though he suffered more mischief from Eleazar and his party than he could in flict upon them, yet would not he leave off assaulting them, insomuch that there were continual sallies made one against another, as well as darts thrown at one another, and the temple was defiled every where with murders.

3. But now the tyrant Simon, the son of Gioras, whom the people had invited in, out of the hopes they had of his assistance in the great distresses they were in, having in his power the upper city and a great part of the lower, did now make more vehement assaults upon John and his party, because they were fought against from above also; yet was he beneath their situation when he attacked them, as were they beneath the attacks of the others above them: whereby it came to pass, that John did both receive and inflict great damage, and that easi ly, as he was fought against on both sides; and the same advantage that Eleazar and his party had over him, since he was beneath them, the same advantage had he, by his higher situation, over Simon. On which account he easily repelled the attacks that were made from beneath, by the weapons thrown from their hands only; but was obliged to repel those that threw their darts from the temple above him, by his engines of war; for he had such engines as threw darts, and javelins, and stones, and that in no small number, by which he did not only de fend himself from such as fought against him, but slew moreover many of the priests as they were about their sacred ministrations. For notwithstanding these inen were mad with all sorts of impiety, yet did they still admit those that desired to offer their sacrifices, although they took care to search the people of their own country beforehand, and both suspected and watched them; while they were not so much afraid of strangers, who, although they had gotten leave of them, how cruel soever they were, to come into that court, were yet often destroyed, by this sedition; for those darts that were thrown by the engines came with that force that they went over all the buildings, and reached as far as the altar, and the temple itself, and fell upon the priests, and those* that were about the sacred of. fices: insomuch that many persons who came thither with great zeal from the ends of the earth to offer sacrifices at this celebrated place, which was esteemed holy by all mankind, fell down before their own sacrifices themselves, and sprinkled that altar which was venerable among all men, both Greeks and Bar barians, with their own blood; till the dead bodies of strangers were mingled together with those of their own country, and those of profane persons with those of the priests, and the blood of all sorts of dead carcasses stood in lakes in the holy courts themselves. And now, "O most wretched city, what misery so great as this didst thou suffer from the Romans, when they came to purify thee from thy intestine hatred? For thou couldest be no longer a place fit for God, nor couldest thou long continue in being, after thou hadst been a sepulchre for the bodies of thine own people, and hadst made the holy house itself a burying-place in this civil war of thine. Yet† mayest thou again grow better, if perchance thou wilt hereafter appease the anger of that God who is the author of thy de struction." But I must restrain myself from these passions by the rules of his. tory, since this is not a proper time for domestical lamentations, but for historical narrations: I, therefore, return to the operations that follow in this sedi. tinn.

4. And now there were three treacherous factions in the city, the one parted from the other. Eleazar and his party, that kept the sacred first fruits, came against John in their cups. Those that were with John plundered the populace, and went out with zeal against Simon. This Simon had his supply of provisions from the city in opposition to the seditious. When, therefore, John was assaulted

The Levites.

This is an excellent reflection of Josephus including his hopes of the restoration of the Jews upon their repentance. See Antiq. B. iv. ch. vii. sect. 46, which is the grand Hope of Israel, as Manasseh-ben Israel, the famous Jewish rabbi, styles it, in his small but remarkable treatise on that subject, of which the Jewish prophets are every where full. See the principal of those prophecies collected tog aner at the end of the Essay on the Revelation, page 122, &c.

on both sides, he made his men turn about, throwing his darts upon those citizens that came up against him, from the cloisters he had in his possession, while he op. posed those that attacked him from the temple by his engines of war. And if at any time he was freed from those that were above him, which happened fre. quently, from their being drunk and tired, he sallied out with a great number upon Simon and his party; and this he did always in such parts of the city as he could come at, till he set on fire those houses that were full of corn,* and of all other provisions. The same thing was done by Simon, when, upon the other's retreat, he attacked the city also: as if they had on purpose done it to serve the Romans. by destroying what the city had laid up against the siege, and by thus cutting off the nerves of their own power. Accordingly it so came to pass, that all the places that were about the temple were burnt down, and were become an intermediate desert space, ready for fighting on both sides of it; and that almost all that corn was burnt, which would have been sufficient for a siege of many years. So they were taken by the means of the famine, which it was impossible they should have been unless they had thus prepared the way for it by this procedure.

