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1. Accordingly Simon would not suffer Matthias, by whose means he
got possession of the city, to go off without torment. This
Matthias was the son of Boethus, and was one of the high priests,
one that had been very faithful to the people, and in great
esteem with them; he, when the multitude were distressed by the
zealots, among whom John was numbered, persuaded the people to
admit this Simon to come in to assist them, while he had made no
terms with him, nor expected any thing that was evil from him.
But when Simon was come in, and had gotten the city under his
power, he esteemed him that had advised them to admit him as his
enemy equally with the rest, as looking upon that advice as a
piece of his simplicity only; so he had him then brought before
him, and condemned to die for being on the side of the Romans,
without giving him leave to make his defense. He condemned also
his three sons to die with him; for as to the fourth, he
prevented him by running away to Titus before. And when he begged
for this, that he might be slain before his sons, and that as a
favor, on account that he had procured the gates of the city to
be opened to him, he gave order that he should be slain the last
of them all; so he was not slain till he had seen his sons slain
before his eyes, and that by being produced over against the
Romans; for such a charge had Simon given to Artanus, the son of
Bamadus, who was the most barbarous of all his guards. He also
jested upon him, and told him that he might now see whether those
to whom he intended to go over would send him any succors or not;
but still he forbade their dead bodies should be buried. After
the slaughter of these, a certain priest, Ananias, the son of
Masambalus, a person of eminency, as also Aristens, the scribe of
the sanhedrim, and born at Emmaus, and with them fifteen men of
figure among the people, were slain. They also kept Josephus's
father in prison, and made public proclamation, that no citizen
whosoever should either speak to him himself, or go into his
company among others, for fear he should betray them. They also
slew such as joined in lamenting these men, without any further
examination.
2. Now when Judas, the son of Judas, who was one of Simon's under
officers, and a person intrusted by him to keep one of the
towers, saw this procedure of Simon, he called together ten of
those under him, that were most faithful to him, (perhaps this
was done partly out of pity to those that had so barbarously been
put to death, but principally in order to provide for his own
safety,) and spoke thus to them: "How long shall we bear these
miseries? or what hopes have we of deliverance by thus continuing
faithful to such wicked wretches? Is not the famine already come
against us? Are not the Romans in a manner gotten within the
city? Is not Simon become unfaithful to his benefactors? and is
there not reason to fear he will very soon bring us to the like
punishment, while the security the Romans offer us is sure? Come
on, let us surrender up this wall, and save ourselves and the
city. Nor will Simon be very much hurt, if, now he despairs of
deliverance, he be brought to justice a little sooner than he
thinks on." Now these ten were prevailed upon by those arguments;
so he sent the rest of those that were under him, some one way,
and some another, that no discovery might be made of what they
had resolved upon. Accordingly, he called to the Romans from the
tower about the third hour; but they, some of them out of pride,
despised what he said, and others of them did not believe him to
be in earnest, though the greatest number delayed the matter, as
believing they should get possession of the city in a little
time, without any hazard. But when Titus was just coming thither
with his armed men, Simon was acquainted with the matter before
he came, and presently took the tower into his own custody,
before it was surrendered, and seized upon these men, and put
them to death in the sight of the Romans
themselves; and when he had mangled their dead bodies, he threw
them down before the wall of the city.
3. In the mean time, Josephus, as he was going round the city,
had his head wounded by a stone that was thrown at him; upon
which he fell down as giddy. Upon which fall of his the Jews made
a sally, and he had been hurried away into the city, if Caesar
had not sent men to protect him immediately; and as these men
were fighting, Josephus was taken up, though he heard little of
what was done. So the seditious supposed they had now slain that
man whom they were the most desirous of killing, and made
thereupon a great noise, in way of rejoicing. This accident was
told in the city, and the multitude that remained became very
disconsolate at the news, as being persuaded that he was really
dead, on whose account alone they could venture to desert to the
Romans. But when Josephus's mother heard in prison that her son
was dead, she said to those that watched about her, That she had
always been of opinion, since the siege of Jotapata, [that he
would be slain,] and she should never enjoy him alive any more.
She also made great lamentation privately to the maid-servants
that were about her, and said, That this was all the advantage
she had of bringing so extraordinary a person as this son into
the world; that she should not be able even to bury that son of
hers, by whom she expected to have been buried herself. However,
this false report did not put his mother to pain, nor afford
merriment to the robbers, long; for Josephus soon recovered of
his wound, and came out, and cried out aloud, That it would not
be long ere they should be punished for this wound they had given
him. He also made a fresh exhortation to the people to come out
upon the security that would be given them. This sight of
Josephus encouraged the people greatly, and brought a great
consternation upon the seditious.
4. Hereupon some of the deserters, having no other way, leaped
down from the wall immediately, while others of them went out of
the city with stones, as if they would fight them; but thereupon
they fled away to the Romans. But here a worse fate accompanied
these than what they had found within the city; and they met with
a quicker despatch from the too great abundance they had among
the Romans, than they could have done from the famine among the
Jews; for when they came first to the Romans, they were puffed up
by the famine, and swelled like men in a dropsy; after which they
all on the sudden overfilled those bodies that were before empty,
and so burst asunder, excepting such only as were skillful enough
to restrain their appetites, and by degrees took in their food
into bodies unaccustomed thereto. Yet did another plague seize
upon those that were thus preserved; for there was found among
the Syrian deserters a certain person who was caught gathering
pieces of gold out of the excrements of the Jews' bellies; for
the deserters used to swallow such pieces of gold, as we told you
before, when they came out, and for these did the seditious
search them all; for there was a great quantity of gold in the
city, insomuch that as much was now sold [in the Roman camp] for
twelve Attic [drams], as was sold before for twenty-five. But
when this contrivance was discovered in one instance, the fame of
it filled their several camps, that the deserters came to them
full of gold. So the multitude of the Arabians, with the Syrians,
cut up those that came as supplicants, and searched their
bellies. Nor does it seem to me that any misery befell the Jews
that was more terrible than this, since in one night's time about
two thousand of these deserters were thus dissected.
