| 19. Now, as soon as the inhabitants of that city understood the treachery of the people of Tiberias, they were greatly provoked at them. So they snatched up their arms and asked me to be their leader against them; for they said they would avenge their commander's cause upon them. They also carried the report of what had been done to me to all the Galileans and eagerly endeavoured to irritate them against the people of Tiberias and asked that vast numbers of them would get together and come to them, that they might act in concert with their commander, what should be determined as fit to be done. Accordingly, the Galileans came to me in great numbers, from all parts, with their weapons and besought me to assault Tiberias, to take it by force and to demolish it, till it lay even with the ground and then to make slaves of its inhabitants, with their wives and children. Those that were Josephus's friends also and had escaped out of Tiberias, gave him the same advice. But I did not comply with them, thinking it a terrible thing to begin a civil war among them; for I thought that this contention ought not to proceed further than words; indeed, I told them that it was not for their own advantage to do what they would have me to do, while the Romans expected nothing less than that we should destroy one another by our mutual seditions. and by saying this, I put a stop to the anger of the Galileans. | |