Antiquities of the Jews — Book 20, Chapter 8

1. Now Claudius Cæsar died when he had reigned thirteen years, eight
months, and twenty days; 17 and a report went about that he was poisoned
by his wife Agrippina. Her father was Germanicus, the brother of Cæsar.
Her husband was Domitius Aenobarbus, one of the most illustrious persons
that was in the city of Rome; after whose death, and her long
continuance in widowhood, Claudius took her to wife. She brought along
with her a son, Domtitus, of the same name with his father. He had
before this slain his wife Messalina, out of jealousy, by whom he had
his children Britannicus and Octavia; their eldest sister was Antonia,
whom he had by Pelina his first wife. He also married Octavia to Nero;
for that was the name that Cæsar gave him afterward, upon his adopting
him for his son.

2. But now Agrippina was afraid, lest, when Britannicus should come to
man's estate, he should succeed his father in the government, and
desired to seize upon the principality beforehand for her own son
[Nero]; upon which the report went that she thence compassed the death
of Claudius. Accordingly, she sent Burrhus, the general of the army,
immediately, and with him the tribunes, and such also of the freed-men
as were of the greatest authority, to bring Nero away into the camp, and
to salute him emperor. And when Nero had thus obtained the government,
he got Britannicus to be so poisoned, that the multitude should not
perceive it; although he publicly put his own mother to death not long
afterward, making her this requital, not only for being born of her, but
for bringing it so about by her contrivances that he obtained the Roman
empire. He also slew Octavia his own wife, and many other illustrious
persons, under this pretense, that they plotted against him.

3. But I omit any further discourse about these affairs; for there have
been a great many who have composed the history of Nero; some of which
have departed from the truth of facts out of favor, as having received
benefits from him; while others, out of hatred to him, and the great
ill-will which they bare him, have so impudently raved against him with
their lies, that they justly deserve to be condemned. Nor do I wonder at
such as have told lies of Nero, since they have not in their writings
preserved the truth of history as to those facts that were earlier than
his time, even when the actors could have no way incurred their hatred,
since those writers lived a long time after them. But as to those that
have no regard to truth, they may write as they please; for in that they
take delight: but as to ourselves, who have made truth our direct aim,
we shall briefly touch upon what only belongs remotely to this
undertaking, but shall relate what hath happened to us Jews with great
accuracy, and shall not grudge our pains in giving an account both of
the calamities we have suffered, and of the crimes we have been guilty
of. I will now therefore return to the relation of our own affairs.

4. For in the first year of the reign of Nero, upon the death of Azizus,
king of Emesa, Soemus, his brother, succeeded in his kingdom, and
Aristobulus, the son of Herod, king of Chalcis, was intrusted by Nero
with the government of the Lesser Armenia. Cæsar also bestowed on
Agrippa a certain part of Galilee, Tiberias, and Tarichae, 18 and
ordered them to submit to his jurisdiction. He gave him also Julias, a
city of Perea, with fourteen villages that lay about it.

5. Now as for the affairs of the Jews, they grew worse and worse
continually, for the country was again filled with robbers and
impostors, who deluded the multitude. Yet did Felix catch and put to
death many of those impostors every day, together with the robbers. He
also caught Eleazar, the son of Dineas, who had gotten together a
company of robbers; and this he did by treachery; for he gave him
assurance that he should suffer no harm, and thereby persuaded him to
come to him; but when he came, he bound him, and sent him to Rome. Felix
also bore an ill-will to Jonathan, the high priest, because he
frequently gave him admonitions about governing the Jewish affairs
better than he did, lest he should himself have complaints made of him
by the multitude, since he it was who had desired Cæsar to send him as
procurator of Judea. So Felix contrived a method whereby he might get
rid of him, now he was become so continually troublesome to him; for
such continual admonitions are grievous to those who are disposed to act
unjustly. Wherefore Felix persuaded one of Jonathan's most faithful
friends, a citizen of Jerusalem, whose name was Doras, to bring the
robbers upon Jonathan, in order to kill him; and this he did by
promising to give him a great deal of money for so doing. Doras complied
with the proposal, and contrived matters so, that the robbers might
murder him after the following manner: Certain of those robbers went up
to the city, as if they were going to worship God, while they had
daggers under their garments, and by thus mingling themselves among the
multitude they slew Jonathan 19 and as this murder was never avenged,
the robbers went up with the greatest security at the festivals after
this time; and having weapons concealed in like manner as before, and
mingling themselves among the multitude, they slew certain of their own
enemies, and were subservient to other men for money; and slew others,
not only in remote parts of the city, but in the temple itself also; for
they had the boldness to murder men there, without thinking of the
impiety of which they were guilty. And this seems to me to have been the
reason why God, out of his hatred of these men's wickedness, rejected
our city; and as for the temple, he no longer esteemed it sufficiently
pure for him to inhabit therein, but brought the Romans upon us, and
threw a fire upon the city to purge it; and brought upon us, our wives,
and children, slavery, as desirous to make us wiser by our calamities.

