he hath taken, and by the customs he hath been engaged
in, he is not at liberty to partake of that food that he meets with
elsewhere, but is forced to eat grass, and to famish his body
with hunger, till he perish; for which reason they receive many
of them again when they are at their last gasp, out of compassion
to them, as thinking the miseries they have endured till they came
to the very brink of death to be a sufficient punishment for the
sins they had been guilty of.
9. But in the judgments they exercise they are most accurate and
just, nor do they pass sentence by the votes of a court that is
fewer than a hundred. And as to what is once determined by that
number, it is unalterable. What they most of all honor, after
God himself, is the name of their legislator [Moses], whom if any
one blaspheme he is punished capitally. They also think it a
good thing to obey their elders, and the major part. Accordingly,
if ten of them be sitting together, no one of them will speak
while the other nine are against it. They also avoid spitting in
the midst of them, or on the right side. Moreover, they are stricter
than any other of the Jews in resting from their labors on the seventh
day; for they not only get their food ready the day before,
that they may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that day, but they
will not remove any vessel out of its place, nor go to stool
thereon. Nay, on other days they dig a small pit, a foot deep, with
a paddle (which kind of hatchet is given them when they are
first admitted among them); and covering themselves round with their
garment, that they may not affront the Divine rays of light,
they ease themselves into that pit, after which they put the earth
that was dug out again into the pit; and even this they do only in
the more lonely places, which they choose out for this purpose;
and although this easement of the body be natural, yet it is a
rule with them to wash themselves after it, as if it were a defilement
to them.
10. Now after the time of their preparatory trial is over, they are
parted into four classes; and so far are the juniors inferior to
the seniors, that if the seniors should be touched by the juniors,
they must wash themselves, as if they had intermixed themselves
with the company of a foreigner. They are long-lived also, insomuch
that many of them live above a hundred years, by means of
the simplicity of their diet; nay, as I think, by means of the regular
course of life they observe also. They contemn the miseries of
life, and are above pain, by the generosity of their mind. And as
for death, if it will be for their glory, they esteem it better than
living always; and indeed our war with the Romans gave abundant
evidence what great souls they had in their trials, wherein,
although they were tortured and distorted, burnt and torn to pieces,
and went through all kinds of instruments of torment, that
they might be forced either to blaspheme their legislator, or to
eat what was forbidden them, yet could they not be made to do
either of them, no, nor once to flatter their tormentors, or to
shed a tear; but they smiled in their very pains, and laughed those
to scorn who inflicted the torments upon them, and resigned up their
souls with great alacrity, as expecting to receive them
again.
11. For their doctrine is this: That bodies are corruptible, and
that the matter they are made of is not permanent; but that the
souls are immortal, and continue for ever; and that they come out
of the most subtile air, and are united to their bodies as to
prisons, into which they are drawn by a certain natural enticement;
but that when they are set free from the bonds of the flesh,
they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and mount upward.
And this is like the opinions of the Greeks, that good
souls have their habitations beyond the ocean, in a region that
is neither oppressed with storms of rain or snow, or with intense
heat, but that this place is such as is refreshed by the gentle
breathing of a west wind, that is perpetually blowing from the
ocean; while they allot to bad souls a dark and tempestuous den,
full of never-ceasing punishments. And indeed the Greeks
seem to me to have followed the same notion, when they allot the
islands of the blessed to their brave men, whom they call
heroes and demi-gods; and to the souls of the wicked, the region
of the ungodly, in Hades, where their fables relate that certain
persons, such as Sisyphus, and Tantalus, and Ixion, and Tityus,
are punished; which is built on this first supposition, that souls
are immortal; and thence are those exhortations to virtue and dehortations
from wickedness collected; whereby good men are
bettered in the conduct of their life by the hope they have of reward
after their death; and whereby the vehement inclinations of
bad men to vice are restrained, by the fear and expectation they
are in, that although they should lie concealed in this life, they
should suffer immortal punishment after their death. These are the
Divine doctrines of the Essens (6) about the soul, which lay
an unavoidable bait for such as have once had a taste of their philosophy.
12. There are also those among them who undertake to foretell things
to come, (7) by reading the holy books, and using
several sorts of purifications, and being perpetually conversant
in the discourses of the prophets; and it is but seldom that they
miss in their predictions.
13. Moreover, there is another order of Essens, (8) who agree with
the rest as to their way of living, and customs, and laws,
but differ from them in the point of marriage, as thinking that
by not marrying they cut off the principal part of human life, which
is the prospect of succession; nay, rather, that if all men should
be of the same opinion, the whole race of mankind would fail.
However, they try their spouses for three years; and if they find
that they have their natural purgations thrice, as trials that they
are likely to be fruitful, they then actually marry them. But they
do not use to accompany with their wives when they are with
child, as a demonstration that they do not many out of regard to
pleasure, but for the sake of posterity. Now the women go into
the baths with some of their garments on, as the men do with somewhat
girded about them. And these are the customs of this
order of Essens.
14. But then as to the two other orders at first mentioned, the Pharisees
are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exact
explication of their laws, and introduce the first sect. These ascribe
all to fate [or providence], and to God, and yet allow, that
to act what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the power
of men, although fate does co-operate in every action. They say
that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men
only are removed into other bodies, - but that the souls of bad
men are subject to eternal punishment. But the Sadducees are those
that compose the second order, and take away fate
entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or
not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or
what is evil, is at men's own choice, and that the one or the other
belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please.
They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul,
and the punishments and rewards in Hades. Moreover, the
Pharisees are friendly to one another, and are for the exercise
of concord, and regard for the public; but the behavior of the
Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild, and their
conversation with those that are of their own party is as
barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this is what I
had to say concerning the philosophic sects among the Jews.
CHAPTER 9.
THE DEATH OF SALOME. THE CITIES WHICH HEROD AND
PHILIP BUILT. PILATE OCCASIONS
DISTURBANCES. TIBERIUS PUTS AGRIPPA INTO BONDS BUT CAIUS FREES
HIM FROM THEM, AND
MAKES HIM KING. HEROD ANTIPAS IS BANISHED.
1. AND now as the ethnarchy of Archelaus was fallen into a Roman
province, the other sons of Herod, Philip, and that Herod
who was called Antipas, each of them took upon them the administration
of their own tetrarchies; for when Salome died, she
bequeathed to Julia, the wife of Augustus, both her toparchy, and
Jamriga, as also her plantation of palm trees that were in
Phasaelis. But when the Roman empire was translated to Tiberius,
the son of Julia, upon the death of Augustus, who had
reigned fifty-seven years, six months, and two days, both Herod
and Philip continued in their tetrarchies; and the latter of them
built the city Cesarea, at the fountains of Jordan, and in the region
of Paneas; as also the city Julias, in the lower Gaulonitis.
Herod also built the city Tiberius in Galilee, and in Perea [beyond
Jordan] another that was also called Julias.
2. Now Pilate, who was sent as procurator into Judea by Tiberius,
sent by night those images of Caesar that are called ensigns
into Jerusalem. This excited a very among great tumult among the
Jews when it was day; for those that were near them were
astonished at the sight of them, as indications that their laws
were trodden under foot; for those laws do not permit any sort of
image to be brought into the city. Nay, besides the indignation
which the citizens had themselves at this procedure, a vast
number of people came running out of the country. These came zealously
to Pilate to Cesarea, and besought him to carry those
ensigns out of Jerusalem, and to preserve them their ancient laws
inviolable; but upon Pilate's denial of their request, they fell (9)
down prostrate upon the ground, and continued immovable in that
posture for five days and as many nights.
3. On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal, in the open market-place,
and called to him the multitude, as desirous to give
them an answer; and then gave a signal to the soldiers, that they
should all by agreement at once encompass the Jews with their
weapons; so the band of soldiers stood round about the Jews in three
ranks. The Jews were under the utmost consternation at
that unexpected sight. Pilate also said to them that they should
be cut in pieces, unless they would admit of Caesar's images,
and gave intimation to the soldiers to draw their naked swords.
Hereupon the Jews, as it were at one signal, fell down in vast
numbers together, and exposed their necks bare, and cried out that
they were sooner ready to be slain, than that their law
should be transgressed. Hereupon Pilate was greatly surprised at
their prodigious superstition, and gave order that the ensigns
should be presently carried out of Jerusalem.
4. After this he raised another disturbance, by expending that sacred
treasure which is called Corban (10) upon aqueducts,
whereby he brought water from the distance of four hundred furlongs.
At this the multitude had indignation; and when Pilate
was come to Jerusalem, they came about his tribunal, and made a
clamor at it. Now when he was apprized aforehand of this
disturbance, he mixed his own soldiers in their armor with the multitude,
and ordered them to conceal themselves under the
habits of private men, and not indeed to use their swords, but with
their staves to beat those that made the clamor. He then
gave the signal from his tribunal [to do as he had bidden them].
Now the Jews were so sadly beaten, that many of them
perished by the stripes they received, and many of them perished
as trodden to death by themselves; by which means the
multitude was astonished at the calamity of those that were slain,
and held their peace.
5. In the mean time Agrippa, the son of that Aristobulus who had
been slain by his father Herod, came to Tiberius, to accuse
Herod the tetrarch; who not admitting of his accusation, he staid
at Rome, and cultivated a friendship with others of the men of
note, but principally with Caius the son of Germanicus, who was
then but a private person. Now this Agrippa, at a certain time,
feasted Caius; and as he was very complaisant to him on several
other accounts, he at length stretched out his hands, and
openly wished that Tiberius might die, and that he might quickly
see him emperor of the world. This was told to Tiberius by one
of Agrippa's domestics, who thereupon was very angry, and ordered
Agrippa to be bound, and had him very ill-treated in the
prison for six months, until Tiberius died, after he had reigned
twenty-two years, six months, and three days.
6. But when Caius was made Caesar, he released Agrippa from his bonds,
and made him king of Philip's tetrarchy, who was
now dead; but when Agrippa had arrived at that degree of dignity,
he inflamed the ambitious desires of Herod the tetrarch, who
was chiefly induced to hope for the royal authority by his wife
Herodias, who reproached him for his sloth, and told him that it
was only because he would not sail to Caesar that he was destitute
of that great dignity; for since Caesar had made Agrippa a
king, from a private person, much mole would he advance him from
a tetrarch to that dignity. These arguments prevailed with
Herod, so that he came to Caius, by whom he was punished for his
ambition, by being banished into Spain; for Agrippa
followed him, in order to accuse him; to whom also Caius gave his
tetrarchy, by way of addition. So Herod died in Spain,
whither his wife had followed him.
CHAPTER 10.
CAIUS COMMANDS THAT HIS STATUE SHOULD BE SET UP IN THE
TEMPLE ITSELF; AND WHAT
PETRONIUS DID THEREUPON.
1. NOW Caius Caesar did so grossly abuse the fortune he had arrived
at, as to take himself to be a god, and to desire to be so
called also, and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of
his country. He also extended his impiety as far as the Jews.
Accordingly, he sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem, to place
his statues in the temple, (11) and commanded him that, in
case the Jews would not admit of them, he should slay those that
opposed it, and carry all the rest of the nation into captivity:
but God concerned himself with these his commands. However, Petronius
marched out of Antioch into Judea, with three
legions, and many Syrian auxiliaries. Now as to the Jews, some of
them could not believe the stories that spake of a war; but
those that did believe them were in the utmost distress how to defend
themselves, and the terror diffused itself presently through
them all; for the army was already come to Ptolemais.
2. This Ptolemais is a maritime city of Galilee, built in the great
plain. It is encompassed with mountains: that on the east side,
sixty furlongs off, belongs to Galilee; but that on the south belongs
to Carmel, which is distant from it a hundred and twenty
furlongs; and that on the north is the highest of them all, and
is called by the people of the country, The Ladder of the Tyrians,
which is at the distance of a hundred furlongs. The very small river
Belus (12) runs by it, at the distance of two furlongs; near
which there is Menmon's monument, (13) and hath near it a place
no larger than a hundred cubits, which deserves admiration;
for the place is round and hollow, and affords such sand as glass
is made of; which place, when it hath been emptied by the
many ships there loaded, it is filled again by the winds, which
bring into it, as it were on purpose, that sand which lay remote,
and was no more than bare common sand, while this mine presently
turns it into glassy sand. And what is to me still more
wonderful, that glassy sand which is superfluous, and is once removed
out of the place, becomes bare common sand again.
And this is the nature of the place we are speaking of.
3. But now the Jews got together in great numbers with their wives
and children into that plain that was by Ptolemais, and made
supplication to Petronius, first for their laws, and, in the next
place, for themselves. So he was prevailed upon by the multitude
of the supplicants, and by their supplications, and left his army
and the statues at Ptolemais, and then went forward into Galilee,
and called together the multitude and all the men of note to Tiberias,
and showed them the power of the Romans, and the
threatenings of Caesar; and, besides this, proved that their petition
was unreasonable, because while all the nations in subjection
to them had placed the images of Caesar in their several cities,
among the rest of their gods, for them alone to oppose it, was
almost like the behavior of revolters, and was injurious to Caesar.
4. And when they insisted on their law, and the custom of their country,
and how it was not only not permitted them to make
either an image of God, or indeed of a man, and to put it in any
despicable part of their country, much less in the temple itself,
Petronius replied, "And am not I also," said he, "bound to keep
the law of my own lord? For if I transgress it, and spare you, it
is but just that I perish; while he that sent me, and not I, will
commence a war against you; for I am under command as well as
you." Hereupon the whole multitude cried out that they were ready
to suffer for their law. Petronius then quieted them, and said
to them, "Will you then make war against Caesar?" The Jews said,
"We offer sacrifices twice every day for Caesar, and for the
Roman people;" but that if he would place the images among them,
he must first sacrifice the whole Jewish nation; and that they
were ready to expose themselves, together with their children and
wives, to be slain. At this Petronius was astonished, and
pitied them, on account of the inexpressible sense of religion the
men were under, and that courage of theirs which made them
ready to die for it; so they were dismissed without success.
5. But on the following days he got together the men of power privately,
and the multitude publicly, and sometimes he used
persuasions to them, and sometimes he gave them his advice; but
he chiefly made use of threatenings to them, and insisted upon
the power of the Romans, and the anger of Caius; and besides, upon
the necessity he was himself under [to do as he was
enjoined]. But as they could be no way prevailed upon, and he saw
that the country was in danger of lying without tillage; (for it
was about seed time that the multitude continued for fifty days
together idle;) so he at last got them together, and told them that
it was best for him to run some hazard himself; "for either, by
the Divine assistance, I shall prevail with Caesar, and shall myself
escape the danger as well as you, which will he matter of joy to
us both; or, in case Caesar continue in his rage, I will be ready
to expose my own life for such a great number as you are." Whereupon
he dismissed the multitude, who prayed greatly for his
prosperity; and he took the army out of Ptolemais, and returned
to Antioch; from whence he presently sent an epistle to
Caesar, and informed him of the irruption he had made into Judea,
and of the supplications of the nation; and that unless he had
a mind to lose both the country and the men in it, he must permit
them to keep their law, and must countermand his former
injunction. Caius answered that epistle in a violent-way, and threatened
to have Petronius put to death for his being so tardy in
the execution of what he had commanded. But it happened that those
who brought Caius's epistle were tossed by a storm, and
were detained on the sea for three months, while others that brought
the news of Caius's death had a good voyage.
Accordingly, Petronins received the epistle concerning Caius seven
and twenty days before he received that which was against
himself.
CHAPTER 11.
CONCERNING THE GOVERNMENT OF CLAUDIUS, AND THE REIGN
OF AGRIPPA. CONCERNING
THE DEATHS OF AGRIPPA AND OF HEROD AND WHAT CHILDREN
THEY BOTH LEFT BEHIND
THEM.
1. NOW when Caius had reigned three year's and eight months, and
had been slain by treachery, Claudius was hurried away
by the armies that were at Rome to take the government upon him;
but the senate, upon the reference of the consuls, Sentis
Saturninns, and Pomponins Secundus, gave orders to the three regiments
of soldiers that staid with them to keep the city quiet,
and went up into the capitol in great numbers, and resolved to oppose
Claudius by force, on account of the barbarous
treatment they had met with from Caius; and they determined either
to settle the nation under an aristocracy, as they had of old
been governed, or at least to choose by vote such a one for emperor
as might be worthy of it.
2. Now it happened that at this time Agrippa sojourned at Rome, and
that both the senate called him to consult with them, and
at the same time Claudius sent for him out of the camp, that he
might be serviceable to him, as he should have occasion for his
service. So he, perceiving that Claudius was in effect made Caesar
already, went to him, who sent him as an ambassador to the
senate, to let them know what his intentions were: that, in the
first place, it was without his seeking that he was hurried away by
the soldiers; moreover, that he thought it was not just to desert
those soldiers in such their zeal for him, and that if he should do
so, his own fortune would be in uncertainty; for that it was a dangerous
case to have been once called to the empire. He added
further, that he would administer the government as a good prince,
and not like a tyrant; for that he would be satisfied with the
honor of being called emperor, but would, in every one of his actions,
permit them all to give him their advice; for that although
he had not been by nature for moderation, yet would the death of
Caius afford him a sufficient demonstration how soberly he
ought to act in that station.
3. This message was delivered by Agrippa; to which the senate replied,
that since they had an army, and the wisest counsels on
their side, they would not endure a voluntary slavery. And when
Claudius heard what answer the senate had made, he sent
Agrippa to them again, with the following message: That he could
not bear the thoughts of betraying them that had given their
oaths to be true to him; and that he saw he must fight, though unwillingly,
against such as he had no mind to fight; that, however,
[if it must come to that,] it was proper to choose a place without
the city for the war, because it was not agreeable to piety to
pollute the temples of their own city with the blood of their own
countrymen, and this only on occasion of their imprudent
conduct. And when Agrippa had heard this message, he delivered it
to the senators.
4. In the mean time, one of the soldiers belonging to the senate
drew his sword, and cried out, "O my fellow soldiers, what is
the meaning of this choice of ours, to kill our brethren, and to
use violence to our kindred that are with Claudius? while we may
have him for our emperor whom no one can blame, and who hath so
many just reasons [to lay claim to the government]; and
this with regard to those against whom we are going to fight." When
he had said this, he marched through the whole senate, and
carried all the soldiers along with him. Upon which all the patricians
were immediately in a great fright at their being thus
deserted. But still, because there appeared no other way whither
they could turn themselves for deliverance, they made haste
the same way with the soldiers, and went to Claudius. But those
that had the greatest luck in flattering the good fortune of
Claudius betimes met them before the walls with their naked swords,
and there was reason to fear that those that came first
might have been in danger, before Claudius could know what violence
the soldiers were going to offer them, had not Agrippa
ran before, and told him what a dangerous thing they were going
about, and that unless he restrained the violence of these men,
who were in a fit of madness against the patricians, he would lose
those on whose account it was most desirable to rule, and
would be emperor over a desert.
