This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[304]
But when Herod had reached Sepphoris, 1
in a very great snow, he took the city without any difficulty; the guards
that should have kept it flying away before it was assaulted; where he
gave an opportunity to his followers that had been in distress to refresh
themselves, there being in that city a great abundance of necessaries.
After which he hasted away to the robbers that were in the caves, who overran
a great part of the country, and did as great mischief to its inhabitants
as a war itself could have done. Accordingly, he sent beforehand three
cohorts of footmen, and one troop of horsemen, to the village Arbela, and
came himself forty days afterwards 2
with the rest of his forces Yet were not the enemy aftrighted at his assault
but met him in arms; for their skill was that of warriors, but their boldness
was the boldness of robbers: when therefore it came to a pitched battle,
they put to flight Herod's left wing with their right one; but Herod, wheeling
about on the sudden from his own right wing, came to their assistance,
and both made his own left wing return back from its flight, and fell upon
the pursuers, and cooled their courage, till they could not bear the attempts
that were made directly upon them, and so turned back and ran away.
1 This Sepphoris, the metropolis of Galilee, so often mentioned by Josephus, has coins still remaining, as Spanheim here informs us.
2 This way of speaking, "after forty days," is interpreted by Josephus himself, "on the fortieth day," Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 15. sect. 4. In like manner, when Josephus says, ch. 33. sect. 8, that Herod lived "after" he had ordered Antipater to be slain "five days;" this is by himself interpreted, Antiq. B. XVII. ch. 8. sect. 1, that he died "on the fifth day afterward." So also what is in this book, ch. 13. sect. 1, "after two years," is, Antiq. B. XIV. ch. 13. sect. 3, "on the second year." And Dean Aldrich here notes that this way of speaking is familiar to Josephus.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.