CHAP. XIV.

Festus succeeds Felix, who is succeeded by Albinus, as he is by Florus; who, by the Barbarity of his Government, forces the Jews into the War.

§ 1. Now it was that Festus succeeded Felix, as procurator, and made it his business to correct those that made disturbances in the country. So he caught the greatest part of the robbers, and destroyed a great many of them. But then Albinus who succeeded Festus did not execute his office as the other had done; nor was there any sort of wickedness that could be named but he had a hand in it. Accordingly, he did not only, in his political capacity, steal and plunder every one's substance, nor did he only burden the whole nation with taxes, but he permitted the relations of such as were in prison for robbery, and had been laid there either by the senate of every city, or by the former procurators, to redeem them for money; and nobody remained in the prisons as a malefactor, but he who gave him nothing. At this time it was that the enterprises of the seditious at Jerusalem were very formidable: the principal men among them purchasing leave of Albinus to go on with their seditious practices; while that part of the people who delighted in disturbances joined themselves to such as had fellowship with Albinus; and every one of these wicked wretches was encompassed with his own band of robbers, while he himself like an arch-robber or a tyrant, made a figure among his company, and abused his authority over those about him, in order to plunder those that lived quietly: the effect of which was this, that those who lost their goods were forced to hold their peace, when they had reason to show great indignation at what they had suffered; but those who had escaped were forced to flatter him that deserved to be punished, out of the fear they were in of suffering equally with the others. Upon the whole, nobody durst speak their minds, but tyranny was generally tolerated; and at this time were hose seeds sown which brought the city to destruction.

2. And although such was the character of Albinus, yet did Gessius Florus,* who succeeded him, demonstrate him to have been a most excellent person, upon the comparison; for the former did the greatest part of his rogueries in private, and with a sort of dissimulation; but Gessius did his unjust actions to the harm of the nation after a pompous manner: and, as though he had been sent as an execu. tioner to punish condemned malefactors, he omitted no sort of rapine or of vexation; where the case was really pitiable, he was most barbarous, and in things of the greatest turpitude he was most impudent. Nor could any one outdo him in disguising the truth, nor could any one contrive more subtle ways of deceit than he did. He, indeed, thought it but a petty offence to get money out of single persons; so he spoiled whole cities, and ruined entire bodies of men at once, and did almost publicly proclaim it all the country over, that they had liberty given them to turn robbers, upon this condition, that he might go shares with them in the spoils they got. Accordingly, this his greediness of gain was the occasion that entire toparchies were brought to desolation, and a great many of the people left their own country, and fled into foreign provinces.

3. And truly while Cestius Gallus was resident of the province of Syria, no body durst do so much as send an embassage to him against Florus; but when he was come to Jerusalem, upon the approach of the feast of unleavened bread,

Not long after this beginning of Florus, the wickedest of all the Roman procurators of Judea, and the immediate occasion of the Jewish war, at the 12th year of Nero, and the 17th of Agrippa, or A. D. 66, the history in the twenty books of Josephus's Antiquities ends; although Josephus did not finish these books till the 13th of Domitian, or A. D. 93, twenty-seven years afterward; as he did not finish their Appendix, containing an account of his own life, till Agrippa was dead, which happened in the 3d year of Trajan, or A. D. 100, as I have several times observed before

the people came about him not fewer in number than three millions:* these besought him to commiserate the calamities of their nation, and cried out upon Florus as the bane of their country. But as he was present, and stood by Čestius, he laughed at their words. However, Cestius, when he had quieted the mul titude, and had assured them that he would take care that Florius should here. after treat them in a more gentle manner, returned to Antioch: Florus als con. ducted him as far as Cæsarea, and deluded him, though he had at that very time the purpose of showing his anger at the nation, and procuring a war upon them, by which means alone it was that he supposed he might conceal his enormities; for he expected that, if the peace continued, he should have the Jews for his ac. cusers before Cæsar; but that if he could procure them to make a revolt, he should divert their laying lesser crimes to his charge, by a misery that was so much greater; he, therefore, did every day augment their calamities, in order to induce them to a rebellion.

