Josephus, The Jewish War 7.361-7.376
https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/39
Text
ποίοις γὰρ ὅπλοις Ῥωμαίων τεθνήκασιν οἱ Καισάρειαν Ἰουδαῖοι κατοικοῦντες; ἀλλ᾽ οὐδὲ μελλήσαντας αὐτοὺς ἐκείνων ἀφίστασθαι, μεταξὺ δὲ τὴν ἑβδόμην ἑορτάζοντας τὸ πλῆθος τῶν Καισαρέων ἐπιδραμὸν μηδὲ χεῖρας ἀνταίροντας ἅμα γυναιξὶ καὶ τέκνοις κατέσφαξαν, οὐδ᾽ αὐτοὺς Ῥωμαίους ἐντραπέντες, οἳ μόνους ἡμᾶς ἡγοῦντο πολεμίους τοὺς ἀφεστηκότας. ἀλλὰ φήσει τις, ὅτι Καισαρεῦσιν ἦν ἀεὶ διαφορὰ πρὸς τοὺς παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς, καὶ τοῦ καιροῦ λαβόμενοι τὸ παλαιὸν μῖσος ἀπεπλήρωσαν. τί οὖν τοὺς ἐν Σκυθοπόλει φῶμεν; ἡμῖν γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι διὰ τοὺς Ἕλληνας πολεμεῖν ἐτόλμησαν, ἀλλ᾽ οὐ μετὰ τῶν συγγενῶν ἡμῶν Ῥωμαίους ἀμύνεσθαι. πολὺ τοίνυν ὤνησεν αὐτοὺς ἡ πρὸς ἐκείνους εὔνοια καὶ πίστις: ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν μέντοι πανοικεσίᾳ πικρῶς κατεφονεύθησαν ταύτην τῆς συμμαχίας ἀπολαβόντες ἀμοιβήν: ἃ γὰρ ἐκείνους ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν ἐκώλυσαν ταῦθ᾽ ὑπέμειναν ὡς αὐτοὶ δρᾶσαι θελήσαντες. μακρὸν ἂν εἴη νῦν ἰδίᾳ περὶ ἑκάστων λέγειν: ἴστε γὰρ ὅτι τῶν ἐν Συρίᾳ πόλεων οὐκ ἔστιν ἥτις τοὺς παρ᾽ αὐτῇ κατοικοῦντας Ἰουδαίους οὐκ ἀνῄρηκεν, ἡμῖν πλέον ἢ Ῥωμαίοις ὄντας πολεμίους: ὅπου γε Δαμασκηνοὶ μηδὲ πρόφασιν εὔλογον πλάσαι δυνηθέντες φόνου μιαρωτάτου τὴν αὐτῶν πόλιν ἐνέπλησαν ὀκτακισχιλίους πρὸς τοῖς μυρίοις Ἰουδαίους ἅμα γυναιξὶ καὶ γενεαῖς ἀποσφάξαντες. τὸ δ᾽ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ πλῆθος τῶν μετ᾽ αἰκίας ἀνῃρημένων ἕξ που μυριάδας ὑπερβάλλειν ἐπυνθανόμεθα. κἀκεῖνοι μὲν ἴσως ἐπ᾽ ἀλλοτρίας γῆς οὐδὲν ἀντίπαλον εὑράμενοι τοῖς πολεμίοις οὕτως ἀπέθανον, τοῖς δ᾽ ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκείας τὸν πρὸς Ῥωμαίους πόλεμον ἀραμένοις ἅπασι τε τῶν ἐλπίδα νίκης ἐχυρᾶς παρασχεῖν δυναμένων οὐχ ὑπῆρξε; καὶ γὰρ ὅπλα καὶ τείχη καὶ φρουρίων δυσάλωτοι κατασκευαὶ καὶ φρόνημα πρὸς τοὺς ὑπὲρ τῆς ἐλευθερίας κινδύνους ἄτρεπτον πάντας πρὸς τὴν ἀπόστασιν ἐπέρρωσεν. ἀλλὰ ταῦτα πρὸς βραχὺν χρόνον ἀρκέσαντα καὶ ταῖς ἐλπίσιν ἡμᾶς ἐπάραντα μειζόνων ἀρχὴ κακῶν ἐφάνη: πάντα γὰρ ἥλω, καὶ πάντα τοῖς πολεμίοις ὑπέπεσεν, ὥσπερ εἰς τὴν ἐκείνων εὐκλεεστέραν νίκην, οὐκ εἰς τὴν τῶν παρασκευασαμένων σωτηρίαν εὐτρεπισθέντα. καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἐν ταῖς μάχαις ἀποθνήσκοντας εὐδαιμονίζειν προσῆκον: ἀμυνόμενοι γὰρ καὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν οὐ προέμενοι τεθνήκασι: τὸ δὲ πλῆθος τῶν ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίοις γενομένων τίς οὐκ ἂν ἐλεήσειε; τίς οὐκ ἂν ἐπειχθείη πρὸ τοῦ ταὐτὰ παθεῖν ἐκείνοις ἀποθανεῖν; ὧν οἱ μὲν στρεβλούμενοι καὶ πυρὶ καὶ μάστιξιν αἰκιζόμενοι τεθνήκασιν, οἱ δ᾽ ἀπὸ θηρίων ἡμίβρωτοι πρὸς δευτέραν αὐτοῖς τροφὴν ζῶντες ἐφυλάχθησαν, γέλωτα καὶ παίγνιον τοῖς πολεμίοις παρασχόντες. ἐκείνων μὲν οὖν ἀθλιωτάτους ὑποληπτέον τοὺς ἔτι ζῶντας, οἳ πολλάκις εὐχόμενοι τὸν θάνατον λαβεῖν οὐκ ἔχουσιν. ποῦ δ᾽ ἡ μεγάλη πόλις, ἡ τοῦ παντὸς Ἰουδαίων γένους μητρόπολις, ἡ τοσούτοις μὲν ἐρυμνὴ τειχῶν περιβόλοις, τοσαῦτα δ᾽ αὑτῆς φρούρια καὶ μεγέθη πύργων προβεβλημένη, μόλις δὲ χωροῦσα τὰς εἰς τὸν πόλεμον παρασκευάς, τοσαύτας δὲ μυριάδας ἀνδρῶν ἔχουσα τῶν ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς μαχομένων; ποῦ γέγονεν ἡμῖν ἡ τὸν θεὸν ἔχειν οἰκιστὴν πεπιστευμένη; πρόρριζος ἐκ βάθρων ἀνήρπασται, καὶ μόνον αὐτῆς μνημεῖον ἀπολείπεται τὸ τῶν ἀνῃρημένων ἔτι τοῖς λειψάνοις ἐποικοῦν.1
