§62ἐν πολέμῳ μὲν οἱ δυσμενεῖς ταῦτα· ἐν εἰρήνῃ δ’ οἱ πρὸ μικροῦ φίλοι θεασώμεθα ὁποῖα.
While in war enemies do these things, in peace let us behold what kind of things those who were friends a short while ago do.
μετὰ γὰρ τὰς ἁρπαγὰς καὶ τοὺς ἀνοικισμοὺς καὶ τὰς ἐκ τῶν πλείστων μερῶν τῆς πόλεως βιαίους ἐλάσεις καθάπερ τειχήρεις ἐν κύκλῳ περικαθημένων ἐχθρῶν γεγονότες, ἀπορίᾳ καὶ σπάνει δεινῇ τῶν ἀναγκαίων πιεζόμενοι καὶ γύναια καὶ τέκνα νήπια ὁρῶντες ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς παραπολλύμενα λιμῷ χειροποιήτῳ — §63πάντα γὰρ τἄλλα εὐθηνίας καὶ εὐετηρίας μεστὰ ἦν, τοῦ μὲν ποταμοῦ ταῖς πλημμύραις τὰς ἀρούρας πλουσίως λιμνάσαντος, τῆς δὲ πεδιάδος, ὅση πυροφόρος, ἀφθονώτατον ὑπ’ εὐγονίας τὸν τοῦ σίτου καρπὸν ἀναγούσης —, §64μηκέτι στέγειν δυνάμενοι τὰς ἐνδείας, οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ συγγενῶν καὶ φίλων, πρότερον οὐκ εἰωθότες, οἰκίας ἦλθον ἔρανον αὐτὰ τὰ ἀναγκαῖα αἰτήσοντες, οἱ δ’ ἀπὸ φρονήματος εὐγενοῦς τὴν μεταιτῶν τύχην ὡς δουλοπρεπῆ καὶ ἀνελεύθερον ἐκτρεπόμενοι προῆλθον εἰς ἀγορὰν οὐδενὸς ἑτέρου χάριν ἢ τοῦ πρίασθαι τοῖς τε οἰκείοις καὶ ἑαυτοῖς τροφάς, οἱ δυστυχεῖς. §65εὐθὺς γὰρ συναρπασθέντες ὑπὸ τῶν τὴν ὀχλοκρατίαν ἐπιτειχισάντων δολοφονοῦνται καὶ συρόμενοι καὶ πατούμενοι διὰ τῆς πόλεως ἁπάσης ἐξαναλώθησαν, οὐδενὸς ὑπολειφθέντος μέρους, ὃ δυνήσεται κοινωνῆσαι ταφῆς. §66μυρίους μέντοι καὶ ἄλλους πολυτρόποις κακῶν ἰδέαις ἐπιτετηδευμέναις εἰς χαλεπὴν ὠμότητα κατειργάσαντο καὶ διέφθειραν οἱ λελυττηκότες ὑπ’ ἀγριότητος | εἰς θηρίων φύσιν· τοὺς γὰρ ὅπῃ τύχοι φανέντας τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἢ κατέλευον ἢ ξύλοις κατέκοπτον οὐκ εὐθὺς ἐπὶ τὰ καιριώτατα μέρη τὰς πληγὰς φέροντες, ἵνα μὴ θᾶττον τελευτήσαντες θᾶττον καὶ τὴν τῶν ὀδυνηρῶν ἀντίληψιν ἀπόθωνται. §67τῇ δὲ τῶν συμφορῶν ἀδείᾳ καὶ ἐκεχειρίᾳ τινὲς ἐπινεανιευόμενοι, τῶν ἀμβλυτέρων ὅπλων ἀλογήσαντες, ἀνελάμβανον τὰ πάντων ἀνυσιμώτατα, πῦρ καὶ σίδηρον, καὶ πολλοὺς μὲν ξίφεσιν ἀνεῖλον, οὐκ ὀλίγους δὲ πυρὶ διέφθειραν. §68ἤδη δὲ καὶ γενεὰς ὅλας, ἄνδρας μετὰ γυναικῶν, τέκνα νήπια μετὰ γονέων, ἐνέπρησαν οἱ πάντων ἀνηλεέστατοι κατὰ μέσην τὴν πόλιν, μὴ γῆρας, μὴ νεότητα, μὴ παίδων ἄκακον ἡλικίαν οἰκτισάμενοι· καὶ ὁπότε ξύλων ὕλης ἀπορήσειαν, φρύγανα συλλέγοντες καπνῷ τὸ πλέον ἢ πυρὶ διέφθειρον, οἰκτρότερον καὶ ἐπιμηκέστερον ὄλεθρον τοῖς δειλαίοις τεχνάζοντες, ὧν τὰ σώματα ἡμίφλεκτα ἀναμὶξ ἔκειτο, χαλεπὴ καὶ ὀδυνηροτάτη θέα. §69εἰ δὲ καὶ οἱ παραληφθέντες ἐπὶ φρυγανισμὸν ἐβράδυνον, ἐπὶ τῶν ἰδίων σκευῶν τῶν ἐκ τῆς ἁρπαγῆς ἐνεπίμπρασαν τοὺς δεσπότας τὰ μὲν πολυτελῆ νοσφιζόμενοι, τὰ δὲ μὴ πάνυ χρήσιμα συγκαταφλέγοντες, οἷς ἀντὶ ξύλων εἰκαίων ἐχρῶντο. §70πολλοὺς δὲ καὶ ζῶντας τοῖν ποδοῖν τὸν ἕτερον ἐκδήσαντες κατὰ τὸ σφυρὸν εἷλκον ἅμα καὶ κατηλόων ἐναλλόμενοι θάνατον ὠμότατον ἐπινοήσαντες· §71καὶ τελευτησάντων, οὐδὲν ἧττον ἀτελεύτητα μηνιῶντες βαρυτέρας αἰκίας τοῖς σώμασιν ἐπέφερον, διὰ πάντων ὀλίγου δέω φάναι τῶν τῆς πόλεως στενωπῶν κατασύροντες, ἕως ὁ νεκρὸς δοράς, σάρκας, ἶνας ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν ἐδάφων ἀνωμαλίας καὶ τραχύτητος περιθρυφθείς, καὶ τῶν ἡνωμένων μερῶν τῆς συμφυίας διαστάντων καὶ διασπαρέντων ἀλλαχόσε ἄλλων, ἐδαπανήθη. §72καὶ οἱ μὲν ταῦτα δρῶντες ὥσπερ ἐν τοῖς θεατρικοῖς μίμοις καθυπεκρίνοντο τοὺς πάσχοντας· τῶν δ’ ὡς ἀληθῶς πεπονθότων φίλοι καὶ συγγενεῖς, ὅτι μόνον ταῖς τῶν προσηκόντων συμφοραῖς συνήλγησαν, ἀπήγοντο, ἐμαστιγοῦντο, ἐτροχίζοντο, καὶ μετὰ πάσας τὰς αἰκίας, ὅσας ἐδύνατο χωρῆσαι τὰ σώματα αὐτοῖς, ἡ τελευταία καὶ ἔφεδρος τιμωρία σταυρὸς ἦν. §73Πάντα δὲ διορύξας καὶ τοιχωρυχήσας ὁ Φλάκκος καὶ μηδὲν μέρος τῶν Ἰουδαϊκῶν ἀμέτοχον ἐπιβουλῆς τῆς ἀνωτάτω καταλιπὼν ἐπενόησεν ἔκτοπόν τινα καὶ παρηλλαγμένην ἐπίθεσιν, ὁ μεγαλουργός, ὁ καινῶν ἀδικημάτων εὑρετής.
