n I wrote
of the war, [3] to explain who the Jews originally were,--what fortunes
they had been subject to,--and by what legislature they had been
instructed in piety, and the exercise of other virtues,--what wars also
they had made in remote ages, till they were unwillingly engaged in
this last with the Romans: but because this work would take up a great
compass, I separated it into a set treatise by itself, with a beginning
of its own, and its own conclusion; but in process of time, as usually
happens to such as undertake great things, I grew weary and went on
slowly, it being a large subject, and a difficult thing to translate our
history into a foreign, and to us unaccustomed language. However, some
persons there were who desired to know our history, and so exhorted me
to go on with it; and, above all the rest, Epaphroditus, [4] a man who
is a lover of all kind of learning, but is principally delighted with
the knowledge of history, and this on account of his having been himself
concerned in great affairs, and many turns of fortune, and having shown
a wonderful rigor of an excellent nature, and an immovable virtuous
resolution in them all. I yielded to this man's persuasions, who always
excites such as have abilities in what is useful and acceptable, to
join their endeavors with his. I was also ashamed myself to permit any
laziness of disposition to have a greater influence upon me, than the
delight of taking pains in such studies as were very useful: I thereupon
stirred up myself, and went on with my work more cheerfully. Besides the
foregoing motives, I had others which I greatly reflected on; and these
were, that our forefathers were willing to communicate such things to
others; and that some of the Greeks took considerable pains to know the
affairs of our nation.

3. I found, therefore, that the second of the Ptolemies was a king
who was extraordinarily diligent in what concerned learning, and the
collection of books; that he was also peculiarly ambitious to procure
a translation of our law, and of the constitution of our government
therein contained, into the Greek tongue. Now Eleazar the high priest,
one not inferior to any other of that dignity among us, did not envy the
forenamed king the participation of that advantage, which otherwise he
would for certain have denied him, but that he knew the custom of our
nation was, to hinder nothing of what we esteemed ourselves from being
communicated to others. Accord