158. Modelled on Thuc. I. 122, “defeat means nothing but downright slavery” (Jowett; speech of the Corinthians urging Sparta to take up arms against Athens).
159. So Niese (ἐπιβολὴ); MSS “plot” (ἐπιβουλὴ).
160. i. e. Augustus.
161. i.e. “Imperial” (city).
162. Julia.
163. Cæsarea Philippi (Matt. xvi. 13; Mark viii. 27).
164. Or, perhaps, “because of its large population.”
165. ἡγεμὼν: more exactly “procurator,” as in B.J. parallel pass. (ἐπίτροπος).
166. Ex. xx. 4; Deut. iv. 16, etc.
167. Or “their request was.”
168. Conj. Niese; MSS “which concealed the soldiers.”
169. Gr. “wisdom.”
170. “the sacred treasure called corban” (or “corbon”), B.J.
171. Gr. στάδια. B.J. has “400 (v.l. 300) furlongs.”
172. Gr. “myriads.”
173. With the MS reading οἱ δ᾽; with Niese’s conjecture οὐδ᾽ we should translate, in the previous sentence, “indiscriminately and relentlessly,” and omit the bracketed words.
175. Or “the Messiah.”
176. Or “tribe” (φῦλον).
177. Gr. “wisdom.”
178. Text a little uncertain.
180. Or “(Arabia) Petræa.”
181. Herod Agrippa I.
182. Slight emendation (τότε) of the MS reading τῷ τε (“and to him who was subject...”).
183. Or “governor.”
184. Possibly a lacuna in the text.
185. Or “righteousness.”
186. Gr. βάπτισις; in the previous clause βαπτισμός.
187. Text uncertain; MSS “the rest.”
188. Or, possibly, “suspected the use of a strange language,” viz. Hebrew.
189. Cf. Acts. xxiv. 23, where the same word ἄνεσις (R.V. “indulgence”) occurs; Moulton-Milligan (Vocab. of Gr. Test.) suggest “a kind of libera custodia.”
190. The grandmother of Gaius and wife of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius.
191. Philip had recently died.
192. Lyons.
193. Lit. “with bad hope.”
194. The text is uncertain in this and the next sentence. Probably some words have fallen out.
195. The phrase, “those with pretensions to virtue,” is borrowed from Thuc. II. 51. I adopt Jowett’s rendering.
196. So the Epitome and Latin VS. (παρουσίαν); the Gr. MSS have “frankness” (παρρησίαν).
197. Text doubtful.
198. B.J. (parallel passage) adds “Trachonitis and Auranitis.”
199. Killed c. 34 B.C.; Lysanias of Abilene (Luke iii. 1.) was probably a descendant.
200. Lat. VS. omits.
201. With a slight emendation of the text of the MSS (ἐπιστησάμενος for ἐπιστάμενος).
202. The reference is to an incident in the earlier life of Agrippa, when a prisoner at Rome under Tiberius. A fellow-prisoner, a German, seeing an owl sitting on a tree against which Agrippa was leaning, had foretold his rise to power, adding a warning: “Remember when you see this bird again, you will have but five days to live” (Ant. XVIII. 6. 7). Eusebius, in citing the present passage (H.E. II. 10), omits the words “the owl” and “on a rope,” writing “saw an angel sitting above his head,” no doubt under the influence of Acts xii. 23 (ἄγγελος Κυρίου).
203. Reading προσίθυσεν.
204. Many MSS have “looking up” (ἀναθεωρῶν for ἀναθορὼν).
205. Lit. “our.”
206. Lit. “on.”
207. Antipas.
208. His Jewish mentor.
209. Text doubtful.
210. Perhaps “was determined to follow ... in their entirety.”
211. Lit. “the divinity.”
212. Lit. “lack of expenses.”
213. Like an Elijah redivivus.
214. “The office of alabarch, probably chief collector of customs on the Arabian side of the Nile, was repeatedly held by wealthy Jews” (Schürer, J.P.T.C. II. 2. 280). Alexander was the brother of Philo the philosopher.
216. Another reading, “were put to death.”
218. A freedman and favourite of the Emperor Claudius and a man of great influence.
220. A petty kingdom in the Lebanon district.
221. i.e. Claudius.
222. In northern Syria (mod. Homs).
223. Some MSS read “Simon.”
224. We can hardly miss the Roman’s jest on his name: “make a Felix of her.”
225. Lit. “faring ill”; Whiston’s rendering, “acted wickedly,” is scarcely possible.
226. A line of corrupt and unintelligible text follows in Niese’s MSS. The older editions read “for she was constantly being ill-treated by her because of her beauty.”
227. Nero.
228. Lit. “we.”
229. Many MSS add “by birth a Hebrew.”
230. Aramaic. The Greek, which bears no marks of translation, must, in all probability, have been practically a new work.
231. Lit. “the upper barbarians.”
232. In the upper Tigris region.
233. Such, or “giving the rein to personal feeling in the speeches (λόγοι),” I take to be the meaning. Traill, “introducing into the detail reflections on the events”; Whiston, “only I shall suit my language to my feelings as to the affairs I describe.”
234. The negative is omitted by most MSS.
235. Lit. “us.”
237. MSS “tetrarchy.”
238. Lit. “with the toparchies.”
239. “Assassins,” from Lat. sica, “a dagger.”