5. When Claudius heard this, he restrained the violence of the soldiery,
and received the senate into the camp, and treated them
after an obliging manner, and went out with them presently to offer
their thank-offerings to God, which were proper upon, his
first coming to the empire. Moreover, he bestowed on Agrippa his
whole paternal kingdom immediately, and added to it,
besides those countries that had been given by Augustus to Herod,
Trachonitis and Auranitis, and still besides these, that
kingdom which was called the kingdom of Lysanius. This gift he declared
to the people by a decree, but ordered the
magistrates to have the donation engraved on tables of brass, and
to be set up in the capitol. He bestowed on his brother
Herod, who was also his son-in-law, by marrying [his daughter] Bernice,
the kingdom of Chalcis.
6. So now riches flowed in to Agrippa by his enjoyment of so large
a dominion; nor did he abuse the money he had on small
matters, but he began to encompass Jerusalem with such a wall, which,
had it been brought to perfection, had made it
impracticable for the Romans to take it by siege; but his death,
which happened at Cesarea, before he had raised the walls to
their due height, prevented him. He had then reigned three years,
as he had governed his tetrarchies three other years. He left
behind him three daughters, born to him by Cypros, Bernice, Mariamne,
and Drusilla, and a son born of the same mother,
whose name was Agrippa: he was left a very young child, so that
Claudius made the country a Roman province, and sent
Cuspius Fadus to be its procurator, and after him Tiberius Alexander,
who, making no alterations of the ancient laws, kept the
nation in tranquillity. Now after this, Herod the king of Chalcis
died, and left behind him two sons, born to him of his brother's
daughter Bernice; their names were Bernie Janus and Hyrcanus. [He
also left behind him] Aristobulus, whom he had by his
former wife Mariamne. There was besides another brother of his that
died a private person, his name was also Aristobulus,
who left behind him a daughter, whose name was Jotape: and these,
as I have formerly said, were the children of Aristobulus
the son of Herod, which Aristobulus and Alexander were born to Herod
by Mariamne, and were slain by him. But as for
Alexander's posterity, they reigned in Armenia.
CHAPTER 12.
MANY TUMULTS UNDER CUMANUS, WHICH WERE COMPOSED
BY QUADRATUS. FELIX IS
PROCURATOR OF JUDEA. AGRIPPA IS ADVANCED FROM CHALCIS
TO A GREATER KINGDOM.
1 NOW after the death of Herod, king of Chalcis, Claudius set Agrippa,
the son of Agrippa, over his uncle's kingdom, while
Cumanus took upon him the office of procurator of the rest, which
was a Roman province, and therein he succeeded
Alexander; under which Cureanus began the troubles, and the Jews'
ruin came on; for when the multitude were come together
to Jerusalem, to the feast of unleavened bread, and a Roman cohort
stood over the cloisters of the temple, (for they always
were armed, and kept guard at the festivals, to prevent any innovation
which the multitude thus gathered together might make,)
one of the soldiers pulled back his garment, and cowering down after
an indecent manner, turned his breech to the Jews, and
spake such words as you might expect upon such a posture. At this
the whole multitude had indignation, and made a clamor to
Cumanus, that he would punish the soldier; while the rasher part
of the youth, and such as were naturally the most tumultuous,
fell to fighting, and caught up stones, and threw them at the soldiers.
Upon which Cumanus was afraid lest all the people should
make an assault upon him, and sent to call for more armed men, who,
when they came in great numbers into the cloisters, the
Jews were in a very great consternation; and being beaten out of
the temple, they ran into the city; and the violence with which
they crowded to get out was so great, that they trod upon each other,
and squeezed one another, till ten thousand of them were
killed, insomuch that this feast became the cause of mourning to
the whole nation, and every family lamented their own relations.
2. Now there followed after this another calamity, which arose from
a tumult made by robbers; for at the public road at
Beth-boron, one Stephen, a servant of Caesar, carried some furniture,
which the robbers fell upon and seized. Upon this
Cureanus sent men to go round about to the neighboring villages,
and to bring their inhabitants to him bound, as laying it to their
charge that they had not pursued after the thieves, and caught them.
Now here it was that a certain soldier, finding the sacred
book of the law, tore it to pieces, and threw it into the fire.
(14) Hereupon the Jews were in great disorder, as if their whole
country were in a flame, and assembled themselves so many of them
by their zeal for their religion, as by an engine, and ran
together with united clamor to Cesarea, to Cumanus, and made supplication
to him that he would not overlook this man, who
had offered such an affront to God, and to his law; but punish him
for what he had done. Accordingly, he, perceiving that the
multitude would not be quiet unless they had a comfortable answer
from him, gave order that the soldier should be brought, and
drawn through those that required to have him punished, to execution,
which being done, the Jews went their ways.
3. After this there happened a fight between the Galileans and the
Samaritans; it happened at a village called Geman, which is
situate in the great plain of Samaria; where, as a great number
of Jews were going up to Jerusalem to the feast [of tabernacles,]
a certain Galilean was slain; and besides, a vast number of people
ran together out of Galilee, in order to fight with the
Samaritans. But the principal men among them came to Cumanus, and
besought him that, before the evil became incurable, he
would come into Galilee, and bring the authors of this murder to
punishment; for that there was no other way to make the
multitude separate without coming to blows. However, Cumanus postponed
their supplications to the other affairs he was then
about, and sent the petitioners away without success.
4. But when the affair of this murder came to be told at Jerusalem,
it put the multitude into disorder, and they left the feast; and
without any generals to conduct them, they marched with great violence
to Samaria; nor would they be ruled by any of the
magistrates that were set over them, but they were managed by one
Eleazar, the son of Dineus, and by Alexander, in these their
thievish and seditious attempts. These men fell upon those that
were ill the neighborhood of the Acrabatene toparchy, and slew
them, without sparing any age, and set the villages on fire.
5. But Cumanus took one troop of horsemen, called the troop of Sebaste,
out of Cesarea, and came to the assistance of those
that were spoiled; he also seized upon a great number of those that
followed Eleazar, and slew more of them. And as for the
rest of the multitude of those that went so zealously to fight with
the Samaritans, the rulers of Jerusalem ran out clothed with
sackcloth, and having ashes on their head, and begged of them to
go their ways, lest by their attempt to revenge themselves
upon the Samaritans they should provoke the Romans to come against
Jerusalem; to have compassion upon their country and
temple, their children and their wives, and not bring the utmost
dangers of destruction upon them, in order to avenge themselves
upon one Galilean only. The Jews complied with these persuasions
of theirs, and dispersed themselves; but still there were a
great number who betook themselves to robbing, in hopes of impunity;
and rapines and insurrections of the bolder sort
happened over the whole country. And the men of power among the
Samaritans came to Tyre, to Ummidius Quadratus, (15)
the president of Syria, and desired that they that had laid waste
the country might be punished: the great men also of the Jews,
and Jonathan the son of Ananus the high priest, came thither, and
said that the Samaritans were the beginners of the
disturbance, on account of that murder they had committed; and that
Cumanus had given occasion to what had happened, by
his unwillingness to punish the original authors of that murder.
6. But Quadratus put both parties off for that time, and told them,
that when he should come to those places, he would make a
diligent inquiry after every circumstance. After which he went to
Cesarea, and crucified all those whom Cumanus had taken
alive; and when from thence he was come to the city Lydda, he heard
the affair of the Samaritans, and sent for eighteen of the
Jews, whom he had learned to have been concerned in that fight,
and beheaded them; but he sent two others of those that were
of the greatest power among them, and both Jonathan and Ananias,
the high priests, as also Artanus the son of this Ananias,
and certain others that were eminent among the Jews, to Caesar;
as he did in like manner by the most illustrious of the
Samaritans. He also ordered that Cureanus [the procurator] and Celer
the tribune should sail to Rome, in order to give an
account of what had been done to Caesar. When he had finished these
matters, he went up from Lydda to Jerusalem, and
finding the multitude celebrating their feast of unleavened bread
without any tumult, he returned to Antioch.
7. Now when Caesar at Rome had heard what Cumanus and the Samaritans
had to say, (where it was done in the hearing of
Agrippa, who zealously espoused the cause of the Jews, as in like
manner many of the great men stood by Cumanus,) he
condemned the Samaritans, and commanded that three of the most powerful
men among them should be put to death; he
banished Cumanus, and sent Color bound to Jerusalem, to be delivered
over to the Jews to be tormented; that he should be
drawn round the city, and then beheaded.
8. After this Caesar sent Felix, (16) the brother of Pallas, to be
procurator of Galilee, and Samaria, and Perea, and removed
Agrippa from Chalcis unto a greater kingdom; for he gave him the
tetrarchy which had belonged to Philip, which contained
Batanae, Trachonitis, and Gaulonitis: he added to it the kingdom
of Lysanias, and that province [Abilene] which Varus had
governed. But Claudius himself, when he had administered the government
thirteen years, eight months, and twenty days, died,
and left Nero to be his successor in the empire, whom he had adopted
by his Wife Agrippina's delusions, in order to be his
successor, although he had a son of his own, whose name was Britannicus,
by Messalina his former wife, and a daughter whose
name was Octavia, whom he had married to Nero; he had also another
daughter by Petina, whose name was Antonia.
CHAPTER 13.
NERO ADDS FOUR CITIES TO AGRIPPAS KINGDOM; BUT THE OTHER
PARTS OF JUDEA WERE
UNDER FELIX. THE DISTURBANCES WHICH WERE RAISED BY THE SICARII
THE MAGICIANS AND
AN EGYPTIAN FALSE PROPHET. THE JEWS AND
SYRIANS HAVE A CONTEST AT CESAREA.
1. NOW as to the many things in which Nero acted like a madman, out
of the extravagant degree of the felicity and riches
which he enjoyed, and by that means used his good fortune to the
injury of others; and after what manner he slew his brother,
and wife, and mother, from whom his barbarity spread itself to others
that were most nearly related to him; and how, at last, he
was so distracted that he became an actor in the scenes, and upon
the theater, - I omit to say any more about them, because
there are writers enough upon those subjects every where; but I
shall turn myself to those actions of his time in which the Jews
were concerned.
2. Nero therefore bestowed the kingdom of the Lesser Armenia upon
Aristobulus, Herod's son, (17) and he added to
Agrippa's kingdom four cities, with the toparchies to them belonging;
I mean Abila, and that Julias which is in Perea, Tarichea
also, and Tiberias of Galilee; but over the rest of Judea he made
Felix procurator. This Felix took Eleazar the arch-robber, and
many that were with him, alive, when they had ravaged the country
for twenty years together, and sent them to Rome; but as to
the number of the robbers whom he caused to be crucified, and of
those who were caught among them, and whom he brought
to punishment, they were a multitude not to be enumerated.
3. When the country was purged of these, there sprang up another
sort of robbers in Jerusalem, which were called Sicarii, who
slew men in the day time, and in the midst of the city; this they
did chiefly at the festivals, when they mingled themselves among
the multitude, and concealed daggers under their garments, with
which they stabbed those that were their enemies; and when
any fell down dead, the murderers became a part of those that had
indignation against them; by which means they appeared
persons of such reputation, that they could by no means be discovered.
The first man who was slain by them was Jonathan the
high priest, after whose death many were slain every day, while
the fear men were in of being so served was more afflicting than
the calamity itself; and while every body expected death every hour,
as men do in war, so men were obliged to look before
them, and to take notice of their enemies at a great distance; nor,
if their friends were coming to them, durst they trust them any
longer; but, in the midst of their suspicions and guarding of themselves,
they were slain. Such was the celerity of the plotters
against them, and so cunning was their contrivance.
4. There was also another body of wicked men gotten together, not
so impure in their actions, but more wicked in their
intentions, which laid waste the happy state of the city no less
than did these murderers. These were such men as deceived and
deluded the people under pretense of Divine inspiration, but were
for procuring innovations and changes of the government;
and these prevailed with the multitude to act like madmen, and went
before them into the wilderness, as pretending that God
would there show them the signals of liberty. But Felix thought
this procedure was to be the beginning of a revolt; so he sent
some horsemen and footmen both armed, who destroyed a great number
of them.
5. But there was an Egyptian false prophet that did the Jews more
mischief than the former; for he was a cheat, and pretended
to be a prophet also, and got together thirty thousand men that
were deluded by him; these he led round about from the
wilderness to the mount which was called the Mount of Olives, and
was ready to break into Jerusalem by force from that place;
and if he could but once conquer the Roman garrison and the people,
he intended to domineer over them by the assistance of
those guards of his that were to break into the city with him. But
Felix prevented his attempt, and met him with his Roman
soldiers, while all the people assisted him in his attack upon them,
insomuch that when it came to a battle, the Egyptian ran
away, with a few others, while the greatest part of those that were
with him were either destroyed or taken alive; but the rest of
the multitude were dispersed every one to their own homes, and there
concealed themselves.
6. Now when these were quieted, it happened, as it does in a diseased
body, that another part was subject to an inflammation;
for a company of deceivers and robbers got together, and persuaded
the Jews to revolt, and exhorted them to assert their
liberty, inflicting death on those that continued in obedience to
the Roman government, and saying, that such as willingly chose
slavery ought to be forced from such their desired inclinations;
for they parted themselves into different bodies, and lay in wait
up and down the country, and plundered the houses of the great men,
and slew the men themselves, and set the villages on fire;
and this till all Judea was filled with the effects of their madness.
And thus the flame was every day more and more blown up, till
it came to a direct war.
7. There was also another disturbance at Cesarea, - those Jews who
were mixed with the Syrians that lived there rising a tumult
against them. The Jews pretended that the city was theirs, and said
that he who built it was a Jew, meaning king Herod. The
Syrians confessed also that its builder was a Jew; but they still
said, however, that the city was a Grecian city; for that he who
set up statues and temples in it could not design it for Jews. On
which account both parties had a contest with one another; and
this contest increased so much, that it came at last to arms, and
the bolder sort of them marched out to fight; for the elders of
the Jews were not able to put a stop to their own people that were
disposed to be tumultuous, and the Greeks thought it a
shame for them to be overcome by the Jews. Now these Jews exceeded
the others in riches and strength of body; but the
Grecian part had the advantage of assistance from the soldiery;
for the greatest part of the Roman garrison was raised out of
Syria; and being thus related to the Syrian part, they were ready
to assist it. However, the governors of the city were concerned
to keep all quiet, and whenever they caught those that were most
for fighting on either side, they punished them with stripes and
bands. Yet did not the sufferings of those that were caught affright
the remainder, or make them desist; but they were still more
and more exasperated, and deeper engaged in the sedition. And as
Felix came once into the market-place, and commanded
the Jews, when they had beaten the Syrians, to go their ways, and
threatened them if they would not, and they would not obey
him, he sent his soldiers out upon them, and slew a great many of
them, upon which it fell out that what they had was plundered.
And as the sedition still continued, he chose out the most eminent
men on both sides as ambassadors to Nero, to argue about
their several privileges.
CHAPTER 14.
FESTUS SUCCEEDS FELIX WHO IS SUCCEEDED BY ALBINUS AS
HE IS BY FLORUS; WHO BY THE
BARBARITY OF HIS GOVERNMENT FORCES THE JEWS INTO THE WAR.
1. NOW it was that Festus succeeded Felix as procurator, and made
it his business to correct those that made disturbances in
the country. So he caught the greatest part of the robbers, and
destroyed a great many of them. But then Albinus, who
succeeded Festus, did not execute his office as the other had done;
nor was there any sort of wickedness that could be named
but he had a hand in it. Accordingly, he did not only, in his political
capacity, steal and plunder every one's substance, nor did
he only burden the whole nation with taxes, but he permitted the
relations of such as were in prison for robbery, and had been
laid there, either by the senate of every city, or by the former
procurators, to redeem them for money; and no body remained in
the prisons as a malefactor but he who gave him nothing. At this
time it was that the enterprises of the seditious at Jerusalem
were very formidable; the principal men among them purchasing leave
of Albinus to go on with their seditious practices; while
that part of the people who delighted in disturbances joined themselves
to such as had fellowship with Albinus; and every one
of these wicked wretches were encompassed with his own band of robbers,
while he himself, like an arch-robber, or a tyrant,
made a figure among his company, and abused his authority over those
about him, in order to plunder those that lived quietly.
The effect of which was this, that those who lost their goods were
forced to hold their peace, when they had reason to show
great indignation at what they had suffered; but those who had escaped
were forced to flatter him that deserved to be punished,
out of the fear they were in of suffering equally with the others.
Upon the Whole, nobody durst speak their minds, but tyranny
was generally tolerated; and at this time were those seeds sown
which brought the city to destruction.
2. And although such was the character of Albinus, yet did Gessius
Florus (18) who succeeded him, demonstrate him to have
been a most excellent person, upon the comparison; for the former
did the greatest part of his rogueries in private, and with a
sort of dissimulation; but Gessius did his unjust actions to the
harm of the nation after a pompons manner; and as though he had
been sent as an executioner to punish condemned malefactors, he
omitted no sort of rapine, or of vexation; where the case was
really pitiable, he was most barbarous, and in things of the greatest
turpitude he was most impudent. Nor could any one outdo
him in disguising the truth; nor could any one contrive more subtle
ways of deceit than he did. He indeed thought it but a petty
offense to get money out of single persons; so he spoiled whole
cities, and ruined entire bodies of men at once, and did almost
publicly proclaim it all the country over, that they had liberty
given them to turn robbers, upon this condition, that he might go
shares with them in the spoils they got. Accordingly, this his greediness
of gain was the occasion that entire toparchies were
brought to desolation, and a great many of the people left their
own country, and fled into foreign provinces.
3. And truly, while Cestius Gallus was president of the province
of Syria, nobody durst do so much as send an embassage to
him against Florus; but when he was come to Jerusalem, upon the
approach of the feast of unleavened bread, the people came
about him not fewer in number than three millions (19) these besought
him to commiserate the calamities of their nation, and
cried out upon Florus as the bane of their country. But as he was
present, and stood by Cestius, he laughed at their words.
However, Cestius, when he had quieted the multitude, and had assured
them that he would take care that Florus should
hereafter treat them in a more gentle manner, returned to Antioch.
Florus also conducted him as far as Cesarea, and deluded
him, though he had at that very time the purpose of showing his
anger at the nation, and procuring a war upon them, by which
means alone it was that he supposed he might conceal his enormities;
for he expected that if the peace continued, he should
have the Jews for his accusers before Caesar; but that if he could
procure them to make a revolt, he should divert their laying
lesser crimes to his charge, by a misery that was so much greater;
he therefore did every day augment their calamities, in order
to induce them to a rebellion.
