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8 results for "irony"

1. Plato, Phaedo, 62c (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •irony and figured speech, in the masada narrative Found in books: Brighton, Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations (2009) 112

62c. οὐκοῦν, ἦ δ’ ὅς, καὶ σὺ ἂν τῶν σαυτοῦ κτημάτων εἴ τι αὐτὸ ἑαυτὸ ἀποκτεινύοι, μὴ σημήναντός σου ὅτι βούλει αὐτὸ τεθνάναι, χαλεπαίνοις ἂν αὐτῷ καί, εἴ τινα ἔχοις τιμωρίαν, τιμωροῖο ἄν; πάνυ γ᾽, ἔφη.

62c. I do. Well then, said he, if one of your chattels should kill itself when you had not indicated that you wished it to die, would you be angry with it and punish it if you could? Certainly, he replied. Then perhaps from this point of view it is not unreasonable to say that a man must not kill himself until god sends some necessity upon him, such as has now come upon me. That, said Cebes, seems sensible. But what you said just now, Socrates, that philosophers ought to be ready and willing to die, that seem

2. Septuagint, 2 Maccabees, 6.12-6.16, 14.37-14.46 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •irony and figured speech, in the alexandrian narrative •irony and figured speech, in the masada narrative Found in books: Brighton, Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations (2009) 128, 137

6.12. Now I urge those who read this book not to be depressed by such calamities, but to recognize that these punishments were designed not to destroy but to discipline our people.' 6.13. In fact, not to let the impious alone for long, but to punish them immediately, is a sign of great kindness.' 6.14. For in the case of the other nations the Lord waits patiently to punish them until they have reached the full measure of their sins; but he does not deal in this way with us,' 6.15. in order that he may not take vengeance on us afterward when our sins have reached their height." 6.16. Therefore he never withdraws his mercy from us. Though he disciplines us with calamities, he does not forsake his own people.' 14.37. A certain Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor as a man who loved his fellow citizens and was very well thought of and for his good will was called father of the Jews.' 14.38. For in former times, when there was no mingling with the Gentiles, he had been accused of Judaism, and for Judaism he had with all zeal risked body and life.' 14.39. Nicanor, wishing to exhibit the enmity which he had for the Jews, sent more than five hundred soldiers to arrest him;' 14.40. for he thought that by arresting him he would do them an injury." 14.40. for he thought that by arresting him he would do them an injury. 41 When the troops were about to capture the tower and were forcing the door of the courtyard, they ordered that fire be brought and the doors burned. Being surrounded, Razis fell upon his own sword, 42 preferring to die nobly rather than to fall into the hands of sinners and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble birth. 43 But in the heat of the struggle he did not hit exactly, and the crowd was now rushing in through the doors. He bravely ran up on the wall, and manfully threw himself down into the crowd. 44 But as they quickly drew back, a space opened and he fell in the middle of the empty space. 45 Still alive and aflame with anger, he rose, and though his blood gushed forth and his wounds were severe he ran through the crowd; and standing upon a steep rock, 46 with his blood now completely drained from him, he tore out his entrails, took them with both hands and hurled them at the crowd, calling upon the Lord of life and spirit to give them back to him again. This was the manner of his death. 14.41. When the troops were about to capture the tower and were forcing the door of the courtyard, they ordered that fire be brought and the doors burned. Being surrounded, Razis fell upon his own sword,' 14.42. preferring to die nobly rather than to fall into the hands of sinners and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble birth." 14.43. But in the heat of the struggle he did not hit exactly, and the crowd was now rushing in through the doors. He bravely ran up on the wall, and manfully threw himself down into the crowd.' 14.44. But as they quickly drew back, a space opened and he fell in the middle of the empty space.' 14.45. Still alive and aflame with anger, he rose, and though his blood gushed forth and his wounds were severe he ran through the crowd; and standing upon a steep rock,' 14.46. with his blood now completely drained from him, he tore out his entrails, took them with both hands and hurled them at the crowd, calling upon the Lord of life and spirit to give them back to him again. This was the manner of his death.'

3. Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, 9.2.65-9.2.67 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •irony and figured speech, Found in books: Brighton, Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations (2009) 27

9.2.65. Similar, if not identical with this figure is another, which is much in vogue at the present time. For I must now proceed to the discussion of a class of figure which is of the common est occurrence and on which I think I shall be expected to make some comment. It is one whereby we excite some suspicion to indicate that our meaning is other than our words would seem to imply; but our meaning is not in this case contrary to that which we express, as is the case in irony, but rather a hidden meaning which is left to the hearer to discover. As I have already pointed out, modern rhetoricians practically restrict the name of figure to this device, from the use of which figured controversial themes derive their name. 9.2.66. This class of figure may be employed under three conditions first, if it is unsafe to speak openly; secondly, if it is unseemly to speak openly; and thirdly, when it is employed solely with a view to the elegance of what we say, and gives greater pleasure by reason of the novelty and variety thus introduced than if our meaning had been expressed in straightforward language. 9.2.67. The first of the three is of common occurrence in the schools, where we imagine conditions laid down by tyrants on abdication and decrees passed by the senate after a civil war, and it is a capital offence to accuse a person with what is past, what is not expedient in the courts being actually prohibited in the schools. But the conditions governing the employment of figures differ in the two cases. For we may speak against the tyrants in question as openly as we please without loss of effect, provided always that what we say is susceptible of a different interpretation, since it is only danger to ourselves, and not offence to them, that we have to avoid.

4. Tacitus, Annals, 25.5 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •irony and figured speech, Found in books: Brighton, Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations (2009) 29

5. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 12.412, 20.71 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •irony and figured speech, in the masada narrative •irony and figured speech, Found in books: Brighton, Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations (2009) 29, 128

12.412. τὴν δὲ νίκην συνέβη γενέσθαι ταύτην τῇ τρισκαιδεκάτῃ τοῦ μηνὸς τοῦ λεγομένου παρὰ μὲν ̓Ιουδαίοις ̓́Αδαρ κατὰ δὲ Μακεδόνας Δύστρου. ἄγουσιν δ' ἐν τούτῳ τὰ νικητήρια κατὰ πᾶν ἔτος καὶ ἑορτὴν νομίζουσι τὴν ἡμέραν. ἐξ ἐκείνου μέντοι τοῦ χρόνου πρὸς ὀλίγον τὸ τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων ἔθνος τῶν πολέμων ἀναπαυσάμενον καὶ εἰρήνης ἀπολαῦον ἔπειτα εἰς ἀγῶνας πάλιν καὶ κινδύνους κατέστη. 20.71. ἔτι τε πεπομφὼς πέντε μὲν τὸν ἀριθμὸν υἱοὺς τὴν ἡλικίαν νέους γλῶτταν τὴν παρ' ἡμῖν πάτριον καὶ παιδείαν ἀκριβῶς μαθησομένους, τὴν δὲ μητέρα προσκυνήσουσαν τὸ ἱερόν, ὡς προεῖπον, ὀκνηρότερος ἦν καὶ τὸν Οὐαρδάνην ἐκώλυεν συνεχῶς διηγούμενος τὰς ̔Ρωμαίων δυνάμεις τε καὶ πράξεις, διὰ τούτων οἰόμενος αὐτὸν φοβήσειν καὶ παύσειν ἐπιθυμοῦντα τῆς ἐπ' αὐτοὺς στρατείας.

12.412. This victory happened to fall on the thirteenth day of that month which by the Jews is called Adar and by the Macedonians Dystrus; and the Jews thereon celebrate this victory every year, and esteem it as a festival day. After which the Jewish nation were, for a while, free from wars, and enjoyed peace; but afterward they returned into their former state of wars and hazards. 20.71. and having besides sent his sons, five in number, and they but young also, to learn accurately the language of our nation, together with our learning, as well as he had sent his mother to worship at our temple, as I have said already, was the more backward to a compliance; and restrained Bardanes, telling him perpetually of the great armies and famous actions of the Romans, and thought thereby to terrify him, and desired thereby to hinder him from that expedition.

6. Josephus Flavius, Jewish War, 1.1-1.30, 2.117-2.118, 2.345-2.401, 2.433-2.448, 2.651, 3.354, 4.318, 4.397-4.405, 4.503-4.508, 5.314, 5.365, 6.59, 7.85-7.88, 7.252-7.406, 7.409-7.436 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •irony and figured speech, •irony and figured speech, in the alexandrian narrative •irony and figured speech, in the masada narrative •irony and figured speech, in the menahem narrative •irony and figured speech, in the engaddi narrative Found in books: Brighton, Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations (2009) 28, 29, 76, 77, 81, 88, 89, 112, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 137, 142

