 Book 5, chapters 12 and 13 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. Recording by Anne Boulet. The Wars of the Jews by Josephus. Translated by William Whiston. Chapters 12 and 13. Chapter 12. Titus thought fit to encompass the city round with a wall, after which the famine consumed the people by whole houses and families together. One. And now did Titus consult with his commanders what was to be done. Those that were of the warmest tempers thought he should bring the whole army against the city and storm the wall. For that hitherto no more than a part of their army had fought with the Jews, but that in case the entire army was to come at once, they would not be able to sustain their attacks, but would be overwhelmed by their darts. But of those that were for a more cautious management. Some were for raising their banks again, and others advised to let the banks alone, but to lie still before the city, to guard against the coming out of the Jews, and against their carrying provisions into the city, and so to leave the enemy to the famine, and this without direct fighting with them. For that despair was not to be conquered, especially as to those who are desirous to die by the sword, while a more terrible misery than that is reserved for them. However, Titus did not think it fit for so great an army to lie entirely idle, and that yet it was in vain to fight with those that would be destroyed one by another. He also showed them how impractical it was to cast up any more banks, for want of materials, and to guard against the Jews coming out still more impractical. As also, that to encompass the whole city round with his army was not very easy, by reason of its magnitude, and the difficulty of the situation, and on other accounts dangerous. Upon the sallies the Jews might make out of the city, for although they might guard the known passages out of the place, yet would they, when they found themselves under the greatest distress, contrive secret passages out, as being well acquainted with all such places, and if any provisions were carried in by stealth, the siege would thereby be longer delayed. He also owned that he was afraid that the length of time thus to be spent would diminish the glory of his success, for though it be true that length of time will perfect everything, yet that to do what we do in a little time is still necessary to the gaining reputation. That therefore his opinion was, that if they aimed at quickness joined with security, they must build a wall round about the whole city, which was, he thought, the only way to prevent the Jews from coming out anyway, and that then they would either entirely despair of saving the city, and so would surrender it up to him, or be still the more easily conquered when the famine had further weakened them. For that, besides this wall, he would not lie entirely at rest afterwards, but would take care then to have banks raised again, when those that would oppose them were become weaker. But that if anyone should think such a work to be too great, and not to be finished without much difficulty, he ought to consider that it is not fit for Romans to undertake any small work, and that none but God himself could with ease accomplish any great thing whatsoever. 2. These arguments prevailed with the commanders. So Titus gave orders that the army should be distributed to their several shares of this work, and indeed there now came upon the soldiers a certain divine fury, so that they did not only part the whole wall that was to be built among them, nor did only one legion strive with another, but the lesser divisions of the army did the same. Then so much that each soldier was ambitious to please his Decurion, each Decurion his Centurion, each Centurion his Tribune, and the ambition of the Tribunes was to please their superior commanders. While Caesar himself took notice of and rewarded the like contention in those commanders, for he went round about the works many times every day, and took a view of what was done. Titus began the wall from the camp of the Assyrians, where his own camp was pitched, and drew it down to the lower parts of Sinopolis. Thence it went along the valley of Cedron, to the mount of Olives. It then bent towards the south, and encompassed the mountain as far as the rock called Peristerion, and that other hill which lies next to it, and is over the valley which reaches Siloam. Thence it bent it again to the west, and went down to the valley of the fountain, beyond which it went up again at the monument of Ananas, the high priest. Then, encompassing that mountain where Pompey had formerly pitched his camp, it returned back to the north side of the city, and was carried on as far as a certain village called the house of the Arabinthi, after which it encompassed Herod's monument, and there, on the east, was joined to Titus' own camp, where it began. Now the length of this wall was forty furlongs, one only abated. Now at this wall without, were erected thirteen places to keep Garrison in, whose circumferences, put together, amounted to ten furlongs. The whole was completed in three days, so that what would naturally have required some months was done in so short an interval as is incredible. When Titus had therefore encompassed the city with this wall, and put Garrisons into proper places, he went round the wall, at the first watch of the night, and observed how the guard was kept. The second watch he allotted to Alexander. The commanders of legions took the third watch. They also cast lots among themselves, who should be upon the watch in the night time, and who should go all night long round the spaces that were interposed between the Garrisons. Three, so all hope of escaping was now cut off from the Jews, together with their liberty of going out of the city. Then did the famine widen its progress, and devoured the people by whole houses and families. The upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine, and the lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aging. The children also and the young men wandered about the marketplaces like shadows, all swelled with the famine, and fell down dead, wheresoever their misery seized them. As for burying them, those that were sick themselves were not able to do it, and those that were hardy and well were deterred from doing it by the great multitude of those dead bodies. And by the uncertainty there was, how soon they should die themselves. For many died as they were burying others. And many went to their coffins before that fatal hour was come. Nor was there any lamentations made under these calamities. Nor were heard any mournful complaints, but the famine confounded all natural passions. For those who were just going to die looked upon those that were gone to rest before them with dry eyes and open mouths. A deep silence also, and a kind of deadly night, had seized upon the city. While yet robbers were still more terrible than those miseries were themselves. For they break open those houses, which were no other than graves of dead bodies, and plundered them of what they had. And carrying off the coverings of their bodies, went out laughing, and tried the points of their swords in their dead bodies. And in order to prove what metal they were made of, they thrust some of those through that still lay alive upon the ground. But for those that entreated them to lend them their right hand and their sword to dispatch them, they were too proud to grant their requests, and left them to be consumed by the famine. Now every one of these died with their eyes fixed upon the temple, and left the seditious alive behind them. Now the seditious at first gave orders that the dead should be buried out of the public treasury, as not enduring the stench of their dead bodies. But afterwards, when they could not do that, they had them cast down from the walls into the valleys beneath. Four. However, when Titus, in going his rounds along those valleys, saw them full of dead bodies, and the thick putrefaction running about them, he gave a groan, and, spreading out his hands to heaven, called God to witness that this was not his doing, and such was the sad case of the city itself. But the Romans were very joyful, since none of the seditious could now make sallies out of the city, because they were themselves disconsoleate, and the famine already touched them also. These Romans beside had great plenty of corn and other necessaries out of Syria and out of the neighboring provinces, many of whom would stand near to the wall of the city and show the people what great quantities of provisions they had, and so make the enemy more sensible of their famine, by the great plenty, even to satiety, which they had themselves. However, when the seditious still showed no inclinations of yielding, Titus, out of his commiseration of the people that remained, and out of his earnest desire of rescuing what was still left out of these miseries, began to raise his banks again. Although materials for them were hard, too, he came at. For all the trees that were about the city had already been cut down for the making of the former banks. Yet did the soldiers bring with them other materials from the distance of ninety furlongs, and thereby raise banks in four parts, much greater than the former, though this was only done at the tower of Antonia. So Caesar went his rounds through the legions and hastened on the works, and showed the robbers that they were now in his hands. But these men, and these only, were incapable of repenting of the wickedness they had been guilty of, and separating their souls from their bodies. They used them both as if they belonged to other folks, and not to themselves. For no gentle affection could touch their souls, nor could any pain affect their bodies, since they could still tear the dead bodies of the people as dogs do, and fill the prisons with those that were sick. Chapter 13 The Great Slaughter and Sacrilege that were in Jerusalem 1. Accordingly, Simon would not suffer Matthias. By those means he got possession of the city to go off without torment. This Matthias was the son of Boethas, and was one of the high priests, one that had been very faithful to the people and in great esteem with them. He, when the multitude were distressed by the zealots, among whom John was numbered, persuaded the people to admit this Simon to come in to assist them, while he had made no terms with him, nor expected anything that was evil from him. But when Simon was come in and had gotten the city under his power, he esteemed him that had advised them to admit him as his enemy equally with the rest, as looking upon that advice as a piece of his simplicity only. So he had him then brought before him and condemned him to die for being on the side of the Romans, without giving him leave to make his defense. He condemned also his three sons to die with him, for as to the fourth, he prevented him by running away to Titus before. And when he begged for this, that he might be slain before his sons and that as a favor, on account that he had procured the gates of the city to be open to him, he gave order that he should be slain the last of them all. So he was not slain till he had seen his son slain before his eyes and that by being produced over against the Romans, no such a charge had Simon given to Artanus, the son of Barbados, who had the most barbarous of all his guards. He also gested upon him and told him that he might now see whether those to whom he intended to go over would send him any succors or not, but still forbade their dead bodies should be buried. After the slaughter of these, a certain priest, Ananias, the son of Massimbalus, a person of eminency, as also Aristons, Sanhedrin, and born at Emmaus, and with them fifteen men of figure among the people were slain. They also kept Josephus' father in prison and made public proclamation that no citizen who soever should either speak to him himself or go into his company among others, for fear he should betray them. They also slew such as joined in lamenting these men without any further examination. Two. Now when Judas, who was one of Simon's under-officers and a person entrusted by him to keep one of the towers, saw this procedure of Simon, he called together ten of those under him that were most faithful to him. Perhaps this was done, partly out of pity to those that had so barbarously been put to death, but principally in order to provide for his own safety and spoke thus to them. How long shall we bear these miseries, or what hopes