 6. The great distress the Jews were in upon the conflagration of the holy house, concerning a false prophet and the signs that preceded this destruction. 1. While the holy house was on fire everything was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain. Nor was there a commissuration of any age or any reverence of gravity, but children and old men and profane persons and priests were all slain in the same manner, so that this war went round all sorts of men and brought them to destruction, and as well those that made supplication for their lives as those that defended themselves by fighting. The flame was also carried a long way and made an echo, together with the groans of those that were slain, and because this hill was high and the works of the temple were very great, one would have thought the whole city had been on fire. Nor can one imagine anything either greater or more terrible than this noise, for there was at once a shout of the Roman legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamour of the seditious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword. The people also that were left above were beaten back upon the enemy, and under a great consternation, and made sad moans at the calamity they were under. The multitude also that was in the city joined in this outcry with those that were upon the hill. And besides, many of those that were worn away by the famine and their mouths almost closed, when they saw the fire of the holy house, they exerted their utmost strength and break out into groans and outcries again. Perra did also return the echo, as well as the mountains round about the city, and augmented the force of the entire noise. Footnote, this parea, if the word be not mistaken in the copies, cannot well be that parea which was beyond Jordan, whose mountains were at a considerable distance from Jordan, and much too remote from Jerusalem to join in this echo at the conflagration of the temple. But parea must be rather some mountains beyond the brook Kedron, as was the Mount of Olives, or some others about such a distance from Jerusalem, which observation is so obvious that it is a wonder our commentators here take no notice of it. Yet was the misery itself more terrible than this disorder? For one would have thought that the hill itself, on which the temple stood, was seething hot, as full of fire on every part of it, that the blood was larger in quantity than the fire, and those that were slain were more in number than those that slew them. For the ground did nowhere appear visible for the dead bodies that lay on it, but the soldiers went over heaps of these bodies as they ran upon such as fled from them. And now it was that the multitude of the robbers were thrust out of the inner court of the temple by the Romans, and had much ado to get into the outward court and from thence into the city, while the remainder of the populace fled into the cloister of that outer court. As for the priests, some of them plucked up from the holy house the spikes that were upon it with their bases, which were made of lead, and shot them at the Romans instead of darts. Footnote. Rieland, I think, here judges well when he interprets these spikes of those that stood on the top of the holy house with sharp points. They were fixed into lead to prevent the birds from sitting there and defiling the holy house. For such spikes there were now upon it, as Josephus himself hath already assured us. And footnote. But then as they gained nothing by so doing, and as the fire burst out upon them, they retired to the wall that was eight cubits broad, and there they tarried, yet did two of these of eminence among them, who might have saved themselves by going over to the Romans, or have borne up with courage and taken their fortune with the others, throw themselves into the fire, and were burnt together with the holy house. Their names were Marius, the son of Belgus, and Joseph, the son of Dalius. Two. And now the Romans, judging that it was in vain to spare what was round about the holy house, burnt all those places, as also the remains of the cloisters and the gates, two accepted, the one on the east side and the other on the south, both which, however, they burnt afterward. They also burnt down the treasury chambers, in which was an immense quantity of money, and an immense number of garments, and other precious goods there reposited. And, to speak all in a few words, there it was that the entire riches of the Jews were heaped up to gather, while the rich people had there built themselves chambers to contain such furniture. The soldiers also came to the rest of the cloisters that were in the outer court of the temple, withered the women and children, and a great mixed multitude of the people fled, in number about six thousand. But before Caesar had determined anything about these people, or given the commanders any orders relating to them, the soldiers were in such a rage that they set that cloister on fire, by which means it came to pass that some of these were destroyed by throwing themselves down headlong, and some were burnt in the cloisters themselves, nor did any one of them escape with his life. A false prophet was the occasion of these people's destruction, who had made a public proclamation in the city that very day that God commanded them to get upon the temple, and that there they should receive miraculous signs of their deliverance. Footnote. Greenland here takes notice that these Jews, who had despised the true prophet, were deservedly abused and deluded by these false ones. And footnote. Now there was then a great number of false prophets, suborned by the tyrants, to impose on the people, who denounced this to them, that they should wait for deliverance from God. And this was in order to keep them from deserting, and that they might be buoyed up above fear and care by such hopes. Now a man that is in adversity does easily comply with such promises, for when such a seducer makes him believe that he shall be delivered from these miseries which oppress him, then it is that the patient is full of hopes of such his deliverance. 3. Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God himself, while they did not attend nor give credit to the signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their future desolation, but like men infatuated without either eyes to see or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to them. Thus there was a star resembling a sword which stood over the city, and a comet that continued a whole year. Footnote, whether Josephus means that this star was different from that comet which lasted a whole year, I cannot certainly determine. His words most favor their being different one from another, and footnote. Thus also before the Jews' rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were coming great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, Nisan, and at the ninth hour of the night so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house that it appeared to be bright daytime, which lasted for half an hour. Footnote, since Josephus still uses the Sero-Messedonian month Xanthicus for the Jewish month Nisan, this eighth, or as Neciferous reads it, this ninth of Xanthicus or Nisan, was almost a week before the Passover on the 14th, about which time we learn from St. John that many used to go, quote, out of the country to Jerusalem to purify themselves, end quote, John 11, verse 55, with chapter 12, verse 1, in agreement with Josephus also, book 5, chapter 3, section 1, and it might well be that in the sight of these this extraordinary light might appear, and footnote. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it. At the same festival also, a heifer, as she was led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple. Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner court of the temple, footnote, this here seems to be the court of the priests and footnote, which was of brass and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night. Now those that kept watch in the temple came here upon running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it, who then came up thither, and that without great difficulty was able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declared that the signal foreshadowed the desolation that was coming upon them. Besides these, a few days after the feast, on the one-and-twentieth day of the month Artemisius, Gyar, a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared. I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals. For, before sunsetting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as if a great multitude saying, quote, let us remove hence, end quote. But what is still more terrible, there was one Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four years before the war began, and at a time when the city was in very great peace and prosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our custom for everyone to make tabernacles to God in the temple. Footnote, both Rieland and Haverkamp in this place alter the natural punctuation and sense of Josephus, and this contrary to the opinion of Vala Cilis and Dr. Hudson, lest Josephus should say that the Jews built booths or tents within the temple at the feast of tabernacles, which the latter rabbins will not allow to have been the ancient practice. But then, since it is expressly told us in Nehemiah, chapter 8 verse 16, that in still elder times, quote, the Jews made booths in the courts of the house of God, end quote, at that festival, Josephus may well be permitted to say the same. And indeed the modern rabbins are a very small authority on all such matters of remote antiquity and footnote. Began on a sudden to cry aloud, quote, a voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people, end quote. This was his cry as he went about by day and by night in all the lanes of the city. However, certain of the most eminent among the populace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up the man and gave him a great number of severe stripes. Yet did not he either say anything for himself or anything peculiar to those that chastised him, but still went on with the same words which he cried before. Here upon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought him to the Roman procurator, where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare. Yet he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of the whip his answer was, Woe, woe to Jerusalem! And when albinus, for he was then our procurator, asked him who he was and whence he came and why he uttered such words, he made no manner of reply to what he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy diddy till albinus took him to be a madman and dismissed him. Now, during all the time that passed before the war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens, nor was seen by them while he said so. But he every day uttered these lamentable words as if it were his premeditated vow, Woe, woe to Jerusalem! Nor did he give ill words to any of those that beat him every day, nor good words to those that gave him food, but this was his reply to all men, and indeed no other than a melancholy presage of what was to come. This cry of his was the loudest at the festivals, and he continued this diddy for seven years and five months without growing course or being tired therewith till the very time that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege when it ceased. For as he was going round upon the wall, he cried out with his utmost force, Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house! And just as he added at the last, Woe, woe to myself also, there came a stone out of one of the engines and smote him and killed him immediately, and as he was uttering the very same presages he gave up the ghost. 