The whole genuine and complete works of Flavius Josephus ... Translated from the original in the Greek language. And diligently revised and compared with the writings of contemporary authors, of different nations, on the subject. All tending to prove the authenticity of the work. ; To which is added various useful indexes ... ; Also a continuation of the history of the Jews, from Josephus down to the present time ... By George Henry Maynard, LL.D. ; Illustrated with marginal references and notes, historical, biographical, classical, critical, geographical, and explanatory. By the Rev. Edward Kimpton, author the the Compleat universal history of the Holy Bible. ; Embellished with upwards of sixty beautiful engravings, taken from original drawings of the Messrs, Metz, Stothard, and Corbould, members of the Royal Academy, and engraved by American artists.

FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS ON THE WARS of the JEWS. BOOK II.

CHAP. I.

Archelaus appoints the ceremony of mourning and feast|ing. His gracious declaration in favour of the peo|ple. They are clamorous on the subject of grievances. Raise a tumult on account of those who had been put to death for the demolition of the golden eagle. The multitude overcome the guards, but are afterwards routed by the whole army. Three thousand Jews are slain. Archelaus goes to Rome, leaving the adminis|tration to Philip in his absence. Sabinus advances to Cesarea in his way to Judaea. Varus puts a stop to his journey. Sabinus goes to Jerusalem, and demands possession of some castles and treasure. Meets with a formal refusal from the officers. Antipas goes to Rome, and prefers his claim to the succession. Sabi|nus and Salome exhibit a charge against Archelaus. His defence. Caesar attends to the respective allega|tions of the parties, and proceeds to trial. Antipater, the son of Salome, opens the cause against Archelaus. Nicolaus pleads for the defendant. Archelaus gracious|ly received by Caesar. The court adjourned.

* 1.1THE necessity Archelaus was under of going to Rome proved the occasion of new dis|turbances. After a public mourning for his father seven days, and he had given a very expensive feast to the multitude, (a custom ruinous to many of the Jews, who cannot dispense with it,* 1.2) he arrayed himself in white, and went up to the temple, where the people accosted him with the loudest congratulatory acclamations. He re|turned the compliment, from a throne of state, in a manner becoming the dignity of his character. Having returned them thanks for the zeal they had shewn in the funeral of his father, and the royal ho|nours they had paid to himself as to an anointed king, he observed withal,

that he would not at present take upon him either the authority or name of a king,* 1.3 until Caesar, the declared lord and master of all by the testament of his father, should confirm the succession: that, for this cause, when the army would have set the crown upon his head at Jericho, he would not accept it;* 1.4 but that he would make abundant requitals, not to the soldiers only, but the people, for their good will towards him, when the superior power should have given him a compleat title to the kingdom, as it should be his study, upon all occasions, to be more complacent than his father.

The people were highly gratified by this declara|tion,* 1.5 and presently put him to the test by preferring several petitions. The purport of some was to have their taxes abated, of others to have them wholly remitted, and of others for a general release of pri|soners. Archelaus readily complied with the whole, in order to secure their attachment, which being done, he sacrificed and feasted with his friends.

Soon after this, however, a great multitude, desi|rous of innovations, assembled together, and declin|ing the subject of the common mourning for the death of the king, began to murmur at the public grievances, and particularly to lament the case of those who were put to death by Herod for demo|lishing the golden eagle which he had placed over the gate of the temple. This lamentation was ex|pressed by beating their breasts, tearing their hair,* 1.6 and outrageous exclamations for the loss of so ma|ny pious and virtuous men, who had died martyrs to the religion and laws of their country. They demanded justice upon Herod's mercenaries, those accursed instruments of his cruelty, the expulsion of Herod's high-priest, and the appointment of a man of more piety and integrity to that sacred and dignified-office.

Archelaus was highly incensed at these mutinous proceedings; but restrained himself from taking vengeance on the ringleaders, as his journey to Rome required expedition, and immediate severity might be productive of disastrous consequences. Think|ing it more advisable to have recourse to soothing admonitions, he sent a principal officer of his army to quiet the seditious by persuasion, rather than by force. But the ringleaders of the tumult drove him

away by stones from the temple, without suffering him to speak a word. Archelaus sent other officers on the same errand, but they were treated in the same manner, nisomuch, that it plainly appeared, they wanted only numbers to commence an open rebellion.

* 1.7The feast of unleavened bread, or the passover, being near at hand, and annually celebrated by abundance of sacrifices, crowds of people resorted from all parts of the metropolis, on account of being present at that solemnity. Amongst the rest were divers of the faction, of the two rabbies, Judas and Matthias, who came thither to lament the death of those two venerable martyrs, and wait an opportu|nity of inflaming the multitude to sedition.

Archelaus had the prudent caution to send a tri|bune, with a band of soldiers, with orders to seize the ringleaders if they should continue refractory, as the most effectual means of obviating the danger of a general riot.* 1.8 The multitude made head against this party: some they slew with stones, dange|rously wounded the tribune, and afterwards betook themselves to their sacrifices as if nothing had hap|pened. Archelaus, finding that the riot could not be suppressed without bloodshed, turned the whole army loose upon them; the foot by way of the city, and the horse before the walls. The former fell suddenly upon them as they were sacrificing, and killed near three thousand at the very altar. The remainder dispersed and fled to the mountains;* 1.9 and Archelaus causing proclamation to be made, commanding all people to depart to their own habitations, to put an end to the festival.

This sedition being quelled, Archelaus, with his mother, and his three particular friends, Poplas, Ptolemy,* 1.10 and Nicolaus, embarked for Rome, leav|ing Philip behind him, both as viceroy and trustee for his private affairs. Salome with her sons, ac|companied him, as did several of his kindred un|der pretence of assisting him in the confirmation of his succession, but, in reality, to prefer an accusa|tion against him for his breach of the laws in the violation of the holy temple.

Upon their arrival at Cesarea, they were met by Sabinus, governor of Syria, who was then going up to Judaea, to secure the effects that Herod had left behind him. But Varus, at the instance of Arche|laus, and mediation of Ptolemy, restrained Sabi|nus from proceeding any farther. So that, to gra|tify Varus, he neither demanded the castles or the treasure to the prejudice of Archelaus, and passed his word that he would do nothing in the business without the approbation of Caesar, and remained where he was.

* 1.11But as soon as Varus was gone for Antioch, and Archelaus for Rome, Sabinus, upon the removal of these obstacles▪ went to Jerusalem, seized on the palace, and sent from thence to the governors of the castles, and the officers of the treasury; the former to deliver up to him possession of the castles, and the latter the accounts of the treasure. But the officers, faithful to the trust reposed in them by Archelaus, evaded compliance with this ans|wer, "That what they had in charge was rather the property of Caesar than Archelaus."

* 1.12In the mean time Antipas went to Rome also, in order to prefer his claim to the kingdom, insisting upon the validity of the former testament, in which the succession was settled upon him. Besides he was promised the interest of Salome, and others of their kindred that sailed with Archelaus in the support of his claim. He was accompanied by his mother and Ptolemy the brother of Nicolaus an approved friend of Herod, a circumstance of some weight: but his chief depndance was upon Irenaeus, a shrewd and subtle logician. Antipas, relying on the ability of these advocates, totally disregarded those who ad|vised him to pay some deference to the seniority of Archelaus, and the authority of his father in his second testament and seemed perfectly secure of the kingdom: when they came to Rome, he was joined by all the pretended friends of Archelaus; those especially who were desirous of shaking off the yoke of monarchy, and being immediately under the Ro|man government, who, in case they could not ob|tain their wishes, preferred Antipas for their king.

Antipas had great dependance on the interest of Sabinus,* 1.13 who had already exhibited an accusation against Archelaus, by letters to Caesar, and on the other hand, highly commended his character. Sa|lome and her adherents stated their charge against Archelaus, and presented it to the emperor. Ar|chelaus then drew up the grounds of his claim, and the several heads of his justification, which with his father's signet, and an account of the bequests he made him were transmitted to Caesar by the hands of Ptolemy.

When the emperor had duly weighed the respec|tive allegations, the greatness of the kingdom▪ the variety of large revenues, the numerous family of Herod, together with the contents of the letters of Varus and Sabinus, he called a council of the Ro|man nobility, where Caius Caesar, the son of Agrip|pa, and his daughter Julia, was, for the first time, called to take his place at the board, and then pro|ceeded to the trial.* 1.14 The cause was opened by An|tipater, the son of Salome, an advocate of great ability, who urged his plea against Archelaus by stating,

That Archelaus had long since exercised sovereign authority in effect, and that it was now but matter of form to contend about the name. A hearing before Caesar was nothing to him that has already refused him for judge. That Herod was no sooner dead, but people were immediately engaged, and suborned, to set the crown upon his head; while he himself, did not only sit like a king in royal state, and upon a golden throne, but acted like one too; as in changing the order of the militia, disposing of charges, receiving and granting petitions, exercising the power of life and death in public crimes, setting his father's prisoners at liberty, &c. which are all regal pri|vileges. That this person, that has already en|grossed to himself the powers and ensigns or roy|alty, coming to Caesar only for the title of it, makes Augustus but a shadow of a prince, and a king in name, not in effect. Father, (says An|tipater,) what avails all the solemnity of his mourning weeds for his dead father? He looks sorrowfully all day, and then sits up feasting and making merry all night. What was it, at last but the detestation of the people had for this hy|pocrisy, that raised the late sedition? But the main stress of the charge was yet to come, which was a horrible slaughter about the temple. It was a festival day; the people gathered together to worship, and pay their devotions, and they themselves were made the sacrifice. Their throats, in short, were cut; and such heaps of dead bodies piled up in the temple, as, in the most im|placable and merciless of foreign wars, was hard|ly ever heard of. Herod was so well acquainted with the cruelty of this man's nature, that it was almost impossible for him ever to give him the least hope of a crown, so long as he was in his right mind. And that, alas! was the king's case in the latter testament: his mind was more out of order than his body; and he did not know what he did. Beside that, after all this, there was no inability or defect charged upon Antipas, the successor, by the former will; but the people gave him the character of a prince very well qualified for the royal function. Or if it should be supposed that Herod was, in truth, sound, and in his right senses, Archelaus has as good as abdicated the roy|al dignity, by acting against the laws of the consti|tution. What havock would he make now, if he had Caesar's authority to cover him in his cruel|ties, that does all this upon his own account, with|out any power at all.

When Antipater had thus powerfully argued the point,* 1.15 and produced a great number of the kindred of Archelaus to prove the several parts of his ac|cusation, he sat down; and Nicolaus rose in behalf of the defendant, alledging

That the slaughter com|mitted in the temple was not only of absol••te ne|cessity, but the people that were killed w•••••• Cae|sar's

enemies. He shewed likewise, that, for the other pretended crimes, the present opposers of Archelaus were themselves the advisers of them. As to the validity of the second testament, he ar|gued, that it ought to stand, in regard that He|rod, had at that time, the consideration and res|pect to refer the confirmation of it to Caesar. Now he that had the judgment to know the right lord and master, had certainly sense enough to appoint the right heir.

Nicolaus having thus spoken concisely, but point|edly,* 1.16 in vindication of Archelaus, the latter sud|denly cast himself at Caesar's feet, who raised him with such singular grace and benignity, as indicated that he thought him worthy of the succession: but no positive resolution was entered into at that time. This being done, Caesar dismissed the council for that day, and entered into a consultation with his friends respecting the decision of the case; whether it were fitting to constitute any of those named in Herod's testaments as his successor, or make an equal participation of the principality amongst the whole family, as they were numerous, and would require a great revenue to support them with honour.

CHAP. II.

Death of Malthace, the mother of Archelaus. Great uproar amongst the Jews. Sabinus inflames it. The feast of Pentecost. The Jews draw up in form. Sabinus presses Varus for relief, and takes sanctuary in the Tower of Phasael. A bloody conflict between the Jews and the Romans. The Romans set fire to the galleries of the temple, which makes great slaugh|ter amongst the Jews. The soldiers plunder the sacred treasure. The Jews summon the palace to surrender, and sit down before it. They offer Sabinus conditions, which he refuses. Factions and broils throughout Ju|daea. Exploits of Judas, a notorious robber. Ambi|tion and courage of Simon. Athronges and his four brothers enterprising men.

* 1.17BEFORE Caesar came to any positive determina|tion as to the succession, Malthace, the mother of Archelaus, fell into a distemper, and departed this life. Letters also at the same time were re|ceived from Varus out of Syria, containing infor|mation of a revolt amongst the Jews, and of his going up to Jerusalem upon Archelaus's journey to Rome, to restrain the incendiaries, and restore peace and good order. When he found advice and re|monstrance ineffectual, and that the multitude were still refractory, he quartered one of the legions he brought out of Syria in the city, and so returned to Antioch.

* 1.18But when Sabinus came afterwards to Jerusalem, he furnished them with new occasion for tumults: for depending on the reinforcement of the troops of Varus, and a band of his own domestics well armed, and at hand, to subserve the purpose of his ava|rice and rapine, his design was to get possession of the castles and Herod's treasures by force, and me|nace upon the governors and officers who had them in charge.* 1.19 It was now the feast of Pentecost, or fiftieth day, so called from the term of the revolu|tions, after seven times seven days after the pass|over; so that the people assembled in great num|bers, not from a religious motive, but discontent with the present situation of affairs. They repaired to Jerusalem from Galilee, Idumaea, Jericho, and the country beyond Jordan, with the inhabitants of Judaea, who, for number and courage, surpassed all the rest. They divided themselves into three bo|dies,* 1.20 and pitched their tents in three quarters; one upon the north side of the temple, another upon the south towards the circus, and the third to the west|ward of the palace; so that the Romans, by these means, were beset on all sides.

Sabinus, alarmed at the number and resolution of the e••••mies, pressed Varus, by divers messengers, to come to his succour immediately, or his legion would be cut to pieces. He reached, however, the highest tower of the fortress,* 1.21 that commands all the rest, and, from the name of Herod's bro|ther, that was slain by the Parthians, is called Pha|saelus, and then gave a signal to the soldiers of that legion to break in upon the enemy; for such was his pusillanimity, that he durst not lead on the very men he was appointed to command.

The Romans, according to order,* 1.22 made a vigo|rous attempt upon the temple, and a desperate en|gagement took place between them and the Jews, in which the latter, while they had no help from above, either with darts or arrows, were worsted; but when once the Jews got possession of the gal|leries, and galled the Romans from thence, many of them were cut off; and the rest were too far dis|tant to take their revenge; though, if they had been hand to hand, they would have been much too hard for them.

After this the Romans set fire to the galleries,* 1.23 which, for workmanship, proportion, and orna|ment, were incomparable. Many of the Jews pe|rished in the flames: some were cut off by the ene|my upon their fall; others pushed from the battle|ments: some again, in despair-choosing rather to die by the sword than by fire, laid violent hands on themselves. Those that made an attempt on the Romans from the walls, were destroyed without any difficulty; till, at length,* 1.24 they were either slain or scattered. The soldiers plundered the sacred treasure, carrying off four hundred talents, and leaving to Sabinus the remainder.

This loss of men and treasure brought a more powerful reinforcement of the Jews upon the Ro|mans than the other, both for valour and number. They summoned the palace to surrender, and set down before it, with a menace of giving no quar|ter unless they immediately quitted it, and offering Sabinus liberty if he would depart with his legion. There were many of the king's party who deserted the Romans, and assisted the Jews.* 1.25 But the most warlike body, amounting to three thousand men of Sebaste, went over to the Romans, under the com|mand of Rufus and Gratus. The Jews still pressed the siege, and attempted the walls of the fortress, calling upon Sabinus to retire, without opposing himself to the resolution they had taken of reco|vering their liberty. Sabinus was inclined to pro|vide for his safety, but distrusted the assurances the Jews gave him, and suspected their preferred lenity as a bait laid to ensnare him. This conside|ration, together with the hope of relief from Varus, induced him to stand the siege.

Judaea was at this time involved in tumults and factions,* 1.26 an opportunity now offering for preten|ders to start their claim to government. A band of two thousand veterans in Idumaea, who had served under Herod, had several encounters with the king's troops, and in particular with Achiab, He|rod's kinsman, who often sallied upon them out of strong holds, but could not cope with them in the open plain.

In Sepphoris, a city of Galilee, one Judas,* 1.27 the son of Hezekias, leader of the band that was taken by Herod, assembled a considerable party, forced the king's magazines, and arming himself and compa|nions out of those stores, set opposition at defiance, and ravaged the country.

In Perea also, on the other side of the river, Si|mon, one of the late king's domestics, relying on the symmetry, agility, and strength of his person, placed a crown upon his head, and, assisted by a band of robbers he had collected, burnt down the palace at Jericho, laid several stately buildings in ashes round about it, and procured immense booty by rapine.* 1.28 Nay, he would have laid waste the whole country, if Gratus, who commanded the king's foot, had not brought the Trachonite archers, and a warlike body from Sebaste, to their relief. In fine, they came to ac|tion, when the robber was overcome, and great part of his foot cut off. As he himself was upon the flight across a steep bottom, Gratus, felled him by an ob|lique

stroke on the neck, and thereby put an end to his life and depredations.* 1.29 The royal palaces, about Amathus and the borders of Jordan, were also burnt down by another seditious gang that came out of Perea.

* 1.30There was also at the same time a certain shep|herd, named Athronges, who had the confidence to set up for king. He had strength of body, and resolution of mind, equal to any enterprize; and was aided and abetted by four brothers of the same qualifications, who served him in his incursions both as officers and counsellors. Upon affairs of mo|ment, he ascended a throne, with a crown upon his head, pronounced judgement without appeal, and in every instance assumed regal authority. Under this usurped sanction he continued to over-run the country for some time, destroying whatever he met with, and exercising hostilities towards the Ro|mans, the king's troops, and even the Jews them|selves, if there was a probability of gaining any booty. These free-booters once met, near Emmaus, a convoy with corn and arms, which the Romans were carrying to one of their legions, and encoun|tering them, killed Arius, their centurion, with forty of his best men; and would have destroyed the whole, if Gratus, with his troops from Sebaste, had not come speedily to their relief. Having thus plun|dered both foreigners and their own countrymen for some time, three of the brothers at length were taken;* 1.31 the eldest by Archelaus, the two next by Gratus and Ptolemy, and the fourth surrendered himself to Archelaus upon conditions. Thus ended the enterprizes of these desperadoes, while Judaea might be said to be over-run with depredations and rapine.

CHAP. III.

Varus joins the Romans against the Jews. Sepphoris burnt to the ground. Sappho taken and plundered. Emmaus laid in ashes. Upon the approach of Varus to Jerusalem, the Jews quit the siege in conster••ation. The citizens disclaim all seditious practices, and wel|come Varus into the town. Near 2000 of the ring-leaders are punished with crucifixion. Varus dis|charges the Arabian auxiliaries for their non-confor|mity to military discipline. His generosity towards the Jews of Idumaea.

VARUS having received intelligence from Sa|binus,* 1.32 and the chief officers at Jerusalem, that the Roman legion there was in danger of being cut off, he hastened with all expedition to their relief, and marched with the two other legions he had un|der his command, and four troops of horse, to Pto|lemais, ordering the auxiliaries, that w••re sent by the kings and governors of cities, to join him there at the rendezvous. The people of Berytus, as he passed through their city, furnished him with a re|inforcement of fifteen hundred men, well armed. Upon his coming to Ptolemais, Aretas, king of A|rabia, (a bitter enemy to Herod,) joined him with a considerable body of horse and foot. When he had mustered his forces, he sent a detachment into Ga|lilee, under command of his friend Gallus, who soon after encountered a party, totally routed them, entered the city of Sepphoris, burnt it to the ground,* 1.33 and made all the inhabitants slaves.

Varus himself marched with the main army into Samaria, but spared the city, because he found the inhabitants had not joined in the late commotions. He encamped at Arus, a village belonging to Pto|lemy,* 1.34 which the Arabians plundered, merely be|cause he was a friend to Herod. The army ad|vanced next to Sappho, a fortified place, which they took, rifled, and pillaged. The Arabians car|ried all before them with fire and sword. Emmaus was abandoned by its inhabitants, and then burnt by command of Varus, in revenge for the deaths of Arius and his companions.

Thence he marched to Jerusalem, where the Jews, upon the very tidings of his approach, quitted the siege, dispersed,* 1.35 and took shelter in the fields and woods; but the citizens, on the contrary, maintain|ed their ground, and received the conqueror with due honors. They cleared themselves from all sus|picion of joining in the late revolt, alledging that they had raised no commotions, but had been forced to admit the multitude on account of its being the day of a grand festival, so that they were rather be|sieged themselves, together with the Romans, than accessary to the least mutiny or sedition.

Varus had been met on his entrance by Joseph, the nephew of Archelaus, with Rufus and Gratus, the king's generals, at the head of the Roman sol|diers and the troops of Sebaste, all in their milita|ry habits. Sabinus, from conscious guilt, to avoid the presence of Varus, had stolen away out of the city, and lurked about the sea-side. Varus, in the mean time, dispersed his troops up and down the country, in quest of the ringleaders of this tumult. They apprehended great numbers, of whom those who appeared to have the least concern were put into custody; but such as were most criminal he or|dered to be crucified, to the amount of about two thousand.

Varus was informed that there remained in Idu|maea ten thousand Jews still in arms. Finding,* 1.36 however, the Arabians did not act like soldiers and men of honour, but gave themselves wholly up to spoil and rapine, laying the country waste where|ver they came, in opposition to his will, he dismis|sed them, and, at the head of his own legion, mar|ched against the revolters: but, before it proceeded to blows, at the instance of Achiab, they surren|dered, and laid down their arms. The Roman governor treated the commonalty with lenity, but sent the officers to answer for their conduct to Cae|sar. Finding some of Herod's kinsmen in the num|ber of revolters, he proceeded against them as trai|tors, for taking up arms against their king; and having thu•• restored tranquillity to Jerusalem, he left the former legion as a guard, and then return|ed to Antioch.

CHAP. IV.

The Jews accuse Archelaus before Caesar, and petition for the free exercise of their religion. The emperor calls a council upon the occasion. Hears the allega|tions of the Jews, by their deputies, on the one hand, and those of Archelaus, and his adherents, on the other. Nicolaus pleads the cause of Archelaus. Caesar, hav|ing duly weighed the whole matter, settles the govern|ment, and makes the dispositions according to the will of Herod.

AFTER matters had been thus accommodated in Judaea, the pretensions of Archelaus were delayed by an accusation which the Jews had pre|ferred against him at Rome, by fifty deputies, who had been sent from Jerusalem before the tumults broke forth, and that with the permission of Varus.* 1.37 The purport of their embassy was to address the emperor for the liberty of their country, and the exercise of their religion; and their petition was signed by 8000 Jews principal inhabitants of Rome.

