of these things, he
changed his habit into black, and went in, and told Caesar that Arabia
was afflicted with war, and that all his kingdom was in great confusion,
upon Herod's laying it waste with his army; and he said, with tears in
his eyes, that two thousand five hundred of the principal men among
the Arabians had been destroyed, and that their captain Nacebus, his
familiar friend and kinsman, was slain; and that the riches that were
at Raepta were carried off; and that Obodas was despised, whose infirm
state of body rendered him unfit for war; on which account neither he,
nor the Arabian army, were present. When Sylleus said so, and added
invidiously, that he would not himself have come out of the country,
unless he had believed that Caesar would have provided that they should
all have peace one with another, and that, had he been there, he would
have taken care that the war should not have been to Herod's advantage;
Caesar was provoked when this was said, and asked no more than this
one question, both of Herod's friends that were there, and of his
own friends, who were come from Syria, Whether Herod had led an army
thither? And when they were forced to confess so much, Caesar, without
staying to hear for what reason he did it, and how it was done, grew
very angry, and wrote to Herod sharply. The sum of his epistle was this,
that whereas of old he had used him as his friend, he should now use him
as his subject. Sylleus also wrote an account of this to the Arabians,
who were so elevated with it, that they neither delivered up the robbers
that had fled to them, nor paid the money that was due; they retained
those pastures also which they had hired, and kept them without paying
their rent, and all this because the king of the Jews was now in a low
condition, by reason of Caesar's anger at him. Those of Trachonitis also
made use of this opportunity, and rose up against the Idumean garrison,
and followed the same way of robbing with the Arabians, who had pillaged
their country, and were more rigid in their unjust proceedings, not only
in order to get by it, but by way of revenge also.

4. Now Herod was forced to bear all this, that confidence of his being
quite gone with which Caesar's favor used to inspire him; for Caesar
would not admit so much as an embassage from him to 'make an apology for
him; and when they came again, he sent them away without success. So he
was cast into sadness and fear; and Sylleus's circumsta