BERENICE
Agrippa
How is it with this people?
Festus
Much the same.
They kick the Roman rule. Like flame in stubble,
Which being slapped with sticks, leaps up and spreads,
Oppression makes them hotter.
Berenice
And why not?
Seeing their customs, altars, arks and temples
The beauty of their faith, as they have dreamed it,
And fashioned it with hands from gold and wood
Is desecrated.
Festus
How to firmly keep
The rule of Cæsar, leave their god untouched,
That is the problem. Where the state and god
Are one, inseparable, can Cæsar rule
And not subject their god? There was this Judas
Together with a Pharisee named Sadduk
Who fought the Roman census of the Jews,
Raised revolution in religion’s name,
A cunning strategy. You could not crush
The revolution, leave their faith unharmed.
And now this new sect called the Nazarenes—
The country’s in a tumult.
Agrippa