narch of the Jews, defend those that are injured. And that ambassadors be sent to Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high-priest of the Jews, that may discourse with him about a league of friendship and mutual assistance; and that a table of brass containing the premises be openly proposed in the capitol, and at Sidon, and Tyre, and Askelon, and in the temple engraven in Roman and Greek letters: that this decree may also be communicated to the questors and prætors of the several cities, and to the friends of the Jews; and that the ambassadors may have presents made them, that these decrees be sent every where."

4. "Caius Cæsar, imperator, dictator, consul, hath granted, that out of regard to the honour and virtue, and kindness of the man, and for the advantage of the senate and people of Rome, Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, both he and his children, be high-priests and priests of Jerusalem, and of the Jewish nation, by the same right, and according to the same laws by which their progenitors have held the priesthood."

5. "Caius Cæsar, consul the fifth time, hath decreed, that the Jews shall possess Jerusalem, and may encompass that city with walls: and that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander the high-priest and ethnarch of the Jews, retain it in the manner he himself pleases; and that the Jews be allowed to deduct out of their tribute every second year the land is let, [in the sabbatic period,] a corus of that tribute; and that the tribute they pay be not let to farm, nor that they pay always the same tribute."

6. "Caius Cæsar, imperator the second time, hath ordained that all the country of the Jews, excepting Joppa, do pay a tribute yearly for the city Jerusalem, excepting the seventh, which they call the Sabbatical year, because thereon they neither receive the fruits of their trees, nor do they sow the land; and that they pay their tribute in Sidon, on the second year [of that sabbatical period] the fourth part of what was sown and besides this, they are to pay the same tithes to Hyrcanus and his sons which they paid to their forefathers. And that no one, neither president, nor lieutenant, nor ambassador, raise auxiliaries within the bounds of Judea; nor my soldiers exact money of them for winter quarters, or under any other pretence, but that they be free from all sorts of injuries: and that whatsoever they shall hereafter have, and are in possession of, or have bought,

they shall retain them all. It is also our pleasure, that the city Joppa, which the Jews had originally, when they made a league of friendship with the Romans, shall belong to them, as it formerly did: and that Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, and his sons, have as tribute of that city from those that occupy the land, for the country, and for what they export every year to Sidon, twenty thousand six hundred and seventy-five modii every year, the seventh year, which they call the Sabbatic year, excepted; whereon they neither plough, nor receive the product of their trees. It is also the pleasure of the senate, that as to the villages which are in the great plain, which Hyrcanus and his forefathers formerly possessed, Hyrcanus and the Jews have them, with the same privileges with which they formerly had them also ; and that the same original ordinances remain still in force which concern the Jews, with regard to their high-priests; and that they enjoy the same benefits which they have had formerly by the concession of the people, and of the senate; and let them enjoy the like privileges in Lydda. It is the pleasure also of the senate, that Hyrcanus the ethnarch, and the Jews, retain those places, countries, and villages, which belonged to the kings of Syria and Phoenicia, the confederates of the Romans, and which they had bestowed on them as free gifts. It is also granted to Hyrcanus, and to his sons, and to the ambassadors by them sent to us, that in the fights between single gladiators, and in those with beasts, they shall sit among the senators to see those shows: and that when they desire an audience, they shall be introduced into the senate by the dictator, or by the general of the horse, and when they have introduced them, their answers shall be returned them in ten days at the farthest, after the decree of the senate is made about their affairs."

7. "Caius Cæsar, imperator, dictator the fourth time, and consul the fifth time, declared to be perpetual dictator, made this speech concerning the rights and privileges of Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander, the high-priest, and ethnarch of the Jews. Since those imperators that have been in the provinces before me have borne witness to Hyrcanus, the high

*

* Dr. Hudson justly supposes, that these Roman Imperators, or generals of armies, meant both here, and 2. who gave testimony to Hyrcanus's and the Jews' faithfulness and good will to the Romans before the senate and people of Rome, were principally Pompey, Scaurus, and Gabinius: of all whom Josephu had already given us the history, as far as the Jews were concerned with them.

priest of the Jews, and to the Jews themselves, and this before the senate and people of Rome, when the people and senate returned their thanks to them, it is good that we also now remember the same, and provide that a requital, be made to Hyrcanus, to the nation of the Jews, and to the sons of Hyrcanus, by the senate and people of Rome, and that suitably to what good-will they have shown us, and to the benefits they have bestowed upon us."

8. "Julius Caius prætor, [consul] of Rome, to the magis'trates, senate, and people of the Parians, sendeth greeting: The Jews of Delos, and some other Jews that sojourn there, in the presence of your ambassadors, signified to us, that by a decree of yours, you forbid them to make use of the customs of their forefathers, and their way of sacred worship. Now, it does not please me that such decrees should be made against our friends and confederates, whereby they are forbidden to live according to their own customs, or to bring in contributions for common suppers, and holy festivals, while they are not forbidden so to do even at Rome itself; for, even Caius Cæsar, our imperator and consul, in that decree wherein he forbade the Bacchanal rioters to meet in the city, did yet permit these Jews, and these only, both to bring in their contributions, and to make their common suppers. Accordingly, when I forbid other Bacchanal rioters, I permit these Jews to gather themselves together, according to the customs and laws of their forefathers, and to persist therein. It will be therefore good for you, that if you have made any decree against these our friends and confederates, to abrogate the same, by reason of their virtue and kind disposition towards us.”