4. Now if any one considered these things, he will find that God takes care of mankind, and by always possible foreshadows to our race what is for their preservation, but that men perish by these miseries which they madly and voluntarily bring upon themselves. For the Jews, by demolishing the tower of Antonia, had made their temple four square, while at the same time they had it written in their sacred oracles, that then should their city be taken as well as their holy house, when once their temple should become four square. But now what did the most elevate them in undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was also found in their sacred writings, how, about that time one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth. The Jews took this prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and many of the wise men were thereby deceived in their determination. Now this oracle certainly denoted the government of Vespasian, who was appointed emperor in Judea. However, it is not possible for men to avoid fate, although they see it beforehand. But these men interpreted some of these signals according to their own pleasure, and some of them they utterly despised, until their madness was demonstrated both by the taking of their city and their own destruction. After six, how the Romans carried their ensigns to the temple and made joyful acclamations to Titus, the speech that Titus made to the Jews when they made supplication for mercy, what reply they made there too, and how that reply moved Titus's indignation against them. One, and now the Romans, upon the flight of the seditious into the city, and upon the burning of the holy house itself, and of all the buildings round about it, brought their ensigns to the temple and set them over against its eastern gate. Footnote, take Haverkamp's note here. This says he is a remarkable place, and Turtullian truly says in his apologetic that the entire religion of the Roman camp almost consisted in worshiping the ensigns, in swearing by the ensigns, and in preferring the ensigns before all the other gods. See what Haverkamp says upon that place of Turtullian, and footnote. And there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus Imperator with the greatest acclamations of joy. Footnote, this declaring Titus Imperator by the soldiers, upon such signal success, and the slaughter of such a vast number of enemies, was according to the usual practice of the Romans in like cases, as Riland assures us on this place. And footnote. And now all the soldiers had such vast quantities of the spoils which they had gotten by plunder, that in Syria a pound weight of gold was sold for half its former value. But as for those priests that kept themselves still upon the wall of the holy house, footnote, the Jews of later times agree with Josephus, that there were hiding places or secret chambers about the holy house, as Riland here informs us, where he thinks he has found these very walls described by them, and footnote. There was a boy that, out of the thirst he was in, desired some of the Roman guards to give him their right hands as a security for his life, and confessed he was very thirsty. These guards commiserated his age, and the distress he was in, and gave him their right hands accordingly. So he came down himself and drank some water, and filled the vessel he had with him when he came to them with water, and then went off and fled away to his own friends. Nor could any of these guards overtake him, but still they reproached him for his perfidiousness. To which he made this answer. I have not broken the agreement, for the security I had given me was not in order to my staying with you, but only in order to my coming down safely and taking up some water, both which things I have performed, and thereupon think myself to have been faithful to my engagement, thereupon those whom the child had imposed upon admired at his cunning, and that on account of his age. On the fifth day afterward the priests that were pined with the famine came down, and when they were brought to Titus by the guards they begged for their lives. But he replied that the time of pardon was over as to them, and that this very holy house, on whose account only they could justly hope to be preserved, was destroyed, and that it was agreeable to their office that priests should perish with the house itself to which they belonged. So he ordered them to be put to death. Two, but as for the tyrants themselves, and those that were there with them, when they found that they were encompassed on every side, and as it were walled around, without any method of escaping, they desired to treat with Titus by word of mouth. Interestingly such was the kindness of his nature, and his desire for preserving the city from destruction joined to the advice of his friends, who now thought the robbers were come to a temper, that he placed himself on the western side of the outer court of the temple, for there were gates on that side above the Zistus, and a bridge that connected the upper city to the temple. This bridge it was that lay between the tyrants and Caesar and parted them, while the multitude stood on each side, those of the Jewish nation about Sinrin and John with great hopes of pardon, and the Romans about Caesar in great expectation how Titus would receive their supplication. So Titus charged his soldiers to restrain their rage, and to let their darts alone, and appointed an interpreter between them which was a sign that he was the conqueror, and first began the discourse and said, Quote, I hope you, sirs, are now satiated with the miseries of your country, who have not had any just notions either of our great power or of your own great weakness, but have, like madmen, after a violent and inconsiderate manner, made such attempts as have brought your people, your city, and your holy house to destruction. You have been the men that have never left off rebelling since Pompey first conquered you, and have, since that time, made open war with the Romans. Have you depended on your multitude, while a very small part of the Roman soldiery have been strong enough for you? Have you relied on the fidelity of your Confederates? And what nations are there, out of the limits of our dominion, that would choose to assist the Jews before the Romans? Are your bodies stronger than ours? Nay, you know that the strong Germans themselves are our servants. Have you stronger walls than we have? Pray, what greater obstacle is there than the wall of the ocean, with which the Britons are encompassed, and yet do adore the arms of the Romans? Do you exceed us in courage of soul, and in the sagacity of your commanders? Nay, indeed, you cannot but know that the very Carthaginians have been conquered by us. It can therefore be nothing certainly but the kindness of us Romans which hath excited you against us, who, in the first place, have given you this land to possess, and in the second place have set over you kings of your own nation, and in the third place have preserved the laws of your forefathers to you, and have with all permitted you to live, either by yourselves or among others, as it should please you. And what is our chief favor of all, we have given you leave to gather up that tribute which is paid to God with such other gifts that are dedicated to him. Footnote. Spanheim notes here that the Romans used to permit the Jews to collect their sacred tribute and send it to Jerusalem, of which we have had abundant evidence in Josephus already on other occasions, and footnote. Nor have we called those that carried these donations to account nor prohibited them, till at length you became richer than we ourselves, even when you were our enemies, and you made preparations for war against us with our own money. Nay, after all, when you were in the enjoyment of all these advantages, you turned your two great plenty against those that gave it you, and, like merciless serpents, have thrown out your poison against those that treated you kindly. I suppose, therefore, that you must despise the slothfulness of Nero, and, like limbs of the body that are broken or dislocated, you did then lie quiet, waiting for some other time, though still with a malicious intention, and have now showed your distemper to be greater than ever, and have extended your desires as far as your impudent and immense hopes would enable you to do it. At this time my father came into this country, not with a design to punish you for what you had done under Sestius, but to admonish you. For had he come to overthrow your nation, he had run directly to your fountain-head, and had immediately laid this city waste. Whereas he went and burned Galilee in the neighboring parts, and thereby gave you time for repentance. Which instance of humanity you took for an argument of his weakness, and nourished up your impudence by our mildness? When Nero was gone out of the world, you did as the wickedest wretches would have done, and encouraged yourselves to act against us by our civil dissensions, and abused that time, when both I and my father were gone away to Egypt, to make preparations for this war. Nor were you ashamed to raise disturbances against us when we were made emperors, and this while you had experienced how mild we had been when we were no more than generals of the army. But when the government was devolved upon us, and all other people did thereupon lie quiet, and even foreign nations sent embassies, and congratulated our access to the government, then did you Jews show yourselves to be our enemies? You sent embassies to those of your nation that are beyond you freighties, to assist you in your raising disturbances. New walls were built by you round your city, seditions arose, and one tyrant contended against another, and a civil war broke out among you. Such indeed has become none but so wicked a people as you are. I then came to this city as unwillingly sent by my father, and received melancholy injunctions from him. When I heard that the people were disposed to peace, I rejoiced at it. I exhorted you to leave off these proceedings before I began this war. I spared you even when you had fought against me a great while. I gave my right hand as security to the deserters. I observed what I had promised faithfully. When they fled to me, I had compassion on many of those that I had taken captive. I tortured those that were eager for war in order to restrain them. It was unwillingly that I brought my engines of war against your walls. I always prohibited my soldiers when they were set upon your slaughter, from their severity against you. After every victory I persuaded you to peace, as though I had been myself conquered. When I came near your temple, I again departed from the laws of war and exhorted you to spare your own sanctuary and to preserve your holy house to yourselves. I allowed you a quiet exit out of it and security for your preservation. Nay, if you had a mind, I gave you leave to fight in another place. But have you still despised every one of my proposals and have set fire to your holy house with your own hands? And now, vile wretches, do you desire to treat with me by word of mouth? To what purpose is it that you would save such a holy house as this was, which is now destroyed? What preservation can you now desire after the destruction of your temple? Yet do you stand still at this very time in your armor? Nor can you bring yourselves so much as to pretend to be supplicants, even in this your utmost extremity. O miserable creatures, what is it you depend on? Are not your people dead? Is not your holy house gone? Is not your city in my power? And are not your own varied lives in my hands? And do you still deem it a part of valor to die? However, I will not intimate your madness. If you throw down your arms and deliver up your bodies to me, I grant you your lives, and I will act like a mild master of a family. What cannot be healed shall be punished, and the rest I will preserve for my own use." End quote. 