that Caesar gave him afterward,
upon his adopting him for his son.

2. But now Agrippina was afraid, lest, when Britannicus should come
to man's estate, he should succeed his father in the government, and
desired to seize upon the principality beforehand for her own son
[Nero]; upon which the report went that she thence compassed the death
of Claudius. Accordingly, she sent Burrhus, the general of the army,
immediately, and with him the tribunes, and such also of the freed-men
as were of the greatest authority, to bring Nero away into the camp, and
to salute him emperor. And when Nero had thus obtained the government,
he got Britannicus to be so poisoned, that the multitude should not
perceive it; although he publicly put his own mother to death not long
afterward, making her this requital, not only for being born of her, but
for bringing it so about by her contrivances that he obtained the Roman
empire. He also slew Octavia his own wife, and many other illustrious
persons, under this pretense, that they plotted against him.

3. But I omit any further discourse about these affairs; for there have
been a great many who have composed the history of Nero; some of which
have departed from the truth of facts out of favor, as having received
benefits from him; while others, out of hatred to him, and the great
ill-will which they bare him, have so impudently raved against him with
their lies, that they justly deserve to be condemned. Nor do I wonder
at such as have told lies of Nero, since they have not in their writings
preserved the truth of history as to those facts that were earlier than
his time, even when the actors could have no way incurred their hatred,
since those writers lived a long time after them. But as to those that
have no regard to truth, they may write as they please; for in that they
take delight: but as to ourselves, who have made truth our direct
aim, we shall briefly touch upon what only belongs remotely to this
undertaking, but shall relate what hath happened to us Jews with great
accuracy, and shall not grudge our pains in giving an account both of
the calamities we have suffered, and of the crimes we have been guilty
of. I will now therefore return to the relation of our own affairs.

4. For in the first year of the reign of Nero, upon the death of Azizus,
king of Emesa, Soemus, his brother, succeeded in his kingdom, and
Aristobulus, the son of Herod, king of Chalcis, was intrusted by Nero
with the