The Jewish War – Book 6

BOOK VI

Containing the Events of About One Month

From the Jews' Greatest Distress to the Capture of Jerusalem by Titus

CHAPTER 1

The Miseries of Jerusalem Continue to Increase, and the Romans Attack the Tower of Antonia

1

The suffering in Jerusalem grew worse with every passing day. The rebels became even more furious because of the disasters around them, while the famine that had consumed the people now turned against the rebels themselves. The streets were filled with piles of dead bodies, creating a terrible sight and spreading such a foul smell that it made it difficult for anyone to leave the city and fight the Romans.

The rebels had already become used to killing thousands of their own people. They marched over the bodies without fear or pity, as if the dead were nothing more than part of the road. They didn't see this disrespect toward the dead as a bad sign. Their hands were already stained with the blood of their fellow Jews, and in that condition they went out to fight foreigners. To me, they seemed to be insulting God himself, as if they thought He was too slow to punish them.

They no longer fought because they expected victory. They seemed to take a savage pride in the hopeless condition they had brought upon themselves.

The Romans had great difficulty gathering enough materials, yet they completed their siege embankments in twenty-one days. They had cut down every tree in the country around Jerusalem, extending for ninety furlongs, as I have already described. The sight of the land was heartbreaking. Places that had once been covered with trees, gardens, and beauty had become empty and desolate. Nothing remained of the trees.

Anyone who had once seen Judea and the beautiful outskirts of Jerusalem, then returned and saw the land reduced to a desert, would have mourned the change. The war had destroyed every sign of its former beauty. A person who knew the area well might have come back suddenly and failed to recognize it. Even standing before the city itself, he might have asked where Jerusalem was.

2

When the embankments were complete, they became a source of fear to both sides. The Jews knew that the city would soon fall if they couldn't burn them. The Romans feared that if the Jews destroyed the embankments, they would never be able to capture the city.

The Romans were running out of materials, and their soldiers were worn down by the heavy labor. Their spirits were also failing because of their repeated disappointments. The suffering inside Jerusalem discouraged them even more than it discouraged the people trapped there. The Romans saw that the Jewish fighters had not been softened by famine, rebellion, or every other misery they endured.

The Romans themselves had less hope of success each day. Their embankments were threatened by the Jews' schemes, their siege engines were held back by the strength of the walls, and their close attacks were met by bold counterattacks. Their greatest concern was that the Jews seemed to have more courage than their suffering had taken away.

The Romans began to think that the Jews' attacks couldn't be stopped. Their energy didn't seem to weaken under famine, civil war, or the siege. What could men endure if they ever gained good fortune, when they were turning their misfortunes into reasons for greater courage?

For these reasons, the Romans placed a stronger guard around their embankments than before.

3

John and his followers now prepared for what might happen if the wall was brought down. They began working before the Romans had brought their battering rams against them. Their plan was to burn the embankments.

They failed to carry it out. They went out carrying torches, but they turned back in great discouragement before reaching the embankments. Several things caused their failure.

First, they didn't act as one body. They came out in separate groups, at different times, slowly and nervously. In short, they no longer showed the courage for which the Jewish nation was known. They had lost their boldness, their violent attacks, their habit of rushing at the enemy together, and their determination to continue even after their first attempt failed.

They moved more weakly than usual and found the Romans ready for them. The Romans stood in close formation, protected by their armor and their bodies. They had formed their lines so carefully that there was no opening through which the fire could spread. Every soldier was so determined that he would rather die than abandon his position.

The Romans believed that their hopes of taking the city depended on protecting the embankments. They were also ashamed that Jewish cleverness might defeat Roman courage, that madness might overcome armor, that numbers might defeat skill, and that Jews might conquer Romans.

The Romans had another advantage. Their siege engines could throw stones and darts as far as the Jews could throw their weapons from the city. Each man who fell blocked the way of the man behind him. The danger of advancing farther made the attackers less willing to continue.

Some of the Jews reached the Roman lines but were frightened by the order and closeness of the soldiers before the fighting became hand-to-hand. Others were struck by spears and forced to retreat. Before long, they began accusing one another of cowardice and withdrew without accomplishing anything.

This attack took place on the first day of the month Panemus, which is called Tammuz.

After the Jews had retreated, the Romans brought up their siege engines. The Jews continued to throw stones at them from the Tower of Antonia and attacked them with fire, swords, and every kind of weapon they could find. Their own wall gave them confidence, and they looked down on the Roman engines, but they still tried to prevent the Romans from bringing them close.

The Romans fought hard to move the engines forward. They believed the Jews were so determined to stop them because the Tower of Antonia was weak and its foundations had begun to decay.

The tower resisted the blows of the engines. The Romans also endured the constant rain of darts from above. They refused to retreat and finally brought their siege engines into position. Since they were working below the tower, the stones thrown down upon them wounded many of the soldiers. Some covered themselves with their shields. Using their hands, their bodies, and iron hooks, they began to undermine the foundations and managed, with great effort, to remove four of the tower's stones.

Night then fell upon both sides and ended the struggle for the moment. That night, the battering rams shook the wall in the same place where John had earlier used his scheme and undermined the Roman embankments. The ground gave way, and the wall suddenly collapsed.

4

The unexpected fall affected both sides in different ways. The Jews might have been expected to lose heart because the wall had fallen without warning and they had made no preparations for it. Instead, they regained their courage because the Tower of Antonia was still standing.

The Romans were first delighted by the wall's collapse, but their joy quickly faded when they saw that John and his followers had built another wall inside it.

The Romans believed that attacking this second wall would be easier than attacking the first. The fallen section of the former wall gave them a way to climb up. The new wall also looked weaker than the Tower of Antonia, and they assumed it had been built so quickly that they would soon destroy it.

Still, no one dared to climb it. The first men who tried would almost certainly be killed.

5

Titus knew that soldiers are encouraged in war by hope and by confident words. A strong speech and promises of reward can make men forget danger and sometimes even face death without fear. He gathered the bravest soldiers in the army and addressed them:

"Fellow soldiers, it would be shameful to urge men to do something that carries no danger. Such an appeal would also reveal cowardice in the man who made it. Exhortations should be given when the situation is dangerous, but when the danger is worth facing and every man is ready to attempt it himself.

"I agree with you that climbing this wall will be difficult. But anyone who wants a reputation for courage must face difficulties like this. I will show you why it is honorable to die with glory, and I promise that those who begin this attack will not go without rewards.

"Let me first use as an argument something that others might use to discourage you, the patience and determination of these Jews even after every kind of defeat. You are Romans. You are my soldiers. In peacetime, you were trained to make war, and in war, you have learned to conquer. It would be disgraceful for you to be inferior to Jews either in strength or in courage, especially now, when victory is almost within your grasp and God Himself is helping you.

"Our setbacks have come from the Jews' madness. Their suffering has come from your courage and from God's help. Their civil war, their famine, their siege, and the collapse of their walls without the aid of our engines all show that God is angry with them and is helping us.

"You must not prove yourselves weaker than men who are truly beneath you. You must not reject the help God has given you.

"Think how shameful it would be if the Jews, who have long been accustomed to slavery and would have reason to fear being abandoned, still despise death because they want to live as free men. They often rush into the middle of our army, not because they expect to defeat us, but because they want to show their courage.

"We have conquered almost every land and sea known to us. It would be shameful if we couldn't defeat these men. Yet we sit idle, trusting famine and fortune to finish the work for us, even though a little danger would give us everything we want.

"If we climb the Tower of Antonia, we will gain the city. There may still be fighting against those inside, though I don't expect it. Once we stand on the hilltop, we will be above our enemies and upon them before they can recover their breath. These advantages promise us a quick and certain victory.

"As for myself, I won't now praise those who die in battle or speak of the immortality gained by men killed while showing their courage. I can only wish that those who refuse such opportunities may die in peacetime from some sickness or another, since their souls are already condemned to the grave along with their bodies.

"What honorable man doesn't know that souls separated from the body by the sword in battle are received by the air, the purest of all elements? They join the company of the stars, becoming good spirits and kindly heroes who later appear to their descendants.

"But the souls of those who waste away with diseased bodies meet a different end. An underground darkness dissolves them, and deep forgetfulness removes every memory of them. Though they may have lived without the stains and corruption of this world, their souls reach the end of their life, their body, and their memory all at once.

"Death has been appointed for every person. A sword is a better instrument for that purpose than disease. Why should we refuse to give the public good what we must eventually surrender to fate?

"I have spoken as though the first men who climb this wall must certainly die. Yet men of true courage sometimes escape even from the most dangerous attempts.

"The fallen section of the old wall is easy to climb. The newly built wall can also be destroyed without great difficulty. So gather your courage, begin the attack, and help one another. Your bravery will soon break the hearts of your enemies, and this glorious undertaking may even succeed without bloodshed.

"The Jews will probably try to stop you as soon as you begin climbing. But once you have hidden yourselves from their sight and driven them away, they won't be able to resist you. Even a few of you will be enough to hold them back while the rest climb over the wall.

"I would be ashamed if I didn't make the first man who reaches the top an object of envy to the others by the rewards I give him. If he survives, he will command men who are now his equals. Yet the greatest rewards will belong to those who die while attempting the climb."

6

Titus's speech frightened the other soldiers because the danger was so great. One soldier, however, was named Sabinus. He served in the cohorts and was Syrian by birth. He had shown great courage in battle and great strength of spirit, though anyone who saw him before the attack would have thought his body too weak for military service.

His skin was dark, his body was thin, and his flesh seemed to cling tightly to his bones. Yet a heroic spirit lived inside that small body, a spirit too large for the body that held it.

