A.D. 71, 72.
SIEGE OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS.
War was now openly declared, and Cestius marched on Jerusalem with
10,000 Roman soldiers, and a still larger force of allies, to put
down the rebellion and avenge the murder of his countrymen. The
result was the most terrible disaster to the Roman arms which they
had sustained since the defeat of Varus. Unsuccessful in some
preliminary skirmishing, Gallus assaulted the city, and after five
days of indecisive fighting, forced his way on the sixth to the wall
on the north side of the Temple. Every effort to scale this having
failed, he ordered the legionaries to lock their shields together and
form the testudo, their usual mode of obtaining a cover, under which
they undermined fortifications which they could not surmount. The
manœuvre was successful. The wall was all but pierced through, and
the garrison on the point of flight, when Gallus suddenly, without
any apparent reason, ordered a retreat,[17] withdrew in haste, first
to his camp, and afterwards to Antipatris, losing in his retreat his
whole battering train and 6,000 soldiers.
The Jews had now offended beyond hope of forgiveness, and both
parties braced themselves for the fierce and deadly struggle which
had become inevitable. The rebels recruited their comparatively
scanty numbers by securing the support of the inhabitants of Idumæa
(of whom 20,000 were enlisted), Peræa, and Galilee. On the other
side, Rome summoned into the field a formidable force, which was
placed under the command of T. Flavius Vespasian, the greatest
soldier of his day. In the hope, apparently, that the Jews, when they
learned the strength of the force sent against them, would submit
without further resistance, Vespasian delayed the attack on Jerusalem
for more than two years, choosing first to reduce the cities of
Galilee—Gadara, Jotapata, Gischala, and others; which, indeed, no
prudent general could leave unsubdued in his rear. The whole of
this province, which had been placed under the government of the
celebrated historian, Josephus,[18] remained throughout this period
in a state of internal dissension, fomented in a great measure by the
notorious John of Gischala, giving but little hope of a successful
resistance to Rome when the actual struggle should begin. Yet some
of these cities, notably Gamala Tarichæa, above all Jotapata, where
Josephus commanded in person, offered a protracted and desperate
resistance.[19]
When the road to Jerusalem had been laid fully open, the civil
strife, by which the empire had been distracted, had come to an
end. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, one after another, had succeeded
to the Imperial sceptre, only to have it snatched from their grasp;
and, finally, Vespasian had been advanced to the throne of the
Cæsars. Leaving to his son Titus the task of reducing to obedience
the rebellious city, Vespasian set sail for Italy; and the Roman
army, 60,000 strong,[20] advanced under its new leader to the final
encounter in the spring of A.D. 70.
Jerusalem was at that time one of the strongest, as well as one of
the most picturesque, cities in the world. It stands upon a rocky
plateau about 2,600 feet above the level of the sea. On all sides
except one it is surrounded by mountains; which do not, however, rise
to a much greater altitude than the city itself. The plateau consists
of two principal eminences, Zion and Acra, on the former of which
stood the Upper City, or the City of David, and on the latter what
was called the Lower City. A third—a smaller and somewhat lower hill,
called Moriah—was anciently divided from Mount Acra by the Tyropœon,
or Valley of the Cheesemongers, which was filled up by the Maccabees,
who raised Moriah to the same level as the neighbouring hill. It was
on the summit of Moriah that the Temple stood. In later times the
suburb called Bezetha was added to the city, and the whole environed
by walls.
Of these there were three—one inside another. The first began on the
north side at the tower called Hippicus, terminating at the western
cloister of the Temple. The second wall began at the gate called
Gennath, enclosing the northern quarter of the city only, and ending
at the Tower of Antonia. The third, which was designed to protect
Bezetha, was incomplete at the time of the outbreak of the Jewish
war, but was then completed, in anticipation of the approaching
siege. These walls were strengthened by towers of solid masonry—some
of the stones being of enormous size—and rose to a great height above
the level of the walls. The Tower of Antonia stood on a rock ninety
feet high, the fortress itself being fully seventy feet higher; and
at the portions not defended by these walls, the platform of rock
itself, sinking down, as it did almost with a sheer descent, into the
ravines below, formed an impregnable defence. In times when the use
of gunpowder was unknown, it could be captured only by blockade, or
after the most frightful waste of human life.
Meanwhile the city was distracted by factions, which appeared to be
more likely to destroy one another than to maintain a successful
defence against an enemy. After the massacre of the Roman troops,
Ananus the High Priest, a wise and good man, gained some authority in
the city, and endeavoured to counteract the influence of the Zealots.
