friends were too hard for him, and pretended that nothing against
Jews could be any impiety, and that he ought to prefer what was
profitable before what was fit to be done, where both could not
be made consistent. So he gave them an ambiguous liberty to do as
they advised, and permitted the prisoners to go along no other
road than that which led to Tiberias only. So they readily
believed what they desired to be true, and went along securely,
with their effects, the way which was allowed them, while the
Romans seized upon all the road that led to Tiberias, that none
of them might go out of it, and shut them up in the city. Then
came Vespasian, and ordered them all to stand in the stadium, and
commanded them to kill the old men, together with the others that
were useless, which were in number a thousand and two hundred.
Out of the young men he chose six thousand of the strongest, and
sent them to Nero, to dig through the Isthmus, and sold the
remainder for slaves, being thirty thousand and four hundred,
besides such as he made a present of to Agrippa; for as to those
that belonged to his kingdom, he gave him leave to do what he
pleased with them; however, the king sold these also for slaves;
but for the rest of the multitude, who were Trachonites, and
Gaulanites, and of Hippos, and some of Gadara, the greatest part
of them were seditious persons and fugitives, who were of such
shameful characters, that they preferred war before peace. These
prisoners were taken on the eighth day of the month Gorpiaeus
[Elul].

WAR BOOK 3 NOTES

(1) Take the confirmation of this in the words of Suetonius, here
produced by Dr. Hudson: "In the reign of Claudius," says he,