45. When I had written thus, and given the letter to be carried by
the soldier, I sent along with him thirty of the Galileans of the best
characters, and gave them instructions to salute those ambassadors,
but to say nothing else to them. I also gave orders to as many of those
armed men, whom I esteemed most faithful to me, to go along with the
others, every one with him whom he was to guard, lest some conversation
might pass between those whom I sent and those who were with Jonathan.
So those men went [to Jonathan]. But when Jonathan and his partners had
failed in this their first attempt, they sent me another letter, the
contents whereof were as follows: "Jonathan, and those with him, to
Josephus, send greeting. We require thee to come to us to the village
Gabaroth, on the third day, without any armed men, that we may hear what
thou hast to lay to the charge of John [of Gischala]." When they had
written this letter, they saluted the Galileans whom I sent, and came
to Japha, which was the largest village of all Galilee, and encompassed
with very strong walls, and had a great number of inhabitants in it.
There the multitude of men, with their wives and children, met them, and
exclaimed loudly against them; and desired them to be gone, and not to
envy them the advantage of an excellent commander. With these clamors
Jonathan and his partners were greatly provoked, although they durst not
show their anger openly; so they made them no answer, but went to other
villages. But still the same clamors met them from all the people, who
said, "Nobody should persuade them to have any other commander besides
Josephus." So Jonathan and his partners went away from them without
success, and came to Sepphoris, the greatest city of all Galilee. Now
the men of that city, who inclined to the Romans in their sentiments,
met them indeed, but neither praised nor reproached me and when they
were gone down from Sepphoris to Asochis, the people of that place made
a clamor against them, as those of Japha had done; whereupon they were
able to contain themselves no longer, but ordered the armed men that
were with them to beat those that made the clamor with their clubs. And
when they came to Gabara, John met them with three thousand armed men;
but, as I understood by their letter that they had resolved to fight
against me, I arose from Chabolo, with three thousand armed men also;
but left in my camp one of my fastest friends, and came to Jotapata,