the city Cæsarea, which was formerly called Strato's Tower; and there he
exhibited shows in honor of Cæsar, upon his being informed that there
was a certain festival celebrated to make vows for his safety. At which
festival a great multitude was gotten together of the principal persons,
and such as were of dignity through his province. On the second day of
which shows he put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of a
contexture truly wonderful, and came into the theater early in the
morning; at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by
the fresh reflection of the sun's rays upon it, shone out after a
surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror over
those that looked intently upon him; and presently his flatterers cried
out, one from one place, and another from another, [though not for his
good,] that he was a god; and they added, "Be thou merciful to us; for
although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we
henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature." Upon this the king
did neither rebuke them, nor reject their impious flattery. But as he
presently afterward looked up, he saw an owl 21 sitting on a certain
rope over his head, and immediately understood that this bird was the
messenger of ill tidings, as it had once been the messenger of good
tidings to him; and fell into the deepest sorrow. A severe pain also
arose in his belly, and began in a most violent manner. He therefore
looked upon his friends, and said, "I, whom you call a god, am commanded
presently to depart this life; while Providence thus reproves the lying
words you just now said to me; and I, who was by you called immortal, am
immediately to be hurried away by death. But I am bound to accept of
what Providence allots, as it pleases God; for we have by no means lived
ill, but in a splendid and happy manner." When he said this, his pain
was become violent. Accordingly he was carried into the palace, and the
rumor went abroad every where, that he would certainly die in a little
time. But the multitude presently sat in sackcloth, with their wives and
children, after the law of their country, and besought God for the
king's recovery. All places were also full of mourning and lamentation.
Now the king rested in a high chamber, and as he saw them below lying
prostrate on the ground, he could not himself forbear weeping. And when
he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he
departed this life, being in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and in
the seventh year of his reign; for he reigned four years under Caius
Cæsar, three of them were over Philip's tetrarchy only, and on the
fourth he had that of Herod added to it; and he reigned, besides those,
three years under the reign of Claudius Cæsar; in which time he reigned
over the forementioned countries, and also had Judea added to them, as
well as Samaria and Cæsarea. The revenues that he received out of them
were very great, no less than twelve millions of drachmae. 22 Yet did he
borrow great sums from others; for he was so very liberal that his
expenses exceeded his incomes, and his generosity was boundless. 23
3. But before the multitude were made acquainted with Agrippa's being
expired, Herod the king of Chalcis, and Helcias the master of his horse,
and the king's friend, sent Aristo, one of the king's most faithful
servants, and slew Silas, who had been their enemy, as if it had been
done by the king's own command.
CHAPTER 9. What Things Were Done After The Death Of Agrippa; And How
Claudius, On Account Of The Youth And Unskilfulness Of Agrippa, Junior,
Sent Cuspius Fadus To Be Procurator Of Judea, And Of The Entire Kingdom.
1. And thus did king Agrippa depart this life. But he left behind him a
son, Agrippa by name, a youth in the seventeenth year of his age, and
three daughters; one of which, Bernice, was married to Herod, his
father's brother, and was sixteen years old; the other two, Mariamne and
Drusilla, were still virgins; the former was ten years old, and Drusilla
six. Now these his daughters were thus espoused by their father;
Marlatone to Julius Archelaus Epiphanes, the son of Antiochus, the son
of Chelcias; and Drusilla to the king of Commagena. But when it was
known that Agrippa was departed this life, the inhabitants of Cæsarea
and of Sebaste forgot the kindnesses he had bestowed on them, and acted
the part of the bitterest enemies; for they cast such reproaches upon
the deceased as are not fit to be spoken of; and so many of them as were
then soldiers, which were a great number, went to his house, and hastily
carried off the statues 24 of this king's daughters, and all at once
carried them into the brothel-houses, and when they had set them on the
tops of those houses, they abused them to the utmost of their power, and
did such things to them as are too indecent to be related. They also
laid themselves down in public places, and celebrated general feastings,
with garlands on their heads, and with ointments and libations to
Charon, and drinking to one another for joy that the king was expired.
Nay, they were not only unmindful of Agrippa, who had extended his
liberality to them in abundance, but of his grandfather Herod also, who
had himself rebuilt their cities, and had raised them havens and temples
at vast expenses.
2. Now Agrippa, the son of the deceased, was at Rome, and brought up
with Claudius Cæsar. And when Cæsar was informed that Agrippa was dead,
and that the inhabitants of Sebaste and Cæsarea had abused him, he was
sorry for the first news, and was displeased with the ingratitude of
those cities. He was therefore disposed to send Agrippa, junior, away
presently to succeed his father in the kingdom, and was willing to
confirm him in it by his oath. But those freed-men and friends of his,
who had the greatest authority with him, dissuaded him from it, and said
that it was a dangerous experiment to permit so large a kingdom to come
under the government of so very young a man, and one hardly yet arrived
at years of discretion, who would not be able to take sufficient care of
its administration; while the weight of a kingdom is heavy enough to a
grown man. So Cæsar thought what they said to be reasonable. Accordingly
he sent Cuspins Fadus to be procurator of Judea, and of the entire
kingdom, and paid that respect to the deceased as not to introduce
Marcus, who had been at variance with him, into his kingdom. But he
determined, in the first place, to send orders to Fadus, that he should
chastise the inhabitants of Cæsarea and Sebaste for those abuses they
had offered to him that was deceased, and their madness towards his
daughters that were still alive; and that he should remove that body of
soldiers that were at Cæsarea and Sebaste, with the five regiments, into
Pontus, that they might do their military duty there; and that he should
choose an equal number of soldiers out of the Roman legions that were in
Syria, to supply their place. Yet were not those that had such orders
actually removed; for by sending ambassadors to Claudius, they mollified
him, and got leave to abide in Judea still; and these were the very men
that became the source of very great calamities to the Jews in after-
times, and sowed the seeds of that war which began under Florus; whence
it was that when Vespasian had subdued the country, he removed them out
of his province, as we shall relate hereafter.
FOOTNOTES
1 (return) [ In this and the three next chapters we have, I think, a
larger and more distinct account of the slaughter of Caius, and the
succession of Claudius, than we have of any such ancient facts
whatsoever elsewhere. Some of the occasions of which probably were,
Josephus's bitter hatred against tyranny, and the pleasure he took in
giving the history of the slaughter of such a barbarous tyrant as was
this Caius Caligula, as also the deliverance his own nation had by that
slaughter, of which he speaks sect. 2, together with the great intimacy
he had with Agrippa, junior, whose father was deeply concerned in the
advancement of Claudius, upon the death of Caius; from which Agrippa,
junior, Josephus might be fully informed Of his history.]
2 (return) [ Called Caligula by the Romans.]
3 (return) [ Just such a voice as this is related to be came, and from
an unknown original also, to the famous Polycarp, as he was going to
martyrdom, bidding him "play the man;" as the church of Smyrna assures
us in their account of that his martyrdom, sect. 9.]
4 (return) [ Here Josephus supposes that it was Augustus, and not Julius
Cæsar, who first changed the Roman commonwealth into a monarchy; for
these shows were in honor of Augustus, as we shall learn in the next
section.]
5 (return) [ Suetonius says Caius was slain about the seventh hour of
the day, the ninth. The series of the narration favors Josephus.]
6 (return) [ The rewards proposed by the Roman laws to informers was
sometimes an eighth part as Spanheim assures us, from the criminal's
goods, as here, and sometimes a fourth part.]
7 (return) [ These consuls are named in the War of the Jews, B. II. ch.
11. sect; 1, Sentius Saturninus and Pomponius Secundus, as Spanheim
notes here. The speech of the former of them is set down in the next
chapter, sect. 2.]
8 (return) [ In this oration of Sentius Saturninus, we may see the great
value virtuous men put upon public liberty, and the sad misery they
underwent, while they were tyrannized over by such emperors as Caius.
See Josephus's own short but pithy reflection at the end of the chapter:
"So difficult," says he, "it is for those to obtain the virtue that is
necessary to a wise man, who have the absolute power to do what they
please without control."]
9 (return) [ Hence we learn that, in the opinion of Saturninus, the
sovereign authority of the consuls and senate had been taken away just a
hundred years before the death of Caius, A.D. 41, or in the sixtieth
year before the Christian saga, when the first triumvirate began under
Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus.]
10 (return) [ Spanheim here notes from Suetonius, that the name of
Caius's sister with whom he was guilty of incest, was Drusilla and that
Suetonius adds, he was guilty of the same crime with all his sisters
also. He notes further, that Suetonius omits the mention of the haven
for ships, which our author esteems the only public work for the good of
the present and future ages which Caius left behind him, though in an
imperfect condition.]
11 (return) [ This Caius was the son of that excellent person
Germanicus, who was the son of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius the
emperor. The first place Claudius came to was inhabited, and called
Herincure, as Spanheim here informs us from Suetonius, in Claud. ch. 10.
12 (return) [ How Claudius, another son of Drusus, which Drusus was the
father of Germanicus, could be here himself called Germanicus, Suetonius
informs us, when he assures us that, by a decree of the senate, the
surname of Germanicus was bestowed upon Drusus, and his posterity
also.—In Claud. ch. 1.]
13 (return) [ This number of drachmae to be distributed to each private
soldier, five thousand drachmae, equal to twenty thousand sesterces, or
one hundred and sixty-one pounds sterling, seems much too large, and
directly contradicts Suetonius, ch. 10., who makes them in all but
fifteen sesterces, or two shillings and four pence. Yet might Josephus
have this number from Agrippa, junior, though I doubt the thousands, or
at least the hundreds, have been added by the transcribers, of which we
have had several examples already in Josephus.]
14 (return) [ This piercing cold here complained of by Lupus agrees well
to the time of the year when Claudius began his reign; it being for
certain about the months of November, December, or January, and most
probably a few days after January the twenty-fourth, and a few days
before the Roman Parentalia.]
15 (return) [ It is both here and elsewhere very remarkable, that the
murders of the vilest tyrants, who yet highly deserved to die, when
those murderers were under oaths, or other the like obligations of
fidelity to them, were usually revenged, and the murderers were cut off
themselves, and that after a remarkable manner; and this sometimes, as
in the present case, by those very persons who were not sorry for such
murders, but got kingdoms by them. The examples are very numerous, both
in sacred and profane histories, and seem generally indications of
Divine vengeance on such murderers. Nor is it unworthy of remark, that
such murderers of tyrants do it usually on such ill principles, in such
a cruel manner, and as ready to involve the innocent with the guilty,
which was the case here, ch. 1. sect. 14, and ch. 2. sect. 4, as justly
deserved the Divine vengeance upon them. Which seems to have been the
case of Jehu also, when, besides the house of Ahab, for whose slaughter
he had a commission from God, without any such commission, any justice
or commiseration, he killed Ahab's great men, and acquaintance, and
priests, and forty-two of the kindred of Ahaziah, 2 Kings 10:11-14. See
Hosea 1:4. I do not mean here to condemn Ehud or Judith, or the like
executioners of God's vengeance on those wicked tyrants who had unjustly
oppressed God's own people under their theocracy; who, as they appear
still to have had no selfish designs nor intentions to slay the
innocent, so had they still a Divine commission, or a Divine impulse,
which was their commission for what they did, Judges 3:15, 19, 20;
Judith 9:2; Test. Levi. sect. 5, in Authent. Rec. p. 312. See also page
432.]
16 (return) [ Here St. Luke is in some measure confirmed, when he
reforms us, ch. 3:1, that Lysanias was some time before tetrarch of
Abilene, whose capital was Abila; as he is further confirmed by Ptolemy,
the great geographer, which Spanheim here observes, when he calls that
city Abila of Lysanias. See the note on B. XVII. ch. 11. sect. 4; and
Prid. at the years 36 and 22. I esteem this principality to have
belonged to the land of Canaan originally, to have been the burying-
place of Abel, and referred to as such, Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51. See
Authent. Rec. Part. II. p. 883—885.]
