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1. Now Gessius Florus, who was sent as successor to Albinus by
Nero, filled Judea with abundance of miseries. He was by birth of
the city of Clazomene, and brought along with him his wife
Cleopatra, (by whose friendship with Poppea, Nero's wife, he
obtained this government,) who was no way different from him in
wickedness. This Florus was so wicked, and so violent in the use
of his authority, that the Jews took Albinus to have been
[comparatively] their benefactor; so excessive were the mischiefs
that he brought upon them. For Albinus concealed his wickedness,
and was careful that it might not be discovered to all men; but
Gessius Florus, as though he bad been sent on purpose to show his
crimes to every body, made a pompous ostentation of them to our
nation, as never omitting any sort of violence, nor any unjust
sort of punishment; for he was not to be moved by pity, and never
was satisfied with any degree of gain that came in his way; nor
had he any more regard to great than to small acquisitions, but
became a partner with the robbers themselves. For a great many
fell then into that practice without fear, as having him for
their security, and depending on him, that he would save them
harmless in their particular robberies; so that there were no
bounds set to the nation's miseries; but the unhappy Jews, when
they were not able to bear the devastations which the robbers
made among them, were all under a necessity of leaving their own
habitations, and of flying away, as hoping to dwell more easily
any where else in the world among foreigners [than in their own
country]. And what need I say any more upon this head? since it
was this Florus who necessitated us to take up arms against the
Romans, while we thought it better to be destroyed at once, than
by little and little. Now this war began in the second year of
the government of Florus, and the twelfth year of the reign of
Nero. But then what actions we were forced to do, or what
miseries we were enabled to suffer, may be accurately known by
such as will peruse those books which I have written about the
Jewish war.
2. I shall now, therefore, make an end here of my Antiquities;
after the conclusion of which events, I began to write that
account of the war; and these Antiquities contain what hath been
delivered down to us from the original creation of man, until the
twelfth year of the reign of Nero, as to what hath befallen the
Jews, as well in Egypt as in Syria and in Palestine, and what we
have suffered from the Assyrians and Babylonians, and what
afflictions the Persians and Macedonians, and after them the
Romans, have brought upon us; for I think I may say that I have
composed this history with sufficient accuracy in all things. I
have attempted to enumerate those high priests that we have had
during the interval of two thousand years; I have also carried
down the succession of our kings, and related their actions, and
political administration, without [considerable] errors, as also
the power of our monarchs; and all according to what is written
in our sacred books; for this it was that I promised to do in the
beginning of this history. And I am so bold as to say, now I have
so completely perfected the work I proposed to myself to do, that
no other person, whether he were a Jew or foreigner, had he ever
so great an inclination to it, could so accurately deliver these
accounts to the Greeks as is done in these books. For those of my
own nation freely acknowledge that I far exceed them in the
learning belonging to Jews; I have also taken a great deal of
pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understand the
elements of the Greek language, although I have so long
accustomed myself to speak our own tongue, that I cannot
pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness; for our nation does
not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations, and
so adorn their discourses with the smoothness of their periods;
because they look upon this sort of accomplishment as common, not
only to all sorts of free-men, but to as many of the servants as
please to learn them. But they give him the testimony of being a
wise man who is fully acquainted with our laws, and is able to
interpret their meaning; on which account, as there have been
many who have done their endeavors with great patience to obtain
this learning, there have yet hardly been so many as two or three
that have succeeded therein, who were immediately well rewarded
for their pains.
3. And now it will not be perhaps an invidious thing, if I treat
briefly of my own family, and of the actions of my own life
while there are still living such as can either prove what I say
to be false, or can attest that it is true; with which accounts I
shall put an end to these Antiquities, which are contained in
twenty books, and sixty thousand verses. And if God permit me, I
will briefly run over this war , and to add what befell them
further to that very day, the 13th of Domitian, or A.D. 03, is
not, that I have observed, taken distinct notice of by any one;
nor do we ever again, with what befell us therein to this very
day, which is the thirteenth year of the reign of Caesar
Domitian, and the fifty-sixth year of my own life. I have also an
intention to write three books concerning our Jewish opinions
about God and his essence, and about our laws; why, according to
them, some things are permitted us to do, and others are
prohibited.
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