Sabinus was the first to rise. He said:

"I gladly offer myself to you, Caesar. I will be the first to climb the wall. I only hope that fortune will follow my courage and determination. If bad fortune refuses me success, know that my failure won't surprise me. I willingly choose death for your sake."

After saying this, he spread his shield over his head with his left hand, drew his sword with his right, and began climbing the wall at about the sixth hour of the day.

Eleven men followed him, determined to imitate his courage. Sabinus was still the leader of them all. He went first, driven on as if by divine madness.

The Jews guarding the wall shot at the attackers from every side and threw countless darts down upon them. They also rolled huge stones down the slope, crushing some of the eleven men who followed Sabinus.

Sabinus continued forward. Although the darts struck him from every direction, he refused to stop until he reached the top of the wall and drove the Jews away. The Jews were amazed by his strength and courage. They also imagined that more Roman soldiers had reached the wall than were actually there, so they fled.

Fortune seemed unwilling to allow such a brave deed to succeed. Just as Sabinus had reached his goal, he stumbled over a large stone and fell headfirst with a loud crash.

The Jews turned back. When they saw that he was alone and lying on the ground, they surrounded him and threw darts from every side. Sabinus rose to one knee and covered himself with his shield. At first, he defended himself and wounded several men who came near him.

The many wounds soon weakened his right hand. Before long, he was completely covered with darts and finally gave up his life. He deserved a better fate because of his courage, but such a great attempt carried a great danger.

The Jews crushed three of his companions with stones and killed them as they reached the top of the wall. The other eight were wounded, pulled down, and carried back to the Roman camp.

These events took place on the third day of the month Panemus, or Tammuz.

7

Two days later, twelve soldiers who were stationed in the front lines and guarding the embankments joined together. They brought with them the standard-bearer of the Fifth Legion, two cavalrymen, and a trumpeter.

Around the ninth hour of the night, they moved silently through the ruins toward the Tower of Antonia. They cut the throats of the first guards while they were asleep, seized the wall, and ordered the trumpeter to sound his instrument.

The rest of the guards suddenly woke and ran away before anyone could tell how many Romans had reached the wall. They were frightened both by the attack and by the sound of the trumpet. They imagined that a large force had gained control of the tower.

When Caesar heard the signal, he immediately ordered the army to put on its armor. He came to the tower with his commanders and climbed up first, followed by the chosen soldiers who were with him.

The Jews fled toward the Temple but fell into the underground passage John had dug beneath the Roman embankments. The rebels from both Jewish factions, those loyal to John and those loyal to Simon, then drove the Romans back. They fought with all the strength and energy they had.

Both sides believed they would be ruined if the other gained control of the Temple. The Jews knew that Roman possession of the Temple would mean the end of their cause. The Romans believed that taking the Temple would begin their complete conquest of the city.

A terrible battle began at the Temple entrance. The Romans tried to force their way in, while the Jews drove them back toward the Tower of Antonia.

The narrow space made darts and spears nearly useless. Both sides drew their swords and fought at close quarters. No clear battle lines remained. The soldiers were mixed together, and the noise was so great that no one could understand what was happening around him.

Many were killed on both sides. The fighters trampled the bodies and armor of the dead and crushed them underfoot. Whenever the battle seemed to favor one side, that side urged its men forward. Those who were losing cried out in grief.

There was no room for flight or pursuit. The soldiers moved back and forth in confusion while both armies remained mixed together. Men in the front ranks had no choice but to kill or be killed. Those behind them forced them forward and left no space between the two sides.

At last, the Jews' fierce determination overcame the Romans' training, and the battle turned fully in the Jews' favor. The fighting had continued from the ninth hour of the night until the seventh hour of the day.

The Jews came forward in great numbers because they were determined to save the Temple. Only part of the Roman army was present, and the legions on which the Romans depended had not yet arrived. For the moment, the Romans decided that it was enough to hold the Tower of Antonia.

8

A centurion named Julian came from Bithynia. He was a man of great reputation, and I had seen him during the war. He was famous for his military skill, physical strength, and courage.

When Julian saw the Romans falling back and in serious danger, he leaped out from the tower, where he had been standing beside Titus. By himself, he drove the Jews into retreat, even though they had already won the battle. He forced them back to the corner of the inner court of the Temple.

The Jews fled from him in crowds, as if his strength and violent attacks could not belong to an ordinary man. Julian charged through their scattered ranks and killed everyone he caught.

Nothing had ever seemed more astonishing to Caesar or more frightening to the others. Yet Julian could not escape the fate appointed to a mortal man.

Like the other soldiers, he wore shoes covered with thick, sharp nails. When he ran across the Temple pavement, he slipped and fell on his back with a tremendous crash from his armor.

The Jews who had been fleeing turned around. The Romans inside the Tower of Antonia shouted in alarm because they feared for Julian. The Jews surrounded him and attacked him with spears and swords from every direction.

His shield stopped many of their blows. He repeatedly tried to rise, but the men striking him forced him back down. Even while lying on the ground, he stabbed several of them with his sword.

He wasn't killed quickly. His helmet and breastplate protected the parts of his body where a mortal wound might have been given. He pulled his neck close to his body and continued to resist until his limbs had been badly crushed. No one dared to come to his aid. After struggling with death for a long time, he finally had his throat cut, though the Jews had great difficulty killing him.

Julian left behind a great reputation among the Romans, among Caesar himself, and even among his enemies. The Jews took his body, drove the Romans back, and shut them inside the Tower of Antonia.

The Jewish fighters who distinguished themselves most in this battle were Alexas and Gyphtheus, who belonged to John's faction; Malachias, Judas son of Merto, and James son of Sosas, the commander of the Idumeans, who belonged to Simon's faction; and Simon and Judas, the sons of Jairus, who belonged to the Zealots.

CHAPTER 2

How Titus Ordered the Demolition of the Tower of Antonia and Then Persuaded Josephus to Urge the Jews to Surrender

1

Titus ordered the soldiers with him to tear up the foundations of the Tower of Antonia and clear a passage wide enough for the army to reach the temple. At the same time, he had Josephus brought before him. Titus had learned that on that very day, the seventeenth day of Panemus, or Tamuz, the sacrifice known as the "Daily Sacrifice" had not been offered to God. There were not enough men left to perform it, and the people were greatly troubled by this.

Titus told Josephus to repeat to John what he had already said before. If John still wanted to fight, he could come out with as many of his men as he wished and fight the Romans in the open. That way, neither the city nor the temple would be destroyed. Titus also urged him not to defile the temple or offend God. If John wished, he could choose any Jews he trusted and have them offer the sacrifices that had recently been stopped.

Josephus went to a place where John could hear him, along with many others, and delivered Titus' message in Hebrew. He begged the people to spare their own city and stop the fire that was about to consume the temple. He urged them to restore the sacrifices they had always offered to God.

When he finished speaking, the people fell into deep sadness and silence. But the tyrant John insulted Josephus and cursed him. At last, John declared that he had no fear of the city being taken because it belonged to God.

Josephus answered him loudly:

"Yes, you have kept this city wonderfully pure for God's sake. The temple is still completely free from pollution. You haven't committed any offense against the God whose help you expect. His daily sacrifices are still being offered.

"Vile man, if someone took away your daily food, you would call him your enemy. Yet you expect the same God to support you in this war after you have stopped His everlasting worship. You accuse the Romans of sins, even though they have continued to respect our laws and have almost forced us to keep offering sacrifices to God. Those sacrifices stopped because of you.

"Who can look at the terrible change in this city without groaning and weeping? Foreigners and enemies now correct the wickedness you caused, while you, a Jew raised under our laws, have become a greater enemy to them than the Romans.

"John, it is never shameful to repent and correct a wrong, even at the last possible moment. You have the example of Jechoniah, king of the Jews. When the king of Babylon made war against him, Jechoniah willingly left this city before it was captured and accepted captivity with his family. He did this so the enemy would not take the sanctuary and so he would not see the house of God burned.

"Because of this, all Jews honor Jechoniah in their sacred records. His memory has become immortal and will be passed down to our descendants for all generations. John, he is an excellent example for you in this time of danger. I dare promise you that the Romans will still forgive you.

"Remember that I am one of your own people. I am a Jew, and I give you this promise. You should also think about who I am and where I come from. As long as I live, I will never be so enslaved that I abandon my own people or forget the laws of our ancestors.

"You are angry with me. You shout at me and insult me. I won't deny that I deserve even worse treatment than this, because I am fighting against fate by offering you this invitation and trying to force deliverance on people whom God has condemned.

"Who doesn't know what the ancient prophets wrote, especially the prophecy now being fulfilled against this miserable city? They foretold that the city would be taken when someone began killing his own countrymen. Aren't both the city and the entire temple now filled with the bodies of your own people?

"It is God, then, God Himself, who is bringing this fire upon the city. He is using the Romans to cleanse the city and the temple, and He is about to tear down this place, which is filled with your pollution."

2

As Josephus spoke, groans and tears interrupted his voice. The Romans pitied his suffering and were astonished by his conduct. John and his followers, however, became even more hostile toward the Romans because of his speech. They wanted to seize Josephus and bring him under their control.

Still, Josephus' words affected many of the more respectable people. Some were afraid of the guards placed around the city by the rebels, so they remained where they were, even though they believed that both they and the city were destined for destruction.

Others waited for a safe chance to escape. When the opportunity came, they fled to the Romans. Among them were the high priests Joseph and Jesus, three sons of the high priest Ishmael, who had been beheaded in Cyrene, and four sons of Matthias. One son of the other Matthias also escaped after his father's death. That Matthias had been killed by Simon the son of Gioras, as I have already explained. Many other members of the nobility also went over to the Romans with the high priests.

