| He also spares Tiberias from merited punishment | ||||
68. Indeed, Tiberias had like to have been plundered by the Galileans also upon the following occasion: The chief men of the senate wrote to the king and asked that he would come to them and take possession of their city. The king promised to come and wrote a letter in answer to theirs and gave it to one of his bed-chamber, whose name was Crispus and who was by birth a Jew, to carry it to Tiberias. When the Galileans knew that this man carried such a letter, they caught him and brought him to me; but as soon as the whole multitude heard of it, they were enraged and betook themselves to their arms. So a great many of them together from all quarters the next day and came to the city Asochis, where I then lodged and made heavy clamours and called the city of Tiberias a traitor to them and a friend to the king; and asked leave of me to go down and utterly destroy it; for they bore the like ill-will to the people of Tiberias, as they did to those of Sepphoris. | ||||
69. When I heard this, I was in doubt what to do and hesitated by what means I might deliver Tiberias from the rage of the Galileans; for I could not deny that those of Tiberias had written to the king and invited him to come to them; for his letters to them, in answer thereto, would fully prove the truth of that. So I sat a long time musing with myself and then said to them, �I know well enough that the people of Tiberias have offended; nor shall I forbid you to plunder the city. However, such things ought to be done with discretion; for they of Tiberias have not been the only betrayers of our liberty, but many of the most eminent patriots of the Galileans, as they pretended to be, have done the same. Tarry therefore till I shall thoroughly find out those authors of our danger and then you shall have them all at once under your power, with all such as you shall yourselves bring in also.� Upon my saying this, I pacified the multitude and they left off their anger and went their ways; and I gave orders that he who brought the king's letters should be put into bonds; but in a few days I pretended that I was obliged, by a necessary affair of my own, to out of the kingdom. I then called Crispus privately and ordered him to make the soldier that kept him drunk and to run away to the king. So when Tiberias was in danger of being utterly destroyed a second time, it escaped the danger by my skillful management and the care that I had for its preservation. | ||||