have we of deliverance by thus continuing faithful to such wicked wretches? Is not the famine already come against us? Are not the Romans in a manner gotten within the city? Is not Simon become unfaithful to his benefactors? And is there not reason to fear he will very soon bring us to the like punishment while the security the Romans offer us is sure? Come on, let us surrender up this wall and save ourselves and the city. Nor will Simon be very much hurt if, now he despairs of deliverance, he be brought to justice a little sooner than he thinks on. Now these ten were prevailed upon by these arguments, so he sent the rest of those that were under him, some one way and some another, that no discovery might be made of what they had resolved upon. Accordingly, he called to the Romans from the tower about the third hour. But they, some of them out of pride, despise what he said, and others of them did not believe him to be in earnest. But when Titus was just coming thither with his armed men, Simon was acquainted with the matter before he came and presently took the tower into his own custody before it was surrendered and seized upon these men and put them to death in the sight of the Romans themselves. And when he had mangled their dead bodies, he threw them down before the wall of the city. In the meantime, Josephus, as he was going round the city, had his head wounded by a stone that was thrown at him, upon which he fell down as giddy. Upon which fall of his, the Jews made a sally, and he had been hurried away into the city if Caesar had not sent men to protect him immediately. And as these men were fighting, Josephus was taken up, though he heard little of what was done. So the seditious suppose they had now slain that man and made there upon a great noise in way of rejoicing. This accident was told in the city and the multitude that remained became very disconsoleate at the news as being persuaded that he was really dead on whose account alone they could venture to desert to the Romans. But when Josephus' mother heard in prison that her son was dead, she said to those that watched about her that she had always been of the opinion since the siege of Jotapata that he would be slain and she should never enjoy him alive anymore. She also made great lamentation privately to the maid servants that were about her and said that this was all the advantages she had of bringing so extraordinary a person as this son into the world that she should not be able even to bury that son of hers by whom she expected to have been buried herself. However, this false report did not put his mother to pain, nor afford merriment to the robbers long. For Josephus soon recovered of his wound and came out and cried out aloud that he would not be long air they should be punished for this wound they had given him. He also made a fresh exhortation to the people to come out upon the security that would be given them. This sight of Josephus encouraged the people greatly and brought a great consternation upon the seditious. Four, here upon some of the deserters, having no other way, leaped down from the wall immediately while others of them went out of the city as if they would fight them but there upon they fled away to the Romans. But here a worse fate accompanied these than what they had found within the city and they met with a quicker dispatch from the two great abundance they had among the Romans than they could have done from the famine among the Jews. For when they came first to the Romans they were puffed up by the famine and swelled like men in a dropsy after which they all on a sudden overfilled those bodies that were before empty and so burst asunder accepting such only as were skillful enough to restrain their appetites and by degrees took in their food into bodies unaccustomed there too. Yet did another plague seize upon those that were thus preserved. For there was found among the Syrian deserters a certain person who was caught gathering pieces of gold out of the excrements of the Jews' bellies. For the deserters used to swallow such pieces of gold as we told you before but these did the seditious search them all for there was a great quantity of gold in the city in so much that as much was now sold in the Roman camp for twelve attic drams as was sold before for twenty-five but when this contrivance was discovered in one instance the fame of it filled their several camps that the deserters came to them full of gold so the multitude of the Arabians with the Syrians cut up those that came as supplicants and searched their bellies nor does it seem to me that any misery befell the Jews that was more terrible than this since in one night's time about two thousand of these deserters were thus dissected. Five when Titus came to the knowledge of this wicked practice he had liked to have surrounded those that had been guilty of it with his horse and have shot them dead and he had done it had not their number been so very great and those that were liable to this punishment would have been manifold more than those whom they had slain. However, he called together the commanders of the auxiliary troops he had with him as well as the commanders of the Roman legions for some of his own soldiers had been also guilty therein as he had been informed and had great indignation against both sorts of them and said to them what have any of my own soldiers done such things as this out of the uncertain hope of gain without regarding their own weapons silver and gold Moreover, do the Arabians and Syrians now first of all begin to govern themselves as they please and to indulge their appetites in a foreign war and then out of their barbarity in murdering men and out of their hatred to the Jews get ascribed to the Romans for this infamous practice was said to be spread among some of his own soldiers also Titus then threatened that he would put such men to death if any of them were discovered to be so violent as to do so again Moreover, he gave it in charge to the legions that they should make a search after such as were suspected and should bring them to him but it appeared that the love of money was too hard for all their dread of punishment and a vehement desire of gain is natural to men and no passion is so venturesome as covetousness otherwise such passions have certain bounds and are subordinate to fear but in reality it was God who created this nation and turned every course that was taken for their preservation to their destruction this therefore which was forbidden by Caesar under such a threatening was ventured upon privately against the deserters and these barbarians would go out still and meet those that ran away before any saw them and looking about them to see that no Romans spied them they dissected them and pulled this polluted money out of their bowels yet a great many were destroyed by the bear hope that there was of thus getting by them which miserable treatment made many that were deserting to return back again into the city 6. but as for John when he could no longer plunder the people he betook himself to sacrilege and melted down many of the sacred utensils which had been given to the temple as also many of those vessels which were necessary for such as ministered about holy things the cauldrons, the dishes and the tables nay he did not abstain from those pouring vessels that were sent them by Augustus and his wife for the Roman emperors did ever both honor and adore this temple whereas this man who was a Jew seized upon what were the donations of foreigners and said to those that were with him that it was proper for them to use divine things while they were fighting for the divinity without fear and that such whose warfare is for the temple should live of the temple on which account he emptied the vessels of that sacred wine and oil which the priests kept to be poured on the burnt offerings and which lay in the inner court of the temple and distributed it among the multitude who, in their anointing themselves and drinking, used each of them above and hen of themselves and here I cannot but speak my mind and what the concern I am under dictates me and it is this I suppose that had the Romans made a longer delay in coming against these villains that the city would either have been swallowed up by the ground opening upon them or been overflowed by water or else been destroyed by such thunder as the country of Sodom perished by for it had brought forth a generation of men much more atheistical than were those that suffered such punishments for by their madness it was that all the people came to be destroyed footnote Josephus both here and before book 4 chapter 8 section 4 esteems the land of Sodom not as part of the lake Asphalterus or under its waters but near it only as Tacitus also took the same notion from him which the great Reland takes to be the very truth both in his notes on this place and in his palestina though I rather suppose part of that region of Pentopolis is now under the waters of the south part of that sea but perhaps not the whole country and footnote seven and indeed why do I relate these particular calamities while manias the son of Lazarus came running to Titus at this very time and told him that there had been carried out through that one gate which was entrusted to his care no fewer than 115 thousand 880 dead bodies in the interval between the 14th day of the month Xantheias Nisan when the Romans pitched their camp by the city and the first day of the month Panemus this was itself a prodigious multitude and though this man was not himself set as a governor at that gate yet he was appointed to pay the public stipend for carrying these bodies out and so was obliged a necessity to number them while the rest were buried by their relations though all their burial was but this to bring them away and cast them out of the city after this man there ran away to Titus many of the eminent citizens and told him the entire number of the poor that were dead and that no fewer than 600 thousand were thrown out at the gates though still the number of the rest could not be discovered and they told him further that when they were no longer able to carry out the dead bodies of the poor they laid their corpses on heaps in very large houses and shut them up therein as also that a medimness of wheat was sold for a talent and that when a while afterward it was not possible to gather herbs by reason the city was all walled about some persons were driven to that terrible distress as to search the common sewers and old dung hills of cattle and to eat the dung which they got there and what they of old could not endure so much as to see they now used for food when the Romans barely heard all this they commiserated their case while the seditious who saw it also did not repent but suffered the same distress to come upon themselves for they were blinded by that fate which was already coming upon the city and upon themselves and of book five chapters twelve and thirteen book six chapter one 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 this recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina the wars of the Jews by Josephus translated by William Whiston book six containing the interval of about one month from the great extremity to which the Jews were reduced to the taking of Jerusalem by Titus chapter one that the miseries still grew worse and how the Romans made an assault upon the tower of Antonia one thus did the miseries of Jerusalem grow worse and worse every day and the seditious were still more irritated by the calamities they were under even while the famine preyed upon themselves after it had preyed upon the people and indeed the multitude of carcasses that lay in heaps one upon another was a horrible sight and produced a pestilential stench which was a hindrance to those that would make sallies out of the city and fight the enemy but as those were to go in battle array who had been already used to ten thousand murders and must tread upon those dead bodies as they marched along so were not they terrified nor did they pity men as they marched over them nor did they deem this affront offered to the deceased to be any ill omen to themselves but as they had their right hands already polluted with the murders of their own countrymen and in that condition ran out to fight with foreigners they seemed to me to have cast a reproach upon God himself as if he were too slow in punishing them for the war was not now gone on with as if they had any hope of victory for they gloried after a brutish manner