oul, and in the sagacity of your
commanders? Nay, indeed, you cannot but know that the very Carthaginians
have been conquered by us. It can therefore be nothing certainly but
the kindness of us Romans which hath excited you against us; who, in
the first place, have given you this land to possess; and, in the next
place, have set over you kings of your own nation; and, in the third
place, have preserved the laws of your forefathers to you, and have
withal permitted you to live, either by yourselves, or among others, as
it should please you: and, what is our chief favor of all we have given
you leave to gather up that tribute which is paid to God [27] with such
other gifts that are dedicated to him; nor have we called those that
carried these donations to account, nor prohibited them; till at length
you became richer than we ourselves, even when you were our enemies; and
you made preparations for war against us with our own money; nay, after
all, when you were in the enjoyment of all these advantages, you
turned your too great plenty against those that gave it you, and, like
merciless serpents, have thrown out your poison against those that
treated you kindly. I suppose, therefore, that you might despise the
slothfulness of Nero, and, like limbs of the body that are broken or
dislocated, you did then lie quiet, waiting for some other time, though
still with a malicious intention, and have now showed your distemper
to be greater than ever, and have extended your desires as far as your
impudent and immense hopes would enable you to do it. At this time my
father came into this country, not with a design to punish you for what
you had done under Cestius, but to admonish you; for had he come to
overthrow your nation, he had run directly to your fountain-head, and
had immediately laid this city waste; whereas he went and burnt Galilee
and the neighboring parts, and thereby gave you time for repentance;
which instance of humanity you took for an argument of his weakness, and
nourished up your impudence by our mildness. When Nero was gone out
of the world, you did as the wickedest wretches would have done, and
encouraged yourselves to act against us by our civil dissensions, and
abused that time, when both I and my father were gone away to Egypt,
to make preparations for this war. Nor were you ashamed to raise
disturbances against us when we were made emperors, and this while you
had experienced how mild we had been, when we were n