Page images
PDF
EPUB

66

villians, she had provoked them to anger against her; but none of them, either out of the indignation she had raised against herself, or out of commiseration of her case, would take away her life: and if she found any food, she perceived her labours were for others and not for herself and it was now become impossible for her any way to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself: nor did she consult with any thing but with her passion and the necessity she was in. She then attempted a most unnatural thing, and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, "O thou miserable infant! for "whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and "this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they 66 preserve our lives we must be slaves. This famine also "will destroy us even before that slavery comes upon us. "Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both "the other. Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a by-word to the "world; which is all that is now wanting to complete the "calamities of us Jews." As soon as she had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and eat the one half of him, and kept the other half by her, concealed. Upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her, that they would cut her throat immediately, if she did not shew them what food she had gotten ready. She replied, That "she had "saved a very fine portion of it for them;" and withal uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with an horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonishment at the sight, when she said to them, "This is "mine own son, and what hath been done was mine own "doing. Come, eat of this food, for I have eaten of it "myself. Do not you pretend to be either more tender "than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother: "but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my "sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be re"served for me also." After which, those men went out trembling, being never so much affrighted at any thing as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately; and while every

[ocr errors]

body laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard-of action had been done by themselves. So those that were thus dirtressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those already dead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either to hear or to see such miseries.

:

5. This sad instance was quickly told to the Romans, some of which could not believe it, and others pitied the distress which the Jews were under; but there were many of them who were hereby induced to a more bitter hatred than ordinary against our nation. But for Cæsar, he excused himself before God as to this matter, and said, That “he "had proposed peace and liberty to the Jews, as well as an "oblivion of all their former insolent practices, but that "they, instead of concord, had chosen sedition; instead of "peace, war; and, before satiety and abundance, a famine. "That they had begun with their own hands to burn down "that temple, which we have preserved hitherto and "that, therefore, they deserved to eat such food as this 66 was. That, however, this horrid action of eating an own child ought to be covered with the overthrow of their 66 very country itself, and men ought not to leave such a city upon the habitable earth, to be seen by the sun, "wherein mothers are thus fed, although such food be fit"ter for the fathers than for the mothers to eat of, since it "is they that continue still in a state of war against us, after "they have undergone such miseries as these." the same time that he said this, he reflected on the desperate condition these men must be in; nor could he expect that such men could be recovered to sobriety of mind, after they had endured those very sufferings, for the avoiding whereof it only was probable they might have repented.

cr

[ocr errors]

And at

CHAP. IV.

When the banks were completed, and the battering rams brought, and could do nothing, Titus gave orders to set fire to the gates of the temple in no long time after which, the holy house itself was burnt down, even against his consent.

:

1. AND now, two of the legions had completed their banks, on the eighth day of the month Lous, [Ab.] Where

upon, Titus gave orders, that the battering-rams should be brought, and set over against the western edifice of the inner temple; for, before these were brought, the firmest of all the other engines had battered the wall together for six days without ceasing, without making any impression upon it but the vast largeness and strong connection of the stones was superior to that engine, and to the other battering-rams also. Other Romans did indeed undermine the foundations of the northern gate, and, after a world of pains, removed the outermost stones, yet was the gate still upheld by the inner stones, and stood still unhurt; till the workmen, despairing of all such attempts by engines and crows, brought their ladders to the cloisters. Now, the Jews did not interrupt them in so doing; but, when they were got ten up, they fell upon them, and fought with them; some of them they thrust down, and threw them backwards headlong, others of them they met, and slew; they also beat many of those that went down the ladders again, and slew them with their swords before they could bring their shields to protect them; nay, some of the ladders they threw down from above when they were full of armed men : a great slaughter was made of the Jews also at the same time, while those that bear the ensigns fought hard for them, as deeming it a terrible thing, and what would tend to their great shame, if they permitted them to be stolen away. Yet did the Jews, at length, get possession of these engines, and destroyed those that had gone up the ladders, while the rest were so intimidated, by what those suffered who were slain, that they retired; although none of the Romans died without having done good service before his death. Of the seditious, those that had fought bravely in the former battles did the like now: as besides them did Eleazar the brother's son of Simon the tyrant. But, when Titus perceived that his endeavours to spare a foreign temple turned to the damage of his soldiers and made them be killed, he gave orders to set the gate on fire.

