Tensions in Parthian Babylonia and the Rise and Fall of Asineus and Anileus

18.310–313

A terrible, most severe disaster now took place among the Jews in Mesopotamia, especially those who were living in Babylonia, as great a slaughter of them as had ever occurred before on record, concerning which I shall describe everything accurately and shall explain the causes by which these calamities came upon them. Nehardea is a city in Babylon, not only a well-populated one but one that also contains a good and extensive territory; and besides its other advantages, it is widely settled. Furthermore, it is not vulnerable to invasion by enemies, due to both the Euphrates River fully surrounding it, as well as the construction of walls around it. There is also the city of Nisibis, situated on the same current of the river. The Jews, on this account, having trusted in the natural advantages of these places, would deposit in them the half shekel that everyone, by the custom of our country, offers to God, as well as other votive offerings. For they made use of these cities as a treasury. Then, at the appointed time, these offerings were sent up to Jerusalem. And many myriads of men undertook to carry those donations, owing to fear of robberies by the Parthians, to whom the Babylonians were then subject.

18.314–324

Now there were two men, Asineus and Anileus, from the city of Nehardea by birth and brothers to one another. Because they were bereft of a father, their mother set them up to learn the art of weaving curtains, as it was not viewed as disreputable among the natives of that country for men to spin wool. Now the man appointed to oversee their tasks, the one who had taught them that art, accused them of coming to work too late and punished them with whippings. But considering this just punishment as an outrage, they pulled down all the weapons, which were on the top of the house—not a few—and went to a certain territory marked by a partition of the rivers, a place quite naturally fit for feeding cattle and for preserving such fruits as were usually stored up for winter. Gathering with them were the poorest class of young men, whom they armed with the weapons they had acquired and who became their captains. And nothing hindered them from being their leaders with regard to mischief. For once they became invincible and had built themselves a citadel, they began sending word to those who herded flocks, ordering them to pay as much tribute from their cattle as might be sufficient for their maintenance. They further proposed that they would be their friends if they would submit to them and that they would defend them from all their other enemies on every side but that they would slaughter the herds of those who refused to comply. So [the herdsmen], unable to do anything else, obeyed and sent them as many of their flocks as was demanded of them. As a result, [the brothers’] forces grew greater; and they became lords over all they pleased; and through sudden campaigns they would commit mischief. Everyone who had to deal with them chose to pay them respect, and they became formidable to those who came to assault them—until the report about them came to the ears of the king of Parthia himself.

But when the satrap of Babylonia became aware of these things, he was intent on neutralizing them while they were still on the rise. Before any greater offense should arise because of them, he mustered as great an army as he could, consisting of both Parthians and Babylonians, and marched against them, wishing to attack and destroy them before word got out that he was preparing an army. He then deployed [his forces] around the marsh and kept still. And the next day—now it was the Sabbath, which for the Jews marks a day of rest from all work—he supposed that the enemy would not dare to confront him but that he would overtake them unopposed and carry them away as prisoners. He therefore advanced gradually and thought to attack all of a sudden. Now Asineus happened to be sitting with his comrades, and their weapons were lying beside them. Thereupon he said, “Men, the neighing of horses has fallen upon my ears, not the sort that are feeding but the kind men ride upon, as I also sense the noise of their bridles. I fear that the enemy surrounding us has gone unnoticed. Let someone go forward as a scout and make an accurate report to us of the current state of affairs, and may the things I have spoken turn out to be a false alarm.” When he had said these things, some of the men went to spy out what was happening, and they came back swiftly and said to him, “You are not wrong in your conjecture about what our enemies are doing. Nor do those enemies intend to allow us to do them harm. We have become ensnared by their cunning maneuvers like grazing cattle, and there is a large body of cavalry riding toward us, while we are destitute of manpower to defend ourselves because we are restrained from doing so by the prohibition of our ancestral law, which requires us to rest [on this day].” But Asineus, so it seemed, did not agree at all with the opinion of his spy as to what was to be done. He thought it more in keeping with the law to raise up their spirits in this distress into which he had fallen and break their law by avenging themselves, even if they should die in the action, rather than doing nothing to please their enemies by submitting to be slain by them. Accordingly, he took up his weapons, and he inspired courage within those in his company to act as valiantly as he himself. So they fell upon their enemies and slew a great many of them on account of their contempt for them, and they came to a certain victory and put the rest to flight.

18.325–339

But the king of the Parthians, when the report of the battle came to him, was amazed at the boldness of these brothers and desired to see them and speak with them. He therefore sent the most trustworthy of his bodyguards to speak to them as follows: “Although suffering injustice because of your attack against his government, King Artabanus has more regard for your valor than for the ill will he bears against you, and he has sent me to give you his assurance and pledge, allowing you to come to him safely and without any violence upon the road. He wants you to approach him as his friends, without meaning any trickery or deceit toward you. He also promises to give you presents and a magistracy, which, in addition to your current valor, will probably render his power to your advantage.” Now Asineus himself postponed his journey there, but he sent his brother Anileus with as many gifts as he could procure. So he went and was admitted into the king’s presence.

