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,
His house
attacked.
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
Severe
measures.
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,[1] 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
Josephus
addresses the
multitude.
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
Protects the
great men.
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
Walls for
Tiberias.
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
Sedition
in the city.
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
- ↑ Here we may observe the vulgar Jewish notions of witchcraft; but that our Josephus was too wise to give any countenance to.