in that despair of deliverance they were already in and now the Romans although they were greatly distressed in getting together their materials raised their banks in one in twenty days after they had cut down all the trees that were in the country that had joined to the city and that for ninety furlongs round about as I have already related and truly the very view itself of the country was a melancholy thing for those places which were before adorned with trees and pleasant gardens were now become a desolate country every way and its trees were all cut down nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judea and the most beautiful suburbs of the city and now saw it as a desert but lament and mourn sadly at so great a change for the war had laid all the signs of beauty quite waste nor if any one that had known the place before had come on a sudden to it now would he have known it again but though he were at the city itself yet would he have inquired for it not withstanding too and now the banks were finished they afforded a foundation for fear both to the Romans and to the Jews for the Jews expected that the city would be taken unless they could burn those banks as did the Romans expect that if these were once burnt down they should never be able to take it for there was a mighty scarcity of materials and the bodies of the soldiers began to fail with such hard labors that their souls faint with so many instances of ill success nay, the very calamities themselves that were in the city proved a greater discouragement to the Romans than those within the city for they found the fighting men of the Jews to be not at all modified among such their sore afflictions while they had themselves perpetually less and less hopes of success and their banks were forced to yield to the stratagems of the enemy to the firmness of their wall and their closest fights to the boldness of their attack and what was their greatest discouragement of all they found the Jews courageous souls to be superior to the multitude of the miseries they were under by their sedition, their famine, and the war itself in so much that they were ready to imagine that the violence of their attacks was invincible and that the alacrity they showed would not be discouraged by their calamities for what would not those be able to bear if they should be fortunate who turned their very misfortunes to the improvement of their valor these considerations made the Romans to keep a stronger guard about their banks than they had formerly had done three but now John and his party took care for securing themselves afterward even in case this wall should be thrown down and fell to their work before the battering rams brought against them yet did they not compass what they endeavored to do but as they were gone out with their torches they came back under great discouragement before they came near to the banks and the reasons were these that in the first place their conduct did not seem to be unanimous but they went out in distinct parties and at distinct intervals and after a slow manner and timorously they say all on a word without a Jewish courage for they were now defective in what is peculiar to our nation that is in boldness in violence of assault and in running upon the enemy altogether and in persevering in what they go about though they do not at first succeed in it but they now went out in a more languid manner than usual and at the same time found the Romans set an array just than ordinary and that they guarded their banks both with their bodies and their entire armor and this to such a degree on all sides that they left no room for the fire to get among them and that every one of their souls was in such good courage that they would sooner die than desert their ranks for besides their notion that all their hopes were cut off in case these their works were once burnt the soldiers were greatly ashamed they should be quite too hard for courage madness for armor multitude for skill and Jews for Romans the Romans had now also another advantage in that their engines for sieges cooperated with them in throwing darts and stones as far as the Jews when they were coming out of the city whereby the man that fell became an impediment to him that was next to him as did the danger of going farther zealous in their attempts and for those that had run under the darts some of them were terrified by the good order and closeness of the enemy's ranks before they came to a close fight and others were pricked with their spears and turned back again at length they reproached one another for their cowardice and retired without doing anything this attack was made upon the first day of the month panemus so when the Jews were retreated the Romans brought their engines although they had all the while stones thrown at them from the tower of Antonia and were assaulted by fire and sword and by all sorts of darts which necessity afforded the Jews to make use of for although these had great dependence on their own wall and a contempt of the Roman engines yet did they endeavour to hinder the Romans from bringing them now these Romans struggled hard on the contrary to bring them as deeming that this zeal of the Jews was in order to avoid any impression to be made on the tower of Antonia because its wall was but weak and its foundations rotten however that tower did not yield to the blows given it from the engines yet did the Romans bear the impressions made by the enemy's darts which were perpetually cast at them and did not give way to any of those dangers that they had brought them from above and so they brought their engines to bear but then as they were beneath the other and were sadly wounded by the stones thrown down upon them some of them threw their shields over their bodies and partly with their hands and partly with their bodies and partly with crows they undermined its foundations and with great pains they removed four of its stones then night came upon both sides with a struggle for the present however that night the wall was so shaken by the battering-rams in that place where John had used his stratagem before and had undermined their banks that the ground then gave way and the wall fell down suddenly 4 When this accident had unexpectedly happened the minds of both parties were variously affected for though one would expect because this fall of their wall was unexpected by them and they had made no provision in that case yet did they pull up their courage because the tower of Antonia itself was still standing as was the unexpected joy of the Romans at this fall of the wall soon quenched by the sight they had of another wall which John and his party had built within it however the attack of this second wall appeared to be easier than that of the former because it seemed a thing of greater facility to get up to it through the parts of the former wall that were now thrown down this new wall appeared also to be much weaker than the tower of Antonia and accordingly the Romans imagined that it had been erected so much on the sudden that they should soon overthrow it yet did not anybody venture now to go up to this wall for that such as first ventured so to do must certainly be killed five and now Titus upon consideration that the alacrity of soldiers in war is chiefly excited by hopes and by good words and that exhortations and promises do frequently make men to forget the hazards they run nay, sometimes to despise death itself got together the most courageous part of his army and tried what he could do with his men by these methods soldiers said he to make an exhortation to men to do what hath no peril in it is on that very account inglorious to such to whom that exhortation is made and indeed so it is in him that makes the exhortation an argument of his own cowardice also I therefore think that such exhortations ought then only to be made use of when affairs are in a dangerous condition and yet are worthy of being expected by every one themselves accordingly I am fully of the same opinion with you that is a difficult task to go up this wall but that it is proper for those that desire reputation for their valor to struggle with difficulties in such cases as will then appear when I have particularly shown that it is a brave thing to die with glory and that the courage here necessary shall not go unrewarded by those that first begin the attempt and let my first argument to move you to it be taken from what probably some would think reasonable to dissuade you I mean the constancy and patience of these Jews even under their ill successes for it is unbecoming you who are Romans and my soldiers who have in peace been taught how to make wars and who have also been used to conquer in those wars to Jews either in action of the hand or in courage of the soul and this especially when you are at the conclusion of your victory and are assisted by God himself for as to our misfortunes they have been owing to the madness of the Jews while their sufferings have been owing to your valor and to the assistance God hath afforded you for as to the seditions they have been in and the famine they are owing to your and the fall of their walls without our engines what can they all be but demonstrations of God's anger against them and of his assistance afforded us it will not therefore be proper for you either to show yourselves inferior to those to whom you are really superior or to betray that divine assistance which has afforded you and indeed how can it be esteemed otherwise than a base and unworthy thing that while the Jews who need not be much ashamed if they be deserted because they have long learned to be slave to others do yet despise death that they may be so no longer and do make sallies into the very midst of us frequently not in hopes of conquering us but merely for a demonstration of their courage we who have gotten possession of almost all the world are in great shame if we do not conquer them do not at once undertake any attempt against our enemies wherein there is much danger but sit still idle with such brave arms as we have and only wait till the famine and fortune do our business themselves and this when we have it in our power with some small hazard to gain all that we desire for if we go up to this tower of Antonia for if there should be any more occasion for fighting against those within the city which I do not suppose there will since we shall then be upon the top of the hill and be upon our enemies before they can have taken breath these advantages promise us no less than a certain and sudden victory footnote Roland notes here very pertinently that the tower of Antonia stood higher than the floor of the temple or court adjoining to it and that accordingly they descended thence into the temple as Josephus elsewhere speaks also end of footnote as for myself I shall at present wave any commendation of those who die in war and omit to speak of the immortality of those men who are slain in the midst of their martial bravery footnote in this speech of Titus we may clearly see the notions which the Romans then had of death of the happy state of those who died bravely in war and the contrary a state of those who died ignoble in their beds by sickness relent here also produces two parallel passages the one out of Antonia Janus Marcelinas concerning the Alani that quote they judged that man happy who laid down his life in battle end quote the other of Valerius maximus who says quote and a footnote yet cannot I forbear to imprecate upon those who are of contrary disposition that they may die in time of peace by some distemper or other since their souls are condemned to the grave together with their bodies for what man of virtue is there who does not know for what man of virtue is there who does not know for what man of virtue is there who does not know that those souls which are severed from their fleshly bodies in battles by the sword are received by the ether that purist of elements and joined to that company which are placed among the stars that they become good demons and propitious heroes and show themselves as such to their posterity afterwards while upon those souls that wear away in and with their distempered bodies comes a subterranean night to dissolve them to nothing and a deep oblivion to take away all the remembrance of them and this notwithstanding they be cleaned from all spots and defilements of this world so that in this ease the soul at the same time comes to the utmost bounds of its life and of its body and of its memorial also but since he