But this is no other than a pretense of such men as are loath to
die, and are laboring to escape those
punishments that hang over them; for if fate had determined
that this city was to be betrayed into its enemies' hands, no
other than these men that accuse us falsely could have the
impudence to do it, there being no wickedness wanting to complete
their impudent practices but this only, that they become
traitors. And now you Idumeans are come hither
already with your arms, it is your duty, in the first place, to
be assisting to your metropolis, and to join with us in cutting
off those tyrants that have infringed the rules of our regular
tribunals, that have trampled upon our laws, and made their
swords the arbitrators of right and wrong; for they have seized
upon men of great eminence, and under no accusation, as they
stood in the midst of the market-place, and tortured them with
putting them into bonds, and, without bearing to hear what they
had to say, or what supplications they made, they destroyed them.
You may, if you please, come into the city, though not in the way
of war, and take a view of the marks still remaining of what I
now say, and may see the houses that have been depopulated by
their rapacious hands, with those wives and families that are in
black, mourning for their slaughtered relations; as also you may
hear their groans and lamentations all the city over; for there
is nobody but hath tasted of the incursions of these profane
wretches, who have proceeded to that degree of madness, as not
only to have transferred their impudent robberies out of the
country, and the remote cities, into this city, the very face and
head of the whole nation, but out of the city into the temple
also; for that is now made their receptacle and refuge, and the
fountain-head whence their preparations are made against us.