[236]
Now this exit of the messengers was not known either to Ananus or
to the guards, but the approach of the Idumeans was known to him; for as
he knew of it before they came, he ordered the gates to be shut against
them, and that the walls should be guarded. Yet did not he by any means
think of fighting against them, but, before they came to blows, to try
what persuasions would do. Accordingly, Jesus, the eldest of the high priests
next to Artanus, stood upon the tower that was over against them, and said
thus: "Many troubles indeed, and those of various kinds, have fallen
upon this city, yet in none of them have I so much wondered at her fortune
as now, when you are come to assist wicked men, and this after a manner
very extraordinary; for I see that you are come to support the vilest of
men against us, and this with so great alacrity, as you could hardly put
on the like, in case our metropolis had called you to her assistance against
barbarians. And if I had perceived that your army was composed of men like
unto those who invited them, I had not deemed your attempt so absurd; for
nothing does so much cement the minds of men together as the alliance there
is between their manners. But now for these men who have invited you, if
you were to examine them one by one, every one of them would be found to
have deserved ten thousand deaths; for the very rascality and offscouring
of the whole country, who have spent in debauchery their own substance,
and, by way of trial beforehand, have madly plundered the neighboring villages
and cities, in the upshot of all, have privately run together into this
holy city. They are robbers, who by their prodigious wickedness have profaned
this most sacred floor, and who are to be now seen drinking themselves
drunk in the sanctuary, and expending the spoils of those whom they have
slaughtered upon their unsatiable bellies. As for the multitude that is
with you, one may see them so decently adorned in their armor, as it would
become them to be had their metropolis called them to her assistance against
foreigners. What can a man call this procedure of yours but the sport of
fortune, when he sees a whole nation coming to protect a sink of wicked
wretches? I have for a good while been in doubt what it could possibly
be that should move you to do this so suddenly; because certainly you would
not take on your armor on the behalf of robbers, and against a people of
kin to you, without some very great cause for your so doing. But we have
an item that the Romans are pretended, and that we are supposed to be going
to betray this city to them; for some of your men have lately made a clamor
about those matters, and have said they are come to set their metropolis
free. Now we cannot but admire at these wretches in their devising such
a lie as this against us; for they knew there was no other way to irritate
against us men that were naturally desirous of liberty, and on that account
the best disposed to fight against foreign enemies, but by framing a tale
as if we were going to betray that most desirable thing, liberty. But you
ought to consider what sort of people they are that raise this calumny,
and against what sort of people that calumny is raised, and to gather the
truth of things, not by fictitious speeches, but out of the actions of
both parties; for what occasion is there for us to sell ourselves to the
Romans, while it was in our power not to have revolted from them at the
first, or when we had once revolted, to have returned under their dominion
again, and this while the neighboring countries were not yet laid waste?
whereas it is not an easy thing to be reconciled to the Romans, if we were
desirous of it, now they have subdued Galilee, and are thereby become proud
and insolent; and to endeavor to please them at the time when they are
so near us, would bring such a reproach upon us as were worse than death.
As for myself, indeed, I should have preferred peace with them before death;
but now we have once made war upon them, and fought with them, I prefer
death, with reputation, before living in captivity under them. But further,
whether do they pretend that we, who are the rulers of the people, have
sent thus privately to the Romans, or hath it been done by the common suffrages
of the people? If it be ourselves only that have done it, let them name
those friends of ours that have been sent, as our servants, to manage this
treachery. Hath any one been caught as he went out on this errand, or seized
upon as he came back? Are they in possession of our letters? How could
we be concealed from such a vast number of our fellow citizens, among whom
we are conversant every hour, while what is done privately in the country
is, it seems, known by the zealots, who are but few in number, and under
confinement also, and are not able to come out of the temple into the city.
Is this the first time that they are become sensible how they ought to
be punished for their insolent actions? For while these men were free from
the fear they are now under, there was no suspicion raised that any of
us were traitors. But if they lay this charge against the people, this
must have been done at a public consultation, and not one of the people
must have dissented from the rest of the assembly; in which case the public
fame of this matter would have come to you sooner than any particular indication.
But how could that be? Must there not then have been ambassadors sent to
confirm the agreements? And let them tell us who this ambassador was that
was ordained for that purpose. But this is no other than a pretense of
such men as are loath to die, and are laboring to escape those punishments
that hang over them; for if fate had determined that this city was to be
betrayed into its enemies' hands, no other than these men that accuse us
falsely could have the impudence to do it, there being no wickedness wanting
to complete their impudent practices but this only, that they become traitors.
And now you Idumeans are come hither already with your arms, it is your
duty, in the first place, to be assisting to your metropolis, and to join
with us in cutting off those tyrants that have infringed the rules of our
regular tribunals, that have trampled upon our laws, and made their swords
the arbitrators of right and wrong; for they have seized upon men of great
eminence, and under no accusation, as they stood in the midst of the market-place,
and tortured them with putting them into bonds, and, without bearing to
hear what they had to say, or what supplications they made, they destroyed
them. You may, if you please, come into the city, though not in the way
of war, and take a view of the marks still remaining of what I now say,
and may see the houses that have been depopulated by their rapacious hands,
with those wives and families that are in black, mourning for their slaughtered
relations; as also you may hear their groans and lamentations all the city
over; for there is nobody but hath tasted of the incursions of these profane
wretches, who have proceeded to that degree of madness, as not only to
have transferred their impudent robberies out of the country, and the remote
cities, into this city, the very face and head of the whole nation, but
out of the city into the temple also; for that is now made their receptacle
and refuge, and the fountain-head whence their preparations are made against
us. And this place, which is adored by the habitable world, and honored
by such as only know it by report, as far as the ends of the earth, is
trampled upon by these wild beasts born among ourselves. They now triumph
in the desperate condition they are already in, when they hear that one
people is going to fight against another people, and one city against another
city, and that your nation hath gotten an army together against its own
bowels. Instead of which procedure, it were highly fit and reasonable,
as I said before, for you to join with us in cutting off these wretches,
and in particular to be revenged on them for putting this very cheat upon
you; I mean, for having the impudence to invite you to assist them, of
whom they ought to have stood in fear, as ready to punish them. But if
you have some regard to these men's invitation of you, yet may you lay
aside your arms, and come into the city under the notion of our kindred,
and take upon you a middle name between that of auxiliaries and of enemies,
and so become judges in this case. However, consider what these men will
gain by being called into judgment before you, for such undeniable and
such flagrant crimes, who would not vouchsafe to hear such as had no accusations
laid against them to speak a word for themselves. However, let them gain
this advantage by your coming. But still, if you will neither take our
part in that indignation we have at these men, nor judge between us, the
third thing I have to propose is this, that you let us both alone, and
neither insult upon our calamities, nor abide with these plotters against
their metropolis; for though you should have ever so great a suspicion
that some of us have discoursed with the Romans, it is in your power to
watch the passages into the city; and in case any thing that we have been
accused of is brought to light, then to come and defend your metropolis,
and to inflict punishment on those that are found guilty; for the enemy
cannot prevent you who are so near to the city. But if, after all, none
of these proposals seem acceptable and moderate, do not you wonder that
the gates are shut against you, while you bear your arms about you."
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