John of Gischala’s First Plot

When I learned of this I was greatly provoked. I went down to Tiberias and took what care I could of the royal furnishings, to recover from the plunderers whatever could be recovered. There were lampstands of Corinthian bronze, tables from the royal furniture, and a considerable weight of uncoined silver, and I decided to keep everything that came into my hands for the king. So I sent for the ten leading men of the council and for Capellus son of Antyllus, and handed the furnishings over to them, with orders to give them up to no one but me. [a]

From there I went with my fellow envoys to John at Gischala, wanting to know what his intentions were. I soon saw that he was eager for revolution and had a craving for power. He asked me to give him authority to remove Caesar’s grain, which was stored in the villages of Upper Galilee, saying that he wanted to spend it on repairing the walls of his native city. But I saw what he was attempting and what he had in mind, and I said I would not allow it; for I meant to keep the grain either for the Romans or for myself, since I had been entrusted with authority over affairs there by the commonwealth of Jerusalem. When he could not persuade me, he turned to my fellow envoys, who had no foresight about what was coming and were very ready to take bribes. He corrupted them with money to vote that all the grain stored in his district should be handed over to him. I, being only one, was outvoted, and I said nothing.

Then John brought in a second piece of trickery. He said that the Jews living in Caesarea Philippi, who were shut up there by order of the king’s deputy who governed the realm, had sent to him with a request: since they had no pure oil to use, would he see to it that they were supplied with plenty of it, so that they would not be forced to use Greek oil and so break their laws? John said this not out of piety but out of the most blatant greed. He knew that at Caesarea two pints sold for one drachma, while at Gischala eighty pints sold for four drachmas. So he sent off all the oil there was, having to all appearances received my permission as well. I did not give it willingly, but out of fear of the crowd, in case I should be stoned by them if I forbade it. Once I had consented, John made an enormous amount of money from this villainy.

I sent my fellow envoys back from Gischala to Jerusalem, and turned my attention to providing arms and strengthening the cities. I sent for the boldest of the robbers and saw that it was impossible to take their weapons from them. So I persuaded the people to pay them wages, telling them it was better to give a little willingly than to look on while their property was plundered. I made them swear that they would not come into the district unless they were sent for, or when they had not been paid, and then I dismissed them, ordering them not to make war either on the Romans or on the neighboring peoples; for my first concern was that Galilee should be at peace. [d]

I also wanted to hold the Galileans in authority, about seventy of them in all, as hostages for their loyalty, under the appearance of friendship. So I made them my friends and traveling companions. I took them with me to judge cases, and I gave my verdicts with their agreement, trying not to miss what was just through haste, and to keep myself clean of every bribe in those decisions.

I was then about thirty years old. At that age it is hard to escape the slanders of envy even if one keeps away from lawless desires — especially when one holds great power. Yet I kept every woman safe from insult. I despised every gift that was offered to me, as having no need of it; I would not even accept from those who brought them the tithes that were due to me as a priest. I do admit that I took a share of the spoils when I had defeated the Syrians who lived in the surrounding cities, and that I sent it to my relatives in Jerusalem. I twice took Sepphoris by storm, Tiberias four times and Gadara once, and I had John, who often plotted against me, in my power; and yet I took vengeance neither on him nor on any of the peoples I have named, as my account will show as it goes on. That, I suppose, is why God — for those who do what they ought are never unnoticed by him — rescued me from their hands, and afterward kept me safe when I fell into many dangers, which I will relate later. [e]

The goodwill and loyalty of the mass of the Galileans toward me were so great that, when their cities were taken by storm and their wives and children sold into slavery, they did not grieve so much over their own misfortunes as they worried about my safety. When John saw this he grew envious. He wrote to me asking permission to come down and use the hot springs at Tiberias for the sake of his health. Suspecting nothing wicked, I did not stop him. I even wrote by name to those to whom I had entrusted the administration of Tiberias, telling them to prepare lodging for John and for those who would come with him, and to supply him with everything in plenty. At that time I was staying in a village of Galilee called Cana. [f]

When John reached the city of Tiberias, he tried to persuade the people there to abandon their loyalty to me and join him. Many gladly accepted his invitation, for they were always eager for revolution, by nature inclined to change, and fond of faction. Justus and his father Pistus were especially keen to desert me and join John. But I got there first and stopped them. A messenger had come to me from Silas, whom I had appointed general of Tiberias, as I have said, reporting the mood of the people of Tiberias and urging me to hurry; if I delayed, he said, the city would fall under someone else’s control. [g]

When I had read Silas’s letter, I took two hundred men and marched all night, sending a messenger ahead to announce my coming to the people in Tiberias. Early in the morning, as I came near the city, the crowd came out to meet me, and John with them. He greeted me in great agitation, afraid that his doings had come to light and that he was in danger of his life, and he withdrew in haste to his lodging. When I reached the stadium, I dismissed my bodyguards except one, and kept back ten armed men with him. Then, standing on a high wall, I tried to address the people of Tiberias. I urged them not to revolt so quickly. Such a change, I said, would bring them disgrace, and whoever governed them next would justly suspect them of being unlikely to keep faith with him either.

I had not yet said all I meant to say when I heard one of my own people telling me to come down: this was no time to be concerned about the goodwill of the people of Tiberias, but about my own safety and how to escape my enemies. John had picked the most trustworthy of the armed men around him, out of the thousand he had, and sent them with orders to kill me, having learned that I had been left alone with my attendants. The men he sent arrived, and they would have done it if I had not leapt down from the wall at once, with my bodyguard James. A man of Tiberias named Herod lifted me up and guided me to the lake, where I seized a boat, got aboard, escaped my enemies against all expectation, and came to Tarichaeae. [h]

As soon as the people of that city learned of the treachery of the people of Tiberias, they were furious. They snatched up their weapons and urged me to lead them against Tiberias, saying they wanted to take vengeance on its people for their general. They also spread the news of what had happened to everyone throughout Galilee, eager to rouse them too against Tiberias, and urged them to gather in great numbers and come to them, so that they might do whatever was decided with their general’s approval. So the Galileans came in great numbers from every side, with their weapons, and urged me to attack Tiberias, take it by storm, raze it to the ground, and sell its inhabitants into slavery with their wives and children. My friends who had escaped from Tiberias gave the same advice.

But I did not agree. I thought it a terrible thing to start a civil war, and I believed the quarrel should go no further than words. I told them, moreover, that it was not in their own interest to do this, since the Romans were expecting them to destroy themselves by their factions against one another. By saying this I calmed the anger of the Galileans.

John, now that his plot had failed, was afraid for himself. He took the armed men around him and left Tiberias for Gischala, and wrote to me excusing himself for what had been done, as though it had happened without his consent. He begged me not to suspect him at all, adding oaths and certain dreadful curses on himself, by which he thought he would be believed in what he wrote.

But the Galileans — for again a great many others had come up armed from the whole country — knew the man, how wicked and how ready to break his oath he was, and they urged me to lead them against him, promising to wipe out both him and Gischala completely. I told them I was grateful for their eagerness and promised that I would outdo their goodwill. But I urged them all the same to hold back, and asked them to forgive me, since I had resolved to put down the disturbances without bloodshed. When I had persuaded the mass of the Galileans, I went to Sepphoris. [i]