THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book II: Chapter 12
MANY TUMULTS UNDER CUMANUS, WHICH WERE COMPOSED BY
QUADRATUS. FELIX IS PROCURATOR OF JUDEA. AGRIPPA IS
ADVANCED FROM CHALCIS TO A GREATER KINGDOM.
1 NOW
after the death of Herod, king of Chalcis, Claudius
set Agrippa, the son of Agrippa, over his uncle’s
kingdom, while Cumanus took upon him the office of
procurator of the rest, which was a Roman province,
and therein he succeeded Alexander; under which
Cureanus began the troubles, and the Jews’ ruin came
on; for when the multitude were come together to
Jerusalem, to the feast of unleavened bread, and a
Roman cohort stood over the cloisters of the temple,
(for they always were armed, and kept guard at the
festivals, to prevent any innovation which the
multitude thus gathered together might make,) one of
the soldiers pulled back his garment, and cowering
down after an indecent manner, turned his breech to
the Jews, and spake such words as you might expect
upon such a posture. At this the whole multitude had
indignation, and made a clamor to Cumanus, that he
would punish the soldier; while the rasher part of the
youth, and such as were naturally the most tumultuous,
fell to fighting, and caught up stones, and threw them
at the soldiers. Upon which Cumanus was afraid lest
all the people should make an assault upon him, and
sent to call for more armed men, who, when they came
in great numbers into the cloisters, the Jews were in
a very great consternation; and being beaten out of
the temple, they ran into the city; and the violence
with which they crowded to get out was so great, that
they trod upon each other, and squeezed one another,
till ten thousand of them were killed, insomuch that
this feast became the cause of mourning to the whole
nation, and every family lamented their own relations.
2. Now there followed after this another calamity,
which arose from a tumult made by robbers; for at the
public road at Beth-boron, one Stephen, a servant of
Caesar, carried some furniture, which the robbers fell
upon and seized. Upon this Cureanus sent men to go
round about to the neighboring villages, and to bring
their inhabitants to him bound, as laying
it to their charge that they had not pursued after
the thieves, and caught them. Now here it was that a
certain soldier, finding the sacred book of thelaw,
tore it to pieces, and threw it into the fire. 14
Hereupon the Jews were in great disorder, as if their
whole country were in a flame, and assembled
themselves so many of them by their zeal for their
religion, as by an engine, and ran together with
united clamor to Cesarea, to Cumanus, and made
supplication to him that he would not overlook this
man, who had offered such an affront to God, and to
his law; but punish him for what he had done.
Accordingly, he, perceiving that the multitude would
not be quiet unless they had a comfortable answer from
him, gave order that the soldier should be brought,
and drawn through those that required to have him
punished, to execution, which being done, the Jews
went their ways.
3. After this there happened a fight between the
Galileans and the Samaritans; it happened at a village
called Geman, which is situate in the great plain of
Samaria; where, as a great number of Jews were going
up to Jerusalem to the feast [of tabernacles,] a
certain Galilean was slain; and besides, a vast number
of people ran together out of Galilee, in order to
fight with the Samaritans. But the principal men among
them came to Cumanus, and besought him that, before
the evil became incurable, he would come into Galilee,
and bring the authors of this murder to punishment;
for that there was no other way to make the multitude
separate without coming to blows. However, Cumanus
postponed their supplications to the other affairs he
was then about, and sent the petitioners away without
success.
4. But when the affair of this murder came to be
told at Jerusalem, it putthe multitude into disorder,
and they left the feast; and without any generals to
conduct them, they marched with great violence to
Samaria; nor would they be ruled by any of the
magistrates that were set over them, but they were
managed by one Eleazar, the son of Dineus, and by
Alexander, in these their thievish and seditious
attempts. These men fell upon those that were ill the
neighborhood of the Acrabatene toparchy, and slew
them, without sparing any age, and set the villages on
fire.
5. But Cumanus took one troop of horsemen, called
the troop of Sebaste,out of Cesarea, and came to the
assistance of those that were spoiled; he also seized
upon a great number of those that followed Eleazar,
and slew
more of them. And as for the rest of the multitude
of those that went so zealously to fight with the
Samaritans, the rulers of Jerusalem ran out clothed
with sackcloth, and having ashes on their head, and
begged of them to go their ways, lest by their attempt
to revenge themselves upon the Samaritans they should
provoke the Romans to come against Jerusalem; to have
compassion upon their country and temple, their
children and their wives, and not bring the utmost
dangers of destruction upon them, in order to avenge
themselves upon one Galilean only. The Jews complied
with these persuasions of theirs, and dispersed
themselves; but still there were a great number who
betook themselves to robbing, in hopes of impunity;
and rapines and insurrections of the bolder sort
happened over the whole country. And the men of power
among the Samaritans came to Tyre, to Ummidius
Quadratus, 15 the president of Syria, and desired that
they that had laid waste the country might be
punished: the great men also of the Jews, and Jonathan
the son of Ananus the high priest, came thither, and
said that the Samaritans were the beginners of the
disturbance, on account of that murder they had
committed; and that Cumanus had given occasion to what
had happened, by his unwillingness to punish the
original authors of that murder.
6. But Quadratus put both parties off for that
time, and told them, thatwhen he should come to those
places, he would make a diligent inquiry after every
circumstance. After which he went to Cesarea, and
crucified all those whom Cumanus had taken alive; and
when from thence he was come to the city Lydda, he
heard the affair of the Samaritans, and sent for
eighteen of the Jews, whom he had learned to have been
concerned in that fight, and beheaded them; but he
sent two others of those that were of the greatest
power among them, and both Jonathan and Ananias, the
high priests, as also Artanus the son of this Ananias,
and certain others that were eminent among the Jews,
to Caesar; as he did in like manner by the most
illustrious of the Samaritans. He also ordered that
Cureanus [the procurator] and Celer the tribune should
sail to Rome, in order to give an account of what had
been done to Caesar. When he had finished these
matters, he went up from Lydda to Jerusalem, and
finding the multitude celebrating their feast of
unleavened bread without any tumult, he returned to
Antioch.
7. Now when Caesar at Rome had heard what Cumanus
and the Samaritans had to say, (where it was done in
the hearing of Agrippa, who zealously espoused the
cause of the Jews, as in like manner many of the great
men stood by Cumanus,) he condemned the Samaritans,
and commanded that three of the most powerful men
among them should be put to death; he banished Cumanus,
and sent Color bound to Jerusalem, to be delivered
over to the Jews to be tormented; that he should be
drawn round the city, and then beheaded.
8. After this Caesar sent Felix, 16 the brother of
Pallas, to be procurator of Galilee, and Samaria, and
Perea, and removed Agrippa from Chalcis unto a greater
kingdom; for he gave him the tetrarchy which had
belonged to Philip, which contained Batanae,
Trachonitis, and Gaulonitis: he added to it the
kingdom of Lysanias, and that province [Abilene] which
Varus had governed. But Claudius himself, when he had
administered the government thirteen years, eight
months, and twenty days, died, and left Nero to be his
successor in the empire, whom he had adopted by his
Wife Agrippina’s delusions, in order to be his
successor, although he had a son of his own, whose
name was Britannicus, by Messalina his former wife,
and a daughter whose name was Octavia, whom he had
married to Nero; he had also another daughter by
Petina, whose name was Antonia.
|
