among the Armenians about Niphates joined themselves to Artabanus,) he de livered up himself to Silanus, the president of Syria, who, out of regard to his education at Rome, kept him in Syria, while Artabanus gave Armenia to Orodes, ane of his own sons.

5. At this time died Antiochus, the king of Commagene; whereupon the multitude contended with the nobility, and both sent ambassadors [to Rome;] for the men of power were desirous that their form of government might be changed into that of a [Roman] province; as were the multitude desirous to be under kings, as their fathers had been. So the senate made a decree, that Germanicus should be sent to settle the affairs of the east, fortune hereby taking a proper opportunity for depriving him of his life; for when he had been in the east, and settled all affairs there, his life was taken away by the poison which Piso gave him, as hath been related elsewhere.*

CHAP. III.

A Sedition of the Jews against Pontius Pilate. Concerning Christ; and wha befell Paulina and the Jews at Romc.

§ 1. But now Pilate, the procurator of Judea, removed the army from Cesarea to Jerusalem, to take their winter quarters there, in order to abolish the Jewish laws. So he introduced Cæsar's effigies, which were upon the ensigns, and brought them into the city; whereas our law forbids us the very making of images: on which account the former procurators were wont to make their entry into the city with such ensigns as had not those ornaments. Pilate was the first who brought those images to Jerusalem, and set them up there; which was done without the knowledge of the people, because it was done in the night time; but as soon as they knew it, they came in multitudes to Cesarea, and interceded with Pilate many days, that he would remove the images; and when he would not grant their requests, because this would tend to the injury of Caesar, while yet they persevered in their request, on the sixth day he ordered his soldiers to have their weapons privately, while he came and set upon his judgment seat; which seat was so prepared in the open place of the city, that it concealed the army that lay ready to oppress them; and when the Jews petitioned him again, he gave a signal to the soldiers to encompass them round, and threatened that their pun ishment should be no less than immediate death, unless they would leave off disturbing him, and go their ways home. But they threw themselves upon the ground, and laid their necks bare, and said they would take their death very will. ingly, rather than the wisdom of their laws should he transgressed; upon which Pilate was deeply affected with their firm resolution to keep their laws inviolable, and presently commanded the images to be carried back from Jerusalem to Cesarea.

2. But Pilate undertook to bring a current of water to Jerusalem, and did it with the sacred money, and derived the origin of the stream from the distance of two hundred furlongs. However, the Jews were not pleased with what had

This citation is now wanting.

These Jews, as they are here called, whose blood Pilate shed on this occasion, may very well be those very Galilean Jews whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices; Lnke, xiii. 1,2; these tumults being usually excited at some of the Jews' great festivals, when they slew abundance of sacriaces, and the Galileans being commonly much more busy in such tumults than those of Judea and Jerusalem, as we learn from the history of Archelaus, Antiq. B. xvii. ch. ix. sect. 3, and ch. x. sect. 2, 9; though indeed Josephus's present copies say not one word of those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, which the 4th verse of the same 13th chapter of St. Luke informs us of. But since our gospel teaches us, Luke, xxiii. 6, 7, that when Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked whether Jesus were a Galilean? And as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod. And ver. 12. The same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together; for before they had been at mity between themselves. Take the very probable key of this matter in the words of the learned Nob

been done about this water; and many ten thousands of the people got together, and made a clamour against him, and insisted that he should leave off that de sign. Some of them also used reproaches, and abused the man, as crowds of such people usually do. So he habited a great number of his soldiers in their habit, who carried daggers under their garments, and sent them to a place where they might surround them. So he bid the Jews himself go away; but they boldly casting reproaches upon him, he gave the soldiers that signal which had been beforehand agreed on; who laid upon them much greater blows than Pilate had commanded them, and equally punished those that were tumultuous, and those that were not; nor did they spare them in the least; and since the people were unarmed, and were caught by men prepared for what they were about, there were a great number of them slain by this means, and others of them ran away wounded. And thus an end was put to this sedition

3. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross,* those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.

