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[47]
As for myself, I have composed a true history of that whole war,
and of all the particulars that occurred therein, as having been concerned
in all its transactions; for I acted as general of those among us that
are named Galileans, as long as it was possible for us to make any opposition.
I was then seized on by the Romans, and became a captive. Vespasian also
and Titus had me kept under a guard, and forced me to attend them continually.
At the first I was put into bonds, but was set at liberty afterward, and
sent to accompany Titus when he came from Alexandria to the siege of Jerusalem;
during which time there was nothing done which escaped my knowledge; for
what happened in the Roman camp I saw, and wrote down carefully; and what
informations the deserters brought [out of the city], I was the only man
that understood them. Afterward I got leisure at Rome; and when all my
materials were prepared for that work, I made use of some persons to assist
me in learning the Greek tongue, and by these means I composed the history
of those transactions. And I was so well assured of the truth of what I
related, that I first of all appealed to those that had the supreme command
in that war, Vespasian and Titus, as witnesses for me, for to them I presented
those books first of all, and after them to many of the Romans who had
been in the war. I also sold them to many of our own men who understood
the Greek philosophy; among whom were Julius Archelaus, Herod [king of
Chalcis], a person of great gravity, and king Agrippa himself, a person
that deserved the greatest admiration. Now all these men bore their testimony
to me, that I had the strictest regard to truth; who yet would not have
dissembled the matter, nor been silent, if I, out of ignorance, or out
of favor to any side, either had given false colors to actions, or omitted
any of them.
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