For after the plundering and the expulsions and the violent banishments from most parts of the city, having become like people besieged in a circle by enemies sitting around them, pressed by a terrible lack and scarcity of necessities, and seeing their wives and infant children perishing before their eyes by a man-made famine— —for all other things were full of abundance and prosperity, the river having richly flooded the fields with its inundations, and the plain, as much of it as is wheat-bearing, bringing up the fruit of grain in greatest abundance because of its fertility — —no longer being able to endure their wants, some went to the houses of relatives and friends, though not accustomed to do so before, to ask for the bare necessities as a contribution, while others, turning away from the fortune of begging as slave-like and illiberal out of noble pride, went forth into the marketplace for no other reason than to buy food for their families and themselves, those wretched ones. For being immediately snatched by those who had established the mob rule, they were assassinated, and being dragged and trampled through the whole city, they were utterly destroyed, not a single part being left which would be able to share in burial. Indeed, those who had gone mad with ferocity into the nature of wild beasts afflicted and destroyed countless others with various forms of evils devised for harsh cruelty; for they either stoned or beat with clubs those of the Jews who appeared anywhere, not bringing the blows immediately to the most vital parts, so that they might not, by dying more quickly, also more quickly lay aside the perception of painful things. And some, growing insolent in the impunity and truce of these calamities, and disregarding the blunter weapons, took up the most effective of all, fire and iron, and slew many with swords, and destroyed not a few with fire. And already the most merciless of all burned even whole families, men with their wives, and infant children with their parents, in the middle of the city, having pitied neither old age, nor youth, nor the innocent age of children; and whenever they lacked a supply of wood, collecting brushwood they destroyed them by smoke rather than by fire, devising a more pitiable and lingering destruction for the wretched ones, whose half-burnt bodies lay mixed together, a sad and most painful sight. And if those sent for brushwood delayed, they burned the owners on their own belongings taken from the plundering, embezzling the costly things, but burning together the not very useful ones, which they used instead of ordinary wood. And binding many while still alive by one of their two feet at the ankle, they dragged them and at the same time crushed them by leaping upon them, having devised a most cruel death. And after they died, with none the less endless anger they inflicted heavier outrages on the bodies, dragging them through almost all the alleys of the city, until the corpse, being worn away by the unevenness and roughness of the ground, and the joined parts separating from their connection and being scattered elsewhere in different places, was consumed (its skin, flesh, and sinews). And those who did these things, as if in theatrical mimes, mocked the sufferers; while the friends and relatives of those who had truly suffered, merely because they sympathized with the misfortunes of their kindred, were dragged away, scourged, racked, and after all the outrages which their bodies could endure, the final and reserve punishment was the cross. And Flaccus, having dug through and broken into everything, and leaving no part of the Jewish affairs free from the supreme plot, devised a certain extraordinary and altered attack, he the doer of great deeds, the discoverer of new wrongdoings.