burnt down, as were also those houses that were full of the dead bodies of such as were destroyed by famine.

4. On the same day it was, that the sons and brethren. of Izates the king, together with many others of the eminent men of the populace, got together there, and besought Cæsar to give them his right hand for their security: upon which, though he were very angry at all that were now remaining, yet did he not lay aside his old moderation, but received these men. At that time, indeed, he kept them all in custody, but still bound the king's sons, and kinsmen, and led them with him to Rome, in order to make them hostages for their country's fidelity to the Romans.

CHAP. VII.

What afterward befel the seditious, when they had done a great deal of mischief, and suffered many misfortunes; as also how Cæsar became master of the upper city.

1. AND now the seditious rushed into the royal palace, into which many had put their effects, because it was so strong, and drove the Romans away from it. They also slew all the people that had crowded into it, who were in number about eight thousand four hundred, and plundered them of what they had. They also took two of the Romans alive; the one was a horseman, and the other a footman. They then cut the throat of the footman, and immediately had him drawn through the whole city, as revenging themselves upon the whole body of the Romans by this one instance. But the horseman said, he had somewhat to suggest to them in order to their preservation; whereupon, he was brought before Simon; but he having nothing to say when he was there, he was delivered to Ardalas, one of his commanders, to be punished, who bound his hands behind him, and put a ribband over his eyes, and then brought him out over against the Romans, as intending to cut off his head. But the man prevented that execution, and ran away to the Romans, and this while the Jewish executioner was drawing out his sword. Now when he was gotten away from the enemy, Titus could not think of putting him to death; but, because he deemed him unworthy of being a Roman soldier any longer, on account that he had been taken alive by the enemy, he took away his arms, and ejected him out of that legion whereto he had belonged; which, to one that had a sense of shame, was a penalty severer than death itself.

2. On the next day, the Romans drove the robbers out

of

*

the lower city, and set all on fire as far as Siloam. These soldiers were indeed glad to see the city destroyed. But they missed the plunder, because the seditious had carried off all their effects, and were retired into the upper city; for they did not yet at all repent of the mischiefs they had done, but were insolent as if they had done well; for, as they saw the city on fire, they appeared cheerful, and put on joyful countenances, in expectation, as they said, of death, to end their miseries. Accordingly, as the people were now slain, the holy house was burnt down, and the city was on fire, there was nothing farther left for the enemy to do. Yet did not Josephus grow weary even in this utmost extremity, to beg of them to spare what was left of the city; he spake largely to them about their barbarity and impiety, and gave them his advice in order to their escape; though he gained nothing thereby more than to be laughed at by them; and, as they could not think of surrendering themselves up, because of the oath they had taken, nor were strong enough to fight with the Romans any longer upon the square, as being surrounded on all sides, and a kind of prisoners already, yet were they so accustomed to kill people, that they could not restrain their right hands from acting accordingly. So they dispersed themselves before the city, and laid themselves in ambush among its ruins, to catch those that attempted to desert to the Romans: accordingly, many such deserters were caught by them, and were all slain; for these were too weak by reason of their want of food, to fly away from them; so their dead bodies were thrown to the dogs. Now every other sort of death was thought more tolerable than the famine, insomuch that though the Jews despaired now of mercy, yet would they fly to the Romans, and would themselves, even of their own accord, fall among the murderous rebels also. Nor was there any place in the city that had no dead bodies in it, but what was entirely covered with those that were killed either by the famine or the rebellion; and all was full of the dead bodies of such as had perished either by that sedition or by that famine.

3. So now the last hope, which supported the tyrants and that crew of robbers which were with them, was in the caves and caverns under ground; whither, if they would once fly, they did not expect to be searched out, but endeavoured, that, after the whole city should be destroyed, and the Rofrom mans gone away, they might come out again, and escape them. This was no better than a dream of theirs; for they were not able to lie hid either from God or from the Romans. However, they depended on these under-ground

subterfuges, and set more places on fire than did the Romans themselves; and those that fled out of the houses, thus set on fire, into the ditches, they killed without mercy and pillaged them also; and if they discovered food belonging to any one, they seized upon it, and swallowed it down, together with their blood also, nay, they were now come to fight with one another about their plunder; and I cannot but think, that had not their destruction prevented it, their barbarity would have made them taste of even the dead bodies themselves.

CHAP. VIII.

How Casar raised banks round about the upper city, and when they were completed, gave orders that the machines should be brought. He then possessed himself of the whole city.

§ 1. Now when Cæsar perceived that the upper city was so steep, that it could not possibly be taken without raising banks against it, he distributed the several parts of that work among his army, and this on the twentieth day of the month Lous [Ab.] Now the carriage of the materials was a difficult task, since all the trees, as I have already told you, that were about the city within the distance of an hundred furlongs, had their branches cut off already in order to make the former banks. The works that belonged to the four legions were erected on the west side of the city, over against the royal palace; but the whole body of the auxiliary troops, with the rest of the multitude that were with them [erected their banks] at the Xystus, whence they reached to the bridge, and that tower of Simon which he had built as a citadel for himself against John, when they were at war one with another.

