[487] Plutarch shared this error, which seems somehow to have
          been based on a misinterpretation of the Feast of Tabernacles,
          at which they were to ’take ... the fruit of goodly trees, ...
          and willows of the brook; and ... rejoice before the Lord your
          God seven days’ (Lev. xxiii. 40).

    [488] Over Coele-Syria, from the range of Lebanon.

    [489] i.e. from Mount Hermon, nearly 9,000 feet high.

    [490] Merom; Gennesareth; the Dead Sea.

    [491] ’Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah
          brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he
          overthrew those cities, and all the Plain’ (Gen. xix. 24).

    [492] These were not concentric, but an enemy approaching from
          the north-west would have to carry all three before reaching
          the temple, which stood on Mount Moriah at the eastern
          extremity of the city.

    [493] Cp.  Luke i. 8-10, where Zacharias entered the temple to
          burn incense, ’and the whole multitude of the people were
          praying without.’

    [494] The Seleucids.

    [495] Antiochus Epiphanes (176-164 B.C.).

    [496] This was really in the reign of Antiochus II (260-245 B.C.).

    [497] Of the Hasmonean or Maccabean family.

    [498] 63 B.C. when he was called in to decide between
          Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus.

    [499] At the invitation of the Maccabean Antigonus, who thus
          recovered the throne.

    [500] Ventidius and Sosius were Antony’s officers.  The former
          was famous as having begun life as a mule-driver and risen to
          be a consul and to hold the first triumph over the Parthians.

    [501] Herod the Great, who on the return of Antigonus had fled
          to Rome and chosen the winning side.

    [502] One of Herod’s slaves.

    [503] Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip.

    [504] A.D. 40.

    [505] A freedman, Procurator of Judaea, A.D. 52-60 (cp.  Acts xxiv).

    [506] Claudius’ mother, Antonia, was the daughter of Antony’s
          first marriage.

    [507] A.D. 64-66.

    [508] A.D. 67 and 68.

    [509] A.D. 69.

    [510] Chap. 1.

    [511] Jerusalem stands on a rock which rises into three main
          hills, Zion (south), Acra (north), and Moriah (east).  It is
          not clear to which two of these Tacitus alludes; probably Zion
          and Moriah.

    [512] Of this no traces remain, and the tradition may have
          been based on the metaphorical prophecy that a fount of living
          water would issue from the Sanctuary.

    [513] i.e. the Galilean towns captured by Vespasian in A.D. 67 and 68.