them, and there fought with them. Thus did they continue the fight till noon; but when it was already a little after noon, Titus set those that came to the assistance of the Romans with him, and those that belonged to the cohorts, to prevent the Jews from making any more sallies, and then sent the rest of the legion to the upper parts of the mountain to fortify their camp.

5. This march of the Romans seemed to the Jews to be a flight; and as the watchman, who was placed upon the wall, gave a signal by shaking his garment, there came out a fresh multitude of Jews, and that with such mighty violence, that one might compare it to the running of the most terrible wild beasts. To say the truth, none of those that opposed them could sustain the fury with which they made their attacks: but, as if they had been cast out of an engine, they brake the enemy's ranks to pieces, who were put to flight, and ran away to the mountain. None but Titus himself, and a few others with him, being left in the midst of the acclivity. Now these others, who were his friends, despised the danger they were in, and were ashamed to leave their general, earnestly exhorting him "to give way to these Jews that are fond "of dying, and not to run into such dangers before those that "ought to stay before him; to consider what his fortune was, "and not by supplying the place of a common soldier, to "venture to turn back upon the enemy so suddenly; and "this because he was general in the war, and lord of the "habitable earth, on whose preservation the public affairs "do all depend." These persuasions Titus seemed not so much as to hear, but opposed those that ran upon him, and smote them on the face; and when he had forced them to go back, he slew them: he also fell upon great numbers as they marched down the hill, and thrust them forward; while those men were so amazed at his courage and his strength, that they could not fly directly to the city, but declined from him on both sides, and pressed after those that fled up the hill; yet did he still fall upon their flank, and put a stop to their fury. In the mean time, a disorder and a terror fell again upon those that were fortifying their camp at the top of the hill, upon their seeing those beneath them running away; insomuch that the whole legion was dispersed, while they thought that the sallies of the Jews upon them were plainly insupportable, and that Titus was himself put to flight; because they took it for granted, that if he had staid,

the rest would never have fled for it. Thus were they encompassed on every side by a kind of panic fear, and some dispersed themselves one way, and some another, till certain of them saw their general in the very midst of an action, and, being under great concern for him, they loudly proclaimed the danger he was in to the entire legion; and now shame made them turn back, and they reproached one another that they did worse than run away by deserting Cæsar. So they used their utmost force against the Jews, and declining from the strait declivity, they drove them on heaps into the bottom of the valley. Then did the Jews turn about and fight them; but as they were themselves retiring, and now, because the Romans had the advantage of the ground, and were above the Jews, they drove them all into the valley. Titus also pressed upon those that were near him, and sent the legion again to fortify their camp; while he, and those that were with him before, opposed the enemy, and kept them from doing farther mischief; insomuch, that if I may be allowed neither to add any thing out of flattery, nor to diminish any thing out of envy, but to speak the plain truth, Cæsar did twice deliver that entire legion when it was in jeopardy, and gave them a quiet opportunity of fortifying their camp.

CHAP III.

How the sedition was again revived within Jerusalem, and yet the Jews contrived snares for the Romans. How also Titus threat

ened his soldiers for their ungovernable rashness.

1. As now the war abroad ceased for a while, the sedi tion within was revived; and on the feast of unleavened bread, which was now come, it being the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan], when it is believed the Jews were first freed from the Egyptians, Eleazar and his party opened the gates of this [iumost court of the] temple, and admitted such of the people,* as were desirous to worship

Here we see he true occasion of those vast numbers of Jews that were in Jerusalem during this siege by l'itus, and perished therein; that the siege began at the feast of the Passover, when such prodigious multitudes of Jews and proselytes of the gates were come from all parts of Judea, and from other countries, in order to celebrate that great festival See the note, B. vi. ch ix. § 5. Tacitus himself informs us, that the number of men, women, and children in Jerusalem, when it was besieged by the Romans, as he

God, into it. But John made use of this festival as a cloak for his treacherous designs, and armed the most inconsiderable of his own party, the greater part of which were not purified, with weapons concealed under their garments, and sent them with great zeal into the temple, in order to seize upon it; which armed men, when they were gotten in, threw their garments away, and presently appeared in their armour. Upon which there was a very great disorder and disturbance about the holy house; while the people who had no concern in the sedition, supposed that this assault was made against all without distinction; as the zealots thought it was made against themselves only. So these left off guarding the gates any longer, and leaped down from their battlements before they came to an engagement, and fled away into the subterraneau caverns of the temple; while the people that stood trembling at the altar, and about the holy house, were rolled on heaps together, and trampled upon, and were beaten both with wooden and with iron weapons without mercy. Such also as had differences with others, slew many persons that were quiet, out of their own private enmity and hatred, as if they were opposite to the seditious; and all those that had formerly offended any of these plotters, were now known, and were now led away to the slaughter: and when they had done abundance of horrid mischief to the guiltless, they granted a truce to the guilty, and let those go off who came out of the caverns. These followers

of John also did now seize upon this inner temple, and upon all the warlike engines therein, and then ventured to oppose Simon. And thus that sedition, which had been divided into three factions, was now reduced to two.

