all sides was carnage and flight. Most of the slain were civilians, a
weak and unarmed mob, each butchered where he was caught. Around the
altar a pile of corpses was accumulating; down the sanctuary steps
flowed a stream of blood; and down the same decline slid the bodies of
the victims killed above.
* * * * *
Cæsar, finding himself unable to restrain the impetuosity of his
frenzied soldiers and that the fire was gaining the mastery, passed with
his generals within the building and beheld the holy place of the
sanctuary and all that it contained—things far exceeding the reports
current among foreigners and not inferior to their proud reputation
among our own nation. As the flames had nowhere yet penetrated to the
interior, but were consuming the outbuildings of the sanctuary, Titus,
rightly supposing that the structure might still be preserved, rushed
out and endeavoured by personal appeals to induce the soldiers to quench
the fire; at the same time directing Liberalius, a centurion of his
bodyguard of lancers, to restrain, by resort to clubs, any who disobeyed
orders. But their respect for Cæsar and their fear of the officer who
was endeavouring to check them were overpowered by their rage, their
hatred of the Jews and the lust of battle, an even mightier master. Most
of them were further stimulated by the hope of plunder, believing that
the interior was full of money and actually seeing that all the
surroundings were made of gold.
Moreover, when Cæsar rushed out to restrain the soldiers, even one of
those who had entered with him baulked his purpose by thrusting a
firebrand, in the darkness,[314] into the sockets of the gate. At once a
flame shot up from the interior, whereupon Cæsar and his generals
withdrew, and there was none left to prevent those on the outside from
kindling a blaze. Thus, then, against Cæsar’s wishes, was the sanctuary
set on fire.
* * * * *
Deeply as one must mourn for the most marvellous edifice which we have
ever seen or heard of, whether we consider its structure, its magnitude,
the richness of every detail or the reputation of its Holy Places,[315]
yet may we draw very great consolation from the thought that there is no
escape from Fate, for works of art and places any more than for living
beings. And one may well marvel at the exactness of the cycle of
Destiny; for, as I said, she waited until the very month and the very
day on which in bygone times the Temple had been burnt by the
Babylonians.—_B.J._ VI. 4. 4-8 (244-268).
Footnote 309:
Or “to the people whose own the Temple was.”
Footnote 310:
Or “into.”
Footnote 311:
Text uncertain.
Footnote 312:
Or “a small golden door.”
Footnote 313:
Possibly there is an allusion to the burning of the porticoes in the
riots at the time of the accession of Archelaus, when many Jews
perished in the flames (_Ant._ XVII. 10. 2).
Footnote 314:
Text doubtful.
Footnote 315:
_i. e._ the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.
(50) Portents and Oracles[316]
Thus it happened that the wretched people were deluded at that time by
charlatans and pretended messengers of God;[317] while they paid no heed
to or discredited the manifest portents that foretold the coming
desolation, but, as if thunderstruck and bereft of eyes and mind,
disregarded God’s plain proclamations (of disaster). So it was when a
star, resembling a sword, stood over the city, and a comet which
continued for a year. So again when, before the revolt and the outbreak
of war, at the time when the people were assembling for the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, on the eighth of the month Xanthicus,[318] at the
ninth hour of the night, so brilliant a light shone round the altar and
the sanctuary that it seemed to be broad daylight; and this continued
for half an hour. By the inexperienced this was regarded as a good omen,
but by the sacred scribes it was at once interpreted in accordance with
after events.
At that same feast a cow that had been led by some one[319] to the
sacrifice gave birth to a lamb in the midst of the Temple. Moreover, the
eastern gate of the inner court, which it took twenty men to close with
difficulty at even—it was of brass and very massive, and was secured by
bars shod with iron, and had bolts which were sunk to a great depth into
a threshold consisting of a solid block of stone—this gate was observed
at the sixth hour of the night to have opened of its own accord. The
watchmen of the Temple ran and reported the matter to the captain,[320]
and he came up and with difficulty succeeded in shutting it. This again
to the uninitiated seemed the best of omens, as they supposed that God
had opened to them the gate of blessings; but the learned understood
that the security of the Temple was dissolving of its own accord and
that the opening of the gate indicated a present to the enemy,
interpreting the portent in their own minds[321] as a symbol of
desolation.
