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