he country,
and had been subdued by king Herod]; this man got no small multitude
together, and brake open the place where the royal armor was laid up,
and armed those about him, and attacked those that were so earnest to
gain the dominion.

2. In Perea also, Simon, one of the servants to the king, relying upon
the handsome appearance and tallness of his body, put a diadem upon his
own head also; he also went about with a company of robbers that he had
gotten together, and burnt down the royal palace that was at Jericho,
and many other costly edifices besides, and procured himself very easily
spoils by rapine, as snatching them out of the fire. And he had soon
burnt down all the fine edifices, if Gratus, the captain of the foot
of the king's party, had not taken the Trachonite archers, and the
most warlike of Sebaste, and met the man. His footmen were slain in the
battle in abundance; Gratus also cut to pieces Simon himself, as he was
flying along a strait valley, when he gave him an oblique stroke upon
his neck, as he ran away, and brake it. The royal palaces that were
near Jordan at Betharamptha were also burnt down by some other of the
seditious that came out of Perea.

3. At this time it was that a
certain shepherd ventured to set himself up for a king; he was called
Athrongeus. It was his strength of body that made him expect such a
dignity, as well as his soul, which despised death; and besides these
qualifications, he had four brethren like himself. He put a troop of
armed men under each of these his brethren, and made use of them as
his generals and commanders, when he made his incursions, while he
did himself act like a king, and meddled only with the more important
affairs; and at this time he put a diadem about his head, and continued
after that to overrun the country for no little time with his brethren,
and became their leader in killing both the Romans and those of the
king's party; nor did any Jew escape him, if any gain could accrue to
him thereby. He once ventured to encompass a whole troop of Romans at
Emmaus, who were carrying corn and weapons to their legion; his men
therefore shot their arrows and darts, and thereby slew their centurion
Arius, and forty of the stoutest of his men, while the rest of them, who
were in danger of the same fate, upon the coming of Gratus, with those
of Sebaste, to their assistance, escaped. And when these men had thus
served both their own countrymen and foreigners, and