3. To that offer of Titus they made this reply, that they could not accept of it because they had sworn never to do so, but they desired they might have leave to go through the wall that had been made about them with their wives and children, for that they would go into the desert and leave the city to him. At this Titus had great indignation that when they were in the case of men already taken captives they should pretend to make their own terms with him as if they had been conquerors. So he ordered this proclamation to be made to them, that they should no more come out to him as deserters nor hope for any further security, for that he would henceforth spare nobody but fight them with his whole army, and that they must save themselves as well as they could, for that he would from henceforth treat them according to the laws of war. So he gave orders to the soldiers both to burn and to plunder the city, who did nothing indeed that day, but on the next day they set fire to the repository of the archives, to Acra, to the council house, and to the place called Oflus, at which time the fire proceeded as far as the palace of Queen Helena which was in the middle of Acra. The lanes also were burnt down, as were also those houses that were full of the dead bodies of such as were destroyed by famine. 4. On the same day it was that the sons and brethren of Izzate's the king, together with many others of the eminent men of the populace, got together there, and besought Caesar to give them his right hand for their security, though he was very angry at all that were now remaining, yet he did not lay aside his old moderation, but received these men. At that time indeed he kept them all in custody, but still bound the king's sons and kinsmen, and led them with him to Rome in order to make them hostages for their country's fidelity to the Romans. 7. What afterward befell the seditious when they had done a great deal of mischief, and suffered many misfortunes, as also how Caesar became master of the upper city. 1. And now the seditious rushed into the royal palace into which they had put their effects, because it was so strong, and drove the Romans away from it. They also slew all the people that had crowded into it who were in number about 8,400, and plundered them of what they had. They also took two of the Romans alive. The one was a horseman, and the other a footman. They then cut the throat of the footman, and immediately had him drawn through the whole city, as revenging themselves upon the whole body of the Romans by this one instance. But the horseman said he had somewhat to suggest to them in order to their preservation. Whereupon he was brought before Simon, but he having nothing to say when he was there he was delivered to Ardales, one of his commanders, to be punished, who bound his hands behind him and put a ribbon over his eyes, and then brought him out over against the Romans as intending to cut off his head. But the man prevented that execution and ran away to the Romans, and this while the Jewish executioner was drawing out his sword. Now when he was gotten away from the enemy Titus could not think of putting him to death, but because he deemed him unworthy of being a Roman soldier any longer on account that he had been taken alive by the enemy, he took away his arms and ejected him out of the legion where too he had belonged, which to one that had a sense of shame was a penalty severer than death itself. 2. On the next day the Romans drove the robbers out of the lower city and set all on fire as far as Salom. These soldiers were indeed glad to see the city destroyed, but they missed the plunder because the seditious had carried off all their effects and were retired into the upper city, for they did not yet at all repent of the mischiefs they had done, but were insolent as if they had done well. For as they saw the city on fire they appeared cheerful and put on joyful countenances in expectation as they said of death to end their miseries. Accordingly as the people were now slain the holy house was burnt down and the city was on fire there was nothing further left for the enemy to do, yet did not Josephus grow weary even in this utmost extremity to beg to them to spare what was left of the city. He spoke largely to them about their barbarity and impiety and gave them his advice in order to their escape, though he gained nothing thereby more than to be laughed at by them, and as they could not think of surrendering themselves up because of the oath they had taken nor were strong enough to fight with the Romans any longer upon the square as being surrounded on all sides and a kind of prisoners already, yet they were so accustomed to kill people that they could not restrain their right hands from acting accordingly. So they dispersed themselves before the city and laid themselves in ambush among its ruins to catch those that attempted to desert to the Romans. Accordingly many such deserters were caught by them and were all slain. For these were too weak by reason of their want of food to fly away from them, so their dead bodies were thrown to the dogs. Now every other sort of death was thought more tolerable than the famine in so much that, though the Jews despaired now of mercy, yet would they fly to the Romans and would themselves, even of their own accord, fall among the murderous rebels also. Nor was there any place in the city that had no dead bodies in it, but what was entirely covered with those that were killed either by the famine or the rebellion, and all was full of the dead bodies of such as had perished either by that sedition or by that famine. 3. So now the last hope which supported the tyrants and that crew of robbers who were with them was in the caves and caverns underground. Wither if they could once fly they did not expect to be searched for, but endeavored that after the whole city should be destroyed and the Romans gone away they might come out again and escape from them. This was no better than a dream of theirs, for they were not able to lie hid either from God or from the Romans. However, they depended on these underground subterfuges and set more places on fire than did the Romans themselves, and those that fled out of their houses thus set on fire into the ditches they killed without mercy and pillaged them also. And if they discovered food belonging to anyone they seized upon it and swallowed it down, together with their blood also. Nay, they were now come to fight one with another about their plunder, and I cannot but think that, had not their destruction prevented it, their barbarity would have made them taste of even the dead bodies themselves. End of book 6, chapters 6 and 7. Book 6, chapters 8 through 10 of The Wars of the Jews. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The Wars of the Jews by Josephus, translated by William Weston. Chapters 8 through 10. Chapter 8. House Caesar raised banks round about the upper city, Mount Zion, and when they were completed gave orders that the machines should be brought. He then possessed himself of the whole city. 1. Now when Caesar perceived that the upper city was so steep that it could not possibly be taken without raising banks against it, he distributed the several parts of that work among his army, and this on the twentieth day of the month Luz, Ab. 2. Now the carriage of the materials was a difficult task, since all the trees, as I have already told you, that were about the city, within the distance of a hundred furlongs, had their branches cut off already in order to make the former banks. The works that belonged to the four legions were erected on the west side of the city over against the royal palace, but the whole body of the auxiliary troops, with the rest of the multitude that were with them, erected their banks at the Zistis once they reached to the bridge and that tower of Simon which he had built as a citadel for himself against John when they were at war one with another. 2. It was at this time that the commanders of the Idumians got together privately and took counsel about surrendering up themselves to the Romans. Accordingly they sent five men to Titus and entreated him to give them his right hand for their security, so Titus thinking that the tyrants would yield if the Idumians, upon whom a great part of the war depended, were once withdrawn from them after some reluctancy and delay complied with them and gave them security for their lives and sent the five men back. But as these Idumians were preparing to march out, Simon perceived it and immediately slew the five men that had gone to Titus and took their commanders and put them in prison of whom the most eminent was Jacob, the son of Sosas, but as for the multitude of the Idumians who did not at all know what to do now their commanders were taken from them, he had them watched and secured the walls by a more numerous garrison, yet could not that garrison resist those that were deserting, for although a great number of them were slain, yet were the deserters many more in number. They were all received by the Romans because Titus himself grew negligent as to his former orders for killing them and because the very soldiers grew weary of killing them and because they hoped to get some money by sparing them, for they left only the populace and sold the rest of the multitude with their wives and children and every one of them at a very low price and that because such as were sold were very many and the buyers were few. Footnote. This innumerable multitude of Jews that were sold by the Romans was an eminent completion of God's ancient threatening by Moses that if they apostatized from the obedience of his laws they should be, quote, sold unto their enemies for bond men and bond women, end, quote, Deuteronomy 28 68. See more especially the note on Chapter 9, Section 2. But one thing is here peculiarly remarkable that Moses adds, though they should be sold for slaves, yet no man should buy them, i.e. either they should have none to redeem them from the sale into slavery, or rather that the slaves to be sold should be more than were the purchasers for them, and so they should be sold for little or nothing, which is what Josephus here affirms to have been the case at this time. End Footnote. And although Titus had made proclamation beforehand that no deserter should come alone by himself, that so they might bring out their families with them, yet did he receive such as these also? However, he set over them such as were to distinguish some from others in order to see if any of them deserved to be punished, and indeed the number of those that were sold was immense, but of the populace above forty thousand were saved, whom Caesar let go wither every one of them pleased. 3. But now at this time it was that one of the priests, the son of Thabuthus, whose name was Jesus, upon his having security given him by the oath of Caesar, that he should be preserved, upon condition that he should deliver to him certain of the precious things that had been reposited in the temple, came out of it, and delivered him from the wall of the holy house to candlesticks, like to those that lay in the holy house, with tables and cisterns and vials, all made of solid gold and very heavy. Footnote What became of these spoils of the temple that escaped the fire, see Josephus himself thereafter, and Rylan De Spoli Eastempley, and footnote. He also delivered to him the veils and the garments, with the precious stones, and a great number of other precious vessels that belonged to their sacred worship. The treasurer of the temple also, whose name was Pheneus, was seized on, and showed Titus the coats and girdles of the priests, with a great quantity of purple and scarlet, which were there reposited for the uses of the veil, and also a great deal of cinnamon and cassia, with a large quantity of other sweet spices, which used to be mixed together and offered his incense to God every day. Footnote These various sorts of spices, even more than these four which Moses prescribed, Exodus 31-34, we see are used in their public worship under Herod's temple, particularly cinnamon and cassia, which Rylan takes particular notice of as agreeing with the latter testimony of the Talmudists. And footnote A great many other treasures were also delivered to him with sacred ornaments of the temple, not a few, which things thus delivered to Titus obtained of him for this man the same pardon that he had allowed to such as deserted of their own accord. Four And now were the banks finished on the seventh day of the month Gorpius, Elul, in eighteen days' time, when the Romans brought their machines against the wall. But for the