Again, not many days after the festival, on the twenty-first of the
month Artemisium,[322] there appeared a phenomenon so miraculous as to
surpass belief. Indeed, what I am about to relate might well, I suppose,
be regarded as fictitious, were it not for the narratives of
eyewitnesses and for the subsequent calamities which deserved to be so
signalized. In all parts of the country before sunset chariots were
observed in the air and armed battalions rushing through the clouds and
closing in round the cities. Also, at the feast which is called
Pentecost, the priests on entering the inner court of the Temple by
night, as their custom was, for the discharge of their ministrations,
reported that they first became aware of a movement and a resounding
noise and afterwards heard a voice as of a crowd, “We are departing
hence.”[323]
But a further portent was even more alarming. Four years before the war,
when the city was enjoying profound peace and prosperity, there came to
the feast at which it is the custom of all Jews to erect tabernacles to
God,[324] one Jesus, son of Ananias, a rude peasant, who suddenly began
to cry out in the Temple, “A voice from the east, a voice from the west,
a voice from the four winds; a voice against Jerusalem and the
sanctuary, a voice against bridegrooms and brides, a voice against all
the people.” Day and night he went about all the alleys with this cry on
his lips. Some of the leading citizens, incensed at the fellow’s
ill-omened words, laid hands on him and severely chastised him. But he,
without uttering a word on his own behalf or for the private ear of
those who smote him, continued his cries as before. Thereupon, the
rulers, supposing, as was indeed the case, that the man was under some
supernatural impulse, brought him before the Roman governor, where,
although flayed to the bone with scourges, he neither begged for mercy
nor shed a tear, but, merely introducing the most mournful of variations
into his ejaculation, responded to each stroke with “Woe to Jerusalem!”
When Albinus, the governor, asked him who and whence he was and why he
uttered these words, he made no reply whatever to his questions, but
never ceased reiterating his dirge over the city, until Albinus
pronounced him a maniac and let him go.
During all that period up to the outbreak of war he neither approached
nor was seen talking to any of the citizens, but, as if it were a prayer
on which he had pondered, daily repeated his lament, “Woe to Jerusalem!”
He neither cursed any of those who beat him day after day nor blessed
those who offered him food; to all that melancholy and ominous refrain
was his one reply. At the festivals his cries were loudest. So for seven
years and five months he continued his wail, his voice never flagging
nor his strength exhausted, until during the siege, after witnessing the
verification of his presage, he ceased. For, while going his round on
the wall, shouting in piercing tones “Woe once more to the city and to
the people and to the Temple,” as he added a last word, “And woe to
myself also,” a stone shot from the military engine[325] struck and
killed him instantaneously. So with those ominous words still on his
lips he passed away.
* * * * *
If we reflect on these things, we shall find that God shows care for
men, and by all kinds of premonitory signs indicates to His people the
means of salvation, and that they owe their destruction to folly and
calamities of their own choosing. For example, the Jews, after the
demolition of the (tower of) Antonia, reduced the Temple to a square,
although they had it recorded in their oracles that the city and the
sanctuary would be taken when the Temple should become four-square. But
what more than all else incited them to the war was an ambiguous oracle,
likewise found in their sacred writings, to the effect that about that
time some one from their country should become ruler of the world. This
they understood to mean some one of their own race, and many of their
wise men went astray in their interpretation of it. The oracle, however,
in reality signified the sovereignty of Vespasian, who was proclaimed
Emperor on Jewish soil.
For all that, it is impossible for men to avoid Fate, even though they
foresee it. For some of these portents, then, the Jews found agreeable
meanings, others they treated with contempt, until the ruin of their
country and their own destruction convicted them of their folly.—_B.J._
VI. 5. 3 f. (288-315).
Footnote 316:
Cf. Appendix, Note VI.
Footnote 317:
The “tyrants” had encouraged optimistic false prophets in order to
prevent desertion to the Romans.
Footnote 318:
March-April.
Footnote 319:
Eusebius (_H.E._ III. 8) reads “by the High Priest.”
