you might pass into lesser edifices, which were built on the inside round the entire wall; for the king reserved the top of the hill, which was of a fat soil, and better mould than any valley for agriculture, that such as committed themselves to this fortress for their preservation might not even there be quite destitute of food in case they should ever be in want of it from abroad. Moreover, he built a palace therein, at the western ascent: it was within and beneath the walls of the citadel, but inclined to its north side. Now the wall of this palace was very high and strong, and had at its four corners towers sixty cubits high. The furniture also of the edifices, and of the cloisters and of the baths, was of great variety, and very costly; and these buildings were supported by pillars of single stones on every side; the walls also and the floors of the edifices were paved with stones of several colours. He also had cut many and great pits, as reservoirs 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 also a road digged from the palace, and leading to the very top of the mountain, which yet could not be seen by such as were without [the walls;] nor indeed could enemies easily make use of the plain roads; for the road on the east side, as we have already taken notice, could not be walked upon by reason of its nature; and for the western road, he built a large tower at its narrowest place, at no less distance from the top of the hill than a thousand cubits; which tower could not possibly be passed by; nor could it easily be taken; nor indeed could those that walked along it, without any fear, such was its contrivance, easily 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 frustrate the attacks of enemies.

4. As for the furniture that was within this fortress, it was still more wonderful on account of its splendour and long continuance; for here was laid up corn in large quantities, and such as would subsist men for a long time: here was also wine and oil in abundance, with all kinds of pulse and dates heaped up together: all which Eleazar found there, when he and his Sicarii got possession of the fortress by treachery. These fruits were also fresh and full ripe, no way inferior to such fruits newly laid in, although they were little short of and hundred years* from the laying in these provisions [by

*Pliny and others confirm this strange paradox, that provisions laid up against sieges will continue. good an hundred years, as Spanheim notes upon this place.

Herod] till the place was taken by the Romans; nay, indeed, when the Romans got possession of those fruits that were left, they found them not corrupted all that while; nor should we be mistaken if we supposed, that the air was here the cause of their enduring so long, this fortress being so high, and so free from the mixture of all terrene and muddy particles of matter. There was also found here a large quantity of all sorts of weapons of war, which had been treasured up by that king, and were sufficient for ten thousand men : there was cast iron, and brass, and tin, which show, that he had taken much pains to have all things here ready for the greatest occasions: for the report goes, how Herod thus prepared this fortress on his own account, as a refuge against two kinds of danger; the one, for fear of the multitude of the Jews, lest they should depose him, and restore their former kings to the government: the other danger was greater and more terrible, which arose from Cleopatra queen of Egypt, who did not conceal her intentions, but spoke often to Antony, and desired him to cut off Herod, and entreated him to bestow the kingdom of Judea upon her. And certainly it is a great wonder, that Antony did aever comply with her commands in this point, as he was so miserably enslaved to his passion for her; nor should any one have been surprised if she had been gratified in such her request. So the fear of these dangers made Herod rebuild Massada, and thereby leave it for the finishing stroke of the Romans in this Jewish

war.

5. Since, therefore, the Roman commander Silva had now built a wall on the outside, round about this whole place, as we have said already, and had thereby made a most accurate provision to prevent any of the besieged running away, he undertook the siege itself, though he found but one single place that would admit of the banks he was to raise 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 hundred cubits beneath the highest part of Masada; 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 solid, for two hundred cubits in height. Yet was not this bank thought sufficiently high, for the use of the engines that were to be set upon it; but still another elevated work of great stones compacted together was raised upon that bank; this was fifty cubits both in breadth and height. The