He might have succeeded in averting the war. But Eleazar, the leader
of the Zealots, and John of Gischala,[21] the chief of the Galilæans,
conspired against him, and by night introduced the Idumæans, in
overwhelming force, into the city. By them Ananus and his friends
were murdered, and Jerusalem thenceforth was given up to hopeless
anarchy.
Such authority as there was, rested with the chiefs of the three
factions, Eleazar, John, and Simon;[22] but between these there was
not only no accord, but the most bitter and persistent animosity.
Of the Zealots there were about 2,500, of the Galilæans 6,000, and
of the Assassins (as Simon’s followers were called) 10,000 Jews and
5000 Idumæans. Few of these, comparatively speaking, had undergone
any military training. But their desperate and fanatical courage,
stimulated by their total disregard of all laws, human and Divine,
rendered them the most formidable enemies that Rome herself ever
encountered. Not only between the three leaders, but their followers
also, there subsisted the bitterest hate, which they gratified by
continual quarrels and murders; and had it been in their power, they
would gladly have exterminated one another. Yet in the field they
combined against the common foe with the most perfect unanimity.
The great bulk of the inhabitants awaited the approach of the
Romans with uneasiness and alarm. The city was densely crowded,
multitudes having come in from the country to celebrate the Passover.
Josephus’s numbers are doubtless an exaggeration.[23] But, on the
other hand, there has been a tendency among modern writers to err
in the opposite direction. It may safely be affirmed that the total
of inhabitants, when the Roman standards came in sight, could not
have been less than a million, and probably exceeded that amount.
There was much, independently of the terror of the Roman name, to
awaken their apprehensions. There had been signs in heaven and on
earth of approaching disaster. A fiery sword is said to have hung
over Jerusalem, day and night, for many months. The whole sky on
one occasion was full of what seemed to be chariots and horses of
fire, environing Jerusalem. It was whispered that the great gate of
the Temple had opened of itself at midnight, and a voice had been
heard to exclaim, ‘Let us depart hence.’ A simple herdsman, Jesus,
the son of Hanani, was suddenly seized with the spirit of prophecy,
and for several years went up and down the city exclaiming, ‘Woe,
woe, to Jerusalem!’ He was carried before the Roman governor, and
scourged till his bones were laid bare. But he never desisted from
his mournful chaunt, until one day during the siege he was struck by
a stone from a catapult, and slain.
But nothing daunted the determined spirits of the garrison. At the
very outset of the siege, Titus had a signal proof of the character
of the enemies with whom he had to deal. He had approached the city
for the purpose of surveying it, accompanied by 600 horsemen, never
dreaming that they would be rash enough to assail him, and rather
anticipating that his presence would strike terror into them, and
induce them to capitulate. But the moment he approached the walls the
Jews sallied out, surrounding his troop, and cutting him off from his
supports; and it was only by the most desperate exercise of personal
valour that he escaped being slain. On the following day they twice
attacked the tenth legion, while engaged in fortifying the camp, and
threw it into confusion; and it was Titus’s promptitude alone which
averted a great disaster. Soon afterwards they contrived to allure
a body of Roman soldiers under the walls, by a pretended offer of
surrender, and almost entirely cut it off. It became at once evident
that if these men were to be conquered, or even kept in check, the
utmost vigilance and promptitude would be required.
Two fortified camps were accordingly formed, too strong to be
attacked even by desperate men; and then the siege proper commenced.
After careful survey, Titus resolved to assault the triple wall on
the north side of the city; which was, after all, less difficult to
surmount than the mighty ramparts, reared by nature and aided by
art, which the other parts of the defences presented. He accordingly
constructed three great walls, cutting down for the purpose all
the timber which was to be found near the city. On these he set up
his military engines, which hurled huge stones and darts against
the defenders of the wall, and then set the rams at work to batter
it down. Towers were also erected, sheeted with iron, so as to be
proof against fire, and overtopping the defences, thus rendering it
impossible for the defenders to man the ramparts. After a desperate
attempt to set the works of the besiegers on fire, the Jews were
obliged to abandon the outer wall, and fall back on the second.