This being a point of importance,* 1.38 Caesar called a council of the Roman nobility, and his own par|ticular friends, to meet in the temple of Apollo, up|on mount Palatine, a stately and superb structure of his own erecting: The council being assembled, the Jews and their ambassadors were ranged on the one hand, and Archelaus and his adherents on the other. His kindred maintained a neutrality; as, from their envy and hatred, they would not espouse his cause; nor would they be seen to take part with his accusers; so that they acted from a two-fold motive. Amongst others was Philip, the brother of Archelaus, whom Varus sent before for two reasons: the one that he might be enabled to assist his bro|ther upon the occasion; the other, that, in case Augustus Caesar should think fit to make a distri|bution of the possessions of Herod amongst his chil|dren, he might come in for his share.

The deputies of the Jews being called upon to set forth their complaints, and then prefer their pe|tition, addressed the court to the following effect:

* 1.39That Herod never demeaned himself like a king; but, on the contrary, as the most intole|rable tyrant upon the face of the earth. That his cruelty did not stop at the profusion of innocent blood, and the violation of justice: but that he made the very living wish themselves dead. That he did not only tear the bodies of his subjects to pieces with torments, but stript his towns and ci|ties of all that was choice and precious, and gave it away in ostentation to foreigners; sacrificing the very lives also of the Jews to strangers. In|stead of the blessings of their ancient laws and li|berties, he left his people nothing but beggary and iniquity in exchange; insomuch that they suffered more plagues since his coming to the crown, than their forefathers ever felt since their deliverance from Xerxes out of the captivity of Babylon.

The Jews (they said) had been now so used to slavery, that th••y were grown modest and patient under the yoke, even to the degree of entailing a voluntary servitude upon their posterity in the person of Archelaus, the son of the late tyrant, whom they saluted asking immediately upon the death of his father. They mourned for Herod together, and offered up their joint vows for the long and prosperous reign of his successor; and then, to put it out of doubt that he was the true son of this inhuman father, he made his auspici|ous entrance upon the government with the slaughter of three thousand citizens: and, the better to entitle himself to the succession, this massacre was his oblation to God of three thou|sand victims: and all this upon an holy day, and the carcasses piled up in the holy temple.

What wonder is it for men that have outlived so many miseries, and escaped so dangerous a rock, to own their aversion to this man, and to fall (if perish they must) like men of honour with their faces to the enemy? All the Jews desire at the hands of the Romans, is only that Caesar will judge the wretched remainder of them so far wor|thy of pity, as not to expose them to the rigour of their merciless oppressors; but rather to annex Judaea to Syria, and range them under the laws and rules of the Roman government. It will then be seen whether the Jews are, in truth, so tur|bulent and seditious a sort of people as they are given out to be, when they fall once into the hands of humane and temperate governors.

With this petition the deputies closed their charge.

* 1.40Nicolaus rose in behalf of Archelaus, and, in his reply, cleared both him and Herod from the accusa|tions brought against them, and then proceeded, in very pointed language, to characterize the nation of the Jews, as averse to any government, and more particularly to that of monarchy; conclu|ding his speech with some sarcastic remarks upon the relations of Archelaus, who had deserted his cause, and joined his accusers.

When the emperor had heard the arguments on both sides,* 1.41 he dismissed the court, and, after some few days deliberation, bestowed upon Archelaus one half of Herod's kingdom, under the title of ethnarch, with a promise of making him k••••g, if he should appear worthy of that dignity. The other half he divided into two tetrarchies, which he gave to two other sons of Herod; one to Philip, the other to Antipas, who had contested the sove|reignty with Archelaus. There fell to his lot the country beyond the river, and Galilee, producing a revenue of two hundred talents. But Batanaea, Trachon, Auranites, and some part of the land of Zenon, about Jamnia, were assigned to Philip, and yielded a revenue of an hundred talents. In Ar|chelaus's ethnarchy were comprized Idumaea, all Judaea, and Samaria; which last was remitted a forth part of its tribute, as a reward for not joining in the rebellion with their neighbours. Straton's Tower, Sebaste, Joppa, and Jerusalem, were all cast into the share of Archelaus; but Gaza, Ga|dara, and Hippon, Grecian cities, were detached from the kingdom, and annexed to Syria. The re|venue of Archelaus amounted, upon the whole, to four hundred talents.

Caesar bestowed upon Salome, besides what was bequeathed by will of Herod, Jamnia, Azotus,* 1.42 and Phasaelis. He gave her also a palace at Askalon, which was valued at sixty talents, but was subjected to the jurisdiction of the ethnarchy. When Caesar had thus discharged all Herod's bequests, he gran|ted to his two virgin daughters 500,000 drachmae, and gave them in marriage to the sons of Pheroras. But after this family distribution, he made a libe|ral division of a thousand talents more, which wer•• bequeathed to himself, reserving only some parti|cular presents in memory of the deceased.

CHAP. V.

Exploits of a spurious Alexander. His impostures are detected, and he is sent to the gallies. The first pro|jector put to death.

AT this time there was a man, by birth a Jew,* 1.43 but brought up at Sidon with the freeman of a Roman citizen, who falsely pretended, on account of the resemblances of their countenance, to be that very Alexander who was slain by Herod. This man came to Rome to practise his imposture; and had with him, for countenance and counsel, another Jew who was perfectly acquainted with the atten|dants and intrigues of the court of Herod. His companion instructed him to give out, that the people who were employed by his father to put him and Aristobulus to death, had so great a com|passion for them, that they substituted other bodi|es in their places,* 1.44 and conveyed the brothers out of the way. This passed current with many Jews in Crete, who furnished the pretender with plentiful supplies for travelling in splendour. From thence he pro••eeded to Melos, where he experienced more respect and bounty: nay, he so far imposed upon the public credulity, that he took several of his friends along with him to Rome. Upon his arrival at Puteoli, the Jews of that place made him sump|tuous presents; and the friends of his father trea|ted him as a sovereign prince. The striking re|semblance, in fine, procured him such credit, that as many as had seen Alexander would not hesitate to swear this was the man. The report was so prevalent, that the whole body of the Jews, who were at Rome, came in crowds to see him; and in|numerable multitudes stood in the avenues, through which he was carried in a sedan by the inhabitants of Melos, who kept him a negroe train at their own proper charges.

But Caesar,* 1.45 who knew perfectly well the linea|ments of Alexander's face, because he had been ac|cused by Herod before him, suspecting the fraud, sent for one Celadus, and ordered him to bring the young man to him. When Caesar saw him, he im|mediately discerned the fallacy in his countenance; and when he discovered that his whole body was of a coarser texture, and more robust form, like that of a slave, he was convinced that the whole was an im|posture. But he was most astonished at the effron|tery of his reply, on being asked concerning Aristo|bulus, which was, "That he was living, but left on purpose at Cyprus, for fear of treachery, as it would be more difficult for plotters to get them in|to their power while they were separate."

Caesar then took him by himself privately, as|sured him he had discovered the fallacy, and that he would spare his life, if he would own to him who had persuaded him to adopt that mode of im|position, Having promised compliance, he went with Caesar, and pointed to the Jew that had ad|vised him to it in order to get money: for, in fact, the sum he raised upon this piece of chicanery, was more than Alexander himself could have procured had

he been alive. Caesar smiled at the contrivance; and condemned the spurious Alexander to the gal|lies on account of his strength,* 1.46 and the projector of the imposture to death: but the people of Melos had been sufficiently punished for their folly, by the expences they had been at on his account.

CHAP. VI.

Archelaus is accused of oppression to Caesar, and ba|nished to Vienna, a city of Gaul. A foreboding dream. The exposition. Another very extraordinary dream of the princess Glaphyra, who has a vision of her first husband. Her death.

WHEN Archelaus took possession of his eth|narchy, he treated not only the Jews but the Samarians with great rigour, from a resentment of former disputes betwixt them. In consequence of this they sent embassies to complain to Caesar, who, in the ninth year of his government,* 1.47 banished him to Vienna, a city of Gaul, and sequestered his ef|fects.

A report prevailed that Archelaus, before his summons to attend the emperor,* 1.48 dreamt he saw nine e••rs of corn, large and full, devoured by oxen; and that when he sent for several who were suppo|sed to be skilled in divination, some said one thing, and some another; till at length Simon, one of the sect of Essenes,* 1.49 gave it this interpretation: "That the e••rs of corn denoted years, and the oxen the vicissitude of things, as the earth is overturned by the plough; that therefore he should reign as ma|ny years as there were ears of corn, and, after many revolutions, depart this life." It so fell out that, five days after this interpretation, Archelaus was called upon his trial.

There was another memorable dream of the prin|cess Glaphyra, daughter of Archelaus, king of Cap|padocia, and wife of Archelaus, the present subject of our history. Her first husband was Alexander, the son of Herod, by whom he was put to death. This princess, after his death, married Juba, king of Lybia, and, upon his decease, returned home, and lived with her father in a state widowhood Archelaus, the ethnarch, became so enamoured of her at first sight,* 1.50 that he put away Mariamn••, and married her. Soon after this she came back into Judaea, and had there a vision of her first husband Alexander, who thus seemed to reproach her: "Could not your marriage with one husband after me suffice, but you must take a third, and this under my own roof? and, to add to thy criminality, my own brother?* 1.51 These are injuries not to be borne. But you shall soon return to me again." Glaphyra survived this dream but two days.

CHAP. VII.

The ethnarchy of Archelaus reduced into a Roman pro|vince. The sedition of Judas, of Galilee. Three sorts of Jews, Pharisees, Sadduces, and Essenes. Of the Ess••••es. Their temperance and opinion of marriage; their effects in common; their apparel, charity, and mod•• of living; their scruples of conscience, peaceable disp••••ition, and fidelity. The method of introduction into the society, and of punishing offenders. Their piety, virtue and contempt of death. Their opinion of the ••oul. Veneration for the ancients. A different sort of Essenes. Brief description of the sects of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

* 1.52THE ethnarchy of Archelaus being now re|duced into a Roman province, Coponius, a man of equestrian rank, was vested by Caesar with full commission to govern it. Under his admini|stration a certain Galilean, named Judas, stirred up the people to revolt, on a suggestion that, in sub|mitting to the Romans, and paying them tribute, they acknowledged a supremacy due to God alone. This Judas was the leader of apeculiar sect, and entertained tenets peculiar to himself.

There are among the Jews three philosophical sects,* 1.53 distinguished by the different denomination•• of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, which last maintain a more rigid discipline than the rest.

The Essenes are Jews by birth,* 1.54 and seem to have a greater affection for one another than the rest of the sects. They reject pleasure as an evil; but esteem continence, and a conquest over the passions, as a cardinal virtue. They neglect wedlock; but select the children of others, while they are young and docile, and adopt and train them up as their own. They do not absolutely deny the moral fit|ness of marriage,* 1.55 and the succession of mankind continued thereby, but guard against the frailty of women, and can hardly admit an invoilable attach|ment to one man.

They hold wealth, and what are called the good things of this world, in contempt; so that they are equally strangers to riches and poverty,* 1.56 as they have all things in common; or, in other words, the whole society live like brethren▪ being all equal sha|rers in one common patrimony: upon such a prin|ciple no man can be contemptible for being poor, nor honourable for being rich.

They think oil a defilement▪* 1.57 and value themselves upon the simplicity of their appearance, provided their garments are white and clean.

They appoint stewards for the management of their common stock,* 1.58 and leave it to their discretion to make distribution out of it to every man in pro|portion according to his need.

They have no certain place of abode, but dis|perse themselves through different cities, towns,* 1.59 and villages, where they are ever ready and open to receive and entertain any of their own feet, and treat them, though strangers, with the same fa|miliarity as if intimately acquainted.

They carry nothing with them,* 1.60 when they tra|vel, but arms for the security of their persons. They appoint, in every place, some one to take care of their strange brethren, and provide them with lodging, food, apparel, and necessaries in ge|neral. The dress they wear resembles that of chil|dren when they are under the charge of masters and governors. Nor do they change their garments or shoes, but when one is torn, and the other worn out.

They neither buy or sell among themselves▪* 1.61 but supply each other's wants; not by way of exchange but an obligation on the one party to give, and the other to receive.

Their piety towards God is extraordinary;* 1.62 as they never speak a word of the common affairs of life before sun-rise, but upon certain traditional forms of prayer, imploring the Divine protection for the day. After this act of devotion, they be|take themselves to their several occupations and employments, in which they labour with great dil|ligence till an hour before noon, when they assem|ble in white veils, and bathe in cold water. Upon this purification they retire to their apartments, in|to which it is not permitted to any one of another sect to enter. From thence they enter into a re|fectory, or dining-hall, as into an holy temple, and sit down without uttering a word. The atten|dants place their loaves in order, and bring each one a single plate of one kind of food, which is not touched before the priest pronounces a blessing; as in like manner he returns thanks to the divine do|nor after meat. This duty performed, they lay a|side their white garments, as in some degree sa|cred, and resume their ordinary avocations till e|vening, when they return to supper in the same manner; and if their be any strangers they sit down with them. Their houses ar•• free from cla|mour and disturbance. They speak by turns, and observe a gravity and silence which excite the ve|neration of strangers, and arise from a constant course of moderation and sobriety.

* 1.63They are not allowed to do any thing without the advice of their superiors, except in offices of com|passion and assistance, in which they are left at li|berty; for every man is free to help the virtuous; though they are restrained from relieving their kin|dred without permission from their superiors. They curb their passions, and are eminent for their fide|lity,* 1.64 and preserving peace and good order. Their word is as sacred as an oath, which they avoid as worse than perjury, accounting a man, who cannot be believed without bringing God for a witness, as a liar, and unworthy of confidence.

* 1.65They hold the works and writings of the an|cients in great veneration, and select from them what is conducive to the benefit of their minds and bodies, as in the cases of ethics, or morals, or re|medies for diseases, the virtues of plants, metals, minerals, and the like.

* 1.66When any person is disposed to become a member of the society, he is not immediately admitted, but prescribed the mode of living for one whole year, and presented with an axe, a girdle, and a white gar|ment. If, in that course of time, he has given evi|dence of his continence, they, in some respect, change his diet, and allow him the benefit of the water of purification. But he is not permitted to enter the refectory till he has passed a two years probation of his integrity; upon which trial he is taken into the society upon the following conditions:

* 1.67He is first to bind himself, by solemn oaths, to love and worship God, and observe justice towards man; to injure no one of his own accord, nor at the command or persuasion of others; to declare him|self an enemy to the wicked, and a friend to the righteous; to shew fidelity to all men, and especi|ally to those in authority, as they are the ministers of God by his own appointment. He is likewise to declare, that if ever he should attain to an eleva|ted station, he will never abuse that power to the injury of those who are subordinate to him, nor distinguish himself by any peculiar ornament of dress; that he will love and embrace the truth, and reprove those who speak falshood. He binds him|self also to keep his hands clear from theft and frau|dulent dealing, and his mind from the desire of un|lawful gains. He swears that he will not conceal from those of his own sect any of the mysteries of his religion, nor communicate any of their doctrines to others, though it should be to save his life: and finally, that he will communicate their doctrines in no other manner than as he received them him|self; and will preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the names of those by whom they are written.

Those who are detected in heinous offences are excluded the society, and generally come to a mi|serable end, as they are bound by oath not to re|ceive even a morsel of bread from the hand of a stranger, and thus compelled to graze like beasts till they perish. In this distress the society some|times compassionates a case, and receives the de|linquent again, deeming the punishment, in some degree, an atonement for the offence.

* 1.68In the administration of justice they are singularly strict; determining nothing without the concur|rence of at least an hundred voices; and from their sentence once passed there is no appeal.

* 1.69Next to the supreme authority of God himself the hold in reverence that of their legislator, (Moses,) whom if any one blasphemes, he is pu|nished with death. They ascribe great honour to their elders, and to the majority of the people; deeming it highly reasonable to obey the one, and hearken to the other. When there are ten mem|bers in council, no particular one is to speak if the other nine are against it. They hold it indecent, and even immoral, to spit towards the middle of the assembly, or upon the right hand of it.

* 1.70They observe the sabbath with greater strictness than any other sect of the Jews; as they not only prepare their food the preceding day, to avoid kindling a fire upon that day, but will not move an utensil from one place to another.

Those who profess these tenets and practices, are divided into four sorts,* 1.71 according to their respec|tive obligations. The younger are reputed so much inferior to their elders, that if the senior is touched by the junior, he must purify as it were upon the contact of a stranger.

They live to a great age,* 1.72 many of them an hun|dred years and upwards, which must be ascribed to the simplicity of their diet, and their temperance in general. They are also firm and hardy, contemning the miseries of life,* 1.73 and accounting an honourable death more desirable than an inglorious existence. Indeed our war with the Romans abundantly proves this part of their character; as, upon divers occa|sions, neither burning, or the most exquisite tor|ture, could force from them an irreverent word of their legislator, or the breach of one of their rites or ceremonie••. Tortures they also endured not only without supplication and tears, but with chearfulness of countenance, defying the tormen|tors, and yielding up their breath with serenity, and composure, in the assurance of exchanging the present life for a better in future.

They firmly believe the mortality of the body;* 1.74 and that the soul, being of the same nature with the subtilest air, is incorruptible and immortal, and by a kind of attraction enclosed in the body as in a pri|son; but that when it shall be freed from these cor|poreal bonds, or from a long slavery, it shall ascend to the region of bliss. This tenet seems to corres|pond with a certain opinion of the Greeks, who conceit that there is a region beyond the ocean, where there are neither rain, sun, or raging heats, but only gentle refreshing breezes: this they make the residence of the blest in a future state. As for the wicked, on the other hand, they stand, in their opinion, condemned to impetuous tempests, de|stroying frosts, and everlasting agonies and groans.

This is analogous to what Grecian fabulists re|late of the fortunate islands, describing them as places set apart for the beatific enjoyment of those glorious spirits they call heroes and demi-gods. They have also their hades, or hell, which their fabulists inform us is an infernal pit, where Sisy|phus, Tantalus, Ixion, Tityus, and the like, are consigned to different, but eternal, plagues and tor|ments. This is built on the first supposition that souls are immortal, and from thence are derived exhortations to virtue, and dissuasives from vice; for good men are rendered better, even in this world, by the hopes of reward in another; and the vehement inclinations of bad men are restrained by the fear and expectation they are in, although their wickedness may be, in some measure, con|cealed in this life, of suffering eternal punishment after death. These are the doctrines of the Es|senes concerning the subject of the soul; and we find very few, when once they have imbibed the same, that ever depart from it.

There are amongst the Essenes those who pretend to the spirit of prophecy,* 1.75 founding their presages upon holy writ, and using preparatory purifications to fit them for the work; and it is observable that they seldom fail in their predictions.

There is another order of Essenes, agreeing with the former as to meats, manners, and laws,* 1.76 but dif|fering from it in the point of marriage, as thinking that, by not marrying, they cut off succession, and thereby tend to extinguish the human race. The woman, however, must be subject to a three years probation; and if she should be found in a condi|tion for child bearing, she is to be reputed, after that trial, qualified for wedlock. Thus much for the Essenes.

The Pharisees are professors of the law,* 1.77 and learned in the Jewish rites and ceremonies. The first article of their creed is, in effect, that fate and Providence do all; and yet that, whether we do well or ill, it is much in our own power, only that des|tiny interposes sometimes in this or that particular. They believe the soul to be immortal. They like|wise believe a transmigration of the souls of good men in to other bodies; but, at the same time, that the

souls of the wicked are transmitted to a state of everlasting woe.

The Sadducees, on the other hand, absolutely de|ny fate,* 1.78 affirming that God can do no ill, and that he l••••••••s men at liberty to do what they list. They have good and evil before them, and they take their choice. The former sect are sociable, and live upon good terms with one another; while the lat|ter are harsh and ill-natured among themselves, and absolutely inhuman and intolerable to stran|gers. But to return to the main subject.

CHAP. VIII.

Death of Augustus Caesar. Succession of Tiberius. Pi|late made governor of Judaea. A tumult upon con|veying Caesar's ensigns into Jerusalem. Pilate sum|mons the Jews under a colour of hearing. Is induced, by the generous behaviour of the Jews, to remove the ensigns. Another tumult occasioned by a tax upon the holy treasure. Agrippa complains of Herod to Tibe|rius, and, in consequence of an expression to Caius, is kept prisoner till the death of that emperor. Caius Caesar succeeds Tiberius, and advances Agrippa. He|rod, at the instance of Herodias, seeks the favour of Caius. Deaths of Herod and Herodias in exile in Spain.

THE ethnarchy of Archelaus being now re|duced into a province, the two brethren, He|rod and Philip, (called Antipas,) continued in the administration of their tetrarchies. Salome, upon her demise, bequeathed her toparchy to Livia, the wife of Augustus, together with Jamnia, and a plantation of palm-trees at Phasaelis.

Augustus dying after a reign of fifty-seven years, six months,* 1.79 and two days, Tiberius, the son of Livia, succeeded to the Roman empire. Philip, the tetrarch, built a city in Panea••, which he called Caesarea, and another in Gaulanitis, which he cal|led Julias. Tiberias in Galilee was built by He|rod, as was Julias in Perea.

Pilate being appointed governor of Judaea by Tiberius, secretly conveyed, by night into the city, certain ensigns, with the image of Caesar inscribed upon them.* 1.80 This excited a tumult amongst the Jews, who were alarmed at so flagrant a propha|nation of their religion, and violation of their li|berties, as the introduction of images to the city was a thing totally forbidden. This tumult in town was speedily inflamed by a vast concourse of people from all parts of the province; in conse|quence of which the Jews went in a great body to Caesarea, to move Pilate for relief, and there ear|nestly besought him to be tender of their laws, and order the removal of the images out of the city. Upon Pilate's inattention to their request, they fell prostrate, and in that posture continued immo|veable five days and as many nights.

On the sixth day Pilate mounted the tribunal, which was in the great court, and called to him the multitude, as if desirous of giving them an an|swer; when suddenly, upon a signal given, the Jews were surrounded with armed troops; and Pilate, in the instant of their consternation, declared that every man should die, unless they admitted the images into the city,* 1.81 and gave intimation to the sol|diers to draw their swords. The Jews, in this state of terror, ••ast themselves prostrate one and all be|fore him, stretched out their necks, and offered themselves to the execution, crying out with one voice, that they would rather die than see the pro|phanation of their laws. Pilate was so astonished at the daring zeal of these people in defence of their religion,* 1.82 that he gave immediate orders to have the statues removed.

