barbarity, and did in a special manner threaten them. These leaders were Eleazar the son of Simon, who seemed the most plausible man of them all, both in considering what was fit to be done, and in the execution of what he had determined upon, and Zarachias the son of Phalek; both of whom derived their families from the priests. Now when these two men had heard, not only the common threatening which belonged to them all, but those peculiarly leveled against themselves, and besides, how Ananus and his party, in order to secure their own dominion, had invited the Romans to come to them, for that also was part of John's lie, they hesitated a great while what they should do, considering the shortness of the time by which they were straitened; because the people were prepared to attack them very soon, and because the suddenness of the plot laid against them had almost cut off all their hopes of getting any foreign assistance; for they might be under the height of their afflictions before any of their confederates could be informed of it. However, it was resolved to call in the Idumeans; so they wrote a short letter to this effect: that "Ananus had imposed on the people, and was betraying their metropolis to the Romans; that they themselves had revolted from the rest, and were in custody in the temple, on account of the preservation of their liberty; that there was but a small time left, wherein they might hope for their deliverance; and that unless they would come immediately to their assistance, they should themselves be soon in the power of Ananus, and the city would be in the power of the Romans." They also charged the messengers to tell many more circumstances to the rulers of the Idumeans. Now there were two active men proposed for the carrying of this message, and such as were well able to speak, and to persuade them that things were in this posture, and what was a qualification still more necessary than the former, they were very swift of foot; for they knew well enough that these would immediately comply with their desires, as being ever a tumultuous and disorderly nation, always on the watch upon every motion, delighting in mutations; and upon your Ĥattering them ever so little, and petitioning them, they soon take their arms, and put themselves into motion, and make haste to a battle, as if it were to a feast. There was indeed occasion for quick dispatch in the carrying of this message, in which point the messengers were no way defective. Both their names were Ananius; and they soon came to the rulers of the Idumeans.

2. Now these rulers were greatly surprised at the contents of the letter, and at what those that came with it further told them; whereupon they ran about the nation like madmen,

and made proclamation that the people should come to war; so a multitude was suddenly gotten together, sooner indeed than the time appointed in the proclamation, and every body caught up their arms, in order to maintain the liberty of their metropolis; and twenty thousand of them were put into battle array, and came to Jerusalem under four commanders, John, and Jacob the son of Sosas; and besides these, were Simon the son of Cathlas, and Phineas the son of Cluso thus.

3. Now this exit of the messengers was not known either to Ananus or to the guards, but the approach of the Idumeans was known to him; for, as he knew of it before they came, he ordered the gates to be shut against them, and that the wall should be guarded. Yet did not he by any means think of fighting against them, but before they came to blows, to try what persuasions would do. Accordingly Jesus, the eldest of the high-priests, next to Ananus, stood upon the tower that was over against them, and said thus: " Many troubles, indeed, and those of various kinds, have fallen upon this city, yet in none of them have I so much wondered at her fortune as now, when you are come to assist wicked men, and this after a manner very extraordinary; for I see that you are come to support the vilest of men against us, and this with so great alacrity, as you could hardly put on the like, in case our metropolis had called you to her assistance against barbarians. And if I had perceived that your army was composed of men like unto those who invited them, I had not deemed your attempt so absurd. For nothing does so much cement the minds of men together as the alliance there is between their manners. But now for these men who have invited you, if you were to examine them one by one, every one of them would be found to have deserved ten thousand deaths; for the very rascality and offscouring of the whole country, who have spent in debauchery their whole substance, and, by way of trial beforehand, have madly plundered the neighbouring villages and cities, in the upshot of of all, have privately run together into this holy city. They are robbers who, by their prodigious wickedness, have profaned this most sacred floor, and who are to be now seen drinking themselves drunk in the sanctuary, and expending the spoils of those whom they have slaughtered upon their insatiable bellies. As for the multitude that is with you, one may see them so decently adorned in their armour, as it would become them to be, had their metropolis called them to her assistance against foreigners. What can a man call this procedure of yours, but the sport of fortune, when he sees a whole nation coming to protect a sink of wicked