17 (return) [ This form was so known and frequent among the Romans, as
Dr. Hudson here tells us from the great Selden, that it used to be thus
represented at the bottom of their edicts by the initial letters only,
U. D. P. R. L. P, Unde De Plano Recte Lege Possit; "Whence it may be
plainly read from the ground."]
18 (return) [ Josephus shows, both here and ch. 7. sect. 3, that he had
a much greater opinion of king Agrippa I. than Simon the learned Rabbi,
than the people of Cæsarea and Sebaste, ch. 7. sect. 4; and ch. 9. sect.
1; and indeed than his double- dealing between the senate and Claudius,
ch. 4. sect. 2, than his slaughter of James the brother of John, and his
imprisonment of Peter, or his vain-glorious behavior before he died,
both in Acts 12:13; and here, ch. 4. sect. 1, will justify or allow.
Josephus's character was probably taken from his son Agrippa, junior.]
19 (return) [ This treasury-chamber seems to have been the very same in
which our Savior taught, and where the people offered their charity
money for the repairs or other uses of the temple, Mark 12:41, etc.;
Luke 22:1; John 8:20.]
20 (return) [ A strange number of condemned criminals to be under the
sentence of death at once; no fewer, it seems, than one thousand four
hundred!]
21 (return) [ We have a mighty cry made here by some critics, as the
great Eusebius had on purpose falsified this account of Josephus, so as
to make it agree with the parallel account in the Acts of the Apostles,
because the present copies of his citation of it, Hist. Eceles. B. II.
ch. 10., omit the words an owl—on a certain rope, which Josephus's
present copies retain, and only have the explicatory word or angel; as
if he meant that angel of the Lord which St. Luke mentions as smiting
Herod, Acts 12:23, and not that owl which Josephus called an angel or
messenger, formerly of good, but now of bad news, to Agrippa. This
accusation is a somewhat strange one in the case of the great Eusebius,
who is known to have so accurately and faithfully produced a vast number
of other ancient records, and particularly not a few out of our Josephus
also, without any suspicion of prevarication. Now, not to allege how
uncertain we are whether Josephus's and Eusebius's copies of the fourth
century were just like the present in this clause, which we have no
distinct evidence of, the following words, preserved still in Eusebius,
will not admit of any such exposition: "This [bird] [says Eusebius]
Agrippa presently perceived to be the cause of ill fortune, as it was
once of good fortune, to him;" which can only belong to that bird, the
owl, which as it had formerly foreboded his happy deliverance from
imprisonment, Antiq. B. XVIII. ch. 6. sect. 7, so was it then foretold
to prove afterward the unhappy forerunner of his death in five days'
time. If the improper words signifying cause, be changed for Josephus's
proper word angel or messenger, and the foregoing words, be inserted,
Esuebius's text will truly represent that in Josephus. Had this
imperfection been in some heathen author that was in good esteem with
our modern critics, they would have readily corrected these as barely
errors in the copies; but being in an ancient Christian writer, not so
well relished by many of those critics, nothing will serve but the ill-
grounded supposal of willful corruption and prevarication.]
22 (return) [ This sum of twelve millions of drachmae, which is equal to
three millions of shekels, i.e. at 2s. 10d. a shekel, equal to four
hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds sterling, was Agrippa the
Great's yearly income, or about three quarters of his grandfather
Herod's income; he having abated the tax upon houses at Jerusalem, ch.
6. sect. 3, and was not so tyrannical as Herod had been to the Jews. See
the note on Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 11. sect. 4. A large sum this! but not,
it seems, sufficient for his extravagant expenses.]
23 (return) [ Reland takes notice here, not improperly, that Josephus
omits the reconciliation of this Herod Agrippa to the Tyrians and
Sidoninus, by the means of Blastus the king's chamberlain, mentioned
Acts 12:20. Nor is there any history in the world so complete, as to
omit nothing that other historians take notice of, unless the one be
taken out of the other, and accommodated to it.]
24 (return) [ Photius, who made an extract out of this section, says
they were not the statues or images, but the ladies themselves, who were
thus basely abused by the soldiers.]
BOOK XX. Containing The Interval Of Twenty-Two Years.—From Fadus The
Procurator To Florus.
CHAPTER 1. A Sedition Of The Philadelphians Against The Jews; And Also
Concerning The Vestments Of The High Priest.
1. Upon the death of king Agrippa, which we have related in the
foregoing book, Claudius Cæsar sent Cassius Longinus as successor to
Marcus, out of regard to the memory of king Agrippa, who had often
desired of him by letters, while he was alive, that he would not suffer
Marcus to be any longer president of Syria. But Fadus, as soon as he was
come procurator into Judea, found quarrelsome doings between the Jews
that dwelt in Perea, and the people of Philadelphia, about their
borders, at a village called Mia, that was filled with men of a warlike
temper; for the Jews of Perea had taken up arms without the consent of
their principal men, and had destroyed many of the Philadelphians. When
Fadus was informed of this procedure, it provoked him very much that
they had not left the determination of the matter to him, if they
thought that the Philadelphians had done them any wrong, but had rashly
taken up arms against them. So he seized upon three of their principal
men, who were also the causes of this sedition, and ordered them to be
bound, and afterwards had one of them slain, whose name was Hannibal;
and he banished the other two, Areram and Eleazar. Tholomy also, the
arch robber, was, after some time, brought to him bound, and slain, but
not till he had done a world of mischief to Idumea and the Arabians. And
indeed, from that time, Judea was cleared of robberies by the care and
providence of Fadus. He also at this time sent for the high priests and
the principal citizens of Jerusalem, and this at the command of the
emperor, and admonished them that they should lay up the long garment
and the sacred vestment, which it is customary for nobody but the high
priest to wear, in the tower of Antonia, that it might be under the
power of the Romans, as it had been formerly. Now the Jews durst not
contradict what he had said, but desired Fadus, however, and Longinus,
[which last was come to Jerusalem, and had brought a great army with
him, out of a fear that the [rigid] injunctions of Fadus should force
the Jews to rebel,] that they might, in the first place, have leave to
send ambassadors to Cæsar, to petition him that they may have the holy
vestments under their own power; and that, in the next place, they would
tarry till they knew what answer Claudius would give to that their
request. So they replied, that they would give them leave to send their
ambassadors, provided they would give them their sons as pledges [for
their peaceable behavior]. And when they had agreed so to do, and had
given them the pledges they desired, the ambassadors were sent
accordingly. But when, upon their coming to Rome, Agrippa, junior, the
son of the deceased, understood the reason why they came, [for he dwelt
with Claudius Cæsar, as we said before,] he besought Cæsar to grant the
Jews their request about the holy vestments, and to send a message to
Fadus accordingly.
2. Hereupon Claudius called for the ambassadors; and told them that he
granted their request; and bade them to return their thanks to Agrippa
for this favor, which had been bestowed on them upon his entreaty. And
besides these answers of his, he sent the following letter by them:
"Claudius Cæsar Germanicus, tribune of the people the fifth time, and
designed consul the fourth time, and imperator the tenth time, the
father of his country, to the magistrates, senate, and people, and the
whole nation of the Jews, sendeth greeting. Upon the presentation of
your ambassadors to me by Agrippa, my friend, whom I have brought up,
and have now with me, and who is a person of very great piety, who are
come to give me thanks for the care I have taken of your nation, and to
entreat me, in an earnest and obliging manner, that they may have the
holy vestments, with the crown belonging to them, under their power,—I
grant their request, as that excellent person Vitellius, who is very
dear to me, had done before me. And I have complied with your desire, in
the first place, out of regard to that piety which I profess, and
because I would have every one worship God according to the laws of
their own country; and this I do also because I shall hereby highly
gratify king Herod, and Agrippa, junior, whose sacred regards to me, and
earnest good-will to you, I am well acquainted with, and with whom I
have the greatest friendship, and whom I highly esteem, and look on as
persons of the best character. Now I have written about these affairs to
Cuspius Fadus, my procurator. The names of those that brought me your
letter are Cornelius, the son of Cero, Trypho, the son of Theudio,
Dorotheus, the son of Nathaniel, and John, the son of Jotre. This letter
is dated before the fourth of the calends of July, when Ruffis and
Pompeius Sylvanus are consuls."
3. Herod also, the brother of the deceased Agrippa, who was then
possessed of the royal authority over Chalcis, petitioned Claudius Cæsar
for the authority over the temple, and the money of the sacred treasure,
and the choice of the high priests, and obtained all that he petitioned
for. So that after that time this authority continued among all his
descendants till the end of the war 1 Accordingly, Herod removed the
last high priest, called Cimtheras, and bestowed that dignity on his
successor Joseph, the son of Cantos.
CHAPTER 2. How Helena The Queen Of Adiabene And Her Son Izates, Embraced
The Jewish Religion; And How Helena Supplied The Poor With Corn, When
There Was A Great Famine At Jerusalem.
1. About this time it was that Helena, queen of Adiabene, and her son
Izates, changed their course of life, and embraced the Jewish customs,
and this on the occasion following: Monobazus, the king of Adiabene, who
had also the name of Bazeus, fell in love with his sister Helena, and
took her to be his wife, and begat her with child. But as he was in bed
with her one night, he laid his hand upon his wife's belly, and fell
asleep, and seemed to hear a voice, which bid him take his hand off his
wife's belly, and not hurt the infant that was therein, which, by God's
providence, would be safely born, and have a happy end. This voice put
him into disorder; so he awaked immediately, and told the story to his
wife; and when his son was born, he called him Izates. He had indeed
Monobazus, his elder brother, by Helena also, as he had other sons by
other wives besides. Yet did he openly place all his affections on this
his only begotten 2 son Izates, which was the origin of that envy which
his other brethren, by the same father, bore to him; while on this
account they hated him more and more, and were all under great
affliction that their father should prefer Izates before them. Now
although their father was very sensible of these their passions, yet did
he forgive them, as not indulging those passions out of an ill
disposition, but out of a desire each of them had to be beloved by their
father. However, he sent Izates, with many presents, to Abennerig, the
king of Charax- Spasini, and that out of the great dread he was in about
him, lest he should come to some misfortune by the hatred his brethren
bore him; and he committed his son's preservation to him. Upon which
Abennerig gladly received the young man, and had a great affection for
him, and married him to his own daughter, whose name was Samacha: he
also bestowed a country upon him, from which he received large revenues.
2. But when Monobazus was grown old, and saw that he had but a little
time to live, he had a mind to come to the sight of his son before he
died. So he sent for him, and embraced him after the most affectionate
manner, and bestowed on him the country called Carra; it was a soil that
bare amomum in great plenty: there are also in it the remains of that
ark, wherein it is related that Noah escaped the deluge, and where they
are still shown to such as are desirous to see them. 3 Accordingly,
Izates abode in that country until his father's death. But the very day
that Monobazus died, queen Helena sent for all the grandees, and
governors of the kingdom, and for those that had the armies committed to
their command; and when they were come, she made the following speech to
them: "I believe you are not unacquainted that my husband was desirous
Izates should succeed him in the government, and thought him worthy so
to do. However, I wait your determination; for happy is he who receives
a kingdom, not from a single person only, but from the willing suffrages
of a great many." This she said, in order to try those that were
invited, and to discover their sentiments. Upon the hearing of which,
they first of all paid their homage to the queen, as their custom was,
and then they said that they confirmed the king's determination, and
would submit to it; and they rejoiced that Izates's father had preferred
him before the rest of his brethren, as being agreeable to all their
wishes: but that they were desirous first of all to slay his brethren
and kinsmen, that so the government might come securely to Izates;
because if they were once destroyed, all that fear would be over which
might arise from their hatred and envy to him. Helena replied to this,
that she returned them her thanks for their kindness to herself and to
Izates; but desired that they would however defer the execution of this
slaughter of Izates's brethren till he should be there himself, and give
his approbation to it. So since these men had not prevailed with her,
when they advised her to slay them, they exhorted her at least to keep
them in bonds till he should come, and that for their own security; they
also gave her counsel to set up some one whom she could put the greatest
trust in, as a governor of the kingdom in the mean time. So queen Helena
complied with this counsel of theirs, and set up Monobazus, the eldest
son, to be king, and put the diadem upon his head, and gave him his
father's ring, with its signet; as also the ornament which they call
Sampser, and exhorted him to administer the affairs of the kingdom till
his brother should come; who came suddenly upon hearing that his father
was dead, and succeeded his brother Monobazus, who resigned up the
government to him.
