them down; so that a great many fell down dead by the strokes of the Romans, and more by their own violence in crushing one another. Now there was a terrible crowding about the gates, and while every body was making haste to get before another, the flight of them all was retarded, and a terrible destruction there was among those that fell down, for they were suffocated, and broken to pieces by the multitude of those that were uppermost; nor could any of them be distinguished by his relations, in order to the care of his funeral the soldiers also who beat them, fell upon those whom they overtook, without showing them any mercy, and thrust the multitude through the place called Bezetha, as they forced their way, in order to get in and seize upon the temple, and the tower Antonia. Florus also, being desirous to get those places into his possession, brought such as were with him out of the king's palace, and would have compelled them to get as far as the citadel; but his attempt failed, for the people immediately turned back upon him, and stopped the violence of his attempt; and as they stood upon the tops of their houses, they threw their darts at the Romans, who, as they were sorely galled thereby, because those weapons came from above, and they were not able to make a passage through the multitude, which stopped up the narrow passages, they retired to the camp which was at the palace. But for the seditious, they were afraid lest Florus should come again, and get possession of the temple. through Antonia; so they got immediately upon those cloisters of the temple that joined to Antonia, and cut them down. This cooled the avarice of Florus; for whereas he was eager to obtain the treasures of God in the temple, and on that account was desirous of getting into Antonia, as soon as the cloisters were down he left off his attempt; he then sent for the high priests and the sanhedrim, and told them that he was indeed himself going out of the city, but that he would leave them as large a garrison as they should desire. Hereupon they promised that they would make no innovations, in case he would leave them one band; but not that which had fought with the Jews, because the multitude bore ill-will against that band, on account of what they had

suffered from it; so he changed the band as they desired, and with the rest of his forces returned to Cæsarea."

The contents of chapter 16 are, "Cestius sends Neopolitanus the tribune to see in what condition the affairs of the Jews were. Agrippa makes a speech to the people of the Jews, that he may divert them from their intentions of making war with the Romans; " which he thus concludes:-"But certainly no one can imagine that you can enter into a war as by an agreement, or that when the Romans have got you under their power, they will use you with moderation, or will not rather, for an example to other nations, burn your holy city, and utterly destroy your whole nation; for those of you who shall survive the war will not be able to find a place whither to flee, since all men have the Romans for their lords already, or are afraid that they shall have hereafter. Have pity, therefore, if not on your children and wives, yet upon this your metropolis, and its sacred walls; spare the temple and preserve the holy house, with its holy furniture, for yourselves; for if the Romans get you under their power, they will no longer abstain from them, when their former abstinence shall have been so ungratefully requited. I call to witness your sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this country common to us all, that I have not kept back anything that is for your preservation; and if you follow that advice which you ought to do, you will have that peace which is common to you and to me; but if you indulge your passions, you will run those hazards which I shall be free from.'

"When Agrippa had spoken thus, both he and his sister wept, and by their tears repressed a great deal of the violence of the people; but still they cried out, that they would not fight against the Romans, but against Florus. To which Agrippa replied, that what they had already done was like such as make war with the Romans; for you have not paid the tribute which is due to Cæsar; and you have cut off the cloisters from joining to the tower Antonia. You will therefore prevent any occasion of revolt, if you will but join these together again, and if you will but pay

your tribute; for the citadel does not now belong to Florus, nor are you to pay the tribute money to Florus.' This advice the people hearkened to. And thus did Agrippa then put a stop to that war which was threatened."

Temporarily only, however, for chapter 17 is headed, "How the war of the Jews with the Romans began; and concerning Manahem." Josephus continues:

"Moreover Agrippa attempted to persuade the multitude to obey Florus, until Cæsar should send some one to succeed him; but they were hereby more provoked, and cast reproaches upon the king, and got him excluded out of the city; nay, some of the seditious had the impudence to throw stones at him. So when the king saw that the violence of those that were for innovations was not to be restrained, and being very angry at the contumelies he had received, he sent their rulers, together with their men of power, to Florus, to Cæsarea, that he might appoint whom he thought fit to collect the tribute in the country, while he retired into his own kingdom.

