rotection. The Babylonians sent to
Nearda and demanded his surrender; but the Jews of Nearda, even if they
had had the will, had no power to comply. A pretence was then made of
arranging matters by negotiation; but the Babylonians, having in this
way obtained a knowledge of the position which Anilai and his troops
occupied, fell upon them in the night, when they were all either drunk
or asleep, and at one stroke exterminated the whole band.

Thus far no great calamity had occurred. Two Jewish robber-chiefs had
been elevated into the position of Parthian satraps; and the result had
been, first, fifteen years of peace, and then a short civil war, ending
in the destruction of the surviving chief and the annihilation of the
band of marauders. But the lamentable consequences of the commotion were
now to show themselves. The native Babylonians had always looked with
dislike on the Jewish colony, and occasions of actual collision between
the two bodies had not been wholly wanting. The circumstances of the
existing time seemed to furnish a good excuse for an outbreak; and
scarcely were Anilai and his followers destroyed, when the Jews of
Babylon were set upon by their native fellow-citizens. Unable to make
an effectual resistance, they resolved to retire from the place, and, at
the immense loss which such a migration necessarily costs, they quitted
Babylon and transferred themselves in great numbers to Seleucia. Here
they lived quietly for five years (about A.D. 34-39), but in the sixth
year (A.D. 40) fresh troubles broke out. The remnant of the Jews at
Babylon were assailed, either by their old enemies or by a pestilence,
and took refuge at Seleucia with their brethren. It happened that at
Seleucia there was a feud of long standing between the Syrian population
and the Greeks. The Jews naturally joined the Syrians, who were a
kindred race, and the two together brought the Greeks under; whereupon
these last contrived to come to terms with the Syrians, and persuaded
them to join in an attack on the late allies. Against the combined
Greeks and Syrians the Jews were powerless, and in the massacre which
ensued they lost above 50,000 men. The remnant withdrew to Otesiphon;
but even there the malice of their enemies pursued them, and
the persecution was only brought to an end by their quitting the
metropolitan cities altogether, and withdrawing to the provincial towns
of which they were the sole occupants.

The narrative of these ev