Book 2

Translated by Thothica

1 hr 7 min

THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

Contents of Book Two

I. Of the manner of life of the apostles after the ascension of Christ. II. How Tiberius was moved when he was informed by Pilate of the things concerning Christ. III. How in a short time the word concerning Christ ran through all the world. IV. How, after Tiberius, Gaius appointed Agrippa king of the Jews, punishing Herod with perpetual exile. V. How Philo went on an embassy to Gaius on behalf of the Jews. VI. What calamities flowed in upon the Jews after their audacity against Christ. VII. How Pilate too made away with himself. VIII. Of the famine in the time of Claudius. IX. The martyrdom of James the apostle. X. How Agrippa, who is also called Herod, having persecuted the apostles, straightway felt the divine vengeance. XI. Of Theudas the impostor. XII. Of Helena, queen of the Adiabeni. XIII. Of Simon Magus. XIV. Of the preaching of the apostle Peter at Rome. XV. Of the Gospel according to Mark. XVI. How Mark first preached the knowledge of Christ to those in Egypt. XVII. What Philo relates concerning the ascetics in Egypt. XVIII. How many writings of Philo have come down to us. XIX. What calamity befell the Jews in Jerusalem on the day of the Passover. XX. What things also were done at Jerusalem in the time of Nero. XXI. Of the Egyptian whom the Acts of the Apostles also mentioned. XXII. How Paul, sent in bonds from Judaea to Rome, made his defence and was acquitted of every charge. XXIII. How James, who was called the brother of the Lord, was martyred. XXIV. How, after Mark, Annianus was appointed first bishop of the church of the Alexandrians. XXV. Of the persecution under Nero, in which Paul and Peter at Rome were adorned with martyrdom for the sake of true religion. XXVI. How the Jews were driven about by countless ills, and how they raised the last war against the Romans. This book has been compiled by us from the writings of Clement, Tertullian, Josephus, and Philo.

PREFACE

Whatever it was needful, as in a preface, to set forth concerning the ecclesiastical history—both as to the divinity of the saving Word, and as to the antiquity of the doctrines of our teaching and the ancient origin of the evangelic polity of the Christians; and moreover whatever concerns his recent manifestation, the things before the Passion, and the matter of the choosing of the apostles—all this we have treated in the book before this, abridging the proofs.
Come now, let us in the present consider also the things after his ascension, noting some from the divine writings, and adding from without the account of others, from such memoirs as we shall mention in due season.

CHAPTER I

First, then, in the place of the traitor Judas, Matthias is chosen by lot to the apostleship—he too being one, as has been shown, of the disciples of the Lord. And there are appointed, by prayer and the laying on of hands of the apostles, for the ministry of service for the common good, approved men, seven in number, those about Stephen. He too, first after the Lord, at the very time of his ordination, as though he had been advanced for this very thing, was stoned to death by the slayers of the Lord, and thus first bore away the crown, answering to his own name, of the worthy victors among the martyrs of Christ.
Then indeed James also, called the brother of the Lord—because he too was named a son of Joseph, and Joseph was the father of Christ, to whom the Virgin was betrothed, before they came together, and was found with child of the Holy Spirit, as the sacred Scripture of the Gospels teaches—this very James, whom the men of old surnamed the Just on account of the excellence of his virtue, is recorded to have been the first entrusted with the throne of the bishopric of the church in Jerusalem.
Clement, in the sixth book of the Hypotyposes, sets this forth, saying: "For Peter and James and John, after the ascension of the Saviour, although they had been preferred by the Saviour, did not contend for glory, but chose James the Just as bishop of Jerusalem."
The same writer, in the seventh book of the same work, says yet this also concerning him: "To James the Just and John and Peter the Lord, after the resurrection, delivered the knowledge; these delivered it to the rest of the apostles, and the rest of the apostles to the seventy, of whom Barnabas too was one.
Now there were two Jameses: one the Just, who was thrown down from the pinnacle and beaten to death with a fuller's club; the other he who was beheaded." Of the Just himself Paul too makes mention, writing: "But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the brother of the Lord."
About these times also the things of our Saviour's promise to the king of the Osroeni received their fulfilment. Thomas, at any rate, by a divine impulse, sent forth Thaddaeus to Edessa as a herald and evangelist of the teaching concerning Christ, as we showed a little before from the document found there;
and he, coming to those places, both healed Abgar by the word of Christ and amazed all there by the marvels of his wonders; and having sufficiently disposed them by his deeds and led them to reverence the power of Christ, he made them disciples of the saving teaching. And from that time to this the whole city of the Edessenes is devoted to the name of Christ, bearing no ordinary token of the beneficence of our Saviour toward them also.
And let these things be said as from ancient history; but let us pass again to the divine Scripture. When, then, upon the martyrdom of Stephen, there arose the first and greatest persecution by the Jews themselves against the church in Jerusalem, and all the disciples, save only the twelve, were scattered abroad through Judaea and Samaria, some, as the divine Scripture says, having gone as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, were not yet able to venture to impart the word of the faith to the nations, but proclaimed it to the Jews only.
At that time Paul too was still ravaging the church, entering into the houses of the faithful, dragging off men and women, and delivering them to prison.
But Philip also, one of those chosen along with Stephen for the ministry, being among those scattered abroad, went down to Samaria, and full of divine power preached the word first to those there; and so great a divine grace co-operated with him that even Simon the magician, with very many others, was drawn by his words.
To such a degree had Simon become renowned at that time, prevailing over those deluded by his sorcery, that he was held to be the great power of God. Then, however, he too, amazed at the marvels accomplished by Philip in divine power, crept in and even, as far as baptism, feigned faith in Christ;
which is worth marvelling at, that it is done even to this day by those who even now follow his most foul heresy. For after the method of their forefather they creep into the church like a pestilent and scabby disease, and most grievously injure those upon whom they are able to smear the deadly and grievous poison hidden in themselves. Many of these, at any rate, have already been driven out, when they had been caught at what manner of wickedness they were—even as Simon himself, detected by Peter for what he was, paid the fitting penalty.
But indeed, as the saving preaching advanced daily to increase, a certain dispensation brought from the land of the Ethiopians a potentate of the queen there—for, after a certain ancestral custom, that nation is ruled by a woman even to this day. Him, the first from among the nations to partake of the mysteries of the divine word through the manifestation wrought by Philip, and to become the firstfruits of the faithful throughout the world, the account holds to have been the first, returning to his native land, to bring the good tidings of the knowledge of the God of all and the life-giving sojourn of our Saviour among men; through him being fulfilled in deed the prophecy which says, "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand to God."
After these things Paul, the chosen vessel, not of men nor through men, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ himself and of God the Father, who raised him from the dead, is shown forth as an apostle, deemed worthy of the calling by a vision and the heavenly voice that came in the revelation.