2. But Titus, intending to pitch his camp nearer to the

had been informed, was 600,000. This information must have been taken from the Romans; for Josephus never mentions the numbers of those that were besieged, only he lets us know, that of the vul. gar, carried dead out of the gates, and buried at the public charges, was the like number of 600,000, ch. xiii. § 7. However, when Cestius Gallus came first to the siege, that sum in Tacitus is no way disagreeable to Josephus' history, though they were become much more numerous when Titus encompassed the city at the Passover. As to the number that perished during this siege, Josephus assures us, as we shall see hereafter, they were 1,100,000, besides 97,000 captives; but Tacitus' history of the last part of this siege is not now extant, so we cannot compare his parallel numbers with those in Josephus.

VOL, VI.

A a

278

THE JEWISH WAR.

B

city than Scopus, placed as many of his choice he and footmen as he thought sufficient, opposite to the to prevent their sallying out upon them, while he g ders for the whole army to level the distance, as fa wall of the city. So they threw down all the hedg walls which the inhabitants had made about their and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit trees t between them and the wall of the city, and filled up hollow places and the chasms, and demolished the precipices with iron instruments; and thereby made place level, from Scopos to Herod's monuments, wh joined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool.

3 Now at this very time the Jews contrived the ing stratagem against the Romans. The bolder sort seditious went out at the towers, called the Women's as if they had been ejected out of the city by thos were for peace, and rambled about as if they were af being assaulted by the Romans, and were in fear of other; while those that stood upon the wall, and see be of the people's side, cried out aloud for peace, a treated they might have security for their lives given and called for the Romans, promising to open the ga them; and as they cried out after that manner, they stones at their own people, as though they would drive away from the gates. These also pretended that they excluded by force, and that they petitioned those that within to let them in; and rushing upon the Romans tually, with violence, they then came back, and seen be in great disorder. Now the Roman soldiers though cunning stratagem of theirs was to be believed real, and ing they had the one party under their power, and punish them as they pleased, and hoping that the othe ty would open their gates to them, set to the execut their designs accordingly. But for Titus himself, he this surprising conduct of the Jews in suspicion; for w as he had invited them to come to terms of accommod by Josephus, but one day before, he could then recei civil answer from them; so he ordered the soldiers to where they were. However, some of them that were the front of the works prevented him, and catching up arms, ran to the gates; whereupon, those that seeme

fell upon them behind, while that multitude which stood up on the wall, threw an heap of stones aud darts of all kinds at them, insomuch that they slew a considerable number, and wounded many more; for it was not easy for the Romans to escape, by reason those behind them pressed them forward; besides which, the shame they were under for be ing mistaken, and the fear they were in of their commanders, engaged them to persevere in their mistake wherefore, they fought with their spears a great while, and received many blows from the Jews, though indeed they gave them as many blows again, and at last repelled those that had encompassed them about, while the Jews pursued them as they retired, and followed them, and threw darts at them as far as the monuments of Queen Helen.

4. After this, these Jews, without keeping any decorum, grew insolent upon their good fortune, and jested upon the Romans for being deluded by the trick they had put upon them, and making a noise with beating their shields, leaped for gladness, and made joyful exclamations; while these soldiers were received with threatenings by their officers, and with indignation by Cæsar himself, [who spake to them thus]:

60

CC

These Jews, which are only conducted by their madness, "do every thing with care and circumspection; they con"trive stratagems, and lay ambushes, and fortune gives success to their stratagems, because they are obedient, and preserve their good will and fidelity to one another; while "the Romans, to whom fortune uses to be ever subservient, by reason of their good order and ready submission to "their commanders, have now had ill success by their contrary behaviour, and by not being able to restrain their "hands from action, they have been caught; and that which is the most to their reproach, they have gone on without "their commanders in the very presence of Cæsar. Truly, (says Titus,) the laws of war cannot but groan heavily, as "will my father also himself, when he shall be informed of "this wound that hath been given us, since he, who is grown "old in wars, did never make so great a mistake. Our laws "of war do also ever inflict capital punishment on those that "iu the least break into good order, while at this time they

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have seen an entire army run into disorder. However, "those that have been so insolent, shall be made immediately "sensible that even they who conquer among the Romans, without orders for fighting, are to be under disgrace.' When Titus had enlarged upon this matter before the com