The Talmud relates that once, when the high priest was being escorted home from the Temple by the people, at the close of a Day of Atonement, the crowd deserted him upon the approach of Abtalion and Shemaiah and followed them.
This gives pertinence to his maxim, "You wise men, be careful of your words, lest you draw upon yourselves the punishment of exile and be banished to a place of bad water (dangerous doctrine), and your disciples, who come after you, drink thereof and die, and the name of the Holy One thereby be profaned.
"[4] He cautions the rabbis herein against participation in politics (compare the maxim of his colleague) as well as against emigration to Egypt, where Greek ideas threatened Judaism.
[6] The new method of derush (Biblical interpretation) introduced by Abtalion and Shemaiah seems to have evoked opposition among the Pharisees.
[8] Abtalion's academy was not free to every one, but those who sought entrance paid daily a small admission fee of one and a half tropaïka; that is, about twelve cents.
Linguistically, the original form of Pollion is presumably Ptollion, which explains both the prefixed A in the Talmud and the omission of the t in Josephus.
In the first source, Abtalion used his influence with the people in persuading the men of Jerusalem, in the year 37 BCE, to open the gates of their city to Herod the Great.