the other cities that were inferior to it, they presided
over their several toparchies; Gophna was the second of those cities,
and next to that Acrabatta, after them Thamna, and Lydda, and Emmaus,
and Pella, and Idumea, and Engaddi, and Herodium, and Jericho; and after
them came Jamnia and Joppa, as presiding over the neighboring people;
and besides these there was the region of Gamala, and Gaulonitis,
and Batanea, and Trachonitis, which are also parts of the kingdom of
Agrippa. This [last] country begins at Mount Libanus, and the fountains
of Jordan, and reaches breadthways to the lake of Tiberias; and in
length is extended from a village called Arpha, as far as Julias. Its
inhabitants are a mixture of Jews and Syrians. And thus have I, with
all possible brevity, described the country of Judea, and those that lie
round about it.

CHAPTER 4.

Josephus Makes An Attempt Upon Sepphoris But Is Repelled.
Titus Comes With A Great Army To Ptolemais.

1. Now the auxiliaries which were sent to assist the people of
Sepphoris, being a thousand horsemen, and six thousand footmen, under
Placidus the tribune, pitched their camp in two bodies in the great
plain. The foot were put into the city to be a guard to it, but the
horse lodged abroad in the camp. These last, by marching continually one
way or other, and overrunning the parts of the adjoining country, were
very troublesome to Josephus and his men; they also plundered all the
places that were out of the city's liberty, and intercepted such as
durst go abroad. On this account it was that Josephus marched against
the city, as hoping to take what he had lately encompassed with so
strong a wall, before they revolted from the rest of the Galileans, that
the Romans would have much ado to take it; by which means he proved too
weak, and failed of his hopes, both as to the forcing the place, and as
to his prevailing with the people of Sepphoris to deliver it up to him.
By this means he provoked the Romans to treat the country according to
the law of war; nor did the Romans, out of the anger they bore at this
attempt, leave off, either by night or by day, burning the places in
the plain, and stealing away the cattle that were in the country, and
killing whatsoever appeared capable of fighting perpetually, and leading
the weaker people as slaves into captivity; so that Galilee was all over
filled with fire and blood; nor was it exempted from any kind of misery
or calamity