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government, and introduced the most complete fcene of iniquity in all inftances that were practicable; under which fcene that fort of people that were called Zelotes grew up, and who indeed correfponded to the name; for they imitated every wicked work; nor if their memory fuggefted any evil thing that had formerly been done, did they avoid zealously. to pursue the fame; and although they gave themselves that name from their zeal for what was good, yet did it agree to them only by way of irony, on account of those they had unjustly treated by their wild and brutifh difpofition, or as thinking the greatest mifchiets to be the greatest good. Accordingly they all met with fuch ends as God defervedly brought upon them in way of punishment; for all fuch miferies have been fent upon them as man's nature is capable of undergoing, till the utmost period of their lives, and till death came upon them in various ways of torment; yet might one fay justly that they suffered lefs than they had done, because it was impoffible they could be punished according to their deferving. But to make a lamentation according to the deferts of thofe who fell under thefe men's barbarity, this is not a proper place for it: I therefore now return again to the remaining part of the prefent narration..

2. For now it was that the Roman general came, and led his army against Eleazar and thofe Sicarii who held the fortrefs Mafada together with him; and for the whole country adjoining, he presently gained it, and put garrifons into the moft proper places of it: He alfo built a wall quite round the entire fortress, that none of the befieged might eafily efcape: He alfo fet his men to guard the feveral parts of it: He alfo pitched his camp in fuch an agreeable place as he had chofen for the fiege, and at which place the rock belonging to the fortrefs did make the nearest approach to the neighbouring mountain, which yet was a place of difficulty for getting plenty of provifions: For it was not only food that was to be brought from a great distance [to the army], and this with a great deal of pain to those Jews who were appointed for that purpose, but water was also to be brought to the camp, because the place afforded no fountain that was near it. When therefore Silva. had ordered thefe affairs beforehand, he fell to befieging the place: Which fiege was likely to ftand in need of a great deal of skill and pains by reafon of the ftrength of the fortress, the nature of which I will now defcribe.

3. There was a rock, not small in circumference, and very high. It was encompafled with vallies of fuch vaft depth downward, that the eye could not reach their bottoms: They were abrupt, and fuch as no animal could walk upon, excepting at two places of the rock, where it fubfides, in order to afford a paffage for afcent, though not without difficulty. Now, of the ways that lead to it, one is that from the lake Afphaltitis, towards the fun-rifing, and another on the weft, where the afcent is cafier: The one of thefe ways is called the Serpent, as

refembling that animal in its narrowness and its perpetual windings; for it is broken off at the prominent precipices of the rock, and returns frequently into itself, and lengthening a gain by little and little, hath much ado to proceed forward; and he that would walk along it must first go on one leg, and then on the other: There is alfo nothing but deftruction, in cafe your feet flip; for on each fide there is a vaftly deep chalm and precipice, fufficient to quell the courage of every body by the terror it infufes into the mind. When, therefore, a man hath gone along this way for thirty furlongs, the reft is the top of the hill not ending at a small point, but is no other than a plain upon the higheft part of the mountain. Upon this top of the hill Jonathan the high-prieft first of all built a fortrefs, and called it Mafada; after which the rebuilding of this place employed the care of king Herod to a great degree; he alfo built a wall round about the entire top of the hill, feven furlongs long: It was compofed of white ftone; its height was twelve, and its breadth eight cubits; there were allo erected upon that wall thirty-eight towers, each of them fifty cubits high; out of which you might pafs into leffer edifices, which were built on the infide, round the entire wall; for the king referved the top of the hill, which was of a fat foil, and better mould than any valley for agriculture, that fuch as committed themfelves to this fortrefs for their prefervation, might not even there he quite deftitute of food, in cafe they should ever be in want of it from abroad. Moreover, he built a palace therein at the weftern afcent; it was within and beneath the walls of the citadel, but inclined to its north fide. Now the wall of this palace was very high and flrong, and had at its four corners towers fixty cubits high. The furniture allo of the edifices, and of the cloifters, and of the baths, was of great variety, and very coftly; and thefe buildings were fup. ported by pillars of fingle ftones on every fide: The walls alfo and the floors of the edifices were paved with ftones of feveral colours. He alfo had cut many and great pits, as refervoirs for water, out of the rocks, at every one of the places that were inhabited both above and round about the palace, and before the wall: And by this contrivance he endeavoured to have water for several uses, as if there had been fountains there. Here was alfo a road digged from the palace, and leading to the very top of the mountain, which yet could not be feen by fuch as were without [the walls]; nor indeed could enemies eafily make ufe of the plain roads; for the road on the eaft fide, as we have already taken notice, could not be walked upon, by reafon of its nature; and for the wef- tern road, he built a large tower at its narroweft place, at no lefs a distance from the top of the hill than a thousand cubits; which tower could not poflibly be paffed by, nor could it be eafily taken; nor indeed could thofe that walked along it without any fear, fuch was its contrivance, eafily get to the

