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 Another Random Document on
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Israel, he burst into tears, remembering his own Idumæan descent.
But from all sides the people cried to him, “Fear not, Agrippa, thou
art our brother!” It was undoubtedly to please the priests at
Jerusalem that he put James, the brother of John the Evangelist, to
death; for the Jews, when they were in the ascendant, were very far
from allowing others the religious liberty which they everywhere
claimed for themselves. Christian preaching might be attended with
more or less success among the communities of Jews or Jewish
proselytes settled elsewhere than in Judea; but at Jerusalem, where
memories of independence still survived, no man could be
acknowledged as the true Messiah who had failed to deliver his
nation from foreign oppression, and the new sect could not take root
in the country that had been its cradle. Moreover, the little church at
Jerusalem was very inoffensive, and the Book of Acts does not tell
us on what pretext James was beheaded. Simon Peter, the chief of
the Apostles, whom Agrippa had cast into prison, was delivered by
night, and his deliverance was ascribed to angelic agency. This
miraculous deliverance of St. Peter forms the subject of one of
Raphael’s finest pictures.
At Agrippa’s death, which took place a short
[44-52 a.d.] time after, his son, also named Agrippa, was
only seventeen years of age. In spite of his
youth the emperor was desirous of letting the kingdom of Judea
descend to him, but was unfortunately dissuaded from his purpose
by his advisers. The tetrarchy of Philippi was afterward bestowed on
Agrippa the Younger, but Judea fell finally under the rule of
procurators. Of all the provinces of the empire it was the most
difficult to govern. The others accepted Roman dominion. In
exchange for their independence Rome offered civilisation to Spain
and Gaul, peace and quiet to Greece and Asia, wearied as they were
by centuries of war. But the Jews understood Græco-Roman
civilisation no better than the Mohammedans understood our own,
and as for peace, they would accept it only on the condition that
they should be over all other nations: that was what they
understood by the kingdom of God.
 Their Messianic dreams haunted them more and more persistently.
The land was full of visionaries, and they always found disciples. A
prophet named Theudas induced more than four hundred persons to
follow him into the wilderness by declaring that he would cause
them to pass dry-shod over Jordan. Fadus, the procurator,
despatched a body of horsemen, who slew him and dispersed his
following. The author of the Acts, who placed the said Theudas
before the time of Judas the Gaulonite, indicates the comparison
generally made between the preaching of these two agitators and
that of the Apostles. Roman governors and Jewish lovers of order
saw no great difference between men inspired and robbers. Tiberius
Alexander, a renegade Jew of Alexandria, who succeeded Fadus in
the government of Judea, crucified two sons of Judas the Gaulonite,
who were still upholding the sect of the Zealots. As for the populace,
they were well disposed to all attempts, but among innovators they
liked those who adopted violent measures better than those whose
methods were peaceable; thus, as the Gospel relates, Barabbas was
preferred to Jesus.
Samaria, like Jerusalem, had its prophets and its messiahs. In the
days of Pontius Pilate there was one who gathered together a great
multitude on Mount Gerizim, promising to show them the sacred
vessels which had been buried there by Moses. Pilate punished these
wretched people so severely that Vitellius, governor of Syria,
compelled him to go to Rome, there to exculpate himself before
Tiberius. In the reign of Claudius one Simon of Gittha taught in
Samaria with great success a subtle form of theology borrowed from
the Judæo-Egyptian schools of Alexandria, which subsequently
reappears in the mythological doctrines of Christian Gnosticism. He
assigned the principal rôle in it to himself, giving himself out to be an
incarnation of the great power of God, though he acknowledged the
divine mission of Jesus. He averred that in him, Simon, God had
revealed himself to the Samaritans in the character of the Father, as
he had revealed himself to the Jews in the crucifixion of the Son,
and to the Gentiles by the gift of the Holy Ghost. The doctrine of the
Trinity, perhaps borrowed from Egypt, has become a part of
Christianity, but Simon appears to have given a place in it to the
Feminine Principle, probably represented by the Holy Ghost, that
name being feminine in Hebrew. Wherever he went he took with him
a very beautiful woman, whom he had bought in the market at Tyre.
Her name was Helen, and Simon, identifying her with Homer’s
Helen, deduced from the name a mystical scheme of redemption for
the Eternal Feminine. It was the time when Christianity was first
preached, and the Apostles were credited with miraculous powers of
healing by the laying on of hands. A prophet ought to work miracles,
and Simon was accordingly anxious to purchase their methods, and
proposed that they should work together. The invincible repugnance
of the Jew for the Samaritan made them repel his advances with
scorn. A legend grew up in the Christian church about the name of
Simon, surnamed Magus, who became the type of all charlatans,
and the name of simony has since been given to all traffic in holy
things.
The reciprocal antipathy of Jews and Samaritans was a source of
embarrassment to the Roman government. Some Galileans, on their
way to Jerusalem for the feasts, passed through Samaria and
quarrelled with the inhabitants. The men of Jerusalem, led by a
robber chieftain, pillaged Samaria. Cumanus, the procurator, was
called upon to intervene, and decided in favour of the Samaritans.
The Jews accused him of taking bribes, and appealed first to the
governor of Syria and then to the emperor. The young Agrippa, who
stood high in the good graces of Claudius, contrived that the Jews
should win their suit, and Cumanus was banished.
From the government of this same Cumanus,
[52-62 a.d.] Josephus dates the disorders which ended in
the destruction of Jerusalem. He had,
nevertheless, treated the religious scruples of the Jews with great
consideration, going so far as to inflict capital punishment on a
Roman soldier who had torn up a copy of the Pentateuch while
engaged in suppressing a riot. The sway of Rome was not
oppressive, and the government confined itself to protecting the
public peace against adventurers who lived on plunder under the
cloak of religion, and fanatics who endeavoured to stir up the people
by promising to work miracles before them. One of these induced
thirty thousand persons to follow him to the Mount of Olives, that
thence they might see the walls of Jerusalem fall at his behest. Felix,
the procurator, sent soldiers to disperse the multitudes, and the
prophet took to flight. But it was always the same story. “Judea,”
says Josephus, “was full of robbers and sorcerers who deceived the
people, and not a day passed in which Felix did not punish some of
one sort or the other. But the robbers continued to stir up the people
to rebel against the Romans, giving over to fire and plunder the
villages of those who refused to rejoin them.”