2. In the mean time, there deserted to him Ananus, who came from Emmaus, the most bloody of all Simon's guards and Archelaus, the son of Magadatus, they hoping to be still forgiven, because they left the Jews at a time when they were the conquerors. Titus objected this to these men, as a cunning trick of theirs; and, as he had been informed of their other barbarities towards the Jews,

he was going, in all haste, to have them both slain. He told them That "they were only driven to this desertion "because of the utmost distress they were in, and did not 26 come away of their own good disposition; and that those "did not deserve to be preserved, by whom their own city <6 was already set on fire, out of which fire they now hurried "themselves away." However, the security he had promised deserters overcame his resentments, and he dismissed them accordingly, though he did not give them the same privileges that he had afforded to others. And now the soldiers had already put fire to the gates, and the silver that was over them quickly carried the flames to the wood that was within it, whence it spread itself all on the sudden, and caught hold of the cloisters. Upon the Jews seeing this fire all about them, their spirits sunk, together with their bodies, and they were under such astonishment, that not one of them made any haste, either to defend himself, or to quench the fire, but they stood as mute spectators of it only. However, they did not so grieve at the loss of what was now burning, as to grow wiser thereby for the time to come; but, as though the holy house itself had been on fire already, they wetted their passions against the Romans. This fire prevailed during that day, and the next also; for the soldiers were not able to burn all the cloisters that were round about together at one time, but only by pieces.

3. But then, on the next day, Titus commanded part of his army to quench the fire, and to make a road for the more easy marching up of the legions, while he himself gathered the commanders together. Of those there were assembled the six principal persons, Tiberius Alexander, the commander [under the general] of the whole army, with Sextus, Cerealis, the commander of the fifth legion, and Larcius Lepidus, the commander of the tenth legion, and Titus Frigius, the commander of the fifteenth legion; there was also with them Eternius, the leader of the two legions that came from Alexandria, and Marcus Antonia Julianus, procurator of Judea; after these came togother also the rest of the procurators and tribunes.

Titus pro

posed to these, that they should give him their advice, what should be done about the holy house. Now, some of these thought, "It would be the best way to act according to the rules of war, [and demolish it,] because the Jews VOL. VII.

I

[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]

tr

66

[ocr errors]

66

66

"would never leave off rebelling while that house was standing, at which, house it was that they used to get all together." Others of them were of opinion, That “in "case the Jews would leave it, and none of them would lay their arms up in it, he might save it; but that "in case they got upon it, and fought any more, he might "burn it; because it must then be looked upon, not as an holy house, but as a citadel, and that the impiety of burning it would then belong to those that forced this to "be done, and not to them." But Titus said, That "although the Jews should get upon that holy house, and fight us thence, yet ought we not to revenge ourselves on things that are inanimate, instead of the men themselves; "and that he was not in any case for burning down so vast a work as that was, because this would be a mischief to "the Romans themselves, as it would be an ornament to "their government while it continued." So Fronto, and Alexander, and Cerealis, grew b bold upon that declaration, and agreed to the opinion of Titus. Then was this assembly dissolved, when Titus had given order to the comman ders, that the next of their forces should lie still, but that they should make use of such as were most courageous in this attack. So he commanded that the chosen men that were taken out of the cohorts, should make their way through the ruins, and quench the fire.

4. Now, it is true, that on this day the Jews were so weary, and under such consternation, that they then refrained from any attacks. But, on the next day, they gathered their whole force together, and ran upon those that guarded the outer court of the temple very boldly, through the east gate, and this about the second hour of the day. These guards received their attack with great bravery, and by covering themselves with their shields before, as if it were with a wall, they drew their squadron close together; yet was it evident that they could not abide there very long, but would be overborne by the multitude of those that sallied out upon them, and by the heat of their passion. However, Cæsar seeing, from the tower of Antonia, that this squadron was likely to give way, he sent some chosen horsemen to support them. Hereupon, the Jews found themselves not able to sustain their onset, and upon the slaughter of those in the forefront, many of the rest were put to flight.

« PreviousContinue »