§52τὴν μὲν οὖν τῶν φιλαπεχθημόνων καὶ μετὰ τέχνης ἐπιβουλευόντων ὁρμὴν ἔφαμεν, δι’ ἣν οἱ μὲν ἐπηρεάζοντες οὐ δόξουσιν ἀδικεῖν, τοῖς δ’ ἐπηρεαζομένοις οὐκ ἀσφαλὲς ἐναντιοῦσθαι.
Therefore, we have spoken of the impulse of those who love enmity and plot with craft, because of which those who harass will not seem to do wrong, while for those who are harassed, it is not safe to oppose.
οὐ γάρ ἐστιν, ὦ γενναῖοι, τιμὴ καταλύειν νόμους, ἔθη πάτρια κινεῖν, ἐπηρεάζειν τοῖς συνοικοῦσι, διδάσκειν καὶ τοὺς ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις πόλεσιν ὁμοφροσύνης ἀλογεῖν. §53Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν ἡ κατὰ τῶν νόμων πεῖρα εὐοδεῖν ἔδοξεν αὐτῷ τὰς προσευχὰς ἁρπάσαντι καὶ μηδὲ τοὔνομα ὑπολιπομένῳ, πάλιν ἐφ’ ἕτερον ἐτρέπετο, τὴν τῆς ἡμετέρας πολιτείας ἀναίρεσιν, ἵν’ ἀποκοπέντων οἷς μόνοις ἐφώρμει ὁ ἡμέτερος βίος ἐθῶν τε πατρίων καὶ μετουσίας πολιτικῶν δικαίων τὰς ἐσχάτας ὑπομένωμεν συμφορὰς οὐδενὸς ἐπειλημμένοι πείσματος εἰς ἀσφάλειαν. §54ὀλίγαις γὰρ ὕστερον ἡμέραις τίθησι πρόγραμμα, δι’ οὗ ξένους καὶ ἐπήλυδας ἡμᾶς ἀπεκάλει μηδὲ λόγου μεταδούς, ἀλλ’ ἀκρίτως καταδικάζων.
For it is not, O noble gentlemen, an honor to destroy laws, to move ancestral customs, to harass fellow inhabitants, and to teach those in other cities also to disregard harmony. Since, therefore, the attempt against the laws seemed to succeed for him when he snatched the houses of prayer and left not even their name, he turned again to another thing, the destruction of our citizenship, so that, after our ancestral customs and participation in civic rights—on which alone our life was anchored—were cut off, we might undergo the extreme misfortunes without holding onto any anchor rope for safety. For a few days later he issued a decree, by which he called us foreigners and strangers, without even giving us a hearing, but condemning us without a trial.
οὗ τί ἂν εἴη τυραννίδος ἐπάγγελμα μεῖζον;
What greater declaration of tyranny could there be than this?
αὐτὸς γενόμενος τὰ πάντα, κατήγορος, ἐχθρός, μάρτυς, δικαστής, κολαστής, εἶτα δυσὶ τοῖς προτέροις καὶ τρίτον προσέθηκεν ἐφεὶς ὡς ἐν ἁλώσει τοῖς ἐθέλουσι πορθεῖν Ἰουδαίους.
He himself became everything: accuser, enemy, witness, judge, punisher, and then to the former two things he added also a third, giving permission to those who wished to plunder the Jews as if in a captured city.
οἱ δὲ λαβόντες ἄδειαν τί πράττουσι; §55πέντε μοῖραι τῆς πόλεώς εἰσιν, ἐπώνυμοι τῶν πρώτων στοιχείων τῆς ἐγγραμμάτου φωνῆς· τούτων δύο Ἰουδαϊκαὶ λέγονται διὰ τὸ πλείστους Ἰουδαίους ἐν ταύταις κατοικεῖν· οἰκοῦσι δὲ καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἄλλαις οὐκ ὀλίγοι σποράδες.
And what did they do, having obtained impunity? There are five sections of the city, named after the first letters of the alphabet; two of these are called Jewish because most Jews inhabit them, though not a few also live scattered in the others.
τί οὖν ἐποίησαν;
What then did they do?
ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων γραμμάτων ἐξῴκισαν τοὺς Ἰουδαίους καὶ συνήλασαν εἰς ἑνὸς μοῖραν βραχυτάτην. §56οἱ δὲ ἐξεχέοντο διὰ τὸ πλῆθος εἰς αἰγιαλοὺς καὶ κοπρίας καὶ μνήματα πάντων στερόμενοι τῶν ἰδίων.
They drove the Jews out of the four letters and crowded them into a very small part of one. And they poured out because of their great numbers onto beaches, dung heaps, and tombs, deprived of all their own property.