1.1. ̓Επειδὴ τὸν ̓Ιουδαίων πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους πόλεμον συστάντα μέγιστον οὐ μόνον τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς, σχεδὸν δὲ καὶ ὧν ἀκοῇ παρειλήφαμεν ἢ πόλεων πρὸς πόλεις ἢ ἐθνῶν ἔθνεσι συρραγέντων, οἱ μὲν οὐ παρατυχόντες τοῖς πράγμασιν, ἀλλ' ἀκοῇ συλλέγοντες εἰκαῖα καὶ ἀσύμφωνα διηγήματα σοφιστικῶς ἀναγράφουσιν, 1.1. ὅτι γὰρ αὐτὴν στάσις οἰκεία καθεῖλεν, καὶ τὰς ̔Ρωμαίων χεῖρας ἀκούσας καὶ τὸ πῦρ ἐπὶ τὸν ναὸν εἵλκυσαν οἱ ̓Ιουδαίων τύραννοι, μάρτυς αὐτὸς ὁ πορθήσας Καῖσαρ Τίτος, ἐν παντὶ τῷ πολέμῳ τὸν μὲν δῆμον ἐλεήσας ὑπὸ τῶν στασιαστῶν φρουρούμενον, πολλάκις δὲ ἑκὼν τὴν ἅλωσιν τῆς πόλεως ὑπερτιθέμενος καὶ διδοὺς τῇ πολιορκίᾳ χρόνον εἰς μετάνοιαν τῶν αἰτίων. 1.1. οὐ μὴν εἶρξαί γε τὸν ̓Αντίοχον ἴσχυσεν: ἐμπρήσας γὰρ τοὺς πύργους καὶ τὴν τάφρον χώσας διήλαυνε μετὰ τῆς δυνάμεως. θέμενος δὲ ἐν δευτέρῳ τὴν πρὸς τὸν κωλύσαντα ἄμυναν εὐθὺς ἐπὶ τοὺς ̓́Αραβας ᾔει. 1.2. οἱ παραγενόμενοι δὲ ἢ κολακείᾳ τῇ πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους ἢ μίσει τῷ πρὸς ̓Ιουδαίους καταψεύδονται τῶν πραγμάτων, περιέχει δὲ αὐτοῖς ὅπου μὲν κατηγορίαν ὅπου δὲ ἐγκώμιον τὰ συγγράμματα, τὸ δ' ἀκριβὲς τῆς ἱστορίας οὐδαμοῦ, 1.2. ὅπως τε ὁ λαὸς μετὰ τὴν ̔Ηρώδου τελευτὴν κατεστασίασεν Αὐγούστου μὲν ̔Ρωμαίων ἡγεμονεύοντος, Κυιντιλίου δὲ Οὐάρου κατὰ τὴν χώραν ὄντος, καὶ ὡς ἔτει δωδεκάτῳ τῆς Νέρωνος ἀρχῆς ὁ πόλεμος ἀνερράγη τά τε συμβάντα κατὰ Κέστιον καὶ ὅσα κατὰ τὰς πρώτας ὁρμὰς ἐπῆλθον οἱ ̓Ιουδαῖοι τοῖς ὅπλοις, 1.2. τὰς μὲν δὴ τιμὰς ταύτας Καῖσαρ ἐπέστελλεν ἐν τῷ Καπετωλίῳ χαραχθῆναι τῆς τε αὐτοῦ δικαιοσύνης σημεῖον καὶ τῆς τἀνδρὸς ἐσομένας ἀρετῆς. 1.3. προυθέμην ἐγὼ τοῖς κατὰ τὴν ̔Ρωμαίων ἡγεμονίαν ̔Ελλάδι γλώσσῃ μεταβαλὼν ἃ τοῖς ἄνω βαρβάροις τῇ πατρίῳ συντάξας ἀνέπεμψα πρότερον ἀφηγήσασθαι ̓Ιώσηπος Ματθίου παῖς ἐξ ̔Ιεροσολύμων ἱερεύς, αὐτός τε ̔Ρωμαίους πολεμήσας τὰ πρῶτα καὶ τοῖς ὕστερον παρατυχὼν ἐξ ἀνάγκης: 1.3. Ταῦτα πάντα περιλαβὼν ἐν ἑπτὰ βιβλίοις καὶ μηδεμίαν τοῖς ἐπισταμένοις τὰ πράγματα καὶ παρατυχοῦσι τῷ πολέμῳ καταλιπὼν ἢ μέμψεως ἀφορμὴν ἢ κατηγορίας, τοῖς γε τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀγαπῶσιν, ἀλλὰ μὴ πρὸς ἡδονὴν ἀνέγραψα. ποιήσομαι δὲ ταύτην τῆς ἐξηγήσεως ἀρχήν, ἣν καὶ τῶν κεφαλαίων ἐποιησάμην. 1.3. ταῦτ' ἀκούσας ̓Αντίγονος διέπεμψεν περὶ τὴν χώραν εἴργειν καὶ λοχᾶν τοὺς σιτηγοὺς κελεύων. οἱ δ' ὑπήκουον, καὶ πολὺ πλῆθος ὁπλιτῶν ὑπὲρ τὴν ̔Ιεριχοῦντα συνηθροίσθη: διεκαθέζοντο δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν ὀρῶν παραφυλάσσοντες τοὺς τὰ ἐπιτήδεια ἐκκομίζοντας. 1.4. γενομένου γάρ, ὡς ἔφην, μεγίστου τοῦδε τοῦ κινήματος ἐν ̔Ρωμαίοις μὲν ἐνόσει τὰ οἰκεῖα, ̓Ιουδαίων δὲ τὸ νεωτερίζον τότε τεταραγμένοις ἐπανέστη τοῖς καιροῖς ἀκμάζον κατά τε χεῖρα καὶ χρήμασιν, ὡς δι' ὑπερβολὴν θορύβων τοῖς μὲν ἐν ἐλπίδι κτήσεως τοῖς δ' ἐν ἀφαιρέσεως δέει γίνεσθαι τὰ πρὸς τὴν ἀνατολήν, 1.4. λαμβανούσης δὲ ἄρτι τὸ ἱερὸν κατάστημα τῆς πόλεως τελευτᾷ μὲν ̓Αντίοχος, κληρονόμος δὲ τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς πρὸς ̓Ιουδαίους ἀπεχθείας ὁ υἱὸς ̓Αντίοχος γίνεται. 1.4. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐτελεύτα Ζηνόδωρος, προσένειμεν αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν μεταξὺ Τράχωνος καὶ τῆς Γαλιλαίας γῆν ἅπασαν. ὃ δὲ τούτων ̔Ηρώδῃ μεῖζον ἦν, ὑπὸ μὲν Καίσαρος ἐφιλεῖτο μετ' ̓Αγρίππαν, ὑπ' ̓Αγρίππα δὲ μετὰ Καίσαρα. ἔνθεν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον μὲν εὐδαιμονίας προύκοψεν, εἰς μεῖζον δ' ἐξήρθη φρόνημα καὶ τὸ πλέον τῆς μεγαλονοίας ἐπέτεινεν εἰς εὐσέβειαν. 1.5. ἐπειδὴ ̓Ιουδαῖοι μὲν ἅπαν τὸ ὑπὲρ Εὐφράτην ὁμόφυλον συνεπαρθήσεσθαι σφίσιν ἤλπισαν, ̔Ρωμαίους δὲ οἵ τε γείτονες Γαλάται παρεκίνουν καὶ τὸ Κελτικὸν οὐκ ἠρέμει, μεστὰ δ' ἦν πάντα θορύβων μετὰ Νέρωνα, καὶ πολλοὺς μὲν βασιλειᾶν ὁ καιρὸς ἀνέπειθεν, τὰ στρατιωτικὰ δὲ ἤρα μεταβολῆς ἐλπίδι λημμάτων: 1.5. Σίμων δὲ γενναίως ἀφηγούμενος τῶν πραγμάτων αἱρεῖ μὲν Γάζαρά τε καὶ ̓Ιόππην καὶ ̓Ιάμνειαν τῶν προσοίκων, κατέσκαψε δὲ καὶ τὴν ἄκραν τῶν φρουρῶν κρατήσας. αὖθις δὲ γίνεται καὶ ̓Αντιόχῳ σύμμαχος κατὰ Τρύφωνος, ὃν ἐν Δώροις πρὸ τῆς ἐπὶ Μήδους στρατείας ἐπολιόρκει. 1.5. συμβαλὼν γὰρ εὐθέως αὐτῷ “ποῦ ποτέ ἐστιν ὁ ἀλιτήριός μου γαμβρός, ἐβόα, ποῦ δὲ τὴν πατροκτόνον ὄψομαι κεφαλήν, ἣν ταῖς ἐμαυτοῦ χερσὶν διασπαράξω; προσθήσω δὲ καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα μου τῷ καλῷ νυμφίῳ: καὶ γὰρ εἰ μὴ κεκοινώνηκεν τοῦ σκέμματος, ὅτι τοιούτου γυνὴ γέγονεν, μεμίανται. 1.6. ἄτοπον ἡγησάμενος περιιδεῖν πλαζομένην ἐπὶ τηλικούτοις πράγμασι τὴν ἀλήθειαν, καὶ Πάρθους μὲν καὶ Βαβυλωνίους ̓Αράβων τε τοὺς πορρωτάτω καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ Εὐφράτην ὁμόφυλον ἡμῖν ̓Αδιαβηνούς τε γνῶναι διὰ τῆς ἐμῆς ἐπιμελείας ἀκριβῶς, ὅθεν τε ἤρξατο καὶ δι' ὅσων ἐχώρησεν παθῶν ὁ πόλεμος καὶ ὅπως κατέστρεψεν, ἀγνοεῖν δὲ ̔́Ελληνας ταῦτα καὶ ̔Ρωμαίων τοὺς μὴ ἐπιστρατευσαμένους, ἐντυγχάνοντας ἢ κολακείαις ἢ πλάσμασι. 1.6. τριβομένης δὲ διὰ ταῦτα τῆς πολιορκίας ἐπέστη τὸ ἀργὸν ἔτος, ὃ κατὰ ἑπταετίαν ἀργεῖται παρὰ ̓Ιουδαίοις ὁμοίως ταῖς ἑβδομάσιν ἡμέραις. κἀν τούτῳ Πτολεμαῖος ἀνεθεὶς τῆς πολιορκίας ἀναιρεῖ τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ̓Ιωάννου σὺν τῇ μητρὶ καὶ φεύγει πρὸς Ζήνωνα τὸν ἐπικληθέντα Κοτυλᾶν: Φιλαδελφείας δ' ἦν τύραννος. 1.6. βασανιζόμενοι γὰρ τοῦτ' ἀπέδειξαν αὐτῆς οἱ ἀδελφοί. βασιλεὺς δὲ τῆς μητρῴας τόλμης καὶ τὸν υἱὸν ἠμύνατο: τὸν γοῦν ἐξ αὐτῆς ̔Ηρώδην ὄντα διάδοχον ̓Αντιπάτρου τῆς διαθήκης ἐξήλειψεν. 1.7. Καίτοι γε ἱστορίας αὐτὰς ἐπιγράφειν τολμῶσιν, ἐν αἷς πρὸς τῷ μηδὲν ὑγιὲς δηλοῦν καὶ τοῦ σκοποῦ δοκοῦσιν ἔμοιγε διαμαρτάνειν. βούλονται μὲν γὰρ μεγάλους τοὺς ̔Ρωμαίους ἀποδεικνύειν, καταβάλλουσιν δὲ ἀεὶ τὰ ̓Ιουδαίων καὶ ταπεινοῦσιν: 1.7. Μετὰ γὰρ τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς τελευτὴν ὁ πρεσβύτερος αὐτῶν ̓Αριστόβουλος τὴν ἀρχὴν εἰς βασιλείαν μετατιθεὶς περιτίθεται μὲν διάδημα πρῶτος μετὰ τετρακοσιοστὸν καὶ ἑβδομηκοστὸν πρῶτον ἔτος, πρὸς δὲ μῆνας τρεῖς, ἐξ οὗ κατῆλθεν ὁ λαὸς εἰς τὴν χώραν ἀπαλλαγεὶς τῆς ἐν Βαβυλῶνι δουλείας: 1.8. οὐχ ὁρῶ δέ, πῶς ἂν εἶναι μεγάλοι δοκοῖεν οἱ μικροὺς νενικηκότες: καὶ οὔτε τὸ μῆκος αἰδοῦνται τοῦ πολέμου οὔτε τὸ πλῆθος τῆς ̔Ρωμαίων καμούσης στρατιᾶς οὔτε τὸ μέγεθος τῶν στρατηγῶν, οἳ πολλὰ περὶ τοῖς ̔Ιεροσολύμοις ἱδρώσαντες οἶμαι ταπεινουμένου τοῦ κατορθώματος αὐτοῖς ἀδοξοῦσιν. 1.8. ὁ δὴ χρόνος ἐκκρούει τὸ μάντευμα.” ταῦτα εἰπὼν σκυθρωπὸς ἐπὶ συννοίας ὁ γέρων διεκαρτέρει, καὶ μετ' ὀλίγον ἀνῃρημένος ̓Αντίγονος ἠγγέλλετο κατὰ τὸ ὑπόγαιον χωρίον, ὃ δὴ καὶ αὐτὸ Στράτωνος ἐκαλεῖτο πύργος ὁμωνυμοῦν τῇ παραλίῳ Καισαρείᾳ. τοῦτο γοῦν τὸν μάντιν διετάραξεν. 1.9. Οὐ μὴν ἐγὼ τοῖς ἐπαίρουσι τὰ ̔Ρωμαίων ἀντιφιλονεικῶν αὔξειν τὰ τῶν ὁμοφύλων διέγνων, ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν ἔργα μετ' ἀκριβείας ἀμφοτέρων διέξειμι, τοὺς δ' ἐπὶ τοῖς πράγμασι λόγους ἀνατίθημι τῇ διαθέσει καὶ τοῖς ἐμαυτοῦ πάθεσι διδοὺς ἐπολοφύρεσθαι ταῖς τῆς πατρίδος συμφοραῖς. 1.9. ̓́Επειτα συμβαλὼν ̓Οβαίδᾳ τῷ ̓Αράβων βασιλεῖ προλοχίσαντι κατὰ τὴν Γαυλάνην ἐνέδρας αὐτῷ γενομένης πᾶσαν ἀποβάλλει τὴν στρατιὰν συνωσθεῖσαν κατὰ βαθείας φάραγγος καὶ πλήθει καμήλων συντριβεῖσαν. διαφυγὼν δ' αὐτὸς εἰς ̔Ιεροσόλυμα τῷ μεγέθει τῆς συμφορᾶς πάλαι μισοῦν τὸ ἔθνος ἠρέθισεν εἰς ἐπανάστασιν. 1.11. εἰ δή τις ὅσα πρὸς τοὺς τυράννους ἢ τὸ λῃστρικὸν αὐτῶν κατηγορικῶς λέγοιμεν ἢ τοῖς δυστυχήμασι τῆς πατρίδος ἐπιστένοντες συκοφαντοίη, διδότω παρὰ τὸν τῆς ἱστορίας νόμον συγγνώμην τῷ πάθει: πόλιν μὲν γὰρ δὴ τῶν ὑπὸ ̔Ρωμαίοις πασῶν τὴν ἡμετέραν ἐπὶ πλεῖστόν τε εὐδαιμονίας συνέβη προελθεῖν καὶ πρὸς ἔσχατον συμφορῶν αὖθις καταπεσεῖν: 1.11. Παραφύονται δὲ αὐτῆς εἰς τὴν ἐξουσίαν Φαρισαῖοι, σύνταγμά τι ̓Ιουδαίων δοκοῦν εὐσεβέστερον εἶναι τῶν ἄλλων καὶ τοὺς νόμους ἀκριβέστερον ἀφηγεῖσθαι. 1.12. τὰ γοῦν πάντων ἀπ' αἰῶνος ἀτυχήματα πρὸς τὰ ̓Ιουδαίων ἡττῆσθαι δοκῶ κατὰ σύγκρισιν: καὶ τούτων αἴτιος οὐδεὶς ἀλλόφυλος, ὥστε ἀμήχανον ἦν ὀδυρμῶν ἐπικρατεῖν. εἰ δέ τις οἴκτου σκληρότερος εἴη δικαστής, τὰ μὲν πράγματα τῇ ἱστορίᾳ προσκρινέτω, τὰς δ' ὀλοφύρσεις τῷ γράφοντι. 1.12. Καὶ κληρονόμος μὲν ἦν τῶν ὅλων ̔Υρκανός, ᾧ καὶ ζῶσα τὴν βασιλείαν ἐνεχείρισεν, δυνάμει δὲ καὶ φρονήματι προεῖχεν ὁ ̓Αριστόβουλος. γενομένης δὲ αὐτοῖς περὶ τῶν ὅλων συμβολῆς περὶ ̔Ιεριχοῦντα καταλιπόντες οἱ πολλοὶ τὸν ̔Υρκανὸν μεταβαίνουσιν πρὸς τὸν ̓Αριστόβουλον. 1.13. Καίτοι γε ἐπιτιμήσαιμ' ἂν αὐτὸς δικαίως τοῖς ̔Ελλήνων λογίοις, οἳ τηλικούτων κατ' αὐτοὺς πραγμάτων γεγενημένων, ἃ κατὰ σύγκρισιν ἐλαχίστους ἀποδείκνυσι τοὺς πάλαι πολέμους, τούτων μὲν κάθηνται κριταὶ τοῖς φιλοτιμουμένοις ἐπηρεάζοντες, ὧν εἰ καὶ τῷ λόγῳ πλεονεκτοῦσι, λείπονται τῇ προαιρέσει: αὐτοὶ δὲ τὰ ̓Ασσυρίων καὶ Μήδων συγγράφουσιν ὥσπερ ἧττον καλῶς ὑπὸ τῶν ἀρχαίων συγγραφέων ἀπηγγελμένα. 1.13. ̓Αριστοβούλῳ δ' οὐκ ἀπέχρησεν τὸ μὴ ἁλῶναι, πᾶσαν δὲ τὴν δύναμιν ἐπισυλλέξας εἵπετο τοῖς πολεμίοις καὶ περὶ τὸν καλούμενον Παπυρῶνα συμβαλὼν αὐτοῖς ὑπὲρ ἑξακισχιλίους κτείνει, μεθ' ὧν καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν τὸν ̓Αντιπάτρου Φαλλίωνα. 1.14. καίτοι τοσούτῳ τῆς ἐκείνων ἡττῶνται δυνάμεως ἐν τῷ γράφειν, ὅσῳ καὶ τῆς γνώμης: τὰ γὰρ κατ' αὐτοὺς ἐσπούδαζον ἕκαστοι γράφειν, ὅπου καὶ τὸ παρατυχεῖν τοῖς πράγμασιν ἐποίει τὴν ἀπαγγελίαν ἐναργῆ καὶ τὸ ψεύδεσθαι παρ' εἰδόσιν αἰσχρὸν ἦν. 1.14. οὐ μήν τι τῶν ὡμολογημένων ἐγένετο: τὸν γὰρ ἐπὶ τὴν κομιδὴν τῶν χρημάτων ἐκπεμφθέντα Γαβίνιον οἱ τὰ ̓Αριστοβούλου φρονοῦντες οὐδὲ τῇ πόλει δέχονται. 1.15. τό γε μὴν μνήμῃ τὰ προϊστορηθέντα διδόναι καὶ τὰ τῶν ἰδίων χρόνων τοῖς μετ' αὐτὸν συνιστάνειν ἐπαίνου καὶ μαρτυρίας ἄξιον: φιλόπονος δὲ οὐχ ὁ μεταποιῶν οἰκονομίαν καὶ τάξιν ἀλλοτρίαν, ἀλλ' ὁ μετὰ τοῦ καινὰ λέγειν καὶ τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἱστορίας κατασκευάζων ἴδιον. 1.15. ̓́Ενθα πολλοὶ τῶν ἱερέων ξιφήρεις τοὺς πολεμίους ἐπιόντας βλέποντες ἀθορύβως ἐπὶ τῆς θρησκείας ἔμειναν, σπένδοντες δὲ ἀπεσφάττοντο καὶ θυμιῶντες καὶ τῆς πρὸς τὸ θεῖον θεραπείας ἐν δευτέρῳ τὴν σωτηρίαν τιθέμενοι. πλεῖστοι δ' ὑπὸ τῶν ὁμοφύλων ἀντιστασιαστῶν ἀνῃροῦντο καὶ κατὰ τῶν κρημνῶν ἔρριπτον ἑαυτοὺς ἄπειροι: καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸ τεῖχος δ' ἔνιοι μανιῶντες ἐν ταῖς ἀμηχανίαις ὑπέπρησαν καὶ συγκατεφλέγοντο. 1.16. κἀγὼ μὲν ἀναλώμασι καὶ πόνοις μεγίστοις ἀλλόφυλος ὢν ̔́Ελλησί τε καὶ ̔Ρωμαίοις τὴν μνήμην τῶν κατορθωμάτων ἀνατίθημι: τοῖς δὲ γνησίοις πρὸς μὲν τὰ λήμματα καὶ τὰς δίκας κέχηνεν εὐθέως τὸ στόμα καὶ γλῶσσα λέλυται, πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἱστορίαν, ἔνθα χρὴ τἀληθῆ λέγειν καὶ μετὰ πολλοῦ πόνου τὰ πράγματα συλλέγειν, πεφίμωνται παρέντες τοῖς ἀσθενεστέροις καὶ μηδὲ γινώσκουσι τὰς πράξεις τῶν ἡγεμόνων γράφειν. τιμάσθω δὴ παρ' ἡμῖν τὸ τῆς ἱστορίας ἀληθές, ἐπεὶ παρ' ̔́Ελλησιν ἠμέληται. 1.16. ̔Ο δ' ἀποδρὰς τῶν ̓Αριστοβούλου παίδων Πομπήιον ̓Αλέξανδρος χρόνῳ συναγαγὼν χεῖρα συχνὴν βαρὺς ἦν ̔Υρκανῷ καὶ τὴν ̓Ιουδαίαν κατέτρεχεν, ἐδόκει τε ἂν καταλῦσαι ταχέως αὐτόν, ὅς γε ἤδη καὶ τὸ καταρριφθὲν ὑπὸ Πομπηίου τεῖχος ἐν ̔Ιεροσολύμοις ἀνακτίζειν ἐθάρρει προσελθών, εἰ μὴ Γαβίνιος εἰς Συρίαν πεμφθεὶς Σκαύρῳ διάδοχος τά τε ἄλλα γενναῖον ἀπέδειξεν ἑαυτὸν ἐν πολλοῖς καὶ ἐπ' ̓Αλέξανδρον ὥρμησεν. 1.17. ̓Αρχαιολογεῖν μὲν δὴ τὰ ̓Ιουδαίων, τίνες τε ὄντες καὶ ὅπως ἀπανέστησαν Αἰγυπτίων, χώραν τε ὅσην ἐπῆλθον ἀλώμενοι καὶ πόσα ἑξῆς κατέλαβον καὶ ὅπως μετανέστησαν, νῦν τε ἄκαιρον ᾠήθην εἶναι καὶ ἄλλως περιττόν, ἐπειδήπερ καὶ ̓Ιουδαίων πολλοὶ πρὸ ἐμοῦ τὰ τῶν προγόνων συνετάξαντο μετ' ἀκριβείας καί τινες ̔Ελλήνων ἐκεῖνα τῇ πατρίῳ φωνῇ μεταβαλόντες οὐ πολὺ τῆς ἀληθείας διήμαρτον. 1.17. διεῖλεν δὲ πᾶν τὸ ἔθνος εἰς πέντε συνόδους, τὸ μὲν ̔Ιεροσολύμοις προστάξας, τὸ δὲ Γαδάροις, οἱ δὲ ἵνα συντελῶσιν εἰς ̓Αμαθοῦντα, τὸ δὲ τέταρτον εἰς ̔Ιεριχοῦντα κεκλήρωτο, καὶ τῷ πέμπτῳ Σέπφωρις ἀπεδείχθη πόλις τῆς Γαλιλαίας. ἀσμένως δὲ τῆς ἐξ ἑνὸς ἐπικρατείας ἐλευθερωθέντες τὸ λοιπὸν ἀριστοκρατίᾳ διῳκοῦντο. 1.18. ὅπου δ' οἵ τε τούτων συγγραφεῖς ἐπαύσαντο καὶ οἱ ἡμέτεροι προφῆται, τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐκεῖθεν ποιήσομαι τῆς συντάξεως: τούτων δὲ τὰ μὲν τοῦ κατ' ἐμαυτὸν πολέμου διεξοδικώτερον καὶ μεθ' ὅσης ἂν ἐξεργασίας δύνωμαι δίειμι, τὰ δὲ προγενέστερα τῆς ἐμῆς ἡλικίας ἐπιδραμῶ συντόμως, 1.18. Πάρθους δὲ μετὰ τὸν Κράσσον ἐπιδιαβαίνειν εἰς Συρίαν ὡρμημένους ἀνέκοπτεν Κάσσιος εἰς τὴν ἐπαρχίαν διαφυγών. περιποιησάμενος δὲ αὐτὴν ἐπὶ ̓Ιουδαίους ἠπείγετο, καὶ Ταριχέας μὲν ἑλὼν εἰς τρεῖς μυριάδας ̓Ιουδαίων ἀνδραποδίζεται, κτείνει δὲ καὶ Πειθόλαον τοὺς ̓Αριστοβούλου στασιαστὰς ἐπισυνιστάντα: τοῦ φόνου δὲ ἦν σύμβουλος ̓Αντίπατρος. 1.19. ὡς ̓Αντίοχος ὁ κληθεὶς ̓Επιφανὴς ἑλὼν κατὰ κράτος ̔Ιεροσόλυμα καὶ κατασχὼν ἔτεσι τρισὶ καὶ μησὶν ἓξ ὑπὸ τῶν ̓Ασαμωναίου παίδων ἐκβάλλεται τῆς χώρας, ἔπειθ' ὡς οἱ τούτων ἔγγονοι περὶ τῆς βασιλείας διαστασιάσαντες εἵλκυσαν εἰς τὰ πράγματα ̔Ρωμαίους καὶ Πομπήιον. καὶ ὡς ̔Ηρώδης ὁ ̓Αντιπάτρου κατέλυσε τὴν δυναστείαν αὐτῶν ἐπαγαγὼν Σόσσιον, 1.19. Καὶ τὸ Πηλούσιον μὲν ἑάλω, πρόσω δ' αὐτὸν ἰόντα εἶργον αὖθις οἱ τὴν ̓Ονίου προσαγορευομένην χώραν κατέχοντες: ἦσαν δὲ ̓Ιουδαῖοι Αἰγύπτιοι. τούτους ̓Αντίπατρος οὐ μόνον μὴ κωλύειν ἔπεισεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἐπιτήδεια τῇ δυνάμει παρασχεῖν: ὅθεν οὐδὲ οἱ κατὰ Μέμφιν ἔτι εἰς χεῖρας ἦλθον, ἑκούσιοι δὲ προσέθεντο Μιθριδάτῃ. 1.21. ὅπως τε τὰς περιοίκους ἐτειχίσαντο, καὶ ὡς Νέρων ἐπὶ τοῖς Κεστίου πταίσμασι δείσας περὶ τῶν ὅλων Οὐεσπασιανὸν ἐφίστησι τῷ πολέμῳ, καὶ ὡς οὗτος μετὰ τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου τῶν παίδων εἰς τὴν ̓Ιουδαίων χώραν ἐνέβαλεν ὅσῃ τε χρώμενος ̔Ρωμαίων στρατιᾷ καὶ ὅσοι σύμμαχοι ἐκόπησαν εἰς ὅλην τὴν Γαλιλαίαν, καὶ ὡς τῶν πόλεων αὐτῆς ἃς μὲν ὁλοσχερῶς καὶ κατὰ κράτος ἃς δὲ δι' ὁμολογίας ἔλαβεν: 1.21. Τούτοις κατὰ μικρὸν ̔Υρκανὸς ἐξεκαίετο καὶ τὴν ὀργὴν τελευταῖον ἐκρήξας ἐκάλει κριθησόμενον τὸν ̔Ηρώδην. ὁ δὲ καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς παραινοῦντος καὶ τῶν πραγμάτων διδόντων παρρησίαν ἀνῄει φρουραῖς διαλαβὼν πρότερον τὴν Γαλιλαίαν. ᾔει δὲ μετὰ καρτεροῦ στίφους, ὡς μήτε καταλύειν δόξειεν ̔Υρκανὸν λαμπρὰν ἄγων δύναμιν μήτε γυμνὸς ἐμπέσοι τῷ φθόνῳ. 1.22. ἔνθα δὴ καὶ τὰ περὶ τῆς ̔Ρωμαίων ἐν πολέμοις εὐταξίας καὶ τὴν ἄσκησιν τῶν ταγμάτων, τῆς τε Γαλιλαίας ἑκατέρας τὰ διαστήματα καὶ τὴν φύσιν καὶ τοὺς τῆς ̓Ιουδαίας ὅρους, ἔτι τε τῆς χώρας τὴν ἰδιότητα, λίμνας τε καὶ πηγὰς τὰς ἐν αὐτῇ, καὶ τὰ περὶ ἑκάστην πόλιν τῶν ἁλισκομένων πάθη μετὰ ἀκριβείας, ὡς εἶδον ἢ ἔπαθον, δίειμι. οὐδὲ γὰρ τῶν ἐμαυτοῦ τι συμφορῶν ἀποκρύψομαι μέλλων γε πρὸς εἰδότας ἐρεῖν. 1.22. Κελευσθὲν δὲ καὶ ̓Ιουδαίοις εἰσενεγκεῖν ἑπτακόσια τάλαντα δείσας ̓Αντίπατρος τὴν ἀπειλὴν τοῦ Κασσίου τοῖς τε υἱοῖς διεῖλεν εἰσπράττειν τὰ χρήματα καί τισιν ἄλλοις τῶν ἐπιτηδείων κατὰ τάχος, ἐν οἷς καὶ Μαλίχῳ τινὶ τῶν διαφόρων: οὕτως ἤπειγεν ἡ ἀνάγκη. 1.23. ̓́Επειθ' ὡς ἤδη καμνόντων ̓Ιουδαίοις τῶν πραγμάτων θνήσκει μὲν Νέρων, Οὐεσπασιανὸς δὲ ἐπὶ ̔Ιεροσολύμων ὡρμημένος ὑπὸ τῆς ἡγεμονίας ἀνθέλκεται: τά τε γενόμενα περὶ ταύτης αὐτῷ σημεῖα καὶ τὰς ἐπὶ ̔Ρώμης μεταβολάς, 1.23. καὶ πάλιν Μάλιχος προσιὼν ἔκλαιεν ̓Αντίπατρον: ἀνθυπεκρίνετο δὲ μόλις ̔Ηρώδης τὸν θυμὸν ἐπέχων καὶ Κασσίῳ δι' ἐπιστολῶν τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς ἀναίρεσιν ἀπωδύρετο μισοῦντι καὶ ἄλλως Μάλιχον. ὁ δ' αὐτῷ μετιέναι τὸν φονέα τοῦ πατρὸς ἀντεπιστείλας καὶ τοῖς ὑφ' ἑαυτὸν χιλιάρχοις λάθρα προσέταξεν ̔Ηρώδῃ βοηθεῖν εἰς πρᾶξιν δικαίαν. 1.27. ̓́Επειτα διέξειμι τήν τε τῶν τυράννων πρὸς τοὺς ὁμοφύλους ὠμότητα καὶ τὴν ̔Ρωμαίων φειδὼ πρὸς τοὺς ἀλλοφύλους, καὶ ὁσάκις Τίτος σῶσαι τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὸν ναὸν ἐπιθυμῶν ἐπὶ δεξιὰς τοὺς στασιάζοντας προυκαλέσατο, διακρινῶ δὲ τὰ πάθη τοῦ δήμου καὶ τὰς συμφορὰς ὅσα τε ὑπὸ τοῦ πολέμου καὶ ὅσα ὑπὸ τῆς στάσεως καὶ ὅσα ὑπὸ τοῦ λιμοῦ κακωθέντες ἑάλωσαν. 1.27. ὁ δὲ ̔Υρκανοῦ μὲν προσπεσὼν αὐτὸς τὰ ὦτα λωβᾶται τοῖς ὀδοῦσιν, ὡς μηδὲ αὖθις ἐν μεταβολῇ ποτε δύναιτο τὴν ἀρχιερωσύνην ἀπολαβεῖν: 1.29. καὶ ὡς ̔Ρωμαῖοι μὲν ἐπεξῆλθον τὰ λείψανα τοῦ πολέμου καὶ τὰ ἐρύματα τῶν χωρίων καθεῖλον, Τίτος δὲ πᾶσαν ἐπελθὼν τὴν χώραν κατεστήσατο, τήν τε ὑποστροφὴν αὐτοῦ τὴν εἰς ̓Ιταλίαν καὶ τὸν θρίαμβον. 1.29. ̓́Ηδη δὲ ̔Ηρώδης καταπεπλευκὼς ἀπὸ τῆς ̓Ιταλίας εἰς Πτολεμαί̈δα καὶ συναγηοχὼς δύναμιν οὐκ ὀλίγην ξένων τε καὶ ὁμοφύλων ἤλαυνεν διὰ τῆς Γαλιλαίας ἐπ' ̓Αντίγονον συλλαμβανόντων Βεντιδίου καὶ Σίλωνος, οὓς Δέλλιος ὑπ' ̓Αντωνίου πεμφθεὶς ̔Ηρώδην συγκαταγαγεῖν ἔπεισεν. 2.117. Τῆς δὲ ̓Αρχελάου χώρας εἰς ἐπαρχίαν περιγραφείσης ἐπίτροπος τῆς ἱππικῆς παρὰ ̔Ρωμαίοις τάξεως Κωπώνιος πέμπεται μέχρι τοῦ κτείνειν λαβὼν παρὰ Καίσαρος ἐξουσίαν. 2.118. ἐπὶ τούτου τις ἀνὴρ Γαλιλαῖος ̓Ιούδας ὄνομα εἰς ἀπόστασιν ἐνῆγε τοὺς ἐπιχωρίους κακίζων, εἰ φόρον τε ̔Ρωμαίοις τελεῖν ὑπομενοῦσιν καὶ μετὰ τὸν θεὸν οἴσουσι θνητοὺς δεσπότας. ἦν δ' οὗτος σοφιστὴς ἰδίας αἱρέσεως οὐδὲν τοῖς ἄλλοις προσεοικώς. 2.345. “Εἰ μὲν ἑώρων πάντας ὑμᾶς πολεμεῖν ̔Ρωμαίοις ὡρμημένους καὶ μὴ τοῦ δήμου τὸ καθαρώτατον καὶ εἰλικρινέστατον εἰρήνην ἄγειν προῃρημένους, οὔτ' ἂν παρῆλθον εἰς ὑμᾶς οὔτε συμβουλεύειν ἐθάρρησα: περισσὸς γὰρ ὑπὲρ τοῦ τὰ δέοντα ποιεῖν πᾶς λόγος, ὅταν ᾖ τῶν ἀκουόντων πάντων [ἡ] πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον ὁμόνοια. 2.346. ἐπεὶ δὲ τινὰς μὲν ἡλικία τῶν ἐν πολέμῳ κακῶν ἄπειρος, τινὰς δὲ ἐλπὶς ἀλόγιστος ἐλευθερίας, ἐνίους δὲ πλεονεξία τις παροξύνει καὶ τὸ παρὰ τῶν ἀσθενεστέρων, ἐὰν τὰ πράγματα συγχυθῇ, κέρδος, ὅπως αὐτοί τε σωφρονισθέντες μεταβάλωνται καὶ μὴ τῆς ἐνίων κακοβουλίας οἱ ἀγαθοὶ παραπολαύσωσιν, ᾠήθην δεῖν ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πάντας ὑμᾶς συναγαγὼν εἰπεῖν ἃ νομίζω συμφέρειν. 2.347. θορυβήσῃ δέ μοι μηδείς, ἐὰν μὴ τὰ πρὸς ἡδονὴν ἀκούῃ: τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ἀνηκέστως ἐπὶ τὴν ἀπόστασιν ὡρμημένοις ἔνεστι καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἐμὴν παραίνεσιν ταῦτα φρονεῖν, ἐμοὶ δὲ διαπίπτει καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἀκούειν ἐθέλοντας ὁ λόγος, ἐὰν μὴ παρὰ πάντων ἡσυχία γένηται. 