Footnote 320:
Cf. Acts iv. 1; v. 24.
Footnote 321:
Or “among themselves.”
Footnote 322:
April-May.
Footnote 323:
So all the Gr. MSS (cf. Tac. _Hist._ v. 13, _maior humanâ vox excedere
deos_). The Lat. version, with two other authorities, reads, “Let us
depart hence.”
Footnote 324:
The Feast of Tabernacles (_Sukkoth_).
Footnote 325:
πετροβόλος, the Lat. _ballista_, a kind of large catapult.
(51) The Last Scene. Capture of the Upper City. Jerusalem in Flames
“Tum vero omne mihi visum considere in ignes....”
[Sidenote: September A.D. 70]
The Romans, now masters of the walls, planted their standards on the
towers, and with clapping of hands and jubilation raised the song of
triumph in honour of their victory. They had found the end of the war a
much lighter task than the beginning; indeed, they could hardly believe
that they had surmounted the last wall without bloodshed, and were
truly[326] at a loss on finding no enemy in sight.
Pouring into the alleys, sword in hand, they massacred indiscriminately
all whom they met and burnt over their heads the houses of those who had
taken refuge within. Often in the course of their raids, on entering the
houses for loot, they would find whole families of dead bodies and the
rooms filled with the victims of the famine, and then, shuddering at the
sight, would retire empty-handed. Yet, while they pitied those who had
thus perished, they had no similar feelings for the living, but, running
every one through that fell in their way, they choked the alleys with
corpses and deluged the whole city with blood, insomuch that the flames
of many of the burning buildings were extinguished by the gory stream.
Towards evening they ceased slaughtering, but when night fell the fire
gained the mastery, and the dawn of the eighth day of the month Gorpiæus
[Sidenote: September] broke upon Jerusalem in flames; a city which had
suffered such calamities in the siege, that, had she from her first
foundation enjoyed an equal share of blessings, she would have been
thought wholly enviable; and undeserving, moreover, of these great
misfortunes on all other grounds, save that she produced so evil a
generation as that which caused her overthrow.
* * * * *
Of all the strong defences of the city those which chiefly aroused the
admiration of Titus, on his entry, were the towers, which the tyrants,
in their infatuation, had abandoned. Indeed, when he beheld their solid
lofty mass, the magnitude of each block of stone and the accuracy of the
joinings, and saw how great was their breadth, how vast their height,
“We have indeed,” he exclaimed, “had God on our side in the battle. God
it was who ejected the Jews from these strongholds; for what power have
human hands or engines against these towers?” He made many similar
observations to his friends on that occasion, and also liberated all who
had been imprisoned by the tyrants and left in the forts. And when, at a
later period, he demolished the rest of the city and razed the walls, he
left these towers as a memorial of his attendant fortune, to whose
co-operation he owed his conquest of defences which defied
assault.—_B.J._ VI. 8. 5-9. 1 (403-413).
Footnote 326:
Some MSS read “unusually” (ἀήθως for ἀληθῶς).
(52) The Spoils from the Temple in the Triumphal Procession in Rome
The Jewish spoils—the table of shew-bread, incense-cups and
trumpets—as borne in the procession still figure on the Arch of
Titus in Rome; a representation _e.g._ in Driver’s _Exodus_ (_Camb.
Bible_), p. 273.
The rest of the spoils borne (in procession) were not systematically
assorted; but conspicuous above all stood out those captured from the
Temple at Jerusalem. These consisted of a golden table,[327] many
talents in weight, and a lampstand,[328] likewise made of gold,
constructed on a different pattern from those which we use in ordinary
life. Affixed to a pedestal was a central shaft, from which there
extended slender branches, arranged trident-fashion, a wrought lamp
being attached to the extremity of each branch. There were seven of
these lamps, indicating the honour paid to that number among the Jews.
After these, and last of all the spoils, was carried a copy of the
Jewish Law.—_B.J._ VII. 5. 5 (148-150).
Footnote 327:
The table of shew-bread.
Footnote 328:
Or “candlestick.”
