he gave order that he should be slain the
last of them all; so he was not slain till he had seen his sons slain
before his eyes, and that by being produced over against the Romans; for
such a charge had Simon given to Artanus, the son of Bamadus, who was
the most barbarous of all his guards. He also jested upon him, and told
him that he might now see whether those to whom he intended to go over
would send him any succors or not; but still he forbade their dead
bodies should be buried. After the slaughter of these, a certain priest,
Ananias, the son of Masambalus, a person of eminency, as also Aristens,
the scribe of the sanhedrim, and born at Emmaus, and with them fifteen
men of figure among the people, were slain. They also kept Josephus's
father in prison, and made public proclamation, that no citizen
whosoever should either speak to him himself, or go into his company
among others, for fear he should betray them. They also slew such as
joined in lamenting these men, without any further examination.

2. Now when Judas, the son of Judas, who was one of Simon's under
officers, and a person intrusted by him to keep one of the towers, saw
this procedure of Simon, he called together ten of those under him, that
were most faithful to him, [perhaps this was done partly out of pity
to those that had so barbarously been put to death, but principally in
order to provide for his own safety,] and spoke thus to them: "How long
shall we bear these miseries? or what hopes have we of deliverance by
thus continuing faithful to such wicked wretches? Is not the famine
already come against us? Are not the Romans in a manner gotten within
the city? Is not Simon become unfaithful to his benefactors? and
is there not reason to fear he will very soon bring us to the like
punishment, while the security the Romans offer us is sure? Come on,
let us surrender up this wall, and save ourselves and the city. Nor
will Simon be very much hurt, if, now he despairs of deliverance, he
be brought to justice a little sooner than he thinks on." Now these ten
were prevailed upon by those arguments; so he sent the rest of those
that were under him, some one way, and some another, that no discovery
might be made of what they had resolved upon. Accordingly, he called to
the Romans from the tower about the third hour; but they, some of them
out of pride, despised what he said, and others of them did not believe
him to be in earnest, though the greatest number d