ἐκεῖνοι δὲ τὰς οἰκίας ἐρήμους καταδραμόντες ἐφ’ ἁρπαγὴν ἐτράποντο καὶ ὡς ἐκ πολέμου λείαν διενέμοντο, μηδενὸς δὲ κωλύοντος καὶ τὰ ἐργαστήρια τῶν Ἰουδαίων συγκεκλεισμένα διὰ τὸ ἐπὶ Δρουσίλλῃ πένθος ἀναρρήξαντες ὅσα εὗρον — πολλὰ δὲ καὶ ταῦτ’ ἦν — ἐξεφόρησαν καὶ διὰ μέσης ἀγορᾶς ἐκόμιζον ὡς οἰκείοις τοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις καταχρώμενοι. §57τῆς δ’ ἁρπαγῆς ἡ ἀπραξία κακὸν ἦν βαρύτερον, τὰς μὲν ἐνθήκας ἀπολωλεκότων τῶν ποριστῶν, μηδενὸς δὲ ἐωμένου, μὴ γεωργοῦ, μὴ ναυκλήρου, μὴ ἐμπόρου, μὴ τεχνίτου, τὰ συνήθη πραγματεύεσθαι, ὡς διχόθεν κατεσκευάσθαι πενίαν, ἔκ τε τῆς ἁρπαγῆς, ἐξουσίων μιᾷ ἡμέρᾳ γενομένων καὶ περισεσυλημένων τὰ ἴδια, κἀκ τοῦ μὴ δεδυνῆσθαι πορίζειν ἐκ τῶν συνήθων ἐπιτηδευμάτων. §58Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν εἰ καὶ ἀφόρητα, ἀλλ’ οὖν τοῖς αὖθις πεπραγμένοις συγκρινόμενα οἰστά.
But those, running down upon the empty houses, turned to plundering and divided the spoil as if from war; and since no one prevented them, they broke open even the workshops of the Jews which had been closed because of the mourning for Drusilla, and carried off whatever they found—which was also a great deal—and brought it through the middle of the marketplace, using others' property as if it were their own. But the inability to work was a heavier evil than the plundering, since the providers had lost their stock, and no one was permitted, whether farmer, ship-owner, merchant, or artisan, to carry on their usual business, so that poverty was prepared from two sides: both from the plundering, as they became dispossessed of their own goods in a single day and were completely stripped, and from the inability to provide from their usual occupations. And these things, even if they were intolerable, yet compared to what was done afterward, are bearable.
πενία γὰρ χαλεπὸν μέν, καὶ μάλισθ’ ὅταν κατασκευάζηται πρὸς ἐχθρῶν, ἔλαττον δὲ τῆς εἰς τὰ σώματα ὕβρεως, κἂν ᾖ βραχυτάτη. §59τοὺς δ’ ἡμετέρους διὰ τὰς ὑπερβολὰς ὧν ἔπαθον οὐδ’ ἂν εἴποι τις ὕβριν ἢ αἰκίαν ἐνδεδέχθαι κυρίοις χρώμενος τοῖς ὀνόμασιν, ἀλλά μοι δοκεῖ προσρήσεων οἰκείων ἂν ἀπορῆσαι διὰ μέγεθος κεκαινουργημένης ὠμότητος, ὡς τὰ τῶν πολέμῳ μὲν κρατησάντων, ἐκ φύσεως δ’ ἀσπόνδων εἰς τοὺς ἑαλωκότας, συγκρινόμενα τοῖς τούτων ἡμερώτατα ἂν εἶναι δόξαι. §60χρήματα ἁρπάζουσιν ἐκεῖνοι καὶ πλῆθος αἰχμαλώτων σωμάτων, ἀλλὰ κινδυνεύσαντες, εἴπερ ἡττήθησαν, ἀποβαλεῖν τὰ οἰκεῖα.
For poverty is a difficult thing, especially when it is brought about by enemies, but it is less than bodily insult, even if it be the slightest. But as for our people, because of the excess of what they suffered, no one would say they received insult or outrage if they used words in their proper sense, but it seems to us that one would lack appropriate names because of the greatness of the newly contrived cruelty, so that the deeds of those who have conquered in war, and are by nature implacable toward the captives, would seem, if compared to those of these men, to be the gentlest. Those people plunder property and a multitude of captives, but at the risk, if they had been defeated, of losing their own.
οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ μυρίους, ὧν λύτρα κατατιθέασι συγγενεῖς ἢ φίλοι, μεθίενται τῶν δορυαλώτων, ἴσως μὲν ἀκαμπεῖς ὄντες πρὸς ἔλεον, ἡττώμενοι δὲ φιλαργυρίας.
Moreover, they release countless captives for whom relatives or friends lay down ransoms, perhaps being unyielding to pity, but overcome by love of money.
ἀλλὰ τί τοῦτο; φαίη τις ἄν· τοῖς γὰρ εὖ πάσχουσιν ἀδιαφορεῖ τῆς σωτηρίας ὁ τρόπος. §61ἤδη δὲ καὶ τοὺς πεσόντας ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ταφῆς ἀξιοῦσιν οἱ μὲν ἐπιεικεῖς καὶ φιλάνθρωποι ταῖς οἴκοθεν δαπάναις, οἱ δὲ τὴν ἔχθραν καὶ πρὸς νεκροὺς ἀποτείνοντες ὑπόσπονδα τὰ σώματα διδόντες ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ τῆς τελευταίας χάριτος ἀμοιρῆσαι τῶν νομιζομένων.
But what of this? someone might say; for to those who fare well, the manner of safety is indifferent. And indeed, even the enemies who have fallen in war are deemed worthy of burial by the reasonable and humane at their own expense, while those who extend their enmity even to the dead give up the bodies under truce, so that they may not be deprived of the last grace of the customary rites.