06-CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 6
"For I know that after my death you will act corruptly and turn from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days, for you will do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger with the work of your hands."— Predictions of Moses,Deuteronomy 31:29; NASU The number of the seditious in the city, who bore arms under Simon, were ten thousand, besides Idumeans. These were under fifty commanders, of whom Simon was supreme. The Idumeans, who paid him homage, were five thousand, under eight commanders; among whom the most eminent were Jacob, the son of Josas, and Simon, the son of Cathlus.
John, the leader of the other faction, who had seized the temple, had six thousand armed men, under twenty commanders. The zealots, under Eleazar, had also come over to him, amounting to two thousand four hundred. They were still under Eleazar, together with one Simon, the son of Arinus. While these factions fought each other, the people were their prey on both sides, and were plundered by both parties. Simon, the son of Goiras, held the upper city, with the part about the fountain of Acra, which was called the lower city. John held the temple and the parts adjacent. The portion of the city between them they had burned, leaving a clear space for battle ground; for though, when the Romans first came they united against them for a little time, yet they soon commenced their slaughter of each other again, and did all the besiegers could desire for the destruction of the city. “I venture to affirm,” says our historian, “that the sedition destroyed the city, and the Romans destroyed the sedition, which was much harder than to destroy the walls, so that we may ascribe our misfortunes to our own people, and the just vengeance taken upon them to the Romans.”
While affairs in the city were in this posture, Titus, with a chosen body of horsemen, rode around the walls to reconnoiter. He was quite in doubt what to do, for the place seemed inaccessible on every side. He finally, however, determined to make an assault upon the monument of John, the high priest, for there the first fortification was lower, and the second was not joined to it, the builders having neglected to build the wall strong where the new city was not much inhabited. Here was also an easy passage to the third wall, through which he hoped to take the upper city, and through the tower of Antonia the temple itself.
While Titus was passing around the city on this excursion, his friend Nicanor, approaching too near the wall, in company with Josephus, to discourse about peace, was wounded with an arrow. By this Caesar was much irritated, and seeing they would not listen to any terms, he determined to press the siege with new vigor. He also, at the same time, gave his soldiers leave to set the suburbs on fire, and ordered them to bring timber and raise banks against the city. The engines that threw darts and stones were placed to guard the men who raised the banks against the sallies of the Jews, who endeavored constantly to annoy them.
John, out of his fear of Simon, did not venture out, although his men joined in the attacks upon the works of the Romans. In the mean time Simon brought out his engines of war, which had been taken at the time Cestius retreated from Jerusalem, and placing them, together with those taken from the tower of Antonia, upon the wall, he set them at work against the besiegers. But the Jews were unskillful in their management, which made them of little service. There were, however, a few deserters who knew a little of their use, and directed them to some little effect. The engines of the Romans, particularly those belonging to the tenth legion, were admirably contrived, and of great power, throwing large stones to the distance of two furlongs. But the Jews contrived to avoid these huge stones by watching as they were propelled from the engine, their white appearance giving them an opportunity of discovering their approach. But the Romans prevented this by blacking the stones, after which they threw with success. Still the Jews harassed the Romans both night and day, while they were raising their works. When the Romans had finished their banks they set their battering engines at work against the wall, which caused a prodigious noise to echo around the walls. This caused a great outcry among the citizens, and terrified the seditious themselves. The seditious then cried out that they were acting in concert with their common enemy, and that they ought, under present circumstances at least, to suspend their attacks upon one another, and unite against the Romans. Accordingly, Simon, by proclamation, allowed those who came out of the temple to go to the wall. John, also, although he could not believe Simon in earnest, granted them the same liberty.
“So, on both sides, they laid aside their hatred aud their peculiar quarrels, and formed themselves into one body; they then ran around the walls, and having a vast number of torches with them, they 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.
“However, Titus himself still sent assistance to those that were the hardest set, and placed both horsemen and archers on the several sides of the engines, and thereby beat off those that brought the fire to them; he also thereby repelled those that shot stones or darts from the towers, and then set the engines to work in good earnest; yet did not the wall yield to these blows, excepting where the battering ram of the fifteenth legion moved the corner of a tower, while the wall itself continued unhurt.
“And now the Jews intermitted their sallies for a while; but when they the Romans dispersed all abroad at their works, and in their several camps, (for they thought the Jews had retired out of weariness and fear,) these all at once made a sally at the tower Hippicus, through an obscure gate, and at the same time brought fire to burn the works, and went boldly up to the Romans, and to their very fortifications themselves, where, at the cry they made, those that were near came presently to their assistance, and those farther off came running after them; and here the boldness of the Jews was too hard for the good order of the Romans; and as they beat those whom they first fell upon, so they pressed upon those that were now gotten together.
