- Niese Section 1
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Now
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in my case, my ancestry
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is rather distinguished,
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having originated with priests
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long ago. Just as the basis of noble birth
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is different among various [nations], so also among us membership
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in the priesthood is a certain proof
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of an ancestry’s brilliance.
- Niese Section 2
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my ancestry is not merely from priests; it is also from the first day-course of the twenty-four
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—an enormous distinction, this
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—and indeed, from the most élite
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of the divisions
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within this [course]. Further,
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I have a share of royal ancestry from my mother
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because the children of Asamoneus,
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of whom she was a descendant,
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for a very long time served as high priests and exercised the kingship of our nation.
- Niese Section 3
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I shall state
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the succession,
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then. Our patriarch was Simon, who was surnamed Psellus.
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This man lived in the period when the son of the high priest Simon
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served as high priest—he was the first of the high priests named Hyrcanus.
- Niese Section 4
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Simon Psellus had* nine children. [One] of these was* Matthias,
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known as “of Epheus.”
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This man took for himself
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the daughter of the high priest Ionathes
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children of Asamonaeus’ ancestry to serve as high priest and the brother of Simon the high priest
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—into marriage. Then in the first year of Hyrcanus’ rule,
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he [Matthias] had* a child Matthias, surnamed Curtus.
- Niese Section 5
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From this man came* Josephus,
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in the ninth year of Alexandra’s rule;
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from Josephus, Matthias, in the tenth year of Archelaus’ reign;
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and I from Matthias, in the first year of Gaius Caesar’s
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imperium.
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I have three sons: Hyrcanus,
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the oldest, from the fourth year,
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Iustus
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from the eighth year,
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and Agrippa
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from the ninth year
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of Vespasian Caesar.
- Niese Section 6
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I thus present the succession
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of our ancestry as I have found it recorded in the public registers,
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sending a greeting
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to those who try to malign us.