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So he forsook at once this matrimony, and the Jewish religion : and at the same time Mariamne put away Archelaus, and was married to Demetrius, the principal man among the Alexandrian Jews, both for his family and his wealth; and indeed he was then their alabarch. So she named her son, whom she had by him, Agrippinus. But of all these particulars we shall hereafter treat more exactly.*


After what manner, upon the death of Claudius, Nero succeeded in the government; as also what barbarous things he did. Concerning the robbers, murderers, and impostors, that arose, while Felir and Festus were procurators of

Judea. $ 1. Now Claudius Cæsar died when he had reigned thirteen years eight months and twenty days; † and a report went about, that he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina. Her father was Germanicus, the brother of Cæsar. Her husband was Domitius Ænobarbus, one of the most illustrious persons that was in the city of Rome; after whose death, and her own long continuance in widowhood, Claudius took her to wife. She brought along with her a son, Domitius, of the same name with his father. He had before this slain his wife Mes. salina out of jealousy, by whom he had had his children Britannicus and Octavia ; their eldest sister was Antonia, whom he had by Pelina his first wife. He also married Octavia to Nero; for that was the name that Cæsar gave him afterward, upon his adopting him for his son.

2. But now Agrippina was afraid, · lest when Britannicus should come to man's estate, he should succeed his father in the government, and desired to seize upon the principality before-hand for ber own son [Nero); upon which the report went, that she thence compassed the death of Claudius. Accordingly she sent Burrhus the general of the army, immediately, and with him the tribunes, and such also of the freed men as were of the greatest authority, to bring Nero away into the camp, and to salute him emperor. And when Nero had thus obtained the government, he got Britannicus to be so poisoned, that the multitude should not perceive it; although he publicly put his own mother to death not long afterward, making her this requital, not only for being born of her, but for bringing it so about by her contrivances, that he obtained the Roman empire. He also slew Octavia his own wife, and many other illustrious persons, under this pretence that they plotted against him.

* This also is now wanting.

+ This duration of the reign of Claudius agrees with Dio, as Dr. Hudson here remarks; as he also remarks, that Nero's name, which was at first L. Domitius Ænobarbus, after Claudius bad adopted bim, was Nero Claudius Cæsar Drusus Germanicus,

3. But I omit any farther discourse about these affairs; for there have been a great many who have composed the history of Nero ; some of which have departed from the truth of facts out of favour, as having received benefits from him; while others, out of hatred to bim, and the great ill-will which they bare bim, have so impudently raved against bim with their lies, that they justly deserve to be condemned. Nor do I wonder at such as have told lies of Nero, since they have not in their writings preserved the truth of history as to those facts that were earlier than his time, even when the actors could have no way incurred their hatred, since those writers lived a long time after them. But as to these that have no regard to truth, they may write as they please ; for in that they take delight: but as to ourselves, who have made truth our direct aim, we shall briefly touch upon what only belongs remotely to this undertaking, but shall relate what hath happened to us Jews with great accuracy, and shall not grudge our pains in giving an account both of the calamities we have suffered, and of the crimes we have been guilty of


4. For in the first year of the reign of Nero, upon the death of Azizus, king of Emesa, Söemus * his brother succeeded in his kingdom, and Aristobulus, the son of Herod, king of Chalcis, was intrusted by Nero with the government of Lesser Armenia. Cæsar also bestowed on Agrippa a certain part of Galilee, Tiberias,f and Tiracheæ, and ordered them to submit to bis jurisdiction. He gave him also Julias, a city of Perea, with fourteen villages that lay about it.

5. Now, as for the affairs of the Jews, they grew worse and worse continually; for the country was again filled with robberies, and impostors who deluded the multitude. Yet did Felix catch, and put to death many of those impostors every day, together with the robbers. He also caught Eleazar, the son of Dinaes, who had gotten together a company of robbers; and this he did by treachery; for he gave


* This Söemus is elsewhere mentioned [by Josephus in his own Life, sect. 11. Vol. II. as also] by Dio Cassius and Tacitus, as Dr. Hudson informs us.

+ This agrees with Josephus's frequent accounts elsewhere in his own Life, that Tiberias, and Tiracher, and Gamala, were under this Agrippa junior, till Justus, the son of Pistus, seized upon them for the Jews upon the breaking out of the war. VOL. II.


assurance, that he should suffer no harmr, and thereby persuaded him to come to bim ; but when he came he bound him, and sent him to Rome. Felix also bore an ill-will to Jonathan the high-priest, because he frequently gave him admonitions about governing the Jewish affairs better than he did, lest he should himself have complaints made of him by the multitude, since he it was who bad desired Cæsar to send him as procurator of Judea. So Felix contrived a method whereby he might get rid of him, now he was become so continually troublesome to him ; for such continual admonitions are grievous to those who are disposed to act unjustly: Wherefore Felix persuaded one of Jonathan's most faithful friends, a citizen of Jerusalem, whose name was Doras to bring the robbers upon Jonathan, in order to kill him ; and this he did by promising to give him a great deal of money for so doing. Doras complied with the proposal, and contrived matters so, that the robbers might murder him after the following manner: Certain of those robbers went up to the city, as if they were going to worship God, while they had daggers under their garments, and by thus mingling themselves among the multitude, they slew Jonathan,* and as this murder was never avenged, the robbers went up with


* This treacherous and barbarous murder of the good high-priest Jonathan, by the contrivance of this wicked procurator Felix, was the immediate occasion of the ensuing murders by the Sicarii or ruffians, and one great cause of the following horrid cruelties and miseries of the Jewish nation, as Josephus here supposes; whose excellent reflection on the gross wickedness of that nation, as the direct cause of their terrible destruction, is well worthy the attention of every Jewish, and of every Christian reader. And, since we are soon coming to the catalogue of the Jewish high-priests, it may not be amiss, with Reland, te insert this Jonathan among them, and to transcribe his particular catalogue of the last twenty-eight high-priests, taken out of Josephus, and begin with Ananelus, who was made by Herod the Great. See Antiq. B. XV. ch. ii. sect. 4. Vol. Il. and the note there, 1. Ananelus.