When Artabanus saw that Anileus had come alone, he inquired as to the reason why Asineus had avoided coming along with him. When he understood that he was afraid and was staying behind by the lake, he began swearing an oath by his ancestral gods that he would do them no harm if they visited him, upon the assurances he gave them. He gave them his right hand, which is the greatest proof for all these barbarians and affords a firm security to those who associate with them. For none of them will deceive you once they have given you their right hands; nor will anyone doubt their fidelity once it is given, even though they were suspected of injustice before. When Artabanus had done this, he sent Anileus away to persuade his brother to come back to him. Now the king did this out of the desire to curb his own provincial satrapies through the valor of these Jewish brothers, lest they should forge an alliance with them; for they [the satrapies] were ready to revolt, and others [i.e., other satrapies] were yet disposed to rebel had they been sent on an expedition against them. He was also afraid that, while engaging in a war to subdue those governors of provinces that had revolted, the party of Asineus and those in Babylonia should be augmented and either make war upon him when they should hear of that revolt or, should they be disappointed in that case, not fail to inflict further harm upon him.

With the king so disposed toward these matters, he sent Anileus away, and Anileus persuaded his brother [to come to the king], relating to him both the king’s goodwill and the oath he had sworn. Accordingly, they made haste to go to Artabanus, who received them with pleasure when they arrived and was amazed at Asineus’ courage in the actions he had done, observing he was a little man and, at first impression, appeared contemptible as well, the type one might judge to be of no value whatsoever. He also told his friends how, in comparison, Asineus showed his soul in all respects to be superior to his body. And once while they were drinking together, he pointed out Asineus to Abdagases, one of his military commanders, and told him his name and described in detail the great valor he displayed in war.

When Abdagases urged the king for permission to kill the man in payback for those outrages he had committed against the Parthian government, the king said, “I could not give you leave to kill a man dependent on my loyalty, especially not after I extended him my right hand and endeavored to earn his trust by oaths sworn by the gods. But if you are truly a warrior, you have no need of my swearing falsely. Go and avenge the wanton treatment of the Parthian government. When he is returning back, attack this man, and conquer him by the forces under your command—without my knowledge.” Thereupon the king summoned Asineus and said to him, “It is time for you, young man, to go home so as not to provoke the wrath of my generals in this place any further, so that they do not attempt to murder you without my approval. I hereby entrust to you the land of Babylonia, that it may be preserved under your care, free from plunder and other misuses. I have kept my own loyalty to you inviolable, and not in trivial matters but in those that concerned your safety, and I therefore deserve your kindness.” After he said these things and had given Asineus some gifts, he sent him away immediately.

When he arrived in his own country, he began building fortresses and fortifying as much as had been there earlier. He had become great in a short time and managed things with the sort of courage and success that no other person like him from such a beginning had ever achieved. Moreover, those Parthian generals who were sent that way paid him great respect; and the honor that was paid him by the Babylonians seemed to them too slight and beneath his dignity. And he thus maintained honor and power there; all the affairs of Mesopotamia depended upon him, and he increasingly flourished in this happy condition of his for fifteen years.

18.340–352

But when their affairs were at the height of their prosperity, there sprang up a calamity among them for the following reason. Once they had deviated from that course of virtue through which they had gained such great power, they turned aside to lawlessness, by which they transgressed their ancestral laws and fell under the dominion of their lusts and pleasures. A certain Parthian, who came into those territories as general of an army, had a wife following him who had a vast reputation for other accomplishments and particularly was admired above all other women for her beauty. Anileus, the brother of Asineus, either heard of her beauty from others or perhaps saw her himself also and so became at once her lover and her enemy, partly because he could not hope to enjoy this woman other than by obtaining power over her as a captive and partly because he thought he could not overcome his desire for her. Therefore, as soon as her husband had been declared an enemy and a dead man to them, and had fallen in battle, the widow of the deceased man was seized and given in marriage to her lover.

This woman, however, did not enter their household without causing great misfortunes, both to Anileus himself as well as to Asineus. But she brought great evil on the following occasion. When she was led away captive upon the death of her husband, she concealed the images of their ancestral gods, common to both her husband and herself. Now it was customary to all of that country to have the idols they worshiped in their own homes and to bring them along when going into a foreign land. In keeping with their custom, she carried her idols with her. At first she conducted her worship of them in private, but when she became Anileus’ wife, she began worshiping them in her accustomed manner, with the same appointed ceremonies she had observed in the days of her former husband.

