[225] So, then, the man of worth was not merely peaceable and a lover of justice but courageous and warlike, not for the sake of warring, for he was not quarrelsome or cantankerous, but to secure peace for the future, the peace which the opponents were destroying.
[226] The clearest proof of this is his actions. That part of the inhabited world which lies towards the east was in the hands of four great kings who held in subjection the nations of the Orient on both sides of the Euphrates. Now the other nations continued to be free from sedition, obeying the orders of the king, and paying their taxes without demur. Only the country of the Sodomites, before it was consumed by fire, began to undermine this peaceful condition by a long-standing plan of revolt.
[227] For, as it was exceedingly prosperous, it was ruled by five kings who taxed the cities and the land, which though not large was rich in corn and well wooded and teeming with fruits, for the position which size gave to other countries, was given to Sodom by its goodliness, and hence it had a plurality of rulers who loved it and were fascinated by its charm.
[228] These hitherto rendered the appointed tributes to the collectors of revenue out of both respect for and fear of the higher potentates whose satraps they were. But, when they had been surfeited with good things, and as so often happens satiety had begotten insolence, they grew ambitious beyond their powers and first shook off the yoke and then, like bad slaves, attacked their masters, trusting to sedition or violence.
[229] But these masters, mindful of their higher birth and armed with more powerful force, advanced in great disdain to the attack, expecting to conquer them with the utmost ease. And, when they engaged, some they sent flying helter-skelter at once, others they mowed down in wholesale massacre, while a great number were taken prisoners and distributed with the rest of the booty. Among these they took the nephew of the Sage, who had migrated not long before into one of the five cities.