This tumult was followed by another. The Jews have a sacred treasure, which they call corb••n, and Pilate laid a tax upon it towards the charge of aqueducts for the bringing in of water at the dis|tance of three hundred furlongs. The common people were so irritated at this imposition, that they came with complaints to Pilate about it as he sat upon the tribunal.* 1.83 But he had caution to pro|vide against a tumult, by intermixing soldiers in disguise with the multitude, to be in readiness to fall on whenever a signal should be given; but, in case of riot, to use staves only, and not their swords. The people growing clamorous, Pilate gave the soldiers the signal, who did execution according to their orders. Many of the Jews were destroyed, some dying by blows, some crowded and trampled to death, and others perishing in the pursuit. The multitude, alarmed at this chastisement, ceased from murmuring; so that this severity put an end to the tumult.

In the mean time Agrippa, the son of that Aris|tobulus who was put to death by his father Herod, went to Tiberius with a complaint against Herod the tetrarch. Tiberius did not attend to the accu|sation; so that Agrippa continued at Rome in the condition of a private man, and made his court to persons of the first quality, and in particular to Caius, the son of Germanicus. Regaling him up|on a certain occasion with a collation, Agrippa took an opportunity, in the hour of conviviality, of ex|claiming, "how joyful he should be in seeing Caius emperor of the world instead of Tiberius." This being told to the latter by one of the company, he ordered him to be put in chains, and hardly treated in prison for the course of six months; at the expi|ration of which he departed this life himself,* 1.84 after a reign of twenty-two years, six months, and three days.

Caius Caesar, upon his succeeding to the empire,* 1.85 discharged Agrippa, and gave him the tetrarchy of Philip, who was now dead, with the title of king annexed. The advancement of Agrippa excited the envy and ambition of Herod the tetrarch, which were not a little inflamed by his wife Hero|dias, who reproached him for his sloth, and told him it was only because he would not attend Caesar, that he was deprived of greater dignity; for since the emperor had made Agrippa king from a pri|vate person, it was much more probable that he would promote him from a tetrarch to that rank. These arguments so far prevailed with Herod, that he repaired to Caius; but was followed by Agrippa, in order to prefer accusations against him. The emperor was so far from gratifying his ambition, that he reproved him severely, and gave his te|trarchy to Agrippa,* 1.86 in consequence of which he retired to Spain with his wife, and there died in exile.

CHAP. IX.

Caius Caesar arrogates divine honours. His horrid cru|elties. He orders Petronius, one of his generals, to set up his statue in the temple, and put all malecontents to the sword. Petronius advances with an army from Antioch towards Judaea. Description of Ptolemais. The Jews repair thither, and petition Petronius, who summons them to Tiberias, and their reasons the case with them. He relents, and dismisses the court without coming to any resolution. Promises his mediation with Caesar. Writes to the emper••r to that purport. He orders him to be put to death, but his own premature fate prevents the execution.

SO elated was Caius Caesar with his fortune,* 1.87 that he had the vanity to assume the name of a god, and aspire to divine honours. His cruelty also kept pace with his blasphemy, for he cut off great num|bers of the Roman nobility, and extended his bar|barity to Judaea, whither he sent his general Pe|tronius, charged with a commission to set up his sta|tue in the temple,* 1.88 and put every individual to the sword who should dare to make the least opposition, and make slaves of all the rest of the Jews. But the Divine Providence interposed and defeated his designs.

Petronius marched with all expedition from An|tioch towards Judaea with three legions, and a con|siderable number of auxiliaries out of Syria. Th••

report of this expedition gained no credit with the greater part of the Jews, nor were those who be|lieved it in a condition to put themselves in a posture of defence: but when the army advanced as far as Ptolemais, they were struck with an universal consternation.

* 1.89Ptolemais is a city upon the coast of Galilee, situ|ate on an extensive plain, and encompassed with mountains. That on the east side, at the distance of sixty furlongs, belongs to Galilee: that on the south to Carmel, which is distant an hundred and twenty furlongs: that on the north is the highest of them all, called, by the people of the country, "The latter of the Tyrians," and distant also an hundred and twenty furlongs. The small river Belus runs by it at the distance of two furlongs. Not far from it stands Memnon's sepulchre, bor|dering upon a prospect of near an hundred cubits over, which has something in it well worthy of ob|servation. There is the appearance of a round val|ley, that yields a kind of glassy sand. It is carried off by shipping; and as fast as they fetch it away, the winds from the summit of the mountains fill the place again.* 1.90 It is the nature of the soil to turn every thing to glass that comes into it; and, what is more extraordinary, that glassy sand, which is superfluous, once removed out of the place, be|comes common sand again.

* 1.91In this state of consternation the Jews, with their wives and children, went to Petronius at Ptolemais, and there besought him for their country's sake, and their own, not to enforce the violation of their laws, to the utter destruction of so many wretched people. Petronius was prevailed upon by the num|ber of the supplicants, and their deplorable condi|tion, to leave his army, and the statues of Caesar, at Ptolemais, advance towards Galilee, and sum|mon the Jews, of all ranks and degrees, to attend him at Tiberias.* 1.92 Being there assembled, he enter|ed upon a detail of the strength and power of the empire, and the menaces of Caesar, adding, that this request was a tacit affront, as they could claim no right to dispute these orders, to which all the subjects of the Roman empire, besides themselves, had submitted; which was the placing of the em|peror's statue in the temples amongst those of their other gods. He added, that their opposition was little short of a revolt, and would be considered by Caesar as the most palpable indignity.

* 1.93They had only to alledge, that the laws and cus|toms of their country would not allow them to set up any images whatever, either of God or man, or in any place whatsoever, either sacred or prophane. Petronius replied, that he was under as indispensa|ble a necessity of obeying the injunctions of the em|peror his master, as they were of those of their le|gislator: so that, in consequence of transgressing in their favour, he must be liable to punishment, being as much under command as they were. Here|upon the whole multitude exclaimed, that they were ready to lay down their lives in vindication of their laws.

* 1.94When the outcry subsided, Petronius demanded if they were resolved to take up arms against Caesar? They not only replied in the negative, but declar|ed that not a day passed but they offered up sacri|fices for the prosperity of Caesar, and the whole Roman people; but that, if he was determined to place images in the temple, he would make the na|tion of the Jews one common sacrifice, as they were ready to expose themselves, with their wives and children, to the severest torments. Petronius was so affected by this demonstration of invincible ar|dour, for the preservation of their religion, in the unanimous resolution of so vast a multitude, that he dismissed them without coming to a final decision.

Petronius then assembled the higher class in pri|vate, and the multitude in public; and sometimes had recourse to persuasion and advice, but chiefly to threatenings, insisting upon the power of the Romans, the high displeasure of Caesar, and the necessity he was under of obeying his injunctions. But when he found that no consideration would prevail with them, and that the ••eed time was al|most elapsed,* 1.95 having employed fifteen days in urg|ing their suit, he told them that, for their sakes, he was determined to expose himself to a desperate hazard, in attempting to satisfy Caesar, in failure of which his life would be at stake. He then dismis|sed the multitude, who offered up a thousand pray|ers for his prosperity, and drew off his army from Ptolemais, to Antioch. From thence he immedi|ately transmitted to Caesar an account of the man|ner in which he entered Judaea, of the petition in which the whole nation joined,* 1.96 and the danger to which the whole province would be exposed in case of denial. They desired nothing more, he observed, than the maintenance of their laws against all inno|vations.

Caius very concisely answered the epistle of Pe|tronius,* 1.97 by an order for putting him to death for not executing his command; but it so fell out that the bearers of this order were detained three months by contrary winds; and, in the mean time, Petro|nius received intelligence of the death of the em|peror by a quicker passage, twenty-seven days be|fore the arrival of the other.

CHAP. X.

Claudius declared emperor by the army. He is opposed by the senate. Agrippa courted both by Claudius and the senate. Espouses the interest of Claudius. Ha|rangues in justification of Claudius and the army. An|swer of the senate to Agrippa. Of Claudius to the senate. A soldier stands up for the honour of Clau|dius. Desertion of the soldiers followed by that of the senate. Agrippa prevents the destruction of the par|tizans of Claudius. Claudius acquires popularity. Sacrifices in form. Bountifully rewards Agrippa and Herod. The immense wealth and power of the former. Jerusalem is walled in. Death of Agrippa at Ce|sarea. Descendants of Alexander and Aristobulus.

CAIUS Caesar being taken off by treachery,* 1.98 after he had maintained the imperial sway three years and six months, Claudius was advanced to the go|vernment by the army, which was then at Rome. The consuls Sentius Saturninus and Pomponius Se|cundus appointed,* 1.99 according to the resolution of the senate, three regiments of soldiers for the guard of the city, whilst they met in the capitol, deter|mined to oppose the elevation of Claudius, on ac|count of the barbarous treatment they had met with from Caius, as well as from a design of restor|ing the aristocratical form of government, when men of rank and integrity were taken into admini|stration. At this time Agrippa happening to be at Rome, he was invited into the council by the se|nate, and into the camp by Claudius, as a conside|rable addition to what party soever he espoused.* 1.100 Agrippa finding Claudius emperor in effect, espous|ed his interest, and was immediately employed up|on an embassy to the senate. He represented to them, upon the occasion, "That the army's setting him up as emperor was an act of absolute force, in which his will was totally unconcerned; that it be|ing passed, he could not recede with honour or safety, as it would provoke them to revenge if he should seem insensible of the obligation; insisting, again and again, on the danger he must inevitably incur by a pusillanimous resignation of the power vested in him by the grand bulwark of the empire. He added, that since the main point was gained, and he was in possession of the government, Clau|dius had determined with himself to attend and execute the office, not as a tyrant to domineer at will and pleasure, but as a prince to express the ten|derest regard for the welfare and prosperity of his people. That he should content himself with the honour of the name of emperor, and in cases of importance, be ever ready to hearken to the advice of the senate, as the exemplary fate of Caius was a warning to him to exercise moderation."

When Agrippa had proceeded thus far in his ad|dress, the senate,* 1.101 relying upon their credit with the army, and the prudence of their own councils, gave

him this concise reply, "That they were not a bo|dy to be made voluntary slaves.* 1.102" Agrippa reported the answer to Claudius, who sent him back to as|sure them, "That Claudius was not a man to be|tray his friends that raised him to the empire: that he was much concerned at the thought of entering into a dispute with the senate; but if it must come to a decision by dint of arms, he desired they would appoint some spot of ground without the city for the place of action, as it would be dreadful, beyond conception, to have Rome laid in blood and ashes to gratify the humour of a few rash and turbulent people." With this message Agrippa was charged by Claudius to the senate, and he accordingly de|livered it.

At this very critical juncture of affairs, one of the soldiers then present, belonging to the senate, stood forth, and drawing his sword, thus exclaimed:

My brave companions,* 1.103 why are we thus at dag|gers with our best friends, and upon the brink of a civil war only for adhering to Claudius, an em|peror of spotless character, and a prince whom we should rather treat with duty aad respect as our protector, than threaten with arms as an enemy?

Having thus spoken, he marched through the whole senate,* 1.104 followed by the rest of the soldiers. This desertion so alarmed the nobi|lity that, to avoid more serious consequences, they gave over opposition, and following the example of the soldiery, went their way, and declared for Claudius. In the mean time divers of the male-content party lay upon the watch, with their swords drawn,* 1.105 under the walls, to dispatch them at their coming out; and they would have been all cut off, before Caesar could have had any knowledge of the matter, had not Agrippa given timely notice to prevent it; telling Caesar plainly, that if he did not restrain the licence of the army, especially toward the nobility, an universal massacre would shortly ensue, and, instead of being master of a glo|rious empire,* 1.106 it would leave him only prince of a depopulated nation. Claudius, prevailed on by the advice of Agrippa, restrained the violence of the soldiery, received the senate into the camp with due honours, and then went out with them, according to custom, to offer vows and sacrifices for the prosperity of the empire.* 1.107 He bestowed upon Agrippa not on|ly his father's kingdom entire, but, over and above, those places that Augustus had conferred upon He|rod, as Trachon and Auranitis, with what was called the kingdom of Lysanias, appointing the par|ticulars of this grant to be notified by proclamation to the people; and giving it likewise in charge to the senate, to have it cut in brass, and set up in the capi|tol. He gave the kingdom of Chalcis to Herod, the brother of Agrippa, who was become his son-in-law, by his marriage with Berenice, his daughter.

* 1.108The wealth and power of Agrippa now exceeded the bounds of imagination; nor did he squander what he had acquired in vain and trifling objects. His first undertaking was the walling in of Jerusa|lem, which, had it been brought to perfection, would have rendered it impracticable for the Romans to take it by siege.* 1.109 But, after three years reign as king, he died at Cesarea, and left the work unfinished, having governed three years before inquality of te|trarch. He left three daughters by Cypris, Bere|nice, Mariamne, and Drusilla; and one son, whose name was Agrippa. Being very young when his fa|ther died, Claudius reduced the kingdom into a pro|vince, and made Cuspius Fadus governor; and after him Tiberius Alexander, who making no innova|tions in the laws and customs of the country, pre|served the public peace. A little after this died Herod, governor of Chalcis, and left, by Berenice, the daughter of his brother, two sons, Berencianus and Hyrcanus; and by Mariamne, his former wife, Aristobulus. There was another brother named A|ristobulus, who died in a private station, and left a daughter, whose name was Jotapa. These, as before observed, were the children of Aristobulus, the son of Herod; but Alexander and Aristobulus were the sons of Herod by Mariamne, who were slain at the instance of their father. The posterity of Alexander ruled afterwards in the Greater Armenia.

CHAP. XI.

Herod of Chalcis dying, is succeeded by Agrippa; as is Tiberius Alexander by Cumanus. An insult offered by a Roman soldier to the Jews occasions a tumult. Ten thousand Jews are taken off. A Roman soldier tears the books of the law. The offender put to death by or|der of Cumanus. A dispute betwixt the Jews of Gali|lee and those of Samaria. An universal tumult in Jerusalem. Eleazar and Alexander ravage aad mur|der in the villages. Judaea infested with robbers. Complaint made to Quadratus, who goes to Jerusalem to be farther informed. Caesar gives Cumanus and the Samarians an hearing at Rome. He passes judg|ment against the Samarians, and orders the execution of it. Death of Claudius, and succession of Nero, a most flagitious and abandoned prince.

ON the death of Herod, who reigned in Chalcis,* 1.110 Claudius introduced Agrippa, the son of A|grippa into the kingdom of his uncle; and Cuma|nus succeeded Tiberius Alexander in the govern|ment of Judaea. During the time of his administra|tion the Jews fell into new grievances and distur|bances. The people being assembled together in vast numbers at Jerusalem, to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread, and a band of soldiers being sta|tioned at the gate of the temple, as was customary upon those occasions, to prevent tumults,* 1.111 one of the soldiers turned his back, and stood in an inde|cent posture towards the Jews. This put the whole multitude in such a rage, that they pressed in throngs to Cumanus for justice upon the soldier for that affront; and those who were most tumultuous amongst them began to stone the soldiers. Cuma|nus, apprehending further mischief from a popular outrage, sent a reinforcement of men to support the former band. This so alarmed the Jews, that they pressed to get out of the temple with all haste, insomuch that the passages were so crowded,* 1.112 that ten thousand of them were trodden and squeezed to death. This accident rendered it a melancholy solemnity to the whole nation. Tears and wring|ing of hands were seen in every house; nor was there a family but had a share in the mourning.

There soon followed another calamity, which arose from a tumult occasioned by robbers. One Stephen, a domestic of Caesar's carrying some fur|niture from B••thoron,* 1.113 was set upon and robbed by a band of thieves. Upon this Cumanas sent a party to apprehend the people in the neighbouring villa|ges, and bring them bound to him,* 1.114 making them responsible for not pursuing and taking the rob|bers▪ While they were upon this enquiry, a sol|dier happening, in the search, to lay his hands upon the books of Moses, rent them in pieces, and threw them into the fire. The Jews assembled in an in|stant as if the whole country had been in a flame, and, actuated by the most fiery zeal for their reli|gion, hastened to Cumanus at Cesarea, and there pressed him most importunately not to suffer the wretch to escape unpunished, who had offered so daring an insult to God and his sacred laws. Cuma|nus, finding there was no appeasing the enraged multitude without some sort of satisfaction, com|manded the soldier to be brought out, and put to death in the sight of the whole field, which putting an end to the tumult, the Jews departed.

There happened, at the same time,* 1.115 an unfortunate difference between the Jews of Galilee and those at Samaria. There was a certain Jew of Galilee pas|sing through a village called Geman, in the great plain of Samaria, that was there killed as he was going up to Jerusalem to worship at a solemn festi|val. The people of Galilee, upon this, drew out a body to revenge themselves upon the Samarians by arms: but the better sort applied to Cumanus, and advised him by all means, before the dispute went too far, to go over to Galilee, and, upon strict en|quiry into the matter, see justice done on the mur|derers.

Cumanus having other concerns in hand, dismissed the petitioners without entering into the cause. The report of this outrage afterwards reach|ing Jerusalem, so enraged the whole multitude, that, leaving the business of the day,* 1.116 they determined, without either officer or order, to fall upon Samaria, in spite of the efforts of superiors to restrain them. The ringleaders of this robbery and murder were Eleazar, the son of Dinaeus, and Alexander, who breaking into the borders of Acrabatena, laid waste all before them, and put men, women, and chil|dren to the sword.

* 1.117Cumanus, upon receiving intelligence of this ra|vage, came with a party of horse to the relief of the country, took many of Eleazar's band, and cut off many more. The remainder of this rabble com|mitted such depredations in Sam••ria, that the great officers and leading men of Jerusalem went o••t with mournful appearance, and used every art and ar|gument to prevail with them to desist from their outrages. They entreated them not to destroy Je|rusalem to be revenged of Samaria, to have pity upon their country, their temple, their city, their wives, which were all at stake, and not to sacrifice all that was dear to them in this world in revenge for the loss of one poor Galilean. The Jews at length became cool, and the tumults subsided.

It might now be said to be the period of univer|sal rapine,* 1.118 in which the main business of the people was to prey upon each other; and the most power|ful plundered the lower class of their countrymen. Numidius Quadratus being then governor of Sy|ria, several of the heads of the Samarians applied to him at Tyre, with a heavy complaint against the robbers that infested that country. There were di|vers of the leading men of the Jews then present, and amongst the rest Jonathan, the son of Ananus, the high-priest, who turned the blame upon the Sa|marians as the first authors of the tumult in the death of the Galilean. He charged the consequences also upon Cumanus, for not bringing the offender to justice in due time.

Quadratus, having heard the cause, deferred the further consideration of it till he came into Judaea, where he might receive more particular informa|tion. He then went to Cesarea, and there caused all those that Cumanus had taken alive to be put to death. From thence he proceeded to Lydda, where he heard the Samarian cause over again, and ordered eighteen leading men of the Jews to be beheaded, as they were found to have been abettors of the tu|mults. He sent the two high-priests, Jonathan and Ananias, with Ananus, the son of Ananias, and some other Jews of the first rank, to Caesar, toge|ther with some noble Samarians.* 1.119 He also ordered Cumanus, and Celos, the tribune, away to Rome, to give an account of what had been done to Claudius. Having thus finished these matters, he went up to Jerusalem from Lydda, and finding the multitude celebrating their feast of unleavened bread without any tumult, he returned to Antioch.

When the parties repaired to Rome, where Agrip|pa appeared a zealous advocate for the Jews, and Cumanus was supported by some weighty friends, Caesar hearing the respective cases, gave sentence against the Samarians,* 1.120 condemning three of the most powerful of them to be beheaded; Cumanus to be banished; Celos, the tribune, to be sent bound to Je|rusalem, delivered over to the Jews to be tormented, his body drawn round the city, and then beheaded.

He constituted Felix, the brother of Pallas, go|vernor of Judaea, Samaria, Galilee, and Perea; and preferred Agrippa from Chalcis to a greater domi|nion,* 1.121 giving him the tetrarchy that had belonged to Philip, which contained Batanea, Trachon, and Gau|lanitis, superadding the kingdom of Lysanias, and the province which Varus had governed.

* 1.122When Claudius Caesar had reigned thirteen years, eight months, and twenty days, he departed this life, and left the succession to Nero, whom his wife Agrippina had artfully introduced to the empire, notwithstanding he had at that time a ligitimate son, Britannicus, by his first wife Messalina, and a daugh|ter, Octavia, whom he married to Nero. He had also another daughter, by Petina, called Antonia.

No man, perhaps, perverted power and wealth more than Nero to the injury of others,* 1.123 as appears from the imbruing his hands in the blood of his brother, his wife, and his mother. He merited the complicated character of tyrant and buffoon, in|compatible as they may seem; for he not only exer|cised the most horrid barbarities towards his nearest relations, but introduced subjects of dignity and importance in a most ridiculous point of view upon the public stage. But as the history of this em|peror is so generally known, I shall pass over trivial matters, and confine myself to those particulars in which the Jews were chiefly concerned.

CHAP. XII.

Nero's liberality to Aristobulus and Agrippa. Felix chastises the robbers. A new set of free-booters, called Sicarii. Jonathan, the high-priest, the first that fell by their hands. Anarchy and confusion prevail through|out Jerusalem. Dangerous effects of enthusiasm, se|duction, and imposture. A magician pretends to the spirit of prophecy, and marches with thirty thousand followers towards Jerusalem. Felix meets and totally routs him. A lawless banditti persuade the Jews to revolt. An outrageous tumult between the Jews and Syrians. The matter in dispute finally referred to Caesar. Felix is succeeded by Festus.

NERO,* 1.124 soon after his accession to the imperial dignity, conferred upon Aristobulus, the son of Herod, king of Chalcis, the government of Ar|menia the Lesser, and annexed four more cities to the territory of Agrippa; that is to say, Abila and Julias in Peraea; and in Galilee, Tari••hee and Ti|berias, with their dependencies. The remainder of Judaea he gave to Felix, who was no sooner vested with his commission, than he went in quest of the robbers, took Eleazar, their leader, with several others, and sent them all bound to Rome, after they had ravaged the country for the space of twenty years;* 1.125 so that the number of robbers whom he cau|sed to be put to death, and the country people that joined them, was almost incredible.

These ruffians were no sooner suppressed, than there sprang up another set of robbers, under the name of Sicarii, from fica, the weapon they used. They made no scruple of executing their destruc|tive practices in the open day, and in the very streets of Jerusalem. Their custom was to carry short daggers under their garments,* 1.126 and mixing with the multitude at festivals in particular, deal death around them without being detected. They con|tinued this horrid practice some time, not only with|out discovery,* 1.127 but without being so much as sus|pected. The first man slain by these assassins was Jonathan, the high-priest; after which not a day passed without several executions of the same kind. This occasioned a general alarm, insomuch, that the apprehension was almost as dreadful as the mis|chief itself; and it was as dangerous to walk the streets as to be in a field of battle. Every man at a distance wa•• suspected for an enemy; nor could even reputed friends be trusted upon their approach to each other. Nor was the utmost watchfulness, and minutest caution, a sufficient security, so dex|terous were these bravos in the exercise of their profession.

