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[290]
Now by this time Herod had sailed out of Italy, and was come to Ptolemais;
and as soon as he had gotten together no small army of foreigners, and
of his own countrymen, he marched through Galilee against Antigonus, wherein
he was assisted by Ventidius and Silo, both whom Dellius, 1
a person sent by Antony, persuaded to bring Herod [into his kingdom]. Now
Ventidius was at this time among the cities, and composing the disturbances
which had happened by means of the Parthians, as was Silo in Judea corrupted
by the bribes that Antigonus had given him; yet was not Herod himself destitute
of power, but the number of his forces increased every day as he went along,
and all Galilee, with few exceptions, joined themselves to him. So he proposed
to himself to set about his most necessary enterprise, and that was Masada,
in order to deliver his relations from the siege they endured. But still
Joppa stood in his way, and hindered his going thither; for it was necessary
to take that city first, which was in the enemies' hands, that when he
should go to Jerusalem, no fortress might be left in the enemies' power
behind him. Silo also willingly joined him, as having now a plausible occasion
of drawing off his forces [from Jerusalem]; and when the Jews pursued him,
and pressed upon him, [in his retreat,] Herod made all excursion upon them
with a small body of his men, and soon put them to flight, and saved Silo
when he was in distress.
1 This Dellius is famous, or rather infamous, in the history of Mark Antony, as Spanheim and Aldrich here note, from the coins, from Plutarch and Dio.
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