2.348. οἶδα μὲν οὖν ὅτι πολλοὶ τὰς ἐκ τῶν ἐπιτρόπων ὕβρεις καὶ τὰ τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἐγκώμια τραγῳδοῦσιν, ἐγὼ δὲ πρὶν ἐξετάζειν τίνες ὄντες καὶ τίσιν ἐπιχειρεῖτε πολεμεῖν, πρῶτον διαζεύξω τὴν συμπλοκὴν τῶν προφάσεων. 2.349. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἀμύνεσθε τοὺς ἀδικοῦντας, τί σεμνύνετε τὴν ἐλευθερίαν; εἰ δὲ τὸ δουλεύειν ἀφόρητον ἡγεῖσθε, περισσὴ πρὸς τοὺς ἡγεμόνας ἡ μέμψις: καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνων μετριαζόντων αἰσχρὸν ὁμοίως τὸ δουλεύειν. 2.351. ὅταν δὲ τῶν μικρῶν ἁμαρτημάτων τοὺς ἐξονειδισμοὺς ποιῆσθε μεγάλους, καθ' ἑαυτῶν τοὺς ὀνειδιζομένους ἀπελέγχετε, καὶ παρέντες τὸ λάθρα καὶ μετ' αἰδοῦς ὑμᾶς βλάπτειν πορθοῦσι φανερῶς. οὐδὲν δὲ οὕτως τὰς πληγὰς ὡς τὸ φέρειν ἀναστέλλει, καὶ τὸ τῶν ἀδικουμένων ἡσύχιον τοῖς ἀδικοῦσι γίνεται διατροπή. 2.352. φέρε δ' εἶναι τοὺς ̔Ρωμαίων ὑπηρέτας ἀνηκέστως χαλεπούς: οὔπω ̔Ρωμαῖοι πάντες ἀδικοῦσιν ὑμᾶς οὐδὲ Καῖσαρ, πρὸς οὓς αἱρεῖσθε τὸν πόλεμον: οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐξ ἐντολῆς ἥκει τις πονηρὸς ἀπ' ἐκείνων, οὐδέ γε τοὺς ὑπὸ τὴν ἀνατολὴν οἱ ἀφ' ἑσπέρας ἐπιβλέπουσιν: ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ἀκούειν ταχέως τὰ ἐντεῦθεν ἐκεῖ ῥᾴδιον. 2.353. ἄτοπον δὲ καὶ δι' ἕνα πολλοῖς καὶ διὰ μικρὰς αἰτίας τηλικούτοις καὶ μηδὲ γινώσκουσιν ἃ μεμφόμεθα πολεμεῖν. 2.354. καὶ τῶν μὲν ἡμετέρων ἐγκλημάτων ταχεῖα γένοιτ' ἂν διόρθωσις: οὔτε γὰρ ὁ αὐτὸς ἐπίτροπος μένει διὰ παντός, καὶ τοὺς διαδεξομένους εἰκὸς ἐλεύσεσθαι μετριωτέρους: κινηθέντα δ' ἅπαξ τὸν πόλεμον οὔτε ἀποθέσθαι ῥᾴδιον δίχα συμφορῶν οὔτε βαστάζειν. 2.355. ἀλλὰ μὴν τό γε νῦν ἐλευθερίας ἐπιθυμεῖν ἄωρον, δέον ὑπὲρ τοῦ μηδὲ ἀποβαλεῖν αὐτὴν ἀγωνίζεσθαι πρότερον: ἡ γὰρ πεῖρα τῆς δουλείας χαλεπή, καὶ περὶ τοῦ μηδ' ἄρξασθαι ταύτης ὁ ἀγὼν δίκαιος. 2.356. ὁ δ' ἅπαξ χειρωθείς, ἔπειτα ἀφιστάμενος, αὐθάδης δοῦλός ἐστιν, οὐ φιλελεύθερος. τότε τοιγαροῦν ἐχρῆν πάνθ' ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ δέξασθαι ̔Ρωμαίους ποιεῖν, ὅτε ἐπέβαινεν τῆς χώρας Πομπήιος. 2.357. ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ἡμέτεροι πρόγονοι καὶ οἱ βασιλεῖς αὐτῶν καὶ χρήμασιν καὶ σώμασιν καὶ ψυχαῖς ἄμεινον ὑμῶν πολλῷ διακείμενοι πρὸς μοῖραν ὀλίγην τῆς ̔Ρωμαίων δυνάμεως οὐκ ἀντέσχον: ὑμεῖς δὲ οἱ τὸ μὲν ὑπακούειν ἐκ διαδοχῆς παρειληφότες, τοῖς πράγμασιν δὲ τῶν πρώτων ὑπακουσάντων τοσοῦτον ἐλαττούμενοι, πρὸς ὅλην ἀνθίστασθε τὴν ̔Ρωμαίων ἡγεμονίαν; 2.358. καὶ ̓Αθηναῖοι μὲν οἱ περὶ τῆς τῶν ̔Ελλήνων ἐλευθερίας παραδόντες ποτὲ καὶ πυρὶ τὴν πόλιν, οἱ τὸν ὑπερήφανον Ξέρξην διὰ γῆς πλεύσαντα καὶ διὰ θαλάσσης ὁδεύσαντα καὶ μὴ χωρούμενον μὲν τοῖς πελάγεσιν, πλατυτέραν δὲ τῆς Εὐρώπης τὴν στρατιὰν ἄγοντα, οἷα δραπέτην ἐπὶ μιᾶς νηὸς διώξαντες, περὶ δὲ τῇ μικρᾷ Σαλαμῖνι τὴν τοσαύτην ̓Ασίαν κλάσαντες νῦν δουλεύουσιν ̔Ρωμαίοις, καὶ τὴν ἡγεμονίδα τῆς ̔Ελλάδος πόλιν διοικεῖ τὰ ἀπὸ τῆς ̓Ιταλίας προστάγματα. 2.359. Λακεδαιμόνιοι δὲ μετὰ Θερμοπύλας καὶ Πλαταιὰς καὶ τὸν ἐρευνήσαντα τὴν ̓Ασίαν ̓Αγησίλαον ἀγαπῶσιν τοὺς αὐτοὺς δεσπότας, 2.361. ἄλλα τε ἔθνη μυρία πλείονος γέμοντα πρὸς ἐλευθερίαν παρρησίας εἴκει: μόνοι δ' ὑμεῖς ἀδοξεῖτε δουλεύειν οἷς ὑποτέτακται τὰ πάντα. ποίᾳ στρατιᾷ ποίοις πεποιθότες ὅπλοις; ποῦ μὲν ὁ στόλος ὑμῖν διαληψόμενος τὰς ̔Ρωμαίων θαλάσσας; ποῦ δ' οἱ ταῖς ἐπιβολαῖς ἐξαρκέσοντες θησαυροί; 2.362. πρὸς Αἰγυπτίους ἄρα καὶ πρὸς ̓́Αραβας οἴεσθε κινεῖν τὸν πόλεμον; οὐ περισκέψεσθε τὴν ̔Ρωμαίων ἡγεμονίαν; οὐ μετρήσετε τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀσθένειαν; οὐ τὰ μὲν ἡμέτερα καὶ τῶν προσοίκων ἐθνῶν ἡττήθη πολλάκις, ἡ δὲ ἐκείνων ἰσχὺς διὰ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἀνίκητος; 2.363. μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ ταύτης ἐζήτησάν τι πλέον: οὐ γὰρ ἐξήρκεσεν αὐτοῖς ὅλος Εὐφράτης ὑπὸ τὴν ἀνατολὴν οὐδὲ τῶν προσαρκτίων ὁ ̓́Ιστρος ἥ τε μεσημβρινὴ μέχρι τῶν ἀοικήτων ἐρευνηθεῖσα Λιβύη καὶ Γάδειρα πρὸς ἑσπέραν, ἀλλ' ὑπὲρ ὠκεανὸν ἑτέραν ἐζήτησαν οἰκουμένην καὶ μέχρι τῶν ἀνιστορήτων πρότερον Βρεττανῶν διήνεγκαν τὰ ὅπλα. 2.364. τί οὖν; ὑμεῖς πλουσιώτεροι Γαλατῶν, ἰσχυρότεροι Γερμανῶν, ̔Ελλήνων συνετώτεροι, πλείους τῶν κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐστὲ πάντων; τί τὸ πεποιθὸς ὑμᾶς κατὰ ̔Ρωμαίων ἐπαίρει; χαλεπὸν τὸ δουλεύειν, ἐρεῖ τις. 2.365. πόσῳ μᾶλλον ̔́Ελλησιν, οἳ τῶν ὑφ' ἡλίῳ πάντων προύχοντες εὐγενείᾳ καὶ τοσαύτην νεμόμενοι χώραν ἓξ ̔Ρωμαίων ὑπείκουσιν ῥάβδοις, τοσαύταις δὲ καὶ Μακεδόνες οἱ δικαιότερον ὑμῶν ὀφείλοντες ἐλευθερίας ἀντιποιεῖσθαι. 2.366. τί δ' αἱ πεντακόσιαι τῆς ̓Ασίας πόλεις; οὐ δίχα φρουρᾶς ἕνα προσκυνοῦσιν ἡγεμόνα καὶ τὰς ὑπατικὰς ῥάβδους; τί χρὴ λέγειν ̔Ηνιόχους τε καὶ Κόλχους καὶ τὸ τῶν Ταύρων φῦλον, Βοσπορανούς τε καὶ τὰ περίοικα τοῦ Πόντου καὶ τῆς Μαιώτιδος ἔθνη; 2.367. παρ' οἷς πρὶν μὲν οὐδ' οἰκεῖος ἐγιγνώσκετο δεσπότης, νῦν δὲ τρισχιλίοις ὁπλίταις ὑποτάσσεται, καὶ τεσσαράκοντα ναῦς μακραὶ τὴν πρὶν ἄπλωτον καὶ ἀγρίαν εἰρηνεύουσι θάλασσαν. 2.368. πόσα Βιθυνία καὶ Καππαδοκία καὶ τὸ Παμφύλιον ἔθνος Λύκιοί τε καὶ Κίλικες ὑπὲρ ἐλευθερίας ἔχοντες εἰπεῖν χωρὶς ὅπλων φορολογοῦνται; τί δαί; Θρᾷκες οἱ πέντε μὲν εὖρος ἑπτὰ δὲ μῆκος ἡμερῶν χώραν διειληφότες, τραχυτέραν τε καὶ πολλῷ τῆς ὑμετέρας ὀχυρωτέραν καὶ βαθεῖ κρυμῷ τοὺς ἐπιστρατεύσοντας ἀνακόπτουσαν, οὐχὶ δισχιλίοις ̔Ρωμαίων ὑπακούουσιν φρουροῖς; 2.369. οἱ δ' ἀπὸ τούτων ̓Ιλλυριοὶ τὴν μέχρι Δαλματίας ἀποτεμνομένην ̓́Ιστρῳ κατοικοῦντες, οὐ δυσὶν μόνοις τάγμασιν ὑπείκουσιν, μεθ' ὧν αὐτοὶ τὰς Δακῶν ἀνακόπτουσιν ὁρμάς; 2.371. ἀλλὰ μὴν εἴ γέ τινας εἰς ἀπόστασιν ὤφειλον ἀφορμαὶ μεγάλαι παροξύνειν, μάλιστα Γαλάτας ἐχρῆν τοὺς οὕτως ὑπὸ τῆς φύσεως τετειχισμένους, ἐξ ἀνατολῆς μὲν ταῖς ̓́Αλπεσιν πρὸς ἄρκτῳ δὲ ̔Ρήνῳ ποταμῷ, μεσημβρινοῖς δὲ τοῖς Πυρηναίοις ὄρεσιν, ὠκεανῷ δὲ πρὸς δυσμῶν. 2.372. ἀλλὰ καίτοι τηλικαῦτα μὲν ἕρκη περιβεβλημένοι, πέντε δὲ καὶ τριακοσίοις πληθύοντες ἔθνεσιν, τὰς δὲ πηγάς, ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι, τῆς εὐδαιμονίας ἐπιχωρίους ἔχοντες καὶ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς σχεδὸν ὅλην ἐπικλύζοντες τὴν οἰκουμένην, ἀνέχονται ̔Ρωμαίων πρόσοδος ὄντες καὶ ταμιευόμενοι παρ' αὐτῶν τὴν οἰκείαν εὐδαιμονίαν. 2.373. καὶ τοῦθ' ὑπομένουσιν οὐ διὰ φρονημάτων μαλακίαν οὐδὲ δι' ἀγένειαν, οἵ γε διήνεγκαν ὀγδοήκοντα ἔτη πόλεμον ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐλευθερίας, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τῆς δυνάμεως ̔Ρωμαίων καὶ τὴν τύχην καταπλαγέντες, ἥτις αὐτοῖς κατορθοῖ πλείονα τῶν ὅπλων. τοιγαροῦν ὑπὸ χιλίοις καὶ διακοσίοις στρατιώταις δουλεύουσιν, ὧν ὀλίγου δεῖν πλείους ἔχουσι πόλεις. 2.374. οὐδὲ ̓́Ιβηρσιν ὁ γεωργούμενος χρυσὸς εἰς τὸν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἐξήρκεσεν πόλεμον οὐδὲ τὸ τοσοῦτον ἀπὸ ̔Ρωμαίων γῆς καὶ θαλάσσης διάστημα φῦλά τε Λουσιτανῶν καὶ Καντάβρων ἀρειμάνια οὐδὲ γείτων ὠκεανὸς φοβερὰν καὶ τοῖς ἐπιχωρίοις ἄμπωτιν ἐπάγων, 2.375. ἀλλ' ὑπὲρ τὰς ̔Ηρακλείους στήλας ἐκτείναντες τὰ ὅπλα καὶ διὰ νεφῶν ὁδεύσαντες τὰ Πυρηναῖα ὄρη καὶ τούτους ἐδουλώσαντο ̔Ρωμαῖοι: φρουρὰ δ' ἤρκεσεν τῶν οὕτως δυσμάχων καὶ τοσοῦτον ἀπῳκισμένων ἓν τάγμα. 2.376. τίς ὑμῶν οὐκ ἀκοῇ παρείληφεν τὸ Γερμανῶν πλῆθος; ἀλκὴν μὲν γὰρ καὶ μεγέθη σωμάτων εἴδετε δήπου πολλάκις, ἐπεὶ πανταχοῦ ̔Ρωμαῖοι τοὺς τούτων αἰχμαλώτους ἔχουσιν. 2.377. ἀλλ' οὗτοι γῆν μὲν ἄπειρον νεμόμενοι, μείζω δὲ τῶν σωμάτων ἔχοντες τὰ φρονήματα καὶ τὴν μὲν ψυχὴν θανάτου καταφρονοῦσαν, τοὺς δὲ θυμοὺς τῶν ἀγριωτάτων θηρίων σφοδροτέρους, ̔Ρῆνον τῆς ὁρμῆς ὅρον ἔχουσιν καὶ ̔Ρωμαίων ὀκτὼ τάγμασιν δαμαζόμενοι δουλεύουσιν μὲν ἁλόντες, τὸ δ' ὅλον αὐτῶν ἔθνος φυγῇ διασώζεται. 2.378. σκέψασθε δὲ καὶ τὸ Βρεττανῶν τεῖχος οἱ τοῖς ̔Ιεροσολύμων τείχεσιν πεποιθότες: καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνους περιβεβλημένους ὠκεανὸν καὶ τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς οἰκουμένης οὐκ ἐλάσσονα νῆσον οἰκοῦντας πλεύσαντες ἐδουλώσαντο ̔Ρωμαῖοι, τέσσαρα δὲ τάγματα τὴν τοσαύτην νῆσον φυλάσσει. 2.379. καὶ τί δεῖ πολλὰ λέγειν, ὅπου καὶ Πάρθοι, τὸ πολεμικώτατον φῦλον, τοσούτων ἄρχοντες ἐθνῶν καὶ τηλικαύτην περιβεβλημένοι δύναμιν ὁμήρους πέμπουσιν ̔Ρωμαίοις, καὶ ἔστιν ἐπὶ τῆς ̓Ιταλίας ἰδεῖν ἐν εἰρήνης προφάσει δουλεύουσαν τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνατολῆς εὐγένειαν. 2.381. οὔτε δὲ Κυρηναῖοι, τὸ Λακώνων γένος, οὔτε Μαρμαρίδαι, τὸ μέχρι τῆς διψάδος ἐκτεταμένον φῦλον, οὔθ' αἱ φοβεραὶ καὶ τοῖς ἀκούουσιν Σύρτεις Νασαμῶνές τε καὶ Μαῦροι καὶ τὸ Νομάδων ἄπειρον πλῆθος τὰς ̔Ρωμαίων ἀνέκοψαν ἀρετάς. 2.382. τὴν δὲ τρίτην τῆς οἰκουμένης μοῖραν, ἧς οὐδὲ ἐξαριθμήσασθαι τὰ ἔθνη ῥᾴδιον, ὁριζομένην ̓Ατλαντικῷ τε πελάγει καὶ στήλαις ̔Ηρακλείοις καὶ μέχρι τῆς ̓Ερυθρᾶς θαλάσσης τοὺς ἀπείρους νέμουσαν Αἰθίοπας ἐχειρώσαντο μὲν ὅλην, 2.383. χωρὶς δὲ τῶν ἐτησίων καρπῶν, οἳ μησὶν ὀκτὼ τὸ κατὰ τὴν ̔Ρώμην πλῆθος τρέφουσιν, καὶ ἔξωθεν παντοίως φορολογοῦνται καὶ ταῖς χρείαις τῆς ἡγεμονίας παρέχουσιν ἑτοίμους τὰς εἰσφοράς, οὐδὲν τῶν ἐπιταγμάτων ὥσπερ ὑμεῖς ὕβριν ἡγούμενοι καίπερ ἑνὸς τάγματος αὐτοῖς παραμένοντος. 2.384. καὶ τί δεῖ πόρρωθεν ὑμῖν τὴν ̔Ρωμαίων ὑποδεικνύναι δύναμιν παρὸν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου τῆς γειτνιώσης, 2.385. ἥτις ἐκτεινομένη μέχρις Αἰθιόπων καὶ τῆς εὐδαίμονος ̓Αραβίας ὅρμος τε οὖσα τῆς ̓Ινδικῆς, πεντήκοντα πρὸς ταῖς ἑπτακοσίαις ἔχουσα μυριάδας ἀνθρώπων δίχα τῶν ̓Αλεξάνδρειαν κατοικούντων, ὡς ἔνεστιν ἐκ τῆς καθ' ἑκάστην κεφαλὴν εἰσφορᾶς τεκμήρασθαι, τὴν ̔Ρωμαίων ἡγεμονίαν οὐκ ἀδοξεῖ, καίτοι πηλίκον ἀποστάσεως κέντρον ἔχουσα τὴν ̓Αλεξάνδρειαν πλήθους τε ἀνδρῶν ἕνεκα καὶ πλούτου πρὸς δὲ μεγέθους: 2.386. μῆκος μέν γε αὐτῆς τριάκοντα σταδίων, εὖρος δ' οὐκ ἔλαττον δέκα, τοῦ δὲ ἐνιαυσιαίου παρ' ὑμῶν φόρου καθ' ἕνα μῆνα πλέον ̔Ρωμαίοις παρέχει καὶ τῶν χρημάτων ἔξωθεν τῇ ̔Ρώμῃ σῖτον μηνῶν τεσσάρων: τετείχισται δὲ πάντοθεν ἢ δυσβάτοις ἐρημίαις ἢ θαλάσσαις ἀλιμένοις ἢ ποταμοῖς ἢ ἕλεσιν. 2.387. ἀλλ' οὐδὲν τούτων ἰσχυρότερον εὑρέθη τῆς ̔Ρωμαίων τύχης, δύο δ' ἐγκαθήμενα τῇ πόλει τάγματα τὴν βαθεῖαν Αἴγυπτον ἅμα τῇ Μακεδόνων εὐγενείᾳ χαλινοῖ. 2.388. τίνας οὖν ἐπὶ τὸν πόλεμον ἐκ τῆς ἀοικήτου παραλήψεσθε συμμάχους; οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης πάντες εἰσὶν ̔Ρωμαῖοι, εἰ μή τις ὑπὲρ Εὐφράτην ἐκτείνει τὰς ἐλπίδας καὶ τοὺς ἐκ τῆς ̓Αδιαβηνῆς ὁμοφύλους οἴεται προσαμυνεῖν, 2.389. οἱ δ' οὔτε δι' αἰτίαν ἄλογον τηλικούτῳ πολέμῳ συνεμπλέξουσιν ἑαυτούς, οὔτε βουλευσαμένοις κακῶς ὁ Πάρθος ἐπιτρέψει: πρόνοια γὰρ αὐτῷ τῆς πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους ἐκεχειρίας, καὶ παραβαίνειν οἰήσεται τὰς σπονδάς, ἄν τις τῶν ὑπ' αὐτὸν ἐπὶ ̔Ρωμαίους ἴῃ. 2.391. σκέψασθε δ' ὡς ὑμῖν τὸ τῆς θρησκείας ἄκρατον, εἰ καὶ πρὸς εὐχειρώτους πολεμοίητε, δυσδιοίκητον, καὶ δι' ἃ μᾶλλον τὸν θεὸν ἐλπίζετε σύμμαχον, ταῦτ' ἀναγκαζόμενοι παραβαίνειν ἀποστρέψετε. 2.392. τηροῦντές γε μὴν τὰ τῶν ἑβδομάδων ἔθη καὶ πρὸς μηδεμίαν πρᾶξιν κινούμενοι ῥᾳδίως ἁλώσεσθε, καθάπερ οἱ πρόγονοι Πομπηίῳ ταύτας μάλιστα τὰς ἡμέρας ἐνεργοὺς ποιησαμένῳ τῆς πολιορκίας, ἐν αἷς ἤργουν οἱ πολιορκούμενοι: 2.393. παραβαίνοντες δὲ ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ τὸν πάτριον νόμον οὐκ οἶδ' ὑπὲρ ὅτου λοιπὸν ποιήσεσθε τὸν ἀγῶνα: σπουδὴ γὰρ ὑμῖν μία τὸ μὴ τῶν πατρίων τι καταλῦσαι. 2.394. πῶς δὲ ἐπικαλέσεσθε τὸ θεῖον πρὸς τὴν ἄμυναν οἱ παραβάντες ἑκουσίως τὴν εἰς αὐτὸ θεραπείαν; ἐπαναιροῦνται δὲ ἕκαστοι πόλεμον ἢ θείᾳ πεποιθότες ἢ ἀνθρωπίνῃ βοηθείᾳ: ὅταν δὲ τὴν παρ' ἀμφοῖν τὸ εἰκὸς ἀποκόπτῃ, φανερὰν ἅλωσιν οἱ πολεμοῦντες αἱροῦνται. 2.395. τί δὴ κωλύει ταῖς ἑαυτῶν χερσὶν διαχρήσασθαι τέκνα καὶ γυναῖκας καὶ τὴν περικαλλεστάτην πατρίδα ταύτην καταφλέξαι; μανέντες γὰρ οὕτως τό γε τῆς ἥττης ὄνειδος κερδήσετε. καλόν, 2.396. ὦ φίλοι, καλόν, ἕως ἔτι ἐν ὅρμῳ τὸ σκάφος προσκέπτεσθαι τὸν μέλλοντα χειμῶνα μηδ' εἰς μέσας τὰς θυέλλας ἀπολουμένους ἀναχθῆναι: τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ἐξ ἀδήλων ἐπιπεσοῦσιν δεινοῖς τὸ γοῦν ἐλεεῖσθαι περίεστιν, ὁ δ' εἰς πρόδηλον ἀπώλειαν ὁρμήσας καὶ προσονειδίζεται. 2.397. πλὴν εἰ μή τις ὑπολαμβάνει κατὰ συνθήκας πολεμήσειν καὶ ̔Ρωμαίους κρατήσαντας ὑμῶν μετριάσειν, ἀλλ' οὐκ εἰς ὑπόδειγμα τῶν ἄλλων ἐθνῶν καταφλέξειν μὲν τὴν ἱερὰν πόλιν, ἀναιρήσειν δὲ πᾶν ὑμῶν τὸ φῦλον: οὐδὲ γὰρ περιλειφθέντες φυγῆς εὑρήσετε τόπον ἁπάντων ἐχόντων ̔Ρωμαίους δεσπότας ἢ δεδοικότων σχεῖν. 2.398. ὁ δὲ κίνδυνος οὐ τῶν ἐνθάδε μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν κατὰ τὰς ἄλλας κατοικούντων πόλεις: οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης δῆμος ὁ μὴ μοῖραν ἡμετέραν ἔχων. 2.399. οὓς ἅπαντας πολεμησάντων ὑμῶν κατασφάξουσιν οἱ διάφοροι, καὶ δι' ὀλίγων ἀνδρῶν κακοβουλίαν πᾶσα πλησθήσεται πόλις ̓Ιουδαϊκοῦ φόνου. καὶ συγγνώμη μὲν τοῖς τοῦτο πράξασιν: ἂν δὲ μὴ πραχθῇ, λογίσασθε, πῶς πρὸς οὕτω φιλανθρώπους ὅπλα κινεῖν ἀνόσιον. 2.401. μαρτύρομαι δὲ ἐγὼ μὲν ὑμῶν τὰ ἅγια καὶ τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἀγγέλους τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρίδα τὴν κοινήν, ὡς οὐδὲν τῶν σωτηρίων ὑμῖν καθυφηκάμην, ὑμεῖς δὲ βουλευσάμενοι μὲν τὰ δέοντα κοινὴν σὺν ἐμοὶ τὴν εἰρήνην ἕξετε, προαχθέντες δὲ τοῖς θυμοῖς χωρὶς ἐμοῦ κινδυνεύσετε.” 2.433. Κἀν τούτῳ Μανάημός τις, υἱὸς ̓Ιούδα τοῦ καλουμένου Γαλιλαίου, σοφιστὴς δεινότατος, ὁ καὶ ἐπὶ Κυρινίου ποτὲ ̓Ιουδαίους ὀνειδίσας ὅτι ̔Ρωμαίοις ὑπετάσσοντο μετὰ τὸν θεόν, ἀναλαβὼν τοὺς γνωρίμους ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς Μασάδαν, 2.434. ἔνθα τὴν ̔Ηρώδου τοῦ βασιλέως ὁπλοθήκην ἀναρρήξας καὶ πρὸς τοῖς δημόταις ἑτέρους λῃστὰς καθοπλίσας τούτοις τε χρώμενος δορυφόροις, οἷα δὴ βασιλεὺς ἐπάνεισιν εἰς ̔Ιεροσόλυμα καὶ γενόμενος ἡγεμὼν τῆς στάσεως διέτασσεν τὴν πολιορκίαν. 2.435. ἀπορία δ' ἦν ὀργάνων, καὶ φανερῶς ὑπορύττειν τὸ τεῖχος οὐχ οἷόν τε ἦν ἄνωθεν βαλλομένους: ὑπόνομον δὴ πόρρωθεν ἐφ' ἕνα τῶν πύργων ὑπορύξαντες ἀνεκρήμνισαν αὐτόν, ἔπειτα τὴν ἀνέχουσαν ὕλην ἐμπρήσαντες ἐξῆλθον. 2.436. ὑποκαέντων δὲ τῶν στηριγμάτων ὁ μὲν πύργος ἐξαίφνης κατασείεται, τεῖχος δ' ἕτερον ἔνδοθεν ἀνῳκοδομημένον διεφάνη: τὴν γὰρ ἐπιβουλὴν αὐτῶν προαισθόμενοι, τάχα καὶ τοῦ πύργου κινηθέντος ὡς ὑπωρύττετο, δεύτερον ἑαυτοῖς ἔρυμα κατεσκεύασαν. 2.437. πρὸς ὃ τῶν ἀδοκήτως ἰδόντων καὶ κρατεῖν ἤδη πεπεισμένων κατάπληξις ἦν. οἱ δὲ ἔνδοθεν πρός τε τὸν Μανάημον καὶ τοὺς ἐξάρχοντας τῆς στάσεως ἔπεμπον ἀξιοῦντες ἐξελθεῖν ὑπόσπονδοι, καὶ δοθὲν μόνοις τοῖς βασιλικοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἐπιχωρίοις οἱ μὲν ἐξῄεσαν. 2.438. ἀθυμία δὲ τοὺς ̔Ρωμαίους καταλειφθέντας μόνους ὑπέλαβεν: οὔτε γὰρ βιάσασθαι τοσοῦτον πλῆθος ἐδύναντο καὶ τὸ δεξιὰς αἰτεῖν ὄνειδος ὑπελάμβανον, πρὸς τῷ μηδὲ πιστεύειν εἰ διδοῖτο. 2.439. καταλιπόντες δὴ τὸ στρατόπεδον ὡς εὐάλωτον ἐπὶ τοὺς βασιλικοὺς ἀνέφυγον πύργους, τόν τε ̔Ιππικὸν καλούμενον καὶ Φασάηλον καὶ Μαριάμμην. 2.441. Κατὰ δὲ τὴν ἐπιοῦσαν ὅ τε ἀρχιερεὺς ̓Ανανίας περὶ τὸν τῆς βασιλικῆς αὐλῆς εὔριπον διαλανθάνων ἁλίσκεται καὶ πρὸς τῶν λῃστῶν ἀναιρεῖται σὺν ̓Εζεκίᾳ τῷ ἀδελφῷ, καὶ τοὺς πύργους περισχόντες οἱ στασιασταὶ παρεφύλαττον, μή τις τῶν στρατιωτῶν διαφύγοι. 2.442. τὸν δὲ Μανάημον ἥ τε τῶν ὀχυρῶν καταστροφὴ χωρίων καὶ ὁ τοῦ ἀρχιερέως ̓Ανανίου θάνατος ἐτύφωσεν εἰς ὠμότητα καὶ μηδένα νομίζων ἔχειν ἐπὶ τοῖς πράγμασιν ἀντίπαλον ἀφόρητος ἦν τύραννος. 2.443. ἐπανίστανται δὲ οἱ περὶ τὸν ̓Ελεάζαρον αὐτῷ, καὶ λόγον ἀλλήλοις δόντες, ὡς οὐ χρὴ ̔Ρωμαίων ἀποστάντας δι' ἐλευθερίας πόθον καταπροέσθαι ταύτην οἰκείῳ δήμῳ καὶ δεσπότην φέρειν, εἰ καὶ μηδὲν πράττοι βίαιον, ἀλλ' οὖν ἑαυτῶν ταπεινότερον: εἰ γὰρ καὶ δέοι τινὰ τῶν ὅλων ἀφηγεῖσθαι, παντὶ μᾶλλον ἢ ἐκείνῳ προσήκειν, συντίθενται καὶ κατὰ τὸ ἱερὸν ἐπεχείρουν αὐτῷ: 2.444. σοβαρὸς γὰρ ἀναβεβήκει προσκυνήσων ἐσθῆτί τε βασιλικῇ κεκοσμημένος καὶ τοὺς ζηλωτὰς ἐνόπλους ἐφελκόμενος. 2.445. ὡς δ' οἱ περὶ τὸν ̓Ελεάζαρον ἐπ' αὐτὸν ὥρμησαν, ὅ τε λοιπὸς δῆμος ἐπὶ τὰς ὀργὰς λίθους ἁρπάσαντες τὸν σοφιστὴν ἔβαλλον, οἰόμενοι τούτου καταλυθέντος διατρέψειν ὅλην τὴν στάσιν, 2.446. πρὸς ὀλίγον οἱ περὶ τὸν Μανάημον ἀντισχόντες ὡς εἶδον πᾶν ἐπ' αὐτοὺς τὸ πλῆθος ὁρμῆσαν, ἔφυγον ὅπη τις ἴσχυσεν, καὶ φόνος μὲν ἦν τῶν καταληφθέντων, ἔρευνα δὲ τῶν ἀποκρυπτομένων. 2.447. καὶ διεσώθησαν ὀλίγοι λάθρα διαδράντες εἰς Μασάδαν, σὺν οἷς ̓Ελεάζαρος υἱὸς ̓Ιαείρου, προσήκων τῷ Μαναήμῳ κατὰ γένος, ὃς ὕστερον ἐτυράννησεν τῆς Μασάδας. 2.448. αὐτόν τε τὸν Μανάημον εἰς τὸν καλούμενον ̓Οφλᾶν συμφυγόντα κἀκεῖ ταπεινῶς ὑπολανθάνοντα ζωγρήσαντες εἰς τὸ φανερὸν ἐξείλκυσαν καὶ πολλαῖς αἰκισάμενοι βασάνοις ἀνεῖλον, ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τοὺς ὑπ' αὐτὸν ἡγεμόνας τόν τε ἐπισημότατον τῆς τυραννίδος ὑπηρέτην ̓Αψάλωμον. 2.651. ̓Ανάνῳ γε μὴν φροντὶς ἦν κατὰ μικρὸν ἀφισταμένῳ τῶν εἰς τὸν πόλεμον παρασκευῶν κάμψαι πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον τούς τε στασιαστὰς καὶ τὴν τῶν κληθέντων ζηλωτῶν ἀφροσύνην, ἡττήθη δὲ τῆς βίας, κἀν τοῖς ἑξῆς οἵου τέλους ἔτυχεν δηλώσομεν. 3.354. κἀπειδὴ τὸ ̓Ιουδαίων, ἔφη, φῦλον ὀκλάσαι δοκεῖ σοι τῷ κτίσαντι, μετέβη δὲ πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους ἡ τύχη πᾶσα, καὶ τὴν ἐμὴν ψυχὴν ἐπελέξω τὰ μέλλοντα εἰπεῖν, δίδωμι μὲν ̔Ρωμαίοις τὰς χεῖρας ἑκὼν καὶ ζῶ, μαρτύρομαι δὲ ὡς οὐ προδότης, ἀλλὰ σὸς εἶμι διάκονος.” 4.318. οὐκ ἂν ἁμάρτοιμι δ' εἰπὼν ἁλώσεως ἄρξαι τῇ πόλει τὸν ̓Ανάνου θάνατον, καὶ ἀπ' ἐκείνης τῆς ἡμέρας ἀνατραπῆναι τὸ τεῖχος καὶ διαφθαρῆναι τὰ πράγματα ̓Ιουδαίοις, ἐν ᾗ τὸν ἀρχιερέα καὶ ἡγεμόνα τῆς ἰδίας σωτηρίας αὐτῶν ἐπὶ μέσης τῆς πόλεως εἶδον ἀπεσφαγμένον. 4.399. φρούριον ἦν οὐ πόρρω ̔Ιεροσολύμων καρτερώτατον, ὑπὸ τῶν ἀρχαίων βασιλέων εἴς τε ὑπέκθεσιν κτήσεως ἐν πολέμου ῥοπαῖς καὶ σωμάτων ἀσφάλειαν κατεσκευασμένον, ὃ ἐκαλεῖτο Μασάδα. 4.402. καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἑορτὴν τῶν ἀζύμων, ἣν ἄγουσιν ̓Ιουδαῖοι σωτήρια ἐξ οὗ τῆς ὑπ' Αἰγυπτίοις δουλείας ἀνεθέντες εἰς τὴν πάτριον γῆν κατῆλθον, νύκτωρ τοὺς ἐμποδὼν ὄντας διαλαθόντες πολίχνην τινὰ κατατρέχουσιν καλουμένην ̓Ενγαδδί, 4.403. ἐν ᾗ τὸ μὲν ἀμύνεσθαι δυνάμενον πρὶν ὅπλων ἅψασθαι καὶ συνελθεῖν φθάσαντες ἐσκέδασαν καὶ τῆς πόλεως ἐξέβαλον, τὸ δὲ φυγεῖν ἧττον ὄν, γύναιά τε καὶ παῖδας, ὑπὲρ ἑπτακοσίους ἀναιροῦσιν. 4.404. ἔπειτα τούς τε οἴκους ἐξεσκευασμένοι καὶ τῶν καρπῶν τοὺς ἀκμαιοτάτους ἁρπάσαντες ἀνήνεγκαν εἰς τὴν Μασάδαν. 