a person of greater piety and
purity than he was.
3. At these clamors Archelaus was provoked, but restrained himself from
taking vengeance on the authors, on account of the haste he was in of
going to Rome, as fearing lest, upon his making war on the multitude,
such an action might detain him at home. Accordingly, he made trial to
quiet the innovators by persuasion, rather than by force, and sent his
general in a private way to them, and by him exhorted them to be quiet.
But the seditious threw stones at him, and drove him away, as he came
into the temple, and before he could say any thing to them. The like
treatment they showed to others, who came to them after him, many of
which were sent by Archelaus, in order to reduce them to sobriety, and
these answered still on all occasions after a passionate manner; and it
openly appeared that they would not be quiet, if their numbers were but
considerable. And indeed, at the feast of unleavened bread, which was
now at hand, and is by the Jews called the Passover, and used to be
celebrated with a great number of sacrifices, an innumerable multitude
of the people came out of the country to worship; some of these stood
in the temple bewailing the Rabbins [that had been put to death],
and procured their sustenance by begging, in order to support their
sedition. At this Archclaus was aftrighted, and privately sent a
tribune, with his cohort of soldiers, upon them, before the disease
should spread over the whole multitude, and gave orders that they should
constrain those that began the tumult, by force, to be quiet. At these
the whole multitude were irritated, and threw stones at many of the
soldiers, and killed them; but the tribune fled away wounded, and had
much ado to escape so. After which they betook themselves to their
sacrifices, as if they had done no mischief; nor did it appear to
Archelaus that the multitude could be restrained without bloodshed; so
he sent his whole army upon them, the footmen in great multitudes, by
the way of the city, and the horsemen by the way of the plain, who,
falling upon them on the sudden, as they were offering their sacrifices,
destroyed about three thousand of them; but the rest of the multitude
were dispersed upon the adjoining mountains: these were followed by
Archelaus's heralds, who commanded every one to retire to their own
homes, whither they all went, and left the festival.
CHAPTER 2.
Archelaus Goes To Rome With A Great
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