lethargic_man | Antiquities of the Jews, fit the thirty-first

XIV.8.131:

But it happened that the Egyptian Jews, who dwelt in the country called Onion

Onion!? The Greek has "Ὀνίου", so it looks like it's not the English word "onion", but perhaps a land named after the temple established by Onias (חוֹנִיּוֹ)?

XIV.9.172 relates how when Hyrcanus II had brought Herod, as a fifteen year old, to trial before the Sanhedrin, Herod turned up with his own private bodyguard of men, and no one dared accuse him, except for one man named Sameas:

When affairs stood thus, one whose name was Sameas, a righteous man he was, and for that reason above all fear, rose up, and said, "O you that are assessors with me, and O thou that art our king, I neither have ever myself known such a case, nor do I suppose that any one of you can name its parallel, that one who is called to take his trial by us ever stood in such a manner before us; but every one, whosoever he be, that comes to be tried by this Sanhedrin, presents himself in a submissive manner, and like one that is in fear of himself, and that endeavors to move us to compassion, with his hair dishevelled, and in a black and mourning garment: but this admirable man Herod, who is accused of murder, and called to answer so heavy an accusation, stands here clothed in purple, and with the hair of his head finely trimmed, and with his armed men about him, that if we shall condemn him by our law, he may slay us, and by overbearing justice may himself escape death. Yet do not I make this complaint against Herod himself; he is to be sure more concerned for himself than for the laws; but my complaint is against yourselves, and your king, who gave him a license so to do. However, take you notice, that God is great, and that this very man, whom you are going to absolve and dismiss, for the sake of Hyrcanus, will one day punish both you and your king himself also." Nor did Sameas mistake in any part of this prediction; for when Herod had received the kingdom, he slew all the members of this Sanhedrin, and Hyrcanus himself also, excepting Sameas, for he had a great honour for him on account of his righteousness, and because, when the city was afterward besieged by Herod and Sosius, he persuaded the people to admit Herod into it; and told them that for their sins they would not be able to escape his hands: – which things will be related by us in their proper places.

As related here, Sameas is either the Shemaya of the Mishna, or the Shammai of a generation later.XV.1 refers to Sameas as being the disciple of Pollio the Pharisee. Wikipedia says Pollio[n] was the man named by the Mishna Avtalyon, and that the name was originally Ptollion (implying that the original pronunciation of the name in Hebrew was Abtalyon). Avtalyon was the spiritual leader of his generation along with Shemaya, being the generation before that of Hillel and Shammai.

Josephus spends the whole of Book XIV ch.10 relating the various decrees the Romans made giving the Jews rights. (XIX.5.287 also relates how the Emperor Claudius confirmed the rights of the Jews.) I suspect that, written after the Destruction of the Temple and the carrying off of the Jews into exile and slavery, and the wholesale abrogation of their national rights, the point of relating these was to try and engineer a movement amongst his readership to press for restoration of the Jews' national rights. If this was so, unfortunately it failed completely (except during the reign of Nerva); and in the long run things would only get worse, following the Bar Kochba revolt, and then the establishment of Christianity as state religion, with antisemitism hardwired into the Gospels (ironically, probably originally to try and distinguish between the Christians and Jews, so that Christians were not persecuted for being Jews in the period the Gospels were written, immediately after the putting down of the First Jewish Revolt).

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Josephus notes