into the city came out of kindness, and for their
assistance, although these very men, besides the seditions they
raised, were otherwise the direct cause of the city's destruction
also; for as they were an unprofitable and a useless multitude,
they spent those provisions beforehand which might otherwise have
been sufficient for the fighting men. Moreover, besides the
bringing on of the war, they were the occasions of sedition and
famine therein.

4. There were besides these other robbers that came out of the
country, and came into the city, and joining to them those that
were worse than themselves, omitted no kind of
barbarity; for they did not measure their courage by their
rapines and plunderings only, but preceded as far as
murdering men; and this not in the night time or privately, or
with regard to ordinary men, but did it openly in the day time,
and began with the most eminent persons in the city; for the
first man they meddled with was Antipas, one of the royal
lineage, and the most potent man in the whole city, insomuch that
the public treasures were committed to his care; him they took
and confined; as they did in the next place to Levias, a person
of great note, with Sophas, the son of Raguel, both which were of
royal lineage also. And besides these, they did the same to the
principal men of the country. This caused a terrible
consternation among the people, and everyone contented himself
with taking care of his own
safety, as they would do if the city had been taken in war.
5. But these were not satisfied with the bonds into which they
had put the men forementioned; nor did they think it safe for
them to keep them thus in custody long, since they were men very