seditious, some of them, as despairing of saving the city, retired from the wall to the citadel. Others of them went down into the subterranean vaults, though still a great many of them defended themselves against those that brought the engines for the battery. Yet did the Romans overcome them by their number and by their strength? And what was the principal thing of all, by going cheerfully about their work, while the Jews were quite dejected and become weak? Now as soon as a part of the wall was battered down and certain of the towers yielded to the impression of the battering-rams, those that opposed themselves fled away and such a terror fell upon the tyrants as was much greater than the occasion required. For before the enemy got over the breach they were quite stunned and were immediately for flying away. And now one might see these men, who had hitherto been so insolent and arrogant in their wicked practices, to be cast down and to tremble in so much that it would pity one's heart to observe the change that was made in these vile persons. Accordingly they ran with great violence upon the Roman wall that encompassed them in order to force away those that guarded it and to break through it and get away. But when they saw that those who had formerly been faithful to them had gone away, as indeed they were fled with or soever the great distress they were in persuaded them to flee, as also when those that came running before the rest told them that the western wall was entirely overthrown, while others said the Romans were gotten in and others that they were near and looking out for them, which were only the dictates of their fear which imposed upon their sight they fell upon their face and greatly lamented their own mad conduct, and their nerves were so terribly loosed that they could not flee away. And here one may chiefly reflect on the power of God exercised upon these wicked wretches and on the good fortune of the Romans. For these tyrants did now wholly deprive themselves of the security they had in their own power and came down from those very towers of their own accord, wherein they could have never been taken by force nor indeed by any other way than by famine. And thus did the Romans, when they had taken such great pains about weaker walls, get by good fortune what they could never have gotten by their engines, for three of these towers were too strong for all mechanical engines whatsoever, concerning which we have treated above. 5. So they now left these towers of themselves, or rather they were ejected out of them by God himself, and fled immediately to that valley which was under Salom, where they again recovered themselves out of the dread they were in for a while, and ran violently against that part of the Roman wall which lay on that side. But as their courage was too much depressed to make their attacks with sufficient force, and their power was now broken with fear and affliction, they were repulsed by the guards, and dispersing themselves at distances from each other went down into the subterranean caverns. So the Romans being now become masters of the walls, they both placed their ensigns upon the towers and made joyful acclamations for the victory they had gained, as having found the end of this war much lighter than its beginning. For when they had gotten upon the last wall, without any bloodshed, they could hardly believe what they found to be true. But seeing nobody to oppose them, they stood in doubt what such an unusual solitude could mean. But when they went in numbers into the lanes of the city with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they overtook without, and set fire to the houses where the Jews were fled, and burnt every soul in them, and laid waste a great many of the rest. And when they were come to the houses to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, and the upper rooms full of dead corpses, that is, of such as died by the famine. They then stood in a horror at this site, and went out without touching anything. But although they had this commissuration for such as were destroyed in that manner, yet had they not the same for those that were still alive, but they ran every one through whom they met with, and obstructed the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood. And truly so it happened, that though the slayers left off at the evening, yet did the fire greatly prevail in the night. And as all was burning came that eighth day of the month Gorpius, Elul, upon Jerusalem, a city that had been liable to so many miseries during this siege, that had it always enjoyed as much happiness from its first foundation. It would certainly have been the envy of the world. Nor did it on any other account so much deserve these sore misfortunes, as by producing such a generation of men as were the occasions of this its overthrow. CHAPTER IX What injunction Caesar gave when he was come within the city, the number of the captives and of those that perished in the siege, as also concerning those that had escaped into the subterranean caverns, among whom were the tyrants Simon and John themselves. 1. Now when Titus was come into this upper city, he admired not only some other places of strength in it, but particularly those strong towers which the tyrants in their mad conduct had relinquished. For when he saw their solid altitude and the largeness of their several stones, and the exactness of their joints, as also how great was their breadth and how extensive their length, he expressed himself after the manner following. We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications, for what could the hands of men or any machines do towards overthrowing these towers? At which time he had many such discourses to his friends. He also let such go free as had been bound by the tyrants and were left in the prisons. To conclude, when he entirely demolished the rest of the city and overthrew its walls, he left these towers as a monument of his good fortune, which had proved his auxiliaries and enabled him to take what could not otherwise have been taken by him. 2. And now since his soldiers were already quite tired with killing men, and yet there appeared to be a vast multitude still remaining alive, Caesar gave orders that they should kill none but those that were in arms and opposed them, but should take the rest alive. But together with those whom they had orders to slay, they slew the aged and the infirm. But for those that were in their flourishing age, and whom might be useful to them, they drove them together into the temple and shut them up within the walls of the court of the women, over which Caesar set one of his freed men as also Fronto, one of his own friends, which last was to determine everyone's fate according to his merits. So this Fronto slew all those that had been seditious and robbers, who were impeached one by another, but of the young men he chose out the tallest and most beautiful and reserved them for the triumph. As for the rest of the multitude that were above seventeen years old, he put them into bonds and sent them to the Egyptian mines. Titus also sent a great number into the provinces as a present to them that they might be destroyed upon their theaters by the sword and by the wild beasts, but those that were under seventeen years of age were sold for slaves. See the several predictions that the Jews, if they became obstinate in their idolatry and wickedness, should be sent again or sold into Egypt for their punishment, Deuteronomy 2868, Jeremiah 447, Hosea 813, 93, 94, and 5, 2 Samuel 15, 10-13, with authentic records, and Rylan Paynist and, and footnote. Now, during the days wherein Fronto was distinguishing these men, they are perished for want of food, eleven thousand, some of whom did not taste any food through the hatred their guards bore to them, and others would not take in any when it was given them. The multitude also was so very great that they were in want even of corn for their sustenance. 3. Now the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand. Footnote, the whole multitude of the Jews that were destroyed during the entire seven years before this time, in all the countries of and bordering on Judea, is summed up by Archbishop Usher from Lypseus, out of Josephus, at the year of Christ seventy, and amounts to one million three hundred thirty-seven thousand four hundred ninety. Nor could there have been that number of Jews in Jerusalem to be destroyed in this siege, as will be presently set down by Josephus, but that both Jews and proselytes of justice were just then come up out of the other countries of Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and Paria, and other remote regions, to the Passover in vast numbers, and therein cooped up as in a prison by the Roman army, as Josephus himself well observes in this and the next section, and as is exactly related elsewhere. And footnote, as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege, eleven hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation with the citizens of Jerusalem, but not belonging to the city itself, for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which at the very first, occasions so great a straightness among them, that there came a pestilental destruction upon them, and soon afterwards such a famine as destroyed them more suddenly. And that this city could contain so many people in it, is manifest by that number of them which was taken under Cestius, who being desirous of informing Mero of the power of the city, who otherwise was disposed to condemn that nation, and treated the high priests, if the thing were possible, to take the number of their whole multitude. So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice, for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves, and many of us are twenty in a company, found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred, which upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to two millions seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and holy. Footnote, this number of a company for one paschal lamb, between ten and twenty, agrees exactly with the number thirteen at our Saviour's last Passover, as to the whole number of the Jews that used to come up to the Passover and eat it at Jerusalem. See the note on Book Two, Chapter Fourteen, Section Three. This number ought to be here, indeed, just ten times the number of the lambs, or just two million five hundred sixty-five thousand, by Josephus' own reasoning, whereas it is, in his present copies, no less than two million seven hundred thousand two hundred, which last number is, however, nearest to the other number in the place now sighted, which is three million. But what is here chiefly remarkable in this, that no foreign nation ever came thus to destroy the Jews at any of their solemn festivals, from the days of Moses till this time, but came now upon their apostasy from God and from obedience to him? Nor is it possible, in the nature of things, that in any other nation such vast numbers should be gotten together and perish in the siege of any one city whatsoever as now happened in Jerusalem. End Footnote, for as to those that have the leprosy or the gonorrhea, or women that have their monthly courses, or such as are otherwise polluted, it is not lawful for them to be partakers of the sacrifice, nor indeed for any foreigners, neither, who come hither to worship. Four. Now this vast multitude is indeed collected out of remote places, but the entire nation was now shut up by fate as in prison, and the Roman army encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly the multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world. For to speak only of what is publicly known, the Romans slew some of them, some they carried captives, and others they made a search for underground, and when they found where they were, they broke up the ground and slew all they met with. There were also found slain there above two thousand persons, partly by their own hands and partly by one another, but chiefly destroyed by the famine. But then the ill-saber of the dead bodies was most offensive to those that lighted upon