Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
book:
whiston chapter:
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
Table of Contents:
book 1
book 2
book 3
book 6
book 7
book 8
book 10
book 12
book 13
book 14
book 15
book 16
book 18
[289]
But king Agrippa, who now lived at Rome, was more and more in the
favor of Caius; and when he had once made him a supper, and was careful
to exceed all others, both in expenses and in such preparations as might
contribute most to his pleasure; nay, it was so far from the ability of
others, that Caius himself could never equal, much less exceed it (such
care had he taken beforehand to exceed all men, and particularly. to make
all agreeable to Caesar); hereupon Caius admired his understanding and
magnificence, that he should force himself to do all to please him, even
beyond such expenses as he could bear, and was desirous not to be behind
Agrippa in that generosity which he exerted in order to please him. So
Caius, when he had drank wine plentifully, and was merrier than ordinary,
said thus during the feast, when Agrippa had drunk to him: "I knew
before now how great a respect thou hast had for me, and how great kindness
thou hast shown me, though with those hazards to thyself, which thou underwentest
under Tiberius on that account; nor hast thou omitted any thing to show
thy good-will towards us, even beyond thy ability; whence it would be a
base thing for me to be conquered by thy affection. I am therefore desirous
to make thee amends for every thing in which I have been formerly deficient;
for all that I have bestowed on thee, that may be called my gifts, is but
little. Everything that may contribute to thy happiness shall be at thy
service, and that cheerfully, and so far as my ability will reach."
And this was what Caius said to Agrippa, thinking be would ask for some
large country, or the revenues of certain cities. But although he had prepared
beforehand what he would ask, yet had he not discovered his intentions,
but made this answer to Caius immediately: That it was not out of any expectation
of gain that he formerly paid his respects to him, contrary to the commands
of Tiberius, nor did he now do any thing relating to him out of regard
to his own advantage, and in order to receive any thing from him; that
the gifts he had already bestowed upon him were great, and beyond the hopes
of even a craving man; for although they may be beneath thy power, [who
art the donor,] yet are they greater than my inclination and dignity, who
am the receiver. And as Caius was astonished at Agrippa's inclinations,
and still the more pressed him to make his request for somewhat which he
might gratify him with, Agrippa replied, "Since thou, O my lord! declarest
such is thy readiness to grant, that I am worthy of thy gifts, I will ask
nothing relating to my own felicity; for what thou hast already bestowed
on me has made me excel therein; but I desire somewhat which may make thee
glorious for piety, and render the Divinity assistant to thy designs, and
may be for an honor to me among those that inquire about it, as showing
that I never once fail of obtaining what I desire of thee; for my petition
is this, that thou wilt no longer think of the dedication of that statue
which thou hast ordered to be set up in the Jewish temple by Petronius."
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.
show
Browse Bar
hide
Places (automatically extracted)
View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.
Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.
hide
References (4 total)
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(4):
- LSJ, ἀπο-μοιράομαι
- LSJ, ἀρέσκ-εια
- LSJ, δια_κον-έω
- LSJ, προδωρέομαι
hide
Search
hideStable Identifiers
hide
Display Preferences