| 1. The family from which I am derived is not an ignoble one, but is descended all along from the priests; and as nobility among several people is of a different origin, so with us to be of the sacerdotal dignity is an indication of the splendor of a family. Now, I am not only sprung from a sacerdotal family in general, but from the first of the twenty-four priestly orders; and as there is a considerable difference between one family of each priestly order and another, I am of the chief family of that first priestly order also; indeed, further, by my mother I am of the royal blood; for the children of Hasmoneus, from whom that family was derived, had both the office of the high priesthood and the dignity of a king, for a long time together. I will accordingly set down my progenitors in order. My grandfather's father was named Simon, with the addition of Psellus: he lived at the same time with that son of Simon the high priest, who first of all the high priests was named Hyrcanus. This Simon Psellus had nine sons, one of whom was Matthias, called Ephlias: he married the daughter of Jonathan the high priest, which Jonathan was the first of the sons of Asamoneus, who was high priest and was the brother of Simon the high priest also. This Matthias had a son called Matthias Curtus and that in the first year of the government of Hyrcanus: his son's name was Joseph, born in the ninth year of the reign of Alexandra: his son Matthias was born in the tenth year of the reign of Archelaus; as was I born to Matthias in the first year of the reign of Caius Caesar. I have three sons: Hyrcanus, the eldest, was born in the fourth year of the reign of Vespasian, as was Justus born in the seventh and Agrippa in the ninth. So have I set down the genealogy of my family as I have found it described in the public records and so bid adieu to those who calumniate me as of lower origin. | |