they met with. So
the soldiers, taking this exhortation of their commander in a sense
agreeable to their desire of gain, did not only plunder the place they
were sent to, but forcing themselves into every house, they slew its
inhabitants; so the citizens fled along the narrow lanes, and the
soldiers slew those that they caught, and no method of plunder was
omitted; they also caught many of the quiet people, and brought them
before Florus, whom he first chastised with stripes, and then crucified.
Accordingly, the whole number of those that were destroyed that day,
with their wives and children, [for they did not spare even the infants
themselves,] was about three thousand and six hundred. And what made
this calamity the heavier was this new method of Roman barbarity; for
Florus ventured then to do what no one had done before, that is, to have
men of the equestrian order whipped [21] and nailed to the cross before
his tribunal; who, although they were by birth Jews, yet were they of
Roman dignity notwithstanding.

CHAPTER 15.

Concerning Bernice's Petition To Florus, To Spare The Jews,
But In Vain; As Also How, After The Seditious Flame Was
Quenched, It Was Kindled Again By Florus.

1. About this very time king Agrippa was going to Alexandria, to
congratulate Alexander upon his having obtained the government of Egypt
from Nero; but as his sister Bernice was come to Jerusalem, and saw the
wicked practices of the soldiers, she was sorely affected at it, and
frequently sent the masters of her horse and her guards to Florus, and
begged of him to leave off these slaughters; but he would not comply
with her request, nor have any regard either to the multitude of those
already slain, or to the nobility of her that interceded, but only to
the advantage he should make by this plundering; nay, this violence of
the soldiers brake out to such a degree of madness, that it spent itself
on the queen herself; for they did not only torment and destroy those
whom they had caught under her very eyes, but indeed had killed herself
also, unless she had prevented them by flying to the palace, and had
staid there all night with her guards, which she had about her for fear
of an insult from the soldiers. Now she dwelt then at Jerusalem, in
order to perform a vow [22] which she had made to God; for it is usual
with those that had been either afflicted with a distemper, or with any
other distresses, to make vows; and for thi