24. Now king Agrippa sent an army to make themselves masters of
the citadel of Gamala, and over it Equieulus Modius; but the
forces that were sent were not allow to encompass the citadel
quite round, but lay before it in the open places, and besieged
it. But when Ebutius the decurion, who was intrusted with the
government of the great plain, heard that I was at Simonias, a
village situated in the confines of Galilee, and was distant from
him sixty furlongs, he took a hundred horsemen that were with him
by night, and a certain number of footmen, about two hundred, and
brought the inhabitants of the city Gibea along with him as
auxiliaries, and marched in the night, and came to the village
where I abode. Upon this I pitched my camp over against him,
which had a great number of forces in it: but Ebutius tried to
draw us down into the plain, as greatly depending upon his
horsemen; but we would not come down; for when I was satisfied of
the advantage that his horse would have if we came down into the
plain, while we were all footmen, I resolved to join battle with
the enemy where I was. Now Ebutius and his party made a
courageous opposition for some time; but when he saw that his
horse were useless to him in that place, he retired back to the
city Gibea, having lost three of his men in the fight. So I
followed him directy with two thousand armed men; and when I was
at the city Besara, that lay in the confines of Ptolemais, but
twenty furlongs from Gibea, where Ebutius abode, I placed my
armed men on the outside of the village, and gave orders that
they should guard the passes with great care, that the enemy
might not disturb us until we should have carried off the corn, a
great quantity of which lay there: it belonged to Bernice the
queen, and had been gathered together out of the neighboring