3. Now, during the time Izates abode at Charax-Spasini, a certain Jewish
merchant, whose name was Ananias, got among the women that belonged to
the king, and taught them to worship God according to the Jewish
religion. He, moreover, by their means, became known to Izates, and
persuaded him, in like manner, to embrace that religion; he also, at the
earnest entreaty of Izates, accompanied him when he was sent for by his
father to come to Adiabene; it also happened that Helena, about the same
time, was instructed by a certain other Jew and went over to them. But
when Izates had taken the kingdom, and was come to Adiabene, and there
saw his brethren and other kinsmen in bonds, he was displeased at it;
and as he thought it an instance of impiety either to slay or imprison
them, but still thought it a hazardous thing for to let them have their
liberty, with the remembrance of the injuries that had been offered
them, he sent some of them and their children for hostages to Rome, to
Claudius Cæsar, and sent the others to Artabanus, the king of Parthia,
with the like intentions.
4. And when he perceived that his mother was highly pleased with the
Jewish customs, he made haste to change, and to embrace them entirely;
and as he supposed that he could not be thoroughly a Jew unless he were
circumcised, he was ready to have it done. But when his mother
understood what he was about, she endeavored to hinder him from doing
it, and said to him that this thing would bring him into danger; and
that, as he was a king, he would thereby bring himself into great odium
among his subjects, when they should understand that he was so fond of
rites that were to them strange and foreign; and that they would never
bear to be ruled over by a Jew. This it was that she said to him, and
for the present persuaded him to forbear. And when he had related what
she had said to Ananias, he confirmed what his mother had said; and when
he had also threatened to leave him, unless he complied with him, he
went away from him, and said that he was afraid lest such an action
being once become public to all, he should himself be in danger of
punishment for having been the occasion of it, and having been the
king's instructor in actions that were of ill reputation; and he said
that he might worship God without being circumcised, even though he did
resolve to follow the Jewish law entirely, which worship of God was of a
superior nature to circumcision. He added, that God would forgive him,
though he did not perform the operation, while it was omitted out of
necessity, and for fear of his subjects. So the king at that time
complied with these persuasions of Ananias. But afterwards, as he had
not quite left off his desire of doing this thing, a certain other Jew
that came out of Galilee, whose name was Eleazar, and who was esteemed
very skillful in the learning of his country, persuaded him to do the
thing; for as he entered into his palace to salute him, and found him
reading the law of Moses, he said to him, "Thou dost not consider, O
king! that thou unjustly breakest the principal of those laws, and art
injurious to God himself, [by omitting to be circumcised]; for thou
oughtest not only to read them, but chiefly to practice what they enjoin
thee. How long wilt thou continue uncircumcised? But if thou hast not
yet read the law about circumcision, and dost not know how great impiety
thou art guilty of by neglecting it, read it now." When the king had
heard what he said, he delayed the thing no longer, but retired to
another room, and sent for a surgeon, and did what he was commanded to
do. He then sent for his mother, and Ananias his tutor, and informed
them that he had done the thing; upon which they were presently struck
with astonishment and fear, and that to a great degree, lest the thing
should be openly discovered and censured, and the king should hazard the
loss of his kingdom, while his subjects would not bear to be governed by
a man who was so zealous in another religion; and lest they should
themselves run some hazard, because they would be supposed the occasion
of his so doing. But it was God himself who hindered what they feared
from taking effect; for he preserved both Izates himself and his sons
when they fell into many dangers, and procured their deliverance when it
seemed to be impossible, and demonstrated thereby that the fruit of
piety does not perish as to those that have regard to him, and fix their
faith upon him only. 4 But these events we shall relate hereafter.
5. But as to Helena, the king's mother, when she saw that the affairs of
Izates's kingdom were in peace, and that her son was a happy man, and
admired among all men, and even among foreigners, by the means of God's
providence over him, she had a mind to go to the city of Jerusalem, in
order to worship at that temple of God which was so very famous among
all men, and to offer her thank-offerings there. So she desired her son
to give her leave to go thither; upon which he gave his consent to what
she desired very willingly, and made great preparations for her
dismission, and gave her a great deal of money, and she went down to the
city Jerusalem, her son conducting her on her journey a great way. Now
her coming was of very great advantage to the people of Jerusalem; for
whereas a famine did oppress them at that time, and many people died for
want of what was necessary to procure food withal, queen Helena sent
some of her servants to Alexandria with money to buy a great quantity of
corn, and others of them to Cyprus, to bring a cargo of dried figs. And
as soon as they were come back, and had brought those provisions, which
was done very quickly, she distributed food to those that were in want
of it, and left a most excellent memorial behind her of this
benefaction, which she bestowed on our whole nation. And when her son
Izates was informed of this famine, 5 he sent great sums of money to the
principal men in Jerusalem. However, what favors this queen and king
conferred upon our city Jerusalem shall be further related hereafter.
CHAPTER 3. How Artabanus, the King of Parthia out of Fear of the Secret
Contrivances of His Subjects Against Him, Went to Izates, and Was By Him
Reinstated in His Government; as Also How Bardanes His Son Denounced War
Against Izates.
1. But now Artabanus, king of the Parthians perceiving that the
governors of the provinces had framed a plot against him, did not think
it safe for him to continue among them; but resolved to go to Izates, in
hopes of finding some way for his preservation by his means, and, if
possible, for his return to his own dominions. So he came to Izates, and
brought a thousand of his kindred and servants with him, and met him
upon the road, while he well knew Izates, but Izates did not know him.
When Artabanus stood near him, and, in the first place, worshipped him,
according to the custom, he then said to him, "O king! do not thou
overlook me thy servant, nor do thou proudly reject the suit I make
thee; for as I am reduced to a low estate, by the change of fortune, and
of a king am become a private man, I stand in need of thy assistance.
Have regard, therefore, unto the uncertainty of fortune, and esteem the
care thou shalt take of me to be taken of thyself also; for if I be
neglected, and my subjects go off unpunished, many other subjects will
become the more insolent towards other kings also." And this speech
Artabanus made with tears in his eyes, and with a dejected countenance.
Now as soon as Izates heard Artabanus's name, and saw him stand as a
supplicant before him, he leaped down from his horse immediately, and
said to him, "Take courage, O king! nor be disturbed at thy present
calamity, as if it were incurable; for the change of thy sad condition
shall be sudden; for thou shalt find me to be more thy friend and thy
assistant than thy hopes can promise thee; for I will either re-
establish thee in the kingdom of Parthia, or lose my own."
2. When he had said this, he set Artabanus upon his horse, and followed
him on foot, in honor of a king whom he owned as greater than himself;
which, when Artabanus saw, he was very uneasy at it, and sware by his
present fortune and honor that he would get down from his horse, unless
Izates would get upon his horse again, and go before him. So he complied
with his desire, and leaped upon his horse; and when he had brought him
to his royal palace, he showed him all sorts of respect when they sat
together, and he gave him the upper place at festivals also, as
regarding not his present fortune, but his former dignity, and that upon
this consideration also, that the changes of fortune are common to all
men. He also wrote to the Parthians, to persuade them to receive
Artabanus again; and gave them his right hand and his faith, that he
should forget what was past and done, and that he would undertake for
this as a mediator between them. Now the Parthians did not themselves
refuse to receive him again, but pleaded that it was not now in their
power so to do, because they had committed the government to another
person, who had accepted of it, and whose name was Cinnamus; and that
they were afraid lest a civil war should arise on this account. When
Cinnamus understood their intentions, he wrote to Artabanus himself, for
he had been brought up by him, and was of a nature good and gentle also,
and desired him to put confidence in him, and to come and take his own
dominions again. Accordingly, Artabanus trusted him, and returned home;
when Cinnamus met him, worshipped him, and saluted him as a king, and
took the diadem off his own head, and put it on the head of Artabanus.
3. And thus was Artahanus restored to his kingdom again by the means of
Izates, when he had lost it by the means of the grandees of the kingdom.
Nor was he unmindful of the benefits he had conferred upon him, but
rewarded him with such honors as were of the greatest esteem among them;
for he gave him leave to wear his tiara upright, 6 and to sleep upon a
golden bed, which are privileges and marks of honor peculiar to the
kings of Parthia. He also cut off a large and fruitful country from the
king of Armenia, and bestowed it upon him. The name of the country is
Nisibis, wherein the Macedonians had formerly built that city which they
called Antioch of Mygodonia. And these were the honors that were paid
Izates by the king of the Parthians.
4. But in no long time Artabanus died, and left his kingdom to his son
Bardanes. Now this Bardanes came to Izates, and would have persuaded him
to join him with his army, and to assist him in the war he was preparing
to make with the Romans; but he could not prevail with him. For Izates
so well knew the strength and good fortune of the Romans, that he took
Bardanes to attempt what was impossible to be done; and having besides
sent his sons, five in number, and they but young also, to learn
accurately the language of our nation, together with our learning, as
well as he had sent his mother to worship at our temple, as I have said
already, was the more backward to a compliance; and restrained Bardanes,
telling him perpetually of the great armies and famous actions of the
Romans, and thought thereby to terrify him, and desired thereby to
hinder him from that expedition. But the Parthian king was provoked at
this his behavior, and denounced war immediately against Izates. Yet did
he gain no advantage by this war, because God cut off all his hopes
therein; for the Parthians perceiving Bardanes's intentions, and how he
had determined to make war with the Romans, slew him, and gave his
kingdom to his brother Gotarzes. He also, in no long time, perished by a
plot made against him, and Vologases, his brother, succeeded him, who
committed two of his provinces to two of his brothers by the same
father; that of the Medes to the elder, Pacorus; and Armenia to the
younger, Tiridates.
CHAPTER 4. How Izates Was Betrayed By His Own Subjects, And Fought
Against By The Arabians And How Izates, By The Providence Of God, Was
Delivered Out Of Their Hands.
1. Now when the king's brother, Monobazus, and his other kindred, saw
how Izates, by his piety to God, was become greatly esteemed by all men,
they also had a desire to leave the religion of their country, and to
embrace the customs of the Jews; but that act of theirs was discovered
by Izates's subjects. Whereupon the grandees were much displeased, and
could not contain their anger at them; but had an intention, when they
should find a proper opportunity, to inflict a punishment upon them.
Accordingly, they wrote to Abia, king of the Arabians, and promised him
great sums of money, if he would make an expedition against their king;
and they further promised him, that, on the first onset, they would
desert their king, because they were desirous to punish him, by reason
of the hatred he had to their religious worship; then they obliged
themselves, by oaths, to be faithful to each other, and desired that he
would make haste in this design. The king of Arabia complied with their
desires, and brought a great army into the field, and marched against
Izates; and, in the beginning of the first onset, and before they came
to a close fight, those grandees, as if they had a panic terror upon
them, all deserted Izates, as they had agreed to do, and, turning their
backs upon their enemies, ran away. Yet was not Izates dismayed at this;
but when he understood that the grandees had betrayed him, he also
retired into his camp, and made inquiry into the matter; and as soon as
he knew who they were that made this conspiracy with the king of Arabia,
he cut off those that were found guilty; and renewing the fight on the
next day, he slew the greatest part of his enemies, and forced all the
rest to betake themselves to flight. He also pursued their king, and
drove him into a fortress called Arsamus, and following on the siege
vigorously, he took that fortress. And when he had plundered it of all
the prey that was in it, which was not small, he returned to Adiabene;
yet did not he take Abia alive, because, when he found himself
encompassed on every side, he slew himself.
