The Great Jewish Revolt: Siege And Destruction Of Jerusalem Author: Josephus - Draiman

The Great Jewish Revolt: Siege And Destruction Of Jerusalem
Author: Josephus

Part I.

A.D. 70

Introduction

From A.D. 66 events of great moment occurred in Palestine. The Jews
were in the throes of revolt against the Roman Government. At the same time
the chief factions of the revolutionary party were constantly fighting each
other. One of these factions was led by the famous John of Gischala, another
by Simon bar Gioras, and a third by Eleazar. These factions of a party which
- since the reduction of Judea to a Roman province soon after the death of
Herod - had resisted the oppression of the procurators, were now stirred to
revolt by the exactions of the procurator Gessius Florus. The revolutionary
party, called the Zealots, gained power, and there were many outbreaks in
Jerusalem. The counsel of the more prudent spirits was disregarded. At last
Roman blood was shed. The nobility and priesthood played into the hands of
the Zealots by applying to Florus to put down the revolt. Florus marched
against Jerusalem and was badly beaten by the Zealots.

Open war henceforth existed. Josephus, a Jew of the lineage of Aaron,
trained according to the best discipline of his race, and who had also been
well received at Rome, was placed by his countrymen in command of the
province of Galilee. Afterward, as a historian, he described the events of
the war.

Vespasian, who was then Rome's greatest general, soon came at the head
of sixty thousand Roman soldiers. He attacked Galilee. Josephus, with such
followers as he could gather, took position on an almost inaccessible hill in
Jotapata, which the Romans for five days stormed in vain, then besieged its
brave defenders, afterward repeatedly assaulted; and finally, during the
night following the forty-seventh day of the siege, Titus, serving under his
father, Vespasian, gained possession of the place. Josephus, with forty of
the principal citizens, hid in a cave, but their refuge was discovered
through treachery.

Vespasian was anxious to take Josephus alive. He sent the tribune
Nicanor, who had been his friend, to the Jewish leader to induce him with
fair promises to surrender. Josephus was about to give himself up, but was
prevented by his companions. "We will care for the honor of our country,"
they said. At the same time they offered a sword and "a hand that shall use
it against thee." Josephus then proposed that they should all die together,
but by the hands of one another, instead of suicide. Lots were cast. He who
drew the first offered his neck to him who stood next and so forward.
Finally, through marvellous fortune, Josephus and one other alone were left,
and here the slaughter ended. The two survivors surrendered to the Romans.
Loud cries for the death of Josephus arose, but he was spared by the
intercession of Titus. The fall of Jotapata led to the subjugation of
Galilee.

When captured, Josephus made to Vespasian the prophecy: "Thou shalt be
emperor - thou and thy son after thee," a prediction soon to be fulfilled,
for in A.D. 69 Vespasian was proclaimed emperor, and the next year went to
Rome, leaving Titus to carry on the war and subdue Jerusalem. Vespasian
himself, it is recorded, released Josephus," cutting off his chains," thus
relieving him from all stain of dishonor.

"The capture of Jerusalem by Titus in this campaign," says Hosmer, "is
one of the most memorable events in the history of mankind. It caused the
expulsion of an entire race from its home. The Roman valor, skill, and
persistence were never more conspicuously displayed. No more desperate
resistance was ever opposed to the eagle-emblemed mistress of the ancient
world. There is no event of ancient history the details of which are more
minutely known. The circumstances in all their appalling features are given
to us by the eye-witness, Josephus, so that we know them as vividly as we do
the events of the career of Grant."

Great Jewish Revolt: Seige And Destruction Of Jerusalem

The legions had orders to encamp at the distance of six furlongs from
Jerusalem, at the mount called the Mount of Olives, which lies over against
the city on the east side, and is parted from it by a deep valley, interposed
between them, which is named Cedron.

Now, when hitherto the several parties in the city had been dashing one
against another perpetually, this foreign war, now suddenly come upon them
after a violent manner, put the first stop to their contentions one against
another; and as the seditious now saw with astonishment the Romans pitching
three several camps, they began to think of an awkward sort of concord, and
said one to another: "What do we here, and what do we mean, when we suffer
three fortified walls to be built to coop us in, that we shall not be able to
breathe freely? while the enemy is securely building a kind of city in
opposition to us, and while we sit still within our own walls and become
spectators only of what they are doing, with our hands idle, and our armor
laid by, as if they were about somewhat that was for our good and advantage.
We are, it seems (so did they cry out), only courageous against ourselves,
while the Romans are likely to gain the city without bloodshed by our
sedition." Thus did they encourage one another when they were gotten
together and took their armor immediately and ran out upon the Tenth legion
and fell upon the Romans with great eagerness, and with a prodigious shout,
as they were fortifying their camp. These Romans were caught in different
parties, and this in order to perform their several works, and on that
account had in great measure laid aside their arms, for they thought the Jews
would not have ventured to make a sally upon them; and had they been disposed
so to do, they supposed their sedition would have distracted them. So they
were put into disorder unexpectedly; when some of them left their works they
were about and immediately marched off, while many ran to their arms, but
were smitten and slain before they could turn back upon the enemy. The Jews
became still more and more in number, as encouraged by the good success of
those that first made the attack; and while they had such good fortune, they
seemed both to themselves and to the enemy to be many more than they really
were.

The disorderly way of their fighting at first put the Romans also to a
stand, who had been constantly used to fight skilfully in good order, and
with keeping their ranks and obeying the orders that were given them, for
which reason the Romans were caught unexpectedly and were obliged to give way
to the assaults that were made upon them. Now, when these Romans were
overtaken and turned back upon the Jews, they put a stop to their career; yet
when they did not take care enough of themselves through the vehemency of
their pursuit, they were wounded by them; but as still more and more Jews
sallied out of the city, the Romans were at length brought into confusion,
and put to flight, and ran away from their camp. Nay, things looked as
though the entire legion would have been in danger, unless Titus had been
informed of the case they were in, and had sent them succors immediately. So
he reproached them for their cowardice and brought those back that were
running away, and fell himself upon the Jews on their flank, with those
select troops that were with him, and slew a considerable number, and wounded
more of them, and put them all to flight, and made them run away hastily down
the valley. Now as these Jews suffered greatly in the declivity of the
valley, so when they were gotten over it they turned about and stood over
against the Romans, having the valley between them, and there fought with
them. Thus did they continue the fight till noon; but when it was already a
little after noon, Titus set those that came to the assistance of the Romans
with him, and those that belonged to the cohorts, to prevent the Jews from
making any more sallies, and then sent the rest of the legion to the upper
part of the mountain, to fortify their camp.

This march of the Romans seemed to the Jews to be a flight; and as the
watchman who was placed upon the wall gave a signal by shaking his garment,
there came out a fresh multitude of Jews, and that with such mighty violence
that one might compare it to the running of the most terrible wild beasts.
To say the truth, none of those that opposed them could sustain the fury with
which they made their attacks; but, as if they had been cast out of an
engine, they brake the enemies' ranks to pieces, who were put to flight, and
ran away to the mountain; none but Titus himself, and a few others with him,
being left in the midst of the acclivity. Now these others, who were his
friends, despised the danger they were in and were ashamed to leave their
general, earnestly exhorting him to give way to these Jews that are fond of
dying, and not to run into such dangers before those that ought to stay
before him; to consider what his fortune was, and not, by supplying the place
of a common soldier, to venture to turn back upon the enemy so suddenly; and
this because he was general in the war, and lord of the habitable earth, on
whose preservation the public affairs do all depend.

These persuasions Titus seemed not so much as to hear, but opposed those
that ran upon him, and smote them on the face; and when he had forced them to
go back, he slew them: he also fell upon great numbers as they marched down
the hill, and thrust them forward; while those men were so amazed at his
courage and his strength that they could not fly directly to the city, but
declined from him on both sides, and pressed after those that fled up the
hill; yet did he still fall upon their flank, and put a stop to their fury.
In the mean time a disorder and a terror fell again upon those that were
fortifying their camp at the top of the hill, upon their seeing those
beneath them running away; insomuch that the whole legion was dispersed while
they thought that the sallies of the Jews upon them were plainly
insupportable, and that Titus was himself put to flight, because they took it
for granted that, if he had stayed, the rest would never have fled for it.
Thus were they encompassed on every side by a kind of panic fear, and some
dispersed themselves one way, and some another, till certain of them saw
their general in the very midst of an action, and being under great concern
for him, they loudly proclaimed the danger he was in to the entire legion;
and now shame made them turn back, and they reproached one another that they
did worse than run away, by deserting Caesar. So they used their utmost
force against the Jews, and declining from the straight declivity, they drove
them on heaps into the bottom of the valley. Then did the Jews turn about
and fight them; but as they were themselves retiring, and now, because the
Romans had the advantage of the ground and were above the Jews, they drove
them all into the valley.

As now the war abroad ceased for a while, the sedition within was
revived; and on the feast of unleavened bread, which was now come, it being
the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan], when it is believed the
Jews were first freed from the Egyptians, Eleazar and his party opened the
gates of this [inmost court of the] Temple, and admitted such of the people
as were desirous to worship God into it. But John made use of this festival
as a cloak for his treacherous designs, and armed the most inconsiderable of
his own party, the greater part of whom were not purified, with weapons
concealed under their garments, and sent them with great zeal into the
Temple, in order to seize upon it, which armed men, when they were gotten in,
threw their garments away, and presently appeared in their armor. Upon which
there was a very great disorder and disturbance about the holy house, while
the people, who had no concern in the sedition, supposed that this assault
was made against all without distinction, as the Zealots thought it was made
against themselves only. So these left off guarding the gates any longer and
leaped down from their battlements before they came to an engagement, and
fled away into the subterranean caverns of the Temple, while the people that
stood trembling at the altar and about the holy house were rolled on heaps
together and trampled upon, and were beaten both with wooden and with iron
weapons without mercy. Such also as had differences with others slew many
persons that were quiet, out of their own private enmity and hatred, as if
they were opposite to the seditious; and all those that had formerly offended
any of these plotters were now known, and were now led away to the slaughter,
and when they had done abundance of horrid mischief to the guiltless they
granted a truce to the guilty and let those go off that came out of the
caverns. These followers of John also did now seize upon this inner temple,
and upon all the warlike engines therein, and then ventured to oppose Simon.
And thus that sedition, which had been divided into three factions, was now
reduced to two.

But Titus, intending to pitch his camp nearer to the city than Scopus,
placed as many of his choice horsemen and footmen as he thought sufficient
opposite to the Jews to prevent their sallying out upon them, while he gave
orders for the whole army to level the distance as far as the wall of the
city. So they threw down all the hedges and walls which the inhabitants had
made about their gardens and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit
trees that lay between them and the wall of the city, and filled up all the
hollow places and the chasms, and demolished the rocky precipices with iron
instruments; and thereby made all the place level from Scopus to Herod's
monuments, which adjoined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool.

Now at this very time the Jews contrived the following stratagem against
the Romans. The bolder sort of the seditious went out at the towers, called
the Women's Towers, as if they had been ejected out of the city by those who
were for peace, and rambled about as if they were afraid of being assaulted
by the Romans, and were in fear of one another, while those that stood upon
the wall and seemed to be of the people's side cried out aloud for peace, and
entreated they might have security for their lives given them, and called for
the Romans, promising to open the gates to them; and as they cried out after
that manner they threw stones at their own people, as though they would drive
them away from the gates. These also pretended that they were excluded by
force, and that they petitioned those that were within to let them in; and
rushing upon the Romans perpetually, with violence, they then came back, and
seemed to be in great disorder. Now the Roman soldiers thought this cunning
stratagem of theirs was to be believed real, and thinking they had the one
party under their power, and could punish them as they pleased, and hoping
that the other party would open their gates to them, set to the execution of
their designs accordingly.