4. About the same time also another sad calamity put the Jews into disorder, and certain shameful practices happened about the temple of Isis that was at Rome. I will now first take notice of the wicked attempt about the temple of Isis, and will then give an account of the Jewish affairs. There was at Rome a woman whose name was Paulina; one who, on account of the dignity of her ancestors, and by, the regular conduct of a virtuous life, had a great reputation : she was also very rich; and although she were of a beautiful countenance, and in that flower of her age, wherein women are the most gay, yet did she lead a life of great modesty. She was married to Saturninus, one that was every way answerable to her in an excellent character. Dicius Mundus fell in love with this woman, who was a man very high in the equestrian order; and as she was of too great dignity to be caught by presents, and had already rejected them, though they had been sent in great abundance, he was still more inflamed with love to her, insomuch that he promised to give her two hundred thousand Attic drachmæ for one night's lodging; and when this would not prevail upon her, and he was not able to bear this misfortune in his amours, he thought it the best way to famish himself to death for want of food, on account of Paulina's sad refusal : and he determined with himself to die after such a manner, and he went on with his purpose accordingly. Now Mundus had a freed woman, who had been made free by his father, whose name was Ide, one skilful in all sorts of mischief. This woman was very much grieved at the young man's resolution to kill himself (for he did not concal his intentions to destroy himself from others,) and came to him, and encouraged him by her discourse, and made him to hope, by some promises she gave him, that he might obtain a night's lodging with Paulina; and when he joyfully hearkened to her entreaty, she said, she wanted no more than fifty thou sand drachme for the entrapping of the woman. So when she had encouraged the young man, and gotten as much money as she required, she did not take the same methods as had been taken before, because she perceived that the woman was by no means to be tempted by money, but as she knew that she was very dius de Herod, No. 249. "The cause of the enmity between Herod and Pilate (says he) seems to have been this, that Pilate had intermeddled with the tetrarch's jurisdiction, and had slain some of his Gab ilean subjects; Luke, xiii. 1; and, as he was willing to correct that error, he sent Christ to Herod at this time."

much given to the worship of the goddess Isis, she devised the following strata gem: She went to some of Isis's priests, and upon the strongest assurances [of concealment,] she persuaded them by words, but chiefly by the offer of money, of 25,000 drachmæ in hand, and as much more when the thing had taken effect, and told them the passion of the young man, and persuaded them to use all means possible to beguile the woman. So they were drawn in to promise so to do, by that large sum of gold they were to have. Accordingly the eldest of them went immediately to Paulina, and upon his admittance, he desired to speak with her by herself. When that was granted him, he told her, that "he was sent by the god Anubis, who was fallen in love with her, and enjoined her to come to him." Upon this she took the message very kindly, and valued herself greatly upon this condescension of Anubis, and told her husband, that she had a message sent her, and was to sup and to lie with Anubis: so he agreed to her acceptance of the offer, as fully satisfied with the chastity of his wife. Accordingly she went to the temple, and after she had supped there, and it was the hour to go to sleep, the priest shut the doors of the temple, when, in the holy part of it, the lights were also put out. Then did Mundus leap out (for he was hidden therein,) and did not fail of enjoying her, who was at his service all the night long, as supposing he was the god; and when he was gone away, which was before those priests who knew nothing of this stratagem were stirring, Paulina came early to her bus. band, and told him how the god Anubis had appeared to her. Among her friends also she declared how great a value she put upon this favour, who partly disbeliev. ed the thing, when they reflected on its nature, and partly were amazed at it, as having no pretence for not believing it, when they considered the modesty and the dignity of the person. But now on the third day after what had been done, Mundus met Paulina, and said, "Nay, Paulina, thou hast saved me two hundred thousand drachme, which sum thou mightest have added to thy own family; yet hast thou not failed to be at my service in the manner I invited thee. As for the reproaches thou hast laid upon Mundus, I value not the business of names; but I rejoice in the pleasure I reaped by what I did, while I took to myself the name of Anubis." When he had said this, he went his way. But now she began to come to the sense of the grossness of what she had done, and rent her garments, and told her husband of the horrid nature of this wicked contrivance, and prayed him not to neglect to assist her in this case. So he discovered the fact to the emperor whereupon Tiberius inquired into the matter thoroughly, by examining the priests about it, and ordered them to be crucified as well as Ide, who was the occasion of their perdition, and who had contrived the whole matter which was so injurious to the woman. He also demolished the temple of Isis, and gave or. der that her statue should be thrown into the river Tiber; while he only banished Mundus, but did no more to him, because he supposed that what crime he had committed was done out of the passion of love. And these were the cir cumstances which concerned the temple of Isis, and the injuries occasioned by her priests. I now return to the relation of what happened about this time to the Jews at Rome, as I formerly told you I would.

