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The Antiquities of the Jews

F >> Flavius Josephus >> The Antiquities of the Jews




8. About this time king Agrippa gave the high priesthood to
Ismael, who was the son of Fabi. And now arose a sedition between
the high priests and the principal men of the multitude of
Jerusalem; each of which got them a company of the boldest sort
of men, and of those that loved innovations about them, and
became leaders to them; and when they struggled together, they
did it by casting reproachful words against one another, and by
throwing stones also. And there was nobody to reprove them; but
these disorders were done after a licentious manner in the city,
as if it had no government over it. And such was the impudence
(21) and boldness that had seized on the high priests, that they
had the hardiness to send their servants into the
threshing-floors, to take away those tithes that were due to the
priests, insomuch that it so fell out that the poorest sort of
the priests died for want. To this degree did the violence of the
seditious prevail over all right and justice.

9. Now when Porcius Festus was sent as successor to Felix by
Nero, the principal of the Jewish inhabitants of Cesarea went up
to Rome to accuse Felix; and he had certainly been brought to
punishment, unless Nero had yielded to the importunate
solicitations of his brother Pallas, who was at that time had in
the greatest honor by him. Two of the principal Syrians in
Cesarea persuaded Burrhus, who was Nero's tutor, and secretary
for his Greek epistles, by giving him a great sum of money, to
disannul that equality of the Jewish privileges of citizens which
they hitherto enjoyed. So Burrhus, by his solicitations, obtained
leave of the emperor that an epistle should be written to that
purpose. This epistle became the occasion of the following
miseries that befell our nation; for when the Jews of Cesarea
were informed of the contents of this epistle to the Syrians,
they were more disorderly than before, till a war was kindled.

10. Upon Festus's coming into Judea, it happened that Judea was
afflicted by the robbers, while all the villages were set on
fire, and plundered by them. And then it was that the sicarii, as
they were called, who were robbers, grew numerous. They made use
of small swords, not much different in length from the Persian
acinacae, but somewhat crooked, and like the Roman sicae, [or
sickles,] as they were called; and from these weapons these
robbers got their denomination; and with these weapons they slew
a great many; for they mingled themselves among the multitude at
their festivals, when they were come up in crowds from all parts
to the city to worship God, as we said before, and easily slew
those that they had a mind to slay. They also came frequently
upon the villages belonging to their enemies, with their weapons,
and plundered them, and set them on fire. So Festus sent forces,
both horsemen and footmen, to fall upon those that had been
seduced by a certain impostor, who promised them deliverance and
freedom from the miseries they were under, if they would but
follow him as far as the wilderness. Accordingly, those forces
that were sent destroyed both him that had deluded them, and
those that were his followers also.

11. About the same time king Agrippa built himself a very large
dining-room in the royal palace at Jerusalem, near to the
portico. Now this palace had been erected of old by the children
of Asamoneus and was situate upon an elevation, and afforded a
most delightful prospect to those that had a mind to take a view
of the city, which prospect was desired by the king; and there he
could lie down, and eat, and thence observe what was done in the
temple; which thing, when the chief men of Jerusalem saw they
were very much displeased at it; for it was not agreeable to the
institutions of our country or law that what was done in the
temple should be viewed by others, especially what belonged to
the sacrifices. They therefore erected a wall upon the uppermost
building which belonged to the inner court of the temple towards
the west, which wall when it was built, did not only intercept
the prospect of the dining-room in the palace, but also of the
western cloisters that belonged to the outer court of the temple
also, where it was that the Romans kept guards for the temple at
the festivals. At these doings both king Agrippa, and principally
Festus the procurator, were much displeased; and Festus ordered
them to pull the wall down again: but the Jews petitioned him to
give them leave to send an embassage about this matter to Nero;
for they said they could not endure to live if any part of the
temple should be demolished; and when Festus had given them leave
so to do, they sent ten of their principal men to Nero, as also
Ismael the high priest, and Helcias, the keeper of the sacred
treasure. And when Nero had heard what they had to say, he not
only forgave (22) them what they had already done, but also gave
them leave to let the wall they had built stand. This was granted
them in order to gratify Poppea, Nero's wife, who was a religious
woman, and had requested these favors of Nero, and who gave order
to the ten ambassadors to go their way home; but retained Helcias
and Ismael as hostages with herself. As soon as the king heard
this news, he gave the high priesthood to Joseph, who was called
Cabi, the son of Simon, formerly high priest.