2. But although the grandees of Adiabene had failed in their first
attempt, as being delivered up by God into their king's hands, yet would
they not even then be quiet, but wrote again to Vologases, who was then
king of Parthia, and desired that he would kill Izates, and set over
them some other potentate, who should be of a Parthian family; for they
said that they hated their own king for abrogating the laws of their
forefathers, and embracing foreign customs. When the king of Parthia
heard this, he boldly made war upon Izates; and as he had no just
pretense for this war, he sent to him, and demanded back those honorable
privileges which had been bestowed on him by his father, and threatened,
on his refusal, to make war upon him. Upon hearing of this, Izates was
under no small trouble of mind, as thinking it would be a reproach upon
him to appear to resign those privileges that had been bestowed upon him
out of cowardice; yet because he knew, that though the king of Parthia
should receive back those honors, yet would he not be quiet, he resolved
to commit himself to God, his Protector, in the present danger he was in
of his life; and as he esteemed him to be his principal assistant, he
intrusted his children and his wives to a very strong fortress, and laid
up his corn in his citadels, and set the hay and the grass on fire. And
when he had thus put things in order, as well as he could, he awaited
the coming of the enemy. And when the king of Parthia was come, with a
great army of footmen and horsemen, which he did sooner than was
expected, [for he marched in great haste,] and had cast up a bank at the
river that parted Adiabene from Media,—Izates also pitched his camp not
far off, having with him six thousand horsemen. But there came a
messenger to Izates, sent by the king of Parthia, who told him how large
his dominions were, as reaching from the river Euphrates to Bactria, and
enumerated that king's subjects; he also threatened him that he should
be punished, as a person ungrateful to his lords; and said that the God
whom he worshipped could not deliver him out of the king's hands. When
the messenger had delivered this his message, Izates replied that he
knew the king of Parthia's power was much greater than his own; but that
he knew also that God was much more powerful than all men. And when he
had returned him this answer, he betook himself to make supplication to
God, and threw himself upon the ground, and put ashes upon his head, in
testimony of his confusion, and fasted, together with his wives and
children. 7 Then he called upon God, and said, "O Lord and Governor, if
I have not in vain committed myself to thy goodness, but have justly
determined that thou only art the Lord and principal of all beings, come
now to my assistance, and defend me from my enemies, not only on my own
account, but on account of their insolent behavior with regard to thy
power, while they have not feared to lift up their proud and arrogant
tongue against thee." Thus did he lament and bemoan himself, with tears
in his eyes; whereupon God heard his prayer. And immediately that very
night Vologases received letters, the contents of which were these, that
a great band of Dahe and Sacse, despising him, now he was gone so long a
journey from home, had made an expedition, and laid Parthia waste; so
that he [was forced to] retire back, without doing any thing. And thus
it was that Izates escaped the threatenings of the Parthians, by the
providence of God.
3. It was not long ere Izates died, when he had completed fifty-five
years of his life, and had ruled his kingdom twenty-four years. He left
behind him twenty-four sons and twenty-four daughters. However, he gave
order that his brother Monobazus should succeed in the government,
thereby requiting him, because, while he was himself absent after their
father's death, he had faithfully preserved the government for him. But
when Helena, his mother, heard of her son's death, she was in great
heaviness, as was but natural, upon her loss of such a most dutiful son;
yet was it a comfort to her that she heard the succession came to her
eldest son. Accordingly, she went to him in haste; and when she was come
into Adiabene, she did not long outlive her son Izates. But Monobazus
sent her bones, as well as those of Izates, his brother, to Jerusalem,
and gave order that they should be buried at the pyramids 8 which their
mother had erected; they were three in number, and distant no more than
three furlongs from the city Jerusalem. But for the actions of Monobazus
the king, which he did during the rest of his life, we will relate them
hereafter.
CHAPTER 5. Concerning Theudas And The Sons Of Judas The Galilean; As
Also What Calamity Fell Upon The Jews On The Day Of The Passover.
1. Now it came to pass, while Fadus was procurator of Judea, that a
certain magician, whose name was Theudas, 9 persuaded a great part of
the people to take their effects with them, and follow him to the river
Jordan; for he told them he was a prophet, and that he would, by his own
command, divide the river, and afford them an easy passage over it; and
many were deluded by his words. However, Fadus did not permit them to
make any advantage of his wild attempt, but sent a troop of horsemen out
against them; who, falling upon them unexpectedly, slew many of them,
and took many of them alive. They also took Theudas alive, and cut off
his head, and carried it to Jerusalem. This was what befell the Jews in
the time of Cuspius Fadus's government.
2. Then came Tiberius Alexander as successor to Fadus; he was the son of
Alexander the alabarch of Alexandria, which Alexander was a principal
person among all his contemporaries, both for his family and wealth: he
was also more eminent for his piety than this his son Alexander, for he
did not continue in the religion of his country. Under these procurators
that great famine happened in Judea, in which queen Helena bought corn
in Egypt at a great expense, and distributed it to those that were in
want, as I have related already. And besides this, the sons of Judas of
Galilee were now slain; I mean of that Judas who caused the people to
revolt, when Cyrenius came to take an account of the estates of the
Jews, as we have showed in a foregoing book. The names of those sons
were James and Simon, whom Alexander commanded to be crucified. But now
Herod, king of Chalcis, removed Joseph, the son of Camydus, from the
high priesthood, and made Ananias, the son of Nebedeu, his successor.
And now it was that Cumanus came as successor to Tiberius Alexander; as
also that Herod, brother of Agrippa the great king, departed this life,
in the eighth year of the reign of Claudius Cæsar. He left behind him
three sons; Aristobulus, whom he had by his first wife, with
Bernicianus, and Hyrcanus, both whom he had by Bernice his brother's
daughter. But Claudius Cæsar bestowed his dominions on Agrippa, junior.
3. Now while the Jewish affairs were under the administration of
Cumanus, there happened a great tumult at the city of Jerusalem, and
many of the Jews perished therein. But I shall first explain the
occasion whence it was derived. When that feast which is called the
passover was at hand, at which time our custom is to use unleavened
bread, and a great multitude was gathered together from all parts to
that feast, Cumanus was afraid lest some attempt of innovation should
then be made by them; so he ordered that one regiment of the army should
take their arms, and stand in the temple cloisters, to repress any
attempts of innovation, if perchance any such should begin; and this was
no more than what the former procurators of Judea did at such festivals.
But on the fourth day of the feast, a certain soldier let down his
breeches, and exposed his privy members to the multitude, which put
those that saw him into a furious rage, and made them cry out that this
impious action was not done to approach them, but God himself; nay, some
of them reproached Cumanus, and pretended that the soldier was set on by
him, which, when Cumanus heard, he was also himself not a little
provoked at such reproaches laid upon him; yet did he exhort them to
leave off such seditious attempts, and not to raise a tumult at the
festival. But when he could not induce them to be quiet for they still
went on in their reproaches to him, he gave order that the whole army
should take their entire armor, and come to Antonia, which was a
fortress, as we have said already, which overlooked the temple; but when
the multitude saw the soldiers there, they were affrighted at them, and
ran away hastily; but as the passages out were but narrow, and as they
thought their enemies followed them, they were crowded together in their
flight, and a great number were pressed to death in those narrow
passages; nor indeed was the number fewer than twenty thousand that
perished in this tumult. So instead of a festival, they had at last a
mournful day of it; and they all of them forgot their prayers and
sacrifices, and betook themselves to lamentation and weeping; so great
an affliction did the impudent obsceneness of a single soldier bring
upon them. 10
4. Now before this their first mourning was over, another mischief
befell them also; for some of those that raised the foregoing tumult,
when they were traveling along the public road, about a hundred furlongs
from the city, robbed Stephanus, a servant of Cæsar, as he was
journeying, and plundered him of all that he had with him; which things
when Cumanus heard of, he sent soldiers immediately, and ordered them to
plunder the neighboring villages, and to bring the most eminent persons
among them in bonds to him. Now as this devastation was making, one of
the soldiers seized the laws of Moses that lay in one of those villages,
and brought them out before the eyes of all present, and tore them to
pieces; and this was done with reproachful language, and much
scurrility; which things when the Jews heard of, they ran together, and
that in great numbers, and came down to Cæsarea, where Cumanus then was,
and besought him that he would avenge, not themselves, but God himself,
whose laws had been affronted; for that they could not bear to live any
longer, if the laws of their forefathers must be affronted after this
manner. Accordingly Cumanus, out of fear lest the multitude should go
into a sedition, and by the advice of his friends also, took care that
the soldier who had offered the affront to the laws should be beheaded,
and thereby put a stop to the sedition which was ready to be kindled a
second time.
CHAPTER 6. How There Happened A Quarrel Between The Jews And The
Samaritans; And How Claudius Put An End To Their Differences.
1. Now there arose a quarrel between the Samaritans and the Jews on the
occasion following: It was the custom of the Galileans, when they came
to the holy city at the festivals, to take their journeys through the
country of the Samaritans; 11 and at this time there lay, in the road
they took, a village that was called Ginea, which was situated in the
limits of Samaria and the great plain, where certain persons thereto
belonging fought with the Galileans, and killed a great many of them.
But when the principal of the Galileans were informed of what had been
done, they came to Cumanus, and desired him to avenge the murder of
those that were killed; but he was induced by the Samaritans, with
money, to do nothing in the matter; upon which the Galileans were much
displeased, and persuaded the multitude of the Jews to betake themselves
to arms, and to regain their liberty, saying that slavery was in itself
a bitter thing, but that when it was joined with direct injuries, it was
perfectly intolerable, And when their principal men endeavored to pacify
them, and promised to endeavor to persuade Cumanus to avenge those that
were killed, they would not hearken to them, but took their weapons, and
entreated the assistance of Eleazar, the son of Dineus, a robber, who
had many years made his abode in the mountains, with which assistance
they plundered many villages of the Samaritans. When Cumanus heard of
this action of theirs, he took the band of Sebaste, with four regiments
of footmen, and armed the Samaritans, and marched out against the Jews,
and caught them, and slew many of them, and took a great number of them
alive; whereupon those that were the most eminent persons at Jerusalem,
and that both in regard to the respect that was paid them, and the
families they were of, as soon as they saw to what a height things were
gone, put on sackcloth, and heaped ashes upon their heads, and by all
possible means besought the seditious, and persuaded them that they
would set before their eyes the utter subversion of their country, the
conflagration of their temple, and the slavery of themselves, their
wives, and children, 12 which would be the consequences of what they
were doing; and would alter their minds, would cast away their weapons,
and for the future be quiet, and return to their own homes. These
persuasions of theirs prevailed upon them. So the people dispersed
themselves, and the robbers went away again to their places of strength;
and after this time all Judea was overrun with robberies.
2. But the principal of the Samaritans went to Ummidius Quadratus, the
president of Syria, who at that time was at Tyre, and accused the Jews
of setting their villages on fire, and plundering them; and said withal,
that they were not so much displeased at what they had suffered, as they
were at the contempt thereby showed the Romans; while if they had
received any injury, they ought to have made them the judges of what had
been done, and not presently to make such devastation, as if they had
not the Romans for their governors; on which account they came to him,
in order to obtain that vengeance they wanted. This was the accusation
which the Samaritans brought against the Jews. But the Jews affirmed
that the Samaritans were the authors of this tumult and fighting, and
that, in the first place, Cumanus had been corrupted by their gifts, and
passed over the murder of those that were slain in silence;—which
allegations when Quadratus heard, he put off the hearing of the cause,
and promised that he would give sentence when he should come into Judea,
and should have a more exact knowledge of the truth of that matter. So
these men went away without success. Yet was it not long ere Quadratus
came to Samaria, where, upon hearing the cause, he supposed that the
Samaritans were the authors of that disturbance. But when he was
informed that certain of the Jews were making innovations, he ordered
those to be crucified whom Cumanus had taken captives. From whence he
came to a certain village called Lydda, which was not less than a city
in largeness, and there heard the Samaritan cause a second time before
his tribunal, and there learned from a certain Samaritan that one of the
chief of the Jews, whose name was Dortus, and some other innovators with
him, four in number, persuaded the multitude to a revolt from the
Romans; whom Quadratus ordered to be put to death: but still he sent
away Ananias the high priest, and Ananus the commander [of the temple],
in bonds to Rome, to give an account of what they had done to Claudius
Cæsar. He also ordered the principal men, both of the Samaritans and of
the Jews, as also Cumanus the procurator, and Celer the tribune, to go
to Italy to the emperor, that he might hear their cause, and determine
their differences one with another. But he came again to the city of
Jerusalem, out of his fear that the multitude of the Jews should attempt
some innovations; but he found the city in a peaceable state, and
celebrating one of the usual festivals of their country to God. So he
believed that they would not attempt any innovations, and left them at
the celebration of the festival, and returned to Antioch.
