Page:Works Translated by William Whiston.djvu/24

10 and at other cities that wanted them, they gave credit to what I promised, and returned every one to his own home. So I escaped the forementioned danger, beyond all my hopes, and returned to my own house, accompanied with my friends, and twenty armed men also.

30. HOWEVER, THESE robbers and other authors of this tumult, who were afraid on their own account, lest I should punish them for what they had done, took six hundred armed men, and came to the house where I abode, in order to set it on fire. When this their insult was told me, I thought it indecent for me to run away, and I resolved to expose myself to danger and to act with some boldness; so I gave orders to shut the doors, and went up into an upper room, and desired that they would send some of their men in to receive the money [from the spoils]; for I told them they would then have no occasion to be angry with me; and when they had sent in one of the boldest of them all, I had him whipped severely; and I commanded that one of his hands should be cut off, and hung about his neck; and in this case was he

put out to those that sent him. At which procedure of mine they were greatly affrighted, and in no small consternation; and were afraid that they should themselves be served in like manner if they stayed there; for they supposed that I had in the house more armed men than they had themselves; so they ran away immediately, while I, by the use of this stratagem, escaped this their second treacherous design against me.

31. BUT THERE were still some that irritated the multitude against me, and said that those great men that belonged to the king ought not to be suffered to live, if they would not change their religion to the religion of those to whom they fled for safety; they spake reproachfully of them also, and said, that they were wizards, and such as called in the Romans upon them. So the multitude was soon deluded by such plausible pretences as were agreeable to their own inclinations, and were

prevailed on by them; but when I was informed of this, I instructed the multitude again, that those that fled to them for refuge ought not to be persecuted. I also laughed at the allegation about witchcraft, and told them that the Romans would not maintain so many ten thousand soldiers, if they could overcome their enemies by wizards. Upon my saying this, the people assented for a while; but they returned afterwards, as irritated by some ill people against the great men; nay, they once made an assault upon the house in which they dwelt at Taricheæ, in order to kill them; which, when I was informed of, I was afraid lest so horrid a crime should take effect, and nobody else would make that city their refuge any more. I therefore came myself, and some others with me, to the house where these great men lived, and locked their doors, and had a trench drawn from their houses leading to the lake, and sent for a ship, and embarked therein with

them and sailed to the confines of Hippos: I also paid them the value of their horses; nor in such a flight could I have their horses brought to them. I then dismissed them, and begged of them earnestly that they would courageously bear this distress which befel them. I was also myself greatly displeased that I was compelled to expose those that had fled to me, to go again into an enemy's country; yet did I think it more eligible that they should perish among the Romans, if it should so happen, than in the country that was under my jurisdiction. However they escaped at length, and king Agrippa forgave them their offences; and this was the conclusion of what concerned these men.

32. BUT AS for the inhabitants of the city of Tiberias, they wrote to the king, and desired him to send them forces sufficient to be guard to their country; for that they were desirous to come over to him. This was what they wrote to him; but when I came to

them, they desired me to build their walls, as I had promised them to do; for they had heard that the walls, of Taricheæ were already built. I agreed to the proposal accordingly; and when I had made preparation for the entire building, I gave orders to the architects to go to work; but on the third day, when I was gone to Taricheæ, which was thirty furlongs distant from Tiberias, it so fell out, that some Roman horsemen were discovered on their march, not far from the city, which made it be supposed that the forces were come from the king; upon which they shouted, and lifted up their voice in commendations of the king, and in reproaches against me. Hereupon one came running to me, and told me what their dispositions were; and that they had resolved to revolt from me; upon hearing which news I was very much alarmed; for I had already sent away my armed men from Taricheæ to their own homes, because the next day was our Sabbath; for I would not have the people of Taricheæ disturbed [on that day] by a multitude of soldiers; and indeed, whenever I sojourned at that city, I never took any particular care for a guard about my own body, because I had had frequent instances

of the fidelity its inhabitants bore to me. I had about me no more than seven armed men, besides some friends, and was doubtful what to do; for to send to recall my own forces I did not think proper, because the present day was almost over; and had those forces been with me, I could not take up arms on the next day, because our laws forbade us so to do, even though our necessity should be very great; and if I should permit the people of Taricheæ, and the strangers with them, to guard the city, I saw that they would not be sufficient for that purpose, and I perceived that I should be obliged to defer my assistance a great while; for I thought with myself that the forces that came from the king