The Life of Flavius Josephus, 416–423

Flavius Josephus  translated by William Whiston

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416and was thence sent, together with Titus, to the siege of Jerusalem, and was frequently in danger of being put to death,—while both the Jews were very desirous to get me under their power, in order to have me punished; and the Romans also, whenever they were beaten, supposed that it was occasioned by my treachery, and made continual clamors to the emperors and desired that they would bring me to punishment as a traitor to them: 417but Titus Caesar was well acquainted with the uncertain fortune of war, and returned no answer to the soldiers’ vehement solicitations against me. Moreover, when the city Jerusalem was taken by force, Titus Caesar persuaded me frequently to take whatsoever I would of the ruins of my country, and said that he gave me leave so to do; 418but when my country was destroyed, I thought nothing else to be of any value which I could take and keep as a comfort under my calamities; so I made this request to Titus, that my family might have their liberty; I had also the holy books by Titus’s concession: 419nor was it long after, that I asked of him the life of my brother, and of fifty friends with him; and was not denied. When I also went once to the temple, by the permission of Titus, where there were a great multitude of captive women and children, I got all those that I remembered, as among my own friends and acquaintances, to be set free, being in number about one hundred and ninety: and so I delivered them, without their paying any price of redemption, and restored them to their former fortune; 420and when I was sent by Titus Caesar with Cerealius, and a thousand horsemen, to a certain village called Thecoa, in order to know whether it were a place fit for a camp, as I came back, I saw many captives crucified; and remembered three of them as my former acquaintance. I was very sorry at this in my mind, and went with tears in my eyes to Titus, and told him of them; 421so he immediately commanded them to be taken down, and to have the greatest care taken of them, in order to their recovery; yet two of them died under the physician’s hands, while the third recovered.

42276. But when Titus had composed the troubles in Judea, and conjectured that the lands which I had in Judea would bring me no profit, because a garrison to guard the country was afterwards to pitch there, he gave me another country in the plain; and, when he was going away to Rome, he made choice of me to sail along with him, and paid me great respect; 423and when we were come to Rome, I had great care taken of me by Vespasian; for he gave me an apartment in his own house, which he lived in before he came to the empire. He also honored me with the privilege of a Roman citizen, and gave me an annual pension; and continued to respect me to the end of his life, without any abatement of his kindness to me; which very thing made me envied, and brought me into danger;

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