|
1. This advice pleased the Idumeans, and they ascended
through the city to the temple. The zealots were also in great
expectation of their coming, and earnestly waited for them. When
therefore these were entering, they also came boldly out of the
inner temple, and mixing themselves among the Idumeans, they
attacked the guards; and some of those that were upon the watch,
but were fallen asleep, they killed as they were asleep; but as
those that were now awakened made a cry, the whole multitude
arose, and in the amazement they were in caught hold of their
arms immediately, and betook themselves to their own defense; and
so long as they thought they were only the zealots who attacked
them, they went on boldly, as hoping to overpower them by their
numbers; but when they saw others pressing in upon them also,
they
perceived the Idumeans were got in; and the greatest part of
them laid aside their arms, together with their courage, and
betook themselves to lamentations. But some few of the
younger sort covered themselves with their armor, and
valiantly received the Idumeans, and for a while protected the
multitude of old men. Others, indeed, gave a signal to those that
were in the city of the calamities they were in; but when these
were also made sensible that the Idumeans were come in, none of
them durst come to their assistance, only they returned the
terrible echo of wailing, and lamented their misfortunes. A great
howling of the women was excited also, and every one of the
guards were in danger of being killed. The zealots also joined in
the shouts raised by the Idumeans; and the storm itself rendered
the cry more terrible; nor did the Idumeans spare any body; for
as they are naturally a most barbarous and bloody nation, and had
been distressed by the tempest, they made use of their weapons
against those that had shut the gates against them, and acted in
the same
manner as to those that supplicated for their lives, and to
those that fought them, insomuch that they ran through those with
their swords who desired them to remember the relation there was
between them, and begged of them to have regard to their common
temple. Now there was at present neither any place for flight,
nor any hope of preservation; but as they were driven one upon
another in heaps, so were they slain. Thus the greater part were
driven together by force, as there was now no place of
retirement, and the murderers were
upon them; and, having no other way, threw themselves down
headlong into the city; whereby, in my opinion, they
underwent a more miserable destruction than that which they
avoided, because that was a voluntary one. And now the
outer temple was all of it overflowed with blood; and that day,
as it came on, they saw eight thousand five hundred dead bodies
there.
2. But the rage of the Idumeans was not satiated by these
slaughters; but they now betook themselves to the city, and
plundered every house, and slew every one they met; and for the
other multitude, they esteemed it needless to go on with killing
them, but they sought for the high priests, and the generality
went with the greatest zeal against them; and as soon as they
caught them they slew them, and then standing upon their dead
bodies, in way of jest, upbraided Ananus with his kindness to the
people, and Jesus with his speech made to them from the wall.
Nay, they proceeded to that
degree of impiety, as to cast away their dead bodies without
burial, although the Jews used to take so much care of the burial
of men, that they took down those that were
condemned and crucified, and buried them before the going down
of the sun. I should not mistake if I said that the death of
Ananus was the beginning of the destruction of the city, and that
from this very day may be dated the overthrow of her wall, and
the ruin of her affairs, whereon they saw their high priest, and
the procurer of their preservation, slain in the midst of their
city. He was on other accounts also a venerable, and a very just
man; and besides the grandeur of that nobility, and dignity, and
honor of which he was
possessed, he had been a lover of a kind of parity, even with
regard to the meanest of the people; he was a prodigious lover of
liberty, and an admirer of a democracy in
government; and did ever prefer the public welfare before his
own advantage, and preferred peace above all things; for he was
thoroughly sensible that the Romans were not to be
conquered. He also foresaw that of necessity a war would
follow, and that unless the Jews made up matters with them very
dexterously, they would be destroyed; to say all in a word, if
Ananus had survived, they had certainly compounded matters; for
he was a shrewd man in speaking and persuading the people, and
had already gotten the mastery of those that opposed his designs,
or were for the war. And the Jews had then put abundance of
delays in the way of the Romans, if they had had such a general
as he was. Jesus was also joined with him; and although he was
inferior to him upon the
comparison, he was superior to the rest; and I cannot but think
that it was because God had doomed this city to
destruction, as a polluted city, and was resolved to purge his
sanctuary by fire, that he cut off these their great defenders
and well-wishers, while those that a little before had worn the
sacred garments, and had presided over the public worship; and
had been esteemed venerable by those that dwelt on the whole
habitable earth when they came into our city, were cast out
naked, and seen to be the food of dogs and wild beasts. And I
cannot but imagine that virtue itself groaned at these men's
case, and lamented that she was here so terribly
conquered by wickedness. And this at last was the end of Ananus
and Jesus.
3. Now after these were slain, the zealots and the multitude of
the Idumeans fell upon the people as upon a flock of
profane animals, and cut their throats; and for the ordinary
sort, they were destroyed in what place soever they caught them.
