but thought it dishonorable to do it
without shedding some blood, and revenging themselves on the authors
of this surrender; so they seized upon Dolesus, [a person not only the
first in rank and family in that city, but one that seemed the occasion
of sending such an embassy,] and slew him, and treated his dead body
after a barbarous manner, so very violent was their anger at him, and
then ran out of the city. And as now the Roman army was just upon them,
the people of Gadara admitted Vespasian with joyful acclamations, and
received from him the security of his right hand, as also a garrison
of horsemen and footmen, to guard them against the excursions of the
runagates; for as to their wall, they had pulled it down before
the Romans desired them so to do, that they might thereby give them
assurance that they were lovers of peace, and that, if they had a mind,
they could not now make war against them.

4. And now Vespasian sent Placidus against those that had fled from
Gadara, with five hundred horsemen, and three thousand footmen, while he
returned himself to Cesarea, with the rest of the army. But as soon
as these fugitives saw the horsemen that pursued them just upon their
backs, and before they came to a close fight, they ran together to a
certain village, which was called Bethennabris, where finding a great
multitude of young men, and arming them, partly by their own consent,
partly by force, they rashly and suddenly assaulted Placidus and the
troops that were with him. These horsemen at the first onset gave way a
little, as contriving to entice them further off the wall; and when they
had drawn them into a place fit for their purpose, they made their horse
encompass them round, and threw their darts at them. So the horsemen cut
off the flight of the fugitives, while the foot terribly destroyed those
that fought against them; for those Jews did no more than show their
courage, and then were destroyed; for as they fell upon the Romans when
they were joined close together, and, as it were, walled about with
their entire armor, they were not able to find any place where the darts
could enter, nor were they any way able to break their ranks, while they
were themselves run through by the Roman darts, and, like the wildest
of wild beasts, rushed upon the point of others' swords; so some of them
were destroyed, as cut with their enemies' swords upon their faces, and
others were dispersed by the horsemen.

5. Now Placidus'