Flavius Josephus
Josephus
on Pontius Pilate and the Aqueduct Riots
Flavius
Josephus, The Jewish War 2.175-177
"On a
later occasion he provoked a fresh uproar by expending upon
the construction of an aqueduct the sacred treasure known as
Corbonas; the water was brought from a distance of seventy
kilometers. Indignant at this proceeding, the populace
formed a ring round the tribunal of Pilate, then on a visit
to Jerusalem, and besieged him with angry clamor.
He, foreseeing the tumult, had interspersed among the crowd
a troop of his soldiers, armed but disguised in civilian
dress, with orders not to use their swords, but to beat any
rioters with cudgels. He now from his tribunal gave the
agreed signal.
Large numbers of the Jews perished, some from the blows
which they received, others trodden to death by their
companions in the ensuing flight. Cowed by the fate of the
victims, the multitude was reduced to silence."
Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.60-62
"He spent money from the sacred treasury in the construction
of an aqueduct to bring water into Jerusalem, intercepting
the source of the stream at a distance of thirty-five
kilometers. The Jews did not acquiesce in the operations
that this involved; and tens of thousands of men assembled
and cried out against him, bidding him relinquish his
promotion of such designs. Some too even hurled insults and
abuse of the sort that a throng will commonly engage in.
He thereupon ordered a large number of soldiers to be
dressed in Jewish garments, under which they carried clubs,
and he sent them off this way and that, thus surrounding the
Jews, whom he ordered to withdraw. When the Jews were in
full torrent of abuse he gave his soldiers the prearranged
signal.
They, however, inflicted much harder blows than Pilate had
ordered, punishing alike both those who were rioting and
those who were not. But the Jews showed no
faint-heartedness; and so, caught unarmed, as they were, by
men delivering a prepared attack, many of them actually were
slain on the spot, while some withdrew disabled by blows.
Thus ended the uprising."
Flavius
Josephus, The Jewish War 2.175-177
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