15. Theophilus, his brother, and son 2. Aristobulus.

of Ananus. 3. Jesus, the son of Fabus.

16. Simon, the son of Boethus. 4. Simon, the son of Boethus. 17. Matthias, the brother of Jona5. Matthias, the son of Theophilus. than, and son of Ananus. 6. Joazar, the son of Boethus. 18. Aljoneus. 7. Eleazar, the son of Boethus. 19. Josephus, the son of Camydus. 8. Jesus, the son of Sie.

20. Ananias, the son of Nebedeus. 9. [Annas, or] Ananus, the son of 21. Jonathas. Seth.

22. Ismael, the son of Fabi. 10. Ismael, the son of Fabus.

23. Joseph Cabi, the son of Simon. 11. Eleazar, the son of Ananus. 24. Ananus, the son of Ananus. 12. Simon, the son of Camithus. 25. Jesus, the son of Damneus. 13. Josephus Caiaphas, the son-in- 26. Jesus, the son of Gamaliel. law to Ananus.

27. Matthias, the son of Theophilus. 14. Jonathan, the son of Ananus. 28. Phannias, the son of Samuel.

As for Ananus, and Joseph Caiaphas, here mentioned about the middle of this. catalogue, they are no other than those Annas and Caiaphas, so often mentioned in the four gospels ; and that Ananias, the son of Nebedeus, was that high-priest before whom St. Paul pleaded his own cause, Acts xxiv.

the greatest security at the festivals after this time, and having weapons concealed in like manner as before, and mingling themselves among the multitude, they slew certain of their own enemies, and were subservient to other men for money, and slew others, not only in rearote parts of the city, but in the temple itself also; for they had the boldness to murder men there, without thinking of the impiety of wbich they were guilty. And this seems to me to have been the reason why God, out of his hatred of these men's wickedness, rejected our city; and as for the temple, he no longer esteemed it sufficiently pure for him to inhabit therein, but brought the Romans upon us, and threw a fire upon the city to purge it, and brought upon us, our wives, and children, slavery, as desirous to make us wiser by our calamities.

6. These works, that were done by the robbers, filled the city with all sorts of impiety. And now these* impostors and deceivers persuaded the multitude to follow them into the wilderness, and pretended that they would exhibit manifest wonders and signs, that should be performed by the providence of God. And many that were prevailed on by them suffered the punishments of their folly; for Felix brought them back, and then punished them. Moreover, there came out of Egypt + about this time to Jerusalem, one that said he was a prophet, and advised the multitude of the common people to go along with him to the Mount of Olives, as it was called, which lay over against the city, and at the distance of five furlongs. He said farther, that he would shew them from hence, how, at his command, the walls of JerusaJem would fall down; and he promised them, that he would procure them an entrance into the city through those walls, when they were fallen down. Now, when Felix was informed of these things, he ordered his soldiers to take their weapons, and came against them, with a great number of horsemen and footmen, from Jerusalem, and attacked the Egyptian and the people that were with him. He also slew four hundred of them, and took two hundred alive. But the Egyptian himself escaped out of the fight, but did not appear any more. And again the robbers stirred up the people to make war with the Romans, and said, they ought not to obey them at all; and when any person would not comply with them, they set fire to their villages, and plundered them.

7. And now it was that a great sedition arose between the Jews that inhabited Cesarea, and the Syrians who dwelt there

* Of these Jewish impostors and false prophets, with many other circumstan. ces and miseries of the Jews, till their utter destruction, foretold by our Saviour. See Lit. Accompl. of Proph. p. 58–75.

+ Of this Egyptian impostor, and the number of bis followers in Josephus, see Acts xxi. 38.


also, concerning their equal right to the privileges belonging to citizens, for the Jews claimed the pre-eminence, because Herod their king was the builder of Cesarea, and because he was by birth a Jew. Now the Syrians did not deny what was alledged about Herod; but they said, that Cesarea was formerly called Strato's tower, and that then there was not one Jewish inhabitant. When the presidents of that country heard of these disorders, they caught the authors of them on both sides, and tormented them with stripes, and by that means put a stop to the disturbance for a time. But the Jewish citizens depending on their wealth, and on that account despising the Syrians, reproached them again, and hoped to provoke them by such reproaches. However, the Syrians, though they were inferior in wealth, yet valuing themselves highly on this account, that the greatest part of Roman soldiers that were there, were either of Cesarea or Sebaste, they also for some time used reproachful language to the Jews also; and thus it was, till at length they came to throwing stones at one another, and several were wounded, and fell on both sides, though the Jews were still the conque


8. About this time king Agrippa gave the high-priesthood to Ismael, who was the son of Fabi. And now arose a sedi-' tion between the high-priests and the principal men of the multitude of Jerusalem; each of which got them a company of the boldest sort of men, and of those that loved innovations, about them, and became leaders to them; and when they struggled together, they did it by casting reproachful words against one another, and by throwing stones also. And there was nobody to reprove them; but these disorders were done after a licentious manner in the city, as if it had no government over it. And such was the impudence * and

* The wickedness here was very peculiar and extraordinary that the highpriests should so oppress their brethren the priests, as to starve the poorest of thern to death. See the like presently, ch. ix. sect. 2. Such fatal crimes are covetousness and tyranny in the clergy, as well as in the laity, in all ages.

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