those tithes, died for want of food.

3. But now the Sicarii went into the city by night, just before the
festival, which was now at hand, and took the scribe belonging to the
governor of the temple, whose name was Eleazar, who was the son of
Ananus [Ananias] the high priest, and bound him, and carried him away
with them; after which they sent to Ananias, and said that they would
send the scribe to him, if he would persuade Albinus to release ten
of those prisoners which he had caught of their party; so Ananias was
plainly forced to persuade Albinus, and gained his request of him. This
was the beginning of greater calamities; for the robbers perpetually
contrived to catch some of Ananias's servants; and when they had taken
them alive, they would not let them go, till they thereby recovered some
of their own Sicarii. And as they were again become no small number,
they grew bold, and were a great affliction to the whole country.

4. About this time it was that king Agrippa built Cesarea Philippi
larger than it was before, and, in honor of Nero, named it Neronlas. And
when he had built a theater at Berytus, with vast expenses, he bestowed
on them shows, to be exhibited every year, and spent therein many ten
thousand [drachmae]; he also gave the people a largess of corn, and
distributed oil among them, and adorned the entire city with statues of
his own donation, and with original images made by ancient hands; nay,
he almost transferred all that was most ornamental in his own kingdom
thither. This made him more than ordinarily hated by his subjects,
because he took those things away that belonged to them to adorn a
foreign city. And now Jesus, the son of Gamaliel, became the successor
of Jesus, the son of Damneus, in the high priesthood, which the king had
taken from the other; on which account a sedition arose between the high
priests, with regard to one another; for they got together bodies of
the boldest sort of the people, and frequently came, from reproaches, to
throwing of stones at each other. But Ananias was too hard for the rest,
by his riches, which enabled him to gain those that were most ready
to receive. Costobarus also, and Saulus, did themselves get together a
multitude of wicked wretches, and this because they were of the royal
family; and so they obtained favor among them, because of their kindred
to Agrippa; but still they used violence with the people, and were very
ready to plunder those that were weaker