“So this fight about the machines was very hot, while the one side tried hard to set them on fire, and the other side to prevent it; on both sides there was a confused cry made, and many of those in the forefront of the battle were slain. However, the Jews were now too hard for the Romans, by the furious assaults they made, like madmen and the fire caught hold of the works, and all those works and the engines themselves had been in danger of being burned, had not many of those select soldiers that came from Alexandria opposed themselves to prevent it; and had they not behaved themselves with greater courage than they themselves supposed they could have done; for they outdid those in this fight that had greater reputation than themselves before. This was the state of things till Caesar took the stoutest of his horsemen, and attacked the enemy, when he himself slew twelve of those that were in the forefront of the Jews; which death of these men, when the rest of the multitude saw, they gave way, and he pursued them, and drove them all into the city, and saved the works from the fire.
“Now, it happened at this fight, that a certain Jew was taken alive, who, by Titus’ order, was crucified before the wall, to see whether the rest of them would be affrighted, and abate of their obstinacy. But after the Jews were retired, John, the son of Josas, who was commander of the Idumeans, and was talking to a certain soldier of his acquaintance before the wall, was wounded by an arrow, shot at him by an Arabian, and died immediately, leaving the greatest lamentation to the Jews, and sorrow to the seditious. For he was a man of great eminence.”
Titus now gave orders for the erection of three towers, each fifty cubits high, that be might set the lighter engines upon them to drive the Jews from the wall. One of these fell in the night, making a great disturbance among the Romans, but the other two succeeded in obliging the Jews to retire. As the battering rams were now able to work without interruption, they began gradually to prevail. There was one, particularly, of great power, which the Jews called Nico, that is, Victor, because it conquered all things. The Jews, weary of fighting, and at variance among themselves, and having two walls more to trust in, had become negligent and retired, when Nico, having made a breach in the wall, the Romans mounted it and threw open the gates to the whole army. This was on the fifteenth day of the siege, which was the seventh of the month Jayr, or Jair.
“They now pitched their camp within the northern part of the city, at that place which was called the camp of the Assyrians, having seized upon all that lay as far as Kidron, but took care to be out of the reach of the Jews’ darts. He then presently began his attacks, upon which the Jews divided themselves into several bodies, and courageously defended that wall, while John and his faction did it from the tower of Antonia, and from the northern cloister of the temple, and fought the Romans before the monuments of King Alexander; and Simon’s army also took for their share the spot of ground that was near John’s monument, and fortified it as far as to that gate where water was brought into the tower Hippicus.
“However, the Jews made violent sallies, and that frequently also, and that in bodies together, out of the gates, and there fought the Romans; and when they were pursued all together to the wall, they were beaten in those fights, as wanting the skill of the Romans. But when they fought them from the walls, they were too hard for them; the Romans being encouraged by their power, joined to their skill, as were the Jews by their boldness, which was nourished by the fear they were in, and that hardiness which is natural to our nation under calamities; they were also still encouraged by the hope of deliverance, as were the Romans by their hopes of subduing them in a little time. Nor did either side grow weary; but attacks and fighting upon the wall, and perpetual sallies out in bodies, were there all the day long; nor was there any sort of warlike engagements that was not then put in use.
“And the night itself had much ado to part them, when they began to fight in the morning: nay, the night itself was passed without sleep on both sides, and was more uneasy than the day to them, while the one was afraid lest the wall should be taken, and the other lest the Jews should make sallies upon their camps both sides also lay in their armor during the night-time, and thereby were ready at the first appearance of light to go to the battle.
“Now among the Jews the ambition was, who should undergo the first dangers, and thereby gratify their commanders. Above all, they had a great veneration and dread of Simon; and to that degree was he regarded by every one of those that were under him, that at his command they were very ready to kill themselves with their own hands. What made the Romans so courageous was their usual custom of conquering, and disuse of being defeated, their constant wars, and perpetual warlike exercises, and the grandeur of their dominion. And what was now their chief encouragement, Titus was present everywhere with them all; for it appeared a terrible thing to grow weary while Caesar was there, and fought bravely as well as they did, and was himself at once an eye witness of such as behaved themselves valiantly, and their rewarder also. It was, besides, esteemed an advantage at present to have any one’s valor known by Caesar, on which account many of them appeared to have more alacrity than strength to answer it.