end of it: And after such a manner was this citadel fortified both by nature and by the hands of men, in order to fruftrate the attacks of enemies.

4. As for the furniture that was within this fortress, it was ftill more wonderful on account of its fplendour and long continuance; for here was laid up corn in large quantities and fuch as would fubfift men for a long time: Here was alfo wine and oil in abundance. with all kinds of pulfe and dates heaped up together: All which Eleazar found there, when he and his Sicarii got poffeffion of the fortrefs by treachery. Thefe fruits were allo freth and full ripe, no way inferior to fuch fruits newly laid in, although they were little fhort of an hundred years from the laying in these provifions [by Herod]. till the place was taken by the Romans; nay, indeed, when the Romans got poffeffion of thole fruits that were left, they found them not corrupted all that while: Nor should we be miflaken, if we fuppofed that the air was here the cause of their enduring fo long; this fortrefs being fo high, and fo free from the mixture of all terrene and muddy particles of matter. There was alfo found here a large quantity of all forts of weapons of war, which had been treafured up by that king, and were fufficient for ten thousand men: There was cast iron, and brafs, and tin, which fhew that he had taken much pains to have all things here ready for the greatet occafions: For the report goes how Herod thus prepared this fortrefs on his own account, as a refuge against two kinds of danger; the one for fear of the multitude of the Jews, left they should depofe him, and restore their former kings to the government: The other danger was greater and more terrible, which arofe from Cleopatra queen of Egypt, who did not conceal her intentions, but fpoke often to Antony, and defired him to cut off Herod, and entreated him to beflow the kingdom of Judea upon her. And certainly it is a great wonder that Antony did never comply with her commands in this point, as he was fo miferably enslaved to his paffion for her; nor fhould any one have been furprifed if the had been gratified in fuch her requeft. So the fear of thefe dangers made Herod rebuild Mafada, and thereby leave it for the finishing firoke of the Romans in this Jewish war.

5. Since therefore the Roman commander Silva had now built a wall on the outfide, round about this whole place, as we have faid already, and had thereby made a moft accurate provifion to prevent any one of the befieged running away, he undertook the fiege itself, though he found but one fingle place that would admit of the banks he was to raife: For behind that tower which secured the road that led to the palace, and to the top of the hill, from the west there was a certain eminency of the rock, very broad and very prominent, but three, • Pliny and others confirm this strange paradox, that provifions laid up against fieges will continue good for an hundred years, as Spanheim notes upon this places VOL. III.

