and that with torments also, we have been informed they were more than sixty thousand those, indeed, being in a foreign country, and so naturally meeting with nothing to oppose against their enemies, were killed in the manner forementioned. As for all those of us who have waged war against the Romans in our own country, had we not sufficient reason to have sure hopes of victory! for we had arms and walls, and fortresses so prepared as not to be easily taken, and courage not to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty, which en. couraged us all to revolt from the Romans. But, then, these advantages sufficed us but for a short time, and only raised our hopes, while they really appeared to be the origin of our miseries; for all we had hath been taken from us, and all hath fallen under our enemies, as if these advantages were only to render their victory over us the more glorious, and were not disposed for the preservation of those by whom these preparations were made. And as for those that are already dead in the war, it is reasonable we should esteem them blessed, for they are dead in defending and not in betraying their liberty; but as to the multitude of those that are now under the Romans, who would not pity their condition? and who would not make haste to die, before he would suffer the same miseries with them! Some of them have been put upon the rack, and tortured with fire and whippings, and so died. Some of them have been half-devoured by wild beasts, and ye have been reserved alive to be devoured by them a second time, in order to afford laughter and sport to our enemies; and such of those as are alive, still are to be looked on as the most miserable, who being so desirous of death could not come at it. And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation? which was fortified by so many walls round about, which had so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could hardly contain the instruments pre pared for the war, and which had so many ten thousands of men to fight for it! Where is this city that was believed to have God himself inhabitant therein? L is now demolished to the very foundations, and hath nothing but that monument of it preserved, I mean the camp of those that have destroyed it, which still dwells upon its ruins; some unfortunate old men also lie upon the ashes of the temple and a few women are there preserved alive by the enemy for our bitter shame and reproach. Now, who is there that revolves these things in his mind, and yet is able to bear the sight of the sun, though he might live out of danger? Who is there so much his country's enemy, or so unmanly, and so desirous of living, as not to repent that he is still alive? and I cannot but wish that we had all died, be. fore we had seen that holy city demolished by the hands of our enemies, or the foundations of our holy temple dug up after so profane a manner. But since we had a generous hope that deluded us, as if we might, perhaps, have been able to avenge ourselves on our enemies on that account, though it be now become va. nity, and hath left us alone in this distress, let us make haste to die bravely. Let us pity ourselves, our children, and our wives, while it is in our own power te show pity to them; for we were born to die,* as well as those were whom we have begotten; nor is it in the power of the most happy of our race to avoid it. But for abuses and slavery, and the sight of our wives led away after an ignominious manner, with their children, these are not such evils as are natural and necessary among men; although such as do not prefer death before those miseries, when it is in their power so to do, must undergo even them on account of their own cowardice. We revolted from the Romans with great pretensions to courage; and when at the very last they invited us to preserve ourselves, we would not comply with them. Who will not, therefore, believe that they will certainly be in a rage at us, in case they can take us alive? Miserable will then be the young men who will be strong enough in their bodies to sustain many torments; miserable also will be those of elder years, who will not be able to bear those calamities which young men might sustain. One man will be obliged to hear the voice of his • Reland here sets down a parallel aphorism one of the Jewish Rabbins,—“ We are born that we may die, and die that we may live," THE JEWISH WAR son imploring help of his father, when his hands are bound. But certainly our 467 hands are still at liberty, and have a sword in them; let them, then, be subservient to us in our glorious design; let us die before we become slaves under our enemies and let us go out of the world, together with our children and our wives, in a state of freedom. This it is that our laws command us to do; this it is that our wives and children crave at our hands; nay, God himself hath brought this necessity upon us; while the Romans desire the contrary, and are afraid lest any of us should die before we are taken. Let us, therefore, make haste, and, instead of affording them so much pleasure as they hope for in getting