4.405. καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐλῄζοντο πάσας τὰς περὶ τὸ φρούριον κώμας καὶ τὴν χώραν ἐπόρθουν ἅπασαν προσδιαφθειρομένων αὐτοῖς καθ' ἡμέραν ἑκασταχόθεν οὐκ ὀλίγων: 4.503. ̓Επανίσταται δὲ ἄλλος τοῖς ̔Ιεροσολύμοις πόλεμος. υἱὸς ἦν Γιώρα Σίμων τις, Γερασηνὸς τὸ γένος, νεανίας πανουργίᾳ μὲν ἡττώμενος ̓Ιωάννου τοῦ προκατέχοντος ἤδη τὴν πόλιν, ἀλκῇ δὲ σώματος καὶ τόλμῃ διαφέρων, 4.504. δι' ἣν καὶ ὑπὸ ̓Ανάνου τοῦ ἀρχιερέως φυγαδευθεὶς ἐξ ἧς εἶχε τοπαρχίας ̓Ακραβετηνῆς πρὸς τοὺς κατειληφότας τὴν Μασάδαν λῃστὰς παραγίνεται. 4.505. τὸ μὲν οὖν πρῶτον ἦν αὐτοῖς δι' ὑποψίας: εἰς τὸ κατωτέρω γοῦν φρούριον ἐπέτρεψαν αὐτῷ παρελθεῖν ἅμα ταῖς γυναιξίν, ἃς ἄγων ἧκεν, αὐτοὶ τὸ ὑψηλότερον οἰκοῦντες: 4.506. αὖθις δὲ διὰ συγγένειαν ἠθῶν καὶ ὅτι πιστὸς ἐδόκει, συμπροενόμευε γοῦν αὐτοῖς ἐξιὼν καὶ συνεπόρθει τὰ περὶ τὴν Μασάδαν .* 4.508. καθάπερ φωλεοῦ χωρίζεσθαι μακρὰν ἐδεδοίκεσαν, ὁ δὲ τυραννιῶν καὶ μεγάλων ἐφιέμενος ἐπειδὴ καὶ τὴν ̓Ανάνου τελευτὴν ἤκουσεν, εἰς τὴν ὀρεινὴν ἀφίσταται, καὶ προκηρύξας δούλοις μὲν ἐλευθερίαν, γέρας δὲ ἐλευθέροις τοὺς πανταχόθεν πονηροὺς συνήθροιζεν. 5.314. ὁ μὲν οὖν δι' ἀρετὴν ἐπίσημος ἦν, ζηλωταὶ δὲ τῆς ἀνδρείας ἐγίνοντο πολλοί. 5.365. εἰ γὰρ δὴ καὶ πολεμεῖν ὑπὲρ ἐλευθερίας καλόν, χρῆναι τὸ πρῶτον: τὸ δ' ἅπαξ ὑποπεσόντας καὶ μακροῖς εἴξαντας χρόνοις ἔπειτα ἀποσείεσθαι τὸν ζυγὸν δυσθανατούντων, οὐ φιλελευθέρων εἶναι. 6.59. εἵποντο δ' αὐτῷ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἕνδεκα μόνοι ζηλωταὶ τῆς ἀνδρείας γενόμενοι: προῆγε δὲ πολὺ πάντων ὁ ἀνὴρ ὁρμῇ τινι δαιμονίῳ χρώμενος. 7.86. ἔχων δὲ πατρόθεν ἔμφυτον τὴν ἀνδραγαθίαν καὶ τελειοτέραν τὴν ἄσκησιν τῆς ἡλικίας πεποιημένος ἐπὶ τοὺς βαρβάρους εὐθὺς ἤλαυνεν. 7.252. ̓Επὶ δὲ τῆς ̓Ιουδαίας Βάσσου τελευτήσαντος Φλαύιος Σίλβας διαδέχεται τὴν ἡγεμονίαν, καὶ τὴν μὲν ἄλλην ὁρῶν ἅπασαν τῷ πολέμῳ κεχειρωμένην, ἓν δὲ μόνον ἔτι φρούριον ἀφεστηκός, ἐστράτευσεν ἐπὶ τοῦτο πᾶσαν τὴν ἐν τοῖς τόποις δύναμιν συναγαγών: καλεῖται δὲ τὸ φρούριον Μασάδα. 7.253. προειστήκει δὲ τῶν κατειληφότων αὐτὸ σικαρίων δυνατὸς ἀνὴρ ̓Ελεάζαρος, ἀπόγονος ̓Ιούδα τοῦ πείσαντος ̓Ιουδαίους οὐκ ὀλίγους, ὡς πρότερον δεδηλώκαμεν, μὴ ποιεῖσθαι τὰς ἀπογραφάς, ὅτε Κυρίνιος τιμητὴς εἰς τὴν ̓Ιουδαίαν ἐπέμφθη. 7.254. τότε γὰρ οἱ σικάριοι συνέστησαν ἐπὶ τοὺς ὑπακούειν ̔Ρωμαίων θέλοντας καὶ πάντα τρόπον ὡς πολεμίοις προσεφέροντο, τὰς μὲν κτήσεις ἁρπάζοντες καὶ περιελαύνοντες, ταῖς δ' οἰκήκεσιν αὐτῶν πῦρ ἐνιέντες: 7.255. οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀλλοφύλων αὐτοὺς ἔφασκον διαφέρειν οὕτως ἀγεννῶς τὴν περιμάχητον ̓Ιουδαίοις ἐλευθερίαν προεμένους καὶ δουλείαν αἱρεῖσθαι τὴν ὑπὸ ̔Ρωμαίοις ἀνωμολογηκότας. 7.256. ἦν δ' ἄρα τοῦτο πρόφασις εἰς παρακάλυμμα τῆς ὠμότητος καὶ τῆς πλεονεξίας ὑπ' αὐτῶν λεγόμενον: σαφὲς δὲ διὰ τῶν ἔργων ἐποίησαν. 7.257. οἱ μὲν γὰρ αὐτοῖς τῆς ἀποστάσεως ἐκοινώνησαν καὶ τοῦ πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους συνήραντο πολέμου * καὶ παρ' ἐκείνων δὲ τολμήματα χείρω πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐγένετο, 7.258. κἀπὶ τῷ ψεύδεσθαι πάλιν τὴν πρόφασιν ἐξελεγχόμενοι μᾶλλον ἐκάκουν τοὺς τὴν πονηρίαν αὐτῶν διὰ τῆς δικαιολογίας ὀνειδίζοντας. 7.259. ἐγένετο γάρ πως ὁ χρόνος ἐκεῖνος παντοδαπῆς ἐν τοῖς ̓Ιουδαίοις πονηρίας πολύφορος, ὡς μηδὲν κακίας ἔργον ἄπρακτον καταλιπεῖν, μηδ' εἴ τι ἐπίνοια διαπλάττειν ἐθελήσειεν, ἔχειν ἄν τι καινότερον ἐξευρεῖν. 7.261. ἦν γὰρ ἐκείνοις μὲν ἐπιθυμία τοῦ τυραννεῖν, τοῖς δὲ τοῦ βιάζεσθαι καὶ τὰ τῶν εὐπόρων διαρπάζειν. 7.262. πρῶτον οὖν οἱ σικάριοι τῆς παρανομίας καὶ τῆς πρὸς τοὺς συγγενεῖς ἤρξαντο ὠμότητος, μήτε λόγον ἄρρητον εἰς ὕβριν μήτ' ἔργον ἀπείρατον εἰς ὄλεθρον τῶν ἐπιβουλευθέντων παραλιπόντες. 7.263. ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτους ̓Ιωάννης ἀπέδειξεν αὐτοῦ μετριωτέρους: οὐ γὰρ μόνον ἀνῄρει πάντας ὅσοι τὰ δίκαια καὶ συμφέροντα συνεβούλευον, καθάπερ ἐχθίστοις μάλιστα δὴ τῶν πολιτῶν τοῖς τοιούτοις προσφερόμενος, ἀλλὰ καὶ κοινῇ τὴν πατρίδα μυρίων ἐνέπλησε κακῶν, οἷα πράξειν ἔμελλεν ἄνθρωπος ἤδη καὶ τὸν θεὸν ἀσεβεῖν τετολμηκώς: 7.264. τράπεζάν τε γὰρ ἄθεσμον παρετίθετο καὶ τὴν νενομισμένην καὶ πάτριον ἐξεδιῄτησεν ἁγνείαν, ἵν' ᾖ μηκέτι θαυμαστόν, εἰ τὴν πρὸς ἀνθρώπους ἡμερότητα καὶ κοινωνίαν οὐκ ἐτήρησεν ὁ τῆς πρὸς θεὸν εὐσεβείας οὕτω καταμανείς. 7.265. πάλιν τοίνυν ὁ Γιώρα Σίμων τί κακὸν οὐκ ἔδρασεν; ἢ ποίας ὕβρεως ἐλευθέρων ἀπέσχοντο σωμάτων οἳ τοῦτον ἀνέδειξαν τύραννον; 7.266. ποία δὲ αὐτοὺς φιλία, ποία δὲ συγγένεια πρὸς τοὺς ἐφ' ἑκάστης ἡμέρας φόνους οὐχὶ θρασυτέρους ἐποίησε; τὸ μὲν γὰρ τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους κακῶς ποιεῖν ἀγεννοῦς ἔργον πονηρίας [εἶναι] ὑπελάμβανον, λαμπρὰν δὲ φέρειν ἐπίδειξιν ἡγοῦντο τὴν ἐν τοῖς οἰκειοτάτοις ὠμότητα. 7.267. παρημιλλήσατο δὲ καὶ τὴν τούτων ἀπόνοιαν ἡ τῶν ̓Ιδουμαίων μανία: ἐκεῖνοι γὰρ οἱ μιαρώτατοι τοὺς ἀρχιερέας κατασφάξαντες, ὅπως μηδὲ μέρος τι τῆς πρὸς τὸν θεὸν εὐσεβείας διαφυλάττηται, πᾶν ὅσον ἦν λείψανον ἔτι πολιτικοῦ σχήματος ἐξέκοψαν, 7.268. καὶ τὴν τελεωτάτην εἰσήγαγον διὰ πάντων ἀνομίαν, ἐν ᾗ τὸ τῶν ζηλωτῶν κληθέντων γένος ἤκμασεν, οἳ τὴν προσηγορίαν τοῖς ἔργοις ἐπηλήθευσαν: 7.269. πᾶν γὰρ κακίας ἔργον ἐξεμιμήσαντο, μηδ' εἴ τι πρότερον προϋπάρχον ἡ μνήμη παραδέδωκεν αὐτοὶ παραλιπόντες ἀζήλωτον. 7.271. τοιγαροῦν προσῆκον ἕκαστοι τὸ τέλος εὕροντο τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν ἀξίαν ἐπὶ πᾶσιν αὐτοῖς τιμωρίαν βραβεύσαντος: 7.272. ὅσας γὰρ ἀνθρώπου δύναται φύσις κολάσεις ὑπομεῖναι, πᾶσαι κατέσκηψαν εἰς αὐτοὺς μέχρι καὶ τῆς ἐσχάτης τοῦ βίου τελευτῆς, ἣν ὑπέμειναν ἐν πολυτρόποις αἰκίαις ἀποθανόντες. 7.273. οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ φαίη τις ἂν αὐτοὺς ἐλάττω παθεῖν ὧν ἔδρασαν: τὸ γὰρ δικαίως ἐπ' αὐτῶν οὐ προσῆν. 7.274. τοὺς δὲ ταῖς ἐκείνων ὠμότησι περιπεσόντας οὐ τοῦ παρόντος ἂν εἴη καιροῦ κατὰ τὴν ἀξίαν ὀδύρεσθαι: πάλιν οὖν ἐπάνειμι πρὸς τὸ καταλειπόμενον μέρος τῆς διηγήσεως. 7.275. ̓Επὶ γὰρ τὸν ̓Ελεάζαρον καὶ τοὺς κατέχοντας σὺν αὐτῷ τὴν Μασάδαν σικαρίους ὁ τῶν ̔Ρωμαίων στρατηγὸς ἧκε τὰς δυνάμεις ἄγων, καὶ τῆς μὲν χώρας ἁπάσης εὐθὺς ἐκράτει φρουρὰς ἐν τοῖς ἐπικαιροτάτοις αὐτῆς μέρεσιν ἐγκαταστήσας, 7.276. τεῖχος δὲ περιέβαλε κύκλῳ περὶ πᾶν τὸ φρούριον, ὅπως μηδενὶ τῶν πολιορκουμένων ᾖ ῥᾴδιον διαφυγεῖν, καὶ διανέμει τοὺς φυλάξοντας. 7.277. αὐτὸς δὲ καταστρατοπεδεύει τόπον ὡς μὲν πρὸς τὴν πολιορκίαν ἐπιτηδειότατον ἐκλαβών, καθ' ὃν αἱ τοῦ φρουρίου πέτραι τῷ πλησίον ὄρει συνήγγιζον, ἄλλως δὲ πρὸς ἀφθονίαν τῶν ἐπιτηδείων δύσκολον: 7.278. οὐ γὰρ ἡ τροφὴ μόνον πόρρωθεν ἐκομίζετο καὶ σὺν μεγάλῃ ταλαιπωρίᾳ τῶν ἐπὶ τοῦτο τεταγμένων ̓Ιουδαίων, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ποτὸν ἦν ἀγώγιμον [εἰς τὸ στρατόπεδον] τοῦ τόπου μηδεμίαν ἐγγὺς πηγὴν ἀναδιδόντος. 7.279. ταῦτ' οὖν προοικονομησάμενος ὁ Σίλβας ἐπὶ τὴν πολιορκίαν ἐτράπετο πολλῆς ἐπιτεχνήσεως καὶ ταλαιπωρίας δεομένην διὰ τὴν ὀχυρότητα τοῦ φρουρίου τοιοῦδε τὴν φύσιν ὑπάρχοντος: 7.281. ἔστι δὲ τῶν ὁδῶν ἡ μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς ̓Ασφαλτίτιδος λίμνης πρὸς ἥλιον ἀνίσχοντα, καὶ πάλιν ἀπὸ τῆς δύσεως ᾗ ῥᾷον πορευθῆναι. 7.282. καλοῦσι δὲ τὴν ἑτέραν ὄφιν, τῇ στενότητι προσεικάσαντες καὶ τοῖς συνεχέσιν ἑλιγμοῖς: κλᾶται γὰρ περὶ τὰς τῶν κρημνῶν ἐξοχὰς καὶ πολλάκις εἰς αὑτὴν ἀνατρέχουσα καὶ κατὰ μικρὸν αὖθις ἐκμηκυνομένη μόλις ψαύει τοῦ πρόσω. 7.283. δεῖ δὲ παραλλὰξ τὸν δι' αὐτῆς βαδίζοντα τὸν ἕτερον τῶν ποδῶν ἐρείδεσθαι. ἔστι δὲ πρόδηλος ὄλεθρος: ἑκατέρωθεν γὰρ βάθος κρημνῶν ὑποκέχηνε τῇ φοβερότητι πᾶσαν εὐτολμίαν ἐκπλῆξαι δυνάμενον. 7.284. διὰ τοιαύτης οὖν ἐλθόντι σταδίους τριάκοντα κορυφὴ τὸ λοιπόν ἐστιν οὐκ εἰς ὀξὺ τέρμα συνηγμένη, ἀλλ' ὥστ' εἶναι κατ' ἄκρας ἐπίπεδον. 7.285. ἐπὶ ταύτῃ πρῶτον μὲν ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς ᾠκοδομήσατο φρούριον ̓Ιωνάθης καὶ προσηγόρευσε Μασάδαν, ὕστερον δ' ̔Ηρώδῃ τῷ βασιλεῖ διὰ πολλῆς ἐγένετο σπουδῆς ἡ τοῦ χωρίου κατασκευή. 7.286. τεῖχός τε γὰρ ἤγειρε περὶ πάντα τὸν κύκλον τῆς κορυφῆς ἑπτὰ σταδίων ὄντα λευκοῦ μὲν λίθου πεποιημένον, ὕψος δὲ δώδεκα καὶ πλάτος ὀκτὼ πήχεις ἔχον, 7.287. τριάκοντα δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ ἑπτὰ πύργοι πεντηκονταπήχεις ἀνειστήκεσαν, ἐξ ὧν ἦν εἰς οἰκήματα διελθεῖν περὶ πᾶν τὸ τεῖχος ἔνδον ᾠκοδομημένα. 7.288. τὴν γὰρ κορυφὴν πίονα καὶ πεδίου παντὸς οὖσαν μαλακωτέραν ἀνῆκεν εἰς γεωργίαν ὁ βασιλεύς, ἵν' εἴ ποτε τῆς ἔξωθεν τροφῆς ἀπορία γένοιτο, μηδὲ ταύτῃ κάμοιεν οἱ τὴν αὐτῶν σωτηρίαν τῷ φρουρίῳ πεπιστευκότες. 7.289. καὶ βασίλειον δὲ κατεσκεύασεν ἐν αὐτῷ κατὰ τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἑσπέρας ἀνάβασιν, ὑποκάτω μὲν τῶν τῆς ἄκρας τειχῶν, πρὸς δὲ τὴν ἄρκτον ἐκκλίνον. τοῦ δὲ βασιλείου τὸ τεῖχος ἦν ὕψει μέγα καὶ καρτερόν, πύργους ἔχον ἑξηκονταπήχεις ἐγγωνίους τέτταρας. 7.291. πρὸς ἕκαστον δὲ τῶν οἰκουμένων τόπων ἄνω τε καὶ περὶ τὸ βασίλειον καὶ πρὸ τοῦ τείχους πολλοὺς καὶ μεγάλους ἐτετμήκει λάκκους ἐν ταῖς πέτραις φυλακτῆρας ὑδάτων, μηχανώμενος εἶναι χορηγίαν ὅση τῷ ἐκ πηγῶν ἐστι χρωμένοις. 7.292. ὀρυκτὴ δ' ὁδὸς ἐκ τοῦ βασιλείου πρὸς ἄκραν τὴν κορυφὴν ἀνέφερε τοῖς ἔξωθεν ἀφανής. οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ ταῖς φανεραῖς ὁδοῖς ἦν οἷόν τε χρήσασθαι ῥᾳδίως πολεμίους: 7.293. ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἑῴα διὰ τὴν φύσιν, ὡς προείπαμεν, ἐστὶν ἄβατος, τὴν δ' ἀπὸ τῆς ἑσπέρας μεγάλῳ κατὰ τὸ στενότατον πύργῳ διετείχισεν ἀπέχοντι τῆς ἄκρας πήχεων οὐκ ἔλαττον διάστημα χιλίων, ὃν οὔτε παρελθεῖν δυνατὸν ἦν οὔτε ῥᾴδιον ἑλεῖν: δυσέξοδος δὲ καὶ τοῖς μετὰ ἀδείας βαδίζουσιν ἐπεποίητο. 7.294. οὕτως μὲν οὖν πρὸς τὰς τῶν πολεμίων ἐφόδους φύσει τε καὶ χειροποιήτως τὸ φρούριον ὠχύρωτο. 7.295. Τῶν δ' ἔνδον ἀποκειμένων παρασκευῶν ἔτι μᾶλλον ἄν τις ἐθαύμασε τὴν λαμπρότητα καὶ τὴν διαμονήν: 7.296. σῖτός τε γὰρ ἀπέκειτο πολὺς καὶ πολὺν χρόνον ἀρκεῖν ἱκανώτατος οἶνός τε πολὺς ἦν καὶ ἔλαιον, ἔτι δὲ παντοῖος ὀσπρίων καρπὸς καὶ φοίνικες ἐσεσώρευντο. 7.297. πάντα δὲ εὗρεν ὁ ̓Ελεάζαρος τοῦ φρουρίου μετὰ τῶν σικαρίων ἐγκρατὴς δόλῳ γενόμενος ἀκμαῖα καὶ μηδὲν τῶν νεωστὶ κειμένων ἀποδέοντα: καίτοι σχεδὸν ἀπὸ τῆς παρασκευῆς εἰς τὴν ὑπὸ ̔Ρωμαίοις ἅλωσιν ἑκατὸν ἦν χρόνος ἐτῶν: ἀλλὰ καὶ ̔Ρωμαῖοι τοὺς περιλειφθέντας τῶν καρπῶν εὗρον ἀδιαφθόρους. 7.298. αἴτιον δ' οὐκ ἂν ἁμάρτοι τις ὑπολαμβάνων εἶναι τὸν ἀέρα τῆς διαμονῆς ὕψει τῷ περὶ τὴν ἄκραν πάσης ὄντα γεώδους καὶ θολερᾶς ἀμιγῆ κράσεως. 7.299. εὑρέθη δὲ καὶ παντοίων πλῆθος ὅπλων ὑπὸ τοῦ βασιλέως ἀποτεθησαυρισμένων, ὡς ἀνδράσιν ἀρκεῖν μυρίοις, ἀργός τε σίδηρος καὶ χαλκὸς ἔτι δὲ καὶ μόλιβος, ἅτε δὴ τῆς παρασκευῆς ἐπὶ μεγάλαις αἰτίαις γενομένης: 7.301. αὕτη γὰρ τὴν αὑτῆς γνώμην οὐκ ἐπεῖχεν, ἀλλὰ πολλάκις ̓Αντωνίῳ λόγους προσέφερε τὸν μὲν ̔Ηρώδην ἀνελεῖν ἀξιοῦσα, χαρίσασθαι δ' αὐτῇ τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων δεομένη. 7.302. καὶ μᾶλλον ἄν τις ἐθαύμασεν, ὅτι μηδέπω τοῖς προστάγμασιν ̓Αντώνιος ὑπακηκόει κακῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ πρὸς αὐτὴν ἔρωτος δεδουλωμένος, οὐχ ὅτι περὶ τοῦ μὴ χαρίσασθαι προσεδόκησεν. 7.303. διὰ τοιούτους μὲν φόβους ̔Ηρώδης Μασάδαν κατεσκευασμένος ἔμελλεν ̔Ρωμαίοις ἀπολείψειν ἔργον τοῦ πρὸς ̓Ιουδαίους πολέμου τελευταῖον. 7.304. ̓Επεὶ γὰρ ἔξωθεν ἤδη περιτετειχίκει πάντα τὸν τόπον ὁ τῶν ̔Ρωμαίων, ὡς προείπαμεν, ἡγεμών, καὶ τοῦ μή τινα ἀποδρᾶναι πρόνοιαν ἐπεποίητο τὴν ἀκριβεστάτην, ἐνεχείρει τῇ πολιορκίᾳ μόνον εὑρὼν ἕνα τόπον ἐπιβολὴν χωμάτων δέξασθαι δυνάμενον. 7.305. μετὰ γὰρ τὸν διατειχίζοντα πύργον τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς δύσεως ὁδὸν ἄγουσαν εἴς τε τὸ βασίλειον καὶ τὴν ἀκρώρειαν ἦν τις ἐξοχὴ πέτρας εὐμεγέθης τῷ πλάτει καὶ πολὺ προκύπτουσα, τοῦ δὲ ὕψους τῆς Μασάδας τριακοσίους πήχεις ὑποκάτω: Λευκὴν δ' αὐτὴν ὠνόμαζον. 7.306. ἐπὶ ταύτην οὖν ἀναβὰς καὶ κατασχὼν αὐτὴν ὁ Σίλβας ἐκέλευε τὸν στρατὸν χοῦν ἐπιφέρειν. τῶν δὲ προθύμως καὶ μετὰ πολλῆς χειρὸς ἐργαζομένων στερεὸν εἰς διακοσίους πήχεις ὑψώθη τὸ χῶμα. 7.307. οὐ μὴν οὔτε βέβαιον οὔτε αὔταρκες ἐδόκει τοῦτο τὸ μέτρον εἶναι τοῖς μηχανήμασιν εἰς ἐπιβάθραν, ἀλλ' ἐπ' αὐτοῦ βῆμα λίθων μεγάλων συνηρμοσμένων ἐποιήθη πεντήκοντα πήχεων εὖρός τε καὶ ὕψος. 7.308. ἦν δὲ τῶν ἄλλων τε μηχανημάτων ἡ κατασκευὴ παραπλησία τοῖς ὑπὸ μὲν Οὐεσπασιανοῦ πρότερον, μετὰ ταῦτα δ' ὑπὸ Τίτου πρὸς τὰς πολιορκίας ἐπινοηθεῖσι, 7.309. καὶ πύργος ἑξηκοντάπηχυς συνετελέσθη σιδήρῳ καταπεφραγμένος ἅπας, ἐξ οὗ πολλοῖς ὀξυβελέσι καὶ πετροβόλοις βάλλοντες οἱ ̔Ρωμαῖοι τοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ τείχους μαχομένους ταχέως ἀνέστειλαν καὶ προκύπτειν ἐκώλυσαν. 7.311. φθάνουσι δ' οἱ σικάριοι ταχέως ἔνδοθεν οἰκοδομησάμενοι τεῖχος ἕτερον, ὃ μηδὲ ὑπὸ τῶν μηχανημάτων ἔμελλεν ὅμοιόν τι πείσεσθαι: μαλακὸν γὰρ αὐτὸ καὶ τὴν σφοδρότητα τῆς ἐμβολῆς ὑπεκλύειν δυνάμενον τοιῷδε τρόπῳ κατεσκεύασαν. 7.312. δοκοὺς μεγάλας ἐπὶ μῆκος προσεχεῖς ἀλλήλαις κατὰ τὴν τομὴν συνέθεσαν. δύο δὲ ἦσαν τούτων στίχοι παράλληλοι τοσοῦτον διεστῶτες ὅσον εἶναι πλάτος τείχους, καὶ μέσον ἀμφοῖν τὸν χοῦν ἐνεφόρουν. 7.313. ὅπως δὲ μηδὲ ὑψουμένου τοῦ χώματος ἡ γῆ διαχέοιτο, πάλιν ἑτέραις δοκοῖς ἐπικαρσίαις τὰς κατὰ μῆκος κειμένας διέδεον. 7.314. ἦν οὖν ἐκείνοις μὲν οἰκοδομίᾳ τὸ ἔργον παραπλήσιον, τῶν μηχανημάτων δ' αἱ πληγαὶ φερόμεναι πρὸς εἶκον ἐξελύοντο καὶ τῷ σάλῳ συνιζάνον ἐποίουν αὐτὸ στεριφώτερον. 7.315. τοῦτο συνιδὼν ὁ Σίλβας πυρὶ μᾶλλον αἱρήσειν ἐνόμιζεν τὸ τεῖχος, καὶ τοῖς στρατιώταις προσέταττε λαμπάδας αἰθομένας ἀθρόους ἐσακοντίζειν. 7.316. τὸ δὲ οἷα δὴ ξύλων τὸ πλέον πεποιημένον ταχὺ τοῦ πυρὸς ἀντελάβετο καὶ τῇ χαυνότητι πυρωθὲν διὰ βάθους φλόγα πολλὴν ἐξεπύρσευσεν. 7.317. ἀρχομένου μὲν οὖν ἔτι τοῦ πυρὸς βορρᾶς ἐμπνέων τοῖς ̔Ρωμαίοις φοβερὸς ἦν: ἄνωθεν γὰρ ἀποστρέφων ἐπ' ἐκείνους ἤλαυνε τὴν φλόγα, καὶ σχεδὸν ἤδη τῶν μηχανημάτων ὡς συμφλεγησομένων ἀπέγνωσαν: 7.318. ἔπειτα δ' αἰφνίδιον νότος μεταβαλὼν καθάπερ ἐκ δαιμονίου προνοίας καὶ πολὺς ἐναντίον πνεύσας τῷ τείχει φέρων αὐτὴν προσέβαλε, καὶ πᾶν ἤδη διὰ βάθους ἐφλέγετο. 7.319. ̔Ρωμαῖοι μὲν οὖν τῇ παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ συμμαχίᾳ κεχρημένοι χαίροντες εἰς τὸ στρατόπεδον ἀπηλλάττοντο μεθ' ἡμέραν ἐπιχειρεῖν τοῖς πολεμίοις διεγνωκότες καὶ τὰς φυλακὰς νύκτωρ ἐπιμελεστέρας ἐποιήσαντο, μή τινες αὐτῶν λάθωσιν ἀποδράντες. 7.321. ὁρῶν δὲ τὸ μὲν τεῖχος ὑπὸ τοῦ πυρὸς ἀναλούμενον, ἄλλον δὲ οὐδένα σωτηρίας τρόπον οὐδ' ἀλκῆς ἐπινοῶν, ἃ δὲ ἔμελλον ̔Ρωμαῖοι δράσειν αὐτοὺς καὶ τέκνα καὶ γυναῖκας [αὐτῶν], εἰ κρατήσειαν, ὑπ' ὀφθαλμοὺς αὑτῷ τιθέμενος, θάνατον κατὰ πάντων ἐβουλεύσατο. 7.322. καὶ τοῦτο κρίνας ἐκ τῶν παρόντων ἄριστον, τοὺς ἀνδρωδεστάτους τῶν ἑταίρων συναγαγὼν τοιούτοις ἐπὶ τὴν πρᾶξιν λόγοις παρεκάλει: 7.323. “πάλαι διεγνωκότας ἡμᾶς, ἄνδρες ἀγαθοί, μήτε ̔Ρωμαίοις μήτ' ἄλλῳ τινὶ δουλεύειν ἢ θεῷ, μόνος γὰρ οὗτος ἀληθής ἐστι καὶ δίκαιος ἀνθρώπων δεσπότης, ἥκει νῦν καιρὸς ἐπαληθεῦσαι κελεύων τὸ φρόνημα τοῖς ἔργοις. 7.324. πρὸς ὃν αὑτοὺς μὴ καταισχύνωμεν πρότερον μηδὲ δουλείαν ἀκίνδυνον ὑπομείναντες, νῦν δὲ μετὰ δουλείας ἑλόμενοι τιμωρίας ἀνηκέστους, εἰ ζῶντες ὑπὸ ̔Ρωμαίοις ἐσόμεθα: πρῶτοί τε γὰρ πάντων ἀπέστημεν καὶ πολεμοῦμεν αὐτοῖς τελευταῖοι. 7.325. νομίζω δὲ καὶ παρὰ θεοῦ ταύτην δεδόσθαι χάριν τοῦ δύνασθαι καλῶς καὶ ἐλευθέρως ἀποθανεῖν, ὅπερ ἄλλοις οὐκ ἐγένετο παρ' ἐλπίδα κρατηθεῖσιν. 7.326. ἡμῖν δὲ πρόδηλος μέν ἐστιν ἡ γενησομένη μεθ' ἡμέραν ἅλωσις, ἐλευθέρα δὲ ἡ τοῦ γενναίου θανάτου μετὰ τῶν φιλτάτων αἵρεσις. οὔτε γὰρ τοῦτ' ἀποκωλύειν οἱ πολέμιοι δύνανται πάντως εὐχόμενοι ζῶντας ἡμᾶς παραλαβεῖν, οὔθ' ἡμεῖς ἐκείνους ἔτι νικᾶν μαχόμενοι. 7.327. ἔδει μὲν γὰρ εὐθὺς ἴσως ἐξ ἀρχῆς, ὅτε τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἡμῖν ἀντιποιεῖσθαι θελήσασι πάντα καὶ παρ' ἀλλήλων ἀπέβαινε χαλεπὰ καὶ παρὰ τῶν πολεμίων χείρω, τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ γνώμης στοχάζεσθαι καὶ γινώσκειν, ὅτι τὸ πάλαι φίλον αὐτῷ φῦλον ̓Ιουδαίων κατέγνωστο: 7.328. μένων γὰρ εὐμενὴς ἢ μετρίως γοῦν ἀπηχθημένος, οὐκ ἂν τοσούτων μὲν ἀνθρώπων περιεῖδεν ὄλεθρον, προήκατο δὲ τὴν ἱερωτάτην αὐτοῦ πόλιν πυρὶ καὶ κατασκαφαῖς πολεμίων. 7.329. ἡμεῖς δ' ἄρα καὶ μόνοι τοῦ παντὸς ̓Ιουδαίων γένους ἠλπίσαμεν περιέσεσθαι τὴν ἐλευθερίαν φυλάξαντες, ὥσπερ ἀναμάρτητοι πρὸς τὸν θεὸν γενόμενοι καὶ μηδεμιᾶς μετασχόντες,* οἳ καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἐδιδάξαμεν; 7.331. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡ τοῦ φρουρίου φύσις ἀνάλωτος οὖσα πρὸς σωτηρίαν ὠφέληκεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τροφῆς ἀφθονίαν καὶ πλῆθος ὅπλων καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἔχοντες παρασκευὴν περιττεύουσαν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ περιφανῶς τοῦ θεοῦ τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς σωτηρίας ἀφῃρήμεθα. 7.332. τὸ γὰρ πῦρ εἰς τοὺς πολεμίους φερόμενον οὐκ αὐτομάτως ἐπὶ τὸ κατασκευασθὲν τεῖχος ὑφ' ἡμῶν ἀνέστρεψεν, ἀλλ' ἔστι ταῦτα χόλος πολλῶν ἀδικημάτων, ἃ μανέντες εἰς τοὺς ὁμοφύλους ἐτολμήσαμεν. 7.333. ὑπὲρ ὧν μὴ τοῖς ἐχθίστοις ̔Ρωμαίοις δίκας ἀλλὰ τῷ θεῷ δι' ἡμῶν αὐτῶν ὑπόσχωμεν: αὗται δέ εἰσιν ἐκείνων μετριώτεραι: 7.334. θνησκέτωσαν γὰρ γυναῖκες ἀνύβριστοι καὶ παῖδες δουλείας ἀπείρατοι, μετὰ δ' αὐτοὺς ἡμεῖς εὐγενῆ χάριν ἀλλήλοις παράσχωμεν καλὸν ἐντάφιον τὴν ἐλευθερίαν φυλάξαντες. 7.335. πρότερον δὲ καὶ τὰ χρήματα καὶ τὸ φρούριον πυρὶ διαφθείρωμεν: λυπηθήσονται γὰρ ̔Ρωμαῖοι, σαφῶς οἶδα, μήτε τῶν ἡμετέρων σωμάτων κρατήσαντες καὶ τοῦ κέρδους ἁμαρτόντες. 7.336. τὰς τροφὰς μόνας ἐάσωμεν: αὗται γὰρ ἡμῖν τεθνηκόσι μαρτυρήσουσιν ὅτι μὴ κατ' ἔνδειαν ἐκρατήθημεν, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἐξ ἀρχῆς διέγνωμεν, θάνατον ἑλόμενοι πρὸ δουλείας.” 7.337. Ταῦτα ̓Ελεάζαρος ἔλεγεν. οὐ μὴν κατ' αὐτὸ ταῖς γνώμαις προσέπιπτε τῶν παρόντων, ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ἔσπευδον ὑπακούειν καὶ μόνον οὐχ ἡδονῆς ἐνεπίμπλαντο καλὸν εἶναι τὸν θάνατον νομίζοντες, 7.338. τοὺς δ' αὐτῶν μαλακωτέρους γυναικῶν καὶ γενεᾶς οἶκτος εἰσῄει, πάντως δὲ καὶ τῆς ἑαυτῶν προδήλου τελευτῆς εἰς ἀλλήλους ἀποβλέποντες τοῖς δακρύοις τὸ μὴ βουλόμενον τῆς γνώμης ἐσήμαινον. 