01-CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.” —Jesus Christ,Luke 21:20-22; NASU

Florus had at length succeeded in kindling the spirit of revolt, and the Jews, after seeing numbers of their relations butchered, had attacked and killed the guards stationed in the castle of Antonia. The news of this brought Cestius from Syria with a large army. He encamped within a short distance of Jerusalem, and after remaining in his camp for three days, took possession of the suburbs, the Jews retreating into the inner part of the city and into the temple. Cestius seems to have been disposed to follow up his advantage, and to force the walls, but was diverted from the attempt by one of his principal officers, at the suggestion of Florus, who wished to lengthen out the war. The more considerate part of the people were, indeed, about to open the gates to him, when, without any sufficient reason whatever, he withdrew from the city, pursued and harassed by the Jews.

[This circumstance was very remarkable. But it was doubtless providential. For the Christians, who were shut up in the city while his army was besieging it, remembering the words of their Master, uttered several years before, now took the opportunity to flee, and, as the early Christian writers inform us, escaped in a body from the impending calamities of the place. Josephus, who was not a Christian, is careful to say very little of Christ or his followers; but he tells us, “After this calamity, which had befallen Cestius, many of the most eminent Jews swam away from the city as from a ship that was going to sink.”] When Nero, the Roman emperor, heard of the shameful and cowardly retreat of Cestius, he sent Vespasian, one of the most able of his generals, to take command of the forces in Syria, and carry on the war against the Jews. Vespasian sent his son Titus to Alexandria, in Egypt, to bring the fifth and tenth Roman legions which were there, proceeding himself to Syria. Titus, having brought up the two legions from Egypt, met his father at Ptolemais, in Palestine. These two legions, the most eminent of all, were joined with the fifteenth, which was already with Vespasian. Eighteen cohorts followed these, and there came also five cohorts from Caesarea, with one troop of horsemen from Syria.

There were also a considerable number of auxiliaries got together that came from the kings Antiochus, and Agrippa, and Sohemus, each of them contributing one thousand footmen who were archers, and a thousand horsemen. Malchus, also, the king of Arabia, sent a thousand horsemen and five thousand footmen, the greater part of whom were archers. The whole army, including the auxiliaries sent by the kings, amounted to sixty thousand besides the servants, who followed in vast numbers, and had been trained up in war with the rest, and therefore ought not to be distinguished from the fighting men; for serving both in peace and war they were inferior to none either in strength or skill.

One cannot but admire the precaution and skill of the Romans, for their military exercises differ not at all from the real use of arms; nor should we greatly err in calling their military exercises un-bloody battles, and their battles bloody exercises. Nor can their enemies surprise them with the suddenness of their incursions, for as soon as they have marched into an enemy’s land, they do not begin to fight till they have walled their camp about, and leveled their ground. Their camp is four-square, and carpenters are ready in great numbers with their tools to erect their buildings. That which is within is set apart for tents, but the outward circumference resembles a wall, and is adorned with towers at equal distances. Between the towers stand the engines for throwing arrows and darts, and slinging stones, with all other engines that can annoy an enemy. They also erect four gates, one on each side, wide enough for the entrance of beasts, or making excursions. They divide the camp within into streets, and place the tents of the commanders in the middle, and in the midst of all the general’s own tent, rising like a temple; so that the whole appears like a city built suddenly, with its market and place for handicraft trades, and seats for the officers superior and inferior, where, if any difference arises, their causes are heard and determined. When occasion requires, a trench six feet deep, and of the same width, is drawn around the whole. When they have thus secured themselves, they live together by companies with quietness and decency, supping and dining together. Their times for sleeping, watching, and rising are notified by the sound of trumpets. In the morning the soldiers go every one to their centurions, and these centurions to their tribunes to salute them, with whom all the superior officers go to the general of the army, who then gives them the watchword and orders to be carried to all under their command. When they go out of their camp, the trumpet sounds, and all take down their tents: it sounds again, and the baggage is laid upon their mules. Then it sounds a third time, and a crier, standing at the general’s right hand, asks them thrice if they are ready. To which they reply in a loud voice, “We are ready.” This they do as filled with a kind of martial fury, lifting up their right hands at the same time. The Roman soldiers are, moreover, hardened for war by fear; for their laws inflict capital punishment not only for desertion from the ranks, but for slothfulness and inactivity. They also bestow great rewards on valiant soldiers. The war was now prosecuted with vigor; one after another of the cities in possession of the Jews fell into the hands of the Romans, and after a most obstinate and bloody siege Jotapata, with Josephus, was taken by the Romans. The Jews had lost their most able general when Josephus was taken, and Vespasian soon overran the whole country and took all the principal cities, except Jerusalem.