4. Now at this time it happened that the Grecians at Cesarea had
been too hard for the Jews, and had obtained of Nero the
government of the city, and had brought the judicial determination:
at the same time began the war, in the twelfth year of the
reign of Nero, and the seventeenth of the reign of Agrippa, in the
month of Artemisins [Jyar.] Now the occasion of this war was
by no means proportionable to those heavy calamities which it brought
upon us. For the Jews that dwelt at Cesarea had a
synagogue near the place, whose owner was a certain Cesarean Greek:
the Jews had endeavored frequently to have purchased
the possession of the place, and had offered many times its value
for its price; but as the owner overlooked their offers, so did
he raise other buildings upon the place, in way of affront to them,
and made working-shops of them, and left them but a narrow
passage, and such as was very troublesome for them to go along to
their synagogue. Whereupon the warmer part of the Jewish
youth went hastily to the workmen, and forbade them to build there;
but as Florus would not permit them to use force, the great
men of the Jews, with John the publican, being in the utmost distress
what to do, persuaded Florus, with the offer of eight
talents, to hinder the work. He then, being intent upon nothing
but getting money, promised he would do for them all they
desired of him, and then went away from Cesarea to Sebaste, and
left the sedition to take its full course, as if he had sold a
license to the Jews to fight it out.
5. Now on the next day, which was the seventh day of the week, when
the Jews were crowding apace to their synagogue, a
certain man of Cesarea, of a seditious temper, got an earthen vessel,
and set it with the bottom upward, at the entrance of that
synagogue, and sacrificed birds. This thing provoked the Jews to
an incurable degree, because their laws were affronted, and
the place was polluted. Whereupon the sober and moderate part of
the Jews thought it proper to have recourse to their
governors again, while the seditious part, and such as were in the
fervor of their youth, were vehemently inflamed to fight. The
seditions also among the Gentiles of Cesarea stood ready for the
same purpose; for they had, by agreement, sent the man to
sacrifice beforehand [as ready to support him;] so that it soon
came to blows. Hereupon Jucundus, the master of the horse,
who was ordered to prevent the fight, came thither, and took away
the earthen vessel, and endeavored to put a stop to the
sedition; but when (20) he was overcome by the violence of the people
of Cesarea, the Jews caught up their books of the law,
and retired to Narbata, which was a place to them belonging, distant
from Cesarea sixty furlongs. But John, and twelve of the
principal men with him, went to Florus, to Sebaste, and made a lamentable
complaint of their case, and besought him to help
them; and with all possible decency, put him in mind of the eight
talents they had given him; but he had the men seized upon,
and put in prison, and accused them for carrying the books of the
law out of Cesarea.
6. Moreover, as to the citizens of Jerusalem, although they took
this matter very ill, yet did they restrain their passion; but Florus
acted herein as if he had been hired, and blew up the war into a
flame, and sent some to take seventeen talents out of the
sacred treasure, and pretended that Caesar wanted them. At this
the people were in confusion immediately, and ran together to
the temple, with prodigious clamors, and called upon Caesar by name,
and besought him to free them from the tyranny of
Florus. Some also of the seditious cried out upon Florus, and cast
the greatest reproaches upon him, and carried a basket
about, and begged some spills of money for him, as for one that
was destitute of possessions, and in a miserable condition. Yet
was not he made ashamed hereby of his love of money, but was more
enraged, and provoked to get still more; and instead of
coming to Cesarea, as he ought to have done, and quenching the flame
of war, which was beginning thence, and so taking away
the occasion of any disturbances, on which account it was that he
had received a reward [of eight talents], he marched hastily
with an army of horsemen and footmen against Jerusalem, that he
might gain his will by the arms of the Romans, and might, by
his terror, and by his threatenings, bring the city into subjection.
7. But the people were desirous of making Florus ashamed of his attempt,
and met his soldiers with acclamations, and put
themselves in order to receive him very submissively. But he sent
Capito, a centurion, beforehand, with fifty soldiers, to bid
them go back, and not now make a show of receiving him in an obliging
manner, whom they had so foully reproached before;
and said that it was incumbent on them, in case they had generous
souls, and were free speakers, to jest upon him to his face,
and appear to be lovers of liberty, not only in words, but with
their weapons also. With this message was the multitude amazed;
and upon the coming of Capito's horsemen into the midst of them,
they were dispersed before they could salute Florus, or
manifest their submissive behavior to him. Accordingly, they retired
to their own houses, and spent that night in fear and
confusion of face.
8. Now at this time Florus took up his quarters at the palace; and
on the next day he had his tribunal set before it, and sat upon
it, when the high priests, and the men of power, and those of the
greatest eminence in the city, came all before that tribunal;
upon which Florus commanded them to deliver up to him those that
had reproached him, and told them that they should
themselves partake of the vengeance to them belonging, if they did
not produce the criminals; but these demonstrated that the
people were peaceably disposed, and they begged forgiveness for
those that had spoken amiss; for that it was no wonder at all
that in so great a multitude there should be some more daring than
they ought to be, and, by reason of their younger age, foolish
also; and that it was impossible to distinguish those that offended
from the rest, while every one was sorry for what he had
done, and denied it out of fear of what would follow: that he ought,
however, to provide for the peace of the nation, and to take
such counsels as might preserve the city for the Romans, and rather
for the sake of a great number of innocent people to forgive
a few that were guilty, than for the sake of a few of the wicked
to put so large and good a body of men into disorder.
9. Florus was more provoked at this, and called out aloud to the
soldiers to plunder that which was called the Upper
Market-place, and to slay such as they met with. So the soldiers,
taking this exhortation of their commander in a sense
agreeable to their desire of gain, did not only plunder the place
they were sent to, but forcing themselves into every house, they
slew its inhabitants; so the citizens fled along the narrow lanes,
and the soldiers slew those that they caught, and no method of
plunder was omitted; they also caught many of the quiet people,
and brought them before Florus, whom he first chastised with
stripes, and then crucified. Accordingly, the whole number of those
that were destroyed that day, with their wives and children,
(for they did not spare even the infants themselves,) was about
three thousand and six hundred. And what made this calamity
the heavier was this new method of Roman barbarity; for Florus ventured
then to do what no one had done before, that is, to
have men of the equestrian order whipped (21) and nailed to the
cross before his tribunal; who, although they were by birth
Jews, yet were they of Roman dignity notwithstanding.
CHAPTER 15.
CONCERNING BERNICE'S PETITION TO FLORUS, TO SPARE THE
JEWS, BUT IN VAIN; AS ALSO
HOW, AFTER THE SEDITIOUS FLAME WAS QUENCHED,
IT WAS KINDLED AGAIN BY FLORUS.
1. ABOUT this very time king Agrippa was going to Alexandria, to
congratulate Alexander upon his having obtained the
government of Egypt from Nero; but as his sister Bernice was come
to Jerusalem, and saw the wicked practices of the soldiers,
she was sorely affected at it, and frequently sent the masters of
her horse and her guards to Florus, and begged of him to leave
off these slaughters; but he would not comply with her request,
nor have any regard either to the multitude of those already
slain, or to the nobility of her that interceded, but only to the
advantage he should make by this plundering; nay, this violence of
the soldiers brake out to such a degree of madness, that it spent
itself on the queen herself; for they did not only torment and
destroy those whom they had caught under her very eyes, but indeed
had killed herself also, unless she had prevented them by
flying to the palace, and had staid there all night with her guards,
which she had about her for fear of an insult from the soldiers.
Now she dwelt then at Jerusalem, in order to perform a vow (22)
which she had made to God; for it is usual with those that
had been either afflicted with a distemper, or with any other distresses,
to make vows; and for thirty days before they are to
offer their sacrifices, to abstain from wine, and to shave the hair
of their head. Which things Bernice was now performing, and
stood barefoot before Florus's tribunal, and besought him [to spare
the Jews]. Yet could she neither have any reverence paid to
her, nor could she escape without some danger of being slain herself.
2. This happened upon the sixteenth day of the month Artemisius [Jyar].
Now, on the next day, the multitude, who were in a
great agony, ran together to the Upper Market-place, and made the
loudest lamentations for those that had perished; and the
greatest part of the cries were such as reflected on Florus; at
which the men of power were aftrighted, together with the high
priests, and rent their garments, and fell down before each of them,
and besought them to leave off, and not to provoke Florus
to some incurable procedure, besides what they had already suffered.
Accordingly, the multitude complied immediately, out of
reverence to those that had desired it of them, and out of the hope
they had that Florus would do them no more injuries.
3. So Florus was troubled that the disturbances were over, and endeavored
to kindle that flame again, and sent for the high
priests, with the other eminent persons, and said the only demonstration
that the people would not make any other innovations
should be this, that they must go out and meet the soldiers that
were ascending from Cesarea, whence two cohorts were
coming; and while these men were exhorting the multitude so to do,
he sent beforehand, and gave directions to the centurions of
the cohorts, that they should give notice to those that were under
them not to return the Jews' salutations; and that if they made
any reply to his disadvantage, they should make use of their weapons.
Now the high priests assembled the multitude in the
temple, and desired them to go and meet the Romans, and to salute
the cohorts very civilly, before their miserable case should
become incurable. Now the seditious part would not comply with these
persuasions; but the consideration of those that had
been destroyed made them incline to those that were the boldest
for action.
4. At this time it was that every priest, and every servant of God,
brought out the holy vessels, and the ornamental garments
wherein they used to minister in sacred things. The harpers also,
and the singers of hymns, came out with their instruments of
music, and fell down before the multitude, and begged of them that
they would preserve those holy ornaments to them, and not
provoke the Romans to carry off those sacred treasures. You might
also see then the high priests themselves, with dust
sprinkled in great plenty upon their heads, with bosoms deprived
of any covering but what was rent; these besought every one
of the eminent men by name, and the multitude in common, that they
would not for a small offense betray their country to those
that were desirous to have it laid waste; saying, "What benefit
will it bring to the soldiers to have a salutation from the Jews? or
what amendment of your affairs will it bring you, if you do not
now go out to meet them? and that if they saluted them civilly, all
handle would be cut off from Florus to begin a war; that they should
thereby gain their country, and freedom from all further
sufferings; and that, besides, it would be a sign of great want
of command of themselves, if they should yield to a few seditious
persons, while it was fitter for them who were so great a people
to force the others to act soberly."
5. By these persuasions, which they used to the multitude and to
the seditious, they restrained some by threatenings, and others
by the reverence that was paid them. After this they led them out,
and they met the soldiers quietly, and after a composed
manner, and when they were come up with them, they saluted them;
but when they made no answer, the seditious exclaimed
against Florus, which was the signal given for falling upon them.
The soldiers therefore encompassed them presently, and struck
them with their clubs; and as they fled away, the horsemen trampled
them down, so that a great many fell down dead by the
strokes of the Romans, and more by their own violence in crushing
one another. Now there was a terrible crowding about the
gates, and while every body was making haste to get before another,
the flight of them all was retarded, and a terrible
destruction there was among those that fell down, for they were
suffocated, an broken to pieces by the multitude of those that
were uppermost; nor could any of them be distinguished by his relations
in order to the care of his funeral; the soldiers also who
beat them, fell upon those whom they overtook, without showing them
any mercy, and thrust the multitude through the place
called Bezetha, (23) as they forced their way, in order to get in
and seize upon the temple, and the tower Antonia. Florus also
being desirous to get those places into his possession, brought
such as were with him out of the king's palace, and would have
compelled them to get as far as the citadel [Antonia;] but his attempt
failed, for the people immediately turned back upon him,
and stopped the violence of his attempt; and as they stood upon
the tops of their houses, they threw their darts at the Romans,
who, as they were sorely galled thereby, because those weapons came
from above, and they were not able to make a passage
through the multitude, which stopped up the narrow passages, they
retired to the camp which was at the palace.
6. But for the seditious, they were afraid lest Florus should come
again, and get possession of the temple, through Antonia; so
they got immediately upon those cloisters of the temple that joined
to Antonia, and cut them down. This cooled the avarice of
Florus; for whereas he was eager to obtain the treasures of God
[in the temple], and on that account was desirous of getting
into Antonia, as soon as the cloisters were broken down, he left
off his attempt; he then sent for the high priests and the
sanhedrim, and told them that he was indeed himself going out of
the city, but that he would leave them as large a garrison as
they should desire. Hereupon they promised that they would make
no innovations, in case he would leave them one band; but
not that which had fought with the Jews, because the multitude bore
ill-will against that band on account of what they had
suffered from it; so he changed the band as they desired, and, with
the rest of his forces, returned to Cesarea.
CHAPTER 16.
CESTIUS SENDS NEOPOLITANUS THE TRIBUNE TO SEE IN WHAT CONDITION
THE AFFAIRS OF THE
JEWS WERE. AGRIPPA MAKES A SPEECH TO THE PEOPLE OF
THE JEWS THAT HE MAY DIVERT
THEM FROM THEIR INTENTIONS OF MAKING WAR WITH THE ROMANS.
1. HOWEVER, Florus contrived another way to oblige the Jews to begin
the war, and sent to Cestius, and accused the Jews
falsely of revolting [from the Roman government], and imputed the
beginning of the former fight to them, and pretended they
had been the authors of that disturbance, wherein they were only
the sufferers. Yet were not the governors of Jerusalem silent
upon this occasion, but did themselves write to Cestius, as did
Bernice also, about the illegal practices of which Florus had
been guilty against the city; who, upon reading both accounts, consulted
with his captains [what he should do]. Now some of
them thought it best for Cestius to go up with his army, either
to punish the revolt, if it was real, or to settle the Roman affairs on
a surer foundation, if the Jews continued quiet under them; but
he thought it best himself to send one of his intimate friends
beforehand, to see the state of affairs, and to give him a faithful
account of the intentions of the Jews. Accordingly, he sent one
of his tribunes, whose name was Neopolitanus, who met with king
Agrippa as he was returning from Alexandria, at Jamnia, and
told him who it was that sent him, and on what errands he was sent.
2. And here it was that the high priests, and men of power among
the Jews, as well as the sanhedrim, came to congratulate the
king [upon his safe return]; and after they had paid him their respects,
they lamented their own calamities, and related to him
what barbarous treatment they had met with from Florus. At which
barbarity Agrippa had great indignation, but transferred,
after a subtle manner, his anger towards those Jews whom he really
pitied, that he might beat down their high thoughts of
themselves, and would have them believe that they had not been so
unjustly treated, in order to dissuade them from avenging
themselves. So these great men, as of better understanding than
the rest, and desirous of peace, because of the possessions
they had, understood that this rebuke which the king gave them was
intended for their good; but as to the people, they came
sixty furlongs out of Jerusalem, and congratulated both Agrippa
and Neopolitanus; but the wives of those that had been slain
came running first of all and lamenting. The people also, when they
heard their mourning, fell into lamentations also, and
besought Agrippa to assist them: they also cried out to Neopolitanus,
and complained of the many miseries they had endured
under Florus; and they showed them, when they were come into the
city, how the market-place was made desolate, and the
houses plundered. They then persuaded Neopolitanus, by the means
of Agrippa, that he would walk round the city, with one
only servant, as far as Siloam, that he might inform himself that
the Jews submitted to all the rest of the Romans, and were only
displeased at Florus, by reason of his exceeding barbarity to them.
So he walked round, and had sufficient experience of the
good temper the people were in, and then went up to the temple,
where he called the multitude together, and highly
commended them for their fidelity to the Romans, and earnestly exhorted
them to keep the peace; and having performed such
parts of Divine worship at the temple as he was allowed to do, he
returned to Cestius.
3. But as for the multitude of the Jews, they addressed themselves
to the king, and to the high priests, and desired they might
have leave to send ambassadors to Nero against Florus, and not by
their silence afford a suspicion that they had been the
occasions of such great slaughters as had been made, and were disposed
to revolt, alleging that they should seem to have been
the first beginners of the war, if they did not prevent the report
by showing who it was that began it; and it appeared openly that
they would not be quiet, if any body should hinder them from sending
such an embassage. But Agrippa, although he thought it
too dangerous a thing for them to appoint men to go as the accusers
of Florus, yet did he not think it fit for him to overlook
them, as they were in a disposition for war. He therefore called
the multitude together into a large gallery, and placed his sister
Bernice in the house of the Asamoneans, that she might be seen by
them, (which house was over the gallery, at the passage to
the upper city, where the bridge joined the temple to the gallery,)
and spake to them as follows:
4.(24) " Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to
go to war with the Romans, and that the purer and more
sincere part of the people did not propose to live in peace, I had
not come out to you, nor been so bold as to give you counsel;
for all discourses that tend to persuade men to do what they ought
to do are superfluous, when the hearers are agreed to do the
contrary. But because some are earnest to go to war because they
are young, and without experience of the miseries it brings,
and because some are for it out of an unreasonable expectation of
regaining their liberty, and because others hope to get by it,
and are therefore earnestly bent upon it, that in the confusion
of your affairs they may gain what belongs to those that are too
weak to resist them, I have thought proper to get you all together,
and to say to you what I think to be for your advantage; that
so the former may grow wiser, and change their minds, and that the
best men may come to no harm by the ill conduct of some
others. And let not any one be tumultuous against me, in case what
they hear me say do not please them; for as to those that
admit of no cure, but are resolved upon a revolt, it will still
be in their power to retain the same sentiments after my exhortation
is over; but still my discourse will fall to the ground, even with
a relation to those that have a mind to hear me, unless you will all
keep silence. I am well aware that many make a tragical exclamation
concerning the injuries that have been offered you by your
procurators, and concerning the glorious advantages of liberty;
but before I begin the inquiry, who you are that must go to war,
and who they are against whom you must fight, I shall first separate
those pretenses that are by some connected together; for if
you aim at avenging yourselves on those that have done you injury,
why do you pretend this to be a war for recovering your
liberty? but if you think all servitude intolerable, to what purpose
serve your complaint against your particular governors? for if
they treated you with moderation, it would still be equally an unworthy
thing to be in servitude. Consider now the several cases
that may be supposed, how little occasion there is for your going
to war. Your first occasion is the accusations you have to
make against your procurators; now here you ought to be submissive
to those in authority, and not give them any provocation;
but when you reproach men greatly for small offenses, you excite
those whom you reproach to be your adversaries; for this will
only make them leave off hurting you privately, and with some degree
of modesty, and to lay what you have waste openly.