Caesar treated these men kindly in every way. He knew they would not willingly adopt the customs of other nations, so he sent them to Gophna and told them to stay there for the time being. He promised that when the war was over, he would return their possessions to them.

They gladly went to the small city assigned to them and lived there without fear. When they failed to appear again, the rebels spread the claim that the Romans had killed them. They did this to frighten others away from surrendering, warning that anyone who escaped would suffer the same fate.

For a while, this lie worked, just as a similar lie had worked earlier. The rest of the people were afraid to leave because they believed the deserters had been killed.

3

Afterward, Titus brought the men back from Gophna. He ordered them to walk around the wall with Josephus so the people inside could see that they were alive. After seeing them, many others fled to the Romans.

A large group gathered in front of the Roman army. With tears and groans, they begged the rebels to open the city completely to the Romans and save their own homes. If the rebels refused, they asked them at least to leave the temple and spare the holy house. They argued that the Romans would not burn the sanctuary unless they were driven to it by extreme necessity.

The rebels rejected their pleas even more fiercely. They shouted bitter insults at the deserters and then placed their machines at intervals around the temple. From these machines they threw darts, javelins, and stones at the sacred gates.

The entire space inside the temple became so full of dead bodies that it looked like a burial ground. The holy house itself looked like a fortress. The rebels rushed into these sacred places wearing armor, even though their hands were still stained with the blood of their own people.

Their crimes became so extreme that the Romans felt the same anger Jews would naturally feel if Romans had committed such abuses against them. The Roman soldiers looked upon the temple with sacred fear. They honored it and wished that the robbers would repent before their suffering became impossible to repair.

4

Titus was greatly disturbed by what he saw. He rebuked John and his followers:

"Didn't we allow you to build that dividing wall in front of your sanctuary? Didn't we permit you to set up the pillars at proper distances and carve upon them, in Greek and in your own letters, the warning that no foreigner should pass beyond the wall?

"Didn't we even give you permission to kill anyone who crossed it, even if that person was a Roman? And what are you doing now, you wicked men? Why are you walking over dead bodies inside the temple? Why are you polluting this holy house with the blood of foreigners and Jews alike?

"I call upon the gods of my own country and upon every god who has ever cared for this place, although I don't believe any of them cares for it now. I call upon my army and upon the Jews who are with me. I even call upon you yourselves as witnesses that I have not forced you to defile your sanctuary.

"If you will move the fighting to another place, no Roman will come near your sanctuary or insult it. I will even try to preserve your holy house, whether you want me to or not."

5

Josephus delivered Titus' message, but the rebels and John misunderstood it. They thought Titus was speaking out of fear rather than goodwill, and his words made them more arrogant.

When Titus saw that these men had no pity for themselves and no concern for saving the holy house, he reluctantly decided to continue the attack. The area was too narrow for him to use the entire army, so he selected thirty of the bravest soldiers from every hundred. He placed one thousand men under each tribune and put Cerealis in command of the whole force.

Titus ordered them to attack the temple guards around the ninth hour of the night. He was already putting on his armor and preparing to go down with them when his friends stopped him. They warned him about the danger and repeated what the commanders had advised. They told him that he could do more from the Tower of Antonia by rewarding the soldiers who fought bravely than by risking his own life at the front.

They also said that every soldier would fight more fiercely while Caesar watched. Titus accepted their advice. He said that he agreed to remain in the tower so he could judge the soldiers' courage himself. No brave man would go without a reward, and no coward would escape punishment. From the tower, Titus could see what happened and personally decide who deserved honor and who deserved discipline.

He sent the soldiers into battle at the appointed hour. Then he climbed to a higher position in the Tower of Antonia, where he could watch the fight. There he waited impatiently for the result.

6

The Roman soldiers did not find the temple guards asleep, as they had hoped. The guards rushed at them with a loud cry, and the Romans were forced to fight them immediately at close range.

When the other Jews inside the temple heard the shouting, they came out in large groups. The Romans met the first attackers, but those who followed struck their own men as often as they struck the Romans. The noise on both sides made it difficult to tell one voice from another. The darkness made it impossible to recognize friend or enemy by sight.

Fear and anger made the confusion even worse. The soldiers often had no idea whom they were attacking. The Romans suffered less from this confusion than the Jews because they stayed together behind their shields and made their attacks in an organized way. Each man also remembered the password.

The Jews were scattered in every direction. They attacked and retreated without order. In the darkness, they often mistook their own returning soldiers for Romans and attacked them. As a result, more Jews were wounded by their own men than by the enemy.

When daylight came, the soldiers could finally see what was happening. Both sides formed separate lines, threw their weapons in an orderly way, and defended themselves with discipline. Neither side gave ground or became exhausted.

The Romans competed with one another to see who could fight most bravely. Titus was watching them, and every soldier believed that a brave performance that day could lead to promotion.

The Jews were driven by fear for themselves, fear for the temple, and the presence of their tyrant. John urged some men forward, while he beat and threatened others until they fought.

The battle stayed mostly in one place. The soldiers rushed forward and fell back almost at once because there was so little room for either side to retreat or pursue. From the Tower of Antonia, the Romans shouted loudly whenever their men were gaining the advantage, urging them to press forward. When the Romans began to retreat, the voices called for them to stand their ground.

The tower became like a theater overlooking the battle. Titus and everyone around him could see everything that happened.

The fight began at the ninth hour of the night and continued until after the fifth hour of the day. In the very place where the battle had started, neither side could claim to have driven the other away. The victory remained uncertain.

Many Romans distinguished themselves in the fighting. Among the Jews who fought under Simon were Judas the son of Merto and Simon the son of Josas. The Idumeans who stood out were James and Simon, the latter being the son of Cathlas, while James was the son of Sosas. Among John's followers were Gyphtheus and Alexas. Among the Zealots was Simon the son of Jairus.

7

During this time, the rest of the Roman army spent seven days tearing down parts of the Tower of Antonia. They cleared a broad passage leading to the temple.

The legions then came close to the first court and began building their embankments. One embankment stood opposite the northwest corner of the inner temple. Another was built beside the northern structure between the two gates. Of the remaining two, one stood beside the western colonnade of the outer court, and the other stood opposite the northern colonnade.

The Romans built these works with great effort and difficulty. They had to bring the materials from a distance of one hundred furlongs. They faced other problems as well. At times, their own overconfidence made them careless because they assumed they would defeat the Jews. The Jews, who believed they had no chance of escape, fought with desperate courage.

Some Roman horsemen left their horses without bridles while they gathered wood or hay. The Jews then rushed out in large groups and captured the animals.

This happened repeatedly. When Caesar realized that the horses were being taken more because of Roman carelessness than Jewish courage, he decided to enforce stricter discipline. He ordered that any soldier who lost his horse should be put to death.

This terrified the rest of the soldiers. After that, they guarded their horses carefully. They no longer allowed the animals to wander away and graze on their own. Whenever the soldiers went out to gather supplies, the horses stayed beside them as if they were attached to their riders.

The Romans continued their attack on the temple and kept building their embankments against it.

8

One day after the Romans had climbed through the breach, many of the rebels were suffering from hunger because their raids had failed. They gathered together and attacked the Roman guards on the Mount of Olives around the eleventh hour of the day.

They believed the Romans would not expect an attack at that time. They also thought the soldiers would be caring for themselves and would be easy to defeat.

But the Romans had already learned that the Jews were coming. Soldiers from the nearby camps quickly assembled and stopped the attackers before they could cross the Roman fortifications or break through the wall surrounding them.

A fierce battle followed. Both sides performed brave deeds. The Romans showed courage and military skill, while the Jews attacked with uncontrolled violence and desperate passion.

The Romans were driven by shame. They considered it disgraceful to let the Jews escape after catching them inside their defenses. The Jews were driven by necessity. Their only hope was to break through the Roman wall by force.

One of the Roman horsemen was named Pedanius. When the Jews had already been defeated and forced together into the valley, Pedanius drove his horse hard against their flank. He caught one young Jewish soldier by the ankle as the man tried to escape.

The young man was strong and wore armor. Yet Pedanius leaned down from his moving horse, seized him with his right hand, and held him firmly despite the speed of the horse. His strength and skill as a rider were extraordinary.

Pedanius carried his captive away as if he had captured a valuable treasure and brought him before Caesar. Titus admired the strength Pedanius had shown. He ordered the captured man to be put to death for attacking the Roman wall.

Then Titus returned his attention to the siege of the temple and ordered the Romans to continue raising the embankments.

9

As the war moved closer and closer to the holy house, the Jews became more distressed by the fighting. In a desperate attempt to stop the destruction from spreading, they cut away parts of their own defenses, just as someone might remove an infected limb to save the rest of the body.

They set fire to the northwest colonnade, which was joined to the Tower of Antonia. Afterward, they tore away about twenty cubits of the colonnade. This was the beginning of the burning of the sanctuary.

Two days later, on the twenty-fourth day of the same month, Panemus, or Tamuz, the Romans set fire to the colonnade connected to the first one. The flames spread another fifteen cubits.

The Jews then removed the roof above that section. They didn't completely stop their work until the Tower of Antonia had been separated from the temple. Even when they had the chance to stop the fire, they failed to do so. They stood by while the temple itself first caught fire because they believed the spreading flames would help them.

The armies continued fighting around the temple. Small groups repeatedly rushed out against one another, and the battle continued through these constant attacks.

10

At that time, a Jewish man named Jonathan came out. He was short and had an unimpressive appearance. His family was not important, and he had no special reputation for any other reason.

Jonathan came out near the monument of the high priest John and began shouting insults at the Romans. He challenged the best Roman soldier to fight him in single combat.

Many soldiers laughed at him, while others were afraid. Some reasoned that it was foolish to fight a man who clearly wanted to die. A person who had completely given up hope could attack with extraordinary violence and might not even fear God.