us under their power, let us leave them an example which shall at once cause their astonishment at our death, and their admiration of our hardiness therein." CHAP. IX. How the People that were in we Fortress were prevailed on by the Words of § 1. Now, as Eleazar was proceeding on in this exhortation, they ali cut him off short, and made haste to do the work, as full of an unconquerable ardour of mind, and moved with a demoniacal fury. So they went their way as one still endeavouring to be before another, and as thinking that this eagerness would be a de. monstration of their courage and good conduct if they could avoid appearing in the last class; so great was the zeal they were in to slay their wives, and chil dren, and themselves also. Nor indeed, when they came to the work itself did their courage fail them, as one might imagine it would have done; but they then held fast the same resolution without wavering, which they had upon the hearing of Eleazar's speech, while yet every one of them still retained the natural passion of love to themselves and their families, because the reasoning they went upon appeared to them to be very just, even with regard to those that were dearest to them; for the husbands tenderly embraced their wives, and took their childre into their arms, and gave the longest parting kisses to them, with tears in their eyes. Yet at the same time did they complete what they had resolved on, as if they had been executed by the hands of strangers; and they had nothing else for their comfort but the necessity they were in of doing this execution, to avoid tha prospect they had of the miseries they were to suffer from their enemies. Not was there at length any one of these men found that scrupled to act their part in this terrible execution, but every one of them dispatched his dearest relations. Miserable men, indeed, were they! whose distress forced them to slay their own wives and children with their own hands, as the lightest of those evils that were before them. So they being not able to bear the grief they were under for what they had done any longer, and esteeming it an injury to those they had slain to live even the shortest space of time after them, they presently laid all they had upon a heap, and set fire to it. They then chose ten men by lot out of them to slay all the rest; every one of which laid himself down by his wife and children on the ground, and threw his arms about them, and they offered their necks to the stroke of those who by lot executed that melancholy office: and when these ten had, without fear, slain them all, they made the same rule for casting lots for themselves, that he whose lot it was should first kill the other nine, and after all should kill himself. Accordingly, all these had courage sufficient to be no way behind one another in doing or suffering: so, for a conclusion, the nine offered their necks to the executioner; and he who was the last of all took a view of all the other bodies, lest perchance some or other among so many that were slain should want his assistance to be quite dispatcned; and when he perceived that 59 * they were all slain, he set fire to the palace, and, with the great force of his hand, ran his sword entirely through himself, and fell down dead near to his own rela. tions. So these people died with this intention, that they would not leave so much as one soul among them alive to be subject to the Romans. Yet was there an ancient woman, and another who was of kin to Eleazar, and superior to most women in prudence and learning, with five children, who had concealed them. selves in caverns under ground, and had carried water thither for their drink, and were hidden there when the rest were intent upon the slaughter of one another. Those others were nine hundred and sixty in number, the women and children being withal included in that computation. This calamitous slaughter was made on the fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan.] 2. Now for the Romans, they expected that they should be fought in the mor ning, when, accordingly, they put on their armour, and laid bridges of planks upon their ladders from their banks, to make an assault upon the fortress, which they did: but saw nobody as an enemy, but a terrible solitude on every side, with a fire within the place, as well as a perfect silence. So they were at a loss to guess at what had happened. At length they made a shout, as if it had been at a blow given by the battering-ram to try whether they could bring any one out that was within; the women heard this noise, and came out of their underground cavern, and informed the Romans what had been done, as it was done; and the second of them clearly described all, both what was said and what was done, and the manner of it; yet did they not easily give their attention to such a desperate undertaking, and did not believe it could be as they said: they also at tempted to put the fire out; and quickly cutting themselves a way through it, they came within the palace, and so met with the multitude of the slain, but could take no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution, and