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The family from which I am derived is not an ignoble one, but
hath descended all along from the priests; and as nobility among
several people is of a different origin, so with us to be of the
sacerdotal dignity, is an indication of the splendor of a family.
Now, I am not only sprung from a sacerdotal family in general,
but from the first of the twenty-four courses; and as among
us there is not only a considerable difference between one family
of each course and another, I am of the chief family of that
first course also; nay, further, by my mother I am of the royal
blood; for the children of Asamoneus, from whom that family was
derived, had both the office of the high priesthood, and the
dignity of a king, for a long time together. I will accordingly
set down my progenitors in order. My grandfather's father was
named Simon, with the addition of Psellus: he lived at the same
time with that son of Simon the high priest, who first of all the
high priests was named Hyrcanus. This Simon Psellus had nine
sons, one of whom was Matthias, called Ephlias: he married the
daughter of Jonathan the high priest, which Jonathan was the
first of the sons of Asamoneus, who was high priest, and was the
brother of Simon the high priest also. This Matthias had a son
called Matthias Curtus, and that in the first year of the
government of Hyrcanus: his son's name was Joseph, born in the
ninth year of the reign of Alexandra: his son Matthias was born
in the tenth year of the reign of Archclaus; as was I born to
Matthias in the first year of the reign of Caius Caesar. I have
three sons: Hyrcanus, the eldest, was born in the fourth year of
the reign of Vespasian, as was Justus born in the seventh, and
Agrippa in the ninth. Thus have I set down the genealog of my
family as I have found it described in the public records,
and so bid adieu to those who calumniate me [as of a lower
original].
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