that it might not be a reproach to them,
and called the city Hierosolyma, and themselves Hierosolymites."

35. Now this man did not discover and mention the same king with the
others, but feigned a newer name, and passing by the dream and the
Egyptian prophet, he brings him to [Jupiter] Hammon, in order to gain
oracles about the scabby and leprous people; for he says that the
multitude of Jews were gathered together at the temples. Now it is
uncertain whether he ascribes this name to these lepers, or to those
that were subject to such diseases among the Jews only; for he describes
them as a people of the Jews. What people does he mean? foreigners, or
those of that country? Why then' dost thou call them Jews, if they were
Egyptians? But if they were foreigners, why dost thou not tell us whence
they came? And how could it be that, after the king had drowned many of
them in the sea, and ejected the rest into desert places, there should
be still so great a multitude remaining? Or after what manner did they
pass over the desert, and get the land which we now dwell in, and build
our city, and that temple which hath been so famous among all mankind?
And besides, he ought to have spoken more about our legislator than by
giving us his bare name; and to have informed us of what nation he was,
and what parents he was derived from; and to have assigned the reasons
why he undertook to make such laws concerning the gods, and concerning
matters of injustice with regard to men during that journey. For in case
the people were by birth Egyptians, they would not on the sudden have so
easily changed the customs of their country; and in case they had been
foreigners, they had for certain some laws or other which had been kept
by them from long custom. It is true, that with regard to those who had
ejected them, they might have sworn never to bear good-will to them,
and might have had a plausible reason for so doing. But if these men
resolved to wage an implacable war against all men, in case they had
acted as wickedly as he relates of them, and this while they wanted the
assistance of all men, this demonstrates a kind of mad conduct indeed;
but not of the men themselves, but very greatly so of him that tells
such lies about them. He hath also impudence enough to say that a name,
implying "Robbers of the temples," [26] was given to their city, and
that this name was afterward changed. The reason of which is plain, that
the former name brought