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" Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to go to war
with the Romans, and that the purer and more sincere part of the people
did not propose to live in peace, I had not come out to you, nor been so
bold as to give you counsel; for all discourses that tend to persuade men
to do what they ought to do are superfluous, when the hearers are agreed
to do the contrary. But because some are earnest to go to war because they
are young, and without experience of the miseries it brings, and because
some are for it out of an unreasonable expectation of regaining their liberty,
and because others hope to get by it, and are therefore earnestly bent
upon it, that in the confusion of your affairs they may gain what belongs
to those that are too weak to resist them, I have thought proper to get
you all together, and to say to you what I think to be for your advantage;
that so the former may grow wiser, and change their minds, and that the
best men may come to no harm by the ill conduct of some others. And let
not any one be tumultuous against me, in case what they hear me say do
not please them; for as to those that admit of no cure, but are resolved
upon a revolt, it will still be in their power to retain the same sentiments
after my exhortation is over; but still my discourse will fall to the ground,
even with a relation to those that have a mind to hear me, unless you will
all keep silence. I am well aware that many make a tragical exclamation
concerning the injuries that have been offered you by your procurators,
and concerning the glorious advantages of liberty; but before I begin the
inquiry, who you are that must go to war, and who they are against whom
you must fight, I shall first separate those pretenses that are by some
connected together; for if you aim at avenging yourselves on those that
have done you injury, why do you pretend this to be a war for recovering
your liberty? but if you think all servitude intolerable, to what purpose
serve your complaint against your particular governors? for if they treated
you with moderation, it would still be equally an unworthy thing to be
in servitude. Consider now the several cases that may be supposed, how
little occasion there is for your going to war. Your first occasion is
the accusations you have to make against your procurators; now here you
ought to be submissive to those in authority, and not give them any provocation;
but when you reproach men greatly for small offenses, you excite those
whom you reproach to be your adversaries; for this will only make them
leave off hurting you privately, and with some degree of modesty, and to
lay what you have waste openly. Now nothing so much damps the force of
strokes as bearing them with patience; and the quietness of those who are
injured diverts the injurious persons from afflicting. But let us take
it for granted that the Roman ministers are injurious to you, and are incurably
severe; yet are they not all the Romans who thus injure you; nor hath Caesar,
against whom you are going to make war, injured you: it is not by their
command that any wicked governor is sent to you; for they who are in the
west cannot see those that are in the east; nor indeed is it easy for them
there even to hear what is done in these parts. Now it is absurd to make
war with a great many for the sake of one, to do so with such mighty people
for a small cause; and this when these people are not able to know of what
you complain: nay, such crimes as we complain of may soon be corrected,
for the same procurator will not continue for ever; and probable it is
that the successors will come with more moderate inclinations. But as for
war, if it be once begun, it is not easily laid down again, nor borne without
calamities coming therewith. However, as to the desire of recovering your
liberty, it is unseasonable to indulge it so late; whereas you ought to
have labored earnestly in old time that you might never have lost it; for
the first experience of slavery was hard to be endured, and the struggle
that you might never have been subject to it would have been just; but
that slave who hath been once brought into subjection, and then runs away,
is rather a refractory slave than a lover of liberty; for it was then the
proper time for doing all that was possible, that you might never have
admitted the Romans [into your city], when Pompey came first into the country.
But so it was, that our ancestors and their kings, who were in much better
circumstances than we are, both as to money, and strong bodies, and [valiant]
souls, did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman army. And yet
you, who have now accustomed yourselves to obedience from one generation
to another, and who are so much inferior to those who first submitted,
in your circumstances will venture to oppose the entire empire of the Romans.
While those Athenians, who, in order to preserve the liberty of Greece,
did once set fire to their own city; who pursued Xerxes, that proud prince,
when he sailed upon the land, and walked upon the sea, and could not be
contained by the seas, but conducted such an army as was too broad for
Europe; and made him run away like a fugitive in a single ship, and brake
so great a part of Asia at the Lesser Salamis; are yet at this time servants
to the Romans; and those injunctions which are sent from Italy become laws
to the principal governing city of Greece. Those Lacedemonians also who
got the great victories at Thermopylae. and Platea, and had Agesilaus [for
their king], and searched every corner of Asia, are contented to admit
the same lords. Those Macedonians also, who still fancy what great men
their Philip and Alexander were, and see that the latter had promised them
the empire over the world, these bear so great a change, and pay their
obedience to those whom fortune hath advanced in their stead. Moreover,
ten thousand ether nations there are who had greater reason than we to
claim their entire liberty, and yet do submit. You are the only people
who think it a disgrace to be servants to those to whom all the world hath
submitted. What sort of an army do you rely on? What are the arms you depend
on? Where is your fleet, that may seize upon the Roman seas? and where
are those treasures which may be sufficient for your undertakings? Do you
suppose, I pray you, that you are to make war with the Egyptians, and with
the Arabians? Will you not carefully reflect upon the Roman empire? Will
you not estimate your own weakness? Hath not your army been often beaten
even by your neighboring nations, while the power of the Romans is invincible
in all parts of the habitable earth? nay, rather they seek for somewhat
still beyond that; for all Euphrates is not a sufficient boundary for them
on the east side, nor the Danube on the north; and for their southern limit,
Libya hath been searched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited,
as is Cadiz their limit on the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for
another habitable earth beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as
far as such British islands as were never known before. What therefore
do you pretend to? Are you richer than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans,
wiser than the Greeks, more numerous than all men upon the habitable earth?
