 Book II. Containing the Interval of sixty-nine years. From the death of Herod till Vespasian was sent to subdue the Jews by Nero. CHAPTER I. Arcalus makes a funeral feast for the people, on the account of Herod, after which a great tumult is raised by the multitude, and he sends the soldiers out upon them who destroy about three thousand of them. Now the necessity which Arcalus was under of taking a journey to Rome was the occasion of new disturbances, for when he had mourned for his father seven days—footnote. Here Dean Aldrich's note on this place, the law or custom of the Jews, says he, requires seven days mourning for the dead. Whence the author of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, chapter 22, verse 12, assigns seven days as the proper time of mourning for the dead, and, chapter 38, verse 17, enjoins men to mourn for the dead, that they may not be evil spoken of. For, as Josephus says presently, if anyone omits this mourning, funeral feast, he is not esteemed a holy person. How it is certain that such a seven days mourning has been customary from times of the greatest antiquity, Genesis 1.10, funeral feasts are also mentioned as of considerable antiquity, Ezekiel 24.17, Jeremiah 16.7, pray 31.6, Deuteronomy 26.14, Josephus of the war. End. Footnote. And had given a very expensive funeral feast to the multitude, which custom is the occasion of poverty to many of the Jews, because they are forced to feast the multitude, for if anyone omits it he is not esteemed a holy person. He put on a white garment and went up to the temple, where the people accosted him with various acclamations. He also spake kindly to the multitude from an elevated seat and a throne of gold, and returned them thanks for the zeal they had shown about his father's funeral, and the submission they had made to him as if he were already settled in the kingdom. But he told him with all that he would not at present take upon him either the authority of a king or the names there too belonging, until Caesar, who is made lord of this whole affair by the testament, confirms the secession, for that when the soldiers would have set the diadem on his head at Jericho he would not accept of it, but that he would make abundant requittals not to the soldiers only, but to the people, for their alacrity and goodwill to him, when the superior lords, the Romans, should have given him a complete title to the kingdom, for that it should be his study to appear in all things better than his father. Upon this the multitude were pleased, and presently made a trial of what he intended, by asking great things of him, for some made a clamor that he would ease them in their taxes, others that he would take off the duties upon commodities, and some that he would lose those that were in prison, in all which cases he answered readily to their satisfaction in order to get the goodwill of the multitude, after which he offered the proper sacrifices and feasted with his friends. And here it was that a great many of those that desired innovations came in crowds toward the evening, and began to mourn on their own account, when the public mourning for the king was over. These lamented those that were put to death by Herod, because they had cut down the golden eagle that had been over the gate of the temple. Nor was this mourning of a private nature, but the lamentations were very great. The mourning, solemn, the weeping such as was loudly heard over the city, as being for those men who had perished for the laws of their country and for the temple. They cried out that a punishment ought to be inflicted for those men upon those that were honored by Herod, and that in the first place the man whom he had made high priests should be deprived, and that it was fit to choose a person of greater piety and purity than he was. At these clamors Arkelas was provoked, but restrained himself from taking vengeance on the authors on account of the haste he was in in going to Rome, as fearing lest upon his making war on the multitude such an action might detain him at home. Accordingly he made trial to quiet the innovators by persuasion rather than by force, and sent his general in a private way to them, and by him extorted them to be quiet. But the seditious threw stones at him and drove him away as he came into the temple, and before he could say anything to them. The light treatment they showed to others, who came to them after him, many of which were sent by Arkelas in order to reduce them to sobriety, and these answered still on all occasions after a passionate manner, and it openly appeared that they would not be quiet if their numbers were but considerable. And indeed at the feast of unleavened bread, which was now at hand, and is by the Jews called the Passover, and used to he celebrated with a great number of sacrifices and innumerable multitude of the people came out of the country to worship. Some of these stood in the temple bewailing the rabbins that had been put to death, and procured their sustenance by begging in order to support their sedition. At this Arkelas was affrighted and privately sent a tribune with his cohort of soldiers upon them, before the disease should spread over the whole multitude, and gave orders that they should constrain those that began the tumult by force to be quiet. But these the whole multitude were irritated and threw stones at many of the soldiers and killed them, but the tribune fled away wounded and had much adieu to escape so. After which they betook themselves to their sacrifices as if they had done no mischief, nor did it appear to Arkelas that the multitude could be restrained without bloodshed, so he sent his whole army upon them, the footmen in great multitudes by way of the city, and the horsemen by way of the plain, who falling upon them on the sudden, as they were offering their sacrifices, destroyed about three thousand of them. But the rest of the multitude were dispersed upon the adjoining mountains. These were followed by Arkelas's heralds, who commanded every one to retire to their own homes, whither they all went and left the festival. CHAPTER II Arkelas goes to Rome with a great number of his kindred. He is there accused before Caesar by Antipater, but is superior to his accusers in judgment by the means of that defense which Nicholas made for him. Arkelas went down now to the seaside, with his mother and his friends, Poplas and Ptolemy and Nicholas, and left behind him Philip, to be his steward in the palace, and to take care of his domestic affairs. Salome went also along with him with her sons, as did also the king's brethren and sons-in-law. These in appearance went to give him all the assistance they were able, in order to secure his succession, but in reality to accuse him for his breach of the laws by what he had done at the temple. But as they were coming to Caesarea, Sabinas, the procurator of Syria, met them. He was going up to Judea to secure Herod's effects, but Varus, president of Syria, who was come thither, restrained him from going any farther. This Varus Arkelas had sent for by the earnest entreaty of Ptolemy. But this time indeed, Sabinas, to gratify Varus, neither went to the citadels, nor did he shut up the treasuries where his father's money was laid up, but promised that he would lie still, until Caesar should have taken cognizance of the affair. So he abode at Caesarea, but as soon as those that were his hindrance were gone, when Varus was gone to Antioch, and Arkelas was sailed to Rome, he immediately went on to Jerusalem, and seized upon the palace. And when he had called for the governors of the citadels and the stewards of the king's private affairs, he tried to sift out the accounts of the money and to take possession of the citadels. But the governors of those citadels were not unmindful of the commands laid upon them by Arkelas, and continued to guard them, and said the custody of them rather belonged to Caesar than to Arkelas. In the meantime Antipas went also to Rome to strive for the kingdom, and to insist that the former testament, wherein he was named to be king, was valid before the latter testament. Salome had also promised to assist him, as had many of Arkelas's kindred, who sailed along with Arkelas himself also. He also carried along with him his mother, Antolome, the brother of Nicholas, who seemed one of great weight, on account of the great trust Herod put in him, he having been one of his most honoured friends. However, Antipas depended chiefly upon Arrenaeus, the orator, upon whose authority he had rejected such as advised him to yield to Arkelas, because he was his elder brother, and because the second testament gave the kingdom to him. The inclinations also of all Arkelas's kindred, who hated him, were removed to Antipas, when they came to Rome, although in the first place everyone rather desired to live under their own laws, without a king, and to be under a Roman governor. But if they should fail in that point, these desired that Antipas might be their king. Sabinas did also afford these his assistance to the same purpose by letters he sent, wherein he accused Arkelas before Caesar, and highly commended Antipas. Salome also, and those with her, put the crimes which they accused Arkelas of in order, and put them into Caesar's hands, and after they had done that, Arkelas wrote down the reasons of his claim, and by Ptolemy sent in his father's ring and his father's accounts. And when Caesar had maturely weighed by himself what both had to allege for themselves, as also had considered of the great burden of the kingdom, and largeness of the revenues, and with all the number of the children Herod had left behind him, and had moreover read the letters he had received from Varus and Sabinas on this occasion, he assembled the principal persons among the Romans together, in which assembly Chaius, the son of Agrippa, and his daughter Julius, but by himself adopted for his own son, sat in the first seat, and gave the pleaders leave to speak. Then stood up Salome's son, Antipater, who of all Arkelas's antagonists was the shrewdest pleader, and accused him in the following speech. That Arkelas did in words contend for the kingdom, but that indeed he had long exercised royal authority, and so did but insult Caesar in desiring now to be heard on that account, since he had not stayed for his determination about the succession, and since he had suborned certain persons, after Herod's death, to move for putting the diadem upon his head, since he had set himself down in the throne, and given answers as a king, and altered the disposition of the army, and granted to some higher dignities, that he had also complied in all things with the people in the request they had made to him as to their king, and had also dismissed those that had been put into bonds by his father for most important reasons. Now, after all this, he desires the shadow of that royal authority, whose substance he had already seized to himself, and so hath made Caesar lord, not of things, but of words. He also reproached him further, that his mourning for his father was only pretended, while he put on a sad countenance in the daytime, but drank to great excess in the night, from which behavior, he said, the late disturbance among the multitude came, while they had an indignation thereat. And indeed the purport of his whole discourse was to aggravate Arklis's crime in slaying such a multitude about the temple, which multitude came to the festival, but were barbarously slain in the midst of their own sacrifices, and he said there was such a vast number of dead bodies heaped together in the temple, as even a foreign war, that should come upon them suddenly, before it was denounced, could not have heaped together. And he added that it was the foresight his father had of that his barbarity, which made him never give him any hopes of the kingdom, but when his mind was more infirm than his body, and he was not able to reason soundly, and did not well know what was the character of that son, whom in his Second Testament he had made his successor, and this was done by him at a time when he had no complaints to make of him, whom he had named before, when he was sound in body, and when his