at quiet from the Romans turned their hands one against
another. There was also a bitter contest between those that
were fond of war, and those that were desirous for peace. At the
first this quarrelsome temper caught hold of private families,
who could not agree among themselves; after which those people
that were the dearest to one another brake
through all restraints with regard to each other, and every one
associated with those of his own opinion, and began
already to stand in opposition one to another; so that
seditions arose every where, while those that were for
innovations, and were desirous of war, by their youth and
boldness, were too hard for the aged and prudent men. And, in the
first place, all the people of every place betook themselves to
rapine; after which they got together in bodies, in order to rob
the people of the country, insomuch that for barbarity and
iniquity those of the same nation did no way differ from the
Romans; nay, it seemed to be a much lighter thing to be ruined by
the Romans than by themselves.

3. Now the Roman garrisons, which guarded the cities, partly
out of their uneasiness to take such trouble upon them, and
partly out of the hatred they bare to the Jewish nation, did
little or nothing towards relieving the miserable, till the
captains of these troops of robbers, being satiated with rapines
in the country, got all together from all parts, and became a
band of wickedness, and all together crept into Jerusalem, which
was now become a city without a governor, and, as the ancient
custom was, received without distinction all that belonged to
their nation; and these they then
received, because all men supposed that those who came so fast