5. And now, as the city was engaged in a war on all sides, from these treach. erous crowds of wicked men, the people of the city between them were like a great body torn in pieces. The aged men and the women were in such distress by their internal calamities that they wished for the Romans, and earnestly hoped for an external war, in order to their delivery from their domestical miseries. The citizens themselves were under a terrible consternation and fear; nor had they any opportunity of taking counsel, and of changing their conduct; nor were there any hopes of coming to an agreement with their enemies; nor could such as had a mind fly away; for guards were set at all places, and the heads of the robbers, although they were seditious one against another in other respects, yet did they agree in killing those that were for peace with the Romans, or were suspected of an inclination to desert to them, as their common enemies. They agreed in nothing but this, to kill those that were innocent. The noise also of those that were fighting was incessant both by day and by night; but the lamentation of those that mourned exceeded the other; nor was there ever any occasion for them to leave off their lamentations, because their calamities came perpetually one upon another, although the deep consternation they were in prevented their outward wailing; but being constrained by their fear to conceal their inward pas sions, they were inwardly tormented, without daring to open their lips in groans. Nor was any regard paid to those that were still alive by their relations; nor was there any care taken of burial for those that were dead: the occasion of both which was this, that every one despaired of himself; for those that were not among the seditious had no great desires of any thing, as expecting for certain that they should very soon be destroyed; but for the seditious themselves, they fought against each other while they trode upon the dead bodies as they lay heaped one upon another, and, taking up a mad rage from those dead bodies that were under their feet, became the fiercer thereupon. They, moreover were still inventing somewhat or other that was pernicious against themselves and when they had resolved upon any thing, they executed it without mercy, and omitted no method of torment or of barbarity. Nay, John abused the sacred materials,† and emploped them in the construction of his engines of war; for the people and the priests had formerly determined to support the temple, and raise the holy house twenty cubits higher; for King Agrippa had, at a very great expense and with very great pains, brought thither such materials as were proper for that purpose,

* This destruction of such a vast quantity of corn and other provisions, as was sufficient for many years, was the direct occasion of that terrible famine which consumed incredible numbers of Jews in Je rusalem during its siege. Nor probably could the Romans have taken this city, after all, had not these seditious Jews been so infatuated as thus madly to destroy what Josephus here justly styles "the nerves of their power."

This timber, we see, was designed for the rebuilding those twenty additional cubits of the holy house above the hundred which had fallen down some years before. See the note on Antiq B, xv. ch xi seet. &

being pieces of timber very well worth seeing, both for their straightness and their largeness; but the war coming on, and interrupting the work, John had them cut, and prepared for the building him towers, he finding them long enough to oppose from them those his adversaries that fought him from the temple that was above him. He also had them brought and erected behind the inner court, over against the west end of the cloisters, where alone* he could erect them; whereas the other sides of that court had so many steps as would not let them come nigh enough to the cloisters.

6. Thus did John hope to be too hard for his enemies by these engines, constructed by his impiety; but God himself demonstrated that his pains would prove of no use to him, by bringing the Romans upon him before he had reared any of his towers; for Titus, when he had gotten together part of his forces about him, and had ordered the rest to meet him at Jerusalem, marched out of Cæsarea. He had with him those three legions that had accompanied his father when he laid Judea waste, together with that twelfth legion which had been formerly beaten vith Cestius: which legion, as it was otherwise remarkable for its valour, so did it march on now with greater alacrity to avenge themselves on the Jews, as remembering what they had formerly suffered from them. Of these legions he ordered the fifth to meet him, by going through Emmaus, and the tenth to go up by Jericho: he also moved himself together with the rest: besides which marched those auxiliaries that came from the kings, being now more in number than be. fore, together with a considerable number that came to his assistance from Syria Those also that had been selected out of these four legions, and sent with Mucia nus to Italy, had their places filled up out of those soldiers that came out of Egypt with Titus, which were two thousand men, chosen out of the armies at Alexandria. There followed him also three thousand drawn from those that guarded the river Euphrates; as also there came Tiberius Alexander, who was a friend of his, most valuable both for his good will to him and for his prudence. He had formerly been governor of Alexandria, but was now thought worthy to be general of the army under [Titus.] The reason of this was, that he had been the first who encouraged Vespasian very lately to accept this his new dominion, and joined himself to him with great fidelity, when things were uncertain, and for tune had not yet declared for him. He also followed Titus as a counsellor, very useful to him in this war, both by his age and skill in such affairs.

