d
messenger with letters, that he might, upon his return, inform him what
had befallen the other that had been sent before, and why he tarried
so long. Varus accused this messenger also, when he came, of telling a
falsehood, and slew him. For he was puffed up by the Syrians that were
at Caesarea, and had great expectations; for they said that Agrippa
would be slain by the Romans for the crimes which the Jews had
committed, and that he should himself take the government, as derived
from their kings; for Varus was, by the confession of all, of the royal
family, as being a descendant of Sohemus, who had enjoyed a tetrarchy
about Libanus; for which reason it was that he was puffed up, and kept
the letters to himself. He contrived, also, that the king should not
meet with those writings, by guarding all the passes, lest any one
should escape, and inform the king what had been done. He moreover slew
many of the Jews, in order to gratify the Syrians of Cesarea. He had a
mind also to join with the Trachonites in Batanea, and to take up arms
and make an assault upon the Babylonian Jews that were at Ecbatana; for
that was the name they went by. He therefore called to him twelve of
the Jews of Cesarea, of the best character, and ordered them to go to
Ecbatana, and inform their countrymen who dwelt there, That Varus hath
heard that "you intend to march against the king; but, not believing
that report, he hath sent us to persuade you to lay down your arms, and
that this compliance will be a sign that he did well not to give credit
to those that raised the report concerning you." He also enjoined them
to send seventy of their principal men to make a defense for them as to
the accusation laid against them. So when the twelve messengers came
to their countrymen at Ecbatana, and found that they had no designs of
innovation at all, they persuaded them to send the seventy men also;
who, not at all suspecting what would come, sent them accordingly.
So these seventy went down to Caesarea, together with the twelve
ambassadors; where Varus met them with the king's forces, and slew them
all, together with the [twelve] [9] ambassadors, and made an expedition
against the Jews of Ecbatana. But one there was of the seventy who
escaped, and made haste to inform the Jews of their coming; upon which
they took their arms, with their wives and children, and retired to the
citadel at Gamala, leaving their own villages full of all sorts of good
things, an