5 i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Huxley has gone much further, and has set forth strategical rea- 

 sons which he thinks demonstrate that Vespasian's case would 

 have been one truly of demoniacal possession could he have passed 

 by Gabara and marched on to Gadara. For the Roman line of 

 march would have been between Gabara, to the north, and Joto- 

 pata, a fortified city in strong position on the south. According 

 to Robinson,* I may observe the distance between the two is only 

 from six to eight Roman miles. Vespasian " could not afford to 

 leave these strongholds in the possession of the enemy," f and 

 from Gabara " his communications with his base could easily be 

 threatened." 



Now this statement is contradicted right and left by the facts. 

 For first, if Gabara be the right reading, it was (and so Milman 

 has stated it) ungarrisoned. Secondly, it was not a stronghold at 

 all ; for Josephus tells us that all Galilee was now cruelly devas- 

 tated with fire and sword by the Romans, and there was nowhere 

 any refuge, except in the cities he had fortified ; of which Gabara 

 was not one. Thirdly, in the narrow region between Gabara and 

 Jotopata lay Sepphoris, which was held by the Romans, and was 

 the stronghold from which all Galilee was laid waste. Fourthly, 

 Vespasian, in defiance of his modern instructor, did leave behind 

 him all the twelve or fourteen strong places that Josephus had 

 fortified except one. Fifthly, he did, indeed, march against Joto- 

 pata, but for this he had a very strong reason, quite apart from 

 fears about his base, which would under the circumstances have 

 been chimerical ; namely, that the Roman commander, Placidus, 

 had just before failed in an attack upon it, and had been defeated 

 and put to flight under its walls. We may now, I think, bid adieu 

 to the strategy of Prof. Huxley. 



Many a good cause, however, suffers from the use of bad argu- 

 ments in its favor. It remains for me to offer, with due submis- 

 sion some reasons, which appear to me serious, in support of the 

 text as it stands. 



1. Josephus says Vespasian attacked "the city of the Gada- 

 renes." So far as I know, he uses this form of expression only 

 when the city is the center of a district (Gadaris), \ named after 

 it. Such was the case of Gadara, but not of Gabara. He does 

 not call Sepphoris the city of the Sepphorites, or Gamala the city 

 of the Gamalenes. 



2. He says the place was taken at the first assault ; appropri- 

 ately enough for a fortified place shorn of its garrison, but not 

 appropriate for an open town. 



3. Gamala, as part of the open country of Galilee, was already 

 in full subjection to the Romans. 



* Biblical Researches, iv, 87 (1852). \ Nineteenth Century, p. 976. % Bell. Jud., iii, 3, 1. 



