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[353]
THE Idumeans complied with these persuasions; and, in the first place,
they set those that were in the prisons at liberty, being about two thousand
of the populace, who thereupon fled away immediately to Simon, one whom
we shall speak of presently. After which these Idumeans retired from Jerusalem,
and went home; which departure of theirs was a great surprise to both parties;
for the people, not knowing of their repentance, pulled up their courage
for a while, as eased of so many of their enemies, while the zealots grew
more insolent not as deserted by their confederates, but as freed from
such men as might hinder their designs, and plat some stop to their wickedness.
Accordingly, they made no longer any delay, nor took any deliberation in
their enormous practices, but made use of the shortest methods for all
their executions and what they had once resolved upon, they put in practice
sooner than any one could imagine. But their thirst was chiefly after the
blood of valiant men, and men of good families; the one sort of which they
destroyed out of envy, the other out of fear; for they thought their whole
security lay in leaving no potent men alive; on which account they slew
Gorion, a person eminent in dignity, and on account of his family also;
he was also for democracy, and of as great boldness and freedom of spirit
as were any of the Jews whosoever; the principal thing that ruined him,
added to his other advantages, was his free speaking. Nor did Niger of
Peres escape their hands; he had been a man of great valor in their war
with the Romans, but was now drawn through the middle of the city, and,
as he went, he frequently cried out, and showed the scars of his wounds;
and when he was drawn out of the gates, and despaired of his preservation,
he besought them to grant him a burial; but as they had threatened him
beforehand not to grant him any spot of earth for a grave, which he chiefly
desired of them, so did they slay him [without permitting him to be buried].
Now when they were slaying him, he made this imprecation upon them, that
they might undergo both famine and pestilence in this war, and besides
all that, they might come to the mutual slaughter of one another; all which
imprecations God confirmed against these impious men, and was what came
most justly upon them, when not long afterward. they tasted of their own
madness in their mutual seditions one against another. So when this Niger
was killed, their fears of being overturned were diminished; and indeed
there was no part of the people but they found out some pretense to destroy
them; for some were therefore slain, because they had had differences with
some of them; and as to those that had not opposed them in times of peace,
they watched seasonable opportunities to gain some accusation against them;
and if any one did not come near them at all, he was under their suspicion
as a proud man; if any one came with boldness, he was esteemed a contemner
of them; and if any one came as aiming to oblige them, he was supposed
to have some treacherous plot against them; while the only punishment of
crimes, whether they were of the greatest or smallest sort, was death.
Nor could any one escape, unless he were very inconsiderable, either on
account of the meanness of his birth, or on account of his fortune.
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