Matthias, by birth a Hebrew, a priest also, and one who at first
fought against the Romans myself, and was forced to be present at
what was done afterwards, [am the author of this work].

2. Now at the time when this great concussion of affairs
happened, the affairs of the Romans were themselves in great
disorder. Those Jews also who were for innovations, then arose
when the times were disturbed; they were also in a flourishing
condition for strength and riches, insomuch that the affairs of
the East were then exceeding tumultuous, while some hoped for
gain, and others were afraid of loss in such troubles; for the
Jews hoped that all of their nation which were beyond Euphrates
would have raised an insurrection together with them. The Gauls
also, in the neighborhood of the Romans, were in motion, and the
Geltin were not quiet; but all was in disorder after the death of
Nero. And the opportunity now offered induced many to aim at the
royal power; and the soldiery affected change, out of the hopes
of getting money. I thought it therefore an absurd thing to see
the truth falsified in affairs of such great consequence, and to
take no notice of it; but to suffer those Greeks and Romans that
were not in the wars to be ignorant of these things, and to read
either flatteries or fictions, while the Parthians, and the
Babylonians, and the remotest Arabians, and those of our nation
beyond Euphrates, with the Adiabeni, by my means, knew accurately
both whence the war begun, what miseries it brought upon us, and
after what manner it ended.

3. It is true, these writers have the confidence to call their
accounts histories; wherein yet they seem to me to fail of their
own purpose, as well as to relate nothing that is sound. For they