The Envoys’ Ambush

About this time Jonathan arrived with his fellow envoys, who, as I have said, had been sent from Jerusalem by Simon and Ananus the high priest. He planned to take me by an ambush, for he did not dare to make an open attempt on me. So he wrote me the following letter: “Jonathan and those sent with him by the people of Jerusalem, to Josephus, greetings. We have been sent by the leading men in Jerusalem, who heard that John of Gischala has often plotted against you, to rebuke him and to urge him to obey you from now on. Since we wish to consult with you about what must be done for the common good, we ask you to come to us quickly, and not with many men, for the village could not take in a crowd of soldiers.” They wrote this expecting one of two things: either I would come to them without arms and they would have me in their hands, or I would bring many men with me and they would judge me a public enemy. [a]

The letter was brought to me by a horseman, a young man brazen in other ways too, who had once served in the king’s army. It was already the second hour of the night, and I happened to be at dinner with my friends and the leading men of Galilee. When a servant announced that a Jewish horseman had come, I had him called in. He did not greet me at all, but held out the letter and said, “The men who have come from Jerusalem have sent you this. Write your answer quickly, for I am in a hurry to get back to them.” My guests were amazed at the soldier’s nerve. I asked him to sit down and dine with us, and when he refused, I kept the letter in my hands just as I had received it and went on talking with my friends about other matters. Not long afterward I got up, sent the others off to bed, and told only four of my closest friends to stay; and I ordered my servant to get some wine ready. Then I opened the letter without anyone seeing, quickly grasped what it meant, and sealed it up again. Holding it as though I had not yet read it, I ordered twenty drachmas to be given to the soldier for his journey. When he took them and said he was grateful, I saw how greedy he was for money, and that this was the surest way to catch him. So I said to him, “If you will drink with us, you shall have a drachma for every cup.” He gladly agreed, and he kept taking wine so as to get more of the silver, until he was drunk and could no longer keep the secrets he had been trusted with. Without being asked, he told me of the plot that had been arranged and that they had condemned me to death.

When I heard this, I wrote back as follows: “Josephus to Jonathan and those with him, greetings. I am glad to learn that you have arrived in Galilee in good health, and especially because I will now be able to hand over to you the care of affairs here and go home to my own country, which is what I have long wished to do. I ought to have come to you not only as far as Xaloth but farther still, even without your orders. But I ask you to pardon me, since I cannot do so now: I am here at Chabolo keeping watch on Placidus, who means to go up into Galilee. So come to me yourselves when you have read this letter. Farewell.”

When I had written this and given it to the soldier to carry, I sent along with him thirty of the most respected Galileans, instructing them to greet the envoys but to say nothing else. I also assigned to each of them one trustworthy armed man to watch him, so that no conversation might pass between the men I sent and Jonathan’s party. So they went. But Jonathan and his party, having failed in their first attempt, sent me a second letter, as follows: “Jonathan and those with him, to Josephus, greetings. We direct you to come to us at the village of Gabaroth on the third day, without armed men, so that we may hear the charges you have against John.” Having written this and greeted the Galileans I had sent, they went to Japha, the largest village in Galilee, very strongly walled and full of inhabitants. The people came out to meet them with their wives and children and shouted at them, telling them to go away and not to begrudge them their good general. Jonathan and his party were stung by these cries, but did not dare to show their anger openly; they did not even give the people an answer, but went on to the other villages. Everywhere the same outcry met them from everyone, shouting that no one would persuade them to give up Josephus as their general. [c]

Getting nowhere with these, Jonathan and his party came to Sepphoris, the largest city in Galilee. The people there, whose sympathies looked toward the Romans, went out to meet them, but they neither praised me nor spoke ill of me. From Sepphoris they went down to Asochis, and the people there shouted against them just as the people of Japha had done. At this they could no longer hold back their anger, and ordered the armed men with them to beat the shouters with clubs. When they reached Gabara, John met them with three thousand armed men. I already understood from their letter that they had decided to make war on me. So I set out from Chabolo with three thousand armed men, leaving the most trustworthy of my friends in the camp, and came to Jotapata, wanting to be near them, about five miles away. From there I wrote to them as follows: “If you are really set on my coming to you, there are two hundred and four cities and villages in Galilee. I will come to whichever of them you choose, except Gabara and Gischala; for one is John’s native town and the other is his ally and friend.”

When Jonathan and his party received this letter, they wrote no more answers, but sat in council with their friends, took John into it, and deliberated how they might attack me. John’s opinion was that they should write to all the cities and villages of Galilee, for in each of them there were sure to be at least one or two people at odds with me, and these should be summoned as against an enemy. They should also send this decree to the city of Jerusalem, so that the people there, learning that the Galileans had judged me an enemy, would vote the same themselves. Once that was done, he said, even the Galileans who were well disposed toward me would abandon me out of fear. John gave this advice, and what he said pleased the others greatly. About the third hour of the night all this came to my knowledge through a certain Saccheus, one of their own men, who deserted to me and reported their undertaking. I saw that there was no more time to lose. I chose Jacob, an armed man of my guard whom I judged trustworthy, and ordered him to take two hundred armed men and guard the routes leading from Gabara into Galilee, arresting anyone who passed and sending them to me, especially any caught with letters. I also sent Jeremiah, one of my friends, with six hundred armed men to the border of Galilee, to watch the roads leading from there to the city of Jerusalem. I ordered him too to arrest those traveling with letters, to keep the men in chains on the spot, and to send the letters on to me. [e]

Having given these orders to the men I was sending out, I sent word to the Galileans to take up their arms and three days’ provisions and come to me the next day at the village of Gabaroth. I divided the armed men around me into four parts and appointed the most trustworthy of them as my bodyguard, putting officers over them and telling them to take care that no soldier unknown to them mingled with them. The next day, about the fifth hour, I reached Gabaroth and found the whole plain in front of the village full of armed men who had come from Galilee to support me, as I had instructed them. A great crowd from the villages came running as well. When I took my stand and began to speak to them, they all shouted, calling me the benefactor and savior of their country. I thanked them and advised them to make war on no one and not to stain their hands with plunder, but to camp in the plain and be content with their own provisions, for I wanted, I told them, to settle these troubles without bloodshed. On that very day the men Jonathan had sent with letters happened to fall into the hands of the guards I had posted on the roads. The men were held on the spot, as I had ordered. I read the letters, which were full of slanders and lies, and without telling anyone of them I resolved to move against these men. [f]

When Jonathan and his party heard that I had come, they took all their own followers, John with them, and withdrew to the house of Jesus. This was a large fortified tower, no less than a citadel. There they hid a troop of armed men in ambush, locked all the other doors and left only one open, and waited for me to come in off the road to greet them. They had ordered the armed men to let me alone come in when I arrived and to keep everyone else out, thinking that in this way I would easily fall into their hands. But they were disappointed in their hope. I had sensed the plot beforehand, and when I arrived from the road I took lodging directly opposite them and pretended to be asleep. Jonathan and his party, supposing that I really was resting in sleep, hurried down to the crowd to win them over by claiming that I was a bad general. But the opposite happened to them. As soon as they appeared, a shout went up from the Galileans expressing their goodwill toward me, their general. They reproached Jonathan’s party for coming among them, though they had suffered no harm, to overturn their affairs, and told them to go away, for they would never be persuaded to take another leader in my place. When this was reported to me, I did not hesitate to go out into the middle of them. I went down at once to hear for myself what Jonathan and his party were saying. As soon as I came forward, the whole crowd broke into applause, with shouts of praise from people declaring their gratitude for my command. [i]