II.—­The Gathering of Great Storms

And now great calamities and slaughters came on the Jews.  On the very same day two dreadful massacres happened.  In Jerusalem the Jews fell on Netilius and the band of Roman soldiers whom he commanded after they had made terms and had surrendered, and all were killed except the commander himself, who supplicated for mercy, and even agreed to submit to circumcision.  On that very day and hour, as though Providence had ordained it, the Greeks in Caesarea rose, and in a single hour slew over 20,000 Jews, and so the city was emptied of its Jewish inhabitants.  For Florus caught those who escaped, and sent them to the galleys.  By this tragedy the whole nation was driven to madness.  The Jews rose and laid waste the villages all around many cities in Syria, and they descended on Gadara, Hippo, and Gaulonitus, and burnt and destroyed many places.  Sebaste and Askelon they seized without resistance, and they razed Anthedon and Gaza to the ground, pillaging the villages all around, with great slaughter.

When thus the disorder in all Syria had become terrible, Cestius Gallus, the Roman commander at Antioch, marched with an army to Ptolemais and overran all Galilee and invested Jerusalem, expecting that it would be surrendered by means of a powerful party within the walls.  But the plot was discovered, and the conspirators were flung headlong from the walls, and an attack by Cestius on the north side of the Temple was repulsed with great loss.  Seeing the whole country around in arms, and the Jews swarming on all the heights, Cestius withdrew his army and retired in the night, leaving 400 of his bravest men to mount guard in the camp and to display their ensigns, that the Jews might be deceived.

But at break of day it was discovered that the camp was deserted by the army, and the Jews rushed to the assault and slew all the Roman band.  This happened in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero.

III.—­Judea in Rebellion Against Rome

Nero was at this time in Achaia.  To him, as ambassador, Cestius, sent in order to lay the blame on Florus, Costobar and Saul, two brothers of the Herodian family, who, with Philip, the son of Jacimus, the general of Agrippa, had escaped from Jerusalem.  Meantime, a great massacre of the Jews took place at Damascus.  Then those in Jerusalem who had pursued after Cestius called a general assembly in the Temple, and elected their governors and commanders.  Their choice fell on Joseph, the son of Gorion, and Ananus, the chief priest, who were invested with absolute authority in the city; but Eleazar was passed over, for he was suspected of aiming at kingly power, as he went about attended by a bodyguard of zealots.  But as commanding within the Temple he had made himself master of the public treasures, and in a short time the need of money and his extreme subtlety won over the multitude, and all real authority fell into his hands.  To the other districts they sent the men most to be trusted for courage and fidelity.