that slavery was in itself a bitter thing; but that when it was joined with direct injuries, it was perfectly intolerable. And when their principal men attempted to pacify them, and promised to endeavour to persuade Cumanus to avenge those that were killed; they would not hearken to them; but took their weapons, and entreated the assistance of Eleazar, the son of Dineus, a robber, who had many years resided among the mountains; and with his assistance they plundered many villages of the Samaritans. When Cumanus heard of this action he took the band of Sebaste, with four regiments of footmen, and armed the Samaritans, and marched out against the Jews, and caught them, and slew many of them, and took a greater number alive. Whereupon those that were the most eminent persons at Jerusalem; both in regard of the respect that was paid them, and the families they were of, as soon as they saw to what a height things were gone, put on sackcloth, and heaped ashes upon their heads and by all possible means besought the seditious, and persuaded them that they would set before their eyes,* the utter subversion of their country, the conflagration of their temple, and the slavery of themselves, their wives, and children, which would be the consequences of what they were doing; unless they would cast away their weapons, and for the future be quiet. These persuasions prevailed upon them. So the people dispersed themselves, and the robbers went again to their places of strength. And after this time all Judea was overrun with robberies.

But the principal of the Samaritans went to Ummidius Quadratus, president of Syria, who at that time was at Tyre; and accused the Jews of setting their villages on fire, and plundering them; and said withal, that they were not so much displeased at what they had suffered, as they were at the contempt thereby shown to the Romans: while if they had received any injury, they ought to have made them the judges of what had

* Our Saviour had foretold, that the Jews' rejection of his Gospel would bring upon them, among other miseries, these three; which they themselves here show they expected would be the consequences of their present tumults and seditions. The utter subversion of their country; the conflagration of their temple; and the slavery of themselves, their wives, and children. See Luke xxi. 6, 24.

been done; and not presently to make such devastations as if they had not the Romans for their governors. On which account they came to him in order to obtain that vengeance they wanted. This was the accusation which the Samaritans brought against the Jews. But the Jews affirmed that the Samaritans were the authors of this tumult, and that, in the first place, Cumanus had been corrupted by their gifts; and passed over the murder of those that were slain in silence. Which allegation when Quadratus heard, he put off the hearing of the cause; and promised that he would give sentence when he should come into Judea, and should have a more exact knowledge of the matter. So these men went away, without success. Yet was it not long before Quadratus came to Samaria; when, upon hearing the cause, he supposed that the Samaritans were the authors of that disturbance. But when he was informed that certain of the Jews were making innovations, he ordered those to be crucified whom Cumanus had taken captives. He then went to a certain village called Lydda, which was not less than a city in largeness: and there heard the Samaritan cause a second time, before his tribunal; and learned from a certain Samaritan, that one of the chief of the Jews, whose name was Dortus, and four other innovators with him, persuaded the multitude to revolt from the Romans. Quadratus, therefore, ordered them to be put to death: but still he sent away Ananias the high-priest, and Ananus the commander of the temple, in bonds to Rome, to give an account of what they had done to Claudius Cæsar. He also ordered the principal men, both of the Samaritans, and of the Jews; as also Cumanus, the procurator, and Celer, the tribune, to go to Italy, to the emperor; that he might hear their cause, and determine their differences one with another. He then returned to the city of Jerusalem, out of his fear that the multitude of the Jews should attempt some innovations. But he found the city in a peaceable state, and celebrating one of the *usual festivals of their country to God. So he believed that they would not attempt any innovations; and left them at the celebration of the festival, and returned to Antioch.

*The Passover.

Now Cumanus, and the principal of the Samaritans, who were sent to Rome, had a day appointed them by the emperor, whereon they were to have pleaded their cause about the quarrels they had one with another. But Cæsar's freedmen, and his friends, were very zealous on the behalf of Cumanus and the Samaritans. And they had prevailed over the Jews, unless Agrippa junior, who was then at Rome, had seen the principal of the Jews hard set, and had earnestly entreated Agrippina, the emperor's wife, to persuade her husband to hear the cause, so as was agreeable to his justice; and to condemn those to be punished who were really the authors of this revolt from the Roman government. Whereupon Claudius was so well disposed beforehand, that when he had heard the cause, and found that the Samaritans had been the ringleaders in these' mischievous doings, he gave orders that those who came up to him should be slain; and that Cumanus should be banished. He also gave order that Celer the tribune, should be carried back to Jerusalem; and should be drawn through the city* in the sight of all the people, and then should be slain.

CHAP. VII.

OF THE APPOINTMENT OF FELIX TO BE PROCURATOR OF JUDEA: AS ALSO CONCERNING AGRIPPA JUNIOR, AND HIS SISTERS.