have determined that death is to come of necessity upon all men a sword is a better instrument for that purpose than any disease whatsoever why is it not then a very mean thing for us not to yield up that to the public benefit which we must yield up to fate and this discourse have I made upon the supposition that those who at first attempt to go upon this wall must needs be killed in the attempt though still men of true courage have a chance to escape even in the most hazardous undertakings for in the first place that part of the former wall that is thrown down is easily to be ascended and for the new built wall it is easily destroyed do you therefore many of you pull up your courage and set about this work and do you mutually encourage and assist one another and this your bravery will soon break the hearts of your enemies and perhaps such a glorious undertaking as yours is may be accomplished without bloodshed for although it is justly to be supposed that the Jews will try to hinder you at your first beginning to go up to them yet when you have once concealed yourselves from them and driven them away by force they will not be able to sustain your efforts against them any longer though but a few of you prevent them and get over the wall as for that person who first mounts the wall I should blush for shame if I did not the envy of others by those rewards I would bestow upon him if such a one escape with his life he shall have the command of others that are now but his equals although it be true also that the greatest rewards will accrue to such as die in the attempt 6 upon this speech of Titus the rest of the multitude were affrighted at so great a danger but there was one whose name was Sabinas a soldier that served among the cohorts an Assyrian by birth who appeared to be a very great fortitude both in the actions he had done and the courage of his soul he had shown although any body would have thought before he came to his work that he was of such a weak constitution of body that he was not fit to be a soldier for his color was black his flesh was lean and thin and lay close together but there was a certain heroic soul that dwelt in this small body which body was indeed much too narrow for that peculiar courage which was in him accordingly he was the first that rose up when he thus spake I readily surrender about myself to thee O Caesar I first ascend the wall and I heartily wish that my fortune may follow my courage and my resolution and if some ill fortune grudge me the success of my undertaking I take notice that my ill success will not be unexpected but that I choose death voluntarily for thy sake when he had said this and had spread out his shield over his head with his left hand with his right hand drawn his sword he marched up to the wall just about the sixth hour of the day there followed him eleven others and no more that resolved to imitate his bravery but still this was the principal person of them all and went first as excited by a divine fury now those that guarded the wall shot at them from dense and cast innumerable darts upon them from every side they also rolled very large stones upon them which overthrew some of those eleven that were with him but as for Sabinus himself he met the darts that were cast at him and though he was overwhelmed with them yet did he not leave off the violence before he had gotten up on the top of the wall and had put the enemy to flight for as the Jews were astonished at his great strength and the bravery of his soul and as with all they imagined more of them had got upon the wall than really had they were put to flight and now one cannot but complain here of fortune as still envious at virtue and always hindering the performance of glorious achievements for us when he had just obtained his purpose for he then stumbled at a certain large stone and fell down upon it headlong with a very great noise upon which the Jews turned back and when they saw him to be alone and fallen down also they threw darts at him from every side however he got upon his knee and covered himself with his shield and at the first defended himself against them and wounded many of those that came near him but he was soon forced to relax his right hand by the multitude of the wounds that had been given him till at length he was quite covered over with darts before he gave up the ghost he was one who deserved a better fate by reason of his bravery but as might be expected he fell under so vast an attempt as for the rest of his partners the Jews dashed three of them to pieces with stones and slew them as they were gotten up of the wall the other eight being wounded were pulled down and carried back to the camp these things were done upon the third day of the month Panemis Temus Seven Now two days afterward twelve of those men that were on the forefront and kept watch upon the banks got together and called to them the standard bearer of the fifth legion and two others of a troop of horsemen and one trumpeter these went without noise about the ninth hour of the night through the ruins to the tower of Antonia and when they had cut the throats of the first guards of the place as they were asleep they got possession of the wall and ordered the trumpeter to sound his trumpet upon which the rest of the guard got up on the sudden and ran away before anybody could see how many they were that had gotten up for partly from the fear they were in the sound of the trumpet which they heard they imagined a great number of the enemy were gotten up but as soon as Caesar heard the signal he ordered the army to put on their armor immediately and come thither with his commanders and first of all ascended as did the chosen men that were with him and as the Jews were flying away to the temple they fell into that mine which John had dug under the Roman banks then did the seditious of both the bodies of the Jewish army as well that belonging to John as that belonging to Simon drive them away and indeed were no way wanting as to the highest degree of force and alacrity for they esteemed themselves entirely ruined if once the Romans got into the temple as did the Romans look upon the same thing as the beginning of their entire conquest so a terrible battle was fought at the entrance of the temple while the Romans were forcing their way in order to get possession of that temple and the Jews were driving them back to the tower of Antonia in which battle of darts were on both sides useless as well as the spears and both sides drew their swords and fought it out hand to hand now during the struggle the positions of the men were undistinguished on both sides and they fought at random the men being intermixed one with another and confounded by reason of the narrowness of the place while the noise that was made fell on the ear after an indistinct manner because it was so very loud great slaughter was now made on both sides and the combatants trod upon the bodies and the armor of those that were dead and dashed them to pieces accordingly to which side so ever the battle inclined those that had the advantage exhorted one another to go on and those that were beaten make great lamentation but still there was no room for flight nor for pursuit but disorderly revolutions and retreats while the armies were intermixed one with another but those that were in the first ranks were under the necessity of killing or being killed without any way of escaping for those on both sides that came behind forced those before them to go on without leaving any space between the armies at length the Jews' violent zeal was too hard for the Romans' skill and the battle already inclined entirely that way for the fight had lasted from the ninth hour of the night till the seventh hour of the day while the Jews came on in crowds and had the danger the temple was in for their motive the Romans having no more here than a part of their army for those legions on which the soldiers on that side depended were not come up to them so it was at present thought sufficient by the Romans to take possession of the tower of Antonia 8 but there was one Julian a centurion that came from Ithenia a man he was of great reputation whom I had formerly seen in that war and one of the highest fame both for his skill in war his strength of body and skill this man seeing the Romans giving ground and ill a sad condition for he stood by Titus at the tower of Antonia leaped out and of himself alone put the Jews to flight when they were already conquerors and made them retire as far as the corner of the inner court of the temple from him the multitude fled away in crowds as supposing that neither his strength nor his violent attacks could be near man accordingly he rushed through the midst of the Jews as they were dispersed all abroad and killed those that he caught nor indeed was there any sight that appeared more wonderful in the eyes of Caesar or more terrible to others than this however he was himself pursued by fate which is not at all possible that he who was but a mortal man should escape for as he had shoes all full of thick nails as had every one of the other soldiers so when he ran on the pavement of the temple he slipped and fell down upon his back with a very great noise which was made by his armor footnote no wonder that this Julian who had so many nails in his shoes slipped upon the pavement of the temple which was smooth and laid with marble of different colors end footnote this made those that were running away were upon those Romans that were in the tower of Antonia set up a great shout as they were in fear for the man but the Jews got about him in crowds and struck at him with their spears and with their swords on all sides now he received a great many of the strokes of these iron weapons upon his shield and often attempted to get up again but was thrown down by those that struck at him yet did he as he lay along his sword nor was he soon killed as being covered with his helmet and his breastplate in all those parts of the body where he might be mortally wounded he also pulled his neck close to his body till all his other limbs were shattered and nobody durst come to defend him and then he yielded to his fate now Caesar was deeply affected on account of this man of so great fortitude and especially as he was killed in the sight of so many people he was desirous himself to come to his assistance but the place would not give him leave while such as could have done it were too much terrified to attempt it thus when Julian had struggled with death a great while and had let but few of those that had given him his mortal wound go off unhurt he had at last his throat cut though not without some difficulty and left behind him a very great fame not only among the Romans and with Caesar himself but among his enemies also then did the Jews catch up his dead body and put the Romans to flight again and shut them up in the tower of Antonia now those that most signalized themselves and fought most zealously in this battle of the Jewish side were one Alexis and Glytheus of John's party and of Simon's party were Malachius and Judas the son of Myrto and James the son of Sosus the commander of the Ijumeans and of the zealots two brethren Simon and Judas the sons of Jairus End of book 6 chapter 1 Book 6 chapter 2 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 Recording by Anne Boulay The wars of the Jews by Josephus translated by William Wiston Chapter 2 How Titus gave orders to demolish the tower of Antonia and then persuaded Josephus to exhort the Jews again to a surrender 1 and now Titus gave orders to his soldiers that were with him to dig up the foundations of the tower of Antonia and make him a ready passage for his army to come up while he himself had Josephus brought to him for he had been informed that on that very day which was the 17th day of Panamus, Temus the sacrifice called the daily sacrifice had failed and had not been offered to God for want of men to offer it and that the people were grievously troubled at it Footnote This was a remarkable day indeed the 17th of Panamus, Temus AD 70 when, according to Daniel's prediction 606 years before the Romans in half a week caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease Daniel 9 verse 27 4 from the month of February AD 66 about which time Vespasian entered on this war to this very time was just 3 years and a half See Bishop Lloyd's Tables of Chronology published by Mr. Marshall on this year Nor is it to be omitted what year nearly confirms this duration of the war that 4 years before