Sophiee1 wrote:
Jewish Antiquities 2.80, by Josephus mentions a lawsuit in which 8,000 Jews from Rome sided with one of the parties....


Sophie, I don't know where you got that reference but it can't be correct. References to the works of Josephus are always three numbers - Book, Chapter, Paragraph. Thus, for example, Josephus records the incident of the Sadducæan kohen Alexander Yannai being pelted with etrogim by the people because when performing the נִסּוּךְ הַמַּיִם nissuch ha-mayyim ("Water Libation") ceremony during Sukkot (Mishnah, Treatise Sukkot 4:9 וְלַמְּנַסֵּךְ אוֹמְרִים לוֹ: "הַגְבֵּהּ יָדְךָ!" שֶׁפַּעַם אַחַת נִסֵּךְ אֶחָד עַל גַּבֵּי רַגְלָיו וּרְגָמוּהוּ כָּל הָעָם בְּאֶתְרוֹגֵיהֶם׃ "They would tell the one performing the Libation, 'Hold your hand up high!' because it once happened that a certain [kohen] poured the water over his feet, and all the people pelted him with their etrogim!!!") in Book 13, Chapter 13, Paragraph 5:

"As to Alexander, his own people were seditious against him; for at a festival which was then celebrated, when he stood upon the altar, and was going to sacrifice, the nation rose upon him, and pelted him with citrons [which they then had in their hands, because] the law of the Jews required that at the feast of tabernacles every one should have branches of the palm tree and citron tree; which thing we have elsewhere related...."
and this would be referenced as "Antiquities, 13.13.5".

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