5. There was a man who was a Jew, but had been driven away from his own country by an accusation laid against him for transgressing their laws, and by the fear he was under of punishment for the same; but in all respects a wicked man. He then living at Rome, professed to instruct men in the wisdom of the laws of Moses. He procured also three other men, entirely of the same character with himself, to be his partners. These men persuaded Fulvia, a woman of great dignity, and one that had embraced the Jewish religion, to send purple and gold to the temple at Jerusalem, and when they had gotten them, they employed them for their own uses, and spent the money themselves; on which account was that they at first required it of her. Whereupon Tiberius, who had been informed of the thing by Saturninus, the husband of Fulvia, who desired inquiry might be made about it, ordered all the Jews to be banished out of Rome; a

which the consuls listed four thousand men out of them, and sent them to the island Sardinia; but punished a greater number of them, who were unwilling to become soldiers on account of keeping the laws of their forefathers.* Thus were these Jews banished out of the city by the wickedness of four men.

CHAP. IV.

How the Samaritans made a Tumult, and Pilate destroyed many of them; Pilate was accused, and what Things were done by Vitellius relating to the Jews and the Parthians.

how

§ 1. BUT the nation of the Samaritans did not escape without tumults. The man who excited them to it was one who thought lying a thing of little conse quence, and who contrived every thing so that the multitude might be pleased; so he bid them get together upon Mount Gerizzim, which is by them looked upon as the most holy of all mountains, and assured them, that when they were come thither, he would show them those sacred vessels which were laid under that place, because Moses† put them there. So they came thither armed, and thought the discourse of the man probable; and as they abode at a certain village, which was called Tirathaba, they got the rest together to them, and desired to go up the mountain in a great multitude together: bnt Pilate prevented their going up by seizing upon the roads with a great band of horsemen and footmen, who fell upon those that were gotten together in the village, and when it came to an action, some of them they slew, and others of them they put to flight, and took a great many alive, the principal of which, and also the most potent of those that fled away, Pilate ordered to be slain.

2. But when this tumult was appeased, the Samaritan senate sent an embassy to Vitellius, a man that had been consul, and who was now president of Syria, and accused Pilate of the murder of those that were killed; for that they did not go to Tirathaba in order to revolt from the Romans, but to escape the violence of Pilate. So Vitellius sent Marcellus, a friend of his, to take care of the affairs of Judea, and ordered Pilate to go to Rome, to answer before the emperor to the accusation of the Jews. So Pilate, when he had tarried ten years in Judea, made haste to Rome, and this in obedience to the orders of Vitellius, which he durst not contradict; but before he could get to Rome Tiberius was dead.

3. But Vitellius came into Judea, and went up to Jerusalem; it was at the time of that festival which is called the Passover. Vitellius was there magnifi. cently received, and released the inhabitants of Jerusalem from all the taxes upon the fruits that were bought and sold, and gave them leave to have the care of the high priest's vestments, with all their ornaments, and to have them under the cus tody of the priests in the temple, which power they used to have formerly, al though at this time they were laid up in the tower of Antonia, the citadel so called,

Of the banishment of these 4000 Jews into Sardinia by Tiberius, see Suetonius in Tiber. sect. 36. But as for Mr. Reland's note here, which supposes that Jews could not, consistently with their laws, be soldiers, it is contradicted by one branch of the history before us, and contrary to innumerable instances of their fighting, and proving excellent soldiers in war; and indeed many of the best of them, and even under heathen kings themselves, did so, those I mean who allowed them their rest on the Sabbath day, and other solemn festivals, and let them live according to their own laws, as Alexander the Great and the Ptolomies of Egypt did. It is true, they could not always obtain those privileges, and then they got excused as well as they could, or sometimes absolutely refused to fight, which seems to have been the case here, as to the major part of the Jews now banished, but nothing more. See several of the Roman decrees in their favour as to such matters, B. xiv. ch. x.