9. Now, after Caius was slain, when Marcus Antonius, and Publius Dolabella were consuls, they both assembled the senate, and introduced Hyrcanus's ambassadors into it, and discoursed of what they desired, and made a league of friendship with them. The senate also decreed to grant them all they desired. I add the decree itself, that those who read the present work may have ready by them a demonstration of the truth of what we say. The decree was this:

10. "The decree of the senate, copied out of the treasury, from the public tables, belonging to the questors, when Quintus Rutilius and Caius Cornelius were questors, and taken out of the second table of the first class, on the third day before the Ides of April, in the temple of Concord. There

were present at the writing of this decree, Lucius Calpurnius Piso, of the Menenian tribe; Servius Papinius Potitus, of the Lemonian tribe; Caius Caninius Rebilius, of the Terentine tribe; Publius Tidetius, Lucius Apulinus, the son of Lucius, of the Sergian tribe; Flavius, the son of Lucius, of the Lemonian tribe; Publius Platius, the son of Publius, of the Papyrian tribe; Marcus Acilius, the son of Marcus; of the Mccian tribe; Lucius Euricius, the son of Lucius, of the Stellatine tribe; Marcus Quintius Plancillus, the son of Marcus, of the Pollian tribe; and Publius Serius, Publius Dolabella, and Marcus Antonius, the consuls, made this reference to the senate, that as to those things which, by the decree of the senate, Caius Cæsar had adjudged about the Jews, and yet had not hitherto that decree brought into the treasury, it is our will, as it is also the desire of Publius Dolabella, and Marcus Antonius, our consuls, to have these decrees put into the public tables, and brought to the city questors, that they may take care to have them put upon the double tables. This was done before the fifth of the Ides of February, in the temple of Concord. Now the ambassadors from Hyrcanus the high-priest were these, Lysimachus, the son of Pausanius, Alexander, the son of Theodorus, Patroclus, the son of Chereas, and Jonathan, the son of Onias."

11. Hyrcanus sent also one of these ambassadors to Dolabella, who was then the prefect of Asia, and desired him to dismiss the Jews from military services, and to preserve to them the customs of their forefathers, and to permit them to live according to them. And when Dolabella had received Hyrcanus's letter, without any farther deliberation, he sent an epistle to all the Asiatics, and particularly to the city of the Ephesians, the metropolis of Asia, about the Jews; a copy of which epistle here follows.

12. "When Artemon was prytanis, on the first day of the month Leneon, Dolabella, imperator, to the senate, and magistrates, and people of the Ephesians, sendeth greeting: Alexander, the son of Theodorus, the ambassador of Hyrcanus, the son of Alexander the high-priest, and ethnarch of the Jews, appeared before me, to show that his countrymen could not go into their armies, because they are not allowed to bear arms, or to travel on the Sabbath days nor there to procure themselves those sorts of food which they have been used to eat from the times of their forefathers; I do therefore grant them a freedom from going into the army,

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as the former prefects have done, and permit them to use the customs of their forefathers, and assembling together for sacred and religious purposes, as their law requires, and for collecting oblations necessary for sacrifices, and my will is, that you write this to the several cities under your jurisdiction."

13. And these were the concessions that Dolabella made to our nation, when Hyrcanus sent an embassage to him. But Lucius the consul's decree ran thus: "I have at my tribunal set these Jews, who are citizens of Rome, and follow the Jewish religious rites, and yet live at Ephesus, free from going into the army, on account of the superstition they are under. This was done before the twelfth of the calends of October, when Lucius Lentulus, and Caius Marcellus were consuls, in the presence of Titus Appius Balgus, the son of Titus, and lieutenant of the Horatian tribe; of Titus Tongius, the son of Titus; of the Crustamine tribe; of Quintus, Resius, the sons of Quintus, of Titus Pompeius Longinus,, the son of Titus, of Caius Servilius, the son of Caius, of the Terentine tribe; of Bacchus, the military tribune; of Publius Lucius Gallus, the son of Publius, of the Veturian tribe; of Caius Sentius, the son of Caius, of the Sabatine tribe; of Titus Atilius Bulbus, the son of Titus, lieutenant and vicepretor, to the magistrates, senate, and people of the Ephesians, sendeth greeting: Lucius Lentulus, the consul, freed the Jews that are in Asia from going into the armies, at my intercession for them. And when I had made the same petition, sometime afterward, to Phanius the imperator, and to Lucius Antonius, the vice-questor, I obtained the privilege of them also and my will is, that you take care that no one give them any disturbance."

14. The decree of the Delians. "The answer of the pretors, when Beotus was Archon, on the twentieth day of the month Thargeleon, while Marcus Piso, the lieutenant, lived in our city, who was also appointed over the choice of the soldiers, he called us, and many other of the citizens, and gave order, that if there be here any Jews, who are Roman citizens, no one is to give them any disturbance about going into the army, because Cornelius Lentulus, the consul, freed the Jews from going into the army, on account of the superstition they are under; you are therefore obliged to submit to the pretor." And the like decree was made by the Sardinians about us also.