They also argued that defeating such a man would bring little honor, while losing to him could bring great shame. It would not be courage to risk one's life against an enemy who had nothing to lose. It would be reckless foolishness.

No one accepted Jonathan's challenge. The Jew responded by insulting the Romans and calling them cowards. He was proud and held the Roman army in contempt.

A cavalryman named Pudens became angry at Jonathan's words and arrogance. He may also have been overconfident because Jonathan was so short. Pudens ran out to meet him.

Pudens was stronger than Jonathan in many ways, but bad luck betrayed him. He fell to the ground. Jonathan rushed upon him, cut his throat, and then stood on his dead body.

With his sword covered in blood, Jonathan waved it in the air. He shook his shield with his left hand, shouted at the Roman army, celebrated his victory, and mocked the Romans.

While Jonathan was jumping around and acting foolishly, a centurion named Priscus shot a dart at him. The weapon pierced his body.

Both the Jews and the Romans shouted, though each side had a different reason. Jonathan became dizzy from his wounds and fell onto the body of the man he had killed. His death showed how quickly revenge can overtake a person who succeeds in battle without deserving that success.

CHAPTER 3

How the Jews Set Fire to Many Romans, and the Terrible Famine That Struck the City

1

The rebels in the temple tried every day to drive away the Roman soldiers stationed along the banks. On the twenty-seventh day of the month previously mentioned, Panemus, or Tamuz, they prepared the following trap.

They packed the space between the beams and the roof of the western cloister with dry materials, along with bitumen and pitch. Afterward, they withdrew as if they were exhausted from the work. Many Romans, carried away by their anger and lacking good judgment, chased after them as they retreated. They placed ladders against the cloister and quickly climbed up.

The wiser soldiers became suspicious of the Jews' sudden retreat and stayed where they were. By then, however, the cloister was crowded with Romans who had climbed the ladders. The Jews set the entire structure on fire. Flames suddenly burst out on every side.

The Romans who were still out of danger were struck with terror, while those trapped in the fire suffered the greatest distress. When they saw themselves surrounded by flames, some threw themselves backward into the city, and others leaped among their enemies in the temple. Some jumped down among their own soldiers, but the fall shattered their limbs. Many others were stopped by the fire before they could make such an attempt, while some chose to escape the flames by killing themselves with their swords.

The fire spread so quickly that it soon surrounded everyone who would otherwise have died by falling. Caesar himself felt pity for the men who perished, even though they had climbed up without orders. There was no way to rescue so many of them. Still, the dying soldiers had one comfort: everyone could see that the man for whom they had come there was grieving over them.

Caesar called out to the trapped soldiers and urged the men around him to do everything they could to save them. The Romans who died carried his words and his concern with them as their final memorial. Some soldiers reached the wide wall of the cloister and escaped the fire there, but the Jews surrounded them. The Romans resisted for a long time, yet the Jews wounded them until every one of them fell dead.

2

At last, a young soldier named Longus brought honor to this sorrowful event. Every man who died deserved to be remembered, but Longus seemed worthy of greater praise than the rest.

The Jews admired his courage and wanted him killed. They promised to spare his life if he would come down to them. His brother Cornelius, however, urged him not to stain his own honor or the honor of the Roman army. Longus followed his brother's advice. He raised his sword where both armies could see him and killed himself.

Another soldier, Artorius, escaped through cleverness. He called loudly to Lucius, a fellow soldier who was lying in the same place, and said, "I leave you heir to everything I own if you will come and receive me."

Lucius ran to help him. Artorius then threw himself onto Lucius and survived the fall. Lucius, struck with great force against the stone pavement by Artorius's weight, died at once.

This tragic event saddened the Romans for a time. It also made them more careful in the future. Until then, their unfamiliarity with the area and with the character of its inhabitants had allowed the Jews to deceive them and cause great harm.

The cloister burned as far as John's tower, which John had built during his war with Simon above the gates leading to the Xystus. After killing the soldiers who had climbed onto it, the Jews cut off the remaining part of the cloister from the temple.

The following day, the Romans burned the entire northern cloister as far as the eastern cloister. The two structures met at an angle above the valley called Cedron, where the ground below was terribly deep. This was the condition of the temple at that time.

3

The number of people who died from hunger in the city was enormous, and the suffering they endured cannot easily be described. If even the slightest trace of food appeared anywhere, fighting began at once. The closest friends attacked one another over the weakest support for life, each trying to snatch it from the other.

The robbers didn't believe that dying people had no food. They searched them as they lay at the point of death, fearing that someone might have hidden food inside his clothing and pretended to be dying. These robbers were starving themselves. They stumbled through the streets like mad dogs and reeled against the doors of houses like drunk men. In their desperation, they sometimes rushed into the same houses two or three times in a single day.

Hunger became so unbearable that people chewed almost anything. They collected things that even the dirtiest animals would refuse to eat. In time, they stopped sparing their belts and shoes. They tore the leather from their shields and gnawed on it. Some ate old pieces of hay. Others collected plant fibers and sold a tiny amount of them for four Attic drachmae.

Why should I describe the disgraceful things famine drove people to eat when I am about to tell of an event unlike anything recorded in history, whether among Greeks or barbarians? It is terrible to speak of and almost impossible to believe when heard. I would gladly have left this disaster unmentioned so that future generations would not think I had invented such a monstrous story. Yet I have countless witnesses who are still alive, and my country would have little reason to thank me if I hid the suffering it endured at that time.

4

A woman named Mary lived beyond the Jordan. Her father was Eleazar, who came from the village of Bethezob, a name that means "the house of Hyssop." She belonged to a distinguished family and had considerable wealth. Like many others, she fled to Jerusalem and was trapped there during the siege.

The guards had already seized everything she had brought from Perea into the city. They also took whatever valuables she had stored and all the food she had managed to save. Every day, the greedy guards ran to her house and carried away whatever they could find.

Mary became furious. She repeatedly cursed and insulted these thieves, and her words made them angry with her. Still, none of them killed her, either because of the anger she had stirred up or because they felt some pity for her condition.

Whenever she found food, she saw that it benefited other people rather than herself. Now she could no longer find anything to eat. Hunger tore through her body, and her anger became stronger than her hunger. She thought of nothing except her rage and the desperate condition around her.

Then she did something completely unnatural. She took her nursing child in her arms and said:

"O miserable child, for whom should I preserve you in this war, this famine, and this rebellion? If the Romans spare our lives, we will become slaves. Hunger will destroy us before slavery reaches us. Yet these rebels are more frightening than both war and famine.

"Come, then. Be my food. Become a punishment for these rebels and a warning to the whole world. That is the only thing still missing from the disasters that have fallen upon the Jewish people."

After saying this, she killed her son. She roasted him, ate half of his body, and hid the rest.

The rebels soon entered her house. When they smelled the awful food, they threatened to cut her throat if she did not show them what she had prepared. Mary answered that she had saved an excellent portion for them. Then she uncovered the remains of her son.

The rebels were seized with horror. They stood speechless at the sight. Mary said to them:

"This is my own son, and I did this myself. Come and eat this food. I have eaten it already. Don't pretend to be more tender than a woman or more compassionate than a mother. If you are too disgusted to share my sacrifice, then leave the rest for me, since I have already eaten half of it."

The men left trembling. Nothing had ever frightened them as much as what they had seen. Even so, they struggled to leave the remaining flesh with the mother.

News of this terrible act quickly spread throughout the city. Everyone imagined the misery before his own eyes and trembled as if he had suffered it himself. Those who were trapped by famine longed for death, while the dead were considered fortunate because they had not lived long enough to see or hear such horrors.

5

The Romans soon heard what had happened. Some refused to believe it, while others felt pity for the suffering of the Jews. Many, however, were driven to hate our people more bitterly than before.

Caesar defended himself before God concerning this disaster. He said that he had offered the Jews peace, freedom, and forgiveness for all their earlier insults. They had chosen rebellion instead of agreement, war instead of peace, and famine instead of abundance.

He said they had set fire to the temple with their own hands, even though the Romans had preserved it until then. For that reason, he said, they deserved to eat food such as this. Yet the horrible act of a mother eating her own child should be buried beneath the destruction of the entire country. No city where mothers were forced to eat their children should remain under the sun.

Caesar added that such food was more fitting for the fathers than for the mothers, since the men continued their war against Rome even after suffering such misery. As he spoke, he considered the desperate condition of these people. He could not expect them to return to clear judgment after enduring suffering so great that they might once have repented simply to avoid it.

CHAPTER 4

When the Banks Were Finished and the Battering Rams Failed, Titus Ordered the Temple Gates Set on Fire, and Before Long the Holy House Was Burned Down Against His Will

1

By the eighth day of the month Lous, which the Jews call Ab, two of the Roman legions had finished building their banks. Titus then ordered the battering rams to be brought forward and placed against the western side of the inner temple.

Before this, the Romans had used their strongest engines against the wall for six full days without making any progress. The stones were so large and so firmly joined that they resisted that engine and every battering ram the Romans brought against them.

Other Roman soldiers tried to undermine the foundations of the northern gate. After enormous effort, they removed the outer stones, but the gate remained standing because of the inner stones. It was still unbroken.

When the soldiers realized that their engines and iron hooks were useless, they brought ladders to the cloisters. The Jews did not stop them at first. But once the Romans had climbed up, the Jews attacked them. Some Romans were pushed from the top and thrown headfirst to the ground. Others were met and killed. Many who began climbing back down the ladders were struck down with swords before they could raise their shields for protection.

The Jews also pushed some ladders away while they were filled with armed soldiers. Many Jews were killed during the same fight, because the Romans carrying their standards fought fiercely to protect them. They believed it would bring great shame if the standards were captured.

