The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem

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2. But Caesar, who knew perfectly well the lineaments of
Alexander's face, because he had been accused by Herod before
him, discerned the fallacy in his countenance, even before he saw
the man. However, he suffered the agreeable fame that went of him
to have some weight with him, and sent Celadus, one who well knew
Alexander, and ordered him to bring the young man to him. But
when Caesar saw him, he immediately discerned a difference in his
countenance; and when he had discovered that his whole body was
of a more robust texture, and like that of a slave, he understood
the whole was a contrivance. But the impudence of what he said
greatly provoked him to be angry at him; for when he was asked
about Aristobulus, he said that he was also preserved alive, and
was left on purpose in Cyprus, for fear of treachery, because it
would be harder for plotters to get them both into their power
while they were separate. Then did Caesar take him by himself
privately, and said to him, "I will give thee thy life, if thou
wilt discover who it was that persuaded thee to forge such
stories." So he said that he would discover him, and followed
Caesar, and pointed to that Jew who abused the resemblance of his
face to get money; for that he had received more presents in
every city than ever Alexander did when he was alive. Caesar
laughed at the contrivance, and put this spurious Alexander among
his rowers, on account of the strength of his body, but ordered
him that persuaded him to be put to death. But for the people of
Melos, they had been sufficiently punished for their folly, by
the expenses they had been at on his account.

3. And now Archelaus took possession of his ethnarchy, and used
not the Jews only, but the Samaritans also, barbarously; and this
out of his resentment of their old quarrels with him. Whereupon
they both of them sent ambassadors against him to Caesar; and in
the ninth year of his government he was banished to Vienna, a
city of Gaul, and his effects were put into Caesar's treasury.
But the report goes, that before he was sent for by Caesar, he
seemed to see nine ears of corn, full and large, but devoured by
oxen. When, therefore, he had sent for the diviners, and some of
the Chaldeans, and inquired of them what they thought it
portended; and when one of them had one interpretation, and
another had another, Simon, one of the sect of Essens, said that
he thought the ears of corn denoted years, and the oxen denoted a
mutation of things, because by their ploughing they made an
alteration of the country. That therefore he should reign as many
years as there were ears of corn; and after he had passed through
various alterations of fortune, should die. Now five days after
Archelaus had heard this interpretation he was called to his
trial.

4. I cannot also but think it worthy to be recorded what dream
Glaphyra, the daughter of Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, had, who
had at first been wife to Alexander, who was the brother of
Archelaus, concerning whom we have been discoursing. This
Alexander was the son of Herod the king, by whom he was put to
death, as we have already related. This Glaphyra was married,
after his death, to Juba, king of Libya; and, after his death,
was returned home, and lived a widow with her father. Then it was
that Archelaus, the ethnarch, saw her, and fell so deeply in love
with her, that he divorced Mariamne, who was then his wife, ,and
married her. When, therefore, she was come into Judea, and had
been there for a little while, she thought she saw Alexander
stand by her, and that he said to her; "Thy marriage with the
king of Libya might have been sufficient for thee; but thou wast
not contented with him, but art returned again to my family, to a
third husband; and him, thou impudent woman, hast thou chosen for
thine husband, who is my brother. However, I shall not overlook
the injury thou hast offered me; I shall [soon] have thee again,
whether thou wilt or no." Now Glaphyra hardly survived the
narration of this dream of hers two days.

CHAPTER 8.

Archelaus's Ethnarchy Is Reduced Into A [Roman] Province. The
Sedition Of Judas Of Galilee. The Three Sects.

1. And now Archelaus's part of Judea was reduced into a province,
and Coponius, one of the equestrian order among the Romans, was
sent as a procurator, having the power of [life and] death put
into his hands by Caesar. Under his administration it was that a
certain Galilean, whose name was Judas, prevailed with his
countrymen to revolt, and said they were cowards if they would
endure to pay a tax to the Romans and would after God submit to
mortal men as their lords. This man was a teacher of a peculiar
sect of his own, and was not at all like the rest of those their
leaders.

