erect their ensigns, that the Jews might be made to believe that
the entire army was there still, while he himself took the rest
of his forces with him, and marched, without any noise, thirty
furlongs. But when the Jews perceived, in the morning, that the
camp was empty, they ran upon those four hundred who had deluded
them, and immediately threw their darts at them, and slew them;
and then pursued after Cestius. But he had already made use of a
great part of the night in his flight, and still marched quicker
when it was day; insomuch that the soldiers, through the
astonishment and fear they were in, left behind them their
engines for sieges, and for throwing of stones, and a great part
of the instruments of war. So the Jews went on pursuing the
Romans as far as Antipatris; after which, seeing they could not
overtake them, they came back, and took the engines, and spoiled
the dead bodies, and gathered the prey together which the Romans
had left behind them, and came back running and singing to their
metropolis; while they had themselves lost a few only, but had
slain of the Romans five thousand and three hundred footmen, and
three hundred and eighty horsemen. This defeat happened on the
eighth day of the month Dius, [Marchesvan,] in the twelfth year
of the reign of Nero.

CHAPTER 9.

Cestius Sends Ambassadors To Nero. The People Of Damascus Slay
Those Jews That Lived With Them. The People Of Jerusalem After
They Had [Left Off] Pursuing Cestius, Return To The City And Get
Things Ready For Its Defense And Make A Great Many Generals For,
Their Armies And Particularly Josephus The Writer Of These Books.
Some Account Of His Administration.