In the end, the Jews took control of the Roman engines and killed the men who had climbed the ladders. The other Romans were so frightened by the deaths of their companions that they withdrew. Still, none of the Romans who died had gone down without first doing great damage to the enemy.

Among the rebels, the men who had fought bravely in earlier battles fought just as fiercely now. Eleazar, the nephew of Simon the tyrant, also distinguished himself.

When Titus saw that his effort to spare the foreign temple was causing harm to his soldiers, he ordered the gates to be set on fire.

2

At that time, Ananus of Emmaus deserted to Titus. He had been the most violent of Simon's guards. Archelaus, the son of Magadatus, came with him. They hoped they would be forgiven because they had left the Jews while the Jews still held the advantage.

Titus accused them of using their desertion as a clever trick. He had also been told about the cruel things they had done to the Jews, and he was ready to have both men killed. He told them that they had deserted only because their situation had become desperate. They had not come over willingly. Men like them, he said, did not deserve to be spared, since they had already set their own city on fire and were now running away from those flames.

Still, Titus had promised protection to deserters. That promise overcame his anger, so he dismissed them. He did not give them all the privileges that he had granted to the others who had deserted.

By then, the soldiers had set fire to the gates. The silver covering them quickly carried the flames to the wood beneath. From there, the fire suddenly spread to the cloisters.

When the Jews saw the fire surrounding them, their courage failed along with their strength. They were so shocked that none of them hurried to defend himself or put out the flames. They simply stood there, silent spectators.

Yet the destruction did not make them wiser. They were not so troubled by the loss of what was already burning that they changed their course. Instead, they became even more furious at the Romans, as if the holy house itself had already been destroyed.

The fire continued through that day and the next. The soldiers could not burn all the surrounding cloisters at once, so they set fire to them one section at a time.

3

The next day, Titus ordered part of his army to put out the fire and clear a road so the legions could advance more easily. He then called the commanders together.

Six senior officers attended the meeting: Tiberius Alexander, commander under the general of the whole army; Sextus Cerealis, commander of the Fifth Legion; Larcius Lepidus, commander of the Tenth Legion; and Titus Frigius, commander of the Fifteenth Legion. Eternius, commander of the two legions that had come from Alexandria, was also there, along with Marcus Antonius Julianus, the procurator of Judea. The remaining procurators and tribunes joined them afterward.

Titus asked them for advice about what should be done with the holy house.

Some believed they should follow the laws of war and destroy it. They argued that the Jews would never stop rebelling as long as the temple stood, because it was the place where they gathered together.

Others said that Titus should spare it if the Jews left and laid down their weapons. But if they climbed onto the temple and continued fighting, he could burn it. In that case, they said, it should be treated as a fortress rather than a holy house. The blame for its destruction would belong to the Jews who forced the Romans to burn it, not to the Romans themselves.

Titus answered:

"Even if the Jews climb onto the holy house and fight us from there, we should not take revenge on lifeless buildings instead of the men themselves. I will not burn such a magnificent structure. If it remains standing, it will be an ornament to Roman rule. Destroying it would also harm the Romans."

Fronto, Alexander, and Cerealis were encouraged by this statement and agreed with Titus. The council then ended.

Titus ordered the commanders to keep the rest of the army in place and to use only the bravest soldiers for the attack. He also commanded a selected group from the cohorts to clear a path through the ruins and put out the flames.

4

On that day, the Jews were exhausted and terrified, so they made no attack. The next day, however, they gathered their entire force and boldly charged the soldiers guarding the outer court of the temple. They came through the eastern gate at about the second hour of the day.

The Roman guards met the attack with great courage. They held their shields in front of them like a wall and packed their ranks tightly together. Still, it was clear they could not hold their position for long. The large number of Jews rushing against them, along with the Jews' fierce anger, would soon overwhelm them.

From the tower of Antonia, Caesar saw that the Roman formation was about to give way. He sent a group of selected cavalrymen to support it.

The Jews could not withstand the cavalry's attack. Many of those in the front ranks were killed, and the rest began to flee. But when the Romans started to withdraw, the Jews turned and attacked them. Whenever the Romans returned to fight, the Jews pulled back again.

This continued until about the fifth hour of the day, when the Romans were finally forced back and shut themselves inside the inner court of the temple.

5

Titus withdrew to the tower of Antonia. He planned to storm the temple early the next morning with his entire army and surround the holy house.

But the holy house had already been condemned to the flames by God, and the appointed day had come. It was the tenth day of the month Lous, or Ab, the same day on which the temple had once been burned by the king of Babylon.

This time, the fire began with the Jews themselves and was caused by their own actions.

After Titus withdrew, the rebels rested for a short time. Then they attacked the Romans again. The Jews guarding the holy house fought the soldiers who were trying to put out the fire in the inner court of the temple.

The Romans drove the Jews back and advanced as far as the holy house itself. Then one of the Roman soldiers acted without waiting for orders. He showed no fear or concern at the seriousness of what he was about to do. Driven by what seemed like divine madness, he grabbed a burning piece of wood. Another soldier lifted him up, and he set fire to a golden window that opened into the rooms surrounding the holy house on its northern side.

When the flames rose, the Jews cried out loudly, as such a terrible disaster required, and rushed together to stop the fire. They no longer cared about their own lives. Nothing held them back. The holy house was being destroyed, and they had guarded it for that very reason.

6

A man ran to Titus and told him about the fire while Titus was resting in his tent after the battle. Titus immediately rose and hurried to the holy house, hoping to stop the flames.

All his commanders followed him, and the legions came after them in great confusion. A loud cry and disorder spread through the army, as would be expected when so many soldiers moved at once.

Titus shouted to the soldiers who were fighting and signaled with his right hand, ordering them to put out the fire. They did not hear him. Their ears were overwhelmed by an even louder noise coming from another direction. They also failed to notice his signal because some were still fighting and others were consumed by anger.

The legions that came rushing into the temple could not be controlled by either commands or threats. Each soldier's passion became his commander. As they pressed into the temple, many were trampled by their own men. Others fell among the ruins of the cloisters, which were still hot and smoking, and died in the same miserable way as the people they had defeated.

When the soldiers reached the holy house, they acted as if they could not hear Titus ordering them to stop. Instead, they urged the men ahead of them to set the building on fire.

The rebels were already in too much trouble to help put out the flames. They were being killed and beaten everywhere. Many ordinary people were weak and unarmed, and the Romans cut their throats wherever they found them.

Dead bodies lay piled around the altar. Blood ran down the steps leading up to it, and the bodies of those killed above fell from the altar into the same place.

7

Titus could not restrain the soldiers' furious excitement, and the fire kept spreading. He entered the holy place of the temple with his commanders and saw the building and everything inside it.

What he saw was greater than the descriptions given by foreigners. It was also equal to, and even greater than, the glory that the Jews themselves had claimed for it.

The flames had not yet reached the inner parts of the holy house. They were still consuming the rooms around it. Titus believed the main building could still be saved, so he hurried back and tried to persuade the soldiers to put out the fire.

He ordered Liberalius the centurion, along with one of the spearmen who stood near him, to strike the disobedient soldiers with their staffs and hold them back.

But the soldiers' passions were stronger than their respect for Caesar and their fear of disobeying him. Their hatred of the Jews was just as strong. So was their desire to keep fighting.

Many were also driven by the hope of plunder. They believed the rooms inside were filled with money, and they could see that the building was covered with gold.

While Titus was rushing out to stop the soldiers, one of the men who had entered the holy place acted before him. In the darkness, he threw fire onto the hinges of the gate. The flames immediately burst out from inside the holy house.

The commanders withdrew, and Titus went with them. No one could stop the soldiers outside from setting the building on fire.

In this way, the holy house was burned down without Titus's approval.

8

Anyone could rightly mourn the destruction of such a building. It was the most impressive work anyone had seen or heard of, both because of its remarkable design and its enormous size. Great wealth had been spent on it, and it was famous for its holiness.

Still, a person could find some comfort in the thought that fate had decided it would be destroyed. Fate cannot be escaped, whether it concerns living creatures, buildings, or places.

The timing of this destruction is also striking. As I said earlier, the temple was burned on the same month and day when the Babylonians had destroyed it in the past.

From the first foundation laid by King Solomon until this destruction, which took place in the second year of Vespasian's reign, 1,130 years, seven months, and fifteen days had passed.

From the temple's second construction, completed by Haggai in the second year of King Cyrus, until its destruction under Vespasian, 639 years and forty-five days had passed.

CHAPTER 5

The Great Distress of the Jews After the Burning of the Holy House, Concerning a False Prophet and the Signs That Came Before the Destruction

1

While the holy house was burning, the Romans plundered everything they found. They killed ten thousand people who were captured. They showed no mercy because of age and no respect for rank or office. Children, old men, common people, and priests were all killed alike. The war swept through every kind of person and brought them to ruin, whether they begged for their lives or fought back in their own defense.

The flames spread a long way and produced a great echo, joined by the groans of those being killed. Because the hill was high and the temple buildings were so large, anyone watching might have thought the entire city was on fire. Nothing greater or more terrible than that noise could be imagined. The Roman legions shouted as they marched together, while the rebels, surrounded by fire and the sword, cried out in grief. Those still above were driven back toward the enemy in great fear and lamented the disaster that had fallen upon them. The people remaining in the city added their cries to those coming from the hill.

Many who had been weakened by famine, and whose mouths were almost too dry to speak, found new strength when they saw the holy house burning. They broke into groans and cries once again. Pera returned the sound, as did the mountains around the city, making the whole uproar even louder.

