eing desirous to get those places
into his possession, brought such as were with him out of the king's
palace, and would have compelled them to get as far as the citadel
[Antonia;] but his attempt failed, for the people immediately turned
back upon him, and stopped the violence of his attempt; and as they
stood upon the tops of their houses, they threw their darts at the
Romans, who, as they were sorely galled thereby, because those weapons
came from above, and they were not able to make a passage through the
multitude, which stopped up the narrow passages, they retired to the
camp which was at the palace.

6. But for the seditious, they were afraid lest Florus should come
again, and get possession of the temple, through Antonia; so they got
immediately upon those cloisters of the temple that joined to Antonia,
and cut them down. This cooled the avarice of Florus; for whereas he
was eager to obtain the treasures of God [in the temple], and on that
account was desirous of getting into Antonia, as soon as the cloisters
were broken down, he left off his attempt; he then sent for the high
priests and the sanhedrim, and told them that he was indeed himself
going out of the city, but that he would leave them as large a garrison
as they should desire. Hereupon they promised that they would make no
innovations, in case he would leave them one band; but not that which
had fought with the Jews, because the multitude bore ill-will against
that band on account of what they had suffered from it; so he changed
the band as they desired, and, with the rest of his forces, returned to
Cesarea.

CHAPTER 16.

Cestius Sends Neopolitanus The Tribune To See In What
Condition The Affairs Of The Jews Were. Agrippa Makes A
Speech To The People Of The Jews That He May Divert Them
From Their Intentions Of Making War With The Romans.

1. However, Florus contrived another way to oblige the Jews to begin
the war, and sent to Cestius, and accused the Jews falsely of revolting
[from the Roman government], and imputed the beginning of the former
fight to them, and pretended they had been the authors of that
disturbance, wherein they were only the sufferers. Yet were not the
governors of Jerusalem silent upon this occasion, but did themselves
write to Cestius, as did Bernice also, about the illegal practices of
which Florus had been guilty against the city; who, upon reading both
accounts, consulted with his captains [what he