them, in so much that some were obliged to get away immediately, while others were so greedy of gain that they would go in among the dead bodies that lay on heaps and tread upon them. For a great deal of treasure was found in these caverns, and the hope of gain made every way of getting it to be esteemed lawful. Many also of those that had been put in prison by the tyrants were now brought out, for they did not leave off their barbarous cruelty at the very last, yet did God avenge himself upon them both in a manner agreeable to justice. As for John, he wanted food, together with his brethren, in these caverns, and begged that the Romans would now give him their right hand for his security, which he had often proudly rejected before. But for Simon he struggled hard with the distress he was in till he was forced to surrender himself as we shall relate hereafter, so he was reserved for the triumph and to be slain then, as was John condemned to perpetual imprisonment. And now the Romans set fire to the extreme parts of the city and burnt them down and entirely demolished its walls. CHAPTER X. That whereas the city of Jerusalem had been five times taken formerly, this was the second time of its desolation, a brief account of its history. ONE. This was Jerusalem taken in the second year of the reign of Vespasian on the eighth day of the month Gorpius Elul. It had been taken five times before, though this was the second time of its desolation. But note, this is the proper place for such as have closely attended to these latter books of the war to pursue and that with equal attention, those distinct and plain predictions of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels thereunto relating as compared with their exact completions in Josephus' history, upon which completions, as Dr. Whitby well observes, no small part of the evidence for the truth of the Christian religion does depend. And as I have step by step compared them together in my literal accomplishment of scripture prophecies, the reader is to observe further that the true reason why I have so seldom taken notice of these completions in the course of these notes, notwithstanding there being so very remarkable and frequently so very obvious, is this, that I had entirely prevented myself in that treatise beforehand, to which therefore I must hear, once for all, seriously refer every inquisitive reader. Besides these five here enumerated, who had taken Jerusalem of old, Josephus, upon further recollection, reckons a sixth who should have been here inserted in the second place. I mean Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, end footnote. For Shishak, the king of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, and after him Pompey, and after him Socius and Herod took the city but still preserved it. But before all these the king of Babylon conquered it and made it desolate, one thousand four hundred and sixty-eight years and six months after it was built. But he who first built it was a potent man among the Canaanites, and is in our own tongue called Melchizedek the righteous king, for such he really was, on which account he was there the first priest of God and first built a temple there and called the city Jerusalem which was formerly called Salem. However, David the king of the Jews ejected the Canaanites and set tide his own people therein. It was demolished entirely by the Babylonians four hundred and seventy-seven years and six months after him, and from king David, who was the first of the Jews who reigned therein to this destruction under Titus, for one thousand one hundred and seventy-nine years. And from its first building, till this last destruction, were two thousand one hundred and seventy-seven years, yet half not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor the diffusion of its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the greatness of the veneration paid to it on a religious account, then sufficient to preserve it from being destroyed. And thus ended the siege of Jerusalem. End of book six, chapters eight through ten. End of book six. Book seven, chapters one and two of the wars of the Jews. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Wars of the Jews by Josephus. Translated by William Weston. Book seven. Reading the interval of about three years, from the taking of Jerusalem by Titus to this addition at Cyrene. To this addition at Cyrene. Chapter one. How the entire city of Jerusalem was demolished, accepting three towers, and how Titus commanded his soldiers in a speech made to them and distributed rewards to them, and then dismissed many of them. One. Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to the objects of their fury, for they would not have spared any had there remains any other work to be done, Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminency, that is, Phasalus and Hippicus and Maryamnae, and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison, as were the towers also spared in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman Valor had subdued. But for all the rest of the wall it was thoroughly laid even with the grounds by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe that it had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations, a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind. Footnotes Why the great Bochart should say that, there are in this clause of Josephus as many mistakes as words, I do by no means understand. Josephus thought Melchizedek first built, or rather rebuilt, and adorned this city, and that it was called Salem, as Psalm 76-2 after words came to be called Jerusalem, and that Melchizedek, being a priest as well as a king, built to the true God therein a temple, or place for public divine worship and sacrifice, all which things may be very true for all we know to the contrary. And for the word or temple, as it must needs to be longed the great temple built by Solomon, long afterwards, Josephus himself uses, for the small tabernacle of Moses, as he here presently uses, for a large and splendid synagogue of the Jews at Antioch. And Footnote 2 But Caesar resolved to leave there, as a guard, the Tenth Legion, with certain troops of horsemen and companies of footmen. So having entirely completed this war, he was desirous to commend his whole army, on account of the great exploits they had performed, and to bestow proper rewards on such as had signalized themselves therein. He had therefore a great tribunal made for him in the midst of the place, where he had formerly encamped, and stood upon it with his principal commanders about him, and spake so as to be heard by the whole army in the manor following. That he returned them abundance of thanks for their good will, which they had showed to him, he commended them for that ready obedience they had exhibited in this whole war, which obedience had appeared in the many and great dangers which they had courageously undergone. As also for that courage they had shown, and had thereby augmented of themselves their country's power, and had made it evident to all men that neither the multitude of their enemies, nor the strength of their places, nor the largeness of their cities, nor the rash boldness and brutish rage of their antagonists were sufficient at any time to get clear of the Roman valor, although some of them may have fortune in many respects on their side. He said further that it was but reasonable for them to put an end to this war. Now it had lasted so long, for that they had nothing better to wish for when they entered into it, and that this happened more favorably for them, and more for their glory, that all the Romans had willingly accepted of those for their governors and the curators of their dominions whom they had chosen for them, and had sent them into their own country for that purpose, which still continued under the management of those whom they had pitched on, and were thankful to them for pitching upon them. That accordingly, although he did both admire and tenderly regard them all, because he knew that every one of them had undergone as cheerfully about their work as their abilities and opportunities would give them leave. Yet he said he would immediately bestow rewards and dignities on those that had fought the most bravely and with greater force, and had signalized their conduct in the most glorious manner, and had made his army more famous by their noble exploits, and that no one who had been willing to take more pains than another should miss of a just retribution of the same. For that he had been exceeding careful about this matter, and that the more because he had much rather reward the virtues of his fellow soldiers than punished such as had offended. Three. Hereupon Titus ordered those whose business it was to read the list of all that had performed great exploits in this war, whom he called to him by their names, and commanded them before the company and rejoiced in them in the same manner as a man would have rejoiced in his own exploits. He also put on their heads crowns of gold, and gold and ornaments about their necks, and gave them long spears of gold, and insides that were made of silver, and removed every one of them to a higher rank. And besides this he plentifully distributed among them out of the spoils, and the other prey they had taken, silver, gold, and garments. So when they had all these honors bestowed upon them, according to his own appointment made to everyone, and he had wished all sorts of happiness to the whole army, he came down. Among the great acclamations which were made to him, and then betook himself to offer thank-offerings to the gods, and at once sacrificed a vast number of oxen that stood ready on the alters and distributed them among the army to feast on. And when he had stayed three days among the principal commanders, and so feasted with them, he sent away the rest of his army to the several places where they would be everyone best situated, but permitted the tenth legion to stay as a guard at Jerusalem, and did not send them away beyond the Euphrates, where they had been before. And as he remembered that the twelfth legion had given way to the Jews, under Cestius their general, he expelled them out of all Syria, for they had lain formerly at Raphnea, and sent them away to a place called Melatine, near Euphrates, which is in the limits of Armenia and Cappadocia. He also thought fit that two of the legions should stay with him till he should go to Egypt. He then went down with his army to that Caesarea which lay by the seaside, and there laid up the rest of the spoils in great quantities, and gave order that the captives should be kept there. For the winter season hindered him then from sailing into Italy. CHAPTER II How Titus exhibited all sorts of shows at Caesarea Philippi concerning Simon the tyrant how he was taken and reserved for the triumph. ONE Now at the same time that Titus Caesar laid the siege of Jerusalem, did Vespasian go on board a merchant ship and sail from Alexandria to Rhodes. Whence he sailed away in ships with three rows of oars, as he touched at several cities that lay in his road, he was joyfully received by them all, and so passed over from Ionia to Greece. Whence he set sail from Corsaira to the premonitory of Iopics. Whence he took his journey by land. But as for Titus he marched from that Caesarea which lay by the seaside, and came to that which is named Caesarea Philippi, and stayed there a considerable time and exhibited all sorts of shows there. And here a great number of the captives were destroyed, some being thrown to wild beasts, and others in multitudes, forced to kill one another as if they were their enemies. And here it was that Titus was informed of the seizure of Simon the son of Gaioras, which was made after the manor following. This Simon, during the siege of Jerusalem, was in the upper city, but when the Roman army was gotten within the walls and were laying the city waste, he then took the most faithful of his friends with him, and among them some that were sterncutters, with those iron tools which belonged to their occupation, and as great a quantity of provisions as would