Now nothing so much damps the force of strokes as bearing them with
patience; and the quietness of those who are injured
diverts the injurious persons from afflicting. But let us take it
for granted that the Roman ministers are injurious to you, and are
incurably severe; yet are they not all the Romans who thus injure
you; nor hath Caesar, against whom you are going to make
war, injured you: it is not by their command that any wicked governor
is sent to you; for they who are in the west cannot see
those that are in the east; nor indeed is it easy for them there
even to hear what is done in these parts. Now it is absurd to make
war with a great many for the sake of one, to do so with such mighty
people for a small cause; and this when these people are
not able to know of what you complain: nay, such crimes as we complain
of may soon be corrected, for the same procurator
will not continue for ever; and probable it is that the successors
will come with more moderate inclinations. But as for war, if it
be once begun, it is not easily laid down again, nor borne without
calamities coming therewith. However, as to the desire of
recovering your liberty, it is unseasonable to indulge it so late;
whereas you ought to have labored earnestly in old time that you
might never have lost it; for the first experience of slavery was
hard to be endured, and the struggle that you might never have
been subject to it would have been just; but that slave who hath
been once brought into subjection, and then runs away, is
rather a refractory slave than a lover of liberty; for it was then
the proper time for doing all that was possible, that you might
never have admitted the Romans [into your city], when Pompey came
first into the country. But so it was, that our ancestors
and their kings, who were in much better circumstances than we are,
both as to money, and strong bodies, and [valiant] souls,
did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman army. And yet
you, who have now accustomed yourselves to obedience
from one generation to another, and who are so much inferior to
those who first submitted, in your circumstances will venture to
oppose the entire empire of the Romans. While those Athenians, who,
in order to preserve the liberty of Greece, did once set
fire to their own city; who pursued Xerxes, that proud prince, when
he sailed upon the land, and walked upon the sea, and
could not be contained by the seas, but conducted such an army as
was too broad for Europe; and made him run away like a
fugitive in a single ship, and brake so great a part of Asia at
the Lesser Salamis; are yet at this time servants to the Romans; and
those injunctions which are sent from Italy become laws to the principal
governing city of Greece. Those Lacedemonians also
who got the great victories at Thermopylae. and Platea, and had
Agesilaus [for their king], and searched every corner of Asia,
are contented to admit the same lords. Those Macedonians also, who
still fancy what great men their Philip and Alexander
were, and see that the latter had promised them the empire over
the world, these bear so great a change, and pay their
obedience to those whom fortune hath advanced in their stead. Moreover,
ten thousand ether nations there are who had greater
reason than we to claim their entire liberty, and yet do submit.
You are the only people who think it a disgrace to be servants to
those to whom all the world hath submitted. What sort of an army
do you rely on? What are the arms you depend on? Where
is your fleet, that may seize upon the Roman seas? and where are
those treasures which may be sufficient for your
undertakings? Do you suppose, I pray you, that you are to make war
with the Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will you not
carefully reflect upon the Roman empire? Will you not estimate your
own weakness? Hath not your army been often beaten
even by your neighboring nations, while the power of the Romans
is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth? nay, rather they
seek for somewhat still beyond that; for all Euphrates is not a
sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube on
the north; and for their southern limit, Libya hath been searched
over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their
limit on the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable
earth beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far
as such British islands as were never known before. What therefore
do you pretend to? Are you richer than the Gauls, stronger
than the Germans, wiser than the Greeks, more numerous than all
men upon the habitable earth? What confidence is it that
elevates you to oppose the Romans? Perhaps it will be said, It is
hard to endure slavery. Yes; but how much harder is this to
the Greeks, who were esteemed the noblest of all people under the
sun! These, though they inhabit in a large country, are in
subjection to six bundles of Roman rods. It is the same case with
the Macedonians, who have juster reason to claim their liberty
than you have. What is the case of five hundred cities of Asia?
Do they not submit to a single governor, and to the consular
bundle of rods? What need I speak of the Henlochi, and Colchi and
the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit the Bosphorus, and
the nations about Pontus, and Meotis, who formerly knew not so much
as a lord of their own, but arc now subject to three
thousand armed men, and where forty long ships keep the sea in peace,
which before was not navigable, and very
tempestuous? How strong a plea may Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and
the people of Pamphylia, the Lycians, and Cilicians, put
in for liberty! But they are made tributary without an army. What
are the circumstances of the Thracians, whose country
extends in breadth five days' journey, and in length seven, and
is of a much more harsh constitution, and much more defensible,
than yours, and by the rigor of its cold sufficient to keep off
armies from attacking them? do not they submit to two thousand
men of the Roman garrisons? Are not the Illyrlans, who inhabit the
country adjoining, as far as Dalmatia and the Danube,
governed by barely two legions? by which also they put a stop to
the incursions of the Daeians. And for the Dalmatians, who
have made such frequent insurrections in order to regain their liberty,
and who could never before be so thoroughly subdued,
but that they always gathered their forces together again, revolted,
yet are they now very quiet under one Roman legion.
Moreover, if eat advantages might provoke any people to revolt,
the Gauls might do it best of all, as being so thoroughly walled
round by nature; on the east side by the Alps, on the north by the
river Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean mountains, and on
the west by the ocean. Now although these Gauls have such obstacles
before them to prevent any attack upon them, and have
no fewer than three hundred and five nations among them, nay have,
as one may say, the fountains of domestic happiness within
themselves, and send out plentiful streams of happiness over almost
the whole world, these bear to be tributary to the Romans,
and derive their prosperous condition from them; and they undergo
this, not because they are of effeminate minds, or because
they are of an ignoble stock, as having borne a war of eighty years
in order to preserve their liberty; but by reason of the great
regard they have to the power of the Romans, and their good fortune,
which is of greater efficacy than their arms. These Gauls,
therefore, are kept in servitude by twelve hundred soldiers, which
are hardly so many as are their cities; nor hath the gold dug
out of the mines of Spain been sufficient for the support of a war
to preserve their liberty, nor could their vast distance from the
Romans by land and by sea do it; nor could the martial tribes of
the Lusitanians and Spaniards escape; no more could the
ocean, with its tide, which yet was terrible to the ancient inhabitants.
Nay, the Romans have extended their arms beyond the
pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds, upon the
Pyrenean mountains, and have subdued these nations. And
one legion is a sufficient guard for these people, although they
were so hard to be conquered, and at a distance so remote from
Rome. Who is there among you that hath not heard of the great number
of the Germans? You have, to be sure, yourselves seen
them to be strong and tall, and that frequently, since the Romans
have them among their captives every where; yet these
Germans, who dwell in an immense country, who have minds greater
than their bodies, and a soul that despises death, and who
are in rage more fierce than wild beasts, have the Rhine for the
boundary of their enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman
legions. Such of them as were taken captive became their servants;
and the rest of the entire nation were obliged to save
themselves by flight. Do you also, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem,
consider what a wall the Britons had; for the Romans
sailed away to them, an subdued them while they were encompassed
by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not less than
the [continent of this] habitable earth; and four legions are a
sufficient guard to so large all island And why should I speak much
more about this matter, while the Parthians, that most warlike body
of men, and lords of so many nations, and encompassed
with such mighty forces, send hostages to the Romans? whereby you
may see, if you please, even in Italy, the noblest nation of
the East, under the notion of peace, submitting to serve them. Now
when almost all people under the sun submit to the Roman
arms, will you be the only people that make war against them? and
this without regarding the fate of the Carthaginians, who, in
the midst of their brags of the great Hannibal, and the nobility
of their Phoenician original, fell by the hand of Scipio. Nor indeed
have the Cyrenians, derived from the Lacedemonians, nor the Marmaridite,
a nation extended as far as the regions
uninhabitable for want of water, nor have the Syrtes, a place terrible
to such as barely hear it described, the Nasamons and
Moors, and the immense multitude of the Numidians, been able to
put a stop to the Roman valor. And as for the third part of
the habitable earth, [Akica,] whose nations are so many that it
is not easy to number them, and which is bounded by the
Atlantic Sea and the pillars of Hercules, and feeds an innumerable
multitude of Ethiopians, as far as the Red Sea, these have the
Romans subdued entirely. And besides the annual fruits of the earth,
which maintain the multitude of the Romans for eight
months in the year, this, over and above, pays all sorts of tribute,
and affords revenues suitable to the necessities of the
government. Nor do they, like you, esteem such injunctions a disgrace
to them, although they have but one Roman legion that
abides among them. And indeed what occasion is there for showing
you the power of the Romans over remote countries, when
it is so easy to learn it from Egypt, in your neighborhood? This
country is extended as far as the Ethiopians, and Arabia the
Happy, and borders upon India; it hath seven millions five hundred
thousand men, besides the inhabitants of Alexandria, as may
be learned from the revenue of the poll tax; yet it is not ashamed
to submit to the Roman government, although it hath
Alexandria as a grand temptation to a revolt, by reason it is so
full of people and of riches, and is besides exceeding large, its
length being thirty furlongs, and its breadth no less than ten;
and it pays more tribute to the Romans in one month than you do in
a year; nay, besides what it pays in money, it sends corn to Rome
that supports it for four months [in the year]: it is also walled
round on all sides, either by almost impassable deserts, or seas
that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes; yet have none of
these things been found too strong for the Roman good fortune; however,
two legions that lie in that city are a bridle both for
the remoter parts of Egypt, and for the parts inhabited by the more
noble Macedonians. Where then are those people whom
you are to have for your auxiliaries? Must they come from the parts
of the world that are uninhabited? for all that are in the
habitable earth are [under the] Romans. Unless any of you extend
his hopes as far as beyond the Euphrates, and suppose that
those of your own nation that dwell in Adiabene will come to your
assistance; but certainly these will not embarrass themselves
with an unjustifiable war, nor, if they should follow such ill advice,
will the Parthians permit them so to do; for it is their concern
to maintain the truce that is between them and the Romans, and they
will be supposed to break the covenants between them, if
any under their government march against the Romans. What remains,
therefore, is this, that you have recourse to Divine
assistance; but this is already on the side of the Romans; for it
is impossible that so vast an empire should be settled without
God's providence. Reflect upon it, how impossible it is for your
zealous observations of your religious customs to be here
preserved, which are hard to be observed even when you fight with
those whom you are able to conquer; and how can you
then most of all hope for God's assistance, when, by being forced
to transgress his law, you will make him turn his face from
you? and if you do observe the custom of the sabbath days, and will
not be revealed on to do any thing thereon, you will easily
be taken, as were your forefathers by Pompey, who was the busiest
in his siege on those days on which the besieged rested.
But if in time of war you transgress the law of your country, I
cannot tell on whose account you will afterward go to war; for
your concern is but one, that you do nothing against any of your
forefathers; and how will you call upon God to assist you,
when you are voluntarily transgressing against his religion? Now
all men that go to war do it either as depending on Divine or on
human assistance; but since your going to war will cut off both
those assistances, those that are for going to war choose evident
destruction. What hinders you from slaying your children and wives
with your own hands, and burning this most excellent native
city of yours? for by this mad prank you will, however, escape the
reproach of being beaten. But it were best, O my friends, it
were best, while the vessel is still in the haven, to foresee the
impending storm, and not to set sail out of the port into the middle
of the hurricanes; for we justly pity those who fall into great
misfortunes without fore-seeing them; but for him who rushes into
manifest ruin, he gains reproaches [instead of commiseration]. But
certainly no one can imagine that you can enter into a war as
by agreement, or that when the Romans have got you under their power,
they will use you with moderation, or will not rather,
for an example to other nations, burn your holy city, and utterly
destroy your whole nation; for those of you who shall survive
the war will not be able to find a place whither to flee, since
all men have the Romans for their lords already, or are afraid they
shall have hereafter. Nay, indeed, the danger concerns not those
Jews that dwell here only, but those of them which dwell in
other cities also; for there is no people upon the habitable earth
which have not some portion of you among them, whom your
enemies will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account also;
and so every city which hath Jews in it will be filled with
slaughter for the sake of a few men, and they who slay them will
be pardoned; but if that slaughter be not made by them,
consider how wicked a thing it is to take arms against those that
are so kind to you. Have pity, therefore, if not on your children
and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, and its sacred walls;
spare the temple, and preserve the holy house, with its holy
furniture, for yourselves; for if the Romans get you under their
power, they will no longer abstain from them, when their former
abstinence shall have been so ungratefully requited. I call to witness
your sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this
country common to us all, that I have not kept back any thing that
is for your preservation; and if you will follow that advice
which you ought to do, you will have that peace which will be common
to you and to me; but if you indulge four passions, you
will run those hazards which I shall be free from."
5. When Agrippa had spoken thus, both he and his sister wept, and
by their tears repressed a great deal of the violence of the
people; but still they cried out, that they would not fight against
the Romans, but against Florus, on account of what they had
suffered by his means. To which Agrippa replied, that what they
had already done was like such as make war against the
Romans; "for you have not paid the tribute which is due to Caesar
(25) and you have cut off the cloisters [of the temple] from
joining to the tower Antonia. You will therefore prevent any occasion
of revolt if you will but join these together again, and if
you will but pay your tribute; for the citadel does not now belong
to Florus, nor are you to pay the tribute money to Florus."
CHAPTER 17.
HOW THE WAR OF THE JEWS WITH THE ROMANS BEGAN,
AND CONCERNING MANAHEM.
1. THIS advice the people hearkened to, and went up into the temple
with the king and Bernice, and began to rebuild the
cloisters; the rulers also and senators divided themselves into
the villages, and collected the tributes, and soon got together forty
talents, which was the sum that was deficient. And thus did Agrippa
then put a stop to that war which was threatened.
Moreover, he attempted to persuade the multitude to obey Florus,
until Caesar should send one to succeed him; but they were
hereby more provoked, and cast reproaches upon the king, and got
him excluded out of the city; nay, some of the seditious had
the impudence to throw stones at him. So when the king saw that
the violence of those that were for innovations was not to be
restrained, and being very angry at the contumelies he had received,
he sent their rulers, together with their men of power, to
Florus, to Cesarea, that he might appoint whom he thought fit to
collect the tribute in the country, while he retired into his own
kingdom.
2. And at this time it was that some of those that principally excited
the people to go to war made an assault upon a certain
fortress called Masada. They took it by treachery, and slew the
Romans that were there, and put others of their own party to
keep it. At the same time Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high priest,
a very bold youth, who was at that time governor of the
temple, persuaded those that officiated in the Divine service to
receive no gift or sacrifice for any foreigner. And this was the
true beginning of our war with the Romans; for they rejected the
sacrifice of Caesar on this account; and when many of the high
priests and principal men besought them not to omit the sacrifice,
which it was customary for them to offer for their princes,
they would not be prevailed upon. These relied much upon their multitude,
for the most flourishing part of the innovators
assisted them; but they had the chief regard to Eleazar, the governor
of the temple.
3. Hereupon the men of power got together, and conferred with the
high priests, as did also the principal of the Pharisees; and
thinking all was at stake, and that their calamities were becoming
incurable, took counsel what was to be done. Accordingly,
they determined to try what they could do with the seditious by
words, and assembled the people before the brazen gate, which
was that gate of the inner temple [court of the priests] which looked
toward the sun-rising. And, in the first place, they showed
the great indignation they had at this attempt for a revolt, and
for their bringing so great a war upon their country; after which
they confuted their pretense as unjustifiable, and told them that
their forefathers had adorned their temple in great part with
donations bestowed on them by foreigners, and had always received
what had been presented to them from foreign nations;
and that they had been so far from rejecting any person's sacrifice
(which would be the highest instance of impiety,) that they
had themselves placed those donation about the temple which were
still visible, and had remained there so long a time; that they
did now irritate the Romans to take arms against them, and invited
them to make war upon them, and brought up novel rules of
a strange Divine worship, and determined to run the hazard of having
their city condemned for impiety, while they would not
allow any foreigner, but Jews only, either to sacrifice or to worship
therein. And if such a law should be introduced in the case
of a single private person only, he would have indignation at it,
as an instance of inhumanity determined against him; while they
have no regard to the Romans or to Caesar, and forbid even their
oblations to be received also; that however they cannot but
fear, lest, by thus rejecting their sacrifices, they shall not be
allowed to offer their own; and that this city will lose its principality,
unless they grow wiser quickly, and restore the sacrifices as formerly,
and indeed amend the injury [they have offered
foreigners] before the report of it comes to the ears of those that
have been injured.
4. And as they said these things, they produced those priests that
were skillful in the customs of their country, who made the
report that all their forefathers had received the sacrifices from
foreign nations. But still not one of the innovators would hearken
to what was said; nay, those that ministered about the temple would
not attend their Divine service, but were preparing matters
for beginning the war. So the men of power perceiving that the sedition
was too hard for them to subdue, and that the danger
which would arise from the Romans would come upon them first of
all, endeavored to save themselves, and sent ambassadors,
some to Florus, the chief of which was Simon the son of Ananias;
and others to Agrippa, among whom the most eminent were
Saul, and Antipas, and Costobarus, who were of the king's kindred;
and they desired of them both that they would come with
an army to the city, and cut off the seditious before it should
be too hard to be subdued. Now this terrible message was good
news to Florus; and because his design was to have a war kindled,
he gave the ambassadors no answer at all. But Agrippa was
equally solicitous for those that were revolting, and for those
against whom the war was to be made, and was desirous to
preserve the Jews for the Romans, and the temple and metropolis
for the Jews; he was also sensible that it was not for his own
advantage that the disturbances should proceed; so he sent three
thousand horsemen to the assistance of the people out of
Auranitis, and Batanea, and Trachonitis, and these under Darius,
the master of his horse, and Philip the son of Jacimus, the
general of his army.
5. Upon this the men of power, with the high priests, as also all
the part of the multitude that were desirous of peace, took
courage, and seized upon the upper city [Mount Sion;] for the seditious
part had the lower city and the temple in their power;
so they made use of stones and slings perpetually against one another,
and threw darts continually on both sides; and sometimes
it happened that they made incursions by troops, and fought it out
hand to hand, while the seditious were superior in boldness,
but the king's soldiers in skill. These last strove chiefly to gain
the temple, and to drive those out of it who profaned it; as did the
seditious, with Eleazar, besides what they had already, labor to
gain the upper city. Thus were there perpetual slaughters on
both sides for seven days' time; but neither side would yield up
the parts they had seized on.
6. Now the next day was the festival of Xylophory; upon which the
custom was for every one to bring wood for the altar (that
there might never be a want of fuel for that fire which was unquenchable
and always burning). Upon that day they excluded the
opposite party from the observation of this part of religion. And
when they had joined to themselves many of the Sicarii, who
crowded in among the weaker people, (that was the name for such
robbers as had under their bosoms swords called Sicae,)
they grew bolder, and carried their undertaking further; insomuch
that the king's soldiers were overpowered by their multitude
and boldness; and so they gave way, and were driven out of the upper
city by force. The others then set fire to the house of
Ananias the high priest, and to the palaces of Agrippa and Bernice;
after which they carried the fire to the place where the
archives were reposited, and made haste to burn the contracts belonging
to their creditors, and thereby to dissolve their
obligations for paying their debts; and this was done in order to
gain the multitude of those who had been debtors, and that they
might persuade the poorer sort to join in their insurrection with
safety against the more wealthy; so the keepers of the records
fled away, and the rest set fire to them. And when they had thus
burnt down the nerves of the city, they fell upon their enemies;
at which time some of the men of power, and of the high priests,
went into the vaults under ground, and concealed themselves,
while others fled with the king's soldiers to the upper palace,
and shut the gates immediately; among whom were Ananias the
high priest, and the ambassadors that had been sent to Agrippa.
And now the seditious were contented with the victory they
had gotten, and the buildings they had burnt down, and proceeded
no further.