When it might have been imagined that severe repressive
measures had delivered Judea from this pest, it reappeared in a yet
more formidable shape. At the festivals, when a great concourse of
people from all parts were gathered together at Jerusalem, bandits
known as sicarii, that is “men of the knife,” mingled with the throng
and stabbed their victims, without any being able to see whence the
blow came, for the assassins were the first to cry murder. “The first
whom they assassinated on this wise,” says Josephus, “was
Jonathan the high priest, and not a day passed on which they did
not kill several in the same manner. The panic that prevailed
throughout the city was worse than the evil itself. Men looked for
death at any moment, as in time of war. They saw none approach
without trembling, they did not dare to trust their friends. These
precautions and suspicions did not put a stop to the murders, so
great was the daring of these villains and their skill in hiding
themselves.” Josephus does not ascribe anything of a religious
character to these assassinations. But according to the author of the
Philosophumena (Origenf or St. Hippolytus) the sicarii were identical
with the Zealots, and were connected with the sect of the Essenes.
“When they hear any of the uncircumcised speak of God and of His
law, they seek to come upon him by stealth in a solitary place and
threaten to kill him unless he will be circumcised: if he refuses to
obey, he is slain. This is wherefore they are called Zealots, and by
some sicarii.” Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews accuses Felix,
the procurator, of having procured the assassination of the high
priest Jonathan by the sicarii, an accusation which he does not
repeat in the Wars of the Jews. Felix was a brother of Pallas, the
freedman and favourite of Claudius. Tacitus speaks of him in even
harsher terms than Josephus. “Claudius made Judea into a province
which he abandoned to Roman knights or to freedmen; among these
Felix distinguished himself by every sort of cruelty and license, he
exercised the authority of a despot in the base spirit of a slave.” The
Jews caused him to be accused before Nero, who had succeeded
Claudius, but he was saved by the influence of his brother Pallas.
At Cæsarea there was a constant rivalry between the Jewish and
the Greek or Syrian part of the population. The Jews were exempt
from military service; the Greeks and Syrians, from whose ranks the
legions were recruited, were jealous of this inequality. Hence arose
taunts on the one side and recriminations on the other, sanguinary
quarrels and riots. Finally the two parties sent agents to plead their
cause before Nero, who decided against the Jews and deprived them
of civil rights. Josephus says that this decree was the cause of the
rebellion of the Jews; but it was only the last drop that makes the
cup overflow. The rebellion had long been inevitable. It was not
induced, like that of Judas Maccabæus, by religious persecution; the
Romans allowed the Jews the free exercise of their religion, as they
allowed it to all other nations. But the Jews were the chief people in
the empire who did not belong to the Indo-European race. There is
an incompatibility of temper between that race and the Semitic; we
perceive the fact only too clearly in Algeria. The demand for union
with the empire, raised after the death of Herod, had proceeded
from the Jews themselves. A procurator, even if not beyond
reproach, could not possibly be worse than their native kings.
Festus, who succeeded Felix, seems to have governed with firmness
and prudence. Like his predecessors, he dealt severely with robbers,
sicarii, and messiahs. But nothing could allay the fever that had laid
hold upon Judea and worked madness in the brain; for there are
epidemics in the moral as in the physical order. We cannot lay all the
blame on the Romans; their rule secured the peace of the world, a
boon which was doubtless worth the sacrifice of the restless and
precarious autonomy of a few peoples. But we mourn for Greece,
and we may be permitted to mourn for Judea. Nor must we cast a
stone at this small and fiery nation, with its obstinate will to live.
Depopulated Greece had died of weariness and exhaustion. Judea,
overflowing with inhabitants, was about to die in a frenzy of
patriotism; it is the worthier death.
In spite of the Roman occupation, the Jewish
[62 a.d.] theocracy found means for tyrannical action.
The high priests seized upon the tithes due to
the priests, the principal inhabitants of Jerusalem, espoused the
cause of the inferior clergy, who were starving; there were fights in
the streets, and the Roman government looked on passively, not
wishing to meddle with religious matters. They were Agrippa’s affair,
since the appointment of the high priests had been left to him. He,
though his kingdom did not extend to the northern provinces,
resided in Herod’s palace at Jerusalem. He had built a tower, from
the height of which the inner court of the temple could be scanned.
The priests regarded this as a profanation, and built a high wall,
shutting off both the palace and the barracks of the Roman guard.
Agrippa and Festus wished to demolish it, but, thanks to the support
of the Empress Poppæa, who was a Jewess, or, at least, very well
disposed towards the Jews, the priests gained permission from Nero
that the wall should remain. After the death of Festus, and before
the arrival of Ananus, the high priest convoked the Sanhedrim to sit
in judgment on and condemn certain transgressors of the law, and,
among others, James, the brother or cousin of Jesus. Hanan
belonged to the sect of the Sadducees, which consisted entirely of
wealthy people. James was greatly beloved by the poor. The epistle
attributed to him, though it preached patience to the latter, contains
passages little favourable to the rich. He was stoned. The sentence
was illegal, for the high priest had no right to pass sentence of death
in the absence of the procurator. Ananus was deposed from his
office, but the death of James gave rise to great disaffection, and no
doubt contributed to the separation of Christians from Jews. James
was one of those who endeavoured to avoid this separation, and the
church at Jerusalem, of which he was the head, showed great
attachment to the practices of Judaism.
At Rome, the preaching of Christianity had begun in the reign of
Claudius, and as it stirred up incessant quarrels among the Jews,
which led to the disturbance of public order, the emperor had them
all expelled from the city. Suetonius ascribes these scenes of
disorder to Christ; it is the first time that we meet with the name in
a pagan author, and the phraseology of Suetonius appears to
indicate that, in his opinion, Christ was a person who lived at Rome
in the time of Claudius: “Judæos, impulsore Christo assidue
tumultuantes, Roma expulit.” According to Dion Cassius, the Jews
were not expelled from the city, but were forbidden to assemble
together. The Christians were confounded with the Jews; the
distinction first began to be made under Nero. “They put to the
torture,” says Suetonius, “the Christians, a sort of men holding a
new and noxious superstition.” A terrible fire, which destroyed more
than half of Rome, gave occasion for these tortures. Rumour
accused Nero of having set fire to Rome that he might rebuild it in
greater beauty; it was even said that during the fire he had gone up
into his theatre and sung the destruction of Troy.