6. These works, that were done by the robbers, filled the city with all
sorts of impiety. And now these impostors and deceivers persuaded the
multitude to follow them into the wilderness, and pretended that they
would exhibit manifest wonders and signs, that should be performed by
the providence of God. And many that were prevailed on by them suffered
the punishments of their folly; for Felix brought them back, and then
punished them. Moreover, there came out of Egypt 20 about this time to
Jerusalem one that said he was a prophet, and advised the multitude of
the common people to go along with him to the Mount of Olives, as it was
called, which lay over against the city, and at the distance of five
furlongs. He said further, that he would show them from hence how, at
his command, the walls of Jerusalem would fall down; and he promised
them that he would procure them an entrance into the city through those
walls, when they were fallen down. Now when Felix was informed of these
things, he ordered his soldiers to take their weapons, and came against
them with a great number of horsemen and footmen from Jerusalem, and
attacked the Egyptian and the people that were with him. He also slew
four hundred of them, and took two hundred alive. But the Egyptian
himself escaped out of the fight, but did not appear any more. And again
the robbers stirred up the people to make war with the Romans, and said
they ought not to obey them at all; and when any persons would not
comply with them, they set fire to their villages, and plundered them.

7. And now it was that a great sedition arose between the Jews that
inhabited Cæsarea, and the Syrians who dwelt there also, concerning
their equal right to the privileges belonging to citizens; for the Jews
claimed the pre-eminence, because Herod their king was the builder of
Cæsarea, and because he was by birth a Jew. Now the Syrians did not deny
what was alleged about Herod; but they said that Cæsarea was formerly
called Strato's Tower, and that then there was not one Jewish
inhabitant. When the presidents of that country heard of these
disorders, they caught the authors of them on both sides, and tormented
them with stripes, and by that means put a stop to the disturbance for a
time. But the Jewish citizens depending on their wealth, and on that
account despising the Syrians, reproached them again, and hoped to
provoke them by such reproaches. However, the Syrians, though they were
inferior in wealth, yet valuing themselves highly on this account, that
the greatest part of the Roman soldiers that were there were either of
Cæsarea or Sebaste, they also for some time used reproachful language to
the Jews also; and thus it was, till at length they came to throwing
stones at one another, and several were wounded, and fell on both sides,
though still the Jews were the conquerors. But when Felix saw that this
quarrel was become a kind of war, he came upon them on the sudden, and
desired the Jews to desist; and when they refused so to do, he armed his
soldiers, and sent them out upon them, and slew many of them, and took
more of them alive, and permitted his soldiers to plunder some of the
houses of the citizens, which were full of riches. Now those Jews that
were more moderate, and of principal dignity among them, were afraid of
themselves, and desired of Felix that he would sound a retreat to his
soldiers, and spare them for the future, and afford them room for
repentance for what they had done; and Felix was prevailed upon to do
so.

