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1. As now the war abroad ceased for a while, the sedition
within was revived; and on the feast of unleavened bread, which
was now come, it being the fourteenth day of the
month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] when it is believed the Jews were
first freed from the Egyptians, Eleazar and his party opened the
gates of this [inmost court of the] temple, and admitted such of
the people as were desirous to worship God into it. But John
made use of this festival as a cloak for his treacherous designs,
and armed the most inconsiderable of his own party, the greater
part of whom were not purified, with weapons concealed under
their garments, and sent
them with great zeal into the temple, in order to seize upon
it; which armed men, when they were gotten in, threw their
garments away, and presently appeared in their armor.
Upon which there was a very great disorder and
disturbance about the holy house; while the people, who
had no concern in the sedition, supposed that this assault was
made against all without distinction, as the zealots thought it
was made against themselves only. So these left off guarding the
gates any longer, and leaped down from
their battlements before they came to an engagement, and fled
away into the subterranean caverns of the temple;
while the people that stood trembling at the altar, and about
the holy house, were rolled on heaps together, and
trampled upon, and were beaten both with wooden and with iron
weapons without mercy. Such also as had differences with others
slew many persons that were quiet, out of their own private
enmity and hatred, as if they were opposite to the seditious; and
all those that had formerly offended any of these plotters were
now known, and were now led away
to the slaughter; and when they had done abundance of
horrid mischief to the guiltless, they granted a truce to the
guilty, and let those go off that came cut of the caverns. These
followers of John also did now seize upon this inner temple, and
upon all the warlike engines therein, and then ventured to oppose
Simon. And thus that sedition, which
had been divided into three factions, was now reduced to two.
2. But Titus, intending to pitch his camp nearer to the city
than Scopus, placed as many of his choice horsemen and
footmen as he thought sufficient opposite to the Jews, to
prevent their sallying out upon them, while he gave orders for
the whole army to level the distance, as far as the wall of the
city. So they threw down all the hedges and walls which the
inhabitants had made about their gardens and
groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit trees that lay
between them and the wall of the city, and filled up all the
hollow places and the chasms, and demolished the rocky
precipices with iron instruments; and thereby made all the
place level from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which
adjoined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool.
3. Now at this very time the Jews contrived the following
stratagem against the Romans. The bolder sort of the
seditious went out at the towers, called the Women's
Towers, as if they had been ejected out of the city by those
who were for peace, and rambled about as if they were
afraid of being assaulted by the Romans, and were in fear of
one another; while those that stood upon the wall, and seemed to
be of the people's side, cried out aloud for
peace, and entreated they might have security for their lives
given them, and called for the Romans, promising to open the
gates to them; and as they cried out after that manner, they
threw stones at their own people, as though they
would drive them away from the gates. These also
pretended that they were excluded by force, and that they
petitioned those that were within to let them in; and rushing
upon the Romans perpetually, with violence, they then
came back, and seemed to be in great disorder. Now the
Roman soldiers thought this cunning stratagem of theirs
was to be believed real, and thinking they had the one
party under their power, and could punish them as they
pleased, and hoping that the other party would open their gates
to them, set to the execution of their designs
accordingly. But for Titus himself, he had this surprising
conduct of the Jews in suspicion; for whereas he had
invited them to come to terms of accommodation, by
Josephus, but one day before, he could then receive no
civil answer from them; so he ordered the soldiers to stay
where they were. However, some of them that were set in
the front of the works prevented him, and catching up their
arms ran to the gates; whereupon those that seemed to
have been ejected at the first retired; but as soon as the
soldiers were gotten between the towers on each side of
the gate, the Jews ran out and encompassed them round,
and fell upon them behind, while that multitude which stood
upon the wall threw a heap of stones and darts of all kinds at
them, insomuch that they slew a considerable number,
and wounded many more; for it was not easy for the
Romans to escape, by reason those behind them pressed
them forward; besides which, the shame they were under
for being mistaken, and the fear they were in of their
commanders, engaged them to persevere in their mistake;
wherefore they fought with their spears a great while, and
received many blows from the Jews, though indeed they
gave them as many blows again, and at last repelled those that
had encompassed them about, while the Jews pursued
them as they retired, and followed them, and threw darts at
them as far as the monuments of queen Helena.
4. After this these Jews, without keeping any decorum,
grew insolent upon their good fortune, and jested upon the
Romans for being deluded by the trick they bad put upon
them, and making a noise with beating their shields, leaped for
gladness, and made joyful exclamations; while these
soldiers were received with threatenings by their officers, and
with indignation by Caesar himself, [who spake to them thus]:
These Jews, who are only conducted by their
madness, do every thing with care and circumspection; they
contrive stratagems, and lay ambushes, and fortune gives success
to their stratagems, because they are obedient,
and preserve their goodwill and fidelity to one another; while
the Romans, to whom fortune uses to be ever
subservient, by reason of their good order, and ready
submission to their commanders, have now had ill success by
their contrary behavior, and by not being able to restrain their
hands from action, they have been caught; and that which is the
most to their reproach, they have gone on
without their commanders, in the very presence of Caesar.
"Truly," says Titus, "the laws of war cannot but groan
heavily, as will my father also himself, when he shall be
informed of this wound that hath been given us, since he who is
grown old in wars did never make so great a
mistake. Our laws of war do also ever inflict capital
punishment on those that in the least break into good order,
while at this time they have seen an entire army run into
disorder. However, those that have been so insolent shall be made
immediately sensible, that even they who conquer among the Romans
without orders for fighting are to be
under disgrace." When Titus had enlarged upon this matter
before the commanders, it appeared evident that he would execute
the law against all those that were concerned; so these soldiers'
minds sunk down in despair, as expecting to be put to death, and
that justly and quickly. However, the other legions came round
about Titus, and entreated his
favor to these their fellow soldiers, and made supplication to
him, that he would pardon the rashness of a few, on
account of the better obedience of all the rest; and
promised for them that they should make amends for their
present fault, by their more virtuous behavior for the time to
come.
5. So Caesar complied with their desires, and with what
prudence dictated to him also; for he esteemed it fit to punish
single persons by real executions, but that the
punishment of great multitudes should proceed no further than
reproofs; so he was reconciled to the soldiers, but gave them a
special charge to act more wisely for the
future; and he considered with himself how he might be
even with the Jews for their stratagem. And now when the space
between the Romans and the wall had been leveled,
which was done in four days, and as he was desirous to
bring the baggage of the army, with the rest of the
multitude that followed him, safely to the camp, he set the
strongest part of his army over against that wall which lay on
the north quarter of the city, and over against the
western part of it, and made his army seven deep, with the
foot-men placed before them, and the horsemen behind
them, each of the last in three ranks, whilst the archers stood
in the midst in seven ranks. And now as the Jews
were prohibited, by so great a body of men, from making
sallies upon the Romans, both the beasts that bare the
burdens, and belonged to the three legions, and the rest of the
multitude, marched on without any fear. But as for Titus himself,
he was but about two furlongs distant from the
wall, at that part of it where was the corner and over
against that tower which was called Psephinus, at which
tower the compass of the wall belonging to the north
bended, and extended itself over against the west; but the
other part of the army fortified itself at the tower called
Hippicus, and was distant, in like manner, by two furlongs from
the city. However, the tenth legion continued in its own place,
upon the Mount of Olives.
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