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 Cæsar 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
Cæsar 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, and
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 lots 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.
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.