mind was free from all passion. That, however, if any one should suppose Herod's judgment, when he was sick, was superior to that at another time, yet had Arklis forfeited his kingdom by his own behavior, and those actions which were contrary to the law, and to its disadvantage. Or what sort of a king will this man be, when he hath obtained the government from Caesar, who hath slain so many before he hath obtained it? When Antipater had spoken largely to this purpose, and had produced a great number of Arklis's kindred as witnesses, to prove every part of the accusation he ended his discourse. Then stood up Nicholas to plead for Arklis. He alleged that the slaughter in the temple could not be avoided, that those that were slain were become enemies not to Arklis's kingdom only, but to Caesar, who was to determine about him. He also demonstrated that Arklis's accusers had advised him to perpetrate other things, of which he might have been accused. But he insisted that the latter testament should, for this reason, above all others, be esteemed valid, because Herod had therein appointed Caesar to be the person who should confirm the succession. For he who showed such prudence as to recede from his own power, and yielded up to the Lord of the world, cannot be supposed mistaken in his judgment about him that was to be his heir, and he that so well knew whom to choose for an arbitrator of the succession could not be unacquainted with him whom he chose for his successor. When Nicholas had gone through all he had to say, Arklis came and fell down before Caesar's knees without any noise, upon which he raised him up, after a very obliging manner, and declared that truly he was worthy to succeed his father. However, he still made no firm determination in his case, but when he had dismissed those assessors that had been with him that day, he deliberated by himself about the allegations which he had heard, whether it were fit to constitute any of those named in the testaments for Herod's successor, or whether the government should be parted among all his posterity, and this because of the number of those that seemed to stand in need of support therefrom. CHAPTER III The Jews fight a great battle with Sabinas's soldiers, and a great destruction is made at Jerusalem. Now before Caesar had determined anything about these affairs, Malthace, Arklis's mother, fell sick and died. Letters also were brought out of Syria from Varys about a revolt of the Jews. This was foreseen by Varys, who accordingly, after Arklis was sailed, went up to Jerusalem to restrain the promoters of the sedition, since it was manifest that the nation would not be at rest. So he left one of those legions which he brought with him out of Syria in the city, and went himself to Antioch. But Sabinas came after he was gone, and gave them an occasion of making innovations, for he compelled the keepers of the citadels to deliver them up to him, and made a bitter search after the king's money, as depending not only on the soldiers which were left by Varys, but on the multitude of his own servants, all which he armed and used as the instruments of his covetousness. Now when that feast, which was observed after seven weeks, and which the Jews called Pentecost, i.e. the fiftieth day, was at hand, its name being taken from the number of the days after the Passover, the people got together, but not on account of the accustomed divine worship, but of the indignation they had at the present state of affairs. Wherefore an immense multitude ran together, out of Galilee and Idumia and Jericho and Peria, that was beyond Jordan, but the people that naturally belonged to Judea itself were above the rest, both in number and in the alacrity of the men. So they distributed themselves into three parts, and pitched their camps in three places, one at the north side of the temple, another at the south side by the hippodrome, and the third part were at the palace on the west. So they lay round about the Romans on every side and besieged them. Now Sabinas was affrighted, both at their multitude and at their courage, and sent messengers to Varus continually, and besought him to come to his sucker quickly, for that if he delayed his legion would be cut to pieces. As for Sabinas himself, he got up to the highest tower of the fortress, which was called Fiscellus. It is of the same name with Herod's brother, who was destroyed by the Parthians. And then he made signs to the soldiers of that legion to attack the enemy, for his astonishment was so great that he durst not go down to his own men. Hereupon the soldiers were prevailed upon, and leaped out into the temple, and fought a terrible battle with the Jews, in which, while there were none over their heads to distress them, they were too hard for them, by their skill, and the others want of skill in war. But when once many of the Jews had gotten up to the top of the cloisters, and threw their darts downwards upon the heads of the Romans, there were a great many of them destroyed. Nor was it easy to avenge themselves upon those that threw their weapons from on high. Nor was it more easy for them to sustain those who came to fight them hand to hand. Since therefore the Romans were sorely afflicted in both these circumstances they set fire to the cloisters, which were works to be admired, both on account of their magnitude and costliness. Whereupon those that were above them were presently encompassed with the flame, and many of them perished therein, as many of them also were destroyed by the enemy, who came suddenly upon them. Some of them also threw themselves down from the walls backward, and some there were, who, from the desperate condition they were in, prevented the fire by killing themselves with their own swords. But so many of them as crept out from the walls, and came upon the Romans, were easily mastered by them, in reason of the astonishment they were under, until at last some of the Jews being destroyed, and others dispersed by the terror they were in, the soldiers fell upon the treasure of God, which was now deserted, and plundered about four hundred talents, of which some Sabines got together all that was not carried away by the soldiers. However, this destruction of the works about the temple and of the men occasioned a much greater number, and those of a more warlike sort, to get together to oppose the Romans. These encompassed the palace round, and threatened to deploy all that were in it, unless they went their ways quickly, for they promised that Sabines should come to no harm if he would go out with his legion. There were also a great many of the king's party who deserted the Romans, and assisted the Jews, yet did the most warlike body of them all, who were three thousand of the men of Sebasta, go over to the Romans. Rufus also, and grottas their captains, did the same, grottas having the foot of the king's party under him, and Rufus the horse, each of whom, even without the forces under them, were of great weight, on account of their strength and wisdom, which turned the scales in war. Now the Jews in the siege, and tried to break down the walls of the forest, and cried out to Sabines and his party, that they should go their ways, and not prove a hindrance to them, now they hope after a long time to recover that ancient liberty which their forefathers had enjoined. Sabines indeed was well contented to get out of the danger he was in, but he distrusted the assurances the Jews gave him, and suspected such gentle treatment was but a bait laid as a snare for them. This consideration, together with the hopes he had of sucker from Varus, made him bear the siege still longer. CHAPTER IV. Herod's veteran soldiers become tumultuous. The robberies of Judas, Simon and Athronoas take the name of king upon them. At this time there were great disturbances in the country, and that in many places, and the opportunity that now offered itself induced a great many to set up for kings. And indeed in Idumia two thousand of Herod's veteran soldiers got together, and armed and fought against those of the king's party, against whom Akhiabas, the king's first cousin, fought, and that out of some of the places that were the most strongly fortified, but so as to avoid a direct conflict with them in the plains. In Sephora's also, a city of Galilee, there was one Judas, the son of that arch-robber Hezekaius, who formerly overran the country, and had been subdued by king Herod. This man got no small multitude together, and break open the palace where the royal armor was laid up, and armed those about him, and attacked those that were so earnest to gain the dominion. In Perea also, Simon, one of the servants to the king, relying upon the handsome appearance and tallness of his body, put a diadem upon his own head also. He also went about with a company of robbers that he had gotten together, and burnt down the royal palace that was at Jericho, and many other costly edifices besides, and procured himself very easily spoils by rapine, as snatching them out of the fire. And he had soon burnt down all the fine edifices, if Grotus, the captain of the foot of the king's party, had not taken the Trachonite archers, and the most warlike of Sabasta, and met the man. His footmen were slain in the battle in abundance. Grotus also cut to pieces Simon himself, as he was flying along a straight valley, when he gave him an oblique stroke upon his neck, as he ran away and break it. The royal palaces that were near Jordan at Betheramptha were also burnt down by some other of the seditious that came out of Paria. At this time it was that a certain shepherd ventured to set himself up for a king. He was called a throngias. It was his strength of body that made him expect such a dignity, as well as his soul, which despised death, and besides these qualifications he had four brethren like himself. He put a troop of armed men under each of these his brethren, and made use of them as his generals and commanders, when he made his incursions, while he did himself act like a king, and meddled only with the more important affairs. And at this time he put a diadem about his head, and continued after that to overrun the country, for no little time with his brethren, and became their leader in killing both the Romans and those of the king's party, nor did any Jew escape him if any could accrue to him thereby. He once ventured to encompass a whole troop of Romans at Emmaus, who were carrying corn and weapons to their legion. His men therefore shot their arrows and darts, and thereby slew their centurion Arius and forty of the stoutest of his men, while the rest of them, who were in danger of the same fate upon the coming of Gratus, with those of Sebasta to their assistance, escaped. And when these men had served both their own countrymen and foreigners, and that through this whole year three of them were, after some time, subdued. The eldest by Arkelis, the two next by falling into the hands of Gratus and Ptolemaus, but the fourth delivered himself up to Arkelis, upon his giving him his right hand for his security. However, this their end was not till afterward, while at present they filled all Judea with a piratic war. CHAPTER V. Varus composes the tumults in Judea, and crucifies about two thousand of the seditious. On Varus' reception of the letters that were written by Sabines and the captains, he could not avoid being afraid for the whole legion he had left there. So he made haste to their relief, and took with him the other two legions, with the four troops of horsemen to them belonging, and marched to Ptolemaus, having given orders for the auxiliaries that were sent by the kings and governors of cities to meet him there. Moreover, he received from the people of Baritus, as he passed through their city, fifteen hundred armed men. Now as soon as the other body of auxiliaries were come to Ptolemaus, as well as Aretas the Arabian, who out of the hatred he bore to Herod brought a great army of horse and foot, Varus sent apart of his army presently to Galilee, which lay near to Ptolemaus, and Chaius, one of his friends for their captain. This Chaius put those that met him to flight, and took the city Sephorus and burnt it, and made slaves of its