4. Now at this time it happened that the Grecians at Cæsarea had been too hard for the Jews, and had obtained of Nero the government of the city, and had brought the judicial determination: at the same time began the war, in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, and the seventeenth of the reign of Agrippa, in the month Artemisius [Jyar.] Now the occasion of this war was by no means pro. portionable to those heavy calamities which it brought upon us: for the Jews that dwelt at Cæsarea had a synagogue near a place, whose owner was a certain Cæsarean Greek: the Jews had endeavoured frequently to have purchased the possession of the place, and had offered many times its value for its price; but as the owner overlooked their offers, so did he raise other buildings upon the place, in way of affront to them, and made working shops of them, and left them but a narrow passage, and such as was very troublesome for them to go along to their synagogue. Whereupon the warmer part of the Jewish youth went hastily to the workmen, and forbade them to build there; but as Florus would not per mit them to use force, the great men of the Jews, with John the publican, being in the utmost distress what to do, persuaded Florus, with the offer of eight talents to hinder the work. He then, being intent upon nothing but getting money, promised he would do for them all they desired of him, and then went away from Cæsarea to Sebaste, and left the sedition to take its full course, as if he had sold a license to the Jews to fight it out.

5. Now on the next day, which was the seventh day of the week, when the Jews were crowding apace to their synagogue, a certain man of Cæsarea, of a seditious temper, got an earthen vessel, and set it with the bottom upward, at the entrance of that synagogue, and sacrificed birds.† This thing provoked the Jews to an incurable degree, because their laws were affronted, and the place was pol. luted: whereupon the sober and moderate part of the Jews thought it proper to have recourse to their governors again, while the seditious part, and such as were in the fervour of their youth, were vehemently inflamed to fight. The seditious also among the [Gentiles of] Cæsarea stood ready for the same purpose; for they had, by agreement, sent the man to sacrifice beforehand [as ready to support him;] so that it soon came to blows. Hereupon Jucundus, the master of the horse, who was ordered to prevent the fight, came thither, and took away the earthen vessel, and endeavoured to put a stop to the sedition; but when he was overcome by the violence of the people of Cæsarea, the Jews caught up their

Here we may note, that 3,000,000 of the Jews were present at the passover, A. D. 65, which con firms what Josephus elsewhere informs us of, that at a passover a little later, they counted 256,500 pas chal lambs, which at twelve to each lamb, which is no immoderate calculation, come to 3,073,000. 'Sea B. vi. ch. ix. sect. 3.

+ Take here Dr. Hudson's very pertinent note:-" By this action," says he, "the killing of a bird over an earthen vessel, the Jews were exposed as a leprous people; for that was to be done by their law in the cleansing of a leper. (Levit. ch. xiv.) It is also known that the Gentiles reproached the Jews as subject to the leprosy, and believed that they were driven out of Egypt on that account. This that eminent person Mr. Reland suggested to me."

books of the law, and retired to Narbata, which was a place to them belonging, distant from Cæsarea sixty furlongs. But John, and twelve of the principal men with him, went to Florus to Sebaste, and made a lamentable complaint of their case, and besought him to help them; and, with all possible decency, put him in mind of the eight talents they had given him; but he had the men seized upon, and put in prison, and accused them for carrying the books of the law out of Cæsarea.

6. Moreover, as to the citizens of Jerusalem, although they took this matter very ill, yet did they restrain their passion: but Florus acted herein as if he had been hired, and blew up the war into a flame, and sent some to take seventeen talents out of the sacred treasure, and pretended that Cæsar wanted them. At this the people were in confusion immediately, and ran together to the temple, with prodigious clamours, and called upon Cæsar by name, and besought him to free them from the tyranny of Florus. Some also of the seditious cried out upon Florus, and cast the greatest reproaches upon him, and carried a basket about, and begged some spills of money for him, as for one that was destitute of possessions, and in a miserable condition. Yet was he not made ashamed hereby of his love of money, but was more enraged, and provoked to get still more; and instead of coming to Cæsarea, as he ought to have done, and quenching the flame of war which was beginning thence, and so taking away the occasion of any disturbances, on which account it was that he had received a reward [of eight talents,] he marched hastily with an army of horsemen and footmen against Jeru. salem, that he might gain his will by the arms of the Romans, and might by his terror and by his threatenings bring the city into subjection.