But for Titus himself, he had this surprising conduct of the Jews in
suspicion, for whereas he had invited them to come to terms of accommodation,
by Josephus, but one day before, he could then receive no civil answer from
them; so he ordered the soldiers to stay where they were. However, some of
them that were set in the front of the works prevented him, and catching up
their arms ran to the gates; whereupon those that seemed to have been ejected
at the first retired; but as soon as the soldiers were gotten between the
towers on each side of the gate the Jews ran out and encompassed them round,
and fell upon them behind, while that multitude which stood upon the wall
threw a heap of stones and darts of all kinds at them, insomuch that they
slew a considerable number, and wounded many more, for it was not easy for
the Romans to escape, by reason those behind them pressed them forward;
besides which, the shame they were under for being mistaken, and the fear
they were in of their commanders, engaged them to persevere in their mistake;
wherefore they fought with their spears a great while, and received many
blows from the Jews, though indeed they gave them as many blows again, and at
last repelled those that had encompassed them about, while the Jews pursued
them as they retired, and followed them, and threw darts at them as far as
the monuments of Queen Helena.

Now the warlike men that were in the city, and the multitude of the
seditious that were with Simon, were ten thousand, besides the Idumeans.
Those ten thousand had fifty commanders, over whom this Simon was supreme.
The Idumeans that paid him homage were five thousand, and had eight
commanders, among whom those of greatest fame were Jacob, the son of Sosas,
and Simon, the son of Cathlas. John, who had seized upon the Temple, had six
thousand armed men under twenty commanders; the Zealots also that had come
over to him and left off their opposition were two thousand four hundred, and
had the same commander that they had formerly, Eleazar, together with Simon,
the son of Arinus. Now, while these factions fought one against another, the
people were their prey on both sides, and that part of the people who would
not join with them in their wicked practices were plundered by both factions.

Simon held the upper city and the great wall as far as Cedron, and as
much of the old wall as bent from Siloam to the east, and which went down to
the palace of Monobazus, who was king of the Adiabeni, beyond Euphrates; he
also held that fountain and the Acra, which was no other than the lower city;
he also held all that reached to the palace of Queen Helena, the mother of
Monobazus. But John held the Temple and the parts thereto adjoining, for a
great way, as also Ophla, and the valley called "the Valley of Cedron"; and
when the parts that were interposed between their possessions were burned by
them, they left a space wherein they might fight with each other, for this
internal sedition did not cease even when the Romans were encamped near their
very walls. But although they had grown wiser at the first onset the Romans
made upon them, this lasted but awhile, for they returned to their former
madness, and separated one from another, and fought it out and did everything
that the besiegers could desire them to do, for they never suffered anything
that was worse from the Romans than they made each other suffer; nor was
there any misery endured by the city, after these men's actions, that could
be esteemed new. But it was most of all unhappy before it was overthrown,
while those that took it did it a greater kindness; for I venture to affirm
that the sedition destroyed the city, and the Romans destroyed the sedition,
which it was a much harder thing to do than to destroy the walls; so that we
may justly ascribe our misfortunes to our own people, and the just vengeance
taken on them to the Romans; as to which matter let everyone determine by the
actions on both sides.

Now when affairs within the city were in this posture, Titus went round
the city on the outside with some chosen horsemen and looked about for a
proper place where he might make an impression upon the walls; but as he was
in doubt where he could possibly make an attack on any side - for the place
was no way accessible where the valleys were, and on the other side the first
wall appeared too strong to be shaken by the engines - he thereupon thought
it best to make his assault upon the monument of John, the high-priest, for
there it was that the first fortification was lower, and the second was not
joined to it, the builders neglecting to build strong where the new city was
not much inhabited. Here also was an easy passage to the third wall, through
which he thought to take the upper city and, through the tower of Antonia,
the Temple itself. But at this time, as he was going round about the city,
one of his friends, whose name was Nicanor, was wounded with a dart on his
left shoulder, as he approached, together with Josephus, too near the wall,
and attempted to discourse to those that were upon the wall about terms of
peace, for he was a person known by them.

On this account it was that Caesar, as soon as he knew their vehemence,
that they would not bear even such as approached them to persuade them to
what tended to their own preservation, was provoked to press on the siege.
He also, at the same time, gave his soldiers leave to set the suburbs on
fire, and ordered that they should bring timber together, and raise banks
against the city. And when he had parted his army into three parts, in order
to set about those works, he placed those that shot darts, and the archers in
the midst of the banks that were then raising, before whom he placed those
engines that threw javelins and darts and stones, that he might prevent the
enemy from sallying out upon their works and might hinder those that were
upon the wall from being able to obstruct them. So the trees were now cut
down immediately and the suburbs left naked. But now while the timber was
being carried to raise the banks, and the whole army was earnestly engaged in
their works, the Jews were not, however, quiet. And it happened that the
people of Jerusalem, who had been hitherto plundered and murdered, were now
of good courage, and supposed they should have a breathing time, while the
others were very busy in opposing their enemies without the city, and that
they should now be avenged on those that had been the authors of their
miseries, in case the Romans did but get the victory.

However, John stayed behind, out of his fear of Simon, even while his
own men were earnest in making a sally upon their enemies without. Yet did
not Simon lie still, for he lay near the place of the siege; he brought his
engines of war and disposed of them at due distances upon the wall, both
those which they took from Cestius formerly, and those which they got when
they seized the garrison that lay in the tower Antonia. But though they had
these engines in their possession, they had so little skill in using them
that they were in great measure useless to them; but a few there were who had
been taught by deserters how to use them, which they did use, though after an
awkward manner. So they cast stones and arrows at those that were making the
banks; they also ran out upon them by companies and fought with them.

Now those that were at work covered themselves with hurdles spread over
their banks, and their engines were opposed to them when they made their
excursions. The engines, that all the legions had ready prepared for them,
were admirably contrived; but still more extraordinary ones belonged to the
Tenth legion: those that threw darts and those that threw stones were more
forcible and larger than the rest, by which they not only repelled the
excursions of the Jews, but drove those away that were upon the walls also.
Now the stones that were cast were of the weight of a talent, and were
carried two furlongs and farther. The blow they gave was no way to be
sustained, not only by those that stood first in the way, but by those that
were beyond them for a great space.

As for the Jews, they at first watched the coming of the stone, for it
was of a white color, and could therefore not only be perceived by the great
noise it made, but could be seen also before it came, by its brightness.
Accordingly, the watchmen that sat upon the towers gave them notice when the
engine was let go, and the stone came from it, and cried out aloud, in their
own country language, "The son cometh!" so those that were in its way stood
off, and threw themselves down upon the ground; by which means, and by their
thus guarding themselves, the stone fell down and did them no harm. But the
Romans contrived how to prevent that, by blacking the stone, who then could
aim at them with success when the stone was not discerned beforehand as it
had been till then; and so they destroyed many of them at one blow. Yet did
not the Jews, under all this distress, permit the Romans to raise their banks
in quiet, but they shrewdly and boldly exerted themselves, and repelled them
both by night and by day.

And now, upon the finishing the Roman works, the workmen measured the
distance there was from the wall, and this by lead and a line which they
threw to it from their banks, for they could not measure it any other wise,
because the Jews would shoot at them, if they came to measure it themselves.
And when they found that the engines could reach the wall they brought them
thither. Then did Titus set his engines, at proper distances, so much nearer
to the wall that the Jews might not be able to repel them, and gave orders
they should go to work; and when, thereupon, a prodigious noise echoed round
about from three places, and that on a sudden there was a great noise made by
the citizens that were within the city, and no less a terror fell upon the
seditious themselves. Whereupon both sorts, seeing the common danger they
were in, contrived to make a like defence. So those of different factions
cried out one to another that they acted entirely as in concert with their
enemies, whereas they ought, however, notwithstanding God did not grant them
a lasting concord in their present circumstances, to lay aside their enmities
one against another and to unite together against the Romans. Accordingly,
Simon gave those that came from the Temple leave, by proclamation, to go upon
the wall; John also himself, though he could not believe Simon was in
earnest, gave them the same leave.

So on both sides they laid aside their hatred and their peculiar
quarrels, and formed themselves into one body. They then ran round the
walls, and having a vast number of torches with them threw them at the
machines, and shot darts perpetually upon those that impelled those engines
which battered the wall - nay, the bolder sort leaped out by troops upon the
hurdles that covered the machines, and pulled them to pieces, and fell upon
those that belonged to them, and beat them, not so much by any skill they
had, as principally by the boldness of their attacks.

However, Titus himself still sent assistance to those that were the
hardest beset, and placed both horsemen and archers on the several sides of
the engines, and thereby beat off those that brought the fire to them. He
also thereby repelled those that shot stones or darts from the towers, and
then set the engines to work in good earnest; yet did not the wall yield to
these blows, excepting where the battering ram of the Fifteenth legion moved
the corner of a tower, while the wall itself continued unhurt, for the wall
was not presently in the same danger with the tower, which was extant far
above it; nor could the fall of that part of the tower easily break down any
part of the wall itself together with it.

And now the Jews intermitted their sallies for a while, but when they
observed the Romans dispersed all abroad at their works, and in their several
camps - for they thought the Jews had retired out of weariness and fear -
they all at once made a sally at the tower Hippicus, through an obscure gate,
and at the same time brought fire to burn the works, and went boldly up to
the Romans, and to their very fortifications themselves, where, at the cry
they made, those that were near them came presently to their assistance, and
those farther off came running after them. And here the boldness of the Jews
was too hard for the good order of the Romans, and as they beat those whom
they first fell upon, so they pressed upon those that were now gotten
together. So this fight about the machines was very hot, while the one side
tried hard to set them on fire, and the other side to prevent it. On both
sides there was a confused cry made, and many of those in the forefront of
the battle were slain.

However, the Jews were now too hard for the Romans by the furious
assaults they made like madmen, and the fire caught hold of the works, and
both all those works, and the engines themselves, had been in danger of being
burned, had not many of those select soldiers that came from Alexandria
opposed themselves to prevent it, and had they not behaved themselves with
greater courage than they themselves supposed they could have done, for they
outdid those in this fight that had greater reputation than themselves. This
was the state of things till Caesar took the stoutest of his horsemen and
attacked the enemy, while he himself slew twelve of those that were in the
forefront of the Jews, which death of these men, when the rest of the
multitude saw, they gave way, and he pursued them, and drove them all into
the city, and saved the works from the fire. Now it happened at this fight
that a certain Jew was taken alive who, by Titus' order, was crucified before
the wall, to see whether the rest of them would be affrighted and abate of
their obstinacy. But after the Jews were retired, John, ^1 who was commander
of the Idumeans, and was talking to a certain soldier of his acquaintance
before the wall, was wounded by a dart shot at him by an Arabian, and died
immediately, leaving the greatest lamentation to the Jews, and sorrow to the
seditious, for he was a man of great eminence, both for his actions and his
conduct also.

[Footnote 1: Not to be confounded with John of Gischala, leader of one of the
three factions.]

Now, on the next night, a surprising disturbance fell upon the Romans;
for whereas Titus had given orders for the erection of three towers of fifty
cubits high, that, by setting men upon them at every bank, he might from
thence drive those away who were upon the wall, it so happened that one of
these towers fell down about midnight, and as its fall made a very great
noise, fear fell upon the army, and they, supposing that the enemy was coming
to attack them, ran all to their arms. Whereupon a disturbance and a tumult
arose among the legions, and as nobody could tell what had happened, they
went on after a disconsolate manner; and seeing no enemy appear, they were
afraid one of another, and every one demanded of his neighbor the watchword
with great earnestness as though the Jews had invaded their camp. And now
were they like people under a panic fear, until Titus was informed of what
had happened, and gave orders that all should be acquainted with it; and
then, though with some difficulty, they got clear of the disturbance they had
been under.

Now these towers were very troublesome to the Jews, who otherwise
opposed the Romans very courageously, for they shot at them out of their
lighter engines from those towers, as they did also by those that threw
darts, and the archers, and those that flung stones. For neither could the
Jews reach those that were over them, by reason of their height; and it was
not practicable to take them, nor to overturn them, they were so heavy, nor
to set them on fire, because they were covered with plates of iron. So they
retired out of the reach of the darts, and did no longer endeavor to hinder
the impression of their rams, which, by continually beating upon the wall,
did gradually prevail against it; so that the wall already gave way to the
Nico, for by that name did the Jews themselves call the greatest of their
engines, because it conquered all things. And now they were for a long while
grown weary of fighting and of keeping guards, and were retired to lodge in
the night-time at a distance from the wall. It was on other accounts also
thought by them to be superfluous to guard the wall, there being besides that
two other fortifications still remaining, and they being slothful, and their
counsels having been ill-concerted on all occasions; so a great many grew
lazy and retired. Then the Romans mounted the breach, where Nico had made
one, and all the Jews left the guarding that wall and retreated to the second
wall; so those that had gotten over that wall opened the gates and received
all the army within it. And thus did the Romans get possession of this first
wall, on the fifteenth day of the siege, which was the seventh day of the
month Artemisius (Jyar), when they demolished a great part of it, as well as
they did of the northern parts of the city, which had been demolished also by
Cestius formerly.

