would prevent me, and that I should be driven out of the city. I considered, therefore, how to get clear of these forces by a stratagem; so I immediately placed those my friends of Taricheæ, on whom I could best confide, at the gates, to watch those very carefully who went out at those gates; I also called to me the heads of families, and bid every one of them to seize upon a ship,[1] to go on board it, and to take a master with them, and follow him to the city of Tiberias. I also myself went on board one of those ships, with my friends, and the seven armed men already mentioned, and sailed for Tiberias.
33. BUT NOW, when the people of Tiberias perceived that there were no forces come from the king, and yet saw the whole lake full of ships, they were in fear what would become of their city, and were greatly terrified, as supposing that the ships were full of men on board; so then they changed
The inhabitants
of Tiberias
submit.
their minds, and threw down their weapons, and met me with their wives and children, and made acclamations to me with great commendations; for they imagined that I did not know their former inclinations [to have been against me]; so they persuaded me to spare the city; but when I was come near enough, I gave orders to the masters of the ships to cast anchor a good way off the land, that the people of Tiberias might not perceive that the ships had no men on board; but I went nearer to the people in one of the ships, and rebuked them for their folly, and that they were so fickle as, without any just occasion in the world, to revolt from their fidelity to me. However, I assured them that I would entirely forgive them for the time to come, if they would send ten of the ringleaders of the multitude to me; and when they complied readily with this proposal, and sent me the men forementioned, I put them on board a ship and sent them away to Taricheæ, and ordered them to be kept in prison.
34. AND BY this stratagem it was that I gradually got all the senate of Tiberias into my power, and sent them to the city forementioned,
Punishment
of Clitus the
ringleader.
with many of the principal men among the populace; and those not fewer in number than the other: but, when the multitude saw into what great miseries they had brought themselves, they desired me to punish the author of this sedition: his name was Clitus, a young man, bold and rash in his undertakings. Now, since I thought it not agreeable to piety to put one of my own people to death, and yet found it necessary to punish him, I ordered Levi, one of my own guards, to go to him, and cut off one of Clitus's hands; but as he that was ordered to do this was afraid to go out of the ship alone among so great a multitude, I was not willing that the timorousness of the soldier should appear to the people of Tiberias;—so I called to Clitus himself, and said to him, "Since thou deservest to lose both thine hands for thy ingratitude to me, be thou thine own executioner, lest, if thou refusest so to be, thou undergo a worse punishment."
And when he earnestly begged of me to spare him one of his hands, it was with difficulty that I granted it. So, in order to prevent the loss of both his hands, he willingly took his sword, and cut his own left hand; and this put an end to the sedition.
35. NOW THE men of Tiberias, after I was gone to Taricheæ, perceived what stratagem I had used against them, and they admired how I had put an end to their foolish sedition, without shedding of blood. But now, when I had sent for some of those multitudes of the people of Tiberias out of prison,
Josephus
admonishes
Justus and others.
among whom were Justus and his father Pristus, I made them to sup with me; and during our supper-time I said to them, that I knew the power of the Romans was superior to all others; but did not say so [publicly] because of the robbers. So I advised them to do as I did, and to wait for a proper opportunity, and not to be uneasy at my being their commander; for that they could not expect to have another who would use the like moderation that I had done. I also put Justus in mind how the Galileans had cut off his brother's hands before ever I came to Jerusalem, upon an accusation laid against him, as if he had been a rogue, and had forged some letters; as also how the people of Gamala, in a sedition they raised against the Babylonians, after the departure of Philip, slew Chares, who was a kinsman of Philip, and withal how they had wisely punished Jesus, his brother Justus's sister's husband [with death]. When I had said this to them during supper-time, I in the morning ordered Justus, and all the rest that were in prison, to be loosed out of it, and sent away.
86. BUT BEFORE this, it happened that Philip, the son of Jacimus, went out of the citadel of Gamala upon the following occasion: When Philip had been informed that Varus was put out of his government by king Agrippa, and that Modius Equiculus, a man that was of old his friend and
Philip, son
of Jacimus.
companion, was come to succeed him, he wrote to him, and related what turns of fortune he had had, and desired him to forward the letters he sent to the king and queen. Now, when Modius had received these letters, he was exceedingly glad, and sent the letters to the king and queen, who were then about Berytus. But when king Agrippa knew that the story about Philip was false (for it had been given out, that the Jews had begun a war with the Romans, and that this Philip had been their commander in that war), he sent some horsemen to conduct Philip to him; and when he was come, he saluted him very obligingly, and shewed him to the Roman commanders, and told them
- ↑ In this section, as well as sect. 18 and sect. 33, those small vessels that sailed on the sea of Galilee, are called by Josephus Νηες, and Πλοια, and Σκαφη, i.e., plainly ships; so that we need not wonder at our Evangelists, who still call them ships; nor ought we to render them boats, as some do. Their number was in all 230, as we learn from our author elsewhere: Of the War, b. ii. ch. xxi. sect 8.
