1
[
148]
NOW Claudius Caesar died when he had reigned thirteen years, eight
months, and twenty days;
2
and a report went about that he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina. Her
father was Germanicus, the brother of Caesar. 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 Caesar gave him afterward,
upon his adopting him for his son.
[
151]
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.
[
154]
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.
[
158]
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. Caesar also bestowed on Agrippa a certain part of
Galilee, Tiberias, and Tarichae,
3
and ordered them to submit to his jurisdiction. He gave him also Julias,
a city of Perea, with fourteen villages that lay about it.
[
160]
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 Caesar 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
4
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.
[
167]
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
5
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.
[
173]
And now it was that a great sedition arose between the Jews that
inhabited Cesarea, 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 Cesarea,
and because he was by birth a Jew. Now the Syrians did not deny what was
alleged about Herod; but they said that Cesarea 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 Cesarea 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.
[
179]
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
6
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.
[
182]
Now when Porcius Festus was sent as successor to Felix by Nero, the
principal of the Jewish inhabitants of Cesarea 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 Cesarea 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 Cesarea were informed
of the contents of this epistle to the Syrians, they were more disorderly
than before, till a war was kindled.
[
185]
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.
[
189]
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
7
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.