suffice them for a long time, and let himself and all them down into a certain subterranean cavern that was not visible above ground. Now so far, as had been digged of old, they went armoured along it without disturbance, but where they met with solid earth they dug a mine underground, and this in hopes that they should be able to proceed so far as to rise from underground in a safe place, and by that means escape. But when they came to make the experiment they were disappointed of their hope, for the miners could make but small progress, and that with difficulty also, in so much that their provisions, though they distributed them by measure, began to fail them. And now Simon, thinking he might be able to astonish and elude the Romans, put on a white frock, and buttoned upon him a purple cloak, and appeared out of the ground in the place where the temple had formerly been. At the first, indeed, those that saw him were greatly astonished, and stood still where they were, but afterwards they came nearer to him and asked who he was. Now Simon would not tell them, but bid them call for their captain, and when they ran to call him, Tarentius Rufus, who was left to command the army there, came to Simon and learned of him the whole truth, and kept him in bonds, and let Caesar know that he was taken. This Tarentius Rufus, as Rayland, in part observes here, is the same person whom the Talmudists call Ternus Rufus, of whom they relate that he plowed up Zion as a field, and made Jerusalem become as heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high ittises of a forest, which was long before foretold by the prophet Micah, chapter 3, 12, and quoted from him in the prophecies of Jeremiah, chapter 26, 18. End footnote. Thus did God bring this man to be punished for what bitter and savage tyranny he had exercised against his countrymen by those who were his worst enemies, and this while he was not subdued by violence but voluntarily delivered himself up to them to be punished, and that on the very same account that he had laid false accusations against many Jews as if they were falling away to the Romans, and had barbarously slain them for wicked actions, do not escape the divine anger, nor is justice too weak to punish offenders, but in time overtakes those that transgress its laws and inflicts its punishments upon the wicked in a manner so much more severe as they expected to escape it on account of their not being punished immediately. Footnote. See Ecclesiastes 8.11. End footnote. Simon was made sensible of this by falling under the indignation of the Romans. The rise of his out of the ground did also occasion the discovery of a great number of others of the seditious at that time who had hidden themselves under ground. But for Simon he was brought to Caesar in bonds when he was come back to that Caesarea which was on the seaside who gave orders that he should be kept against that triumph which he was to celebrate at Rome upon his occasion. CHAPTERS I and IV The Wars of the Jews by Josephus Translated by William Wiston CHAPTERS III and IV How Titus upon the celebration of his brothers and fathers' birthdays had many of the Jews slain, considering the danger the Jews were in that Antioch by means of the transgression and impiety of one Antiochus, a Jew. I. While Titus was at Caesarea he solemnized the birthday of his brother Domitian after a splendid manner and inflicted a great zeal of the punishment intended for the Jews in honor of him, for the number of those that were now slain in fighting with the beasts and were burnt and fought with one another exceeded two thousand five hundred. Yet did all this seem to the Romans when they were thus destroyed ten thousand several ways to be a punishment beneath their deserts. After this Caesar came to Baratis which is a city of Phoenicia and a Roman colony. This Baratis was certainly a Roman colony and has coins extant that witnessed the same as Hudson and Spanheim inform us. And stayed there a longer time and exhibited a still more pompous solemnity about his father's birthday both in the magnificence of the shows and in the other vast expenses he was at in his devices there to belonging, so that a great multitude of the captives were here destroyed after the same manner as before. Two. It happened also about this time that the Jews who remained at Antioch were under accusations and in danger of perishing from the disturbances that were raised against them by the Antiochians. And this both on account of the slanders spread abroad at this time against them and on account of what pranks they had played not long before, which I am obliged to describe without fail, though briefly, that I may the better connect my narration of future actions with those that went before. Three. For as the Jewish nation is widely dispersed over all the habitable earth among its inhabitants, so it is very much intermingled with Syria by reason of its neighborhood and had the greatest multitudes in Antioch by reason of the largeness of the city, wherein the kings, after Antiochus, had afforded them a habitation with the most undisturbed tranquility. For though Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes, laid in Jerusalem waste and spoiled the temple, yet did those that succeeded him in the kingdom restore all the donations that were made of brass to the Jews of Antioch and dedicated them to their synagogue and granted them the enjoyment of equal privileges of citizens with the Greeks themselves, and as the succeeding kings treated them after the same manner they both multiplied to a great number and adorned their temples gloriously by fine ornaments and with great magnificence in the use of what had been given them. They also made proselytes of a great many of the Greeks perpetually, and thereby after a sort brought them to be a portion of their own body. But about this time when the present war began and Vespasium was newly sailed to Syria, and all men had taken up a great hatred against the Jews. Then it was that a certain person whose name was Antiochus, being one of the Jewish nation, and greatly respected on account of his father, who was governor of the Jews at Antioch, came upon the theater at a time when the people of Antioch were assembled together. Footnote, the Jews at Antioch and Alexandria, the two principal cities in all the east, had allowed them, both by the Macedonians and afterwards by the Romans, a governor of their own, who was exempt from the jurisdiction of the other civil governors. He was sometimes barely governor, sometimes ethnarch, and at Alexandria, alabarque. As Dr. Hudson takes notice on this place out of Fuller's miscellanies, they had the light governor or governors allowed them at Babylon under their captivity there, as the history of Susanna implies. End footnote. And became an informer against his father and accused both him and others that they had resolved to burn the whole city in one night. He also delivered up to them some Jews that were foreigners as partners in their resolutions. When the people heard this, they could not refrain their passion, but commanded that those who were delivered up to them should have fire brought to burn them, who were accordingly all burnt upon the theater immediately. They did also fall violently upon the multitude of the Jews, as supposing that by punishing them suddenly they should save their own city. As for Antiochus, he aggravated the rage they were in, and thought to give them a demonstration of his own conversion, arm of his hatred of the Jewish customs, by sacrificing after the manner of the Greeks. He persuaded the rest also to compel them to do the same, because they would, by that means, discover who they were that had plotted against them, since they would not do so, and when the people of Antioch tried the experiment some few complied, but those that would not do so were slain. As for Allotochus himself, he obtained soldiers from the Roman commander, and became a severe master over his own citizens, not permitting them to rest on the seventh day, but forcing them to do all that they usually did on other days. And to that degree of distress did he reduce them in this matter, that the rest of the seventh day was dissolved not only at Antioch, but the same thing, which took thence its rise was done in other cities also, in like manner, for some small time. 4. Now after these misfortunes had happened to the Jews at Antioch, a second calamity befell them, the description of which, when we were going about, we premised the account for going, for upon this accident whereby the Foursquare Marketplace was burnt down, as well as the archives, and the place where the public records were preserved and the royal palaces, and it was not without difficulty that the fire was then put a stop to, which was likely by the fury wherewith it was carried along to have gone over the whole city. Antiochus accused the Jews, as the occasion of all the mischief that was done. 5. Now this induced the people of Antioch, who were now under the immediate persuasion, by reason of the disorder they were in, that this Columny was true, and would have been under the same persuasion, even though they had not borne an ill will at the Jews before, to believe this man's accusation, especially when they considered what had been done before, and this to such degree, that they all fell violently upon those that were accused, and this, like madmen, in a very furious rage also, even as if they had seen the Jews in a manner setting fire themselves to the city, nor was it without difficulty that one Ceneus Collegius, the legate, could prevail with them to permit the affairs to be laid before Caesar. For as, too, Ceceneus Petchus, the president of Syria, Vespasian had already sent him away, and so it happened that he was not yet come back thither. But when Collegius had made a careful inquiry into the matter, he founds out the truth, and that not one of those Jews that were accused by Antiochus had any hands in it, but that all was done by some vile persons greatly in debt, who suppose that if they could once set fire to the marketplace and burn the public records, they should have no further demands made upon them. So the Jews were under great disorder and terror, in the uncertain expectations of what would be the upshot of these accusations against them. Chapter 4 How Vespasian was received at Rome, as also how the Germans revolted from the Romans, but were subdued, that the Samaritans overran Maesia, but were compelled to retire to their own country again. And now Titus Caesar, upon the news that was brought him concerning his father, that his coming was much desired by all the Italian cities, and that Rome especially received him with great alacrity and splendor, betook himself to rejoicing and pleasures to a great degree, as now freed from the solitude that he had been under. After the most agreeable manner, for all men that were in Italy showed their respects to him in their minds before he came thither, as if you were already come, as esteeming the very expectation they had of him to be his real presence, on account of the great desires they had to see him, and because the good will they bore him was entirely free and unconstrained. For it was, desirable thing to the Senate, who well remembered the calamities they had undergone in the late changes of their governors, to receive a governor who was adorned with the gravity of old age, and with the highest skill in the actions of war, whose advancement would be, as they knew, for nothing else but for the preservation of those that were to be governed. Moreover, the people had been so harassed by their civil miseries, that they were still more earnest for his coming immediately, as supposing they should then be firmly delivered from their calamities, and believed they should then recover their secure tranquility and prosperity. And for the soldiery they had the principle regard to him, for they were chiefly apprised of his great exploits in war, and since they had experienced the want of skill and the want of courage in other commanders, they were very desirous to be free from that great shame they had