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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 no body 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 were 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 those 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 pompons manner; and as though he had
been sent as an executioner 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 offense 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 president of the province
of Syria, nobody 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, 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 Cestius, he laughed at their words. However,
Cestius, when he had quieted the multitude, and had assured them
that he would take care that Florus should hereafter treat them
in a more gentle manner, returned to Antioch. Florus also
conducted him as far as Cesarea, 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 accusers
before Caesar; 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 Cesarea 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 of Artemisins [Jyar.] Now the occasion of
this war was by no means proportionable to those heavy calamities
which it brought upon us. For the Jews that dwelt at Cesarea had
a synagogue near the place, whose owner was a certain Cesarean
Greek: the Jews had endeavored 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 permit 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 Cesarea 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 Cesarea, 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 polluted. 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 fervor of their
youth, were vehemently inflamed to fight. The seditions also
among the Gentiles of Cesarea 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 endeavored to put a stop to the sedition; but when
he was overcome by the violence of the people of Cesarea,
the Jews caught up their books of the law, and retired to
Narbata, which was a place to them belonging, distant from
Cesarea 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
Cesarea.
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 Caesar wanted them. At this
the people were in confusion immediately, and ran together to the
temple, with prodigious clamors, and called upon Caesar 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
not he made ashamed hereby of his love of money, but was more
enraged, and provoked to get still more; and instead of coming to
Cesarea, 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 Jerusalem, 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 behavior to him. Accordingly, they retired to their
own houses, and spent that night in fear and confusion 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, however, 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 sense 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 themselves,) was about three
thousand and six hundred. And what made this calamity 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.
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