CHAPTER II

And now, when the marvellous resurrection of our Saviour and his ascension into the heavens had already become noised abroad among most men, and since an ancient custom had prevailed for the rulers of the nations to signify to him who held the imperial sway whatever was newly arising among them, that nothing might escape him of what was done, Pilate communicated to Tiberius the emperor the things concerning the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus from the dead, already noised abroad among all throughout all Palestine,
having learned also of his other marvels, and how, after his death, rising from the dead, he was already believed by many to be God. And Tiberius, they say, referred the matter to the senate, and the senate rejected the report—in appearance, because it had not first itself examined it (an ancient law having prevailed that no one should be deified among the Romans except by vote and decree of the senate), but in truth, because the saving teaching of the divine preaching had no need of the ratification and sanction of men;
so that, the council of the Romans having thus rejected the report brought to it concerning our Saviour, Tiberius, keeping the opinion he had held before, devised nothing amiss against the teaching of Christ.
These things Tertullian, a man accurately versed in the laws of the Romans, distinguished in other respects and among the most illustrious of those at Rome, sets down in the defence he wrote on behalf of the Christians in the Roman tongue, but translated into the Greek language, recording the matter in these very words:
"But that we may speak also from the origin of such laws, there was an ancient decree that no god should be consecrated by an emperor unless approved by the senate. Marcus Aemilius did this in the case of a certain idol, Alburnus. And this too has been done in favour of our argument, that with you divinity is conferred by human approval. If a god does not please a man, the god is not made a god; so that, by this reckoning, it behoved man to be gracious to God.
Tiberius, therefore, in whose time the name of Christians came into the world, when this doctrine was reported to him from Palestine, where it first began, communicated it to the senate, making it plain to them that he was pleased with the doctrine. But the senate, since it had not itself approved it, rejected it; he, however, abode by his own opinion, threatening death to the accusers of the Christians." The heavenly Providence had of design put this into his mind, that the word of the Gospel, having an unhindered beginning, might run everywhere over the earth.

CHAPTER III

Thus, then, by the heavenly power and co-operation, the saving word, all at once, like a beam of the sun, illumined the whole world. Straightway, in accordance with the divine Scriptures, the voice of his inspired evangelists and apostles went forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.
And indeed throughout all cities and villages, like a teeming threshing-floor, churches full of countless multitudes were forthwith established; and those who, through the succession of their forefathers and from the error of old time, had their souls fettered by the ancient disease of the superstition of idols, being set free by the power of Christ, through the teaching and the wonder-working of his disciples, as from cruel masters, and finding release from most grievous bonds, spurned all the demonic polytheism, and confessed that there was one God only, the Maker of the universe; and they honoured him with the ordinances of true godliness, through the divine and temperate worship sown by our Saviour in the life of men.
But now, the divine grace being already poured out also upon the rest of the nations—first at Caesarea of Palestine, where Cornelius with his whole household received the faith in Christ through a more divine manifestation and the ministry of Peter; and many others also of the Greeks at Antioch, to whom those scattered in the persecution over Stephen had preached, the church at Antioch now flourishing and growing, and very many prophets from Jerusalem being present there at the same time, and with them Barnabas and Paul and another multitude of brethren besides—then first, there, as from a fruitful and fertile spring, the title of Christians arose.
And Agabus, one of the prophets who were with them, foretold that there should be a famine; and Paul and Barnabas were sent to minister to the service of the brethren.

CHAPTER IV

Tiberius, then, having reigned about twenty-two years, died; and after him Gaius, taking over the government, straightway set the diadem on the head of Agrippa, the ruler of the Jews, making him king of the tetrarchy of Philip and of Lysanias; to which, after no long time, he delivered also the tetrarchy of Herod, punishing Herod (this was he of the time of the Saviour's Passion), together with his wife Herodias, with perpetual exile, for very many charges. Josephus is witness of these things too.
In his time Philo became known to very many, a man most distinguished, not only among our own, but also among those who set out from the learning without. By race he was a Hebrew from of old, and inferior to none of those in high station at Alexandria;
as to how great and how vast a labour he brought to bear upon the divine and ancestral studies, it is plain to all by his work; and as to what manner of man he was in the philosophic and liberal learning of the world without, there is no need to say, since it is recorded that, having especially emulated the school of Plato and Pythagoras, he surpassed all of his own day.

CHAPTER V

And indeed the things that befell the Jews in the time of Gaius he delivers in five books, recounting at once the madness of Gaius—how he proclaimed himself a god and committed countless outrages in his rule—and the miseries of the Jews under him, and the embassy which he himself undertook to the city of the Romans on behalf of his countrymen at Alexandria; and how, when he stood before Gaius on behalf of the ancestral laws, he carried away nothing but laughter and derision, and all but underwent the peril of his life.
Josephus too makes mention of these things, in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities writing thus in these very words: "And indeed, a sedition having arisen at Alexandria between the Jews who dwell there and the Greeks, three envoys chosen from each party came before Gaius.
Now one of the envoys of the Alexandrians was Apion, who uttered many slanders against the Jews, saying, among other things, that they neglected the honours of Caesar; for whereas all who were subject to the Roman rule had set up altars and temples to Gaius and in all other respects received him as they did the gods, these alone deemed it dishonourable to honour him with statues and to make his name a thing to swear by.
And when Apion had said many grievous things, by which he hoped Gaius would be roused, as was likely, Philo, the head of the embassy of the Jews, a man distinguished in all respects, brother of Alexander the alabarch, and not unversed in philosophy, was ready to come forward in defence of the accusations;
but Gaius shut him out, bidding him depart, and being exceedingly angry, was plainly about to do them some grievous harm. And Philo went out, having been outraged, and said to the Jews who were about him that they must take courage, for, though Gaius was angry with them, in deed he was now arraying God against himself."
So far Josephus. And Philo himself, in the work which he wrote, the Embassy, sets forth accurately in detail the things then done by him; of which, passing by the greater part, I will set down those only by which it will become manifest to readers what things befell the Jews, both at once and not long after, on account of their audacity against Christ.
First, then, he relates that in the time of Tiberius, at the city of the Romans, Sejanus, who was very powerful with the emperor at that time, brought all his zeal to bear that the whole nation might utterly perish; and in Judaea, Pilate, in whose time the things concerning the Saviour were dared, having attempted something contrary to what was permitted to the Jews about the temple still standing at Jerusalem, threw them into the greatest turmoil.

