phoris; happily without bloodshed for, when the
people of these cities saw that all Galilee was with Josephus, they
opened their gates and submitted themselves to his mercy. Truly, in
Leviticus it is said:

"'Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children
of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.'

"But Josephus carries this beyond reason. Seeing that his
adversaries by no means observe this law, he should remember that
it is also said that 'He that taketh the sword shall fall by the
sword,' and that the law lays down punishments for the transgressors.
Our judges and kings slew those who troubled the land, and destroyed
them utterly; and Josephus does wrong to depart from their teaching."

"I know not where he could have learned such notions of mercy to
his enemies, and to the enemies of the land," Simon said. "He has
been to Rome, but it is not among the Romans that he will have
found that it is right to forgive those who rise up in rebellion."

"Yes, he was in Rome when he was twenty-six years old," Solomon
said. "He went thither to plead the cause of certain priests who
had been thrown into bonds, by Felix, and sent to Rome. It was a
perilous voyage, for his ship was wrecked in the Adriatic and, of
six hundred men who were on board, only eighty were picked
up--after floating and swimming all night--by a ship of Cyrene. He
was not long in Rome for, being introduced to Poppaea, the wife of
Caesar, he used his interest with her and obtained the release of
those for whose sake he went there.

"No, if he gained these ideas from anyone, he learned them from one
Banus--an Ascetic, of the sect of the Essenes, who lived in the
desert with no other clothing than the bark and leaves of trees,
and no other food save that which grew wild. Josephus lived with
him, in like fashion, for three years and, doubtless, learned all
that was in his heart. Banus was a follower, they say, of that John
whom Herod put to death; and for ought I know, of that Jesus who
was crucified, two years afterwards, at Jerusalem, and in whom many
people believed, and who has many followers, to this day. I have
conversed with some of them and, from what they tell me, this Jesus
taught doctrines similar to those which Josephus practices; and
which he may have learned from Banus, without accepting the
doctrines which the members of this sect hold, as to their founder
being the promised Messiah who was to restore Israel