in the eaft; nor indeed is it easy for them there, even to hear what is done in those parts. Now it is abfurd to make war with a great many, for the fake of one; to do so with fuch mighty people, for a small caufe; and this when these people are not able to know of what you complain, nay, fuch crimes as we complain of may foon be corrected, for the fame procu rator will not continue for ever; and probable it is, that the fucceffors will come with more moderate inclinations. But as for war if it be once begun, it is not eafily laid down again, nor borne without calamities coming therewith. However, as to the defire of recovering your liberty, it is unfeasonable to indulge it fo late; whereas you ought to have laboured earneftly in old time that you might never have loft it; for the first experience of flavery was hard to be endured, and the ftruggle that you might never have been fubject to it would have been juft; but that flave who hath been once brought into fubjection, and then runs away is rather a refractory flave, than a lover of liberty, for it was then the proper time for doing all that was poffible, that you might never have admitted the Romans [into your city], when Pompey came firft into the country. But fo it was, that fo our ancestors and their kings, who were in much better circumftances than we are, both as to money and [ftrong bodies, and [valiant] fouls, did not bear the onset of a fmall body of the Roman army. And yet you who have not accustomed yourfelves to obedience from one generation to another, and who are fo much interior to those who firft fubmitted, in your circumftances will venture to oppose the entire empire of the Romans; while those Athenians, who, in order to preferve the liberty of Greece, did once fet fire to their own city; who purlued Xerxes, that proud prince, when he failed upon the land, and walked upon the fea, and could not be contained by the feas, but conducted fuch an army as was too broad for Europe, and made him run away like a tugitive in a fingle fhip, and brake fo great a part of Afia at the Leffer Salamis, are yet at this time fervants to the Romans; and those injunctions which are fent from Italy, become laws to the principal governing city of Greece. Thofe Lacedemonians alfo who got the great victories at Thermopyla and Platea, and had Agefilaus [for their king], and fearched every corner of Afia, are contented to admit the fame lords. Thefe Macedonians alío, who ftill fancy what great men their Philip and Alexander were, and fee that the latter had promifed them the empire over the world, thefe bear fo great a change, and pay their obedience to thofe whom fortune hath advanced in their ftead. Moreover, ten thousand other nations there are, who had greater reason than we to claim their entire liberty, and yet do fubmit. You are the only people who think it a difgrace to be fervants to thofe to whom all the world hath fubmitted. What fort of an army do you rely on? What are the arms you depend on? Where

is your fleet, that may feize upon the Roman feas; and where are thofe treasures which may be fufficient for your undertakings? Do you fuppofe, I pray you, that you are to make war with the Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will you not carefully reflect upon the Roman empire? Will you not eftimate your own weaknefs? Hath not your army been often beaten even by your neighbouring nations? While the pow-" er of the Romans is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth; nay rather, they feek for fomewhat ftill beyond that; for all Euphrates is not a fufficient boundary for them on the eaft fide, nor the Danube on the north, and for their fouthern limit, Libya hath been fearched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit on the weft; nay indeed, they have fought for another habitable earth, beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as fuch British iflands as were never known before. What therefore do you pretend to? Are you richer than the Galls, ftronger than the Germans, wifer than the Greeks, more numerous than all men upon the habitable earth? What confidence is it that elevates you to oppofe the Romans? Perhaps it will be faid, it is hard to endure flavery. Yes, but how much harder is this to the Greeks, who were efteemed the nobleft of all people under the fun. These though they inhabit in a large country, are in fubjection to fix bundles of Roman rods. It is the fame cafe with the Macedonians, who have jufter reafon to claim their liberty than you have. What is the cafe of five hundred cities of Afia ? do they not fubmit to a fingle governor, and to the confular bundle of rods? What need I Ipeak of the Heniochi, and Cholchi. and the nation of Tauri, those that inhab-. it the Bofphoris and the nations about Pontus, and Meotis, who formerly knew not fo much as a lord of their own, but are now fubject to three thousand armed men, and where forty long fhips keep the fea in peace, which before was not navigable, and very tempeftuous? How ftrong a plea may Bithinia, and Cappadocia, and the people of Pamphilia, the Lycians, and Cilicians, put in for liberty? But they are made tributary without an army. What are the circumftances of the Thracians? whole country extends in breadth five days journey, and in length feven, and is of a much more harfh conftitution, and much more defenfible than yours, and by the ri gour of its cold fufficient to keep off armies from attacking them; do not they fubinit to two thousand men of the Ro man garrifons? Are not the Illyrians, who inhabit the country adjoining, as far as Dalmatia and the Danube, governed by barely two legions? by which alfo they put a ftop to the incurfions of the Dacians. And for the Dalmatians, who have made luch frequent infurrections in order to regain their liberty, and who could never before be fo thoroughly fubdued, but that they always gathered their forces together again,

