From the Banishment of Archelus to the Departure From Babylon - Flavius Josephus

Parthians] in particular a most inviolable obligation to fidelity, as Dr.
Hudson here observes, and refers to the commentary on Justin, B. XI.
ch. 15., for its confirmation. We often meet with the like use of it in
Josephus.
2. This custom of the Mesopotamians to carry their household gods along
with them wherever they traveled is as old as the days of Jacob, when
Rachel his wife did the same, Genesis 31:19, 30-35; nor is it to pass here
unobserved, what great miseries came on these Jews, because they
suffered one of their leaders to marry an idolatrous wife, contrary to the
law of Moses. Of which matter see the note on B. XIX. ch. 5. sect. 3.
3. This custom, in Syria and Mesopotamia, of setting men upon an ass, by
way of disgrace, is still kept up at Damascus in Syria; where, in order to
show their despite against the Christians, the Turks will not suffer them
to hire horses, but asses only, when they go abroad to see the country, as
Mr. Maundrell assures us, p. 128.
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