over to John; and it was Simon that persuaded them so to do, one
who was both the principal man in the city, and a particular
friend and companion of John. It is true, these did not openly
own the making a revolt, because they were in great fear of the
Galileans, and had frequent experience of the good-will they bore
to me; yet did they privately watch for a proper opportunity to
lay snares for me; and indeed I thereby came into the greatest
danger, on the occasion following.

26. There were some bold young men of the village of Dabaritta,
who observed that the wife of Ptolemy, the king's procurator, was
to make a progress over the great plain with a mighty attendance,
and with some horsemen that followed as a guard to them, and this
out of a country that was subject to the king and queen, into the
jurisdiction of the Romans; and fell upon them on a sudden, and
obliged the wife of Ptolemy to fly away, and plundered all the
carriages. They also came to me to Tarichese, with four mules'
loading of garments, and other furniture; and the weight of the
silver they brought was not small, and there were five hundred
pieces of gold also. Now I had a mind to preserve these spoils
for Ptolemy, who was my countryman; and it is prohibited (12) by
our laws even to spoil our enemies; so I said to those that
brought these spoils, that they ought to be kept, in order to
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem with them when they came to be
sold. But the young men took it very ill that they did not
receive a part of those spoils for themselves, as they expected
to have done; so they went among the villages in the neighborhood
of Tiberias, and told the people that I was going to betray their
country to the Romans, and that I used deceitful language to
them, when I said, that what had been thus gotten by rapine