sent down great showers of rain, contrary to human expectation, for that day was a clear day, and gave no sign, by the appearance of the sky, of any rain; nay, the whole year had been subject to a great drought, and made men despair of any water from above, even when at any time they saw the heavens overcast with clouds; insomuch, that when such a great quantity of rain came, and that in an unusual manner, and without any other expectation of it, the Jews hoped that Petronius would by no means fail in his petition for them. But as to Petronius he was mightily surprised when he perceived that God evidently took care of the Jews, and gave very plain signs of his appearance, and this to such a degree, that those that were in earnest much inclined to the contrary, had no power left to contradict it. This was also among those other particulars which he wrote to Caius, which all tended to dissuade him, and by all means to entreat him not to make so many ten thousands of these men go distracted, whom if he should slay, (for without war they would by no means suffer the laws of their worship to be set aside,) he would lose the revenue they paid him, and would be publicly cursed by them for all future ages. Moreover, that God, who was their governor, had shown his power most evidently on their account, and that such a power of his as left no room for doubt about it. And this was the business that Petronius was now engaged in.

7. But King Agrippa, who now lived at Rome, was more and more in the favour of Caius; and when he had once made him a supper, and was careful to exceed all others, both in expenses and in such preparations as might contribute most to his pleasure; nay, it was so far from the ability of others, that Caius himself could never equal, much less exceed it, (such care had he taken beforehand to exceed all men, and particularly to make all agreeable to Cæsar :) hereupon Caius admired his understanding and magnificence, that he should force himself to do all to please him, even beyond such expenses as he could bear, and was desirous not to be behind with Agrippa in that generosity which he exerted in order to please him. So Caius, when he had drunk wine plentifully, and was merrier than ordinary, said thus during the feast, when Agrippa had drunk to him: "I knew before now how great a respect thou hast had for me,† and how great kindness thou hast shown me, though with those hazards to thyself, which thou underwentest under Tiberius on that account; nor hast thou omitted any thing to show thy good-will towards us, even beyond thy ability; whence it would be a base thing for me to be conquered by thy affection. I am therefore desirous to make thee amends for every thing in which I have been formerly deficient, for all that I have bestowed on thee, that may be called my gifts, is but little. Every thing that may contribute to thy happiness shall be at thy service, and that cheerfully, and so far as my ability will reach." And this was what Caius said to Agrippa, thinking he would ask for some large country, or the revenues of certain cities. But, although he had prepared beforehand what he would ask, yet had he not discovered his intentions, but made this answer to Caius immediately, that, "it was not out of any expectation of gain that he formerly paid his respects to him, contrary to the commands of Tiberius, nor did he now do any thing relating to him out of regard to his own advantage, and in order to receive any thing from him: that the gifts he had already bestowed See the preceding note.

This behaviour of Caius to Agrippa, is very like that of Herod Antipas, his uncle, to Herodias, Agrippa's sister, about John the Baptist, Matt. xiv. 6-11.

upon him were great, and beyond the hopes of even a craving man; for, although they may be beneath thy power, [who art the donor,] yet are they greater than my inclination and dignity, who am the receiver." And, as Caius was astonished at Agrippa's inclinations, and still the more pressed him to make his request for somewhat which he might gratify him with, Agrippa replied, "Since thou, O my lord! declarest such is thy readiness to grant, that I am worthy of thy gifts, I will ask nothing relating to my own felicity; for what thou hast already bestowed on me has made me excel therein; but I desire somewhat which may make thee glorious for piety, and render the Divinity assistant to thy designs, and may be for an honour to me among those that inquire about it, as showing that I never once fail of obtaining what I desire of thee; for my petition is this, That thou wilt no longer think of the dedication of that statue which thou hast ordered to be set up in the Jewish temple by Petronius."