7. But the people were desirous of making Florus ashamed of his attempt, and met his soldiers with acclamations, and put themselves in order to receive him very submissively. But he sent Capito, a centurion, beforehand, with fifty soldiers, to bid them go back, and not now make a show of receiving him in an obliging manner, whom they had so foully reproached before; and said, that it was incumbent on them, in case they had generous souls and were free speakers, to jest upon him to his face, and appear to be lovers of liberty, not only in words but with their weapons also. With this message was the multitude amazed, and upon the coming of Capito's horsemen into the midst of them, they were dispersed before they could salute Florus, or manifest their submissive behaviour to him. Ac cordingly, they retired to their own houses, and spent that night in fear and con fusion of face.

8. Now at this time Florus took up his quarters at the palace; and on the next day he had his tribunal set before it, and sat upon it, when the high priests, and the men of power, and those of the greatest eminence in the city, came all before that tribunal; upon which Florus commanded them to deliver up to him those that had reproached him, and told them, that they should themselves partake of the vengeance to them belonging, if they did not produce the criminals; but these demonstrated that the people were peaceably disposed, and they begged forgiveness for those that had spoken amiss; for that it was no wonder at all that in so great a multitude there should be some more daring than they ought to be, and by reason of their younger age foolish also; and that it was impossible to distinguish those that offended from the rest, while every one was sorry for what he had done, and denied it out of fear of what would follow: that he ought, how. ever, to provide for the peace of the nation, and to take such counsels as might preserve the city for the Romans, and rather, for the sake of a great number of innocent people, to forgive a few that were guilty, than for the sake of a few of the wicked, to put so large and good a body of men into disorder.

9. Florus was more provoked at this, and called out aloud to the soldiers to plunder that which was called the Upper Market-place, and to slay such as they met with. So the soldiers, taking this exhortation of their commander in a senso agreeable to their desire of gain, did not only plunder the place they were sent

to, but, forcing themselves into every house, they slew its inhabitants; so the citizens fled along the narrow lanes, and the soldiers slew those that they caught, and no method of plunder was omitted: they also caught many of the quiet people, and brought them before Florus, whom he first chastised with stripes, and then crucified. Accordingly, the whole number of those that were destroyed that day, with their wives and children (for they did not spare even the infants them selves,) was about three thousand and six hundred. And what made this cala. mity the heavier was this new method of Roman barbarity: for Florus ventured then to do what no one had done before, that is, to have men of the equestrian order* whipped and nailed to the cross before his tribunal; who although they were by birth Jews, yet were they of Roman dignity notwithstanding.

CHAP. XV.

Concerning Bernice's Petition to Florus to spare the Jews, but in vain; as also how after the seditious Flame was quenched, it was kindled again by Florus.

§ 1. ABOUT this very time King Agrippa was going to Alexandria, to congratu late Alexander upon his having obtained the government of Egypt from Nero; but as his sister Bernice was come to Jerusalem, and saw the wicked practices of the soldiers, she was sorely affected at it, and frequently sent the masters of her horse and her guards to Florus, and begged of him to leave off these slaugh ters; but he would not comply with her request, nor have any regard either to the multitude of those already slain, or to the nobility of her that interceded, but only to the advantage he should make by this plundering; nay, this violence of the soldiers brake out to such a degree of madness, that it spent itself on the queen herself; for they did not only torment and destroy those whom they had caught under her very eyes, but, indeed, had killed herself also, unless she had prevented them by flying to the palace, and had stayed there all night with her guards, which she had about her for fear of an insult from the soldiers. Now she dwelt then at Jerusalem, in order to perform a vow† which she had made to God; for it is usual with those that had been either afflicted with a distemper, or with any other distresses, to make vows; and for thirty days before they [are to offer their sacrifices, to abstain from wine, and to shave the hair off their head. Which things Bernice was now performing, and stood barefoot before Florus's tribunal, and besought him [to spare the Jews.] Yet could she neither have any reverence paid to her, nor could she escape without some danger of being slain herself. 2. This happened upon the sixteenth day of the month Artemisius [Jyar.] Now on the next day the multitude, who were in a great agony, ran together to * Here we have examples of native Jews who were of the equestrian order among the Romans, and s ought never to have been whipped or crucified, according to the Roman laws. See almost the like cas in St. Paul himself, Acts, xxii. 25.-29.

