which yet I did not grant him voluntarily, but only out of fear
of the multitude, since, if I had forbidden him, I should have
been stoned by them. When I had therefore permitted this to be
done by John, he gained vast sums of money by this his knavery.

14. But when I had dismissed my fellow legates, and sent them
back to Jerusalem, I took care to have arms provided, and the
cities fortified. And when I had sent for the most hardy among
the robbers, I saw that it was not in my power to take their arms
from them; but I persuaded the multitude to allow them money as
pay, and told them it was better for them to give them a little
willingly, rather than to [be forced to] overlook them when they
plundered their goods from them. And when I had obliged them to
take an oath not to come into that country, unless they were
invited to come, or else when they had not their pay given them,
I dismissed them, and charged them neither to make an expedition
against the Romans, nor against those their neighbors that lay
round about them; for my first care was to keep Galilee in peace.
So I was willing to have the principal of the Galileans, in all
seventy, as hostages for their fidelity, but still under the
notion of friendship. Accordingly, I made them my friends and
companions as I journeyed, and set them to judge causes; and with
their approbation it was that I gave my sentences, while I
endeavored not to mistake what justice required, and to keep my
hands clear of all bribery in those determinations.

15. I was now about the thirtieth year of my age; in which time
of life it is a hard thing for any one to escape the calumnies of
the envious, although he restrain himself from fulfilling any
unlawful desires, especially where a person is in great