the immoveable contempt of death which so great a number of them had shown, when they went through with such an action as that was. CHAP. X. Thuat many of the Sicarii fled to Alexandria also, and what Dangers they were in there; on which Account that Temple which had formerly been built by Onias the High Priest was destroyed. § 1. WHEN Masada was thus taken, the general left a garrison in the fortress to keep it, and he himself went away to Cæsarea; for there were now no enemies left in the country, but it was all overthrown by so long a war. Yet did this war afford disturbances and dangerous disorders even in places very far remote from Judea; for still it came to pass that many Jews were slain at Alexandria in Egypt for as many of the Sicarii as were able to fly thither, out of the seditious wars in Judea, were not content to have saved themselves, but must needs be un. dertaking to make new disturbances, and persuaded many of those that entertain. ed them to assert their liberty, to esteem the Romans to be no better than them selves, and to look upon God as their only lord and master. But when part of the lews of reputation opposed them, they slew some of them, and with the others they were very pressing in their exhortations to revolt from the Romans; but when the principal men of the senate saw what madness they were come to, they thought it no longer safe for themselves to overlook them. So they got all the Jews together to an assembly, and accused the madness of the Sicarii, and de monstrated that they had been the authors of all the evils that had come upon them. They said also, that "these men, now they were ran away from Judea, having no sure hope of escaping, because as soon as ever they shall be known they will be soon destroyed by the Romans, they come hither, and fill us full of those ca. lamities which belong to them, while we have not been partakers with them in any of their sins." Accordingly, they exhorted the multitude to have a care lest they should be brought to destruction by their means, and to make their apology to the Romans for what had been done, by delivering these men up to them; who, being thus apprized of the greatness of the danger they were in, complied with what was proposed, and ran with great violence upon the Sicarii, and seized upon them; and, indeed, six hundred of them were caught immediately; but as to all those that fled into Egypt,* and to the Egyptian Thebes, it was not long ere they were caught also, and brought back, whose courage, or whether we ought to call it madness or hardiness in their opinions, every body was amazed at. For when all sorts of torments and vexations of their bodies that could be devised were made use of to them, they could not get any one of them to comply so far as to confess, or seem to confess, that Cæsar was their lord; but they preserved their own opinion, in spite of all the distress they were brought to, as if they received those torments and the fire itself with bodies insensible of pain, and with a soul that in manner rejoiced under them. But what was most of all astonishing to the beholders, was the age of the children; for not one of these children was so far overcome by these torments as to name Cæsar for their lord. So far does the strength of the courage [of the soul] prevail over the weakness of the body. 2. Now Lupus did then govern Alexandria; who presently sent Cæsar word of this commotion; who having in suspicion the restless temper of the Jews for innovation, and being afraid lest they should get together again, and persuade some others to join with them, gave orders to Lupus to demolish that Jewish templet which was in the region called Onion, and was in Egypt, which was built, and had its denomination from the occasion following.-Onias, the son of Simon, one of the Jewish high priests, fled from Antiochus, the king of Syria, when he made war with the Jews, and came to Alexandria; and as Ptolemy received him very kindly, on account of his hatred to Antiochus, he assured him, that, if he would comply with his proposal, he would bring all the Jews to his assistance; and when the king agreed to do it so far as he was able, he desired him to give him leave to build a temple somewhere in Egypt, and to worship God according to the customs of his own country; for that the Jews would then be so much readier to fight against Antiochus, who had laid waste the temple at Jerusalem; and that they would then come to him with greater good will; and that, by granting them liberty of conscience, very many of them would come over to him. 3. So Ptolemy complied with his proposals, and gave him a place‡ one hundred and eighty furlongs distant from Memphis. That Nomos was called the Nomos of Heliopolis, where Onias built a fortress and a temple not like to that at Jerusalem, but such as resembled a tower. He built it of large stones to the height of sixty cubits: he made the structure of the altar in imitation of that in our own country, and in like manner adorned with gifts, excepting the make of Since Josephus here informs us, that some of these Sicarii