7.339. τούτους ἰδὼν ̓Ελεάζαρος ἀποδειλιῶντας καὶ πρὸς τὸ μέγεθος τοῦ βουλεύματος τὰς ψυχὰς ὑποκλωμένους ἔδεισε, μή ποτε καὶ τοὺς ἐρρωμένως τῶν λόγων ἀκούσαντας αὐτοὶ συνεκθηλύνωσι ποτνιώμενοι καὶ δακρύοντες. 7.341. μέγα τε σχετλιάσας καὶ τοῖς δακρύουσιν ἀτενὲς ἐμβλέψας “ἦ πλεῖστον, εἶπεν, ἐψεύσθην νομίζων ἀνδράσιν ἀγαθοῖς τῶν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἀγώνων συναρεῖσθαι, ζῆν καλῶς ἢ τεθνάναι διεγνωκόσιν. 7.342. ὑμεῖς δὲ ἦτε τῶν τυχόντων οὐδὲν εἰς ἀρετὴν οὐδ' εὐτολμίαν διαφέροντες, οἵ γε καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ μεγίστων ἀπαλλαγῇ κακῶν φοβεῖσθε θάνατον δέον ὑπὲρ τούτου μήτε μελλῆσαι μήτε σύμβουλον ἀναμεῖναι. 7.343. πάλαι γὰρ εὐθὺς ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης αἰσθήσεως παιδεύοντες ἡμᾶς οἱ πάτριοι καὶ θεῖοι λόγοι διετέλουν ἔργοις τε καὶ φρονήμασι τῶν ἡμετέρων προγόνων αὐτοὺς βεβαιούντων, ὅτι συμφορὰ τὸ ζῆν ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις, οὐχὶ θάνατος. 7.344. οὗτος μὲν γὰρ ἐλευθερίαν διδοὺς ψυχαῖς εἰς τὸν οἰκεῖον καὶ καθαρὸν ἀφίησι τόπον ἀπαλλάσσεσθαι πάσης συμφορᾶς ἀπαθεῖς ἐσομένας, ἕως δέ εἰσιν ἐν σώματι θνητῷ δεδεμέναι καὶ τῶν τούτου κακῶν συναναπίμπλανται, τἀληθέστατον εἰπεῖν, τεθνήκασι: 7.345. κοινωνία γὰρ θείῳ πρὸς θνητὸν ἀπρεπής ἐστι. μέγα μὲν οὖν δύναται ψυχὴ καὶ σώματι συνδεδεμένη: ποιεῖ γὰρ αὐτῆς ὄργανον αἰσθανόμενον ἀοράτως αὐτὸ κινοῦσα καὶ θνητῆς φύσεως περαιτέρω προάγουσα ταῖς πράξεσιν: 7.346. οὐ μὴν ἀλλ' ἐπειδὰν ἀπολυθεῖσα τοῦ καθέλκοντος αὐτὴν βάρους ἐπὶ γῆν καὶ προσκρεμαμένου χῶρον ἀπολάβῃ τὸν οἰκεῖον, τότε δὴ μακαρίας ἰσχύος καὶ πανταχόθεν ἀκωλύτου μετέχει δυνάμεως, ἀόρατος μένουσα τοῖς ἀνθρωπίνοις ὄμμασιν ὥσπερ αὐτὸς ὁ θεός: 7.347. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἕως ἐστὶν ἐν σώματι θεωρεῖται: πρόσεισι γὰρ ἀφανῶς καὶ μὴ βλεπομένη πάλιν ἀπαλλάττεται, μίαν μὲν αὐτὴ φύσιν ἔχουσα τὴν ἄφθαρτον, αἰτία δὲ σώματι γινομένη μεταβολῆς. 7.348. ὅτου γὰρ ἂν ψυχὴ προσψαύσῃ, τοῦτο ζῇ καὶ τέθηλεν, ὅτου δ' ἂν ἀπαλλαγῇ, μαρανθὲν ἀποθνήσκει: τοσοῦτον αὐτῇ περίεστιν ἀθανασίας. 7.349. ὕπνος δὲ τεκμήριον ὑμῖν ἔστω τῶν λόγων ἐναργέστατον, ἐν ᾧ ψυχαὶ τοῦ σώματος αὐτὰς μὴ περισπῶντος ἡδίστην μὲν ἔχουσιν ἀνάπαυσιν ἐφ' αὑτῶν γενόμεναι, θεῷ δ' ὁμιλοῦσαι κατὰ συγγένειαν πάντη μὲν ἐπιφοιτῶσι, πολλὰ δὲ τῶν ἐσομένων προθεσπίζουσι. 7.351. ἔδει μὲν οὖν ἡμᾶς οἴκοθεν πεπαιδευμένους ἄλλοις εἶναι παράδειγμα τῆς πρὸς θάνατον ἑτοιμότητος: οὐ μὴν ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ τῆς παρὰ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων δεόμεθα πίστεως, βλέψωμεν εἰς ̓Ινδοὺς τοὺς σοφίαν ἀσκεῖν ὑπισχνουμένους. 7.352. ἐκεῖνοί τε γὰρ ὄντες ἄνδρες ἀγαθοὶ τὸν μὲν τοῦ ζῆν χρόνον ὥσπερ ἀναγκαίαν τινὰ τῇ φύσει λειτουργίαν ἀκουσίως ὑπομένουσι, 7.353. σπεύδουσι δὲ τὰς ψυχὰς ἀπολῦσαι τῶν σωμάτων, καὶ μηδενὸς αὐτοὺς ἐπείγοντος κακοῦ μηδ' ἐξελαύνοντος πόθῳ τῆς ἀθανάτου διαίτης προλέγουσι μὲν τοῖς ἄλλοις ὅτι μέλλουσιν ἀπιέναι, καὶ ἔστιν ὁ κωλύσων οὐδείς, ἀλλὰ πάντες αὐτοὺς εὐδαιμονίζοντες πρὸς τοὺς οἰκείους ἕκαστοι διδόασιν ἐπιστολάς: 7.354. οὕτως βεβαίαν καὶ ἀληθεστάτην ταῖς ψυχαῖς τὴν μετ' ἀλλήλων εἶναι δίαιταν πεπιστεύκασιν. 7.355. οἱ δ' ἐπειδὰν ἐπακούσωσι τῶν ἐντεταλμένων αὐτοῖς, πυρὶ τὸ σῶμα παραδόντες, ὅπως δὴ καὶ καθαρωτάτην ἀποκρίνωσι τοῦ σώματος τὴν ψυχήν, ὑμνούμενοι τελευτῶσιν: 7.356. ῥᾷον γὰρ ἐκείνους εἰς τὸν θάνατον οἱ φίλτατοι προπέμπουσιν ἢ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων ἕκαστοι τοὺς πολίτας εἰς μηκίστην ἀποδημίαν, καὶ σφᾶς μὲν αὐτοὺς δακρύουσιν, ἐκείνους δὲ μακαρίζουσιν ἤδη τὴν ἀθάνατον τάξιν ἀπολαμβάνοντας. 7.357. ἆρ' οὖν οὐκ αἰδούμεθα χεῖρον ̓Ινδῶν φρονοῦντες καὶ διὰ τῆς αὑτῶν ἀτολμίας τοὺς πατρίους νόμους, οἳ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις εἰς ζῆλον ἥκουσιν, αἰσχρῶς ὑβρίζοντες; 7.358. ἀλλ' εἴ γε καὶ τοὺς ἐναντίους ἐξ ἀρχῆς λόγους ἐπαιδεύθημεν, ὡς ἄρα μέγιστον ἀγαθὸν ἀνθρώποις ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν συμφορὰ δ' ὁ θάνατος, ὁ γοῦν καιρὸς ἡμᾶς παρακαλεῖ φέρειν εὐκαρδίως αὐτὸν θεοῦ γνώμῃ καὶ κατ' ἀνάγκας τελευτήσαντας: 7.359. πάλαι γάρ, ὡς ἔοικε, κατὰ τοῦ κοινοῦ παντὸς ̓Ιουδαίων γένους ταύτην ἔθετο τὴν ψῆφον ὁ θεός, ὥσθ' ἡμᾶς τοῦ ζῆν ἀπηλλάχθαι μὴ μέλλοντας αὐτῷ χρῆσθαι κατὰ τρόπον. 7.361. ποίοις γὰρ ὅπλοις ̔Ρωμαίων τεθνήκασιν οἱ Καισάρειαν ̓Ιουδαῖοι κατοικοῦντες; 7.362. ἀλλ' οὐδὲ μελλήσαντας αὐτοὺς ἐκείνων ἀφίστασθαι, μεταξὺ δὲ τὴν ἑβδόμην ἑορτάζοντας τὸ πλῆθος τῶν Καισαρέων ἐπιδραμὸν μηδὲ χεῖρας ἀνταίροντας ἅμα γυναιξὶ καὶ τέκνοις κατέσφαξαν, οὐδ' αὐτοὺς ̔Ρωμαίους ἐντραπέντες, οἳ μόνους ἡμᾶς ἡγοῦντο πολεμίους τοὺς ἀφεστηκότας. 7.363. ἀλλὰ φήσει τις, ὅτι Καισαρεῦσιν ἦν ἀεὶ διαφορὰ πρὸς τοὺς παρ' αὐτοῖς, καὶ τοῦ καιροῦ λαβόμενοι τὸ παλαιὸν μῖσος ἀπεπλήρωσαν. 7.364. τί οὖν τοὺς ἐν Σκυθοπόλει φῶμεν; ἡμῖν γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι διὰ τοὺς ̔́Ελληνας πολεμεῖν ἐτόλμησαν, ἀλλ' οὐ μετὰ τῶν συγγενῶν ἡμῶν ̔Ρωμαίους ἀμύνεσθαι. 7.365. πολὺ τοίνυν ὤνησεν αὐτοὺς ἡ πρὸς ἐκείνους εὔνοια καὶ πίστις: ὑπ' αὐτῶν μέντοι πανοικεσίᾳ πικρῶς κατεφονεύθησαν ταύτην τῆς συμμαχίας ἀπολαβόντες ἀμοιβήν: 7.366. ἃ γὰρ ἐκείνους ὑφ' ἡμῶν ἐκώλυσαν ταῦθ' ὑπέμειναν ὡς αὐτοὶ δρᾶσαι θελήσαντες. μακρὸν ἂν εἴη νῦν ἰδίᾳ περὶ ἑκάστων λέγειν: 7.367. ἴστε γὰρ ὅτι τῶν ἐν Συρίᾳ πόλεων οὐκ ἔστιν ἥτις τοὺς παρ' αὐτῇ κατοικοῦντας ̓Ιουδαίους οὐκ ἀνῄρηκεν, ἡμῖν πλέον ἢ ̔Ρωμαίοις ὄντας πολεμίους: 7.368. ὅπου γε Δαμασκηνοὶ μηδὲ πρόφασιν εὔλογον πλάσαι δυνηθέντες φόνου μιαρωτάτου τὴν αὐτῶν πόλιν ἐνέπλησαν ὀκτακισχιλίους πρὸς τοῖς μυρίοις ̓Ιουδαίους ἅμα γυναιξὶ καὶ γενεαῖς ἀποσφάξαντες. 7.369. τὸ δ' ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ πλῆθος τῶν μετ' αἰκίας ἀνῃρημένων ἕξ που μυριάδας ὑπερβάλλειν ἐπυνθανόμεθα. κἀκεῖνοι μὲν ἴσως ἐπ' ἀλλοτρίας γῆς οὐδὲν ἀντίπαλον εὑράμενοι τοῖς πολεμίοις οὕτως ἀπέθανον, τοῖς δ' ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκείας τὸν πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους πόλεμον ἀραμένοις ἅπασι τε τῶν ἐλπίδα νίκης ἐχυρᾶς παρασχεῖν δυναμένων οὐχ ὑπῆρξε; 7.371. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα πρὸς βραχὺν χρόνον ἀρκέσαντα καὶ ταῖς ἐλπίσιν ἡμᾶς ἐπάραντα μειζόνων ἀρχὴ κακῶν ἐφάνη: πάντα γὰρ ἥλω, καὶ πάντα τοῖς πολεμίοις ὑπέπεσεν, ὥσπερ εἰς τὴν ἐκείνων εὐκλεεστέραν νίκην, οὐκ εἰς τὴν τῶν παρασκευασαμένων σωτηρίαν εὐτρεπισθέντα. 7.372. καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἐν ταῖς μάχαις ἀποθνήσκοντας εὐδαιμονίζειν προσῆκον: ἀμυνόμενοι γὰρ καὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν οὐ προέμενοι τεθνήκασι: τὸ δὲ πλῆθος τῶν ὑπὸ ̔Ρωμαίοις γενομένων τίς οὐκ ἂν ἐλεήσειε; τίς οὐκ ἂν ἐπειχθείη πρὸ τοῦ ταὐτὰ παθεῖν ἐκείνοις ἀποθανεῖν; 7.373. ὧν οἱ μὲν στρεβλούμενοι καὶ πυρὶ καὶ μάστιξιν αἰκιζόμενοι τεθνήκασιν, οἱ δ' ἀπὸ θηρίων ἡμίβρωτοι πρὸς δευτέραν αὐτοῖς τροφὴν ζῶντες ἐφυλάχθησαν, γέλωτα καὶ παίγνιον τοῖς πολεμίοις παρασχόντες. 7.374. ἐκείνων μὲν οὖν ἀθλιωτάτους ὑποληπτέον τοὺς ἔτι ζῶντας, οἳ πολλάκις εὐχόμενοι τὸν θάνατον λαβεῖν οὐκ ἔχουσιν. 7.375. ποῦ δ' ἡ μεγάλη πόλις, ἡ τοῦ παντὸς ̓Ιουδαίων γένους μητρόπολις, ἡ τοσούτοις μὲν ἐρυμνὴ τειχῶν περιβόλοις, τοσαῦτα δ' αὑτῆς φρούρια καὶ μεγέθη πύργων προβεβλημένη, μόλις δὲ χωροῦσα τὰς εἰς τὸν πόλεμον παρασκευάς, τοσαύτας δὲ μυριάδας ἀνδρῶν ἔχουσα τῶν ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς μαχομένων; 7.376. ποῦ γέγονεν ἡμῖν ἡ τὸν θεὸν ἔχειν οἰκιστὴν πεπιστευμένη; πρόρριζος ἐκ βάθρων ἀνήρπασται, καὶ μόνον αὐτῆς μνημεῖον ἀπολείπεται τὸ τῶν ἀνῃρημένων ἔτι τοῖς λειψάνοις ἐποικοῦν. 7.377. πρεσβῦται δὲ δύστηνοι τῇ σποδῷ τοῦ τεμένους παρακάθηνται καὶ γυναῖκες ὀλίγαι πρὸς ὕβριν αἰσχίστην ὑπὸ τῶν πολεμίων τετηρημέναι. 7.378. ταῦτα τίς ἐν νῷ βαλλόμενος ἡμῶν καρτερήσει τὸν ἥλιον ὁρᾶν, κἂν δύνηται ζῆν ἀκινδύνως; τίς οὕτω τῆς πατρίδος ἐχθρός, ἢ τίς οὕτως ἄνανδρος καὶ φιλόψυχος, ὡς μὴ καὶ περὶ τοῦ μέχρι νῦν ζῆσαι μετανοεῖν; 7.379. ἀλλ' εἴθε πάντες ἐτεθνήκειμεν πρὶν τὴν ἱερὰν ἐκείνην πόλιν χερσὶν ἰδεῖν κατασκαπτομένην πολεμίων, πρὶν τὸν ναὸν τὸν ἅγιον οὕτως ἀνοσίως ἐξορωρυγμένον. 7.381. ἐπὶ μὲν γὰρ θάνατον ἐγεννήθημεν καὶ τοὺς ἐξ αὑτῶν ἐγεννήσαμεν, καὶ τοῦτον οὐδὲ τοῖς εὐδαιμονοῦσιν ἔστι διαφυγεῖν: 7.382. ὕβρις δὲ καὶ δουλεία καὶ τὸ βλέπειν γυναῖκας εἰς αἰσχύνην ἀγομένας μετὰ τέκνων οὐκ ἔστιν ἀνθρώποις κακὸν ἐκ φύσεως ἀναγκαῖον, ἀλλὰ ταῦτα διὰ τὴν αὐτῶν δειλίαν ὑπομένουσιν οἱ παρὸν πρὸ αὐτῶν ἀποθανεῖν μὴ θελήσαντες. 7.383. ἡμεῖς δὲ ἐπ' ἀνδρείᾳ μέγα φρονοῦντες ̔Ρωμαίων ἀπέστημεν καὶ τὰ τελευταῖα νῦν ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ προκαλουμένων ἡμᾶς οὐχ ὑπηκούσαμεν. 7.384. τίνι τοίνυν οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ θυμὸς αὐτῶν πρόδηλος, εἰ ζώντων ἡμῶν κρατήσουσιν; ἄθλιοι μὲν οἱ νέοι τῆς ῥώμης τῶν σωμάτων εἰς πολλὰς αἰκίας ἀρκέσοντες, ἄθλιοι δὲ οἱ παρηβηκότες φέρειν τῆς ἡλικίας τὰς συμφορὰς οὐ δυναμένης. 7.385. ὄψεταί τις γυναῖκα πρὸς βίαν ἀγομένην, φωνῆς ἐπακούσεται τέκνου πατέρα βοῶντος χεῖρας δεδεμένος. 7.386. ἀλλ' ἕως εἰσὶν ἐλεύθεραι καὶ ξίφος ἔχουσιν, καλὴν ὑπουργίαν ὑπουργησάτωσαν: ἀδούλωτοι μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν πολεμίων ἀποθάνωμεν, ἐλεύθεροι δὲ μετὰ τέκνων καὶ γυναικῶν τοῦ ζῆν συνεξέλθωμεν. 7.387. ταῦθ' ἡμᾶς οἱ νόμοι κελεύουσι, ταῦθ' ἡμᾶς γυναῖκες καὶ παῖδες ἱκετεύουσι: τούτων τὴν ἀνάγκην θεὸς ἀπέσταλκε, τούτων ̔Ρωμαῖοι τἀναντία θέλουσι, καὶ μή τις ἡμῶν πρὸ τῆς ἁλώσεως ἀποθάνῃ δεδοίκασι. 7.388. σπεύσωμεν οὖν ἀντὶ τῆς ἐλπιζομένης αὐτοῖς καθ' ἡμῶν ἀπολαύσεως ἔκπληξιν τοῦ θανάτου καὶ θαῦμα τῆς τόλμης καταλιπεῖν.” 7.389. ̓́Ετι βουλόμενον αὐτὸν παρακαλεῖν πάντες ὑπετέμνοντο καὶ πρὸς τὴν πρᾶξιν ἠπείγοντο ἀνεπισχέτου τινὸς ὁρμῆς πεπληρωμένοι, καὶ δαιμονῶντες ἀπῄεσαν ἄλλος πρὸ ἄλλου φθάσαι γλιχόμενος καὶ ταύτην ἐπίδειξιν εἶναι τῆς ἀνδρείας καὶ τῆς εὐβουλίας νομίζοντες, τὸ μή τις ἐν ὑστάτοις γενόμενος ὀφθῆναι: τοσοῦτος αὐτοῖς γυναικῶν καὶ παιδίων καὶ τῆς αὑτῶν σφαγῆς ἔρως ἐνέπεσεν. 7.391. ὁμοῦ γὰρ ἠσπάζοντο γυναῖκας περιπτυσσόμενοι καὶ τέκνα προσηγκαλίζοντο τοῖς ὑστάτοις φιλήμασιν ἐμφυόμενοι καὶ δακρύοντες, 7.392. ὁμοῦ δὲ καθάπερ ἀλλοτρίαις χερσὶν ὑπουργούμενοι συνετέλουν τὸ βούλευμα, τὴν ἐπίνοιαν ὧν πείσονται κακῶν ὑπὸ τοῖς πολεμίοις γενόμενοι παραμύθιον τῆς ἐν τῷ κτείνειν ἀνάγκης ἔχοντες. 7.393. καὶ πέρας οὐδεὶς τηλικούτου τολμήματος ἥττων εὑρέθη, πάντες δὲ διὰ τῶν οἰκειοτάτων διεξῆλθον, ἄθλιοι τῆς ἀνάγκης, οἷς αὐτοχειρὶ γυναῖκας τὰς αὑτῶν καὶ τέκνα κτεῖναι κακῶν ἔδοξεν εἶναι τὸ κουφότατον. 7.394. οὔτε δὴ τοίνυν τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς πεπραγμένοις ὀδύνην ἔτι φέροντες καὶ τοὺς ἀνῃρημένους νομίζοντες ἀδικεῖν εἰ καὶ βραχὺν αὐτοῖς ἔτι χρόνον ἐπιζήσουσι, ταχὺ μὲν τὴν κτῆσιν ἅπασαν εἰς ταὐτὸ σωρεύσαντες πῦρ εἰς αὐτὴν ἐνέβαλον, 7.395. κλήρῳ δ' ἐξ αὑτῶν ἑλόμενοι δέκα τοὺς ἁπάντων σφαγεῖς ἐσομένους, καὶ γυναικί τις αὑτὸν καὶ παισὶ κειμένοις παραστρώσας καὶ τὰς χεῖρας περιβαλών, παρεῖχον ἑτοίμους τὰς σφαγὰς τοῖς τὴν δύστηνον ὑπουργίαν ἐκτελοῦσιν. 7.396. οἱ δ' ἀτρέπτως πάντας φονεύσαντες τὸν αὐτὸν ἐπ' ἀλλήλοις τοῦ κλήρου νόμον ὥρισαν, ἵν' ὁ λαχὼν τοὺς ἐννέα κτείνας ἑαυτὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἀνέλῃ: πάντες οὕτως αὑτοῖς ἐθάρρουν μήτ' εἰς τὸ δρᾶν μήτ' εἰς τὸ παθεῖν ἄλλος ἄλλου διαφέρειν. 7.397. καὶ τέλος οἱ μὲν τὰς σφαγὰς ὑπέθεσαν, ὁ δ' εἷς καὶ τελευταῖος τὸ πλῆθος τῶν κειμένων περιαθρήσας, μή πού τις ἔτ' ἐν πολλῷ φόνῳ τῆς αὐτοῦ λείπεται χειρὸς δεόμενος, ὡς ἔγνω πάντας ἀνῃρημένους, πῦρ μὲν πολὺ τοῖς βασιλείοις ἐνίησιν, ἀθρόᾳ δὲ τῇ χειρὶ δι' αὑτοῦ πᾶν ἐλάσας τὸ ξίφος πλησίον τῶν οἰκείων κατέπεσε. 7.398. καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐτεθνήκεσαν ὑπειληφότες οὐδὲν ἔχον ψυχὴν ὑποχείριον ἐξ αὑτῶν ̔Ρωμαίοις καταλιπεῖν, 7.399. ἔλαθεν δὲ γυνὴ πρεσβῦτις καὶ συγγενὴς ἑτέρα τις ̓Ελεαζάρου, φρονήσει καὶ παιδείᾳ πλεῖστον γυναικῶν διαφέρουσα, καὶ πέντε παιδία τοῖς ὑπονόμοις, οἳ ποτὸν ἦγον ὕδωρ διὰ γῆς, ἐγκατακρυβῆναι τῶν ἄλλων πρὸς τῇ σφαγῇ τὰς διανοίας ἐχόντων, 7.401. καὶ τὸ πάθος ἐπράχθη πεντεκαιδεκάτῃ Ξανθικοῦ μηνός. 7.402. Οἱ δὲ ̔Ρωμαῖοι μάχην ἔτι προσδοκῶντες, ὑπὸ τὴν ἕω διασκευασάμενοι καὶ τὰς ἀπὸ τῶν χωμάτων ἐφόδους ταῖς ἐπιβάθραις γεφυρώσαντες προσβολὴν ἐποιοῦντο. 7.403. βλέποντες δ' οὐδένα τῶν πολεμίων, ἀλλὰ δεινὴν πανταχόθεν ἐρημίαν καὶ πῦρ ἔνδον καὶ σιωπήν, ἀπόρως εἶχον τὸ γεγονὸς συμβαλεῖν, καὶ τέλος ὡς εἰς ἄφεσιν βολῆς ἠλάλαξαν, εἴ τινα τῶν ἔνδον προκαλέσαιντο. 7.404. τῆς δὲ βοῆς αἴσθησις γίνεται τοῖς γυναίοις, κἀκ τῶν ὑπονόμων ἀναδῦσαι τὸ πραχθὲν ὡς εἶχε πρὸς τοὺς ̔Ρωμαίους ἐμήνυον, πάντα τῆς ἑτέρας ὡς ἐλέχθη τε καὶ τίνα τρόπον ἐπράχθη σαφῶς ἐκδιηγουμένης. 7.405. οὐ μὴν ῥᾳδίως αὐτῇ προσεῖχον τῷ μεγέθει τοῦ τολμήματος ἀπιστοῦντες, ἐπεχείρουν τε τὸ πῦρ σβεννύναι καὶ ταχέως ὁδὸν δι' αὐτοῦ τεμόντες τῶν βασιλείων ἐντὸς ἐγένοντο. 7.406. καὶ τῷ πλήθει τῶν πεφονευμένων ἐπιτυχόντες οὐχ ὡς ἐπὶ πολεμίοις ἥσθησαν, τὴν δὲ γενναιότητα τοῦ βουλεύματος καὶ τὴν ἐν τοσούτοις ἄτρεπτον ἐπὶ τῶν ἔργων ἐθαύμασαν τοῦ θανάτου καταφρόνησιν. 7.409. ἔτι δὲ καὶ περὶ ̓Αλεξάνδρειαν τὴν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ μετὰ ταῦτα συνέβη πολλοὺς ̓Ιουδαίων ἀποθανεῖν: 7.411. ἐπεὶ δὲ αὐτοῖς τῶν οὐκ ἀφανῶν τινες ̓Ιουδαίων ἀντέβαινον, τοὺς μὲν ἀπέσφαξαν, τοῖς δ' ἄλλοις ἐνέκειντο πρὸς τὴν ἀπόστασιν παρακαλοῦντες. 7.412. ὁρῶντες δ' αὐτῶν τὴν ἀπόνοιαν οἱ πρωτεύοντες τῆς γερουσίας οὐκέτ' ἀσφαλὲς αὐτοῖς ἐνόμιζον περιορᾶν, ἀλλὰ πάντας ἀθροίσαντες εἰς ἐκκλησίαν τοὺς ̓Ιουδαίους ἤλεγχον τὴν ἀπόνοιαν τῶν σικαρίων πάντων αἰτίους ἀποφαίνοντες ἐκείνους τῶν κακῶν: 7.413. καὶ νῦν ἔφασαν αὐτούς, ἐπείπερ οὐδὲ πεφευγότες τῆς σωτηρίας ἐλπίδα βεβαίαν ἔχουσιν, γνωσθέντας γὰρ ὑπὸ ̔Ρωμαίων εὐθὺς ἀπολεῖσθαι, τῆς αὐτοῖς προσηκούσης συμφορᾶς ἀναπιμπλάναι τοὺς μηδενὸς τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων μετασχόντας. 7.414. φυλάξασθαι τοίνυν τὸν ἐξ αὐτῶν ὄλεθρον τὸ πλῆθος παρεκάλουν καὶ περὶ αὑτῶν πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους ἀπολογήσασθαι τῇ τούτων παραδόσει. 7.415. συνιδόντες τοῦ κινδύνου τὸ μέγεθος ἐπείσθησαν τοῖς λεγομένοις, καὶ μετὰ πολλῆς ὁρμῆς ἐπὶ τοὺς σικαρίους ᾄξαντες συνήρπαζον αὐτούς. 7.416. τῶν δ' ἑξακόσιοι μὲν εὐθὺς ἑάλωσαν, ὅσοι δ' εἰς τὴν Αἴγυπτον καὶ τὰς ἐκεῖ Θήβας διέφυγον, οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν συλληφθέντες ἐπανήχθησαν. 7.417. ἐφ' ὧν οὐκ ἔστιν ὃς οὐ τὴν καρτερίαν καὶ τὴν εἴτε ἀπόνοιαν εἴτε τῆς γνώμης ἰσχὺν χρὴ λέγειν οὐ κατεπλάγη: 7.418. πάσης γὰρ ἐπ' αὐτοὺς βασάνου καὶ λύμης τῶν σωμάτων ἐπινοηθείσης ἐφ' ἓν τοῦτο μόνον, ὅπως αὐτῶν Καίσαρα δεσπότην ὁμολογήσωσιν, οὐδεὶς ἐνέδωκεν οὐδὲ ἐμέλλησεν εἰπεῖν, ἀλλὰ πάντες ὑπερτέραν τῆς ἀνάγκης τὴν αὐτῶν γνώμην διεφύλαξαν, ὥσπερ ἀναισθήτοις σώμασι χαιρούσῃ μόνον οὐχὶ τῇ ψυχῇ τὰς βασάνους καὶ τὸ πῦρ δεχόμενοι. 7.419. μάλιστα δ' ἡ τῶν παίδων ἡλικία τοὺς θεωμένους ἐξέπληξεν: οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐκείνων τις ἐξενικήθη Καίσαρα δεσπότην ἐξονομάσαι. τοσοῦτον ἄρα τῆς τῶν σωμάτων ἀσθενείας ἡ τῆς τόλμης ἰσχὺς ἐπεκράτει. 7.421. ὁ δὲ τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων τὴν ἀκατάπαυστον ὑφορώμενος νεωτεροποιίαν καὶ δείσας, μὴ πάλιν εἰς ἓν ἀθρόοι συλλεγῶσι καί τινας αὑτοῖς συνεπισπάσωνται, προσέταξε τῷ Λούππῳ τὸν ἐν τῇ ̓Ονίου καλουμένῃ νεὼν καθελεῖν τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων. 7.422. ὁ δ' ἐστὶν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ διὰ τοιαύτην αἰτίαν ᾠκίσθη τε καὶ τὴν ἐπίκλησιν ἔλαβεν: 7.423. ̓Ονίας Σίμωνος υἱός, εἷς τῶν ἐν ̔Ιεροσολύμοις ἀρχιερέων, φεύγων ̓Αντίοχον τὸν Συρίας βασιλέα πολεμοῦντα τοῖς ̓Ιουδαίοις ἧκεν εἰς ̓Αλεξάνδρειαν, καὶ δεξαμένου Πτολεμαίου φιλοφρόνως αὐτὸν διὰ τὴν πρὸς ̓Αντίοχον ἀπέχθειαν ἔφη σύμμαχον αὐτῷ ποιήσειν τὸ τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων ἔθνος, εἰ πεισθείη τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ λεγομένοις. 7.424. ποιήσειν δὲ τὰ δυνατὰ τοῦ βασιλέως ὁμολογήσαντος ἠξίωσεν ἐπιτρέπειν αὐτῷ νεών τε που τῆς Αἰγύπτου κατασκευάσασθαι καὶ τοῖς πατρίοις ἔθεσι θεραπεύειν τὸν θεόν: 7.425. οὕτως γὰρ ̓Αντιόχῳ μὲν ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐκπολεμώσεσθαι τοὺς ̓Ιουδαίους τὸν ἐν ̔Ιεροσολύμοις νεὼν πεπορθηκότι, πρὸς αὐτὸν δ' εὐνοϊκωτέρως ἕξειν καὶ πολλοὺς ἐπ' ἀδείᾳ τῆς εὐσεβείας ἐπ' αὐτὸν συλλεγήσεσθαι. 7.426. Πεισθεὶς Πτολεμαῖος τοῖς λεγομένοις δίδωσιν αὐτῷ χώραν ἑκατὸν ἐπὶ τοῖς ὀγδοήκοντα σταδίους ἀπέχουσαν Μέμφεως: νομὸς δ' οὗτος ̔Ηλιοπολίτης καλεῖται. 7.427. φρούριον ἔνθα κατασκευασάμενος ̓Ονίας τὸν μὲν ναὸν οὐχ ὅμοιον ᾠκοδόμησε τῷ ἐν ̔Ιεροσολύμοις, ἀλλὰ πύργῳ παραπλήσιον λίθων μεγάλων εἰς ἑξήκοντα πήχεις ἀνεστηκότα: 7.428. τοῦ βωμοῦ δὲ τὴν κατασκευὴν πρὸς τὸν οἰκεῖον ἐξεμιμήσατο καὶ τοῖς ἀναθήμασιν ὁμοίως ἐκόσμησεν χωρὶς τῆς περὶ τὴν λυχνίαν κατασκευῆς: 7.429. οὐ γὰρ ἐποίησε λυχνίαν, αὐτὸν δὲ χαλκευσάμενος λύχνον χρυσοῦν ἐπιφαίνοντα σέλας χρυσῆς ἁλύσεως ἐξεκρέμασε. τὸ δὲ τέμενος πᾶν ὀπτῇ πλίνθῳ περιτετείχιστο πύλας ἔχον λιθίνας. 7.431. οὐ μὴν ̓Ονίας ἐξ ὑγιοῦς γνώμης ταῦτα ἔπραττεν, ἀλλ' ἦν αὐτῷ φιλονεικία πρὸς τοὺς ἐν τοῖς ̔Ιεροσολύμοις ̓Ιουδαίους ὀργὴν τῆς φυγῆς ἀπομνημονεύοντι, καὶ τοῦτο τὸ ἱερὸν ἐνόμιζε κατασκευάσας εἰς αὐτὸ περισπάσειν ἀπ' ἐκείνων τὸ πλῆθος. 7.432. ἐγεγόνει δέ τις καὶ παλαιὰ πρόρρησις ἔτεσί που πρόσθεν ἑξακοσίοις: ̔Ησαί̈ας ὄνομα τῷ προαγορεύσαντι τοῦδε τοῦ ναοῦ τὴν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ γενησομένην ὑπ' ἀνδρὸς ̓Ιουδαίου κατασκευήν. τὸ μὲν οὖν ἱερὸν οὕτως ἐπεποίητο. 7.433. Λοῦππος δ' ὁ τῆς ̓Αλεξανδρείας ἡγεμὼν τὰ παρὰ Καίσαρος λαβὼν γράμματα καὶ παραγενόμενος εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν καί τινα τῶν ἀναθημάτων ἐκφορήσας τὸν ναὸν ἀπέκλεισε. 7.434. Λούππου δὲ μετὰ βραχὺ τελευτήσαντος Παυλῖνος διαδεξάμενος τὴν ἡγεμονίαν οὔτε τῶν ἀναθημάτων οὐδὲν κατέλιπε, πολλὰ γὰρ διηπείλησε τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν εἰ μὴ πάντα προκομίσειαν, οὔτε προσιέναι τῷ τεμένει τοὺς θρησκεύειν βουλομένους ἐφῆκεν, 7.435. ἀλλ' ἀποκλείσας τὰς πύλας ἀπρόσιτον αὐτὸ παντελῶς ἐποίησεν, ὡς μηδ' ἴχνος ἔτι τῆς εἰς τὸν θεὸν θεραπείας ἐν τῷ τόπῳ καταλιπεῖν. 7.436. χρόνος ἦν εἰς τὴν ἀπόκλεισιν τοῦ ναοῦ γεγονὼς ἀπὸ τῆς κατασκευῆς ἔτη τρία καὶ τεσσαράκοντα καὶ τριακόσια.