2. For there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The
followers of the first of which are the Pharisees; of the second,
the Sadducees; and the third sect, which pretends to a severer
discipline, are called Essens. These last are Jews by birth, and
seem to have a greater affection for one another than the other
sects have. These Essens reject pleasures as an evil, but esteem
continence, and the conquest over our passions, to be virtue.
They neglect wedlock, but choose out other persons children,
while they are pliable, and fit for learning, and esteem them to
be of their kindred, and form them according to their own
manners. They do not absolutely deny the fitness of marriage, and
the succession of mankind thereby continued; but they guard
against the lascivious behavior of women, and are persuaded that
none of them preserve their fidelity to one man.

3. These men are despisers of riches, and so very communicative
as raises our admiration. Nor is there any one to be found among
them who hath more than another; for it is a law among them, that
those who come to them must let what they have be common to the
whole order, - insomuch that among them all there is no
appearance of poverty, or excess of riches, but every one's
possessions are intermingled with every other's possessions; and
so there is, as it were, one patrimony among all the brethren.
They think that oil is a defilement; and if any one of them be
anointed without his own approbation, it is wiped off his body;
for they think to be sweaty is a good thing, as they do also to
be clothed in white garments. They also have stewards appointed
to take care of their common affairs, who every one of them have
no separate business for any, but what is for the uses of them
all.

4. They have no one certain city, but many of them dwell in every
city; and if any of their sect come from other places, what they
have lies open for them, just as if it were their own; and they
go in to such as they never knew before, as if they had been ever
so long acquainted with them. For which reason they carry nothing
at all with them when they travel into remote parts, though still
they take their weapons with them, for fear of thieves.
Accordingly, there is, in every city where they live, one
appointed particularly to take care of strangers, and to provide
garments and other necessaries for them. But the habit and
management of their bodies is such as children use who are in
fear of their masters. Nor do they allow of the change of or of
shoes till be first torn to pieces, or worn out by time. Nor do
they either buy or sell any thing to one another; but every one
of them gives what he hath to him that wanteth it, and receives
from him again in lieu of it what may be convenient for himself;
and although there be no requital made, they are fully allowed to
take what they want of whomsoever they please.

5. And as for their piety towards God, it is very extraordinary;
for before sun-rising they speak not a word about profane
matters, but put up certain prayers which they have received from
their forefathers, as if they made a supplication for its rising.
After this every one of them are sent away by their curators, to
exercise some of those arts wherein they are skilled, in which
they labor with great diligence till the fifth hour. After which
they assemble themselves together again into one place; and when
they have clothed themselves in white veils, they then bathe
their bodies in cold water. And after this purification is over,
they every one meet together in an apartment of their own, into
which it is not permitted to any of another sect to enter; while
they go, after a pure manner, into the dining-room, as into a
certain holy temple, and quietly set themselves down; upon which
the baker lays them loaves in order; the cook also brings a
single plate of one sort of food, and sets it before every one of
them; but a priest says grace before meat; and it is unlawful for
any one to taste of the food before grace be said. The same
priest, when he hath dined, says grace again after meat; and when
they begin, and when they end, they praise God, as he that
bestows their food upon them; after which they lay aside their
[white] garments, and betake themselves to their labors again
till the evening; then they return home to supper, after the same
manner; and if there be any strangers there, they sit down with
them. Nor is there ever any clamor or disturbance to pollute
their house, but they give every one leave to speak in their
turn; which silence thus kept in their house appears to
foreigners like some tremendous mystery; the cause of which is
that perpetual sobriety they exercise, and the same settled
measure of meat and drink that is allotted them, and that such as
is abundantly sufficient for them.

6. And truly, as for other things, they do nothing but according
to the injunctions of their curators; only these two things are
done among them at everyone's own free-will, which are to assist
those that want it, and to show mercy; for they are permitted of
their own accord to afford succor to such as deserve it, when
they stand in need of it, and to bestow food on those that are in
distress; but they cannot give any thing to their kindred without
the curators. They dispense their anger after a just manner, and
restrain their passion. They are eminent for fidelity, and are
the ministers of peace; whatsoever they say also is firmer than
an oath; but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem it
worse than perjury (4) for they say that he who cannot be
believed without [swearing by] God is already condemned. They
also take great pains in studying the writings of the ancients,
and choose out of them what is most for the advantage of their
soul and body; and they inquire after such roots and medicinal
stones as may cure their distempers.