7. But on the next day, which was the fifteenth of the month Lous,
[Ab,] they made an assault upon Antonia, and besieged the
garrison which was in it two days, and then took the garrison, and
slew them, and set the citadel on fire; after which they
marched to the palace, whither the king's soldiers were fled, and
parted themselves into four bodies, and made an attack upon
the walls. As for those that were within it, no one had the courage
to sally out, because those that assaulted them were so
numerous; but they distributed themselves into the breast-works
and turrets, and shot at the besiegers, whereby many of the
robbers fell under the walls; nor did they cease to fight one with
another either by night or by day, while the seditious supposed
that those within would grow weary for want of food, and those without
supposed the others would do the like by the
tediousness of the siege.
8. In the mean time, one Manahem, the son of Judas, that was called
the Galilean, (who was a very cunning sophister, and had
formerly reproached the Jews under Cyrenius, that after God they
were subject to the Romans,) took some of the men of note
with him, and retired to Masada, where he broke open king Herod's
armory, and gave arms not only to his own people, but to
other robbers also. These he made use of for a guard, and returned
in the state of a king to Jerusalem; he became the leader of
the sedition, and gave orders for continuing the siege; but they
wanted proper instruments, and it was not practicable to
undermine the wall, because the darts came down upon them from above.
But still they dug a mine from a great distance under
one of the towers, and made it totter; and having done that, they
set on fire what was combustible, and left it; and when the
foundations were burnt below, the tower fell down suddenly. Yet
did they then meet with another wall that had been built
within, for the besieged were sensible beforehand of what they were
doing, and probably the tower shook as it was
undermining; so they provided themselves of another fortification;
which when the besiegers unexpectedly saw, while they
thought they had already gained the place, they were under some
consternation. However, those that were within sent to
Manahem, and to the other leaders of the sedition, and desired they
might go out upon a capitulation: this was granted to the
king's soldiers and their own countrymen only, who went out accordingly;
but the Romans that were left alone were greatly
dejected, for they were not able to force their way through such
a multitude; and to desire them to give them their right hand for
their security, they thought it would be a reproach to them; and
besides, if they should give it them, they durst not depend upon
it; so they deserted their camp, as easily taken, and ran away to
the royal towers, - that called Hippicus, that called Phasaelus,
and that called Mariamne. But Manahem and his party fell upon the
place whence the soldiers were fled, and slew as many of
them as they could catch, before they got up to the towers, and
plundered what they left behind them, and set fire to their
camp. This was executed on the sixth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul].
9. But on the next day the high priest was caught where he had concealed
himself in an aqueduct; he was slain, together with
Hezekiah his brother, by the robbers: hereupon the seditious besieged
the towers, and kept them guarded, lest any one of the
soldiers should escape. Now the overthrow of the places of strength,
and the death of the high priest Ananias, so puffed up
Manahem, that he became barbarously cruel; and as he thought he
had no antagonist to dispute the management of affairs with
him, he was no better than an insupportable tyrant; but Eleazar
and his party, when words had passed between them, how it
was not proper when they revolted from the Romans, out of the desire
of liberty, to betray that liberty to any of their own
people, and to bear a lord, who, though he should be guilty of no
violence, was yet meaner than themselves; as also, that in
case they were obliged to set some one over their public affairs,
it was fitter they should give that privilege to any one rather
than to him; they made an assault upon him in the temple; for he
went up thither to worship in a pompous manner, and adorned
with royal garments, and had his followers with him in their armor.
But Eleazar and his party fell violently upon him, as did also
the rest of the people; and taking up stones to attack him withal,
they threw them at the sophister, and thought, that if he were
once ruined, the entire sedition would fall to the ground. Now Manahem
and his party made resistance for a while; but when
they perceived that the whole multitude were falling upon them,
they fled which way every one was able; those that were caught
were slain, and those that hid themselves were searched for. A few
there were of them who privately escaped to Masada,
among whom was Eleazar, the son of Jairus, who was of kin to Manahem,
and acted the part of a tyrant at Masada afterward.
As for Manahem himself, he ran away to the place called Ophla, and
there lay skulking in private; but they took him alive, and
drew him out before them all; they then tortured him with many sorts
of torments, and after all slew him, as they did by those
that were captains under him also, and particularly by the principal
instrument of his tyranny, whose name was Apsalom.
10. And, as I said, so far truly the people assisted them, while
they hoped this might afford some amendment to the seditious
practices; but the others were not in haste to put an end to the
war, but hoped to prosecute it with less danger, now they had
slain Manahem. It is true, that when the people earnestly desired
that they would leave off besieging the soldiers, they were the
more earnest in pressing it forward, and this till Metilius, who
was the Roman general, sent to Eleazar, and desired that they
would. give them security to spare their lives only; but agreed
to deliver up their arms, and what else they had with them. The
others readily complied with their petition, sent to them Gorion,
the son of Nicodemus, and Ananias, the son of Sadduk, and
Judas, the son of Jonathan, that they might give them the security
Of their right hands, and of their oaths; after which Metilius
brought down his soldiers; which soldiers, while they were in arms,
were not meddled with by any of the seditious, nor was
there any appearance of treachery; but as soon as, according to
the articles of capitulation, they had all laid down their shields
and their swords, and were under no further suspicion of any harm,
but were going away, Eleazar's men attacked them after a
violent manner, and encompassed them round, and slew them, while
they neither defended themselves, nor entreated for mercy,
but only cried out upon the breach of their articles of capitulation
and their oaths. And thus were all these men barbarously
murdered, excepting Metilius; for when he entreated for mercy, and
promised that he would turn Jew, and be circumcised, they
saved him alive, but none else. This loss to the Romans was but
light, there being no more than a few slain out of an immense
army; but still it appeared to be a prelude to the Jews' own destruction,
while men made public lamentation when they saw that
such occasions were afforded for a war as were incurable; that the
city was all over polluted with such abominations, from
which it was but reasonable to expect some vengeance, even though
they should escape revenge from the Romans; so that the
city was filled with sadness, and every one of the moderate men
in it were under great disturbance, as likely themselves to
undergo punishment for the wickedness of the seditious; for indeed
it so happened that this murder was perpetrated on the
sabbath day, on which day the Jews have a respite from their works
on account of Divine worship.
CHAPTER 18.
THE CALAMITIES AND SLAUGHTERS THAT CAME UPON THE JEWS.
1. NOW the people of Cesarea had slain the Jews that were among them
on the very same day and hour [when the soldiers
were slain], which one would think must have come to pass by the
direction of Providence; insomuch that in one hour's time
above twenty thousand Jews were killed, and all Cesarea was emptied
of its Jewish inhabitants; for Florus caught such as ran
away, and sent them in bonds to the galleys. Upon which stroke that
the Jews received at Cesarea, the whole nation was
greatly enraged; so they divided themselves into several parties,
and laid waste the villages of the Syrians, and their neighboring
cities, Philadelphia, and Sebonitis, and Gerasa, and Pella, and
Scythopolis, and after them Gadara, and Hippos; and falling
upon Gaulonitis, some cities they destroyed there, and some they
set on fire, and then went to Kedasa, belonging to the
Tyrians, and to Ptolemais, and to Gaba, and to Cesarea; nor was
either Sebaste [Samaria] or Askelon able to oppose the
violence with which they were attacked; and when they had burnt
these to the ground; they entirely demolished Anthedon and
Gaza; many also of the villages that were about every one of those
cities were plundered, and an immense slaughter was made
of the men who were caught in them.
2. However, the Syrians were even with the Jews in the multitude
of the men whom they slew; for they killed those whom they
caught in their cities, and that not only out of the hatred they
bare them, as formerly, but to prevent the danger under which they
were from them; so that the disorders in all Syria were terrible,
and every city was divided into two armies, encamped one
against another, and the preservation of the one party was in the
destruction of the other; so the day time was spent in shedding
of blood, and the night in fear, which was of the two the more terrible;
for when the Syrians thought they had ruined the Jews,
they had the Judaizers in suspicion also; and as each side did not
care to slay those whom they only suspected on the other, so
did they greatly fear them when they were mingled with the other,
as if they were certainly foreigners. Moreover, greediness of
gain was a provocation to kill the opposite party, even to such
as had of old appeared very mild and gentle towards them; for
they without fear plundered the effects of the slain, and carried
off the spoils of those whom they slew to their own houses, as if
they had been gained in a set battle; and he was esteemed a man
of honor who got the greatest share, as having prevailed over
the greatest number of his enemies. It was then common to see cities
filled with dead bodies, still lying unburied, and those of
old men, mixed with infants, all dead, and scattered about together;
women also lay amongst them, without any covering for
their nakedness: you might then see the whole province full of inexpressible
calamities, while the dread of still more barbarous
practices which were threatened was every where greater than what
had been already perpetrated.
3. And thus far the conflict had been between Jews and foreigners;
but when they made excursions to Scythopolis, they found
Jew that acted as enemies; for as they stood in battle-array with
those of Scythopolis, and preferred their own safety before
their relation to us, they fought against their own countrymen;
nay, their alacrity was so very great, that those of Scythopolis
suspected them. These were afraid, therefore, lest they should make
an assault upon the city in the night time, and, to their great
misfortune, should thereby make an apology for themselves to their
own people for their revolt from them. So they commanded
them, that in case they would confirm their agreement and demonstrate
their fidelity to them, who were of a different nation,
they should go out of the city, with their families to a neighboring
grove; and when they had done as they were commanded,
without suspecting any thing, the people of Scythopolis lay still
for the interval of two days, to tempt them to be secure; but on
the third night they watched their opportunity, and cut all their
throats, some as they lay unguarded, and some as they lay
asleep. The number that was slain was above thirteen thousand, and
then they plundered them of all that they had.
4. It will deserve our relation what befell Simon; he was the son
of one Saul, a man of reputation among the Jews. This man
was distinguished from the rest by the strength of his body, and
the boldness of his conduct, although he abused them both to
the mischieving of his countrymen; for he came every day and slew
a great many of the Jews of Scythopolis, and he frequently
put them to flight, and became himself alone the cause of his army's
conquering. But a just punishment overtook him for the
murders he had committed upon those of the same nation with him;
for when the people of Scythopolis threw their darts at
them in the grove, he drew his sword, but did not attack any of
the enemy; for he saw that he could do nothing against such a
multitude; but he cried out after a very moving manner, and said,
"O you people of Scythopolis, I deservedly suffer for what I
have done with relation to you, when I gave you such security of
my fidelity to you, by slaying so many of those that were
related to me. Wherefore we very justly experience the perfidiousness
of foreigners, while we acted after a most wicked
manner against our own nation. I will therefore die, polluted wretch
as I am, by nine own hands; for it is not fit I should die by
the hand of our enemies; and let the same action be to me both a
punishment for my great crimes, and a testimony of my
courage to my commendation, that so no one of our enemies may have
it to brag of, that he it was that slew me, and no one
may insult upon me as I fall." Now when he had said this, he looked
round about him upon his family with eyes of
commiseration and of rage (that family consisted of a wife and children,
and his aged parents); so, in the first place, he caught
his father by his grey hairs, and ran his sword through him, and
after him he did the same to his mother, who willingly received
it; and after them he did the like to his wife and children, every
one almost offering themselves to his sword, as desirous to
prevent being slain by their enemies; so when he had gone over all
his family, he stood upon their bodies to be seen by all, and
stretching out his right hand, that his action might be observed
by all, he sheathed his entire sword into his own bowels. This
young man was to be pitied, on account of the strength of his body
and the courage of his soul; but since he had assured
foreigners of his fidelity [against his own countrymen], he suffered
deservedly.
5. Besides this murder at Scythopolis, the other cities rose up against
the Jews that were among them; those of Askelon slew
two thousand five hundred, and those of Ptolemais two thousand,
and put not a few into bonds; those of Tyre also put a great
number to death, but kept a greater number in prison; moreover,
those of Hippos, and those of Gadara, did the like while they
put to death the boldest of the Jews, but kept those of whom they
were afraid in custody; as did the rest of the cities of Syria,
according as they every one either hated them or were afraid of
them; only the Antiochtans the Sidontans, and Apamians
spared those that dwelt with them, and would not endure either to
kill any of the Jews, or to put them in bonds. And perhaps
they spared them, because their own number was so great that they
despised their attempts. But I think the greatest part of this
favor was owing to their commiseration of those whom they saw to
make no innovations. As for the Gerasans, they did no
harm to those that abode with them; and for those who had a mind
to go away, they conducted them as far as their borders
reached.
6. There was also a plot laid against the Jews in Agrippa's kingdom;
for he was himself gone to Cestius Gallus, to Antioch, but
had left one of his companions, whose name was Noarus, to take care
of the public affairs; which Noarus was of kin to king
Sohemus. (26) Now there came certain men seventy in number, out
of Batanea, who were the most considerable for their
families and prudence of the rest of the people; these desired to
have an army put into their hands, that if any tumult should
happen, they might have about them a guard sufficient to restrain
such as might rise up against them. This Noarus sent out some
of the king's armed men by night, and slew all those [seventy] men;
which bold action he ventured upon without the consent of
Agrippa, and was such a lover of money, that he chose to be so wicked
to his own countrymen, though he brought ruin on the
kingdom thereby; and thus cruelly did he treat that nation, and
this contrary to the laws also, until Agrippa was informed of it,
who did not indeed dare to put him to death, out of regard to Sohemus;
but still he put an end to his procuratorship
immediately. But as to the seditious, they took the citadel which
was called Cypros, and was above Jericho, and cut the throats
of the garrison, and utterly demolished the fortifications. This
was about the same time that the multitude of the Jews that were
at Machorus persuaded the Romans who were in garrison to leave the
place, and deliver it up to them. These Romans being in
great fear, lest the place should be taken by force, made an agreement
with them to depart upon certain conditions; and when
they had obtained the security they desired, they delivered up the
citadel, into which the people of 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 against
the Jews was perpetual, and this from that very time when
Alexander [the Great], upon finding the readiness of the Jews in
assisting him against the Egyptians, and as a reward for such
their assistance, gave them equal privileges in this city with the
Grecians themselves; which honorary reward Continued among
them under his successors, who also set apart for them a particular
place, that they might live without being polluted [by the
Gentiles], and were thereby not so much intermixed with foreigners
as before; they also gave them this further privilege, that
they should be called Macedonians. Nay, when the Romans got possession
of Egypt, neither the first Caesar, nor any one that
came after him, thought of diminishing the honors which Alexander
had bestowed on the Jews. But still conflicts perpetually
arose with the Grecians; and although the governors did every day
punish many of them, yet did the sedition grow worse; but at
this time especially, when there were tumults in other places also,
the disorders among them were put into a greater flame; for
when the Alexandrians had once a public assembly, to deliberate
about an embassage they were sending to Nero, a great
number of Jews came flocking to the theater; but when their adversaries
saw them, they immediately cried out, and called them
their enemies, and said they came as spies upon them; upon which
they rushed out, and laid violent hands upon them; and as for
the rest, they were slain as they ran away; but there were three
men whom they caught, and hauled them along, in order to have
them burnt alive; but all the Jews came in a body to defend them,
who at first threw stones at the Grecians, but after that they
took lamps, and rushed with violence into the theater, and threatened
that they would burn the people to a man; and this they
had soon done, unless Tiberius Alexander, the governor of the city,
had restrained their passions. However, this man did not
begin to teach them wisdom by arms, but sent among them privately
some of the principal men, and thereby entreated them to
be quiet, and not provoke the Roman army against them; but the seditious
made a jest of the entreaties of Tiberius, and
reproached him for so doing.
8. Now when he perceived that those who were for innovations would
not be pacified till some great calamity should overtake
them, he sent out upon them those two Roman legions that were in
the city, and together with them five thousand other soldiers,
who, by chance, were come together out of Libya, to the ruin of
the Jews. They were also permitted not only to kill them, but
to plunder them of what they had, and to set fire to their houses.
These soldiers rushed violently into that part of the city that
was called Delta, where the Jewish people lived together, and did
as they were bidden, though not without bloodshed on their
own side also; for the Jews got together, and set those that were
the best armed among them in the forefront, and made a
resistance for a great while; but when once they gave back, they
were destroyed unmercifully; and this their destruction was
complete, some being caught in the open field, and others forced
into their houses, which houses were first plundered of what
was in them, and then set on fire by the Romans; wherein no mercy
was shown to the infants, and no regard had to the aged;
but they went on in the slaughter of persons of every age, till
all the place was overflowed with blood, and fifty thousand of
them lay dead upon heaps; nor had the remainder been preserved,
had they not be-taken themselves to supplication. So
Alexander commiserated their condition, and gave orders to the Romans
to retire; accordingly, these being accustomed to obey
orders, left off killing at the first intimation; but the populace
of Alexandria bare so very great hatred to the Jews, that it was
difficult to recall them, and it was a hard thing to make them leave
their dead bodies.
9. And this was the miserable calamity which at this time befell
the Jews at Alexandria. Hereupon Cestius thought fit no longer
to lie still, while the Jews were everywhere up in arms; so he took
out of Antioch the twelfth legion entire, and out of each of the
rest he selected two thousand, with six cohorts of footmen, and
four troops of horsemen, besides those auxiliaries which were
sent by the kings; of which Antiochus sent two thousand horsemen,
and three thousand footmen, with as many archers; and
Agrippa sent the same number of footmen, and one thousand horsemen;
Sohemus also followed with four thousand, a third part
whereof were horsemen, but most part were archers, and thus did
he march to Ptolemais. There were also great numbers of
auxiliaries gathered together from the [free] cities, who indeed
had not the same skill in martial affairs, but made up in their
alacrity and in their hatred to the Jews what they wanted in skill.
There came also along with Cestius Agrippa himself, both as a
guide in his march over the country, and a director what was fit
to be done; so Cestius took part of his forces, and marched
hastily to Zabulon, a strong city of Galilee, which was called the
City of Men, and divides the country of Ptolemais from our
nation; this he found deserted by its men, the multitude having
fled to the mountains, but full of all sorts of good things; those he
gave leave to the soldiers to plunder, and set fire to the city,
although it was of admirable beauty, and had its houses built like
those in Tyre, and Sidon, and Berytus. After this he overran all
the country, and seized upon whatsoever came in his way, and
set fire to the villages that were round about them, and then returned
to Ptolemais. But when the Syrians, and especially those
of Berytus, were busy in plundering, the Jews pulled up their courage
again, for they knew that Cestius was retired, and fell
upon those that were left behind unexpectedly, and destroyed about
two thousand of them. (27)
10. And now Cestius himself marched from Ptolemais, and came to Cesarea;
but he sent part of his army before him to Joppa,
and gave order, that if they could take that city [by surprise]
they should keep it; but that in case the citizens should perceive
they were coming to attack them, that they then should stay for
him, and for the rest of the army. So some of them made a brisk
march by the sea-side, and some by land, and so coming upon them
on both sides, they took the city with ease; and as the
inhabitants had made no provision beforehand for a flight, nor had
gotten any thing ready for fighting, the soldiers fell upon
them, and slew them all, with their families, and then plundered
and burnt the city. The number of the slain was eight thousand
four hundred. In like manner, Cestius sent also a considerable body
of horsemen to the toparchy of Narbatene, that adjoined to
Cesarea, who destroyed the country, and slew a great multitude of
its people; they also plundered what they had, and burnt
their villages.