“To put an end to these rumours,” says Tacitus, “he sought for
guilty persons, and inflicted the most cruel tortures upon persons
detested for their infamous practices, who were commonly called
Christians. This name they took from Christ, who was condemned to
death under Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate. This
pernicious superstition, suppressed for the moment, had since
overflowed, not only in Judea, where was the source of the evil, but
even in Rome, where all crimes and shames meet together. Those
were first seized who confessed, and afterwards, on their testimony,
a great number of others, who were convicted, less of having set fire
to Rome than of hating the human race. Mockery was added to
torture; they were wrapped in the skins of beasts to be cast to dogs
to devour; they were crucified; they were set alight like torches to
give light by night. Nero had offered his gardens for this spectacle,
and he mingled with the people in the garb of a charioteer or driving
a chariot. Thus these wretches, though deserving of exemplary
punishment, inspired pity, for they were not sacrificed to the
interests of the public but to the cruelty of a single man.”
It seems as though the Christians must have been safe in their
obscurity from the emperor’s notice if it had not been directed to
them by some special influence. Gibbon appears to believe that the
beautiful Poppæa, the mistress and wife of Nero, and a Jewish
comedian who had won his master’s favour, prevented the
persecution from spreading to all Jews at Rome by concentrating it
on a dissenting sect, in very evil odour with genuine Israelites.
Renan goes farther, and thinks that the persecution directed against
the Christians may have been excited by the intrigues of the Jews.
He bases his opinion upon an ingenious interpretation of a very
obscure passage in Clemens Romanus. Against this conjecture we
may set the silence of the Apocalypse, which contains no allusion to
Poppæa nor to the Neronian persecution. Now, as Renan has
demonstrated by a wealth of evidence, the Apocalypse was a direct
outcome of this persecution.
Nero is Antichrist and the Beast, and the number 666, which is the
number of the Beast, represents the letters of his name, Νέρων
Καισαρ, transcribed in Hebrew and added up according to their
numerical value. Like the Book of Daniel, written at the time of the
great struggle of the Jews with the kings of Syria, the Book of the
Revelation is a political and religious pamphlet. The author gives his
estimate of the events of his time or expounds his hopes for the
future under the figure of prophetic visions and of enigmas to which
he sometimes supplies the key. The Jews were extremely fond of
this form of literature. The Apocalypse, i.e., the Revelation, ascribed
to John, the last survivor of the Apostolic band, was written during
the period of anarchy which lay between the death of Nero and the
accession of Vespasian. It was the eve of the last agony of Judea;
the speedy dissolution of the Roman Empire was expected. A
supreme conflict between heaven and earth was about to begin, and
would end by the great judgment of God and the reign of his Christ.
Nor did the prophet lie; for it was in truth the end of the old world
and the birth of the new.b

Jewish Headdresses

CHAPTER XIII. THE REVOLT AGAINST ROME

The Jewish heart had been kindled to a
[62-67 a.d.] successful revolt under Judas Maccabæus. The
memory of this triumph and of the cruelties that
had forced it upon the unwarlike people, ripened the national heart
for an effort against even the mighty empire of Rome. The struggle
was one of the bravest and one of the most horrible in the world’s
annals. It found a splendid chronicler in Josephus, who was one of
the generals, and fought bravely, and yet, like his Grecian prototype,
Thucydides, won his immortality by his pen instead of by his sword.
Josephus’ account is, however, a voluminous work in itself, and we
must be content with some of the most brilliant pages, turning to
Ménard for a briefer sketch of the general story.a
In Judea, the temper of the nation had long given warning of
approaching revolt. It broke out at length when Gessius Florus was
appointed procurator through the influence of his wife, who was a
friend of Poppæa’s. His vexatious measures and rapacity wore out
the patience of the Jews; on this point Tacitus is at one with
Josephus. Disorders first occurred at Cæsarea on the occasion of
Nero’s decree; then the action of Florus in taking seventeen talents
out of the temple treasury provoked a riot at Jerusalem. The soldiery
spread through the streets, plundering the houses and massacring
the peaceable inhabitants, not sparing even women and children;
after which the procurator withdrew to Cæsarea, leaving only one
cohort in the tower of Antonia. The Zealots promptly occupied the
temple precincts. When a government flees before the mob it may
safely be predicted that the most excited and violent party will
impose its will on the rest. In vain did Agrippa II and his sister
Berenice, who happened to be at Jerusalem at the time, endeavour
to allay the popular frenzy. They could gain nothing, in spite of the
respect felt for the last descendants of the ancient kings. A band of
men left the city, seized the fortress of Masada, and massacred the
garrison.
The moderate party, composed of the wealthier classes and the
priests, would have recoiled from an insensate struggle against the
power of Rome, but Eleazar, the leader of the party of action, made
the rupture final by refusing to offer in the temple the victims which
were wont to be sacrificed there by the emperor’s command for the
prosperity of Rome and of the empire. The friends of order sent to
entreat Agrippa and Florus to come with all speed to protect them
against the rebels. Agrippa sent three thousand horsemen, who took
possession of the upper city, while the Zealots, robbers, and sicarii
occupied the temple and the lower city. Florus returned no answer.
According to Josephus, he wished the insurrection to grow to a
head, and, when it was exhausted by its own violence, to extinguish
it in blood. Such are the habitual tactics of military leaders in time of
revolution. Such deliverers deserve, as Lamennais says, to be
execrated in the present and in the future.
The insurgents, who were masters of the temple, refused entrance
to the partisans of peace, made their way into the upper city, and
set fire to the palace of Agrippa and Berenice. They also burnt the
archives, in order to destroy all vouchers of credit and so bring over
the debtors to their side. They were commanded by Manahem, the
son of Judas the Gaulonite, and by Eleazar, the son of the high priest
Ananias, who was one of the principal leaders of the opposite party,
for civil war had set division even between members of the same
family. The tower of Antonia was taken and burnt by the
revolutionaries, who allowed Agrippa’s horsemen to depart
unmolested. The Romans, for their part, took refuge in the three
towers of the old wall. Ananias, who, with his brother Hezekiah, was
found hidden in an aqueduct, was slaughtered by Manahem. Then
Eleazar, enraged at the assassination of his father and uncle, stirred
up the people against Manahem, who now gave himself the airs of a
tyrant. “It was not worth while,” he said to them, “to cast off the
yoke of Rome in order to stoop to that of the least among
yourselves.” Manahem was stoned in the court of the temple. Such
of his partisans as could make their escape took refuge in the
fortress of Masada. The Romans asked for terms of capitulation.
They were promised their lives, but they had no sooner given up
their arms than Eleazar and the Zealots fell upon them and slew
them all but one, who consented to be circumcised. The rest died, to
a man, without asking for mercy, only crying out upon the sanctity of
their oaths. These imprecations filled the people with dire
forebodings, all the more so because this perjury had been
committed on the Sabbath day.