inhabitants. But as for Varus himself, he marched to Samaria with his whole army, where he did not meddle with the city itself, because he found that it had made no commotion during these troubles, but pitched his camp about a certain village which was called Aretas. It belonged to Ptolemaus, and on that account was plundered by the Arabians, who were very angry even at Herod's friends also. He then smarged on to the village Sanfo, another fortified place which they plundered, as they had done the other. As they carried off all the money they lighted upon belonging to the public revenues, all was now full of fire and bloodshed, and nothing could resist the plunders of the Arabians. Amos was also burnt, upon the flight of its inhabitants, and this at the command of Varus, out of his rage at the slaughter of those that were about Aretas. Thence he marched on to Jerusalem, and as soon as he was but seen by the Jews, he made their camps disperse themselves. They also went away and fled up and down the country. But the citizens received him, and cleared themselves of having any hand in this revolt, and said that they had raised no commotions, but had only been forced to admit the multitude because of the festival, and that they were rather besieged together with the Romans than assisted those that had revolted. There had before this met him Joseph, the first cousin of Arkelas, and Gratis, together with Rufus, who led those of Sebasta, as well as the king's army. There also met him those of the Roman legion, armed after their accustomed manner, for as to Sabinas he durst not come into Varus's sight, but was gone out of the city before this to the seaside. But Varus sent a party of his army into the country, against those that had been the authors of this commotion, and as they caught great numbers of them, those that appeared to have been the least concerned in these tumults he put into custody, but such as were the most guilty he crucified, these were in number about two thousand. He was also informed that there continued in Idumia ten thousand men still in arms, but when he found that the Arabians did not act like exiliaries, but managed the war according to their own passions, and did mischief the country, otherwise than he intended, and this out of their hatred to Herod, he sent them away, but made haste with his own legions to march against those that had revolted. But these, by the advice of Acabas, delivered themselves up to him before it came to a battle. Then did Varus forgive them altitude their offences, but sent their captains to Caesar to be examined by them. Now Caesar forgave the rest, but gave orders that certain of the king's relations, for some of those that were among them were Herod's kinsmen, should be put to death, because they had engaged in a war against a king of their own family. When therefore Varus had settled matters at Jerusalem after this manner, and had left the former legion there as a garrison, he returned to Antioch. CHAPTER VI. The Jews greatly complain of archiless and desire that they may be made subject to Roman governors. But when Caesar had heard what they had to say, he distributed Herod's dominions among his sons, according to his own pleasure. But now came another accusation from the Jews against archiless at Rome, which he was to answer to. It was made by those ambassadors who, before the revolt, had come, by Varus's permission, to plead for the liberty of their country. Those that came were fifty in number, but there were more than eight thousand of the Jews at Rome who supported them. And when Caesar had assembled a council of the principal Romans in Apollo's temple that was in the palace, this was what he had himself built and adorned at a vast expense. This holding a council in the temple of Apollo, in the emperor's palace at Rome by Augustus, and even the building of this temple magnificently by himself in that palace, are exactly agreeable to Augustus in his elder years, as Aldrich and from Seutonius and Propertius. The multitude of the Jews stood with the ambassadors, and on the other side stood archiless with his friends. But as for the kindred of archiless, they stood on neither side, for to stand on archiless's side, their hatred to him and envy at him would not give them leave, while yet they were afraid to be seen by Caesar with his accusers. Besides these, there were present archiless's brother Philip, being sent there beforehand out of kindness by Varus for two reasons. The one was this, that he might be assisting to archiless, and the other was this, that in case Caesar should make a distribution of what Herod possessed among his posterity, he might obtain some share of it. And now, upon the permission that was given the accusers to speak, they in the first place went over Herod's breaches of their law, and said that he was not a king, but the most barbarous of all tyrants, and that they had found him to be such by the sufferings they underwent from him. That when a very great number had been slain by him, those that were left had endured such miseries as they called those that were dead happy men. That he had not only tortured the bodies of his subjects, but entire cities, and had done much harm to the cities of his own country, while he adorned those that belonged to foreigners, and he shed the blood of Jews in order to do kindnesses to those people that were out of their bounds. That he had filled the nation full of poverty, and of the greatest iniquity, instead of that happiness and those laws which they had anciently enjoyed. That in short, the Jews had borne more calamities from Herod in a few years, than had their forefathers during all that interval of time that had passed since they had come out of Babylon, and returned home in the reign of Xerxes—footnote, here we have a strong confirmation that it was Xerxes, and not our taxerces, under whom the main part of the Jews returned out of the Babylonian captivity, i.e. in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. The same thing is in the antiquities. That, however, the nation was come to so low a condition, by being enured to hardships, that they submitted to his successor of their own accord, though he brought them into bitter slavery, that accordingly they readily called Arkelas, though he was the son of so great a tyrant, king, after the decease of his father, and joined with him in mourning for the death of Herod, and wishing him good success in that his succession, while yet this Arkelas, lest he should be in danger of not being thought the genuine son of Herod, began his reign with the murder of three thousand citizens, as if he had a mind to offer so many bloody sacrifices to God for his government, and to fill the temple with the like number of dead bodies at that festival, that, however, those that were left after so many miseries, had just reason to consider now, at last, the calamities they had undergone, and to oppose themselves, like soldiers in war, to receive those stripes upon their faces, but not upon their backs as hitherto. Whereupon they prayed that the Romans would have compassion upon the poor remains of Judea, and not expose what was left to them to such as barbarously tore them to pieces, and that they would join their country to Syria, and administer the government by their own commanders, whereby it would soon be demonstrated that those who are now under the collumny of seditious persons, and lovers of war, know how to bear governors that are set over them, if they be but tolerable ones. So the Jews concluded their accusations with this request. Then rose up Nicholas, and confuted the accusations which were brought against the kings, and himself accused the Jewish nation as hard to be ruled, and as naturally disobedient to kings. He also reproached all those kinsmen of Arkelis who had left him, and were gone over to his accusers. So Caesar, after he had heard both sides, dissolved the assembly for that time. But a few days afterward he gave the one half of Herod's kingdom to Arkelis, by the name of Ethnarch, and promised to make him king also afterward, if he rendered himself worthy of that dignity. But as to the other half, he divided it into two tetrarchies, and gave them to two other sons of Herod, the one of them to Philip, and the other to that Antipas who contested the kingdom with Arkelis. Under this last was Peria and Galilee, with a revenue of two hundred talents. But Batania, and Trachonitis, and Aronitis, and certain parts of Zeno's house about Jamnia, with a revenue of a hundred talents, were made subject to Philip. While Ejumia, and Al Judea, and Samaria were parts of the ethnarchy of Arkelis, although Samaria was eased of one quarter of its taxes, out of regard to their not having revolted with the rest of the nation. He also made subject to him the following cities, Viz, Stratos Tower, and Sebasta, and Joppa, and Jerusalem, but as to the Grecian cities, Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, he cut them off from the kingdom and added them to Syria. Now the revenue of the country that was given to Arkelis was four hundred talents. Salome, also, besides what the king had left her in his testaments, was now made mistress of Jamnia, and Ashtad, and Fasalis. Caesar did, moreover, bestow upon her the royal palace of Ascalon, by all which she got together a revenue of sixty talents, but he put her house under the ethnarchy of Arkelis. And for the rest of Herod's offspring they received what was bequeathed to them in his testaments. But besides that, Caesar granted to Herod's two virgin daughters five hundred thousand drachma of silver, and gave them in marriage to the sons of Feroz. But after this family distribution he gave between them what had been bequeathed to him by Herod, which was a thousand talents, bringing to himself only some inconsiderable presence in honour of the deceased. CHAPTER VII The history of the spurious Alexander. Arkelis is banished and Glafira dies after what was to happen to both of them had been showed them in their dreams. In the meantime there was a man, who was by birth a Jew, but brought up at Sidon with one of the Roman freedmen, who falsely pretended on account of the resemblance of their countenances, that he was that Alexander who was slain by Herod. This man came to Rome in hopes of not being detected. He had one who was his assistant of his own nation and who knew all the affairs of the kingdom, and instructed him how to say those that were sent to kill him and Arista bullies had pity upon them and stole them away by putting bodies that were like theirs in their places. This man deceived the Jews that were at Crete and got a great deal of money of them for travelling in splendour, and thence sailed to Melos, where he was thought so certainly genuine that he got a great deal more money and prevailed with those that had treated him to sail along with him to Rome. So he landed at Dysarkia, Putioli, and got very large presence from the Jews who dwelt there, and was conducted by his father's friends as if he were a king. Nay, the resemblance in his countenance procured him so much credit that those who had seen Alexander and had known him very well would take their oaths that he was the very same person. Accordingly the whole body of the Jews that were in Rome ran out in crowds to see him, and in innumerable multitude there was which stood in the narrow places through which he was carried, for those of Melos were so far distracted that they carried him in a sedan and maintained a royal attendance for him at their own proper charges. But Caesar, who knew perfectly well the liniments of Alexander's face, because he had been accused by Herod before him, discerned the fallacy in his countenance, even before he saw the man. However, he suffered the agreeable fame that went of him to have some weight with him, and sent Celytus, one who well knew Alexander, and ordered him to bring the young man to him. But when Caesar saw him, he immediately discerned a difference in his countenance, and when he had discovered that his whole body was of a more robust texture, and like that of a slave, he understood the whole was a contrivance. But the impudence of what he said greatly provoked