Page:Works Translated by William Whiston.djvu/35

21 their city with walls: they also, of their own accord, admitted of a garrison of Roman legions, sent them by Cestius Callus, who was then president of Syria, and so had me in contempt, though I was then very powerful, and all were greatly afraid of me: and at the same time that the greatest of our cities, Jerusalem, was besieged, and that temple of ours, which belonged to us all, was in danger of falling under the enemy's power, they sent no assistance thither, as not willing to have it thought they would bear arms against the Romans; but as for thy country, O Justus! situated upon the lake of Genesareth, and distant from Hippos thirty furlongs, from Gadara sixty, and from Scythopolis, which was under the king's jurisdiction, an hundred and twenty; when there was no Jewish city near, it might easily have preserved its fidelity [to the Romans] if it had so pleased them to do; for the city and its people had plenty of weapons; but, as thou sayest, I was then the author [of their revolt]; and pray, O Justus! who was that author afterward?—for thou knowest that I was in the power of the Romans before Jerusalem was besieged, and before the same time Jotapata was taken by force, as well as many other fortresses, and a great many

of the Galileans fell in the war. It was therefore, then a proper time, when you were certainly freed from any fear on my account, to throw away your weapons, and to demonstrate to the king and to the Romans that it was not of choice, but as forced by necessity, that you fell into the war against them; but you stayed till Vespasian came himself as far as your walls with his whole army; and then you did indeed lay aside your weapons out of fear, and your city had for certain been taken by force, unless Vespasian had complied with the king's supplication for you, and had excused your madness. It was not I, therefore, who was the author of this, but your own inclinations to war. Do not you remember how often I got you under my power, and yet put none of you to death?—Nay, you once fell into a tumult one against another, and slew one hundred and eighty-five of your citizens, not on account of your good will to the king and to the Romans, but on account of your own wickedness, and this while I was besieged by the Romans in Jotapata. Nay, indeed, were there not reckoned up two thousand of the people of Tiberias during the siege of Jerusalem, some of whom were slain, and the rest caught and carried captives? But thou wilt pretend that thou didst not engage in the war, since thou didst flee to the king? Yes, indeed, thou didst flee to him; but I say it was out of fear of me. Thou sayest, indeed, that it is I who am a wicked man. But then, for what reason was it that king Agrippa, who procured thee thy life when thou wast condemned to die by Vespasian, and who bestowed so much riches upon thee, did twice afterwards put thee into bonds, and as often obliged thee to run away from thy country, and, when he had once ordered thee to be put to death, he granted thee a pardon at the earnest request of Bernice? and when (after so many of thy wicked pranks) he had made thee his secretary, he caught thee falsifying his epistles, and drove thee away from his sight. But I shall not inquire accurately into these matters of scandal against thee. Yet cannot I but wonder at thy impudence, when thou hast the assur- ance to say, that thou hast better

related these affairs [of the war] than have all the others that have written about them, whilst thou didst not know what was done in Galilee; for thou wast then at Berytus with the king; nor didst thou know how much the Romans suffered at the siege of Jotapata, or what miseries they brought upon us; nor couldst thou learn by inquiry what I did during that seige myself; for all those that might afford such information were quite destroyed in that siege. But perhaps thou wilt say, thou hast written of what was done against the people of Jerusalem exactly. But how should that be? for neither wast thou concerned in that war, nor hast thou read the Commentaries of Cæsar; of which we have evident proof, because thou hast contradicted those Commentaries of Cæsar in thy history. But if thou art so hardy as to affirm that thou hast written that history better than all the rest, why didst thou not publish thy history while the emperors Vespasian and Titus, the generals in that war, as well as king Agrippa and his family, who were men very well skilled in the learning of the Greeks, were all alive? for thou hast had it written these twenty years, and then mightest thou have had the testimony of thy accuracy. But now when these men are no longer with us, and thou thinkest thou canst not be contradicted, thou venturest to publish it. But then I was not in like manner afraid of my own writing, but I

offered my books to the emperors themselves, when the facts were almost under men's eyes; for I was conscious to myself that I had observed the truth of the facts; and as I expected to have their attestation to them, so I was not deceived in such expectation. Moreover, I immediately presented my history to many other persons, some of whom were concerned in the war, as was king Agrippa and some of his kindred. Now the emperor Titus was so desirous that the knowledge of these affairs should be taken from these books alone, that he subscribed his own hand to them, and ordered that they should be published; and for Agrippa, he wrote me sixty-two letters, and attested to the truth of what I had therein delivered; two of which letters I have here subjoined, and thou mayest thereby know their contents. "King Agrippa to Josephus, his dear friend, sendeth greeting.—I have read over thy book with great pleasure, and it appears to me that thou hast done it much more accurately, and with greater care, than have

the other writers. Send me the rest of these books. Farewell, my dear friend."—"King Agrippa to Josephus, his dear friend, sendeth greeting.—It seems by what thou hast written, that thou standest in need of no instruction, in order to our information from the beginning. However, when thou comest to me, I will