The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of JerusalemJosephus, Flavius
Religion
The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem
Josephus, Flavius
Jews -- History
come away, they should permit him to [come and] give an account of
his conduct; but if he obstinately insisted upon continuing in his
government, they should treat him as an enemy. Now Josephus's friends
had sent him word that an army was coming against him, but they gave
him no notice beforehand what the reason of their coming was, that being
only known among some secret councils of his enemies; and by this means
it was that four cities revolted from him immediately, Sepphoris, and
Gamala, and Gischala, and Tiberias. Yet did he recover these cities
without war; and when he had routed those four commanders by stratagems,
and had taken the most potent of their warriors, he sent them to
Jerusalem; and the people [of Galilee] had great indignation at them,
and were in a zealous disposition to slay, not only these forces, but
those that sent them also, had not these forces prevented it by running
away.
8. Now John was detained afterward within the walls of Gischala, by
the fear he was in of Josephus; but within a few days Tiberias revolted
again, the people within it inviting king Agrippa [to return to the
exercise of his authority there]. And when he did not come at the
time appointed, and when a few Roman horsemen appeared that day,
they expelled Josephus out of the city. Now this revolt of theirs was
presently known at Taricheae; and as Josephus had sent out all the
soldiers that were with him to gather corn, he knew not how either to
march out alone against the revolters, or to stay where he was, because
he was afraid the king's soldiers might prevent him if he tarried, and
might get into the city; for he did not intend to do any thing on
the next day, because it was the sabbath day, and would hinder his
proceeding. So he contrived to circumvent the revolters by a stratagem;
and in the first place he ordered the gates of Taricheae to be shut,
that nobody might go out and inform [those of Tiberias], for whom it
was intended, what stratagem he was about; he then got together all the
ships that were upon the lake, which were found to be two hundred and
thirty, and in each of them he put no more than four mariners. So he
sailed to Tiberias with haste, and kept at such a distance from the
city, that it was not easy for the people to see the vessels, and
ordered that the empty vessels should float up and down there, while
himself, who had but seven of his guards with him, and those unarmed
also, went so near as to be seen; but when his adversaries, who were
still reproaching him, saw him from the walls, they were so astonished
that they supposed all the ships were full of armed men, and threw down
their arms, and by signals of intercession they besought him to spare
the city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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