3. Now Cumanus, and the principal of the Samaritans, who were sent to
Rome, had a day appointed them by the emperor whereon they were to have
pleaded their cause about the quarrels they had one with another. But
now Cæsar's freed-men and his friends were very zealous on the behalf of
Cumanus and the Samaritans; and they had prevailed over the Jews, unless
Agrippa, junior, who was then at Rome, had seen the principal of the
Jews hard set, and had earnestly entreated Agrippina, the emperor's
wife, to persuade her husband to hear the cause, so as was agreeable to
his justice, and to condemn those to be punished who were really the
authors of this revolt from the Roman government:—whereupon Claudius was
so well disposed beforehand, that when he had heard the cause, and found
that the Samaritans had been the ringleaders in those mischievous
doings, he gave order that those who came up to him should be slain, and
that Cumanus should be banished. He also gave order that Celer the
tribune should be carried back to Jerusalem, and should be drawn through
the city in the sight of all the people, and then should be slain.
CHAPTER 7. Felix Is Made Procurator Of Judea; As Also Concerning
Agrippa, Junior And His Sisters.
1. So Claudius sent Felix, the brother of Pallas, to take care of the
affairs of Judea; and when he had already completed the twelfth year of
his reign, he bestowed upon Agrippa the tetrarchy of Philip and Batanea,
and added thereto Trachonites, with Abila; which last had been the
tetrarchy of Lysanias; but he took from him Chalcis, when he had been
governor thereof four years. And when Agrippa had received these
countries as the gift of Cæsar, he gave his sister Drusilla in marriage
to Azizus, king of Emesa, upon his consent to be circumcised; for
Epiphanes, the son of king Antiochus, had refused to marry her, because,
after he had promised her father formerly to come over to the Jewish
religion, he would not now perform that promise. He also gave Mariamne
in marriage to Archelaus, the son of Helcias, to whom she had formerly
been betrothed by Agrippa her father; from which marriage was derived a
daughter, whose name was Bernice.
2. But for the marriage of Drusilla with Azizus, it was in no long time
afterward dissolved upon the following occasion: While Felix was
procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her;
for she did indeed exceed all other women in beauty; and he sent to her
a person whose name was Simon 13 one of his friends; a Jew he was, and
by birth a Cypriot, and one who pretended to be a magician, and
endeavored to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and marry
him; and promised, that if she would not refuse him, he would make her a
happy woman. Accordingly she acted ill, and because she was desirous to
avoid her sister Bernice's envy, for she was very ill treated by her on
account of her beauty, was prevailed upon to transgress the laws of her
forefathers, and to marry Felix; and when he had had a son by her, he
named him Agrippa. But after what manner that young man, with his wife,
perished at the conflagration of the mountain Vesuvius, 14 in the days
of Titus Cæsar, shall be related hereafter. 15
3. But as for Bernice, she lived a widow a long while after the death of
Herod [king of Chalcis], who was both her husband and her uncle; but
when the report went that she had criminal conversation with her
brother, [Agrippa, junior,] she persuaded Poleme, who was king of
Cilicia, to be circumcised, and to marry her, as supposing that by this
means she should prove those calumnies upon her to be false; and Poleme
was prevailed upon, and that chiefly on account of her riches. Yet did
not this matrimony endure long; but Bernice left Poleme, and, as was
said, with impure intentions. So he forsook at once this matrimony, and
the Jewish religion; and, at the same time, Mariamne put away Archelaus,
and was married to Demetrius, the principal man among the Alexandrian
Jews, both for his family and his wealth; and indeed he was then their
alabarch. So she named her son whom she had by him Agrippinus. But of
all these particulars we shall hereafter treat more exactly. 16
CHAPTER 8. After What Manner Upon The Death Of Claudius, Nero Succeeded
In The Government; As Also What Barbarous Things He Did. Concerning The
Robbers, Murderers And Impostors, That Arose While Felix And Festus Were
Procurators Of Judea.
1. Now Claudius Cæsar died when he had reigned thirteen years, eight
months, and twenty days; 17 and a report went about that he was poisoned
by his wife Agrippina. Her father was Germanicus, the brother of Cæsar.
Her husband was Domitius Aenobarbus, one of the most illustrious persons
that was in the city of Rome; after whose death, and her long
continuance in widowhood, Claudius took her to wife. She brought along
with her a son, Domtitus, of the same name with his father. He had
before this slain his wife Messalina, out of jealousy, by whom he had
his children Britannicus and Octavia; their eldest sister was Antonia,
whom he had by Pelina his first wife. He also married Octavia to Nero;
for that was the name that Cæsar gave him afterward, upon his adopting
him for his son.
2. But now Agrippina was afraid, lest, when Britannicus should come to
man's estate, he should succeed his father in the government, and
desired to seize upon the principality beforehand for her own son
[Nero]; upon which the report went that she thence compassed the death
of Claudius. Accordingly, she sent Burrhus, the general of the army,
immediately, and with him the tribunes, and such also of the freed-men
as were of the greatest authority, to bring Nero away into the camp, and
to salute him emperor. And when Nero had thus obtained the government,
he got Britannicus to be so poisoned, that the multitude should not
perceive it; although he publicly put his own mother to death not long
afterward, making her this requital, not only for being born of her, but
for bringing it so about by her contrivances that he obtained the Roman
empire. He also slew Octavia his own wife, and many other illustrious
persons, under this pretense, that they plotted against him.
3. But I omit any further discourse about these affairs; for there have
been a great many who have composed the history of Nero; some of which
have departed from the truth of facts out of favor, as having received
benefits from him; while others, out of hatred to him, and the great
ill-will which they bare him, have so impudently raved against him with
their lies, that they justly deserve to be condemned. Nor do I wonder at
such as have told lies of Nero, since they have not in their writings
preserved the truth of history as to those facts that were earlier than
his time, even when the actors could have no way incurred their hatred,
since those writers lived a long time after them. But as to those that
have no regard to truth, they may write as they please; for in that they
take delight: but as to ourselves, who have made truth our direct aim,
we shall briefly touch upon what only belongs remotely to this
undertaking, but shall relate what hath happened to us Jews with great
accuracy, and shall not grudge our pains in giving an account both of
the calamities we have suffered, and of the crimes we have been guilty
of. I will now therefore return to the relation of our own affairs.
4. For in the first year of the reign of Nero, upon the death of Azizus,
king of Emesa, Soemus, his brother, succeeded in his kingdom, and
Aristobulus, the son of Herod, king of Chalcis, was intrusted by Nero
with the government of the Lesser Armenia. Cæsar also bestowed on
Agrippa a certain part of Galilee, Tiberias, and Tarichae, 18 and
ordered them to submit to his jurisdiction. He gave him also Julias, a
city of Perea, with fourteen villages that lay about it.
5. Now as for the affairs of the Jews, they grew worse and worse
continually, for the country was again filled with robbers and
impostors, who deluded the multitude. Yet did Felix catch and put to
death many of those impostors every day, together with the robbers. He
also caught Eleazar, the son of Dineas, who had gotten together a
company of robbers; and this he did by treachery; for he gave him
assurance that he should suffer no harm, and thereby persuaded him to
come to him; but when he came, he bound him, and sent him to Rome. Felix
also bore an ill-will to Jonathan, the high priest, because he
frequently gave him admonitions about governing the Jewish affairs
better than he did, lest he should himself have complaints made of him
by the multitude, since he it was who had desired Cæsar to send him as
procurator of Judea. So Felix contrived a method whereby he might get
rid of him, now he was become so continually troublesome to him; for
such continual admonitions are grievous to those who are disposed to act
unjustly. Wherefore Felix persuaded one of Jonathan's most faithful
friends, a citizen of Jerusalem, whose name was Doras, to bring the
robbers upon Jonathan, in order to kill him; and this he did by
promising to give him a great deal of money for so doing. Doras complied
with the proposal, and contrived matters so, that the robbers might
murder him after the following manner: Certain of those robbers went up
to the city, as if they were going to worship God, while they had
daggers under their garments, and by thus mingling themselves among the
multitude they slew Jonathan 19 and as this murder was never avenged,
the robbers went up with the greatest security at the festivals after
this time; and having weapons concealed in like manner as before, and
mingling themselves among the multitude, they slew certain of their own
enemies, and were subservient to other men for money; and slew others,
not only in remote parts of the city, but in the temple itself also; for
they had the boldness to murder men there, without thinking of the
impiety of which they were guilty. And this seems to me to have been the
reason why God, out of his hatred of these men's wickedness, rejected
our city; and as for the temple, he no longer esteemed it sufficiently
pure for him to inhabit therein, but brought the Romans upon us, and
threw a fire upon the city to purge it; and brought upon us, our wives,
and children, slavery, as desirous to make us wiser by our calamities.
6. These works, that were done by the robbers, filled the city with all
sorts of impiety. And now these impostors and deceivers persuaded the
multitude to follow them into the wilderness, and pretended that they
would exhibit manifest wonders and signs, that should be performed by
the providence of God. And many that were prevailed on by them suffered
the punishments of their folly; for Felix brought them back, and then
punished them. Moreover, there came out of Egypt 20 about this time to
Jerusalem one that said he was a prophet, and advised the multitude of
the common people to go along with him to the Mount of Olives, as it was
called, which lay over against the city, and at the distance of five
furlongs. He said further, that he would show them from hence how, at
his command, the walls of Jerusalem would fall down; and he promised
them that he would procure them an entrance into the city through those
walls, when they were fallen down. Now when Felix was informed of these
things, he ordered his soldiers to take their weapons, and came against
them with a great number of horsemen and footmen from Jerusalem, and
attacked the Egyptian and the people that were with him. He also slew
four hundred of them, and took two hundred alive. But the Egyptian
himself escaped out of the fight, but did not appear any more. And again
the robbers stirred up the people to make war with the Romans, and said
they ought not to obey them at all; and when any persons would not
comply with them, they set fire to their villages, and plundered them.
7. And now it was that a great sedition arose between the Jews that
inhabited Cæsarea, and the Syrians who dwelt there also, concerning
their equal right to the privileges belonging to citizens; for the Jews
claimed the pre-eminence, because Herod their king was the builder of
Cæsarea, and because he was by birth a Jew. Now the Syrians did not deny
what was alleged about Herod; but they said that Cæsarea was formerly
called Strato's Tower, and that then there was not one Jewish
inhabitant. When the presidents of that country heard of these
disorders, they caught the authors of them on both sides, and tormented
them with stripes, and by that means put a stop to the disturbance for a
time. But the Jewish citizens depending on their wealth, and on that
account despising the Syrians, reproached them again, and hoped to
provoke them by such reproaches. However, the Syrians, though they were
inferior in wealth, yet valuing themselves highly on this account, that
the greatest part of the Roman soldiers that were there were either of
Cæsarea or Sebaste, they also for some time used reproachful language to
the Jews also; and thus it was, till at length they came to throwing
stones at one another, and several were wounded, and fell on both sides,
though still the Jews were the conquerors. But when Felix saw that this
quarrel was become a kind of war, he came upon them on the sudden, and
desired the Jews to desist; and when they refused so to do, he armed his
soldiers, and sent them out upon them, and slew many of them, and took
more of them alive, and permitted his soldiers to plunder some of the
houses of the citizens, which were full of riches. Now those Jews that
were more moderate, and of principal dignity among them, were afraid of
themselves, and desired of Felix that he would sound a retreat to his
soldiers, and spare them for the future, and afford them room for
repentance for what they had done; and Felix was prevailed upon to do
so.