Yet the misery itself was worse than the confusion and noise. The temple hill seemed to boil with fire on every side. There appeared to be more blood than flame, and more dead than living soldiers. The ground could not be seen because it was covered with bodies. As the soldiers ran after those who fled, they crossed over piles of the dead.

At this point, the great number of robbers were driven out of the inner court of the temple by the Romans. They struggled to reach the outer court and then escape into the city. The rest of the people fled into the cloister of that outer court.

Some of the priests tore the spikes from the holy house, along with their lead bases, and threw them at the Romans as if they were spears. When this did them no good and the fire began to surround them, they withdrew to the wall, which was eight cubits wide, and remained there. Two important men among them could have saved themselves by surrendering to the Romans, or they could have stayed and shared the fate of the others. Instead, they threw themselves into the fire and were burned with the holy house. Their names were Meirus, son of Belgas, and Joseph, son of Daleus.

2

The Romans now decided that there was no reason to spare the buildings around the holy house. They burned those places, along with the remaining cloisters and the gates, except for two. One stood on the east side and the other on the south side, but these were burned later as well.

They also burned the treasury chambers. These rooms held an enormous amount of money, along with countless garments and other valuable goods. In short, the entire wealth of the Jews had been gathered there. The rich had built chambers in that place to store their possessions.

The soldiers then went to the remaining cloisters in the outer court of the temple. Women, children, and a large mixed crowd of people had fled there, numbering about six thousand. Before Caesar could decide what should be done with them, or give the commanders any orders, the soldiers became so enraged that they set the cloister on fire.

Some of the people threw themselves headlong from the building and were killed. Others burned inside the cloisters. Not one of them survived.

A false prophet had caused these people to gather there. That very day, he had publicly announced in the city that God commanded them to climb up to the temple, where they would receive miraculous signs of deliverance.

At that time, the tyrants had arranged for many false prophets to deceive the people. These men told them to wait for deliverance from God. Their purpose was to keep the people from deserting and to lift them above fear and worry with promises of rescue. A person in trouble is easily persuaded by such promises. When a deceiver convinces someone that he will be saved from the suffering pressing upon him, that person begins to hope for the promised deliverance.

3

The unfortunate people were persuaded by these deceivers, who falsely claimed to speak for God. They paid no attention to the clear signs that foretold the destruction coming upon them. Like people who had lost both their sight and their understanding, they ignored the warnings God had given them.

A star shaped like a sword appeared over the city, and a comet remained visible for an entire year. Before the Jewish rebellion, and before the unrest that led to the war, the people had gathered in great numbers for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, or Nisan, at the ninth hour of the night, a great light shone around the altar and the holy house. It was so bright that it looked like daylight, and it continued for half an hour.

The uneducated took this light as a good sign. The sacred scribes understood it as a warning of the events that soon followed.

During the same festival, a heifer was being led by the high priest to be sacrificed when it gave birth to a lamb in the middle of the temple.

The eastern gate of the inner court of the temple was made of bronze and was extremely heavy. Twenty men had difficulty closing it. It rested on an iron-covered base, and its bolts were set deep into the solid floor, which had been made from one enormous stone. Yet this gate was seen opening by itself around the sixth hour of the night.

The temple guards ran to the captain and told him what had happened. He came to the gate and, with great difficulty, managed to close it again. The common people considered this a happy sign, as though God were opening the gate of blessing for them. The learned men understood it differently. They believed that the protection of the holy house had opened by itself and that the gate had been opened for the benefit of the enemies. They publicly declared that the sign foretold the destruction about to come upon them.

A few days after the festival, on the twenty-first day of the month Artemisius, or Jyar, another strange and unbelievable event appeared. The story might seem like a fable if it had not been reported by those who saw it, and if the events that followed had not been so serious that such signs deserved attention. Before sunset, chariots and troops of soldiers in armor were seen moving among the clouds and surrounding the cities.

At the festival called Pentecost, the priests went into the inner court of the temple at night, as they regularly did, to perform their sacred duties. They said that they first felt the ground shake. Then they heard a loud noise, followed by a sound like that of a great crowd saying, "Let us leave this place."

There was also a man named Jesus, the son of Ananus. He was a common laborer and a farmer. Four years before the war began, when the city was enjoying great peace and prosperity, he came to the festival at which it was customary for everyone to build shelters for God in the temple. He suddenly began to cry out:

"A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!"

He repeated these words as he walked through every street of the city, day and night.

Some of the most respected people among the citizens became furious at his terrible cry. They seized him and beat him severely. He said nothing in his own defense, nor did he speak differently to those who punished him. He continued to repeat the same words.

The rulers concluded that, as the event showed, the man was suffering from some kind of divine madness. They brought him before the Roman procurator, who had him whipped until his bones could be seen. Jesus did not beg for mercy or shed a tear. Instead, he changed his voice into the most mournful tone possible, and after every stroke of the whip he cried, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!"

Albinus, who was then the procurator, asked him who he was, where he came from, and why he spoke those words. The man gave no answer. He continued his sad song until Albinus decided that he was insane and ordered him released.

Throughout the time before the war, Jesus did not approach any citizen, and no one saw him speaking to anyone. Every day he repeated the same mournful words, as though he had made them his vow: "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!"

He never cursed those who beat him each day, and he never thanked those who gave him food. His answer to everyone was the same. His words were a sorrowful warning of what was coming.

He cried out loudest during the festivals. For seven years and five months, he continued this song without becoming hoarse or growing tired. He stopped only when his warning came true during the siege.

As he walked along the wall, he cried out with all his strength, "Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house!" Then he added, "Woe, woe to myself also!"

At that moment, a stone fired from one of the engines struck him and killed him. He died while speaking the very warning he had repeated for so long.

4

Anyone who considers these events will see that God cares for humanity and gives people warnings in every possible way about what could preserve them. Yet people often bring disaster upon themselves through their own foolish choices.

The Jews had destroyed the tower of Antonia, making the temple area square on every side. At the same time, their sacred writings said that their city and holy house would be captured when the temple became four-square.

What encouraged them most to begin the war was another unclear prophecy found in their sacred writings. It said that, around that time, someone from their own country would become ruler of the inhabited world.

The Jews believed this prediction referred to their own nation, and many wise men were misled by it. In fact, the prophecy referred to Vespasian, who was appointed emperor while he was in Judea.

People cannot escape fate, even when they see its signs ahead of time. The Jews interpreted some of the warnings according to their own wishes and completely ignored others. Their madness became clear when their city was captured and they themselves were destroyed.

CHAPTER 6

How the Romans Carried Their Standards to the Temple and Proclaimed Titus Emperor; Titus's Speech to the Jews When They Asked for Mercy; Their Reply and the Anger It Stirred in Titus

1

After the rebels fled into the city and the holy house itself, along with all the buildings around it, had been burned, the Romans carried their standards to the temple. They set them opposite the eastern gate, offered sacrifices to them, and proclaimed Titus emperor with the loudest cries of joy.

The soldiers had gathered so much plunder that gold in Syria sold for only half of what it had been worth before.

Some priests were still holding their position on the wall of the holy house. One young boy was suffering from great thirst. He asked several Roman guards to give him their right hands as a pledge that his life would be safe, and he admitted that he was thirsty.

The guards felt sorry for him because of his age and his suffering, so they gave him the pledge he requested. The boy came down, drank some water, filled the container he had brought with him, and then ran away to his own people. None of the guards could catch him, though they called him a traitor.

The boy answered them:

"I haven't broken our agreement. You gave me your pledge so that I could come down safely and get some water, not so that I would remain with you. I have done both of those things, so I have kept my word."

The guards had been tricked by the boy, but they admired his cleverness because of his young age.

Five days later, the priests, who had been weakened by hunger, came down from the wall. The guards brought them before Titus, and they begged him to spare their lives. Titus answered that the time for pardon had passed. The holy house, which was the only reason they might have hoped to be spared, had been destroyed. Since they were priests, it was fitting that they should die with the house to which they belonged.

He then ordered them to be executed.

2

The tyrants and those who stood with them saw that they were surrounded on every side and had no way to escape. They asked to speak with Titus.

Titus was naturally merciful, and he wanted to save the city from further destruction. His friends also believed that the rebels might finally be willing to surrender. So Titus took his position on the western side of the outer court of the temple. Gates stood there above the Xystus, along with a bridge that connected the upper city with the temple.

That bridge divided the rebels from Caesar. The Jews stood on one side, and the Romans stood on the other. The Jews around Simon and John hoped that Titus would pardon them. The Romans stood near Caesar, waiting to hear how he would answer their request.

Titus ordered his soldiers to control their anger and keep their weapons lowered. He also appointed an interpreter between the two sides. This showed that he was the conqueror. Titus began the discussion and said:

"I hope you are now satisfied with the suffering you have brought upon your country. You refused to understand either our great power or your own weakness. Like madmen, you made reckless attempts that destroyed your people, your city, and your holy house.

"You have rebelled ever since Pompey first conquered you. Since that time, you have repeatedly made war against the Romans. Did you trust in your numbers, even though a small part of the Roman army was enough to defeat you? Did you depend on the loyalty of your allies? What nation outside our empire would choose to help the Jews instead of the Romans?

"Are your bodies stronger than ours? You know that even the powerful Germans are subject to us. Do you have walls stronger than ours? What greater barrier is there than the ocean surrounding Britain? Yet even the Britons submit to Roman arms.

"Do you think you are braver or that your commanders are wiser? You know that we conquered the Carthaginians, and they were no less powerful than you.

"There can be only one reason you dared to rise against us. You mistook Roman kindness for weakness. We gave you this land to possess. We appointed kings from among your own people. We preserved the laws of your ancestors and allowed you to live either by yourselves or among other nations, as you preferred.