8. And thus did Agrippa venture to cast the die upon this occasion, so great was the affair in his opinion, and in reality though he knew how dangerous a thing it was so to speak; for, had not Caius approved of it, it had tended to no less than the loss of his life. So Caius, who was mightily taken with Agrippa's obliging behaviour, and on other accounts thinking it a dishonourable thing to be guilty of falsehood before so many witnesses, in points wherein he had with such alacrity forced Agrippa to become a petitioner, and that it would look as if he had already repented of what he had said, and because he greatly admired Agrippa's virtue, in not desiring him at all to augment his own dominions, either with large revenues, or other authority, but took care of the public tranquillity, of the laws, and of the Divinity itself, he granted him what he had requested. He also wrote thus to Petronius, commending him for assembling his army, and then consulting him about these affairs. "If, therefore, (said he,) thou hast already erected my statue, let it stand; but, if thou hast not yet dedicated it, do not trouble thyself farther about it, but dismiss thy army, go back, and take care of those affairs which I sent thee about at first, for I have now no occasion for the erection of that statue. This I have granted as a favour to Agrippa, a man whom I honour so very greatly, that I am not able to contradict what he would have, or what he desired me to do for him." And this is what Caius wrote to Petronius, which was before he received his letter, informing him that the Jews were very ready to revolt about the statue, and that they seemed resolved to threaten war against the Romans, and nothing else. When therefore Caius was much displeased that any attempt should be made against his government, as he was a slave to base and vicious actions on all occasions, and had no regard to what was virtuous and honourable, and against whomsoever he resolved to show his anger, and that for any case whatsoever, he suffered not himself to be restrained by any admonition, but thought the indulging his anger to be a real pleasure, he wrote thus to Petronius: "Seeing thou esteemest the presents made thee by the Jews to be of greater value than my commands, and art grown insolent enough to be subservient to their pleasure, I charge thee to become thy own judge, and to consider what thou art to do, now thou art under my displeasure; for I will make thee an example to the present and to all future ages, that they may not dare to contradict the commands of their emperor.'

9. That was the epistle which Caius wrote to Petronius, but Petronius did not receive it while Caius was alive; that ship which carried it sailed

so slow, that other letters came to Petronius before this, by which he understood that Caius was dead; for God would not forget the dangers Petronius had undertaken on account of the Jews, and of his own honour. But when he had taken Caius away, out of his indignation of what he had so insolently attempted in assuming to himself divine worship, both Rome and all that dominion conspired with Petronius, especially those that were of the senatorian order, to give Caius his due reward, because he had been unmercifully severe to them; for he died not long after he had written to Petronius that epistle which threatened him with death. But as for the occasion of his death, and the nature of the plot against him, I shall relate them in the progress of this narration. Now, that epistle which informed Petronius of Caius's death, came first, and a little afterward came that which commanded him to kill himself with his own hands. Whereupon he rejoiced at this coincidence as to the death of Caius, and admired God's providence, who without the least delay, and immediately, gave him a reward for the regard he had to the temple, and the assistance he afforded the Jews for avoiding the dangers they were in. And by this means Petronius escaped the danger of death, which he could not foresee.

CHAP. IX.

What befell the Jews that were in Babylon, on occasion of Asıneus and Anileus, two Brothers.

§ 1. A very sad calamity now befell the Jews that were in Mesopotamia, and especially those that dwelt in Babylonia. Inferior it was to none of the calamities which had gone before, and came together with a great slaughter of them, and that greater than any upon record before; concerning all which I shall speak accurately, and shall explain the occasions whence those miseries came upon them. There was a city in Babylonia called Neerda; not only a very populous one, but one that had a good and a large territory about it, and, besides its other advantages, full of men also. It was, besides, not easily to be assaulted by enemies, from the river Euphrates encompassing it all round, and from the walls that were built about it. There was also the city Nisibis, situate on the same current of the river. For which reason, the Jews, depending on the natural strength of these places, deposited in them that half shekel which every one, by the custom of our country, offers unto God, as well as they did other things devoted to him, for they made use of these cities as a treasury, whence, at a proper time, they were transmitted to Jerusalem; and many ten thousand men undertook the carriage of those donations, out of fear of the ravages of the Parthians, to whom the Babylonians were then subject. Now, there were two men, Asineus and Anileus, of the city Neerda by birth, and brethren to one another. They were destitute of a father, and their mother put them to learn the art of weaving curtains, it not being esteemed a disgrace among them for men to be weavers of cloth. Now, he that taught them that art, and was set over them, complained that they came too late to their work, and punished them with stripes: but they took this just punishment as an affront, and carried off all the weapons which were kept in that house, which were not a few, and went into a certain place where was a partition of the rivers, and was a place naturally very fit for the feeding of cattle, and for preserving such fruits as were usually laid up against winter. The poorest sort of the young men also resorted

to them, whom they armed with the weapons they had gotten, and became their captains; and nothing hindered them from being their leaders into mischief; for, as soon as they were become invincible, and had built them a citadel, they sent to such as fed cattle, and ordered them to pay them so much tribute out of them as might be sufficient for their maintenance, proposing also that they would be their friends if they would submit to them, and that they would defend them from all their other enemies on every side, but that they would kill all the cattle of those that refused to obey them. So they hearkened to their proposals, (for they could do nothing else,) and sent them as many sheep as were required of them, whereby their forces grew greater, and they became lords over all they pleased, because they marched suddenly, and did them a mischief, insomuch, that every body who had to do with them, chose to pay them respect, and they became formidable to such as came to assault them, till the report about them came to the ears of the king of Parthia himself.

