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facrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the reft be preferved for me allo." After which thofe men went out trembling, being never lo much affrighted at any thing as they were at this, and with fome difficulty they left the reft of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately; and while every body laid this miferable cafe before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard of aftion had been done by themfelves. So those that were thus diftreffed by the famine, were very defirous to die, and those already dead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either to hear or to fee fuch miferies.

5. This fad inftance was quickly told to the Romans, fome of which would not believe it. and others pitied the diftrefs 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 Cæfar. he excufed him felf before God as to this matter, and faid, that "he had propofed peace and liberty to the Jews, as well as an oblivion of all their former infolent practices; but that they, instead of concord, had chofen fedition; inftead of peace, war; and before fatiety and abundance, a fami. That they had begun with their own hands to burn down that temple, which we have preserved hitherto; and that therefore they deferved to eat fuch food as this was. That however, this horrid action of eating an own child ought to be covered with the overthrow of their very country itself, and men ought not to leave fuch a city upon the habitable earth, to be seen by the fun, wherein mothers are thus fed, although fuch food be fitter for the fathers than for the mothers to eat of, fince it is they that continue ftill in a state of war against us, after they have undergone fuch miferies as these." And at the fame time that he said this, he reflected on the defperate condition thefe men must be in; nor could he expect that fuch men could be recovered to fobriety of mind, after they had endured those very fufferings, for the avoiding whereof it only was probable they might have repen ted.

CHA P. IV.

When the Banks were completed, and the Battering Rams brought, and could do nothing, Titus gave Orders to fet Fire to the Gates of the Temple; in no long time after which, the Holy Houfe itself was Burnt down, even against his Confent.

1. AND now two of the legions had completed their banks

the eighth day of the month Lous, [Ab]. Whereupon Titus gave orders that the battering rams fhould be brought and fet over the western edifice of the inner temple; for before thefe were brought, the firmeft of all the other en gines had battered the wall for fix days together without ceafing, without making any impreffion upon it; but the vast

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WARS OF THE JEWS.

largeness and ftrong connexion of the ftones was fuperior to that engine, and to the other battering rams alfo. Other Romans did indeed undermine the foundations of the northern gate, and after a world of pains, removed the outermoft ftones. yet was the gate ftill upheld by the inner ftones, and stood ftili unhurt; till the workmen, delpairing of all fuch attempts by engines and crows, brought their ladders to the cloisters. Now the Jews did not interrupt them in fo doing; but when they were gotten up, they fell upon them and fought with them; fome of them they thruft down, and threw them backwards headlong, others of them they met, and flew: They also beat many of those that went down the ladders again, and flew them with their fwords before they could bring their fhields to protect them; nay, fome of the ladders they threw down from above when they were full of armed men ; and a great flaughter was made of the Jews alfo at the fame time, while thofe that bare the enfigns fought hard for them, as deeming it a terrible thing, and that would tend to their great fhame, it they permitted them to be ftolen away. Yet did the Jews at length, get poffeffion of these engines, and deftroyed those that had gone up the ladders, while the reft were fo intimidated by what thofe fuffered who were flain, that they retired; although none of the Romans died without having done good service before his death. Of the feditious, thofe that had fought bravely in the former battles did the like now; as befides them did EleaBut when Titus zar, the brother's fon of Simon the tyrant. perceived that his endeavours to fpare a foreign temple, turned to the damage of his foldiers, and made them be killed, he gave order to fet the gates on fire.

2. In the mean time there deserted to him Ananus, who came from Emmaus, the moft bloody of all Simon's guards, and Archelaus, the fon of Magadatus, they hoping to be fill 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 hafte, to have them both flain. He told them, that "they were only driven to this defertion because of the utmoft diftrefs they were in, and did not come away of their own good difpofition; and that thofe did not deferve to be preserved, by whom their own city was already fet on fire, out of which fire they However, the fecurity he now hurried themselves away.' had promifed deferters overcame his refentments, and he difmiffed them accordingly, though he did not give them the fame privileges that he had afforded to others. And now the foldiers had already put fire to the gates, and the filver that was over them quickly carried the flames to the wood that was within it, whence it fpread itself all on the fudden, and caught hold of the cloifters. Upon the Jews feeing this fire all about them, their fpirits funk, together with their bodies,

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and they were under fuch aftonishment, that not one of them made any hafte, either to defend himself or to quench the fire, but they flood as mute fpectators of it only. However, they did not fo grieve at the lofs of what was now burning, as to grow wifer thereby for the time to come; but as though the holy house itself had been on fire already, they whetted their paffions against the Romans. This fire prevailed during that day and the next alfo ; for the foldiers were not able to burn all the cloifters 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 ealy marching up of the legions, while he himfelt gathered the commanders together. Of those there were affembled the fix principal perfons, 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 Antonius Julianus, procurator of Judea: After these came together alfo the reft of the procurators and tribunes. Titus proposed to these, that they should give him their advice what fhould be done about the holy house. Now fome of these thought, "It would be the best way to act according to the rules of war, [and demolish it], because the Jews would never leave off rebelling while that houfe was ftanding, at which houfe it was that they used to get all together." Others of them were of opinion, That in cafe the Jews would leave it, and none of them would lay their arms up in it, he might fave it; but that in cafe 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 thofe that forced this to be done, and not to them." But Titus faid, That "although the Jews fhould get upon that holy houfe, and fight us thence, yet ought we not to revenge ourselves on things that are inanimate, inftead of the men themselves; and that he was not in any cafe for burning down fo vaft a work as that was, becaufe 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 bold upon that declaration, and agreed to the opinion of Titus. Then was this affembly diffolved, when Titus had given order to the commanders, that the reft of their forces fhould lie ftill, but that they should make use of fuch as were most courageous in this attack. So he commanded that the chofen men that were taken out of the cohorts fhould make their way through the ruins, and quench the fire.