the war begun was somewhat above 7 years 5 months before the destruction of Jerusalem and Footnote and commanded him to say the same things to John that he had said before that if he had any malicious inclination for fighting he might come out with as many of his men as he pleased in order to fight without the danger of destroying either his city or temple but that he desired he would not defile the temple and thereby offend against God that he might if he pleased offer the sacrifices which were now discontinued by any of the Jews whom he should pitch upon upon this Josephus stood in such a place where he might be heard not by John only but by many more and then declared to them what Caesar had given him in charge and this in the Hebrew language Footnote the same that in the New Testament is always so called and was then the image of the Jews in Judea which was the Syriac dialect and Footnote so he earnestly prayed them to spare their own city and to prevent that fire which was just ready to seize upon the temple and to offer their usual sacrifices to God therein at these words of his a great sadness and silence were observed among the people but the tyrant himself cast many reproaches upon Josephus with implications besides and at last added this with all he did never fear the taking of the city because it was God's own city in answer to which Josephus said thus with a loud voice to be sure thou hast kept this city wonderfully pure for God's sake the temple also continues entirely unpolluted nor hast thou been guilty of ally impiety against him for whose assistance thou hopest he still receives his accustomed sacrifices vile wretched that thou art if anyone should deprive thee of thy daily food thou wist esteem him to be an enemy to thee but thou hopest to have that God for thy supporter in this war whom thou hast deprived of his everlasting worship and thou empiris those sins to the Romans who to this very time take care to have our laws observed and almost compel these sacrifices to be still offered to God which have by thy means been intermitted who is there that can't avoid groans and frustrations at the amazing change that is made in this city since very foreigners and enemies do now correct that impiety which thou hast occasioned while thou who art a Jew and wist educated in our laws art become a greater enemy to them than the others but still John it is never dishonorable to repent and amend what hath been done amiss even at the last extremity thou hast an instance before thee the king of the Jews footnote our present copies of the Old Testament want this Econium upon King Jeconia or Jehoiakim which it seems was in Josephus' copy and footnote if thou hast some mind to save the city who when the king of Babylon made war against him did of his own accord to go out of the city before it was taken and did undergo a voluntary captivity with his family that the sanctuary might be delivered to the enemy and that he might not see the house of God set on fire on which account he is celebrated among all the Jews in their sacred memorials and his memory is become immortal and will be conveyed fresh down to our posterity through all ages this John is an excellent example in such a time of danger and I dare venture to promise that the Romans shall still forgive thee and take notice that I who make this exhortation to thee design own nation I who am a Jew do make this promise to thee and it will become thee to consider who I am that give thee this counsel and whence I am derived for while I am alive I shall never be in such slavery as to forego my own kindred or forget the laws of our forefathers thou hast indignation at me again and make us a clamor at me and reproachest me indeed I cannot deny I am worthy of worse treatment than all this amounts to because in opposition to fate I make this kind invitation to thee and endeavor to force deliverance upon those whom God hath condemned and who is there that does not know what the writings of the ancient prophets contain in them and particularly that oracle which is just now going to be fulfilled upon this miserable city for they foretold that this city should be taken when someone shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen and are not both the city and the entire temple now full of the dead bodies of your countrymen it is God therefore it is God himself who is bringing on this fire to purge that city and temple by means of the Romans and is going to pluck up this city which is full of your pollutions footnote Josephus both here and in many places elsewhere speaks so that it is most evident he was fully satisfied that God was on the Roman side and made use of them now for the destruction of that wicked nation of the Jews which was for certain the true state of this matter as the prophet Daniel first and our savior himself afterwards had clearly foretold and footnote two as Josephus spoke these words with groans and tears in his eyes his voice was intercepted by sobs however the Romans could not but pity the affliction he was under and wonder at his conduct but for John and those that were with him they were but the more exasperated against the Romans on this account and were desirous to get Josephus also into their power yet did that discourse influence a great many of the better sort and truly some of them were so afraid of the guards set by the seditious that they teared where they were but still were satisfied that both they and the city were doomed to destruction some also there were who watching a proper opportunity to quietly get away fled to the Romans of whom were the high priest Joseph and Jesus and of the sons of the high priest three whose father was Ishmael was beheaded in Cyrene and four sons of Matthias as also one son of the other Matthias who ran away after his father's death footnote Josephus had told us before that this fourth son of Matthias ran away to the Romans before his father's and brethren slaughter after it as here the former account is in all probability the truest for had not that fourth son escaped before the others were caught and put to death he had been caught and put to death with them this last account therefore looks like an instance of a small inadvertence of Josephus in the place before us and footnote and whose father was slain by Simon the son of Gioris with three of his sons as I have already related many also the same nobility went over to the Romans together with the high priests now Caesar not only receive these men very kindly in other respects but knowing they would not willingly live after the customs of other nations he sent them to Gofna and desired them to remain there for the present and told them that when he was gotten clear of this war he would restore each of them to their possessions again so they cheerfully retired to that small city which was allotted them without fear of any danger but as they did not appear the seditious gave out again that these deserters were slain by the Romans which was done in order to deter the rest from running away by fear of the like treatment this trick of theirs succeeded now for a while as did the like trick before for the rest were hereby deterred from deserting by fear of the like treatment three however when Titus had recalled those men from Gofna he gave orders that they should go round the wall together with Josephus and show themselves to the people upon which a great many fled to the Romans these men also got in a great number together and stood before the Romans and besought the seditious with groans and tears in their eyes in the first place to receive the Romans entirely into the city and save that their own place of residence again but that if they would not agree to such a proposal they would at least depart out of the temple and save the holy house for their own use for that the Romans would not venture to set the sanctuary on fire but under the most pressing necessity yet did the seditious still more and more contradict them and while they cast loud and bitter reproaches upon these deserters they also set their engines for throwing of darts and javelins and stones upon the sacred gates of the temple at due distances from one another in so much that all the space round about within the temple might be compared to a burying ground so great was the number of the dead bodies therein as might the holy house itself be compared to a citadel accordingly these men rushed upon these holy places in their armor that were otherwise unapproachable and that while their hands were yet warm with the blood of their own people which they had shed nay they proceeded to such great transgressions that the very same indignation which Jews would naturally have against Romans had they been guilty of such abuses against them the Romans now had against the Jews for their impiety in regard to their own religious customs nay indeed there were none of the Roman soldiers who did not look with a sacred horror upon the holy house and adored it and wished that the robbers would repent before their miseries became incurable four now Titus was deeply affected with this state of things and reproached John in his party and said to them have not you vile wretches that are by our permission put up this partition wall before your sanctuary have not you been allowed to put up the pillars there too belonging at due distances and on it to engrave in Greek and in your own letters this prohibition that no foreigner should go beyond this wall footnote of this partition wall separating Jews and Gentiles with its pillars and inscription see the description of temples chapter 15 and footnote have not we given you leave to kill such as go beyond it though he were a Roman and what do you do now you pernicious villains why do you trample upon dead bodies in this temple and why do you pollute this holy house with the blood of both foreigners and Jews themselves I appeal to the gods of my own country and to every god that ever had any regard to this place for I do not suppose it to be now regarded by any of them I also appeal to my own army and to those Jews that are now with me and even to yourselves that I do not force you to defile this your sanctuary and if you will but change the place where on you will fight no Roman shall either come near your sanctuary or offer any affront to it nay I will endeavor to preserve your holy house whether you will or not footnote that these seditious Jews were the direct occasions of their own destruction and the migration of their city and temple and that Titus earnestly and constantly labored to save both is here and everywhere most evident in Josephus and footnote five as Josephus explained these things from the mouth of Caesar both the robbers and the tyrant thought these exhortations proceeded from Titus's fear and not from his good will to them and grew insolent upon it but when Titus saw that these men were neither to be moved by commiseration nor had any concern upon them to have the holy house spared he proceeded unwillingly to go on again with the war against them he could not indeed bring all his army against them the place was so narrow but choosing 30 soldiers of the most valiant out of every hundred and committing a thousand to each tribune and making serialists their commander in chief he gave orders that they should attack the guards of the temple about the ninth hour of that night but as he was now in his armor and preparing to go down with them his friends would not let him go by reason of the greatness of the danger and what the commanders suggested to them for they said he would do more by sitting above in the tower of Antonia as a dispenser of rewards to those soldiers that signalized themselves in the fight then by going down and hazarding his own person in the forefront of them for that they would all fight stoutly while Caesar looked upon them with this advice Caesar complied that the only reason he had for such compliance with the soldiers was this that he might be able to judge their courageous actions and that no valiant soldier might lie concealed and miss his reward and no cowardly soldier might go unpunished but that he might himself be an eyewitness and able to give evidence of all that was done who was to be the disposer of punishments and rewards to them so he sent the soldiers about their work at the hour for mentioned while he went out himself to a higher place in the tower of Antonia once he might see what was done and there waited with impatience to see the event six however the soldiers that were sent did