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hundred cubits beneath the higheft part of Mafada: It was called the White Promontory. Accordingly he got upon that part of the rock, and ordered the army to bring earth; and when they fell to that work with alacrity and abundance of them together, the bank was raised, and became folid for two hundred cubits in height. Yet was not this bank thought futficiently high, for the ufe of the engines that were to be fet upon it; but fill another elevated work of great ftones compacted together was raifed upon that bank: This was fifty cubits, both in breadth and height. The other machines that were now got ready, were like to thofe that had been first devifed by Vefpafian, and afterwards by Titus, for fieges. There was allo a tower made of the height of fixty cubits, and all over plated with iron, out of which the Romans threw darts and ffones from the engines, and foon made those that fought from the walls of the place to retire, and would not let them lift up their heads above the works. At the fame time Silva ordered that great battering ram which he had made to be brought thither, and to be fet against the wall, and to make frequent batteries againft it, which with fome difficulty broke down a part of the wall, and quite overthrew it. However, the Sicarii made hafte, and prelently built another wall within that, which would not be liable to the fame misfortune from the machines with the other: It was made foft and yielding, and fo was capable of avoiding the terrible blows that affected the other. It was framed after the following manner: They laid together great beams of wood lengthways, one close to the end of another, and the fame way in which they were cut: There were two of thefe rows parallel to one another, and laid at fuch a distance from each other as the breadth of the wall required, and earth was put into the space between those rows. Now, that the earth might not fall away upon the elevation of this bank to a greater height, they farther laid other beams over crofs them, and thereby bound thofe beams together that lay lengthways. This work of theirs was like a real edifice; and when the machines were applied, the blows were weakened by its yielding, and as the materials by fuch concuffion were fhaken clofer together, the pile by that means became firmer than before. When Silva faw this, he thought it beft to endeavour the taking of this wall by fetting fire to it; fo he gave order that the foldiers fhould throw a great number of burning torches upon it: Accordingly, as it was chiefly made of wood, it foon took fire; and when it was once fet on fire, its hollownefs made that fire fpread to a mighty flame. Now at the very beginning of this fire, a north wind that then blew proved terrible to the Romans; for by bringing the flame downward it drove it upon them, and they were almoft in defpair of fuccefs. as fearing their machines would be burnt: But after this, on a fudden the wind changed into the fouth, as if it were done by Divine Providence, and blew ftrongly

the contrary way, and carried the flame, and drove it again ft the wall, which was now on fire through its entire thickness. So the Romans, having now affiftance from God, returned to their camp with joy, and refolved to attack their enemies the very next day; on which occafion they let their watch more carefully that night, left any of the Jews thould run away from them without being difcovered.

6. However, neither did Eleazar once think of flying away, nor would he permit any one else to do fo: But when he faw their wall burned down by the fire, and could devife no other way of escaping, or room for their farther courage, and setting before their eyes what the Romans would do to them, their children and their wives, if they got them into their power, he confulted about having them all flain. Now, as he judged this to be the best thing they could do in their prefent circumftances, he gathered the most courageous of his companions together, and encouraged them to take that course by a Speech which he made to them in the manner following:

Since we, long ago, my generous friends, refolved never to be fervants to the Romans, nor to any other than to God himfelf, who alone is the true and juft Lord of mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that refolution true in practice. And let us not at this time bring a reproach upon ourfelves for felf-contradiction, while we formerly would not undergo flavery, though it were then without danger, but muft now, together with flavery, choofe fuch punishments alfo as are intolerable: I mean this upon the fuppofition that the Romans once reduce us under their power while we are alive. We were the very first that revolted from them, and we are the laft that fight against them; and I cannot but eileem it as a favour that God hath granted us, that it is ftill in our power to die bravely, and in a ftate of freedom, which hath not been the cafe of others, who were conquered unexpectedly. It is very plain that we fhall be taken within a day's time; but it is ftill an eligible thing to die after a glorious manner, together with our dearest friends. This is what our enemies themselves cannot by any means hinder, although they be very defirous to take us alive. Nor can we propole to ourselves any more to fight them, and beat them. It had been proper indeed for us to have conjectured at the purpose of God much fooner, at the very firft, when we were to defirous of defending our liberties and when we received fuch fore treatment from one

The perches in this and the next feftion, introduced under the perion of this Eleazar, are exceeding remarkable, and on the nobleft fubjects, the contempt of death, and the dignity and immortality of the foul; and that not only among the Jews, but among the Indians them felves alío, and are highly worthy the perural of all the curious It feems as if that philofophic lady who furvived, ch. ix § 1, 2 remembered the fubftance of thefe diicouries, as ipoken by Eleazar, and fo jofe phus clothed them in his own words: At the i weft they contain the Jewith notions on these heads, as understood then by our Jofephus, and cannot but deferve a futable regard from us.

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