4. Now it is true, that on this day the Jews were fo weary, and under fuch confternation, that they refrained from any VOL. III.

A 3

attacks. But on the next day they gathered their whole force' together, and ran upon those that guarded the outward court of the temple, very boldly, through the eaft gate, and this about the fecond hour of the day. These guards received that their attack with great bravery, and by covering themselves with their fhields before, as if it were with a wall, they drew their squadron clofe together; yet was it evident that they could not abide there very long, but would be overborne by the multitude of thofe that fallied out upon them, and by the heat of their paffion. However, Cæfar feeing, from the tower of Antonia, that this fquadron was likely to give way, he fent fome chofen horfemen to fupport them. Hereupon the Jews found themselves not able to fuftain their onfet, and upon the flaughter of thofe in the fore-front, many of the re were put to flight. But as the Romans were going off, the Jews turned back upon them, and fought them; and as thofe Romans came back upon them, they retreated again, until about the fifth hour of the day they were overborne, and shut themselves up in the inner court of the temple.

5. So Titus retired into the tower of Antonia, and refolved to form the temple the next day, early in the morning, with his whole army, and to encamp round about the holy house. But as for that houfe, God had, for certain, long ago doomedit to the fire: And now that fatal day was come, according to the revolution of ages, it was the tenth day of the month Lous, [Ab], upon which it was formerly burnt by the king of Babylon; although thefe flames took their rife from the Jews themselves, and were occafioned by them: For upon Titus's retiring, the feditious lay ftill for a little while, and then attacked the Romans again, when those that guarded the holy houfe fought with thofe that quenched the fire that was burning the inner [court of the] temple; but thefe Romans put the Jews to flight, and proceeded as far as the holy houfe itfelf. At which time one of the foldiers, without ftaying for any orders, and without any concern or dread-upon him at fo great an undertaking, and being hurried only by a certain divine fury, fuatched fomewhat out of the materials that were on fire, and being lifted up by another soldier, he fet fire to a golden window, through which there was a paffage to the rooms that were round about the holy house, on the north fide of it. As the flames went upward, the Jews made a great clamour, fuch as fo mighty an affliction required, and ran together to prevent it; and now they fpared not their lives any longer, nor fuffered any thing to reftrain their force, fince that holy houfe was perifhing, for whofe fake it was that they kept fuch a guard about it,

6. And now a certain perfon came running to Titus, and told him of this fire, as he was refting himself in his tent after the laft battle; whereupon he rofe up in great hafle, and, as he was, ran to the holy houfe in order to have a flop put to

the fire; after him followed all his commanders, and after them followed the feveral legions, in great aftonishment: So there was a great clamour and tumult raifed, as was natural upon the disorderly motion of fo great an army. Then did Cæfar, both by calling to the foldiers that were fighting, with a loud voice, and by giving a fignal to them with his right hand, order them to quench the fire. But they did not hear what he faid, though he spake fo loud, having their ears already dinned by a greater noife another way: Nor did they attend to the fignal he made with his hand neither, as ftill fome of them were distracted with fighting, and others with paffion. But as for the legions that came running thither, neither any perfuafions, nor any threatenings could restrain their violence, but each one's own paffion was his commander at this time; and as they were crowding into the temple together, many of them were trampled on by one another, while a great number fell among the ruins of the cloifters, which were still hot, and smoking, and were deftroyed in the fame miferable way with thofe whom they had conquered: And when they were come near the holy houfe, they made as if they did not fo much as hear Cæfar's orders to the contrary; but they encouraged those that were before them to fet it on fire. As for the feditious, they were in too great diftrefs already to afford their affiftance towards quenching the fire]; they were every where flain, and every where beaten; and as for a great part of the people, they were weak, and without arms, and had their throats cut wherever they were caught. Now round about the altar lay dead bodies heaped one upon another, as at the fteps going up to it ran a great quantity of their blood, whither allo the dead bodies that were flain above [on the altar] fell down.

7. And now, fince Cæfar was no way able to restrain the enthufiaftic fury of the foldiers, and the fire proceeded on more and more, he went into the holy place of the temple, with his commanders, and, faw it, with what was in it, which he found to be far fuperior to what the relations of foreigners , contained, and not inferior to what we ourselves boasted of, , and believed about it. But as the flame had not as yet reached to its inward parts, but was ftill confuming the rooms that were about the holy houfe, and Titus fuppoling, what the fact was, that the house itself might yet be faved, he came up in hafte and endeavoured to perfuade the foldiers to quench the fire, and gave order to Liberalius the centurion, and one of thofe fpearmen that were about him, to beat the foldiers that

These steps to the altar of burnt-offering feem here either an improper and inaccurate expression of Jofephus, fince it was unlawful to make ladder steps (fee defcription of the temples, chap. xiii, and note on Antiq Book IV. chap. viii. 5. Vol. I.); or elfe thofe fteps or flairs we now ufe were invented before the days of Herod the Great, and had been here built by him; though the later Jews always deny it, and fay that even Herod's altar was afcended to by an acclivity only.

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