ould be justly spoken to me; but now Caesar hath sent to me, I
am under the necessity of being subservient to his decrees, because a
disobedience to them will bring upon me inevitable destruction." Then
the Jews replied, "Since, therefore, thou art so disposed, O Petronius!
that thou wilt not disobey Caius's epistles, neither will we transgress
the commands of our law; and as we depend upon the excellency of our
laws, and, by the labors of our ancestors, have continued hitherto
without suffering them to be transgressed, we dare not by any means
suffer ourselves to be so timorous as to transgress those laws out of
the fear of death, which God hath determined are for our advantage; and
if we fall into misfortunes, we will bear them, in order to preserve our
laws, as knowing that those who expose themselves to dangers have good
hope of escaping them, because God will stand on our side, when, out of
regard to him, we undergo afflictions, and sustain the uncertain turns
of fortune. But if we should submit to thee, we should be greatly
reproached for our cowardice, as thereby showing ourselves ready to
transgress our law; and we should incur the great anger of God also,
who, even thyself being judge, is superior to Caius."

3. When Petronius saw by their words that their determination was hard
to be removed, and that, without a war, he should not be able to be
subservient to Caius in the dedication of his statue, and that there
must be a great deal of bloodshed, he took his friends, and the servants
that were about him, and hasted to Tiberias, as wanting to know in what
posture the affairs of the Jews were; and many ten thousands of the Jews
met Petronius again, when he was come to Tiberias. These thought they
must run a mighty hazard if they should have a war with the Romans,
but judged that the transgression of the law was of much greater
consequence, and made supplication to him, that he would by no
means reduce them to such distresses, nor defile their city with the
dedication of the statue. Then Petronius said to them, "Will you then
make war with Caesar, without considering his great preparations for
war, and your own weakness?" They replied, "We will not by any means
make war with him, but still we will die before we see our laws
transgressed." So they threw themselves down upon their faces, and
stretched out their throats, and said they were ready to be slain; and
this they did for forty days together, and in the mean