by sea, for their ships were small and fitted only for piracy; they were too weak to fight with Vespasian's vessels, and the mariners that were in them were so few, that they were afraid to come near the Romans, who attacked them in great numbers. However, as they sailed round about the vessels, and sometimes as they came near them, they threw stones at the Romans, when they were a good way off, or came closer and fought them; yet did they receive the greatest harm themselves in both cases. As for the stones they threw at the Romans, they only made a sound one after another; for they threw them against such as were in their armor, while the Roman darts could reach the Jews themselves; and when they ventured to come near the Romans they became sufferers themselves, before they could do any harm to the other, and were drowned, they and their ships together. As for those that endeavored to come to an actual fight, the Romans ran many of them through with their long poles. Sometimes the Romans leaped into their ships with swords in their hands, and slew them; but when some of them met the vessels, the Romans caught them by the middle, and destroyed at once their ships, and themselves who were taken in them. And for such as were drowning in the sea, if they lifted their heads up above the water, they were either killed by darts or caught by the vessels; but if, in the desperate case they were in, they attempted to swim to their enemies, the Romans cut off either their heads or their hands: and, indeed, they were destroyed after various manners every where, till the rest, being put to flight, were forced to get upon the land, while the vessels encompassed them about [on the sea:] but as many of these were repulsed when they were getting ashore, they were killed by the darts upon the lake; and the Romans leaped out of their vessels, and destroyed a great many more upon the land one might then see the lake all bloody and full of dead bodies, for not one of them escaped. And a terrible stink and a very sad sight there was on the following days over that country; for as for the shores they were full of shipwrecks, and of dead bodies all swelled; and as the dead bodies were inflamed by the sun, and putrefied, they corrupted the ait, insomuch that the misery was not only the object of commiseration to the Jews, but to those that hated them, and had been the authors of that misery. This was the upshot of the sea-fight. The number of the slain, including those that were killed in the city before, was six thousand five hundred. 10. After this fight was over, Vespasian sat upon his tribunal at Taricheæ, in order to distinguish the foreigners from the old inhabitants; for those foreigners appeared to have begun the war. So he deliberated with the other commanders whether he ought to save those old inhabitants or not. And when these commanders alleged, that the dismission of them would be to his own disadvantage, because when they were once set at liberty they would not be at rest, since they would be people destitute of proper habitations, and would be able to compel such as fled to fight against us, Vespasian acknowledged that they did not deserve to be saved, and that if they had leave given them to fly away, they would make use of it against those that gave them that leave. But still he considered with himself after what manner they should be slain; for if he had them slain there, he suspected that the people of the country would thereby become his enemies; for that to be sure they would never bear it, that so many that had been supplicants to him should be killed; and to offer violence to them after he had given them assurances of their lives, he could not himself bear to do it. However, his 1 This is the most cruel and barbarous action that Vespasian ever did in this whole war, as he did it with great reluctance also. It was done both after public assurance given of sparing the prisoners' lives, and when all knew and confessed that these prisoners were no way guilty of any sedition against the Romans. Nor, indeed, did Titus now give his consent, so far as appears, nor ever acted of himself so barbarously; nay, soon after this Titus grew quite weary of shedding blood, and of punishing the innocent with the guilty, and gave the people of Gischala leave to keep the Jewish Sabbath, B. iv. ch. ii. sect. 3, 5 in the midst of their siege. Nor was Vespasian disposed to do what he did, till his officers persuaded him, and that from two principal topics, viz.: that nothing could be unjust that was done gainst Jews, and that when both cannot be consistent, advantage must prevail over justice. Admirable court doctrines these! friends were too hard for him, and pretended that nothing against Jews could be any impiety; and that he ought to prefer what was profitable before what was fit to be done, where both could not be made consistent. So he gave them an ambiguous liberty to do as they advised, and permitted the prisoners to go