leave of them, how cruel foever they were, to come into that court, were yet often deftroyed by this fedition; for those darts that were thrown by the engines, came with that force that they went over all the buildings, and reached as far as the altar, and the temple itfelf, and fell upon the priests, and thofe that were about the facred offices; infomuch, that many perfons who came thither with great zeal from the ends of the earth, to offer facrifices at this celebrated place, which was effeemed holy by all mankind, fell down before their own facrifices themfelves, and fprinkled that altar which was venerable among all men, both Greeks and Barbarians, with their own blood; till the dead bodies of ftrangers were mingled together with thofe of their own country, and thofe of profane perfons with thofe of the priests, and the blood of all forts of dead carcaffes flood in lakes in the holy courts themselves. And now, "O moft wretched city, what mifery so great as this didft thou fuffer from the Romans, when they came to purify thee from thy inteftine hatred? For thou couldst be no longer a place fit for God, nor couldft thou long continue in being, after thou hadft been a fepulchre for the bodies of thy own people, and hadft made the holy house itself a buryingplace in this civil war of thine. Yet + mayft thou again grow better, if perchance thou wilt hereafter appease the anger of that God who is the author of thy deftruction." But I muft reftrain my felf from thefe paffions by the rules of hiftory, fince this is not a proper time for domeftical lamentations, but for hiftorical narrations; I therefore return to the operations that follow in this fedition.

4. And now there were three treacherous factions in the city, the one parted from the other. Eleazar and his party, that kept the facred firft-fruits, came against John in their cups. Thole that were with John plundered the populace, and went out with zeal against Simon. This Simon had his fupply of provifions from the city in oppofition to the feditious. When, therefore, John was affaulted on both fides, he made his men turn about, throwing his darts upon thofe citizens that came up against him, from the cloifters he had in his poffeffion, while he oppofed thofe that attacked him from the temple by his engines of war. And it at any time he was freed from thofe that were above him, which happened frequently, from their being drunk and tired, he fallied out with a great number upon Simon and his party; and this he did always in fuch parts of the city as he could come at, till he fet on fire those houses

The Levites.

+ This is an excellent reflection of Jofephus, including his hopes of the restoration of the Jews upon their repentance. See Antiq. B. IV. ch. viii. 6 46. Vol. I. which is the grand Hope of Ifrael, as Manalich-ben-Ifrael, the famous jewish rabbi, flyles it, in his fmall but remarkable treatile on that fubject, of which the jewith prophets are every where full. See the principal of those prophecies collected together, at the end of the Effay on the Revelation, page 22, &c, PP

VOL. III.

306

The

that were full of corn and of all other provifions.
fame thing was done by Simon, when upon the other's re-
treat, he attacked the city alfo; as if they had on purpofe
done it to ferve the Romans, by deftroying what the city had
laid up against the fiege, and by thus cutting of the nerves of
Accordingly it fo came to pass, that all
their own power.
the places that were about the temple were burnt down, and were
become an intermediate defert pace, ready for fighting on
both fides of it; and that almoft all that corn was burnt, which
would have been fufficient for a fiege of many years. So they
were taken by the means of the famine, which it was impof-
fible they fhould have been, unless they had thus prepared the
way for it by this procedure.

of 5. And now as the city was engaged in a war on all fides, from thefe treacherous crowds of wicked men, the people the city between them were like a great body torn in pieces. The aged men and the women were in fuch diftrefs by their internal calamities, that they wished for the Romans, and earneftly hoped for an external war in order to their delivery from their domeftic miferies. The citizens themfelves were under a terrible confternation and fear; nor had they any opportunity of taking counfel, and of changing their conduct; nor were there any hopes of coming to an agreement with their enemies; nor could fuch as had a mind flee away; for guards were let at all places, and the heads of the robbers, although they were feditious one against another in other relpects, yet did they agree in killing thole that were for peace with the Romans, or were fufpected of an inclination to defert to them, as their common enemies. They agreed in nothing but this, to kill thofe that were innocent. The noile alfo of thofe that were fighting was inceflant, both by day and by night; but the lamentation of thofe that mourned exceeded the other; nor was there ever any occafion for them to leave off their lamentations, because their calamities came perpetually one upon another, although the deep confternation they were in prevented their outward wailing; but being constrained by their fear to conceal their inward paffions, they were inwardly tormented, without daring to open their lips in groans. Nor was any regard paid to thofe that were ftill alive, by their relations; nor was there any care taken of burial for thofe that were dead; the occafion of both which was this, that every one defpaired of himfelf; for thofe that were not among the feditious had no great defires of any thing, as expecting for certain that they fhould very foon be deflroyed; but for the feditious themfelves, they fought a