240. Lit. “heavy-armed infantry” (hoplites).
242. Lit. “heavy-armed infantry” (hoplites).
243. St. Paul was probably a prisoner there at this time.
244. Or “in disgraceful things.”
245. Lit. “unbelief.” Traill, “In smothering (Whiston, ‘disguising’) the truth none was more successful.”
246. Lit. “all the toparchies”; some MSS read “all the cities.”
247. On the west coast of the Dead Sea.
248. i. e. “captain of the Temple”; cf. Acts iv. 1, etc.
249. Other MSS, omitting “and” (καὶ, which would easily drop out before Καίσαρος), read “the sacrifice of Cæsar on behalf of that nation.”
250. Or, possibly, “were making an innovation in the worship of foreigners.”
251. The text of this clause is doubtful. I read προσῇσαν, “chimed in” (with Naber; MSS προσίεσαν or προσήεσαν) and λειτουργοὶ (other MSS ληστρικοὶ, “the brigands”).
252. Or (reading τὸ before δεινὸν) “the dire news was a godsend.”
253. Governor of Syria.
254. Gr. “Gabao.”
255. Gr. “stades.”
256. Falling within the week of the Feast of Tabernacles.
257. Some MSS insert a negative, “the part of the line which had not yet given way.”
258. Or “Borcius.”
259. Gr. “stades.”
260. Perhaps “up to.”
261. At the N.E. corner of the city. Other MSS “Bethesda” Niese, “Betheza,” as elsewhere in Josephus.
262. Testudo.
263. Or “shattered (lit. ‘condemned’) their hopes (of success).”
264. Gr. “chiliarch.”
265. Gr. “Gabao.”
266. Or “taken prisoners.”
267. Beth-Horon the Lower at the foot of the pass.
268. Another reading, “upon the fortresses, with orders to go up and erect the standards.”
269. Another reading, “380.”
272. Or possibly “could no longer endure the strain, even under compulsion.”
273. Gr. “chiliarch(s).”
274. MSS “of the fifth and tenth legion” (sic).
275. Another reading, “the secret recesses of the city.”
276. Gr. “chiliarch(s).”
277. Lit. “right hands.”
278. Cf. “Romane, memento.... Parcere subjectis.”—Virg. Æn. VI, 851 ff.
279. Gr. “polemarch.”
280. Did he claim kinship with his namesake Joseph?
281. Or, perhaps, “began, in his straits, to reason ... philosophically.”
282. The doctrine of metempsychosis.
283. Or “a darker region.”
284. Gr. “Hades.”
285. Text (“those who did violence to their fathers”) corrupt. I read τὰς τῶν πατέρων ὕβρεις.
286. Traill, “be thrown on his own resolution” (lit. “lie on his own right hand”).
287. Or “to be made in good faith.”
288. Another reading, “through his own virtuous disposition” (ἐξ ἀρετῆς for ἐξαιρέτως).
289. Text and meaning doubtful. The reference is apparently to the short reigns of Galba, Otho and Vitellius; but, as Niese suggests, we expect a sentence to precede, predicting the impending death of Nero.
290. In the underworld apparently.
291. Another reading, “had already raised him to power.”
292. Cf. Virg. Æn. IV, 173 ff.
293. Cf. Matt. ix. 23.
294. Cf. Deut. xxi. 22 f.; John xix. 31.
295. Lit. “cosmical,” meaning either “open to the whole world” or perhaps “emblematic of the mundane system” (Traill); cf. Jos. Ant. III. 6. 4 (123); 7. 7 (the Tabernacle a symbol of the universe), with Westcott’s note on Heb. ix 1.
296. According to other MSS “Bariscæus” or “Baruch.”
297. The Gr. word (ἀπόλυσις) means both “acquittal” and “death.”
298. Lit. “civic rights.”
299. Another reading, “as mere barbarians.”
300. The tower or “castle” adjoining the Temple from the stairs of which St. Paul delivered the speech recorded in Acts xxii.
301. The daily, morning and evening, sacrifice (ἐνδελεχισμός: Heb. Tamid); cf. Numb. xxviii. 6.
302. John of Gischala.
303. Many MSS insert “standing” (“standing where he might be heard,” etc.).
304. i.e. Aramaic. Cf. Acts xxi. 40; xxii. 2.
305. Lit. “tasting.”
306. The Gr. word strictly means “offerings to the dead.”
307. John of Gischala.
308. Amplification of 2 K. xxiv. 12; cf. Ant. x. 7. 1 (100).
309. Or “to the people whose own the Temple was.”
310. Or “into.”
311. Text uncertain.
312. Or “a small golden door.”
313. Possibly there is an allusion to the burning of the porticoes in the riots at the time of the accession of Archelaus, when many Jews perished in the flames (Ant. XVII. 10. 2).
314. Text doubtful.
315. i. e. the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.
316. Cf. Appendix, Note VI.
317. The “tyrants” had encouraged optimistic false prophets in order to prevent desertion to the Romans.
318. March-April.
319. Eusebius (H.E. III. 8) reads “by the High Priest.”
320. Cf. Acts iv. 1; v. 24.
321. Or “among themselves.”
322. April-May.
323. So all the Gr. MSS (cf. Tac. Hist. v. 13, maior humanâ vox excedere deos). The Lat. version, with two other authorities, reads, “Let us depart hence.”
324. The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth).
325. πετροβόλος, the Lat. ballista, a kind of large catapult.