7. But now if any one hath a mind to come over to their sect, he
is not immediately admitted, but he is prescribed the same method
of living which they use for a year, while he continues
excluded'; and they give him also a small hatchet, and the
fore-mentioned girdle, and the white garment. And when he hath
given evidence, during that time, that he can observe their
continence, he approaches nearer to their way of living, and is
made a partaker of the waters of purification; yet is he not even
now admitted to live with them; for after this demonstration of
his fortitude, his temper is tried two more years; and if he
appear to be worthy, they then admit him into their society. And
before he is allowed to touch their common food, he is obliged to
take tremendous oaths, that, in the first place, he will exercise
piety towards God, and then that he will observe justice towards
men, and that he will do no harm to any one, either of his own
accord, or by the command of others; that he will always hate the
wicked, and be assistant to the righteous; that he will ever show
fidelity to all men, and especially to those in authority,
because no one obtains the government without God's assistance;
and that if he be in authority, he will at no time whatever abuse
his authority, nor endeavor to outshine his subjects either in
his garments, or any other finery; that he will be perpetually a
lover of truth, and propose to himself to reprove those that tell
lies; that he will keep his hands clear from theft, and his soul
from unlawful gains; and that he will neither conceal any thing
from those of his own sect, nor discover any of their doctrines
to others, no, not though anyone should compel him so to do at
the hazard of his life. Moreover, he swears to communicate their
doctrines to no one any otherwise than as he received them
himself; that he will abstain from robbery, and will equally
preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the names of the
angels (5) [or messengers]. These are the oaths by which they
secure their proselytes to themselves.

8. But for those that are caught in any heinous sins, they cast
them out of their society; and he who is thus separated from them
does often die after a miserable manner; for as he is bound by
the oath he hath taken, and by the customs he hath been engaged
in, he is not at liberty to partake of that food that he meets
with elsewhere, but is forced to eat grass, and to famish his
body with hunger, till he perish; for which reason they receive
many of them again when they are at their last gasp, out of
compassion to them, as thinking the miseries they have endured
till they came to the very brink of death to be a sufficient
punishment for the sins they had been guilty of.

9. But in the judgments they exercise they are most accurate and
just, nor do they pass sentence by the votes of a court that is
fewer than a hundred. And as to what is once determined by that
number, it is unalterable. What they most of all honor, after God
himself, is the name of their legislator [Moses], whom if any one
blaspheme he is punished capitally. They also think it a good
thing to obey their elders, and the major part. Accordingly, if
ten of them be sitting together, no one of them will speak while
the other nine are against it. They also avoid spitting in the
midst of them, or on the right side. Moreover, they are stricter
than any other of the Jews in resting from their labors on the
seventh day; for they not only get their food ready the day
before, that they may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that
day, but they will not remove any vessel out of its place, nor go
to stool thereon. Nay, on other days they dig a small pit, a foot
deep, with a paddle (which kind of hatchet is given them when
they are first admitted among them); and covering themselves
round with their garment, that they may not affront the Divine
rays of light, they ease themselves into that pit, after which
they put the earth that was dug out again into the pit; and even
this they do only in the more lonely places, which they choose
out for this purpose; and although this easement of the body be
natural, yet it is a rule with them to wash themselves after it,
as if it were a defilement to them.