him to be angry at him, for when he was asked about Aristobulus he said that he was also preserved alive, and was left on purpose in Cyprus, for fear of treachery, because it would be harder for plotters to get them both into their power while they were separate. Then did Caesar take him by himself privately and said to him, I will give thee thy life if thou wilt discover who it was that persuaded thee to forge such stories. So he said that he would discover him, and followed Caesar, and pointed to that Jew who had abused the resemblance of his face to get money, for that he had received more presence in every city than ever Alexander did when he was alive. Caesar laughed at the contrivance, and put this spurious Alexander among his rowers on account of the strength of his body, but ordered him that persuaded him to be put to death. But for the people of Melos they had been sufficiently punished for their folly by the expenses that they had been on his account. And now Arkelas took possession of his ethnarchy, and used not the Jews only, but the Samaritans also, barbarously, and this out of his resentment of their old quarrels with him. Whereupon they both of them sent ambassadors against him to Caesar, and in the ninth year of his government he was banished to Vienna, a city of Gaul, and his effects were put into Caesar's treasury. But the report goes that before he was sent for by Caesar he seemed to see nine ears of corn, full and large, but devoured by oxen. When therefore he had sent for the Diviners and some of the Chaldeans, and inquired of them what they thought it pretended, and when one of them had one interpretation and another had another, Simon, one of the sect of Issyns, said that he thought the ears of corn denoted years, and the oxen denoted a mutation of things, because by their plowing they made an alteration of the country. That therefore he should reign as many years as there were ears of corn, and after he had passed their various alterations of fortune should die. Now five days after Arkelas had heard this interpretation he was called to his trial. I cannot also but think it would be worthy to be recorded what dream Glyphira, the daughter of Arkelas, King of Cappadocia had, who had at first been wife to Alexander, who was the brother of Arkelas, concerning whom we have been discoursing. This Alexander was the son of Herod the King, by whom he was put to death, as we have already related. This Glyphira was married after his death to Juba, King of Libya, and after his death was returned home, and lived like a widow with her father. Then it was that Arkelas the ethnarch saw her, and fell so deeply in love with her that he divorced Maryamne, who was then his wife, and married her. When therefore she was coming to Judea, and had been there for a little while, she thought she saw Alexander stand by her, and that he said to her, Thy marriage with the King of Libya might have been sufficient for thee. But thou was not contented with him, but art returned again to my family, to a third husband, and him, thou impudent woman, hast thou chosen for thine husband, who is my brother? However I shall not overlook the injury thou hast offered me. I shall soon have thee again, whether thou wilt or know. Now Glyphira hardly survived the narration of the stream of hers two days. End of Book 2, chapters 6 and 7. Book 2, chapters 8 and 9 of the Wars of the Jews. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Recording by Andrew Coleman. The Wars of the Jews by Josephus. Translated by William Weston. Book 2, chapters 8 and 9. Chapter 8. Archelaus' ethnarchy is reduced into a Roman province. The sedition of Judas of Galilee. The three sects. And now Archelaus' part of Judea was reduced into a province. And Caponius, one of the equestrian order among the Romans, was sent as a procurator, having the power of life and death put into his hands by Caesar. Under his administration it was that a certain Galilean, whose name was Judas, prevailed with his countrymen to revolt, and said they were cowards if they would endure to pay a tax to the Romans, and would, after God, submit to mortal men as their lords. This man was a teacher of a peculiar sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of those their leaders. For there were three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers of the first, of which are the Pharisees. Of the second, the Sadducees. And the third sect, which pretends to a severe discipline, are called ascents. These last are Jews by birth, and seem to have a greater affection for one another than the other sects have. These ascents reject pleasures as an evil, but esteem continents, and the conquest over our passions to be virtue. They neglect wedlock, but choose out other person's children, while they are pliable, and fit for learning, and esteem them to be of their kindred, and form them according to their own manners. They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage, and the succession of mankind thereby continued, but they guard against the lascivious behavior of women, and are persuaded that none of them preserve their fidelity to one man. These men are despisers of riches, and so very communicative, as raises our admiration. Nor is there any one to be found among them who have more than another. For it is allure among them, that those who come to them must let what they have to be common to the whole order, in so much that among them all there is no appearance of poverty, or excess of riches, but everyone's possessions are intermingled with every other's possessions. And so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the brethren. They think that oil is a defilement, and if any one of them be anointed without his own approbation, it is wiped off his body, for they think to be sweaty is a good thing, as they do also to be clothed in white garments. They also have stewards appointed to take care of their common affairs, for every one of them have no separate business for any, but what is for the uses of them all? They have no one certain city, but many of them dwell in every city, and if any of their sect come from other places, what they have lies open for them, just as if it were their own, and they go into such as they never knew before, as if they had been ever so long acquainted with them. For which reason they carry nothing at all with them when they travel into remote parts, though still they take their weapons with them for fear of thieves. Accordingly, there is, in every city where they live, one appointed particularly to take care of strangers, and to provide garments and other necessaries for them. But the habit and management of their bodies is such as children use, or in fear of their masters. Nor do they allow of the change of garments or of shoes, till they be first torn to pieces or worn out by time. Nor do they either buy or sell anything to one another, but every one of them gives what he has to him that wanted it, and receives from him again in lieu of it what may be convenient for himself. And although there be no requital made, they are fully allowed to take what they want of whomsoever they please. And as for their piety towards God, it is very extraordinary, for before sun rising they speak not a word about profane matters, but put up certain prayers which they have received from their forefathers, as if they made a supplication for its rising. After this, every one of them are sent away by their curators to exercise some of those arts wherein they are skilled, in which they labour with great diligence till the fifth hour. After which they assemble themselves together again into one place, and when they have clothed themselves in white veils, they then bathe their bodies in cold water. And after this purification is over, they every one meet together in an apartment of their own, into which it is not permitted to any of another sect to enter. While they go, after a pure manner, into the dining-room, as into a certain holy temple, and quietly set themselves down, upon which the baker lays them loaves in order. The cook also brings a single plate of one sort of food, and sets it before every one of them. But a priest says grace before meat, and it is unlawful for any one to taste of the food before grace be said. The same priest, when he hath dined, says grace again after meat. And when they begin and when they end, they praise God as he that bestows their food upon them. After which they lay aside their white garments, and but take themselves to their labours again till the evening. Then they return home to supper, after the same manner. And if there be any strangers there, they sit down with them. Nor is there ever any clamour or disturbance to pollute their house, but they give every one leave to speak in their turn, which silence thus kept in their house appears to foreigners like some tremendous mystery, the cause of which is that perpetual sobriety they exercise, and the same settled measure of meat and drink that is allotted them, and that such as is abundantly sufficient for them. And truly, as for other things, they do nothing but according to the injunctions of their curators. Only these two things are done among them at every one's own free will, which are to assist those that want it, and to show mercy. For they are permitted of their own accord to afford succour to such as deserve it when they stand in need of it, and to bestow food on those that are in distress, but they cannot give anything to their kindred without the curators. They dispense their anger after a just manner and restrain their passion. They are eminent for fidelity and are the ministers of peace. Whatsoever they say also is firmer than an oath, but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem it worse than perjury, or they say that he who cannot be believed without swearing by God is already condemned. Footnote. This practice of the ascents, in refusing to swear and esteeming swearing in ordinary occasions worse than perjury, is delivered here in general words as are the parallel injunctions of our Saviour, Matthew 6, verse 34, 23, verse 16, and of St. James, 5, verse 12. But all admit of particular exceptions for solemn causes and on great and necessary occasions. Thus these various ascents who here do so zealously avoid swearing are related in the very next section to admit none till they take tremendous oaths to perform their several duties to God and to their neighbour without supposing they thereby break this rule not to swear at all. The case is the same in Christianity as we learn from the apostolic or constitutions which although they agree with Christ and St. James in forbidding to swear in general, yet do they explain it elsewhere by avoiding to swear falsely and to swear often and in vain and again by not swearing at all but with all adding that if that cannot be avoided to swear truly which abundantly explain to us the nature of the measures of this general injunction. End footnote. They also take great pains in studying the writings of the ancients and choose out of them what is most for the advantage of their soul and body and they inquire after such roots and medicinal stones as may cure their distempers. But now, if any one hath a mind to come over to their sect he is not immediately admitted but he has prescribed the same method of living which they use for a year while he continues excluded and they give him also a small hatchet and the aforementioned girdle and the white garment and when he hath given evidence during that time that he can observe their continence he approaches nearer to their way of living and is made a partaker of the waters of purification yet is he not even now admitted to live with them for after this demonstration of his fortitude his temper is tried two more years and if he appear to be worthy they then admit him into their society and before he is allowed to touch their common food he is obliged to take tremendous oaths that in the first place he will exercise piety towards God and then that he will observe justice towards men and that he will do no harm to anyone either of his own accord or by the command of others that he will always hate the wicked and be assistant