| Josephus is compelled to besiege Sepphoris and fight the Romans | ||||
71. Now, when the people of Sepphoris had, in so surprising a manner, escaped their first danger, they sent to Cestius Gallus and asked him to come to them immediately and take possession of their city, or else to send forces sufficient to repress all their enemies' incursions upon them; and at the last they prevailed with Gallus to send them a considerable army, both of horse and foot, which came in the night time and which they admitted into the city. But when the country round about it was harassed by the Roman army, I took those soldiers that were about me and came to Garisme, where I cast up a bank, a good way from Sepphoris; and when I was at twenty furlongs distance, I came upon it by night and made an assault upon its walls with my forces; and when I had ordered a considerable number of my soldiers to scale them with ladders, I became master of the greatest part of the city. But soon after, our unacquaintedness with the places forced us to retire, after we had killed twelve of the Roman footmen and two horsemen and a few of the people of Sepphoris, with the loss of only a single man of our own. and when it afterwards came to a battle in the plain against the horsemen and we had undergone the dangers of it courageously for a long time, we were beaten; for upon the Romans encompassing me about, my soldiers were afraid and fell back. There fell in that battle one of those that had been entrusted to guard my body; his name was Justus, who at this time had the same post with the king. At the same time also there came forces, both horsemen and footmen, from the king and Sylla their commander, who was the captain of his guard: this Sylla pitched his camp at five furlongs' distance from Julias and set a guard upon the roads, both that which led to Cana and that which led to the fortress Gamala, that he might hinder their inhabitants from getting provisions out of Galilee. | ||||
72. As soon as I had gotten intelligence of this, I sent two thousand armed men and a captain over them, whose name was Jeremiah, who raised a bank a furlong off Julias, near to the river Jordan and did no more than skirmish with the enemy; till I took three thousand soldiers myself and came to them. But on the next day, when I had laid an ambush in a certain valley, not far from the banks, I provoked those that belonged to the king to come to a battle and gave orders to my own soldiers to turn their backs upon them, until they should have drawn the enemy away from their camp and brought them out into the field, which was done accordingly; for Sylla, supposing that our party did really run away, was ready to pursue them, when our soldiers that lay in ambush took them on their backs and put them all into great disorder. I also immediately made a sudden turn with my own forces and met those of the king's party and put them to flight. and I had performed great things that day, if a certain fate had not been my hindrance; for the horse on which I rode and upon whose back I fought, fell into a quagmire and threw me on the ground and I was bruised on my wrist and carried into a village named Cepharnome, or Capernaum. When my soldiers heard of this, they were afraid I had been worse hurt than I was; and so they did not go on with their pursuit any further, but returned in very great concern for me. I therefore sent for the physicians and while I was under their hands, I continued feverish that day; and as the physicians directed, I was that night removed to Taricheee. | ||||
73. When Sylla and his party were informed what happened to me, they took courage again; and understanding that the watch was negligently kept in our camp, they by night placed a body of horsemen in ambush beyond Jordan and when it was day they provoked us to fight; and as we did not refuse it, but came into the plain, their horsemen appeared out of that ambush in which they had lain and put our men into disorder and made them run away; so they slew six men of our side. Yet did they not go off with the victory at last; for when they heard that some armed men were sailed from Taricheae to Julias, they were afraid and retired. | ||||