There started up at this time another sort of mis|creants,* 1.128 who did more misch•••••• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 their tongues than the others did with ther weapons. They shed no blood, indeed, but caused more destruction by their pernicious doctrines than the others did with their daggers raising disorder and confusion through|out the city. These were impostors and seducers, who, under pretence of divine inspiration, inculcated vague opinions and absurd innovations. They drew the multitude into woods and solitudes, pretending that God would there set them at perfect liberty, and reveal himself to them by such tokens from heaven,

as would give them infallible assurance of it. Felix foresaw the design of this proceeding, and was con|vinced of the necessity of nipping the attempt of a revolt in the bud; so that he sent out a body of horse and foot in pursuit of these enthusiasts, which destroyed great numbers of their disciples and fol|lowers.

* 1.129These mischiefs were followed by those of an Egyptian pretender, that proved more fatal to the Jews than the former. He was a magician, but passed for a prophet, and raised a set of followers, to the number of about 3••,00••, whom he inveigled into his trammels. These deluded people he led, by the way of the wilderness, to mount Olivet, propo|sing to march thence to Jerusalem, expel the Ro|man garrison and make himself master of the city and country having his followers and guards about him to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in the enterprize. Felix, finding it to be a growing evil, advanced up to the Egyptian with his Roman legions, and a considerable body of Jews that joine•• him. He then gave him battle, and totally defeated him; the Egyptian himself, and some few of his followers, saving themselves by ••light.* 1.130 Great numbers of them were slain, others taken and put into chains, and the rest dispersed to their own habitations.

The state of a nation resembles the state of the body, in which one disease is generally followed by another;* 1.131 for these magicians and freebooters were now con••erting a scheme for asserting absolute li|berty, and engaging the multitude in a resolution to shake off the Roman yoke. This they attempted both by argument and menace, threatning death, without in 〈◊〉〈◊〉, to any man who acknowledged the Roman ••urisd••••t••on; and proposing to reduce those by terro••, t••••t would otherwise subject themselves to a volu••tary slavery. They formed themselves into different bodies, and dispersed throughout the country, diffusing slaughter and devastation; so that Judaea was brought to the very extremity of des|peration and the destructive flame raged more and more every day.

* 1.132At the same time a disturbance happened at Ce|sarea, upon a commotion started there betwixt the Jews and Syrians living promiscuously together. The Jews claimed it as their c••ty, arguing, that a Jew was the founder of it, referring to king He|rod. The Syrians could not deny that a Jew had been the founder of it, but insisted, on the other hand, that it belonged to the Gentiles, since, if it had been a Jewi••h city, they would never suffer statues to be ere••ted in it. The contest between the parties became so warm, that they had recourse to arms; and not •• day passed but there was mischief done by the most resolute of each party. The elders exerted their authority and counsel to quiet the Jews on the one hand; and the Greeks had too exalted an idea of their own importance to submit to the Jews. The latter were deemed to possess more wealth and courage than their competitors, who had, however, greater interest with the soldiery; for a considerable part of the Roman army being drawn out of Syria, they were the readier to assist them, both as their countrymen and kindred. The magistrates and of|ficers ••••d their utmost▪ by severity of discipline, to suppres•• the tumult, taking the incorrigible into custody, and inflicting punishment with rigour. But the exemplary sufferings of a part had no effect upon the whole; on the contrary, that which was designed to intimidate, served but to harden them in their daring pursuit.

When Felix found that no means would bring them to reason, he commanded the factious out of the city, by proclamation, at their utmost peril; but divers remaining there in contempt of authority, the governor sent a party of soldiers amongst them, who slew many, and seized on their effects. But the sedition still prevailing, he dispatched some of the principal men of both parties to Nero, as commis|sioners to plead their cause before him.* 1.133 Festus suc|ceeded Felix, and was very active in suppressing these disturbances, and bringing the authors to condign punishment.

CHAP. XIII.

Festus is succeeded by Albinus, who proves a corrupt and tyrannical governor. His successor, Gessius Florus, is more flagitious. Their characters compared▪ Florus is accused to Cestius Gal••us, governor of Syria. He endeavours to excite the Jews to rebellion. The rise of the Jewish war.

ALBINUS, who succeeded Festus,* 1.134 did not tread in the steps of his predecessor. He was a man universally depraved, addicted to corruption, ava|rice, extortion, and oppression; so that the nation groaned under most intolerable burthens during the time of his government, He adopted the most de|structive system of policy, was influenced in every measure by venality, would pass or revoke sentence as bribed; in fine, as money was his god, so it swayed his conduct in general, to the utter perver|sion of justice, and abolition of every principle of virtue.

There prevailed, at this time, a faction in Jerusa|lem, which had determined to introduce an inno|vation, and compounded with Albinus to connive at their practices. The ringleaders of this sedition had each of them a band of resolutes at command;* 1.135 while the governor himself, as an arch-robber, with his guards about him, perverted his authority in the plunder of those who were not in a condition for resistance or defence. These iniquitous proceedings came at length to that pass, that those who sustained the loss of their property durst not complain; and those who escaped, were under a necessity of giving up a part of what they had to secure the rest▪ in fine, all good faith was banished, tyranny and op|pression universally prevailed, and proved eventu|ally the foundation of slavery.

Such was the character of Albinus; but Gessius Florus, his successor, exceeded him in iniquity;* 1.136 for the former had recourse to privacy and dissimulation in his nefarious practices, while the latter gloried in his shame, valued himself upon the enormity of his crimes, and vaunted in professing himself an enemy to the whole nation. In the province he acted the part of an executioner rather than that of a gover|nor, treating the whole body of the people as com|mon criminals, without setting any bounds either to his rapine or his tyranny. He was as void of pity as of sense of honour, merciless to the miserable, lost to shame, and incapable of a blush at the foulest actions. He possessed the art of disguising truth with paradox and chicane, and working mischief under the sanction of plausibility. Injuries to indi|viduals would not satisfy his rapacious desires, but whole cities must be laid desolate to gratify his more than savage barbarity. He gave as much liberty and encouragement to rapine as if it had been publicly tolerated; nor was any one prohibited from plunder|ing, if he might be admitted to share in the booty. Such, in effect, was his avarice, that the whole pro|vince was drained, and consequently deserted by its inhabitants as a dreary waste.

Cestius Gallus was at this time governor of Syria,* 1.137 and so much attached to Florus, that not a Jew, even of the first rank, durst prefer a complaint a|gainst him; but, upon his coming up to Jerusalem, at the feast of unleavened bread, the multitude, to the number of three hundred thousand, made their application to take pity of a miserable people, and deliver the province out of the hands of Florus▪ that pest of society, and tyrant of a governor. Florus was within hearing of this complaint, but so far from being moved at it, that he turned it into ridicule. Cestus used his utmost efforts to pacify the people, assuring them that Florus should treat them with more lenity in future, and then returned to Antioch. Florus attended him on his way as far as Cesarea, and amused him with many vague reports as they passed, in order to induce him to act in an hostile manner towards the Jews, as the only means of

lying undiscovered, and bringing himself off. In case of a peace, the Jews, he thought▪ would embrace that opportunity for bringing the cause before Cae|sar, which would subject him to danger; whereas, if he could but once work them up to a revolt, the greater mischief would divert their attention from the lesser; and therefore his only means were to force them, by degrees, into a rebellion in his own defence.

* 1.138The Cesarean Greeks had, at this time, carried their cause against the Jews before Caesar, and ob|tained a decree in their favour, which sentence gave rise to the Jewish war. It bore date the twelfth year of Nero, and the seventeenth of Agrippa, in the month Artemisius.

CHAP. XIV.

A violent dispute between the Jews of Cesarea and the Greeks. Bribery and perfidy of Florus. A mock sa|crifice occasions a tumult. Jucundus endeavours to suppress it, but in vain. The Jews petition Florus for relief, and are punished for so doing. He incenses them to outrage. His barbarous proceedings. The sobriety and moderation of the Jews. Florus becomes worse for good council. His cruel orders. Several of the nobility whipped and crucified. Florus causes 630 Jews to be massacred in one day.

THE tyranny of Florus was a dangerous temp|tation to a rebellion, but the Jews stood firm against that temptation, till, at length, it was brought about by an incident that fell out in Cesarea.

A certain Greek had a house in Cesarea, near the spot upon which stood the Jewish synagogue. The Jews were desirous of making a purchase of this house, and treated with the proprietor several times about it, offering much more for it than the intrinsic value. But the proprietor was so far from comply|ing with their proposal, that, from a spirit of aggra|vation, he raised other buildings, and so blocked up the avenues, that there was scarcely room for a single person to pass to the synagogue.* 1.139 Upon this, some of the Jewish youths applied to the inspector of the buildings, and warned them, at their peril, to order the workmen to desist. Florus countermanded the prohibition; so that the Jews had only to tamper with the governor by the offer of a sum of money. Several of their principal men met about it, and, amongst the rest, John, a publican, or collector of revenues, who contracted with Florus, for eight ta|lents, to forbid the prosecution of the work. They delivered him the sum according to a stipulated agreement,* 1.140 and he promised to fulfil the conditions; but immediately after, upon the receipt of it, he went from Cesarea to Sebaste, and left the parties at liberty to contend the point, as if he had taken the money to furnish an opportunity for them to mas|sacre one another.

* 1.141The next day, being the Jews sabbath, when the people were assembled in the synagogue, a seditious Cesarean placed an earthen vessel just at the entrance with a sacrifice of birds upon it. This contemptu|ous mockery incensed the Jews to a degree of mad|ness, as it was in open derision of their laws, and a prophanation of their most sacred rites. The more moderate and substantial men of their party were for appealing to government for redress;* 1.142 but the younger, and more hot-brained, determined on re|venge; and the Cesareans being as ready for an en|counter, which was the design of the insult, the contest accordingly took place.

* 1.143Jucundus, an officer of horse; who was left to keep the peace, coming up at this juncture, ordered the earthen vessel to be taken away, and endea|voured to put a stop to the tumult. But the Jews finding Jucundus overbore by the Cesareans, took up the books of their law, and carried them off to Narbata, a place about sixty furlongs distant from Cesarea▪ John, abovementioned, and twelve of their principal men, went to Florus at Sebaste, with a com|plaint of what had passed, and a petition for redress, reminding him, though with the utmost delicacy,* 1.144 of the eight talents he had received. But Florus, not|withstanding, ordered them to be apprehended, and put in prison, for presuming to remove the books of the law from Cesarea.

This action of Florus struck the Jews of Jerusa|lem with horror and detestation; but they found it expedient, for the present, to restrain their passions. Florus still continued to aggravate matters, and, to add to the cause of the quarrel, sent, in Caesar's name, for seventeen talents out of the sacred treasury, pre|tending they were for the service of the emperor.* 1.145 This threw the Jews into the utmost confusion, in|somuch that they ran up and down the temple, ve|hemently calling upon Caesar to free them from the tyranny of Florus, whom they upbraided with the severest reproaches, and execrated, if possible, be|yond the power of malediction, One of the male|contents carried an alms-basket about the streets, en|treating charitable donations for the miserable Flo|rus, by way of derision. But these taunts had no other effect than that of increasing his avarice, and inflaming his rancour; so that,* 1.146 instead of checking the tumult in its rise, as it was his duty in conse|quence of the contract, he marched, with an army of horse and foot, to Jerusalem, and rendered the pow|er of the Roman empire subservient to his private passions, either of pride, profit, or revenge, filling the minds of the people, wherever he came, with confusion and terror.

The multitude, however, notwithstanding the in|dignities offered them, assumed the appearance of an officious respect in going out to receive him upon the way, and preparing to entertain him with all the tokens of honour and esteem usual upon such occa|sions. But, as an anticipation of their very sub|missive design, Florus sent Capito, a centurion, be|fore hand, with a band of fifty horses, to stop their progress, and deliver them a message to the follow|ing purport:

I am to command you, in the name of Florus, to return home,* 1.147 and to let you under|stand, that the man with whom you have so freely sported, is not to be cajoled into a better opinion of you by plausible appearances. If you are as you would be thought to be, men of courage and resolution, ••ver your reproaches to his face; and assert that liberty by dint of arms, you have so vainly endeavoured to do by tumult and cla|mour.

This message alarmed the multitude; so that, upon the approach of the centurion with his band of horse, they dispersed, without waiting for the ceremony of saluting Florus, and manifesting their submissive disposition. They retired to their own habitations, and passed the night in disquieting apprehensions.

Florus took up his abode at the palace, and the next day ascended the tribunal, the high-priest and great officers of the city being there present. He animadverted, with great severity, upon some re|proachful and sarcastic speeches that had been thrown out against him; peremptorily insisting that the authors should be produced, and threatening to take vengeance upon those that were on the spot, if they did not find out the guilty.

The heads of the Jews assured Florus,* 1.148 that the people in general were peaceably disposed, and im|plored pardon for those who had uttered sarcastic and reproachful expressions; observing, that, in so vast a multitude, there must be some rash and head|strong men; nor was it possible to distinguish the guilty; for even those who repented of what they had done, would not make confession. They sub|mitted it to his consideration, whether any thing could tend more to the honour and interest of the Roman empire, than to consult the safety of the people and city, by preserving them firm in their allegiance to Caesar; and whether it might not be more adviseable to spare some few of the guilty for the sake of a great number of innocent people, than to destroy so many innocent for the sake of a few guilty.

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* 1.149Florus was to inflamed by this remonstrance, that he immediately ordered the soldiers to plun|der what was called the upper market-place, and slay those who opposed them. The soldiery there|fore, finding themselves supported in their claims to pillage by the concurring authority of their commander, not only executed their order upon the places and people they were sent to, but forc|ing themselves into every house, rifled at pleasure, and put the inhabitants to death without distincti|on,* 1.150 as well those they took upon their flight in bye|ways and secret passages, as those they found in their houses. In fact, no booty came amiss to them. Several men of rank, whom they seized and brought to Florus, were, by his order, whipped and cruci|fied. The whole number of the slain upon that day, including women and children, (for they spared not infants at the breast,) amounted to six hundred and thirty. The calamity was aggrava|ted by a new species of Roman severity; for before the time of Florus, it was never known that any of the equestrian order were whipped, or ignomi|niously nailed to the cross; for tho' the persons, thus disgraced, were, by extraction, Jews, they were, notwithstanding, of Roman dignity.

CHAP. XV.

Berenice, the sister of Agrippa, goes to Jerusalem to pay a vow. The form and manner of preforming that duty. She intercedes with Florus in behalf of the Jews. The people are incensed against Florus. Afterwards brought to moderation. Florus re-kindles the flames of dis|cord. The high-priests appease and bring them to rea••on. The project of Florus attended with most des|tructive effects. He attempts the castle, and is repul|sed. Retires to the palace. The communication cut off betwixt Fort Antonia and the Temple. Florus quits his design, and returns to Cesarea.

AGRIPPA was at this time gone to Alexandria, to congratulate Alexander upon his having obtained the government of Egypt From Nero.* 1.151 His sister Berenice was then at Jerusalem, and in extreme concern for the barbarous outrages prac|tised there,* 1.152 insomuch that she sent several officers of her guards to Florus, earnestly to entreat him to desist from the effusion of human blood. But Florus was equally insensible of the attrocious na|ture of the sin, and dignified rank of the media|trix.* 1.153 His heart was so set upon lucre and pillage, that he looked upon all other considerations (the intercession of Berenice not excepted) with neglect and contempt. Nay, to such a degree did the vio|lence of the soldiery, proceed, that they not only perpetrated their massacres before her face, but would have wreaked their cruelty on her person, if she had not made her escape into the palace, and remained there during the night, with her guards under the strictest watch for fear of a surprize.

The occasion of her coming to Jerusalem was to offer up a vow to the Almighty, as is customary in providential deliverance from sickness or any great danger. It is usual, with persons under these cir|cumstances, to continue in prayer for thirty days before they sacrifice, abstaining from wine and shaving the head. Berenice was now in the regular performance of this duty, and took an opportunity of standing barefoot before the tribunal, to inter|cede with Florus in behalf of the people of the Jews. But as on the former, so on the present, occasion, she met neither with success or respect, but incur|red imminent hazard of life for her pious offices.

This happened on the sixteenth day of the month Artemisius; and upon the following day the people gathered together in the market-place in the upper town,* 1.154 outrageously exclaiming against the mur|derers of their friends who had been slain there the preceding day. The whole stress of their rage and invectives fell upon Florus. The leading men, and the high-priests, were so sensible of the danger of ad|ding provocation to provocation, that they rent their garments, and, in humblest tone, besought the multitude to desist from exclaiming, as the exas|perating of Florus would be attended with inevita|ble ruin to them all. This mode of interposition appeased them, and they ceased their outrages,* 1.155 partly through respect to the intercessions, and partly through hope that the governor would relent.

Florus, who seemed to delight in broils,* 1.156 bethought himself of a device to re-kindle the flame. He sent for the high-priests, and some of the chief men of the Jews, to come to him, and told them, that as there were two companies of soldiers coming from Cesarea, it would be a convincing evidence of the peoples good affection to government▪ if they would go forth and meet them on the way. This being agreed upon, Florus sent beforehand, and gave it in charge to the centurions, that in case the Jews greeted them with any shew of compliment or res|pect upon their meeting, they should not make the least token of a return; and that, upon the smallest appearance of disgust, they should betake them|selves to their arms. The high-priests assembled the people in the temple, and there adjured them, by all means, to go out and compliment the Ro|mans upon the way, giving them a friendly salu|tation to prevent future mischiefs. The more rash and resolute opposed this counsel; but some of them, revolving in their minds the horrid massacre of their relations and friends, were disposed to compliance.

While this was in agitation,* 1.157 the priests and Le|vites entered, exposing the sacred vessels, and other ornaments of the temple, and filling the choir with their musical instruments, and addressed them|selves to the people with earnest entreaties to pre|serve the honour of the temple inviolate, without provoking the Romans by contumelious affronts to rifle. There were also divers of the high-priests, who, covered with sack-cloth and ashes, and with garments rent, applied themselves to all the men of rank, both individually and collectively, repea|tedly importuning them not to betray their coun|try for so trivial a consideration to those very peo|ple who were continually meditating its destruc|tion. They justly observed, "That the Roman sol|diers would derive no benefit from a salutation from the Jews; nor the Jews, on the other hand, any advantage from neglecting the salutation. That, on the contrary, if they treated them with honour, and according to the punctilios usual upon such occasions, Florus could have no pretence for urg|ing hostilities; so that, in effect, it would tend to the redemption of their country from the calami|ties they had otherwise reason to apprehend; and further, that they should consider the disproportion betwixt the peaceable majority of the multitude and a few straggling mutineers, and the propriety of the greater part over-ruling the lesser.

These arguments had such an effect, that, be|twixt authority and menace, the most resolute were brought to attend to the dictates of reason; so that when matters were brought to this moderate pass, the priests, and heads of the people, marched out to meet the soldiers, and the multitude fol|lowed them in good order.

When the Jews were advanced within distance of exchanging ceremonious salutations, they addressed them with every expression of respect; but receiving no return, the more choleric part reviled Florus as the author and contriver of mischief. The soldiers took the hint, and began to fall upon the Jews,* 1.158 threw them into confusion, and, upon the pursuit, trampled great numbers under the horses feet; so that betwixt those that died of blows and wounds, those that were crushed to death in the crowd, or smothered in the gate by pressing to get out,* 1.159 a hor|rid carnage ensued, and exhibited so dreadful a spectacle, that from bruises, maims, and suffoca|tion, the bodies were so disfigured, that one rela|tion did not know the face of another, in order to provide a decent funeral. In fine, the enemy slew all they came up with in the pursuit, shewing no mercy. But their main design was to get betwixt the Jews and the gates of Bezeth, being a passage that led to the castle of Antonia and the temple 〈1 page missing〉〈1 page missing〉

own way, let my opinion he what it will. But it is to no purpose for me to speak at all, unless I may be heard by those that desire to hear me.

I well know that the faults of governors, and the blessings of liberty, are two common topics for men of art and passion to work upon. Before I enter upon the disquisition of what you your|selves are, and the force you are pretending to encounter, I must, in the first place, divide two points that you confound, by taking them into one. If revenge upon your oppressors (or let it be called justice) be the thing that you contend for, what is the meaning of your crying up li|berty at such an extravagant rate? Or, if sub|jection be in itself so intolerable, why quarrel, with your governors? Subjection is but subjec|tion still.

Consider upon what ground it is that you pre|tend to calumniate and cavil, and in what manner you are to behave yourselves, even if your go|vernors should be to blame. It is your interest, as well as duty, to moderate things with offices of tenderness and respect, and not to treat your superiors with unbecoming language. When you make things greater than they are, you pro|voke those that are over you to make things worse than they would otherwise be; and to turn that mal-administration, that they were half-ashamed of before, into a bare-faced tyranny. Nothing takes off the edge of oppression like pa|tience: resignation is enough to put persecution out of countenance, even let it be ever so violent and unjust.

Suppose it the case now, that you are, in truth, extremely abused by the Roman government, will you have this to be the act of all the Romans, nay, and of Caesar himself too? There's your quarrel. You cannot imagine that those gover|nors have it in their commission to oppress you, or that Caesar himself can look east and west, and so through the four quarters of the world, all at a time, when it is no easy matter for him to get a faithful account, at Rome, even of what is done here. How great a madness is it, then, to run the risque of so dangerous a war for trifles? and, in fact, for we know not what? Besides, matters may mend in time; for governors are neither im|mortal, or perpetual, but take their turns; and it is reasonable to hope, and promise ourselves, that the succession will be better. When a war is once commenced, it is neither to be given up, or to be continued, without inconveniencies. As for those that set up for liberty, let them beware, in the first place, not to run themselves out of it; for the last slavery is always the most burthen|some; and to avoid that yoke must be acknow|ledged a just cause of war. He that is once a sub|ject, and then falls off, is rather a stubborn slave, than a generous advocate of freedom.

If any thing could have been done against the power of the Romans, why was it not done when Pompey brake in upon us? But if your fore|fathers, and the princes of those times, (though much your superiors in men, money, and conduct,) were not able to stand before so inconsiderable a detachment of their power, with what face or sense can you pretend, at this time, to bid defiance to the whole body of the empire? To say nothing of the obligation of an hereditary allegiance of so long a continuance, that hath descended from your predecessors to their posterity.

What do you think of those brave and gene|rous Athenians that contended for the liberty of Greece to the very extremity of laying their country in ashes? those people that brought down the proud heart of the vain and insolent Xerxes, put him to flight at Salamis, and, hav|ing broken the whole power of Asia, forced him to shift for himself in a boat: that haughty prince, that turned the sea into land, and the land into sea, to make room for his fleets and armies, that looked as if they would have swallowed Eu|rope? and yet the nation, that did all this, are now subjects to the Romans; and Greece receives laws from Italy.