1.1. 1. Whereas the war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been the greatest of all those, not only that have been in our times, but, in a manner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein cities have fought against cities, or nations against nations; while some men who were not concerned in the affairs themselves have gotten together vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and have written them down after a sophistical manner; 1.2. and while those that were there present have given false accounts of things, and this either out of a humor of flattery to the Romans, or of hatred towards the Jews; and while their writings contain sometimes accusations, and sometimes encomiums, but nowhere the accurate truth of the facts, 1.3. I have proposed to myself, for the sake of such as live under the government of the Romans, to translate those books into the Greek tongue, which I formerly composed in the language of our country, and sent to the Upper Barbarians; I, Joseph, the son of Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one who at first fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at what was done afterward [am the author of this work]. 1.4. 2. Now at the time when this great concussion of affairs happened, the affairs of the Romans were themselves in great disorder. Those Jews also, who were for innovations, then arose when the times were disturbed; they were also in a flourishing condition for strength and riches, insomuch that the affairs of the East were then exceeding tumultuous, while some hoped for gain, and others were afraid of loss in such troubles; 1.5. for the Jews hoped that all of their nation which were beyond Euphrates would have raised an insurrection together with them. The Gauls also, in the neighborhood of the Romans, were in motion, and the Celtae were not quiet; but all was in disorder after the death of Nero. And the opportunity now offered induced many to aim at the royal power; and the soldiery affected change, out of the hopes of getting money. 1.6. I thought it therefore an absurd thing to see the truth falsified in affairs of such great consequence, and to take no notice of it; but to suffer those Greeks and Romans that were not in the wars to be ignorant of these things, and to read either flatteries or fictions, while the Parthians, and the Babylonians, and the remotest Arabians, and those of our nation beyond Euphrates, with the Adiabeni, by my means, knew accurately both whence the war begun, what miseries it brought upon us, and after what manner it ended. 1.7. 3. It is true, these writers have the confidence to call their accounts histories; wherein yet they seem to me to fail of their own purpose, as well as to relate nothing that is sound. For they have a mind to demonstrate the greatness of the Romans, while they still diminish and lessen the actions of the Jews, 1.8. as not discerning how it cannot be that those must appear to be great who have only conquered those that were little. Nor are they ashamed to overlook the length of the war, the multitude of the Roman forces who so greatly suffered in it, or the might of the commanders, whose great labors about Jerusalem will be deemed inglorious, if what they achieved be reckoned but a small matter. 1.9. 4. However, I will not go to the other extreme, out of opposition to those men who extol the Romans, nor will I determine to raise the actions of my countrymen too high; but I will prosecute the actions of both parties with accuracy. Yet shall I suit my language to the passions I am under, as to the affairs I describe, and must be allowed to indulge some lamentations upon the miseries undergone by my own country. 1.10. For that it was a seditious temper of our own that destroyed it; and that they were the tyrants among the Jews who brought the Roman power upon us, who unwillingly attacked us, and occasioned the burning of our holy temple; Titus Caesar, who destroyed it, is himself a witness, who, during the entire war, pitied the people who were kept under by the seditious, and did often voluntarily delay the taking of the city, and allowed time to the siege, in order to let the authors have opportunity for repentance. 1.11. But if anyone makes an unjust accusation against us, when we speak so passionately about the tyrants, or the robbers, or sorely bewail the misfortunes of our country, let him indulge my affections herein, though it be contrary to the rules for writing history; because it had so come to pass, that our city Jerusalem had arrived at a higher degree of felicity than any other city under the Roman government, and yet at last fell into the sorest of calamities again. 1.12. Accordingly, it appears to me that the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the world, if they be compared to these of the Jews, are not so considerable as they were; while the authors of them were not foreigners neither. This makes it impossible for me to contain my lamentations. But, if anyone be inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the facts themselves to the historical part, and the lamentations to the writer himself only. 1.13. 5. However, I may justly blame the learned men among the Greeks, who, when such great actions have been done in their own times, which, upon the comparison, quite eclipse the old wars, do yet sit as judges of those affairs, and pass bitter censures upon the labors of the best writers of antiquity; which moderns, although they may be superior to the old writers in eloquence, yet are they inferior to them in the execution of what they intended to do. While these also write new histories about the Assyrians and Medes, as if the ancient writers had not described their affairs as they ought to have done; 1.14. although these be as far inferior to them in abilities as they are different in their notions from them. For of old everyone took upon them to write what happened in his own time; where their immediate concern in the actions made their promises of value; and where it must be reproachful to write lies, when they must be known by the readers to be such. 1.15. But then, an undertaking to preserve the memory of what hath not been before recorded, and to represent the affairs of one’s own time to those that come afterward, is really worthy of praise and commendation. Now he is to be esteemed to have taken good pains in earnest, not who does no more than change the disposition and order of other men’s works, but he who not only relates what had not been related before, but composes an entire body of history of his own: 1.16. accordingly, I have been at great charges, and have taken very great pains [about this history], though I be a foreigner; and do dedicate this work, as a memorial of great actions, both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians. But, for some of our own principal men, their mouths are wide open, and their tongues loosed presently, for gain and lawsuits, but quite muzzled up when they are to write history, where they must speak truth and gather facts together with a great deal of pains; and so they leave the writing such histories to weaker people, and to such as are not acquainted with the actions of princes. Yet shall the real truth of historical facts be preferred by us, how much soever it be neglected among the Greek historians. 1.17. 6. To write concerning the Antiquities of the Jews, who they were [originally], and how they revolted from the Egyptians, and what country they traveled over, and what countries they seized upon afterward, and how they were removed out of them, I think this not to be a fit opportunity, and, on other accounts, also superfluous; and this because many Jews before me have composed the histories of our ancestors very exactly; as have some of the Greeks done it also, and have translated our histories into their own tongue, and have not much mistaken the truth in their histories. 1.18. But then, where the writers of these affairs and our prophets leave off, thence shall I take my rise and begin my history. Now, as to what concerns that war which happened in my own time, I will go over it very largely, and with all the diligence I am able; but for what preceded mine own age, that I shall run over briefly. 1.19. 7. [For example, I shall relate] how Antiochus, who was named Epiphanes, took Jerusalem by force, and held it three years and three months, and was then ejected out of the country by the sons of Asamoneus: after that, how their posterity quarreled about the government, and brought upon their settlement the Romans and Pompey; how Herod also, the son of Antipater, dissolved their government, and brought Socius upon them; 1.21. 8. As also [I shall relate] how they built walls about the neighboring cities; and how Nero, upon Cestuis’s defeat, was in fear of the entire event of the war, and thereupon made Vespasian general in this war; and how this Vespasian, with the elder of his sons, made an expedition into the country of Judea; what was the number of the Roman army that he made use of; and how many of his auxiliaries were cut off in all Galilee; and how he took some of its cities entirely, and by force, and others of them by treaty, and on terms. 1.22. Now, when I am come so far, I shall describe the good order of the Romans in war, and the discipline of their legions; the amplitude of both the Galilees, with its nature, and the limits of Judea. And, besides this, I shall particularly go over what is peculiar to the country, the lakes and fountains that are in them, and what miseries happened to every city as they were taken; and all this with accuracy, as I saw the things done, or suffered in them. For I shall not conceal any of the calamities I myself endured, since I shall relate them to such as know the truth of them. 1.23. 9. After this, [I shall relate] how, When the Jews’ affairs were become very bad, Nero died, and Vespasian, when he was going to attack Jerusalem, was called back to take the government upon him; what signs happened to him relating to his gaining that government, and what mutations of government then happened at Rome, 1.27. 11. After this, I shall relate the barbarity of the tyrants towards the people of their own nation, as well as the indulgence of the Romans in sparing foreigners; and how often Titus, out of his desire to preserve the city and the temple, invited the seditious to come to terms of accommodation. I shall also distinguish the sufferings of the people, and their calamities; how far they were afflicted by the sedition, and how far by the famine, and at length were taken. 1.29. Moreover, what the Romans did to the remains of the wall; and how they demolished the strongholds that were in the country; and how Titus went over the whole country, and settled its affairs; together with his return into Italy, and his triumph. 1.30. 12. I have comprehended all these things in seven books, and have left no occasion for complaint or accusation to such as have been acquainted with this war; and I have written it down for the sake of those that love truth, but not for those that please themselves [with fictitious relations]. And I will begin my account of these things with what I call my First Chapter. 2.117. 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. 2.118. 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. 2.345. 4. “Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to go to war with the Romans, and that the purer and more sincere part of the people did not propose to live in peace, I had not come out to you, nor been so bold as to give you counsel; for all discourses that tend to persuade men to do what they ought to do are superfluous, when the hearers are agreed to do the contrary. 2.346. But because some are earnest to go to war because they are young, and without experience of the miseries it brings, and because some are for it out of an unreasonable expectation of regaining their liberty, and because others hope to get by it, and are therefore earnestly bent upon it, that in the confusion of your affairs they may gain what belongs to those that are too weak to resist them, I have thought it proper to get you all together, and to say to you what I think to be for your advantage; that so the former may grow wiser, and change their minds, and that the best men may come to no harm by the ill conduct of some others. 2.347. And let not anyone be tumultuous against me, in case what they hear me say does not please them; for as to those that admit of no cure, but are resolved upon a revolt, it will still be in their power to retain the same sentiments after my exhortation is over; but still my discourse will fall to the ground, even with a relation to those that have a mind to hear me, unless you will all keep silence. 2.348. I am well aware that many make a tragical exclamation concerning the injuries that have been offered you by your procurators, and concerning the glorious advantages of liberty; but before I begin the inquiry, who you are that must go to war, and who they are against whom you must fight,—I shall first separate those pretenses that are by some connected together; 2.349. for if you aim at avenging yourselves on those that have done you injury, why do you pretend this to be a war for recovering your liberty? but if you think all servitude intolerable, to what purpose serve your complaints against your particular governors? for if they treated you with moderation, it would still be equally an unworthy thing to be in servitude. 2.350. Consider now the several cases that may be supposed, how little occasion there is for your going to war. Your first occasion is the accusations you have to make against your procurators; now here you ought to be submissive to those in authority, and not give them any provocation; 2.351. but when you reproach men greatly for small offenses, you excite those whom you reproach to be your adversaries; for this will only make them leave off hurting you privately, and with some degree of modesty, and to lay what you have waste openly. 2.352. Now nothing so much damps the force of strokes as bearing them with patience; and the quietness of those who are injured diverts the injurious persons from afflicting. But let us take it for granted that the Roman ministers are injurious to you, and are incurably severe; yet are they not all the Romans who thus injure you; nor hath Caesar, against whom you are going to make war, injured you: it is not by their command that any wicked governor is sent to you; for they who are in the west cannot see those that are in the east; nor indeed is it easy for them there even to hear what is done in these parts. 2.353. Now it is absurd to make war with a great many for the sake of one: to do so with such mighty people for a small cause; and this when these people are not able to know of what you complain: 2.354. nay, such crimes as we complain of may soon be corrected, for the same procurator will not continue forever; and probable it is that the successors will come with more moderate inclinations. But as for war, if it be once begun, it is not easily laid down again, nor borne without calamities coming therewith. 2.355. However, as to the desire of recovering your liberty, it is unseasonable to indulge it so late; whereas you ought to have labored earnestly in old time that you might never have lost it; for the first experience of slavery was hard to be endured, and the struggle that you might never have been subject to it would have been just; 2.356. but that slave who hath been once brought into subjection, and then runs away, is rather a refractory slave than a lover of liberty; for it was then the proper time for doing all that was possible, that you might never have admitted the Romans [into your city], when Pompey came first into the country. 2.357. But so it was, that our ancestors and their kings, who were in much better circumstances than we are, both as to money, and [strong] bodies, and [valiant] souls, did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman army. And yet you, who have now accustomed yourselves to obedience from one generation to another, and who are so much inferior to those who first submitted, in your circumstances will venture to oppose the entire empire of the Romans. 2.358. While those Athenians, who, in order to preserve the liberty of Greece, did once set fire to their own city; who pursued Xerxes, that proud prince, when he sailed upon the land, and walked upon the sea, and could not be contained by the seas, but conducted such an army as was too broad for Europe; and made him run away like a fugitive in a single ship, and brake so great a part of Asia as the Lesser Salamis; are yet at this time servants to the Romans; and those injunctions which are sent from Italy become laws to the principal governing city of Greece. 2.359. Those Lacedemonians also who got the great victories at Thermopylae and Platea, and had Agesilaus [for their king], and searched every corner of Asia, are contented to admit the same lords. 2.360. These Macedonians, also, who still fancy what great men their Philip and Alexander were, and see that the latter had promised them the empire over the world, these bear so great a change, and pay their obedience to those whom fortune hath advanced in their stead. 2.361. Moreover, ten thousand other nations there are who had greater reason than we to claim their entire liberty, and yet do submit. You are the only people who think it a disgrace to be servants to those to whom all the world hath submitted. What sort of an army do you rely on? What are the arms you depend on? Where is your fleet, that may seize upon the Roman seas? and where are those treasures which may be sufficient for your undertakings? 2.362. Do you suppose, I pray you, that you are to make war with the Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will you not carefully reflect upon the Roman empire? Will you not estimate your own weakness? Hath not your army been often beaten even by your neighboring nations, while the power of the Romans is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth? 2.363. nay, rather they seek for somewhat still beyond that; for all Euphrates is not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube on the north; and for their southern limit, Libya hath been searched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit on the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable earth beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as such British islands as were never known before. 2.364. What therefore do you pretend to? Are you richer than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans, wiser than the Greeks, more numerous than all men upon the habitable earth? What confidence is it that elevates you to oppose the Romans? 2.365. Perhaps it will be said, It is hard to endure slavery. Yes; but how much harder is this to the Greeks, who were esteemed the noblest of all people under the sun! These, though they inhabit in a large country, are in subjection to six bundles of Roman rods. It is the same case with the Macedonians, who have juster reason to claim their liberty than you have. 2.366. What is the case of five hundred cities of Asia? Do they not submit to a single governor, and to the consular bundle of rods? What need I speak of the Heniochi, and Colchi and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit the Bosphorus, and the nations about Pontus, and Meotis, 2.367. who formerly knew not so much as a lord of their own, but are now subject to three thousand armed men, and where forty long ships keep the sea in peace, which before was not navigable, and very tempestuous? 2.368. How strong a plea may Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and the people of Pamphylia, the Lycians, and Cilicians, put in for liberty! But they are made tributary without an army. What are the circumstances of the Thracians, whose country extends in breadth five days’ journey, and in length seven, and is of a much more harsh constitution, and much more defensible, than yours, and by the rigor of its cold sufficient to keep off armies from attacking them? do not they submit to two thousand men of the Roman garrisons? 2.369. Are not the Illyrians, who inhabit the country adjoining, as far as Dalmatia and the Danube, governed by barely two legions? by which also they put a stop to the incursions of the Dacians. And for the 2.370. Dalmatians, who have made such frequent insurrections in order to regain their liberty, and who could never before be so thoroughly subdued, but that they always gathered their forces together again, and revolted, yet are they now very quiet under one Roman legion. 2.371. Moreover, if great advantages might provoke any people to revolt, the Gauls might do it best of all, as being so thoroughly walled round by nature; on the east side by the Alps, on the north by the river Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean mountains, and on the west by the ocean. 2.372. Now, although these Gauls have such obstacles before them to prevent any attack upon them, and have no fewer than three hundred and five nations among them, nay have, as one may say, the fountains of domestic happiness within themselves, and send out plentiful streams of happiness over almost the whole world, these bear to be tributary to the Romans, and derive their prosperous condition from them; 2.373. and they undergo this, not because they are of effeminate minds, or because they are of an ignoble stock, as having borne a war of eighty years in order to preserve their liberty; but by reason of the great regard they have to the power of the Romans, and their good fortune, which is of greater efficacy than their arms. These Gauls, therefore, are kept in servitude by twelve hundred soldiers, which are hardly so many as are their cities; 2.374. nor hath the gold dug out of the mines of Spain been sufficient for the support of a war to preserve their liberty, nor could their vast distance from the Romans by land and by sea do it; nor could the martial tribes of the Lusitanians and Spaniards escape; no more could the ocean, with its tide, which yet was terrible to the ancient inhabitants. 2.375. Nay, the Romans have extended their arms beyond the pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds, upon the Pyrenean mountains, and have subdued these nations. And one legion is a sufficient guard for these people, although they were so hard to be conquered, and at a distance so remote from Rome. 2.376. Who is there among you that hath not heard of the great number of the Germans? You have, to be sure, yourselves seen them to be strong and tall, and that frequently, since the Romans have them among their captives everywhere; 2.377. yet these Germans, who dwell in an immense country, who have minds greater than their bodies, and a soul that despises death, and who are in a rage more fierce than wild beasts, have the Rhine for the boundary of their enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman legions. Such of them as were taken captive became their servants; and the rest of the entire nation were obliged to save themselves by flight. 2.378. Do you also, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem, consider what a wall the Britons had; for the Romans sailed away to them, and subdued them while they were encompassed by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not less than [the continent of] this habitable earth; and four legions are a sufficient guard to so large an island: 2.379. And why should I speak much more about this matter, while the Parthians, that most warlike body of men, and lords of so many nations, and encompassed with such mighty forces, send hostages to the Romans? whereby you may see, if you please, even in Italy, the noblest nation of the East, under the notion of peace, submitting to serve them. 2.380. Now, when almost all people under the sun submit to the Roman arms, will you be the only people that make war against them? and this without regarding the fate of the Carthaginians, who, in the midst of their brags of the great Hannibal, and the nobility of their Phoenician original, fell by the hand of Scipio. 2.381. Nor indeed have the Cyrenians, derived from the Lacedemonians, nor the Marmaridae, a nation extended as far as the regions uninhabitable for want of water, nor have the Syrtes, a place terrible to such as barely hear it described, the Nasamons and Moors, and the immense multitude of the Numidians, been able to put a stop to the Roman valor. 2.382. And as for the third part of the habitable earth [Africa], whose nations are so many that it is not easy to number them, and which is bounded by the Atlantic Sea and the pillars of Hercules, and feeds an innumerable multitude of Ethiopians, as far as the Red Sea, these have the Romans subdued entirely. 2.383. And besides the annual fruits of the earth, which maintain the multitude of the Romans for eight months in the year, this, over and above, pays all sorts of tribute, and affords revenues suitable to the necessities of the government. Nor do they, like you, esteem such injunctions a disgrace to them, although they have but one Roman legion that abides among them. 2.384. And indeed what occasion is there for showing you the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is so easy to learn it from Egypt, in your neighborhood? 2.385. This country is extended as far as the Ethiopians, and Arabia the Happy, and borders upon India; it hath seven million five hundred thousand men, besides the inhabitants of Alexandria, as may be learned from the revenue of the poll tax; yet it is not ashamed to submit to the Roman government, although it hath Alexandria as a grand temptation to a revolt, by reason it is so full of people and of riches, and is besides exceeding large, 2.386. its length being thirty furlongs, and its breadth no less than ten; and it pays more tribute to the Romans in one month than you do in a year; nay, besides what it pays in money, it sends corn to Rome that supports it for four months [in the year]: it is also walled round on all sides, either by almost impassable deserts, or seas that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes; 2.387. yet have none of these things been found too strong for the Roman good fortune; however, two legions that lie in that city are a bridle both for the remoter parts of Egypt, and for the parts inhabited by the more noble Macedonians. 2.388. Where then are those people whom you are to have for your auxiliaries? Must they come from the parts of the world that are uninhabited? for all that are in the habitable earth are [under the] Romans. Unless any of you extend his hopes as far as beyond the Euphrates, and suppose that those of your own nation that dwell in Adiabene will come to your assistance 2.389. (but certainly these will not embarrass themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if they should follow such ill advice, will the Parthians permit them so to do); for it is their concern to maintain the truce that is between them and the Romans, and they will be supposed to break the covets between them, if any under their government march against the Romans. 2.390. What remains, therefore, is this, that you have recourse to Divine assistance; but this is already on the side of the Romans; for it is impossible that so vast an empire should be settled without God’s providence. 2.391. Reflect upon it, how impossible it is for your zealous observation of your religious customs to be here preserved, which are hard to be observed even when you fight with those whom you are able to conquer; and how can you then most of all hope for God’s assistance, when, by being forced to transgress his law, you will make him turn his face from you? 2.392. and if you do observe the custom of the Sabbath days, and will not be prevailed on to do anything thereon, you will easily be taken, as were your forefathers by Pompey, who was the busiest in his siege on those days on which the besieged rested. 2.393. But if in time of war you transgress the law of your country, I cannot tell on whose account you will afterward go to war; for your concern is but one, that you do nothing against any of your forefathers; 2.394. and how will you call upon God to assist you, when you are voluntarily transgressing against his religion? Now, all men that go to war do it either as depending on Divine or on human assistance; but since your going to war will cut off both those assistances, those that are for going to war choose evident destruction. 2.395. What hinders you from slaying your children and wives with your own hands, and burning this most excellent native city of yours? for by this mad prank you will, however, escape the reproach of being beaten. 2.396. But it were best, O my friends, it were best, while the vessel is still in the haven, to foresee the impending storm, and not to set sail out of the port into the middle of the hurricanes; for we justly pity those who fall into great misfortunes without foreseeing them; but for him who rushes into manifest ruin, he gains reproaches [instead of commiseration]. 2.397. But certainly no one can imagine that you can enter into a war as by an agreement, or that when the Romans have got you under their power, they will use you with moderation, or will not rather, for an example to other nations, burn your holy city, and utterly destroy your whole nation; for those of you who shall survive the war will not be able to find a place whither to flee, since all men have the Romans for their lords already, or are afraid they shall have hereafter. 2.398. Nay, indeed, the danger concerns not those Jews that dwell here only, but those of them which dwell in other cities also; for there is no people upon the habitable earth which have not some portion of you among them, 2.399. whom your enemies will slay, in case you go to war, and on that account also; and so every city which hath Jews in it will be filled with slaughter for the sake only of a few men, and they who slay them will be pardoned; but if that slaughter be not made by them, consider how wicked a thing it is to take arms against those that are so kind to you. 2.400. Have pity, therefore, if not on your children and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, and its sacred walls; spare the temple, and preserve the holy house, with its holy furniture, for yourselves; for if the Romans get you under their power, they will no longer abstain from them, when their former abstinence shall have been so ungratefully requited. 2.401. I call to witness your sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this country common to us all, that I have not kept back anything that is for your preservation; and if you will follow that advice which you ought to do, you will have that peace which will be common to you and to me; but if you indulge your passions, you will run those hazards which I shall be free from.” 2.433. 8. In the meantime, one Manahem, the son of Judas, that was called the Galilean (who was a very cunning sophister, and had formerly reproached the Jews under Cyrenius, that after God they were subject to the Romans) took some of the men of note with him, and retired to Masada, 2.434. where he broke open king Herod’s armory, and gave arms not only to his own people, but to other robbers also. These he made use of for a guard, and returned in the state of a king to Jerusalem; he became the leader of the sedition, and gave orders for continuing the siege; 2.435. but they wanted proper instruments, and it was not practicable to undermine the wall, because the darts came down upon them from above. But still they dug a mine from a great distance under one of the towers, and made it totter; and having done that, they set on fire what was combustible, and left it; 2.436. and when the foundations were burnt below, the tower fell down suddenly. Yet did they then meet with another wall that had been built within, for the besieged were sensible beforehand of what they were doing, and probably the tower shook as it was undermining; so they provided themselves of another fortification; 2.437. which when the besiegers unexpectedly saw, while they thought they had already gained the place, they were under some consternation. However, those that were within sent to Manahem, and to the other leaders of the sedition, and desired they might go out upon a capitulation: this was granted to the king’s soldiers and their own countrymen only, who went out accordingly; 2.438. but the Romans that were left alone were greatly dejected, for they were not able to force their way through such a multitude; and to desire them to give them their right hand for their security, they thought it would be a reproach to them; and besides, if they should give it them, they durst not depend upon it; 2.439. o they deserted their camp, as easily taken, and ran away to the royal towers,—that called Hippicus, that called Phasaelus, and that called Mariamne. 2.440. But Manahem and his party fell upon the place whence the soldiers were fled, and slew as many of them as they could catch, before they got up to the towers, and plundered what they left behind them, and set fire to their camp. This was executed on the sixth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul]. 2.441. 9. But on the next day the high priest was caught where he had concealed himself in an aqueduct; he was slain, together with Hezekiah his brother, by the robbers: hereupon the seditious besieged the towers, and kept them guarded, lest anyone of the soldiers should escape. 2.442. Now the overthrow of the places of strength, and the death of the high priest Aias, so puffed up Manahem, that he became barbarously cruel; and as he thought he had no antagonist to dispute the management of affairs with him, he was no better than an insupportable tyrant; 2.443. but Eleazar and his party, when words had passed between them, how it was not proper when they revolted from the Romans, out of the desire of liberty, to betray that liberty to any of their own people, and to bear a lord, who, though he should be guilty of no violence, was yet meaner than themselves; as also, that in case they were obliged to set someone over their public affairs, it was fitter they should give that privilege to anyone rather than to him; they made an assault upon him in the temple; 2.444. for he went up thither to worship in a pompous manner, and adorned with royal garments, and had his followers with him in their armor. 2.445. But Eleazar and his party fell violently upon him, as did also the rest of the people; and taking up stones to attack him withal, they threw them at the sophister, and thought, that if he were once ruined, the entire sedition would fall to the ground. 2.446. Now Manahem and his party made resistance for a while; but when they perceived that the whole multitude were falling upon them, they fled which way every one was able; those that were caught were slain, and those that hid themselves were searched for. 2.447. A few there were of them who privately escaped to Masada, among whom was Eleazar, the son of Jarius, who was of kin to Manahem, and acted the part of a tyrant at Masada afterward. 2.448. As for Manahem himself, he ran away to the place called Ophla, and there lay skulking in private; but they took him alive, and drew him out before them all; they then tortured him with many sorts of torments, and after all slew him, as they did by those that were captains under him also, and particularly by the principal instrument of his tyranny, whose name was Apsalom. 2.651. However, Aus’s concern was this, to lay aside, for a while, the preparations for the war, and to persuade the seditious to consult their own interest, and to restrain the madness of those that had the name of zealots; but their violence was too hard for him; and what end he came to we shall relate hereafter. 3.354. and said, “Since it pleaseth thee, who hast created the Jewish nation, to depress the same, and since all their good fortune is gone over to the Romans, and since thou hast made choice of this soul of mine to foretell what is to come to pass hereafter, I willingly give them my hands, and am content to live. And I protest openly that I do not go over to the Romans as a deserter of the Jews, but as a minister from thee.” 4.318. I should not mistake if I said that the death of Aus was the beginning of the destruction of the city, and that from this very day may be dated the overthrow of her wall, and the ruin of her affairs, whereon they saw their high priest, and the procurer of their preservation, slain in the midst of their city. 4.399. There was a fortress of very great strength not far from Jerusalem, which had been built by our ancient kings, both as a repository for their effects in the hazards of war, and for the preservation of their bodies at the same time. It was called Masada. 4.400. Those that were called Sicarii had taken possession of it formerly, but at this time they overran the neighboring countries, aiming only to procure to themselves necessaries; for the fear they were then in prevented their further ravages. 4.402. and at the feast of unleavened bread, which the Jews celebrate in memory of their deliverance from the Egyptian bondage, when they were sent back into the country of their forefathers, they came down by night, without being discovered by those that could have prevented them, and overran a certain small city called Engaddi:— 4.403. in which expedition they prevented those citizens that could have stopped them, before they could arm themselves, and fight them. They also dispersed them, and cast them out of the city. As for such as could not run away, being women and children, they slew of them above seven hundred. 4.404. Afterward, when they had carried everything out of their houses, and had seized upon all the fruits that were in a flourishing condition, they brought them into Masada. 4.405. And indeed these men laid all the villages that were about the fortress waste, and made the whole country desolate; while there came to them every day, from all parts, not a few men as corrupt as themselves. 4.503. 3. And now there arose another war at Jerusalem. There was a son of Giora, one Simon, by birth of Gerasa, a young man, not so cunning indeed as John [of Gischala], who had already seized upon the city, 4.504. but superior in strength of body and courage; on which account, when he had been driven away from that Acrabattene toparchy, which he once had, by Aus the high priest, he came to those robbers who had seized upon Masada. 4.505. At first they suspected him, and only permitted him to come with the women he brought with him into the lower part of the fortress, while they dwelt in the upper part of it themselves. 4.506. However, his manner so well agreed with theirs, and he seemed so trusty a man, that he went out with them, and ravaged and destroyed the country with them about Masada; 4.508. but he affecting to tyrannize, and being fond of greatness, when he had heard of the death of Aus, he left them, and went into the mountainous part of the country. So he proclaimed liberty to those in slavery, and a reward to those already free, and got together a set of wicked men from all quarters. 5.314. So this man signalized himself for his valor, and many there were who were ambitious of gaining the like reputation. 5.365. for, that in case it be allowed a right thing to fight for liberty, that ought to have been done at first; but for them that have once fallen under the power of the Romans, and have now submitted to them for so many long years, to pretend to shake off that yoke afterward, was the work of such as had a mind to die miserably, not of such as were lovers of liberty. 6.59. There followed him eleven others, and no more, that resolved to imitate his bravery; but still this was the principal person of them all, and went first, as excited by a divine fury. 7.86. He had a courageous mind from his father, and had made greater improvements than belonged to such an age: accordingly he marched against the barbarians immediately; 7.252. 1. When Bassus was dead in Judea, Flavius Silva succeeded him as procurator there; who, when he saw that all the rest of the country was subdued in this war, and that there was but one only stronghold that was still in rebellion, he got all his army together that lay in different places, and made an expedition against it. This fortress was called Masada. 7.253. It was one Eleazar, a potent man, and the commander of these Sicarii, that had seized upon it. He was a descendant from that Judas who had persuaded abundance of the Jews, as we have formerly related, not to submit to the taxation when Cyrenius was sent into Judea to make one; 7.254. for then it was that the Sicarii got together against those that were willing to submit to the Romans, and treated them in all respects as if they had been their enemies, both by plundering them of what they had, by driving away their cattle, and by setting fire to their houses; 7.255. for they said that they differed not at all from foreigners, by betraying, in so cowardly a manner, that freedom which Jews thought worthy to be contended for to the utmost, and by owning that they preferred slavery under the Romans before such a contention. 7.256. Now this was in reality no better than a pretense and a cloak for the barbarity which was made use of by them, and to color over their own avarice, which they afterwards made evident by their own actions; 7.257. for those that were partners with them in their rebellion joined also with them in the war against the Romans, and went further lengths with them in their impudent undertakings against them; 7.258. and when they were again convicted of dissembling in such their pretenses, they still more abused those that justly reproached them for their wickedness. 7.259. And indeed that was a time most fertile in all manner of wicked practices, insomuch that no kind of evil deeds were then left undone; nor could anyone so much as devise any bad thing that was new, 7.260. o deeply were they all infected, and strove with one another in their single capacity, and in their communities, who should run the greatest lengths in impiety towards God, and in unjust actions towards their neighbors; the men of power oppressing the multitude, and the multitude earnestly laboring to destroy the men of power. 7.261. The one part were desirous of tyrannizing over others, and the rest of offering violence to others, and of plundering such as were richer than themselves. 7.262. They were the Sicarii who first began these transgressions, and first became barbarous towards those allied to them, and left no words of reproach unsaid, and no works of perdition untried, in order to destroy those whom their contrivances affected. 7.263. Yet did John demonstrate by his actions that these Sicarii were more moderate than he was himself, for he not only slew all such as gave him good counsel to do what was right, but treated them worst of all, as the most bitter enemies that he had among all the Citizens; nay, he filled his entire country with ten thousand instances of wickedness, such as a man who was already hardened sufficiently in his impiety towards God would naturally do; 7.264. for the food was unlawful that was set upon his table, and he rejected those purifications that the law of his country had ordained; so that it was no longer a wonder if he, who was so mad in his impiety towards God, did not observe any rules of gentleness and common affection towards men. 7.265. Again, therefore, what mischief was there which Simon the son of Gioras did not do? or what kind of abuses did he abstain from as to those very free-men who had set him up for a tyrant? 7.266. What friendship or kindred were there that did not make him more bold in his daily murders? for they looked upon the doing of mischief to strangers only as a work beneath their courage, but thought their barbarity towards their nearest relations would be a glorious demonstration thereof. 7.267. The Idumeans also strove with these men who should be guilty of the greatest madness! for they [all], vile wretches as they were, cut the throats of the high priests, that so no part of a religious regard to God might be preserved; they thence proceeded to destroy utterly the least remains of a political government, 7.268. and introduced the most complete scene of iniquity in all instances that were practicable; under which scene that sort of people that were called zealots grew up, and who indeed corresponded to the name; 7.269. for they imitated every wicked work; nor, if their memory suggested any evil thing that had formerly been done, did they avoid zealously to pursue the same; 7.270. and although they gave themselves that name from their zeal for what was good, yet did it agree to them only by way of irony, on account of those they had unjustly treated by their wild and brutish disposition, or as thinking the greatest mischiefs to be the greatest good. 7.271. Accordingly, they all met with such ends as God deservedly brought upon them in way of punishment; 7.272. for all such miseries have been sent upon them as man’s nature is capable of undergoing, till the utmost period of their lives, and till death came upon them in various ways of torment; 7.273. yet might one say justly that they suffered less than they had done, because it was impossible they could be punished according to their deserving. 7.274. But to make a lamentation according to the deserts of those who fell under these men’s barbarity, this is not a proper place for it;—I therefore now return again to the remaining part of the present narration. 7.275. 2. For now it was that the Roman general came, and led his army against Eleazar and those Sicarii who held the fortress Masada together with him; and for the whole country adjoining, he presently gained it, and put garrisons into the most proper places of it; 7.276. he also built a wall quite round the entire fortress, that none of the besieged might easily escape; he also set his men to guard the several parts of it; 7.277. he also pitched his camp in such an agreeable place as he had chosen for the siege, and at which place the rock belonging to the fortress did make the nearest approach to the neighboring mountain, which yet was a place of difficulty for getting plenty of provisions; 7.278. for it was not only food that was to be brought from a great distance [to the army], and this with a great deal of pain to those Jews who were appointed for that purpose, but water was also to be brought to the camp, because the place afforded no fountain that was near it. 7.279. When therefore Silva had ordered these affairs beforehand, he fell to besieging the place; which siege was likely to stand in need of a great deal of skill and pains, by reason of the strength of the fortress, the nature of which I will now describe. 7.280. 3. There was a rock, not small in circumference, and very high. It was encompassed with valleys of such vast depth downward, that the eye could not reach their bottoms; they were abrupt, and such as no animal could walk upon, excepting at two places of the rock, where it subsides, in order to afford a passage for ascent, though not without difficulty. 7.281. Now, of the ways that lead to it, one is that from the lake Asphaltitis, towards the sunrising, and another on the west, where the ascent is easier: 7.282. the one of these ways is called the Serpent, as resembling that animal in its narrowness and its perpetual windings; for it is broken off at the prominent precipices of the rock, and returns frequently into itself, and lengthening again by little and little, hath much ado to proceed forward; 7.283. and he that would walk along it must first go on one leg, and then on the other; there is also nothing but destruction, in case your feet slip; for on each side there is a vastly deep chasm and precipice, sufficient to quell the courage of everybody by the terror it infuses into the mind. 7.284. When, therefore, a man hath gone along this way for thirty furlongs, the rest is the top of the hill—not ending at a small point, but is no other than a plain upon the highest part of the mountain. 7.285. Upon this top of the hill, Jonathan the high priest first of all built a fortress, and called it Masada: after which the rebuilding of this place employed the care of king Herod to a great degree; 7.286. he also built a wall round about the entire top of the hill, seven furlongs long; it was composed of white stone; its height was twelve, and its breadth eight cubits; 7.287. there were also erected upon that wall thirty-eight towers, each of them fifty cubits high; out of which you might pass into lesser edifices, which were built on the inside, round the entire wall; 7.288. for the king reserved the top of the hill, which was of a fat soil, and better mould than any valley for agriculture, that such as committed themselves to this fortress for their preservation might not even there be quite destitute of food, in case they should ever be in want of it from abroad. 7.289. Moreover, he built a palace therein at the western ascent; it was within and beneath the walls of the citadel, but inclined to its north side. Now the wall of this palace was very high and strong, and had at its four corners towers sixty cubits high. 7.290. The furniture also of the edifices, and of the cloisters, and of the baths, was of great variety, and very costly; and these buildings were supported by pillars of single stones on every side; the walls and also the floors of the edifices were paved with stones of several colors. He also had cut many and great pits, as reservoirs for water, out of the rocks, 7.291. at every one of the places that were inhabited, both above and round about the palace, and before the wall; and by this contrivance he endeavored to have water for several uses, as if there had been fountains there. 7.292. Here was also a road digged from the palace, and leading to the very top of the mountain, which yet could not be seen by such as were without [the walls]; nor indeed could enemies easily make use of the plain roads; 7.293. for the road on the east side, as we have already taken notice, could not be walked upon, by reason of its nature; and for the western road, he built a large tower at its narrowest place, at no less a distance from the top of the hill than a thousand cubits; which tower could not possibly be passed by, nor could it be easily taken; nor indeed could those that walked along it without any fear (such was its contrivance) easily get to the end of it; 7.294. and after such a manner was this citadel fortified, both by nature and by the hands of men, in order to frustrate the attacks of enemies. 7.295. 4. As for the furniture that was within this fortress, it was still more wonderful on account of its splendor and long continuance; 7.296. for here was laid up corn in large quantities, and such as would subsist men for a long time; here was also wine and oil in abundance, with all kinds of pulse and dates heaped up together; 7.297. all which Eleazar found there, when he and his Sicarii got possession of the fortress by treachery. These fruits were also fresh and full ripe, and no way inferior to such fruits newly laid in, although they were little short of a hundred years from the laying in these provisions [by Herod], till the place was taken by the Romans; nay, indeed, when the Romans got possession of those fruits that were left, they found them not corrupted all that while; 7.298. nor should we be mistaken, if we supposed that the air was here the cause of their enduring so long; this fortress being so high, and so free from the mixture of all terrene and muddy particles of matter. 7.299. There was also found here a large quantity of all sorts of weapons of war, which had been treasured up by that king, and were sufficient for ten thousand men; there was cast iron, and brass, and tin, which show that he had taken much pains to have all things here ready for the greatest occasions; 7.301. who did not conceal her intentions, but spoke often to Antony, and desired him to cut off Herod, and entreated him to bestow the kingdom of Judea upon her. 7.302. And certainly it is a great wonder that Antony did never comply with her commands in this point, as he was so miserably enslaved to his passion for her; nor should anyone have been surprised if she had been gratified in such her request. 7.303. So the fear of these dangers made Herod rebuild Masada, and thereby leave it for the finishing stroke of the Romans in this Jewish war. 7.304. 5. Since therefore the Roman commander Silva had now built a wall on the outside, round about this whole place, as we have said already, and had thereby made a most accurate provision to prevent anyone of the besieged running away, he undertook the siege itself, though he found but one single place that would admit of the banks he was to raise; 7.305. for behind that tower which secured the road that led to the palace, and to the top of the hill from the west; there was a certain eminency of the rock, very broad and very prominent, but three hundred cubits beneath the highest part of Masada; it was called the White Promontory. 7.306. Accordingly, he got upon that part of the rock, and ordered the army to bring earth; and when they fell to that work with alacrity, and abundance of them together, the bank was raised, and became solid for two hundred cubits in height. 7.307. Yet was not this bank thought sufficiently high for the use of the engines that were to be set upon it; but still another elevated work of great stones compacted together was raised upon that bank; this was fifty cubits, both in breadth and height. 7.308. The other machines that were now got ready were like to those that had been first devised by Vespasian, and afterward by Titus, for sieges. 7.309. There was also a tower made of the height of sixty cubits, and all over plated with iron, out of which the Romans threw darts and stones from the engines, and soon made those that fought from the walls of the place to retire, and would not let them lift up their heads above the works. 7.310. At the same time Silva ordered that great battering-ram which he had made to be brought thither, and to be set against the wall, and to make frequent batteries against it, which with some difficulty broke down a part of the wall, and quite overthrew it. 7.311. However, the Sicarii made haste, and presently built another wall within that, which should not be liable to the same misfortune from the machines with the other; it was made soft and yielding, and so was capable of avoiding the terrible blows that affected the other. It was framed after the following manner: 7.312. They laid together great beams of wood lengthways, one close to the end of another, and the same way in which they were cut: there were two of these rows parallel to one another, and laid at such a distance from each other as the breadth of the wall required, and earth was put into the space between those rows. 7.313. Now, that the earth might not fall away upon the elevation of this bank to a greater height, they further laid other beams over across them, and thereby bound those beams together that lay lengthways. 7.314. This work of theirs was like a real edifice; and when the machines were applied, the blows were weakened by its yielding; and as the materials by such concussion were shaken closer together, the pile by that means became firmer than before. 7.315. When Silva saw this, he thought it best to endeavor the taking of this wall by setting fire to it; so he gave order that the soldiers should throw a great number of burning torches upon it: 7.316. accordingly, as it was chiefly made of wood, it soon took fire; and when it was once set on fire, its hollowness made that fire spread to a mighty flame. 7.317. Now, at the very beginning of this fire, a north wind that then blew proved terrible to the Romans; for by bringing the flame downward, it drove it upon them, and they were almost in despair of success, as fearing their machines would be burnt: 7.318. but after this, on a sudden the wind changed into the south, as if it were done by Divine Providence, and blew strongly the contrary way, and carried the flame, and drove it against the wall, which was now on fire through its entire thickness. 7.319. So the Romans, having now assistance from God, returned to their camp with joy, and resolved to attack their enemies the very next day; on which occasion they set their watch more carefully that night, lest any of the Jews should run away from them without being discovered. 7.320. 6. However, neither did Eleazar once think of flying away, nor would he permit anyone else to do so; 7.321. but when he saw their wall burned down by the fire, and could devise no other way of escaping, or room for their further courage, and setting before their eyes what the Romans would do to them, their children, and their wives, if they got them into their power, he consulted about having them all slain. 7.322. Now, as he judged this to be the best thing they could do in their present circumstances, he gathered the most courageous of his companions together, and encouraged them to take that course by a speech which he made to them in the manner following: 7.323. “Since we, long ago, my generous friends, resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than to God himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice. 7.324. And let us not at this time bring a reproach upon ourselves for self-contradiction, while we formerly would not undergo slavery, though it were then without danger, but must now, together with slavery, choose such punishments also as are intolerable; I mean this, upon the supposition that the Romans once reduce us under their power while we are alive. We were the very first that revolted from them, and we are the last that fight against them; 7.325. and I cannot but esteem it as a favor that God hath granted us, that it is still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom, which hath not been the case of others, who were conquered unexpectedly. 7.326. It is very plain that we shall be taken within a day’s time; but it is still an eligible thing to die after a glorious manner, together with our dearest friends. This is what our enemies themselves cannot by any means hinder, although they be very desirous to take us alive. Nor can we propose to ourselves any more to fight them, and beat them. 7.327. It had been proper indeed for us to have conjectured at the purpose of God much sooner, and at the very first, when we were so desirous of defending our liberty, and when we received such sore treatment from one another, and worse treatment from our enemies, and to have been sensible that the same God, who had of old taken the Jewish nation into his favor, had now condemned them to destruction; 7.328. for had he either continued favorable, or been but in a lesser degree displeased with us, he had not overlooked the destruction of so many men, or delivered his most holy city to be burnt and demolished by our enemies. 7.329. To be sure we weakly hoped to have preserved ourselves, and ourselves alone, still in a state of freedom, as if we had been guilty of no sins ourselves against God, nor been partners with those of others; we also taught other men to preserve their liberty. 7.330. Wherefore, consider how God hath convinced us that our hopes were in vain, by bringing such distress upon us in the desperate state we are now in, and which is beyond all our expectations; 7.331. for the nature of this fortress which was in itself unconquerable, hath not proved a means of our deliverance; and even while we have still great abundance of food, and a great quantity of arms, and other necessaries more than we want, we are openly deprived by God himself of all hope of deliverance; 7.332. for that fire which was driven upon our enemies did not of its own accord turn back upon the wall which we had built; this was the effect of God’s anger against us for our manifold sins, which we have been guilty of in a most insolent and extravagant manner with regard to our own countrymen; 7.333. the punishments of which let us not receive from the Romans, but from God himself, as executed by our own hands; for these will be more moderate than the other. 7.334. Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children before they have tasted of slavery; and after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually, and preserve ourselves in freedom, as an excellent funeral monument for us. 7.335. But first let us destroy our money and the fortress by fire; for I am well assured that this will be a great grief to the Romans, that they shall not be able to seize upon our bodies, and shall fail of our wealth also; 7.336. and let us spare nothing but our provisions; for they will be a testimonial when we are dead that we were not subdued for want of necessaries, but that, according to our original resolution, we have preferred death before slavery.” 7.337. 7. This was Eleazar’s speech to them. Yet did not the opinions of all the auditors acquiesce therein; but although some of them were very zealous to put his advice in practice, and were in a manner filled with pleasure at it, and thought death to be a good thing, 7.338. yet had those that were most effeminate a commiseration for their wives and families; and when these men were especially moved by the prospect of their own certain death, they looked wistfully at one another, and by the tears that were in their eyes declared their dissent from his opinion. 7.339. When Eleazar saw these people in such fear, and that their souls were dejected at so prodigious a proposal, he was afraid lest perhaps these effeminate persons should, by their lamentations and tears, enfeeble those that heard what he had said courageously; 7.340. o he did not leave off exhorting them, but stirred up himself, and recollecting proper arguments for raising their courage, he undertook to speak more briskly and fully to them, and that concerning the immortality of the soul. 7.341. So he made a lamentable groan, and fixing his eyes intently on those that wept, he spake thus:—“Truly, I was greatly mistaken when I thought to be assisting to brave men who struggled hard for their liberty, and to such as were resolved either to live with honor, or else to die; 7.342. but I find that you are such people as are no better than others, either in virtue or in courage, and are afraid of dying, though you be delivered thereby from the greatest miseries, while you ought to make no delay in this matter, nor to await anyone to give you good advice; 7.343. for the laws of our country, and of God himself, have from ancient times, and as soon as ever we could use our reason, continually taught us, and our forefathers have corroborated the same doctrine by their actions, and by their bravery of mind, that it is life that is a calamity to men, and not death; 7.344. for this last affords our souls their liberty, and sends them by a removal into their own place of purity, where they are to be insensible of all sorts of misery; for while souls are tied down to a mortal body, they are partakers of its miseries; and really, to speak the truth, they are themselves dead; for the union of what is divine to what is mortal is disagreeable. 7.345. It is true, the power of the soul is great, even when it is imprisoned in a mortal body; for by moving it after a way that is invisible, it makes the body a sensible instrument, and causes it to advance further in its actions than mortal nature could otherwise do. 7.346. However, when it is freed from that weight which draws it down to the earth and is connected with it, it obtains its own proper place, and does then become a partaker of that blessed power, and those abilities, which are then every way incapable of being hindered in their operations. It continues invisible, indeed, to the eyes of men, as does God himself; 7.347. for certainly it is not itself seen while it is in the body; for it is there after an invisible manner, and when it is freed from it, it is still not seen. It is this soul which hath one nature, and that an incorruptible one also; but yet it is the cause of the change that is made in the body; 7.348. for whatsoever it be which the soul touches, that lives and flourishes; and from whatsoever it is removed, that withers away and dies; such a degree is there in it of immortality. 7.349. Let me produce the state of sleep as a most evident demonstration of the truth of what I say; wherein souls, when the body does not distract them, have the sweetest rest depending on themselves, and conversing with God, by their alliance to him; they then go everywhere, and foretell many futurities beforehand. 7.350. And why are we afraid of death, while we are pleased with the rest that we have in sleep? And how absurd a thing is it to pursue after liberty while we are alive, and yet to envy it to ourselves where it will be eternal! 7.351. We, therefore, who have been brought up in a discipline of our own, ought to become an example to others of our readiness to die; yet if we dostand in need of foreigners to support us in this matter, let us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy; 7.352. for these good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life, and look upon it as a necessary servitude, 7.353. and make haste to let their souls loose from their bodies; nay, when no misfortune presses them to it, nor drives them upon it, these have such a desire of a life of immortality, that they tell other men beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders them, but everyone thinks them happy men, and gives them letters to be carried to their familiar friends [that are dead]; 7.354. o firmly and certainly do they believe that souls converse with one another [in the other world]. 7.355. So when these men have heard all such commands that were to be given them, they deliver their body to the fire; and, in order to their getting their soul a separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die in the midst of hymns of commendations made to them; 7.356. for their dearest friends conduct them to their death more readily than do any of the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they are going a very long journey, who at the same time weep on their own account, but look upon the others as happy persons, as so soon to be made partakers of the immortal order of beings. 7.357. Are not we, therefore, ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians? and by our own cowardice to lay a base reproach upon the laws of our country, which are so much desired and imitated by all mankind? 7.358. But put the case that we had been brought up under another persuasion, and taught that life is the greatest good which men are capable of, and that death is a calamity; however, the circumstances we are now in ought to be an inducement to us to bear such calamity courageously, since it is by the will of God, and by necessity, that we are to die; 7.359. for it now appears that God hath made such a decree against the whole Jewish nation, that we are to be deprived of this life which [he knew] we would not make a due use of. 7.360. For do not you ascribe the occasion of our present condition to yourselves, nor think the Romans are the true occasion that this war we have had with them is become so destructive to us all: these things have not come to pass by their power, but a more powerful cause hath intervened, and made us afford them an occasion of their appearing to be conquerors over us. 7.361. What Roman weapons, I pray you, were those by which the Jews at Caesarea were slain? 7.362. On the contrary, when they were no way disposed to rebel, but were all the while keeping their seventh day festival, and did not so much as lift up their hands against the citizens of Caesarea, yet did those citizens run upon them in great crowds, and cut their throats, and the throats of their wives and children, and this without any regard to the Romans themselves, who never took us for their enemies till we revolted from them. 7.363. But some may be ready to say, that truly the people of Caesarea had always a quarrel against those that lived among them, and that when an opportunity offered itself, they only satisfied the old rancor they had against them. 7.364. What then shall we say to those of Scythopolis, who ventured to wage war with us on account of the Greeks? Nor did they do it by way of revenge upon the Romans, when they acted in concert with our countrymen. 7.365. Wherefore you see how little our goodwill and fidelity to them profited us, while they were slain, they and their whole families, after the most inhuman manner, which was all the requital that was made them for the assistance they had afforded the others; 7.366. for that very same destruction which they had prevented from falling upon the others did they suffer themselves from them, as if they had been ready to be the actors against them. It would be too long for me to speak at this time of every destruction brought upon us; 7.367. for you cannot but know that there was not anyone Syrian city which did not slay their Jewish inhabitants, and were not more bitter enemies to us than were the Romans themselves; 7.368. nay, even those of Damascus, when they were able to allege no tolerable pretense against us, filled their city with the most barbarous slaughters of our people, and cut the throats of eighteen thousand Jews, with their wives and children. 7.369. And as to the multitude of those that were slain in Egypt, and that with torments also, we have been informed they were more than sixty thousand; those, indeed, being in a foreign country, and so naturally meeting with nothing to oppose against their enemies, were killed in the manner forementioned. As for all those of us who have waged war against the Romans in our own country, had we not sufficient reason to have sure hopes of victory? 7.370. For we had arms, and walls, and fortresses so prepared as not to be easily taken, and courage not to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty, which encouraged us all to revolt from the Romans. 7.371. But then these advantages sufficed us but for a short time, and only raised our hopes, while they really appeared to be the origin of our miseries; for all we had hath been taken from us, and all hath fallen under our enemies, as if these advantages were only to render their victory over us the more glorious, and were not disposed for the preservation of those by whom these preparations were made. 7.372. And as for those that are already dead in the war, it is reasonable we should esteem them blessed, for they are dead in defending, and not in betraying their liberty; but as to the multitude of those that are now under the Romans, who would not pity their condition? and who would not make haste to die, before he would suffer the same miseries with them? 7.373. Some of them have been put upon the rack, and tortured with fire and whippings, and so died. Some have been halfdevoured by wild beasts, and yet have been reserved alive to be devoured by them a second time, in order to afford laughter and sport to our enemies; 7.374. and such of those as are alive still are to be looked on as the most miserable, who, being so desirous of death, could not come at it. 7.375. And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation, which was fortified by so many walls round about, which had so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could hardly contain the instruments prepared for the war, and which had so many ten thousands of men to fight for it? 7.376. Where is this city that was believed to have God himself inhabiting therein? It is now demolished to the very foundations, and hath nothing but that monument of it preserved, I mean the camp of those that hath destroyed it, which still dwells upon its ruins; 7.377. ome unfortunate old men also lie upon the ashes of the temple, and a few women are there preserved alive by the enemy, for our bitter shame and reproach. 7.378. Now, who is there that revolves these things in his mind, and yet is able to bear the sight of the sun, though he might live out of danger? Who is there so much his country’s enemy, or so unmanly, and so desirous of living, as not to repent that he is still alive? 7.379. And I cannot but wish that we had all died before we had seen that holy city demolished by the hands of our enemies, or the foundations of our holy temple dug up after so profane a manner. 7.380. But since we had a generous hope that deluded us, as if we might perhaps have been able to avenge ourselves on our enemies on that account, though it be now become vanity, and hath left us alone in this distress, let us make haste to die bravely. Let us pity ourselves, our children, and our wives while it is in our own power to show pity to them; 7.381. for we were born to die, as well as those were whom we have begotten; nor is it in the power of the most happy of our race to avoid it. 7.382. But for abuses, and slavery, and the sight of our wives led away after an ignominious manner, with their children, these are not such evils as are natural and necessary among men; although such as do not prefer death before those miseries, when it is in their power so to do, must undergo even them, on account of their own cowardice. 7.383. We revolted from the Romans with great pretensions to courage; and when, at the very last, they invited us to preserve ourselves, we would not comply with them. 7.384. Who will not, therefore, believe that they will certainly be in a rage at us, in case they can take us alive? Miserable will then be the young men who will be strong enough in their bodies to sustain many torments! miserable also will be those of elder years, who will not be able to bear those calamities which young men might sustain. 7.385. One man will be obliged to hear the voice of his son implore help of his father, when his hands are bound. 7.386. But certainly our hands are still at liberty, and have a sword in them; let them then be subservient to us in our glorious design; let us die before we become slaves under our enemies, and let us go out of the world, together with our children and our wives, in a state of freedom. 7.387. This it is that our laws command us to do; this it is that our wives and children crave at our hands; nay, God himself hath brought this necessity upon us; while the Romans desire the contrary, and are afraid lest any of us should die before we are taken. 7.388. Let us therefore make haste, and instead of affording them so much pleasure, as they hope for in getting us under their power, let us leave them an example which shall at once cause their astonishment at our death, and their admiration of our hardiness therein.” 7.389. 1. Now as Eleazar was proceeding on in this exhortation, they all cut him off short, and made haste to do the work, as full of an unconquerable ardor of mind, and moved with a demoniacal fury. So they went their ways, as one still endeavoring to be before another, and as thinking that this eagerness would be a demonstration of their courage and good conduct, if they could avoid appearing in the last class; so great was the zeal they were in to slay their wives and children, and themselves also! 7.390. Nor, indeed, when they came to the work itself, did their courage fail them, as one might imagine it would have done, but they then held fast the same resolution, without wavering, which they had upon the hearing of Eleazar’s speech, while yet every one of them still retained the natural passion of love to themselves and their families, because the reasoning they went upon appeared to them to be very just, even with regard to those that were dearest to them; 7.391. for the husbands tenderly embraced their wives, and took their children into their arms, and gave the longest parting kisses to them, with tears in their eyes. 7.392. Yet at the same time did they complete what they had resolved on, as if they had been executed by the hands of strangers; and they had nothing else for their comfort but the necessity they were in of doing this execution, to avoid that prospect they had of the miseries they were to suffer from their enemies. 7.393. Nor was there at length anyone of these men found that scrupled to act their part in this terrible execution, but every one of them dispatched his dearest relations. Miserable men indeed were they! whose distress forced them to slay their own wives and children with their own hands, as the lightest of those evils that were before them. 7.394. So they being not able to bear the grief they were under for what they had done any longer, and esteeming it an injury to those they had slain, to live even the shortest space of time after them,—they presently laid all they had upon a heap, and set fire to it. 7.395. They then chose ten men by lot out of them to slay all the rest; every one of whom laid himself down by his wife and children on the ground, and threw his arms about them, and they offered their necks to the stroke of those who by lot executed that melancholy office; 7.396. and when these ten had, without fear, slain them all, they made the same rule for casting lots for themselves, that he whose lot it was should first kill the other nine, and after all should kill himself. Accordingly, all these had courage sufficient to be no way behind one another in doing or suffering; 7.397. o, for a conclusion, the nine offered their necks to the executioner, and he who was the last of all took a view of all the other bodies, lest perchance some or other among so many that were slain should want his assistance to be quite dispatched; and when he perceived that they were all slain, he set fire to the palace, and with the great force of his hand ran his sword entirely through himself, and fell down dead near to his own relations. 7.398. So these people died with this intention, that they would not leave so much as one soul among them all alive to be subject to the Romans. 7.399. Yet was there an ancient woman, and another who was of kin to Eleazar, and superior to most women in prudence and learning, with five children, who had concealed themselves in caverns under ground, and had carried water thither for their drink, and were hidden there when the rest were intent upon the slaughter of one another. 7.400. Those others were nine hundred and sixty in number, the women and children being withal included in that computation. 7.401. This calamitous slaughter was made on the fifteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan]. 7.402. 2. Now for the Romans, they expected that they should be fought in the morning, when, accordingly, they put on their armor, and laid bridges of planks upon their ladders from their banks, to make an assault upon the fortress, which they did; 7.403. but saw nobody as an enemy, but a terrible solitude on every side, with a fire within the place, as well as a perfect silence. So they were at a loss to guess at what had happened. At length they made a shout, as if it had been at a blow given by the batteringram, to try whether they could bring anyone out that was within; 7.404. the women heard this noise, and came out of their underground cavern, and informed the Romans what had been done, as it was done; and the second of them clearly described all both what was said and what was done, and the manner of it; 7.405. yet did they not easily give their attention to such a desperate undertaking, and did not believe it could be as they said; they also attempted to put the fire out, and quickly cutting themselves a way through it, they came within the palace, 7.406. and so met with the multitude of the slain, but could take no pleasure in the fact, though it were done to their enemies. Nor could they do other than wonder at the courage of their resolution, and the immovable contempt of death which so great a number of them had shown, when they went through with such an action as that was. 7.409. for still it came to pass that many Jews were slain at Alexandria in Egypt; 7.410. for as many of the Sicarii as were able to fly thither, out of the seditious wars in Judea, were not content to have saved themselves, but must needs be undertaking to make new disturbances, and persuaded many of those that entertained them to assert their liberty, to esteem the Romans to be no better than themselves, and to look upon God as their only Lord and Master. 7.411. But when part of the Jews of reputation opposed them, they slew some of them, and with the others they were very pressing in their exhortations to revolt from the Romans; 7.412. but when the principal men of the senate saw what madness they were come to, they thought it no longer safe for themselves to overlook them. So they got all the Jews together to an assembly, and accused the madness of the Sicarii, and demonstrated that they had been the authors of all the evils that had come upon them. 7.413. They said also that “these men, now they were run away from Judea, having no sure hope of escaping, because as soon as ever they shall be known, they will be soon destroyed by the Romans, they come hither and fill us full of those calamities which belong to them, while we have not been partakers with them in any of their sins.” 7.414. Accordingly, they exhorted the multitude to have a care, lest they should be brought to destruction by their means, and to make their apology to the Romans for what had been done, by delivering these men up to them; 7.415. who being thus apprised of the greatness of the danger they were in, complied with what was proposed, and ran with great violence upon the Sicarii, and seized upon them; 7.416. and indeed six hundred of them were caught immediately: but as to all those that fled into Egypt and to the Egyptian Thebes, it was not long ere they were caught also, and brought back,— 7.417. whose courage, or whether we ought to call it madness, or hardiness in their opinions, everybody was amazed at. 7.418. For when all sorts of torments and vexations of their bodies that could be devised were made use of to them, they could not get anyone of them to comply so far as to confess, or seem to confess, that Caesar was their lord; but they preserved their own opinion, in spite of all the distress they were brought to, as if they received these torments and the fire itself with bodies insensible of pain, and with a soul that in a manner rejoiced under them. 7.419. But what was most of all astonishing to the beholders was the courage of the children; for not one of these children was so far overcome by these torments, as to name Caesar for their lord. So far does the strength of the courage [of the soul] prevail over the weakness of the body. 7.420. 2. Now Lupus did then govern Alexandria, who presently sent Caesar word of this commotion; 7.421. who having in suspicion the restless temper of the Jews for innovation, and being afraid lest they should get together again, and persuade some others to join with them, gave orders to Lupus to demolish that Jewish temple which was in the region called Onion, 7.422. and was in Egypt, which was built and had its denomination from the occasion following: 7.423. Onias, the son of Simon, one of the Jewish high priests, fled from Antiochus the king of Syria, when he made war with the Jews, and came to Alexandria; and as Ptolemy received him very kindly, on account of his hatred to Antiochus, he assured him, that if he would comply with his proposal, he would bring all the Jews to his assistance; 7.424. and when the king agreed to do it so far as he was able, he desired him to give him leave to build a temple somewhere in Egypt, and to worship God according to the customs of his own country; 7.425. for that the Jews would then be so much readier to fight against Antiochus who had laid waste the temple at Jerusalem, and that they would then come to him with greater goodwill; and that, by granting them liberty of conscience, very many of them would come over to him. 7.426. 3. So Ptolemy complied with his proposals, and gave him a place one hundred and eighty furlongs distant from Memphis. That Nomos was called the Nomos of Heliopoli 7.427. where Onias built a fortress and a temple, not like to that at Jerusalem, but such as resembled a tower. He built it of large stones to the height of sixty cubits; 7.428. he made the structure of the altar in imitation of that in our own country, and in like manner adorned with gifts, excepting the make of the candlestick, 7.429. for he did not make a candlestick, but had a [single] lamp hammered out of a piece of gold, which illuminated the place with its rays, and which he hung by a chain of gold; 7.430. but the entire temple was encompassed with a wall of burnt brick, though it had gates of stone. The king also gave him a large country for a revenue in money, that both the priests might have a plentiful provision made for them, and that God might have great abundance of what things were necessary for his worship. 7.431. Yet did not Onias do this out of a sober disposition, but he had a mind to contend with the Jews at Jerusalem, and could not forget the indignation he had for being banished thence. Accordingly, he thought that by building this temple he should draw away a great number from them to himself. 7.432. There had been also a certain ancient prediction made by [a prophet] whose name was Isaiah, about six hundred years before, that this temple should be built by a man that was a Jew in Egypt. And this is the history of the building of that temple. 7.433. 4. And now Lupus, the governor of Alexandria, upon the receipt of Caesar’s letter, came to the temple, and carried out of it some of the donations dedicated thereto, and shut up the temple itself. 7.434. And as Lupus died a little afterward, Paulinus succeeded him. This man left none of those donations there, and threatened the priests severely if they did not bring them all out; nor did he permit any who were desirous of worshipping God there so much as to come near the whole sacred place; 7.435. but when he had shut up the gates, he made it entirely inaccessible, insomuch that there remained no longer the least footsteps of any Divine worship that had been in that place. 7.436. Now the duration of the time from the building of this temple till it was shut up again was three hundred and forty-three years.

