Sylla pitched his camp at five furlongs' distance from Julias, and set a guard upon the roads; both that which led to Cana, and that which led to the fortress Gamala: that he might hinder their inhabitants from getting provisions out of Galilee.

As soon as I had received intelligence of this, I sent two thousand armed men, and a captain over them, whose name was Jeremiah; who raised a bank a furlong off Julias, near to the river Jordan: and did no more than skirmish with the enemy; till I took three thousand soldiers myself, and came to them. But on the next day, when I had laid an ambush in a certain valley, not far from the bank, I provoked those that belonged to the king to come to a battle; and gave orders to my own soldiers to turn their backs upon them until they should have drawn the enemy away from their camp, and brought them out into the field. This 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. 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 great concern for me. I therefore sent for the physicians; and while I was under their care, I continued feverish that day; and, as the physicians directed, I was at night removed to Taricher.

*

When Sylla and his party were informed what had 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

* Or Capernaum, so often mentioned in the new Tes

tament.

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 of 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 Julias, they were afraid and retired.

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 clamor against Justus of Tiberias, because he had set their villages on fire. So Vespasian delivered him to the king to be put to death by those under the king'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 them, 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 inthe Jewish war, and during the siege of Jeru

salem,

war.

When the seige 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. At his command, also, I married a * virgin who was from among the captives of that 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 clamors to the emperors, and desired that they would bring me to punishment, as a traitor to them. But Titus Cæsar was 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 of Jerusalem was taken by force, Titus Cæsar persuaded me frequently to take whatsoever I would out 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 to the temple, by the permission of Titus, where there were a great multitude of captive women, and children; I got all those that I remembered as among my own friends and acquaintance, to be set free, being in number

* Here Josephus, a priest, honestly confesses that he did that at the command of Vespasian, which he had before told us was not lawful for a priest to do by the law of Moses. Antiq. III. 13. I mean the taking a cap.

of redemption; and restored them to their former fortune. And when I was sent by Titus Cæsar, with Cerealius, and a thousand horsemen to a certain village, called Thecoa, in order to know whether it were a place fit for a camp; as I came back I saw many captives crucified and remembered three of them, as my former acquaintance. I was very sorry at this in my mind; and went with tears in my eyes to Titus, and told him of them. So he immediately commanded them to be taken down, and to have the greatest care taken of them in order to their recovery. Yet two of them died under the physicians' hands: while the third recovered.

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But when Titus had composed the troubles in Judea, and conjectured that the lands which I had in Judea, would bring me in no profit, because a garrison to guard the country was afterward to pitch there, he gave me another country in the plain. And when he was going away to Rome, he made choice of me to sail along with him; and paid me great respect. And when we were come to Rome, I had great care taken of me by Vespasian. For he gave me an apartment in his own house, which he lived in before he came to the empire. He also honored me with the privilege of a Roman citizen; and gave me an annual pension: and continued to respect me to the end of his life, without any abatement of his kindness. This circumstance made me envied, and brought me into danger. For a certain Jew named Jonathan, who had raised 'a tumult in Cyrene, and had persuaded two thousand men of that country to join with him, was the occasion of their ruin. But when he was bound by the governor of that country, and sent to the emperor, he told him, that I had sent him both weapons and money. However he could not conceal his being a liar from Vespasian; who condemned him to die. According to which sentence he was put to death. Nay, after that, when those that envied my good fortune did frequently bring

N. B. Josephus, from his own knowledge, and his Old Testament, assures us, in all his copies, both Greek and Latin, seen by Dr. Hudson, that the brazen sea in the temple was an hemisphere: and contained 3000 Baths: that it was 10 cubits in diameter; and consequently about 30 cubits, by a gross estimation, in circumference. Our Hebrew and Greek copies, 1 Kings vii. 23-26. also agree to the same diameter, circumference, and depth; and that it was round all about, or a real hemisphere. Only they say, that it contained but 2000 Baths. While the same Hebrew and Greek copies in 2 Chr. iv. 25. agree in all things with the Book of Kings; excepting the number of Baths this sea contained which is there constantly 3000, as in Josephus's copies. It is true, the Geneva edition of Josephus-has but 2000. But then Dr. Hudson thinks the editors took that number not from any MS. but from the Bible, in the place already mentioned of the Kings. However, because Josephus himself gives us the contents of Assaron or Omer, the known 1-10 of Bath or Epha, Exod. xvi. 36. to be

seven Attic Cotylæ, or 1207,5 cubical inches, this only agrees to the number 2000 as in the Book of Kings. Now I confess I see no other foundation for doubt in this matter, but only about the number of the Baths contained in this sea; whether they were 2000 or 3000. In which the direct evidences appear to me so equally balanced, that I am not able to determine between them. I shall therefore wave the more uncertain authority of the modern Rabbins, and modern writers depending on them; and state the Jewish Bath, or Epha, by geometrical calculation from these surer premises: and thence deduce the rest of the Jewish measures of capacity, which bear a known proportion to it: and this upon both the hypotheses, that the brazen sea held only 2000, or that it held 3000 Baths. The cube of 10 cubits, or of 210 inches 9261,000 solid or cubical inches. Now Geometricians know, that as 1 to 532 decimals: or as 1000 to 532 integers; so is that Cube, to a sphere of the same diameter: 4843503 solid or cubical inches. Its half, or the hemisphere, is therefore 2421751 such inches. Divide that sum by 2000, and by 3000: the numbers of the Baths contained in that hemisphere, upon the two hypotheses beforementioned, the qotients will be equal to one Bath or Epha: i. e. either to 1210,911 or to 807,274, such inches: i. e. they will, in the former case, be equal to, or above, and in the second case to 3, or exactly to the mean, between the and of the cube of the cubit; i. e. in English measure, either 41, 74, or 27,83 English pints or pounds. Accordingly my Table is double; and contains the Jewish measures of capacity, according to both those estimations: and that as well in cubical inches, as in pints, or pounds.

N. B. Josephus's present copies, Antiq. VIII. 2. affirm, that the Badus, or Bath, the tenth part of Corus or Chomer, was equal to 72 Xestæ, or Sextaries: i. e. to about 2484,72 cubical inches: which is the content of the Medimnus Atticus. As also XV. 9. they affirm, that the Corus or Chomer, which is 10 Baths, contained 10 Medimni: both which estimations agree; although they be wide from all our computations in excess. Yet do the same copies say elsewhere, III. 15. that 70 Cori, or Chomers, are equal to no more than 31 Sicilian, and to 41 Attic Medimni; which is but 1454 solid or cubical inches, for a single Corus or Chomer. As if the same measure were equal to 24847,2 and to no more than 1454 cubical inches; or were above 17 times as large as itself. This number is very wide from all our computations in defect. These quantities are therefore so entirely contradictory to one another, that I must be forced to drop them on both sides in my present determinations: and to proceed upon the foregoing principles only.

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