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he made his men turn about, throwing his darts upon those citizens that came up against him, from the cloisters he had in his possession, while he opposed those that attacked him from the temple by his engines of war. And if at any time he was freed from those that were above him, which happened frequently, from their being drunk and tired, he sallied out with a greater number, upon Simon and his party; and this he did always in such parts of the city as he could come at, till he set on fire those houses that were full of corn* and of all other provisions. The same thing was done by Simon, when, upon the other's retreat, he attacked the city also, as if they had on purpose done it to serve the Romans, by destroying what the city had laid up against the siege, and by thus cutting off the nerves of their own power. Accordingly it so came to pass, that all the places that were about the temple were burned down, and were become an intermediate desert space, ready for fighting on both sides of it; and that almost all that corn was burnt, which would have been sufficient for a siege of many years. So they were taken by the means of the famine, which it was impossible they should have been, unless they had thus prepared the way for it by this procedure.

5. And now, as the city was engaged in a war on all sides from these treacherous crowds of wicked men, the people of the city between them were like a great body torn in pieces. The aged men and the women were in such distress, by their internal calamities, that they wished for the Romans, and earnestly hoped for an external war, in order to their delivery from their domestical miseries. The citizens themselves were under a terrible consternation and fear; nor had they any opportunity of taking counsel, and of changing their conduct; nor were there any hopes of coming to an agreement with their enemies, nor could such as had a mind fly away; for guards were set at all places; and the heads of the robbers, although they were seditious one against another in other respects, yet did they agree in killing those that were for peace with the Romans, or were suspected of an inclination to desert to them as their common enemies. They agreed in nothing but this, to kill those that were innocent. The noise also of those that were fighting was incessant, both by day and by night; but the lamentation of those that mourned

This destruction of such a vast quantity of corn and other provisions, as was sufficient for many years, was the direct occasion of that terrible famine which consumed incredible numbers of Jews in Jerusalem, during its siege. Nor probably could the Romans have taken this city after all, had not these seditious Jews been so infatuated as thus madly to destroy what Josephus here justly styles," the nerves of their power."

exceeded the other; nor was there ever any occasion for them to leave off their lamentations, because their calamities came perpetually one upon another, although the deep consternation they were in prevented their outward wailing; but, being constrained by their fear to conceal their inward passions, they were inwardly tormented, without daring to open their lips in groans. Nor was any regard paid to those that were still alive, by their relations; nor was there any care taken of burial for those that were dead; the occasion of both which was this, that every one despaired of himself; for those that were not among the seditious had no great desires of any thing, as expecting for certain that they should very soon be destroyed; but for the seditious themselves, they fought against each other while they trod upon the dead bodies, as they lay heaped one upon another, and taking up a mad rage from those dead bodies that were under their feet, became the fiercer thereupon. They moreover were still inventing somewhat or other that was pernicious against themselves; and when they had resolved upon any thing, they executed it without mercy, and omitted no method of torment or of barbarity. Nay, John abused the sacred materials*, and employed them in the construction of his engines of war; for the people and the priests had formerly determined to support the temple, and raise the holy house twenty cubits higher; for king Agrippa had, at a very great expense, and with very great pains, brought thither such materials as were proper for that purpose, being pieces of timber very well worth seeing both for their straightness and their largeness; but the war coming on, and interrupting the work, John had them cut, and prepared for the building him towers, he finding them long enough, to oppose from them those his adversaries that fought him from the temple that was above him. He also had them brought and erected behind the inner court, over against the west end of the cloisters, where alone he could erect them†; whereas the other sides of that court had so many steps as would not let them come nigh enough to the cloisters.

6. Thus did John hope to be too hard for his enemies by those engines constructed by his impiety; but God himself demonstrated, that his pains would prove of no use to him,

* This timber, we see, was designed for the rebuilding those twenty additional cubits of the holy house above the hundred, which had fallen down some years before. See the note on Antiq. B. xv. ch. xi. sect 3, vol. ii.

+ There being no gate on the west, and only on the west side of the court of the priests, and so no steps there, this was the only side that the seditious, under this John of Gischala, could bring their engines close to the cloisters of that court endways, though upon the floor of the court of Israel. See the scheme of that temple in the description of the temples hereto belonging.

by bringing the Romans upon him before he had reared any of his towers; for Titus, when he had gotten together part of his forces about him, and had ordered the rest to meet him at Jerusalem, marched out of Cæsarea. He had with him those three legions that had accompanied his father when he laid Judea waste, together with that twelfth legion which had been formerly beaten with Cestius; which legion, as it was otherwise remarkable for its valour, so did it march on now with greater alacrity to avenge themselves on the Jews, as remembering what they had formerly suffered from them. Of these legions he ordered the fifth to meet him, by going through Emmaus, and the tenth to go up by Jericho; he also moved himself, together with the rest; besides which marched those auxiliaries that came from the kings, being now more in number than before, together with a considerable number that came to his assistance from Syria. Those also that had been selected out of these four legions, and sent with Mucianus to Italy, had their places filled up out of those soldiers that came out of Egypt with Titus, which were two thousand men chosen out of the armies at Alexandria. There followed him also three thousand drawn from those that guarded the river Euphrates; as also there came Tiberius Alexander, who was a friend of his, most valuable both for his goodwill to him, and for his prudence. He had formerly been governor of Alexandria, but was now thought worthy to be general of the army [under Titus]. The reason of this was, that he had been the first who encouraged Vespasian very lately to accept this his new dominion, and joined himself to him with great fidelity, when things were uncertain, and fortune had not yet declared for him. He also followed Titus as a counsellor, very useful to him in this war, both by his age and skill in such affairs.

