Luke 21:9 But when you hear of wars and
commotions...
These are some of the commotions during the
reign of Claudius Caesar in the 40's more than a decade after Christ
War of the Jews
Book II
CHAPTER 12.
MANY TUMULTS UNDER CUMANUS, WHICH WERE COMPOSED
BY QUADRATUS. FELIX IS PROCURATOR OF JUDEA. AGRIPPA IS ADVANCED FROM
CHALCIS TO A GREATER KINGDOM.
1. NOW after the death of Herod, king of
Chalcis, Claudius set Agrippa, the son of Agrippa, over his uncle's
kingdom, while Cumanus took upon him the office of procurator of the
rest, which was a Roman province, and therein he succeeded Alexander;
under which Cureanus began the troubles, and the Jews' ruin came on; for
when the multitude were come together to Jerusalem, to the feast of
unleavened bread, and a Roman cohort stood over the cloisters of the
temple, (for they always were armed, and kept guard at the festivals, to
prevent any innovation which the multitude thus gathered together might
make,) one of the soldiers pulled back his garment, and cowering down
after an indecent manner, turned his breech to the Jews, and spake such
words as you might expect upon such a posture. At this the whole
multitude had indignation, and made a clamor to Cumanus, that he would
punish the soldier; while the rasher part of the youth, and such as were
naturally the most tumultuous, fell to fighting, and caught up stones,
and threw them at the soldiers. Upon which Cumanus was afraid lest all
the people should make an assault upon him, and sent to call for more
armed men, who, when they came in great numbers into the cloisters, the
Jews were in a very great consternation; and being beaten out of the
temple, they ran into the city; and the violence with which they crowded
to get out was so great, that they trod upon each other, and squeezed
one another, till ten thousand of them were killed, insomuch that this
feast became the cause of mourning to the whole nation, and every family
lamented their own relations.
2. Now there followed after this another
calamity, which arose from a tumult made by robbers; for at the public
road at Beth-boron, one Stephen, a servant of Caesar, carried some
furniture, which the robbers fell upon and seized. Upon this Cureanus
sent men to go round about to the neighboring villages, and to bring
their inhabitants to him bound, as laying it to their charge that they
had not pursued after the thieves, and caught them. Now here it was that
a certain soldier, finding the sacred book of the law, tore it to
pieces, and threw it into the fire. Hereupon the Jews were in great
disorder, as if their whole country were in a flame, and assembled
themselves so many of them by their zeal for their religion, as by an
engine, and ran together with united clamor to Cesarea, to Cumanus, and
made supplication to him that he would not overlook this man, who had
offered such an affront to God, and to his law; but punish him for what
he had done. Accordingly, he, perceiving that the multitude would not be
quiet unless they had a comfortable answer from him, gave order that the
soldier should be brought, and drawn through those that required to have
him punished, to execution, which being done, the Jews went their ways.
3. After this there happened a fight between the
Galileans and the Samaritans; it happened at a village called Geman,
which is situate in the great plain of Samaria; where, as a great number
of Jews were going up to Jerusalem to the feast [of tabernacles,] a
certain Galilean was slain; and besides, a vast number of people ran
together out of Galilee, in order to fight with the Samaritans. But the
principal men among them came to Cumanus, and besought him that, before
the evil became incurable, he would come into Galilee, and bring the
authors of this murder to punishment; for that there was no other way to
make the multitude separate without coming to blows. However, Cumanus
postponed their supplications to the other affairs he was then about,
and sent the petitioners away without success.
4. But when the affair of this murder came to be
told at Jerusalem, it put the multitude into disorder, and they left the
feast; and without any generals to conduct them, they marched with great
violence to Samaria; nor would they be ruled by any of the magistrates
that were set over them, but they were managed by one Eleazar, the son
of Dineus, and by Alexander, in these their thievish and seditious
attempts. These men fell upon those that were ill the neighborhood of
the Acrabatene toparchy, and slew them, without sparing any age, and set
the villages on fire.
5. But Cumanus took one troop of horsemen,
called the troop of Sebaste, out of Cesarea, and came to the assistance
of those that were spoiled; he also seized upon a great number of those
that followed Eleazar, and slew more of them. And as for the rest of the
multitude of those that went so zealously to fight with the Samaritans,
the rulers of Jerusalem ran out clothed with sackcloth, and having ashes
on their head, and begged of them to go their ways, lest by their
attempt to revenge themselves upon the Samaritans they should provoke
the Romans to come against Jerusalem; to have compassion upon their
country and temple, their children and their wives, and not bring the
utmost dangers of destruction upon them, in order to avenge themselves
upon one Galilean only. The Jews complied with these persuasions of
theirs, and dispersed themselves; but still there were a great number
who betook themselves to robbing, in hopes of impunity; and rapines and
insurrections of the bolder sort happened over the whole country. And
the men of power among the Samaritans came to Tyre, to Ummidius
Quadratus, the president of Syria, and desired that they that had laid
waste the country might be punished: the great men also of the Jews, and
Jonathan the son of Ananus the high priest, came thither, and said that
the Samaritans were the beginners of the disturbance, on account of that
murder they had committed; and that Cumanus had given occasion to what
had happened, by his unwillingness to punish the original authors of
that murder.
6. But Quadratus put both parties off for that
time, and told them, that when he should come to those places, he would
make a diligent inquiry after every circumstance. After which he went to
Cesarea, and crucified all those whom Cumanus had taken alive; and when
from thence he was come to the city Lydda, he heard the affair of the
Samaritans, and sent for eighteen of the Jews, whom he had learned to
have been concerned in that fight, and beheaded them; but he sent two
others of those that were of the greatest power among them, and both
Jonathan and Ananias, the high priests, as also Artanus the son of this
Ananias, and certain others that were eminent among the Jews, to Caesar;
as he did in like manner by the most illustrious of the Samaritans. He
also ordered that Cureanus [the procurator] and Celer the tribune should
sail to Rome, in order to give an account of what had been done to
Caesar. When he had finished these matters, he went up from Lydda to
Jerusalem, and finding the multitude celebrating their feast of
unleavened bread without any tumult, he returned to Antioch.
7. Now when Caesar at Rome had heard what
Cumanus and the Samaritans had to say, (where it was done in the hearing
of Agrippa, who zealously espoused the cause of the Jews, as in like
manner many of the great men stood by Cumanus,) he condemned the
Samaritans, and commanded that three of the most powerful men among them
should be put to death; he banished Cumanus, and sent Color bound to
Jerusalem, to be delivered over to the Jews to be tormented; that he
should be drawn round the city, and then beheaded.
8. After this Caesar sent Felix, the brother of
Pallas, to be procurator of Galilee, and Samaria, and Perea, and removed
Agrippa from Chalcis unto a greater kingdom; for he gave him the
tetrarchy which had belonged to Philip, which contained Batanae,
Trachonitis, and Gaulonitis: he added to it the kingdom of Lysanias, and
that province [Abilene] which Varus had governed. But Claudius himself,
when he had administered the government thirteen years, eight months,
and twenty days, died, and left Nero to be his successor in the empire,
whom he had adopted by his Wife Agrippina's delusions, in order to be
his successor, although he had a son of his own, whose name was
Britannicus, by Messalina his former wife, and a daughter whose name was
Octavia, whom he had married to Nero; he had also another daughter by
Petina, whose name was Antonia.
|