Flavius Josephus, Jewish War (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Joseph. BJ]. | ||
<<Joseph. BJ 1.17 | Joseph. BJ 1.30 (Greek) | >>Joseph. BJ 1.41 |
Moreover, [I shall relate] how Titus marched out of
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. Nor shall I omit to mention the misfortunes of
the deserters, nor the punishments inflicted on the captives; as also how
the temple was burnt, against the consent of Caesar; and how many sacred
things that had been laid up in the temple were snatched out of the fire;
the destruction also of the entire city, with the signs and wonders that
went before it; and the taking the tyrants captives, and the multitude
of those that were made slaves, and into what different misfortunes they
were every one distributed. Moreover, what the Romans did to the remains
of the wall; and how they demolished the strong holds that were in the
country; and how Titus went over the whole country, and settled its affairs;
together with his return into
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.
AT the same time that Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, had a
quarrel with the sixth Ptolemy about his right to the whole country of
Now Antiochus was not satisfied either with his unexpected taking the city, or with its pillage, or with the great slaughter he had made there; but being overcome with his violent passions, and remembering what he had suffered during the siege, he compelled the Jews to dissolve the laws of their country, and to keep their infants uncircumcised, and to sacrifice swine's flesh upon the altar; against which they all opposed themselves, and the most approved among them were put to death. Bacchides also, who was sent to keep the fortresses, having these wicked commands, joined to his own natural barbarity, indulged all sorts of the extremest wickedness, and tormented the worthiest of the inhabitants, man by man, and threatened their city every day with open destruction, till at length he provoked the poor sufferers by the extremity of his wicked doings to avenge themselves.
1.36Accordingly Matthias, the son of Asamoneus, one of the priests who
lived in a village called Modin, armed himself, together with his own family,
which had five sons of his in it, and slew Bacchides with daggers; and
thereupon, out of the fear of the many garrisons [of the enemy], he fled
to the mountains; and so many of the people followed him, that he was encouraged
to come down from the mountains, and to give battle to Antiochus's generals,
when he beat them, and drove them out of
Flavius Josephus, Jewish War (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Joseph. BJ]. | ||
<<Joseph. BJ 1.17 | Joseph. BJ 1.30 (Greek) | >>Joseph. BJ 1.41 |