was made of solid beaten
gold, of the weight of three hundred minae, each of which weighed two
pounds and a half. It was the priest who was guardian of the sacred
treasures, and whose name was Eleazar, that gave him this beam, not out
of a wicked design, for he was a good and a righteous man; but being
intrusted with the custody of the veils belonging to the temple, which
were of admirable beauty, and of very costly workmanship, and hung down
from this beam, when he saw that Crassus was busy in gathering money,
and was in fear for the entire ornaments of the temple, he gave him this
beam of gold as a ransom for the whole, but this not till he had given
his oath that he would remove nothing else out of the temple, but be
satisfied with this only, which he should give him, being worth many ten
thousand [shekels]. Now this beam was contained in a wooden beam that
was hollow, but was known to no others; but Eleazar alone knew it; yet
did Crassus take away this beam, upon the condition of touching nothing
else that belonged to the temple, and then brake his oath, and carried
away all the gold that was in the temple.

2. And let no one wonder that there was so much wealth in our temple,
since all the Jews throughout the habitable earth, and those that
worshipped God, nay, even those of Asia and Europe, sent their
contributions to it, and this from very ancient times. Nor is the
largeness of these sums without its attestation; nor is that greatness
owing to our vanity, as raising it without ground to so great a
height; but there are many witnesses to it, and particularly Strabo of
Cappadocia, who says thus: "Mithridates sent to Cos, and took the money
which queen Cleopatra had deposited there, as also eight hundred talents
belonging to the Jews." Now we have no public money but only what
appertains to God; and it is evident that the Asian Jews removed this
money out of fear of Mithridates; for it is not probable that those of
Judea, who had a strong city and temple, should send their money to Cos;
nor is it likely that the Jews who are inhabitants of Alexandria should
do so neither, since they were ill no fear of Mithridates. And Strabo
himself bears witness to the same thing in another place, that at the
same time that Sylla passed over into Greece, in order to fight against
Mithridates, he sent Lucullus to put an end to a sedition that our
nation, of whom the habitable earth is full, had raised in Cyrene; where
he speaks thu