"Our greatest favor was allowing you to collect the tribute given to God, along with the other gifts dedicated to him. We never demanded an account from those who carried these offerings, and we never prevented them from bringing them. In time, you became richer than we were, even though you were our subjects. You used our own money to prepare for war against us.

"After receiving all these benefits, you turned your abundance against the people who had given it to you. Like cruel snakes, you released your poison against those who had treated you kindly.

"You must have despised Nero's weakness. Like a broken or dislocated limb, you remained still for a time, waiting for another opportunity, while secretly holding on to your hatred. Now you have shown that your sickness was worse than ever. You stretched your hopes as far as your shameless ambition could take them.

"When my father first came to this country, he didn't come to punish you for what you had done under Cestius. He came to warn you. If he had wanted to destroy your nation, he would have marched straight to its source and immediately laid this city waste. Instead, he burned Galilee and the surrounding country, giving you time to repent.

"You took his mercy as proof of weakness and became even more shameless because we had treated you gently. After Nero died, you acted as the worst criminals would have acted. You encouraged yourselves to fight us because of the disputes within our government. While my father and I were away in Egypt, you used the opportunity to prepare for war.

"You weren't ashamed to rebel against us after we became emperors, even though you had already learned how gently we had treated you when we were only generals. Once power came to us, every other nation remained at peace. Foreign peoples even sent ambassadors to congratulate us on becoming rulers. Yet you Jews showed yourselves to be our enemies.

"You sent messengers to your people beyond the Euphrates and asked them to help you cause trouble. You built new walls around your city. Rebellion spread among you. One tyrant fought another, and civil war broke out. Such disorder was fitting for a people as wicked as you.

"I came to this city against my wishes because my father ordered me to come, and he gave me a painful task. When I heard that the people wanted peace, I was glad. Before beginning the war, I urged you to stop your rebellion. Even after you had fought against me for a long time, I continued to spare you.

"I gave my right hand as a pledge to those who deserted you, and I kept every promise I made. When they came over to me, I showed mercy to many of those I captured. I punished only those who were determined to keep fighting, so that their example would restrain the others.

"I brought my war machines against your walls only because I had no other choice. Whenever my soldiers were ready to kill you, I ordered them to hold back. After every victory, I urged you to make peace, as though I had been the one defeated.

"When I came near your temple, I again set aside the usual laws of war. I urged you to spare your own sanctuary and preserve the holy house for yourselves. I offered you a safe way out and promised to protect your lives. If you wished to continue fighting, I even allowed you to fight somewhere else.

"Still, you rejected every offer. You set fire to your holy house with your own hands.

"And now, wretched men, do you want to negotiate with me? Why are you trying to save a holy house that has already been destroyed? What protection can you ask for after the temple is gone?

"Yet you are still standing here in armor. You can't even bring yourselves to pretend that you are asking for mercy, though you have reached the worst possible end.

"Unfortunate men, what are you relying on? Are your people not dead? Is your holy house not gone? Is your city not in my power? Aren't your own lives in my hands? Do you still think it is brave to die?

"I won't imitate your madness. Throw down your weapons and surrender yourselves to me, and I will spare your lives. I will act as a merciful master toward a household. Those who cannot be healed will be punished, and I will preserve the rest for my own use."

3

The rebels answered Titus that they couldn't accept his offer because they had sworn never to surrender. They asked for permission to pass through the wall that surrounded them with their wives and children. They promised to go into the desert and leave the city to him.

Titus was furious. They were already in the position of captured men, yet they acted as if they had defeated him and could set their own conditions.

He ordered a proclamation to be made:

"Don't come out to me as deserters anymore, and don't expect any further protection. From this point forward, I will spare no one. I will fight you with my whole army. Save yourselves as best you can, because I will now treat you according to the laws of war."

Titus then ordered the soldiers to burn and plunder the city. They did nothing that day, but the next day they set fire to the archive buildings, Acra, the council house, and the place called Ophlas.

The fire reached the palace of Queen Helena, which stood in the middle of Acra. The surrounding lanes also burned, along with the houses filled with the bodies of those who had died from hunger.

4

That same day, the sons and relatives of King Izates, along with many other important men from the people, gathered together and begged Caesar to give them his right hand as a pledge of safety.

Titus was angry with everyone who still remained, but he didn't abandon his former mercy. He accepted these men. At first, he kept them all under guard. Later, he bound the king's sons and relatives and took them with him to Rome, where they would serve as hostages for their country's loyalty to the Romans.

CHAPTER 7

What Happened to the Rebels After They Had Caused Great Destruction and Suffered Many Disasters, and How Caesar Took Control of the Upper City

1

The rebels now stormed the royal palace. Many people had stored their belongings there because the palace was strongly fortified. The rebels drove the Romans out, killed everyone who had taken refuge inside, about 8,400 people, and seized everything they owned.

They also captured two Roman soldiers, one cavalryman and one infantryman. They cut the infantryman's throat and dragged his body through the entire city, as if this single act could avenge them against all the Romans. The cavalryman told them he had something to say that might help save them. They brought him before Simon, but when he stood there, he had nothing to say. Simon handed him over to Ardalas, one of his commanders, to be punished.

Ardalas tied the man's hands behind his back, covered his eyes with a ribbon, and led him to a place facing the Roman army. He meant to cut off the man's head. But before he could carry out the execution, the prisoner escaped and ran toward the Romans, even as the Jewish executioner was drawing his sword.

Once the man reached safety, Titus refused to have him killed. Still, Titus believed he was no longer fit to serve as a Roman soldier because he had been captured alive by the enemy. So he took away the man's weapons and expelled him from his legion. To a man who felt shame, this punishment was worse than death.

2

The next day, the Romans drove the robbers out of the lower city and set fire to every part of it as far as Siloam. The soldiers were pleased to see the city burning, but they found little plunder. The rebels had already carried away everything of value and withdrawn into the upper city.

The rebels had no regret for the harm they had caused. They acted proudly, as if they had done something honorable. When they saw the city burning, they looked cheerful and even showed joy. They said they expected death to bring an end to their suffering.

The people had been killed, the holy house had been burned, and the city was on fire. Nothing remained for the enemy to do. Even then, Josephus didn't stop pleading with the rebels to spare what was left of the city. He spoke at length about their cruelty and their sin, and he advised them to find a way to save themselves. But his words gained nothing except their laughter.

They couldn't surrender because of the oath they had sworn. They also couldn't continue fighting the Romans in open battle because the Romans surrounded them on every side, and they were already almost prisoners. Yet they had grown so used to killing that they couldn't keep their hands from doing it.

They spread out through the city and hid among its ruins, waiting to ambush anyone who tried to escape to the Romans. They caught many people who attempted to flee and killed them all. Because these escapees had been weakened by hunger, they couldn't get away. The rebels threw their bodies to the dogs.

Every kind of death seemed easier to bear than starvation. Although the Jews no longer expected mercy, many still ran to the Romans. Some even chose to fall into the hands of the murderous rebels, believing that death there was better than dying of hunger.

No part of the city was free of corpses. Bodies covered every place where people had died from famine or rebellion. The whole city was filled with the dead, victims of both the revolt and the hunger that followed it.

 

3

The tyrants and the band of robbers with them now placed their last hope in the underground caves and passages. They believed that, if they could hide there, no one would find them. After the city had been destroyed and the Romans had left, they planned to come out and escape.

This hope was nothing more than a dream. They couldn't hide from God or from the Romans. Still, they trusted in these underground hiding places. They set more buildings on fire than the Romans did. When people escaped from those burning houses and ran into the ditches, the rebels killed them without mercy and took whatever they had.

Whenever the rebels found food that belonged to someone else, they seized it and swallowed it, even with the owner's blood still on it. By then, they had begun fighting one another over the things they had stolen. I believe that, if their destruction hadn't come first, their cruelty would eventually have led them to eat the dead bodies themselves.

CHAPTER 8

How Caesar Built Banks Around the Upper City [Mount Zion], Brought Up the Siege Engines, and Took the Entire City

1

Caesar saw that the upper city was so steep that it couldn't be captured unless banks were built against it. On the twentieth day of the month Lous [Ab], he divided the work among his army.

Moving the materials was difficult. As I explained earlier, every tree within a hundred furlongs of the city had already been cut down for the first set of banks. The four legions built their banks on the western side of the city, across from the royal palace. The auxiliary troops and the rest of the army built theirs at the Xystus. Their banks reached toward the bridge and the tower of Simon, which Simon had built as his own stronghold against John during their former conflict.

2

Around this time, the commanders of the Idumeans met in secret and discussed surrendering to the Romans. They sent five men to Titus and asked him to guarantee their safety. Titus believed that the tyrants might surrender if the Idumeans, who carried much of the burden of the war, were taken away from them. After some hesitation, he agreed to protect their lives and sent the five men back.

As the Idumeans prepared to leave, Simon discovered what was happening. He immediately killed the five men who had gone to Titus, seized their commanders, and threw them into prison. The most important of these prisoners was Jacob, the son of Sosas.

The rest of the Idumeans were confused because their commanders had been taken from them. Simon placed guards over them and strengthened the walls with a larger garrison. Even so, the guards couldn't stop the Idumeans from deserting. Many were killed, but even more escaped.

The Romans accepted them all. Titus had grown less strict about his earlier order to kill deserters, and the soldiers themselves were tired of killing them. They also hoped to make money by sparing their lives. The common people were left alone, but the rest of the Idumeans were sold, along with their wives and children. They were sold at very low prices because there were so many captives and so few buyers.

Titus had already announced that no deserter should come alone, but that each one should bring his family. Even so, he accepted those who arrived by themselves. He appointed men to examine the prisoners and separate those who might deserve punishment from the rest.