to the righteous that he will ever show fidelity to all men and especially to those in authority because no one obtains the government without God's assistance and that if he be in authority he will at no time whatever abuse his authority nor endeavor to outshine his subjects either in his garments or any other finery that he will be perpetually a lover of truth and propose to himself to reprove those that tell lies that he will keep his hands clear from theft and his soul from unlawful gains and that he will neither conceal anything from those of his own sect nor discover any of their doctrines to others no, not though anyone should compel him so to do at the hazard of his life moreover he swears to communicate their doctrines to no one any otherwise than as he received them himself that he will abstain from robbery and will equally preserve the books belonging to their sect and the names of the angels or messengers footnote this mention of the names of angels so particularly preserved by the SNs if it means more than those messengers which were employed to bring them the peculiar books of their sect looks like a prelude to that worshipping of angels blamed by St. Paul as superstitious and unlawful in some such sort of people as these SNs were Colossians 2 verse 8 as is the prayer to or towards the sun for his rising every morning mentioned before section 5 very like those not much later observances made mention of in the preaching of Peter and regarding a kind of worship of angels of the month and of the moon and not celebrating the new moons or other festivals unless the moon appeared which indeed seems to me the earliest mention of any regard to the phases in fixing the Jewish calendar of which the Talmud and later rabbis talk so much and upon so very little ancient foundation and footnote these are the oaths by which they secure their proselytes to themselves but for those that are caught in any heathen sense they cast them out of their society and he who is thus separated from them does often die after a miserable manner for as he is bound by the oath he hath taken and by the customs he hath been engaged in he is not at liberty to partake of that food that he meets with elsewhere but is forced to eat grass and to famish his body with hunger till he perish for which reason they receive many of them again when they are at their last gasp out of compassion to them as thinking the miseries they have endured till they came to the very brink of death to be a sufficient punishment for the sins they had been guilty of but in the judgments they exercise they are most accurate and just nor do they pass sentence by the votes of a court that is fewer than a hundred and as to what is once determined by that number it is unalterable what they most of all honour after God himself is the name of their legislator Moses whom if any one blaspheme he is punished capitely they also think it a good thing to obey their elders and the major part accordingly if ten of them be sitting together no one of them will speak while the other nine are against it they also avoid spitting in the midst of them or on the right side moreover they are stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their labours on the seventh day for they not only get their food ready the day before that they may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that day but they will not remove any vessel out of its place nor go to storm there on nay on other days they dig a small pit a foot deep with a paddle which kind of hatchet is given them when they are first admitted among them and covering themselves round with their garment that they may not affront the divine rays of light they ease themselves into that pit after which they put the earth that was dug out again into the pit and even this they do only in the more lonely places which they choose out for this purpose and although this easement of the body be natural yet it is a rule with them to wash themselves after it as if it were a defilement to them now after the time of their preparatory trial is over they are parted into four classes and so far are the juniors inferior to the seniors that if the seniors should be touched by the juniors they must wash themselves as if they had intermixed themselves with the company of a foreigner they are long lived also in so much that many of them live above a hundred years by means of the simplicity of their diet nay, as I think, by means of the regular course of life they observe also they contend the miseries of life and are above pain by the generosity of their mind and as for death if it will be for their glory they esteem it better than living always and indeed our war with the Romans gave abundant evidence what great souls they had in their trials wherein, although they were tortured and distorted burnt and torn to pieces and went through all kinds of instruments of torment that they might be forced either to blaspheme their legislator or to eat what was forbidden them yet could they not be made to do either of them no nor wants to flatter their tormentors or to shed a tear but they smiled in their very pains and laughed those to scorn who inflicted the torments upon them and resigned up their souls with great alacrity as expecting to receive them again for their doctrine is this that bodies are corruptible and that the matter they are made of is not permanent but that the souls are immortal and continue forever and that they come out of the most subtle air and are united to their bodies as to prisons into which they are drawn by a certain natural enticement but that when they are set free from the bonds of the flesh they then as released from a long bondage rejoice and mount upward and this is like the opinions of the Greeks that good souls have their habitations beyond the ocean in a region that is neither oppressed with storms of rain or snow or with intense heat but that this place is such as is refreshed by the gentle breathing of a west wind that is perpetually blowing from the ocean while they allot to bad souls a dark and tempestuous den full of never ceasing punishments and indeed the Greeks seem to me to have followed the same notion when they allot the islands of the blessed to their brave men whom they call heroes and demigods and to the souls of the wicked the region of the ungodly in Hades where their fables relate that certain persons such as Sisyphus and Tantalus and Ixion and Titius are punished which is built on this first supposition that souls are immortal and thence are those exhortations to virtue and de-hortations from wickedness collected whereby good men are bettered in the conduct of their life by the hope they have of reward after their death and whereby the vehement inclinations of bad men to vice are restrained by the fear and expectation they are in that although they should lie concealed in this life they should suffer immortal punishment after their death these are the divine doctrines of the Essenes about the soul which lay an unavoidable bait for such as have once had a taste of their philosophy footnote of these Jewish or Essenes and indeed Christian doctrines concerning souls both good and bad in Hades see that excellent discourse or homily of Argeosephus concerning Hades at the end of the volume end footnote there are also those among them who are undertake to foretell things to come by reading the holy books and using several sorts of purifications and being perpetually conversant in the discourses of the prophets and it is but seldom that they miss in their predictions footnote Dean Aldrich reckons up three examples of this gift or prophecy in several of these Essenes out of Josephus himself vis in the history of the war Judas foretold the death of Antigonus at Strato's tower Simon foretold that Archelaus should reign but nine or ten years and in the antiquities Minhuum foretold that Herod should be king and should reign tyrannically and that for more than 20 or even 30 years or which came to pass accordingly end footnote moreover there is another order of Essenes who agree with rest as to their way of living and customs and laws but differ from them in the point of marriage as thinking that by not marrying they cut off the principal part of human life which is the prospect of succession nay rather that if all men should be of the same opinion the whole race of mankind would fail however they try their spouses for three years and if they find that they have their natural pagations thrice as trials that they are likely to be fruitful they then actually marry them but they do not use to accompany with their wives when they are with child as a demonstration that they do not marry out of regarded pleasure but for the sake of posterity now the women go into the bars with some of their garments on as the men do with somewhat girded about them and these are the customs of this order of Essenes footnote there is so much more here about the Essenes than is cited from Josephus in Porphyry and Eusebius and yet so much less about the Pharisees and Sadducees the two other Jewish sects that would naturally be expected in proportion to the Essenes or third sect nay then seems to be referred to by himself elsewhere that one is tempted to suppose Josephus had at first written less of the one and more of the two others than his present copies afford us as also that by some unknown accident our present copies are here made up of the larger addition in the first case and of the smaller in the second see the note in Havocamps edition however what Josephus says in the name of the Pharisees that only the souls of good men go out of one body into another although all souls be immortal and still the souls of the bad are liable to eternal punishment as also what he says afterwards that the soul's figure is immortal and that under the earth they receive rewards or punishments according as their lives have been virtuous or vicious in the present world that to the bad is allotted an eternal prison but that the good are permitted to live again in this world are nearly agreeable to the doctrines of Christianity only Josephus's rejection of the return of the wicked into other bodies or into this world which he grants to the good look somewhat like a contradiction to St. Paul's account of the doctrine of the Jews that they themselves allowed that there should be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust acts 24 verse 15 yet because Josephus's account is that of the Pharisees and St. Paul's that of the Jews in general and of himself the contradiction is not very certain end footnote but then as to the two other orders at first mentioned the Pharisees are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exact explication of their laws and introduce the first sect these ascribe all to fate or providence and to God and yet allow that to act what is right or the contrary it's principally in the power of men although fate does cooperate in every action they say that all souls are incorruptible but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment but the Sadducees are those that compose the second order and take away fate entirely and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil and they say that to act what is good or what is evil is at men's own choice and that the one or the other belongs so to everyone that they may act as they please they also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul and the punishments and rewards in Hades moreover the Pharisees are friendly to one another and are for the exercise of concord and regard for the public but the behavior of the Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them and this is what i had to say concerning the philosophic sects among the jews chapter nine the death of Salome the cities which Herod and Philip built pilot occasions disturbances Tiberius puts a gripper into bonds but Caes frees him from them and makes him king Herod Antipas is banished and now as the ethnarchy of Archelaus was fallen into a Roman province the other sons of Herod Philip and that Herod who was called Antipas each of them took upon them the administration of the own tetrarchies for when Salome died she bequeathed to Julia the wife