“And now, as the Jews were about this time standing in array before the wall, and that in a strong body, and while both parties were throwing their arrows at each other, Longinus, one of the equestrian order, leaped out of the army of the Romans, and into the very midst of the army of the Jews; and as they dispersed themselves upon this attack, he slew two of their men of the greatest courage; one of them he struck in his mouth as he was coming to meet him, the other was slain by him by that very dart which he drew out of the body of the other, with which he ran this man through his side, as he was running away from him; and when he had done this he first of all ran out of the midst of his enemies to his own side. So this man signalized himself for his valor, and many there were who were ambitious of gaining the like reputation. And now the Jews were unconcerned at what they suffered themselves from the Romans, and were only solicitous about what mischief they could do them; and death itself seemed a small matter to them if at the same time they could but kill any one of their enemies. But Titus did not approve of rashness, and said that inconsiderate violence was madness, and that this alone was the true courage, that was joined with good conduct.
“Titus, having brought one of his engines to bear upon the middle tower of the north part of the wall, took this wall on the fifth day after he had taken the first; and when the Jews had fled from him, he entered into it with a thousand armed men, choice troops, and this at a place where were the merchants of wool, the brasiers, and the market for cloth, and where the narrow streets led obliquely to the wall. Wherefore, if Titus had either demolished a larger part of the wall immediately, or had come in, and, according to the law of war, had laid waste what was left, this victory would not, I suppose, have been mixed with any loss to himself. But now, out of the hope he had that he should make the Jews ashamed of their obstinacy by not being willing, when he was able, to afflict them more than he needed to do, he did not widen the breach of the wall, in order to make a safer retreat upon occasion; for he did not think they would lay snares for him that did them such a kindness.
“When, therefore, he came in, be did not permit his soldiers to kill any of those they caught, nor to set fire to their houses; nay, he gave leave to the seditious, if they had a mind, to fight without any harm to the people, and promised to restore the people’s effects to them; for he was very desirous to preserve the city for his own sake, and the temple for the sake of the city. As to the people, he had them of a long time ready to comply with his proposals; but as to the fighting men, this humanity of his seemed a mark of his weakness, and they imagined that he made these proposals because he was not able to take the rest of the city. They also threatened death to the people, if they should any one of them say a word about a surrender.
“They, moreover, cut the throats of such as talked of a peace, and then attacked those Romans that were come within the wall, some of them they met in the narrow streets, and some they fought against from their houses, while they made a sudden sally out at the upper gates, and assaulted such Romans as were near the wall till those that guarded the wall were so affrighted that they leaped down from the towers, and retired to the several camps. Upon which, a great noise was made by the Romans that were within, because they were encompassed around on every side by their enemies; as also by them that were without, because they were in fear for those that were left in the city.
“Thus did the Jews grow more numerous perpetually, and had great advantages over the Romans by their full knowledge of those narrow lanes; and they wounded a great many of them, and fell upon them, and drove them out of the city. Now these Romans were at present forced to make the best resistance they could, for they were not able in great numbers to get out at the breach in the wall, it was so narrow. It is also probable that all those that were gotten within had been cut to pieces, if Titus had not sent them succors; for he ordered the archers to stand at the upper end of these narrow lanes, and he stood himself where was the greatest multitude of his enemies, and with his darts he put a stop to them; as with him did Domitius Sabinus also, a valiant man. Thus did Caesar continue to shoot darts at the Jews continually, and to hinder them from coming upon his men, and this until all his soldiers had retreated out of the city.
“And thus were the Romans driven out, after they had possessed themselves of the second wall. Whereupon the fighting men that were in the city were elevated upon their good success, and began to think that the Romans would never venture to come into the city any more. For God had blinded their minds for the transgressions they had been guilty of, nor could they see how much greater forces the Romans had than those that were now expelled, no more than they could discern how a famine was creeping upon them; for hitherto they had fed themselves out of the public miseries, and drunk the blood of the city. But now poverty had for a long time seized upon the better part, and a great many had already died for want of necessaries; although the seditious indeed supposed the destruction of the people to be a relief to themselves; for they desired that none others might be preserved but such as were against a peace with the Romans; and they were pleased when the multitude of those of a contrary opinion were consumed.
“And this was their disposition of mind with regard to those that were within the city, while they covered themselves with their armor, and prevented the Romans, when they were trying to get into the city again, and made a wall of their own bodies over against that part of the wall that was cast down. Thus did they valiantly defend themselves for three days; but on the fourth day they could not support themselves against the vehement assault of Titus, but were compelled by force to fly whither they had fled before; so he quietly possessed himself again of that wall, and demolished it entirely; And when he had put a garrison into the towers that were on the south parts of the city, he contrived how he might assault the third wall.
“A resolution was now taken by Titus to relax the siege for a little while, and to afford the seditious an interval for consideration, and to see whether the demolishing of their second wall would not make them a little more compliant, or whether they were not somewhat afraid of famine, because the spoils they had got by rapine would not be sufficient for them long; so he made use of this relaxation in order to compass his own designs. Accordingly, as the usual appointed time, when he must distribute subsistence-money to the soldiers, was now come, he gave orders that the commanders should put the army in battle array, in the face of the enemy, and then gave every one of the soldiers their pay. So the soldiers, according to custom, opened the cases wherein before their arms lay covered, and marched with their breastplates on, as did the horsemen lead their horses in their fine trappings.