8. About this time king Agrippa gave the high priesthood to Ismael, who
was the son of Fabi. And now arose a sedition between the high priests
and the principal men of the multitude of Jerusalem; each of which got
them a company of the boldest sort of men, and of those that loved
innovations about them, and became leaders to them; and when they
struggled together, they did it by casting reproachful words against one
another, and by throwing stones also. And there was nobody to reprove
them; but these disorders were done after a licentious manner in the
city, as if it had no government over it. And such was the impudence 21
and boldness that had seized on the high priests, that they had the
hardiness to send their servants into the threshing-floors, to take away
those tithes that were due to the priests, insomuch that it so fell out
that the poorest sort of the priests died for want. To this degree did
the violence of the seditious prevail over all right and justice.
9. Now when Porcius Festus was sent as successor to Felix by Nero, the
principal of the Jewish inhabitants of Cæsarea went up to Rome to accuse
Felix; and he had certainly been brought to punishment, unless Nero had
yielded to the importunate solicitations of his brother Pallas, who was
at that time had in the greatest honor by him. Two of the principal
Syrians in Cæsarea persuaded Burrhus, who was Nero's tutor, and
secretary for his Greek epistles, by giving him a great sum of money, to
disannul that equality of the Jewish privileges of citizens which they
hitherto enjoyed. So Burrhus, by his solicitations, obtained leave of
the emperor that an epistle should be written to that purpose. This
epistle became the occasion of the following miseries that befell our
nation; for when the Jews of Cæsarea were informed of the contents of
this epistle to the Syrians, they were more disorderly than before, till
a war was kindled.
10. Upon Festus's coming into Judea, it happened that Judea was
afflicted by the robbers, while all the villages were set on fire, and
plundered by them. And then it was that the sicarii, as they were
called, who were robbers, grew numerous. They made use of small swords,
not much different in length from the Persian acinacae, but somewhat
crooked, and like the Roman sicae, [or sickles,] as they were called;
and from these weapons these robbers got their denomination; and with
these weapons they slew a great many; for they mingled themselves among
the multitude at their festivals, when they were come up in crowds from
all parts to the city to worship God, as we said before, and easily slew
those that they had a mind to slay. They also came frequently upon the
villages belonging to their enemies, with their weapons, and plundered
them, and set them on fire. So Festus sent forces, both horsemen and
footmen, to fall upon those that had been seduced by a certain impostor,
who promised them deliverance and freedom from the miseries they were
under, if they would but follow him as far as the wilderness.
Accordingly, those forces that were sent destroyed both him that had
deluded them, and those that were his followers also.
11. About the same time king Agrippa built himself a very large dining-
room in the royal palace at Jerusalem, near to the portico. Now this
palace had been erected of old by the children of Asamoneus and was
situate upon an elevation, and afforded a most delightful prospect to
those that had a mind to take a view of the city, which prospect was
desired by the king; and there he could lie down, and eat, and thence
observe what was done in the temple; which thing, when the chief men of
Jerusalem saw they were very much displeased at it; for it was not
agreeable to the institutions of our country or law that what was done
in the temple should be viewed by others, especially what belonged to
the sacrifices. They therefore erected a wall upon the uppermost
building which belonged to the inner court of the temple towards the
west, which wall when it was built, did not only intercept the prospect
of the dining-room in the palace, but also of the western cloisters that
belonged to the outer court of the temple also, where it was that the
Romans kept guards for the temple at the festivals. At these doings both
king Agrippa, and principally Festus the procurator, were much
displeased; and Festus ordered them to pull the wall down again: but the
Jews petitioned him to give them leave to send an embassage about this
matter to Nero; for they said they could not endure to live if any part
of the temple should be demolished; and when Festus had given them leave
so to do, they sent ten of their principal men to Nero, as also Ismael
the high priest, and Helcias, the keeper of the sacred treasure. And
when Nero had heard what they had to say, he not only forgave 22 them
what they had already done, but also gave them leave to let the wall
they had built stand. This was granted them in order to gratify Poppea,
Nero's wife, who was a religious woman, and had requested these favors
of Nero, and who gave order to the ten ambassadors to go their way home;
but retained Helcias and Ismael as hostages with herself. As soon as the
king heard this news, he gave the high priesthood to Joseph, who was
called Cabi, the son of Simon, formerly high priest.
CHAPTER 9. Concerning Albinus Under Whose Procuratorship James Was
Slain; As Also What Edifices Were Built By Agrippa.
1. And now Cæsar, upon hearing the death of Festus, sent Albinus into
Judea, as procurator. But the king deprived Joseph of the high
priesthood, and bestowed the succession to that dignity on the son of
Ananus, who was also himself called Ananus. Now the report goes that
this eldest Ananus proved a most fortunate man; for he had five sons who
had all performed the office of a high priest to God, and who had
himself enjoyed that dignity a long time formerly, which had never
happened to any other of our high priests. But this younger Ananus, who,
as we have told you already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in
his temper, and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees,
23 who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of the
Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus was of this
disposition, he thought he had now a proper opportunity [to exercise his
authority]. Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so
he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the
brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some
others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an
accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be
stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens,
and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they
disliked what was done; they also sent to the king [Agrippa], desiring
him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for that what he
had already done was not to be justified; nay, some of them went also to
meet Albinus, as he was upon his journey from Alexandria, and informed
him that it was not lawful for Ananus to assemble a sanhedrim without
his consent. 24 Whereupon Albinus complied with what they said, and
wrote in anger to Ananus, and threatened that he would bring him to
punishment for what he had done; on which king Agrippa took the high
priesthood from him, when he had ruled but three months, and made Jesus,
the son of Damneus, high priest.
2. Now as soon as Albinus was come to the city of Jerusalem, he used all
his endeavors and care that the country might be kept in peace, and this
by destroying many of the Sicarii. But as for the high priest, Ananias
25 he increased in glory every day, and this to a great degree, and had
obtained the favor and esteem of the citizens in a signal manner; for he
was a great hoarder up of money: he therefore cultivated the friendship
of Albinus, and of the high priest [Jesus], by making them presents; he
also had servants who were very wicked, who joined themselves to the
boldest sort of the people, and went to the thrashing-floors, and took
away the tithes that belonged to the priests by violence, and did not
refrain from beating such as would not give these tithes to them. So the
other high priests acted in the like manner, as did those his servants,
without any one being able to prohibit them; so that [some of the]
priests, that of old were wont to be supported with those tithes, died
for want of food.
3. But now the Sicarii went into the city by night, just before the
festival, which was now at hand, and took the scribe belonging to the
governor of the temple, whose name was Eleazar, who was the son of
Ananus [Ananias] the high priest, and bound him, and carried him away
with them; after which they sent to Ananias, and said that they would
send the scribe to him, if he would persuade Albinus to release ten of
those prisoners which he had caught of their party; so Ananias was
plainly forced to persuade Albinus, and gained his request of him. This
was the beginning of greater calamities; for the robbers perpetually
contrived to catch some of Ananias's servants; and when they had taken
them alive, they would not let them go, till they thereby recovered some
of their own Sicarii. And as they were again become no small number,
they grew bold, and were a great affliction to the whole country.
4. About this time it was that king Agrippa built Cæsarea Philippi
larger than it was before, and, in honor of Nero, named it Neronlas. And
when he had built a theater at Berytus, with vast expenses, he bestowed
on them shows, to be exhibited every year, and spent therein many ten
thousand [drachmae]; he also gave the people a largess of corn, and
distributed oil among them, and adorned the entire city with statues of
his own donation, and with original images made by ancient hands; nay,
he almost transferred all that was most ornamental in his own kingdom
thither. This made him more than ordinarily hated by his subjects,
because he took those things away that belonged to them to adorn a
foreign city. And now Jesus, the son of Gamaliel, became the successor
of Jesus, the son of Damneus, in the high priesthood, which the king had
taken from the other; on which account a sedition arose between the high
priests, with regard to one another; for they got together bodies of the
boldest sort of the people, and frequently came, from reproaches, to
throwing of stones at each other. But Ananias was too hard for the rest,
by his riches, which enabled him to gain those that were most ready to
receive. Costobarus also, and Saulus, did themselves get together a
multitude of wicked wretches, and this because they were of the royal
family; and so they obtained favor among them, because of their kindred
to Agrippa; but still they used violence with the people, and were very
ready to plunder those that were weaker than themselves. And from that
time it principally came to pass that our city was greatly disordered,
and that all things grew worse and worse among us.
5. But when Albinus heard that Gessius Florus was coming to succeed him,
he was desirous to appear to do somewhat that might be grateful to the
people of Jerusalem; so he brought out all those prisoners who seemed to
him to be most plainly worthy of death, and ordered them to be put to
death accordingly. But as to those who had been put into prison on some
trifling occasions, he took money of them, and dismissed them; by which
means the prisons were indeed emptied, but the country was filled with
robbers.
6. Now as many of the Levites, 26 which is a tribe of ours, as were
singers of hymns, persuaded the king to assemble a sanhedrim, and to
give them leave to wear linen garments, as well as the priests for they
said that this would be a work worthy the times of his government, that
he might have a memorial of such a novelty, as being his doing. Nor did
they fail of obtaining their desire; for the king, with the suffrages of
those that came into the sanhedrim, granted the singers of hymns this
privilege, that they might lay aside their former garments, and wear
such a linen one as they desired; and as a part of this tribe ministered
in the temple, he also permitted them to learn those hymns as they had
besought him for. Now all this was contrary to the laws of our country,
which, whenever they have been transgressed, we have never been able to
avoid the punishment of such transgressions.
7. And now it was that the temple was finished. So when the people saw
that the workmen were unemployed, who were above eighteen thousand and
that they, receiving no wages, were in want because they had earned
their bread by their labors about the temple; and while they were
unwilling to keep by them the treasures that were there deposited, out
of fear of [their being carried away by] the Romans; and while they had
a regard to the making provision for the workmen; they had a mind to
expend these treasures upon them; for if any one of them did but labor
for a single hour, he received his pay immediately; so they persuaded
him to rebuild the eastern cloisters. These cloisters belonged to the
outer court, and were situated in a deep valley, and had walls that
reached four hundred cubits [in length], and were built of square and
very white stones, the length of each of which stones was twenty cubits,
and their height six cubits. This was the work of king Solomon, 27 who
first of all built the entire temple. But king Agrippa, who had the care
of the temple committed to him by Claudius Cæsar, considering that it is
easy to demolish any building, but hard to build it up again, and that
it was particularly hard to do it to these cloisters, which would
require a considerable time, and great sums of money, he denied the
petitioners their request about that matter; but he did not obstruct
them when they desired the city might be paved with white stone. He also
deprived Jesus, the son of Gamaliel, of the high priesthood, and gave it
to Matthias, the son of Theophilus, under whom the Jews' war with the
Romans took its beginning.
CHAPTER 10. An Enumeration Of The High Priests.
1. And now I think it proper and agreeable to this history to give an
account of our high priests; how they began, who those are which are
capable of that dignity, and how many of them there had been at the end
of the war. In the first place, therefore, history informs us that
Aaron, the brother of Moses, officiated to God as a high priest, and
that, after his death, his sons succeeded him immediately; and that this
dignity hath been continued down from them all to their posterity.