and revolted, yet are they now very quiet under one Roman legion. Moreover, if great advantages might provoke any people to revolt, the Galls might do it beft of all, as being to thoroughly walled round by nature. On the eaft fide by the Alps, on the north by the river Rhine, on the fouth by the Pyrenean mountains, and on the weft by the ocean. Now although these Galls have fuch obftacles before them to prevent any attack upon them, and have no fewer than three hundred and five nations among them, nay have, as one may say, the foundation of domeftic happiness within themselves, and send out plentiful ftreams of happiness over almoft the whole world, thefe bear to be tributary to the Romans, and derive their profperous condition from them; and they undergo this, not because they are of effeminate minds. or because they are of an ignoble flock, as having borne a war of eighty years, in order to preserve their liberty: But by reafon of the great regard they have to the power of the Romans, and their good fortune, which is of greater efficacy than their arms. Thefe Galls, therefore, are kept in fervitude by twelve hundred foldiers, which are hardly fo many as are their cities; nor hath the gold dug out of the mines of Spain been fufficient for the fupport of a war to preferve their liberty, nor could their vaft distance from the Romans by land and by fea do it ; nor could the martial tribes of the Lufitanians and Spaniards efcape; no more could the ocean, with its tide, which yet was terrible to the ancient inhabitants. Nay, the Romans have extended their arms beyond the pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds, upon the Pyrenean mountains, and have subdued these nations. And one legion is a fufficient guard for these people, although they were fo hard to be conquered, and at a diftance fo remote from Rome. Who is there among you who hath not heard of the great number of the Germans? You have, to be fure, yourfelves feen them to be ftrong and tall, and that frequently, fince the Romans have them among their captives every where; yet thefe Germans, who dwell in an immenfe country, who have minds greater than their bodies, and a foul that defpifes death, and who are in rage more fierce than wild beasts, have the Rhine for the boundary of their enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman legions. Such of them as were taken captive became their fervants; and the reft of the entire nation were obliged to fave themselves by flight. Do you alfo, who depend on the walls of Jerufalem, confider what a wall the Britons had; for the Romans failed away to them, and fubdued them while they were encompaffed by the ocean, and inhabited an land that is not less than the [continent of this habitable earth; and four legions are a futficient guard to fo large an ifland. And why thould I fpeak much more about this matter? while the Parthians, that most warlike body of men, and lords of fo many nations, and encompaffed with fuch mighty forces, fend hoftages to the Ro