At first, their most esteemed comrades put the blame on him, that he was in no way acting in accordance with Hebrew tradition. Nor was he behaving in accordance with their laws by marrying a foreign wife, one who transgressed the precise appointments of their sacrifices and religious rituals; that he ought to consider, lest by allowing himself too many bodily pleasures he might lose command on account of his wife’s beauty; [and that he might lose] as well that high authority that he had attained by God’s blessing. When they could by no means convince him, he even put one of them to death, one for whom he had the greatest respect, on account of his speaking too boldly.

As the man was dying, he proclaimed a curse—out of regard for the laws—upon his murderer, Anileus, and upon Asineus also, and that all their companions might be brought to a similar end at the hands of their enemies: upon the two brothers first, as the principal perpetrators of this wickedness, and upon the rest for not assisting him when he suffered in the defense of their laws.

Now the others were quite distressed, yet they tolerated these actions because they remembered that they had arrived at their present prosperity by no other means than their fortitude. However, when they also heard about the worship of those gods revered by the Parthians, they no longer considered Anileus’ injury to their laws tolerable. And a greater number of them now came to Asineus and loudly complained about Anileus, saying that it was well and good if he had not earlier seen for himself what was advantageous to them; but now, however, it was high time to correct what had been done amiss, before the crime that had been committed turned out to be the ruin of himself and all the rest of them. They further stated that the marriage to this woman had been made without their consent, without regard to their old laws, and that the worship which this woman paid [to her gods] was a reproach to the god whom they worshiped.

Now Asineus himself was aware of his brother’s offense, that it had been the cause of great evils and would be so for the time to come. Yet he tolerated it all the same out of the good will he held for so close a relation, forgiving him because his brother was quite overcome by his wicked inclinations. But as more and more still gathered around him every day, and the outcry about it became even louder, he finally spoke to Anileus about these matters, reproving him for his former actions and enjoining him for the future to put an end to them and send the woman back to her relatives. But nothing was gained by these reproofs. For as the woman perceived what a commotion was being made among the people on her account, and afraid that Anileus might come to any harm as a result of his love for her, she infused poison into Asineus’ food and so dispatched him with impunity because her lover was to be judge of her own fate.

18.353–362

So Anileus, who now alone had taken the command upon himself, led his army out against the villages of Mithridates, a leading man among the Parthians and married to the daughter of King Artabanus. He plundered the villages and through the plunder amassed a great deal of money, prisoners, livestock, and many other things that, when acquired, make men’s condition a happy one. Now when Mithridates—as he happened to be there at this time—heard that his villages were taken, he was very much displeased to find that Anileus had inflicted injury upon him and had disrespected his noble rank right in front of him—this when he [Mithridates] had not exacted any harm upon him [Anileus] previously. So he got together the greatest body of horsemen he was able, and those out of that number who were of an age fit for war, and came to fight Anileus. When he had arrived at a certain village of his own, he lay there, still, intending to fight him on the following day because it was the Sabbath, the day on which the Jews rest. But when Anileus was informed of these matters by a Syrian man—a foreigner from another village who not only gave him an accurate account of other circumstances but also told him the location where Mithridates was going to have a feast—Anileus prepared his supper at a proper time and marched out by night with the intent of attacking the Parthians while they were unaware of what was going on. So he attacked them around the fourth watch of the night, slaying some of them while they were still sleeping, while he put others to flight. He seized Mithridates alive and set him naked upon an ass, which, among the Parthians, is considered the greatest form of dishonor possible. When he had brought him down to the forest in this outrageous manner, with his friends urging him to kill Mithridates, he informed them otherwise—zealously disposed to the contrary—claiming that it was not right to kill a man belonging to the foremost family among the Parthians, and one who was even more greatly honored by marrying into the royal family. Up to this point, the things they had done were tolerable. For although Mithridates had been treated shamefully, if they then preserved his life this benefit would be remembered by him to the advantage of those that gave it to him. But were Mithridates to suffer something irreparable, the king would by no means rest until he had exacted a great slaughter on the Jews living in Babylon, whose preservation would be beneficial, both on account of their relation to them and because, if any misfortune were to befall them [the Jews] in the prime of their youth, there would be no other place to which they could retire. Having this purpose presented before their assembly, he [Anileus] persuaded them to act accordingly. Thus Mithridates was released. His wife, however, upbraided him when he returned home, that although he was the king’s son-in-law he had neglected to avenge himself on those who had injured him, instead disregarding the matter, being content to have been made a captive by the Jews and to have escaped them. She urged him either to go back, like a man of courage, or else—she swore by the gods of their royal family—she would certainly dissolve her marriage with him. Partly because he could not bear the daily burden of her taunts and partly because he was in dread of his wife’s pride (that she might actually dissolve their marriage), he gathered together again as great an army as he could, unwillingly and against his inclinations, and marched along with them, thinking he could not go on any longer if he, a Parthian, should owe his preservation to the Jews when they had been too hard for him in the war.

