e revolted from them. But some may
be ready to say, that truly the people of Cesarea had always a quarrel
against those that lived among them, and that when an opportunity
offered itself, they only satisfied the old rancor they had against
them. What then shall we say to those of Scythopolis, who ventured to
wage war with us on account of the Greeks? Nor did they do it by way of
revenge upon the Romans, when they acted in concert with our countrymen.
Wherefore you see how little our good-will and fidelity to them profiled
us, while they were slain, they and their whole families, after the most
inhuman manner, which was all the requital that was made them for the
assistance they had afforded the others; for that very same destruction
which they had prevented from falling upon the others did they suffer
themselves from them, as if they had been ready to be the actors
against them. It would be too long for me to speak at this time of every
destruction brought upon us; for you cannot but know that there was not
any one Syrian city which did not slay their Jewish inhabitants, and
were not more bitter enemies to us than were the Romans themselves; nay,
even those of Damascus, [16] when they were able to allege no tolerable
pretense against us, filled their city with the most barbarous
slaughters of our people, and cut the throats of eighteen thousand Jews,
with their wives and children. And as to the multitude of those that
were slain in Egypt, and that with torments also, we have been informed
they were more than sixty thousand; those indeed being in a foreign
country, and so naturally meeting with nothing to oppose against their
enemies, were killed in the manner forementioned. As for all those of
us who have waged war against the Romans in our own country, had we not
sufficient reason to have sure hopes of victory? For we had arms, and
walls, and fortresses so prepared as not to be easily taken, and courage
not to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty, which encouraged
us all to revolt from the Romans. But then these advantages sufficed
us but for a short time, and only raised our hopes, while they really
appeared to be the origin of our miseries; for all we had hath been
taken from us, and all hath fallen under our enemies, as if these
advantages were only to render their victory over us the more glorious,
and were not disposed for the preservation of those by whom these
preparations were made. And as for those th