This deftru&tion of such a vast quantity of corn and other provifions, as was fufficient for many years, was the direct occalion of that terrible famine, which Nor probconfumed incredible numbers of jew in Jerufalem during its fiege. ably could the Romans have taken this city, after all, had not thefe feditious Jews been to infatted, as thus madly to destroy what Jofephus here juftly flyles, "The neives of their power."

gainst each other while they trod upon the dead bodies as they lay heaped one upon another, and taking up a mad rage from thofe dead bodies that were under their feet, became the fierc. er thereupon. They, moreover, were ftill inventing fomewhat or other, that was pernicious against themselves; and when they had refolved upon any thing, they executed it without mercy, and omitted no method of torment or of barbarity. Nay, John abufed the facred materials *, and employed them in the conftruction of his engines of war; for the people and the priests had formerley determined to fupport the temple, and raise the holy houfe twenty cubits higher; for king Agrippa had at a very great expence, and with very great pains, brought thither fuch materials as were proper for that purpofe, being pieces of timber very well worth feeing, both for their ftraightnefs and their largenels: 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 oppofe from them thote his adverfaries that fought from the temple that was above him. He also had them brought and erected behind the inner court over against the weit end of the cloisters, where alone t he could erect them; whereas the other fides of that court had fo many fteps as would not let them come nigh enough to the cloifters.

6. Thus did John hope to be too hard for his enemies by thefe engines conftructed by his impiety; but God himfelf demonftrated, that his pains would prove of no use to him 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 reft to meet him at Jerutalem, marched out of Celarea. He had with him thofe three legions that had accompanied his father when he laid Judea wafte, together with that twelfth legion which had been formerly beaten with Ceflius; which legion, as it was otherwile remarkable for its valour, fo did it march on now with greater alacrity to avenge themfelves on the Jews, as remembering what they had formerly fuffered from them. Of thefe legions he ordered the filth to meet him, by going through Emmaus, and the tenth to go up by Jericho: He alio moved himself, together with the reft: Belides which marched those auxiliaries that came from the kings, being now more in number than before, together with a confiderable number that came to his affiflance from Syria. Thofe allo that had been feletted

This timber, we fee, was defigned for the rebuilding thofe twenty additional cubits of the holy houfe above the hundred which had fallen down lome years before. See the note on Antiq. B. XV. ch. xi § 3 Vol II

+ There being no gate on the weft, and only on the wet fide of the court of the priests, and to no fteps there, this was the only fide that the feditious, under this John of Gifchala, could bring their engines close to the cloisters of that coust end ways, though upon the floor of the court of Ifrael. See the scheme of that

temple in the defcription of the temples hereto belonging.

308

out of these four legions, and fent with Mucianus to Italy,
had their places filled up out of thefe foldiers that came out
of Egypt with Titus; which were two thousand men, chofen
out of the armies at Alexandria. There followed him allo
three thousand drawn from thofe that guarded the river Eu-
phrates; as alfo there came Tiberias Alexander, who was a
friend of his, most valuable both for his good will to him, and
for his prudence. He had formerly been governor of Alex.
andria, but was now thought worthy to be general of the army
[under Titus]. The reafon of this was, that he had been the
first who encouraged Vefpafian very lately to accept this his
new dominion, and joined himfelf to him with great fidelity,
when things were uncertain, and fortune had not yet de-
He alfo followed Titus as a counsellor,
clared for him.
very useful to him in this war, both by his age and skill in
fuch affairs,

CHA P. II.

