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."
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 Cæsar. 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 Cæsar, 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.