11. But Cestius sent Gallus, the commander of the twelfth legion,
into Galilee, and delivered to him as many of his forces as he
supposed sufficient to subdue that nation. He was received by the
strongest city of Galilee, which was Sepphoris, with
acclamations of joy; which wise conduct of that city occasioned
the rest of the cities to be in quiet; while the seditious part and
the robbers ran away to that mountain which lies in the very middle
of Galilee, and is situated over against Sepphoris; it is called
Asamon. So Gallus brought his forces against them; but while those
men were in the superior parts above the Romans, they
easily threw their darts upon the Romans, as they made their approaches,
and slew about two hundred of them. But when the
Romans had gone round the mountains, and were gotten into the parts
above their enemies, the others were soon beaten; nor
could they who had only light armor on sustain the force of them
that fought them armed all over; nor when they were beaten
could they escape the enemies' horsemen; insomuch that only some
few concealed themselves in certain places hard to be
come at, among the mountains, while the rest, above two thousand
in number, were slain.
CHAPTER 19.
WHAT CESTIUS DID AGAINST THE JEWS; AND HOW, UPON
HIS BESIEGING JERUSALEM, HE
RETREATED FROM THE CITY WITHOUT ANY JUST OCCASION IN
THE WORLD. AS ALSO WHAT
SEVERE CALAMITIES HE UNDER WENT FROM THE JEWS IN HIS RETREAT.
1. AND now Gallus, seeing nothing more that looked towards an innovation
in Galilee, returned with his army to Cesarea: but
Cestius removed with his whole army, and marched to Antipatris;
and when he was informed that there was a great body of
Jewish forces gotten together in a certain tower called Aphek, he
sent a party before to fight them; but this party dispersed the
Jews by affrighting them before it came to a battle: so they came,
and finding their camp deserted, they burnt it, as well as the
villages that lay about it. But when Cestius had marched from Antipatris
to Lydda, he found the city empty of its men, for the
whole multitude (28) were gone up to Jerusalem to the feast of tabernacles;
yet did he destroy fifty of those that showed
themselves, and burnt the city, and so marched forwards; and ascending
by Betboron, he pitched his camp at a certain place
called Gabao, fifty furlongs distant from Jerusalem.
2. But as for the Jews, when they saw the war approaching to their
metropolis, they left the feast, and betook themselves to
their arms; and taking courage greatly from their multitude, went
in a sudden and disorderly manner to the fight, with a great
noise, and without any consideration had of the rest of the seventh
day, although the Sabbath (29) was the day to which they
had the greatest regard; but that rage which made them forget the
religious observation [of the sabbath] made them too hard for
their enemies in the fight: with such violence therefore did they
fall upon the Romans, as to break into their ranks, and to march
through the midst of them, making a great slaughter as they went,
insomuch that unless the horsemen, and such part of the
footmen as were not yet tired in the action, had wheeled round,
and succored that part of the army which was not yet broken,
Cestius, with his whole army, had been in danger: however, five
hundred and fifteen of the Romans were slain, of which number
four hundred were footmen, and the rest horsemen, while the Jews
lost only twenty-two, of whom the most valiant were the
kinsmen of Monobazus, king of Adiabene, and their names were Monobazus
and Kenedeus; and next to them were Niger of
Perea, and Silas of Babylon, who had deserted from king Agrippa
to the Jews; for he had formerly served in his army. When
the front of the Jewish army had been cut off, the Jews retired
into the city; but still Simon, the son of Giora, fell upon the backs
of the Romans, as they were ascending up Bethoron, and put the hindmost
of the army into disorder, and carried off many of
the beasts that carded the weapons of war, and led Shem into the
city. But as Cestius tarried there three days, the Jews seized
upon the elevated parts of the city, and set watches at the entrances
into the city, and appeared openly resolved not to rest
when once the Romans should begin to march.
3. And now when Agrippa observed that even the affairs of the Romans
were likely to be in danger, while such an immense
multitude of their enemies had seized upon the mountains round about,
he determined to try what the Jews would agree to by
words, as thinking that he should either persuade them all to desist
from fighting, or, however, that he should cause the sober
part of them to separate themselves from the opposite party. So
he sent Borceus and Phebus, the persons of his party that
were the best known to them, and promised them that Cestius should
give them his right hand, to secure them of the Romans'
entire forgiveness of what they had done amiss, if they would throw
away their arms, and come over to them; but the seditious,
fearing lest the whole multitude, in hopes of security to themselves,
should go over to Agrippa, resolved immediately to fall upon
and kill the ambassadors; accordingly they slew Phebus before he
said a word, but Borceus was only wounded, and so
prevented his fate by flying away. And when the people were very
angry at this, they had the seditious beaten with stones and
clubs, and drove them before them into the city.
4. But now Cestius, observing that the disturbances that were begun
among the Jews afforded him a proper opportunity to
attack them, took his whole army along with him, and put the Jews
to flight, and pursued them to Jerusalem. He then pitched his
camp upon the elevation called Scopus, [or watch-tower,] which was
distant seven furlongs from the city; yet did not he assault
them in three days' time, out of expectation that those within might
perhaps yield a little; and in the mean time he sent out a great
many of his soldiers into neighboring villages, to seize upon their
corn. And on the fourth day, which was the thirtieth of the
month Hyperbereteus, [Tisri,] when he had put his army in array,
he brought it into the city. Now for the people, they were
kept under by the seditious; but the seditious themselves were greatly
affrighted at the good order of the Romans, and retired
from the suburbs, and retreated into the inner part of the city,
and into the temple. But when Cestius was come into the city, he
set the part called Bezetha, which is called Cenopolis, [or the
new city,] on fire; as he did also to the timber market; after which
he came into the upper city, and pitched his camp over against the
royal palace; and had he but at this very time attempted to
get within the walls by force, he had won the city presently, and
the war had been put an end to at once; but Tyrannius Priseus,
the muster-master of the army, and a great number of the officers
of the horse, had been corrupted by Florus, and diverted him
from that his attempt; and that was the occasion that this war lasted
so very long, and thereby the Jews were involved in such
incurable calamities.
5. In the mean time, many of the principal men of the city were persuaded
by Ananus, the son of Jonathan, and invited Cestius
into the city, and were about to open the gates for him; but he
overlooked this offer, partly out of his anger at the Jews, and
partly because he did not thoroughly believe they were in earnest;
whence it was that he delayed the matter so long, that the
seditious perceived the treachery, and threw Ananus and those of
his party down from the wall, and, pelting them with stones,
drove them into their houses; but they stood themselves at proper
distances in the towers, and threw their darts at those that
were getting over the wall. Thus did the Romans make their attack
against the wall for five days, but to no purpose. But on the
next day Cestius took a great many of his choicest men, and with
them the archers, and attempted to break into the temple at
the northern quarter of it; but the Jews beat them off from the
cloisters, and repulsed them several times when they were gotten
near to the wall, till at length the multitude of the darts cut
them off, and made them retire; but the first rank of the Romans
rested their shields upon the wall, and so did those that were behind
them, and the like did those that were still more backward,
and guarded themselves with what they call Testudo, [the back of]
a tortoise, upon which the darts that were thrown fell, and
slided off without doing them any harm; so the soldiers undermined
the wall, without being themselves hurt, and got all things
ready for setting fire to the gate of the temple.
6. And now it was that a horrible fear seized upon the seditious,
insomuch that many of them ran out of the city, as though it
were to be taken immediately; but the people upon this took courage,
and where the wicked part of the city gave ground,
thither did they come, in order to set open the gates, and to admit
Cestius (30) as their benefactor, who, had he but continued
the siege a little longer, had certainly taken the city; but it
was, I suppose, owing to the aversion God had already at the city and
the sanctuary, that he was hindered from putting an end to the war
that very day.
7. It then happened that Cestius was not conscious either how the
besieged despaired of success, nor how courageous the
people were for him; and so he recalled his soldiers from the place,
and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, without
having received any disgrace, he retired from the city, without
any reason in the world. But when the robbers perceived this
unexpected retreat of his, they resumed their courage, and ran after
the hinder parts of his army, and destroyed a considerable
number of both their horsemen and footmen; and now Cestius lay all
night at the camp which was at Scopus; and as he went off
farther next day, he thereby invited the enemy to follow him, who
still fell upon the hindmost, and destroyed them; they also fell
upon the flank on each side of the army, and threw darts upon them
obliquely, nor durst those that were hindmost turn back
upon those who wounded them behind, as imagining that the multitude
of those that pursued them was immense; nor did they
venture to drive away those that pressed upon them on each side,
because they were heavy with their arms, and were afraid of
breaking their ranks to pieces, and because they saw the Jews were
light, and ready for making incursions upon them. And this
was the reason why the Romans suffered greatly, without being able
to revenge themselves upon their enemies; so they were
galled all the way, and their ranks were put into disorder, and
those that were thus put out of their ranks were slain; among
whom were Priscus, the commander of the sixth legion, and Longinus,
the tribune, and Emilius Secundus, the commander of a
troop of horsemen. So it was not without difficulty that they got
to Gabao, their former camp, and that not without the loss of a
great part of their baggage. There it was that Cestius staid two
days, and was in great distress to know what he should do in
these circumstances; but when on the third day he saw a still much
greater number of enemies, and all the parts round about him
full of Jews, he understood that his delay was to his own detriment,
and that if he staid any longer there, he should have still
more enemies upon him.
8. That therefore he might fly the faster, he gave orders to cast
away what might hinder his army's march; so they killed the
mules and other creatures, excepting those that carried their darts
and machines, which they retained for their own use, and this
principally because they were afraid lest the Jews should seize
upon them. He then made his army march on as far as Bethoron.
Now the Jews did not so much press upon them when they were in large
open places; but when they were penned up in their
descent through narrow passages, then did some of them get before,
and hindered them from getting out of them; and others of
them thrust the hinder-most down into the lower places; and the
whole multitude extended themselves over against the neck of
the passage, and covered the Roman army with their darts. In which
circumstances, as the footmen knew not how to defend
themselves, so the danger pressed the horsemen still more, for they
were so pelted, that they could not march along the road in
their ranks, and the ascents were so high, that the cavalry were
not able to march against the enemy; the precipices also and
valleys into which they frequently fell, and tumbled down, were
such on each side of them, that there was neither place for their
flight, nor any contrivance could be thought of for their defense;
till the distress they were at last in was so great, that they
betook themselves to lamentations, and to such mournful cries as
men use in the utmost despair: the joyful acclamations of the
Jews also, as they encouraged one another, echoed the sounds back
again, these last composing a noise of those that at once
rejoiced and were in a rage. Indeed, things were come to such a
pass, that the Jews had almost taken Cestius's entire army
prisoners, had not the night come on, when the Romans fled to Bethoron,
and the Jews seized upon all the places round about
them, and watched for their coming out [in the morning].
9. And then it was that Cestius, despairing of obtaining room for
a public march, contrived how he might best run away; and
when he had selected four hundred of the most courageous of his
soldiers, he placed them at the strongest of their fortifications,
and gave order, that when they went up to the morning guard, they
should erect their ensigns, that the Jews might be made to
believe that the entire army was there still, while he himself took
the rest of his forces with him, and marched, without any noise,
thirty furlongs. But when the Jews perceived, in the morning, that
the camp was empty, they ran upon those four hundred who
had deluded them, and immediately threw their darts at them, and
slew them; and then pursued after Cestius. But he had
already made use of a great part of the night in his flight, and
still marched quicker when it was day; insomuch that the soldiers,
through the astonishment and fear they were in, left behind them
their engines for sieges, and for throwing of stones, and a great
part of the instruments of war. So the Jews went on pursuing the
Romans as far as Antipatris; after which, seeing they could not
overtake them, they came back, and took the engines, and spoiled
the dead bodies, and gathered the prey together which the
Romans had left behind them, and came back running and singing to
their metropolis; while they had themselves lost a few only,
but had slain of the Romans five thousand and three hundred footmen,
and three hundred and eighty horsemen. This defeat
happened on the eighth day of the month Dius, [Marchesvan,] in the
twelfth year of the reign of Nero.
CHAPTER 20.
CESTIUS SENDS AMBASSADORS TO NERO. THE PEOPLE OF DAMASCUS
SLAY THOSE JEWS THAT
LIVED WITH THEM. THE PEOPLE OF JERUSALEM
AFTER THEY HAD [LEFT OFF] PURSUING
CESTIUS, RETURN TO THE CITY AND GET THINGS READY FOR ITS DEFENSE
AND MAKE A GREAT
MANY GENERALS FOR, THEIR ARMIES AND PARTICULARLY JOSEPHUS
THE WRITER OF THESE
BOOKS. SOME ACCOUNT OF HIS ADMINISTRATION.
1. AFTER this calamity had befallen Cestius, many of the most eminent
of the Jews swam away from the city, as from a ship
when it was going to sink; Costobarus, therefore, and Saul, who
were brethren, together with Philip, the son of Jacimus, who
was the commander of king Agrippa's forces, ran away from the city,
and went to Cestius. But then how Antipas, who had
been besieged with them in the king's palace, but would not fly
away with them, was afterward slain by the seditious, we shall
relate hereafter. However, Cestius sent Saul and his friends, at
their own desire, to Achaia, to Nero, to inform him of the great
distress they were in, and to lay the blame of their kindling the
war upon Florus, as hoping to alleviate his own danger, by
provoking his indignation against Florus.
2. In the mean time, the people of Damascus, when they were informed
of the destruction of the Romans, set about the
slaughter of those Jews that were among them; and as they had them
already cooped up together in the place of public
exercises, which they had done out of the suspicion they had of
them, they thought they should meet with no difficulty in the
attempt; yet did they distrust their own wives, which were almost
all of them addicted to the Jewish religion; on which account it
was that their greatest concern was, how they might conceal these
things from them; so they came upon the Jews, and cut their
throats, as being in a narrow place, in number ten thousand, and
all of them unarmed, and this in one hour's time, without any
body to disturb them.
3. But as to those who had pursued after Cestius, when they were
returned back to Jerusalem, they overbore some of those
that favored the Romans by violence, and some them persuaded [by
en-treaties] to join with them, and got together in great
numbers in the temple, and appointed a great many generals for the
war. Joseph also, the son of Gorion, (31) and Ananus the
high priest, were chosen as governors of all affairs within the
city, and with a particular charge to repair the walls of the city; for
they did not ordain Eleazar the son of Simon to that office, although
he had gotten into his possession the prey they had taken
from the Romans, and the money they had taken from Cestius, together
with a great part of the public treasures, because they
saw he was of a tyrannical temper, and that his followers were,
in their behavior, like guards about him. However, the want
they were in of Eleazar's money, and the subtle tricks used by him,
brought all so about, that the people were circumvented,
and submitted themselves to his authority in all public affairs.
4. They also chose other generals for Idumea; Jesus, the son of Sapphias,
one of the high priests; and Eleazar, the son of
Ananias, the high priest; they also enjoined Niger, the then governor
of Idumea, (32) who was of a family that belonged to
Perea, beyond Jordan, and was thence called the Peraite, that he
should be obedient to those fore-named commanders. Nor
did they neglect the care of other parts of the country; but Joseph
the son of Simon was sent as general to Jericho, as was
Manasseh to Perea, and John, the Esscue, to the toparchy of Thamna;
Lydda was also added to his portion, and Joppa, and
Emmaus. But John, the son of Matthias, was made governor of the
toparchies of Gophnitica and Acrabattene; as was
Josephus, the son of Matthias, of both the Galilees. Gamala also,
which was the strongest city in those parts, was put under his
command.
5. So every one of the other commanders administered the affairs
of his portion with that alacrity and prudence they were
masters of; but as to Josephus, when he came into Galilee, his first
care was to gain the good-will of the people of that country,
as sensible that he should thereby have in general good success,
although he should fail in other points. And being conscious to
himself that if he communicated part of his power to the great men,
he should make them his fast friends; and that he should gain
the same favor from the multitude, if he executed his commands by
persons of their own country, and with whom they were
well acquainted; he chose out seventy of the most prudent men, and
those elders in age, and appointed them to be rulers of all
Galilee, as he chose seven judges in every city to hear the lesser
quarrels; for as to the greater causes, and those wherein life
and death were concerned, he enjoined they should be brought to
him and the seventy (33) elders.
6. Josephus also, when he had settled these rules for determining
causes by the law, with regard to the people's dealings one
with another, betook himself to make provisions for their safety
against external violence; and as he knew the Romans would
fall upon Galilee, he built walls in proper places about Jotapata,
and Bersabee, and Selamis; and besides these, about
Caphareccho, and Japha, and Sigo, and what they call Mount Tabor,
and Tarichee, and Tiberias. Moreover, he built walls
about the caves near the lake of Gennesar, which places lay in the
Lower Galilee; the same he did to the places of Upper
Galilee, as well as to the rock called the Rock of the Achabari,
and to Seph, and Jamnith, and Meroth; and in Gaulonitis he
fortified Seleucia, and Sogane, and Gamala; but as to those of Sepphoris,
they were the only people to whom he gave leave to
build their own walls, and this because he perceived they were rich
and wealthy, and ready to go to war, without standing in
need of any injunctions for that purpose. The case was the same
with Gischala, which had a wall built about it by John the son
of Levi himself, but with the consent of Josephus; but for the building
of the rest of the fortresses, he labored together with all
the other builders, and was present to give all the necessary orders
for that purpose. He also got together an army out of
Galilee, of more than a hundred thousand young men, all of which
he armed with the old weapons which he had collected
together and prepared for them.
7. And when he had considered that the Roman power became invincible,
chiefly by their readiness in obeying orders, and the
constant exercise of their arms, he despaired of teaching these
his men the use of their arms, which was to be obtained by
experience; but observing that their readiness in obeying orders
was owing to the multitude of their officers, he made his
partitions in his army more after the Roman manner, and appointed
a great many subalterns. He also distributed the soldiers into
various classes, whom he put under captains of tens, and captains
of hundreds, and then under captains of thousands; and
besides these, he had commanders of larger bodies of men. He also
taught them to give the signals one to another, and to call
and recall the soldiers by the trumpets, how to expand the wings
of an army, and make them wheel about; and when one wing
hath had success, to turn again and assist those that were hard
set, and to join in the defense of what had most suffered. He
also continually instructed them ill what concerned the courage
of the soul, and the hardiness of the body; and, above all, he
exercised them for war, by declaring to them distinctly the good
order of the Romans, and that they were to fight with men
who, both by the strength of their bodies and courage of their souls,
had conquered in a manner the whole habitable earth. He
told them that he should make trial of the good order they would
observe in war, even before it came to any battle, in case they
would abstain from the crimes they used to indulge themselves in,
such as theft, and robbery, and rapine, and from defrauding
their own countrymen, and never to esteem the harm done to those
that were so near of kin to them to be any advantage to
themselves; for that wars are then managed the best when the warriors
preserve a good conscience; but that such as are ill men
in private life will not only have those for enemies which attack
them, but God himself also for their antagonist.
