lped all others, according as their several
necessities required.

3. But now, when Agrippa and Herod were in Ionia, a great multitude of
Jews, who dwelt in their cities, came to them, and laying hold of
the opportunity and the liberty now given them, laid before them the
injuries which they suffered, while they were not permitted to use their
own laws, but were compelled to prosecute their law-suits, by the ill
usage of the judges, upon their holy days, and were deprived of the
money they used to lay up at Jerusalem, and were forced into the army,
and upon such other offices as obliged them to spend their sacred money;
from which burdens they always used to be freed by the Romans, who had
still permitted them to live according to their own laws. When this
clamor was made, the king desired of Agrippa that he would hear their
cause, and assigned Nicolaus, one of his friends, to plead for those
their privileges. Accordingly, when Agrippa had called the principal of
the Romans, and such of the kings and rulers as were there, to be his
assessors, Nicolaus stood up, and pleaded for the Jews, as follows: "It
is of necessity incumbent on such as are in distress to have recourse to
those that have it in their power to free them from those injuries they
lie under; and for those that now are complainants, they approach you
with great assurance; for as they have formerly often obtained your
favor, so far as they have even wished to have it, they now only entreat
that you, who have been the donors, will take care that those favors
you have already granted them may not be taken away from them. We have
received these favors from you, who alone have power to grant them, but
have them taken from us by such as are no greater than ourselves, and
by such as we know are as much subjects as we are; and certainly, if we
have been vouchsafed great favors, it is to our commendation who have
obtained them, as having been found deserving of such great favors; and
if those favors be but small ones, it would be barbarous for the donors
not to confirm them to us. And for those that are the hinderance of the
Jews, and use them reproachfully, it is evident that they affront both
the receivers, while they will not allow those to be worthy men to whom
their excellent rulers themselves have borne their testimony, and the
donors, while they desire those favors already granted may be abrogated.
Now if any one should ask these Gentiles themselves, which of