The case is the same with the Lacedaemonians, after all their famous exploits at Thermopylae and Platea, and Agesilaus's carrying their vic|torious arms into the heart of Asia▪ and yet, at present, these heroes own the same mas|ters still.

To come now to the Macedonians, with their Philips and their Alexanders, a people that, to this very day, propose little less to themselves than the empire of the universe: has not fortune reduced these people also to the same fate, and of conquerors made them subjects, and subjects also to the same governors? I might reckon up a great many other nations now, much more consi|derable than yourselves, that, in the vanity of an ambitious contention for liberty, have been for|ced to submit and obey: and are you the only men in the world that are too good to serve the sovereign lords of all other people? Where is your militia, or the arms that you depend upon? your fleets to secure the Roman seas? Where is your treasure to answer the expence of this un|dertaking? You fancy an Egyptian or an Arabi|an war, perhaps: but you proceed altogether upon false measures, without comparing the dis|proportion betwixt your ability and your under|taking, and the inequality betwixt a weak and a disorderly people, and the stability of a formi|dable empire. It is a common thing for you to be over-run and surprized by your next neigh|bours, when, at the same time, the Romans car|ried the whole world before them.

Nay, and the known world would not content them neither; for though they were possessed of the course of the Euphrates to the east, the Da|nube to the north, the Libyan desert to the south, and as far as Cadiz to the west, nothing would serve them but another world beyond the ocean, and the carrying their arms into Britany, which, at the same time, was looked upon as inaccessi|ble. What is it that you pretend to? Would you be thought richer than the Gauls, hardier than the Germans, or wiser than the Greeks? Or do you take yourselves to be hard enough for all mankind beside? Upon what ground is it that you are thus bold and confident against the Ro|mans? It will be said, perhaps, that it is an un|easy and irksome thing to serve; but if it be so to you, what must it be to the Greeks, who, over and above a large extent of territory, are looked upon as men of the noblest extraction of any people under the sun? And yet these men, great and noble as they are, live in obedience to the Romans; as do the Macedonians also, who have undoubtedly more right to a claim of liberty than you can pretend to. Or what say ye to the five hundred cities of Asia, that peaceably sub|mit themselves to a consul, without any guard or garrison to over-awe them? To say nothing of the Heniochians, the Colchians, the nations about the Bosphorus, and the inhabitants of the coasts of Pontus, and the lake of Maeotis; peo|ple so free in former times, that they never had so much as a master among themselves: and yet three thousand Romans were enough to keep them all in subjection: and forty gallies sufficient to preserve all those seas in peace and obedience, which no power durst venture upon before.

Had the Bithynians, Cappadocians, Pamphy|lians, Lydians, and Cicilians, nothing to say for themselves upon the point of liberty? They are, at present, all tributaries, and pay their duties without soldiers to compel them. How is it with the Thracians, in a large country of seven days journey in length, and five over, and much more rude, and more defensible than yours, being al|most impassable for the bitter frosts and deep snows there; and yet a guard of only two thou|sand Romans keeps them all in order? And then

for the Illyrians, from beyond the Danube, as far as Dalmatia, and so likewise the Dacians; they are all under the guard only of two legions. Nay, the Dalmatians themselves, after so many con|tests for liberty, so many baffles in the attempt, and so many rallies and reinforcements after|wards, in prosecution of the same design, how quiet and easy are they under the command of one single legion!

But, after all this, if any pretence whatsoever might justify a revolt, the Gauls, of all men living, have the greatest encouragement and temptation to do it, from the very situation of their country. They are naturally fortified; on the east with the Alps, the Rhine on the north, the Pyrenaean mountains on the south, and on the west with the Ocean. But, notwithstanding all these advantages three hundred and fifteen nations in the same interest, an inexhaustible source of all good things within themselves, both for use and commerce, not only for their own, but likewise for the common benefit of mankind, we find these people under the ••oman allegiance, and pro|pounding no other happiness to themselves than in that of their masters. This resignation does not arise from the want of courage, either natural or acquired, or from the want of brave examples in their ancestors, who had stood a dispute of eighty years for the maintenance of their liberty; but finding so admirable a concurrence of for|tune and virtue in the actions of the Romans, the Gauls were so awed betwixt the veneration they had for the one, and their dread of the other, that the Romans gained as much upon them by their goodness as by their arms; insomuch that, at this day, with only twelve hundred men, they secure almost as many cities in their allegiance.

What was Spain the better for their golden mines, when they came to contend with the Ro|mans for their freedom? Or I might instance na|tions more remote from Rome, both by sea and land; as the Lusitanians and Cantabrians, where neither valour, distance, or position could war|rant them against the power of Rome; though bordering upon a sea so impetuous that it cannot be so much as named, or thought of, without dread and horror. What signified Hercules's pillars, or the Pyrenaean mountains, so many warlike nations in the way, distance, or any other diffi|culty, to the obstructing the progress of their victorious arms? But they were reduced as well as the rest, and one single legion served for a guard upon them all.

I need not tell you that the Germans are a po|pulous nation, and that their country is of vast extent, the people strong, their courage answer|able to their size and stature, and firm to the very contempt of death itself. But part of this you are eye-witnesses of, for the Romans have slaves of that nation all over the earth. In their anger they are more outrageous than brutes, and the Rhine is at this day their frontier. They have a guard of eight Roman legions upon them, that make slaves of as many of them as they take, and the rest save themselves by flight.

A•• for those that place so much confidence in the walls of Jerusalem, they would do well to consider the walls of Britain, where the inhabi|tants are surrounded by the sea, in a kind of a new world, not much inferior to the other. They have made themselves masters of this vast island too, and assigned only four legions for a guard upon it. What shall we say of the Parthians, a powerful and warlike people, that have here|tofore given laws to so many great nations them|selves? Why do they send the flower of their no|bility for hostages to Rome, but as a tacit ac|knowledgment of subjection under the colour of peace? Are we the only men in the world to make war upon the empire, when all other nations trem|ble under the apprehensions of their arms?

Call to mind the fate of Carthage, a people that valued themselves as branches of the noble race of Phoenicians, that had the honour of the fa|mous Hannibal for their commander. What was the end of that brave people, but to fall under the conquering arms of Scipio?

But neither the Cyrenaeans of the Lacedaemonian race, or the Marmaridans, that stretched their dominions as far as the parched desarts, or the Syrtes, so frightful to our apprehensions, or the Na••amonians, or the Moors, or the number|less multitude of the Numidians, were able to check the Roman courage. They had reduced, in fine, the third part of the world to their sub|jection, so large that the very nations are hardly to be numbered, beginning from the Atlantic sea, and the pillars of Hercules, to the red sea, and comprizing all Aethiopia. All this they took by arms, reserving, over and above to themselves, a yearly tribute of corn, sufficient to maintain the people of Rome for eight months, besides other duties that they pay chearfully and readily, tho' there be but one legion in garrison to raise the contribution.

But there is no need of recourse to remote ex|amples for proof of the uncontroulable power of Rome, when we may have instances so much nearer at hand; as in Egypt, a kingdom that stretches out as far as Aethiopia and Arabia Felix, contiguous to the Indies, and an infinite multitude of people in it, besides those of Alex|andria; and yet this mighty populous kingdom submits to be rated by the poll towards the ser|vice of the state, and as a tributary to the Ro|mans, and suffers imposition, though not with|out plausible ground to murmur at it.

How comes it about that Alexandria does not revolt too? a strong, large, and opulent city, thirty furlongs in length, and ten in breadth; peopled, and fortified round about, either with deserts, seas without ports, deep rivers, or boggy quagmires. But the fortune of Rome surmounted all these difficulties; for two legions, in the city, were enough to secure the peace of Egypt, and to bridle the Macedonian nobility. This city paid more tribute in a month than you do in a year, and four months provision in corn for the people of Rome, beside money.

If this be the case, what deserts do you pro|pound to repair to for companions in your under|taking? For all the habitable part of the world is clearly against you, and, in effect, Romans; unless you flatter yourselves with hopes of assist|ance from your countrymen, the Adiabenians, on the other side of the Euphrates. Supposing that they could be guilty of so gross an oversight as to engage in a war so desperate, upon so unreason|able a ground, the Parthians themselves would never endure such disrespect towards the Romans, as must inevitably end in a rupture, by counte|nancing a war against them. So that you have no retreat left but a recourse to God's power against his providence, which is most evidently seen in the advancement, establishment, and pro|tection of the Roman empire.

Consider war in a religious view, even if you yourselves were the stronger of the two. How can you pretend to dispense with the violation both of God's and of your own laws, or to expect a blessing from heaven in the very act of your dis|obedience? If you keep the sabbath-day as strictly and religiously as you profess, and as your laws bind you to do, you will most certainly be caught in the same snare over again, that your predeces|sors were hampered in by Pompey heretofore; that is to say, by taking advantage of your scru|ples, and falling upon you on those days when you dare not so much as move an hand to de|fend yourselves. If you make no conscience of breaking the laws, in fighting one day as well as

another, how do you fight for the maintaining of them, and how can you look for any favour from God in the deliberate breach of his own com|mandments? Whoever made war but in hope of assistance either from God or man? and when both fail, what can be the consequence but a vo|luntary wilful slavery? If this be your resolution, what have you more to do than to lay violent hands upon your wives and children, and to lay your glorious country in ashes? The extravagant madness of the action will be some sort of excuse for it; besides, that it will save you the dishonour of falling by the hands of an enemy.

It is a high point of wisdom, my good friends, and a very necessary point, to foresee and to pro|vide for a storm while the ship is yet in the har|bour; and it is as dangerous, on the otherhand, to put off the consideration of it till the tempest is upon you, and then to stand trembling, and at a loss which way to turn yourselves. As for those calamities that threaten us unawares, and by sur|prize, people that fall into them are to be pitied, for there is no preventing of evils not to be fore|seen; but for men that run headlong into visible hazards, they fall not only unlamented, but with infamy also and scandal.

Your way of proceeding, in this affair, would almost persuade one that you have already agreed upon terms with the Romans, how they are to be|have themselves in case of gaining their point; that is to say, with tenderness and moderation, and not according to the practice of other nations, with fire and sword, burning your sacred cities, extirpating your whole race, and destroying ••very man upon the pursuit that outlives the battle: for which way can you fly, but in the very mouths of your enemies, who are either the sub|jects of Rome already, or such as live in fear of being quickly made so?

Nor are you to flatter yourselves that this cala|mity will stop here: all the Jews upon the face of the earth are to expect your fate, and the whole universe will join as one man to the purnishing of this rebellion. You will remember what I tell you now, when you shall see the streets run with blood to gratify the impetuous violence of a few turbulent and hot-brained councils. The Ro|mans are not to be blamed at last, for doing only that which you yourselves have forced them to; and you are to consider, on the other side, in case they should spare you, what an impiety you have to answer for, in the abuse of so much humanity and goodness.

If you have no longer any sense of natural ten|derness for your wives and children, have at least some compassion for your capitol city, and the sa|cred wall of it: have mercy even upon the temple, your law, as the holy sanctuary, which you yourselves are now about to destroy with your own hands; for you are never to hope for mercy again from the Romans, after so ungrateful an abuse of the indulgencies you have formerly re|ceived from them.

But, to conclude, I hereby call God and our whole country to witness, that I have done the ut|most in my power towards your preservation. If you will follow my counsel, you may yet live in peace; but if you are determined to persist in tumult and outrage, I have only to consult my own safety.

* 1.160This address, which was enforced by tears from his sister Berenice, in some degree abated the rage of the multitude, who acknowledged that they were not inimical to the Romans, but to Florus, for the indignities he had so repeatedly offered them. Agrippa replied, "that what they had already done was, in effect, professing enmity to the Romans, as they had broken down the galleries of the castle of Antonia, and refused paying tribute to Caesar" He added, "that if they would obviate all suspicion of revolt, they had only, without further delay, to dis|charge the one, and rebuild the other; since neither the citadel or the tribute belonged to Florus."

The people hearkened to this advice, and went with the king and Berenice into the temple, where they applied themselves to the rebuilding of the galleries; and, at the same time, sent the proper offi|cers up and down the province, to collect the duties which were deficient, and then paid in the whole ar|rears, amounting to forty talents. Having brought them thus far to reason, Agrippa counselled them to submit to the government of Florus till Caesar should appoint a successor.* 1.161 But this incensed them to such a degree, that they not only reviled him in the most opprobrious language, but stoned and drove him out of the city. The king, sensible of this con|temptuous behaviour in the highest degree, and finding the rabble irreclaimable and desperate, sent several men of rank to Florus at Cesarea, in order that he might make choice of collectors of the reve|nue for the whole province, and then retired to his own kingdom.

CHAP. XVII.

The Jews surprize Massada, and put the Roman gar|rison to the sword. Reject the Roman sacrifices at the instance of Eleazar, who heads a faction. This refusal the ground of the war. The leading men con|tend for moderate proceedings. Representation of the impiety and injustice of the refusal. Of its being an insult to Caesar. Precedents and reports in favour of the practice. The leading men apply to Florus and Agrippa for relief. Agrippa sends troops to Jerusa|salem. Disturbances excited in the city betwixt the loyal and the male-contents. Great slaughter ensues. The festival called Xylophoria. The king's troops worsted. The seditious quit the upper town, and lay all in ashes. The nobility compelled to seek shelter in sub|terraneous places. Antonia taken by assault. The seditious Jews headed by M••nakem. An artful de|vice frustrated. The loyalists obtain permission to depart.

SOON after this,* 1.162 a strong party of those who ex|cited the people to a revolt made an assault upon Massada, a Roman garrison, took it by surprize, put all the Romans to the sword, and substituted for them a guard of their own people. There hap|pened, at the same time, another disorder in the temple at Jerusalem. One Eleazar, the son of Ana|nias, the high-priest, an intrepid youth, and military officer then in command, pressed some of his friends amongst the priests to receive neither offering or sa|crifice but from the nation of the Jews.* 1.163 This was the very foundation of our war with the Romans; for, at the instance of Eleazar, the sacrifices of Caesar, which were daily offered up for the welfare of the Roman people, were rejected. The high-priests, and men of the first rank, declared their disapprobation of the novelty of such prohibition, and importu|nately desired the continuance of so pure a custom as the offering up of prayers for princes and gover|nors. But the factious party were resolute and in|exorable, relying upon their numbers; and all those who were desirous of innovation espoused their cause, which, as before observed, was principally supported by Eleazar, an officer bold in enterprize, and high in command.

This occurrence brought together the rulers, the high-priests, and the Pharisees of the first quality, to deliberate on the most expedient measures to be taken at this juncture; for they plainly foresaw the calamities which the continuance of the tumult must entail upon the city. They debated the point, and came to this resolution, to attempt, by repre|sentation and counsel,* 1.164 to pacify the minds of the people. In order to this, they called a general as|sembly before the brazen gate, on the inside of the temple to the eastward, and there pointed out the

rashness of the enterprize,* 1.165 and, indeed, madness of involving their country in so destructive a war. From thence they proceeded to shew the unreason|able ground of the dispute, and the injustice of the cause; observing, that their predecessors were so far from prohibiting any oblations from strangers, (which was the highest instance of impiety,) that, in some sort, they made it a part of their worship, as apears from their donations being preserved in the temple as ornaments, and in honour of the me|mories of the douers. It was represented, that, to provoke the Romans to a dangerous war, to the scandal, if not ruin, of Jerusalem itself, by setting up new modes of religion, to the exclusion of all sorts of people, but Jews, from offering up prayers and oblations to God in his holy temple, was so extravagant a measure, as could not admit of ex|cuse, even in the instance of a private person; but further, to make it general, to the absolute excom|munication of Caesar himself, the insult would justly be deemed unpardonable It was infered from these premises, that the contempt would re|vert to themselves; and that, in consequence of their refusal to offer up prayers and oblations for others, they would not be allowed the liberty of worshipping themselves, when the city would be left without all discipline and good order. This it was concluded they must expect, unless they gave up so idle a project, and relinquished so impious a design before it came to the knowledge of Caesar.

* 1.166After these representations, several of the sophists versed in the Jewish rites and ceremonies, produced precedents and reports of the practices of former times upon the point in question; and their concur|ring opinion was, that their ancestors never refused oblations from strangers. But those who were bent on innovation, and therefore for stirring up conten|tion, would not hearken to their opinion; nor would the Levites attend Divine service, being wholly in|tent upon the war.* 1.167

The men of rank finding the multitude too strong for government, and that the resentment of the Ro|mans would first fall upon them, deliberated upon the matter, and agreed upon sending deputies, some to Florus, of whom Simon, the son of Ananias, was to be chief; others to Agrippa, the principal of whom were to be Saul, Antipas, and Costobarus; which last was the kinsman of Agrippa. Their commission was to solicit them to come with some troops to Jerusalem, and crush the sedition in time.

This message was grateful to Florus, who was disposed to inflame the war at all events, as appear|ed by the delay of his answer to the deputies, in or|der to give the seditious an opportunity to collect their force. But Agrippa, who was for the com|mon interest, was desirous of saving both parties as much as lay in his power, the guilty as well as the innocent,* 1.168 and by that means securing the Jews to the Romans, and Jerusalem to the Jews. Finding also his own interest at stake, he sent two thousand auxiliary horse, collected from Auranites, Butanaea, and Trachon, with Darius at the head of them; and Philip, the son of Joachim, their general.

The rulers of the people, with the high-priests, and all that were disposed for peace,* 1.169 received these deputies into the upper town, the lower part of the temple being in the hands of the faction. They began a skirmish with slings and darts, bows and arrows, and maintained it without intermission. Sometimes they made sallies and excursions, and sometimes fought hand to hand. The seditious were the more resolute and daring, but the king's soldiers were superior in military skill. Their prin|cipal aim was to force the sacrilegious faction out of the temple;* 1.170 while Eleazar, and his accomplices, laboured as hard, on the other side, to make them|selves masters of the upper town. The contest lasted seven days, without any material advantage on either side, but with great slaughter on both.

The festival of Xylophorli now drawing on, which took its name from the custom of carrying wood to the temple, to keep fire all the year round, they ex|cluded the seditious from their worship. But while a party of the Jews were abroad upon this office, a band of assassins, called Sicarii, fell in amongst them,* 1.171 and improving the advantage of the king's troops being overborne both with hardiness and numbers, they forced them out of the upper town, and the faction immediately took possession of it. They then set fire to the house of Ananias, the high-priest, and to the palaces of Agrippa and Berenice, proposing, in the next place, to burn the offices of record, and the contracts belonging to their credi|tors, and thereby dissolve their obligations for pay|ing their debts. This was done to gain to their in|terest multitudes of debtors, who might then join in an insurrection with safety against the more weal|thy. The keepers of the records, in fine, abandon|ed their trust, and consulted their own personal safety, and both writings and offices were all burnt. After this stab to the strenth and credit of the city, they applied themselves more particularly to the prosecution of the war.

In this scene of confusion many of the rioters, and high-priests, were forced to fly for safety to sub|terraneous caverns; while others got amongst the king's troops into the upper palace, and immedi|ately shut the gates. In this number were Ananias, the high-priest, Hezekias, his brother, and the de|puties of Agrippa.

The seditious contented themselves, for the pre|sent, with the advantage they had obtained, and the mischiefs they had done, and proceeded no farther. But the day following, being the fifteenth of the month Lous, they attacked the castle of Antonia, after two days carried it by assault,* 1.172 cut off the whole garrison, and set fire to the place. Passing from thence to the palace▪ where the troops of Agrippa had taken sanctuary, they divided themselves into four bodies, and attempted the undermining of the walls; but the defendants were obliged to keep close, not being strong enough to venture a sally. The assailants plied their works, and several of the faction, as well as the Sicarii, perished under the walls. In fine, they fought day and night, without respite▪ the faction, in hopes of rendering the be|sieged despond by starving them; and the besieged thinking to tire out the faction with the fatigue of unremitting duty.

There was amongst the seditious one Manahem, the son of Judas of Galilee, a subtle and specious orator, who had formerly upbraided the Jews, un|der Cyrenius, for professing to worship one God, and at the same time acknowledging the supremacy of the Romans. This Manahem, having a design upon Herod's arsenal at Massada,* 1.173 inveigled several men of rank into his party, took them with him, and forced the place, armed a band of vagrants, and marched with the state of a king to Jerusalem, where he set up as head of the mutineers, and gave orders in form for carrying on the siege of the palace.

But they wanted proper instruments; for it was impracticable to undermine the wall, as the enemy showered darts upon them from above; so that they began to break ground at a distance, and carried on a covered way to the foot of one of the towers, which they undermined at the foundation, and then prop|ped it up with timber to support the weight. When they had finished the work, they set fire to those timbers, and so withdrew; and the pillars being consumed, the turret fell to the ground. But the king's troops, it seems, were aware of this stratagem,* 1.174 and ran up another wall immediately behind the turret to make the place good. This discovery, upon the fall of one of the towers, and when they deemed their work accomplished, threw the besiegers into the utmost consternation. The king's people in the palace, however, sent to Manahem, and the other heads of the faction, for permission to depart, and those of his religion, who forthwith took their de|parture.

The Romans, in consequence of this,* 1.175 were greatly dejected, as they were incapable of coping with so vast a number; nor could they, in honour, descend to treat with rebels. In this extremity they quitted the

camp as indefensible, and betook themselves to the king's forts, as Hippon, Phasaelis, and Mariamne. Manahem's party brake in as fast as the soldiers quitted, slaying all that came near them, plunder|ing whatever was left behind, and, in the conlcusion, burning the camp. This action bare date the sixth of the month Gorpiaeus.

CHAP. XVIII.

Death of Ananias and Hezekias. Eleazar and his party assault Manahem in the temple. Two factions oppose each other. Metilius, a Roman general, treats upon terms with Eleazar. The agreement ratified upon oath and articles. The barbarity and perfidy of Eleazar. Leading cause of the destruction of the Jews. Execution upon a sabbath day.

ON the day following Ananias, the high-priest, and his brother,* 1.176 Hezekias, were taken out of one of the aqueducts, wherein they had concealed themselves, and both put to death by some of the Sicarii. The faction set a strict guard also about the forts, insomuch that none of the soldiers could make their escape. Manahem was so elated with the ravaging of so many fortified places, and the death of Ananias, the high-priest, that he became a most inhuman and insupportable tyrant, and be|haved as if he had engrossed to himself the govern|ment of the universe. These overbearing tyrannies gave occasion to Eleazar, and some of his confi|dents▪ to reason amongst themselves upon the subject. It was observed, that it was by no means consistent that those who had revolted from the Romans, from a desire of asserting their liberty, should betray that liberty to any of their own people, and admit of a supreme governor, who, though he should be guilty of no violence, was inferior to themselves, conclu|ding from thence, that if there was an absolute ne|cessity of setting up one man above the rest, it should by no means be Manahem. In the heat of this reso|lution they went up to the temple, where they found Manahem at his devotion, arrayed in royal robes in all the state of a prince, both as to dress and train, with all his guards about him.

