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1. Now Caesar took this wall there on the fifth day after he
had taken the first; and when the Jews had fled from him, he
entered into it with a thousand armed men, and those of his
choice troops, and this at a place where were the
merchants of wool, the braziers, and the market for cloth, and
where the narrow streets led obliquely to the wall.
Wherefore, if Titus had either demolished a larger part of the
wall immediately, or had come in, and, according to the law of
war, had laid waste what was left, his victory would not, I
suppose, have been mixed with any loss to himself. But now, out
of the hope he had that he should make the
Jews ashamed of their obstinacy, by not being willing, when he
was able, to afflict them more than he needed to do, he did not
widen the breach of the wall, in order to make a safer retreat
upon occasion; for he did not think they would lay snares for him
that did them such a kindness. When
therefore he came in, he did not permit his soldiers to kill
any of those they caught, nor to set fire to their houses
neither; nay, he gave leave to the seditious, if they had a mind,
to fight without any harm to the people, and promised to restore
the people's effects to them; for he was very desirous to
preserve the city for his own sake, and the
temple for the sake of the city. As to the people, he had them
of a long time ready to comply with his proposals; but as to the
fighting men, this humanity of his seemed a mark of his weakness,
and they imagined that he made these
proposals because he was not able to take the rest of the city.
They also threatened death to the people, if they
should any one of them say a word about a surrender.
They moreover cut the throats of such as talked of a peace, and
then attacked those Romans that were come within the wall. Some
of them they met in the narrow streets, and
some they fought against from their houses, while they
made a sudden sally out at the upper gates, and assaulted such
Romans as were beyond the wall, till those that
guarded the wall were so aftrighted, that they leaped down from
their towers, and retired to their several camps: upon which a
great noise was made by the Romans that were
within, because they were encompassed round on every
side by their enemies; as also by them that were without,
because they were in fear for those that were left in the city.
Thus did the Jews grow more numerous perpetually,
and had great advantages over the Romans, by their full
knowledge of those narrow lanes; and they wounded a
great many of them, and fell upon them, and drove them
out of the city. Now these Romans were at present forced to
make the best resistance they could; for they were not able, in
great numbers, to get out at the breach in the wall, it was so
narrow. It is also probable that all those that were gotten
within had been cut to pieces, if Titus had not sent them
succors; for he ordered the archers to stand at the upper ends of
these narrow lakes, and he stood himself
where was the greatest multitude of his enemies, and with his
darts he put a stop to them; as with him did Domitius Sabinus
also, a valiant man, and one that in this battle appeared so to
be. Thus did Caesar continue to shoot darts at the Jews
continually, and to hinder them from coming
upon his men, and this until all his soldiers had retreated out
of the city.
2. And thus were the Romans driven out, after they had
possessed themselves of the second wall. Whereupon the
fighting men that were in the city were lifted up in their
minds, and were elevated upon this their good success,
and began to think that the Romans would never venture to come
into the city any more; and that if they kept within it
themselves, they should not be any more conquered. For
God had blinded their minds for the transgressions they
had been guilty of, nor could they see how much greater
forces the Romans had than those that were now expelled, no
more than they could discern how a famine was
creeping upon them; for hitherto they had fed themselves out of
the public miseries, and drank the blood of the city. But now
poverty had for a long time seized upon the better part, and a
great many had died already for want of
necessaries; although the seditious indeed supposed the
destruction of the people to be an easement to themselves; for
they desired that none others might be preserved but such as were
against a peace with the Romans, and were
resolved to live in opposition to them, and they were
pleased when the multitude of those of a contrary opinion were
consumed, as being then freed from a heavy burden.
And this was their disposition of mind with regard to those
that were within the city, while they covered themselves with
their armor, and prevented the Romans, when they
were trying to get into the city again, and made a wall of
their own bodies over against that part of the wall that was cast
down. Thus did they valiantly defend themselves for three days;
but on the fourth day they could not support themselves against
the vehement assaults of Titus but were compelled by force to fly
whither they had fled before; so he quietly possessed himself
again of that wall, and
demolished it entirely. And when he had put a garrison into the
towers that were on the south parts of the city, he
contrived how he might assault the third wall.
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