soldiers slew those that they caught, and no method of plunder
was omitted; they also caught many of the quiet people, and
brought them before Florus, whom he first chastised with stripes,
and then crucified. Accordingly, the whole number of those that
were destroyed that day, with their wives and children, (for they
did not spare even the infants themselves,) was about three
thousand and six hundred. And what made this calamity the heavier
was this new method of Roman barbarity; for Florus ventured then
to do what no one had done before, that is, to have men of the
equestrian order whipped (21) and nailed to the cross before his
tribunal; who, although they were by birth Jews, yet were they of
Roman dignity notwithstanding.

CHAPTER 15.

Concerning Bernice's Petition To Florus, To Spare The Jews, But
In Vain; As Also How, After The Seditious Flame Was Quenched, It
Was Kindled Again By Florus.

1. About this very time king Agrippa was going to Alexandria, to
congratulate Alexander upon his having obtained the government of
Egypt from Nero; but as his sister Bernice was come to Jerusalem,
and saw the wicked practices of the soldiers, she was sorely
affected at it, and frequently sent the masters of her horse and
her guards to Florus, and begged of him to leave off these
slaughters; but he would not comply with her request, nor have
any regard either to the multitude of those already slain, or to
the nobility of her that interceded, but only to the advantage he
should make by this plundering; nay, this violence of the
soldiers brake out to such a degree of madness, that it spent