But for the noblemen and the youth, they first caught them and
bound them, and shut them up in prison, and put off their
slaughter, in hopes that some of them would turn over to their
party; but not one of them would comply with their desires, but
all of them preferred death before being enrolled among such
wicked wretches as acted against their own country. But this
refusal of theirs brought upon them terrible torments; for they
were so scourged and tortured, that their bodies were not able to
sustain their torments, till at length, and with difficulty, they
had the favor to be slain. Those whom they caught in the day time
were slain in the night, and then their bodies were carried out
and thrown away, that there might be room for other prisoners;
and the terror that was upon the people was so great, that no one
had courage enough either to weep openly for the dead man that
was related to him, or to bury him; but those that were shut up
in their own houses could only shed tears in secret, and durst
not even groan without great caution, lest any of their enemies
should hear them; for if they did, those that mourned for others
soon underwent the same death with
those whom they mourned for. Only in the night time they would
take up a little dust, and throw it upon their bodies; and even
some that were the most ready to expose
themselves to danger would do it in the day time: and there
were twelve thousand of the better sort who perished in this
manner.
4. And now these zealots and Idumeans were quite weary of
barely killing men, so they had the impudence of setting up
fictitious tribunals and judicatures for that purpose; and as
they intended to have Zacharias the son of Baruch, one of the
most eminent of the citizens, slain, so what
provoked them against him was, that hatred of wickedness and
love of liberty which were so eminent in him: he was also a rich
man, so that by taking him off, they did not only hope to seize
his effects, but also to get rid of a mall that had great power
to destroy them. So they called together, by a public
proclamation, seventy of the principal men of the populace, for a
show, as if they were real judges, while they had no proper
authority. Before these was Zacharias accused of a design to
betray their polity to the Romans, and having
traitorously sent to Vespasian for that purpose. Now there
appeared no proof or sign of what he was accused; but they
affirmed themselves that they were well persuaded that so it was,
and desired that such their affirmation might he taken for
sufficient evidence. Now when Zacharias clearly saw that there
was no way remaining for his escape from them, as
having been treacherously called before them, and then put in
prison, but not with any intention of a legal trial, he took
great liberty of speech in that despair of his life he was under.
Accordingly he stood up, and laughed at their
pretended accusation, and in a few words confuted the crimes
laid to his charge; after which he turned his speech to his
accusers, and went over distinctly all their transgressions of
the law, and made heavy lamentation upon the confusion
they had brought public affairs to: in the mean time, the
zealots grew tumultuous, and had much ado to abstain from drawing
their swords, although they designed to preserve the appearance
and show of judicature to the end. They were
also desirous, on other accounts, to try the judges, whether
they would be mindful of what was just at their own peril. Now
the seventy judges brought in their verdict that the person
accused was not guilty, as choosing rather to die themselves with
him, than to have his death laid at their doors; hereupon there
arose a great clamor of the zealots upon his acquittal, and they
all had indignation at the judges for not understanding that the
authority that was given them was but in jest. So two of the
boldest of them fell upon Zacharias in the middle of the temple,
and slew him; and as he fell down dead, they bantered him, and
said, "Thou hast also our verdict, and this will prove a more
sure acquittal to thee than the other." They also threw him down
from the
temple immediately into the valley beneath it. Moreover, they
struck the judges with the backs of their swords, by way of
abuse, and thrust them out of the court of the temple, and spared
their lives with no other design than that, when they were
dispersed among the people in the city, they might
become their messengers, to let them know they were no
better than slaves.
5. But by this time the Idumeans repented of their coming, and
were displeased at what had been done; and when they were
assembled together by one of the zealots, who had
come privately to them, he declared to them what a number of
wicked pranks they had themselves done in conjunction with those
that invited them, and gave a particular account of what
mischiefs had been done against their metropolis. He said that
they had taken arms, as though the high priests were betraying
their metropolis to the Romans, but had
found no indication of any such treachery; but that they had
succored those that had pretended to believe such a thing, while
they did themselves the works of war and tyranny, after an
insolent manner. It had been indeed their business to have
hindered them from such their proceedings at the first, but
seeing they had once been partners with them in shedding the
blood of their own countrymen, it was high time to put a stop to
such crimes, and not continue to afford any more assistance to
such as are subverting the laws of their
forefathers; for that if any had taken it ill that the gates
had been shut against them, and they had not been permitted to
come into the city, yet that those who had excluded them have
been punished, and Ananus is dead, and that almost all those
people had been destroyed in one night's time. That one may
perceive many of themselves now repenting for what they had done,
and might see the horrid barbarity of those that had invited
them, and that they had no regard to such as had saved them; that
they were so impudent as to perpetrate the vilest things, under
the eyes of those that had supported them, and that their wicked
actions would be laid to the charge of the Idumeans, and would be
so laid to their charge till somebody obstructs their
proceedings, or separates
himself from the same wicked action; that they therefore ought
to retire home, since the imputation of treason appears to be a
Calumny, and that there was no expectation of the coming of the
Romans at this time, and that the government of the city was
secured by such walls as cannot easily be thrown down; and, by
avoiding any further fellowship with these bad men, to make some
excuse for themselves, as to what they had been so far deluded,
as to have been partners with them hitherto.
|
|