10. Now after the time of their preparatory trial is over, they
are parted into four classes; and so far are the juniors inferior
to the seniors, that if the seniors should be touched by the
juniors, they must wash themselves, as if they had intermixed
themselves with the company of a foreigner. They are long-lived
also, insomuch that many of them live above a hundred years, by
means of the simplicity of their diet; nay, as I think, by means
of the regular course of life they observe also. They contemn the
miseries of life, and are above pain, by the generosity of their
mind. And as for death, if it will be for their glory, they
esteem it better than living always; and indeed our war with the
Romans gave abundant evidence what great souls they had in their
trials, wherein, although they were tortured and distorted, burnt
and torn to pieces, and went through all kinds of instruments of
torment, that they might be forced either to blaspheme their
legislator, or to eat what was forbidden them, yet could they not
be made to do either of them, no, nor once to flatter their
tormentors, or to shed a tear; but they smiled in their very
pains, and laughed those to scorn who inflicted the torments upon
them, and resigned up their souls with great alacrity, as
expecting to receive them again.

11. For their doctrine is this: That bodies are corruptible, and
that the matter they are made of is not permanent; but that the
souls are immortal, and continue for ever; and that they come out
of the most subtile air, and are united to their bodies as to
prisons, into which they are drawn by a certain natural
enticement; but that when they are set free from the bonds of the
flesh, they then, as released from a long bondage, rejoice and
mount upward. And this is like the opinions of the Greeks, that
good souls have their habitations beyond the ocean, in a region
that is neither oppressed with storms of rain or snow, or with
intense heat, but that this place is such as is refreshed by the
gentle breathing of a west wind, that is perpetually blowing from
the ocean; while they allot to bad souls a dark and tempestuous
den, full of never-ceasing punishments. And indeed the Greeks
seem to me to have followed the same notion, when they allot the
islands of the blessed to their brave men, whom they call heroes
and demi-gods; and to the souls of the wicked, the region of the
ungodly, in Hades, where their fables relate that certain
persons, such as Sisyphus, and Tantalus, and Ixion, and Tityus,
are punished; which is built on this first supposition, that
souls are immortal; and thence are those exhortations to virtue
and dehortations from wickedness collected; whereby good men are
bettered in the conduct of their life by the hope they have of
reward after their death; and whereby the vehement inclinations
of bad men to vice are restrained, by the fear and expectation
they are in, that although they should lie concealed in this
life, they should suffer immortal punishment after their death.
These are the Divine doctrines of the Essens (6) about the soul,
which lay an unavoidable bait for such as have once had a taste
of their philosophy.

12. There are also those among them who undertake to foretell
things to come, (7) by reading the holy books, and using several
sorts of purifications, and being perpetually conversant in the
discourses of the prophets; and it is but seldom that they miss
in their predictions.

13. Moreover, there is another order of Essens, (8) who agree
with the rest as to their way of living, and customs, and laws,
but differ from them in the point of marriage, as thinking that
by not marrying they cut off the principal part of human life,
which is the prospect of succession; nay, rather, that if all men
should be of the same opinion, the whole race of mankind would
fail. However, they try their spouses for three years; and if
they find that they have their natural purgations thrice, as
trials that they are likely to be fruitful, they then actually
marry them. But they do not use to accompany with their wives
when they are with child, as a demonstration that they do not
many out of regard to pleasure, but for the sake of posterity.
Now the women go into the baths with some of their garments on,
as the men do with somewhat girded about them. And these are the
customs of this order of Essens.

14. But then as to the two other orders at first mentioned, the
Pharisees are those who are esteemed most skillful in the exact
explication of their laws, and introduce the first sect. These
ascribe all to fate [or providence], and to God, and yet allow,
that to act what is right, or the contrary, is principally in the
power of men, although fate does co-operate in every action. They
say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good
men only are removed into other bodies, - but that the souls of
bad men are subject to eternal punishment. But the Sadducees are
those that compose the second order, and take away fate entirely,
and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing
what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or what is
evil, is at men's own choice, and that the one or the other
belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They
also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul,
and the punishments and rewards in Hades. Moreover, the Pharisees
are friendly to one another, and are for the exercise of concord,
and regard for the public; but the behavior of the Sadducees one
towards another is in some degree wild, and their conversation
with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they
were strangers to them. And this is what I had to say concerning
the philosophic sects among the Jews.

CHAPTER 9.