CHAP. II.

How Titus marched to Jerusalem, and how he was in Danger as he was taking a View of the City. Of the Place also where he pitched his Camp.

§ 1. Now, as Titus was upon his march into the enemies' country, the auxiliaries that were sent by the kings marched first, having all the other auxiliaries with them after whom followed those that were to prepare the roads and measure out the camp; then came the commander's baggage, and after that the other soldiers, who were completely armed, to support them; then came Titus himself, having with him another select body, and then came the pikemen; after whom came the horse belonging to that legion. All these came before the engines; and after these engines came the tribunes and the leaders of the cohorts, with their select bodies; after these came the ensigns, with the eagle; and before those ensigns came the trumpeters belonging to them; next these came the main body of the army in their ranks, every rank being six deep: the servants belonging to

There being no gate on the west, and only on the west side of the court of the priests, and so no steps there, this was the only side that the seditious, under this John of Gischala, could bring their engines close to the cloisters of that court endways, though upon the floor of the court of Israel. See the scheme of that temple in the description of the temples hereto belonging.

every legion came after these, and before these last their baggage; the mercenaries came last, and those that guarded them brought up the rear. Now Titus, according to the Roman usage, went in the front of the army after a decent manner, and marched through Samaria to Gophna, a city that had been formerly taken by his father, and was then garrisoned by Roman soldiers; and when he had lodged there one night, he marched on in the morning; and when he had gone as far as a day's march, he pitched his camp at that valley which the Jews, in their own tongue, call the Valley of Thorns, near a certain village called Gabaothsaul, which signifies the Hill of Saul, being distant from Jerusalem about thirty furlongs. There it was that he chose out six hundred select horsemen, and went to take a view of the city, to observe what strength it was of, and how courageous the Jews were; whether when they saw him, and before they came to a direct battle, they would be affrighted and submit; for he had been informed, what was really true, that the people, who were fallen under the power of the seditious and the robbers, were greatly desirous of peace; but being too weak to rise uo against the rest, they lay still.

2. Now, so long as he rode along the strait road which led to the wall of the city, nobody appeared out of the gates; but when he went out of that road, and declined towards the tower Psephinus, and led the band of horsemen obliquely, an immense number of the Jews leaped out suddenly at the towers called the Women's Towers, through that gate which was over against the monuments of Queen Helena, and intercepted his horse; and standing directly opposite to those that still ran along the road, hindered them from joining those that had declined out of it. They intercepted Titus also, with a few others. Now it was here impossible for him to go forward, because all the places had trenches dug in them from the wall to preserve the gardens round about, and were full of gardens obliquely situated, and of many hedges; and to return back to his own men, he saw it was also impossible, by reason of the multitude of the enemies that lay between them; many of whom did not so much as know that the king was in any danger,* but supposed him still among them. So he perceived that his preservation must be wholly owing to his own courage, and turned his horse about, and cried out aloud to those that were about him to follow him, and ran with violence into the midst of his enemies, in order to force his way through them to his own men. And hence we may principally learn, that both the success of wars, and the dan. gers that kings are in, are under the providence of God: for while such a num. oer of darts were thrown at Titus, when he had neither his head-piece on nor his breast-plate (for, as I told you, he went out not to fight, but to view the city,) none of them touched his body, but went aside without hurting him, as if all of them missed him on purpose, and only made a noise as they passed by him. So he diverted those perpetually with his sword that came on his side, and overturned many of those that directly met him, and made his horse ride over those that were overthrown. The enemy indeed made a shout at the boldness of Cæsar, and exhorted one another to rush upon him. Yet did those against whom he marched fly away, and go off from him in great numbers; while those that were in the same danger with him kept up close to him, though they were wounded both on their backs and on their sides; for they had each of them but this one hope of escaping, if they could assist Titus in opening himself a way, that he * We may here note, that Titus is here called a king and Cæsar, by Josephus, even while he was no more than the emperor's son and general of the Roman army, and his father Vespasian was still alive, ust as the New Testament says Archelaus reigned, or was king, Matt. ii. 22, though he was properly no more than ethnarch, as Josephus assures us, Antiq. B. xvii. ch. xi. sect. 4; Of the War, B. ii. ch. vi. sect. 3. Thus also the Jews called the Roman emperors kings, though they never took that title to themselves: We have no king but Cæsar, John xix. 15: Submit to the king as supreme, 1 Pet. ii. 13, 17; which is also the language of the Apostolical Constitutions, ii. 11, 34; iv. 13; v. 19; vi. 2, 25; vii. 16; viii. 2, 13; and elsewhere in the New Testament, John, xix. 15; Matt. x. 18; xvii. 25; 1 Tim. ii. 2, and in Josephus also; though I suspect iosephus particularly esteemed Titus as joint king with his father, ever since his divine dreams that declared tem both such, B. iii. ch. viii. sect. 9.

