From the Taking of Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes to the Death of Herod the Great - Flavius Josephus

Chapter 16
Herod Goes to Antony as He Was Besieging
Samosata
1. So the Romans lived in plenty of all things, and rested from war.
However, Herod did not lie at rest, but seized upon Idumea, and kept it, with
two thousand footmen, and four hundred horsemen; and this he did by
sending his brother Joseph thither, that no innovation might be made by
Antigonus. He also removed his mother, and all his relations, who had been
in Masada, to Samaria; and when he had settled them securely, he marched
to take the remaining parts of Galilee, and to drive away the garrisons placed
there by Antigonus.
2. But when Herod had reached Sepphoris, (1) in a very great snow, he
took the city without any difficulty; the guards that should have kept it flying
away before it was assaulted; where he gave an opportunity to his followers
that had been in distress to refresh themselves, there being in that city a great
abundance of necessaries. After which he hasted away to the robbers that
were in the caves, who overran a great part of the country, and did as great
mischief to its inhabitants as a war itself could have done. Accordingly, he
sent beforehand three cohorts of footmen, and one troop of horsemen, to the
village Arbela, and came himself forty days afterwards (2) with the rest of
his forces Yet were not the enemy aftrighted at his assault but met him in
arms; for their skill was that of warriors, but their boldness was the boldness
of robbers: when therefore it came to a pitched battle, they put to flight
Herod's left wing with their right one; but Herod, wheeling about on the
sudden from his own right wing, came to their assistance, and both made his
own left wing return back from its flight, and fell upon the pursuers, and
cooled their courage, till they could not bear the attempts that were made
directly upon them, and so turned back and ran away.
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