not find the guards of the temple asleep as they hoped to have done but were obliged to fight with them immediately hand to hand as they rushed with violence upon them with a great shout now as soon as the rest within the temple heard that shout of those that were upon the watch they ran out in troops upon them then did the Romans receive the onset of those that came first upon them but those that followed them fell upon their own troops and many of them treated their own soldiers as if they had been the enemies for the great confused noise that was made on both sides hindered them from distinguishing one another's voices as did the darkness of the night hindered them from the like distinction by the sight besides that blindness which arose otherwise also from the passion and the fear they were in at the same time for which reason it was all one to the soldiers who it was they struck at however this ignorance did less harm to the Romans than to the Jews because they were joined together under their shields and made their sallies more regularly than the others did and each of them remembered their watch word while the Jews were perpetually dispersed abroad and made their attacks and retreats at random and so did frequently seem to one another to be enemies for every one of them received those their own men that came back in the dark as Romans and made an assault upon them so that more of them were wounded by their own men than by the enemy till upon the coming of the day the nature of the right was discerned by the eye afterward then did they stand in battle array in distinct bodies and cast their darts regularly and regularly defended themselves nor did either side yield or grow weary the Romans contended with each other who should fight them most strenuously both single men and entire regiments as being under the eye of Titus and everyone concluded that this day would begin his promotion if he fought bravely what were the great encouragements of the Jews to act vigorously were their fear for themselves and for their temple and the presence of their tyrant who exhorted some and beat and threaten others to act courageously now so it happened that this fight was for the most part wherein the soldiers went on and came back in a short time and suddenly for there was no long space of ground for either of their fights or pursuits but still there was a tumultuous noise among the Romans from the tower of Antonia who loudly cried out upon all occasions to their own men to press on courageously when they were too hard for the Jews and to stay when they were retiring backward so that here was a kind of theater of war for what was done in this fight that was concealed either from Titus or from those that were about him at length it appeared that this fight which began at the ninth hour of the night was not over till past the fifth hour of the day and that in the same place where the battle began neither party could say they had made the other to retire but both armies left the victory almost in the uncertainty between them wherein those that signalized themselves on the Roman side were a great many but on the Jewish side and of those that were with Simon Judas the son of Murto and Simon the son of Joses of the Itamiens, James and Simon the latter of whom was the son of Cathlos and James was the son of Soses of those that were with John, gift Theus and Alexis and of the zealots Simon the son of Jiris seven in the meantime the rest of the Roman army had in seven days time overthrown some foundations of the tower of Antonia and had made a ready and broad way to the temple then did the legions come near the first court footnote court of the Gentiles and footnote and began to raise their banks the one bank was over against the northwest corner of the inner temple footnote court of Israel and footnote another was at that northern edifice which was between the two gates and the other two one was at the western cloister of the outer court of the temple the other against this northern cloister however these works were thus far advanced by the Romans not without great pains and difficulty and particularly being obliged to bring their materials from the distance of a hundred furlongs they had further difficulties also upon them sometimes by their over great security they were in that they should overcome the Jewish snares laid for them and by that boldness of the Jews which their despair of escaping had inspired them with all of their horsemen when they went out to gather wood or hay let their horses feed without having their bridles on during the time of foraging upon which horses the Jews sallied out in whole bodies and seized them when this was continually done and Caesar believed what the truth was that the horses were stolen more by the negligence of his own men than by the valor of the Jews he determined to use greater severity to oblige the rest to take care of their horses so he commanded that one of the soldiers who had lost their horses should be capital punished whereby he so terrified the rest that they preserved their horses for the time to come for they did not any longer let them go from them to feed by themselves but as if they had grown to them they went always along with them when they wanted necessaries thus did the Romans still continue to make war against the temple and to raise their banks against it 8. Now after one day had been interposed since the Romans came to the breach many of the sedishes were so pressed by the famine upon the present failure of their ravages that they got together and made an attack on those Roman guards that were upon the mount of olives and this about the 11th hour of the day as supposing first that they would not expect such an onset and in the next place that they were then taking care of their bodies and that therefore they should easily beat them but the Romans were apprised of their coming to attack them beforehand and running together from the neighboring camps on the sudden prevented them from getting over their fortification or forcing the wall that was built about them upon this came a sharp fight and here many great actions were performed on both sides while the Romans showed both their courage and their skill in war as did the Jews come on them with immoderate violence and intolerable passion the one part were urged on by shame and the other by necessity for it seemed a very shameful thing to the Romans to let the Jews go now they were taken in a kind of net while the Jews had but one hope of saving themselves and that was in case they could by violence break through the Roman wall and one whose name was Pedanius belonging to the party of horsemen when the Jews were already beaten and forced down into the valley together spurred his horse on their flank with great vehemence and caught up a certain young man belonging to the enemy by his ankle as he was running away the man was, however, of a robust body and in his armor so low did Pedanius bend himself downward from his horse even as he was galloping away and so great was the strength of his right hand and of the rest of his body as also such skill had he in horsemanship so this man seized upon that his prey as upon a precious treasure and carried him as his captive to Caesar whereupon Titus admired the man that had seized the other for his great strength and ordered the man that was caught to be punished with death for his attempt against the Roman wall but betook himself to the siege of the temple and to pressing on the raising of the banks nine in the meantime the Jews were so distressed by the fights they had been in as the war advanced higher and higher and creeping up to the holy house itself that they, as it were cut off those limbs of their body which were infected in order to prevent the distemper spreading further the Romans set the northwest cloister which was joined to the tower of Antonia on fire and after that break off about 20 cubits of that cloister and thereby made a beginning in burning the sanctuary two days after which, or on the 24th day of the four-name month Penemus or Temus the Romans set fire to the cloister that joined to the other when the fire went 15 cubits farther the Jews in like manner cut off its roof nor did they entirely leave what they were about till the tower of Antonia was parted from the temple even when it was in their power to have stopped the fire nay, they lay still while the temple was first set on fire and deemed this spreading of the fire to be for their own advantage however, the armies were still fighting one against another about the temple and the war was managed by continual sallies of particular parties against one another ten, now there was at this time a man among the Jews and a creature he was and of a despicable appearance of no character either as to his family or in other respects his name was Jonathan he went out at the high priest John's monument and uttered many other insolent things to the Romans and challenged the best of them all to a single combat but many of those that stood there in the army huffed him and many of them as they might well be were afraid of him some of them also reasoned thus and that justly enough that it was not fit to fight with a man that desired to die because those that utterly disparate of deliverance had besides other passions a violence in attacking men that could not be opposed and had no regard to God himself and that to hazard oneself with a person whom if you overcome you do no great matter and by whom it is hazardous that you may be taken prisoner would be an instance not of manly courage but of unmanly rashness and there being nobody that came out to accept the man's challenge and the Jew cutting them with a great number of reproaches as cowards for he was a very haughty man in himself and a great despiser of the Romans one whose name was Pudens of the body of horsemen out of his abomination of the other's words and of his impudence with all and perhaps out of an inconsiderate arrogance on account of the other's lowness of stature ran out to him and was too hard on him in other respects but was betrayed by his ill fortune for he fell down and as he was down Jonathan came running to him and cut his throat and then standing upon his dead body he brandished his sword bloody as it was and shook his shield with his left hand and made many acclamations to the Roman army and exalted over the dead man and gested upon the Romans till at length one Priscus a centurion shot a dart at him as he was leaping and playing the fool with himself and thereby pierced him through upon which a shout was set up both by the Jews and the Romans though on different accounts so Jonathan grew giddy by the pain of his wounds and fell down upon the body of his adversary as a plain instance how suddenly vengeance may come upon men that have success in war without any just deserving the same chapter 2 book 6 chapter 3 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 recording by Anne Boulet the wars of the Jews by Josephus translated by William Wiston chapter 3 concerning a stratagem that was devised by the Jews by which they burnt many of the Romans with another description of the terrible famine that was in the city one, but now the seditious that were in the temple did every day openly endeavor to beat off the soldiers that were upon the banks and on the 27th day of the foreign name month Panamus or Teamus contrived such a stratagem as this they filled that part of the western cloister which was between the beams of the footnote of the court of the Gentiles and the roof under them with dry materials as also with bitumen and pitch and then retired from that place as though they were tired with the pains they had taken at which procedure of theirs many of the most inconsiderate among the Romans who were carried away with violent passions followed hard after them as they were retiring and applied ladders to the cloister and got up to it suddenly but the prudent part of them when they understood this unaccountable retreat of the Jews stood still where they were before however the cloister was full of those that were gone up the ladders at which time the Jews set it all on fire and as the flame burst out everywhere on a sudden the Romans that were out of the danger were seized with a very great consternation as were those that were in the midst of the danger in the utmost distress so when they perceived themselves surrounded with the flames some of them threw themselves down backwards into the city and some among their