ought to worship God according to his own inclinations, and not to be constrained by force; and that these men, who had fled to us for protection, ought not to be so treated as to repent of their coming hither." And when I had pacified the multitude, I provided for the men that were come to us whatsoever it was they wanted, according to the usual way of living, and that in great plenty also.
24. NOW KING Agrippa sent an army to
make themselves masters of the citadel of Gamala,
and over it Equiculus Modius; but the forces that
were sent there were not enow to
encompass the citadel quite round,
An army
sent to
Gamala.
but lay before it in the open
places, and besieged it. But when
Ebutius the decurion, who was
intrusted with the government of the great plain,
heard that I was at Simonias, a village situated
in the confines of Galilee, and was distant from
him sixty furlongs, he took a hundred horsemen
that were with him by night, and a certain
number of foot-men, about two hundred, and brought
the inhabitants of the city Gibea along with him
as auxiliaries, and marched in the night, and came
to the village where I abode. Upon this I
pitched my tent over against him, which had a
great number of forces in it; but Ebutius tried to
draw us down into the plain, as greatly
depending on his horsemen; but we would not come
down: for when I was satisfied of the advantage
that his horse would have if we came down into
the plain, while we were all foot-men, I resolved
to join battle with the enemy where I was. Now
Ebutius and his party made a courageous
opposition for some time: but when he saw that his horse
was useless to him in that place, he retired back
to the city Gibea, having lost three of his men
in the fight. So I followed him directly with two
thousand armed men; and when I was at the city
Besara, that lay in the confines of
Ptolemais, but twenty furlongs
Josephus
goes out
against
Ebutius.
from Gibea, where Ebutius abode,
I placed my armed men on the
outside of the village, and gave
orders that they should guard the passes with
great care, that the enemy should not disturb us
until we should have carried off the corn, a great
quantity of which lay there: it belonged to
Bernice the queen, and had been gathered
together out of the neighbouring villages into
Besara: so I loaded my camels and asses, a great
number of which I had brought along with me,
and sent the corn into Galilee. When I had done
this, I offered Ebutius battle; but when he
would not accept of the offer, for he was terrified
at our readiness and courage, I altered my route,
and marched towards Neopolitanus, because I
had heard that the country about Tiberias was
laid waste by him. This Neopolitanus was
captain of a troop of horse, and had the custody of
Scythopolis intrusted to his care by the enemy;
and when I had hindered him from doing any
further mischief to Tiberias, I set myself to make
provision for the affairs of Galilee.
25. BUT WHEN John, the son of Levi, who,
as we before told you, abode at Gischala, was
informed how all things had succeeded to my mind,
and that I was much in favour with those that were
under me, as also that the enemy were greatly
afraid of me, he was not pleased with it, as
thinking my prosperity tended to his ruin. So
he took up a bitter envy and enmity against me;
and hoping that if he could inflame those that
were under me to hate me, he
should put an end to the
prosperity I was in, he tried to persuade
John intrigues
against
Josephus.
the inhabitants of Tiberias
and of Sepphoris (and for those of Gabara, he
supposed they would be of the same mind with
the others), which were the greatest cities of
Galilee, to revolt from their subjection to me,
and to be of his party; and he told them that he
would command them better than I did. As for
the people of Sepphoris, who belonged to neither
of us, because they had chosen to be in subjection
to the Romans, they did not comply with his
proposal; and for those of Tiberias, they did not
indeed so far comply as to make a revolt from
under me, but they agreed to be his friends;
while the inhabitants of Gabara did go over to
John, and it was Simon that persuaded them so
to do, one who was both the principal man in the
city, and a particular friend and companion of
John. It is true, these did not openly own the
making a revolt, because they were in great fear of
the Galileans, and had frequent experience of the
good-will they bore to me; yet did they privately
watch for a proper opportunity to lay snares for
me, and indeed I thereby came into the greatest
danger on the occasion following.
26. THERE WERE some bold young men
of the village of Dabaritta, who observed that the
wife of Ptolemy, the king's procurator, was to
make a progress over the great plain with a
mighty attendance, and with some horsemen that
followed as a guard to them, and this out of a
country that was subject to the king and queen,
into the jurisdiction of the Romans;
and fell upon them on the sudden,
Ptolemy's wife
waylaid.and obliged the wife of Ptolemy
to fly away, and plundered all the
carriages. They also came to me to Taricheæ,
with four mules' loading of garments and other
furniture; and the weight of the silver they
brought was not small; and there were five
hundred pieces of gold also. Now I had a mind
to preserve these spoils for Ptolemy, who was my
countryman; and it was prohibited[1] us by our
laws even to spoil our enemies; so I said to those
- ↑ How Josephus could say here that the Jewish laws forbade them to "spoil even their enemies," while yet, a little before this time, our Saviour had mentioned it as then a current maxim with them, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy," Mat. v. 43, is worth our inquiry. I take it that Josephus, having been now for
is not to be compelled in matters of religion; as one may here observe, on the contrary, that the rest of the Jews were still for obliging all those who Married Jews to be circumcised, and become Jews; and were ready to destroy all that would not submit so to do. See sec. 31, and Luke ix. 54.