And now Titus pitched his camp within the city, at that place which was
called "the Camp of the Assyrians," having seized upon all that lay as far as
Cedron, but took care to be out of the reach of the Jews' darts. He then
presently began his attacks, upon which the Jews divided themselves into
several bodies, and courageously defended that wall, while John ^1 and his
faction did it from the tower of Antonia, and from the northern cloister of
the Temple, and fought the Romans before the monuments of King Alexander; and
Simon's army also took for their share the spot of ground that was near
John's monument, ^2 and fortified it as far as to that gate where water was
brought in to the tower Hippicus. However, the Jews made violent sallies,
and that frequently also, and in bodies together out of the gates, and
there fought the Romans; and when they were pursued all together to the wall,
they were beaten in those fights, as wanting the skill of the Romans. But
when they fought them from the walls they were too hard for them; the Romans
being encouraged by their power, joined to their skill, as were the Jews by
their boldness, which was nourished by the fear they were in, and that
hardiness which is natural to our nation under calamities; they were also
encouraged still by the hope of deliverance, as were the Romans by their
hopes of subduing them in a little time.

[Footnote 1: John of Gischala.]

[Footnote 2: Probably that of John Hyrcanus I, a Maccabaean, prince of
Judea, B.C. 135-105.]

Nor did either side grow weary; but attacks and fightings upon the wall,
and perpetual sallies out in bodies, were there all the day long; nor were
there any sort of warlike engagements that were not then put in use. And the
night itself had much ado to part them, when they began to fight in the
morning - nay, the night itself was passed without sleep on both sides, and
was more uneasy than the day to them, while the one was afraid lest the wall
should be taken, and the other lest the Jews should make sallies upon their
camps; both sides also lay in their armor during the night-time, and thereby
were ready at the first appearance of light to go to the battle. Now among
the Jews the ambition was who should undergo the first dangers, and thereby
gratify their commanders. Above all, they had a great veneration and dread
of Simon; and to that degree was he regarded by every one of those that were
under him, that at his command they were very ready to kill themselves with
their own hands.


Siege And Destruction Of Jerusalem
Author: Josephus

Part II.

What made the Romans so courageous was their usual custom of conquering
and disuse of being defeated, their constant wars, and perpetual warlike
exercises, and the grandeur of their dominion. And what was now their chief
encouragement - Titus, who was present everywhere with them all - for it
appeared a terrible thing to grow weary while Caesar was there, and fought
bravely as well as they did - was himself at once an eye-witness of such as
behaved themselves valiantly, and he was to reward them also. It was,
besides, esteemed an advantage at present to have anyone's valor known by
Caesar; on which account many of them appeared to have more alacrity than
strength to answer it. And now, as the Jews were about this time standing in
array before the wall, and that in a strong body, and while both parties were
throwing their darts at each other, Longinus, one of the equestrian order,
leaped out of the army of the Romans, and leaped into the very midst of the
army of the Jews; and as they dispersed themselves upon this attack, he slew
two of their men of the greatest courage; one of them he struck in his mouth
as he was coming to meet him, the other was slain by him by that very dart
which he drew out of the body of the other, with which he ran this man
through his side as he was running away from him; and when he had done this,
he first of all ran out of the midst of his enemies to his own side.

So this man signalized himself for his valor, and many there were who
were ambitious of gaining the like reputation. And now the Jews were
unconcerned at what they suffered themselves from the Romans, and were only
solicitous about what mischief they could do them; and death itself seemed a
small matter to them, if at the same time they could but kill any one of
their enemies. But Titus took care to secure his own soldiers from harm, as
well as to have them overcome their enemies. He also said that inconsiderate
violence was madness, and that this alone was the true courage that was
joined with good conduct. He therefore commanded his men to take care, when
they fought their enemies, that they received no harm from them at the same
time, and thereby show themselves to be truly valiant men.

And now Titus brought one of his engines to the middle tower of the
north part of the wall, in which a certain crafty Jew, whose name was Castor,
lay in ambush, with ten others like himself, the rest being fled away by
reason of the archers. These men lay still for a while, as in great fear,
under their breastplates; but when the tower was shaken, they arose, and
Castor did then stretch out his hand, as a petitioner, and called for Caesar,
and by his voice moved his compassion, and begged of him to have mercy upon
them; and Titus, in the innocency of his heart, believing him to be in
earnest, and hoping that the Jews did now repent, stopped the working of the
battering ram, and forbade them to shoot at the petitioners, and bid Castor
say what he had a mind to say to him. He said that he would come down, if he
would give him his right hand for his security.

To which Titus replied that he was well pleased with such his agreeable
conduct, and would be well pleased if all the Jews would be of his mind, and
that he was ready to give the like security to the city. Now five of the ten
dissembled with him, and pretended to beg for mercy, while the rest cried out
aloud that they would never be slaves to the Romans, while it was in their
power to die in a state of freedom. Now while these men were quarrelling for
a long while the attack was delayed; Castor also sent to Simon, and told him
that they might take some time for consultation about what was to be done,
because he would elude the power of the Romans for a considerable time. And
at the same time that he sent thus to him, he appeared openly to exhort those
that were obstinate to accept of Titus' hand for their security; but they
seemed very angry at it, and brandished their naked swords upon the
breastworks, and struck themselves upon their breast, and fell down as if
they had been slain. Hereupon Titus, and those with him, were amazed at the
courage of the men; and as they were not able to see exactly what was done,
they admired at their great fortitude and pitied their calamity.

During this interval a certain person shot a dart at Castor, and wounded
him in his nose; whereupon he presently pulled out the dart, and showed it to
Titus, and complained that this was unfair treatment; so Caesar reproved him
that shot the dart, and sent Josephus, who then stood by him, to give his
right hand to Castor. But Josephus said that he would not go to him, because
these pretended petitioners meant nothing that was good; he also restrained
those friends of his who were zealous to go to him. But still there was one
Eneas, a deserter, who said he would go to him. Castor also called to them,
that somebody should come and receive the money which he had with him; this
made Eneas the more earnestly to run to him with his bosom open. Then did
Castor take up a great stone and threw it at him, which missed him, because
he guarded himself against it; but still it wounded another soldier that was
coming to him. When Caesar understood that this was a delusion, he perceived
that mercy in war is a pernicious thing, because such cunning tricks have
less place under the exercise of greater severity. So he caused the engine
to work more strongly than before, on account of his anger at the deceit put
upon him. But Castor and his companions set the tower on fire when it began
to give way, and leaped through the flame into a hidden vault that was under
it, which made the Romans further suppose that they were men of great
courage, as having cast themselves into the fire.

Now Caesar took this wall there on the fifth day after he had taken the
first; and when the Jews had fled from him he entered into it with a thousand
armed men, and those of his choice troops, and this at a place where were the
merchants of wool, the braziers, and the market for cloth, and where the
narrow streets led obliquely to the wall. Wherefore, if Titus had either
demolished a larger part of the wall immediately, or had come in, and,
according to the law of war, had laid waste what was left, his victory would
not, I suppose, have been mixed with any loss to himself. But now, out of
the hope he had that he should make the Jews ashamed of their obstinacy by
not being willing, when he was able, to afflict them more than he needed to
do, he did not widen the breach of the wall, in order to make a safer retreat
upon occasion, for he did not think they would lay snares for him that did
them such a kindness. When therefore, he came in, he did not permit his
soldiers to kill any of those they caught, nor to set fire to their houses
neither - nay, he gave leave to the seditious, if they had a mind, to fight
without any harm to the people, and promised to restore the people's effects
to them, for he was very desirous to preserve the city for his own sake, and
the Temple for the sake of the city.

As to the people, he had them of a long time ready to comply with his
proposals; but as to the fighting men, this humanity of his seemed a mark of
his weakness, and they imagined that he made these proposals because he was
not able to take the rest of the city. They also threatened death to the
people, if they should any one of them say a word about a surrender. They,
moreover, cut the throats of such as talked of a peace, and then attacked
those Romans that were come within the wall. Some of them they met in the
narrow streets, and some they fought against from their houses, while they
made a sudden sally out at the upper gates, and assaulted such Romans as
were beyond the wall, till those that guarded the wall were so affrighted
that they leaped down from their towers and retired to their several camps:
upon which a great noise was made by the Romans that were within, because
they were encompassed round on every side by their enemies; as also by them
that were without, because they were in fear for those that were left in the
city. Thus did the Jews grow more numerous perpetually, and had great
advantages over the Romans, by their full knowledge of those narrow lanes;
and they wounded a great many of them, and fell upon them, and drove them
out of the city.

Now these Romans were at present forced to make the best resistance they
could, for they were not able, in great numbers, to get out at the breach in
the wall, it was so narrow. It is also probable that all those that were
gotten within had been cut to pieces, if Titus had not sent them succors, for
he ordered the archers to stand at the upper ends of these narrow lanes, and
he stood himself where was the greatest multitude of his enemies, and with
his darts he put a stop to them; as with him did Domitius Sabinus also, a
valiant man, and one that in this battle appeared so to be. Thus did Caesar
continue to shoot darts at the Jews continually and to hinder them from
coming upon his men, and this until all his soldiers had retreated out of the
city.

And thus were the Romans driven out, after they had possessed themselves
of the second wall. Whereupon the fighting men that were in the city were
lifted up in their minds and were elevated upon this their good success, and
began to think that the Romans would never venture to come into the city any
more; and that if they kept within it themselves they should not be any more
conquered, for God had blinded their minds for the transgressions they had
been guilty of, nor could they see how much greater forces the Romans had
than those that were now expelled, no more than they could discern how a
famine was creeping upon them, for hitherto they had fed themselves out of
the public miseries and drank the blood of the city. But now poverty had for
a long time seized upon the better part, and a great many had died already
for want of necessaries, although the seditious indeed supposed the
destruction of the people to be an easement to themselves, for they desired
that none others might be preserved but such as were against a peace with the
Romans, and were resolved to live in opposition to them, and they were
pleased when the multitude of those of a contrary opinion were consumed, as
being then freed from a heavy burden. And this was their disposition of mind
with regard to those that were within the city, while they covered themselves
with their armor, and prevented the Romans, when they were trying to get into
the city again, and made a wall of their own bodies over against that part of
the wall that was cast down.

Thus did they valiantly defend themselves for three days; but on the
fourth day they could not support themselves against the vehement assaults of
Titus, but were compelled by force to fly whither they had fled before; so he
quietly possessed himself again of that wall and demolished it entirely. And
when he had put a garrison into the towers that were on the south parts of
the city, he contrived how he might assault the third wall.

A resolution was now taken by Titus to relax the siege for a little
while, and to afford the seditious an interval for consideration, and to see
whether the demolishing of their second wall would not make them a little
more compliant, or whether they were not somewhat afraid of a famine, because
the spoils they had gotten by rapine would not be sufficient for them long;
so he made use of this relaxation in order to compass his own designs.
Accordingly, as the usual appointed time when he must distribute subsistence
money to the soldiers was now come, he gave orders that the commanders should
put the army into battle array, in the face of the enemy, and then give every
one of the soldiers his pay.

The Romans spent four days in bringing this subsistence money to the
several legions. But on the fifth day, when no signs of peace appeared to
come from the Jews, Titus divided his legions and began to raise banks, both
at the tower of Antonia and at John's monument. Now his designs were to take
the upper city at that monument, and the Temple at the tower of Antonia, for
if the Temple were not taken, it would be dangerous to keep the city itself;
so at each of these parts he raised him banks, each legion raising one. As
for those that wrought at John's monument, the Idumeans, and those that were
in arms with Simon, made sallies upon them, and put some stop to them; while
John's party, and the multitude of Zealots with them, did the like to those
that were before the tower of Antonia.

