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1. As Josephus was speaking thus with a loud voice, the seditious
would neither yield to what he said, nor did they deem it safe
for them to alter their conduct; but as for the people, they had
a great inclination to desert to the Romans; accordingly, some of
them sold what they had, and even the most precious things that
had been laid up as treasures by them, for every small matter,
and swallowed down pieces of gold, that they might not be found
out by the robbers; and when they had escaped to the Romans,
went to stool, and had wherewithal to provide plentifully for
themselves; for Titus let a great number of them go away into the
country, whither they pleased. And the main reasons why they were
so ready to desert were these: That now they should be freed from
those miseries which they had endured in that city, and yet
should not be in slavery to the Romans: however, John and Simon,
with their factions, did more carefully watch these men's going
out than they did the coming in of the Romans; and if any one did
but afford the least shadow of suspicion of such an intention,
his throat was cut immediately.
2. But as for the richer sort, it proved all one to them whether
they staid in the city, or attempted to get out of it; for they
were equally destroyed in both cases; for every such person was
put to death under this pretense, that they were going to desert,
but in reality that the robbers might get what they had. The
madness of the seditious did also increase together with their
famine, and both those miseries were every day inflamed more and
more; for there was no corn which any where appeared publicly,
but the robbers came running into, and searched men's private
houses; and then, if they found any, they tormented them, because
they had denied they had any; and if they found none, they
tormented them worse, because they supposed they had more
carefully concealed it. The indication they made use of whether
they had any or not was taken from the bodies of these miserable
wretches; which, if they were in good case, they supposed they
were in no want at all of food; but if they were wasted away,
they walked off without searching any further; nor did they think
it proper to kill such as these, because they saw they would very
soon die of themselves for want of food. Many there were indeed
who sold what they had for one measure; it was of wheat, if they
were of the richer sort; but of barley, if they were poorer. When
these had so done, they shut themselves up in the inmost rooms of
their houses, and ate the corn they had gotten; some did it
without grinding it, by reason of the extremity of the want they
were in, and others baked bread of it, according as necessity and
fear dictated to them: a table was no where laid for a distinct
meal, but they snatched the bread out of the fire, half-baked,
and ate it very hastily.
3. It was now a miserable case, and a sight that would justly
bring tears into our eyes, how men stood as to their food, while
the more powerful had more than enough, and the weaker were
lamenting [for want of it.] But the famine was too hard for all
other passions, and it is destructive to nothing so much as to
modesty; for what was otherwise worthy of reverence was in this
case despised; insomuch that children pulled the very morsels
that their fathers were eating out of their very mouths, and what
was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers do as to their
infants; and when those that were most dear were perishing under
their hands, they were not ashamed to take from them the very
last drops that might preserve their lives: and while they ate
after this manner, yet were they not concealed in so doing; but
the seditious every where came upon them immediately, and
snatched away from them what they had gotten from others; for
when they saw any house shut up, this was to them a signal that
the people within had gotten some food; whereupon they broke open
the doors, and ran in, and took pieces of what they were eating
almost up out of their very throats, and this by force: the old
men, who held their food fast, were beaten; and if the women hid
what they had within their hands, their hair was torn for so
doing; nor was there any commiseration shown either to the aged
or to the infants, but they lifted up children from the ground as
they hung upon the morsels they had gotten, and shook them down
upon the floor. But still they were more barbarously cruel to
those that had prevented their coming in, and had actually
swallowed down what they were going to seize upon, as if they had
been unjustly defrauded of their right. They also invented
terrible methods of torments to discover where any food was, and
they were these to stop up the passages of the privy parts of the
miserable wretches, and to drive sharp stakes up their
fundaments; and a man was forced to bear what it is terrible even
to hear, in order to make him confess that he had but one loaf of
bread, or that he might discover a handful of barley-meal that
was concealed; and this was done when these tormentors were not
themselves hungry; for the thing had been less barbarous had
necessity forced them to it; but this was done to keep their
madness in exercise, and as making preparation of provisions for
themselves for the following days. These men went also to meet
those that had crept out of the city by night, as far as the
Roman guards, to gather some plants and herbs that grew wild; and
when those people thought they had got clear of the enemy, they
snatched from them what they had brought with them, even while
they had frequently entreated them, and that by calling upon the
tremendous name of God, to give them back some part of what they
had brought; though these would not give them the least crumb,
and they were to be well contented that they were only spoiled,
and not slain at the same time.
4. These were the afflictions which the lower sort of people
suffered from these tyrants' guards; but for the men that were in
dignity, and withal were rich, they were carried before the
tyrants themselves; some of whom were falsely accused of laying
treacherous plots, and so were destroyed; others of them were
charged with designs of betraying the city to the Romans; but the
readiest way of all was this, to suborn somebody to affirm that
they were resolved to desert to the enemy. And he who was utterly
despoiled of what he had by Simon was sent back again to John, as
of those who had been already plundered by Jotre, Simon got what
remained; insomuch that they drank the blood of the populace to
one another, and divided the dead bodies of the poor creatures
between them; so that although, on account of their ambition
after dominion, they contended with each other, yet did they very
well agree in their wicked practices; for he that did not
communicate what he got by the miseries of others to the other
tyrant seemed to be too little guilty, and in one respect only;
and he that did not partake of what was so communicated to him
grieved at this, as at the loss of what was a valuable thing,
that he had no share in such barbarity.
5. It is therefore impossible to go distinctly over every
instance of these men's iniquity. I shall therefore speak my mind
here at once briefly: - That neither did any other city ever
suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation
more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of
the world. Finally, they brought the Hebrew nation into contempt,
that they might themselves appear comparatively less impious
with regard to strangers. They confessed what was true, that they
were the slaves, the scum, and the spurious and abortive
offspring of our nation, while they overthrew the city
themselves, and forced the Romans, whether they would or no, to
gain a melancholy reputation, by acting gloriously against them,
and did almost draw that fire upon the temple, which they seemed
to think came too slowly; and indeed when they saw that temple
burning from the upper city, they were neither troubled at it,
nor did they shed any tears on that account, while yet these
passions were discovered among the Romans themselves; which
circumstances we shall speak of hereafter in their proper place,
when we come to treat of such matters.
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