CHAPTER 9.

Concerning Albinus Under Whose Procuratorship James Was Slain; As
Also What Edifices Were Built By Agrippa.

1. And now Caesar, upon hearing the death of Festus, sent Albinus
into Judea, as procurator. But the king deprived Joseph of the
high priesthood, and bestowed the succession to that dignity on
the son of Ananus, who was also himself called Ananus. Now the
report goes that this eldest Ananus proved a most fortunate man;
for he had five sons who had all performed the office of a high
priest to God, and who had himself enjoyed that dignity a long
time formerly, which had never happened to any other of our high
priests. But this younger Ananus, who, as we have told you
already, took the high priesthood, was a bold man in his temper,
and very insolent; he was also of the sect of the Sadducees, (23)
who are very rigid in judging offenders, above all the rest of
the Jews, as we have already observed; when, therefore, Ananus
was of this disposition, he thought he had now a proper
opportunity [to exercise his authority]. Festus was now dead, and
Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of
judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was
called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some
of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against
them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but
as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and
such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they
disliked what was done; they also sent to the king [Agrippa],
desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for
that what he had already done was not to be justified; nay, some
of them went also to meet Albinus, as he was upon his journey
from Alexandria, and informed him that it was not lawful for
Ananus to assemble a sanhedrim without his consent. (24)
Whereupon Albinus complied with what they said, and wrote in
anger to Ananus, and threatened that he would bring him to
punishment for what he had done; on which king Agrippa took the
high priesthood from him, when he had ruled but three months, and
made Jesus, the son of Damneus, high priest.

2. Now as soon as Albinus was come to the city of Jerusalem, he
used all his endeavors and care that the country might be kept in
peace, and this by destroying many of the Sicarii. But as for the
high priest, Ananias (25) he increased in glory every day, and
this to a great degree, and had obtained the favor and esteem of
the citizens in a signal manner; for he was a great hoarder up of
money: he therefore cultivated the friendship of Albinus, and of
the high priest [Jesus], by making them presents; he also had
servants who were very wicked, who joined themselves to the
boldest sort of the people, and went to the thrashing-floors, and
took away the tithes that belonged to the priests by violence,
and did not refrain from beating such as would not give these
tithes to them. So the other high priests acted in the like
manner, as did those his servants, without any one being able to
prohibit them; so that [some of the] priests, that of old were
wont to be supported with those tithes, died for want of food.

3. But now the Sicarii went into the city by night, just before
the festival, which was now at hand, and took the scribe
belonging to the governor of the temple, whose name was Eleazar,
who was the son of Ananus [Ananias] the high priest, and bound
him, and carried him away with them; after which they sent to
Ananias, and said that they would send the scribe to him, if he
would persuade Albinus to release ten of those prisoners which he
had caught of their party; so Ananias was plainly forced to
persuade Albinus, and gained his request of him. This was the
beginning of greater calamities; for the robbers perpetually
contrived to catch some of Ananias's servants; and when they had
taken them alive, they would not let them go, till they thereby
recovered some of their own Sicarii. And as they were again
become no small number, they grew bold, and were a great
affliction to the whole country.

4. About this time it was that king Agrippa built Cesarea
Philippi larger than it was before, and, in honor of Nero, named
it Neronlas. And when he had built a theater at Berytus, with
vast expenses, he bestowed on them shows, to be exhibited every
year, and spent therein many ten thousand [drachmae]; he also
gave the people a largess of corn, and distributed oil among
them, and adorned the entire city with statues of his own
donation, and with original images made by ancient hands; nay, he
almost transferred all that was most ornamental in his own
kingdom thither. This made him more than ordinarily hated by his
subjects, because he took those things away that belonged to them
to adorn a foreign city. And now Jesus, the son of Gamaliel,
became the successor of Jesus, the son of Damneus, in the high
priesthood, which the king had taken from the other; on which
account a sedition arose between the high priests, with regard to
one another; for they got together bodies of the boldest sort of
the people, and frequently came, from reproaches, to throwing of
stones at each other. But Ananias was too hard for the rest, by
his riches, which enabled him to gain those that were most ready
to receive. Costobarus also, and Saulus, did themselves get
together a multitude of wicked wretches, and this because they
were of the royal family; and so they obtained favor among them,
because of their kindred to Agrippa; but still they used violence
with the people, and were very ready to plunder those that were
weaker than themselves. And from that time it principally came to
pass that our city was greatly disordered, and that all things
grew worse and worse among us.

