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1. And now two of the legions had completed their banks on the
eighth day of the month Lous [Ab]. Whereupon Titus gave orders
that the battering rams should be brought, and set over against
the western edifice of the inner temple; for before these were
brought, the firmest of all the other engines had battered the
wall for six days together without ceasing, without making any
impression upon it; but the vast largeness and strong connexion
of the stones were superior to that engine, and to the other
battering rams also. Other Romans did indeed undermine the
foundations of the northern gate, and after a world of pains
removed the outermost stones, yet was the gate still upheld by
the inner stones, and stood still unhurt; till the workmen,
despairing of all such attempts by engines and crows, brought
their ladders to the cloisters. Now the Jews did not interrupt
them in so doing; but when they were gotten up, they fell upon
them, and fought with them; some of them they thrust down, and
threw them backwards headlong; others of them they met and slew;
they also beat many of those that went down the ladders again,
and slew them with their swords before they could bring their
shields to protect them; nay, some of the ladders they threw down
from above when they were full of armed men; a great slaughter
was made of the Jews also at the same time, while those that bare
the ensigns fought hard for them, as deeming it a terrible thing,
and what would tend to their great shame, if they permitted them
to be stolen away. Yet did the Jews at length get possession of
these engines, and destroyed those that had gone up the ladders,
while the rest were so intimidated by what those suffered who
were slain, that they retired; although none of the Romans died
without having done good service before his death. Of the
seditious, those that had fought bravely in the former battles
did the like now, as besides them did Eleazar, the brother's son
of Simon the tyrant. But when Titus perceived that his endeavors
to spare a foreign temple turned to the damage of his soldiers,
and then be killed, he gave order to set the gates on fire.
2. In the mean time, there deserted to him Ananus, who came from
Emmaus, the most bloody of all Simon's guards, and Archelaus, the
son of Magadatus, they hoping to be still forgiven, because they
left the Jews at a time when they were the conquerors. Titus
objected this to these men, as a cunning trick of theirs; and as
he had been informed of their other barbarities towards the Jews,
he was going in all haste to have them both slain. He told them
that they were only driven to this desertion because of the
utmost distress they were in, and did not come away of their own
good disposition; and that those did not deserve to be preserved,
by whom their own city was already set on fire, out of which fire
they now hurried themselves away. However, the security he had
promised deserters overcame his resentments, and he dismissed
them accordingly, though he did not give them the same privileges
that he had afforded to others. And now the soldiers had already
put fire to the gates, and the silver that was over them quickly
carried the flames to the wood that was within it, whence it
spread itself all on the sudden, and caught hold on the
cloisters. Upon the Jews seeing this fire all about them, their
spirits sunk together with their bodies, and they were under such
astonishment, that not one of them made any haste, either to
defend himself or to quench the fire, but they stood as mute
spectators of it only. However, they did not so grieve at the
loss of what was now burning, as to grow wiser thereby for the
time to come; but as though the holy house itself had been on
fire already, they whetted their passions against the Romans.
This fire prevailed during that day and the next also; for the
soldiers were not able to burn all the cloisters that were round
about together at one time, but only by pieces.
3. But then, on the next day, Titus commanded part of his army to
quench the fire, and to make a road for the more easy marching up
of the legions, while he himself gathered the commanders
together. Of those there were assembled the six principal
persons: Tiberius Alexander, the commander [under the general] of
the whole army; with Sextus Cerealis, the commander of the fifth
legion; and Larcius Lepidus, the commander of the tenth legion;
and Titus Frigius, the commander of the fifteenth legion: there
was also with them Eternius, the leader of the two legions that
came from Alexandria; and Marcus Antonius Julianus, procurator of
Judea: after these came together all the rest of the procurators
and tribunes. Titus proposed to these that they should give him
their advice what should be done about the holy house. Now some
of these thought it would be the best way to act according to the
rules of war, [and demolish it,] because the Jews would never
leave off rebelling while that house was standing; at which house
it was that they used to get all together. Others of them were of
opinion, that in case the Jews would leave it, and none of them
would lay their arms up in it, he might save it; but that in case
they got upon it, and fought any more, he might burn it; because
it must then be looked upon not as a holy house, but as a
citadel; and that the impiety of burning it would then belong to
those that forced this to be done, and not to them. But Titus
said, that "although the Jews should get upon that holy house,
and fight us thence, yet ought we not to revenge ourselves on
things that are inanimate, instead of the men themselves;" and
that he was not in any case for burning down so vast a work as
that was, because this would be a mischief to the Romans
themselves, as it would be an ornament to their government while
it continued. So Fronto, and Alexander, and Cerealis grew bold
upon that declaration, and agreed to the opinion of Titus. Then
was this assembly dissolved, when Titus had given orders to the
commanders that the rest of their forces should lie still; but
that they should make use of such as were most courageous in this
attack. So he commanded that the chosen men that were taken out
of the cohorts should make their way through the ruins, and
quench the fire.
4. Now it is true that on this day the Jews were so weary, and
under such consternation, that they refrained from any attacks.
But on the next day they gathered their whole force together, and
ran upon those that guarded the outward court of the temple very
boldly, through the east gate, and this about the second hour of
the day. These guards received that their attack with great
bravery, and by covering themselves with their shields before, as
if it were with a wall, they drew their squadron close together;
yet was it evident that they could not abide there very long, but
would be overborne by the multitude of those that sallied out
upon them, and by the heat of their passion. However, Caesar
seeing, from the tower of Antonia, that this squadron was likely
to give way, he sent some chosen horsemen to support them.