Whence it is a custom of our country, that no one should take the high
priesthood of God but he who is of the blood of Aaron, while every one
that is of another stock, though he were a king, can never obtain that
high priesthood. Accordingly, the number of all the high priests from
Aaron, of whom we have spoken already, as of the first of them, until
Phanas, who was made high priest during the war by the seditious, was
eighty-three; of whom thirteen officiated as high priests in the
wilderness, from the days of Moses, while the tabernacle was standing,
until the people came into Judea, when king Solomon erected the temple
to God; for at the first they held the high priesthood till the end of
their life, although afterward they had successors while they were
alive. Now these thirteen, who were the descendants of two of the sons
of Aaron, received this dignity by succession, one after another; for
their form of government was an aristocracy, and after that a monarchy,
and in the third place the government was regal. Now the number of years
during the rule of these thirteen, from the day when our fathers
departed out of Egypt, under Moses their leader, until the building of
that temple which king Solomon erected at Jerusalem, were six hundred
and twelve. After those thirteen high priests, eighteen took the high
priesthood at Jerusalem, one in succession to another, from the days of
king Solomon, until Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made an expedition
against that city, and burnt the temple, and removed our nation into
Babylon, and then took Josadek, the high priest, captive; the times of
these high priests were four hundred and sixty-six years, six months,
and ten days, while the Jews were still under the regal government. But
after the term of seventy years' captivity under the Babylonians, Cyrus,
king of Persia, sent the Jews from Babylon to their own land again, and
gave them leave to rebuild their temple; at which time Jesus, the son of
Josadek, took the high priesthood over the captives when they were
returned home. Now he and his posterity, who were in all fifteen, until
king Antiochus Eupator, were under a democratical government for four
hundred and fourteen years; and then the forementioned Antiochus, and
Lysias the general of his army, deprived Onias, who was also called
Menelaus, of the high priesthood, and slew him at Berea; and driving
away the son [of Onias the third], put Jaeimus into the place of the
high priest, one that was indeed of the stock of Aaron, but not of that
family of Onias. On which account Onias, who was the nephew of Onias
that was dead, and bore the same name with his father, came into Egypt,
and got into the friendship of Ptolemy Philometor, and Cleopatra his
wife, and persuaded them to make him the high priest of that temple
which he built to God in the prefecture of Heliopolis, and this in
imitation of that at Jerusalem; but as for that temple which was built
in Egypt, we have spoken of it frequently already. Now when Jacimus had
retained the priesthood three years, he died, and there was no one that
succeeded him, but the city continued seven years without a high priest.
But then the posterity of the sons of Asamoneus, who had the government
of the nation conferred upon them, when they had beaten the Macedonians
in war, appointed Jonathan to be their high priest, who ruled over them
seven years. And when he had been slain by the treacherous contrivance
of Trypho, as we have related some where, Simon his brother took the
high priesthood; and when he was destroyed at a feast by the treachery
of his son-in-law, his own son, whose name was Hyrcanus, succeeded him,
after he had held the high priesthood one year longer than his brother.
This Hyrcanus enjoyed that dignity thirty years, and died an old man,
leaving the succession to Judas, who was also called Aristobulus, whose
brother Alexander was his heir; which Judas died of a sore distemper,
after he had kept the priesthood, together with the royal authority; for
this Judas was the first that put on his head a diadem for one year. And
when Alexander had been both king and high priest twenty-seven years, he
departed this life, and permitted his wife Alexandra to appoint him that
should be high priest; so she gave the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, but
retained the kingdom herself nine years, and then departed this life.
The like duration [and no longer] did her son Hyrcanus enjoy the high
priesthood; for after her death his brother Aristobulus fought against
him, and beat him, and deprived him of his principality; and he did
himself both reign, and perform the office of high priest to God. But
when he had reigned three years, and as many months, Pompey came upon
him, and not only took the city of Jerusalem by force, but put him and
his children in bonds, and sent them to Rome. He also restored the high
priesthood to Hyrcanus, and made him governor of the nation, but forbade
him to wear a diadem. This Hyrcanus ruled, besides his first nine years,
twenty-four years more, when Barzapharnes and Pacorus, the generals of
the Parthians, passed over Euphrates, and fought with Hyrcanus, and took
him alive, and made Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, king; and when he
had reigned three years and three months, Sosius and Herod besieged him,
and took him, when Antony had him brought to Antioch, and slain there.
Herod was then made king by the Romans, but did no longer appoint high
priests out of the family of Asamoneus; but made certain men to be so
that were of no eminent families, but barely of those that were priests,
excepting that he gave that dignity to Aristobulus; for when he had made
this Aristobulus, the grandson of that Hyrcanus who was then taken by
the Parthians, and had taken his sister Mariarmne to wife, he thereby
aimed to win the good-will of the people, who had a kind remembrance of
Hyrcanus [his grandfather]. Yet did he afterward, out of his fear lest
they should all bend their inclinations to Aristobulus, put him to
death, and that by contriving how to have him suffocated as he was
swimming at Jericho, as we have already related that matter; but after
this man he never intrusted the priesthood to the posterity of the sons
of Asamoneus. Archelaus also, Herod's son, did like his father in the
appointment of the high priests, as did the Romans also, who took the
government over the Jews into their hands afterward. Accordingly, the
number of the high priests, from the days of Herod until the day when
Titus took the temple and the City, and burnt them, were in all twenty-
eight; the time also that belonged to them was a hundred and seven
years. Some of these were the political governors of the people under
the reign of Herod, and under the reign of Archelaus his son, although,
after their death, the government became an aristocracy, and the high
priests were intrusted with a dominion over the nation. And thus much
may suffice to be said concerning our high priests.
CHAPTER 11. Concerning Florus The Procurator, Who Necessitated The Jews
To Take Up Arms Against The Romans. The Conclusion.
1. Now Gessius Florus, who was sent as successor to Albinus by Nero,
filled Judea with abundance of miseries. He was by birth of the city of
Clazomene, and brought along with him his wife Cleopatra, [by whose
friendship with Poppea, Nero's wife, he obtained this government,] who
was no way different from him in wickedness. This Florus was so wicked,
and so violent in the use of his authority, that the Jews took Albinus
to have been [comparatively] their benefactor; so excessive were the
mischiefs that he brought upon them. For Albinus concealed his
wickedness, and was careful that it might not be discovered to all men;
but Gessius Florus, as though he had been sent on purpose to show his
crimes to every body, made a pompous ostentation of them to our nation,
as never omitting any sort of violence, nor any unjust sort of
punishment; for he was not to be moved by pity, and never was satisfied
with any degree of gain that came in his way; nor had he any more regard
to great than to small acquisitions, but became a partner with the
robbers themselves. For a great many fell then into that practice
without fear, as having him for their security, and depending on him,
that he would save them harmless in their particular robberies; so that
there were no bounds set to the nation's miseries; but the unhappy Jews,
when they were not able to bear the devastations which the robbers made
among them, were all under a necessity of leaving their own habitations,
and of flying away, as hoping to dwell more easily any where else in the
world among foreigners [than in their own country]. And what need I say
any more upon this head? since it was this Florus who necessitated us to
take up arms against the Romans, while we thought it better to be
destroyed at once, than by little and little. Now this war began in the
second year of the government of Florus, and the twelfth year of the
reign of Nero. But then what actions we were forced to do, or what
miseries we were enabled to suffer, may be accurately known by such as
will peruse those books which I have written about the Jewish war.
2. I shall now, therefore, make an end here of my Antiquities; after the
conclusion of which events, I began to write that account of the war;
and these Antiquities contain what hath been delivered down to us from
the original creation of man, until the twelfth year of the reign of
Nero, as to what hath befallen the Jews, as well in Egypt as in Syria
and in Palestine, and what we have suffered from the Assyrians and
Babylonians, and what afflictions the Persians and Macedonians, and
after them the Romans, have brought upon us; for I think I may say that
I have composed this history with sufficient accuracy in all things. I
have attempted to enumerate those high priests that we have had during
the interval of two thousand years; I have also carried down the
succession of our kings, and related their actions, and political
administration, without [considerable] errors, as also the power of our
monarchs; and all according to what is written in our sacred books; for
this it was that I promised to do in the beginning of this history. And
I am so bold as to say, now I have so completely perfected the work I
proposed to myself to do, that no other person, whether he were a Jew or
foreigner, had he ever so great an inclination to it, could so
accurately deliver these accounts to the Greeks as is done in these
books. For those of my own nation freely acknowledge that I far exceed
them in the learning belonging to Jews; I have also taken a great deal
of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understand the
elements of the Greek language, although I have so long accustomed
myself to speak our own tongue, that I cannot pronounce Greek with
sufficient exactness; for our nation does not encourage those that learn
the languages of many nations, and so adorn their discourses with the
smoothness of their periods; because they look upon this sort of
accomplishment as common, not only to all sorts of free-men, but to as
many of the servants as please to learn them. But they give him the
testimony of being a wise man who is fully acquainted with our laws, and
is able to interpret their meaning; on which account, as there have been
many who have done their endeavors with great patience to obtain this
learning, there have yet hardly been so many as two or three that have
succeeded therein, who were immediately well rewarded for their pains.
3. And now it will not be perhaps an invidious thing, if I treat briefly
of my own family, and of the actions of my own life 28 while there are
still living such as can either prove what I say to be false, or can
attest that it is true; with which accounts I shall put an end to these
Antiquities, which are contained in twenty books, and sixty thousand
verses. And if God permit me, I will briefly run over this war 29, and
to add what befell them further to that very day, the 13th of Domitian,
or A.D. 03, is not, that I have observed, taken distinct notice of by
any one; nor do we ever again, with what befell us therein to this very
day, which is the thirteenth year of the reign of Cæsar Domitian, and
the fifty-sixth year of my own life. I have also an intention to write
three books concerning our Jewish opinions about God and his essence,
and about our laws; why, according to them, some things are permitted us
to do, and others are prohibited.
FOOTNOTES
1 (return) [ Here is some error in the copies, or mistake in Josephus;
for the power of appointing high priests, alter Herod king of Chalcis
was dead, and Agrippa, junior, was made king of Chalcis in his room,
belonged to him; and he exercised the same all along till Jerusalem was
destroyed, as Josephus elsewhere informs us, ch. 8. sect., 11; ch. 9.
sect. 1, 4, 6, 7.]
2 (return) [ Josephus here uses the word monogene, an only begotten son,
for no other than one best beloved, as does both the Old and New
Testament, I mean where there were one or more sons besides, Genesis
22:2; Hebrew 11:17. See the note on B. I. ch. 13. sect. 1.]
3 (return) [ It is here very remarkable, that the remains of Noah's ark
were believed to be still in being in the days of Josephus. See the note
on B. I. ch. 3. sect. 5.]
4 (return) [ Josephus is very full and express in these three chapters,
3., 4., and 5., in observing how carefully Divine Providence preserved
this Izates, king of Adiabene, and his sons, while he did what he
thought was his bounden duty, notwithstanding the strongest political
motives to the contrary.]
5 (return) [ This further account of the benefactions of Izates and
Helena to the Jerusalem Jews which Josephus here promises is, I think,
no where performed by him in his present works. But of this terrible
famine itself in Judea, take Dr. Hudson's note here:—"This [ says he ]
is that famine foretold by Agabus, Acts 11:28, which happened when
Claudius was consul the fourth time; and not that other which happened
when Claudius was consul the second time, and Cesina was his colleague,
as Scaliger says upon Eusebius, p. 174." Now when Josephus had said a
little afterward, ch. 5. sect. 2, that "Tiberius Alexander succeeded
Cuspius Fadus as procurator," he immediately subjoins, that" under these
procurators there happened a great famine in Judea." Whence it is plain
that this famine continued for many years, on account of its duration
under these two procurators. Now Fadus was not sent into Judea till
after the death of king Agrippa, i.e. towards the latter end of the 4th
year of Claudius; so that this famine foretold by Agabus happened upon
the 5th, 6th, and 7th years of Claudius, as says Valesius on Euseb. II.
12. Of this famine also, and queen Helena's supplies, and her monument,
see Moses Churenensis, p. 144, 145, where it is observed in the notes
that Pausanias mentions that her monument also.]
6 (return) [ This privilege of wearing the tiara upright, or with the
tip of the cone erect, is known to have been of old peculiar to great
kings, from Xenophon and others, as Dr. Hudson observes here.]