"And at this time it was that some of those that principally excited the people to go to war, made an assault on a certain fortress called Masada. They took it by treachery, and slew the Romans that were there, and put others of their own party to keep it. At the same time Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high priest, a very bold youth, who was at that time governor of the temple, persuaded those that officiated in the divine service to receive no gift or sacrifice for any foreigner. And this was the true beginning of our war with the Romans: for they rejected the sacrifice of Cæsar on this account: and when many of the high priests and principal men besought them not to omit the sacrifice, which it was customary for them to offer for their princes, they would not be prevailed upon. These relied much upon their multitude, for the most flourishing part of the innovators assisted them; but they had the chief regard to Eleazar, the governor of the temple."

The historian, after relating how the men of power reasoned with the seditious on the imprudence and danger of their course that, not being listened to, they invite Florus

and Agrippa to send armies to crush the sedition-that Florus, desiring its continuance returns no answer, and Agrippa sends three thousand horsemen - then says:"Upon this the men of power, with the high priest, as also the part of the multitude that were desirous of peace, took courage, and seized upon the upper city [Mount Zion]; for the seditious part had the lower city and the temple in their power: so they made use of stones and slings perpetually against one another, and threw darts continually on both sides! and sometimes it happened that they made excursions by troops, and fought it out hand to hand, while the seditious were superior in boldness, but the king's soldiers in skill. These last strove chiefly to gain the temple, and to drive those out of it who profaned it; as did the seditious, with Eleazar, labour to gain the upper city. Thus were there perpetual slaughters on both sides for seven days' time; but neither side would yield up the parts they had seized upon."

We are then informed, that the seditious, joined by the Sicarii, overpowered the king's soldiers-drove them out of the upper city by force-set fire to the house of Ananias the high priest, to the palaces of Agrippa and Bernice, and to the place where the archives were reposited-burnt the contracts belonging to their creditors-and then fell upon their enemies, some of whom concealed themselves in vaults, and others, including Ananias the high priest and the ambassadors that had been sent to Agrippa, fled with the king's soldiers to the upper palace and shut the gates immediately. That, the seditious assaulted the tower of Antonia-slew the garrison-set the citadel on fire-marched to the palace where the king's soldiers were fled-made an attack upon the walls—many fell under the weapons of the defenders"neither did they cease to fight one with another either by night or by day." That one Manahem, taking some men of note with him, retired to Masada, when he broke open king Herod's armoury-armed his own people and other robbers -returned to Jerusalem in the state of a king-became the leader of the sedition-continued the siege of the upper palace-granted a capitulation to the king's soldiers and

their own countrymen-slew many of the Romans who, left alone, deserted their camp and fled to the royal towerswent up to the temple to worship in a pompous manner, adorned with royal garments, having his followers with him in their armour-was violently attacked by Eleazar and his party, who slew all they could catch-the remainder privately escaped to Masada excepting Manahem, who was taken alive, tortured with all sorts of torments, and then slain. The king's soldiers sent to Eleazar desiring security for their lives, on their delivering up their arms, and what else they had with them-Eleazar complied with the petition-the soldiers, suspecting no treachery, laid down their arms according to the articles of capitulation-Eleazar and his men then attacked them violently and slew them all excepting Metilius, their leader, whose life was spared on his promising to become a Jew, and to be circumcised. The historian then says in conclusion of this chapter: "This loss to the Romans was but light, there being no more than a few slain out of an immense army; but still it appeared to be a prelude to the Jews' own destruction, while men made public lamentation when they saw that such occasions were afforded for a war as were incurable; that the city was all over polluted with such abominations, from which it was but reasonable to expect some vengeance" ["For these be the days of vengeance"], "even though they should escape revenge from the Romans; so that the city was filled with sadness, and every one of the moderate men in it were in great disturbance, as likely themselves to undergo punishment for the wickedness of the seditious; for indeed it so happened that this murder was perpetrated on the Sabbathday, on which day the Jews have a respite from their works on account of divine worship."

Chapter 18 gives us "The calamities and slaughters that came upon the Jews," and here the historian says:-"Now the people of Cæsarea had slain the Jews that were among them on the very same day and hour [when the soldiers were slain], which one would think must have come to pass by the direction of Providence; insomuch that in one hour's time above twenty thousand Jews were killed, and all Cæsarea