Page:Works Translated by William Whiston.djvu/34

20 and gave him to my friends that were with me, to carry him into a village; and commanding my armed men to come down, I with them made an assault upon Tiberias. Now, as the fight grew hot on both sides, and the soldiers

belonging to Tiberias were in a fair way to conquer me (for my armed men were already fled away), I saw the posture of my affairs; and encouraging those that were with me, I pursued those of Tiberias, even when they were already conquerors, into the city. I also sent another band of soldiers into the city by the lake; and gave them orders to set on fire the first house they could seize upon. When this was done, the people of Tiberias thought that their city was taken by force, and so threw down their arms for fear; and implored, they, their wives, and children, that I would spare their city. So I was overpersuaded by their entreaties, and restrained the soldiers from the vehemency with which they pursued them; while I myself, upon the coming on of the evening, returned back with my soldiers, and went to refresh myself. I also invited Simon to sup with me, and comforted him on occasion of what had happened; and I promised that I would send him safe and secure to Jerusalem, and withal would give him provision for his journey thither.

64. BUT, ON the next day, I brought ten thousand men with me, and came to Tiberias. I then sent for the principal men of the multitude into the public place, and enjoined them to tell me who were the authors of the revolt; and when they had told me who the men were, I sent them bound to the city Jotapata; but, as to Jonathan and Ananias, I freed them from

their bonds, and gave them provisions for their journey, together with Simon and Joazar, and five hundred armed men who should guard them; and so I sent them to Jerusalem. The people of Tiberias also came to me again, and desired that I would forgive them for what they had done; and they said they would amend what they had done amiss with regard to me, by their fidelity for the time to come; and besought me to preserve what spoils remained upon the plunder of the city, for those that had lost them. Accordingly, I enjoined those that had got them, to bring them all before us; and when they did not comply for a great while, and I saw one of the soldiers that were about me with a garment on that was more splendid than ordinary, I asked him whence he had it; and he replied that he had it out of the plunder of the city. I had him punished with stripes; and I threatened all the rest to inflict a severer punishment upon them, unless they produced before us whatsoever they had plundered; and when a great many spoils were brought together, I restored to every one of Tiberias what they claimed to be their own.

65. AND NOW I am come to this part of my narrative, I have a mind to say a few things to Justus, who hath himself written a history

concerning these affairs; as also to others who profess to write history, but have little regard to truth, and are not afraid, either out of ill-will or good-will to some persons, to relate falsehoods. These men do like those who compose forged deeds and conveyances; and because they are not brought to the like punishment with them, they have no regard to truth. When, therefore, Justus undertook to write about these facts, and about the Jewish war, that he might appear to have been an industrious man, he falsified in what he related about me, and could not speak truth even about his own country; whence it is that, being belied by him, I am under a necessity to make my defence; and so I shall say what I have concealed till now; and let no one wonder that I have not told the world these things a great while ago; for although it may be necessary for an historian to write the truth, yet is such a one not bound severely to animadvert on the wickedness of certain men, not out of any favour to them, but out of an author's own moderation. How then comes it to pass, O Justus! thou most sagacious of writers (that I may address myself to him as if he were here present), for so thou boastest of thyself, that I and the Galileans have been the authors of that sedition which thy country engaged in both against

the Romans and against the king [Agrippa, junior]?—for before ever I was appointed governor of Galilee by the community of Jerusalem, both thou and all the people of Tiberias had not only taken up arms, but had made war with Decapolis of Syria. Accordingly, thou hadst ordered their villages to be burnt, and a domestic servant of mine fell in the battle. Nor is it I only who say this; but so it is written in the Commentaries of Vespasian, the emperor; as also how the inhabitants of Decapolis came clamouring to Vespasian at Ptolemais, and desired that thou, who wast the author [of that war], mightest be brought to punishment; and thou hadst certainly been punished at the command of Vespasian, had not king Agrippa, who had power given him to have thee put to death, at the earnest entreaty of his sister Bernice, changed the punishment from death into a long imprisonment. Thy political administration of affairs afterward doth also clearly discover both thy own behaviour in life, and that thou wast the occasion of thy country's revolt from the Romans; plain signs of which I shall produce presently. I have also a mind to say a few things to the rest of the people of Tiberias on thy account, and to demonstrate to those that light upon this history that you bare no good will neither to the Romans nor to the king. To be sure, the greatest cities of Galilee, O Justus! were Sepphoris, and thy country Tiberias; but Sepphoris, situated in the very midst of Galilee, and having many villages about it, and able with ease to have been bold and troublesome to the Romans, if they had so pleased, yet did it resolve to continue faithful to those their masters, and at the same time excluded me out of their city, and prohibited all their citizens from joining with the Jews in the war; and, that they might be out of danger from me, they, by a wile, got leave of me to fortify