tle, and by setting fire
to their houses; for they said that they differed not at all from
foreigners, by betraying, in so cowardly a manner, that freedom which
Jews thought worthy to be contended for to the utmost, and by owning
that they preferred slavery under the Romans before such a contention.
Now this was in reality no better than a pretense and a cloak for the
barbarity which was made use of by them, and to color over their own
avarice, which they afterwards made evident by their own actions; for
those that were partners with them in their rebellion joined also with
them in the war against the Romans, and went further lengths with them
in their impudent undertakings against them; and when they were again
convicted of dissembling in such their pretenses, they still more abused
those that justly reproached them for their wickedness. And indeed that
was a time most fertile in all manner of wicked practices, insomuch that
no kind of evil deeds were then left undone; nor could any one so much
as devise any bad thing that was new, so deeply were they all infected,
and strove with one another in their single capacity, and in their
communities, who should run the greatest lengths in impiety towards
God, and in unjust actions towards their neighbors; the men of power
oppressing the multitude, and the multitude earnestly laboring to
destroy the men of power. The one part were desirous of tyrannizing over
others, and the rest of offering violence to others, and of plundering
such as were richer than themselves. They were the Sicarii who first
began these transgressions, and first became barbarous towards those
allied to them, and left no words of reproach unsaid, and no works of
perdition untried, in order to destroy those whom their contrivances
affected. Yet did John demonstrate by his actions that these Sicarii
were more moderate than he was himself, for he not only slew all such
as gave him good counsel to do what was right, but treated them worst of
all, as the most bitter enemies that he had among all the Citizens; nay,
he filled his entire country with ten thousand instances of wickedness,
such as a man who was already hardened sufficiently in his impiety
towards God would naturally do; for the food was unlawful that was set
upon his table, and he rejected those purifications that the law of his
country had ordained; so that it was no longer a wonder if he, who
was so mad in his impiety towards God, did not observe an