What confidence is it that elevates you to oppose the Romans? Perhaps it
will be said, It is hard to endure slavery. Yes; but how much harder is
this to the Greeks, who were esteemed the noblest of all people under the
sun! These, though they inhabit in a large country, are in subjection to
six bundles of Roman rods. It is the same case with the Macedonians, who
have juster reason to claim their liberty than you have. What is the case
of five hundred cities of Asia? Do they not submit to a single governor,
and to the consular bundle of rods? What need I speak of the Henlochi,
and Colchi and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit the Bosphorus, and
the nations about Pontus, and Meotis, who formerly knew not so much as
a lord of their own, but arc now subject to three thousand armed men, and
where forty long ships keep the sea in peace, which before was not navigable,
and very tempestuous? How strong a plea may Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and
the people of Pamphylia, the Lycians, and Cilicians, put in for liberty!
But they are made tributary without an army. What are the circumstances
of the Thracians, whose country extends in breadth five days' journey,
and in length seven, and is of a much more harsh constitution, and much
more defensible, than yours, and by the rigor of its cold sufficient to
keep off armies from attacking them? do not they submit to two thousand
men of the Roman garrisons? Are not the Illyrlans, who inhabit the country
adjoining, as far as Dalmatia and the Danube, governed by barely two legions?
by which also they put a stop to the incursions of the Daeians. And for
the Dalmatians, who have made such frequent insurrections in order to regain
their liberty, and who could never before be so thoroughly subdued, but
that they always gathered their forces together again, revolted, yet are
they now very quiet under one Roman legion. Moreover, if eat advantages
might provoke any people to revolt, the Gauls might do it best of all,
as being so thoroughly walled round by nature; on the east side by the
Alps, on the north by the river Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean mountains,
and on the west by the ocean. Now although these Gauls have such obstacles
before them to prevent any attack upon them, and have no fewer than three
hundred and five nations among them, nay have, as one may say, the fountains
of domestic happiness within themselves, and send out plentiful streams
of happiness over almost the whole world, these bear to be tributary to
the Romans, and derive their prosperous condition from them; and they undergo
this, not because they are of effeminate minds, or because they are of
an ignoble stock, as having borne a war of eighty years in order to preserve
their liberty; but by reason of the great regard they have to the power
of the Romans, and their good fortune, which is of greater efficacy than
their arms. These Gauls, therefore, are kept in servitude by twelve hundred
soldiers, which are hardly so many as are their cities; nor hath the gold
dug out of the mines of Spain been sufficient for the support of a war
to preserve their liberty, nor could their vast distance from the Romans
by land and by sea do it; nor could the martial tribes of the Lusitanians
and Spaniards escape; no more could the ocean, with its tide, which yet
was terrible to the ancient inhabitants. Nay, the Romans have extended
their arms beyond the pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds,
upon the Pyrenean mountains, and have subdued these nations. And one legion
is a sufficient guard for these people, although they were so hard to be
conquered, and at a distance so remote from Rome. Who is there among you
that hath not heard of the great number of the Germans? You have, to be
sure, yourselves seen them to be strong and tall, and that frequently,
since the Romans have them among their captives every where; yet these
Germans, who dwell in an immense country, who have minds greater than their
bodies, and a soul that despises death, and who are in rage more fierce
than wild beasts, have the Rhine for the boundary of their enterprises,
and are tamed by eight Roman legions. Such of them as were taken captive
became their servants; and the rest of the entire nation were obliged to
save themselves by flight. Do you also, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem,
consider what a wall the Britons had; for the Romans sailed away to them,
an subdued them while they were encompassed by the ocean, and inhabited
an island that is not less than the [continent of this] habitable earth;
and four legions are a sufficient guard to so large all island And why
should I speak much more about this matter, while the Parthians, that most
warlike body of men, and lords of so many nations, and encompassed with
such mighty forces, send hostages to the Romans? whereby you may see, if
you please, even in Italy, the noblest nation of the East, under the notion
of peace, submitting to serve them. Now when almost all people under the
sun submit to the Roman arms, will you be the only people that make war
against them? and this without regarding the fate of the Carthaginians,
who, in the midst of their brags of the great Hannibal, and the nobility
of their Phoenician original, fell by the hand of Scipio. Nor indeed have
the Cyrenians, derived from the Lacedemonians, nor the Marmaridite, a nation
extended as far as the regions uninhabitable for want of water, nor have
the Syrtes, a place terrible to such as barely hear it described, the Nasamons
and Moors, and the immense multitude of the Numidians, been able to put
a stop to the Roman valor. And as for the third part of the habitable earth,
[Akica,] whose nations are so many that it is not easy to number them,
and which is bounded by the Atlantic Sea and the pillars of Hercules, and
feeds an innumerable multitude of Ethiopians, as far as the Red Sea, these
have the Romans subdued entirely. And besides the annual fruits of the
