housand men undertook
the carriage of those donations, out of fear of the ravages of the
Parthians, to whom the Babylonians were then subject. Now there were two
men, Asineus and Anileus, of the city Neerda by birth, and brethren to
one another. They were destitute of a father, and their mother put them
to learn the art of weaving curtains, it not being esteemed disgrace
among them for men to be weavers of cloth. Now he that taught them that
art, and was set over them, complained that they came too late to their
work, and punished them with stripes; but they took this just punishment
as an affront, and carried off all the weapons which were kept in that
house, which were not a few, and went into a certain place where was
a partition of the rivers, and was a place naturally very fit for the
feeding of cattle, and for preserving such fruits as were usually laid
up against winter. The poorest sort of the young men also resorted to
them, whom they armed with the weapons they had gotten, and became
their captains; and nothing hindered them from being their leaders into
mischief; for as soon as they were become invincible, and had built them
a citadel, they sent to such as fed cattle, and ordered them to pay
them so much tribute out of them as might be sufficient for their
maintenance, proposing also that they would be their friends, if they
would submit to them, and that they would defend them from all their
other enemies on every side, but that they would kill the cattle of
those that refused to obey them. So they hearkened to their proposals,
[for they could do nothing else,] and sent them as many sheep as were
required of them; whereby their forces grew greater, and they became
lords over all they pleased, because they marched suddenly, and did them
a mischief, insomuch that every body who had to do with them chose to
pay them respect; and they became formidable to such as came to assault
them, till the report about them came to the ears of the king of Parthia
himself.

2. But when the governor of Babylonia understood this, and had a mind
to put a stop to them before they grew greater, and before greater
mischiefs should arise from them, he got together as great an army as
he could, both of Parthians and Babylonians, and marched against them,
thinking to attack them and destroy them before any one should carry
them the news that he had got an army together. He then encamped at a
lake, and lay still; but on the next day [i