While he was vaunting himself in all his glory, some of Eleazar's party made a violent assault on his person.* 1.177 The multitude then began to stone him, thinking that the death of the sophist would bring about the revival of their liberty. His guards made a slight resistance, till they found he was opposed by the people, when they respectively shifted for them|selves. They slew all they took, and made diligent search for the rest. Some few got privately into Massada, and amongst the rest Eleazar, the son of Jairus, and Manahem's near kinsman, who after|wards exercised a tyrannical government in that place. Manahem himself was taken lurking in a place called Ophlas,* 1.178 dragged out, exposed, tor|tured, and then put to death. His deputies and as|sistants were treated in the same manner, and a|mongst the rest Absalom, who was the chief abet|tor of the tyranny.

The people espoused the cause of the opposers of Manahem, imagining, as before observed, that it would be a ready means of effecting an accommoda|tion; whereas the party, in truth, was only an anti|faction to Manahem, that were setting up for them|selves, not so much with a design of suppressing one tyranny, as promoting another. The multitude ear|nestly pressed the prevailing faction not to bear so hard upon the Romans, but rather to raise the siege, and suffer them to depart. But the more they pressed it on the one side, the more it was opposed on the other. When Metilius, the Roman general, and his people,* 1.179 had exerted their utmost power for the de|fence of the place, and were now reduced to the last extremity, they offered to capitulate with Elea|zar, to deliver it up with all that was in it, upon con|dition only of sparing their lives. The terms were readily accepted; and Gorion, the son of Nicode|mus, Ananias, the son of Saddaca, and Judas, the son of Jonathan, were appointed to ratify the treaty, and sign and seal the articles. As soon as the agree|ment was confirmed, and the due formalities had passed, Metilius drew off his soldiers, without in|terruption, or the least suspicion of danger, as long as the Romans were under arms. But when, ac|cording to compact, they came to deliver up their swords and shields, Eleazar's guards broke in upon them, seized and barbarously assassinated them▪ with out resistance or supplication on the part of the Ro|mans, or so much as one word of reproach,* 1.180 except those of "oaths and articles." Metilius was the only man that begged it, which, however, was granted him upon promise of turning Jew.

The Romans sustained no real detriment by this stroke, as their loss, upon the occasion, was trifling, when put into comparison with their vast armies. But it was manifestly the leading cause of destruction to the Jews; for a war now became inevitable,* 1.181 and that upon just grounds; and that very city which took so principal a part in the contest, was so pol|luted with perfidy and rebellion, that, if it might escape the vengeance of the Romans, it would cer|tainly fall a victim to Divine justice. Never did the state of the Jews wear so melancholy an aspect; despair universally prevailed, and the innocent were involved in the dread of the common fate, as they were to be answerable for the guilty; and the slaugh|ter being perpetrated on the sabbath day,* 1.182 rendered it the more horrid and heinous, as upon that day we are not allowed to perform any work, though ever so laudible and praise-worthy.

CHAP. XIX.

Slaughter and calamities befal the Jews. Florus con|demns many of them to the gallies. Shocking ravages in Syria and its environs Pernicious effects of ava|rice. Civil dissentions bring on the massacre of 13,000 Jews at Scythopolis. Exploits of Simon, a man of singular strength and resolution. His confession and recantation. Puts his father, mother, wife, and chil|dren to death with his own hand; and finally himself, to avoid the stroke of an enemy.

UPON the very same day and hour,* 1.183 as if by the direction of Providence, there was a mas|sacre of the Jews at Cesarea to the number of above twenty thousand: nor was there a Jew left in the place, for Florus caused those that fled to be ap|prehended, and sent in chains to the gallies. This horrid carnage incensed the whole nation insomuch,* 1.184 that the Jews divided themselves into several bo|dies, dispersed, began their in roads upon some of the villages of Syria, and then laid waste several of the bordering cities, as Philadelphia, Gebonitis, Gerassa, Pella, and Scythopolis. After this they broke in upon Gadara, Hippon, and Gaulonitis, destroying some places, and setting fire to others. Thence they advanced to Cedasa, belonging to the Tyrians, to Ptolemais, Gaba, and Cesarea. They also over-ran Scha••te and Askalon without oppo|sition; and when they had reduced these places to ashes, they demolished Anthedon and Gaza. They rifled also, and laid waste, several villages upon the frontiers; and put to death as many of the inhabi|tants as they could find.

The Syrians, on the other hand, made their repri|sals upon the Jews,* 1.185 not only in the vast numbers of them that were put to the sword, but the persecu|tion extended to the very inhabitants of their cities. The state of Syria was at this time most deplorable, as every city had, in effect, two armies in it; and there were no means of preserving either,* 1.186 but by destroying the other. The days were spent in blood|shed, and visionary fears rendered the nights more horrible. The pretence of the Syrians was to re|move the Jews; but they were so divided concern|ing others, whom they suspected to be Judaizers, or favourers of their clan, that, as they thought it hard to put them to death upon suspicion, so they were fearful of suffering them to remain, lest th•••• should afterwards prove to be Jews.

Those who before had discovered some degree of humanity and moderation, were now become inexo|rably cruel,* 1.187 from mere avarice, and the hope of lu|cre; for they plundered all they killed, and had the booty for a reward, reputing him the bravest man who obtained the greatest share▪ as having over|come the greatest number of his enemies. It was an horrid spectacle to behold the streets filled with dead bodies of men, women and children, that lay there not only unburied, but uncovered. The pro|vinces laboured under the same calamities, besides the dreadful prospect of various and much greater miseries in future.

The conflict had hitherto been maintained betwixt Jews and strangers, but drawing towards the bor|ders of Scythopolis,* 1.188 they found the very Jews of that quarter inimical to them, so much did they prefer their interest and convenience to every other con|sideration; for the Jews of Scythopolis joined the inhabitants against the other Jews. Nay, such was their alacrity, that the citizens of Scythopolis sus|pected them, lest they should join against them with the other Jews, surprize the town in the night, and impute it, at last, either to a desire of revenge for their sufferings, or the necessity of their condition. The citizens, upon this account, told the confederate Jews, that if they would confirm their agreement, and demonstrate their fidelity to them, they should withdraw, for the present, with their families, into a certain grove adjacent. This they accordingly did, and for the two following days all was quiet at Scy|thopolis;* 1.189 but, upon the third night, their scouts bringing them intelligence that they lay in a care|less, easy, and supine posture, the inhabitants fell upon and cut them all off, to the number of 13,000, seized the plunder, and so departed.

Having given this general account, I cannot pass over some particulars relative to one Simon, who perished in this barbarous action.* 1.190 He was the son of Saul, a man of rank among the Jews, and distin|guished from the rest of his cotemporaries for the firmness of his mind, and the strength of his body, both which faculties he had employed in favour of the Scythopolitans, to the injury of his country. He did daily execution upon several of the Jews living near that place, and would frequently put whole troops to the rout, insomuch that his single person was held almost equivalent to an army. But in the end, a vengeance overtook him adequate to his crime; for when he saw the Jews surrounded by the Scythopolitans, and annoyed by arrows and darts all over the grove, he drew his sword, and, without giv|ing a stroke, (which he found of no avail against such a multitude,) thus passionately addressed himself to the men of Scythopolis:

How justly am I pu|nished for the wrongs I have done, and pur|chasing your confidence with the lives of so many of my fellow-citizens. As I am now to die, and it will not become a man of honour to fall by the hand of an enemy, but rather to do justice upon myself, I will not therefore put it in the power of an enemy to glory in my ruin, and triumph over me in my calamity.

* 1.191Having thus spoken, he surveyed his wife, his children, his aged parents, and whole family, with a mixture of rage and commiseration, and while gaz|ing, as in suspence, he took his father by his grey hairs, and ran him through the body, and after him his mother, who willingly submitted to the stroke. After the father and mother, he did execution upon his wife and sons, who appeared rather to meet the weapon than avoid it, as by that means they pre|vented the enemy. When he thus put all his kin|dred to death: he piled them up, and ordering their bodies to be seen by all, he stretched out his right hand, and sheathed the sword in his own bosom. This man, from the strength of his body, and firm|ness of his mind, deserves to be remembered with compassion; but whoever considers his attachment to strangers, must confess that, in the end, he met with a deserved fate.

CHAP. XX.

Massacre of the Jews at other places. Agrippa goes to Antioch, and leave•• Varus his viceroy. Batanea sends seventy deputies to solicit for a garrison. Varus sends a band of armed men to cut them off upon the way. Agrippa deprives him of his commission. The seditious take possession of the castle of Cypros. The Romans surrender up Macherus to the Jews.

AFTER the massacre at Scythopolis,* 1.192 other cities rose up against the Jews that were a|mongst them. The people of Askalon slew two thousand five hundred; those of Ptolemais two thou|sand; those of Tyre a considerable number, but kept more of them in bonds. In Hippon and Gadara they cut off all that were young and active, impri|soning the rest; and proceeded in like manner else|where, as they were actuated by hatred or fe••••. But in Antioch, Sidon, and Apamia, they were safe and quiet in the enjoyment of their lives and liberties: whether it was that they were not powerful enough to be dangerous, or from compassion to a people who did not seem to have any design upon the state, cannot be determined, but the latter seems the more probable cause. As for the Gerasenes, those who were dispersed were permitted to abide with them in peace, and they gave the rest safe conduct to their borders.

There fell out, at the same time,* 1.193 an unfortunate incident for the Jews in the kingdom of Agrippa, who, having occasion to visit Cestius Gallus at An|tioch, committed the administration of his govern|ment to Varus, a kinsman of king Sohemus. The province of Batanea, during the king's absence, sent seventy deputies of the first rank to desire the indul|gence of a garrison, to the end that, in case of any commotion or tumlt, they might be able to sup|press it. Varus immediately sent out a party of the king's troops to cut them off upon the way. This he had the confidence to do, not only without the knowledge of Agrippa, but entirely against his ap|probation. He was induced to this horrid outrage by his avarice; so that, after so flagitious a begin|ning,* 1.194 he stopped at no manner of tyranny or ini|quity, but continued his havock throughout the kingdom. When Agrippa had intelligence of his destructive proceedings, for the sake of Sohemus he spared his life; but removed him immediately from his government.

The seditious, in the mean time, got possession of the citadel of Cypros, upon the frontier of Jericho, put the garrison to the sword, and demolished the fortifications.* 1.195 At the same instant another con|siderable body of the Jews treated with the Romans in Macherus to deliver up the garrison, who, choosing rather to part with it by agreement than compulsion, surrendered it upon conditions.

CHAP. XXI.

Instances of the Jews former favour with Alexander the Great, and afterwards with the Caesars. A vio|lent tumult at Alexandria between the Jews and the Greeks. It is composed by Tiberius, who turns his army loose upon them with a commission to kill, burn, and pillage at pleasure. Fifty thousand Jews slain upon the spot, and the rest beg their lives. The impla|cable rage of the Alexandrians.

THE natives of Alexandria conceived a mortal antipathy to the Jews,* 1.196 from the days of Alex|ander the Great, who, in acknowledgment of the services they had done him against the Egyptians, made them free of this city, with the grant of all privileges in common with the Greeks. These pri|vileges were continued to them by the successors of Alexander; a peculiar quarter was assigned apart to themselves, where they lived in a manner sequestered

f••••m the converse of other people; being also en|titled to the privilege of calling themselves Mace|donians. When Egypt came afterwards to fall into the hands of the Romans, the Jews had their an|cient privileges still continued by Caesar and his successors: but they were perpetually at variance with the Greeks; and though they suffered justice on both sides for their misdemeanors, it had no other effect than to inflame the contention.

Things were extremely out of order at this time every where, but particularly so at Alexandria. The inhabitants being met in assembly about an embassy to Nero upon an extraordinary occasion, there came rushing into the amphitheatre a mixed crowd of Jews and Greeks. The latter immedi|ately exclaimed that the Jews were enemies and spies,* 1.197 and at the same instant fell furiously upon them. They took three of them, and the rest made their escape; but these three they dragged away in order to burn them alive. This commotion brought in the whole body of Jews to their rescue. They began with casting stones at them; and after that ran with lights in their hands up to the am|phitheatre, threatening the whole multitude to burn them to ashes, which they had certainly done, if Tiberius Alexander, the governor of the city, had not restrained their fury. He did not use violent measures,* 1.198 but employed some of the most popular men amongst themselves to attempt, by mild per|suasion, to bring them to reason, advising them to moderation,* 1.199 and due caution how thew incensed the Roman soldiers. The seditious Jews, however, made a jest of the entreaties of Tiberius, and re|proached him for the pacific measures he had pursued.

When the governor found the tumult was not to be suppressed without having recourse to arms, he sent out upon them two Roman legions that were then in the city,* 1.200 and five thousand Libyan troops, to harrass the mutineers. Their orders were not only to slay all that opposed them, but to seize their effects, and then fire their houses. The word of command was no sooner given, than they marched to a quarter of the town called Delta, where the Jews chiefly resided, and there executed their or|ders to the utmost extremity. The Jews placed their best armed men in the front, who, for some time, made an obstinate resistance, but, upon the first disorder,* 1.201 they were scattered and cut to pieces; though it proved to the conquerors a bloody vic|tory. Death and destruction never appeared in more hideous forms: some were caught in the open field, others forced into their houses, which were first plundered, and then set on fire by the Ro|mans.* 1.202 No mercy was shewn to age or sex, till the place ran with torrents of blood, and fifty thousand of them lay dead in heaps; nor had the remainder been preserved, had they not betaken themselves to supplication for their lives; so that the governor, commiserating their case, gave orders for the Ro|mans to retire, which they did at the first word, out of the deference they paid to order and discipline. But the populace of Alexandria bore so implaca|ble an hatred to the Jews, that it was with diffi|culty they were prevented from insulting the very carcases. Such was the consequence of the tumult at Alexandria.

CHAP. XXII.

Cestius marches with a powerful army against the Jews. The inhabitants of the country come in to him upon his march to Ptolemais. He is joined by Agrippa. Ze|bulon, the strongest city of Galilee, plundered and burnt. Cestius returns to Ptolemais. The Jews cut off two thousand Syrians. Cestius removes to Cesarea. Total destruction of Joppa by the Romans.

* 1.203CESTIUS finding the Jews, from their seditious disposition, become so totally obnoxious, deter|mined on a vigorous prosecution of the war. To that end he drew out his troops, and marched for Ptolemais. He took with him the twelfth legion en|tire, which he had at Antioch; two thousand chosen men out of the other legions; four troops of horse; besides the king's auxiliaries, that is to say, two thousand horse, and three thousand foot, belonging to Antiochus, armed with bows and arrows; a thousand horse, and three thousand foot, belong|ing to Agrippa; a body of four thousand men from king Sohemus, a third part horse, and the remain|der of them foot, chiefly archers.* 1.204 The people came flocking in to Cestius out of the cities through which he passed in his way to Ptolemais, who, though they might be deficient in military skill, were zealous in the cause, from their implacable hatred to the Jews.

Agrippa assisted Cestius not only with his troops▪ but his counsel; so that at this instance the general marched away with part of his army to Zebulon (otherwise called Andron, or the city of men) which divides Judaea from Ptolemais. When he came up to the place, he found it totally deserted by the in|habitants, who had all fled up to the mountains,* 1.205 abounding in all sorts of provision; so that he gave his soldiers the plunder of the city. Though he could not but admire the beauty of the buildings, which much resembled those of Tyre, Sidon, and Berytus, he caused them to be razed to the ground. From thence he over-ran the whole country, destroy|ing whatever fell in his way. When he had laid waste the territory, and set all the adjacent villages in a blaze, he left them in ashes, and so returned to Ptolemais. The Syrians were so intent upon the booty, especially those of Berytus,* 1.206 that many stayed behind for the sake of plunder; so that the Jews, taking courage upon the retreat of Cestius, and falling upon them by surprize, cut them off to the number of near two thousand.

From Ptolemais Cestius removed to Cesarea, and from thence sent a detachment of his army to Joppa, with orders to preserve the place, if they could quietly get possession of it but, in case the inha|bitants should put themselves in a posture of de|fence, they should wait for the bringing up the rest of the army. The Romans, in fine, assaulted the place both by sea and land, and mastered it with|out much difficulty; for the inhabitants were so far from attempting to dispute it by force, that they had no opportunity for so much as an escape.* 1.207 They were all put to the sword, men, women and children, without distinction. The city was plun|dered and burnt; and the number of the slain was supposed to amount to eight thousand four hun|dred persons. Cestius also sent a body of horse into the adjacent toparchy of Narbatane, near Cesarea, where they laid the country waste, put great numbers of the inhabitants to the sword, seized upon their effects, and buried their cities in ashes.

CHAP. XXIII.

Cestius sends Cesennius Gallus into Galilee. Sepphoris, and the neighbouring parts, join with the Romans. The Romans overcome the freebooters. Gallus moves from Galilee to Cesarea, and Cestius marches with his army to Antipatris. Lydda destroyed▪ Cestius en|camps near Jerusalem. The Jews makes a furious sally on the sabbath day, and put Cestius and his army in danger. The Jews put to a retreat. The Romans draw off, and the Jews fall upon their rear.

CESTIUS now sent Cesennius Gallus,* 1.208 the com|mander of the twelfth legion, into Galilee, with such additional forces as he judged sufficient for the reduction of that province. The inhabitants of Sep|phoris, the strongest city, opened their gates to him, and the rest of the towns had the prudence to follow their example. But the mutineers and free-booters withdrew to the mountain of Asamon, that crosses Galilee, and lies just opposite to Sepphoris. Gallus advanced upon them in their own post; but so long as they maintained the upper ground they were too hard for the Romans, and slew near two hundred of them in the encounter. But when the Romans came to take a compass, and, by degrees, had gained the top of the mountain, and were thereby enabled

to cope with them upon even terms, the fugitives were presently routed, their light-armed men not being able to stand the shock, nor those that fled to escape the pursuit of the horse. Some few, indeed, concealed themselves in lurking places among the mountains, but upwards of two thousand of them were cut to pieces.

* 1.209Gallus, apprehending no cause for innovation in Galilee, drew off his troops to Cesarea; and Cestius, with his whole army, went to Antipatris. He was there given to understand, that a considerable body of the Jews were got together into the tower of Aphec, and sent a party thither to dislodge them. The Jews, not being in a condition to stand the at|tack, left it to the Romans, who rifled it, and then setting fire to all the adjoining villages, took their departure. From Antipatris Cestius removed to Lydda, where he found only fifty men, the rest be|ing gone up to Jerusalem to the feast of tabernacles. He put those fifty to the sword,* 1.210 burnt the town; and then advanced, by the way of Bethoron, to a cer|tain place called Gaboah, fifty furlongs from Jeru|salem, and there pitched his camp.

The Jews, finding the war approach their me|tropolis, left the festival, and betook themselves to their arms.* 1.211 They thought their number sufficient, and in that confidence fallied out upon the Ro|mans, with hideous clamour, and in great confu|sion, regardless of any qualms, it being now their sabbath, which, as often mentioned, is by them most scrupulously observed. But the same rage which caused them to dispense with the observance of the sabbath, proved an advange to them in the execution of their design upon their enemies; for they threw the Romans into disorder upon the first charge, broke into their ranks, and made so furi|ous an attack upon their main body, that, if they had not been supported by a party of foot which was then entire, and a troop of horse that came up to their relief in the critical minute, Cestius, and his whole army, had been in danger of being lost. There fell five hundred and fifteen of the Romans in this skirmish; four hundred of them horse, the rest foot. Two and twenty only of the Jews were slain upon the spot. Those who signalized themselves upon the occasion were Monobasus and Cenedoeus, two kinsmen of Monobasus, king of the Adiabeni|ans. The next in reputation to these two heroes were Niger of Perea, and Silas, the Babylonian, who went over from king Agrippa, whom he had formerly served, into the interest of the Jews.

The Jews, at length, being forced to a retreat, re|tired into the city; while the Romans, drawing off likewise to Bethoron,* 1.212 were pressed upon the rear by Simon, the son of Gioras, who cut off several of them, seized their carriages and baggage, which they found upon the road, and so went off to Jeru|salem. Cestius continued three days after this in the field, as the Jews had possessed themselves of the elevated parts of the city, set watches at the en|trances, and appeared resolved to fall upon the Ro|mans if they had quitted their stand.

CHAP. XXIV.

Agrippa proposes to the Jews an alliance with the Ro|mans. The people rise upon it, and treat the ambassa|dors with severity. Cestius falls upon them, and pur|sues them to the walls of Jerusalem, bringing his whole army up to the city. He encamps near the palace. The Jews repair to the defence of the walls. The Ro|mans are repulsed upon several assaults. An invention to secure the pioneers. Cestius raises the siege, and the revolters fall upon his rear. A great slaughter of the Romans by the Jews. Cestius is in great perplexity. The miserable condition of the Romans. Cestius saves himself by a stratagem.

AGRIPPA, observing that the affairs of the Ro|mans were in a dangerous situation, while such an immense number of their enemies had seized up|on the mountains round about, determined to try if the Jews were to be influenced by words, flatter|ing himself that the parties might be reasoned in|to a better understanding one of another;* 1.213 or think|ing, however, if he could not reconcile them, he might possibly be able to divide them, and abate something of the rancour of the quarrel. Pursuant to this design, he sent two of his officers, Barceus and Phebus, men of approved integrity, to offer them a treaty of alliance with the people of Rome, with an assurance of pardon and indemnity for all that was past, upon condition of laying down their arms, and coming over to Rome. The factious, upon hearing of this proposal, were so apprehensive of the people going over to Agrippa, in hopes of this amnesty, that they determined to assassinate the ambassadors.* 1.214 Accordingly they slew Phebus before he could open his commission; and Barceus was wounded, but prevented his fall by flight: but the multitude was so enraged at the baseness of this action, that they drove the seditious before them into the city.

This intestine division gave Cestius the fairest opportunity to break in upon the factious; so that he advanced upon them with his whole army, charged, routed,* 1.215 and pursued them to the walls of Jerusalem. He then marched off to a place called Scopus, seven furlongs from the city, and there pitched his camp. He remained three whole days in a state of inactivity, without so much as making an attempt upon the place, hoping, perhaps, that the people might become disposed to peace; but, in the mean time, sent out a party of soldiers into the neighbouring villages, to procure corn and other necessaries.

On the fourth day, which was the thirtieth of the month Hyperbereteus, he advanced with his whole army, in good order, up to the city,* 1.216 where the peo|ple durst not stir, through fear of the factious party. But their very leaders were so intimidated by the apparent order and discipline of the Romans in their march, that they retired from the suburbs, many into the inner parts of the city, and some in|to the temple. Cestius took his way by Bezetha, and, as he advanced, burnt Cenopolis, and a place called the timber-market. Thence advancing to the upper town, he pitched his camp near the pa|lace. If he had then made a vigorous assault, he might easily have carried the place, and put an end to the war. But Tyrannus and Priscus, and some other great officers, had been corrupted by Florus to divert him from his purpose. This false step proved the absolute ruin of the Jews, and the source of all their future calamities.