“Then did the places that were before the city shine very splendidly for a great way; nor was there any thing either so grateful to Titus’s own men, or so terrible to the enemy as that sight. For the whole old wall and the north side of the temple was full of spectators; and one might see the houses full of such as looked at them: nor was there any part of the city which was not covered over with their multitudes: nay, a very great consternation seized upon the hardiest of the Jews themselves when they saw all the army in the same place, together with the fineness of their arms, and the good order of their men.
“And I cannot but think that the seditious would have changed their minds at the sight, unless the crimes they had committed against the people had been so horrid that they despaired of forgiveness from the Romans; but as they believed death with torments must be their punishment if they did not go on in the defense of the city, they thought it much better to die in war. Fate also prevailed so far over them that the innocent were to perish with the guilty, and the city was to be destroyed with the seditious that were in it.
“Thus did the Romans spend four days in bringing this subsistence-money to the several legions. But on the fifth day, when no signs of peace appeared to come from the Jews, Titus divided his legions, and began to raise banks, both at the tower of Antonia, and at John’s monument. Now his designs were, to take the upper city at that monument, and the temple at the tower of Antonia; for if the temple were not taken, it would be dangerous to keep the city itself: so at each of these parts he raised him banks, each legion raising one.
“As for those that served at John’s monument, the Idumeans, and those that were in arms with Simon, made sallies upon them, and put some stop to them; while John’s party, and the multitude of zealots with them, did the like to those that were before the tower of Antonia. These Jews were now too hard for the Romans, not only in direct fighting, because they stood upon the higher ground, but because they had now learned to use their own engines; for their continual use of them one day after another did by degrees improve their skill about them; for of one sort of engines for darts they had three hundred, and forty for stones, by the means of which they made it more tedious for the Romans to raise their banks.
“But when Titus, knowing that the city would be either saved or destroyed for himself, did not only proceed earnestly in the siege, but did not omit to have the Jews exhorted to repentance; so he mixed good counsel with his own works for the, siege. And, being sensible that exhortations are frequently more effectual than arms, he persuaded them to surrender the city, now in a manner already taken, and thereby to save themselves, and sent Josephus to speak to them in their own language; for he imagined they might yield to the persuasion of a countryman of their own.
“So Josephus went around about the wall, and tried to find a place that was out of the reach of their darts, and yet within their hearing, and besought them, in many words, ‘to spare themselves, to spare their country, and their temple, and not to be more obdurate in these cases than foreigners themselves.’ He assured them that Roman power was invincible; that their city was already, in a manner, taken; that famine would oblige them to surrender, if their walls should even prove too strong for the Romans; and that, if they now yielded, Titus would show them mercy.
“While Josephus was thus addressing them, they scoffed at him, and reproached him; nay, some threw darts at him. Finding these motives wholly lost upon them, he appealed to the history of their nation. He assured them their former deliverances had been from God, after they humbled themselves before him, but that these calamities were from God for their wickedness. ‘Wherefore,’ said he, ‘I cannot but suppose God is fled out of his sanctuary, and stands on the side of those against whom you fight. Now, even a man, if he be but a good man, will fly from any impure house, and will hate those that are in it; and do you persuade yourselves that God will abide with you in your iniquities, who sees all secret things, and hears what is kept most private? Now what crime is there, I pray you, that is so much as kept secret among you, or is concealed by you? Nay, what is there that is not open to your very enemies? For you show your transgressions after a pompous manner, and contend one with another which of you shall be more wicked than another; and you make a public demonstration of your injustice, as if it were virtue. However, there is place left for your preservation, if you be willing to accept of it; and God is easily reconciled to those that confess their faults and repent of them. O hard-hearted wretches as you are! Cast away all your arms, and take pity of your country, already going to ruin, return from your wicked ways, and have regard to the excellence of that city you are going to betray, to that excellent temple with the donations of so many countries in it. Who could bear to be the first that should set that temple on fire? Who could be willing that these things should be no more? And what is there that can better deserve to be preserved?
O insensible creatures, and more stupid than are the stones themselves! And if you cannot look at these things with discerning eyes, yet, however, have pity upon your families, and set before every one of your eyes your children, and wives, and parents, who will be gradually consumed either by famine or by war. I am sensible that this danger will extend to my mother, and wife, and that family of mine which hath been by no means ignoble, and indeed to one that hath been very eminent in old time; and perhaps you may imagine that it is on their account only that I give you this advice: if that be all, kill them; nay, take my own blood as a reward, if it may but procure your preservation; for I am ready to die in case you will but return to a sound mind after my death.”