These Jews were now too hard for the Romans, not only in direct
fighting, because they stood upon the higher ground, but because they had now
learned to use their own engines, for their continual use of them one day
after another did by degrees improve their skill about them, for of one sort
of engines for darts they had three hundred, and forty for stones; by the
means of which they made it more tedious for the Romans to raise their banks.
But then Titus, knowing that the city would be either saved or destroyed for
himself, did not only proceed earnestly in the siege, but did not omit to
have the Jews exhorted to repentance; so he mixed good counsel with his works
for the siege. And being sensible that exhortations are frequently more
effectual than arms, he persuaded them to surrender the city, now in a manner
already taken, and thereby to save themselves, and sent Josephus to speak to
them in their own language, for he imagined they might yield to the
persuasion of a countryman of their own.

As Josephus was speaking thus with a loud voice, the seditious would
neither yield to what he said, nor did they deem it safe for them to alter
their conduct; but as for the people, they had a great inclination to desert
to the Romans. Accordingly, some of them sold what they had, and even the
most precious things that had been laid up as treasures by them, for a very
small matter, and swallowed down pieces of gold, that they might not be found
out by the robbers; and when they had escaped to the Romans, went to stool,
and had wherewithal to provide plentifully for themselves, for Titus let a
great number of them go away into the country, whither they pleased. And the
main reasons why they were so ready to desert were these: That now they
should be freed from those miseries which they had endured in that city, and
yet should not be in slavery to the Romans. However John and Simon, with
their factions, did more carefully watch these men's going out than they did
the coming in of the Romans; and if any one did but afford the least shadow
of suspicion of such an intention, his throat was cut immediately.

But as for the richer sort, it proved all one to them whether they
stayed in the city or attempted to get out of it, for they were equally
destroyed in both cases, for every such person was put to death under this
pretence, that they were going to desert, but in reality that the robbers
might get what they had. The madness of the seditious did also increase
together with their famine, and both those miseries were every day inflamed
more and more, for there was no corn which anywhere appeared publicly, but
the robbers came running into and searched men's private houses; and then, if
they found any, they tormented them, because they had denied they had any;
and if they found none, they tormented them worse, because they supposed they
had more carefully concealed it. The indication they made use of whether
they had any or not was taken from the bodies of these miserable wretches,
which, if they were in good case, they supposed they were in no want at all
of food; but if they were wasted away, they walked off without searching any
further; nor did they think it proper to kill such as these, because they saw
they would very soon die of themselves for want of food. Many there were
indeed who sold what they had for one measure. It was of wheat, if they were
of the richer sort; but of barley, if they were poorer. When these had so
done, they shut themselves up in the inmost rooms of their houses, and ate
the corn they had gotten. Some did it without grinding it, by reason of the
extremity of the want they were in, and others baked bread of it, according
as necessity and fear dictated to them. A table was nowhere laid for a
distinct meal, but they snatched the bread out of the fire, half-baked, and
ate it very hastily.

It was now a miserable case, and a sight that would justly bring tears
into our eyes, how men stood as to their food, while the more powerful had
more than enough, and the weaker were lamenting [for want of it]. But the
famine was too hard for all other passions, and it is destructive to nothing
so much as to modesty, for what was otherwise worthy of reverence was in this
case despised; insomuch that children pulled the very morsels that their
fathers were eating out of their very mouths, and what was still more to be
pitied, so did the mothers do as to their infants; and when those that were
most dear were perishing under their hands, they were not ashamed to take
from them the very last drops that might preserve their lives; and while
they ate after this manner, yet were they not concealed in so doing; but the
seditious everywhere came upon them immediately and snatched away from them
what they had gotten from others, for when they saw any house shut up this
was to them a signal that the people within had gotten some food; whereupon
they broke open the doors and ran in and took pieces of what they were eating
almost up out of their very throats, and this by force: the old men who held
their food fast were beaten; and if the women hid what they had within their
hands, their hair was torn for so doing; nor was there any commiseration
shown either to the aged or to the infants, but they lifted up children from
the ground as they hung upon the morsels they had gotten and shook them down
upon the floor. But still they were more barbarously cruel to those that
had prevented their coming in, and had actually swallowed down what they
were going to seize upon, as if they had been unjustly defrauded of their
right.

They also invented terrible methods of torments to discover where any
food was, and they were these: to stop up the passages of the privy parts of
the miserable wretches, and to drive sharp stakes up their fundaments; and a
man was forced to bear what it is terrible even to hear, in order to make him
confess that he had but one loaf of bread, or that he might discover a
handful of barley meal that was concealed; and this was done when these
tormentors were not themselves hungry, for the thing had been less barbarous
had necessity forced them to it; but this was done to keep their madness in
exercise, and as making preparation of provisions for themselves for the
following days. These men went also to meet those that had crept out of the
city by night, as far as the Roman guards, to gather some plants and herbs
that grew wild; and when those people thought they had got clear of the
enemy, they snatched from them what they had brought with them, even while
they had frequently entreated them, and that by calling upon the tremendous
name of God, to give them back some part of what they had brought, though
these would not give them the least crumb, and they were to be well contented
that they were only spoiled and not slain at the same time.

It is impossible to go distinctly over every instance of these men's
iniquity. I shall therefore speak my mind here at once briefly: That
neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever
breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the
beginning of the world. Finally, they brought the Hebrew nation into
contempt, that they might themselves appear comparatively less impious with
regard to strangers. They confessed what was true, that they were the
slaves, the scum, and the spurious and abortive offspring of our nation,
while they overthrew the city themselves, and forced the Romans, whether they
would or no, to gain a melancholy reputation, by acting gloriously against
them, and did almost draw that fire upon the Temple which they seemed to
think came too slowly; and indeed when they saw that Temple burning from the
upper city, they were neither troubled at it nor did they shed any tears on
that account, while yet these passions were discovered among the Romans
themselves.

So now Titus' banks were advanced a great way, notwithstanding his
soldiers had been very much distressed from the wall. He then sent a party
of horsemen and ordered they should lay ambushes for those that went out into
the valleys to gather food. Some of these were indeed fighting men, who were
not contented with what they got by rapine; but the greater part of them were
poor people, who were deterred from deserting by the concern they were under
for their own relations, for they could not hope to escape away, together
with their wives and children, without the knowledge of the seditious; nor
could they think of leaving these relations to be slain by the robbers on
their account; nay, the severity of the famine made them bold in thus going
out; so nothing remained but that, when they were concealed from the robbers,
they should be taken by the enemy; and when they were going to be taken they
were forced to defend themselves for fear of being punished; as after they
had fought they thought it too late to make any supplications for mercy; so
they were first whipped and then tormented with all sorts of tortures before
they died, and were then crucified before the wall of the city. This
miserable procedure made Titus greatly to pity them, while they caught every
day five hundred Jews; nay, some days they caught more; yet it did not appear
to be safe for him to let those that were taken by force go their way, and to
set a guard over so many he saw would be to make such as guarded them useless
to him. The main reason why he did not forbid that cruelty was this: that he
hoped the Jews might perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they might
themselves afterward be liable to the same cruel treatment. So the soldiers,
out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught, one
after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest,
when their multitude was so great that room was wanting for the crosses, and
crosses wanting for the bodies.

But so far were the seditious from repenting at this sad sight that, on
the contrary, they made the rest of the multitude believe otherwise, for they
brought the relations of those that had deserted upon the wall, with such of
the populace as were very eager to go over upon the security offered them,
and showed them what miseries those underwent who fled to the Romans; and
told them that those who were caught were supplicants to them, and not such
as were taken prisoners. This sight kept many of those within the city who
were so eager to desert, till the truth was known; yet did some of them run
away immediately as unto certain punishment, esteeming death from their
enemies to be a quiet departure, if compared with that by famine. So Titus
commanded that the hands of many of those that were caught should be cut off,
that they might not be thought deserters, and might be credited on account of
the calamity they were under, and sent them in to John and Simon, with this
exhortation, that they would now at length leave off (their madness), and not
force him to destroy the city, whereby they would have those advantages of
repentance, even in their utmost distress, that they would preserve their own
lives, and so find a city of their own, and that Temple which was their
peculiar. He then went round about the banks that were cast up, and hastened
them, in order to show that his words should in no long time be followed by
his deeds. In answer to which the seditious cast reproaches upon Caesar
himself, and upon his father also, and cried out, with a loud voice, that
they contemned death, and did well in preferring it before slavery; that they
would do all the mischief to the Romans they could while they had breath in
them; and that for their own city, since they were, as he said, to be
destroyed, they had no concern about it, and that the world itself was a
better temple to God than this. That yet this Temple would be preserved by
Him that inhabited therein, whom they still had for their assistant in this
war, and did therefore laugh at all his threatenings, which would come to
nothing, because the conclusion of the whole depended upon God only. These
words were mixed with reproaches, and with them they made a mighty clamor.

In the mean time Antiochus Epiphanes came to the city, having with him a
considerable number of other armed men, and a band called the Macedonian band
about him, all of the same age, tall, and just past their childhood, armed,
and instructed after the Macedonian manner, whence it was that they took that
name. Antiochus with his Macedonians made a sudden assault upon the wall;
and, indeed, for his own part, his strength and skill were so great that he
guarded himself from the Jewish darts, and yet shot his darts at them, while
yet the young men with him were almost all sorely galled, for they had so
great a regard to the promises that had been made of their courage, that they
would needs persevere in their fighting, and at length many of them retired,
but not till they were wounded; and then they perceived that true
Macedonians, if they were to be conquerors, must have Alexander's good
fortune also.

Now as the Romans began to raise their banks on the twelfth day of the
month Artemisius [Jyar], so had they much ado to finish them by the
twenty-ninth day of the same month, after they had labored hard for seventeen
days continually, for there were now four great banks raised, one of which
was at the tower Antonia. This was raised by the Fifth legion, over against
the middle of that pool which was called Struthius. Another was cast up by
the Twelfth legion at the distance of about twenty cubits from the other.
But the labors of the Tenth legion, which lay a great way off these, were on
the north quarter, and at the pool called Amygdalon; as was that of the
Fifteenth legion about thirty cubits from it, and at the high-priest's
monument. And now, when the engines were brought, John had from within
undermined the space that was over against the tower of Antonia, as far as
the banks themselves, and had supported the ground over the mine with beams
laid across one another, whereby the Roman works stood upon an uncertain
foundation.

Then did he order such materials to be brought in as were daubed over
with pitch and bitumen, and set them on fire; and as the cross-beams that
supported the banks were burning, the ditch yielded on the sudden, and the
banks were shaken down, and fell into the ditch with a prodigious noise. Now
at the first there arose a very thick smoke and dust, as the fire was choked
with the fall of the bank; but as the suffocated materials were now gradually
consumed, a plain flame brake out; on which sudden appearance of the flame a
consternation fell upon the Romans, and the shrewdness of the contrivance
discouraged them; and indeed this accident coming upon them at a time when
they thought they had already gained their point, cooled their hopes for the
time to come. They also thought it would be to no purpose to take the pains
to extinguish the fire, since if it were extinguished the banks were
swallowed up already [and become useless to them].

Two days after this Simon and his party made an attempt to destroy the
other banks, for the Romans had brought their engines to bear there, and
began already to make the wall shake. And here one Tephtheus, of Garsis, a
city of Galilee, and Megassarus, one who was derived from some of Queen
Mariamne's servants, and with them one from Adiabene, he was the son of
Nabateus, and called by the name of Chagiras, from the ill-fortune he had,
the word signifying "a lame man," snatched some torches and ran suddenly upon
the engines. Nor were there during this war any men that ever sallied out of
the city who were their superiors, either in their boldness or in the terror
they struck into their enemies, for they ran out upon the Romans, not as if
they were enemies, but friends, without fear or delay; nor did they leave
their enemies till they had rushed violently through the midst of them, and
set their machines on fire. And though they had darts thrown at them on
every side and were on every side assaulted with their enemies' swords, yet
did they not withdraw themselves out of the dangers they were in till the
fire had caught hold of the instruments; but when the flame went up the
Romans came running from their camp to save their engines.

Then did the Jews hinder their succors from the wall, and fought with
those that endeavored to quench the fire, without any regard to the danger
their bodies were in. So the Romans pulled the engines out of the fire,
while the hurdles that covered them were on fire; but the Jews caught hold of
the battering rams through the flame itself and held them fast, although the
iron upon them was become red hot; and now the fire spread itself from the
engines to the banks, and prevented those that came to defend them; and all
this while the Romans were encompassed round about with the flame; and,
despairing of saving their works from it, they retired to their camp. Then
did the Jews become still more and more in number by the coming of those that
were within the city to their assistance; and as they were very bold upon the
good success they had had, their violent assaults were almost irresistible
- nay, they proceeded as far as the fortifications of the enemies' camp, and
fought with their guards.