Under these circumstances divers of the princi|pal men amongst the Jews, at the instance of A|nanus, the son of Jonathas,* 1.217 invited Cestius into the city, proposing to open the gates to him; but he de|layed his resolution so long, either through indigna|tion or diffidence, that the design was discovered, and Ananus, with his party, forced, by stones from the walls, to fly for sanctuary to their own houses.

The Jews dispersed themselves upon this in to the turrets, to the defence of the walls,* 1.218 which they made good for five days against the utmost efforts of the Romans, though pressed with the most impetuous violence. On the sixth day Cestius, with the choicest of his troops and bow-men, assaulted the temple on the northern quarter; but the Romans were so galled with slings and arrows from the porch and galleries, that they were not only obliged to give way, but in the end totally repulsed. After these disappoint|ments the Romans had recourse to this invention: the first rank rested their shields upon the wall, and guarded themselves with what they called tes|tude, from its resemblance to the back of a tortoise,* 1.219 which being proof against all the enemies darts and arrows, they were at liberty to undermine the wall•• without further danger. They then made prepara|tion for setting fire to the gate of the temple. This so alarmed the faction, that they gave up all for lost, and many of them quitted the town. But it was matter of joy to the moderate and peaceable part, in|somuch, that they called out to open the gates to Cestius, whom they deemed their friend and pre|server. To such a plight were they reduced, that if

[figure]

Engraved for the AMERICAN EDITION of MAYNARD's Josephus.

Ten Thousand JEWS▪ 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in our Day by 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Inhabitants of DAMASCUS.

Cestius had prosecuted the siege but a little longer, the Romans would certainly have had possession of the city:* 1.220 but it seems not to have been agreeable to the Divine will, that this dreadful war should thus terminate: for Cestius, as if unconscious of the good disposition of the people in general, or the desperation of the seditious in the city,* 1.221 by a kind of judicial infatuation, drew off his men on a sudden, even when their hopes were at the fairest, and, con|trary to all reason, quitted the siege. This unex|pected retreat so emboldened the revolters that they fell upon the rear of the Romans, and cut off a considerable number both of their horse and foot. Cestius lodged that night at the camp he had forti|fied at a place called Scopus. The next day he con|tinued his march, with the enemy at his rear, who, pursuing, cut off many of the hindmost of his men. They also fell upon the flank on each side of the army, and galled them with darts: nor durst they so much as turn their heads to look the enemy in the face, imagining the number of those that pursued them was immense. They did not even at|tempt to repel those that pressed them on each side, because their armour was heavy, and they were fear|ful of breaking their rankes▪ whereas they knew the Jews, on the other hand, were light armed, and ready for excursions and surprizes upon any occasion. Upon the whole the Romans suffered greatly, with|out being able to avenge themselves upon their ene|mies.* 1.222 The ways, in fine, were covered with dead and wounded bodies upon their retreat. Amongst the slain were Priscus, who commanded the sixth le|gion; Longinus, the tribune; and Emilius Jucundus, a principal officer of horse; so that, with difficulty, and the loss of their baggage, they got to Gabaoh, where they had encamped before.

Cestius remained here two days, doubtful now to proceed in his present embarrassed situation. Upon the third day he found the number of Jews greatly increased,* 1.223 insomuch that the country was over|run with them. From this he was sensible that his delay had not only hindered but endangered him, and that the longer he stayed the more enemies he should have.

Upon this he ordered the army to be discharged of all incumbrances, for the ease and expedition of the march. The mules, asses, and other beasts of bur|then, he caused to be killed, reserving a few only of those which were to carry machines that he might have further occasion for, and which he was de|sirous also of retaining, lest they should fall into the hands of the enemy.

This was the state and posture of the army on their march to Bethoron.* 1.224 They were not annoyed by the Jews so long as they continued in an open country, but when they came into narrow passages, they charged their front and rear, to seperate them from the main army, and force them further into the valley, while the multitude, from the rocks and craggs, galled them with their darts. While the foot were in this state of distress, not knowing how to defend themselves, the condition of the horse was much more desperate, as they could neither ad|vance up to the Jews to attack them upon the moun|tains, or secure themselves against them in the val|lies; nor could they keep their own troops in order against the shower of arrows that poured down a|mongst them. They were at length in such a situation, that they could neither fight or fly; and in this desponding extremity they had recourse to all the passionate extravagancies of tears, groans, and outcries, that are usual in such cases; whilst the rocks and the vallies rang, on the other side, with transports of joy, triumph, and vaunting.

Such was their advantage, that if the Jews had been favoured with day-light, the army of Cestius had been totally destroyed: but night coming on, the Romans escaped to Bethoron; and the Jews se|cured all the passes round about, to cut off the re|treat of the Romans.

* 1.225When Cestius found in what manner he was beset, he bethought of a stratagem to assist him in his es|cape. He selected about four hundred of his bravest men, and placed them at the strongest of the forti|fications, giving orders that, when they went up to the morning guard, they should erect their ensigns, that the Jews might be induced to believe the army had not yet decamped. In the mean time Cestius shrunk away with the rest of his forces without any noise, about thirty furlongs during the night.

When the Jews perceived in the morning that the place was abandoned, and the main army withdrawn they immediately fell upon the four hundred Ro|mans who had deluded them, slew them to a man, and then went in pursuit of Cestius. But having availed himself of the night to prosecute his escape, they could not overtake him. The soldiers fled in such consternation, that they left behind them all their warlike instruments, which the Jews took up, and afterwards used against the Romans. They fol|lowed the pursuit as far at Antipatris; but finding it vain to continue it longer, secured their engines, stripped the dead, collected their booty, and so re|turned with joy and triumph to Jerusalem, for hav|ing obtained so important a victory with such very little loss. This defeat happened on the eighth day of the month Dius, and in the twelfth year of the reign of the emperor Nero.

CHAP. XXV.

The most eminent Jews quit Jerusalem. Cestius sends deputies to Nero, imputing the late misconduct to Florus. A conspiracy at Damascus against the Jews. Ten thousand are massacred in the space of one day. The Jews, who overcame Cestius, return to Jerusalem, and appoint their officers, civil and military. Eleazar acquires popularity. Josephus, our historian, appointed governor of both the Galilees. His leading principles. Mode of administration. He institutes a council of seventy. Walls in the defensible cities. Establishes the Roman order and discipline.

AFTER this disaster had befallen Cestius,* 1.226 the most considerable of the Jews in Jerusalem quitted the city as mariners would a ship sinking in a storm. Costobarus and Saul, two brothers, toge|ther with Philip the son of Jacimus, formerly Agrip|pa's general, withdrew to Cestius. But Antipas, their fellow prisoner in the palace, disdaining to save him|self by flight, was put to death by the faction; the particulars of which I shall relate hereafter.* 1.227 Now Cestius sent Saul and his companions to Nero in Achaia, with information of his distressed condi|tion, and to transfer the blame of the whole mis|carriage to Florus. Cestius adopted this measure to exculpate himself, and raise the indignation of the emperor against the other.

When the people of Damascus heard of the de|struction of the Romans, they entered into a reso|lution of cutting off all the Jews in that place. This they were persuaded they could effect, if they could but take them together at the baths, or any of the places of public exercise or recreation. Their principle ground for apprehension of failure was its coming to the knowledge of their wives, who were mostly attached to the Jewish religion.* 1.228 They took, however, their opportunity, when the Jews were at one of these public meetings, in an un|armed situation, to fall upon them, and massa|cred ten thousand of them in one day without any difficulty.

The Jews who gave Cestius that terrible over|throw, being by this time returned to Jerusalem, en|deavoured, by every means, fair and foul, to engage as many of the Romans as they could in their party. Upon this they had a meeting in the temple, for the election of officers for the government of the war, as well as civil and ecclesiastical departments.* 1.229 They declared Joseph, the son of Gorion, and Ananus, the high-priest▪ governors of all affairs within the city, recommending to their care, in a more especial man|ner, the rebuilding of their walls. As for Eleazar, the son of Simon, though he had in his possession a

mighty booty taken from the Romans, a consider|able sum of money from Cestius, and a mass of pub|lic treasure to an immense value over and above, they did not think him worthy of having any com|mission conferred upon him, looking upon him as a man of an imperious, tyrannical disposition, and upon his specious friends and confidents rather as guards than companions. But this did not prevent Eleazar from insinuating himself,* 1.230 by degrees into the affections and esteem of the people; for he so pre|vailed upon them by the popular means of money and address, that, in their professed opinions, no man was so well qualified for governor as himself.

* 1.231The commanders they sent into Idumaea were Jesus, the son of Sapphas, one of the high-priests, and Eleazar, the son of the new high-priest; at the same time enjoining Niger, the present governor of that province, to obey their orders. This Niger, coming from Perea, beyond Jordan, was called Pe|raites. Nor did they neglect the care of other parts of the country. They sent Joseph, the son of Simon, to Jericho; Manasses to Perea; John, the Essence, to Thamna; while Lydda, Joppa, and Emmanus, were to be governed in the form of toparchies. John, the son of Ananias,* 1.232 was made governor of Gophnitis and Acrabatena; and Josephus, the son of Matthias, governor of both the Galilees, adding to the com|mand Gamala, the strongest place in th•• whole country.

These governors discharged their duty with ala|crity and prudence,* 1.233 according to the extent of their respective commissions. The first care of Josephus, when he came into Galilee, was to obtain the good|will of the people, an interest which he knew to be most conducive to the preservation of order and good government. He was also conscious that the certain way to make great men his friends was, to ad|mit them to a share in the government; and that the most effectual means to conciliate the esteem of the multitude,* 1.234 was to employ natives, and popular in|struments in popular cases. His plan was therefore this;* 1.235 he selected a council of seventy out of the elders and ablest men of the nation. To this coun|cil of seventy he committed the whole government of Galilee, under some few restrictions; appointing seven to every city, to hear and determine all com|mon causes, in such manner and form as he had pre|scribed; reserving to himself the judgment of capi|tal causes, and matters of greater importance.

* 1.236Having thus regulated affairs at home, so far as re|lated to domestic policy, he took into consideration the necessary means of securing his people from foreign injuries and insults. Taking it for granted that the Romans would break into Galilee, he took care, in the first place, to wall in all the defensible cities, a•• Jotapata, Bersabee, Selamis, Pereccho, Ja|pha. Sigoh, Tarichee, and Tiberias, with the moun|tain Itabyr. He fortified also the caves about the lake of Genezareth, in the Lower Galilee; and in the Upper, Petra of the Achabarians, Seph, Jam|nith, and Mero; and Seleucir; Soganes, and Gamala, in Gaulanitis. The people of Sepphoris being wealthy and warlike, had liberty to build their own walls. John, the son of Levi, by order of Josephus, walled in Gischala. As to the rest of the castles, they were fortified by the direction and assistance of Josephus himself.* 1.237 He collected an army out of Galilee of more than an hundred thousand young men, and armed them with old weapons, which he had col|lected together, and prepared for them.

The next thing that occured to him was the mighty power of Rome,* 1.238 and the means by which it became invincible, which evidently appeared to be their strict attention to military discipline. Ob|serving, therefore, that their readiness in obeying orders was owing to the multitude of their officers, he made partitions in his army after the Roman manner, dividing and subdividing officers of com|mand into several subordinations. He had his offi|cers over tens, hundreds, and thousands, and all these subjected to other superiors. He taught them the discipline of signals, the points of war in the sound of the trumpet, to distinguish an alarm,* 1.239 a charge and a retreat, the disposition of an army and form of battle, the order of bringing off or on, seconding the weak, or relieving the weary. He explained to them the nature and effects of fortitude, mental and corporeal, and whenever he treated on military sub|jects, held forth the Roman discipline as the grand instance of authority and example. He told his sol|diers, that, if they would lay a foundation for success in their military undertaking, they must renounce before-hand, all violence, robbery, fraud, pilfering, and the like; that they must do justice to all people without exception▪ nor seek to raise themselves upon the downfall of others; observing, upon the whole, that a good conscience is the only real foundation of genuine courage.

Josephus had now raised his complement of forces: they consisted of sixty thousand foot, and two hun|dred and fifty horse, and besides these four thousand five hundred mercenaries,* 1.240 with six hundred select men for the guard of his person. These men were no very great charge to the country, for all but the mercenaries were maintained by the different cities, which, as they sent out one half of them to the war, employed the other half in providing necessaries, so that one part wrought for the other; and those that were in arms protected their purveyors.

CHAP. XXVI.

Character of John of Gischala. He obtains the con|fidence of Josephus, and then abuses it. Raises a sedi|tion against him. Josephus is deserted by all his friends but four. His address to the seditious Jews. He gains upon the multitude, and thereby puts John upon other treacherous practices. Silas gives notice of it to Josephus, who hastens away to Ti••••rias. John coun|terfeits sickness. Josephus set upon, and narrowly escapes. John is execrated for his perfidy. All Ga|lilee reconciled to Josephus. Terms of accommodation proposed and accepted. Secret plots against Josephus. Four cities go over to the enemy.

WHILE Josephus was engaged in his admi|nistration in Galilee, there started up an ex|traordinary kind of impostor.* 1.241 He was a native of Gis|chala, the son of one Levi, and his name was John. He possessed cunning and fraud in an extraordinary degree, and was capable of the most flagitious prac|tices. His poverty for a long time prevented the execution of his wicked designs. Though he was a notorious liar himself, he was as credulous as those he imposed on. Fraud by him was estimated a vir|tue, and his best friends were the objects of his delu|sion. He made great pretence to humanity, but was barbarously cruel where he had hopes of gain. His ambition had no bounds, and the foundation of his hopes was laid in his crimes. He was so naturally addicted to theft, that he acquired its various tricks, and particularly of alluring others, insomuch that he collected accomplices, by degrees, till they amounted to a train of four hundred, in which num|ber there was not one irresolute man, or inexpert in the use of arms, so scrupulously careful was he in his choice for mental and corporeal qualifications. The greatest part of this band was raised from the villages and borders of Tyre. With this banditti, however, he made great ravages, and put many of those to the sword who had withdrawn upon the ap|prehension of a war. But he aspired to far greater things, and wanted only money to put himself at the head of a well formed party.

When he found that Josephus was greatly pleased with the activity of his disposition,* 1.242 he em|ployed his influence with him to obtain the superin|tendance of the re-building the walls of Gis|chala, upon which pretence he drew large sums of money in contributions from all the citizens of pro|perty. He had the•• recourse to another invention, concerted with wondrous shrewdness. He procured

an order from Josephus to all the Jews in Syria, for|bidding them expressly to send any oil into the bor|dering parts,* 1.243 but of the produce of their own na|tion. Upon this prohibition John engrossed the oil, and sold it again at eight times the price it cost him.

This being a plentiful year, and Galilee a country abounding with oil, the monopoly which he prac|tised in sending so much abroad, where there was a great scarcity, brought an incredible sum of money into his coffers, which credit he converted after|wards to the mischief of his benefactor. Persuaded at this time, if he could once overthrow Josephus, he should himself obtain the government of Gali|lee, he gave it in charge to the ruffians under his command to harrass the inhabitants more and more, which would either exasperate the people into practises upon his person, if he controuled them, or else expose him to accusations and com|plaints,* 1.244 if he let them alone. As an introduction to his design, he caused a report to be circulated far and near, that Josephus was in a plot to betray the province to the Romans; and many other strata|gems did he contrive to effect his ruin.

There was at that time a party of young men of the village of Dabarith, who kept guard on the great plain; and as Ptolemy, king Agrippa's and queen Berenice's steward, was travelling that way, set upon him, and took away all his boxes and bag|gage, to a great value, in rich robes, silver plate, and si•• hundred pieces of gold. This was a prize not to be concealed, so that they carried it whole as it was to Josephus at Tarichee, who checked them for the violence they had offered to the king and queen, and ordered the booty to be deposited in the charge of one ••neas, an eminent man of that city, and to be forth coming upon demand.* 1.245 This act of justice had well nigh cost Josephus his life; for when the pillagers came to understand that they were excluded from all share in the prey, and that the governor reserved it entirely for the king's use, they ran through all the neighbouring cities and villages, exclaiming that Josephus had be|trayed them.

* 1.246This outcry raised such an uproar, that, by day|light next morning▪ there was a body of an hundred thousand people assembled, who ran to the Circus at Tarichee, exclaiming against Josephus; some being for deposing, some for stoning, and others for burning him as a traitor. The tumult at the same time was encouraged by John, and Jesus, the son of Sepphas,* 1.247 who were magistrates of Tiberias. This violent outrage of the people threw the attend|ants and guards of Josephus into such a consterna|tion, that all but four persons deserted him. He was at that time in a sound sleep; and as they were just setting fire to the house his four friends waked him. Josephus maintained an extraordinary degree of composure, nor discovered the least emotion, ei|ther at the number of his enemies, or the desertion of his friends, but frankly presented himself to the view of the people in rags and ashes, with his hands behind him, and his sword about his neck. This generous constancy moved his friends, and especi|ally those of Tarichee, to the highest degree of commiseration. But the savage mob, both of the town and country, to whom his government seemed burthensome, reviled him for his treachery and op|pression, calling upon him, again and again to re|store the money, and confess the fact. They con|cluded in fine, from his habit and behaviou••, that he was now disposed to declare the truth, and that with a view of obtaining both pardon and pity. Under these circumstances he thought it most expe|dient to divide his enemies, and set them at variance, and to this end promised them a frank confession of the whole matter; so that having obtained an hear|ing, he spoke to this effect:

* 1.248I neither did intend to send this money back again to Agrippa, or to conver•• it to my own use; as it never was my design to court the friend|ship of any prince that was inimical ••o you, or propose to myself any benefit to your prejudice. But (addressing himself to the people of Tari|chee) considering the defenceless state of your city without walls, your own inability to rebuild them, and the avidity with which the people of Tiberias, and several other cities, have beheld this prize, I thought I could not do better than increase it for the accomplishment of so lauda|ble a purpose. It you agree with me in opinion, you are bound in honour to justify me in what I have done; if otherwise, I am ready to lay all that I have taken at your feet, to be disposed of at your pleasure.

The people of Tarichee loudly applauded this speech;* 1.249 but those of Tiberias loaded him with ca|lumnies, menaces, and reproaches, and their rage and animosity became fiercer than ever. In the heat of their division, however, they declined their quarrel with Josephus, and entered into a warm contest one with another.

When Josephus found he had secured the people of Tarichee in his interest, (who amounted to near forty thousand,) he addressed them with more free|dom, pointed out to them their error, and assured them that, for his part, he was absolutely for employ|ing the money they had in the fortification of the town He recommended to them to leave to him the care of the other cities also, assuring them, if they would follow his direction, nothing should be wanting towards the charge of the work.

This carried so fair a face, that part of the muti|neers, though still dissatisfied, withdrew; but, at the same time, another party of two thousand armed men advanced furiously towards Josephus, who es|caped into the house, while the rioters stood pres|sing and menacing without.* 1.250 Josephus was now under a necessity of having recourse to another in|vention: he went up to the top of the house, and waving his right hand as a signal for silence, when the uproar subsided a little, thus addressed them:

I cannot understand the drift of your desire, nor is it possible for us to understand each other in this confusion of noise I stand here ready to fulfil your commands, if you will depute any person to come to me, that we may treat on the matter with composure and temper.

Upon this proposal some of the leaders repaired to Josephus, were admitted into the house, taken into a remote quarter, and there scourged with the utmost severity. The rabble thought they had wait|ed long enough at the door for the issue of the con|ference, imputing the delay to some difficulties in the case, when, on a sudden, the doors were thrown open, and the commissioners dismissed in their bloody hue after the flagellation, which struck the people with such terror, that those who were highest in their menaces before, were the first to cast down their arms, and betake themselves to flight.

This disappointment so mortified and exasperated John against Josephus,* 1.251 that he concerted other prac|tices to gratify his revenge. He counterfeited sick|ness, and desired permission of Josephus to go to the hot baths at Tiberias for the recovery of his health. Josephus, upon this, gave him recommendatory let|ters to the governor of the city, to afford him assist|ance in what might be requisite for his accommo|dation, without the least suspicion of treachery. But John was no sooner possessed of the advantages he desired, than he tampered with some, and corrupted others with money and fair words, to abandon Jose|phus. When Silas, who, at that time, had charge of the city, received information of this practice, he forwarded advice of it to Josephus, who, upon the very instant of receiving the letter, (though late at night,) hastened away for Tiberias, and arrived thither early the next morning.* 1.252 The people in ge|neral received him with the utmost deference, John only excepted, who suspected the matter, and the faction which he had corrupted. He sent him, how|ever, a complimentary excuse for not doing himself the honour of waiting upon him, pretending to be confined through sickness. The people of Tibe|rias were now assembled by order of Josephus, with an intent to acquaint them of the advice he had

received. John, having notice of it, sent a band of bravos to destroy him; but, at the instant of their drawing their swords, the people gave a shriek, and Josephus taking the alarm, when the weapons were just at his throat,* 1.253 leaped down from a stand|ing of six cubits high, which he had mounted for his harangue, and made his escape to a little boat upon the lake, with only two of his guards to pro|tect him.

The soldiers immediately betook themselves to their arms, to avenge their general upon these trai|tors. But Josephus, fearful lest a civil war should be raised by the envy of a few men, and involve the city in ruin, sent a messenger to his people, with a positive command to proceed no farther with the traitors than was necessary for their own preserva|tion;* 1.254 and they accordingly followed his orders with the strictest punctuality.

When the rumour of the plot, and the author of it, was spread throughout the country, the people assembled in great multitudes, and went in quest of John;* 1.255 but he prevented their design by flying to Gischala, his native place. The cities of Galilee went over in general to Josephus upon this occasion, and with them many thousands of armed men, who offered their best services against John, whom they reviled as a traitor, and the common enemy of mankind, and declared him deserving of being committed to the flames, with the city that pro|tected him. Josephus assured them that he was highly sensible of their kindness and good-will, but inclined to moderate proceedings where the case would admit, as he had rather save an enemy by candour and prudence, than destroy them by force. He declared, however, at the same time, that he would wish to find every man out of the respective cities excepted by name from pardon, his goods confiscated,* 1.256 and his family destroyed, who should not, in five days after the publication of such a decree, abandon the interest of John, and return to his allegiance.

