[165] In the next place, he believed that the innovations which they made with respect to their synagogues, were all made with a pure conscience, and from a sincere honour and respect for him, partly being influenced by the ephemerides in the way of memorial, which some persons sent him from Alexandria; for these things were what he very much delighted to read, to such a degree that the writings of all other authors, whether in prose or in poetry, were looked upon by him as absolutely odious in comparison with the delight which these documents afforded him, and partly by the language of some of his domestics, who were continually jesting with him and ridiculing all serious things.