of Augustus both her toparchy and jamriga as also her plantation of palm trees that were in physilis but when the roman empire was translated to Tiberius the son of Julia upon the death of Augustus who had drained 57 years six months and two days both Herod and Philip continued in their tetrarchies and the latter of them built the city Caesarea at the fountains of Jordan and in the region of Panias as also the city julias in the lower Golanitis Herod also built the city Tiberius in Galilee and in Peria beyond Jordan another that was also called Julius now Pilate who was sent as procurator into Judea by Tiberius sent by night those images of Caesar that are called ensigns into Jerusalem this excited a very great tumult among the Jews when it was day for those that were near them were astonished at the sight of them as indications that their laws were trodden underfoot for those laws do not permit any sort of image to be brought into the city nay besides the indignation which the citizens had themselves at this procedure a vast number of people came running out of the country these came zealously to Pilate to Caesarea and besought him to carry those ensigns out of Jerusalem and to preserve them their ancient laws inviolable but upon Pilate's denial of their request they fell down prostrate upon the ground and continued immovable in that posture for five days and as many nights footnote we have here in that Greek manuscript which was once Alexander Petavius' but is now in the library at Leiden two most remarkable editions to the common copies though declared worth little remark by the editor which upon the mention of Tiberius is coming to the empire inserts first the famous testimony of Josephus concerning Jesus Christ as it stands verbatim in the antiquities with some parts of that excellent discourse or homily of Josephus concerning Hades annexed to the work but what is here principally to be noted is this that in this homily Josephus having just mentioned Christ as God the Word and the judge of the world appointed by the father etc adds that he had himself elsewhere spoken about him more nicely or particularly end footnote on the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal in the open marketplace and called to him the multitude as desires to give them an answer and then gave a signal to the soldiers that they should all by agreement at once encompass the Jews with their weapons so the band of soldiers stood round about the Jews in three ranks the Jews were under the utmost consternation at that unexpected sight Pilate also said to them that they should be cut in pieces unless they would admit of Caesar's images and gave intimation to the soldiers to draw their naked swords here upon the Jews as it were at one signal fell down in vast numbers together and exposed their next bear and cried out that they were sooner ready to be slain than that their law should be transgressed here upon Pilate was greatly surprised at the prodigious superstition and gave order that the ensigns should be presently carried out of Jerusalem after this he raised another disturbance by expending that secret treasure which is called Corban upon aqueducts whereby he brought water from the distance of 400 furlongs footnote this use of Corban or ablation as he replied to the sacred money dedicated to God in the treasury of the temple illustrates our Saviour's words mark 7 verses 11 and 12 end footnote at this the multitude had indignation and when Pilate was come to Jerusalem they came about his tribunal and made a clamor at it now when he was apprised a forehand of this disturbance he mixed his own soldiers in their armor with the multitude and ordered them to conceal themselves under the habits of private men and not indeed to use their swords but with their staves to beat those that made the clamor he then gave the signal from his tribunal to do as he had bidden them now the Jews were so sadly beaten that many of them perished by the stripes they received and many of them perished as trodden to death by themselves by which means the multitude was astonished at the calamity of those that were slain and held their peace in the meantime a gripper the son of that Aristopulus who had been slain by his father Herod came to Tiberius to accuse Herod the tetrarch who not admitting of his accusation he stayed at Rome and cultivated a friendship with others of the men of note but principally with Caius the son of Germanicus who has then but a private person now there's a gripper at a certain time feasted Caius and as he was very complacent to him on several other accounts he had lengths stretched out his hands and openly wished that Tiberius might die and that he might quickly see him emperor of the world this was told to Tiberius by one of a gripper's domestics who thereupon was very angry and ordered a gripper to be bound and had him very ill treated in the prison for six months until Tiberius died after he had reigned 22 years six months and three days but when Caius was made Caesar he released a gripper from his bonds and made him king of Philip's tetrarchy who is now dead but when a gripper had arrived at the degree of dignity he inflamed the ambitious desires of Herod the tetrarch who was chiefly induced to hope for the royal authority by his wife Herodius who approached him for his sloth and told him that it was only because he would not sell to Caesar that he was destitute of that great dignity for since Caesar had made a gripper a king from a private person much more would he advance him from a tetrarch to that dignity these arguments prevailed with Herod so that he came to Caius by whom he was punished for his ambition by being banished into Spain for a gripper followed him in order to accuse him to whom also Caius gave his tetrarchy by way of addition so Herod died in Spain wither his wife had followed him end of book two chapters eight and nine book two chapters 10 and 11 of the wars of the Jews this is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org recording by Andrew Coleman the wars of the Jews by Josephus translated by William Wiston book two chapters 10 and 11 chapter 10 Caius commands that his statue should be set up in the temple itself and what Petronius did there upon now Caius Caesar did so grossly abuse the fortune he had arrived at as to take himself to be a god and a desire to be so called also and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of his country he also extended his impiety as far as the Jews accordingly he sent Petronius with an army to Jerusalem to place his statues in the temple and commanded him that in case the Jews would not admit of them he should slay those that opposed it and carry all the rest of the nation into captivity but god concerned himself with these his commands footnote Tastus owns that Caius commanded the Jews to place his effigies in their temple though he'd be mistaken when he has that the Jews thereupon took arms end footnote however Petronius marched out of Antioch into Judea with three legions and many syrian auxiliaries now as to the Jews some of them could not believe the stories that spake of a war but those that did believe them were in the utmost distress how to defend themselves and the terror diffused itself presently through them all for the army was already come to Ptolemaeus this Ptolemaeus is a maritime city of Galilee built in the Great Plain it is encompassed with mountains that on the east side 60 furlongs off belongs to Galilee but that on the south belongs to Carmel which is distant from it 120 furlongs and that on the north is the highest of them all and is called by the people of the country the ladder of the Tyrians which is at the distance of 100 furlongs the very small river Belous runs by it at the distance of two furlongs footnote this account of a place near the mouth of the river Belous in Venetia whence came that sand out of which the ancients made their glass is a known thing in history particularly in Tastus and Stribo and more largely in Pliny end footnote near which there is Memnon's monument footnote this Memnon had several monuments and one of them appears both by Stribo and Iodorus to have been in Syria and not improbably in this very place end footnote and hath near it a place no larger than a hundred cupids which deserves admiration for the place is round and hollow and affords such sand as glass is made of which place when it has been emptied by the many ships there loaded it is filled again by the winds which bring into it as it were on purpose that sand which lay remote and was no more than bare common sand while this mine presently turns it into glassy sand and what is to me still more wonderful that glassy sand which is superfluous and is once removed out of the place becomes bare common sand again and this is the nature of the place we are speaking of but now the Jews got together in Greek numbers with their wives and children into that plain that was by Ptolemaeus and made supplication to Petronius first for their laws and in the next place for themselves so he was prevailed upon by the multitude of the supplicants and by their supplications and left his army and the statues at Ptolemaeus and then went forward into Galilee and called together the multitude and all the men of note to Tiberius and showed them the power of the Romans and the threatenings of Caesar and besides this proved that their petition was unreasonable because while all the nations in subjection to them had placed the images of Caesar in their several cities among the rest of their gods for them alone to oppose it was almost like the behavior of revoltors and was injurious to Caesar and when they insisted on their law and the custom of their country and how it was not only not permitted them to make either an image of God or indeed of a man and to put it in any despicable part of their country much less in the temple itself Petronius replied and am not I also said he bound to keep the law of my own lord for if I transgress it and spare you it is but just that I perish while he that sent me and not I will commence a war against you for I am under command as well as you hereupon the whole multitude cried out that they were ready to suffer for their law Petronius then quieted them and said to them will you then make war against Caesar the Jews said we offer sacrifices twice every day for Caesar and for the Roman people but that if he would place the images among them he must first sacrifice the whole Jewish nation and that they were ready to expose themselves together with their children and wives to be slain at this Petronius was astonished and pitied them on account of the inexpressible sense of religion the men were under and that courage of theirs which made them ready to die for it so they were dismissed without success but on the following days he got together the men of power privately and the multitude publicly and sometimes he used persuasions to them and sometimes he gave them his advice but he chiefly made use of threatenings to them and insisted upon the power of the Romans and the anger of Caius and besides upon the necessity he was himself under to do as he was enjoined but as they could be no way prevailed upon and he saw that the country was in danger of lying without tillage for it was about seed time that the multitude continued for 50 days together idle so he at last got them together and told them that it was best for him to run some hazard himself for either by the divine assistance I shall prevail with Caesar and shall myself escape the danger as well as you which will be matter of joy to us both or in case Caesar continuing his rage I will be ready to expose my own life for such a great number as you are whereupon he dismissed the multitude who prayed greatly for his prosperity and he took the army out of Ptolemies and returned to Antioch from whence he presently sent an epistle to Caesar and informed him of the eruption he had made into Judea and of the supplications of the nation and that unless he had a mind to lose both the country and the men in it he must permit them to keep their law and must countermand his former injunction Caes answered that epistle in a violent way and threatened