hat, if they would not leave
off their ungrateful treatment of me, I would punish them sufficiently.

23. At this time it was that two great men, who were under the
jurisdiction of the king [Agrippa] came to me out of the region of
Trachonius, bringing their horses and their arms, and carrying with them
their money also; and when the Jews would force them to be circumcised,
if they would stay among them, I would not permit them to have any force
put upon them, [11] but said to them, "Every one ought to worship God
according to his own inclinations, and not to be constrained by force;
and that these men, who had fled to us for protection, ought not to be
so treated as to repent of their coming hither." And when I had pacified
the multitude, I provided for the men that were come to us whatsoever
it was they wanted, according to their usual way of living, and that in
great plenty also.

24. Now king Agrippa sent an army to make themselves masters of the
citadel of Gamala, and over it Equieulus Modius; but the forces that
were sent were not allow to encompass the citadel quite round, but lay
before it in the open places, and besieged it. But when Ebutius the
decurion, who was intrusted with the government of the great plain,
heard that I was at Simonias, a village situated in the confines of
Galilee, and was distant from him sixty furlongs, he took a hundred
horsemen that were with him by night, and a certain number of footmen,
about two hundred, and brought the inhabitants of the city Gibea along
with him as auxiliaries, and marched in the night, and came to the
village where I abode. Upon this I pitched my camp over against him,
which had a great number of forces in it: but Ebutius tried to draw
us down into the plain, as greatly depending upon his horsemen; but we
would not come down; for when I was satisfied of the advantage that
his horse would have if we came down into the plain, while we were
all footmen, I resolved to join battle with the enemy where I was. Now
Ebutius and his party made a courageous opposition for some time; but
when he saw that his horse were useless to him in that place, he retired
back to the city Gibea, having lost three of his men in the fight. So I
followed him directly with two thousand armed men; and when I was at the
city Besara, that lay in the confines of Ptolemais, but twenty furlongs
from Gibea, where Ebutius abode, I placed my armed men on the outside
of the village, and gave orders