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

§ 1.

NOW

as Titus was upon his march into the enemies country, the auxiliaries that were fent by the kings marched first, having all the other auxiliaries with them, after whom followed thofe that were to prepare the roads, and meafure out the camp; then came the commanders baggage, and after that the other foldiers, who were completely armed to fupport them; then came Titus himself, having with him another felect body, and then came the pikemen; after whom came the horse belonging to that legion. All these came before the engines came, and after thefe engines came the tribunes and the leaders of the cohorts, with their fele&t bodies; after thefe came the enfigns, with the eagle; and before thofe enfigns came the trumpeters belonging to them; next thefe came the main body of the army in their ranks, every legion being fix deep; the fervants belonging to every legion came after thefe; and before these laft their baggage; the mercenaries came laft, and thofe that guarded them brought up the rear. Now Titus, according to the Roman ufage, 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 garrifoned by Roman foldiers: And when he had lodged there one night, he marched on in the morning; and when he had gone as far as a days 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 Gabaothfaul, which fignifies the Hill of Saul, being distant from

Jerufalem about thirty furlongs. There it was that he chofe out fix hundred fele&t horfemen, and went to take a view of the city, to observe what strength it was of, and how courageous the Jews were; whether, when they faw him, and before they came to a direct battle, they would be affrighted and fubmit; for he had been informed what was really true, that the people who were fallen under the power of the feditious and the robbers, were greatly defirous of peace; but being too weak to rife up againft the reft, they lay ftill.

2. Now, fo long as he rode along the ftrait 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 Plephinos, and led the band of horfemen obliquely, an immenfe number of the Jews leaped out fuddenly at the towers called the Women's Towers, through that gate which was over against the monuments of queen Helena, and intercepted his horle; and, ftanding directly oppofite to those that still ran along the road, hindered them from joining those that had declined out of it. They intercepted Titus alfo, with a few others. Now it was here impoffible for him to go forward, because all the places had trenches dug in them from the wall, to preferve the gardens round about, and were full of gardens obliquely fituated, and of many hedges; and to return back to his own men, he faw it was alfo impoffible, by reason of the multitude of the enemies that lay between them; many of whom did not fo much as know that the king was in any dan. ger*, but fuppofed him ftill among them. So he perceived that his prefervation must be wholly owing to his own cour age, and turned his horfe about, and cried out aloud to those that were about him, 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 fuccefs of wars and the dangers that kings are in, are under the providence of God; for while fuch a number of darts were thrown at Titus, when he had neither his head-piece on, nor his breaft-plate (for, as I told you, he went out not to fight, but to view the city), none of them touched his body, but went afide without hurting him; as it all of them

*We may here note, that Titus is here called a king and Caefar by Jofephus, even while he was no more than the emperor's fon and general of the Roman army, and his father Vefpafian was ftill alive; juft as the New Teftament says Archelaus reigned, or was king, Mat. ii. 22. though he was properly no more than ethnarch, as Jofephus aflares us, Antiq. B. XVII. ch. xi. 4. vol. II. Of the War, B. II ch vi § 3 vol. III. Thus alfo the Jews called the Roman emperors kings, though they never took that title to themfelves: We have no king but Caefar, John xix. 5. Submit to the king as fupreme, 1 Pet. ii. 13, 17; which is also the Janguage of the Apoftolical Conflitutions, II. 11. 34. IV. 13 V. 19. VI. 2, 25. VII. 16 VIII. 2, 13; and elf where in the New Teftament, John xix. 15. Matt. x. 18. xvii. 25. 1 Tim. ii. 2 and in Jofephus alfo; though I fufpect jofephus particularly effeemed Titus as joint king with his father, ever fince his divine dreams that declared them both fuch, B. III. ch. viii. § 9. vol. III.