18.363–370

But when Anileus learned that Mithridates was marching forward with a great army against him, he considered it too inglorious to tarry in the marshes and not take the first opportunity to confront his enemies. He was hoping to have the same success, to defeat their enemies, as had been done before, since excellence accompanies those showing boldness, who are accustomed to being brave. He began leading forth his forces accordingly. A great many more attached themselves to this army in the hope of plundering others and terrifying the enemy again by their sheer numbers. But when they had marched ninety stades [approximately 11 mi or 18 km] along a path without water during midday, they became very thirsty. Mithridates appeared and attacked them, while they were suffering for lack of water, on which account, and because of the time of day, they were unable to bear their weapons. As a result, Anileus and his troops were subjected to a shameful rout since, in their distress, they were attempting to attack men who were in prime condition. Thus a great slaughter took place, and many tens of thousands fell.

Now Anileus, as well as all who had stood firm around him, began retreating as fast as possible into the woodland, and they gave Mithridates the great pleasure of having achieved victory over them. But then Anileus was joined by an unmanageable multitude of worthless men who had little regard for their own welfare if they might only gain some present comfort, with the result that by coming to him in this way they compensated for the multitude of those who had perished in the fight. Yet these men were unlike the ones who had fallen, because they had not been trained in war. Nevertheless, even with these men, he [Anileus] repeatedly raided the Babylonian villages, and everything there was subject to devastation by the riotousness of Anileus. So the Babylonians, along with those embroiled in the war, sent word to the Jews in Nehardea demanding that they surrender Anileus. And although they did not agree to their terms—even if they wanted to hand him over, it was not in their power to do so—they were prepared to make a peace offering. To which the others replied that they also desired a peace agreement, and they sent men with the Babylonians for the purpose of negotiating with Anileus. But the Babylonians, upon assessing the situation and learning where Anileus was hiding, launched a secret attack at night, while the men were drunk and asleep. They fearlessly slaughtered everyone whom they had trapped there, including Anileus himself.

18.371–373

The Babylonians were now freed from the troublesome incursions of Anileus, which had acted as a restraint on their hatred against the Jews; for they [the Babylonians and the Jews] were almost always at odds with each other due to the differences in their laws, and whichever party was feeling bolder would assault the other. So at this particular time, upon the ruin of Anileus’ party, the Babylonians initiated an attack against the Jews. The Jews resented the violence they sustained at the hands of the Babylonians; but neither capable of confronting them in battle nor believing it tolerable to live with them, they went to Seleucia, the principal city of that region that Seleucus Nicator [r. 305–281 BCE] had founded. It was inhabited by many Macedonians, but more so by the Greeks. And no small number of Syrians enjoying citizen rights lived there. So the Jews fled and took refuge there and lived there five years without any misfortunes. But in the sixth year [ca. 65 CE] a pestilence came upon those at Babylon, which occasioned new removals of men’s settlements from that city. And because they had come to Seleucia, it happened that a still heavier calamity came upon them on that account, which I am going to relate immediately.

18.374–379

Now the way of life among the people of Seleucia is one of conflict and discord between the Greeks and Syrians, with the Greeks prevailing. Therefore, when the Jews were living together with them, there arose a sedition, and the Syrians gained the advantage through an alliance with the Jews, who are men both fond of danger and quite ready to fight upon any occasion. Now with the Greeks suffering defeat in this sedition, they saw that they had but one way of recovering their former authority, and that was if they could end the alliance between the Jews and the Syrians. So, by dialoguing with any of the Syrians with whom they were formerly acquainted, they promised they would be at peace and friendship with them. Accordingly, the Syrians gladly agreed to do so; and when this was done by the principal men of both nations, they soon agreed to a reconciliation. Once the parties had reached an agreement, they both knew that the sure evidence of their goodwill to one another would be their mutual hatred of the Jews. Accordingly, they fell upon them and slew more than fifty thousand men. All the Jews were destroyed, except for some who escaped through the compassion that either their friends or neighbors afforded them. These found a place of refuge at Ctesiphon, a Greek city situated near Seleucia, where the king [of Parthia] passes the winter each year and where the greatest part of his riches happens to be stored away. But the Jews had no certain settlement here, as the people of Seleucia had little respect for the king’s honor. Now the entire nation of the Jews was in fear of both the Babylonians and the Seleucians because all the Syrians that lived in those places sided with the Seleucians in the war against the Jews. So most of them [the Jews] gathered themselves together and went to Nehardea and Nisibis and obtained security there by the strength of those cities. Furthermore, their inhabitants, who were a great many, were all warlike men. And this was the state of the Jews at this time in Babylonia.

Translated byWilliam Whiston, adapted byCarol Bakhos, in consultation withAaron Samuels.