5. But when Albinus heard that Gessius Florus was coming to
succeed him, he was desirous to appear to do somewhat that might
be grateful to the people of Jerusalem; so he brought out all
those prisoners who seemed to him to be most plainly worthy of
death, and ordered them to be put to death accordingly. But as to
those who had been put into prison on some trifling occasions, he
took money of them, and dismissed them; by which means the
prisons were indeed emptied, but the country was filled with
robbers.

6. Now as many of the Levites, (26) which is a tribe of ours, as
were singers of hymns, persuaded the king to assemble a
sanhedrim, and to give them leave to wear linen garments, as well
as the priests for they said that this would be a work worthy the
times of his government, that he might have a memorial of such a
novelty, as being his doing. Nor did they fail of obtaining their
desire; for the king, with the suffrages of those that came into
the sanhedrim, granted the singers of hymns this privilege, that
they might lay aside their former garments, and wear such a linen
one as they desired; and as a part of this tribe ministered in
the temple, he also permitted them to learn those hymns as they
had besought him for. Now all this was contrary to the laws of
our country, which, whenever they have been transgressed, we have
never been able to avoid the punishment of such transgressions.

7. And now it was that the temple was finished. So when the
people saw that the workmen were unemployed, who were above
eighteen thousand and that they, receiving no wages, were in want
because they had earned their bread by their labors about the
temple; and while they were unwilling to keep by them the
treasures that were there deposited, out of fear of [their being
carried away by] the Romans; and while they had a regard to the
making provision for the workmen; they had a mind to expend these
treasures upon them; for if any one of them did but labor for a
single hour, he received his pay immediately; so they persuaded
him to rebuild the eastern cloisters. These cloisters belonged to
the outer court, and were situated in a deep valley, and had
walls that reached four hundred cubits [in length], and were
built of square and very white stones, the length of each of
which stones was twenty cubits, and their height six cubits. This
was the work of king Solomon, (27) who first of all built the
entire temple. But king Agrippa, who had the care of the temple
committed to him by Claudius Caesar, considering that it is easy
to demolish any building, but hard to build it up again, and that
it was particularly hard to do it to these cloisters, which would
require a considerable time, and great sums of money, he denied
the petitioners their request about that matter; but he did not
obstruct them when they desired the city might be paved with
white stone. He also deprived Jesus, the son of Gamaliel, of the
high priesthood, and gave it to Matthias, the son of Theophilus,
under whom the Jews' war with the Romans took its beginning.

CHAPTER 10.

An Enumeration Of The High Priests.

