[54]
Now, after these misfortunes had happened to the Jews at Antioch,
a second calamity befell them, the description of which when we were going
about we premised the account foregoing; for upon this accident, whereby
the four-square market-place was burnt down, as well as the archives, and
the place where the public records were preserved, and the royal palaces,
(and it was not without difficulty that the fire was then put a stop to,
which was likely, by the fury wherewith it was carried along, to have gone
over the whole city,) Antiochus accused the Jews as the occasion of all
the mischief that was done. Now this induced the people of Antioch, who
were now under the immediate persuasion, by reason of the disorder they
were in, that this calumny was true, and would have been under the same
persuasion, even though they had not borne an ill-will at the Jews before,
to believe this man's accusation, especially when they considered what
had been done before, and this to such a degree, that they all fell violently
upon those that were accused, and this, like madmen, in a very furious
rage also, even as if they had seen the Jews in a manner setting fire themselves
to the city; nor was it without difficulty that one Cneius Collegas, the
legate, could prevail with them to permit the affairs to be laid before
Caesar; for as to Cesennius Petus, the president of Syria, Vespasian had
already sent him away; and so it happened that he was not yet come back
thither. But when Collegas had made a careful inquiry into the matter,
he found out the truth, and that not one of those Jews that were accused
by Antiochus had any hand in it, but that all was done by some vile persons
greatly in debt, who supposed that if they could once set fire to the market-place,
and burn the public records, they should have no further demands made upon
them. So the Jews were under great disorder and terror, in the uncertain
expectations of what would be the upshot of these accusations against them.
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