to have Petronius put to death for his being so tardy in the execution of what he had commanded but it happened that those who brought Caes's epistle were tossed by a storm and were detained on the sea for three months while others that brought the news of Caes's death had a good voyage accordingly Petronius received the epistle concerning Caes seven and twenty days before he received that which was against himself chapter 11 concerning the government of Claudius and the reign of Agrippa concerning the deaths of Agrippa and of Herod and what children they both left behind them now when Caes had reigned three years and eight months and had been slain by treachery Claudius was hurried away by the armies that were at Rome to take the government upon him but the senate upon the reference of the consuls Sextus satininus and Pomponius Secundus gave orders to the three regiments of soldiers that stayed with them to keep the city quiet and went up into the capital in great numbers and resolved to oppose Claudius by force on account of the barbarous treatment they had met with from Caes and they determined either to settle the nation under an aristocracy as they had of old been governed or at least to choose by vote such a one for emperor as might be worthy of it now it happened that at this time Agrippa adjourned at Rome and that both the senate called him to consult with them and at the same time Claudius sent for him out of the camp that he might be serviceable to him as he should have occasion for his service so he perceiving that Claudius was in effect made Caesar already went to him who sent him as an ambassador to the senate to let them know what his intentions were that in the first place it was without his seeking that he was hurried away by the soldiers moreover that he thought it was not just to desert those soldiers in such their zeal for him and that if he should do so his own fortune would be in uncertainty for that it was a dangerous case to have been once called the empire he added further that he would administer the government as a good prince and not like a tyrant for that he would be satisfied with the honor of being called emperor but would in every one of his actions permit them all to give him their advice for that although he had not been by nature for moderation yet would the death of Caius have fought him as sufficient demonstration how soberly he ought to act in that station this message was delivered by a gripper to which the senate replied that since they had an army and the wisest councils on their side they would not endure a voluntary slavery and when Claudius heard what answer the senate had made he sent a gripper to them again with the following message that he could not bear the thoughts of betraying them that had given their oaths to be true to him and that he saw he must fight though unwillingly against such as he had no mind to fight that however if it must come to that it was proper to choose a place without the city for the war because it was not agreeable to piety to pollute the temples of their own city with the blood of their own countrymen and this only on occasion of their imprudent conduct and when a gripper had heard this message he delivered it to the senators in the meantime one of the soldiers belonging to the senate drew his sword and cried out oh my fellow soldiers what is the meaning of this choice of hours to kill our brethren and to use violence to our kindred that are with Claudius well we may have him for our emperor whom no one can blame and who have so many just reasons to lay claim to the government and this with regard to those against whom we are going to fight when he had said this he marched through the whole senate and carried all the soldiers along with him upon which all the patricians were immediately in a great fright at their being thus deserted but still because there appeared no other way whether they could turn themselves for deliverance they made haste the same way with the soldiers and went to Claudius but those that had the greatest luck in flattering the good fortune of Claudius betimes met them before the walls with their naked swords and there was reason to fear that those that came first might have been in danger before Claudius could know what violence the soldiers were going to offer them had not a gripper ran before and told him what a dangerous thing they were going about and that unless he restrained the violence of these men who were in a fit of madness against the patricians he would lose those on whose account it was most desirable to rule and would be emperor over a desert when Claudius heard this he restrained the violence of the soldiery and received the senate into the camp and treated them after an obliging manner and went out with them presently to offer their thank offerings to god which were proper upon his first coming to the empire. Moreover he bestowed on a gripper his whole paternal kingdom immediately and added to it besides those countries that had been given by Augustus to Herod Tracanitis and Orinitis and still besides these that kingdom which was called the kingdom of Lysenius this gift he declared to the people by a decree but ordered the magistrates to have the donation engraved on tables of brass and to be set up in the capital. He bestowed on his brother Herod who was also his son-in-law by marrying his daughter Bernice the kingdom of Chalcis so now riches flowed into a gripper by his enjoyment of so larger dominion nor did he abuse the money he had on small matters but he began to encompass Jerusalem with such a wall which had it been brought to perfection had made it impracticable for the Romans to take it by siege but his death which happened at Caesarea before he had raised the wolves to their due height prevented him. He had then reigned three years as he had governed his tetrarchies three other years he left behind him three daughters born to him by Kipros Bernice, Mariamni and Drusilla and a son born of the same mother whose name was a gripper he was left a very young child so that Claudius made the country a Roman province and sent Cusbius Phaedus to be its procurator and after him Tiberius Alexander who making no alterations of the ancient laws kept the nation in tranquility. Now after this Herod the king of Chalkis died and left behind him two sons born to him of his brother's daughter Bernice. Their names were Berenichianus and Hercarnus. He also left behind him Aristopulus whom he had by his former wife Mariamni. There was besides another brother of his that died a private person his name was also Aristopulus who left behind him a daughter whose name was Giutapi and these as I have formally said were the children of Aristopulus the son of Herod which Aristopulus and Alexander were born to Herod by Mariamni and were slain by him but as for Alexander's posterity they reigned in Armenia. End of book two chapters 10 and 11 book two chapters 12 and 13 of the wars of the Jews this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Andrew Coleman The Wars of the Jews by Josephus translated by William Whiston book two chapters 12 and 13 chapter 12 many tumults under Cumanus which were composed by Quadratus. Felix is procurator of Judea a gripper is advanced from Chalkis to a greater kingdom now after the death of Herod King of Chalkis Claudius set a gripper the son of a gripper over his uncle's kingdom while Cumanus took upon him the office of procurator of the rest which was a Roman province and therein he succeeded Alexander under which Cumanus began the troubles and the Jews ruin came on for when the multitude were come together to Jerusalem to the feast of unleavened bread and Roman cohorts stood over the cloisters of the temple for they always were armed and kept guard at the festivals to prevent any innovation which the multitude thus gathered together might make one of the soldiers pulled back his garment and carrying down after an indecent manner turned his breach to the Jews and spake such words as you might expect upon such a posture at this the whole multitude had indignation and made a clamour to Cumanus that he would punish the soldier while the rash a part of the youth and such as were naturally the most tumultuous felt of fighting and caught up stones and threw them at the soldiers upon which Cumanus was afraid lest all the people should make an assault upon him and sent to call for more armed men who when they came in great numbers into the cloisters the Jews were in a very great consternation and being beaten out of the temple they ran into the city and the violence with which they crowded to get out was so great that they trod upon each other and squeezed one another till ten thousand of them were killed in so much that this feast became the cause of mourning to the whole nation and every family lamented their own relations now they followed after this another calamity which arose from a tumult made by robbers throughout the public road at Beth Boron one Stephen a servant of Caesar carried some furniture which the robbers fell upon and seized upon this Cumanus sent men to go round about the neighboring villages and bring their inhabitants to him bound as laying it to their charge that they had not pursued after the thieves and caught them now here it was that a certain soldier finding the secret book of the law tore it to pieces and threw it into the fire footnote Rellen notes here that the Talmud in recounting ten sad accidents for which the Jews ought to rend their garments reckons this for one when they hear that the law of God is burnt end footnote here upon the Jews were in great disorder as if their whole country were in a flame and assembled themselves so many of them by their zeal for their religion as by an engine and ran together with united clamour to Caesarea to Cumanus and made supplication to him that he would not overlook this man who had offered such an affront to God and to his law but punish him for what he had done accordingly he perceiving that the multitude would not be quiet unless they had a comfortable answer from him gave order that the soldier should be brought and drawn through those that required to have him punished to execution which being done the Jews went their ways after this there happened a fight between the Galileans and the Samaritans it happened at a village called Gemann which is situated in the great plain of Samaria where as a great number of Jews were going up to Jerusalem to the feast of tabernacles a certain Galilean was slain and besides a vast number of people ran together out of Galilee in order to fight with the Samaritans but the principal men among them came to Cumanus and besought him that before the evil became incurable he would come into Galilee and bring the authors of this murdered punishment for that there was no other way to make the multitude separate without coming to blows however Cumanus postponed their supplications to the other affairs he was then about and sent the petitioners away without success but when the affair of this murder came to be told at Jerusalem it put the multitude into disorder and they left the feast and without any generals to conduct them they marched with great violence to Samaria nor would they be ruled by any of the magistrates that were set over them but they were managed by one Eliasa the son of Dinius and by Alexander in these their thievish and seditious attempts these men fell upon those that were in the neighborhood of the Agribatin Topaki and slew them without sparing any age and set the villages on fire but Cumanus took one troop of horsemen called the troop of Sebasti out of Caesarea and came to the assistance of those that were spoiled he also seized upon a great number of those that followed Eliasa and slew more of them and as for the rest of the multitude of those that went so zealously to fight with the Samaritans the rulers of Jerusalem ran out clothed with sackcloth and having ashes on their head and begged of them to go their ways lest by their attempt to revenge themselves upon the Samaritans they should provoke the Romans to come against Jerusalem to have compassion upon their country and temple their children and their wives and not bring the utmost