mans; whereby you may fee if you pleafe, even in Italy the nobleft nation of the east, under the notion of peace fubmitting to serve them. Now when almost all people under the fun fubmit to the Roman arms, will you be the only people that make war against them? and this without regarding the fate of the Carthaginians, who, in the midst of the brags of the great Hannibal, and the nobility of their Phenician original, fell by the hand of Scipio. Nor indeed have the Cyrenians, derived from the Lacedemonians, nor the Marmaridæ, a nation extended as far as the regions unhabitable for want of water, nor have the Syrtes, a place terrible to fuch as barely hear it defcribed, the Nafamons and Moors, and the immenfe multitude of the Numidians, been able to put a stop to the Roman valour. And as for the third part of the habitable earth, [Af. rica, whofe nations are fo many that it is not easy to number them, and which is bounded by the Atlantic' fea, and the pil lars of Hercules, and feeds an innumerable multitude of Ethiopians, as far as the Red fea, these have the Romans fubdued entirely. And befides the annual fruits of the earth, which maintain the multitude of the Romans for eight months in the year, this, over and above, pays all forts of tribute, and affords revenues fuitable to the neceffities of the government? Nor do they, like you, efteem fuch injunctions a difgrace to them, although they have but one Roman legion that abides among them. And indeed what occafion is there for fhewing you the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is fo eafy to learn it from Egypt, in your neighbourhood? This country is extended as far as the Ethiopians, and Arabia the Happy, and borders upon India; it hath feven millions five hundred thousand men, befides the inhabitants of Alexandria, as may be learned from the revenue of the pole tax; yet it is not alhamed to fubmit to the Roman government, although it hath Alexandria as a grand temptation to a revolt, by reafon it is fo full of people and of riches, and is befides exceeding large, its length being thirty furlongs, and it breadth no lefs than ten; and it pays more tribute to the Romans in one month than you do in a year; nay, befides what it pays in money, it fends corn to Rome that fupports it for four months [in the year] It is alfo walled round on all fides, either by almost impallible deferts, or feas that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes; yet have none of thefe things been found too ftrong for the Roman good fortune; however, two legions that lie in that city are a bridle both for the remoter parts of Egypt, and for the parts inhabited by the more noble Macedonians. Where then are those people whom you are to have for your auxiliaries? Muft they come from the parts of the world that are uninhabited? for all that are in the habitable earth are under the Romans. Unless any of you extend his hopes as far as beyond the Euphrates, and fuppofe that those of your own nation that dwell in Adiabene will come to your

affiftance; but certainly these will not embarrass themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor if they fhould follow fuch ill advice, will the Parthians permit them fo to do; for it is their concern to maintain the truce that is between them and the Romans, and they will be fuppofed to break the covenants between them, if any under their government march against the Romans. What remains, therefore is this, that you have recourfe to divine affiftance; but this is already on the fide of the Romans; for it is impoffible that fo vaft an empire fhould be fettled without God's providence. Reflect upon it how impoffible it is for your zealous obfervations of your religious cuftoms to be here preserved, which are hard to be obferved even when you fight with those whom you are able to conquer; and how can you then moft of all hope for God's affiftance, when, by being forced to tranfgrefs his law, you will make him turn his face from you? and if you do obferve the custom of the Sabbath days, and will not be prevailed on to do any thing thereon, you will eafily be taken as were your forefathers by Pompey, who was the bufieft in his fiege on those days on which the befieged refted. But if in time of war you tranfgrefs the law of your country, I cannot tell on whole account you will afterward go to war; for your concern is but one, that you do nothing against any of your forefathers; and how will you call upon God to affift you, when you are voluntarily tranfgreffing against his religion? Now all men that go to war do it either as depending on divine, or on human affistance; but fince your going to war will cut off both thofe affiftances, thofe that are tor going to war choose evident deftruction. What hinders you from flaying your children and wives with your own hands, and burning this moft excellent native city of yours? for by this mad prank you will however escape the reproach of being beaten. But it were beft, O my friends, it were beft, while the veffel is still in the haven, to foresee the impending ftorm, and not to fet fail out of the port into the middle of the hurricanes; for we juftly pity thofe who fall into great misfortunes without foreseeing them; but for him who rushes into manifeft ruin, he gains reproaches [inftead of commiferation]. But certainly no one can imagine that you can enter into a war as by agreement, or that when the Romans have got you under their power, they will ufe you with moderation, or will not rather, for an example to other nations, burn your holy city, and ut terly destroy your whole nation; for thofe of you, who fhall furvive the war will not be able to find a place whither to flee, fince all men have the Romans for their lords already, or are afraid they fhall have hereafter. Nay indeed, the danger concerns not thofe Jews that dwell here only, but thofe of them which dwell in other cities alfo; for there is no people upon the habitable earth which have not fome portion of you among them, whom their enemies will flay, in cafe you go to VOL. III.

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