It

other machines that were now got ready, were like to those that had been first devised by Vespasian, and afterward by Titus, for sieges. There was also a tower made of the height of sixty cubits, and all over plated with iron, out of which the Romans threw darts and stones from the engines, and soon 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 same time, Silva ordered that great battering-ram which he had made, to be brought thither, and to be set against the wall, and to make frequent batteries against it, which, with some difficulty, broke down a part of the wall, and quite overthrew it. However, the Sicarii made haste, and presently built another wall within that, which should not be liable to the same misfortune from the machines with the other it was made soft and yielding, and so was capable of avoiding the terrible blows that affected the other. was framed after the following manner: They laid together great beams of wood lengthways, one close to the end of another, and the same way in which they were cut: there were two of these rows parallel to one another, and laid at such 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 cross them, and thereby bound those beams together that lay lengthways. This work of theirs was like a real edifice; and when the machines were applied, the blows were weak. ened by its yielding, and, as the materials by such concussion were shaken closer together, the pile by that means became firmer than before. When Silva saw this, he thought it best to endeavour the taking of this wall by setting fire to it; so he gave order that the soldiers should throw a great number of burning torches upon it: accordingly, as it was chiefly made of wood, it soon took fire; and when it was once set, on fire, its hollowness made that fire spread 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 almost in despair of success, as fearing their machines would be burnt but, after this, on a sudden, the wind changed into the south, as if it were done by divine Providence, and blew strongly the contrary way, and carried the flame, and drove it against the wall, which was now on fire through its entire thickness. So the Romans, having now assistance from God, returned to their camp with joy, and resolved to attack their enemies the very next day, on which occasion they set their

watch more carefully that night, lest any of the Jews should run away from them without being discovered.

6. However, neither did Eleazar once think of flying away, nor would he permit any one else to do so but when he saw their wall burnt down by the fire, and could devise 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 consulted about having them all slain. Now as he judged this to be the best thing they could do in their present circumstances, 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, resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any other than to God himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that resolution true in practice. And let us not at this time bring a reproach upon ourselves for self-contradiction, while we formerly would not undergo slavery, though it were then without danger, but must now, together with slavery, choose such punishments also as are intolerable: I mean this upon the supposition 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 last that fight against them; and I cannot but esteem it as a favour that God hath granted us, that it is still in our power to die bravely, and in a state of freedom, which hath not been the case of others, who were conquered unexpectedly. It is very plain that we shall be taken within a day's time; but still it is 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 desirous to take us alive. Nor can we propose 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 sooner, and at the very first when we were so desirous of defending our

The speeches in this and the next section, as introduced under the person of this Eleazar, are exceeding remarkable, and on the noblest subjects, the contempt of death, and the dignity and immortality of the soul: and that not only among the Jews, but among the Indians themselves also, and are highly worthy the perusal of all the curious. It seems as if that philosophic lady who survived, ch. ix. 1, 2. remembered the substance of these discourses, as spoken by Eleazar, and so Josephus clothed them in his own words; at the lowest, they contain the Jewish notions on these heads, as understood then by our Josephus, and cannot but deserve a suitable regard from us.

liberty, and when we received such sore treatment from one another, and worse treatment from our enemies, and to have been sensible that the same God, who had of old taken the Jewish nation into his favour, had now condemned them to destruction; for had he either continued favourable, or been but in a lesser degree displeased with us, he had not overlooked the destruction of so many men, or delivered his most holy city to be burnt and demolished by our enemies. To be sure, we weakly hoped to have preserved ourselves, and ourselves alone, still in a state of freedom, as if we had been guilty of no sins ourselves against God, nor been partners with those of others; we also taught other men to preserve their liberty. Wherefore, consider how God hath convinced us that our hopes were in vain, by bringing such distress upon us in the desperate state we are now in, and which is beyond all our expectations: for the nature of this fortress which was in itself unconquerable, hath not proved a means of our deliverance; and, even while we have still great abundance of food, and a great quantity of arms and other necessaries more than we want, we are openly deprived by God himself of all hope of deliverance; for that fire that was driven upon our enemies, did not of its own accord, turn back upon the wall which we had built this was the effect of God's anger against us for our manifold sins, which we have been guilty of in a most insolent and extravagant manner, with regard to our own countrymen; the punishments of which let us not receive from the Romans, but from God himself, as executed by our own hands; for these will be more moderate than the other. Let our wives die before they are abused, and our children before they have tasted of slavery; and after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit upon one another mutually, and preserve ourselves in freedom, as an excellent funeral monument for us. But first, let us destroy our money and the fortress by fire; for I am well assured that this would be a great grief to the Romans, that they shall not be able to seize upon our bodies, and shall fail of our wealth also: and let us spare nothing but our provisions; for they will be a testimonial when we are dead, that we were not subdued for want of necessaries, but that according to our original resolution, we have preferred death before slavery."

7. This was Eleazar's speech to them. Yet did not the opinions of all the auditors acquiesce therein; but, although some of them were very zealous to put his advice into practice, and were in a manner filled with pleasure at it, and thought death to be a good thing, yet had those that were most effeminate a