y of history of his own: accordingly, I have been at great
charges, and have taken very great pains [about this history], though
I be a foreigner; and do dedicate this work, as a memorial of great
actions, both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians. But for some of our
own principal men, their mouths are wide open, and their tongues loosed
presently, for gain and law-suits, but quite muzzled up when they are
to write history, where they must speak truth and gather facts together
with a great deal of pains; and so they leave the writing such histories
to weaker people, and to such as are not acquainted with the actions of
princes. Yet shall the real truth of historical facts be preferred by
us, how much soever it be neglected among the Greek historians.

6. To write concerning the Antiquities of the Jews, who they were
[originally], and how they revolted from the Egyptians, and what country
they traveled over, and what countries they seized upon afterward,
and how they were removed out of them, I think this not to be a fit
opportunity, and, on other accounts, also superfluous; and this because
many Jews before me have composed the histories of our ancestors very
exactly; as have some of the Greeks done it also, and have translated
our histories into their own tongue, and have not much mistaken the
truth in their histories. But then, where the writers of these affairs
and our prophets leave off, thence shall I take my rise, and begin my
history. Now as to what concerns that war which happened in my own time,
I will go over it very largely, and with all the diligence I am able;
but for what preceded mine own age, that I shall run over briefly.

7. [For example, I shall relate] how Antiochus, who was named Epiphanes,
took Jerusalem by force, and held it three years and three months, and
was then ejected out of the country by the sons of Asamoneus: after
that, how their posterity quarreled about the government, and brought
upon their settlement the Romans and Pompey; how Herod also, the son of
Antipater, dissolved their government, and brought Sosins upon them; as
also how our people made a sedition upon Herod's death, while Augustus
was the Roman emperor, and Quintilius Varus was in that country; and
how the war broke out in the twelfth year of Nero, with what happened to
Cestius; and what places the Jews assaulted in a hostile manner in the
first sallies of the war.

8. As also [I shall relate] how they built walls about th