CHAPTER VI

And after the death of Tiberius, Gaius, taking over the rule, committed many outrages against many; but most of all he grievously injured the whole nation of the Jews. This it is possible to learn briefly from his own words, in which he writes thus:
"So great, then, was the inconstancy of Gaius's character toward all, but especially toward the race of the Jews, against whom, being bitterly hostile, he appropriated the places of prayer in the other cities, beginning with those at Alexandria, filling them with images and statues of his own form (for, in permitting others to set them up, he himself in effect set them up by force), and he was transforming and remodelling the temple in the holy city, which alone remained untouched, having been deemed worthy of complete inviolability, into a temple of his own, that it might be styled the temple of Gaius, the New Manifest Zeus."
Countless other dreadful things, beyond all telling, the same writer relates as having befallen the Jews at Alexandria in the time of the person indicated, in the second book to which he gave the title On the Virtues. With him Josephus too agrees, likewise indicating that the calamities upon the whole nation began from the times of Pilate and the things dared against the Saviour.
Hear, then, what this man too declares in the second book of the Jewish War, in these very syllables, saying: "Pilate, sent to Judaea as procurator by Tiberius, brought into Jerusalem by night, covered, the images of Caesar—they are called standards. This, when day came, raised the greatest turmoil among the Jews. For those who were near were astounded at the sight, as though their laws had been trampled upon; for they hold it unlawful to set up any image in the city."
And comparing these things with the Scripture of the Gospels, you will know that there came upon them not long after the cry which they uttered in the presence of Pilate himself, by which they cried out that they had no king but Caesar alone.
Then the same writer relates that another calamity also befell them, in these words: "After these things he stirred up another tumult, expending the sacred treasure—it is called Corban—upon a conduit for waters; and it descended from three hundred furlongs. At this there was indignation of the multitude, and when Pilate was present at Jerusalem, they stood around and clamoured against him.
But he, for he had foreseen their tumult, having mingled among the multitude soldiers in arms, covered with civilian dress, and having forbidden them to use the sword, but commanded them to strike with clubs those who clamoured, gave the signal from the tribunal. And the Jews, beaten—many by the blows, and many trampled by one another in the flight—perished; and the multitude, dismayed at the calamity of the slain, fell silent."
The same writer shows that countless other revolts were stirred up in Jerusalem itself, setting forth that from that time seditions and wars and successive contrivances of evils never ceased to befall the city and all Judaea, until at the very last the siege under Vespasian overtook them. Thus, then, in such a manner did the things of the divine vengeance pursue the Jews for the things they dared against Christ.

CHAPTER VII

It is worth not being ignorant that the account holds that even that very Pilate of the Saviour's time fell, in the reign of Gaius, whose times we are recounting, into such calamities that of necessity he became his own slayer and the avenger of himself by his own hand—the divine vengeance, as it seems, having pursued him not long after. This those of the Greeks relate who have recorded the Olympiads together with the deeds done in their times.

CHAPTER VIII

But Gaius, having held the rule not even four full years, was succeeded by the emperor Claudius; in whose time, a famine pressing upon the world (this even those writers far removed from our account have delivered in their histories), the prediction in the Acts of the Apostles of the prophet Agabus, that there should be a famine over all the world, received its fulfilment.
Luke, having noted the famine under Claudius in the Acts, and having related how the brethren at Antioch, through Paul and Barnabas, sent of their substance, each as he was able, to those in Judaea, adds, saying:

CHAPTER IX

"Now about that time"—that is, plainly, the time under Claudius—"Herod the king laid hands on certain of the church to afflict them, and he slew James the brother of John with the sword."
Concerning this James, Clement, in the seventh book of the Hypotyposes, sets forth a story worthy of mention, as from the tradition of those before him, saying that the man who brought him into the court, seeing him bear witness and being moved, confessed himself also a Christian.
"So they were led away together," he says, "and on the way he asked James to be forgiven by him. And James, considering a little, said, 'Peace be to thee,' and kissed him. And thus both were beheaded together."
Then indeed, as the divine Scripture says, Herod, seeing that the deed of the slaying of James was pleasing to the Jews, laid hands also on Peter, and delivering him to bonds, would soon have wrought his murder also, had he not, by a divine manifestation—an angel standing by him in the night—been marvellously delivered from his bonds and released for the ministry of the preaching. Such was the dispensation in the case of Peter.

CHAPTER X

But the things of the king's attempt against the apostles no longer admitted of delay; for straightway the avenging minister of the divine vengeance pursued him, immediately after his plot against the apostles, as the Scripture of the Acts relates—having set out for Caesarea, and there, on a notable festival day, arrayed in splendid and royal apparel, having made an oration on high before the tribunal; for, when all the people had acclaimed his oration as the voice of a god and not of a man, the oracle relates that straightway an angel of the Lord smote him, and that, being eaten of worms, he expired.
And it is worth marvelling at the agreement of the history of Josephus, in this marvel too, with the divine Scripture, in which he plainly bears witness to the truth, in the nineteenth book of the Antiquities, where in these very words he relates the marvel somewhat thus:
"Now the third year of his reign over the whole of Judaea was fulfilled, and he came to the city of Caesarea, which formerly was called Strato's Tower. He was holding there spectacles in honour of Caesar, knowing this to be a kind of festival for his preservation; and at it was gathered a multitude of those in office and of advanced dignity throughout the province.
And on the second day of the spectacles, having put on a robe made wholly of silver, so that the weaving was marvellous, he came into the theatre at the beginning of day. There, at the first beams of the sun's rays, the silver, lit up, shone marvellously, gleaming with something terrible and dreadful to those who gazed upon him.
And straightway the flatterers cried out, one from one side, one from another, voices that were nothing for his good, addressing him as a god, and adding, 'Be gracious; if hitherto we have feared thee as a man, yet henceforth we confess thee greater than mortal nature.' The king did not rebuke these, nor did he reject the impious flattery.
But looking up a little after, he saw an angel seated above his head. This he straightway perceived to be the cause of evils, even as it had once been of good; and he was seized with pain at his heart, and a sudden ache of the belly fastened upon him, beginning with violence.
So, looking up toward his friends, 'I, your god,' he said, 'am now commanded to lay down my life, fate at once convicting the voices that have just now lied of me. I, who was called by you immortal, am now led away to die. But the destiny that God has willed must be accepted; for indeed we have lived in no mean way, but in a blessed prosperity.' And as he said this he was worn down by the increase of the pain; with haste, then, he was carried into the palace,
and word went out to all that he was altogether on the point of death within a little while. And the multitude straightway, with their wives and children, sitting upon sackcloth after the ancestral custom, supplicated God on behalf of the king, and all was full of wailing and lamentation. And the king, lying in a lofty chamber and looking down upon them as they fell prostrate, did not himself remain tearless. And for five days continuously, worn out by the pain of the belly,
he ended his life, being in the fifty-fourth year from his birth, and the seventh of his reign. Four years, then, he reigned under Gaius Caesar, having ruled the tetrarchy of Philip for three years, and in the fourth having taken over also that of Herod; and he held three years of the reign of Claudius Caesar."
I marvel at Josephus, in this with the rest agreeing in truth with the divine Scriptures. But if to some he seems to disagree about the name of the king, yet the time and the deed show him to be the same, the name having been changed either by some scribal error, or also a double naming having arisen about the same man, as in the case of many.