Translation
What Roman weapons, I pray you, were those by which the Jews at Cesarea were slain? On the contrary, when they were no way disposed to rebel, but were all the while keeping their seventh day festival, and did not so much as lift up their hands against the citizens of Cesarea, yet did those citizens run upon them in great crowds, and cut their throats, and the throats of their wives and children, and this without any regard to the Romans themselves, who never took us for their enemies till we revolted from them. But some may be ready to say, that truly the people of Cesarea had always a quarrel against those that lived among them, and that when an opportunity offered itself, they only satisfied the old rancor they had against them. What then shall we say to those of Scythopolis, who ventured to wage war with us on account of the Greeks? Nor did they do it by way of revenge upon the Romans, when they acted in concert with our countrymen. Wherefore you see how little our good-will and fidelity to them profiled us, while they were slain, they and their whole families, after the most inhuman manner, which was all the requital that was made them for the assistance they had afforded the others; for that very same destruction which they had prevented from falling upon the others did they suffer themselves from them, as if they had been ready to be the actors against them. It would be too long for me to speak at this time of every destruction brought upon us; for you cannot but know that there was not any one Syrian city which did not slay their Jewish inhabitants, and were not more bitter enemies to us than were the Romans themselves; nay, even those of Damascus, 1 when they were able to allege no tolerable pretense against us, filled their city with the most barbarous slaughters of our people, and cut the throats of eighteen thousand Jews, with their wives and children. And as to the multitude of those that were slain in Egypt, and that with torments also, we have been informed they were more than sixty thousand; those indeed being in a foreign country, and so naturally meeting with nothing to oppose against their enemies, were killed in the manner forementioned. As for all those of us who have waged war against the Romans in our own country, had we not sufficient reason to have sure hopes of victory? For we had arms, and walls, and fortresses so prepared as not to be easily taken, and courage not to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty, which encouraged us all to revolt from the Romans. But then these advantages sufficed us but for a short time, and only raised our hopes, while they really appeared to be the origin of our miseries; for all we had hath been taken from us, and all hath fallen under our enemies, as if these advantages were only to render their victory over us the more glorious, and were not disposed for the preservation of those by whom these preparations were made. And as for those that are already dead in the war, it is reasonable we should esteem them blessed, for they are dead in defending, and not in betraying their liberty; but as to the multitude of those that are now under the Romans, who would not pity their condition? and who would not make haste to die, before he would suffer the same miseries with them? Some of them have been put upon the rack, and tortured with fire and whippings, and so died. Some have been half devoured by wild beasts, and yet have been reserved alive to be devoured by them a second time, in order to afford laughter and sport to our enemies; and such of those as are 2