7. Josephus Flavius, Against Apion, 2.146, 2.232-2.233, 2.294 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •irony and figured speech, in the masada narrative Found in books: Brighton, Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations (2009) 112, 128

2.146. κατὰ μέρος ὡς ἂν ὦ δυνατὸς εἰπεῖν. οἶμαι γὰρ ἔσεσθαι φανερόν, ὅτι καὶ πρὸς εὐσέβειαν καὶ πρὸς κοινωνίαν τὴν μετ' ἀλλήλων καὶ πρὸς τὴν καθόλου φιλανθρωπίαν ἔτι δὲ πρὸς δικαιοσύνην καὶ τὴν ἐν τοῖς πόνοις καρτερίαν καὶ θανάτου περιφρόνησιν ἄριστα κειμένους 2.232. ̓͂Αρ' οὖν καὶ παρ' ἡμῖν, οὐ λέγω τοσούτους, ἀλλὰ δύο ἢ τρεῖς ἔγνω τις προδότας γενομένους τῶν νόμων ἢ θάνατον φοβηθέντας, οὐχὶ τὸν ῥᾷστον ἐκεῖνον λέγω τὸν συμβαίνοντα τοῖς μαχομένοις, ἀλλὰ τὸν μετὰ λύμης τῶν σωμάτων, ὁποῖος εἶναι δοκεῖ πάντων χαλεπώτατος; 2.233. ὃν ἔγωγε νομίζω τινὰς κρατήσαντας ἡμῶν οὐχ ὑπὸ μίσους προσφέρειν τοῖς ὑποχειρίοις, ἀλλὰ [ὡς] θαυμαστόν τι θέαμα βουλομένους ἰδεῖν, εἴ τινές εἰσιν ἄνθρωποι μόνον εἶναι κακὸν αὐτοῖς πεπιστευκότες, εἰ πρᾶξαί τι παρὰ τοὺς ἑαυτῶν νόμους εἰ λόγον εἰπεῖν παρ' ἐκείνοις παραβιασθεῖεν. 2.294. ἢ τί συμφορώτερον τοῦ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὁμονοεῖν καὶ μήτ' ἐν συμφοραῖς διίστασθαι μήτ' ἐν εὐτυχίαις στασιάζειν ἐξυβρίζοντας, ἀλλ' ἐν πολέμῳ μὲν θανάτου καταφρονεῖν, ἐν εἰρήνῃ δὲ τέχναις ἢ γεωργίαις προσανέχειν, πάντα δὲ καὶ πανταχοῦ πεπεῖσθαι τὸν θεὸν ἐποπτεύοντα διέπειν;