CHAPTER XI

But since again Luke in the Acts brings in Gamaliel, in the deliberation concerning the apostles, saying that about the time indicated "rose up Theudas, saying that he himself was somebody, who was destroyed, and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed"—come, let us set forth also the writing of Josephus concerning this man. He relates, again in the same work of his just mentioned, these very things in these words:
"Now while Fadus was procurator of Judaea, a certain magician, Theudas by name, persuaded the greater part of the multitude to take up their possessions and follow him to the river Jordan; for he said that he was a prophet, and that by his command he would cleave the river and provide them an easy passage; and saying these things he deceived many.
But Fadus did not suffer them to profit by their folly, but sent out a troop of horsemen against them, who, falling upon them unexpectedly, slew many and took many alive; and Theudas himself they took alive and cut off his head and carried it to Jerusalem." After these things he makes mention of the famine that came under Claudius somewhat thus:

CHAPTER XII

"Moreover, the great famine also befell Judaea, in which queen Helena, having bought corn at much cost from Egypt, distributed it to the needy."
You will find these things too agreeing with the Scripture of the Acts of the Apostles, which contains that the disciples at Antioch, as each was able, determined every man to send for the ministry to those dwelling in Judaea; which they also did, sending to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Paul.
Of this Helena, of whom the writer made mention, there are even now shown conspicuous monuments in the suburbs of what is now Aelia; and she was said to have been queen of the nation of the Adiabeni.

CHAPTER XIII

But now, as the faith in our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was already being spread among all men, the enemy of the salvation of men, contriving to seize beforehand the imperial city, leads thither Simon, before mentioned; and indeed, aiding the artful sorceries of the man, he appropriated to error very many of those dwelling in Rome.
This is shown by Justin, who not long after the apostles flourished in the doctrine of our time—concerning whom I shall set forth what is fitting in due season—who, writing in his former Apology to Antoninus on behalf of our doctrine, says thus:
"And after the ascension of the Lord into heaven the demons put forward certain men who said that they themselves were gods, who not only were not persecuted by you, but were even deemed worthy of honours: a certain Simon, a Samaritan, from a village called Gitthon, who in the time of Claudius Caesar, through the art of the demons working in him, having wrought magic powers in your imperial city of Rome, was reckoned a god, and was honoured by you with a statue as a god, in the river Tiber between the two bridges, having this Roman inscription: simoni deo sancto, which is, 'To Simon the holy god.'
And almost all the Samaritans, and a few also among other nations, confessing him as the first god, worship him. And a certain Helena, who went about with him at that time, having before stood upon a roof in Tyre of Phoenicia, they call the first thought from him." So far this writer. And Irenaeus too agrees with him,
in the first book of his work Against the Heresies, sketching at once the things concerning the man and his unholy and foul teaching, which at the present it were superfluous to recount, since it is open to those who wish to learn the beginnings and the lives and the foundations of the false doctrines, and all the things practised by them, of the heresiarchs who came after him in detail—things delivered, not as by the way, in the said book of Irenaeus. We have received, then, that Simon was the first author of all heresy;
from whom even to this day those who follow his heresy, feigning the temperate philosophy of the Christians—renowned among all for the purity of life—nevertheless lay hold again no less of the superstition about idols from which they seemed to depart, falling down before pictures and images of Simon himself and of the Helena mentioned with him, and undertaking to worship these with incense and sacrifices and libations; while their more secret rites,
of which they say that whoever first hears will be amazed, and, according to a certain written oracle among them, will be struck with astonishment, are full of astonishment indeed and of derangement of mind and of madness—being such that they are not only incapable of being committed to writing, but cannot even be uttered by chaste men with the lips alone, by reason of the excess of their foulness and obscenity.
For whatever could be conceived more filthy than all that is filthy, this the most abominable heresy of these men has surpassed, making sport of wretched women laden with every kind of evil indeed.

CHAPTER XIV

Such evils' father and fashioner, Simon, at that time the evil power, hater of good and plotter against the salvation of men, set up as a great and mighty adversary of the inspired apostles of our Saviour.
Nevertheless the divine and supercelestial grace, co-operating with its ministers, by their manifestation and presence quickly quenched the kindled flame of the evil one, humbling and casting down through them every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God.
Wherefore neither of Simon nor of any other of those who sprang up at that time did any confederacy stand fast during those very apostolic times. For the light of the truth overcame and prevailed over all, and the divine Word itself, newly shining from God upon men, in its prime upon the earth and abiding among his own apostles.
Straightway the magician aforesaid, as though struck in the eyes of his understanding by a divine and marvellous flash, when before, in Judaea, he had been detected for his wickedness by the apostle Peter, set out on a great journey across the sea, fleeing from the East to the West, supposing that thus alone could life be lived for him according to his mind;
and having reached the city of the Romans, with the power that lay in wait there greatly aiding him, in a little while so much was accomplished of his attempt that he was honoured by those there, by the setting up of a statue, as a god. But these things did not prosper with him for long.
For at his very heels, in the same reign of Claudius, the all-good and most benevolent Providence of all things led by the hand to Rome, against so great a destroyer of life, the strong and great one of the apostles, Peter, who for his virtue was the spokesman of all the rest; who, like some noble general of God, armed with the divine arms, brought the precious merchandise of the intelligible light from the East to those in the West, bringing the good tidings of the light itself and the word that saves souls, the preaching of the kingdom of the heavens.