dangers of destruction upon them in order to avenge themselves upon one Galilee and only the Jews complied with these persuasions of theirs and dispersed themselves but still there were a great number who betook themselves to robbing in hopes of impunity and repines and insurrections of the bolder sword happened over their whole country and the men of power among the Samaritans came to Tyre to a medius quadratus the president of Syria and desired that they that had laid waste to the country might be punished footnote this umidius or numidius or as tasters calls him venedius quadratus is mentioned in an ancient inscription still preserved as spanhelm here informs us which calls him umidius quadratus end footnote the great men also of the Jews and jonathan the son of an anus the high priest came thither and said that the Samaritans were the beginners of the disturbance on account of that murder they had committed and that Qumanus had given occasion to what had happened by his unwillingness to punish the original authors of that murder but quadratus put both parties off for that time and told them that when he should come to those places he would make a diligent inquiry after every circumstance after which he went to cesarea and crucified all those whom Qumanus had taken alive and when from thence he was come to the city Lidda he heard the affair of the Samaritans and sent for 18 of the Jews whom he had learned to have been concerned in that fight and beheaded them but he sent two others of those that were of the greatest power among them and both jonathan and ananias the high priests as also artanus the son of this ananias and certain others that were eminent among the Jews to cesa as he did in like manner by the most illustrious of the Samaritans he also ordered that Qumanus the procurator and kello the tribune should sell to Rome in order to give an account of what had been done to cesa when he had finished these matters he went up from Lidda to Jerusalem and fighting the multitudes celebrating the feast of unleavened bread without any tumult he returned to Antioch now when cesar at Rome had heard what Qumanus and the Samaritans had to say where it was done in the hearing of a gripper who zealously espoused the cause of the Jews as in like manner many of the great men stood by Qumanus he condemned the Samaritans and commanded that three of the most powerful men among them should be put to death he banished Qumanus and sent kello bound to Jerusalem to be delivered over to the Jews to be tormented that he should be drawn round the city and then beheaded after this cesar sent Felix the brother of Panas to be procurator of Galilee and Samaria and Peria and removed a gripper from Chalkis unto a greater kingdom for he gave him the tetrarchy which had belonged to Philip which contained Batani, Trachonitis and Golanitis he added to it the kingdom of Lysanius and their province Abelini which Verus had governed but Claudius himself when he had administered the government 13 years 8 months and 20 days died and left Nero to be his successor in the empire whom he had adopted by his wife Agrippina's delusions in order to be his successor although he had a son of his own whose name was Britannicus by Messalina his former wife and a daughter whose name was Octavia whom he had married to Nero he had also another daughter by Patina whose name was Antonia footnote take the character of this Felix who is well known from the Acts of the Apostles particularly from his trembling when Saint Paul discoursed of righteousness chastity and judgment to come Acts 24 verse 5 and no wonder when we have elsewhere seen that he lived in adultery with Drusilla another man's wife in the words of Tacitus produced here by Dean Aldrich Felix exercised says Tacitus the authority of a king with the disposition of a slave and relying upon the great power of his brother palace at court thought he might safely be guilty of all kinds of wicked practices observe also the time when he was made procurator AD 52 that when Saint Paul pleaded his cause before him AD 58 he might have been many years a judge unto that nation as Saint Paul says he had then been Acts 24 verse 10 but as to what Tacitus here says that before the death of Cumanus Felix was procurator over Samaria only does not well agree with Saint Paul's words who would hardly have called Samaria a Jewish nation in short since what Tacitus here says is about countries very remote from Rome where he lived since what he says of two Roman procurators the one over Galilee the other over Samaria at the same time is without example elsewhere and since Josephus who lived at that very time in Judea appears to have known nothing of this procuratorship of Felix before the death of Cumanus I much suspect the story itself as nothing better than a mistake of Tacitus especially when it seems not only omitted but contradicted by Josephus as anyone may find that compares their histories together possibly Felix might have been a subordinate judge among the Jews some time before under Cumanus but that he was in earnest a procurator of Samaria before I do not believe Bishop Pearson as well as Bishop Lloyd quote this account but with a doubtful clause confides tacitile if we may believe Tacitus end footnote chapter 13 Nero adds four cities to a gripper's kingdom but the other parts of Judea were under Felix the disturbances which were raised by the Sicarii the magicians at an Egyptian false prophet the Jews and Syrians have a contest at Caesarea now as to the many things in which Nero acted like a madman out of the extravagant degree of the felicity and riches which he enjoyed and by that means used his good fortune to the injury of others and after what manner he slew his brother and wife and mother from whom his barbarity spread itself to others that were most nearly related to him and how at last he was so distracted that he became an actor in the scenes and upon the theater I omit to say any more about them because there are writers enough upon those subjects everywhere but I shall turn myself to those actions of his time in which the Jews were concerned Nero therefore bestowed the kingdom of the lesser Armenia upon Aristopulus Herod's son footnote i.e Herod king of Chalcis end footnote and he added to a gripper's kingdom four cities with the toparchies to them belonging I mean Abila and that Julius which is in Peria Terikia also and Tiberius of Galilee but over the rest of Judea he made Felix Procurator this Felix took Eliazar the arch-robber and many that were with him alive when they had ravaged the country for twenty years together and sent them to Rome but as to the number of the robbers whom he caused to be crucified and of those who were caught among them and whom he brought punishment they were a multitude not to be enumerated when the country was purged of these there sprang up another sort of robbers in Jerusalem which were called Sicarii who slew men in the daytime and in the midst of the city this they did chiefly at the festivals when they mingled themselves among the multitude and concealed daggers under their garments with which they stabbed those that were their enemies and when any fell down dead the murderers became a part of those that had indignation against them by which means they appeared persons of such reputation that they could by no means be discovered the first man who was slain by them was Jonathan the high priest after whose death many were slain every day while the fear men were in of being so served was more afflicting than the calamity itself and while everybody expected death every hour as men do in war so men were obliged to look before them and to take notice of their enemies at a great distance nor if their friends were coming to them does they trust them any longer but in the midst of their suspicions and guarding of themselves they were slain such was the celerity of the plotters against them and so cunning was their contrivance there was also another body of wicked men gotten together not so impure in their actions but more wicked in their intentions which laid waste the happy state of the city no less than did these murderers these were such men as deceived and eluded the people under pretense of divine inspiration but were for procuring innovations and changes of the government and these prevailed with the multitude to act like madmen and went before them into the wilderness as pretending that God would there show them the signals of liberty but Felix thought this procedure was to be the beginning of a revolt so he sent some horsemen and footmen both armed who destroyed a great number of them but there was an Egyptian false prophet that did the Jews more mischief than the former for he was a cheat and pretended to be a prophet also and got to get the 30 000 men that were deluded by him these he led round about from the wilderness to the mount which was called the Mount of Olives and was ready to break into Jerusalem by force from that place and if he could but once conquer the Roman garrison and the people he intended to domineer over them by the assistance of those guards of his that were to break into the city with him but Felix prevented his attempt and met him with his Roman soldiers while all the people assisted him in his attack upon them in so much that when it came to a battle the Egyptian ran away with a few others while the greatest part of those that were with him were either destroyed or taken alive but the rest of the multitude were dispersed everyone to their own homes and there concealed themselves now when these were quieted it happened as it does in a diseased body that another part was subject to an inflammation for a company of deceivers and robbers got together and persuaded the Jews to revolt and exhorted them to assert their liberty inflicting death on those that continued in obedience to the Roman government and saying that such as willingly chose slavery or to be forced from such their desired inclinations but they parted themselves into different bodies and lay in wait up and down the country and plundered the houses of the great men and slew the men themselves and set the villages on fire and this till all Judea was filled with the effects of their madness and thus the flame was every day more and more blown up till it came to a direct war there was also another disturbance at Caesarea those Jews who are mixed with the Syrians that live there rising a tumult against them the Jews pretended that the city was theirs and said that he who built it was a Jew meaning King Herod the Syrians confessed also that its builder was a Jew but they still said however that the city was a Grecian city for that he who set up statues and temples in it could not design it for Jews on which account both parties had a contest with one another and this contest increased so much that it came at last to arms and the bolder sort of them marched out to fight for the elders of the Jews were not able to put a stop to their own people that were disposed to be tumultuous and the Greeks thought it a shame for them to be overcome by the Jews now these Jews exceeded the others in riches and strength of body but the Grecian part had the advantage of assistance from the soldiery for the greatest part of the Roman garrison was raised out of Syria and being thus related to the Syrian part they were ready to assist it however the governors of the city were concerned to keep all quiet and whenever they caught those that were most for fighting on either side they punished them with stripes and bands yet did not the sufferings of those that were caught have right the remainder or make them desist but they were still more and more exasperated and deeper engaged in this addition and as Felix came once into the marketplace and commanded the Jews when they had beaten the Syrians to go their ways and threaten them if they would not and they would not obey him he sent his soldiers out upon them and slew a great many of them upon which it fell out that what they had was plundered and as the sedition still continued he chose out the most eminent men on both sides as ambassadors to Nero to argue about their several privileges end of book two chapters 12 and 13