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[425]
Now the next day was the festival of Xylophory; upon which the custom
was for every one to bring wood for the altar (that there might never be
a want of fuel for that fire which was unquenchable and always burning).
Upon that day they excluded the opposite party from the observation of
this part of religion. And when they had joined to themselves many of the
Sicarii, who crowded in among the weaker people, (that was the name for
such robbers as had under their bosoms swords called Sicae,) they grew
bolder, and carried their undertaking further; insomuch that the king's
soldiers were overpowered by their multitude and boldness; and so they
gave way, and were driven out of the upper city by force. The others then
set fire to the house of Ananias the high priest, and to the palaces of
Agrippa and Bernice; after which they carried the fire to the place where
the archives were reposited, and made haste to burn the contracts belonging
to their creditors, and thereby to dissolve their obligations for paying
their debts; and this was done in order to gain the multitude of those
who had been debtors, and that they might persuade the poorer sort to join
in their insurrection with safety against the more wealthy; so the keepers
of the records fled away, and the rest set fire to them. And when they
had thus burnt down the nerves of the city, they fell upon their enemies;
at which time some of the men of power, and of the high priests, went into
the vaults under ground, and concealed themselves, while others fled with
the king's soldiers to the upper palace, and shut the gates immediately;
among whom were Ananias the high priest, and the ambassadors that had been
sent to Agrippa. And now the seditious were contented with the victory
they had gotten, and the buildings they had burnt down, and proceeded no
further.
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