CHAPTER XV

Thus, then, when the divine word had come to dwell among them, the power of Simon was quenched, and straightway, together with the man himself, was undone. And so great a light of godliness shone upon the minds of the hearers of Peter that they were not content to be satisfied with hearing once, nor with the unwritten teaching of the divine preaching, but with all manner of entreaties besought Mark, whose Gospel is extant, being the follower of Peter, that he would leave them also a written memorial of the teaching delivered to them by word, and did not desist until they had prevailed upon the man; and thus they became the cause of the writing of the Gospel called according to Mark.
And they say that the apostle, when he knew what had been done, the Spirit having revealed it to him, was pleased with the zeal of the men, and ratified the writing for reading in the churches. Clement, in the sixth book of the Hypotyposes, has set down the story, and the bishop of Hierapolis, Papias by name, bears witness with him; and that Peter makes mention of Mark in his former epistle, which they say he composed at Rome itself, and that he signifies this, calling the city by a figure Babylon, in these words: "She that is in Babylon, elect together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Mark my son."

CHAPTER XVI

This Mark, they say, was the first to be sent to Egypt and to preach the Gospel which he himself had also composed, and the first to establish churches at Alexandria itself.
And so great a multitude of believers, both men and women, was gathered there at the first onset, through a most philosophic and most intense discipline, that Philo deemed their pursuits and their gatherings and their banquets and the whole rest of their manner of life worthy of writing.

CHAPTER XVII

He, the account holds, came in the time of Claudius at Rome into conversation with Peter, who was then preaching to those there. And this would not be improbable, since the very work of which we speak, laboured upon by him later and after a length of time, plainly contains the rules of the church preserved even now and to our own day among us;
but also, relating most accurately, so far as may be, the life of our ascetics, he would be manifest as not only knowing, but also approving and extolling and revering, the apostolic men of his day, who were, as it seems, of Hebrew descent, and on that account still kept most of the ancient customs in a more Jewish manner.
First, then, having strongly affirmed that he would add nothing beyond the truth, of his own and from himself, to the things he was about to relate, in the discourse to which he gave the title On the Contemplative Life, or On Suppliants, he says that they were called Therapeutae, and the women with them Therapeutrides, adding the reasons for such a title: either because, like physicians, they relieved and healed the souls of those who came to them from the passions of wickedness, or for the sake of pure and sincere service and worship of the Divine.
Whether, then, he himself imposed this title on them, fittingly inscribing the name to the manner of the men, or whether the first members really called them this from the beginning—the title of Christians not yet being everywhere named abroad—there is no need to contend.
Nevertheless, first of all, he bears witness to their renunciation of property, saying that, when they begin to philosophize, they give up their goods to their kinsmen, then, having renounced all the cares of life, going forth outside the walls, they make their abodes in lonely places and gardens, well knowing the unprofitable and harmful intercourse with the unlike—those at that time, as is likely, doing this, with eager and most fervent faith emulating the prophetic life.
For indeed in the acknowledged Acts of the Apostles it is recorded that all the acquaintances of the apostles, selling their possessions and substance, divided to all as anyone had need, so that there was no one in want among them; as many, at any rate, as were owners of lands or houses, as the account says, selling them, brought the prices of the things sold, and laid them at the feet of the apostles, so that distribution was made to each as anyone had need.
And Philo, having borne witness to things like these to the matters indicated, adds in these very syllables, saying: "In many places of the world, then, is this kind; for both Greece and the barbarian land needed to share in the perfect good; but it abounds in Egypt in each of the so-called nomes, and especially about Alexandria.
And the best from everywhere, as to a fatherland of the Therapeutae, send forth a colony to a most suitable spot, which lies above the Mareotic lake on a low-lying hill, very conveniently both for safety and for temperateness of air."
Then, having next described what manner of dwellings theirs were, he says this concerning the churches throughout the country: "In each house there is a sacred chamber, which is called a sanctuary and monastery, in which, alone, they accomplish the mysteries of the holy life, bringing in nothing—no drink, no food, nor any other of the things necessary for the needs of the body—but laws and oracles delivered through the prophets, and hymns, and the other things by which knowledge and godliness are increased and perfected." And after other things he says:
"The whole interval from morning until evening is for them an exercise. For, conversing with the sacred writings, they philosophize the ancestral philosophy, allegorizing, since they hold the words of the literal interpretation to be symbols of a hidden nature, made manifest in undermeanings.
And they have also writings of ancient men, who, having been founders of their sect, left behind many memorials of the idea in the allegorized matter, which they use as a kind of archetypes, imitating the manner of their purpose."
These things, then, seem to have been said by the man as having listened to them while they expounded the sacred writings; and perhaps it is likely that what he says are ancient writings among them are the Gospels and the writings of the apostles, and certain interpretative discourses, as is probable, of the prophets of old, such as the epistle to the Hebrews and several others of Paul contain.
Then again next, concerning their composing of new psalms, he writes thus: "So that they not only contemplate, but also compose songs and hymns to God in all manner of metres and melodies, of necessity setting them down in numbers of a more solemn kind."
Many other things, then, concerning those of whom we speak, he goes through in the same work; but those it seemed necessary to gather, by which he sets forth the characteristic marks of the ecclesiastical conduct.
And if to anyone it seems that the things said are not proper to the polity according to the Gospel, but might fit others also besides those indicated, let him be persuaded even from his following words, in which he will gain, if he be kindly-minded, the indisputable testimony concerning this.
For he writes thus: "Laying down self-control, as it were a kind of foundation, in the soul, they build upon it the other virtues. Food or drink none of them would take before sunset, since they judge philosophizing worthy of the light, but the needs of the body of darkness; whence to the one they assigned the day, to the other a small part of the night.
And some, in whom the longing for knowledge is more deeply seated, even after three days are reminded of food; and some are so delighted and luxuriate, feasted by wisdom which supplies her doctrines richly and ungrudgingly, that they hold out even for twice the time, and scarcely after six days taste necessary food, being so accustomed."
These plain and incontestable sayings of Philo we hold to be concerning those of our time. But if upon these anyone, contradicting, still hardens himself, let him too be rid of his unbelief, persuaded by clearer proofs, which it is possible to find among none but only the worship of the Christians according to the Gospel.
For he says that there are also women with those of whom the account speaks, of whom most are aged virgins, having kept their chastity not by necessity, like some of the priestesses among the Greeks, but rather of their own free will, through zeal and longing for wisdom, with which, eager to live, they made nothing of the pleasures of the body, desiring not mortal offspring, but immortal, which the God-beloved soul alone is able to bear of itself.
Then, descending a little, he sets forth these things more emphatically: "And the expositions of the sacred writings are made by them through undermeanings, in allegories. For all the legislation seems to these men to resemble a living creature, and to have for its body the literal ordinances, but for its soul the invisible mind laid up in the words, which this household began especially to contemplate, beholding, as through a mirror of the names, the surpassing beauties of the thoughts displayed."
What need is there to add to these the meetings in the same place, and the abodes apart of the men and apart of the women in the same place, and the exercises customary even now and practised by us, which especially at the festival of the saving Passion we are wont to accomplish in fastings and watchings and attentions to the divine words,
which the said man, more accurately, even the very manner that has been preserved to this day among us alone, has delivered in his own writing—relating the all-night vigils of the great festival and the exercises in them, and the hymns customarily said by us, and how, while one chants with rhythm in seemly fashion, the rest, listening in silence, sing in unison the closing strains of the hymns; and how, on the days indicated, lying on the ground upon pallets, they do not, as he wrote in his very words, so much as taste wine at all, nor any of the things that have blood, but water alone is their drink, and their relish with bread is salt and hyssop.
In addition to these things he writes of the manner of the presidency of those entrusted with the ecclesiastical ministrations and services, and the presidency above all, the highest, of the episcopate. Of these, whoever has a longing for the accurate study of them, may learn from the said history of the man;
and that Philo, having met with the first heralds of the teaching according to the Gospel, and the customs delivered from the beginning by the apostles, wrote these things, is plain to everyone.

