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[184]
NOW Caius Caesar did so grossly abuse the fortune he had arrived
at, as to take himself to be a god, and to desire to be so called also,
and to cut off those of the greatest nobility out of his country. He also
extended his impiety as far as the Jews. Accordingly, he sent Petronius
with an army to Jerusalem, to place his statues in the temple, 1
and commanded him that, in case the Jews would not admit of them, he should
slay those that opposed it, and carry all the rest of the nation into captivity:
but God concerned himself with these his commands. However, Petronius marched
out of Antioch into Judea, with three legions, and many Syrian auxiliaries.
Now as to the Jews, some of them could not believe the stories that spake
of a war; but those that did believe them were in the utmost distress how
to defend themselves, and the terror diffused itself presently through
them all; for the army was already come to Ptolemais.
1 Tacitus owns that Caius commanded the Jews to place his effigies in their temple, though he be mistaken when he adds that the Jews thereupon took arms.
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