This vow which Bernice (here and elsewhere called queen, not only as daughter and sister to two kings, Agrippa the Great and Agrippa junior, but the widow of Herod, king of Chalcis) came now to ac complish at Jerusalem, was not that of a Nazarite, but such a one as religious Jews used to make in hopes of any deliverance from a disease, or other danger, as Josephus here intimates. However, these thirty days' abode at Jerusalem, for fasting and preparation against the oblation of a proper sacrifice, seems to be too long, unless it were wholly voluntary in this great lady. It is not required in the law of Moses relating to Nazarites, Numb. vi. and is very different from St. Paul's time for such preparation, which was but one day, Acts, xxi. 26. So we want already the continuation of the Antiquities to afford us light here, as they have hitherto done on so many occasions elsewhere. Perhaps in this age the tradi tions of the Pharisees had obliged the Jews to this degree of rigour, not only as to these thirty days' preparation, but as to the going barefoot all that time, which here Bernice submitted to also. For we know hat as God's and our Saviour's yoke is usually easy, and his burden comparatively light, in such positive injunctions, Matt. xi. 30, so did the Scribes and Pharisees sometimes bind upon men heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, even when they themselves would not touch them with one of their fingers, Matt xxiii. 4; Luke, xi. 46. However, Noldius well observes, De Herod. No. 404, 414, that Juvenal in his zixth satire alludes to this remarkable penance or submission of this Bernice to Jewish discipline, and jests upon her for it; as do Tacitus, Dio, Suetonius, and Sextus Aurelius, mention her as one well known at Rome, ibid

the upper market-place, and made the loudest lamentations for those that had perished; and the greatest part of the cries were such as reflected on Florus; at which the men of power were affrighted, together with the high priests, and rent their garments, and fell down before each of them, and besought them to leave off, and not provoke Florus to some incurable procedure, besides what they had already suffered. Accordingly, the multitude complied immediately, out of re erence to those that had desired it of them, and out of the hope they had that Florus would do them no more injuries.

3. So Florus was troubled that the disturbances were over, and endeavoured to kindle that flame again; and sent for the high priests, with the other eminent persons, and said, the only demonstration that the people would not make any other innovations should be this, that they must go out and meet the soldiers that were ascending from Cæsarea, whence two cohorts were coming; and while these men were exhorting the multitude so to do, he sent beforehand, and gave direc tions to the centurions of the cohorts, that they should give notice to those that were under them, not to return the Jews salutations: and that if they made any reply to his disadvantage, they should make use of their weapons. Now the high priests assembled the multitude in the temple, and desired them to go and meet the Romans, and to salute the cohorts very civilly, before their miserable case should become incurable. Now the seditious part would not comply with these persuasions; but the consideration of those that had been destroyed made them incline to those that were the boldest for action.

4. At this time it was that every priest and every servant of God brought out the holy vessels, and the ornamental garments wherein they used to minister about sacred things. The harpers also, and the singers of hymns, came out with their instruments of music, and fell down before the multitude, and begged of them that they would preserve those holy ornaments to them, and not provoke the Romans to carry off those sacred treasures. You might also see then the high priests themselves with dust sprinkled in great plenty upon their heads, with bosoms deprived of any covering but what was rent; these besought every one of the eminent men by name, and the multitude in common,that they would not for a small offence betray their country to those that were desirous to have it laid waste, saying, "What benefit will it bring to the soldiers to have a salutation from the Jews! or what amendment of your affairs will it bring you, if you do not now go out to meet them? and that if they saluted them civilly, all handle would be cut off from Florus to begin a war: that they should thereby gain their country, and freedom from all farther sufferings: and that, besides, it would be a sign of great want of command of themselves, if they should yield to a few seditious persons, while it was fitter for them, who were so great a people, to force the others to act soberly."

5. By these persuasions, which they used to the multitude and to the seditious, they restrained some by threatenings, and others by the reverence that was paid them. After this they led them out, and they met the soldiers quietly, and after a composed manner; and when they were come up with them they saluted them; but when they made no answer, the seditious exclaimed against Florus, which was the signal given for falling upon them. The soldiers, therefore, encoinpassed them presently, and struck them with their clubs; and as they fled away the horsemen trampled them down, so that a great many fell down dead by the strokes of the Romans, and more by their own violence in crushing one another. Now there was a terrible crowding about the gates, and while every body was making haste to get before another, the flight of them all was retarded, and a terrible destruction there was among those that fell down, for they were suffocated, and broken to pieces by the multitude of those that were uppermost; nor could any of them be distinguished by his relations in order to the care of his funeral; the soldiers also who beat them fell upon those whom they overtook, without showing them any mercy, and thrust the multitude through