CHAPTER XVIII

Copious indeed in language, and broad in thought, lofty and elevated as he was in his contemplations of the divine Scriptures, he made his exposition of the sacred discourses varied and manifold: on the one hand, going through the treatment of the matters in Genesis in connected sequence, in the works which he entitled Allegories of the Sacred Laws; on the other, having made, by separate divisions of chapters, the difficulties of the questions sought in the Scriptures, with their statements and solutions, in those works to which correspondingly he set the title Of the Questions and Solutions in Genesis and in Exodus.
There are besides these certain studies labored upon by him on particular problems, such as the two books On Husbandry, and as many On Drunkenness, and certain others deemed worthy of a distinct and proper title, such as that On the Things which the Sober Mind Prays for and Curses, and On the Confusion of Tongues, and that On Flight and Finding, and that On the Meeting for the Sake of Instruction, and On Who is the Heir of Divine Things, or On the Division into Equal and Opposite, and further that On the Three Virtues which Moses described along with others;
in addition to these, that On the Things that are Renamed and Why they are Renamed, in which he says he composed also On the Covenants, two books;
and there is of his also On Migration, and On the Life of the Wise Man Perfected in Righteousness, or On Unwritten Laws, and further On Giants, or On the Immutability of the Divine, and On the Doctrine that, according to Moses, Dreams are Sent from God, five books. These, then, are the works that have come to us concerning Genesis;
but upon Exodus we have known of his Questions and Solutions, five books, and that On the Tabernacle, and that On the Ten Commandments, and the four books On the Things Referred, in the form of laws, to the chapters bearing on the Ten Commandments, and that On the Animals for the Sacred Rites and what are the kinds of sacrifices, and that On the Rewards Set Forth in the Law for the Good and the Penalties and Curses for the Wicked.
In addition to all these, single books of his are extant, such as that On Providence, and the discourse composed by him On the Jews, and the Statesman, and further the Alexander, or On the Possession of Reason by Irrational Animals; besides these, that On the Doctrine that Every Bad Man is a Slave, to which follows that On the Doctrine that Every Good Man is Free;
after which is composed by him that On the Contemplative Life, or On Suppliants, from which we have gone through the things concerning the life of the apostolic men; and the interpretations of the Hebrew names in the law and the prophets are said to be a labour of the same man.
This man, then, having come to Rome in the time of Gaius, the things written by him concerning the impiety of Gaius—which with character and irony he entitled On the Virtues—he is said to have read through before the whole senate of the Romans in the time of Claudius, so that his discourses were marvelled at and deemed worthy of a place in the libraries.
And about these times, Paul accomplishing his journey from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum, Claudius drove the Jews from Rome; and Aquila and Priscilla, departing from Rome with the other Jews, put in at Asia, and there dwelt with the apostle Paul, who was strengthening the foundations of the churches there lately laid by him. The teacher of these things too is the sacred Scripture of the Acts.

CHAPTER XIX

While Claudius still administered the empire, at the festival of the Passover so great a sedition and tumult arose at Jerusalem that, of those alone who were pressed together by force about the exits of the temple, thirty thousand Jews perished, trodden down by one another; and the festival became a mourning to the whole nation, and a lamentation in every house. These things too in these words Josephus relates.
And Claudius appointed Agrippa, son of Agrippa, king of the Jews, having sent out Felix as procurator of the whole country of Samaria and Galilee, and besides of what is called Peraea; and having himself administered the government thirteen years and eight months, he died, leaving Nero as successor of the rule.

CHAPTER XX

And under Nero, while Felix was procurator of Judaea, Josephus again in these very words thus writes of the sedition of the priests against one another, in the twentieth book of the Antiquities:
"And there is kindled a sedition of the high priests against the priests and the chief men of the multitude of Jerusalem, and each of them, having made for himself a band of the boldest and most revolutionary men, was a leader; and clashing together they reviled one another and cast stones; and there was no one to rebuke, but as in a city without a head these things were done with license.
And so great a shamelessness and audacity seized the high priests that they dared to send slaves to the threshing-floors to take the tithes due to the priests; and it came to pass that the needy of the priests were seen perishing for want—so did the violence of the seditious prevail over all justice."
Again the same writer relates that about the same times there sprang up in Jerusalem a kind of robbers, who by day, as he says, and in the midst of the city, slew those who met them.
For especially in the festivals, mingling with the multitude and hiding small daggers in their garments, with these they stabbed their enemies; then, when they had fallen, the murderers themselves became part of those indignant; and so, through their plausibility, they remained altogether undiscoverable.
First, then, by them was the high priest Jonathan slaughtered, and after him many were slain day by day; and the fear of the calamities was more grievous than the calamities, every man, as in war, looking for death at any hour.