Now there stood a body of soldiers in array before that camp, which
succeeded one another by turns in their armor; and as to those the law of the
Romans was terrible, that he who left his post there, let the occasion be
whatsoever it might be, he was to die for it; so that body of soldiers,
preferring rather to die in fighting courageously than as a punishment for
their cowardice, stood firm; and at the necessity these men were in of
standing to it, many of the others that had run away, out of shame, turned
back again; and when they had set the engines against the wall they put the
multitude from coming more of them out of the city (which they could the more
easily do) because they had made no provision for preserving or guarding
their bodies at this time; for the Jews fought now hand-to-hand with all that
came in their way, and, without any caution fell, against the points of their
enemies' spears, and attacked them bodies against bodies, for they were now
too hard for the Romans, not so much by their other warlike actions, as by
these courageous assaults they made upon them; and the Romans gave way more
to their boldness than they did to the sense of the harm they had received
from them.

And now Titus was come from the tower of Antonia, whither he was gone to
look out for a place for raising other banks, and reproached the soldiers
greatly for permitting their own walls to be in danger, when they had taken
the walls of their enemies, and sustained the fortune of men besieged, while
the Jews were allowed to sally out against them, though they were already in
a sort of prison. He then went round about the enemy with some chosen troops
and fell upon their flank himself; so the Jews, who had been before assaulted
in their faces, wheeled about to Titus and continued the fight.

The armies also were now mixed one among another, and the dust that was
raised so far hindered them from seeing one another, and the noise that was
made so far hindered them from hearing one another, that neither side could
discern an enemy from a friend. However, the Jews did not flinch, though not
so much from their real strength as from their despair of deliverance. The
Romans also would not yield, by reason of the regard they had to glory and to
their reputation in war, and because Caesar himself went into the danger
before them; insomuch that I cannot but think the Romans would in the
conclusion have now taken even the whole multitude of the Jews, so very angry
were they at them, had these not prevented the upshot of the battle, and
retired into the city. However, seeing the banks of the Romans were
demolished, these Romans were very much cast down upon the loss of what had
cost them so long pains, and this in one hour's time. And many indeed
despaired of taking the city with their usual engines of war only.

And now did Titus consult with his commanders what was to be done.
Those that were of the warmest tempers thought he should bring the whole army
against the city and storm the wall. The opinion of Titus was, that if they
aimed at quickness joined with security they must build a wall round about
the whole city, and he gave orders that the army should be distributed to
their several shares of this work. Titus began the wall from the camp of the
Assyrians, where his own camp was pitched, and drew it down to the lower
parts of Cenopolis; thence it went along the valley of Cedron to the Mount of
Olives; it then bent toward the south,nand encompassed the mountain as far as
the rock called Peristereon, and that other hill which lies next it, and is
over the valley which reaches to Siloam; whence it bended again to the west,
and went down to the valley of the Fountain, beyond which it went up again at
the monument of Ananus, the high-priest, and encompassing that mountain where
Pompey had formerly pitched his camp, it returned back to the north side of
the city, and was carried on as far as a certain village called "The House of
the Erebinthi"; after which it encompassed Herod's monument, and there, on
the east, was joined to Titus' own camp, where it began.

Now the length of this wall was forty furlongs, one only abated. Now at
this wall without were erected thirteen places to keep garrison in, whose
circumferences, put together, amounted to ten furlongs; the whole was
completed in three days; so that what would naturally have required some
months was done in so short an interval as is incredible. When Titus had
therefore encompassed the city with this wall and put garrisons into proper
places, he went round the wall, at the first watch of the night, and observed
how the guard was kept; the second watch he allotted to Alexander; the
commanders of legions took the third watch. They also cast lost among
themselves who should be upon the watch in the night-time, and who should go
all night long round the spaces that were interposed between the garrisons.


Siege And Destruction Of Jerusalem
Author: Josephus

Part III.

So all hope of escaping was now cut off from the Jews, together with
their liberty of going out of the city. Then did the famine widen its
progress and devoured the people by whole houses and families; the upper
rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine, and the
lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aged; the children also
and the young men wandered about the market-places like shadows, all swelled
with the famine, and fell down dead wheresoever their misery seized them.
As for burying them, those that were sick themselves were not able to do it;
and those that were hearty and well were deterred from doing it by the great
multitude of those dead bodies, and by the uncertainty there was how soon
they should die themselves, for many died as they were burying others, and
many went to their coffins before that fatal hour was come. Nor was there
any lamentations made under these calamities, nor were heard any mournful
complaints; but the famine confounded all natural passions, for those who
were just going to die looked upon those that were gone to rest before them
with dry eyes and open mouths.

A deep silence also, and a kind of deadly night, had seized upon the
city; while yet the robbers were still more terrible than these miseries were
themselves, for they brake open those houses which were no other than graves
of dead bodies, and plundered them of what they had; and carrying off the
coverings of their bodies went out laughing, and tried the points of their
swords in their dead bodies; and, in order to prove what metal they were made
of, they thrust some of those through that still lay alive upon the ground;
but for those that entreated them to lend them their right hand and their
sword to despatch them, they were too proud to grant their requests, and left
them to be consumed by the famine. Now every one of these died with their
eyes fixed upon the Temple, and left the seditious alive behind them. Now
the seditious at first gave orders that the dead should be buried out of the
public treasury, as not enduring the stench of their dead bodies. But
afterward, when they could not do that, they had them cast down from the
walls into the valleys beneath.

However, when Titus, in going his rounds along those valleys, saw them
full of dead bodies, and the thick putrefaction running about them, he gave a
groan; and, spreading out his hands to heaven, called God to witness that
this was not his doing; and such was the sad case of the city itself. But
the Romans were very joyful, since none of the seditious could now make
sallies out of the city, because they were themselves disconsolate, and the
famine already touched them also. These Romans besides had great plenty of
corn and other necessaries out of Syria and out of the neighboring provinces;
many of whom would stand near to the wall of the city and show the people
what great quantities of provisions they had and so make the enemy more
sensible of their famine, by the great plenty, even to satiety, which they
had themselves.

In the mean time Josephus, as he was going round the city, had his head
wounded by a stone that was thrown at him; upon which he fell down as giddy.
Josephus soon recovered of his wound and came out and cried out aloud, that
it would not be long ere they should be punished for this wound they had
given him. He also made a fresh exhortation to the people to come out upon
the security that would be given them. This sight of Josephus encouraged the
people greatly and brought a great consternation upon the seditious.

Hereupon some of the deserters, having no other way, leaped down from
the wall immediately, while others of them went out of the city with stones,
as if they would fight them; but thereupon they fled away to the Romans. But
here a worse fate accompanied these than what they had found within the city;
and they met with a quicker despatch from the too great abundance they had
among the Romans than they could have done from the famine among the Jews,
for when they came first to the Romans they were puffed up by the famine and
swelled like men in a dropsy; after which they all on the sudden overfilled
those bodies that were before empty, and so burst asunder, excepting such
only as were skilful enough to restrain their appetites, and by degrees took
in their food into bodies unaccustomed thereto.

Yet did another plague seize upon those that were thus preserved, for
there was found among the Syrian deserters a certain person who was caught
gathering pieces of gold out of the excrements of the Jews' bellies, for the
deserters used to swallow such pieces of gold, as we told you before, when
they came out, and for these did the seditious search them all; for there was
a great quantity of gold in the city, insomuch that as much was now sold [in
the Roman camp] for twelve Attic [drachmas] as was sold before for
twenty-five. But when this contrivance was discovered in one instance, the
fame of it filled their several camps, that the deserters came to them full
of gold. So the multitude of the Arabians, with the Syrians, cut up those
that came as supplicants, and searched their bellies. Nor does it seem to me
that any misery befell the Jews that was more terrible than this, since in
one night's time about two thousand of these deserters were thus dissected.

When Titus came to the knowledge of this wicked practice, he threatened
that he would put such men to death if any of them were discovered to be so
insolent as to do so again. Moreover, he gave it in charge to the legions,
that they should make a search after such as were suspected, and should bring
them to him. But it appeared that the love of money was too great for all
their dread of punishment, and a vehement desire of gain is natural to men,
and no passion is so venturesome as covetousness. Otherwise such passions
have certain bounds and are subordinate to fear. But in reality it was God
who condemned the whole nation and turned every course that was taken for
their preservation to their destruction. This, therefore, which was
forbidden by Caesar under such a threatening, was ventured upon privately
against the deserters, and these barbarians would go out still and meet those
that ran away before any saw them, and looking about them to see that no
Roman spied them, they dissected them and pulled this polluted money out of
their bowels, which money was still found in a few of them, while yet a great
many were destroyed by the bare hope there was of thus getting by them, which
miserable treatment made many that were deserting to return back again into
the city.

And, indeed, why do I relate these particular calamities? while Manneus,
the son of Lazarus, came running to Titus at this very time and told him that
there had been carried out through that one gate, which was intrusted to his
care, no fewer than a hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty
dead bodies in the interval between the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus
(Nisan), when the Romans pitched their camp by the city, and the first day of
the month Panemus (Tamuz). This was itself a prodigious multitude; and
though this man was not himself set as a governor at that gate, yet was he
appointed to pay the public stipend for carrying these bodies out, and so was
obliged of necessity to number them, while the rest were buried by their
relations, though all their burial was but this, to bring them away and cast
them out of the city.

After this man there ran away to Titus many of the eminent citizens and
told him the entire number of the poor that were dead, and that no fewer than
six hundred thousand were thrown out at the gates, though still the number of
the rest could not be discovered; and they told him further that when they
were no longer able to carry out the dead bodies of the poor they laid their
corpses on heaps in very large houses and shut them up therein; as also that
a medimno of wheat was sold for a talent; and that when, a while afterward,
it was not possible to gather herbs, by reason the city was all walled about,
some persons were driven to that terrible distress as to search the common
sewers and old dunghills of cattle, and to eat the dung which they got there,
and what they of old could not endure so much as to see they now used for
food. When the Romans barely heard all this they commiserated their case;
while the seditious, who saw it also, did not repent, but suffered the same
distress to come upon themselves, for they were blinded by that fate which
was already coming upon the city, and upon themselves also.

And now the Romans, although they were greatly distressed in getting
together their materials, raised their banks in one-and-twenty days, after
they had cut down all the trees that were in the country that adjoined to the
city, and that for ninety furlongs round about. And when the banks were
finished, they afforded a foundation for fear both to the Romans and to the
Jews, for the Jews expected that the city would be taken unless they could
burn those banks, as did the Romans expect that, if these were once burned
down they should never be able to take it, for there was a mighty scarcity of
materials, and the bodies of the soldiers began to fail with such hard
labors, as did their souls faint with so many instances of ill-success.

The Romans had an advantage, in that their engines for sieges cooperated
with them in throwing darts and stones as far as the Jews, when they were
coming out of the city; whereby the man that fell became an impediment to him
that was next to him, as did the danger of going farther make them less
zealous in their attempts; and for those that had run under the darts some
of them were terrified by the good order and closeness of the enemies' ranks
before they came to a close fight, and others were pricked with their spears
and turned back again. At length they reproached one another for their
cowardice, and retired without doing anything. This attack was made upon the
first day of the month Panemus (Tamuz).

So when the Jews were retreated the Romans brought their engines,
although they had all the while stones thrown at them from the tower of
Antonia, and were assaulted by fire and sword, and by all sorts of darts,
which necessity afforded the Jews to make use of, for although these had
great dependence on their own wall, and a contempt of the Roman engines, yet
did they endeavor to hinder the Romans from bringing them. Now these Romans
struggled hard, on the contrary, to bring them, as deeming that this zeal of
the Jews was in order to avoid any impression to be made on the tower of
Antonia, because its wall was but weak and its foundations rotten. However,
that tower did not yield to the blows given it from the engines; yet did the
Romans bear the impressions made by the enemies' darts which were perpetually
cast at them, and did not give way to any of those dangers that came upon
them from above, and so they brought their engines to bear. But then, as
they were beneath the other, and were sadly wounded by the stones thrown down
upon them, some of them threw their shields over their bodies, and partly
with their hands and partly with their bodies and partly with crows they
undermined its foundations, and with great pains they removed four of its
stones. Then night came upon both sides, and put an end to this struggle for
the present. However, that night the wall was so shaken by the battering
rams in that place where John had used his stratagem before, and had
undermined their banks, that the ground then gave way and the wall fell down
suddenly.