VIII. THE JEWISH SECTS
(53) The Three Sects and their Views on Fate and Free-Will
This account occurs in the history of the Maccabæan period. The
saying of R. Aqiba (_Pirqe Aboth_, III. 24) may be quoted in
illustration of this passage: “Everything is foreseen; and free-will
is given,” where Predestination and Free-will are set side by side,
as if not irreconcilable.
At this time [Sidenote: _c._ 145 B.C.] there were three sects of Jews,
holding different opinions about human actions; the first was called the
sect of the Pharisees, the second that of the Sadducees, and the third
that of the Essenes.
The Pharisees assert that some, but not all, events are the work of
Fate, and some are under our own control, to be or not to be. The
followers of the Essenes affirm that Fate is all-powerful, and that
nothing befalls men except in accordance with her decree. The Sadducees
abolish Fate, maintaining that there is no such thing, that the events
of human life are not dependent upon her, and that all things fall
within our own control; so that it is we who are responsible for our
blessings and bring our misfortunes on ourselves by our own
thoughtlessness.—_Ant._ XIII. 5. 9 (171-173).
(54) The Essenes, with a note on Pharisees and Sadducees
Jewish philosophy takes three forms. The followers of the first school
are called Pharisees, of the second Sadducees, of the third Essenes.
The Essenes: their Asceticism, Simplicity of Life and Community of Goods
A studied gravity[329] is the distinguishing characteristic of the
Essenes. Of Jewish birth, they show a greater attachment to each other
than do the other sects. They shun pleasures as a vice and regard
temperance and the control of the passions as a special virtue. Marriage
they disdain, but they adopt other men’s children, while yet pliable and
docile, and regard them as their kin and mould them in accordance with
their own principles. They do not wholly condemn wedlock and the
continuance thereby of the human race, but guard against women’s
wantonness, being persuaded that none of the sex keeps her plighted
troth to one man.
Riches they despise, and their community of goods is a wonderful
arrangement; you will not find one among them distinguished by greater
opulence than another. They have a law that new members on admission to
the sect shall confiscate their property to the order, with the result
that you will nowhere see either abject poverty or inordinate wealth;
the individual’s possessions join the common stock and all the
brotherhood enjoy a single patrimony.
Oil they consider defiling, and any one who accidentally comes in
contact with it scours his person; for they make a point of keeping a
dry skin and of always being dressed in white.
They elect overseers of the common property,[330] and all their
officials for various purposes are chosen[331] by the whole body.
They occupy no one city; each city has its own settlement. On the
arrival of any of the sect from elsewhere, all the resources of the
community are put at their disposal, just as if they were their own; and
they enter the houses of men whom they have never seen before as though
they were their most intimate friends. Consequently, they carry nothing
whatever with them on their journeys, except arms as a protection
against brigands. In every city of the order there is one expressly
appointed to attend to strangers, who provides them with raiment and
other necessaries.
In their dress and general appearance they resemble boys who are
schooled under a rigorous system.[332] They do not change their garments
or shoes until they are torn to shreds or worn threadbare with age.
There is no buying or selling among themselves, but each gives what he
has to any in need and receives from him in exchange something useful to
himself; they are also freely permitted to accept whatever they choose
without making any return.
Their Prayers to the Sun. The Refectory
In religious matters[333] their piety is unique. Before the sun is up
they utter no word on mundane matters, but offer to him certain prayers,
which have been handed down from their forefathers, as though entreating
him to rise. They are then dismissed by the overseers to the various
crafts in which they are severally proficient and are strenuously
occupied until the fifth hour, when they again assemble in one place
and, girding themselves with linen cloths, so equipped bathe their
bodies in cold water. After this purification, they collect in a private
apartment which none of the uninitiated is permitted to enter, and so,
pure and by themselves, repair to the Refectory, as to some sacred
shrine. When they have taken their seats in silence, the baker serves
out the loaves to them in order, and the cook sets before each a single
vessel of one kind of food. Before meat the priest says a grace, and
none may partake until after the prayer. When breakfast[334] is ended,
he pronounces a further grace; thus at the beginning and at the close
they do homage to God as the bountiful giver of life.[335] Then laying
aside their raiment, as holy (vestments), they again betake themselves
to their labours until the evening. On their return they sup in like
manner, and any guests who may have arrived sit down with them. No
clamour or disturbance ever pollutes their dwelling; conversation takes
place in turn, each man making way for his neighbour. To persons outside
the silence of those within appears like some awful mystery; it is in
fact due to their continuous sobriety and to the limitation of their
allotted portions of meat and drink to the demands of nature.