The same day and hour, as if by the working of divine vengeance,
says Josephus, a massacre of the Jews took place at Cæsarea; of
twenty thousand men not one was left, for those who escaped were
captured by Florus and sent to the galleys. This massacre roused the
whole nation to such a pitch of fury that they ravaged the towns and
villages of the Syrian frontier, Philadelphia, Heshbon, Gerasa, Pella,
and Scythopolis, with fire and sword. They then sacked Gadara,
Hippos, and Gaulonitis, burned Sebaste and Askalon, and
demolished Anthedon and Gaza. They slew all that were not Jews.
Then, as was to be expected, terrible reprisals followed. An epidemic
of carnage raged all over southern Syria and extended to Egypt.
Every mixed city became a battle-ground. If we are to trust
Josephus, the Jews were never the aggressors. That is hard to
believe. It is possible that the rabble, seeing Judea rebel against
Rome, concluded that they might massacre the Jews with impunity.
But it is also very probable that the insurrection had roused to the
highest pitch the fanaticism of Jews settled elsewhere than in Judea,
and that they were desirous of imitating the exploits of their
brethren at Jerusalem. In Alexandria, as a sequel to a discussion in
the theatre, the Jews armed themselves with torches and threatened
to burn all the Greeks alive. The governor of the city was Tiberius
Alexander, the Jewish convert to Hellenism who had formerly been
procurator of Judea. He tried to make his compatriots listen to
reason, but without success. He was obliged to send for the Roman
legions. The Jewish quarter, known as the Delta, was heaped with
corpses; Josephus speaks of fifty thousand slain. At Damascus the
Syrians cooped the Jews up in the gymnasium and slew ten
thousand of them. They had carefully concealed their design from
their wives, nearly all of whom professed the Jewish religion.
After they had succeeded in retaking Jerusalem, the Zealots
occupied the fortresses of the Dead Sea district. They massacred the
Roman garrison of the castle of Cypros, which commanded Jericho;
that of Macherus capitulated. At length Cestius Gallus, governor of
Syria, determined to take up arms against the insurrection. He
started from Antioch with his legions and some auxiliary troops
furnished by Agrippa, who accompanied him on this expedition, and
by the kings of Commagene and Ituræa. Galilee and the seaboard
were subdued, and Cestius advanced to Gabao, two leagues from
Jerusalem. The city was full of pilgrims who had come up to the
Feast of Tabernacles. Although it was the Sabbath day, an immense
multitude marched forth, and the irresistible onset of this troop of
anarchists triumphed over Roman discipline. Simon, the son of Giora,
one of the bravest leaders of the Zealots, pursued the fugitives and
dispersed the Roman rear-guard. Agrippa endeavoured to induce the
insurgents to submit by promising them an amnesty in the name of
Cestius; one party among the people was desirous of accepting
terms, but the anarchists killed the ambassadors. Cestius again
advanced upon Jerusalem and took possession of the outskirts of
the city. The insurgents had abandoned the new city and fallen back
upon the temple. If he had attacked immediately, the war would
have come to an end. A member of the family of Ananus, who was
at the head of the party of order, offered to open the gates to the
Romans; the Zealots flung him from the walls. For five days Cestius
endeavoured to storm the temple precincts. The soldiers were at
work sapping the walls, sheltering themselves under their shields, in
the formation known as the “tortoise” (testudo). The anarchists,
losing heart, began to take to flight, and the moderate party were
about to open the gates, when Cestius, deceived by false reports, or
perhaps seduced by bribery, sounded the retreat, withdrew to
Gabao, and—pursued and harassed by the Jews, who killed six
thousand of his men—escaped under cover of night, leaving his
baggage and engines of war behind.
The partisans of peace, seeing that in spite of their efforts they
were embarked upon the conflict, resolved to set themselves at the
head of the movement, so as to keep it within bounds if that were
still possible. “Ananus,” says Renan, “took more and more the
position of head of the moderate party. He still had hopes of
bringing the mass of the people over to peaceful counsels; he
endeavoured secretly to check the manufacture of arms, and to
paralyse resistance while seeming to organise it. This is the most
dangerous of all games to play in time of revolution; Ananus was, no
doubt, what revolutionaries call a traitor. In the eyes of the
enthusiasts he was guilty of the crime of seeing clearly; in those of
history he cannot be absolved from the guilt of having accepted the
falsest of false positions, that which consists of making war without
conviction, merely under pressure from ignorant fanatics.” Among
the peace party were some who held aloof lest they should be
involved in a destruction which they regarded as inevitable. Such, for
example, were some of the Pharisees, and certain doctors, careless
of politics and absorbed in the study of the law, the adherents of the
Herod family, and the members of the Christian church, who, since
the death of James, had begun more and more to regard their cause
as distinct from that of the Jews.
 Munk, though he says nothing of the rabbis who emigrated to
Jabneh before the final struggle, deals somewhat harshly with the
Herodians and Christians. “Only such,” he says, “as rated their
personal interests above those of their country, or sought the
melancholy satisfaction of seeing in its ruin the triumph of their
political or religious opinions, fled in the hour of peril. The friends of
Agrippa openly betrayed their country by going over to the Roman
side and paying court to Cestius and the emperor Nero. Among the
fugitives were also the Christian Jews, following the advice given by
Jesus Christ to his disciples (Matthew xxiv. 16). Preoccupied with the
kingdom of Heaven, which they then seriously looked for, the
Christians did not feel it their duty to meddle with earthly matters
nor to take part in the defence of their unhappy country; led by
Simeon, their bishop, they withdrew beyond Jordan, far from the
clash of arms, and sought a refuge in the city of Pella.”
Cestius died, of disease or grief, shortly after his defeat. Nero
handed over the command to Vespasian, an experienced general,
who had given proof of his military capacity in Germania and
Brittany. Vespasian proceeded to Syria by way of Asia Minor, while
his son Titus went to Alexandria to fetch two legions and lead them
into Palestine. Agrippa and some other petty kings from the country
round about, Antiochus of Commagene, Sohemus, and Malchus the
Arab, brought auxiliary troops to Vespasian, and at the end of the
winter of the year 67, an army of sixty thousand men marched into
Galilee. The government of that province had been committed by his
fellow-countrymen to Josephus, the historian to whom we owe the
account of the whole war; and though he was one of the peace
party, he had neglected no measures for putting the country in a
state of defence. The defence, which he relates in detail, was heroic.
