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[9]
However, I will not go to the other extreme, out of opposition to
those men who extol the Romans nor will I determine to raise the actions
of my countrymen too high; but I will prosecute the actions of both parties
with accuracy. Yet shall I suit my language to the passions I am under,
as to the affairs I describe, and must be allowed to indulge some lamentations
upon the miseries undergone by my own country. For that it was a seditious
temper of our own that destroyed it, and that they were the tyrants among
the Jews who brought the Roman power upon us, who unwillingly attacked
us, and occasioned the burning of our holy temple, Titus Caesar, who destroyed
it, is himself a witness, who, daring the entire war, pitied the people
who were kept under by the seditious, and did often voluntarily delay the
taking of the city, and allowed time to the siege, in order to let the
authors have opportunity for repentance. But if any one makes an unjust
accusation against us, when we speak so passionately about the tyrants,
or the robbers, or sorely bewail the misfortunes of our country, let him
indulge my affections herein, though it be contrary to the rules for writing
history; because it had so come to pass, that our city Jerusalem had arrived
at a higher degree of felicity than any other city under the Roman government,
and yet at last fell into the sorest of calamities again. Accordingly,
it appears to me that the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of
the world, if they be compared to these of the Jews 1
are not so considerable as they were; while the authors of them were not
foreigners neither. This makes it impossible for me to contain my lamentations.
But if any one be inflexible in his censures of me, let him attribute the
facts themselves to the historical part, and the lamentations to the writer
himself only.
1 That these calamities of the Jews, who were our Savior's murderers, were to be the greatest that had ever been sence the beginning of the world, our Savior had directly foretold, Matthew 24:21; Mark 13:19; Luke 21:23, 24; and that they proved to be such accordingly, Josephus is here a most authentic witness.
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