Peres escape their hands; he had been a man of great valor
in their war with the Romans, but was now drawn through the middle of
the city, and, as he went, he frequently cried out, and showed the scars
of his wounds; and when he was drawn out of the gates, and despaired of
his preservation, he besought them to grant him a burial; but as they
had threatened him beforehand not to grant him any spot of earth for a
grave, which he chiefly desired of them, so did they slay him [without
permitting him to be buried]. Now when they were slaying him, he made
this imprecation upon them, that they might undergo both famine and
pestilence in this war, and besides all that, they might come to the
mutual slaughter of one another; all which imprecations God confirmed
against these impious men, and was what came most justly upon them, when
not long afterward they tasted of their own madness in their mutual
seditions one against another. So when this Niger was killed, their
fears of being overturned were diminished; and indeed there was no part
of the people but they found out some pretense to destroy them; for
some were therefore slain, because they had had differences with some of
them; and as to those that had not opposed them in times of peace, they
watched seasonable opportunities to gain some accusation against
them; and if any one did not come near them at all, he was under their
suspicion as a proud man; if any one came with boldness, he was esteemed
a contemner of them; and if any one came as aiming to oblige them, he
was supposed to have some treacherous plot against them; while the only
punishment of crimes, whether they were of the greatest or smallest
sort, was death. Nor could any one escape, unless he were very
inconsiderable, either on account of the meanness of his birth, or on
account of his fortune.

2. And now all the rest of the commanders of the Romans deemed this
sedition among their enemies to be of great advantage to them, and were
very earnest to march to the city, and they urged Vespasian, as their
lord and general in all cases, to make haste, and said to him, that "the
providence of God is on our side, by setting our enemies at variance
against one another; that still the change in such cases may be sudden,
and the Jews may quickly be at one again, either because they may be
tired out with their civil miseries, or repent them of such doings." But
Vespasian replied, that they were greatly mistaken in what they