miffed him on purpose, and only made a noife as they paffed by him. So he diverted thofe perpetually with his fword that came on his fide, and overturned many of thofe that directly met him, and made his horfe ride over those that were overthrown. The enemy indeed made a fhout at the boldness of Cæfar *, and exhorted one another to rush upon him. Yet did thofe against whom he marched fly away, and go off hom him in great numbers; while thofe that were in the same danger with kim kept up clofe to him, though they were wounded both on their backs and on their fides; for they had each of them but this one hope of elcaping if they could affift Titus in opening himfelt a way, that he might not be encompafled round by his enemies before he got away from them. Now there were two of those that were with him, but at fome distance; the one of which the enemy compaffed round, and flew him with their darts, and his horfe allo; but the other they flew as he leaped down from his horfe, and carried off his horfe with them. But Titus efcaped with the reft, and came fate to the camp. So this fuccets of the Jews firft attack raifed their minds, and gave them an ill grounded hope; and this fhort inclination of fortune on their fide, made them very courageous for the future. 3. But now, as foon as that legion that had been at Emmaus was joined to Cæfar at night, he removed thence when it was day, and came to a place called Scopus; from whence the city began already to be feen, and a plain view might be taken of the great temple. Accordingly this place, on the north quarter of the city, and joining thereto, was a plain, and very properly named Scopus (the profpect, and was no more than leven turlongs diftant 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 fitth legion; for he thought that, by marching in the night, they might be tired, and might deferve to be covered trom the enemy, and with lefs 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 pafs into the city, and had been taken before by Velpafian. Thefe legions had orders to encamp at the diftance of fix furlongs from Jerufalem, at the mount called the † Mount of Olives, which lies over against the city on the eaft fide, and is parted from it by a deep valley interpofed between them, which is named Cedron. 4. Now, when hitherto the feveral parties in the city had See the above 'note. This fituation of the Mount of Olives on the caft of Jerufalem, at about the distance of five or fix furlongs, with the valley of Cedron interpoted between that mountain and the city, are things well known both in the Old and New Testament, in Jofephus elsewhere, and in all the defcriptions of Palestine. been dafhing one against another perpetually, this foreign war, now fuddenly come upon them after a violent manner, put the first stop to their contentions one against another; and, as the feditious now faw with aftonishment the Romans pitching three feveral camps, they began to think of an aukward fort of concord, and faid one to another, "What do we here, and what do we mean, when we fuffer three fortified walls to be built, to coop us in that we fhall not be able to breathe freely? while the enemy is fecurely building a kind of city in oppofition to us, and while we fit ftill within our own walls, and become fpectators only of what they are doing, with our hands. idle, and our armour laid by, as if they were about fomewhat that was for our good and advantage. We are, it seems (fo did they cry out), only courageous against ourselves, while the Romans are likely to gain the city without bloodshed by our fedition." 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 fhout, as they were fortifying their camp." Thefe Romans were caught in different parties, and this in order to perform their several works, and on that account had in great measure laid afide their arms; for they thought the Jews would not have ventured to make a fally upon them; and had they been difpofed fo to do, they fuppofed their fedition would have distracted them. So they were put into diforder unexpectedly; when fome of them left their works they were about, and immediately marched off, while many ran to their arms, but were Imitten and flain before they could turn back upon the enemy. The Jews became ftill more and more in number, as encour aged by the good fuccefs of thofe that firft made the attack; and, while they had fuch good fortune, they feemed both to themselves, and to the enemy, to be many more than they really were. The diforderly way of their fighting at first put the Romans alfo to a ftand, who had been conftantly ufed to fight fkilfully in good order, and with keeping their ranks, and obeying the orders that were given them: For which reason the Romans were caught unexpectedly, and were obliged to give way to the affaults that were made upon them. Now when thefe Romans were overtaken, and turned back upon the Jews, they put a stop to their career, yet, when they did not take care enough of themfelves through the vehemency of their purfuit, were wounded by them: But, as ftill more and more Jews fallied out of the city, the Romans were at length brought into confufion. and put to flight, and ran away from their camp. Nay, things looked as though the entire legion would have been in danger, unle!s Titus had been informned of the cafe they were in, and had fent them fuccours immediately. So he reproached them for their cowardice, and brought thole back that were running away, and fell himfelf upon the Jews on their flank, with thofe felett troops that were with him, and flew a confiderable number, and wounded more of them, and put them all to flight, and made them run away haftily down the valley. Now, as thefe Jews fuffered greatly in the declivity of the valley, fo, when they were gotten over it, they turned about, and stood over against the Romans, having the valley between them, and there fought with them. Thus did they continue the fight till noon; but, when it was already a little after noon, Titus fet thofe that came to the affiftance of the Romans with him, and thofe that belonged to the cohorts, to prevent the Jews from making any more fallies and then fent the reft of the legion to the upper part of the mountain, to fortify their camp. 5. This march of the Romans feemed to the Jews to be a flight; and as the watchman, who was placed upon the wall, gave a fignal by fhaking his garment, there came out a fresh multitude of Jews, and that with fuch mighty violence, that one might compare it to the ruaning of the moft terrible wild beafts. To fay the truth, none of thofe that oppofed them could fuftain the fury with which they made their attacks; but, as if they had been caft out of an engine, they brake the enemies ranks to pieces, who were put to flight, and ran away to the mountain. None but Titus himself, and a few others with him, being left in the midft of the acclivity. Now thefe others, who were his friends, defpifed the danger they were in, and were afhamed to leave their general, earnestly exhorting him to give way to these Jews that are fond of dying, and not to run into fuch dangers before thofe that ought to ftay before him; to confider what his fortune was, and not, by fupplying the place of a common foldier, to venture to turn back upon the