+ See the above note.

might not be encompassed round by his enemies before he got away from them. Now, there were two of those that were with him, but at some distance the one of which the enemy had encompassed round, and slew him with their darts, and his horse also; but the other they slew as he leaped down from his horse, and carried off his horse with them. But Titus escaped with the rest, and came safe to the camp. So this success of the Jews' first attack raised their minds, and gave them an ill grounded hope; and this short inclination of fortune on their side made them very courageous for the future.

3. But now, as soon as that legion that had been at Emmaus was joined to Cæsar at night, he removed thence when it was day, and came to a place named Scopus; from whence the city began already to be seen, and a plain view might be taken of the great temple. Accordingly, this place on the north quarter of the city, and adjoining thereto, was a plain, and very properly named Scopus [the prospect,] and was no more than seven furlongs distant from it. And here it was that Titus ordered a camp to be fortified for two legions that were to be together; but ordered another camp to be fortified, at three furlongs farther distance behind them, for the fifth legion; for he thought that, by marching in the night, they might be tired, and might deserve to be covered from the enemy, and with less fear might fortify themselves; and as these were now beginning to build, the tenth legion, which came through Jericho, was already Come to the place, where a certain party of armed men had formerly lain, to guard that pass into the city, and had been taken before by Vespasian. These legions had orders to encamp at the distance of six furlongs from Jerusalem, at the mount called the Mount of Olives,* which lies over against the city on the east side, and is parted from it by a deep valley interposed between them, which is named Cedron.

4. Now, when hitherto the several parties in the city had been dashing one against another perpetually, this foreign war, now suddenly come upon them af ter a violent manner, put the first step to their contentions one against another and as the seditious now saw with astonishment the Romans pitching three seve. ral camps, they began to think of an awkward sort of concord, and said one to another," What do we here, and what do we mean when we suffer three forti. fied walls to be built to coop us in, that we shall not be able to breathe freely? while the enemy is securely building a kind of city in opposition to us, and while we sit still within our own walls, and become spectators only of what they are doing, with our hands idle, and our armour laid by, as if they were about somewhat that was for our own good and advantage. We are, it seems (so did they ery out,) only courageous against ourselves, while the Romans are likely to gain the city without bloodshed by our sedition." Thus did they encourage one another when they were gotten together, and took their armour immediately, and ran out upon the tenth legion, and fell upon the Romans with great eagerness, and with a prodigious shout, as they were fortifying their camp. These Romans were caught in different parties, and this is in order to perform their several works, and on that account had in a great measure laid aside their arms; for they thought the Jews would not have ventured to make a sally upon them; and, had they been disposed so to do, they supposed their sedition would have distracted them: So they were put into disorder unexpectedly; when some of them left their works they were about, and immediately marched off, while many ran to their arms, but were smitten and slain before they could turn back upon the enemy. The Jews became still more and more in number, as encouraged by the good success of those that first made the attack; and while they had such good fortune, they seemed both to themselves and to the enemy to be many more than they really were. The disorderly way of their fighting at first put the Romans also to a stand, who had been constantly used to fight skilfully in good order, and with keeping their

This situation of the Mount of Olives on the east of Jerusalem, at about the distance of five or six furlongs, with the valley of Cedron interposed between that mountain and the city, are things well known both in the Old and New Testament, in Josephus elsewhere, and in all the descriptions of Palestino.