[317]
However, the governors of Tiberias took care to have their city
secured with walls, and commanded their inhabitants to take their arms.
They also sent for a great many soldiers from John, to assist them against
me, if there should be occasion for them. Now John was at Gischala. Jonathan,
therefore, and those that were with him, when they were departed from Tiberias,
and as soon as they were come to Dabaritta, a village that lay in the utmost
parts of Galilee, in the great plain, they, about midnight, fell among
the guards I had set, who both commanded them to lay aside their weapons,
and kept them in bonds upon the place, as I had charged them to do. This
news was written to me by Levi, who had the command of that guard committed
to him by me. Hereupon I said nothing of it for two days; and, pretending
to know nothing about it, I sent a message to the people of Tiberias, and
advised them to lay their arms aside, and to dismiss their men, that they
might go home. But, supposing that Jonathan, and those that were with him,
were already arrived at Jerusalem, they made reproachful answers to me;
yet was I not terrified thereby, but contrived another stratagem against
them, for I did not think it agreeable with piety to kindle the fire of
war against the citizens. As I was desirous to draw those men away from
Tiberias, I chose out ten thousand of the best of my armed men, and divided
them into three bodies, and ordered them to go privately, and lie still
as an ambush, in the villages. I also led a thousand into another village,
which lay indeed in the mountains, as did the others, but only four furlongs
distant from Tiberias; and gave orders, that when they saw my signal, they
should come down immediately, while I myself lay with my soldiers in the
sight of every body. Hereupon the people of Tiberias, at the sight of me,
came running out of the city perpetually, and abused me greatly. Nay, their
madness was come to that height, that they made a decent bier for me, and,
standing about it, they mourned over me in the way of jest and sport; and
I could not but be myself in a pleasant humor upon the sight of this madness
of theirs.
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.