2. It was at this time that the commanders of the Idumeans got together privately, and took counsel about surrendering themselves up to the Romans. Accordingly, they sent five men to Titus, and entreated him to give them his right hand for their security. So Titus thinking that the tyrants would yield, if the Idumeans, upon whom a great part of the war depended, were once withdrawn from them, after some' reluctancy and delay, complied with them, and gave them security for their lives, and sent the five men back. But as these Idumeans were preparing to march out, Simon perceived it, and immediately slew the five men that had gone to Titus, and took their commanders, and put them in prison, of

* i. e. Mount Sion,

whom the most eminent was Jacob, the son of Sosas; but, as for the multitude of the Idumeans, who did not at all know what to do, now their commanders were taken from them, he had them watched, and secured the walls by a more numerous garrison. Yet could not that garrison resist those that were deserting; for although a great number of them were slain, yet were the deserters many more in number. These were all received by the Romans, because Titus himself grew negligent of his former orders for killing them, and because the very soldiers grew weary of killing them, and because they hoped to get some money by sparing them; for they left only the populace. and sold the rest of the multitude with their wives and children, and every one of them at a very low price, and that because such as were sold were very many, and the buyers very few; and although Titus, had made proclamation beforehand, that no deserter should come alone by himself, that so they might bring out their families with them, yet did he receive such as these also.. However, he set over them such as were to distinguish some from others, in order to see if any of them deserved to be punished. And indeed the number of those that were sold was immense; but of the populace above forty thousand were saved, whom Cæsar let go whither every one of them pleased.

3. But now at this time it was, that one of the priests, the son of Thebuthus, whose name was Jesus, upon his having security given him by the oath of Cæsar, that he should be preserved upon condition that he should deliver to him certain precious things that had been reposited in the temple, t came out of it, and delivered him from the wall of the holy house two candlesticks, like to those that lay in the holy house, with tables, and cisterns, and vials, all made of solid gold, and very heavy. He also delivered to him the veils, and the garments, with the precious stones, and a great number of

This innumerable multitude of Jews that were sold by the Romans, were an eminent completion of God's ancient threatening by Moses, that, if they apostatized from the obedience to his laws, they should be sold unto their enemies for bondmen and bondwomen; Deut. xxvii. 68. See more especially the note on ch. ix. 2. But one thing is here peculiarly remarkable, that Moses adds, Though they should be sold for slaves yet no man should buy them: i. e. either they should have none to redeem them from this sale into slavery; or rather, that the slaves to be sold should be more than were the purchasers for them, and so they should be sold for little or nothing; which is what Josephus here affirms to have been the case at this time.

† What became of these spoils of the temple that escaped the fire, see Josephus himself hereafter, b. vii. ch. v. § 5.-Reland de Spoliis Templi, 129-138.

other precious vessels that belonged to their sacred worship. The treasurer of the temple also, whose name was Phineas, was seized on, and showed Titus the coats and girdles of the priests, with a great quantity of purple and scarlet, which were there reposited for the uses of the veil, as also a great deal of cinnamon and cassia, * with a large quantity of other sweet spices, which used to be mixed together, and offered as incense to God every day. A great many other treasures were also delivered to him, with sacred ornaments of the temple not a few; which things thus delivered to Titus, obtained of him for this man the same pardon that he had allowed to such as deserted of their own accord.

4. And now were the banks finished, on the seventh day of the month Gorpeius, [Elul,] in eighteen days' time, when the Romans brought their machines against the wall. But, for the seditious, some of them, as despairing of saving the city, retired from the wall to the citadel; others of them went down into the subterranean vaults, though still a great many of them defended themselves against those that brought the engines for the battery: yet did the Romans overcome them by their number, and by their strength, and what was the principal thing of all, by going cheerfully about their work, while the Jews were quite dejected, and become weak. Now as soon as part of the wall was battered down, and certain of the towers yielded to the impression of the battering-rams, those that opposed themselves fled away, and such a terror fell upon the tyrants, as was much greater than the occasion required; for before the enemy got over the breach, they were quite stunned, and were immediately for flying away. And now, one might see these men, who had hitherto been so insolent and arrogant in their wicked practices, to be cast down, and to tremble, insomuch that it would pity one's heart to observe the change that was made in those vile persons. Accordingly they ran with great violence upon the Roman wall that encompassed them, in order to force away those that guarded it, and to break through it, and get away. But when they saw that those who had formerly been faithful to them had gone away, (as indeed they were fled whithersoever the great distress they were in persuaded them to flee :) as also, when those that came running before the rest, told them that the western wall was quite overthrown, while

*These various sorts of spices, even more than those four which, Moses prescribed, Exod. xxxi. 34, we see were used in the public worship under Herod's temple, particularly cinnamon and cassia: which Reland takes particular notice of, as agreeing with the latter testimony of the Talmudists.