8. And thus did he continue to admonish them. Now he chose for the
war such an army as was sufficient, i.e. sixty thousand
footmen, and two hundred and fifty horsemen; (34) and besides these,
on which he put the greatest trust, there were about four
thousand five hundred mercenaries; he had also six hundred men as
guards of his body. Now the cities easily maintained the
rest of his army, excepting the mercenaries, for every one of the
cities enumerated above sent out half their men to the army,
and retained the other half at home, in order to get provisions
for them; insomuch that the one part went to the war, and the
other part to their work, and so those that sent out their corn
were paid for it by those that were in arms, by that security which
they enjoyed from them.
CHAPTER 21.
CONCERNING JOHN OF GICHALA. JOSEPHUS USES STRATAGEMS AGAINST
THE PLOTS JOHN LAID
AGAINST HIM AND RECOVERS CERTAIN
CITIES WHICH HAD REVOLTED FROM HIM.
1. NOW as Josephus was thus engaged in the administration of the
affairs of Galilee, there arose a treacherous person, a man
of Gischala, the son of Levi, "whose name was John. His character
was that of a very cunning and very knavish person, beyond
the ordinary rate of the other men of eminence there, and for wicked
practices he had not his fellow any where. Poor he was at
first, and for a long time his wants were a hinderance to him in
his wicked designs. He was a ready liar, and yet very sharp in
gaining credit to his fictions: he thought it a point of virtue
to delude people, and would delude even such as were the dearest to
him. He was a hypocritical pretender to humanity, but where he had
hopes of gain, he spared not the shedding of blood: his
desires were ever carried to great things, and he encouraged his
hopes from those mean wicked tricks which he was the author
of. He had a peculiar knack at thieving; but in some time he got
certain companions in his impudent practices; at first they were
but few, but as he proceeded on in his evil course, they became
still more and more numerous. He took care that none of his
partners should be easily caught in their rogueries, but chose such
out of the rest as had the strongest constitutions of body, and
the greatest courage of soul, together with great skill in martial
affairs; as he got together a band of four hundred men, who
came principally out of the country of Tyre, and were vagabonds
that had run away from its villages; and by the means of these
he laid waste all Galilee, and irritated a considerable number,
who were in great expectation of a war then suddenly to arise
among them.
2. However, John's want of money had hitherto restrained him in his
ambition after command, and in his attempts to advance
himself. But when he saw that Josephus was highly pleased with the
activity of his temper, he persuaded him, in the first place,
to intrust him with the repairing of the walls of his native city,
[Gischala,] in which work he got a great deal of money from the
rich citizens. He after that contrived a very shrewd trick, and
pretending that the Jews who dwelt in Syria were obliged to make
use of oil that was made by others than those of their own nation,
he desired leave of Josephus to send oil to their borders; so
he bought four amphorae with such Tyrian money as was of the value
of four Attic drachmae, and sold every half-amphora at
the same price. And as Galilee was very fruitful in oil, and was
peculiarly so at that time, by sending away great quantities, and
having the sole privilege so to do, he gathered an immense sum of
money together, which money he immediately used to the
disadvantage of him who gave him that privilege; and, as he supposed,
that if he could once overthrow Josephus, he should
himself obtain the government of Galilee; so he gave orders to the
robbers that were under his command to be more zealous in
their thievish expeditions, that by the rise of many that desired
innovations in the country, he might either catch their general in
his snares, as he came to the country's assistance, and then kill
him; or if he should overlook the robbers, he might accuse him
for his negligence to the people of the country. He also spread
abroad a report far and near that Josephus was delivering up the
administration of affairs to the Romans; and many such plots did
he lay, in order to ruin him.
3. Now at the same time that certain young men of the village Dabaritta,
who kept guard in the Great Plain laid snares for
Ptolemy, who was Agrippa's and Bernice's steward, and took from
him all that he had with him; among which things there were
a great many costly garments, and no small number of silver cups,
and six hundred pieces of gold; yet were they not able to
conceal what they had stolen, but brought it all to Josephus, to
Tarichee. Hereupon he blamed them for the violence they had
offered to the king and queen, and deposited what they brought to
him with Eneas, the most potent man of Taricheae, with an
intention of sending the things back to the owners at a proper time;
which act of Josephus brought him into the greatest danger;
for those that had stolen the things had an indignation at him,
both because they gained no share of it for themselves, and
because they perceived beforehand what was Josephus's intention,
and that he would freely deliver up what had cost them so
much pains to the king and queen. These ran away by night to their
several villages, and declared to all men that Josephus was
going to betray them: they also raised great disorders in all the
neighboring cities, insomuch that in the morning a hundred
thousand armed men came running together; which multitude was crowded
together in the hippodrome at Taricheae, and made
a very peevish clamor against him; while some cried out, that they
should depose the traitor; and others, that they should burn
him. Now John irritated a great many, as did also one Jesus, the
son of Sapphias, who was then governor of Tiberias. Then it
was that Josephus's friends, and the guards of his body, were so
affrighted at this violent assault of the multitude, that they all
fled away but four; and as he was asleep, they awaked him, as the
people were going to set fire to the house. And although
those four that remained with him persuaded him to run away, he
was neither surprised at his being himself deserted, nor at the
great multitude that came against him, but leaped out to them with
his clothes rent, and ashes sprinkled on his head, with his
hands behind him, and his sword hanging at his neck. At this sight
his friends, especially those of Tarichae, commiserated his
condition; but those that came out of the country, and those in
their neighborhood, to whom his government seemed
burdensome, reproached him, and bid him produce the money which
belonged to them all immediately, and to confess the
agreement he had made to betray them; for they imagined, from the
habit in which he appeared, that he would deny nothing of
what they suspected concerning him, and that it was in order to
obtain pardon that he had put himself entirely into so pitiable a
posture. But this humble appearance was only designed as preparatory
to a stratagem of his, who thereby contrived to set
those that were so angry at him at variance one with another about
the things they were angry at. However, he promised he
would confess all: hereupon he was permitted to speak, when he said,"
I did neither intend to send this money back to Agrippa,
nor to gain it myself; for I did never esteem one that was your
enemy to be my friend, nor did I look upon what would tend to
your disadvantage to be my advantage. But, O you people of Tariehete,
I saw that your city stood in more need than others of
fortifications for your security, and that it wanted money in order
for the building it a wall. I was also afraid lest the people of
Tiberias and other cities should lay a plot to seize upon these
spoils, and therefore it was that I intended to retain this money
privately, that I might encompass you with a wall. But if this does
not please you, I will produce what was brought me, and
leave it to you to plunder it; but if I have conducted myself so
well as to please you, you may if you please punish your
benefactor."
4. Hereupon the people of Taricheae loudly commended him; but those
of Tiberias, with the rest of the company, gave him
hard names, and threatened what they would do to him; so both sides
left off quarrelling with Josephus, and fell on quarrelling
with one another. So he grew bold upon the dependence he had on
his friends, which were the people of Taricheae, and about
forty thousand in number, and spake more freely to the whole multitude,
and reproached them greatly for their rashness; and
told them, that with this money he would build walls about Taricheae,
and would put the other cities in a state of security also;
for that they should not want money, if they would but agree for
whose benefit it was to be procured, and would not suffer
themselves to be irritated against him who procured it for them.
5. Hereupon the rest of the multitude that had been deluded retired;
but yet so that they went away angry, and two thousand of
them made an assault upon him in their armor; and as he was already
gone to his own house, they stood without and threatened
him. On which occasion Josephus again used a second stratagem to
escape them; for he got upon the top of his house, and
with his right hand desired them to be silent, and said to them,
"I cannot tell what you would have, nor can hear what you say,
for the confused noise you make;" but he said that he would comply
with all their demands, in case they would but send some
of their number in to him that might talk with him about it. And
when the principal of them, with their leaders, heard this, they
came into the house. He then drew them to the most retired part
of the house, and shut the door of that hall where he put them,
and then had them whipped till every one of their inward parts appeared
naked. In the mean time the multitude stood round the
house, and supposed that he had a long discourse with those that
were gone in about what they claimed of him. He had then the
doors set open immediately, and sent the men out all bloody, which
so terribly aftrighted those that had before threatened him,
that they threw away their arms and ran away.
6. But as for John, his envy grew greater [upon this escape of Josephus],
and he framed a new plot against him; he pretended
to be sick, and by a letter desired that Josephus would give him
leave to use the hot baths that were at Tiberias, for the
recovery of his health. Hereupon Josephus, who hitherto suspected
nothing of John's plots against him, wrote to the governors
of the city, that they would provide a lodging and necessaries for
John; which favors, when he had made use of, in two days'
time he did what he came about; some he corrupted with delusive
frauds, and others with money, and so persuaded them to
revolt from Josephus. This Silas, who was appointed guardian of
the city by Josephus, wrote to him immediately, and informed
him of the plot against him; which epistle when Josephus had received,
he marched with great diligence all night, and came early
in the morning to Tiberias; at which time the rest of the multitude
met him. But John, who suspected that his coming was not for
his advantage, sent however one of his friends, and pretended that
he was sick, and that being confined to his bed, he could not
come to pay him his respects. But as soon as Josephus had got the
people of Tiberias together in the stadium, and tried to
discourse with them about the letters that he had received, John
privately sent some armed men, and gave them orders to slay
him. But when the people saw that the armed men were about to draw
their swords, they cried out; at which cry Josephus
turned himself about, and when he saw that the swords were just
at his throat, he marched away in great haste to the sea-shore,
and left off that speech which he was going to make to the people,
upon an elevation of six cubits high. He then seized on a ship
which lay in the haven, and leaped into it, with two of his guards,
and fled away into the midst of the lake.
7. But now the soldiers he had with him took up their arms immediately,
and marched against the plotters; but Josephus was
afraid lest a civil war should be raised by the envy of a few men,
and bring the city to ruin; so he sent some of his party to tell
them, that they should do no more than provide for their own safety;
that they should not kill any body, nor accuse any for the
occasion they had afforded [of disorder]. Accordingly, these men
obeyed his orders, and were quiet; but the people of the
neighboring country, when they were informed of this plot, and of
the plotter, they got together in great multitudes to oppose
John. But he prevented their attempt, and fled away to Gischala,
his native city, while the Galileans came running out of their
several cities to Josephus; and as they were now become many ten
thousands of armed men, they cried out, that they were
come against John the common plotter against their interest, and
would at the same time burn him, and that city which had
received him. Hereupon Josephus told them that he took their good-will
to him kindly, but still he restrained their fury, and
intended to subdue his enemies by prudent conduct, rather than by
slaying them; so he excepted those of every city which had
joined in this revolt with John, by name, who had readily been shown
him by these that came from every city, and caused public
proclamation to be made, that he would seize upon the effects of
those that did not forsake John within five days' time, and
would burn both their houses and their families with fire. Whereupon
three thousand of John's party left him immediately, who
came to Josephus, and threw their arms down at his feet. John then
betook himself, together with his two thousand Syrian
runagates, from open attempts, to more secret ways of treachery.
Accordingly, he privately sent messengers to Jerusalem, to
accuse Josephus, as having to great power, and to let them know
that he would soon come as a tyrant to their metropolis,
unless they prevented him. This accusation the people were aware
of beforehand, but had no regard to it. However, some of
the grandees, out of envy, and some of the rulers also, sent money
to John privately, that he might be able to get together
mercenary soldiers, in order to fight Josephus; they also made a
decree of themselves, and this for recalling him from his
government, yet did they not think that decree sufficient; so they
sent withal two thousand five hundred armed men, and four
persons of the highest rank amongst them; Joazar the son of Nomicus,
and Ananias the son of Sadduk, as also Simon and
Judas the sons of Jonathan, all very able men in speaking, that
these persons might withdraw the good-will of the people from
Josephus. These had it in charge, that if he would voluntarily come
away, they should permit him to [come and] give an account
of his conduct; but if he obstinately insisted upon continuing in
his government, they should treat him as an enemy. Now
Josephus's friends had sent him word that an army was coming against
him, but they gave him no notice beforehand what the
reason of their coming was, that being only known among some secret
councils of his enemies; and by this means it was that
four cities revolted from him immediately, Sepphoris, and Gamala,
and Gischala, and Tiberias. Yet did he recover these cities
without war; and when he had routed those four commanders by stratagems,
and had taken the most potent of their warriors,
he sent them to Jerusalem; and the people [of Galilee] had great
indignation at them, and were in a zealous disposition to slay,
not only these forces, but those that sent them also, had not these
forces prevented it by running away.
8. Now John was detained afterward within the walls of Gischala,
by the fear he was in of Josephus; but within a few days
Tiberias revolted again, the people within it inviting king Agrippa
[to return to the exercise of his authority there]. And when he
did not come at the time appointed, and when a few Roman horsemen
appeared that day, they expelled Josephus out of the
city. Now this revolt of theirs was presently known at Taricheae;
and as Josephus had sent out all the soldiers that were with
him to gather corn, he knew not how either to march out alone against
the revolters, or to stay where he was, because he was
afraid the king's soldiers might prevent him if he tarried, and
might get into the city; for he did not intend to do any thing on the
next day, because it was the sabbath day, and would hinder his proceeding.
So he contrived to circumvent the revolters by a
stratagem; and in the first place he ordered the gates of Taricheae
to be shut, that nobody might go out and inform [those of
Tiberias], for whom it was intended, what stratagem he was about;
he then got together all the ships that were upon the lake,
which were found to be two hundred and thirty, and in each of them
he put no more than four mariners. So he sailed to Tiberias
with haste, and kept at such a distance from the city, that it was
not easy for the people to see the vessels, and ordered that the
empty vessels should float up and down there, while himself, who
had but seven of his guards with him, and those unarmed
also, went so near as to be seen; but when his adversaries, who
were still reproaching him, saw him from the walls, they were
so astonished that they supposed all the ships were full of armed
men, and threw down their arms, and by signals of intercession
they besought him to spare the city.
9. Upon this Josephus threatened them terribly, and reproached them,
that when they were the first that took up arms against
the Romans, they should spend their force beforehand in civil dissensions,
and do what their enemies desired above all things;
and that besides they should endeavor so hastily to seize upon him,
who took care of their safety, and had not been ashamed to
shut the gates of their city against him that built their walls;
that, however, he would admit of any intercessors from them that
might make some excuse for them, and with whom he would make such
agreements as might be for the city's security.
Hereupon ten of the most potent men of Tiberias came down to him
presently; and when he had taken them into one of his
vessels, he ordered them to be carried a great way off from the
city. He then commanded that fifty others of their senate, such
as were men of the greatest eminence, should come to him, that they
also might give him some security on their behalf. After
which, under one new pretense or another, he called forth others,
one after another, to make the leagues between them. He
then gave order to the masters of those vessels which he had thus
filled to sail away immediately for Taricheae, and to confine
those men in the prison there; till at length he took all their
senate, consisting of six hundred persons, and about two thousand of
the populace, and carried them away to Taricheae. (35)
10. And when the rest of the people cried out, that it was one Clitus
that was the chief author of this revolt, they desired him to
spend his anger upon him [only]; but Josephus, whose intention it
was to slay nobody, commanded one Levius, belonging to his
guards, to go out of the vessel, in order to cut off both Clitus's
hands; yet was Levius afraid to go out by himself alone to such a
large body of enemies, and refused to go. Now Clitus saw that Josephus
was in a great passion in the ship, and ready to leap
out of it, in order to execute the punishment himself; he begged
therefore from the shore, that he would leave him one of his
hands; which Josephus agreed to, upon condition that he would himself
cutoff the other hand; accordingly he drew his sword,
and with his right hand cut off his left, so great was the fear
he was in of Josephus himself. And thus he took the people of
Tiberias prisoners, and recovered the city again with empty ships
and seven of his guard. Moreover, a few days afterward he
retook Gischala, which had revolted with the people of Sepphoris,
and gave his soldiers leave to plunder it; yet did he get all
the plunder together, and restored it to the inhabitants; and the
like he did to the inhabitants of Sepphoris and Tiberias. For
when he had subdued those cities, he had a mind, by letting them
be plundered, to give them some good instruction, while at the
same time he regained their good-will by restoring them their money
again.
CHAPTER 22.
THE JEWS MAKE ALL READY FOR THE WAR; AND
SIMON, THE SON OF GIORAS, FALLS TO
PLUNDERING.
1. AND thus were the disturbances of Galilee quieted, when, upon
their ceasing to prosecute their civil dissensions, they
betook themselves to make preparations for the war with the Romans.
Now in Jerusalem the high priest Artanus, and do as
many of the men of power as were not in the interest of the Romans,
both repaired the walls, and made a great many warlike
instruments, insomuch that in all parts of the city darts and all
sorts of armor were upon the anvil. Although the multitude of the
young men were engaged in exercises, without any regularity, and
all places were full of tumultuous doings; yet the moderate
sort were exceedingly sad; and a great many there were who, out
of the prospect they had of the calamities that were coming
upon them, made great lamentations. There were also such omens observed
as were understood to be forerunners of evils by
such as loved peace, but were by those that kindled the war interpreted
so as to suit their own inclinations; and the very state of
the city, even before the Romans came against it, was that of a
place doomed to destruction. However, Ananus's concern was
this, to lay aside, for a while, the preparations for the war, and
to persuade the seditious to consult their own interest, and to
restrain the madness of those that had the name of zealots; but
their violence was too hard for him; and what end he came to
we shall relate hereafter.
2. But as for the Acrabbene toparchy, Simon, the son of Gioras, got
a great number of those that were fond of innovations
together, and betook himself to ravage the country; nor did he only
harass the rich men's houses, but tormented their bodies,
and appeared openly and beforehand to affect tyranny in his government.
And when an army was sent against him by Artanus,
and the other rulers, he and his band retired to the robbers that
were at Masada, and staid there, and plundered the country of
Idumea with them, till both Ananus and his other adversaries were
slain; and until the rulers of that country were so afflicted
with the multitude of those that were slain, and with the continual
ravage of what they had, that they raised an army, and put
garrisons into the villages, to secure them from those insults.
And in this state were the affairs of Judea at that time.
ENDNOTE
(1) Hear Dean Aldrich's note on this place: "The law or Custom of
the Jews (says he) requires seven days' mourning for the
dead, Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 8. sect. 4; whence the author of the Book
of Ecclesiasticus, ch. 22:12, assigns seven days as the
proper time of mourning for the dead, and, ch. 38:17, enjoins men
to mourn for the dead, that they may not be evil spoken of;
for, as Josephus says presently, if any one omits this mourning
[funeral feast], he is not esteemed a holy person. How it is
certain that such a seven days' mourning has been customary from
times of the greatest antiquity, Genesis 1:10. Funeral feasts
are also mentioned as of considerable antiquity, Ezekiel 24:17;
Jeremiah 16:7; Prey. 31:6; Deuteronomy 26:14; Josephus, Of
the War B. III. ch. 9. sect. 5.