The little city of Jotapata held out with amazing resolution against
arms and engines of war. Forty thousand men succumbed during the
siege.c
Both as a vivid narrative and as a type of the ferocity of assault,
resistance and revenge marking the battles of that time, the account
by Josephus of his own ingenious and desperate defence of Jotapata
is well worth citing at length. He speaks of himself, like Cæsar, in the
third person.a

THE DEFENCE OF JOTAPATA DESCRIBED BY JOSEPHUS

Jotapata, he says, is almost all of it built upon a precipice, having

on all the other sides of it every way valleys immensely deep and
steep, insomuch that those who would look down would have their
sight fail them before it reaches to the bottom. It is only to be come
at on the north side, where the utmost part of the city is built on the
mountain, as it ends obliquely at a plain. This mountain Josephus
had encompassed with a wall when he fortified the city, that its top
might not be capable of being seized upon by the enemies. The city
is covered all round with other mountains, and can no way be seen
till a man comes just upon it. And this was the strong situation of
Jotapata.
Vespasian, therefore, in order to try how he might overcome the
natural strength of the place, as well as the bold defence of the
Jews, made a resolution to prosecute the siege with vigour. To that
end he called the commanders that were under him to a council of
war, and consulted with them which way the assault might be
managed to the best advantage; and when the resolution was there
taken to raise a bank against that part of the wall which was
practicable, he sent his whole army abroad to get the materials
together. So when they had cut down all the trees on the mountains
that adjoined to the city, and had gotten together a vast heap of
stones, besides the wood they had cut down, some of them brought
hurdles, in order to avoid the effects of the darts that were shot
from above them. These hurdles they spread over their banks, under
cover whereof they formed their bank, and so were little or nothing
hurt by the darts that were thrown upon them from the wall, while
others pulled the neighbouring hillocks to pieces, and perpetually
brought earth to them; so that while they were busy three sorts of
ways, nobody was idle. However, the Jews cast great stones from
the walls upon the hurdles which protected the men, with all sorts of
darts also; and the noise of what could not reach them was yet so
terrible, that it was some impediment to the workmen.
Vespasian then set the engines for throwing stones and darts
round about the city; the number of the engines was in all a
hundred and sixty; and bade them fall to work and dislodge those
that were upon the wall. At the same time such engines as were
intended for that purpose, threw at once lances upon them with
great noise, and stones of the weight of a talent were thrown by the
engines that were prepared for that purpose, together with fire, and
a vast multitude of arrows, which made the wall so dangerous, that
the Jews durst not only not to come upon it, but durst not come to
those parts within the walls which were reached by the engines; for
the multitude of the Arabian archers, as well also as all those that
threw darts and slung stones, fell to work at the same time with the
engines. Yet did not the others lie still when they could not throw at
the Romans from a higher place; for they then made sallies out of
the city like private robbers, by parties, and pulled away the hurdles
that covered the workmen, and killed them when they were thus
naked; and when those workmen gave way, these cast away the
earth that composed the bank, and burnt the wooden parts of it,
together with the hurdles, till at length Vespasian perceived that the
intervals there were between the works were of disadvantage to
him; for those spaces of ground afforded the Jews a place for
assaulting the Romans. So he united the hurdles, and at the same
time joined one part of the army to the other, which prevented the
private excursions of the Jews.
And when the bank was now raised, and brought nearer than ever
to the battlements that belonged to the walls, Josephus thought it
would be entirely wrong in him if he could make no contrivances in
opposition to theirs, and that might be for the city’s preservation; so
he got together his workmen, and ordered them to build the wall
higher; and when they said that this was impossible to be done
while so many darts were thrown at them, he invented this sort of
cover for them:
 He bade them fix piles, and expand before them raw hides of oxen
newly killed, that these hides, by yielding and hollowing themselves
when the stones were thrown at them, might receive them, for that
the other darts would slide off them, and the fire that was thrown
would be quenched by the moisture that was in them; and these he
set before the workmen; and under them these workmen went on
with their works in safety, and raised the wall higher, and that both
by day and by night, till it was twenty cubits high. He also built a
good number of towers upon the wall, and fitted it to strong
battlements. This greatly discouraged the Romans, who in their own
opinions were already gotten within the walls, while they were now
at once astonished at Josephus’ contrivance and at the fortitude of
the citizens that were in the city.
And now Vespasian was plainly irritated at the great subtilty of this
stratagem, and at the boldness of the citizens of Jotapata; for taking
heart again upon the building of this wall, they made fresh sallies
upon the Romans, and had everyday conflicts with them by parties,
together with all such contrivances as robbers make use of, and with
the plundering of all that came to hand, as also with the setting fire
to all the other works; and this till Vespasian made his army leave
off fighting them, and resolved to lie round the city, and to starve
them into a surrender, as supposing that either they would be forced
to petition him for mercy by want of provisions, or if they should
have the courage to hold out till the last, they should perish by
famine: and he concluded he should conquer them the more easily
in fighting, if he gave them an interval, and then fell upon them
when they were weakened by famine; but still he gave orders that
they should guard against their coming out of the city.
Now the besieged had plenty of corn within the city, and indeed of
all other necessaries, but they wanted water, because there was no
fountain in the city, the people being there usually satisfied with
rain-water; yet it is a rare thing in that country to have rain in
summer, and at this season, during the siege, they were in great
distress for some contrivance to satisfy their thirst; and they were
very sad at this time particularly, as if they were already in want of
water entirely, for Josephus, seeing that the city abounded with
other necessaries, and that the men were of good courage, and
being desirous to protect the siege to the Romans longer than they
expected, ordered their drink to be given them by measure; but this
scanty distribution of water by measure was deemed by them as a
thing more hard upon them than the want of it; and their not being
able to drink as much as they would, made them more desirous of
drinking than they otherwise had been; nay, they were so much
disheartened hereby as if they were come to the last degree of
thirst. Nor were the Romans unacquainted with the state they were
in, for when they stood over against them, beyond the wall, they
could see them running together, and taking their water by measure,
which made them throw their javelins thither, the place being within
their reach, and kill a great many of them.
Hereupon, Vespasian hoped that their receptacles of water would
in no long time be emptied, and that they would be forced to deliver
up the city to him; but Josephus being minded to break such his
hope, gave command that they should wet a great many of their
clothes, and hang them out about the battlements, till the entire wall
was of a sudden all wet with the running down of the water. At this
sight the Romans were discouraged, and under consternation, when
they saw them able to throw away in sport so much water, when
they supposed them not to have enough to drink themselves. This
made the Roman general despair of taking the city by their want of
necessaries, and to betake himself again to arms, and to try to force
them to surrender, which was what the Jews greatly desired; for as
they despaired of either themselves or their city being able to
escape, they preferred a death in battle before one by hunger and
thirst.
