is that, being belied by him, I
am under a necessity to make my defense; and so I shall say what I have
concealed till now. And let no one wonder that I have not told the world
these things a great while ago. For although it be necessary for an
historian to write the truth, yet is such a one not bound severely to
animadvert on the wickedness of certain men; not out of any favor to
them, but out of an author's own moderation. How then comes it to pass,
O Justus! thou most sagacious of writers, [that I may address myself to
him as if he were here present,] for so thou boastest of thyself, that
I and the Galileans have been the authors of that sedition which
thy country engaged in, both against the Romans and against the king
[Agrippa, junior] For before ever I was appointed governor of Galilee by
the community of Jerusalem, both thou and all the people of Tiberias
had not only taken up arms, but had made war with Decapolis of Syria.
Accordingly, thou hadst ordered their villages to be burnt, and a
domestic servant of thine fell in the battle. Nor is it I only who
say this; but so it is written in the Commentaries of Vespasian, the
emperor; as also how the inhabitants of Decapolis came clamoring to
Vespasian at Ptolemais, and desired that thou, who wast the author [of
that war], mightest be brought to punishment. And thou hadst certainly
been punished at the command of Vespasian, had not king Agrippa, who had
power given him to have thee put to death, at the earnest entreaty
of his sister Bernice, changed the punishment from death into a long
imprisonment. Thy political administration of affairs afterward doth
also clearly discover both thy other behavior in life, and that thou
wast the occasion of thy country's revolt from the Romans; plain signs
of which I shall produce presently. I have also a mind to say a few
things to the rest of the people of Tiberias on thy account, and to
demonstrate to those that light upon this history, that you bare no
good-will, neither to the Romans, nor to the king. To be sure, the
greatest cities of Galilee, O Justus! were Sepphoris, and thy country
Tiberias. But Sepphoris, situated in the very midst of Galilee, and
having many villages about it, and able with ease to have been bold and
troublesome to the Romans, if they had so pleased, yet did it resolve to
continue faithful to those their masters, and at the same time excluded
me out of their city, and prohibited all their citizens from joi