This was captured and thrown down in a much shorter space of time
than had been spent on the reduction of the former. But the success
was not obtained without more than one repulse, and heavy loss;
and the defences still to be surmounted appeared so formidable,
garrisoned as they were by men whom nothing could daunt or weary out,
that Titus resolved to make a display under their eyes of his whole
military array, in the hope that by showing the impossibility of
ultimate resistance, he might induce them to surrender. He caused all
his troops to pass in review before him, in sight of the city, all
arrayed in their complete accoutrements and observing the strictest
form of military discipline—a splendid but terrible sight to men who
knew that it was impossible for them to offer effectual resistance.
But Simon, and John, and their fierce followers knew also that they
had offended too deeply for forgiveness; they looked sternly and
gloomily on, but made no sign; nor would they reply to Josephus,
when soon afterwards he offered his intercession. Titus saw that all
efforts at conciliation were vain, and the last scene of the fearful
tragedy began.
So unconquerable was the ferocity of the Jewish soldiery,[24] that it
may be doubted whether even the stern discipline, the high military
spirit, and the overwhelming numbers of the Romans would not have
been compelled ultimately to give way before them, if it had not been
that Rome now acquired two new allies, more terrible than any they
had yet brought into the field. Jerusalem, at all times a populous
city, was now crowded to excess by strangers, who had come over
to keep the Jewish Passover, and had been unable to withdraw. The
supplies of food soon began to fail, and the famine which ensued grew
every hour more pressing. The soldiers had to supply their own wants
by making the round of the houses, and tearing their daily meals
from the mouths of their starving fellow-citizens. Numbers of these
were driven by hunger to steal out of the city by night, to gather
herbs and roots, which might afford temporary relief. Titus, hoping
to terrify the besieged by a display of severity which would save in
the end more lives than he sacrificed, ordered these unhappy wretches
to be crucified in the sight of their countrymen; and the city in
which the Lord of Life had undergone the same form of death was
surrounded by a multitude of crosses, on which the agonized sufferers
slowly yielded up their lives in torment. Others, who implored
the protection of the Romans, were ruthlessly ripped open in vast
numbers by the barbarous soldiery, who believed that the fugitives
had swallowed gold, which they would find in their entrails. The
fate of these, dreadful as it was, was less terrible than that of
the wretches who remained to perish of famine. Scenes almost too
shocking for belief have yet been recorded on authority which cannot
be disputed. Husbands saw their wives perishing before their eyes,
and were unable to save them; parents snatched the food from the
mouths of their starving children; hungry wretches crawled to the
walls, and entreated the soldiers to slay them, and failing to obtain
this last mercy, lay down by hundreds in the streets, and died.
Nay, the last horror of all but too surely was accomplished, and
mothers slew and ate their own nursing children! The numbers of the
dead lying unburied soon bred pestilence, and added to the horrors
of the time. An attempt was made to bury the corpses at the public
expense; but the accumulating numbers rendered this impossible, and
they were thrown by thousands over the walls in the sight of the
horror-stricken Romans.
Through all these frightful scenes the siege of the inner wall
went on. The frantic followers of Simon and John continued to
fight with unabated ferocity against their enemies without and
their countrymen within the wall, undeterred by the sufferings of
their fellow-citizens or the near approach of the avenging swords
of the besiegers. It was at this time that the judicial murder of
the High Priest, Matthias, took place. He was an inoffensive old
man, who had introduced Simon into the city, hoping that he would
restrain the violence of John. Simon now accused him of a treacherous
correspondence with the enemy.[25] He was put to death along with his
sons and several of the Sanhedrin.
Titus now built fresh walls on which to plant his engines; but
they were undermined or destroyed by fire, and he was compelled to
surround the whole city by a vast circumvallation, and then to erect
fresh platforms and towers, from which the inner wall, with Antonia
and the Temple, might be assailed. After several repulses and severe
fighting, this was accomplished. The heights were scaled, Antonia
levelled with the ground, and the Temple itself laid open to attack.
Struck with horror at the profanation of a place dedicated to the
service of God, which must ensue if the strife was continued, Titus
offered to permit the Jews to come forth and meet him on any other
battle ground, promising in that case himself to keep the Temple
inviolate from the step of any enemy. He represented that the daily
services had already ceased, and the holy ground had been polluted
by human blood. He wished to have no share in such impieties, and
would prevent them, if he could. His overtures were contemptuously
rejected. The Jews themselves set fire to the western cloister, and
so laid bare the space between the remains of the Antonia and the
Temple.