undergone by their means, and hardly wished to receive such a prince as might be a security and an ornament to them. And as this good will to Vespasian was universal, those that enjoyed any remarkable dignities could not have patience enough to stay in Rome, but made haste to meet him at a very great distance from it. Nay, indeed, none of the rest could endure the delay of seeing him, but did all pour out of the city, in such crowds, and were so universally possessed with the opinion that it was easier and better for them to go out than to stay there, that this was the very first time that the city joyfully perceived itself almost empty of its citizens. For those that stayed within were fewer than those that went out. But as soon as the news was come, that he was hard by, and those that had met him at first related with what good humor he received every one that came to him, then it was that the whole multitude that had remained in the city, with their wives and children, came into the road and waited for him there. And for those whom he passed by they made all sorts of acclamations. On account of the joy they had to see him, and the pleasantness of his countenance, and styled him their benefactor and saviour, and the only person who was worthy to be ruler of the city of Rome. And now the city was like a temple, full of garlands and sweet odours, nor was it easy for him to come to the royal palace, for the multitude of the people that stood about him, where yet at last he performed his sacrifices of thanksgiving to his household gods for his safe return to the city. The multitude did also be take themselves to feasting, which feast and drink offerings they celebrated by their tribes and their families and their neighbourhoods, and still prayed God to grant that Vespasian, his sons and all their posterity, might continue in the Roman government for a very long time, and that his dominion might be preserved from all opposition. And this was the manner in which Rome so joyfully received Vespasian, and then screw immediately into a state of great prosperity. 2 But before this time, and while Vespasian was about Alexandria, and Titus was lying at the siege of Jerusalem, a great multitude of the Germans were in commotion, and tended to rebellion, and as the Gauls in their neighbourhood joined with them they conspired together, and had thereby great hopes of success, and that they should free themselves from the dominion of the Romans. The motives that induced the Germans to this attempt for a revolt, and for beginning the war, were these. In the first place, the nature of the people, which was destitute of just reasonings, and ready to throw themselves rashly into danger upon small hopes, in the next place the hatred they bore to those that were their governors, while their nation had never been conscious of any subjection to any but to the Romans, and that by compulsion only. Besides these motives it was the opportunity that now offered itself, which above all the rest prevailed with them so to do. For when they saw the Roman government in a great internal disorder, by the continual changes of its rulers, and understood that every part of the habitable earth under them was in an unsettled and tottering condition, they thought this was the best opportunity that could afford itself for themselves to make a sedition, when the state of the Romans was so ill. Fontalis also, and Vitellius, two of their commanders, puffed them up with such hopes. Footnote, this classicus and syphilis, and Cerylius, are names well known in tactius. The two former as moving sedition against the Romans, and the last as sent to repress them by Vespasian, just as they are here described in Josephus, which is the case also of Fontalis Agrippa and Rubrius Gallup, but as to the very favourable account presently given of Demetian, particularly as to his designs in his Gileic and German expedition, it is not a little contrary to that in Suetonius. Nor are the reasons unobvious that might occasion this great diversity. Demetian was one of Josephus' patrons, and when he published these books of the Jewish War was very young, and had hardly begun those wicked practices which rendered him so infamous afterward. While Putonius seems to have been too young and too low in life to receive any remarkable favours from him, as Demetian was certainly very lewd and cruel, and generally hated when Putonius wrote about him. And footnote. These had, for a long time, been openly desirous of such an innovation, and were induced by the present opportunity to venture upon the declaration of their sentiments. The multitude was also ready, and when these men told them of what they intended to attempt, that news was gladly received by them. So when a great part of the Germans had agreed to rebel, and the rest were no better disposed, Vespasian, as guided by divine providence, sent letters to Petilius Surrealus, who had formerly had the command of Germany, whereby he declared him to have the dignity of consul, and commanded him to take upon him the government of Britain. So he went with or he was ordered to go, and when he was informed of the revolt of the Germans, he fell upon them, as soon as they were gotten together, and put his army in battle array, and slew a great number of them in the fight, and forced them to leave off their madness, and to grow wiser. Nay, he had not befallen thus suddenly upon them on the place. It had not been long ere they would, however, have been brought to punishment. For as soon as ever the news of the revolt was come to Rome, and Caesar Demetian was made acquainted with it, he made no delay. Demetian at his age, when he was exceeding young, but undertook this weighty affair. He had a courageous mind from his father, and had made greater improvements than belonged to such an age. Accordingly he marched against the barbarians immediately, whereupon their hearts failed them, at the very rumour of his approach, and they submitted themselves to him with fear, and thought it a happy thing that they were brought under their old yoke again without suffering any further mischiefs. And therefore Demetian had settled all the affairs of Gaul in such good order that it would not be easily put into disorder any more. He returned to Rome with honour and glory, as having performed such exploits as were above his age, but worthy of so great a father. III At the very same time, with the aforementioned revolt of the Germans, did the bold attempt of the Skylians against the Romans occur. For those Skylians, who are called Sarmatians, being of very numerous people, transported themselves over the Danube into Maesia without being perceived, after which, by their violence and entirely unexpected assault, they slew a great many of the Romans that guarded the frontiers. And as the consular Legate Fontius Agrippa came to meet them, and fought courageously against them, he was slain by them. Then they overran all the region that had been subject to him, tearing and rending everything that fell in their way. But when Bespasium was informed of what had happened and how Maesia was laid waste, he sent away Rubria Scarlis, to punish these Sarmatians, by whose means many of them perished in the battles he fought against them, and that part which escaped, fled with fear to their own country. So when this general had put an end to the war, he provided for the future security of the country also. For he placed more and more numerous garrisons in the place, till he made it altogether impossible for the barbarians to pass over the river any more, and thus had this war in Maesia a sudden conclusion. CHAPTER V Learning the sabatic river which Titus saw as he was journeying through Syria, and how the people of Antioch came with a petition to Titus against the Jews, but were rejected by him, as also concerning Titus's and Bespasium's triumph. 1. Now Titus Caesar tarried some time at Baritus, as we told you before. He thence removed and exhibited magnificent shows in all those cities of Syria, through which he went, and made use of the captive Jews as public instances of the destruction of that nation. He then saw a river as he went along, of such a nature as deserves to be recorded in history. It runs in the middle between Arsia belonging to Agrippa's kingdom and Rafania. It hath somewhat very peculiar in it, for when it runs its current is strong and has plenty of water, after which its springs fail for six days together, and leave its channel dry as one may see. After which days it runs on the seventh day as it did before, and as though it had undergone no change at all. It hath also been observed to keep this order perpetually and exactly, whence it is that they call it the Sabatic River, that name being taken from the sacred seventh day among the Jews. Footnote Since in these latter ages the Sabatic River, once so famous, which by Josephus's account here, ran every seventh day and rested on six, but according to Pliny ran perpetually on six days and rested every seventh, though it no way appears by either of their accounts that the seventh day of this river, was the Jewish seventh day or Sabbath, is quite vanished, I shall add no more about it. Only see Dr. Hudson's note. In Verenius's geography the reader will find several instances of such periodical fountains and rivers, though none of their periods were that of a just week as of old this appears to have been. End Footnote 2. But when the people of Antioch were informed that Titus was approaching they were so glad at it that they could not keep within their walls, but hastened away to give him the meeting. Nay, they proceeded as far as thirty furlongs and more, with that intention. These were not the men only, but a multitude of women also with their children did the same, and when they saw him coming up to them they stood on both sides of the way and stretched out their right hands saluting him and making all sorts of acclamations to him and turned back together with him. They also among all the acclamations they made to him, besought him all the way they went to eject the Jews out of their city, yet did not Titus at all yield to this their petition, but gave them the bare hearing of it quietly. However, the Jews were in a great deal of terrible fear under the uncertainty they were in what his opinion was and what he would do to them. For Titus did not stay at Antioch, but continued his progress immediately to Zubma, which lies upon the Euphrates, wither came to him messengers from Bola-Ghesi's king of Parthia, and brought him a crown of gold upon the victory he had gained over the Jews, which he accepted of and feasted the king's messengers, and then came back to Antioch. And when the Senate and people of Antioch earnestly entreated him to come upon their theater, where their whole multitude was assembled and expected him, he complied with great humility. But when they pressed him with such earnestness and continually begged of him that he would eject the Jews out of their city, he gave them this very pertinent answer. How can this be done, since that country of theirs, whether the Jews must be obliged then to retire, is destroyed, and no place will receive them besides? Whereupon the people of Antioch, when they had failed of success in this their first request, made him a second, for they desired that he would order those tables of brass to be removed on which the Jews' privileges were engraven. However, Titus would not grant that neither, but permitted the Jews of Antioch to continue to enjoy the very same privileges in that city which they had before, and then departed for Egypt. And as he came to Jerusalem in his progress, and compared the melancholy condition he saw it then in, with the ancient glory of the city, and called to mind the greatness of its present ruins, as well as its ancient splendor, he could not but pity the destruction of the city, so far was he from boasting that so great and goodly a city as that was had been taken from him by force. Nay, he frequently cursed those that had been the authors of the revolt, and had brought such a punishment upon the city, in so much that it openly appeared that he did not desire