earth, which maintain the multitude of the Romans for eight months in the
year, this, over and above, pays all sorts of tribute, and affords revenues
suitable to the necessities of the government. Nor do they, like you, esteem
such injunctions a disgrace to them, although they have but one Roman legion
that abides among them. And indeed what occasion is there for showing you
the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is so easy to learn
it from Egypt, in your neighborhood? This country is extended as far as
the Ethiopians, and Arabia the Happy, and borders upon India; it hath seven
millions five hundred thousand men, besides the inhabitants of Alexandria,
as may be learned from the revenue of the poll tax; yet it is not ashamed
to submit to the Roman government, although it hath Alexandria as a grand
temptation to a revolt, by reason it is so full of people and of riches,
and is besides exceeding large, its length being thirty furlongs, and its
breadth no less than ten; and it pays more tribute to the Romans in one
month than you do in a year; nay, besides what it pays in money, it sends
corn to Rome that supports it for four months [in the year]: it is also
walled round on all sides, either by almost impassable deserts, or seas
that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes; yet have none of these
things been found too strong for the Roman good fortune; however, two legions
that lie in that city are a bridle both for the remoter parts of Egypt,
and for the parts inhabited by the more noble Macedonians. Where then are
those people whom you are to have for your auxiliaries? Must they come
from the parts of the world that are uninhabited? for all that are in the
habitable earth are [under the] Romans. Unless any of you extend his hopes
as far as beyond the Euphrates, and suppose that those of your own nation
that dwell in Adiabene will come to your assistance; but certainly these
will not embarrass themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if they should
follow such ill advice, will the Parthians permit them so to do; for it
is their concern to maintain the truce that is between them and the Romans,
and they will be supposed to break the covenants between them, if any under
their government march against the Romans. What remains, therefore, is
this, that you have recourse to Divine assistance; but this is already
on the side of the Romans; for it is impossible that so vast an empire
should be settled without God's providence. Reflect upon it, how impossible
it is for your zealous observations of your religious customs to be here
preserved, which are hard to be observed even when you fight with those
whom you are able to conquer; and how can you then most of all hope for
God's assistance, when, by being forced to transgress his law, you will
make him turn his face from you? and if you do observe the custom of the
sabbath days, and will not be revealed on to do any thing thereon, you
will easily be taken, as were your forefathers by Pompey, who was the busiest
in his siege on those days on which the besieged rested. But if in time
of war you transgress the law of your country, I cannot tell on whose account
you will afterward go to war; for your concern is but one, that you do
nothing against any of your forefathers; and how will you call upon God
to assist you, when you are voluntarily transgressing against his religion?
Now all men that go to war do it either as depending on Divine or on human
assistance; but since your going to war will cut off both those assistances,
those that are for going to war choose evident destruction. What hinders
you from slaying your children and wives with your own hands, and burning
this most excellent native city of yours? for by this mad prank you will,
however, escape the reproach of being beaten. But it were best, O my friends,
it were best, while the vessel is still in the haven, to foresee the impending
storm, and not to set sail out of the port into the middle of the hurricanes;
for we justly pity those who fall into great misfortunes without fore-seeing
them; but for him who rushes into manifest ruin, he gains reproaches [instead
of commiseration]. But certainly no one can imagine that you can enter
into a war as by agreement, or that when the Romans have got you under
their power, they will use you with moderation, or will not rather, for
an example to other nations, burn your holy city, and utterly destroy your
whole nation; for those of you who shall survive the war will not be able
to find a place whither to flee, since all men have the Romans for their
lords already, or are afraid they shall have hereafter. Nay, indeed, the
danger concerns not those Jews that dwell here only, but those of them
which dwell in other cities also; for there is no people upon the habitable
earth which have not some portion of you among them, whom your enemies
will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account also; and so every
city which hath Jews in it will be filled with slaughter for the sake of
a few men, and they who slay them will be pardoned; but if that slaughter
be not made by them, consider how wicked a thing it is to take arms against
those that are so kind to you. Have pity, therefore, if not on your children
and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, and its sacred walls; spare the
temple, and preserve the holy house, with its holy furniture, for yourselves;
for if the Romans get you under their power, they will no longer abstain
from them, when their former abstinence shall have been so ungratefully
requited. I call to witness your sanctuary, and the holy angels of God,
and this country common to us all, that I have not kept back any thing
that is for your preservation; and if you will follow that advice which
you ought to do, you will have that peace which will be common to you and
to me; but if you indulge four passions, you will run those hazards which
I shall be free from."