However, Josephus contrived another stratagem besides the
foregoing, to get plenty of what they wanted. There was a certain
rough and uneven place that could hardly be ascended, and on that
account was not guarded by the soldiers; so Josephus sent out
certain persons along the western parts of the valley, and by them
sent letters to whom he pleased of the Jews that were out of the
city, and procured from them what necessaries soever they wanted
in the city in abundance; he enjoined them also to creep generally
along by the watch as they came into the city, and to cover their
backs with such sheepskins as had their wool upon them, that if any
one should spy them in the night-time, they might be believed to be
dogs. This was done till the watch perceived their contrivance, and
encompassed that rough place about themselves.
And now it was that Josephus perceived that
[67 a.d.] the city could not hold out long, and that his
own life would be in doubt if he continued in it;
so he consulted how he and the most potent men of the city might
fly out of it. When the multitude understood this, they came all
round about him, and begged of him not to overlook them while
they entirely depended on him, and him alone; for that there was
still hope of the city’s deliverance if he would stay with them,
because everybody would undertake any pains with great
cheerfulness on his account, and in that case there would be some
comfort for them also, though they should be taken: that it became
him neither to fly from his enemies, nor to desert his friends, nor to
leap out of that city, as out of a ship that was sinking in a storm, into
which he came, when it was quiet and in a calm; for that by going
away he would be the cause of drowning the city, because nobody
would then venture to oppose the enemy when he was once gone,
upon whom they wholly confided.
Hereupon, Josephus avoided letting them know that he was to go
away to provide for his own safety, but told them that he would go
out of the city for their sakes; for that if he stayed with them, he
should be able to do them little good while they were in a safe
condition; and that if they were once taken, he should only perish
with them to no purpose; but that if he were once gotten free from
this siege, he should be able to bring them very great relief; for that
he would then immediately get the Galileans together, out of the
country, in great multitudes, and draw the Romans off their city by
another war. That he did not see what advantage he could bring to
them now, by staying among them, but only provoked the Romans
to besiege them more closely, as esteeming it a most valuable thing
to take him; but that if they were once informed that he was fled out
of the city, they would greatly remit of their eagerness against it. Yet
did not this plea move the people, but inflamed them the more to
hang about him.
Accordingly, both the children and the old men, and the women
with their infants, came mourning to him, and fell down before him,
and all of them caught hold of his feet, and held him fast, and
besought him, with great lamentations, that he would take his share
with them in their fortune; and I think they did this, not that they
envied his deliverance, but that they hoped for their own; for they
could not think they should suffer any great misfortune, provided
Josephus would but stay with them.
Now, Josephus thought, that if he resolved to stay, it would be
ascribed to their entreaties; and if he resolved to go away by force,
he should be put into custody. His commiseration also of the people
under their lamentations, had much broken that of his eagerness to
leave them; so he resolved to stay, and arming himself with the
common despair of the citizens, he said to them:
“Now is the time to begin to fight in earnest, when there is no
hope of deliverance left. It is a brave thing to prefer glory before life,
and to set about some such noble undertaking as may be
remembered by late posterity.”
Having said this, he fell to work immediately, and made a sally,
and dispersed the enemies’ out-guards, and ran as far as the Roman
camp itself, and pulled the coverings of their tents to pieces, that
were upon their banks, and set fire to their works. And this was the
manner in which he never left off fighting, neither the next day nor
the day after it, but went on with it for a considerable number of
both days and nights.
Upon this, Vespasian, when he saw the Romans distressed by
these sallies (although they were ashamed to be made to run away
by the Jews; and when at any time they made the Jews run away,
their heavy armour would not let them pursue them far; while the
Jews, when they had performed any action, and before they could
be hurt themselves, still retired into the city), ordered his armed
men to avoid their onset, and not to fight it out with men under
desperation, while nothing is more courageous than despair; but
that their violence would be quenched when they saw they failed of
their purposes, as fire is quenched when it wants fuel; and that it
was most proper for the Romans to gain their victories as cheap as
they could, since they are not forced to fight, but only to enlarge
their own dominions. So he repelled the Jews in great measure by
the Arabian archers, and the Syrian slingers, and by those that threw
stones at them, nor was there any intermission of the great number
of their offensive engines. Now, the Jews suffered greatly by these
engines, without being able to escape from them; and when these
engines threw their stones or javelins a great way, and the Jews
were within their reach, they pressed hard upon the Romans, and
fought desperately, without sparing either soul or body, one part
succouring another by turns, when it was tired down.
When, therefore, Vespasian looked upon himself as in a manner
besieged by these sallies of the Jews, and when his banks were now
not far from the walls, he determined to make use of his battering-
ram. Now, at the very first stroke of this engine, the wall was
shaken, and a terrible clamour was raised by the people within the
city, as if they were already taken.
And now, when Josephus saw this ram still battering the same
place, and that the wall would quickly be thrown down by it, he
resolved to elude for a while the force of the engine. With this
design he gave orders to fill sacks with chaff, and to hang them
down before that place where they saw the ram always battering,
that the stroke might be turned aside, or that the place might feel
less of the strokes by the yielding nature of the chaff. This
contrivance very much delayed the attempts of the Romans,
because, let them remove their engine to what part they pleased,
those that were above it removed their sacks, and placed them over
against the strokes it made, insomuch that the wall was no way
hurt, and this by diversion of the strokes, till the Romans made an
opposite contrivance of long poles, and by tying hooks at their ends,
cut off the sacks.
Now, when the battering ram thus recovered its force, and the
wall having been but newly built, was giving way, Josephus and
those about him had afterwards immediate recourse to fire, to
defend themselves withal; whereupon they took what materials
soever they had that were but dry, and made a sally three ways, and
set fire to the machines, and the hurdles, and the banks of the
Romans themselves; nor did the Romans well know how to come to
their assistance, being at once under a consternation at the Jews’
boldness, and being prevented by the flames from coming to their
assistance; for the materials being dry with the bitumen and pitch
that were among them, as was brimstone also, the fire caught hold
of everything immediately; and what cost the Romans a great deal
of pains, was in one hour consumed.