that such a calamity as this punishment of theirs amounted to should be a demonstration of his courage. Yet was there no small quantity of the riches that had been in that city still found among its ruins, a great deal of which the Romans dug up, for the greatest part was discovered by those who were captives, and so they carried it away. I mean the gold and the silver, and the rest of that most precious furniture which the Jews had, and which the owners had treasured up underground against the uncertain fortunes of war. 3. So Titus took the journey he intended into Egypt, and passed over the desert very suddenly, and came to Alexandria, and took up a resolution to go to Rome by sea. And as he was accompanied by two legions, he sent each of them again to the places whence they had before come, the fifth he sent to Mycia, and the fifteenth to Pannonia. As for the leaders of the captives, Simon and John, with the other seven hundred men whom he had selected out of the rest as being eminently tall and handsome of body, he gave order that they should be soon carried to Italy, as resolving to produce them in his triumph. So when he had had a prosperous voyage to his mind, the city of Rome behaved itself in his reception, and their meeting him at a distance as it did in the case of his father. But what made the most splendid appearance in Titus's opinion was, when his father met him and received him. But still the multitude of the citizens conceived the greatest joy when they saw them all three together, footnote, Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian, and footnote, as they did at this time. There were their many days over past when they determined to have but one triumph that should be common to both of them on account of the glorious exploits they had performed, although the Senate had decreed each of them a separate triumph by himself. So when notice had been given beforehand of the day appointed for this pompous salinity to be made on account of their victories, not one of the immense multitude was left in the city, but everybody went out so far as to gain only a station where they might stand, and left only such a passage as was necessary for those that were to be seen to go along it. 4. Now all the soldiery marched out beforehand by companies, and in their several ranks, under their several commanders, in the night time, and were about the gates, not of the upper palaces, but those near the Temple of Isis. For there it was that the emperors had rested the foregoing night, and as soon as ever it was day Paspezian and Titus came out crowned with laurel and clothed in those ancient purple habits which were proper to their family, and then went as far as Octavian's walks. For there it was that the Senate and the principal rulers, and those that had been recorded as of the equestrian order, waited for them. Now a tribunal had been erected before the Cloisters, and ivory chairs had been set upon it when they came and sat down upon them, whereupon the soldiery made an acclamation of joy to them immediately, and all gave them attestations of their valour, while they were themselves without their arms, and only in their silken garments, and crowned with laurel. Then Paspezian accepted of these shouts of theirs, but while they were still disposed to go on in such acclamations, he gave them a signal of silence, and when everybody entirely held their peace, he stood up, and covering the greatest part of his head with his cloak, he put up the accustomed solemn prayers. The like prayers did Titus put up also, after which prayers Paspezian made a short speech to all the people, and then sent away the soldiers to a dinner prepared for them by the emperors. Then did he retire to that gate which was called the Gate of the Pomp, because pompous shows do always go through that gate. There it was that they tasted some food, and when they had put on their triumphal garments and had offered sacrifices to the gods that were placed at the gate, they sent the triumph forward and marched through the theaters that they might be the more easily seen by the multitudes. Five. Now it is impossible to describe the multitude of the shows as they deserve and the magnificence of them all, such indeed as a man could not easily think of as performed, either by the labor of workmen or the variety of riches or the rarities of nature. For almost all such curiosities as the most happy men ever get by piecemeal were here one heaped on another, and those both admirable and costly in their nature, and all brought together on that day demonstrated the vastness of the dominions of the Romans. For there was here to be seen a mighty quantity of silver and gold and ivory contrived into all sorts of things, and did not appear as carried along in pompous show only, but as a man may say, running along like a river. Some parts were composed of the rarest purple hangings, and so carried along, and others accurately represented to the life what was embroidered by the arts of the Babylonians. There were also precious stones that were transparent, some set in crowns of gold, and some in other ouches, as the workmen pleased, and of these such a vast number were brought that we could not but thence learn how vainly we imagined any of them to be rarities. The images of the gods were also carried, being as well wonderful for their largeness, as made very artificially and with great skill of the workmen. Nor were any of these images of any other than very costly materials, and many species of animals were brought, every one in their own natural ornaments. The men also who brought every one of these shows were great multitudes, and adorned with purple garments, all over interwoven with gold. Those that were chosen for carrying these pompous shows, having also about them such magnificent ornaments, as were both extraordinary and surprising. Besides these, one might see that even the great number of the captives was not unadorned, while the variety that was in their garments and their fine texture concealed from the sight the deformity of their bodies. But what afforded the greatest surprise of all was the structure of the pageants that were born along, for indeed he that met them could not but be afraid that the bearers would not be able firmly enough to support them, such was their magnitude. For many of them were so made that they were on three or even four stories, one above another. The magnificence also of their structure afforded one both pleasure and surprise, for upon many of them were laid carpets of gold. There was also wrought gold and ivory fastened about them all, and many resemblances of the war and those in several ways and variety of contrivances affording a most lively portraiture of itself. For there was to be seen a happy country laid waste and entire squadrons of enemies slain, while some of them ran away and some were carried into captivity, with walls of great altitude and magnitude overthrown and ruined by machines, with the strongest fortifications taken and the walls of most populous cities upon the tops of hills seized on and an army pouring itself within the walls, as also every place full of slaughter and supplications of the enemies when they were no longer able to lift up their hands in way of opposition. Fire also sent upon temples was here represented and houses overthrown and falling upon their owners. Rivers also, after they came out of a large and melancholy desert, ran down, not into a land cultivated nor as drink for men or of cattle, but threw a land still on fire upon every side, for the Jews related that such a thing they had undergone during this war. Now the workmanship of these representations was so magnificent and lively in the construction of the things that it exhibited what had been done to such as did not see it as if they had been there really present. On the top of every one of these pageants was placed the commander of the city that was taken and the manner wherein he was taken. Moreover there followed those pageants a great number of ships and for the other spoils they were carried in great plenty, but for those that were taken in the temple of Jerusalem they made the greatest figure of them all, that is the golden table of the weight of many talons, the candlestick also that was made of gold though its construction were now changed from that which we made use of. For its middle shaft was fixed upon a basis and the small branches were produced out of it to a great length having the likeness of a trident in their position and had every one a socket made of brass for a lamp at the tops of them. These lamps were in number seven and represented the dignity of the number seven among the Jews and the last of all the spoils was carried the law of the Jews. After these spoils passed by a great many men carrying the images of victory whose structure was entirely either of ivory or of gold. After which the spasian marched in the first place and Titus followed him, Demetian also rode along with them and made a glorious appearance and rode on a horse that was worthy of admiration. Footnote, see the representations of these Jewish vessels as they still stand on Titus' triumphal arch at Rome in Freeland's very curious book De Spoli's Turntly throughout. But what things are chiefly to be noted are these. One, the Josephus says that the candlestick here carried in this triumph was not thoroughly like that which was used in the temple, which appears in the number of the little knobs and flowers in that on the triumphal arch not well agreeing with Moses' description, Exodus 25, 31 to 36. Two, the smallness of the branches in Josephus compared with the thickness of those on that arch. Three, that the law or Pentateuch does not appear on that arch at all, though Josephus, an eyewitness, assures us that it was carried in this procession. All which things deserve the consideration of the inquisitive reader. And footnote. Six, now the last part of this pompous show was at the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, whither when they were come they stood still, for it was the Romans' ancient custom to stay till somebody brought the news that the general of the enemy was slain. This general was Simon, the son of Gioris, who had then been led in this triumph among the captives. A rope had also been put upon his head, and he had been drawn into a proper place in the forum, and had with all been tormented by those that drew him along. And the law of the Romans required that malefactors condemned to die should be slain there. Accordingly, when it was related that there was an end of him, and all the people had set up a shout for joy, they then began to offer those sacrifices which they had consecrated in the prayers used in such solemnities. Which when they had finished, they went away to the palace. And as for some of the spectators, the emperors entertained them at their own feast. And for all the rest there were noble preparations made for feasting at home. For this was a festival day to the city of Rome, as celebrated for the victory obtained by their army over their enemies, for the end that was now put to their civil miseries, and for the commencement of their hopes for future prosperity and happiness. 7. After these triumphs were over, and after the affairs of the Romans were settled on the surest foundations, the Spasian resolved to build a temple to peace, which was finished in so short a time, and in so glorious a manner as was beyond all human expectation and opinion. For he having now by providence a vast quantity of wealth, besides what he had formerly gained in his other exploits, he had his temple adorned with pictures and statues. For in this temple were collected and deposited all such rarities as men of foretime used to wander all over the habitable world to see, when they had a desire to see one of them after another. He also laid up therein those golden vessels and instruments that were taken out of the Jewish temple, as ensigns of his glory. But still he gave order that they should lay up their law in the purple veils of the holy place, in the royal palace itself, and keep them there. End of book 7, chapter 5.