* 1.257The heads of several cities were unanimous in the promotion of these conditions: proclamation was made in form, and all things pursuant duly exe|cuted. This declaration brought over three thou|sand of John's party, who cast themselves and their arms at the feet of Josephus.* 1.258 But John, with the remainder, which consisted of about a thousand Sy|rian fugitives, betook himself to secret practices, when he found he could not carry his point by open attempts. He sent private emissaries to Jerusalem to calumniate Josephus for extravagant levies, and in|sinuate that he would soon become tyrannical, un|less restrained by a superior power. The people in general disregarded this intimation; but some of the leading men supplied John with money towards maintaining the contest with Josephus. Nay, they even passed a decree for re-calling him from his go|vernment; nor did they think that decree sufficient, but sent a detachment of two thousand five hundred armed men, and four persons, eminent as lawyers and orators, in order to supplant Josephus in the credit he had with the people. They were directed to offer him no violence, if he would come away by fair means; but, in case of refusal, to treat him as an enemy. These commissioners were Joazar, the son of Nomicus; Ananias, the son of Sadduc; and Simon and Judas, the sons of Jonathas.

The friends of Josephus gave him intelligence that an army was coming against him; but the de|sign of the enemy was kept so close, they could not form the least judgment of it. For this cause four cities immediately revolted from him:* 1.259 these were Sepphoris, Gamala, Gischala, and Tiberias; but he soon recovered them without bloodshed. Four of the principal men he had taken, both for arms and counsel, he sent back to Jerusalem, which enraged the people to so violent a degree against them, that, if they had not escaped in time, they would have been all cut to pieces, both those who were sent, and those that sent them.

CHAP. XXVII.

Tiberias again revolts, and is recovered by a notable stratagem. The inhabitants ••••rrender, and send hos|tages for the performance of 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Clytas does justice to himself, and cuts off the one hand with the other, according to sentence.

DURING this time John was in such dread of Josephus,* 1.260 that he kept himself close within the walls of Gischala. Within a few days Tiberias revolted again, invited Agrippa to take possession of the town, and acknowledged him for their king. But, as he did not come at the time appointed, some Roman cavaliers appeared, and expelled Josephus out of the city. When the news of this desertion reached Tarichee Josephus was in a very embarrassed situation, as he durst not venture him|self alone among the whole body of the deserters, nor could he stay in town for fear of being surprized by the king's soldiers: besides, as the next day was the sabbath, no plan could be carried into execu|tion. Thus circumstanced,* 1.261 he found himself under a necessity of circumventing the revolters by a stratagem. He ordered the gates of Turichee to be all shut and guarded, to prevent any intelligence being conveyed to Tiberias of his design. Upon this he caused all the vessels in the like to be got together, to the number of two hundred and thirty, and four men to be put in each of them. With these vessels he sailed early in the morning for Ti|berias. When he was advanced within such a distance of the town that they might easily discern the number of the fleet, without distinguishing what men they had on board, he ordered all ••he ves|sels to come to anchor, and stay behind, while him|self, with only seven of his guards, and those un|armed, rowed up towards the town within view of the place. His adversaries were still reviling him from the walls; but, upon sight of him in this situ|ation, and taking for granted that the vessels were full of men,* 1.262 they threw down their arms in con|sternation, and, by tokens of the most submissive intercession, besought him to spare the city.

Josephus uttered terrible menace against them; and reproached, that, when they took up arms a|gainst the Romans, they should spend their force beforehand in civil dissentions, and do that which their enemies desired above all things; that, be|sides, they should endeavour so hastily to seize upon him who took care of their safety; and had not been ashamed to shut the gates of their city against him who built their walls. He, however, told them, he would admit of such intercession from them as he could enter upon terms with for the security of the city.

Upon this they dispu••ched ten of their principal men as deputies, whom Josephus ordered to be put on board a vessel, and conveyed some distance from the city. He sent afterwards for fifty of the prin|cipal senators as a farther security for the perform|ance of the conditions; and so proceeded, upon one pretence or other, till he had the whole senate in his hands, to the number of six hundred persons, be|sides two thousand of the inhabitants, who, as fast as the vessels could be filled, were all conveyed to Tarichee, and there kept in custody.

The people now exclaimed against Clytus as the author and ringleader of this tumult,* 1.263 desiring Jo|sephus to make him an example, and to accept of his punishment for satisfaction. Josephus had no design of putting any man to death; but, however, on the supplication of the people, he ordered Levi, one of the guards, to cut off both the hands of Clytus. The soldier durst not venture upon the execution in such a crowd of enemies; on which Josephus was inclined to go on shore, and do it him|self. Clytus, perceiving this, entreated Josephus

to content himself with one of his hands. The re|quest was granted, upon condition that he himself should cut it off.* 1.264 Clytus drew out his sword, and with his right hand cut off the left. Such was the awe in which Josephus was held: and thus was Tiberias recovered by Josephus, seven soldiers, and a n••mber of empty vessels.

Not many days after this, upon the revolt of Sep|phoris, and some other cities, Josephus gave his soldiers the plunder of that place and Gischala; but, upon application of the inhabitants, he caused restitution to be made of all they could discover; and the like at Tiberias; proposing, at the same time, to chastize and oblige them.

CHAP. XXVIII.

The inhabitants of Jerusalem prepare for war. Ravages and cruelties of Simon, the son of Gioras.

THUS were the disturbances of Galilee quieted, and the Jews no sooner ceased the prosecution of civil dissentions,* 1.265 than they applied themselves to making preparations for a war with the Romans, Ananus, the high-priest, and the men of power in Jerusalem, that stood in opposition to the Romans, both repaired the walls, and procured numbers of warlike implements, such as darts, arrows, and the like. All hands were employed upon warlike pre|parations; and the youth, in general, were trained to the exercis•• of arms. In this confused state of affairs the more moderate and candid part of the people could not restrain from lamentation at the prospect of calamities to come. Those of a pacific turn beheld with horror the discord that prevailed; but public incendiaries were pleased with the expec|tation of mischief. The city, in fine, wore the as|pect of destruction, before the Romans came a|gainst it. Ananus contended for laying aside these preparations for a war, and endeavoured to bring them to reason; but he miscarried in the attempt, as will appear from the sequel of this narrative.

Simon, the son of Gioras, was, at this time, at the head of a band of free-booters,* 1.266 who lived upon the spoil in the toparchy of Acrabatena, where they not only plundered great mens houses, but injured their persons also, and treated the masters themselves with the greatest ignominy, exercising, indeed, the most barefaced tyranny. He went on in this lawless manner till he was forced, by the troops sent against him by Ananus, and other ru|lers, to retire with the small party he had remain|ing to Massada, where he continued till Ananus, and his other adversaries, were cut off. He made such ravages in Idumaea and its environs, and com|mitted such horrid outrages, that, for the security of the country, government was under a necessity of putting garrisons into the very villages. This was the state of affairs in Judaea at this juncture.

END OF THE SECOND BOOK OF THE WARS.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Fresh tu|mults arise.
• * 1.2

  Archelaus well re|ceived by the multi|tude.
• * 1.3

  His address.
• * 1.4

  The 〈…〉〈…〉 who 〈…〉〈…〉 their 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.5

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 arise •••• the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.6

  The 〈…〉〈…〉 had 〈…〉〈…〉 golden eagle.
• * 1.7

  A tumult at the passover.
• * 1.8

  A party of soldiers sent to ap|pease it, but are repulsed.
• * 1.9

  The whole army sent, and 3000 Jews slain.
• * 1.10

  Archelaus goes for Rome.
• * 1.11

  Sabinus break•• his promise.
• * 1.12

  Antipas goes to Rome▪ & becomes competitor for the kingdom.
• * 1.13

  Sabinus ac|cuses Ar+chelaus to Caesar.
• * 1.14

  Antipater counsel for the pla••|tiff.
• * 1.15

  Nicolaus for the de|fendant.
• * 1.16

  Archelaus graciously received by Caesar.
• * 1.17

  Death of the mother of Arche|laus.
• * 1.18

  Sabinus raises tu|mults a|amongst the Jews.
• * 1.19

  The feast of Pente|cost.
• * 1.20

  The Jews prepare to attack the Romans.
• * 1.21

  Sabinus takes re|fuge in the Tower of Phasael.
• * 1.22

  A battle between the Ro|mans and the Jews.
• * 1.23

  The galle|ries 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and many Jews 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in the flames.
• * 1.24

  The body treasure 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.25

  Rufus and Gratus 〈◊〉〈◊〉 over to the Romans.
• * 1.26

  Several 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Judaea.
• * 1.27

  Expl••i•• of Judas the 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.28

  Ravages of Simon in Perea.
• * 1.29

  He is slain by Gratus.
• * 1.30

  Enterprizes of Athron|ges and his brethren.
• * 1.31

  They are at length 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.32

  Varus comes to the assist|ance of Sabinus.
• * 1.33

  Seppho••is destroyed.
• * 1.34

  The Ro|mans and Arabians la•• waste Judaea.
• * 1.35

  Varus comes to Jerusalem, and pu|ni••hes the authors of the sedition
• * 1.36

  Dismisses the Arabian auxiliaries.
• * 1.37

  Archelaus is accused by the Jewish deputies.
• * 1.38

  A council summoned by Caesar.
• * 1.39

  Principal heads of the accusa|tion.
• * 1.40

  Nicolaus pleads for Archelaus.
• * 1.41

  Caesar dis|tributes the possessions of Herod, and exe|cutes his will▪
• * 1.42

  His libe|rality •••• Salome.
• * 1.43

  The 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Alexander.
• * 1.44

  He 〈…〉〈…〉 the Jews.
• * 1.45

  Caesar 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the 〈…〉〈…〉 sends in him.
• * 1.46

  The impo|stor con|demned to 〈…〉〈…〉 to death.
• * 1.47

  Archelaus is banished by Caesar.
• * 1.48

  His dream.
• * 1.49

  The inter|pretation.
• * 1.50

  Glaphyra'•• dream
• * 1.51

  Her death.
• * 1.52

  Coponius appoin•••••• procur••••nt of the ••••|narchy 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Archelaus as a Roman 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Judas 〈…〉〈…〉 Jews to re|volt.
• * 1.53

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.54

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.55

  Their opi|nion of marriage.
• * 1.56

  They share equally in the goods of this world.
• * 1.57

  Their 〈…〉〈…〉 and 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.58

  Their phi|lanthrophy
• * 1.59

  Manner of living.
• * 1.60

  Of travel|l••ng
• * 1.61

  They nei|ther buy or sell with one ano|ther.
• * 1.62

  Their pie|ty & scru|ples in matters of conscience
• * 1.63

  Their reve|rence for superiors.
• * 1.64

  Their fide|lity.
• * 1.65

  Their reve|rence for antiquity.
• * 1.66

  Form and method of entering into the society.
• * 1.67

  Conditions specified.
• * 1.68

  Their strict justice.
• * 1.69

  Their reve|rence for their legis|lator.
• * 1.70

  Peculiar strictness in the observ|ance of the sabbath.
• * 1.71

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.72

  Their l••••|gevity ••|ing to tem|perance.
• * 1.73

  Their ••|ness and resolution.
• * 1.74

  Their opi|nion of the 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.75

  They 〈…〉〈…〉 the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of pro|phecy.
• * 1.76

  Another order of Essenes.
• * 1.77

  D•• of the 〈…〉〈…〉.
• * 1.78

  The Sad|ducees.
• * 1.79

  Tiberi••s succeeds Augustus.
• * 1.80

  A tumult arises i•• Jerusalem on Pilate's bringing in images of Caesar.
• * 1.81

  Pilate threatens the Jews.
• * 1.82

  Afterwards 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the ima|ges.
• * 1.83

  Another tumult ex|cited by raising a tax on the sacred treasure.
• * 1.84

  Death of Tiberius.
• * 1.85

  He is suc|ceeded by Caius, who liberates and ad|vances Agrippa.
• * 1.86

  Herod and his wife die in exile in Spain.
• * 1.87

  The blas|phemy & cruelty of Caius Caesar.
• * 1.88

  He sends Petron•••••• to Jerusa|lem to set up his sta|tue.
• * 1.89

  Description o•• Ptole|mais.
• * 1.90

  Memnon's tomb.
• * 1.91

  The Jews apply to Petronius, at Ptole|mais, for 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.92

  He expos|tulates with them
• * 1.93

  Allegation of the Jews.
• * 1.94

  Answer of Petronius.
• * 1.95

  He 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 off his army.
• * 1.96

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Caesar 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Rome.
• * 1.97

  He 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Petronius for 〈…〉〈…〉 is 〈◊〉〈◊〉 by own 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.98

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.99

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.100

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.101

  The 〈◊〉〈◊〉 answer.
• * 1.102

  Reply of Claudius by Agrippa
• * 1.103

  A soldier ••tands up for the ho|nour of Claudius.
• * 1.104

  The soldi|ers desert|ion after|wards the senate.
• * 1.105

  Agrippa counsels Claudius.
• * 1.106

  He follows his advice.
• * 1.107

  Agrippa i•• bountifully rewarded.
• * 1.108

  Begins to wall in Je|rusalem.
• * 1.109

  Dies a•• Cesarea.
• * 1.110

  Agrippa th•• son suc|ceeds to the king|dom of his uncle.
• * 1.111

  A soldier occasions a tumult at Jerusalem.
• * 1.112

  Many of the Jews slain.
• * 1.113

  Another tumult.
• * 1.114

  The books of the law torn by a soldier.
• * 1.115

  A quartel between the Jews of Samaria & Galilee.
• * 1.116

  Tumult in Jerusalem.
• * 1.117

  Cumanus 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to the rout
• * 1.118

  Judaea over|•••••••• with ••••••bers.
• * 1.119

  ••••veral of 〈…〉〈…〉 Jews 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to Cae|sa••▪
• * 1.120

  C••••sar g••ve•• judg|ment a|g••inst the Samarians.
• * 1.121

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.122

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.123

  Sketch of the cha|racter of Nero.
• * 1.124

  Nero's 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.125

  Felix 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉〈◊〉
• * 1.126

  A•• of 〈…〉〈…〉.
• * 1.127

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 priest •• slain by th••••.
• * 1.128

  The ••••|chief a 〈…〉〈…〉.
• * 1.129

  The de|••i••e•• of an Egyptian 〈◊〉〈◊〉 pro|phet.
• * 1.130

  He is 〈…〉〈…〉▪
• * 1.131

  New dis|••••••••••nce•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.132

  A great 〈◊〉〈◊〉 be…tween the Jews and Syrians.
• * 1.133

  The cause •••• re••erred to Caesar.
• * 1.134

  Albinus a most disso|lute gover|nor.
• * 1.135

  Rapine uni|versally prevails.
• * 1.136

  Characters of Albinus and Florus compared.
• * 1.137

  Cestius Gallus, go|vernor of Syria, comes to Jerusalem.
• * 1.138

  The rise of the Jewish war.
• * 1.139

  The Jews insulted in their syna|gogue.
• * 1.140

  ••ribe•••• and per•••••• o•• Floru••.
• * 1.141

  The 〈◊〉〈◊〉 insul•••••• at Cesar•••• by a m••••'s sa|crifice
• * 1.142

  A violent commotion
• * 1.143

  The Jews remo•••• the books of the law.
• * 1.144

  Seek for redress from Flo|rus in 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.145

  He is bit|terly re|proache••.
• * 1.146

  〈…〉〈…〉 against the Jews.
• * 1.147

  Rejects their 〈…〉〈…〉.
• * 1.148

  The 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the Jews 〈◊〉〈◊〉 not Florus at the 〈…〉〈…〉 vain.
• * 1.149

  Florus or|ders the soldiery to plunder.
• * 1.150

  A great slaughter of the Jews.
• * 1.151

  Alexa••••er ma•••• g••|vern•• of Egypt.
• * 1.152

  Beren•••••• interc••••des with F••o|rus in 〈…〉〈…〉 people
• * 1.153

  Her life is in danger.
• * 1.154

  The people in a•• ••p|roar against Florus.
• * 1.155

  The tumult subsides.
• * 1.156

  Project of Florus for reviving 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.157

  The priests and Levites are peace|able dis|posed.
• * 1.158

  The Roman soldiers in|flame the Jews, and slew many of them.
• * 1.159

  A terrible destruction and horrid spectacle.
• * 1.160

  Agrippa moderates the zeal of the Jews.
• * 1.161

  The multi|tude treat Agrippa with the greatest in|dignity.
• * 1.162

  The Jews sieze upon the strong holds of Massada.
• * 1.163

  Rejection of the Roman oblat•••••• the great•••••• of the war.
• * 1.164

  Many of the first 〈◊〉〈◊〉 are ••cific ••sures.
• * 1.165

  They re|monstrate with the multitude.
• * 1.166

  These re|presenta|tions have no influ|ence upon the sedi|tious.
• * 1.167

  Deputies sent to Florus & Agrippa.
• * 1.168

  Agrippa sends troops to Jerusa|lem.
• * 1.169

  A war be|gun in the city.
• * 1.170

  Attended with great slaughter.
• * 1.171

  The ••••••••|tious and the kings party.
• * 1.172

  The 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of 〈…〉〈…〉
• * 1.173

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.174

  〈…〉〈…〉 stratagem 〈◊〉〈◊〉
• * 1.175

  The 〈…〉〈…〉 to the 〈…〉〈…〉.
• * 1.176

  Death of Ananias and Heze|kias.
• * 1.177

  Eleazar and his party assault Ma|nahem in the temple
• * 1.178

  Seizure and death of Manahem.
• * 1.179

  The Ro|mans sur|render themselves to Eleazar.
• * 1.180

  Barbarous perfidy of Eleazar.
• * 1.181

  Prelude to the ruin of the Jews·
• * 1.182

  A slaughter on a sab|bath day.
• * 1.183

  20,000 Jews slaughtered at Cesarea in one day.
• * 1.184

  Great ra|vages in Syria and its ••••vi|rons.
• * 1.185

  The Sy|rians a|venge themselves upon the Jews.
• * 1.186

  Terrible disorders in Syria.
• * 1.187

  Pernicious effects of avarice.
• * 1.188

  The Jews become enemies to one ano|ther.
• * 1.189

  The inha|bitants of Scythopolis make great slaughter among the Jews.
• * 1.190

  Exploits of Simon, a man of ex|traordinary strength and resolu|tion.
• * 1.191

  He takes vengeance on himself and family.
• * 1.192

  The Jews are massa|cred at o|ther pl••••••••
• * 1.193

  〈…〉〈…〉 Jews in the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Agrippa▪
• * 1.194

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.195

  The Ro|mans 〈◊〉〈◊〉 M••••cherus to the Jews▪
• * 1.196

  A 〈…〉〈…〉 Jews 〈…〉〈…〉▪
• * 1.197

  The occa|sion of the tumult.
• * 1.198

  Tiberius endeavours to quiet it.
• * 1.199

  I•• treated with insult by the se|ditious.
• * 1.200

  Has re|course to the mili|tary power.
• * 1.201

  The Jews are scat|tered.
• * 1.202

  50••000 slain on the spot.
• * 1.203

  Cestius marches with a great army against the Jews.
• * 1.204

  Is joined by numbers in his way▪
• * 1.205

  〈◊〉〈◊〉 deserted, plundered, & burn••.
• * 1.206

  Two thou|sand Sy|rians cut off by the Jews.
• * 1.207

  Joppa de|stroyed, & the inha|bitants cut off.
• * 1.208

  Cesennius Gallus commands under Ces|tius in Galilee.
• * 1.209

  Gallus moves to Cesarea▪ Cestius to Antipatris.
• * 1.210

  Cestius en|camps 50 furlongs from Jeru|salem.
• * 1.211

  The Jews make a furious sally on the sabbath day.
• * 1.212

  The Jews press hard upon the Romans.
• * 1.213

  Agrippa sends am|bassador to the Jews ••o treat of an alliance with the Romans.
• * 1.214

  They are roughly 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉〈◊〉
• * 1.215

  The Jews pursued to the walls of Jerusa|lem.
• * 1.216

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.217

  The gates 〈…〉〈…〉 be opened to him.
• * 1.218

  The Jews 〈…〉〈…〉
• * 1.219

  The 〈…〉〈…〉.
• * 1.220

  Cest••us acts imp••u|dently in not prose|cuting the siege.
• * 1.221

  Raises the siege with|out a just cause.
• * 1.222

  〈1 paragraph〉〈1 paragraph〉
• * 1.223

  Cestius in a great 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.224

  The longer the R••|mans ••re in 〈◊〉〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉〈◊〉
• * 1.225

  Cestius ••••••trives 〈…〉〈…〉
• * 1.226

  The most eminent Jews be|take them|selves to Cestius.
• * 1.227

  Cestius sends de|puties to Nero.
• * 1.228

  Ten thou|sand Jews massacred in one day at Damas|cus.
• * 1.229

  The Jews appoint rulers over the city.
• * 1.230

  Eleazar acquires popularity.
• * 1.231

  Governors are sent in|to Idumaea and other parts.
• * 1.232

  Josephus, the histo|rian, made governor of both the Galilees, &c
• * 1.233

  He endea|vours to acquire popularity.
• * 1.234

  His plan of policy.
• * 1.235

  He insti|tutes a council of seventy.
• * 1.236

  Provides for the se|curity of the cities of Galilee.
• * 1.237

  Furnishes the Galile|ans with arms.
• * 1.238

  Adopts the Roman mi|litary dis|cipline.
• * 1.239

  Excellen•• instruction both 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and moral.
• * 1.240

  The 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Jose|phus.
• * 1.241

  John 〈…〉〈…〉
• * 1.242

  He 〈…〉〈…〉 the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Jose|phus.
• * 1.243

  His cun|ning in getting money.
• * 1.244

  Endeavours to infl••me the people against Jo|sephus.
• * 1.245

  An act of honour and justice.
• * 1.246

  Great num|ber•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 again••t Jo|sephus.
• * 1.247

  He i•• de|••er••ed by all but four persons.
• * 1.248

  Speech of Josephus to the seditious Jews.
• * 1.249

  Different effects of the speech.
• * 1.250

  Josephus brings himself off by a stratagem.
• * 1.251

  John frames a new plot against Josephus.
• * 1.252

  Josephus goes to Ti|berias.
• * 1.253

  Josephus set upon, & narrow|ly escapes.
• * 1.254

  His mode|ration.
• * 1.255

  The Gali|leans flock to Josephus.
• * 1.256

  He propo|ses term•• of accom|modation.
• * 1.257

  They are accepted.
• * 1.258

  John has recourse to private plots.
• * 1.259

  Four cities of Galilee revolt from Josephus.
• * 1.260

  Tiberias •• again re|volts ••••om Josephus.
• * 1.261

  Reco••••••d by a stra|ta••em.
• * 1.262

  The inha|bitants of 〈…〉〈…〉 Josephus.
• * 1.263

  Clytus ac|cused as the author of the revolt.
• * 1.264

  Resolution o•• Clytus.
• * 1.265

  The Jews prepare for war.
• * 1.266

  Ravages of Simon, the son of Gioras.