CLAUDIUS now† sent Felix, the brother of Pallans, to take care of the affairs of Judea. And when he had already completed the twelfth year of his reign, he bestowed upon Agrippa the tetrarchy of Philip, and Batanea: and added thereto Trachonitis, with Abila: which last had been the tetrarchy of Lysanias. But he took from him Chalcis; when he had been governor thereof four years. And when Agrippa had received these countries, as the gift of Cæsar, he gave his sister Drusilla

*Not only with a view to mortify the individual, and give publicity to the action, but to render it monitory to others. This is certainly an important part of judicial punishment. B.

in marriage to Azizus, king of Emesa: upon his consent to be circumcised. For Epiphanes, the son of king Antiochus, had refused to marry her; because after he had formerly promised her father to embrace the Jewish religion, he would not now perform that promise. He also gave Mariamne in marriage to Archelaus the son of Helcias; to whom she had been betrothed formerly by Agrippa her father: and from this marriage was derived a daughter, whose name was Bernice.

But the marriage of Drusilla with Azizus was in no long time afterward dissolved, upon the following occasion. While Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her for she exceeded all other women in beauty and he sent to her a person whose name was *Simon, one of his friends, a Jew he was, and by birth a Cypriot: and one who pretended to be a magician, and endeavoured to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and marry him and promised that if she would not refuse him, he would make her a happy woman.Accordingly she acted ill; and because she was desirous to avoid her sister Bernice's envy; for she was very ill treated by her on account of her beauty; she was prevailed upon to transgress

* This Simon, a friend of Felix's, a Jew, born in Cyprus; though he pretended to be a magician, and seems to have been wicked enough, could hardly be that famous Simon, the magician, in the Acts of the Apostles, viii. 9. &c. as some are ready to suppose. This Simon, mentioned in the Acts, was not properly a Jew, but a Samaritan; of the town of Gittæ, in the country of Samaria; as the Apostolic Constitutions, VI. 7. The Recognitions of Clement, II. 6. and Justin Martyr, himself born in the country of Samaria, Apology I. 34. inform us. He was also the author, not of any ancient Jewish, but of the first Gentile heresies as the aforementioned authors assure us. So I suppose him a different person from the other. I mean this only upon the hypothesis, that Josephus was not misinformed, as to his being a Cypriot Jew. For otherwise the time, the name, the profession, and the wickedness of them both, would strongly incline one to believe them the very same. As to that Drusilla, the sister of Agrippa junior, as Josephus informs us here; and a Jewess, as St. Luke informs us, Acts xxiv. 24. whom this Simon, mentioned by Josephus, persuaded to` leave her former husband, Azizus, king of Emesa, a proselyte of Justice; and to marry Felix, the heathen procurator of Judea; Tacitus Hist. V. 9, supposes her to be a heathen: and the grand-daughter of Antonius and Cleopatra: contrary both to St. Luke and Josephus. Now Tacitus lived somewhat too remote, both as to time and place, to be compared with either of those Jewish writers, in a mat

the laws of her forefathers, and to marry Felix: and when he had had a son by her, he named him Agrippa. But that young man, with his wife, perished at the *conflagration of the mountain Vesuvius, in the days of Titus Cæsar.

Bernice lived as a widow a long while after the death of +Herod who was both her husband, and her uncle: but when the report went that she had criminal conversation with her brother, she persuaded Polemo, king of Cilicia, to be circumcised, and to marry her as supposing that by this means she should disprove those calumnies. And Polemo was prevailed upon; and that chiefly on account of her riches. Yet did not this matrimony endure long. But Bernice left Polemo; and, as was said, with impure intentions. So he forsook at once this matrimony, and the Jewish religion. And at the same time Mariamne put away Archelaus; and was married to Demetrius, the principal man among the Alexandrian Jews, both for his family, and his wealth. And, indeed, he was then their alabarch. So she named her son, which she had by him, Agrippinus.

ter concerning a sister of Agrippa junior's, with which Agrippa, Josephus was himself so well acquainted. It is probable that Tacitus may say true, when he informs us, that this Felix, (who had in all three wives, or queens, as Suetonius in Claudius, § 28, assures us,) did once marry such a grandchild of Antonius and Cleopatra. And finding the name of one of them to have been Drusilla, he mistook her for that other wife, whose name he did not know.

* This eruption of Vesuvius was one of the greatest we have in any history. See Bianchi's curious and important observations on this volcano, and its seven great eruptions, with their remains vitrified, and still existing, in so many different strata under ground; till the diggers came to the antediluvian waters, with their proportionable interstices: implying the deluge to have been above 2500 years before the Christian era; according to our exactest chronology.

+ King of Chalcis.

Agrippa junior.