enemies in the temple as did many leap down to their own men and broke their limbs to pieces but a great number of those that were going to take these violent methods were prevented by the fire though some prevented the fire by their own swords however the fire was on the sudden carried so far as to surround those who would have otherwise perished as for Caesar himself he could not however but commiserate those that thus perished although they got up thither without any order for doing so since there was no way of giving them any relief yet was this comfort to those that were destroyed that everybody might see that person grieve for whose sake they came to their end for he cried out openly to them and leaped up and exhorted those that were about him to do their utmost to relieve them so every one of them died cheerfully as carrying along with him these words and this intention of Caesar as a separatical monument some there were indeed who retired into the wall of the cloister which was broad and were preserved out of the fire but were then surrounded by the Jews and although they made resistance against the Jews for a long time yet were they wounded by them and at length they all fell down dead two at the last a young man among them his name was Longus became a decoration of this sad affair and while every one of them that perished were worthy of a memorial this man appeared to deserve it beyond all the rest now the Jews admired this man for his courage and were further desirous of having him slain so they persuaded him to come down to them upon security given him for his life but Cornelius his brother persuaded him on the contrary not to tarnish his own glory nor that an army he complied with this last advice and lifting up his sword before both armies he slew himself yet there was one Artorias among those surrounded by the fire who escaped by his subtlety for when he had with a loud voice called to him Lucius one of his fellow soldiers that laid with him in the same tent and said to him I do leave the air of all I have if thou wilt come and receive me and to receive him readily Artorias then threw himself down upon him and saved his own life while he that received him was dashed so vehemently against the stone pavement by the other's weight that he died immediately this melancholy accident made the Romans sad for a while but still it made them more upon their guard for the future and was of advantage to them against the delusions of the Jews by which they were greatly damaged through their unacquaintedness with the places and with the nature of the inhabitants now this cloister was burnt down as far as John's tower which he built in the war he made against Simon over the gates that led to the Zistis the Jews also cut off the rest of that cloister from the temple after they had destroyed those that got up to it but the next day the Romans burned down the northern cloister entirely as far as the east cloister whose common angle joined to the valley that was called Cedron and was built over it and around the depth was frightful and this was the state of the temple at that time three now of those that perished by famine in the city the number was prodigious and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable for if so much as the shadow of any kind of food did anywhere appear a war was commenced presently and the dearest friends fell affighting one with another about it snatching from each other the most miserable supports of life believed that those who were dying had no food but the robbers would search them when they were expiring lest anyone should have concealed food in their bosoms and counter-fitted dying nay, these robbers gaped for want and ran about stumbling and staggering along like mad dogs and reeling against the doors of the men like drunken men they would also, in the great distress they were in rush into the very same houses two or three times in one and the same day moreover, their hunger was so intolerable that it obliged them to chew everything while they gathered such things as the most sordid animals would not touch and endured to eat them nor did they at length abstain from girdles and shoes and the very leather which belonged to their shields they pulled off and nod the very wisps of old hay became food to some and some gathered up fibers and sold a very small weight of them for four attic, drachmae but why do I describe the shameless impudence that the famine brought on men in eating their inanimate objects while I am going to relate a matter of fact the like to which no history relates either among the Greeks or barbarians footnote what Josephus observes here that no parallel examples had been recorded before this time of such sieges wherein mothers were forced by extremity of famine to eat their own children as had been threatened to the Jews and the law of Moses upon abstinent disobedience and more than once fulfilled is by Dr. Hudson supposed to have had two or three parallel examples in later ages he might have had more examples I suppose of persons on shipboard or in a desert island casting lots for each others bodies but all this was only in cases where they knew of no possible way to avoid death themselves but by killing and eating others such examples come up to the present case may be doubted the Romans were not only willing but very desirous to grant those Jews in Jerusalem both their lives and their liberties and to save both their city and their temple but the zealots the robbers and the seditious would hearken to no terms of submission they voluntarily chose to reduce the citizens to that extremity as to force mothers to this unnatural barbarity which in all its circumstances has not I still suppose been hitherto paralleled among the rest of mankind and footnote it is horrible to speak of and incredible when heard I had indeed willingly omitted this calamity of ours then I might not seem to deliver what is so portentous to posterity but that I have innumerable witnesses to it in my own age and besides my country would have had little reason to thank me for suppressing the miseries that she underwent at this time 4. There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan her name was Mary her father was Eleazar of the village Bethesda which signifies the house of Heisab she was eminent for her family and her wealth and had fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude and was with them besieged therein at this time the other effects of this woman had been already seized upon such I mean as she had brought with her out of Piraea moved to the city what she had treasured up besides as also what food she had contrived to save had also been carried off by the rapacious guards who came every day running into her house for that purpose this put the poor woman into a very great passion and by the frequent reproaches and implications she eased at these rapacious villains she had provoked them to anger against her but none of them either out of the indignation she had raised out of commiseration of her case would take away her life and if she found any food she perceived her labors were for others and not for herself and it was now become impossible for her anyway to find any more food while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself nor did she consult with anything but with her passion and the necessity she was in she then attempted a most unnatural thing watching up her son who was a child sucking at her breast she said oh thou miserable infant for whom shall I preserve thee in this war this famine and this sedition as to the war with the Romans if they preserve our lives we must be slaves this famine also will destroy us even before that slavery comes upon us yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other come on be thou my food thou a fury to these seditious varlots and a by word to the world which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews as soon as she had said this she slew her son and then roasted him and eat the one half of him and kept the other half by her concealed upon this the seditious came in presently and smelling the horrid sense of this food they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what she had gotten ready she replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them and with all uncovered what was left of her son hereupon they seized with a horror and amazement of mind and stood astonished at the sight when she said to them this is my known son and what hath been done was mine own doing come eat this food for I have eaten of it myself do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman than a mother but if you be so scrupulous and do abominate this my sacrifice as I have eaten the one half let the rest be reserved for me also after which those men went out trembling being never so much afrighted at anything as they were at this and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately and while everybody laid this miserable case before their own eyes they trembled as if this unheard of action had been done by themselves so those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die and those already dead were esteemed happy because they had not lived long enough either to hear or to see such miseries five this sad instance was quickly told to the Romans some of whom could not believe it and others pityed the distress which the Jews were under but there were many of them hereby induced to a more bitter hatred than ordinary against our nation but for Caesar he excused himself before God as to this matter and said that he had proposed peace and liberty to the Jews as well as an oblivion of all their former insolent practices but that they instead of concord had chosen sedition instead of peace war and before satiety and abundance a famine that they had begun with their own hands to burn down that temple which we have preserved hitherto and that therefore they deserved to eat such food as was this that however this horrid action of eating an own child ought to be covered with the overthrow of their very own country itself and that men ought not to leave such a city upon the habitable earth to be seen by the son wherein mothers are thus fed although such food be fitter for the fathers than for the mothers to eat of since it is they that continue still in a state of war against us after they have undergone such miseries as these and at the same time that he said this he reflected on the desperate condition these men must be in nor could he expect that such men could be recovered to sobriety of mind after they had endured those very sufferings for the avoiding thereof it only was probable they might have repented End of Book 6 Chapter 3 Book 6 Chapter 4 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 Whiston Chapter 4 When the banks were completed and the battering rams brought and could do nothing, Tidus gave orders to set fire to the gates of the temple in no long time after which the Holy House itself was burnt down even against his consent. 