XXXIII

Read the _Chronicle_ of Justus of Tiberias,[95] entitled _A Chronicle

of the Kings of the Jews in the form of a genealogy, by Justus of

Tiberias_.[96] He came from Tiberias in Galilee, from which he took

his name. He begins his history with Moses and carries it down to the

death of the seventh Agrippa of the family of Herod[97] and the last

of the kings of the Jews. His kingdom, which was bestowed upon him

by Claudius, was extended by Nero, and still more by Vespasian. He

died in the third year of the reign of Trajan, when the history ends.

Justus’s style is very concise, and he omits a great deal that is of

the utmost importance. Suffering from the common fault of the Jews,

to which race he belonged, he does not even mention the coming of

Christ, the events of His life, or the miracles performed by Him. His

father was a Jew named Pistus; Justus himself, according to Josephus,

was one of the most abandoned of men, a slave to vice and greed. He

was a political opponent of Josephus, against whom he is said to have

concocted several plots; but Josephus, although on several occasions

he had his enemy in his power, only chastised him with words and let

him go free. It is said that the history which he wrote is in great

part fictitious, especially where he describes the Judaeo-Roman war

and the capture of Jerusalem.

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