through the midst of them, making a great slaughter as they went,
insomuch that unless the horsemen, and such part of the footmen
as were not yet tired in the action, had wheeled round, and
succored that part of the army which was not yet broken, Cestius,
with his whole army, had been in danger: however, five hundred
and fifteen of the Romans were slain, of which number four
hundred were footmen, and the rest horsemen, while the Jews lost
only twenty-two, of whom the most valiant were the kinsmen of
Monobazus, king of Adiabene, and their names were Monobazus and
Kenedeus; and next to them were Niger of Perea, and Silas of
Babylon, who had deserted from king Agrippa to the Jews; for he
had formerly served in his army. When the front of the Jewish
army had been cut off, the Jews retired into the city; but still
Simon, the son of Giora, fell upon the backs of the Romans, as
they were ascending up Bethoron, and put the hindmost of the army
into disorder, and carried off many of the beasts that carded the
weapons of war, and led Shem into the city. But as Cestius
tarried there three days, the Jews seized upon the elevated parts
of the city, and set watches at the entrances into the city, and
appeared openly resolved not to rest when once the Romans should
begin to march.

3. And now when Agrippa observed that even the affairs of the
Romans were likely to be in danger, while such an immense
multitude of their enemies had seized upon the mountains round
about, he determined to try what the Jews would agree to by
words, as thinking that he should either persuade them all to
desist from fighting, or, however, that he should cause the sober
part of them to separate themselves from the opposite party. So
he sent Borceus and Phebus, the persons of his party that were