[194]. The text is uncertain in this and the next sentence. Probably some words have fallen out.
[195]. The phrase, “those with pretensions to virtue,” is borrowed from Thuc. II. 51. I adopt Jowett’s rendering.
[196]. So the Epitome and Latin VS. (παρουσίαν); the Gr. MSS have “frankness” (παρρησίαν).
[197]. Text doubtful.
[198]. B.J. (parallel passage) adds “Trachonitis and Auranitis.”
[199]. Killed c. 34 B.C.; Lysanias of Abilene (Luke iii. 1.) was probably a descendant.
[200]. Lat. VS. omits.
[201]. With a slight emendation of the text of the MSS (ἐπιστησάμενος for ἐπιστάμενος).
[202]. The reference is to an incident in the earlier life of Agrippa, when a prisoner at Rome under Tiberius. A fellow-prisoner, a German, seeing an owl sitting on a tree against which Agrippa was leaning, had foretold his rise to power, adding a warning: “Remember when you see this bird again, you will have but five days to live” (Ant. XVIII. 6. 7). Eusebius, in citing the present passage (H.E. II. 10), omits the words “the owl” and “on a rope,” writing “saw an angel sitting above his head,” no doubt under the influence of Acts xii. 23 (ἄγγελος Κυρίου).
[203]. Reading προσίθυσεν.