along no other road than that which led to Tiberias only. So they readily believed what they desired to be true, and went along securely, with their effects, the way which was allowed them, while the Romans seized upon all the road that led to Tiberias, that none of them might go out of it, and shut them up in the city. Then came Vespasian, and ordered them all to stand in the stadium, and commanded them to kill the old men, together with the others that were useless, which were in number a thousand and two hundred. Out of the young men he chose six thousand of the strongest, and sent them to Nero, to dig through the isthmus, and sold the remainder for slaves, being thirty thousand and four hundred, besides such as he made a present of to Agrippa; for as to those that belonged to his kingdom, he gave him leave to do what he pleased with them: however, the king sold these also for slaves; but for the rest of the multitude who were Trachonites, and Gaulanites, and of Hippos, and some of Gadara, the greatest part of them were seditious persons and fugitives, who were of such shameful characters that they preferred war before prace These prisoners were taken on the eighth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul.] BOOK IV. CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ABOUT ONE YEAR. FROM THE SIEGE OF GAMALA TO THE COMING OF TITUS M BESIEGE JERUSALEM. CHAPTER I. THE SIEGE AND TAKING OF GAMALA. § 1. Now all those Galileans who, after the taking of Jotapata, had revolted from the Romans, did, upon the conquest of Taricheæ, deliver themselves up to them again. And the Romans received all the fortresses and the cities, excepting Gischala and those that had seized upon Mount Tabor; Gamala also, which is a city over against Taricheæ, but on the other side of the lake, conspired with them. This city lay upon the borders of Agrippa's kingdom, as also did Sogana and Seleucia. And these were both parts of Gaulanitis; for Sogana was a part of that called the Upper Gaulanitis; as was Gamala of the Lower; while Seleucia was situated at the lake Semechonitis, which lake is thirty furlongs in breadth and sixty in length; its marshes reach as far as the place Daphne, which, in other respects is a delicious place, and hath such fountains as supply water to what is called Little Jordan, under the temple of the golden calf,1 where it is sent 1 Here we have the exact situation of one of Jeroboam's golden calves, at the exit of Little Jordan into Great Jordan, near a place called Daphne, but of old Dan. See the note on Antiq. B. viii. ch. viii. sect 4. But Reland suspects that even here we should read Dan instead of Daphne, there being no where else any mention of a place called Daphne hereabouts. into Great Jordan. Now Agrippa had united Sogana and Seleucia by leagues to himself at the very beginning of the revolt from the Romans; yet did not Gamala accede to them, but relied upon the difficulty of the place, which was greater than that of Jotapata; for it was situated upon a rough ridge of a high mountain, with a kind of neck in the middle; where it begins to ascend it lengthens itself, and declines as much downward before as behind, insomuch that it is like a camel in figure, from whence it is so named, although the people of the country do not pronounce it accurately: both on the side and the face there are abrupt parts divided from the rest, and ending in vast deep valleys; yet are the parts behind, where they are joined to the mountain, somewhat easier of ascent than the other; but then the people belonging to the place have cut an oblique ditch there, and made that hard to be ascended also. On its acclivity, which is straight, houses are built, and those very thick and close to one another. The city also hangs so strangely, that it looks as if it would fall down upon itself, so sharp is it at the top. It is exposed to the south, and its southern mount, which reaches to an immense height, was in the nature of a citadel to the city; and above that was a precipice, not walled about, but extending to an immense depth. There was also a spring of water within the wall, at the utmost limits of the city. 2. As this city was naturally hard to be taken, so had Josephus, by building a wall about it, made it still stronger, as also by ditches and mines underground. The people that were in it were made more bold by the nature of the place than the people of Jotapata had been, but it had much fewer fighting-men in it; and they had such a confidence in the situation of the place, that they thought the enemy could not be too many for them; for the city had been filled with those that had fled to it for safety on account of its strength; on which account they had been able to resist those whom Agrippa sent to besiege it for seven months together. 3. But Vespasian removed from Emmaus, where he had last pitched his camp before the city Tiberias (now Emmaus, if it be interpreted, may be rendered A warm bath, for therei |