CHAP. II.

How Titus marched to Jerusalem, and how he was in Danger, as he was taking a View of the City. Of the Place also where he pitched his Camp.

§ 1. Now as Titus was upon his march into the enemies' country, the auxiliaries that were sent by the kings, marched first, having all the other auxiliaries with them; after whom followed those that were to prepare the roads, and measure out the camp; then came the commander's baggage, and after that the other soldiers, who were completely armed to support them; then came Titus himself, having with him another select body; and then came the pikemen; after whom

came the horse belonging to that legion. All these came before the engines; and after these engines came the tribunes and the leaders of the cohorts, with their select bodies; after these came the ensigns with the eagle; and before those ensigns came the trumpeters belonging to them; next these came the main body of the army in their ranks, every rank being six deep; the servants belonging to every legion came after these; and before these last their baggage; the mercenaries came last, and those that guarded them brought up the rear. Now Titus, according to the Roman usage, went in the front of the army after a decent manner, and marched through Samaria to Gophna, a city that had been formerly taken by his father, and was then garrisoned by Roman soldiers; and when he had lodged there one night, he marched on in the morning; and when he had gone as far as a day's march, he pitched his camp at that valley which the Jews in their own tongue call the Valley of Thorns, near a certain village called Gabaothsaul, which signifies the Hill of Saul, being distant from Jerusalem about thirty furlongs. There it was that he chose out six hundred select horsemen, aud went to take a view of the city, to observe what strength it was of, and how courageous the Jews were; whether, when they saw him, and before they came to a direct battle, they would be affrighted, and submit; for he had been informed, what was really true, that the people who were fallen under the power of the seditious and the robbers, were greatly desirous of peace; but, being too weak to rise up against the rest, they lay still.

2. Now, so long as he rode along the straight road which led to the wall of the city, nobody appeared out of the gates; but when he went out of that road, and declined towards the tower Asephinos, and led the band of horsemen obliquely, an immense number of the Jews leaped out suddenly at the towers called the Women's Towers, through that gate which was over against the monuments of queen Helena, and intercepted his horse; and standing directly opposite to those that still ran along the road, hindered them from joining those that had declined out of it. They intercepted Titus also, with a few others. Now it was here impossible for him to go forward, because all the places had trenches dug in them from the wall to preserve the gardens round about, and were full of gardens obliquely situated, and of many hedges; and to return back to his own men, he saw it was also impossible, by reason of the multitude of the enemies that lay between them, many of whom did not so much as know that the king*

We may here note, that Titus is here called a king and Cæsar, by Josephus, even while he was no more than the emperor's son, and general of the

So

was in any danger, but supposed him still among them. he perceived that his preservation must be wholly owing to his own courage, and turned his horse about, and cried out aloud to those that were about to follow him, and ran with violence into the midst of his enemies, in order to force his way through them to his own men. And hence we may principally learn, that both the success of wars, and the dangers that kings are in, are under the providence of God; for while such a number of darts were thrown at Titus, when he had neither his headpiece on, nor his breastplate (for, as I told you, he went out not to fight, but to view the city), none of them touched his body, but went aside without hurting him, as if all of them missed him on purpose, and only made a noise as they passed by him. So he diverted those perpetually with his sword, that came on his side, and overturned many of those that directly met him, and made his horse ride over those that were overthrown. The enemy indeed made a shout at the boldness of Cæsar, and exhorted one another to rush upon him. Yet did those against whom he marched fly away, and go off from him in great numbers; while those that were in the same danger with him, kept up close to him, though they were wounded both on their backs and on their sides; for they had each of them but this one hope of escaping, if they could assist Titus in opening himself a way, that he might not be encompassed round by his enemies, before he got away from them. Now there were two of those that were with him, but at some distance; the one of which the enemy compassed round and slew him with their darts, and his horse also; but the other they slew as he leaped down from his horse, and carried off his horse with them. But Titus escaped with the rest, and came safe to the camp. So this success of the Jews' first attack raised their minds, and gave them an ill-grounded hope; and this short inclination of fortune on their side, made them very courageous for the future.

3. But now as soon as that legion that had been at Em

Roman army, and his father Vespasian was still alive; just as the New Testament says Archelaus reigned, or was king, Matt. ii. 22, though he was properly no more than ethnarch, as Josephus assures us, Antiq. B. xviii. ch. xi. sect. 4, vol. iii. Of the War, B. ii. ch. vi. sect. 3, vol. iii. Thus also the Jews called the Roman emperors kings, though they never took that title to themselves. We have no king but Cæsar, John xix. 15. Submit to the king as supreme, 1 Pet. ii. 13, 17, which is also the language of the Apostolical Constitutions, ii. 11, 34, iv. 13, v. 19, vi. 2, 25, vii. 16, viii. 2, and elsewhere in the New Testament, John xix. 15, Matt. x. 18, xvii. 25, 1 Tim. ii. 2, and in Josephus also; though I suspect Josephus particularly esteemed Titus as joint king with his father, ever since his divine dreams that declared them both such, B. iii. ch. viii. sect. 9, vol. iv.

* See the preceding note.

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