And here a certain Jew appeared worthy of our relation and
commendation; he was the son of Sameas, and was called Eleazar,
and was born at Saab, in Galilee. This man took up a stone of vast
bigness, and threw it down from the wall upon the ram, and this
with so great a force that it broke off the head of the engine. He
also leaped down and took up the head of the ram from the midst of
them, and without any concern, carried it to the top of the wall, and
this, while he stood as a fit mark to be pelted by all his enemies.
Accordingly, he received the strokes upon his naked body, and was
wounded with five darts; nor did he mind any of them while he went
up to the top of the wall, where he stood in sight of them all, as an
instance of the greatest boldness: after which he threw himself on a
heap with his wounds upon him, and fell down, together with the
head of the ram. Next to him, two brothers showed their courage;
their names were Netir and Philip, both of them of the village of
Ruma, and both of them Galileans also; these men leaped upon the
soldiers of the tenth legion, and fell upon the Romans with such a
noise and force as to disorder their ranks, and put to flight all upon
whomsoever they made their assaults.
 After these men’s performances, Josephus, and the rest of the
multitude with him, took a great deal of fire, and burnt both the
machines, and their coverings, with the works belonging to the fifth,
and to the tenth legion, which they put to flight; when others
followed them immediately, and buried those instruments and all
their materials under ground. However, about the evening the
Romans erected the battering-ram again, against that part of the
wall which had suffered before; where a certain Jew that defended
the city from the Romans, hit Vespasian with a dart in his foot, and
wounded him a little, the distance being so great, that no mighty
impression could be made by the dart thrown so far off.
But still Josephus and those with him, although they fell down
dead one upon another by the darts and stones which the engines
threw upon them, yet did not they desert the wall, but fell upon
those who managed the ram, under the protection of the hurdles,
with fire, and iron weapons, and stones; and these could do little or
nothing, but fell themselves perpetually, while they were seen by
those whom they could not see, for the light of their own flame
shone about them, and made them a most visible mark to the
enemy, as they were in the day-time, while the engines could not be
seen at a great distance, and so what was thrown at them was hard
to be avoided; for the force with which these engines threw stones
and darts made them hurt several at a time, and the violent force of
the stones that were cast by the engines was so great, that they
carried away the pinnacles of the wall, and broke off the corners of
the towers; for no body of men could be so strong as not to be
overthrown to the last rank, by the largeness of the stones; and any
one may learn the force of the engines by what happened this very
night; for as one of those that stood round about Josephus was near
the wall, his head was carried away by such a stone, and his skull
was flung as far as three furlongs. In the day-time also, a woman
with child had her belly so violently struck, as she was just come out
of her house, that the infant was carried to the distance of half a
furlong; so great was the force of that engine.
 The noise of the instruments themselves was very terrible, the
sound of the darts and stones that were thrown by them, was so
also; of the same sort was the noise the dead bodies made, when
they were dashed against the wall; and indeed dreadful was the
clamour which these things raised in the women within the city,
which was echoed back at the same time by the cries of such as
were slain; while the whole space of ground whereon they fought
ran with blood, and the wall might have been ascended over by the
bodies of the dead carcasses; the mountains also contributed to
increase the noise by their echoes; nor was there on that night any
thing of terror wanting that could either affect the hearing or the
sight: yet did a great part of those that fought so hard for Jotapata
fall manfully, as were a great part of them wounded. However, the
morning watch was come ere the wall yielded to the machines
employed against it, though it had been battered without
intermission. However, those within covered their bodies with their
armour, and raised works over against that part which was thrown
down, before those machines were laid by which the Romans were
to ascend into the city.
In the morning Vespasian got his army together, in order to take
the city by storm. But Josephus, understanding the meaning of
Vespasian’s contrivance, set the old men, together with those that
were tired out, at the sound parts of the wall, as expecting no harm
from those quarters, but set the strongest of his men at the place
where the wall was broken down, and before them all, six men by
themselves, among whom he took his share of the first and greatest
danger. He also gave orders, that when the legions made a shout
they should stop their ears, that they might not be affrighted at it,
and that, to avoid the multitude of the enemies’ darts, they should
bend down on their knees, and cover themselves with their shields,
and that they should retreat a little backward for a while, till the
archers should have emptied their quivers; but that, when the
Romans should lay their instruments for ascending the walls, they
should leap out on the sudden, and with their own instruments
should meet the enemy, and that every one should strive to do his
best, in order not to defend his own city, as if it were possible to be
preserved, but in order to revenge it, when it was already destroyed;
and that they should set before their eyes how their old men were to
be slain, and their children and their wives to be killed immediately
by the enemy; and that they would beforehand spend all their fury,
on account of the calamities just coming upon them, and pour it out
on the actors.
And thus did Josephus dispose of both his bodies of men; but then
for the useless part of the citizens, the women and children, when
they saw their city encompassed by a threefold army (for none of
the usual guards that had been fighting before were removed),
when they also saw not only the walls thrown down, but their
enemies with swords in their hands, as also the hilly country above
them shining with their weapons, and the darts in the hands of the
Arabian archers, they made a final and lamentable outcry of the
destruction, as if the misery were not only threatened, but actually
come upon them already.
But Josephus ordered the women to be shut up in their houses,
lest they should render the warlike actions of the men too
effeminate, by making them commiserate their condition, and
commanded them to hold their peace, and threatened them if they
did not, while he came himself before the breach, where his
allotment was; for all those who brought ladders to the other places,
he took no notice of them, but earnestly waited for the shower of
arrows that was coming.
And now the trumpeters of the several Roman legions sounded
together, and the army made a terrible shout; and the darts, as by
order, flew so fast that they intercepted the light. However,
Josephus’ men remembered the charges he had given them, they
stopped their ears at the sounds and covered their bodies against
the darts; and as to the engines that were set ready to go to work,
the Jews ran out upon them, before those that should have used
them were gotten upon them. And now, on the ascending of the
soldiers, there was a great conflict, and many actions of the hands
and of the soul were exhibited, while the Jews did earnestly
endeavour, in the extreme danger they were in, not to show less
courage than those who, without being in danger, fought so stoutly
against them; nor did they leave off struggling with the Romans till
they either fell down dead themselves, or killed their antagonists.
But the Jews grew weary with defending themselves continually, and
had not enow to come in their places to succour them—while, on the
side of the Romans, fresh men still succeeded those that were tired;
and still new men soon got upon the machines for ascent, in the
room of those that were thrust down; those encouraging one
another, and joining side to side with their shields, which were a
protection to them, they became a body of men not to be broken;
and as this band thrust away the Jews, as though they were
themselves but one body, they began already to get upon the wall.
