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Now, as soon as I was come into Galilee, and had learned this
state of things by the information of such as told me of them, I
wrote to the sanhedrim at Jerusalem about them, and required
their direction what I should do. Their direction was, that I
should continue there, and that, if my fellow legates were
willing, I should join with them in the care of Galilee. But
those my fellow legates, having gotten great riches from those
tithes which as priests were their dues, and were given to them,
determined to return to their own country. Yet when I desired
them to stay so long, that we might first settle the public
affairs, they complied with me. So I removed, together with them,
from the city of Sepphoris, and came to a certain village called
Bethmaus, four furlongs distant from Tiberius; and thence I sent
messengers to the senate of Tiberius, and desired that the
principal men of the city would come to me: and when they were
come, Justus himself being also with them, I told them that I was
sent to them by the people of Jerusalem as a legate, together
with these other priests, in order to persuade them to demolish
that house which Herod the tetrarch had built there, and which
had the figures of living creatures in it, although our laws have
forbidden us to make any such figures; and I desired that they
would give us leave so to do immediately. But for a good while
Capellus and the principal men belonging to the city would not
give us leave, but were at length entirely overcome by us, and
were induced to be of our opinion. So Jesus the son of Sapphias,
one of those whom we have already mentioned as the leader of a
seditious tumult of mariners and poor people, prevented us, and
took with him certain Galileans, and set the entire palace on
fire, and thought he should get a great deal of money thereby,
because he saw some of the roofs gilt with gold. They also
plundered a great deal of the furniture, which was done without
our approbation; for after we had discoursed with Capellus and
the principal men of the city, we departed from Bethmaus, and
went into the Upper Galilee. But Jesus and his party slew all the
Greeks that were inhabitants of Tiberias, and as many others as
were their enemies before the war began.
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