1 And now two of the legions had completed their banks on the eighth day of the month Luz, Ab, whereupon Tidus gave orders that the battering rams should be brought and set over against the western edifice of the inner temple. For before these were brought the firmest of all the other engines had battered the wall for six days facing without making any impression upon it. But the vast largeness and strong connection of the stones were superior to that engine and to the other battering rams also. Other Romans did indeed undermine the foundations of the northern gate and after a world of pains removed the outermost stones yet was the gate still upheld by the inner stones and stood still unhurt till the workmen despairing of all such attempts by engines and crows brought their ladders to the cloisters. Now the Jews did not interrupt them in so doing, but when they were gotten up they fell upon them and fought with them. Some of them they thrust down and threw them backwards head long. Others of them they met and slew. They also beat many of those that went down the ladders again and slew them with their swords before they could bring their shields to protect them. The ladders they threw down from above when they were full of armed men. A great slaughter was made of the Jews also at the same time while those that bear the ensigns fought hard for them as deeming it a terrible thing and what would tend to their great shame if they permitted them to be stolen away. Yet did the Jews at length get possession of these engines and destroyed those that had gone up the ladders while the rest were so intimidated by what those suffered were slain that they retired although none of the Romans died without having done good service before his death. Of the seditious those that had fought bravely in the former battles did the like now as besides them did Eleazar, the brother's son of Simon the tyrant. But when Titus perceived that his endeavors to spare a foreign temple turned to the damage of his soldiers and then be killed he gave order to set the gates to fire. 2. In the meantime they're deserted to him Ananus who came from Emmaus the most bloody of all Simon's guards and Archelaus the son of Megadatus they hoping to be still forgiven because they left the Jews at a time when they were the conquerors. Titus objected this to these men as a cunning trick of theirs and as he had been informed of their other barbarities towards the Jews he was going to haste to have them both slain. He told them that they were only driven to this desertion because of the utmost distress they were in and did not come away of their own good disposition and that those did not deserve to be preserved by whom their own city was already set on fire out of which fire they now hurried themselves away. However the security he had promised deserters overcame his resentments and he dismissed accordingly though he did not give them the same privileges that he had afforded to others. And now the soldiers had already put fire to the gates and the silver that was over them quickly carried the flames to the wood that was within it once it spread itself all on the sudden and cut hold on the cloisters. Upon the Jews seeing this fire all about them their spirits sunk together with their bodies and they were under such astonishment that none of them made any haste either to defend himself or to quench the fire but they stood as mute spectators of it only. However they did not so grieve at the loss of what was now burning as to grow wiser thereby for the time to come. But as though the Holy House itself had been on fire already they wedded their passions against the Romans. This fire prevailed during that day and the next also. All the cloisters that were round about together at one time but only by pieces. Three. But then on the next day Titus commanded part of his army to quench the fire and to make a road for the more easy marching up of the legions while he himself gathered the commanders together. Of those there were assembled the six principal persons Tiberius Alexander the commander under the general of the whole army with Sextus Sirialus the commander of the fifth legion and Marcius Lepidus the commander of the tenth legion and Titus Frigius the commander of the fifteenth legion. There was also with them Eternius the leader of the two legions that came from Alexandria and Marcus Antonius Julianus procurator of Judea after these came together all the rest of the procurators and tribunes. Titus proposed to these that they should give him their advice what should be done about the holy house. Now some of these thought it would be the best way to act according to the rules of war and demolish it because the Jews would never leave off rebelling while that house was standing at which house it was that they used to get all together. Others of them were of opinion that in case the Jews would leave it and none of them would lay their arms up in it he might save it but that in case they got upon it and fought anymore he might burn it because it must then be looked upon not as a holy house but as a citadel and that the impiety of burning it would then belong to those that forced this to be done and not to them. But Titus said that although the Jews should get upon that holy house and fight us thens yet ought we not to revenge ourselves on things that are inanimate instead of the men themselves that was not in any case for the burning down of so vast a work as that was because it would be a mischief to the Romans themselves as it would be an ornament to their government while it continued. So Fronto and Alexander and Sirialis grew bold upon that declaration and agreed to the opinion of Titus. Then was this assembly dissolved when Titus had given orders to the commanders that the rest of their forces should lie still and that they should make use of such as were the most courageous in this attack. So he commanded that the chosen men that were taken out of the cohorts should make their way through the ruins and quench the fire. Four Now it was true that on this day the Jews were so weary and under such consternation that they refrained from any attacks but on the next day they gathered their whole force together and ran upon those that guarded the outward court of the temple very boldly through the east gate and this about the second hour of the day. These guards received that their attack with great bravery and by covering themselves with their shields before as if it were with a wall they drew their squadron close together yet was it evident that they could not abide there very long but would be overborn by the multitude of those that sallied out upon them and by the heat of their passion. However Caesar seeing from the tower of Antonia that the squadron was likely to give way he sent some chosen horsemen to support them where upon the Jews found themselves not able to sustain their onset and upon the slaughter of those in the forefront many of the rest were put to flight. But as the Romans were going off the Jews turned upon them and fought them and as those Romans came back upon them they retreated again until about the fifth hour of the day they were overborn and shut themselves up in the inner court of the temple. 5. So Titus retired into the tower of Antonia and resolved to storm the temple the next day early in the morning with his whole army and to encamp round about the holy house but as for that house God had for certain long ago doomed it to the fire and now that fatal day was come according to the revolution of ages. It was the tenth day of the month loose Ab upon which it was formerly burnt by the king of Babylon although these flames took their rise from the Jews themselves and were occasioned by them for upon Titus' retiring the seditious lay still for a little while and then attacked the Romans again when those that guarded the holy house fought with those that quenched the fire that was burning the inner court of the temple. But these Romans put the Jews to flight and proceeded as far as the holy house itself at which time one of the soldiers without staying for any orders and without any concern or dread upon him at so great an undertaking and being hurried on by a certain divine fury snatched somewhat out of the materials that were on fire and being lifted up by another soldier he set fire to a golden window through which there was a passage to the rooms that were round about the holy house on the north side of it. As the flames went upward the Jews made a great clamor such as so mighty an affliction required and ran together to prevent it and now they spared not their lives any longer nor suffered anything to restrain their force since that holy house was perishing for whose sake it was that they kept such a guard about it. Six and now a certain person came running to Titus and told him of this fire as he was resting himself in his tent after the last battle whereupon he rose up in great haste and as he was ran to the holy house in order to have a stop put to the fire after him followed all his commanders and after them followed the several legions in great astonishment so there was a great clamor and tumult raised as was natural upon the disorderly motion of so great an army then did Caesar both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting with a loud voice and by giving a signal to them with his right hand order them to quench the fire but they did not hear what he said though he spake so loud having their ears already dimmed by a greater noise another way nor did they attend to the signal he made with his hand neither as still some of them were distracted with fighting and others with passion but as for the legions that came running thither neither any persuasions nor any threatenings could restrain their violence but each one's own passion was his commander at this time and as they were crowding into the temple together many of them were trampled on by one another while a great number fell among the ruins of the cloisters which were still hot and smoking and were destroyed in the same miserable way with those whom they had conquered and when they were come near the holy house they made as if they did not so much as hear Caesar's orders to the contrary but they encouraged those that were before them to set it on fire as for the seditious they were in too great distress already to afford their assistance towards quenching the fire they were everywhere slain and everywhere beaten and as for the great part of the people they were weak and without arms and had their throats cut wherever they were caught now round about the altar lay dead bodies heaped one upon another as at the steps going up to it ran a great quantity of their blood wither also the dead bodies that were slain above on the altar fell down footnote, these steps to the altar of burnt offering seem here either an improper and inaccurate expression of Josephus since it was unlawful to make latter steps for else those steps or stairs we now use were invented before the days of Herod the Great and had been there built by him though the latter Jews always deny it and say that even Herod's altar was ascended to by an aclivity only and footnote seven and now since Caesar was no way able to restrain the enthusiastic fury of the soldiers and the fire proceeded on more and more he went into the holy place of the temple with his commanders and saw it with what was in it which he found to be far superior to what relations of foreigners contained and not inferior to what we ourselves boasted of and believed about it but as the flame had not as yet reached to its inward parts but was still consuming the rooms that were about the holy house and Titus supposing what the fact was that the house itself might yet be saved he came in haste and endeavored to persuade the soldiers to quench the fire and gave order to Liberaleus the centurion and one of those spearmen that were about him to beat the soldiers that were refractory with their staves and to restrain them yet were their passions too hard for the regards they had for Caesar and the dread they had of him who forbade them as was their hatred of the Jews and a certain vehement inclination to fight them too hard for them also moreover the hope of plunder induced many to go on as having this opinion that all the places within were full of money and as seeing that all round about it was made of gold and besides one of those that went into the place prevented Caesar when he ran so hastily out to restrain the soldiers and threw the fire upon the hinges of the gate in the dark whereby the flame burst out from within the holy house itself immediately when the commanders retired and Caesar with them and when nobody any longer forbade those that were without to set fire to it thus was the holy house burnt down without Caesar's approbation 8 now although anyone would justly lament the destruction of such a work as this was since it was the most admirable of all the works that we have seen or heard of both for its curious structure and its magnitude and also for the vast wealth bestowed upon it as well as for the glorious reputation it had for its holiness yet might such a one comfort himself with this thought that it was fate that decreed it so to be which is inevitable both as to living creatures and as to works and places also however one cannot but wonder at the accuracy of this period there too relating for the same month and day were now observed as I said before wherein the holy house was burnt formerly by the Babylonians now the number of years that passed from its first foundation which was laid by King Solomon till this its destruction which happened in the second year of the reign of Vespasian are collected to be one thousand one hundred and thirty beside seven months and fifteen days and from the second building of it which was done by Haguei in the second year of Cyrus the King till its destruction under Vespasian there were six hundred and thirty nine years and forty five days end of book six after four