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1. And now the seditious rushed into the royal palace, into which
many had put their effects, because it was so strong, and drove
the Romans away from it. They also slew all the people that had
crowded into it, who were in number about eight thousand four
hundred, and plundered them of what they had. They also took two
of the Romans alive; the one was a horseman, and the other a
footman. They then cut the throat of the footman, and immediately
had him drawn through the whole city, as revenging themselves
upon the whole body of the Romans by this one instance. But the
horseman said he had somewhat to suggest to them in order to
their preservation; whereupon he was brought before Simon; but he
having nothing to say when he was there, he was delivered to
Ardalas, one of his commanders, to be punished, who bound his
hands behind him, and put a riband over his eyes, and then
brought him out over against the Romans, as intending to cut off
his head. But the man prevented that execution, and ran away to
the Romans, and this while the Jewish executioner was drawing out
his sword. Now when he was gotten away from the enemy, Titus
could not think of putting him to death; but because he deemed
him unworthy of being a Roman soldier any longer, on account that
he had been taken alive by the enemy, he took away his arms, and
ejected him out of the legion whereto he had belonged; which, to
one that had a sense of shame, was a penalty severer than death
itself.
2. On the next day the Romans drove the robbers out of the lower
city, and set all on fire as far as Siloam. These soldiers were
indeed glad to see the city destroyed. But they missed the
plunder, because the seditious had carried off all their effects,
and were retired into the upper city; for they did not yet at all
repent of the mischiefs they had done, but were insolent, as if
they had done well; for, as they saw the city on fire, they
appeared cheerful, and put on joyful countenances, in
expectation, as they said, of death to end their miseries.
Accordingly, as the people were now slain, the holy house was
burnt down, and the city was on fire, there was nothing further
left for the enemy to do. Yet did not Josephus grow weary, even
in this utmost extremity, to beg of them to spare what was left
of the city; he spake largely to them about their barbarity and
impiety, and gave them his advice in order to their escape;
though he gained nothing thereby more than to be laughed at by
them; and as they could not think of surrendering themselves up,
because of the oath they had taken, nor were strong enough to
fight with the Romans any longer upon the square, as being
surrounded on all sides, and a kind of prisoners already, yet
were they so accustomed to kill people, that they could not
restrain their right hands from acting accordingly. So they
dispersed themselves before the city, and laid themselves in
ambush among its ruins, to catch those that attempted to desert
to the Romans; accordingly many such deserters were caught by
them, and were all slain; for these were too weak, by reason of
their want of food, to fly away from them; so their dead bodies
were thrown to the dogs. Now every other sort of death was
thought more tolerable than the famine, insomuch that, though the
Jews despaired now of mercy, yet would they fly to the Romans,
and would themselves, even of their own accord, fall among the
murderous rebels also. Nor was there any place in the city that
had no dead bodies in it, but what was entirely covered with
those that were killed either by the famine or the rebellion; and
all was full of the dead bodies of such as had perished, either
by that sedition or by that famine.
3. So now the last hope which supported the tyrants, and that
crew of robbers who were with them, was in the caves and caverns
under ground; whither, if they could once fly, they did not
expect to be searched for; but endeavored, that after the whole
city should be destroyed, and the Romans gone away, they might
come out again, and escape from them. This was no better than a
dream of theirs; for they were not able to lie hid either from
God or from the Romans. However, they depended on these
under-ground subterfuges, and set more places on fire than did
the Romans themselves; and those that fled out of their houses
thus set on fire into the ditches, they killed without mercy, and
pillaged them also; and if they discovered food belonging to any
one, they seized upon it and swallowed it down, together with
their blood also; nay, they were now come to fight one with
another about their plunder; and I cannot but think that, had not
their destruction prevented it, their barbarity would have made
them taste of even the
dead bodies themselves.
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