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[149]
But there were still some that irritated the multitude against me,
and said that those great men that belonged to the king ought not to be
suffered to live, if they would not change their religion to the religion
of those to whom they fled for safety: they spake reproachfully of them
also, and said that they were wizards, and such as called in the Romans
upon them. So the multitude was soon deluded by such plausible pretenses
as were agreeable to their own inclinations, and were prevailed on by them.
But when I was informed of this, I instructed the multitude again, that
those who fled to them for refuge ought not to be persecuted: I also laughed
at the allegation about witchcraft, 1
and told them that the Romans would not maintain so many ten thousand soldiers,
if they could overcome their enemies by wizards. Upon my saying this, the
people assented for a while; but they returned again afterwards, as irritated
by some ill people against the great men; nay, they once made an assault
upon the house in which they dwelt at Tarichess, in order to kill them;
which, when I was informed of, I was afraid lest so horrid a crime should
take effect, and nobody else would make that city their refuge any more.
I therefore came myself, and some others with me, to the house where these
great men lived, and locked the doors, and had a trench drawn from their
house leading to the lake, and sent for a ship, and embarked therein with
them, and sailed to the confines of Hippos: I also paid them the value
of their horses; nor in such a flight could I have their horses brought
to them. I then dismissed them, and begged of them earnestly that they
would courageously bear I this distress which befell them. I was also myself
I greatly displeased that I was compelled to expose those that had fled
to me to go again into an enemy's country; yet did I think it more eligible
that they should perish among the Romans, if it should so happen, than
in the country that was under my jurisdiction. However, they escaped at
length, and king Agrippa forgave them their offenses. And this was the
conclusion of what concerned these men.
1 Here we may observe the vulgar Jewish notion of witchcraft, but that our Josephus was too wise to give any countenance to it.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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