Hereupon the Jews found themselves not able to sustain their
onset, and upon the slaughter of those in the forefront, many of
the rest were put to flight. But as the Romans were going off,
the Jews turned upon them, and fought them; and as those Romans
came back upon them, they retreated again, until about the fifth
hour of the day they were overborne, and shut themselves up in
the inner [court of the] temple.
5. So Titus retired into the tower of Antonia, and resolved to
storm the temple the next day, early in the morning, with his
whole army, and to encamp round about the holy house. But as for
that house, God had, for certain, long ago doomed it to the fire;
and now that fatal day was come, according to the revolution of
ages; it was the tenth day of the month Lous, [Ab,] upon which it
was formerly burnt by the king of Babylon; although these flames
took their rise from the Jews themselves, and were occasioned by
them; for upon Titus's retiring, the seditious lay still for a
little while, and then attacked the Romans again, when those that
guarded the holy house fought with those that quenched the fire
that was burning the inner [court of the] temple; but these
Romans put the Jews to flight, and proceeded as far as the holy
house itself. At which time one of the soldiers, without staying
for any orders, and without any concern or dread upon him at so
great an undertaking, and being hurried on by a certain divine
fury, snatched somewhat out of the materials that were on fire,
and being lifted up by another soldier, he set fire to a golden
window, through which there was a passage to the rooms that were
round about the holy house, on the north side of it. As the
flames went upward, the Jews made a great clamor, such as so
mighty an affliction required, and ran together to prevent it;
and now they spared not their lives any longer, nor suffered any
thing to restrain their force, since that holy house was
perishing, for whose sake it was that they kept such a guard
about it.
6. And now a certain person came running to Titus, and told him
of this fire, as he was resting himself in his tent after the
last battle; whereupon he rose up in great haste, and, as he was,
ran to the holy house, in order to have a stop put to the fire;
after him followed all his commanders, and after them followed
the several legions, in great astonishment; so there was a great
clamor and tumult raised, as was natural upon the disorderly
motion of so great an army. Then did Caesar, both by calling to
the soldiers that were fighting, with a loud voice, and by giving
a signal to them with his right hand, order them to quench the
fire. But they did not hear what he said, though he spake so
loud, having their ears already dimmed by a greater noise another
way; nor did they attend to the signal he made with his hand
neither, as still some of them were distracted with fighting, and
others with passion. But as for the legions that came running
thither, neither any persuasions nor any threatenings could
restrain their violence, but each one's own passion was his
commander at this time; and as they were crowding into the temple
together, many of them were trampled on by one another, while a
great number fell among the ruins of the cloisters, which were
still hot and smoking, and were destroyed in the same miserable
way with those whom they had conquered; and when they were come
near the holy house, they made as if they did not so much as hear
Caesar's orders to the contrary; but they encouraged those that
were before them to set it on fire. As for the seditious, they
were in too great distress already to afford their assistance
[towards quenching the fire]; they were every where slain, and
every where beaten; and as for a great part of the people, they
were weak and without arms, and had their throats cut wherever
they were caught. Now round about the altar lay dead bodies
heaped one upon another, as at the steps going up to it ran
a great quantity of their blood, whither also the dead bodies
that were slain above [on the altar] fell down.
7. And now, since Caesar was no way able to restrain the
enthusiastic fury of the soldiers, and the fire proceeded on more
and more, he went into the holy place of the temple, with his
commanders, and saw it, with what was in it, which he found to be
far superior to what the relations of foreigners contained, and
not inferior to what we ourselves boasted of and believed about
it. But as the flame had not as yet reached to its inward parts,
but was still consuming the rooms that were about the holy house,
and Titus supposing what the fact was, that the house itself
might yet he saved, he came in haste and endeavored to persuade
the soldiers to quench the fire, and gave order to Liberalius the
centurion, and one of those spearmen that were about him, to beat
the soldiers that were refractory with their staves, and to
restrain them; yet were their passions too hard for the regards
they had for Caesar, and the dread they had of him who forbade
them, as was their hatred of the Jews, and a certain vehement
inclination to fight them, too hard for them also. Moreover, the
hope of plunder induced many to go on, as having this opinion,
that all the places within were full of money, and as seeing that
all round about it was made of gold. And besides, one of those
that went into the place prevented Caesar, when he ran so hastily
out to restrain the soldiers, and threw the fire upon the hinges
of the gate, in the dark; whereby the flame burst out from within
the holy house itself immediately, when the commanders retired,
and Caesar with them, and when nobody any longer forbade those
that were without to set fire to it. And thus was the holy house
burnt down, without Caesar's approbation.
8. Now although any one would justly lament the destruction of
such a work as this was, since it was the most admirable of all
the works that we have seen or heard of, both for its curious
structure and its magnitude, and also for the vast wealth
bestowed upon it, as well as for the glorious reputation it had
for its holiness; yet might such a one comfort himself with this
thought, that it was fate that decreed it so to be, which is
inevitable, both as to living creatures, and as to works and
places also. However, one cannot but wonder at the accuracy of
this period thereto relating; for the same month and day were now
observed, as I said before, wherein the holy house was burnt
formerly by the Babylonians. Now the number of years that passed
from its first foundation, which was laid by king Solomon, till
this its destruction, which happened in the second year of the
reign of Vespasian, are collected to be one thousand one hundred
and thirty, besides seven months and fifteen days; and from the
second building of it, which was done by Haggai, in the second
year of Cyrus the king, till its destruction under Vespasian,
there were six hundred and thirty-nine years and forty-five days.
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