7 (return) [ This conduct of Izates is a sign that he was become either
a Jew, or an Ebionite Christian, who indeed differed not much from
proper Jews. See ch. 6. sect. 1. However, his supplications were heard,
and he was providentially delivered from that imminent danger he was
in.]
8 (return) [ These pyramids or pillars, erected by Helena, queen of
Adiabene, near Jerusalem, three in number, are mentioned by Eusebius, in
his Eccles. Hist. B. II. ch. 12, for which Dr. Hudson refers us to
Valesius's notes upon that place.—They are also mentioned by Pausanias,
as hath been already noted, ch. 2. sect. 6. Reland guesses that that now
called Absalom's Pillar may be one of them.]
9 (return) [ This Theudas, who arose under Fadus the procurator, about
A.D. 45 or 46, could not be that Thendas who arose in the days of the
taxing, under Cyrenius, or about A.D. 7, Acts v. 36, 37. Who that
earlier Theudas was, see the note on B. XVII. ch. 10. sect. 5.]
10 (return) [ This and many more tumults and seditions which arose at
the Jewish festivals, in Josephus, illustrate the cautious procedure of
the Jewish governors, when they said, Matthew 26:5, "Let us not take
Jesus on the feast-day, lest there be an up roar among the people;" as
Reland well observes on tins place. Josephus also takes notice of the
same thing, Of the War, B. I. ch. 4. sect. 3.]
11 (return) [ This constant passage of the Galileans through the country
of Samaria, as they went to Judea and Jerusalem, illustrates several
passages in the Gospels to the same purpose, as Dr. Hudson rightly
observes. See Luke 17:11; John 4:4. See also Josephus in his own Life,
sect. 52, where that journey is determined to three days.]
12 (return) [ Our Savior had foretold that the Jews' rejection of his
gospel would bring upon them, among other miseries, these three, which
they themselves here show they expected would be the consequences of
their present tumults and seditions: the utter subversion of their
country, the conflagration of their temple, and the slavery of
themselves, their wives, and children See Luke 21:6-24.]
13 (return) [ This Simon, a friend of Felix, a Jew, born in Cyprus,
though he pretended to be a magician, and seems to have been wicked
enough, could hardly be that famous Simon the magician, in the Acts of
the Apostles, 8:9, etc., as some are ready to suppose. This Simon
mentioned in the Acts was not properly a Jew, but a Samaritan, of the
town of Gittae, in the country of Samaria, as the Apostolical
Constitutions, VI. 7, the Recognitions of Clement, II. 6, and Justin
Martyr, himself born in the country of Samaria, Apology, I. 34, inform
us. He was also the author, not of any ancient Jewish, but of the first
Gentile heresies, as the forementioned authors assure us. So I suppose
him a different person from the other. I mean this only upon the
hypothesis that Josephus was not misinformed as to his being a Cypriot
Jew; for otherwise the time, the name, the profession, and the
wickedness of them both would strongly incline one to believe them the
very same. As to that Drusilla, the sister of Agrippa, junior, as
Josephus informs us here, and a Jewess, as St. Luke informs us, Acts
24:24, whom this Simon mentioned by Josephus persuaded to leave her
former husband, Azizus, king of Emesa, a proselyte of justice, and to
marry Felix, the heathen procurator of Judea, Tacitus, Hist. V. 9,
supposes her to be a heathen; and the grand-daughter of Antonius and
Cleopatra, contrary both to St. Luke and Josephus. Now Tacitus lived
somewhat too remote, both as to time and place, to be compared with
either of those Jewish writers, in a matter concerning the Jews in Judea
in their own days, and concerning a sister of Agrippa, junior, with
which Agrippa Josephus was himself so well acquainted. It is probable
that Tacitus may say true, when he informs us that this Felix [who had
in all three wives, or queens, as Suetonius in Claudius, sect. 28,
assures us] did once marry such a grandchild of Antonius and Cleopatra;
and finding the name of one of them to have been Drusilla, he mistook
her for that other wife, whose name he did not know.]
14 (return) [ This eruption of Vesuvius was one of the greatest we have
in history. See Bianchini's curious and important observations on this
Vesuvius, and its seven several great eruptions, with their remains
vitrified, and still existing, in so many different strata under ground,
till the diggers came to the antediluvian waters, with their
proportionable interstices, implying the deluge to have been above two
thousand five hundred years before the Christian era, according to our
exactest chronology.]
15 (return) [ This is now wanting.]
16 (return) [ This also is now wanting.]
17 (return) [ This duration of the reign of Claudius agrees with Dio, as
Dr. Hudson here remarks; as he also remarks that Nero's name, which was
at first L. Domitius Aenobarbus, after Claudius had adopted him was Nero
Claudius Cæsar Drusus Germanicus. This Soleus as [own Life, sect. 11, as
also] by Dio Cassius and Taeims, as Dr. Hudson informs us.]
18 (return) [ This agrees with Josephus's frequent accounts elsewhere in
his own Life, that Tibetans, and Taricheae, and Gamala were under this
Agrippa, junior, till Justus, the son of Pistus, seized for the Jews,
upon the breaking out of the war.]
19 (return) [ This treacherous and barbarous murder of the good high
priest Jonathan, by the contrivance of this wicked procurator, Felix,
was the immediate occasion of the ensuing murders by the Sicarii or
ruffians, and one great cause of the following horrid cruelties and
miseries of the Jewish nation, as Josephus here supposes; whose
excellent reflection on the gross wickedness of that nation, as the
direct cause of their terrible destruction, is well worthy the attention
of every Jewish and of every Christian reader. And since we are soon
coming to the catalogue of the Jewish high priests, it may not be amiss,
with Reland, to insert this Jonathan among them, and to transcribe his
particular catalogue of the last twenty-eight high priests, taken out of
Josephus, and begin with Ananelus, who was made by Herod the Great. See
Antiq. B. XV. ch. 2. sect. 4, and the note there. 1. Ananelus. 2.
Aristobulus. 3. Jesus, the son of Fabus. 4. Simon, the son of Boethus.
5. Marthias, the son of Theophiltu. 6. Joazar, the son of Boethus. 7.
Eleazar, the son of Boethus. 8. Jesus, the son of Sic. 9. [Annas, or]
Ananus, the son of Seth. 10. Ismael, the son of Fabus. 11. Eleazar, the
son of Ananus. 12. Simon, the son of Camithus. 13. Josephus Caiaphas,
the son-in-law to Ananus. 14. Jonathan, the son of Ananus. 15.
Theophilus, his brother, and son of Ananus. 16. Simon, the son of
Boethus. 17. Matthias, the brother of Jonathan, and son of Ananus. 18.
Aljoneus. 19. Josephus, the son of Camydus. 20. Ananias, the son of
Nebedeus. 21. Jonathas. 22. Ismael, the son of Fabi. 23. Joseph Cabi,
the son of Simon. 24. Ananus, the son of Artanus. 25. Jesus, the son of
Damnetas. 26. Jesus, the son of Gamaliel. 27. Matthias, the son of
Theophilus. 28. Phannias, the son of Samuel. As for Ananus and Joseph
Caiaphas, here mentioned about the middle of this catalogue, they are no
other than those Annas and Caiaphas so often mentioned in the four
Gospels; and that Ananias, the son of Nebedeus, was that high priest
before whom St. Paul pleaded his own cause, Acts 24.]
20 (return) [ Of these Jewish impostors and false prophets, with many
other circumstances and miseries of the Jews, till their utter
destruction, foretold by our Savior, see Lit. Accompl. of Proph. p. 58-
75. Of this Egyptian impostor, and the number of his followers, in
Josephus, see Acts 21:38.]
21 (return) [ The wickedness here was very peculiar and extraordinary,
that the high priests should so oppress their brethren the priests, as
to starve the poorest of them to death. See the like presently, ch. 9.
sect. 2. Such fatal crimes are covetousness and tyranny in the clergy,
as well as in the laity, in all ages.]
22 (return) [ We have here one eminent example of Nero's mildness and
goodness in his government towards the Jews, during the first five years
of his reign, so famous in antiquity; we have perhaps another in
Josephus's own Life, sect. 3; and a third, though of a very different
nature here, in sect. 9, just before. However, both the generous acts of
kindness were obtained of Nero by his queen Poppea, who was a religious
lady, and perhaps privately a Jewish proselyte, and so were not owing
entirely to Nero's own goodness.]
23 (return) [ It hence evidently appears that Sadducees might be high
priests in the days of Josephus, and that these Sadducees were usually
very severe and inexorable judges, while the Pharisees were much milder,
and more merciful, as appears by Reland's instances in his note on this
place, and on Josephus's Life, sect. 31, and those taken from the New
Testament, from Josephus himself, and from the Rabbins; nor do we meet
with any Sadducees later than this high priest in all Josephus.]
24 (return) [ Of this condemnation of James the Just, and its causes, as
also that he did not die till long afterwards, see Prim. Christ.
Revived, vol. III. ch. 43-46. The sanhedrim condemned our Savior, but
could not put him to death without the approbation of the Roman
procurator; nor could therefore Ananias and his sanhedrim do more here,
since they never had Albinus's approbation for the putting this James to
death.]
25 (return) [ This Ananias was not the son of Nebedeus, as I take it,
but he who was called Annas or Ananus the elder, the ninth in the
catalogue, and who had been esteemed high priest for a long time; and,
besides Caiaphas, his son-in-law, had five of his own sons high priests
after him, which were those of numbers 11, 14, 15, 17, 24, in the
foregoing catalogue. Nor ought we to pass slightly over what Josephus
here says of Annas, or Ananias, that he was high priest a long time
before his children were so; he was the son of Seth, and is set down
first for high priest in the foregoing catalogue, under number 9. He was
made by Quirinus, and continued till Ismael, the 10th in number, for
about twenty-three years, which long duration of his high priesthood,
joined to the successions of his son-in-law, and five children of his
own, made him a sort of perpetual high priest, and was perhaps the
occasion that former high priests kept their titles ever afterwards; for
I believe it is hardly met with be fore him.]
26 (return) [ This insolent petition of some of the Levites, to wear the
sacerdotal garments when they sung hymns to God in the temple, was very
probably owing to the great depression and contempt the haughty high
priests had now brought their brethren the priests into; of which see
ch. 8. sect. 8, and ch. 9, sect. 2.]
27 (return) [ Of these cloisters of Solomon, see the description of the
temple, ch. 13. They seem, by Josephus's words, to have been built from
the bottom of the valley.]
28 (return) [ See the Life at the beginning of the volume.]
29 (return) [ What Josephus here declares his intention to do, if God
permitted, to give the public again an abridgement of the Jewish War
hear of it elsewhere, whether he performed what he now intended or not.
Some of the reasons of this design of his might possibly be, his
observation of the many errors he had been guilty of in the two first of
those seven books of the War, which were written when he was
comparatively young, and less acquainted with the Jewish antiquities
than he now was, and in which abridgement we might have hoped to find
those many passages which himself, as well as those several passages
which others refer to, as written by him, but which are not extant in
his present works. However, since many of his own references to what he
had written elsewhere, as well as most of his own errors, belong to such
early times as could not well come into this abridgement of the Jewish
War; and since none of those that quote things not now extant in his
works, including himself as well as others, ever cite any such
abridgement; I am forced rather to suppose that he never did publish any
such work at all; I mean, as distinct from his own Life, written by
himself, for an appendix to these Antiquities, and this at least seven
years after these Antiquities were finished. Nor indeed does it appear
to me that Josephus ever published that other work here mentioned, as
intended by him for the public also: I mean the three or four books
concerning God and his essence, and concerning the Jewish laws; why,
according to them, some things were permitted the Jews, and others
prohibited; which last seems to be the same work which Josephus had also
promised, if God permitted, at the conclusion of his preface to these
Antiquities; nor do I suppose that he ever published any of them. The
death of all his friends at court, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian, and
the coming of those he had no acquaintance with to the crown, I mean
Nerva and Trajan, together with his removal from Rome to Judea, with
what followed it, might easily interrupt such his intentions, and
prevent his publication of those works.]