CHAPTER XXI

Next to these he adds, after other things, saying: "But with a greater blow than these did the Egyptian false prophet afflict the Jews. For there came into the country a man, a sorcerer, who put upon himself the credit of a prophet, and gathered about thirty thousand of the deceived, and leading them about from the wilderness to the mount called of Olives, he was able thence to break through into Jerusalem and, having overpowered both the Roman garrison and the people, to play the tyrant with the guards who had rushed in with him.
But Felix anticipated his onset, meeting him with the Roman men-at-arms, and all the people joined in the defence, so that, a battle being fought, the Egyptian fled with a few, but most of those with him were destroyed or taken alive."
These things Josephus relates in the second book of the Histories; and it is worth comparing the things here indicated concerning the Egyptian with those in the Acts of the Apostles, where, in the time of Felix, it was said to Paul by the chiliarch in Jerusalem, when the multitude of the Jews rose in sedition against him: "Art thou not then the Egyptian who before these days stirred up to revolt and led out into the wilderness the four thousand men of the assassins?" But such were the things in the time of Felix.

CHAPTER XXII

And Festus is sent by Nero as his successor; in whose time Paul, having pleaded his cause, is brought in bonds to Rome. Aristarchus was with him, whom in one of the epistles he fitly calls his fellow-prisoner. And Luke, who also delivered the Acts of the Apostles in writing, brought his history to an end at this point, noting that Paul spent two whole years at Rome at liberty, and preached the word of God without hindrance.
Then, having made his defence, the account holds that the apostle again set out for the ministry of the preaching, and that, having a second time set foot in the same city, he was perfected by the martyrdom in his case; in which, being held in bonds, he composed the second epistle to Timothy, at once signifying the defence that had been made by him before, and the perfecting now close at hand.
Receive, then, his testimonies of these things also: "In my first defence," he says, "no one stood by me, but all forsook me (may it not be laid to their charge); but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, that through me the preaching might be fully accomplished and all the nations might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion."
He plainly sets forth by these things that the first time, that the preaching through him might be fulfilled, he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion—so calling Nero, as it seems, for his cruelty of temper. Wherefore he did not next add anything like "he will deliver me out of the mouth of the lion"; for he saw in the Spirit his end now near at hand,
for which reason he says, adding to "and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion" the words "the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and will save me unto his heavenly kingdom"—signifying his martyrdom presently to come; which also he more plainly foretells in the same writing, saying: "For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is at hand."
Now in the second of the epistles to Timothy he shows that Luke alone was with him as he wrote, but in the first defence not even he; whence Luke naturally brought the Acts of the Apostles to a close at that time, having related the history down to when he was with Paul.
And these things have been said by us to show that the martyrdom of Paul was not accomplished at that sojourn at Rome which Luke recorded;
for it is likely that at the beginning, while Nero was more mildly disposed, the defence of Paul on behalf of his doctrine was the more easily admitted, but that, when he advanced to unlawful audacities, then, along with the rest, the things against the apostles too were attempted.