The number of people sold was enormous. More than forty thousand common people were spared, and Caesar allowed each of them to go wherever he wished.

3

At this time, one of the priests came out of the temple. His name was Jesus, the son of Thebuthus. Caesar had sworn that he would protect him if Jesus handed over certain treasures kept in the temple.

Jesus then brought Caesar two large golden lampstands from the wall of the holy house. They were like the lampstands that stood inside the temple. He also delivered tables, basins, and vessels made of solid gold, all of them very heavy.

He gave Titus the temple curtains, priestly garments, precious stones, and many other vessels used in the sacred worship. The temple treasurer, whose name was Phineas, was also captured. He showed Titus the priests' coats and belts, along with a large supply of purple and scarlet cloth stored for making the curtain.

Phineas also revealed a great amount of cinnamon, cassia, and other spices. These were mixed together and burned each day as incense to God. Many other treasures and sacred ornaments from the temple were handed over as well.

Because of everything he delivered, Jesus received the same pardon Titus had granted to those who deserted by their own choice.

4

The banks were finished on the seventh day of the month Gorpieus [Elul]. The work had taken eighteen days. The Romans then brought their siege engines against the wall.

The rebels were losing hope of saving the city. Some withdrew from the wall and went into the citadel. Others descended into the underground passages. Many still tried to resist the soldiers who brought the engines forward, but the Romans defeated them with their greater numbers and strength. More than anything else, the Romans kept working with confidence, while the Jews had grown discouraged and weak.

Once part of the wall had been smashed and several towers began to give way under the battering rams, the defenders fled. Terror seized the tyrants, far beyond what the situation itself seemed to require. Before the Romans had even crossed the breach, the tyrants were stunned and ready to run.

These men had once acted with great arrogance and cruelty. Now they were cast down and trembling. The change in them was so great that anyone who saw it would have felt pity, despite their wickedness.

They rushed toward the Roman wall surrounding the city. Their plan was to drive away its guards, break through, and escape. But they soon learned that the men who had once remained loyal to them had already fled wherever their terror had driven them.

Some of the fugitives reached them first and said that the entire western wall had fallen. Others claimed that the Romans had already entered the city. Still others said that the Romans were close and searching for them. These reports were born from fear, and fear made the tyrants believe what wasn't true.

They fell facedown and mourned their own foolishness. Their strength had been so broken that they couldn't flee.

Here, a person can see both God's power over these wicked men and the Romans' good fortune. The tyrants gave up the protection that their own strength had provided. They came down from the towers on their own, even though no army could have taken those towers by force. They could have been captured only through hunger.

The Romans had spent great effort attacking weaker walls, yet they gained these towers without using their engines against them. Three of the towers were so strong that no siege machine could have overcome them, as I explained earlier.

5

The tyrants abandoned the towers themselves, or rather, God drove them out. They fled to the valley below Siloam. After recovering from their first terror, they attacked the section of the Roman wall on that side.

Their courage had been crushed, and fear and suffering had broken their strength. They couldn't attack with enough force, so the guards drove them back. The tyrants scattered and descended into the underground passages.

The Romans were now masters of the walls. They placed their standards on the towers and shouted for joy over their victory. The end of the war had come more easily than its beginning. After reaching the final wall without losing a man, they could hardly believe what they saw. No one stood there to oppose them, and they wondered what this strange silence meant.

Then large groups of Romans entered the city's streets with their swords drawn. They killed everyone they found outside and set fire to the houses where the Jews had taken refuge. Everyone inside those houses died, and many other buildings were destroyed.

When the soldiers entered houses to plunder them, they found whole families lying dead. The upper rooms were filled with bodies, most of them people who had died from hunger. The soldiers were horrified by what they saw and left without taking anything.

They showed pity toward those who had already died in this way, but they showed no mercy to the living. They ran through everyone they encountered and filled the streets with corpses. So much blood flowed through the city that it put out the flames in many houses.

The killing stopped in the evening, but the fires continued to spread through the night. While everything was burning, the eighth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul] came upon Jerusalem.

Jerusalem had suffered countless disasters during the siege. If the city had enjoyed as much happiness from the beginning as it later suffered misery, it would have been the envy of the whole world. Yet no reason brought these terrible disasters upon it more than the generation of men who caused its destruction.

CHAPTER 9

The Orders Caesar Gave After Entering the City, the Number of Captives and Dead, and the Discovery of Those Who Hid in the Underground Caverns, Including the Tyrants Simon and John

1

When Titus entered the upper city, he was amazed by several of its strong places, especially the great towers that the tyrants had foolishly abandoned. He examined their enormous height, the size of the stones, the exact way the stones had been joined, and the remarkable width and length of the towers. Then he said to his friends:

"God was certainly helping us in this war. It was God who drove the Jews from these fortifications. What could human hands or machines have done against towers like these?"

Titus spoke in this way many times to those around him. He also freed the prisoners whom the tyrants had bound and left in their prisons. After he had destroyed the rest of the city and torn down its walls, he left these towers standing as reminders of his success. They had helped him capture a place that could not otherwise have been taken.

2

By this time, the soldiers were exhausted from killing, yet a huge number of people were still alive. Caesar ordered them to kill only those who were armed and resisted them. Everyone else was to be taken alive.

The soldiers did kill some old people and those who were too weak to fight. But they gathered the young men who were in their prime and might be useful to them, then shut them inside the court of the women in the temple. Caesar placed one of his freedmen and his friend Fronto in charge of them. Fronto was to decide each person's fate according to his conduct.

Fronto ordered the death of those who had taken part in the rebellion or had committed robbery, after others accused them of those crimes. From among the young men, he selected the tallest and most handsome to be displayed in the triumph. He bound the rest who were over seventeen years old and sent them to work in the mines of Egypt. Titus also sent many prisoners to the provinces as gifts, where they were later killed in the theaters by the sword or by wild animals. Those under seventeen were sold as slaves.

While Fronto was sorting through the prisoners, eleven thousand died from hunger. Some were denied food because their guards hated them. Others refused to eat even when food was offered. There were so many prisoners that there was not enough grain to feed them.

3

The total number of people taken captive during the entire war was ninety-seven thousand. The number who died during the siege was eleven hundred thousand. Most of the dead belonged to the same nation as the people of Jerusalem, but they had not lived in the city. They had come from all over the country for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then the Roman army suddenly surrounded them and shut them inside the city. The crowding first brought a deadly disease among them, and soon afterward famine killed even more.

That Jerusalem could hold such a vast number of people is clear from what happened when Cestius captured prisoners there. He wanted to show Nero how powerful the city was, since Nero had little respect for the Jewish nation. Cestius asked the chief priests to count the people, if it could be done.

At the Passover feast, the sacrifices were offered between the ninth and eleventh hours of the day. No fewer than ten people were assigned to each sacrifice, because no one was allowed to eat the Passover meal alone. Often, twenty people shared one sacrifice. The priests counted 256,500 sacrifices. If only ten people shared each one, the total came to 2,700,200 people who were ritually clean and allowed to take part.

People with leprosy or gonorrhea could not eat from the sacrifice. Neither could women during their monthly periods or anyone else considered unclean. Foreigners who came to worship were also forbidden to share in it.

4

This enormous crowd had gathered from distant places, but fate had now shut the whole nation inside the city as if it were a prison. The Roman army surrounded Jerusalem while it was packed with people. More died there than in any destruction ever brought upon the world by human beings or by God.

The Romans killed some, took others captive, and searched beneath the ground for those who had escaped. Whenever they discovered a hiding place, they broke through the earth and killed everyone they found. More than two thousand people were found dead in the underground passages. Some had killed themselves, some had killed one another, and most had died from hunger.

The smell of the bodies was so terrible that many who found them had to leave at once. Others were so eager to find treasure that they walked among the piles of corpses. Large amounts of money had been hidden in those caverns, and the hope of wealth made them willing to enter places no one else could bear.

Many prisoners whom the tyrants had locked away were also brought out. The tyrants did not stop their cruelty even at the very end. But God punished both of them in a way that matched their crimes.

John and his brothers were starving in the caverns. He begged the Romans to give him their right hand as a pledge of safety, the same mercy he had proudly refused to others many times before. Simon struggled against his misery for a long time, but at last he was forced to surrender, as will be told later. He was kept for the triumph and would then be put to death. John was condemned to life in prison.

After this, the Romans set fire to the outer parts of the city and burned them. They then tore down the city walls completely.

CHAPTER 10

Jerusalem Had Been Captured Five Times Before, but This Was the Second Time It Was Destroyed. A Brief History of the City

1. Jerusalem was captured in the second year of Vespasian's reign, on the eighth day of the month Gorpeius, which is called Elul by the Jews. Before this, the city had been taken five times, though this was only the second time it had been destroyed. Shishak, king of Egypt, captured it first. Antiochus took it after him, then Pompey, and later Sosius and Herod. Each of them conquered the city but left it standing.

Before all these rulers, however, the king of Babylon conquered Jerusalem and laid it waste, 1,468 years and six months after the city was first built. Its founder was a powerful man among the Canaanites. In our language, his name is Melchizedek, which means "Righteous King." He truly lived up to that name. He was the first priest of God there, built the first temple, and called the city Jerusalem. Before that, it was known as Salem.

David, king of the Jews, later drove out the Canaanites and settled his own people in the city. The Babylonians completely destroyed it 477 years and six months after David's reign began. From David, the first Jewish king to rule Jerusalem, until its destruction under Titus, 1,179 years had passed. From the city's first construction until its final destruction, 2,177 years had passed.

PREFACE

 

Book 1

 

Book 2

 

Book 3

 

Book 4

 

Book 5

 

Book 6

 

Book 7