2.146. for I suppose it will thence become evident that the laws we have given us are disposed after the best manner for the advancement of piety, for mutual communion with one another, for a general love of mankind, as also for justice, and for sustaining labors with fortitude, and for a contempt of death; 2.232. 33. Now as for ourselves, I venture to say, that no one can tell of so many; nay, not of more than one or two that have betrayed our laws, no, not out of fear of death itself; I do not mean such an easy death as happens in battles, but that which comes with bodily torments, and seems to be the severest kind of death of all others. 2.233. Now I think, those that have conquered us have put us to such deaths, not out of their hatred to us when they had subdued us, but rather out of their desire of seeing a surprising sight, which is this, whether there be such men in the world who believe that no evil is to them so great as to be compelled to do or to speak any thing contrary to their own laws. 2.294. and what is more advantageous than mutual love and concord? and this so far that we are to be neither divided by calamities, nor to become injurious and seditious in prosperity; but to condemn death when we are in war, and in peace to apply ourselves to our mechanical occupations, or to our tillage of the ground; while we in all things and all ways are satisfied that God is the inspector and governor of our actions.

8. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 65.12.2, 66.13.1 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •irony and figured speech, Found in books: Brighton, Sicarii in Josephus's Judean War: Rhetorical Analysis and Historical Observations (2009) 15

Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database