thal. And when he had
procured these things for his own subjects, he went further, in order to
provide necessaries for their neighbors, and gave seed to the Syrians,
which thing turned greatly to his own advantage also, this charitable
assistance being afforded most seasonably to their fruitful soil, so
that every one had now a plentiful provision of food. Upon the whole,
when the harvest of the land was approaching, he sent no fewer than
fifty thousand men, whom he had sustained, into the country; by which
means he both repaired the afflicted condition of his own kingdom with
great generosity and diligence, and lightened the afflictions of his
neighbors, who were under the same calamities; for there was nobody who
had been in want that was left destitute of a suitable assistance by
him; nay, further, there were neither any people, nor any cities, nor
any private men, who were to make provision for the multitudes, and
on that account were in want of support, and had recourse to him, but
received what they stood in need of, insomuch that it appeared, upon
a computation, that the number of cori of wheat, of ten attic medimni
apiece, that were given to foreigners, amounted to ten thousand, and the
number that was given in his own kingdom was about fourscore thousand.
Now it happened that this care of his, and this seasonable benefaction,
had such influence on the Jews, and was so cried up among other nations,
as to wipe off that old hatred which his violation of some of their
customs, during his reign, had procured him among all the nation, and
that this liberality of his assistance in this their greatest necessity
was full satisfaction for all that he had done of that nature, as it
also procured him great fame among foreigners; and it looked as if these
calamities that afflicted his land, to a degree plainly incredible, came
in order to raise his glory, and to be to his great advantage; for
the greatness of his liberality in these distresses, which he now
demonstrated beyond all expectation, did so change the disposition of
the multitude towards him, that they were ready to suppose he had
been from the beginning not such a one as they had found him to be by
experience, but such a one as the care he had taken of them in supplying
their necessities proved him now to be.

3. About this time it was that he sent five hundred chosen men out of
the guards of his body as auxiliaries to Caesar, whom Aelius Gallus [16]
led to the R