Page:Works Translated by William Whiston.djvu/38

24 have drawn the enemy away from their camp and brought them out into the field, which was done accordingly; for Sylla, supposing that our party did really run away, was ready to pursue them, when our soldiers that lay in ambush took them on their backs, and put them all into great disorder. I also immediately made a sudden turn with my own forces, and met those of the king's party, and put them to flight. And I had performed great things that day, if a certain fate had not been my hindrance; for the horse on which I rode, and

upon whose back I fought, fell into a quagmire, and threw me on the ground; and I was bruised on my wrist, and carried into a village named Cepharnome, or Capernaum. When my soldiers heard of this, they were afraid I had been worse hurt than I was: and so they did not go on with their pursuit any farther, but returned in very great concern for me. I therefore sent for the physicians, and while I was under their hand, I continued feverish that day; and as the physicians directed, I was that night removed to Taricheæ.

73. WHEN SYLLA and his party were informed what happened to me, they took courage again; and, understanding that the watch was

negligently kept in our camp, they by night placed a body of horsemen in ambush beyond Jordan, and when it was day they provoked us to fight; and as we did not refuse it, but came into the plain, their horsemen appeared out of that ambush in which they had lain, and put our men into disorder, and made them run away; so they slew six men on our side. Yet did they not go off with the victory at last; for when they heard that some armed men were sailed from Taricheæ to Julius, they were afraid, and retired.

74. IT WAS not now long before Vespasian came to Tyre, and king Agrippa with him; but the Tyrians began to speak reproachfully of the king, and called

him an enemy to the Romans;—for they said that Philip, the general of his army, had betrayed the royal palace and the Roman forces that were in Jerusalem, and that it was done by his command. When Vespasian heard of this report, he rebuked the Tyrians for abusing a man who was both a king and a friend to the Romans; but he exhorted the king to send Philip to Rome, to answer for what he had done before Nero. But when Philip was sent thither, he did not come into the sight of Nero, for he found him very near death, on account of the troubles that then happened, and a civil war; and so he returned to the king. But when Vespasian was come to Ptolemais, the chief men of Decapolis of Syria made a clamour against Justus of Tiberia, because he had set their villages on fire: so Vespasian delivered him to the king, to be put to death by those under the kin g's jurisdiction ; yet

did the king [only] put him into bonds, and concealed what he had done from Vespasian, as I have before related. But the people of Sepphoris met Vespasian, and saluted him, and had forces sent him, with Placidus their commander: he also went up with them, as I also followed them, till Vespasian came into Galilee. As to which coming of his, and after what manner it was ordered, and how he fought his first battle with me near the village Taricheæ, and how from thence they went to Jotapata, and how I was taken alive, and bound, and how I was afterward loosed, with all that was done by me in the Jewish war, and during the seige of Jerusalem, I have accurately related them in the books concerning the War of the Jews. However, it will, I think, be fit for me to add now an account of those actions of my life which I have not related in that book of the Jewish war.

75. FOR, WHEN the siege of Jotapata was over, and I was among the Romans, I was kept with much

care, by means of the great respect that Vespasian shewed me. Moreover, at his command, I married a virgin, who was from among the captives of the country: yet did she not live with me long, but was divorced, upon my being freed from my bonds, and my going to Alexandria. However, I married another wife at Alexandria, and was thence sent, together with Titus, to the siege of Jerusalem, and was frequently in danger of being put to death,—while both the Jews were very desirous to get me under their power, in order to have me punished; and the Romans also, whenever they were beaten, supposed that it was occasioned by my treachery, and made continual clamours to the emperors, and desired that they would bring me to punishment, as a traitor to them: but Titus Cæsar was well acquainted with the uncertain fortune of war, and returned no answer to the soldiers' vehement solicitations against me. Moreover, when the city Jerusalem was taken by force, Titus Cæsar persuaded me frequently to take whatsoever I would of the ruins of my country; and said that he gave me leave so

to do: but when my country was destroyed, I thought nothing else to be of any value which I could take and keep as a comfort under my calamities; so I made this request to Titus, That my family might have their liberty: I had also the holy books by Titus's concession: nor was it long after, that I asked of him the life of my brother, and, of fifty friends with him, and was not denied. When I also went once