+ Since Moses never came himself beyond Jordan, nor particularly to Mount Gerizzim, and since these Samaritans have a tradition among them related here by Dr. Hudson, from Reland, who was very akilful in Jewish and Samaritan learning, that in the days of Uzzi or Ozzi the high priest, 1 Chron. vi. 6, the ark and other sacred vessels were, by God's command, laid up or hidden in Mount Gerizzim, it is nighly probable that this was the foolish foundation the present Samaritans went upon in the sedition here described, and that we should read here Nows, instead of Mavoses in the text of Josephus.

and that on the occasion following: There was one of the [high] priests, named Hyrcanus, and as there were many of that name, he was the first of them; this man built a tower near the temple, and when he had done so, he generally dwelt in it, and had these vestments with him; because it was lawful for him alone to put them on, and he had them there reposited when he went down into the city, and took his ordinary garments. The same things were continued to be done by his sons, and by their sons after them. But when Herod came to be king he rebuilt this tower, which was very conveniently situated, in a magnificent manner; and because he was a friend to Antonius, he called it by the name of Antonia. And as he found these vestments lying there, he retained them in the same place, as believing, that while he had them in his custody, the people would make no innovations against him. The like to what Herod did was done by his son Archelaus, who was made king after him; after whom the Romans, when they entered on the government, took possession of these vestments of the high priest, and had them reposited in a stone chamber under the seal of the priests, and of the keepers of the temple, the captain of the guard lighting a lamp there every day; and seven days* before a festival they were delivered to them by the captain of the guard, when the high priest, having purified them, and made use of them, laid them up again in the same chamber where they had been laid up before, and this the very next day after the feast was over. This was the practice at the three yearly festivals, and on the fast day; but Vitellius put these garments into our own power, as in the days of our forefathers, and ordered the captain of the guard not to trouble himself to inquire where they were laid, or when they were to be used; and this he did as an act of kindness to oblige the nation to him. Besides which, he also deprived Joseph, who was also called Caiaphas, of the high priesthood, and appointed Jonathan, the son of Ananus, the former high priest, to succeed him. After which he took his journey back to Antioch. 4. Moreover, Tiberius sent a letter to Vitellius, and commanded him to make a league of friendship with Artabanus, the king of Parthia; for while he was his enemy he terrified him, because he had taken Armenia away from him, lest he should proceed farther, and told him he should no otherwise trust him than upon bis giving him hostages, and especially his son Artabanus. Upon Tiberius's writing thus to Vitellius, by the offer of great presents of money, he persuaded both the king of Iberia, and the king of Albania, to make no delay, but to fight against Artabanus; and although they would not do it themselves, yet did they give the Scythians a passage through their country, and opened the Caspian gates to them, and brought them upon Artabanus. So Armenia was again taken from the Parthians, and the country of Parthia was filled with war, and the principal of their men were slain, and all things were in disorder among them: the king's son also himself fell in these wars, together with many ten thousands of his army. Vitellius had also sent such great sums of money to Artabanus's father's kinsmen and friends, that he had almost procured him to be slain by the means of those bribes which they had taken. And when Artabanus perceived that the plot laid against him was not to be avoided, because it was laid by the principal men, and those a great many in number, and that it would certainly take effect: when he also estimated the number of those that were truly faithful to him, as also of those who were already corrupted, but were deceitful in the kindness they professed to him, and were likely, upon trial, to go over to his enemics, he made his escape to the upper provinces, where he afterward raised a great army out of the Dabæ and Sace, and fought with his enemies, and retained his principality. 5. When Tiberius had heard of these things, he desired to have a league of friendship made between him and Artabanus, and when, upon this invitation, he

This mention of the high priest's sacred garments received seven days before a festival, and purifed in those days against a festival, as having been polluted, by being in the custody of heathens, in Jo sephus, agrees well with the traditions of the Talmudists, as Reland here observes. Nor is there any question but the three feasts here mentioned, were the Passover, Pentecost, and feast of Tabernacles; and the fast, so called by way of distinction, as Acts, xxvii. 9, was the great day of expiation