1. And now I think it proper and agreeable to this history to
give an account of our high priests; how they began, who those
are which are capable of that dignity, and how many of them there
had been at the end of the war. In the first place, therefore,
history informs us that Aaron, the brother of Moses, officiated
to God as a high priest, and that, after his death, his sons
succeeded him immediately; and that this dignity hath been
continued down from them all to their posterity. Whence it is a
custom of our country, that no one should take the high
priesthood of God but he who is of the blood of Aaron, while
every one that is of another stock, though he were a king, can
never obtain that high priesthood. Accordingly, the number of all
the high priests from Aaron, of whom we have spoken already, as
of the first of them, until Phanas, who was made high priest
during the war by the seditious, was eighty-three; of whom
thirteen officiated as high priests in the wilderness, from the
days of Moses, while the tabernacle was standing, until the
people came into Judea, when king Solomon erected the temple to
God; for at the first they held the high priesthood till the end
of their life, although afterward they had successors while they
were alive. Now these thirteen, who were the descendants of two
of the sons of Aaron, received this dignity by succession, one
after another; for their form of government was an aristocracy,
and after that a monarchy, and in the third place the government
was regal Now the number of years during the rule of these
thirteen, from the day when our fathers departed out of Egypt,
under Moses their leader, until the building of that temple which
king Solomon erected at Jerusalem, were six hundred and twelve.
After those thirteen high priests, eighteen took the high
priesthood at Jerusalem, one in succession to another, from the
days of king Solomon, until Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, made
an expedition against that city, and burnt the temple, and
removed our nation into Babylon, and then took Josadek, the high
priest, captive; the times of these high priests were four
hundred and sixty-six years, six months, and ten days, while the
Jews were still under the regal government. But after the term of
seventy years' captivity under the Babylonians, Cyrus, king of
Persia, sent the Jews from Babylon to their own land again, and
gave them leave to rebuild their temple; at which time Jesus, the
son of Josadek, took the high priesthood over the captives when
they were returned home. Now he and his posterity, who were in
all fifteen, until king Antiochus Eupator, were under a
democratical government for four hundred and fourteen years; and
then the forementioned Antiochus, and Lysias the general of his
army, deprived Onias, who was also called Menelaus, of the high
priesthood, and slew him at Berea; and driving away the son [of
Onias the third], put Jaeimus into the place of the high priest,
one that was indeed of the stock of Aaron, but not of that family
of Onias. On which account Onias, who was the nephew of Onias
that was dead, and bore the same name with his father, came into
Egypt, and got into the friendship of Ptolemy Philometor, and
Cleopatra his wife, and persuaded them to make him the high
priest of that temple which he built to God in the prefecture of
Heliopolis, and this in imitation of that at Jerusalem; but as
for that temple which was built in Egypt, we have spoken of it
frequently already. Now when Jacimus had retained the priesthood
three years, he died, and there was no one that succeeded him,
but the city continued seven years without a high priest. But
then the posterity of the sons of Asamoneus, who had the
government of the nation conferred upon them, when they had
beaten the Macedonians in war, appointed Jonathan to be their
high priest, who ruled over them seven years. And when he had
been slain by the treacherous contrivance of Trypho, as we have
related some where, Simon his brother took the high priesthood;
and when he was destroyed at a feast by the treachery of his
son-in-law, his own son, whose name was Hyrcanus, succeeded him,
after he had held the high priesthood one year longer than his
brother. This Hyrcanus enjoyed that dignity thirty years, and
died an old man, leaving the succession to Judas, who was also
called Aristobulus, whose brother Alexander was his heir; which
Judas died of a sore distemper, after he had kept the priesthood,
together with the royal authority; for this Judas was the first
that put on his head a diadem for one year. And when Alexander
had been both king and high priest twenty-seven years, he
departed this life, and permitted his wife Alexandra to appoint
him that should be high priest; so she gave the high priesthood
to Hyrcanus, but retained the kingdom herself nine years, and
then departed this life. The like duration [and no longer] did
her son Hyrcanus enjoy the high priesthood; for after her death
his brother Aristobulus fought against him, and beat him, and
deprived him of his principality; and he did himself both reign,
and perform the office of high priest to God. But when he had
reigned three years, and as many months, Pompey came upon him,
and not only took the city of Jerusalem by force, but put him and
his children in bonds, and sent them to Rome. He also restored
the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, and made him governor of the
nation, but forbade him to wear a diadem. This Hyrcanus ruled,
besides his first nine years, twenty-four years more, when
Barzapharnes and Pacorus, the generals of the Parthians, passed
over Euphrates, and fought with Hyrcanus, and took him alive, and
made Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, king; and when he had
reigned three years and three months, Sosius and Herod besieged
him, and took him, when Antony had him brought to Antioch, and
slain there. Herod was then made king by the Romans, but did no
longer appoint high priests out of the family of Asamoneus; but
made certain men to be so that were of no eminent families, but
barely of those that were priests, excepting that he gave that
dignity to Aristobulus; for when he had made this Aristobulus,
the grandson of that Hyrcanus who was then taken by the
Parthians, and had taken his sister Mariarmne to wife, he thereby
aimed to win the good-will of the people, who had a kind
remembrance of Hyrcanus [his grandfather]. Yet did he afterward,
out of his fear lest they should all bend their inclinations to
Aristobulus, put him to death, and that by contriving how to have
him suffocated as he was swimming at Jericho, as we have already
related that matter; but after this man he never intrusted the
priesthood to the posterity of the sons of Asamoneus. Archelaus
also, Herod's son, did like his father in the appointment of the
high priests, as did the Romans also, who took the government
over the Jews into their hands afterward. Accordingly, the number
of the high priests, from the days of Herod until the day when
Titus took the temple and the City, and burnt them, were in all
twenty-eight; the time also that belonged to them was a hundred
and seven years. Some of these were the political governors of
the people under the reign of Herod, and under the reign of
Archelaus his son, although, after their death, the government
became an aristocracy, and the high priests were intrusted with a
dominion over the nation. And thus much may suffice to be said
concerning our high priests.

CHAPTER 11.

Concerning Florus The Procurator, Who Necessitated The Jews To
Take Up Arms Against The Romans. The Conclusion.

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 had 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.

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