[734] A.U.C. 804.

[735] Tacitus, Hist. V. xiii. 3., mentions this ancient prediction, and
its currency through the East, in nearly the same terms as Suetonius.
The coming power is in both instances described in the plural number,
profecti; "those shall come forth;" and Tacitus applies it to Titus as
well as Vespasian. The prophecy is commonly supposed to have reference
to a passage in Micah, v. 2, "Out of thee [Bethlehem-Ephrata] shall He
come forth, to be ruler in Israel." Earlier prophetic intimations of a
similar character, and pointing to a more extended dominion, have been
traced in the sacred records of the Jews; and there is reason to believe
that these books were at this time not unknown in the heathen world,
particularly at Alexandria, and through the Septuagint version. These
predictions, in their literal sense, point to the establishment of a
universal monarchy, which should take its rise in Judaea. The Jews
looked for their accomplishment in the person of one of their own nation,
the expected Messiah, to which character there were many pretenders in
those times. The first disciples of Christ, during the whole period of
his ministry, supposed that they were to be fulfilled in him. The Romans
thought that the conditions were answered by Vespasian, and Titus having
been called from Judaea to the seat of empire. The expectations
entertained by the Jews, and naturally participated in and appropriated
by the first converts to Christianity, having proved groundless, the
prophecies were subsequently interpreted in a spiritual sense.

[736] Gessius Florus was at that time governor of Judaea, with the title
and rank of prepositus, it not being a proconsular province, as the
native princes still held some parts of it, under the protection and with
the alliance of the Romans. Gessius succeeded Florus Albinus, the