Then did Josephus take necessity for his counsellor in this utmost
distress (which necessity is very sagacious in invention, when it is
irritated by despair), and gave orders to pour scalding oil upon those
whose shields protected them. Whereupon they soon got it ready,
being many that brought it, and what they brought being a great
quantity also, and poured it on all sides upon the Romans, and threw
down upon them their vessels as they were still hissing from the
heat of the fire: this so burnt the Romans, that it dispersed that
united band, who now tumbled down from the wall with horrid
pains, for the oil did easily run down the whole body from head to
foot, under their entire armour, and fed upon their flesh like flame
itself, its fat and unctuous nature rendering it soon heated and
slowly cooled; and as the men were cooped up in their head-pieces
and breast-plates, they could no way get free from this burning oil;
they could only leap and roll about in their pains, as they fell down
from the bridges they had laid. And as they were thus beaten back,
and retired to their own party, who still pressed them forward, they
were easily wounded by those that were behind them.
However, in this ill success of the Romans, their courage did not
fail them, nor did the Jews want prudence to oppose them; for the
Romans, although they saw their own men thrown down, and in a
miserable condition, yet were they vehemently bent against those
that poured the oil upon them, while every one reproached the man
before him as a coward, and one that hindered him from exerting
himself; and while the Jews made use of another stratagem to
prevent their ascent, and poured boiling fenugreek upon the boards,
in order to make them slip and fall down; by which means neither
could those that were coming up, nor those that were going down,
stand on their feet; but some of them fell backward upon the
machines on which they ascended, and were trodden upon; many of
them fell down on the bank they had raised, and when they were
fallen upon it were slain by the Jews; for when the Romans could
not keep their feet, the Jews, being freed from fighting hand to
hand, had leisure to throw their darts at them. So the general called
off those soldiers in the evening that had suffered so sorely, of
whom the number of the slain was not a few, while that of the
wounded was still greater; but of the people of Jotapata no more
than six men were killed, although more than three hundred were
carried off wounded. This fight happened on the twentieth day of
the month Desius (Sivan).
Hereupon Vespasian comforted his army on occasion of what had
happened, and as he found them angry indeed, but rather wanting
somewhat to do than any further exhortations, he gave orders to
raise the banks still higher, and to erect three towers, each fifty feet
high, and that they should cover them with plates of iron on every
side, that they might be both firm by their weight, and not easily
liable to be set on fire. These towers he set upon the banks, and
placed upon them such as could shoot darts and arrows, with the
lighter engines for throwing stones and darts also; and besides
these, he set upon them the stoutest men among the slingers, who
not being to be seen by reason of the height they stood upon, and
the battlements that protected them, might throw their weapons at
those that were upon the wall, and were easily seen by them.
Hereupon the Jews, not being easily able to escape those darts that
were thrown down upon their heads, nor to avenge themselves on
those whom they could not see, and perceiving that the height of
the towers was so great, that a dart which they threw with their
hand could hardly reach it, and that the iron plates about them
made it very hard to come at them by fire, they ran away from the
walls, and fled hastily out of the city, and fell upon those that shot at
them. And thus did the people of Jotapata resist the Romans, while
a great number of them were every day killed, without their being
able to retort the evil upon their enemies; nor could they keep them
out of the city without danger to themselves.
But as the people of Jotapata still held out manfully, and bore up
under their miseries beyond all that could be hoped for, on the forty-
seventh day (of the siege) the banks cast up by the Romans were
become higher than the wall; on which day a certain deserter went
to Vespasian, and told him, how few were left in the city, and how
weak they were, and that they had been so worn out with perpetual
watching, and also perpetual fighting, that they could not now
oppose any force that came against them, and that they might be
taken by stratagem, if any one would attack them; for that about the
last watch of the night, when they thought they might have some
rest from the hardships they were under, and when a morning sleep
used to come upon them, as they were thoroughly weary, he said
the watch used to fall asleep; accordingly his advice was, that they
should make their attack at that hour.
But Vespasian had a suspicion about this deserter, as knowing how
faithful the Jews were to one another, and how much they despised
any punishments that could be inflicted on them; this last, because
one of the people of Jotapata had undergone all sorts of torments,
and though they made him pass through a fiery trial of his enemies
in his examination, yet would he inform them nothing of the affairs
within the city, and as he was crucified, smiled at them!
However, the probability there was in the relation itself did partly
confirm the truth of what the deserter told them, and they thought
he might probably speak the truth. However, Vespasian thought they
should be no great sufferers if the report was a sham; so he
commanded them to keep the man in custody, and prepared the
army for taking the city.
According to which resolution they marched without noise, at the
hour that had been told them, to the wall; and it was Titus himself
that first got upon it, with one of his tribunes, Domitius Sabinus, and
had a few of the fifteenth legion along with him. So they cut the
throats of the watch, and entered the city very quietly. After these
came Cerealis the tribune, and Placidus, and led on those that were
under them. Now when the citadel was taken, and the enemy were
in the very midst of the city, and when it was already day, yet was
not the taking of the city known by those that held it; for a great
many of them were fast asleep, and a great mist, which then by
chance fell upon the city, hindered those that got up from distinctly
seeing the case they were in, till the whole Roman army was gotten
in, and they were raised up only to find the miseries they were
under; and as they were slaying, they perceived the city was taken.
And for the Romans, they so well remembered what they had
suffered during the siege, that they spared none, nor pitied any, but
drove the people down the precipice from the citadel, and slew them
as they drove them down; at which time the difficulties of the place
hindered those that were still able to fight from defending
themselves; for as they were distressed in the narrow streets, and
could not keep their feet sure along the precipice, they were
overpowered with the crowd of those that came fighting them down
from the citadel. This provoked a great many, even of those chosen
men that were about Josephus, to kill themselves with their own
hands; for when they saw that they could kill none of the Romans,
they resolved to prevent themselves being killed by the Romans, and
got together in great numbers, in the utmost parts of the city, and
killed themselves.
And on this day the Romans slew all the multitude that appeared
openly; but on the following days they searched the hiding-places,
and fell upon those that were under ground, and in the caverns, and
went thus through every age, excepting the infants and the women,
and of these there were gathered altogether as captives twelve
hundred; and as for those that were slain at the taking of the city,
and in the former fights, they were numbered to be forty thousand.
So Vespasian gave order that the city should be entirely demolished,
and all the fortifications burnt down. And thus was Jotapata taken,
in the thirteenth year of the reign of Nero, on the first day of the
month Panemus (Tammuz).b
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