In all other matters they do nothing without orders from the overseers;
two things only are left to individual discretion, the rendering of
assistance and compassion. Members may of their own motion help the
deserving, when in need,[336] and proffer food to the destitute; but
presents to relatives are prohibited, without leave from the managers.
Just in their control[337] of resentment, they restrain their wrath;
they are champions of[338] fidelity and very ministers of peace. Any
word of theirs has more force than an oath; swearing they avoid,
regarding it as worse than perjury, for they say that the thing
which[339] is not believed without (an appeal to) God stands condemned
already.
Their Studies
They display an extraordinary interest in the writings of the ancients,
singling out in particular those which make for the welfare of soul and
body; through these they make investigations into medicinal roots[340]
and the properties of stones,[341] useful in the treatment of
diseases.[342]
Admission to the Order. The Novice’s Probation and Oath
A candidate anxious to join their sect is not immediately admitted. For
one year, during which he remains outside the fraternity, they prescribe
for him their own rule of life, presenting him with a small hatchet, the
forementioned loin-cloth and white raiment. Having given proof of his
continence during this probationary period, he is brought into closer
touch with the rule and is allowed to share the purer kind of holy
water, but is not yet received into the life of the community. For,
after this exhibition of endurance, his character is tested for two
years more, and only then, if found worthy, is he enrolled in the
society.
But, before he may touch the common food, he is made to swear tremendous
oaths[343]:—first that he will practise piety towards God,[344] next
that he will observe justice towards men; that he will wrong none
whether of his own mind or under another’s orders; that he will for ever
hate the unjust and fight the battle of the just; that he will for ever
keep faith with all men, especially with the powers that be, since no
ruler attains his office save by the will of God;[345] that, should he
himself bear rule, he will never abuse his authority nor, either in
dress or by other outward marks of superiority, outshine his subjects;
to be ever a lover of truth and to make it his aim to convict liars; to
keep his hands from stealing and his soul pure from impious gain; to
conceal nothing from the members of the sect and to report none of their
secrets to others, even though threatened with death. He swears,
moreover, not to communicate any of their doctrines to any one otherwise
than as he himself received them; to abstain from robbery; and in like
manner carefully to preserve the books of their sect and the names of
the angels. Such are the oaths by which they secure their proselytes.
Expulsion from the Order
Those who are convicted of[346] serious crimes they expel from the
order; and the ejected individual often comes to a most miserable end.
For, being bound by their oaths and usages, he is not at liberty to
partake of other men’s food, and so falls to eating grass and wastes
away and dies of starvation. This has led them in compassion to receive
many back in the last stage of exhaustion, deeming that torments which
have brought them to the verge of death are a sufficient penalty for
their misdoings.
Their Law-courts, Reverence for Moses, Sabbatarianism, etc.
They are just and scrupulously careful in their trial of cases, never
passing sentence in a court of less than a hundred members; the decision
thus reached is irrevocable. After God they hold most in awe the name of
their lawgiver, any blasphemer of whom is punished with death.
It is a point of honour with them to obey their elders, and a majority;
for instance, if ten sit together, one will not speak if the nine desire
silence.
They are careful not to spit into the midst of the company or to the
right, and are stricter than all Jews in abstaining from work on the
seventh day; for not only do they prepare their food on the day before,
to avoid kindling a fire on that one, but they do not venture to remove
any vessel or even to go to stool.
On other days they dig a trench a foot deep with the _skalis_[347]—such
is the purpose of the hatchet which they present to new members on
admission[348]—and wrapping their mantle about them, that they may not
offend the rays of the deity,[349] sit above it. They then replace the
excavated soil in the trench. For this purpose they select the more
retired spots. And though this secretion of bodily impurity is a natural
function, they make it a rule to wash themselves after it, as if
defiled.
The Four Grades of Essenes—their Endurance of Persecution