5. When Titus came to the knowledge of this wicked practice, he
had like to have surrounded those that had been guilty of it with
his horse, and have shot them dead; and he had done it, had not
their number been so very great, and those that were liable to
this punishment would have been manifold more than those whom
they had slain. However, he called together the commanders of the
auxiliary troops he had with him, as well as the commanders of
the Roman legions, (for some of his own soldiers had been also
guilty herein, as he had been informed,) and had great
indignation against both sorts of them, and said to them, "What!
have any of my own soldiers done such things as this out of the
uncertain hope of gain, without regarding their own weapons,
which are made of silver and gold? Moreover, do the Arabians and
Syrians now first of all begin to govern themselves as they
please, and to indulge their appetites in a foreign war, and
then, out of their barbarity in murdering men, and out of their
hatred to the Jews, get it ascribed to the Romans?" for this
infamous practice was said to be spread among some of his own
soldiers also. Titus then threatened that he would put such men
to death, if any of them were discovered to be so insolent as to
do so again; moreover, he gave it in charge to the legions, that
they should make a search after such as were suspected, and
should bring them to him. But it appeared that the love of money
was too hard for all their dread of punishment, and a vehement
desire of gain is natural to men, and no passion is so
venturesome as covetousness; otherwise such passions have certain
bounds, and are subordinate to fear. But in reality it was God
who condemned the whole nation, and turned every course that was
taken for their preservation to their destruction. This,
therefore, which was forbidden by Caesar under such a
threatening, was ventured upon privately against the deserters,
and these barbarians would go out still, and meet those that ran
away before any saw them, and looking about them to see that no
Roman spied them, they dissected them, and pulled this polluted
money out of their bowels; which money was still found in a few
of them, while yet a great many were destroyed by the bare hope
there was of thus getting by them, which miserable treatment
made many that were deserting to return back again into the city.
6. But as for John, when he could no longer plunder the people,
he betook himself to sacrilege, and melted down many of the
sacred utensils, which had been given to the temple; as also many
of those vessels which were necessary for such as ministered
about holy things, the caldrons, the dishes, and the tables; nay,
he did not abstain from those pouring vessels that were sent them
by Augustus and his wife; for the Roman emperors did ever both
honor and adorn this temple; whereas this man, who was a Jew,
seized upon what were the donations of foreigners, and said to
those that were with him, that it was proper for them to use
Divine things, while they were fighting for the Divinity, without
fear, and that such whose warfare is for the temple should live
of the temple; on which account he emptied the vessels of that
sacred wine and oil, which the priests kept to be poured on the
burnt-offerings, and which lay in the inner court of the temple,
and distributed it among the multitude, who, in their anointing
themselves and drinking, used [each of them] above an hin of
them. And here I cannot but speak my mind, and what the concern I
am under dictates to me, and it is this: I suppose, that had the
Romans made any longer delay in coming against these villains,
that the city would either have been swallowed up by the ground
opening upon them, or been overflowed by water, or else been
destroyed by such thunder as the country of Sodom perished
by, for it had brought forth a generation of men much more
atheistical than were those that suffered such punishments; for
by their madness it was that all the people came to be destroyed.
7. And, indeed, why do I relate these particular calamities?
while Manneus, the son of Lazarus, came running to Titus at this
very time, and told him that there had been carried out through
that one gate, which was intrusted to his care, no fewer than a
hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty dead
bodies, in the interval between the fourteenth day of the month
Xanthieus, [Nisan,] when the Romans pitched their camp by the
city, and the first day of the month Panemus [Tamuz]. This was
itself a prodigious multitude; and though this man was not
himself set as a governor at that gate, yet was he appointed to
pay the public stipend for carrying these bodies out, and so was
obliged of necessity to number them, while the rest were buried
by their relations; though all their burial was but this, to
bring them away, and cast them out of the city. After this man
there ran away to Titus many of the eminent citizens, and told
him the entire number of the poor that were dead, and that no
fewer than six hundred thousand were thrown out at the gates,
though still the number of the rest could not be discovered; and
they told him further, that when they were no longer able to
carry out the dead bodies of the poor, they laid their corpses on
heaps in very large houses, and shut them up therein; as also
that a medimnus of wheat was sold for a talent; and that when, a
while afterward, it was not possible to gather herbs, by reason
the city was all walled about, some persons were driven to that
terrible distress as to search the common sewers and old
dunghills of cattle, and to eat the dung which they got there;
and what they of old could not endure so much as to see they now
used for food. When the Romans barely heard all this, they
commiserated their case; while the seditious, who saw it also,
did not repent, but suffered the same distress to come upon
themselves; for they were blinded by that fate which was already
coming upon the city, and upon themselves also.
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