2. But when the governor of Babylonia understood this, and had a mind to put a stop to them before they grew greater, and before greater mischiefs should arise from them, he got together as great an army as he could, both of Parthians and Babylonians, and marched against them, thinking to attack them, and destroy them before any one should carry them the news that he had got an army together. He then encamped at a lake, and lay still; but, on the next day, (it was the Sabbath, which is among the Jews a day of rest from all sorts of work,) he supposed that the enemy would not dare to fight him thereon, but that he would take them and carry them away prisoners without fighting. He therefore proceeded gradually, and thought to fall upon them on the sudden. Now Asineus was sitting with the rest, and their weapons lay by them; upon which he said, "Sirs, I hear a neighing of horses; not of such as are feeding, but such as have men on their backs; I also hear such a noise of their bridles, that I am afraid that some enemies are coming upon us to encompass us round. However, let somebody go to look about, and make report of what reality there is in the present state of things;* and may what I have said prove a false alarm." And when he said this, some of them went to spy out what was the matter, and they came again immediately and said to him, that neither hast thou been mistaken in telling us what our enemies were doing, nor will those enemies permit us to be injurious to people any longer. We are caught by their intrigues like brute beasts, and there is a large body of cavalry marching upon us, while we are destitute of hands to defend ourselves withal, because we are restrained from doing it by the prohibition of our law, which obliges us to rest [on this day."] But Asineus did not by any means agree with the opinion of his spy as to what was to be done, but thought it more agreeable to the law to pluck up their spirits in this necessity they were fallen into, and break their law by avenging themselves, although they should die in the action, than by doing nothing, to please their enemies in submitting to be slain by them. Accordingly, he took up his weapons, and infused courage into those that were with him to act as courageously as himself. So they fell upon their ene

Enestekoton is here, and in very many other places of Josephus, 'immediately at hand,' and is to be so expounded, 2 Thess. ii. 2, when some falsely pretended that St. Paul had said, either by word or mouth or by an epistle, or by both, that the day of Christ was immediately at hand;' for still St. Paul did then plainly think that day not very many years future.

mies, and slew a great many of them, because they despised them, and came as to a certain victory, and put the rest to flight.

3. But when the news of this fight came to the king of Parthia, he was surprised at the boldness of these brethren, and was desirous to see them, and speak with them. He therefore sent the most trusty of all his guards

*

to say thus to them, "That king Artabanus, although he hath been unjustly treated by you, who have made an attempt against his government, yet hath he more regard to your courageous behaviour than to the anger he bears to you, and hath sent me to give you his right hand, and security, and he permits you to come to him safely, and without any violence upon the road, and he wants to have you address yourselves to him as friends, without meaning any guile or deceit to you. He also promises to make you presents, and to pay you those respects which will make an addition of his power to your courage, and thereby be of advantage to you." Yet did Asineus himself put off his journey thither, but sent his brother Anileus with all such presents as he could procure. So he went, and was admitted to the king's presence; and when Artabanus saw Anileus coming alone, he inquired into the reason why Asineus avoided to come along with him, and when he understood that he was afraid, and stayed by the lake, he took an oath by the gods of his country, that he would do them no harm, if they came to him upon the assurances he gave them, and gave them his right hand. This is of the greatest force there with all these barbarians, and affords a firm security to those who converse with them; for none of them will deceive you, when once they have given you their right hands, nor will any one doubt of their fidelity, when that is once given, even though they were before suspected of injustice. When Artabanus had done this, he sent away Anileus to persuade his brother to come to him. Now this the king did, because he wanted to curb his own governors of provinces by the courage of these Jewish brethren, lest they should make a league with them; for they were ready for a revolt, and they were disposed to rebel, had they been sent on an expedition against them. He was also afraid, lest, when he was engaged in a war in order to subdue those governors of provinces that had revolted, the party of Asineus, and those in Babylonia, should be augmented, and either make war upon him when they should hear of that revolt, or, if they should be disappointed in that case, they would not fail of doing farther mischief to him.

4. When the king had these intentions, he sent away Anileus, and Anileus prevailed on his brother [to come to the king,] when he had related to him the king's good-wil, and the oath that he had taken. Accordingly, they made haste to go to Artabanus, who received them, when they were come, with pleasure, and admired Asineus's courage in the actiou he had done, and this because he was a little man to see to, and at first sight appeared contemptible also, and such as one might deem a person of no value at all. He also said to his friends, how, upon a comparison, he showed his soul to be, in all respects, superior to his body; and when, as they were drinking together, he once showed Asineus to Abdagases, one of the generals of his army, and told him his name, and described the great cou

The joining of the right hands was esteemed among the Persians [and Parthians] in particular, a most inviolable obligation to fidelity, as Dr. Hudson here observes, and refers to the Comment. on Justin, b. xi. chap. xv. for its confirmation. We often meet with the like use of it in Josephus.

See the above note.