wretches? I have for a good while been in doubt what it could possibly be that should move you to do this so suddenly; because certainly you would not take all your armour on the behalf of robbers, and against a people of kin to you, without some very great cause for your so doing. But we have an item that the Romans are pretended, and that we are supposed to be going to betray this city to them; for some of your men have lately made a clamour about those matters, and have said they are come to set their metropolis free. Now we cannot but admire at these wretches, in their devising such a lie as this against us; for they knew there was no other way to irritate against us, men that were naturally desirous of liberty, and on that account the best disposed to fight against foreign enemies, but by framing a tale, as if we were going to betray that most desirable thing, liberty. But you ought to consider what sort of people they are that raised this calumny, and against what sort of people that calumny is raised, and to gather the truth of things, not by fictitious speeches, but out of the actions of both parties; for what occasion is there for us to sell ourselves to the Romans? while it was in our power not to have revolted from them at the first, or, when we had once revolted, to have returned under their dominion again; and this while the neighbouring countries were not yet laid waste; whereas it is not an easy thing to be reconciled to the Romans, if we were desirous of it, now they have subdued Galilee, and are thereby become proud and insolent; and to endeavour to please them at the time when they are so near us, would bring such a reproach upon us as were worse than death. As for myself, indeed, I should have preferred peace with them before death; but now we have once made war upon them, and fought with them, I prefer death, with reputation, before living in captivity under them. But farther, whether do they pretend that we, who are the rulers of the people, have sent thus privately to the Romans, or hath it been done by the common suffrages of the people? If it be ourselves only that have done it, let them name those friends of ours that have been sent, as our servants, to manage this treachery. Hath any one been caught as he went out on this errand, or seized upon as he came back? Are they in possession of our letters? How could we be con cealed from such a vast number of our fellow-citizens, amoug whom we are conversant every hour, while what is done privately in the country is, it seems, known by the zealots, who are but few in number, and under confinement also, and are not able to come out of the temple into the city? Is this the first time that they are become sensible how they ought to

be punished for their insolent actions? For while these men were free from the fear they are now under, there was no suspicion raised that any of us were traitors. But if they lay this charge against the people, this must have been done at a public consultation, and not one of the people must have dissented from the rest of the assembly; in which case, the public fame of this matter would have come to you sooner than any particular indication. But how could that be? Must there not then have been ambassadors sent to confirm the agreements? and let them tell us who this ambassador was that was ordained for that purpose. But this is no other than a pretence of such men as are loath to die, and are labouring to escape those punishments that hang over them; for if fate had determined that this city was to be betrayed into its enemies' hands, no other than these men that accuse us falsely could have the impudence to do it, there being no wickedness wanting to complete their impudent practices but this only that they become traitors. And now you, Idumeans, are come hither already with your arms; it is your duty, in the first place, to be assisting to your metropolis, and to join with us in cutting off those tyrants that have infringed the rules of our regular tribunals, that have trampled upon our laws, and made their swords the arbitrators of right and wrong; for they have seized upon men of great eminence, and under no accusation, as they stood in the midst of the market-place, and tortured them with putting them into bonds, and, without bearing to hear what they had to say or what supplications they made, they destroyed them. You may, if you please, come into this city, though not in the way of war, and take a view of the marks still remaining of what I now say, and may see the houses that have been depopulated by their rapacious hands with those wives and families that are in black mourning for their slaughtered relations; as also you may hear their groans and lamentations all the city over; for there is nobody but hath tasted of the incursions of these profane wretches, who have proceeded to that degree of madness, as not only to have transferred their impudent robberies out of the country and the remote cities, into this city, the very face and head of the whole nation, but out of the city into the temple also; for that is now made their receptacle and refuge, and the fountain-head whence their preparations are made against us. And this place, which is adored by the habitable world, and honoured by such as only know it by report, as far as the ends of the earth, is trampled upon by these wild beasts born among ourselves. They now triumph in the desperate condition they are already in, when they hear that one people are

going to fight against another people, and one city against another city, and that your nation hath gotten an army together against its own bowels. Instead of which procedure it were highly fit and reasonable, as I said before, for you to join with us in cutting off these wretches, and in particular to be revenged on them for putting this very cheat upon you; I mean, for having the impudence to invite you to assist them, of whom they ought to have stood in fear, as ready to punish them. But if you have some regard to these men's invitation of you, yet may you lay aside your arms, and come into the city under the notion of our kindred, and take upon you a middle name between that of auxiliaries and of enemies, and so become judges in this case. However, consider what these men will gain by being called into judgment before you, for such undeniable and such flagrant crimes, who would not vouchsafe to hear such as had no accusations laid against them, to speak a word for themselves. However, let them gain this advantage by your coming. But still, if you will neither take our part in that indignation we have at these men, nor judge between us, the third thing I have to propose is this: that you let us both alone, and neither insult upon our calamities, nor abide with these plotters against their metropolis; for though you should have ever so great a suspicion that some of us have discoursed with the Romans, it is in your power to watch the passages into the city; and in case any thing that we have been accused of is brought to light, then to come and defend your metropolis, and to inflict punishment on those that are found guilty; for the enemy cannot prevent you, who are now so near to the city. But if after all, none of these proposals seem acceptable and moderate, do not you wonder that the gates are shut against you, while you bear your arms about you.”

4. Thus spake Jesus; yet did not the multitude of the Idumeans give any attention to what he said, but were in a rage, because they did not meet with a ready entrance into the city. The generals also had indignation at the offer of laying down their arms, and looked upon it as equal to a captivity, to throw them away at any man's injunction whomsoever. But Simon the son of Cathlas, one of their commanders, with much ado quieted the tumult of his own men, and stood so that the high-priests might hear him, and said as follows: "I can no longer wonder that the patrons of liberty are under custody in the temple, since there are those that shut the gates of our common city to their own nation*,

*This appellation of Jerusalem given it here by Simon, the general of the Idumeans, the common city of the Idumeans, who were proselytes of justice, VOL. IV.

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