When this accident had unexpectedly happened, the minds of both parties
were variously affected, for though one would expect that the Jews would be
discouraged, because this fall of their wall was unexpected by them, and they
had made no provision in that case, yet did they pull up their courage,
because the tower of Antonia itself was still standing; as was the unexpected
joy of the Romans at this fall of the wall soon quenched by the sight they
had of another wall, which John and his party had built within it.

Upon the fifth day of the month Panemus (Tamuz), twelve of those men
that were on the forefront and kept watch upon the banks got together and
called to them the standard-bearer of the Fifth legion, and two others of a
troop of horsemen, and one trumpeter; these went without noise, about the
ninth hour of the night, through the ruins, to the tower of Antonia; and when
they had cut the throats of the first guards of the place, as they were
asleep, they got possession of the wall and ordered the trumpeter to sound
his trumpet. Upon which the rest of the guard got up on the sudden and ran
away before anybody could see how many they were that were gotten up, for
partly from the fear they were in and partly from the sound of the trumpet
which they heard they imagined a great number of the enemy were gotten up.
But as soon as Caesar heard the signal he ordered the army to put on their
armor immediately, and came thither with his commanders, and first of all
ascended, as did the chosen men that were with him. And as the Jews were
flying away to the Temple they fell into that mine which John had dug under
the Roman banks. Then did the seditious of both the bodies of the Jewish
army, as well that belonging to John as that belonging to Simon, drive them
away; and indeed were no way wanting as to the highest degree of force and
alacrity; for they esteemed themselves entirely ruined if once the Romans got
into the Temple, as did the Romans look upon the same thing as the beginning
of their entire conquest.

So a terrible battle was fought at the entrance of the Temple, while the
Romans were forcing their way, in order to get possession of that Temple, and
the Jews were driving them back to the tower of Antonia; in which battle the
darts were on both sides useless, as well as the spears, and both sides drew
their swords and fought it out hand-to-hand. Now during this struggle the
positions of the men were undistinguished on both sides, and they fought at
random, the men being intermixed one with another and confounded, by reason
of the narrowness of the place; while the noise that was made fell on the ear
after an indistinct manner, because it was so very loud. Great slaughter was
now made on both sides, and the combatants trod upon the bodies and the armor
of those that were dead, and dashed them to pieces. Accordingly, to which
side soever the battle inclined, those that had the advantage exhorted one
another to go on, as did those that were beaten make great lamentation. But
still there was no room for flight nor for pursuit, but disorderly
revolutions and retreats, while the armies were intermixed one with another;
but those that were in the first ranks were under the necessity of killing or
being killed, without any way for escaping, for those on both sides that came
behind forced those before them to go on, without leaving any space between
the armies.

At length the Jews' violent zeal was too hard for the Romans' skill, and
the battle already inclined entirely that way; for the fight had lasted from
the ninth hour of the night till the seventh hour of the day, while the Jews
came on in crowds, and had the danger the Temple was in for their motive; the
Romans having no more here than a part of their army, for those legions, on
which the soldiers on that side depended, were not come up to them. So it
was at present thought sufficient by the Romans to take possession of the
tower of Antonia.

In the mean time the rest of the Roman army had, in seven days' time,
overthrown [some] foundations of the tower of Antonia, and had made a ready
and broad way to the Temple. Then did the legions come near the first court
and began to raise their banks. The one bank was over against the northwest
corner of the inner temple; another was at that northern edifice which was
between the two gates; and of the other two, one was at the western cloister
of the outer court of the Temple; the other against its northern cloister.
However these works were thus far advanced by the Romans, not without great
pains and difficulty, and particularly by being obliged to bring their
materials from the distance of a hundred furlongs.

They had further difficulties also upon them; sometimes by their
over-great security they were in that they should overcome the Jewish snares
laid for them, and by that boldness of the Jews which their despair of
escaping had inspired them withal.

In the mean time the Jews were so distressed by the fights they had been
in, as the war advanced higher and higher, and creeping up to the holy house
itself, that they, as it were, cut off those limbs of their body which were
infected, in order to prevent the distemper's spreading further, for they set
the northwest cloister, which was joined to the tower of Antonia, on fire,
and after that brake off about twenty cubits of that cloister, and thereby
made a beginning in burning the sanctuary; two days after which, or on the
twenty-fourth day of the forenamed month [Panemus or Tamuz], the Romans set
fire to the cloister that joined to the other, when the fire went fifteen
cubits farther. The Jews, in like manner, cut off its roof; nor did they
entirely leave off what they were about till the tower of Antonia was parted
from the Temple, even when it was in their power to have stopped the
fire - nay, they lay still while the Temple was first set on fire, and deemed
this spreading of the fire to be for their own advantage. However, the
armies were still fighting one against another about the Temple, and the war
was managed by continual sallies of particular parties against one another.

Now of those that perished by famine in the city the number was
prodigious, and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable, for if so much
as the shadow of any kind of food did anywhere appear a war was commenced
presently, and the dearest friends fell a-fighting one with another about it,
snatching from each other the most miserable supports of life. Nor would men
believe that those who were dying had no food, but the robbers would search
them when they were expiring, lest anyone should have concealed food in his
bosom and counterfeited dying, nay these robbers gaped for want, and ran
about stumbling and staggering along like mad dogs, and reeling against the
doors of the houses like drunken men; they would also, in the great distress
they were in, rush into the very same houses two or three times in one and
the same day. Moreover, their hunger was so intolerable that it obliged
them to chew everything, while they gathered such things as the most sordid
animals would not touch, and endured to eat them; nor did they at length
abstain from girdles and shoes; and the very leather which belonged to their
shields they pulled off and gnawed; the very wisps of old hay became food to
some; and some gathered up fibres and sold a very small weight of them for
four Attic [drachmas].

But why do I describe the shameless impudence that the famine brought on
men in their eating inanimate things, while I am going to relate a matter of
fact, the like to which no history relates, either among the Greeks or
barbarians? It is horrible to speak of it and incredible when heard. I had
indeed willingly omitted this calamity of ours, that I might not seem to
deliver what is so portentous to posterity, but that I have innumerable
witnesses to it in my own age; and besides, my country would have had little
reason to thank me for suppressing the miseries that she underwent at this
time.

There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name was Mary;
her father was Eleazar, of the village Bethezob, which signifies "the House
of Hyssop." She was eminent for her family and her wealth, and had fled away
to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was with them besieged
therein at this time. The other effects of this woman had been already
seized upon, such I mean as she had brought with her out of Perea, and
removed to the city. What she had treasured up besides, as also what food
she had contrived to save, had been also carried off by the rapacious guards,
who came every day running into her house for that purpose. This put the
poor woman into a very great passion, and by the frequent reproaches and
imprecations she cast at these rapacious villains she had provoked them to
anger against her; but none of them, either out of the indignation she had
raised against herself, or out of commiseration of her case, would take away
her life; and if she found any food, she perceived her labors were for
others, and not for herself; and it was now become impossible for her any way
to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and
marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself;
nor did she consult with anything but with her passion and the necessity she
was in. She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son,
who was a child sucking at her breast, she said: "O thou miserable infant!
for whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and this sedition?
As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives we must be slaves.
This famine also will destroy us even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet
are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on: be
thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a byword to
the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us
Jews."

As soon as she had said this she slew her son, and then roasted him, and
eat the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this
the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food,
they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not
show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a
very fine portion of it for them, and withal uncovered what was left of her
son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and
stood astonished at the sight, when she said to them: "This is mine own son,
and what hath been done was mine own doing! Come, eat of this food, for I
have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a
woman or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous and do
abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be
reserved for me also." After which those men went out trembling, being never
so much affrighted at anything as they were at this, and with some difficulty
they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was
full of this horrid action immediately; and while everybody laid this
miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this
unheard-of-action had been done by themselves. So those that were thus
distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those already dead
were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either to hear or
to see such miseries.

This sad instance was quickly told to the Romans, some of whom could not
believe it, and others pitied the distress which the Jews were under; but
there were many of them who were hereby induced to a more bitter hatred than
ordinary against our nation. But for Caesar, he excused himself before God
as to this matter, and said that he had proposed peace and liberty to the
Jews, as well as an oblivion of all their former insolent practices; but that
they, instead of concord, had chosen sedition; instead of peace, war; and
before satiety and abundance, a famine. That they had begun with their own
hands to burn down that Temple which we have preserved hitherto, and that
therefore they deserved to eat such food as this was. That, however, this
horrid action of eating an own child ought to be covered with the overthrow
of their very country itself, and men ought not to leave such a city upon the
habitable earth to be seen by the sun wherein mothers are thus fed, although
such food be fitter for the fathers than for the mothers to eat of, since it
is they that continue still in a state of war against us, after they have
undergone such miseries as these. And at the same time that he said this, he
reflected on the desperate condition these men must be in; nor could he
expect that such men could be recovered to sobriety of mind after they had
endured those very sufferings, for the avoiding whereof it only was probable
they might have repented.

And now two of the legions had completed their banks on the eighth day
of the month Lous [Ab]. Whereupon Titus gave orders that the battering rams
should be brought and set over against the western edifice of the inner
temple; for before these were brought, the firmest of all the other engines
had battered the wall for six days together without ceasing, without making
any impression upon it; but the vast largeness and strong connection of the
stones were superior to that engine and to the other battering rams also.
Other Romans did indeed undermine the foundations of the northern gate, and
after a world of pains removed the outermost stones, yet was the gate still
upheld by the inner stones, and stood still unhurt; till the workmen,
despairing of all such attempts by engines and crows, brought their ladders
to the cloisters.

Now the Jews did not interrupt them in so doing; but when they were
gotten up, they fell upon them and fought with them; some of them they thrust
down and threw them backward headlong; others of them they met and slew; they
also beat many of those that went down the ladders again, and slew them with
their swords before they could bring their shields to protect them; nay, some
of the ladders they threw down from above when they were full of armed men.
A great slaughter was made of the Jews also at the same time, while those
that bare the ensigns fought hard for them, as deeming it a terrible thing,
and what would tend to their great shame, if they permitted them to be stolen
away. Yet did the Jews at length get possession of these engines, and
destroyed those that had gone up the ladders, while the rest were so
intimidated by what those suffered who were slain that they retired; although
none of the Romans died without having done good service before his death.
Of the seditious, those that had fought bravely in the former battles did the
like now, as besides them did Eleazar, the brother's son of Simon the tyrant.
But when Titus perceived that his endeavors to spare a foreign temple turned
to the damage of his soldiers and made them be killed, he gave order to set
the gates on fire.

But then, on the next day, Titus commanded part of his army to quench
the fire and to make a road for the more easy marching up of the legions,
while he himself gathered the commanders together. Titus proposed to these
that they should give him their advice what should be done about the holy
house. Now some of these thought it would be the best way to act according
to the rules of war [and demolish it], because the Jews would never leave off
rebelling while that house was standing; at which house it was that they used
to get all together. Others of them were of opinion that in case the Jews
would leave it, and none of them would lay their arms up in it, he might save
it; but that in case they got upon it and fought any more, he might burn it;
because it must then be looked upon not as a holy house, but as a citadel;
and that the impiety of burning it would then belong to those that forced
this to be done, and not to them.

But Titus said that 'although the Jews should get upon that holy house
and fight us thence, yet ought we not to revenge ourselves on things that are
inanimate, instead of the men themselves"? and that he was not in any case
for burning down so vast a work as that was, because this would be a mischief
to the Romans themselves, as it would be an ornament to their government
while it continued. So Fronto and Alexander and Cerealis grew bold upon
that declaration, and agreed to the opinion of Titus. Then was this assembly
dissolved, when Titus had given orders to the commanders that the rest of
their forces should lie still; but that they should make use of such as were
most courageous in this attack. So he commanded that the chosen men that
were taken out of the cohorts should make their way through the ruins and
quench the fire.