enemy fo fuddenly; and this because he was general in the war, and lord of the habitable earth, on whofe preferva. tion the public affairs do all depend." Thefe perfuafions Titus feemed not so much as to hear, but opposed those that ran upon him, and fmote them on the face; and, when he had forced them to go back, he flew them: He also fell upon great numbers as they marched down the hill, and thruft them forward; while thofe men were fo amazed at his courage and his ftrength, that they could not fly directly to the city, but declined from him on both fides, and preffed after thole that fled up the hill; yet did he ftill fall upon their flank, and put a ftop to their fury. In the mean time, a diforder and a terror fell again upon thofe that were fortifying their camp at the top of the hill, upon their feeing thofe beneath them running away; infomuch that the whole legion was difperled, while they thought that the fallies of the Jews upon them were plainly infupportable, and that Titus was himfelf put to flight; becaufe they took it for granted, that, if he had flaid, the reft would never have fled for it. Thus were they encompailed on every fide by a kind of panic fear, and fome difperfed themselves one way, and fome another, till certain of them faw their general in the very midft of an action, and, being under great concern for him, they loudly proclaimed the danger he was in to the entire legion: And now fhame made them turn back, and they reproached one another, that they did worse than run away, by deferting Cæfar. So they ufed their utmost force against the Jews, and declining from the ftrait declivity, they drove them on heaps into the bottom of the valley. Then did the Jews turn about and fight them; but as they were themselves retiring, and now, because the Romans had the advantage of the ground, and were above the Jews, they drove them all into the valley. Titus also pressed upon those that were near him, and fent the legion again to fortify their camp; while he, and those that were with him before, oppofed the enemy, and kept them from doing farther mifchief; infomuch, that if I may be allowed neither to add any thing out of flattery, nor to diminish any thing out of envy, but to speak the plain truth, Cæfar did twice deliver that entire legion when it was in jeopardy, and gave them a quiet opportunity of fortifying their camp. CHA P. III. How the Sedition was again revived within Jerufalem, and yet the Jews contrived Snares for the Romans. How Titus alfe threatened his Soldiers for their ungovernable Rafhnefs. § I. AS now the war abroad cealed for a while, the fedition within was revived; and on the feaft of unleavened bread, which was now come, it being the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nifan], when it is believed the Jews were first freed from the Egyptians, Eleazar and his party opened the gates of this [inmolt court of the] temple, and admitted fuch of the people * as were defirous to worship God into it. * Here we see the true occafion of those vast numbers of Jews that were in Jerufalem during this fiege by Titus, and perished therein; that the fiege began at the feaft of the paffover, when fuch prodigious multitudes of Jews and profelytes of the gate were come from all parts of Judea, and from other countries, in order to celebrate that great feftival. See the note, B. VI. ch. ix. § 3. Tacitus himself informs us, that the number of men, women, and thildren in Jerufalem, when it was befieged by the Romans, as he had been informed, was 600,000. This information must have been taken from the Romans; for Jofephus never mentions the numbers of thofe that were befieged, only he lets us know, that of the vulgar, carried dead out of the gates, and buried at the public charges, was the like number of 600,000, ch. viii. 7. However, when Geftius Callus came first to the fiege, that fum in Tacitus is no way difagreeable to Jofephus's hiftory, though they were become much more numerous when Titus encompaffed the city at the paffover. As to the number that perished during this Gege, Jofephus affures us, as we shall fee hereafter, they were 1,100,000, befides 97,000 captives. But Tacitus's hiftory of the last part of this fiege is not now extant; fo we cannot compare his parallel numbers with those in Jofephus. VOL. III. But John made ufe of this feftival as a cloak for his treacher ous defigns, and armed the most inconfiderable of his own party, the greater part of which were not purified, with weapons concealed under their garments, and fent them with great zeal into the temple, in order to feize upon it; which armed men, when they were gotten in, threw their garments away, and prefently appeared in their armour. Upon which there was a very great diforder and difturbance about the holy houfe; while the people, who had no concern in the tedition, fuppofed that this affault was made against all without diftinction; asthe Zelotes thought it was made against themfelves only. So thefe left off guarding the gates any longer, and leaped down from their battlements before they came to an engagement, and fled away into the fubterranean caverns of the temple ; while the people that flood trembling at the altar, and about the holy houfe, were rolled on heaps together, and trampled upon, and were beaten both with wooden and with iron weapons without mercy. Such alfo, as had differences with others flew many perfons that were quiet, out of their own private enmity and hatred; as if they were oppofite to the feditious; and all thofe, that had formerly offended any of these plotters, were now known; and were now led away to the flaughter: And, when they had done abundance of horrid milchief to the guiltless, they granted a truce to the guilty, and let those go off that came out of the caverns. Thele followers of John alfo did now feize upon this inner temple, and upon all the warlike engines therein, and then ventured to oppose Simon. And thus that fedition, which had been divided into three factions, was now reduced to two. 2. But Titus, intending to pitch his camp nearer to the city than Scopus, placed as many of his choice horsemen and footmen as he thought fufficient, oppofite to the Jews, to prevent their fallying out upon them, while he gave orders for the whole army to level the diftance, as far as the wall of the city. So they threw down all the hedges and walls which the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of trees, and: cut down all the fruit-trees that lay between them and the wall of the city, and filled up all the hollow places and the chaims, and demolished the rocky precipices with iron inftruments; and thereby made all the place level, from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which adjoined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool. 3. Now at this very time, the Jews contrived the following fratagem against the Romans. The bolder fort of the feditious went out at the towers, called the Womens Towers, as if they had been ejected out of the city by thofe who were for peace, and rambled about as if they were afraid of being af faulted by the Romans, and were in fear of one another; while thofe that flood upon the wall, and feemed to be of the people's fide, cried out aloud for peace, and entreated they |