or ruffians went from Alexandria (which was itself in Egypt, in a large sense) into Egypt and Thebes, there situated, Reland well observes from Vosius, that Egypt sometimes denotes Proper or Upper Egypt as distinct from Delta and the lower parts near Palestine. Accordingly, as he adds, those that say it never rains in Egypt, must mean the Proper or Upper Egypt, because it does sometimes rain in the other parts. See the notes on Antiq. B. ii. cò. vii. sect. 7; and B. iii. ch. i. sect. 6. Of this temple of Onias's building in Egypt, see the notes on Antiq. B. xiii. ch. iii. sect. 1. But whereas it is elsewhere, both Of the War, B. i. ch. i. sect. 1, and in the Antiquities as now quoted, said, that this temple was like to that at Jerusalem, and here that it was not like it, but like a tower, sect 3, there is some reason to suspect the reading here, and that either the negative particle is here to be blotted out, or the word entirely added. We must observe, that Josephus here speaks of Antiochus, who profaned the temple, as now alive, when Onias had leave given him by Philometer to build his temple; whereas it seems not to have been actually built till about fifteen years afterwards. Yet because it is said in the Antiquities, that Onias went to Philometer, B. xii. ch. ix. sect. 7, during the lifetime of that Antiochus, it is probable he petitioned, and, perhaps obtained his leave then, though it were not actually built or finished till fifteen years afterward. 40 the candlestick; for he did not make a candlestick, but had a [single] lamp ham mered out of a piece of gold, which illuminated the place with its rays, and which he hung by a chain of gold; but the entire temple was encompassed with a wall of burnt brick, though it had gates of stone. The king also gave him a large country for a revenue in money, that both the priests might have a plentiful provision made for them, and that God might have great abundance of what things were necessary for his worship. Yet did not Onias do this out of a sober disposition, but he had a mind to contend with the Jews at Jerusalem, and could not forget the indignation he had for being banished thence. Accordingly, he thought that, by building this temple, he should draw away a great number from them to himself. There had been also a certain ancient prediction made by [a prophet,] whose name was Isaiah, about six hundred years before, that this tem ple should be built by a man that was a Jew in Egypt.* And this is the history of the building of that temple. 4. And now Lupus, the governor of Alexandria, upon the receipt of Cæsar's letter, came to the temple, and carried out of it some of the donations dedicated thereto, and shut up the temple itself. And as Lupus died a little afterward, Paulinus succeeded him. This man left none of those donations there, and threatened the priests severely if they did not bring them all out; nor did he permit any who were desirous of worshiping God there so much as to come near the whole sacred place. But when he had shut up the gates, he made it entirely inaccessible, insomuch that there remained no longer the least footsteps of any divine worship that had been in that place. Now the duration of the time from the building of this temple till it was shut up again was three hundred and forty-three years. CHAP. XI. Concerning Jonathan, one of the Sicarii, that stirred up a Sedition in Cyrene. and was a false Accuser [of the Innocent.] § 1. AND now did the madness of the Sicarii, like a disease, reach as far as the cities of Cyrene; for one Jonathan, a vile person, and by trade a weaver, came thither, and prevailed with no small number of the poorer sort to give ear to him: he also led them into the desert, upon promising them that he would show them signs and apparitions. And as for the other Jews of Cyrene, he concealed his knavery from them, and put tricks upon them; but those of the greatest dig. nity among them informed Catullus, the governor of the Libyan Pentapolis, of his march into the deserts, and of the preparations he had made for it. So he sent out after him both horsemen and footmen, and easily overcame them, because they were unarmed men; of these many were slain in the fight, but some were taken alive and brought to Catullus. As for Jonathan, the head of this plot, he fled away at that time; but upon a great and very diligent search which was made all the country over for him, he was at last taken. when he was brought to Catullus, he devised a way whereby he both escaped punishment himself, and afforded an occasion to Catullus of doing much mis chief; for he falsely accused the richest men among the Jews, and said that they had put him upon what he did. And 2. Now Catullus easily admitted of these his calumnies, and aggravated mat ters greatly, and made tragical exclamanations, that he might also be supposed to have had a hand in the finishing of the Jewish war. But what was still harder, he did not only give a too easy belief to his stories, but he taught the Sicarii to accuse men falsely. He bid this Jonathan, therefore, to name one Alowander a Isa. xix. 18-23. |