X KEEPERS OF THE HERD OF SWINE 385 



while a certain town, " Gabara " (which, was also 

 held by the Jews), is situated, about the same 

 distance, to the east of that port. Nothing can be 

 more obvious than that Vespasian, wishing to 

 advance from Ptolemais into Galilee, could not 

 afford to leave these strongholds in the possession 

 of the enemy ; and, as Gabara would lie on his 

 left flank when he moved to Jotapata, he took 

 that city, whence his communications with his 

 base could easily be threatened, first. It might 

 really have been fair evidence of demoniac posses- 

 sion, if the best general of Rome had marched 

 forty odd miles, as the crow flies, through hostile 

 Galilee, to take a city (which, moreover, had just 

 tried to abolish its Jewish population) on the 

 other side of the Jordan ; and then marched back 

 again to a place fourteen miles off his starting- 

 point. 1 One would think that the most careless 

 of readers must be startled by this incongruity 

 into inquiring whether there might not be some- 

 thing wrong with the text ; and, if he had done so, 

 he would have easily discovered that since the 

 time of Reland, a century and a half ago, careful 

 scholars have read Gabara for Gabara. 1 



Once more, I venture to point out that training 



1 If William the Conqueror, after fighting the battle of 

 Hastings, had marched to capture Chichester and then returned 

 to assault Rye, being all the while anxious to reach London, hia 

 proceedings would not have been more eccentric than Mr. Glad- 

 stone must imagine those of Vespasian were. 



- See Reland, Palestina (1714), t. ii. p. 771. Also Robinson, 

 Later Biblical Researches (1856), p 87 note. 