Another assault was now ordered, and a close and murderous strife,
which raged for eight hours, ensued without material gain to either
party. It was the 10th of August—the anniversary, always dreaded by
the Jews, of the destruction of Solomon’s Temple. Both parties seemed
to have entertained the idea that the day would prove fatal to the
second Temple, as it had to the first. But this apparently had proved
fallacious. The Romans had retired, and the guard for the night had
been set, when suddenly a cry was raised that the Temple was on fire.
Some of the Jews had again provoked a skirmish. The Romans had not
only driven them back, but had forced their way into the innermost
court, and one of them had hurled a firebrand into the sanctuary
itself, which had instantly caught fire. This was contrary to the
express order of Titus; and he instantly hurried down, accompanied
by his officers, to extinguish the flames. The courts were full of
armed men engaged in desperate strife, and his commands were unheard
or unheeded. The devouring fire wreathed round the stately pillars
and surged within the cedar roofs. Before the resistance of the few
survivors had ceased, the Temple was one vast pagoda of roaring
flame; and when the morning dawned, the Holy House and the chosen
nation had passed away forever.
FOOTNOTES:
[17] By this the Christians in Jerusalem were enabled to secure
their retreat to Pella, where they remained uninjured by the fearful
sufferings which ensued, so making good the Lord’s promise, St. Luke
xxi. 20, 21.
[18] Flavius Josephus was born A.D. 37 at Jerusalem, and was
connected on the mother’s side with the Asmonæan family. He received
a liberal education, and at the age of 20 attached himself to the
sect of the Pharisees. When the war with Rome broke out he was made
Governor of Galilee, and defended Jotapata for nearly seven weeks
against Vespasian. When it was taken, he fell into the hands of the
enemy, by whom he was favourably received. He now attached himself
to the Romans, and was present in Titus’s camp during the siege of
Jerusalem. He accompanied the conquerors to Rome, where he wrote his
historical works. He died about the end of the first century. His
countrymen have generally regarded him as a traitor.
[19] The fall of Jotapata is one of those occurrences, often repeated
in the history of the Jews, which strikingly illustrate their
national character. After a desperate defence, when the place had
been carried by assault, the remnant of the garrison took refuge in a
cavern; and here, rejecting the offers of the Romans, they, by mutual
consent, slew one another, until only Josephus and one of his men
were left alive. These two then gave themselves up to the mercy of
Vespasian.
[20] Titus had four Roman legions, and a large force of Greek and
Syrian auxiliaries. The number, 60,000, has been objected to, as an
exaggeration, but it is probably rather under than over the mark.
[21] John was the son of Levi, and a native of Gischala, who began
his career as a robber, and raised a band, it is said, of 4,000 men.
In craft, daring, and merciless cruelty he has never been exceeded.
He defended Gischala, from which he fled when its capture was
imminent. He repaired to Jerusalem, where he gained great ascendency,
and with Eleazar and Simon defended it to the last. At its capture,
he surrendered to the Romans, and was sentenced to imprisonment for
life.
[22] Simon, the son of Gioras, was a man as fierce and lawless,
though hardly as crafty, as his rival John. He was a native of
Gerasa, and first appeared in history when he attacked the troops
of Cestius Gallus in their retreat from Jerusalem. Driven out of
Judæa by Ananus, he took possession with his banditti of Masada, and
ravaged the neighbourhood. The Idumæans rose against him and, after
several battles, drove him out of the country. Soon afterwards they
captured his wife, whom they carried to Jerusalem. Simon repaired
thither with his followers, and terrified the citizens, by his
barbarities, to surrender her to him. In the spring of the following
year, A.D. 69, a party in Jerusalem, headed by Matthias, invited
Simon to enter the city. Then ensued an internecine struggle between
the three factions, which lasted until the Romans environed the city,
and indeed to the end of the siege. When the city was at length
captured by the Romans, he surrendered himself prisoner, was conveyed
to Rome, figured in the triumphal procession of Vespasian and Titus,
and was then put to death.
[23] See Appendix I.
[24] An extraordinary instance of the desperate courage with which
the Jews fought occurred about this time. Antiochus, King of
Commagene, had arrived in Titus’s camp, with a chosen band of youths,
armed in the Macedonian fashion. He expressed his surprise that
Titus did not take the city by escalade. Titus suggested that he
should himself make the attempt with his warriors. This he did; but
though his men fought with the utmost valour, they were all killed or
severely wounded.
[25] There may have been some grounds for this suspicion. A
considerable number of the chief priests (including one of the
sons of this same Matthias) effected their escape, and were kindly
received by Titus.