CHAPTER XXIII

But the Jews, when Paul had appealed to Caesar and had been sent away by Festus to the city of the Romans, falling away from the hope by which they had laid their plot against him, turned against James the brother of the Lord, to whom the throne of the bishopric in Jerusalem had been entrusted by the apostles. Such are the things dared by them against him also.
Bringing him into the midst, they demanded, in the presence of all the people, a denial of the faith in Christ; but when he, contrary to the expectation of all, with a free voice and more than they looked for, spoke boldly before the whole multitude and confessed that our Saviour and Lord Jesus is the Son of God, they could no longer bear the testimony of the man, since he was believed by all to be most righteous, on account of the height of the philosophy and godliness which he followed in his life, and they slew him, taking for their license the anarchy of the time; for, Festus having died just at that season in Judaea, the affairs of the administration there were without ruler and without governor.
Now the manner of the death of James has already been shown by the words of Clement set forth above, who related that he was thrown down from the pinnacle and beaten to death with a club; but most accurately concerning him does Hegesippus, who belonged to the first succession from the apostles, relate in his fifth memoir, saying in this manner:
"The brother of the Lord, James, succeeded to the church together with the apostles, he who was named by all the Just from the times of the Lord even to us, since many were called James, but this one was holy from his mother's womb.
He drank neither wine nor strong drink, nor ate any living thing; no razor came upon his head; he anointed himself not with oil, and used not the bath.
To him alone was it permitted to enter into the holy places; for neither did he wear wool, but fine linen. And alone he would enter into the temple, and was found lying upon his knees and asking forgiveness on behalf of the people, so that his knees grew hard like a camel's, through his continually bending the knee in worship to God and asking forgiveness for the people.
Indeed, on account of the excess of his righteousness he was called the Just, and Oblias, which is in Greek 'bulwark of the people,' and 'righteousness,' as the prophets show concerning him.
Certain, then, of the seven sects among the people, which I described before (in my Memoirs), inquired of him what was the door of Jesus, and he said that this was the Saviour;
of whom some believed that Jesus is the Christ. But the aforesaid sects believed neither a resurrection nor that he should come to render to every man according to his works; but as many as did believe, believed because of James.
So when many even of the rulers believed, there was a tumult of the Jews and scribes and Pharisees, saying that the whole people was in danger of looking for Jesus as the Christ. So coming together they said to James: 'We beseech thee, restrain the people, since it has gone astray after Jesus, as though he were the Christ. We beseech thee to persuade all who come for the day of the Passover concerning Jesus; for to thee we all give heed. For we, and all the people, bear thee witness that thou art just and that thou regardest not the person of any.
Persuade therefore the multitude not to go astray concerning Jesus; for the whole people and we all give heed to thee. Stand therefore upon the pinnacle of the temple, that thou mayest be conspicuous from above and that thy words may be easily heard by all the people. For on account of the Passover all the tribes are come together, with the Gentiles also.'
So the aforesaid scribes and Pharisees set James upon the pinnacle of the temple, and cried out to him and said: 'O Just one, to whom we all owe obedience, since the people goes astray after Jesus the crucified, declare to us what is the door of Jesus.'
And he answered with a loud voice: 'Why ask ye me concerning the Son of Man? He himself sits in heaven on the right hand of the great Power, and is about to come on the clouds of heaven.'
And when many were fully persuaded and gave glory at the testimony of James, saying, 'Hosanna to the Son of David,' then again the same scribes and Pharisees said to one another: 'We did ill to provide such testimony for Jesus; but let us go up and cast him down, that they may fear and not believe him.'
And they cried out, saying, 'Oh, oh, even the Just one has gone astray,' and they fulfilled the Scripture written in Isaiah: 'Let us take away the just one, for he is troublesome to us; therefore shall they eat the fruits of their works.'
So they went up and cast down the Just one. And they said to one another, 'Let us stone James the Just,' and they began to stone him, since, having been cast down, he did not die; but, turning, he knelt down, saying, 'I beseech thee, O Lord God, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.'
And as they stoned him, one of the priests, of the sons of Rechab, son of Rechabim, who are borne witness to by Jeremiah the prophet, cried out, saying, 'Cease! What do ye? The Just one prays for you.'
And one of them, one of the fullers, taking the club with which he beats out clothes, brought it down upon the head of the Just one; and so he was martyred. And they buried him on the spot, beside the temple, and his monument still remains beside the temple. He became a true witness, to both Jews and Greeks, that Jesus is the Christ. And straightway Vespasian besieges them."
These things at length—and indeed Hegesippus is in accord with Clement. And so marvellous a man was James, and so renowned among all others for righteousness, that even the sensible among the Jews held this to be the cause of the siege of Jerusalem that came straightway after his martyrdom, which befell them for no other reason than the impious deed dared against him.
Indeed Josephus too did not shrink from bearing witness to this in writing, in the words in which he says: "These things befell the Jews in vengeance for James the Just, who was the brother of Jesus called Christ, inasmuch as the Jews slew him, who was most righteous."
The same writer also declares his death in the twentieth book of the Antiquities, in these words: "Caesar sends Albinus as prefect to Judaea, having learned of the death of Festus. But the younger Ananus, whom we said had received the high priesthood, was bold in temper and exceedingly daring, and he followed the sect of the Sadducees, who are cruel in judgements beyond all the Jews, as we have already shown.
Being, then, such a man, Ananus, supposing that he had a suitable opportunity, since Festus was dead and Albinus was still on the way, convened a council of judges, and bringing before it the brother of Jesus who is called Christ, James by name, and certain others, he made an accusation against them as of men who had transgressed the law, and delivered them to be stoned.
But as many as seemed most equitable of those in the city, and exact concerning the laws, took this ill, and sent secretly to the king, beseeching him to write to Ananus to do such things no more; for not even at the first had he acted rightly. And some of them also met Albinus journeying from Alexandria, and instructed him that it was not lawful for Ananus to convene a council without his consent.
And Albinus, persuaded by what was said, wrote in anger to Ananus, threatening to take vengeance on him; and the king Agrippa, on this account, took the high priesthood from him after he had ruled three months, and appointed Jesus the son of Damnaeus." Such were the things concerning James, whose is said to be the first of the so-called Catholic epistles.
But it must be known that it is held spurious; few, at any rate, of the ancients mentioned it, as also of that called of Jude, which is itself one of the seven so-called Catholic epistles. Nevertheless we know that these too, with the rest, have been publicly read in very many churches.

CHAPTER XXIV

In the eighth year of the reign of Nero, Annianus, first after Mark the evangelist, succeeded to the ministry of the community at Alexandria.

CHAPTER XXV

When now the rule of Nero was being firmly established, plunging into unholy practices, he armed himself even against the religion toward the God of all. To write what manner of man he was in wickedness would not belong to the present leisure;
but since many have delivered the things concerning him in most accurate narratives, it is open to whoever wishes to behold from these the perversity of the man's monstrous madness, in which, without reason going through the destruction of countless multitudes, he drove on to such murderousness that he refrained not even from his nearest and dearest, but slew his mother alike and his brothers and his wife, with countless others of his own kin, after the manner of enemies and foes, by manifold kinds of deaths.
But one thing yet was lacking to be added to all, that it should be inscribed to him that he was shown to be the first of the emperors to be an enemy of godliness toward the Divine.
Of him again the Roman Tertullian makes mention, saying somewhat thus: "Consult your records; there you will find that Nero was the first to persecute this doctrine, when especially at Rome, having subdued all the East, he was cruel to all. In such a one as the author of our chastisement we glory. For he who knows that man can understand that nothing would have been condemned by Nero unless it were some great good."
In this way, then, this man, proclaimed among the foremost as the first enemy of God, was lifted up to the slaughter of the apostles. Paul, then, at Rome itself, is recorded to have been beheaded, and Peter likewise to have been crucified, in his time; and the inscription "of Peter and Paul," which has prevailed to this day over the cemeteries there, confirms the account,
and no less also an ecclesiastical man, Gaius by name, who lived in the time of Zephyrinus bishop of the Romans; who, disputing in writing with Proclus, the leader of the opinion of the Phrygians, says these very things concerning the places where the sacred tabernacles of the said apostles are laid:
"But I can show the trophies of the apostles. For if you will go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of those who founded this church."
And that they were both martyred at the same time, Dionysius, bishop of the Corinthians, conversing in writing with the Romans, thus sets forth: "These things you also, by such an admonition, have mingled together—the planting of the Romans and Corinthians made by Peter and Paul. For both, having planted us likewise in our Corinth, taught us alike, and likewise, having taught together in Italy, were martyred at the same time." And these things too, that the matters of the history may be the more confirmed.

CHAPTER XXVI

Again Josephus, having gone through very many things concerning the calamity that overtook the whole nation of the Jews, declares in these words that, among very many others, countless of those honoured among the Jews, scourged and tortured, were crucified in Jerusalem itself by Florus; and that he was the procurator of Judaea when the beginning of the war was kindled, which happened in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero.
Then he says that throughout all Syria too, at the revolt of the Jews, a dreadful turmoil laid hold, those of the nation everywhere being mercilessly destroyed by the inhabitants of each city as enemies, so that one might see the cities full of unburied bodies, and the dead, old men cast out together with infants, and women not having even the covering for decency; and the whole province full of unspeakable calamities, and the suspense over what was threatened greater than the things from time to time dared. These things in these words Josephus. And the things concerning the Jews were thus.