Simon. And thus that sedition, which had been divided into three factions, was now reduced to two."

Josephus then gives "A description of Jerusalem, and of the temple;" and proceeds with his history in chapter 6, the contents of which are, "Concerning the tyrants Simon and John. How also, as Titus was going round the wall of the city, Nicanor was wounded by a dart; which accident provoked Titus to press on the siege." The historian here says:-" Now while the factions of John and Simon fought one against the other, the people were their prey on both sides, as we have said already; and that part of the people who would not join with them in their wicked practices, were plundered by both factions; and when the parts that were interposed between their possessions were burnt by them, they left a space wherein they might fight with each other, for this internal sedition did not cease, even when the Romans were encamped near their very walls. But although they had grown wiser at the first onset the Romans made upon them, this lasted but a while; for they returned to their former madness, and separated one from another, and fought it out, and did everything that the besiegers could desire them to do; for they never suffered anything worse from the Romans than they made each other suffer; nor was there any miseries that were endured by the city after these men's actions that could be esteemed new. But it was most of all unhappy before it was overthrown, while those that took it did it a great kindness; for I venture to affirm, that the sedition destroyed the city, and the Romans destroyed the sedition, which it was a much harder thing to do than to destroy the walls; so that we may justly ascribe our misfortunes to our own people, and the just vengeance taken on them by the Romans; as to which matter let every one determine by the actions on both sides."

The historian's next subjects are, "How one of the towers erected by the Romans fell down of its own accord; and how the Romans, after great slaughter had been made, got possession of the first wall; as also concerning Longinus the Roman, and Castor the Jew. How the Romans took the

second wall twice, and got all ready for taking the third wall. How a great many of the people earnestly endeavoured to desert to the Romans; as also what intolerable things those that stayed behind suffered by famine, and the sad consequences thereof." The intensifying of the Jewish calamities is thus exhibited by the historian under the latter heading:

"As for the people, they had a great inclination to desert to the Romans; accordingly, some of them sold what they had, and even the most precious things that had been laid up as treasures by them, for a very small matter, and swallowed down pieces of gold, that they might not be found out by the robbers; and when they had escaped to the Romans, went to stool, and had wherewithal to provide plentifully for themselves. However, John and Simon, with their factions, did more carefully watch these men's going out than they did the coming in of the Romans; and, if any one did but afford the least shadow of suspicion of such an intention, his throat was cut immediately.

"But as for the richer sort, it proved all one to them whether they stayed in the city or attempted to get out of it, for they were equally destroyed in both cases, that the robbers might get what they had. The madness of the seditious did also increase with their famine, and both those miseries were every day inflamed more and more; for there was no corn which anywhere appeared publicly, but the robbers came running into, and searched men's private houses; and if they found none, they tormented them worse, because they conceived they had more carefully concealed it. The indication they made use of whether they had any or not, was taken from the bodies of these miserable wretches; which, if they were in good case, they supposed they were in no want at all of food; but if they were wasted away, they walked off without searching any further; nor did they think it proper to kill such as these, because they saw they would very soon die of themselves for want of food. Many there were indeed who sold what they had for one measure; it was of wheat, if they were of the richer sort; but of barley, if they were poorer. When these had

so done, they shut themselves up in the rooms of their houses, and ate the corn they had gotten; some did it without grinding it, by reason of the extremity of the want they were in, and others baked bread of it, according as necessity and fear dictated to them; a table was nowhere laid for a distinct meal, but they snatched the bread out of the fire, half baked, and ate it very hastily.

"It was now a miserable case, and a sight that would justly bring tears into our eyes, how men stood as to their food, while the more powerful had more than enough, and the weaker were lamenting for want of it. But the famine was too hard for all other passions, and it is destructive to nothing so much as to modesty; for what was otherwise worthy of reverence, was in this case despised; insomuch that children pulled the very morsels that their fathers were eating, out of their very mouths, and what was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers do as to their infants; and when those that were most dear were perishing under their hands, they were not ashamed to take from them the very last drops that might preserve their lives; and while they ate after this manner, yet were they not concealed in so doing; but the seditious everywhere came upon them immediately, and snatched away from them what they had gotten from others; for when they saw any house shut up, this was a signal to them that the people within had gotten some food; whereupon they broke open the doors, and ran in, and took pieces of what they were eating, almost up out of their very throats and this by force; the old men, who held their food fast, were beaten; and if the women hid what they had within their hands, their hair was torn for so doing; nor was there any commiseration shown either to the aged or to infants, but they lifted up children from the ground as they hung upon the morsels they had gotten, and shook them down upon the floor; but still were they more barbarously cruel to those that had prevented their coming in, and had actually swallowed down what they were going to seize upon, as if they had been unjustly defrauded of their right. They also invented terrible methods of torment to discover where any food

was; .... and a man was forced to bear what it is terrible even to hear, in order to make him confess that he had but one loaf of bread, or that he might discover a handful of barley-meal that was concealed; and this was done when these tormentors were not themselves hungry, to keep their madness in exercise, and as making preparations of provisions for themselves on the following days. These men went also to meet those that had crept out of the city by night, as far as the Roman guards, to gather some plants. and herbs that grew wild; and when these people thought they had got clear of the enemy, these snatched from them what they had brought with them, even while they had frequently entreated them, and that by calling on the tremendous name of God, to give them back some part of what they had brought; though these would not give them the least crumb; and they were to be well contented that they were only spoiled, and not slain at the same time.

"These were the afflictions which the lower sort of people suffered from these tyrants' guards; but for the men that were in dignity, and withal were rich, they were carried before the tyrants themselves; and he who was utterly despoiled of what he had by Simon, was sent back again to John, as of those who had been already plundered by John, Simon got what remained; insomuch that they drank the blood of the populace to one another, and divided the dead bodies of the poor creatures between them.

"It is therefore impossible to go distinctly over every instance of these men's iniquity. I shall therefore speak my mind here at once briefly :-That neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world."

The historian, having thus commented on the events of the period-the applicability of which to the prophecy “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time" will be at once observed -proceeds to show in chapter 11, "How the Jews were crucified before the walls of the City. Concerning Antiochus Epiphanes; and how the Jews overthrew the banks that

had been raised by the Romans;" to which we may add, and how the Jews' own imprecation, "His blood be on us and on our children" was signally verified. He

"So now Titus's banks were advanced a great way, notwithstanding his soldiers had been very much distressed from the wall. He then sent a party of horsemen, and ordered that they should lay ambushes for those that went out into the valley to gather food. Some of these were indeed, fighting men, who were not contented with what they got by rapine; but the greater part of them were poor people, who were deterred from deserting, by the concern they were under for their own relations: for they could not hope to escape away, together with their wives and children, without the knowledge of the seditious; nor could they think of leaving these relations to be slain by the robbers on their account; nay, the severity of the famine made them bold in thus going out; so nothing remained but that, when they were concealed from the robbers, they should be taken by the enemy; and when they were going to be taken, they were forced to defend themselves, for fear of being punished: as, after they had fought, they thought it too late to make any supplications for mercy, so they were first whipped, and then tormented with all sorts of tortures before they died, and were then crucified before the wall of the city. This miserable procedure made Titus greatly to pity them, while they caught every day five hundred Jews; nay, some days they caught more; yet did it not appear to be safe for him to let loose those that were taken by force to go their way; and to set a guard over so many, he saw would be to make such as guarded them useless to him. The main reason why he did not forbid that cruelty was this, that he hoped that the Jews might perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they might themselves afterwards be liable to the same cruel treatment. So the soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest; when their multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies."