bread, the soldiers mocking and insulting them from the roof, caused a great uproar in the court; the Jews flinging stones, the Romans launching darts; until, the riot becoming general, Cumanus sent for fresh troops, and his soldiers, forcing their way into the Temple courts, drove out the people in disorder, so that the gates were choked, and ten thousand men were trodden to death.

Quarrels also broke out between the Galileans and Samaritans. A Galilean caravan was coming up to Zion by way of Shefelah, instead of by the Jordan route; at Gemin, a Galilean was murdered by a Samaritan; on which the Galileans, not only from the north, but from Jerusalem also, marched into Samaria, plundering and burning the houses and hamlets in revenge. Cumanus, at the front of his Sebastan cavalry, rode upon these rioting Jews, dispersing the mob, and making prisoners of their chiefs, whom he carried into his camp at Cæsarea. The nobles of Sebaste and Jerusalem appealed against each other to Quadratus, President of Syria, then staying at Tyre. Jonathan, son of Annas, represented the Jews.

50. Gamaliel died. Felix, a slave, and an empress's lover, succeeded Cumanus, and the Noble party gained the upper hand in Jerusalem. Jonathan son of Annas became high priest for the second time. The aristocrats, aided to the full extent of Roman power, made war on the reforming Galileans; who, since the massacre of Simon and James, having taken Menahem, a third son of Judas of Gamala, and Eleazar, a son of Simon, for their captains, had

become a state within the state, a church within the church, absorbing many of the Essenes, most of the Pharisees, and counting within their pale a majority of the Jews. Moderation died with Gamaliel; Separatists merged for a time into the warlike sect of the Galileans; and the war between the Sadducees and these Galileans the Nobles and the People became a war to the death.

Villages were burnt and razed; hundreds of Galileans were crucified; roads became unsafe; commerce declined; the old calm of prosperity was at an end. Having the legions at their call, the Sadducees, everywhere masters of the open field, pursued these dreamers of an earthly kingdom as threatened oligarchy always pursues a crushed but still formidable foe. Every ditch had its cross, and the roads round Jerusalem were black with murder. Excess begot excess. Doras and a band of desperate fanatics, putting short swords under their cloaks, went up into the Temple, through the Israelites' court into the Holy Place, and finding the high priest Jonathan before the altar, rushed upon him, pierced him with their weapons, and left him dead on the ground, as Mattathias had struck down the false priest on Modin. Done in broad day, in the midst of crowds, this murder of Jonathan, son of Annas the Sadducee, was not avenged; for the common people felt with the assassins, and the Zealots declared that this deed was done for the glory of God.

Quick to perceive that the Temple and the Temple courts offered them a field in which they

The Holy Land. II.

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could meet their enemies in open fight, beyond Roman help, the Zealots went up again. No Gentile could enter the sacred courts; and as Felix cared nothing about the Temple feuds, except so far as they might disturb the city, and as he had begun to favour the popular party, if he had not actually incited Doras to commit crime, he left the Jews very much to themselves; keeping the gates, and confining the riot and bloodshed to the Temple courts. So the Swordsmen (sikars) found an open field in the house of God; and after Jonathan's murder, they picked off several persons daily, glutting their vengeance on every man who had done them wrong.

Of the false Christs who rose in the reign of Felix, the Egyptian Prophet made the greatest noise. One of the Messianic prophets had foretold that the Deliverer would come up out of Egypt; a fact which conduced to the popularity of Simon the high priest, and of Tiberius Alexander, the procurator, who were both Alexandrian Jews. The Egyptian Prophet announced himself as Christ; set up his camp in the wilderness, among the Essene villages and caves; drew a vast multitude of dupes together, telling them that on a certain day he would lead them to the top of Olivet, whence he should command the walls of Jerusalem to fall down, as the walls of Jericho had crumbled under the trumpet blast, and that he should march his disciples into the Temple through this miraculous breach. Four thousand men came up the wadies to Olivet; but instead of seeing the walls fall down and the legions

fly in panic, they saw the Roman shields and helmets moving up the hill-side, solid, terrible in array. Four hundred of the fanatics fell in the first onset; two hundred threw themselves on their knees; the rabble fled into the wilderness; and the Egyptian Prophet disappeared for ever.

60. Portius Festus, the upright judge of Paul, came out as Procurator on the accession of Nero. He essayed to rule through an old and eminent race of high priests, the house of Fabus; procuring the re-elevation of that Ishmael, son of Fabus, who had first succeeded Annas in the reign of Valerius Gratus. But the time for men of easy manners and simple life had long gone by. The Galileans, under the various names of Zealots, Swordsmen, Brigands, were masters of the country, having persuaded the foolish Felix that they, and not the nobles, were the only friends of Rome.

On the other hand, the high priests, of whom there had been ten in thirty years, nearly all of whom were still living, raised companies for their own defence. Every house was becoming a fortress; every servant a soldier. The partizans of Annas set upon those of Ishmael; at first with abuse, then with clubs and stones; and Festus, thinking he had no concern with these pious bickerings, left the rabble to fight it out.

Rapid changes now passed over the nominal priesthood. In a few months Ishmael gave way to Joseph, son of Simon the Boëthusian, and Joseph fell in turn before Ananus, fifth son of the old Sagan, under whom the Noble party regained its

power. But though they won it bravely, they could not keep it long.

61. The Sethian faction being masters in the Sanhedrin, James and other Christians were condemned to death, contrary to the Roman law; on which account Ananus, after a reign of three months, was deposed from the office he had thus abused; being replaced by Jesus, son of Damneus, a man of weaker character and more moderate views; who in turn yielded his seat to Jesus, son of Gamaliel. These three high priests, appointed within a year, took arms against each other; filling the streets of Jerusalem with daily broils, until the wealth, daring, and connections of Ananus carried the day and put the city at his disposal.

62. Albinus arrived in Syria, and his object being to restore peace in Zion, he first made terms with the Noble party in possession, and then arrested ten of the most daring Swordsmen. By these acts of policy and vigour, the Sadducees were won to Rome, and the mutinous spirit of the Jews appeared to be quelled. But the Galilean bands were stunned, not crushed, by these blows, and society was become too corrupt for any sedative action of the public force. Knowing that Ananias son of Nebedeus (Paul's Ananias) was one of those who had prompted the seizure of their chiefs, the Swordsmen went up into the Temple, and carrying off the Temple scribe, a servant of his son Eleazar, the Temple Captain, sent to the High Priest and Temple Captain a message to this effect that the secretary's life should be spared and his liberty restored