The Death Of Salome. The Cities Which Herod And Philip Built.
Pilate Occasions Disturbances. Tiberius Puts Agrippa Into Bonds
But Caius Frees Him From Them, And Makes Him King. Herod Antipas
Is Banished.

1. And now as the ethnarchy of Archelaus was fallen into a Roman
province, the other sons of Herod, Philip, and that Herod who was
called Antipas, each of them took upon them the administration of
their own tetrarchies; for when Salome died, she bequeathed to
Julia, the wife of Augustus, both her toparchy, and Jamriga, as
also her plantation of palm trees that were in Phasaelis. But
when the Roman empire was translated to Tiberius, the son of
Julia, upon the death of Augustus, who had reigned fifty-seven
years, six months, and two days, both Herod and Philip continued
in their tetrarchies; and the latter of them built the city
Cesarea, at the fountains of Jordan, and in the region of Paneas;
as also the city Julias, in the lower Gaulonitis. Herod also
built the city Tiberius in Galilee, and in Perea [beyond Jordan]
another that was also called Julias.

2. Now Pilate, who was sent as procurator into Judea by Tiberius,
sent by night those images of Caesar that are called ensigns into
Jerusalem. This excited a very among great tumult among the Jews
when it was day; for those that were near them were astonished at
the sight of them, as indications that their laws were trodden
under foot; for those laws do not permit any sort of image to be
brought into the city. Nay, besides the indignation which the
citizens had themselves at this procedure, a vast number of
people came running out of the country. These came zealously to
Pilate to Cesarea, and besought him to carry those ensigns out of
Jerusalem, and to preserve them their ancient laws inviolable;
but upon Pilate's denial of their request, they fell (9) down
prostrate upon the ground, and continued immovable in that
posture for five days and as many nights.

3. On the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal, in the open
market-place, and called to him the multitude, as desirous to
give them an answer; and then gave a signal to the soldiers, that
they should all by agreement at once encompass the Jews with
their weapons; so the band of soldiers stood round about the Jews
in three ranks. The Jews were under the utmost consternation at
that unexpected sight. Pilate also said to them that they should
be cut in pieces, unless they would admit of Caesar's images, and
gave intimation to the soldiers to draw their naked swords.
Hereupon the Jews, as it were at one signal, fell down in vast
numbers together, and exposed their necks bare, and cried out
that they were sooner ready to be slain, than that their law
should be transgressed. Hereupon Pilate was greatly surprised at
their prodigious superstition, and gave order that the ensigns
should be presently carried out of Jerusalem.

4. After this he raised another disturbance, by expending that
sacred treasure which is called Corban (10) upon aqueducts,
whereby he brought water from the distance of four hundred
furlongs. At this the multitude had indignation; and when Pilate
was come to Jerusalem, they came about his tribunal, and made a
clamor at it. Now when he was apprized aforehand of this
disturbance, he mixed his own soldiers in their armor with the
multitude, and ordered them to conceal themselves under the
habits of private men, and not indeed to use their swords, but
with their staves to beat those that made the clamor. He then
gave the signal from his tribunal [to do as he had bidden them].
Now the Jews were so sadly beaten, that many of them perished by
the stripes they received, and many of them perished as trodden
to death by themselves; by which means the multitude was
astonished at the calamity of those that were slain, and held
their peace.

5. In the mean time Agrippa, the son of that Aristobulus who had
been slain by his father Herod, came to Tiberius, to accuse Herod
the tetrarch; who not admitting of his accusation, he staid at
Rome, and cultivated a friendship with others of the men of note,
but principally with Caius the son of Germanicus, who was then
but a private person. Now this Agrippa, at a certain time,
feasted Caius; and as he was very complaisant to him on several
other accounts, he at length stretched out his hands, and openly
wished that Tiberius might die, and that he might quickly see him
emperor of the world. This was told to Tiberius by one of
Agrippa's domestics, who thereupon was very angry, and ordered
Agrippa to be bound, and had him very ill-treated in the prison
for six months, until Tiberius died, after he had reigned
twenty-two years, six months, and three days.

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