Now it is true that on this day the Jews were so weary and under such
consternation that they refrained from any attacks. But on the next day they
gathered their whole force together, and ran upon those that guarded the
outward court of the Temple very boldly, through the east gate, and this
about the second hour of the day. These guards received their attack with
great bravery, and by covering themselves with their shields before, as if it
were with a wall, drew their squadron close together; yet was it evident that
they could not abide there very long, but would be overborne by the multitude
of those that sallied out upon them, and by the heat of their passion.
However, Caesar seeing, from the tower of Antonia, that this squadron was
likely to give way, sent some chosen horsemen to support them. Hereupon the
Jews found themselves not able to sustain their onset, and, upon the
slaughter of those in the forefront, many of the rest were put to flight.
But as the Romans were going off, the Jews turned upon them and fought them;
and as those Romans came back upon them, they retreated again, until about
the fifth hour of the day they were overborne, and shut themselves up in the
inner [court of the] Temple.

So Titus retired into the tower of Antonia and resolved to storm the
Temple the next day, early in the morning, with his whole army, and to encamp
round about the holy house. But as for that house, God had, for certain,
long ago doomed it to the fire; and now that fatal day was come, according to
the revolution of ages. It was the tenth day of the month Lous [Ab] upon
which it was formerly burned by the king of Babylon; although these flames
took their rise from the Jews themselves, and were occasioned by them, for
upon Titus' retiring the seditious lay still for a little while, and then
attacked the Romans again when those that guarded the holy house fought with
those that quenched the fire that was burning the inner [court of the]
Temple; but these Romans put the Jews to flight and proceeded as far as the
holy house itself. At which time one of the soldiers, without staying for
any orders and without any concern or dread upon him at so great an
undertaking and being hurried on by a certain divine fury, snatched somewhat
out of the materials that were on fire, and being lifted up by another
soldier he set fire to a golden window through which there was a passage to
the rooms that were round about the holy house on the north side of it.

As the flames went upward the Jews made a great clamor such as so mighty
an affliction required and ran together to prevent it; and now they spared
not their lives any longer nor suffered anything to restrain their force,
since that holy house was perishing for whose sake it was that they kept such
a guard about it.

And now Caesar was no way able to restrain the enthusiastic fury of the
soldiers, and the fire proceeded on more and more. He went into the holy
place of the Temple with his commanders and saw it, with what was in it,
which he found to be far superior to what the relations of foreigners
contained, and not inferior to what we ourselves boasted of and believed
about it. But as the flame had not as yet reached to its inward parts, but
was still consuming the rooms that were about the holy house, and Titus
supposing what the fact was, that the house itself might yet be saved, came
in haste and endeavored to persuade the soldiers to quench the fire, and gave
order to Liberalius the centurion, and one of those spearmen that were about
him, to beat the soldiers that were refractory with their staves and to
restrain them; yet were their passions too hard for the regards they had for
Caesar, and the dread they had of him who forbade them, as was their hatred
of the Jews, and a certain vehement inclination to fight them, too hard for
them also. Moreover, the hope of plunder induced many to go on, as having
this opinion, that all the places within were full of money, and as seeing
that all round about it was made of gold. And besides, one of those that
went into the place prevented Caesar, when he ran so hastily out to restrain
the soldiers, and threw the fire upon the hinges of the gate, in the dark;
whereby the flame burst out from within the holy house itself immediately,
when the commanders retired, and Caesar with them, and when nobody any longer
forbade those that were without to set fire to it. And thus was the holy
house burned down without Caesar's approbation.


Siege And Destruction Of Jerusalem
Author: Josephus

Part IV.

While the holy house was on fire everything was plundered that came to
hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor was there a
commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity, but children, and old
men, and profane persons, and priests were all slain in the same manner; so
that this war went round all sorts of men, and brought them to destruction,
and as well those that made supplication for their lives as those that
defended themselves by fighting. The flame was also carried a long way, and
made an echo, together with the groans of those that were slain; and because
this hill was high, and the works at the Temple were very great, one would
have thought the whole city had been on fire. Nor can one imagine anything
either greater or more terrible than this noise, for there was at once a
shout of the Roman legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamor
of the seditious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword.

The people also that were left above were beaten back upon the enemy,
and under a great consternation, and made sad moans at the calamity they were
under; the multitude also that was in the city joined in this outcry with
those that were upon the hill. And besides, many of those that were worn
away by the famine and their mouths almost closed, when they saw the fire of
the holy house they exerted their utmost strength and brake out into groans
and outcries again. Perea did also return the echo, as well as the mountains
round about [the city], and augmented the force of the entire noise. Yet was
the misery itself more terrible than this disorder, for one would have
thought that the hill itself, on which the Temple stood, was seething hot, as
full of fire on every part of it, that the blood was larger in quantity than
the fire, and those that were slain more in number than those that slew them,
for the ground did nowhere appear visible for the dead bodies that lay on it;
but the soldiers went over heaps of those bodies, as they ran upon such as
fled from them.

And now it was that the multitude of the robbers were thrust out [of the
inner court of the Temple] by the Romans, and had much ado to get into the
outward court, and from thence into the city, while the remainder of the
populace fled into the cloister of that outer court. As for the priests,
some of them plucked up from the holy house the spikes that were upon it,
with their bases, which were made of lead, and shot them at the Romans
instead of darts. But then as they gained nothing by so doing, and as the
fire burst out upon them, they retired to the wall that was eight cubits
broad, and there they tarried.

And now the Romans, judging that it was in vain to spare what was round
about the holy house, burned all those places, as also the remains of the
cloisters and the gates, two excepted: the one on the east side and the other
on the south; both which, however, they burned afterward. They also burned
down the treasury chambers, in which was an immense quantity of money and an
immense number of garments and other precious goods there reposited; and, to
speak all in a few words, there it was that the entire riches of the Jews
were heaped up together, while the rich people had there built themselves
chambers (to contain such furniture). The soldiers also came to the rest of
the cloisters that were in the outer (court of the) Temple, whither the women
and children, and a great mixed multitude of the people, fled, in number
about six thousand. But before Caesar had determined anything about these
people, or given the commanders any orders relating to them, the soldiers
were in such a rage that they set that cloister on fire; by which means it
came to pass that some of these were destroyed by throwing themselves down
headlong, and some were burned in the cloisters themselves. Nor did any one
of them escape with his life.

And now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and
upon the burning of the holy house itself and of all the buildings round
about it, brought their ensigns to the Temple and set them over against its
eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they
make Titus imperator with the greatest acclamations of joy. And now all the
soldiers had such vast quantities of the spoils which they had gotten by
plunder that in Syria a pound weight of gold was sold for half its former
value.

But as for the tyrants themselves and those that were with them, when
they found that they were encompassed on every side, and, as it were, walled
round, without any method of escaping, they desired to treat with Titus by
word of mouth. Accordingly, such was the kindness of his nature and his
desire of preserving the city from destruction, joined to the advice of his
friends, who now thought the robbers were come to a temper, that he placed
himself on the western side of the outer (court of the) Temple, for there
were gates on that side above the Xystus, and a bridge that connected the
upper city to the Temple. This bridge it was that lay between the tyrants
and Caesar, and parted them; while the multitude stood on each side; those of
the Jewish nation about Simon and John, with great hopes of pardon; and the
Romans about Caesar, in great expectation how Titus would receive their
supplication.

So Titus charged his soldiers to restrain their rage and to let their
darts alone, and appointed an interpreter between them, which was a sign that
he was the conqueror, and first began the discourse, and said: "I hope you,
sirs, are now satiated with the miseries of your country, who have not had
any just notions either of our great power or of your own great weakness, but
have, like madmen, after a violent and inconsiderate manner, made such
attempts as have brought your people, your city, and your holy house to
destruction. You have been the men that have never left off rebelling since
Pompey first conquered you, and have since that time made open war with the
Romans.... And now, vile wretches, do you desire to treat with me by word
of mouth? To what purpose is it that you would save such a holy house as
this was which is now destroyed? What preservation can you now desire after
the destruction of your Temple? Yet do you stand still at this very time in
your armor; nor can you bring yourselves so much as to pretend to be
supplicants even in this your utmost extremity. O miserable creatures! what
is it you depend on? Are not your people dead? is not your holy house gone?
is not your city in my power? and are not your own very lives in my hands?
And do you still deem it a part of valor to die? However, I will not imitate
your madness. If you throw down your arms and deliver up your bodies to me,
I grant you your lives; and I will act like a mild master of a family; what
cannot be healed shall be punished, and the rest I will preserve for my own
use."

To that offer of Titus they made this reply: That they could not accept
of it, because they had sworn never to do so; but they desired they might
have leave to go through the wall that had been made about them, with their
wives and children; for that they would go into the desert and leave the city
to him.

At this Titus had great indignation, that when they were in the case of
men already taken captives, they should pretend to make their own terms with
him, as if they had been conquerors. So he ordered this proclamation to be
made to them: That they should no more come out to him as deserters, nor hope
for any further security, for that he would henceforth spare nobody, but
fight them with his whole army; and that they must save themselves as well as
they could, for that he would from henceforth treat them according to the
laws of war. So he gave orders to the soldiers both to burn and to plunder
the city; who did nothing indeed that day; but on the next day they set fire
to the repository of the archives, to Acra, to the council house, and to the
place called Ophlas; at which time the fire proceeded as far as the palace of
Queen Helena, which was in the middle of Acra; the lanes also were burned
down, as were also those houses that were full of the dead bodies of such as
were destroyed by famine.

On the same day it was that the sons and brethren of Izates the King,
together with many others of the eminent men of the populace, got together
there, and besought Caesar to give them his right hand for their security.
Upon which, though he was very angry at all that were now remaining, yet did
he not lay aside his old moderation, but received these men. At that time,
indeed, he kept them all in custody, but still bound the King's sons and
kinsmen, and led them with him to Rome, in order to make them hostages for
their country's fidelity to the Romans.

And now the seditious rushed into the royal palace, into which many had
put their effects, because it was so strong, and drove the Romans away from
it. They also slew all the people that had crowded into it, who were in
number about eight thousand four hundred, and plundered them of what they
had.

On the next day the Romans drove the robbers out of the lower city and
set all on fire as far as Siloam. These soldiers were indeed glad to see the
city destroyed. But they missed the plunder, because the seditious had
carried off all their effects, and were retired into the upper city, for they
did not yet at all repent of the mischiefs they had done, but were insolent,
as if they had done well; for, as they saw the city on fire, they appeared
cheerful, and put on joyful countenances, in expectation, as they said, of
death to end their miseries. Accordingly, as the people were now slain, the
holy house was burned down, and the city was on fire, there was nothing
further left for the enemy to do. Yet did not Josephus grow weary, even in
this utmost extremity, to beg of them to spare what was left of the city; he
spake largely to them about their barbarity and impiety, and gave them his
advice in order to their escape, though he gained nothing thereby more than
to be laughed at by them; and as they could not think of surrendering
themselves up, because of the oath they had taken, nor were strong enough to
fight with the Romans any longer upon the square, as being surrounded on all
sides, and a kind of prisoners already, yet were they so accustomed to kill
people that they could not restrain their right hands from acting
accordingly.

So they dispersed themselves before the city and laid themselves in
ambush among its ruins, to catch those that attempted to desert to the
Romans. Accordingly, many such deserters were caught by them and were all
slain, for these were too weak, by reason of their want of food, to fly away
from them; so their dead bodies were thrown to the dogs. Now every other
sort of death was thought more tolerable than the famine, insomuch that,
though the Jews despaired now of mercy, yet would they fly to the Romans, and
would themselves, even of their own accord, fall among the murderous rebels
also. Nor was there any place in the city that had no dead bodies in it, but
what was entirely covered with those that were killed either by the famine or
the rebellion; and all was full of the dead bodies of such as had perished,
either by that sedition or by the famine.

So now the last hope which supported the tyrants and that crew of
robbers who were with them was in the caves and caverns underground; whither,
if they could once fly, they did not expect to be searched for; but
endeavored that, after the whole city should be destroyed and the Romans gone
away, they might come out again and escape from them. This was no better
than a dream of theirs, for they were not able to lie hid either from God or
from the Romans. However, they depended on these underground subterfuges,
and set more places on fire than did the Romans themselves; and those that
fled out of their houses thus set on fire into the ditches they killed
without mercy, and pillaged them also; and if they discovered food belonging
to anyone they seized upon it and swallowed it down, together with their
blood also - nay, they were now come to fight one with another about their
plunder; and I cannot but think that, had not their destruction prevented it,
their barbarity would have made them taste of even the dead bodies
themselves.