(2) This holding a council in the temple of Apollo, in the emperor's
palace at Rome, by Augustus, and even the building of this
temple magnificently by himself in that palace, are exactly agreeable
to Augustus, in his elder years, as Aldrich and from
Suttonius and Propertius.
(3) Here we have a strong confirmation that it was Xerxes, and not
Artaxerxes, under whom the main part of the Jews returned
out of the Babylonian captivity, i.e. in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.
The same thing is in the Antiquities, B. XI. ch.6
(4) This practice of the Essens, in refusing to swear, and esteeming
swearing in ordinary occasions worse than perjury, is
delivered here in general words, as are the parallel injunctions
of our Savior, Matthew 6:34; 23:16; and of St. James, 5:12; but
all admit of particular exceptions for solemn causes, and on great
and necessary occasions. Thus these very Essens, who here
do so zealously avoid swearing, are related, in the very next section,
to admit none till they take tremendous oaths to perform
their several duties to God, and to their neighbor, without supposing
they thereby break this rule, Not to swear at all. The case
is the same in Christianity, as we learn from the Apostolical Constitutions,
which although they agree with Christ and St. James,
in forbidding to swear in general, ch. 5:12; 6:2, 3; yet do they
explain it elsewhere, by avoiding to swear falsely, and to swear
often and in vain, ch. 2:36; and again, by "not swearing at all,"
but withal adding, that "if that cannot be avoided, to swear truly,"
ch. 7:3; which abundantly explain to us the nature of the measures
of this general injunction.
(5) This mention of the "names of angels," so particularly preserved
by the Essens, (if it means more than those "messengers"
which were employed to bring, them the peculiar books of their Sect,)
looks like a prelude to that "worshipping of angels,"
blamed by St. Paul, as superstitious and unlawful, in some such
sort of people as these Essens were, Colossians 2:8; as is the
prayer to or towards the sun for his rising every morning, mentioned
before, sect. 5, very like those not much later observances
made mention of in the preaching of Peter, Authent. Rec. Part II.
p. 669, and regarding a kind of worship of angels, of the
month, and of the moon, and not celebrating the new moons, or other
festivals, unless the moon appeared. Which, indeed,
seems to me the earliest mention of any regard to the phases in
fixing the Jewish calendar, of which the Talmud and later
Rabbins talk so much, and upon so very little ancient foundation.
(6) Of these Jewish or Essene (and indeed Christian) doctrines concerning
souls, both good and bad, in Hades, see that
excellent discourse, or homily, of our Josephus concerning Hades,
at the end of the volume.
(7) Dean Aldrich reckons up three examples of this gift of prophecy
in several of these Essens out of Josephus himself, viz. in
the History of the War, B. I. ch. 3. sect. 5, Judas foretold the
death of Antigonus at Strato's Tower; B. II. ch. 7. sect. 3, Simon
foretold that Archelaus should reign but nine or ten years; and
Antiq. B. XV. ch. 10. sect. 4, 5, Menuhem foretold that Herod
should be king, and should reign tyrannically, and that for more
than twenty or even thirty years. All which came to pass
accordingly.
(8) There is so much more here about the Essens than is cited from
Josephus in Porphyry and Eusebius, and yet so much less
about the Pharisees and Sadducees, the two other Jewish sects, than
would naturally be expected in proportion to the Essens
or third sect, nay, than seems to be referred to by himself elsewhere,
that one is tempted to suppose Josephus had at first
written less of the one, and more of the two others, than his present
copies afford us; as also, that, by some unknown accident,
our present copies are here made up of the larger edition in the
first case, and of the smaller in the second. See the note in
Havercamp's edition. However, what Josephus says in the name of
the Pharisees, that only the souls of good men go out of one
body into another, although all souls be immortal, and still the
souls of the bad are liable to eternal punishment; as also what he
says afterwards, Antiq. B. XVIII. ch. 1. sect. 3, that the soul's
vigor is immortal, and that under the earth they receive rewards
or punishments according as their lives have been virtuous or vicious
in the present world; that to the bad is allotted an eternal
prison, but that the good are permitted to live again in this world;
are nearly agreeable to the doctrines of Christianity. Only
Josephus's rejection of the return of the wicked into other bodies,
or into this world, which he grants to the good, looks
somewhat like a contradiction to St. Paul's account of the doctrine
of the Jews, that they "themselves allowed that there should
be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust," Acts
24:15. Yet because Josephus's account is that of the Pharisees,
and St. Patti's that of the Jews in general, and of himself the
contradiction is not very certain.
(9) We have here, in that Greek MS. which was once Alexander Petavius's,
but is now in the library at Leyden, two most
remarkable additions to the common copies, though declared worth
little remark by the editor; which, upon the mention of
Tiberius's coming to the empire, inserts first the famous testimony
of Josephus concerning Jesus Christ, as it stands verbatim in
the Antiquities, B. XVIII. ch. 3. sect. 3, with some parts of that
excellent discourse or homily of Josephus concerning Hades,
annexed to the work. But what is here principally to be noted is
this, that in this homily, Josephus having just mentioned Christ,
as "God the Word, and the Judge of the world, appointed by the Father,"
etc., adds, that "he had himself elsewhere spoken
about him more nicely or particularly."
(10) This use of corban, or oblation, as here applied to the sacred
money dedicated to God in the treasury of the temple,
illustrates our Savior's words, Mark 7:11, 12.
(11) Tacitus owns that Caius commanded the Jews to place his effigies
in their temple, though he be mistaken when he adds
that the Jews thereupon took arms.
(12) This account of a place near the mouth of the river Belus in
Phoenicia, whence came that sand out of which the ancients
made their glass, is a known thing in history, particularly in Tacitus
and Strabo, and more largely in Pliny.
(13) This Memnon had several monuments, and one of them appears,
both by Strabo and Diodorus, to have been in Syria, and
not improbably in this very place.
(14) Reland notes here, that the Talmud in recounting ten sad accidents
for which the Jews ought to rend their garments,
reckons this for one, "When they hear that the law of God is burnt."
(15) This Ummidius, or Numidius, or, as Tacitus calls him, Vinidius
Quadratus, is mentioned in an ancient inscription, still
preserved, as Spanhelm here informs us, which calls him Urnmidius
Quadratus.
(16) Take the character of this Felix (who is well known from the
Acts of the Apostles, particularly from his trembling when St.
Paul discoursed of "righteousness, chastity, and judgment to come,"
Acts 24:5; and no wonder, when we have elsewhere seen
that he lived in adultery with Drusilla, another man's wife, (Antiq.
B. XX. ch. 7. sect. 1) in the words of Tacitus, produced here
by Dean Aldrich: "Felix exercised," says Tacitas, "the authority
of a king, with the disposition of a slave, and relying upon the
great power of his brother Pallas at court, thought he might safely
be guilty of all kinds of wicked practices." Observe also the
time when he was made procurator, A.D. 52; that when St. Paul pleaded
his cause before him, A.D. 58, he might have been
"many years a judge unto that nation," as St. Paul says he had then
been, Acts 24:10. But as to what Tacitus here says, that
before the death of Cumanus, Felix was procurator over Samaria only,
does not well agree with St. Paul's words, who would
hardly have called Samaria a Jewish nation. In short, since what
Tacitus here says is about countries very remote from Rome,
where he lived; since what he says of two Roman procurators, the
one over Galilee, the other over Samaria at the same time, is
without example elsewhere; and since Josephus, who lived at that
very time in Judea, appears to have known nothing of this
procuratorship of Felix, before the death of Cureanus; I much suspect
the story itself as nothing better than a mistake of
Tacitus, especially when it seems not only omitted, but contradicted
by Josephus; as any one may find that compares their
histories together. Possibly Felix might have been a subordinate
judge among the Jews some time before under Cureanus, but
that he was in earnest a procurator of Samaria before I do not believe.
Bishop Pearson, as well as Bishop Lloyd, quote this
account, but with a doubtful clause: confides Tacito, "If we may
believe Tacitus." Pears. Anhal. Paulin. p. 8; Marshall's Tables,
at A.D. 49.
(17) i.e. Herod king of Chalcis.
(18) Not long after this beginning of Florus, the wickedest of all
the Roman procurators of Judea, and the immediate occasion
of the Jewish war, at the twelfth year of Nero, and the seventeenth
of Agrippa, or A.D. 66, the history in the twenty books of
Josephus's Antiquities ends, although Josephus did not finish these
books till the thirteenth of Domitian, or A.D. 93,
twenty-seven years afterward; as he did not finish their Appendix,
containing an account of his own life, till Agrippa was dead,
which happened in the third year of Trajan, or A. D. 100, as I have
several times observed before.
(19) Here we may note, that three millions of the Jews were present
at the passover, A.D. 65; which confirms what Josephus
elsewhere informs us of, that at a passover a little later they
counted two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred paschal
lambs, which, at twelve to each lamb, which is no immoderate calculation,
come to three millions and seventy-eight thousand.
See B. VI. ch. 9. sect. 3.
(20) Take here Dr. Hudson's very pertinent note. "By this action,"
says he, "the killing of a bird over an earthen vessel, the Jews
were exposed as a leprous people; for that was to be done by the
law in the cleansing of a leper, Leviticus 14. It is also known
that the Gentiles reproached the Jews as subject to the leprosy,
and believed that they were driven out of Egypt on that
account. This that eminent person Mr. Reland suggested to me."
(21) Here we have examples of native Jews who were of the equestrian
order among the Romans, and so ought never to have
been whipped or crucified, according to the Roman laws. See almost
the like case in St. Paul himself, Acts 22:25-29.
(22) This vow which Bernice (here and elsewhere called queen, not
only as daughter and sister to two kings, Agrippa the
Great, and Agrippa junior, but the widow of Herod king of Chalcis)
came now to accomplish at Jerusalem was not that of a
Nazarite, but such a one as religious Jews used to make, in hopes
of any deliverance from a disease, or other danger, as
Josephus here intimates. However, these thirty days' abode at Jerusalem,
for fasting and preparation against the oblation of a
proper sacrifice, seems to be too long, unless it were wholly voluntary
in this great lady. It is not required in the law of Moses
relating to Nazarites, Numbers 6., and is very different from St.
Paul's time for such preparation, which was but one day, Acts
21:26. So we want already the continuation of the Antiquities to
afford us light here, as they have hitherto done on so many
occasions elsewhere. Perhaps in this age the traditions of the Pharisees
had obliged the Jews to this degree of rigor, not only as
to these thirty days' preparation, but as to the going barefoot
all that time, which here Bernice submitted to also. For we know
that as God's and our Savior's yoke is usually easy, and his burden
comparatively light, in such positive injunctions, Matthew
11:30, so did the scribes and Pharisees sometimes "bind upon men
heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne," even when they
themselves "would not touch them with one of their fingers," Matthew
23:4; Luke 11:46. However, Noldius well observes, De
Herod. No. 404, 414, that Juvenal, in his sixth satire, alludes
to this remarkable penance or submission of this Bernice to
Jewish discipline, and jests upon her for it; as do Tacitus, Dio,
Suetonius, and Sextus Aurelius mention her as one well known
at Rome.--Ibid.
(23) I take this Bezetha to be that small hill adjoining to the north
side of the temple, whereon was the hospital with five
porticoes or cloisters, and beneath which was the sheep pool of
Bethesda; into which an angel or messenger, at a certain
season, descended, and where he or they who were the "first put
into the pool" were cured, John 5:1 etc. This situation of
Bezetha, in Josephus, on the north side of the temple, and not far
off the tower Antonia, exactly agrees to the place of the same
pool at this day; only the remaining cloisters are but three. See
Maundrel, p. 106. The entire buildings seem to have been called
the New City, and this part, where was the hospital, peculiarly
Bezetha or Bethesda. See ch. 19. sect. 4.
(24) In this speech of king Agrippa we have an authentic account
of the extent and strength of the Roman empire when the
Jewish war began. And this speech with other circumstances in Josephus,
demonstrate how wise and how great a person
Agrippa was, and why Josephus elsewhere calls him a most wonderful
or admirable man, Contr. Ap. I. 9. He is the same
Agrippa who said to Paul," Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian,"
Acts 26;28; and of whom St. Paul said, "He was
expert in all the customs and questions of the Jews," yet. 3. See
another intimation of the limits of the same Roman empire, Of
the War, B. III. ch. 5. sect. 7. But what seems to me very remarkable
here is this, that when Josephus, in imitation of the
Greeks and Romans, for whose use he wrote his Antiquities, did himself
frequently he into their they appear, by the politeness
of their composition, and their flights of oratory, to be not the
real speeches of the persons concerned, who usually were no
orators, but of his own elegant composure, the speech before us
is of another nature, full of undeniable facts, and composed in
a plain and unartful, but moving way; so it appears to be king Agrippa's
own speech, and to have been given Josephus by
Agrippa himself, with whom Josephus had the greatest friendship.
Nor may we omit Agrippa's constant doctrine here, that this
vast Roman empire was raised and supported by Divine Providence,
and that therefore it was in vain for the Jews, or any
others, to think of destroying it. Nor may we neglect to take notice
of Agrippa's solemn appeal to the angels here used; the like
appeals to which we have in St. Paul, 1 Timothy 5:22, and by the
apostles in general, in the form of the ordination of bishops,
Constitut. Apost. VIII. 4.
(25) Julius Caesar had decreed that the Jews of Jerusalem should
pay an annual tribute to the Romans, excepting the city
Joppa, and for the sabbatical year; as Spanheim observes from the
Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 10. sect. 6.
(26) Of this Sohemus we have mention made by Tacitus. We also learn
from Dio that his father was king of the Arabians of
Iturea, [which Iturea is mentioned by St. Luke, ch. 3:1.] both whose
testimonies are quoted here by Dr. Hudson. See Noldius,
No. 371.
(27) Spanheim notes on the place, that this later Antiochus, who
was called Epiphaues, is mentioned by Dio, LIX. p. 645, and
that he is mentioned by Josephus elsewhere twice also, B.V. ch.
11. sect. 3; and Antiq. B. XIX. ch. 8. sect. I.
(28) Here we have an eminent example of that Jewish language, which
Dr. Wail truly observes, we several times find used in
the sacred writings; I mean, where the words "all" or" whole multitude,"etc.
are used for much the greatest part only; but not so
as to include every person, without exception; for when Josephus
had said that "the whole multitude" [all the males] of Lydda
were gone to the feast of tabernacles, he immediately adds, that,
however, no fewer than fifty of them appeared, and were slain
by the Romans. Other examples somewhat like this I have observed
elsewhere in Josephus, but, as I think, none so remarkable
as this. See Wall's Critical Observations on the Old Testament,
p. 49, 50.
(29) We have also, in this and the next section, two eminent facts
to be observed, viz. the first example, that I remember, in
Josephus, of the onset of the Jews' enemies upon their country when
their males were gone up to Jerusalem to one of their three
sacred festivals; which, during the theocracy, God had promised
to preserve them from, Exodus 34:24. The second fact is this,
the breach of the sabbath by the seditions Jews in an offensive
fight, contrary to the universal doctrine and practice of their
nation in these ages, and even contrary to what they themselves
afterward practiced in the rest of this war. See the note on
Antiq. B. XVI. ch. 2. sect. 4.
(30) There may another very important, and very providential, reason
be here assigned for this strange and foolish retreat of
Cestius; which, if Josephus had been now a Christian, he might probably
have taken notice of also; and that is, the affording the
Jewish Christians in the city an opportunity of calling to mind
the prediction and caution given them by Christ about thirty-three
years and a half before, that "when they should see the abomination
of desolation" [the idolatrous Roman armies, with the
images of their idols in their ensigns, ready to lay Jerusalem desolate]
"stand where it ought not;" or, "in the holy place;" or,
"when they should see Jerusalem any one instance of a more unpolitic,
but more providential, compassed with armies;" they
should then "flee to the mound conduct than this retreat of Cestius
visible during this whole rains." By complying with which
those Jewish Christians fled I siege of Jerusalem; which yet was
providentially such a "great to the mountains of Perea, and
escaped this destruction. See tribulation, as had not been from
the beginning of the world to that time; no, Lit. Accompl. of
Proph. p. 69, 70. Nor was there, perhaps, nor ever should be."--Ibid.
p. 70, 71.
(31) From this name of Joseph the son of Gorion, or Gorion the son
of Joseph, as B. IV. ch. 3. sect. 9, one of the governors of
Jerusalem, who was slain at the beginning of the tumults by the
zealots, B. IV. ch. 6. sect. 1, the much later Jewish author of a
history of that nation takes his title, and yet personates our true
Josephus, the son of Matthias; but the cheat is too gross to be
put upon the learned world.
(32) We may observe here, that the Idumeans, as having been proselytes
of justice since the days of John Hyrcanus, during
about one hundred and ninety-five years, were now esteemed as part
of the Jewish nation, and these provided of a Jewish
commander accordingly. See the note upon Antiq. B. XIII.. ch. 9.
sect. 1.
(33) We see here, and in Josephus's account of his own life, sect.
14, how exactly he imitated his legislator Moses, or perhaps
only obeyed what he took to be his perpetual law, in appointing
seven lesser judges, for smaller causes, in particular cities, and
perhaps for the first hearing of greater causes, with the liberty
of an appeal to seventy-one supreme judges, especially in those
causes where life and death were concerned; as Antiq. B. IV. ch.
8. sect. 14; and of his Life, sect. 14. See also Of the War, B.
IV. ch. 5. sect. 4. Moreover, we find, sect. 7, that he imitated
Moses, as well as the Romans, in the number and distribution of
the subaltern officers of his army, as Exodus 18:25; Deuteronomy
1:15; and in his charge against the offenses common among
soldiers, as Denteronomy 13:9; in all which he showed his great
wisdom and piety, and skillful conduct in martial affairs. Yet
may we discern in his very high character of Artanus the high priest,
B. IV. ch. 5. sect. 2, who seems to have been the same
who condemned St. James, bishop of Jerusalem, to be stoned, under
Albinus the procurator, that when he wrote these books
of the War, he was not so much as an Ebionite Christian; otherwise
he would not have failed, according to his usual custom, to
have reckoned this his barbarous murder as a just punishment upon
him for that his cruelty to the chief, or rather only Christian
bishop of the circumcision. Nor, had he been then a Christian, could
he immediately have spoken so movingly of the causes of
the destruction of Jerusalem, without one word of either the condemnation
of James, or crucifixion of Christ, as he did when he
was become a Christian afterward.
(34) I should think that an army of sixty thousand footmen should
require many more than two hundred and fifty horsemen; and
we find Josephus had more horsemen under his command than two hundred
and fifty in his future history. I suppose the number
of the thousands is dropped in our present copies.
(35) 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.
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