The Meaning of βαπτίζειν in Greek, Jewish, and Patristic Literature 33 followed by numerous other Indian peoples also (for the country produces marvelous colours, he says), who dye both their hair and their garments”; H. L. Jones) (I). Josephus, De bello Judaico 1.490: ὃν τρόπον ἀπατηθεῖεν ὑπὸ Ἀλεξάνδρου λέγοντος, ὡς οὐκ ἐν Ἡρώδῃ δέοι τὰς ἐλπίδας ἔχειν ἀναιδεῖ γέροντι καὶ βαπτομένῳ τὰς κόμας, εἰ μὴ διὰ τοῦτ’ αὐτὸν οἴονται καὶ νέον (“Alexander, they said, had inveigled them by saying, ‘You ought not to place your hopes on Herod, a shameless old man who dyes his hair, unless this disguise has actually made you take him for a youngster”; H. St. J. Thackeray) (i).73 Claudius Aelianus, Varia historia 7.9: καὶ οὐδὲν ἐδεῖτο οὐ κροκωτοῦ οὐ ταραντινι δίου οὐκ ἀναβολῆς οὐκ ἐγκύκλου οὐ κεκρυφάλου οὐ καλύπτρας οὐ βαπτῶν χιτωνίσκων (“She felt no need for a yellow dress or a Tarentine dress, a cloak, a jacket, an upper garment, a hairnet, a veil, or dyed short frocks”; N. G. Wilson) (ii/iii). Inscription, Beth Shea’rim 188: Σαβέρις υἱὸς Σαβίνο ἁρχιβάφθου (“Saberis, son of Sabinos, the clothdyer”; M. Schwabe / B. Lifshitz)74 (iii/iv). (ii) Figurative (metaphorical) uses Sense 2: to be overpowered by an abstract reality, such as debts or arguments or thoughts; gloss: ‘to be overwhelmed’ or ‘to be immersed’ Pindar, Pythia 2:76-80: ἄμαχον κακὸν ἀμφοτέροις διαβολιᾶν ὑποφάτιες, ὀργαῖς ἀτενὲς ἀλωπέκων ἴκελοι. κέρδει δὲ τί μάλα τοῦτο κερδαλέον τελέθει; ἅτε γὰρ ἐννάλιον πόνον ἐχοίσας βαθύν σκευᾶς ἑτέρας, ἀβάπτιστος εἶμι φελλὸς ὣς ὑπὲρ ἕρκος ἅλμας (“Purveyors of slander are a deadly evil to both parties, with temperaments just like those of foxes. But what profit really results from the cun- ning? None, for just as when the rest of the tackle labors in the depths of the sea, like a cork I shall go undipped over the surface of the brine”; W. H. Race)75 (VI). 73 For the sense ‘dye’ of βάπτω see also B.J. 4.563; A.J. 3.102. 74 Moshe Schwabe and Baruch Lifschitz, Beth She’arim II: The Greek Inscriptions (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1974), 2.172-73 (No. 188); the inscription is carved on the wall opposite the entrance to Hall B of catacomb 19 in Beth She’arim; the editors comment that ἁρχιβάφθου is a new word, composed of βάπτης or βαφεύς (‘dyer’) and the prefix ἀρχι- (‘chief’); the Jew Saberis ″was an artisan whose occupation was cothdyeing⁇ (ibid. p. 173). 75 William H. Race, Pindar: Olympian Odes, Pythian Odes (Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), p. 239, n. 5 comments, ″The image is that of a cork floating on the surface while the weights and nets sink into the sea.⁇ In other words, as cork cannot be made to sink in the sea, so the person who refuses to engage in cunning will not be overpowered by his opponents.