8. About this time king Agrippa gave the high priesthood to Ismael, who
was the son of Fabi. And now arose a sedition between the high priests
and the principal men of the multitude of Jerusalem; each of which got
them a company of the boldest sort of men, and of those that loved
innovations about them, and became leaders to them; and when they
struggled together, they did it by casting reproachful words against one
another, and by throwing stones also. And there was nobody to reprove
them; but these disorders were done after a licentious manner in the
city, as if it had no government over it. And such was the impudence 21
and boldness that had seized on the high priests, that they had the
hardiness to send their servants into the threshing-floors, to take away
those tithes that were due to the priests, insomuch that it so fell out
that the poorest sort of the priests died for want. To this degree did
the violence of the seditious prevail over all right and justice.

9. Now when Porcius Festus was sent as successor to Felix by Nero, the
principal of the Jewish inhabitants of Cæsarea went up to Rome to accuse
Felix; and he had certainly been brought to punishment, unless Nero had
yielded to the importunate solicitations of his brother Pallas, who was
at that time had in the greatest honor by him. Two of the principal
Syrians in Cæsarea persuaded Burrhus, who was Nero's tutor, and
secretary for his Greek epistles, by giving him a great sum of money, to
disannul that equality of the Jewish privileges of citizens which they
hitherto enjoyed. So Burrhus, by his solicitations, obtained leave of
the emperor that an epistle should be written to that purpose. This
epistle became the occasion of the following miseries that befell our
nation; for when the Jews of Cæsarea were informed of the contents of
this epistle to the Syrians, they were more disorderly than before, till
a war was kindled.

10. Upon Festus's coming into Judea, it happened that Judea was
afflicted by the robbers, while all the villages were set on fire, and
plundered by them. And then it was that the sicarii, as they were
called, who were robbers, grew numerous. They made use of small swords,
not much different in length from the Persian acinacae, but somewhat
crooked, and like the Roman sicae, [or sickles,] as they were called;
and from these weapons these robbers got their denomination; and with
these weapons they slew a great many; for they mingled themselves among
the multitude at their festivals, when they were come up in crowds from
all parts to the city to worship God, as we said before, and easily slew
those that they had a mind to slay. They also came frequently upon the
villages belonging to their enemies, with their weapons, and plundered
them, and set them on fire. So Festus sent forces, both horsemen and
footmen, to fall upon those that had been seduced by a certain impostor,
who promised them deliverance and freedom from the miseries they were
under, if they would but follow him as far as the wilderness.
Accordingly, those forces that were sent destroyed both him that had
deluded them, and those that were his followers also.

11. About the same time king Agrippa built himself a very large dining-
room in the royal palace at Jerusalem, near to the portico. Now this
palace had been erected of old by the children of Asamoneus and was
situate upon an elevation, and afforded a most delightful prospect to
those that had a mind to take a view of the city, which prospect was
desired by the king; and there he could lie down, and eat, and thence
observe what was done in the temple; which thing, when the chief men of
Jerusalem saw they were very much displeased at it; for it was not
agreeable to the institutions of our country or law that what was done
in the temple should be viewed by others, especially what belonged to
the sacrifices. They therefore erected a wall upon the uppermost
building which belonged to the inner court of the temple towards the
west, which wall when it was built, did not only intercept the prospect
of the dining-room in the palace, but also of the western cloisters that
belonged to the outer court of the temple also, where it was that the
Romans kept guards for the temple at the festivals. At these doings both
king Agrippa, and principally Festus the procurator, were much
displeased; and Festus ordered them to pull the wall down again: but the
Jews petitioned him to give them leave to send an embassage about this
matter to Nero; for they said they could not endure to live if any part
of the temple should be demolished; and when Festus had given them leave
so to do, they sent ten of their principal men to Nero, as also Ismael
the high priest, and Helcias, the keeper of the sacred treasure. And
when Nero had heard what they had to say, he not only forgave 22 them
what they had already done, but also gave them leave to let the wall
they had built stand. This was granted them in order to gratify Poppea,
Nero's wife, who was a religious woman, and had requested these favors
of Nero, and who gave order to the ten ambassadors to go their way home;
but retained Helcias and Ismael as hostages with herself. As soon as the
king heard this news, he gave the high priesthood to Joseph, who was
called Cabi, the son of Simon, formerly high priest.