alive still are to be looked on as the most miserable, who, being so desirous of death, could not come at it. And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation, which vas fortified by so many walls round about, which had so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could hardly contain the instruments prepared for the war, and which had so many ten thousands of men to fight for it? Where is this city that was believed to have God himself inhabiting therein? It is now demolished to the very foundations, and hath nothing but that monument of it preserved,
Works Cited
- 1 Flavius Josephus, De Bello Judaico Libri VII: Machine Readable Text, ed. B. Niese (Medford, MA: Trustees of Tufts University, 2013), section: 7.361-7.376.
- 2 Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews: Machine Readable Text, trans. William Whiston (Trustees of Tufts University, 2009), section: 7.361-7.376.
Additional Bibliography
- Josephus, De Bello Judaico Libri VII, in Flavii Iosephi opera, ed. Benedict Niese, vol. 6 (Berlin: Weidmann, 1885), section: 7.361-7.376.
- Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, in The Complete Works of Flavius Josephus: The Celebrated Jewish Historian. Comprising the History and Antiquities of the Jews, with the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and Dissertations Concerning Jesus Christ, John the Baptist, James the Just, and the Sacrifice of Isaac, Together with a Discourse on Hades, or Hell ; With His Autobiography, trans. William Whiston (Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry & Co., 1895), 498–707, section: 7.361-7.376.
How to Cite This Entry
Bianca Gardner et al., “Josephus, The Jewish War 7.361-7.376,” in Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, entry published March 30, 2020, https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/39.
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Bibliography:
Bianca Gardner et al., “Josephus, The Jewish War 7.361-7.376.” In Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia, edited by Joseph L. Rife., edited by Joseph L. Rife. Caesarea City and Port Exploration Project, 2020. Entry published March 30, 2020. https://caesarea-maritima.org/testimonia/39.About this Entry
Entry Title: Josephus, The Jewish War 7.361-7.376
Authorial and Editorial Responsibility:
- Joseph L. Rife, general editor, Vanderbilt University
- Joseph L. Rife, editor, Caesarea Maritima: A Collection of Testimonia
- David A. Michelson, Daniel L. Schwartz, and William L. Potter, technical editors, “Josephus, The Jewish War 7.361-7.376”
- Bianca Gardner and Joseph L. Rife, entry contributors, “Josephus, The Jewish War 7.361-7.376”
Additional Credit:
- TEI encoding by William L. Potter
- Electronic text added by Bianca Gardner
- Testimonia identified by Joseph L. Rife