Now when Caesar perceived that the upper city was so steep that it could
not possibly be taken without raising banks against it, he distributed the
several parts of that work among his army, and this on the twentieth day of
the month Lous [Ab].

It was at this time that the commanders of the Idumeans got together
privately and took counsel about surrendering up themselves to the Romans.
Accordingly, they sent five men to Titus and entreated him to give them his
right hand for their security. So Titus, thinking that the tyrants would
yield, if the Idumeans, upon whom a great part of the war depended, were once
withdrawn from them, after some reluctancy and delay complied with them, and
gave them security for their lives, and sent the five men back. But as these
Idumeans were preparing to march out, Simon perceived it, and immediately
slew the five men that had gone to Titus, and took their commanders and put
them in prison, of whom the most eminent was Jacob, the son of Sosas; but as
for the multitude of the Idumeans, who did not at all know what to do, now
their commanders were taken from them, he had them watched, and secured the
walls by a more numerous garrison. Yet could not that garrison resist those
that were deserting, for although a great number of them were slain, yet were
the deserters many more in number. These were all received by the Romans,
because Titus himself grew negligent as to his former orders for killing
them, and because the very soldiers grew weary of killing them, and because
they hoped to get some money by sparing them, for they left only the
populace, and sold the rest of the multitude, with their wives and children,
and every one of them at a very low price, and that because such as were sold
were very many, and the buyers were few; and although Titus had made
proclamation beforehand that no deserter should come alone by himself, that
so they might bring out their families with them, yet did he receive such as
these also.

However, he set over them such as were to distinguish some from others,
in order to see if any of them deserved to be punished. And indeed the
number of those that were sold was immense; but of the populace above forty
thousand were saved, whom Caesar let go whither every one of them pleased.

But now at this time it was that one of the priests, the son of
Thebuthus, whose name was Jesus, upon his having security given him, by the
oath of Caesar, that he should be preserved upon condition that he should
deliver to him certain of the precious things that had been deposited in the
Temple, came out of it and delivered him from the wall of the holy house two
candlesticks, like to those that lay in the holy house, with tables, and
cisterns, and vials, all made of solid gold and very heavy. He also
delivered to him the veils and the garments, with the precious stones, and a
great number of other precious vessels that belonged to their sacred worship.

The treasurer of the Temple also, whose name was Phineas, was seized on,
and showed Titus the coats and girdles of the priests, with a great quantity
of purple and scarlet, which were there deposited for the uses of the veil,
as also a great deal of cinnamon and cassia, with a large quantity of other
sweet spices, which used to be mixed together and offered as incense to
God every day. A great many other treasures were also delivered to him, with
sacred ornaments of the Temple not a few, which things thus delivered to
Titus obtained of him for this man the same pardon that he had allowed to
such as deserted of their own accord.

And now were the banks finished on the seventh day of the month Gorpieus
(Elul) in eighteen days' time, when the Romans brought their machines against
the wall. But for the seditious, some of them, as despairing of saving the
city, retired from the wall to the citadel. Others of them went down into
the subterranean vaults, though still a great many of them defended
themselves against those that brought the engines for the battery; yet did
the Romans overcome them by their number and by their strength; and, what was
the principal thing of all, by going cheerfully about their work, while the
Jews were quite dejected and become weak. Now as soon as a part of the wall
was battered down, and certain of the towers yielded to the impression of the
battering rams, those that opposed themselves fled away, and such a terror
fell upon the tyrants as was much greater than the occasion required, for
before the enemy got over the breach they were quite stunned, and were
immediately for flying away. And now one might see these men, who had
hitherto been so insolent and arrogant in their wicked practices, to be cast
down and to tremble, insomuch that it would pity one's heart to observe the
change that was made in those vile persons.

Accordingly, they ran with great violence upon the Roman wall that
encompassed them, in order to force away those that guarded it, and to break
through it and get away. But when they saw that those who had formerly been
faithful to them had gone away - as indeed they were fled whithersoever the
great distress they were in persuaded them to flee - as also when those that
came running before the rest told them that the western wall was entirely
overthrown, while others said the Romans were gotten in, and others that they
were near and looking out for them, which were only the dictates of their
fear, which imposed upon their sight, they fell upon their face and greatly
lamented their own mad conduct; and their nerves were so terribly loosed that
they could not flee away. And here one may chiefly reflect on the power of
God exercised upon these wicked wretches, and on the good fortune of the
Romans, for these tyrants did now wholly deprive themselves of the security
they had in their own power, and came down from those very towers of their
own accord, wherein they could have never been taken by force, nor indeed by
any other way than by famine. And thus did the Romans, when they had taken
such great pains about weaker walls, get by good fortune what they could
never have gotten by their engines, for three of these towers were too strong
for all mechanical engines whatsoever.

So they now left these towers of themselves, or rather they were ejected
out of them by God himself, and fled immediately to that valley which was
under Siloam, where they again recovered themselves out of the dread they
were in for a while, and ran violently against that part of the Roman wall
which lay on that side; but as their courage was too much depressed to make
their attacks with sufficient force, and their power was now broken with fear
and affliction, they were repulsed by the guards, and dispersing themselves
at distances from each other, went down into the subterranean caverns.

So the Romans being now become masters of the walls, they both placed
their ensigns upon the towers and made joyful acclamations for the victory
they had gained, as having found the end of this war much lighter than its
beginning, for when they had gotten upon the last wall, without any
bloodshed, they could hardly believe what they found to be true; but seeing
nobody to oppose them, they stood in doubt what such an unusual solitude
could mean. But when they went in numbers into the lanes of the city with
their swords drawn they slew those whom they overtook without mercy, and set
fire to the houses whither the Jews were fled, and burned every soul in them,
and laid waste a great many of the rest; and when they were come to the
houses to plunder them they found in them entire families of dead men; and
the upper rooms full of corpses, that is, of such as died by the famine.
They stood in horror at this sight, and went out without touching anything.

Although they had this commiseration for such as were destroyed in that
manner, yet had they not the same for those that were still alive, but they
ran every one through whom they met, and obstructed the very lanes with their
dead bodies, and made the whole city run with blood, to such a degree indeed
that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood. And
truly so it happened, that though the slayers left off at the evening, yet
did the fire greatly prevail in the night; and as all was burning, came that
eighth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul] upon Jerusalem, a city that had been
liable to so many miseries during this siege, that, had it always enjoyed as
much happiness from its first foundation, it would certainly have been the
envy of the world. Nor did it on any other account so much deserve these
sore misfortunes as by producing such a generation of men as were the
occasion of this its overthrow.

Now when Titus was come into this (upper) city, he admired not only some
other places of strength in it, but particularly those strong towers which
the tyrants in their mad conduct had relinquished, for when he saw their
solid altitude, and the largeness of their several stones, and the exactness
of their joints, as also how great was their breadth and how extensive their
length, he expressed himself after the manner following: "We have certainly
had God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than God who
ejected the Jews out of these fortifications, for what could the hands of men
or any machines do toward overthrowing these towers?" At which time he had
many such discourses to his friends; he also let such go free as had been
bound by the tyrants, and were left in the prisons. To conclude, when he
entirely demolished the rest of the city and overthrew its walls, he left
these towers as a monument of his good fortune, which had proved his
auxiliaries, and enabled him to take what could not otherwise have been taken
by him.

And now, since his soldiers were already quite tired with killing men,
and yet there appeared to be a vast multitude still remaining alive, Caesar
gave orders that they should kill none but those that were in arms and
opposed them, but should take the rest alive. But, together with those whom
they had orders to slay, they slew the aged and the infirm; but for those
that were in their flourishing age and who might be useful to them they drove
them together into the Temple and shut them up within the walls of the court
of the women, over which Caesar set one of his freedmen, as also Fronto, one
of his own friends, which last was to determine everyone's fate, according
to his merits.

So this Fronto slew all those that had been seditious and robbers, who
were impeached one by another; but of the young men he chose out the tallest
and most beautiful and reserved them for the triumph, and as for the rest of
the multitude that were above seventeen years old he put them into bonds and
sent them to the Egyptian mines. Titus also sent a great number into the
provinces as a present to them, that they might be destroyed upon their
theatres by the sword and by the wild beasts; but those that were under
seventeen years of age were sold for slaves. Now during the days wherein
Fronto was distinguishing these men there perished, for want of food, eleven
thousand, some of whom did not taste any food, through the hatred their
guards bore to them, and others would not take in any when it was given them.
The multitude also was so very great that they were in want even of corn for
their sustenance.

Now the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war
was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that
perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand, the greater part of
whom was indeed of the same nation [with the citizens of Jerusalem], but not
belonging to the city itself. They were come up from all the country to the
feast of unleavened bread and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which, at
the very first, occasioned so great a straitness among them that there came a
pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterward such a famine as
destroyed them more suddenly.

That this city could contain so many people in it is manifest by that
number of them which was taken under Cestius, who, being desirous of
informing Nero of the power of the city, who otherwise was disposed to
contemn that nation, entreated the high-priests, if the thing were possible,
to take the number of their whole multitude. So these high-priests, upon the
coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their
sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not
less than ten belong to every sacrifice (for it is not lawful for them to
feast singly by themselves), and many of them were twenty in a company, found
the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred,
which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to
two millions seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure
and holy; for as to those that have the leprosy, or the gonorrhoea, or women
that have their monthly courses, or such as are otherwise polluted, it is not
lawful for them to be partakers of this sacrifice; nor indeed for any
foreigners neither, who come hither to worship.

Now this vast multitude is ndeed collected out of remote places, but
the entire nation was now shut up by fate as in prison, and the Roman army
encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly, the
multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all the destructions that
either men or God ever brought upon the world; for, to speak only of what was
publicly known, the Romans slew some of them, some they carried captives, and
others they made a search for underground, and when they found where they
were they broke up the ground and slew all they met with. There were also
found slain there above two thousand persons, partly by their own hands and
partly by one another, but chiefly destroyed by the famine; but then the
ill-savor of the dead bodies was most offensive to those that lighted upon
them, insomuch that some were obliged to get away immediately, while others
were so greedy of gain that they would go in among the dead bodies that lay
on heaps and tread upon them, for a great deal of treasure was found in these
caverns, and the hope of gain made every way of getting it to be esteemed
lawful.

Many also of those that had been put in prison by the tyrants were now
brought out, for they did not leave off their barbarous cruelty at the very
last; yet did God avenge himself upon them both in a manner agreeable to
justice. As for John, he wanted food, together with his brethren, in these
caverns, and begged that the Romans would now give him their right hand for
his security, which he had often proudly rejected before; but for Simon, he
struggled hard with the distress he was in, till he was forced to surrender
himself. So he was reserved for the triumph, and to be then slain, as was
John condemned to perpetual imprisonment. And now the Romans set fire to the
extreme parts of the city, and burned them down, and entirely demolished its
walls.

And thus was Jerusalem taken, in the second year of the reign of
Vespasian, on the eighth day of the month Gorpeius (Elul). It had been taken
five times before, though this was the second time of its desolation, for
Shishak, the king of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, and after him Pompey,
and after them Sosius and Herod, took the city, but still preserved it; but
before all these the king of Babylon conquered it and made it desolate, one
thousand four hundred and sixty-eight years and six months after it was
built.

But he who first built it was a potent man among the Canaanites, and is
in our own tongue called (Melchisedek), the righteous king, for such he
really was. On which account he was (there) the first priest of God, and
first built a temple (there), and called the city Jerusalem, which was
formerly called Salem. However, David, the king of the Jews, ejected the
Canaanites, and settled his own people therein.

It was demolished entirely by the Babylonians, four hundred and
seventy-seven years and six months after him. And from King David, who was
the first of the Jews who reigned therein, to this destruction under Titus,
were one thousand one hundred and seventy-nine years; but from its first
building till this last destruction were two thousand one hundred and
seventy-seven years; yet hath not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches,
nor the diffusion of its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the
greatness of the veneration paid to it on a religious account, been
sufficient to preserve it from being destroyed. And thus ended the siege of
Jerusalem.