According to Josephus ("B. J." 2:17, § 10; "Vita," 66-67), one of the deputies of high rank from among the Pharisees, sent in the year 66 by Simon ben Gamaliel and the leading personages in Jerusalem to reprimand Josephus, the future historian. Entrusted with the defense of Galilee in the great war against the Romans, Josephus, soon after his appointment as general, had been suspected of corrupt purposes by John of Giscala. Josephus, being apprised of their arrival, captured them and sent them back to Jerusalem ("B. J." 2:21, § 7; "Vita," 38-64).