|
1. When Bassus was dead in Judea, Flavius Silva succeeded him as
procurator there; who, when he saw that all the rest of the
country was subdued in this war, and that there was but one only
strong hold that was still in rebellion, he got all his army
together that lay in different places, and made an expedition
against it. This fortress was called Masada. It was one Eleazar,
a potent man, and the commander of these Sicarii, that had seized
upon it. He was a descendant from that Judas who had persuaded
abundance of the Jews, as we have formerly related, not to submit
to the taxation when Cyrenius was sent into Judea to make one;
for then it was that the Sicarii got together against those that
were willing to submit to the Romans, and treated them in all
respects as if they had been their enemies, both by plundering
them of what they had, by driving away their cattle, and by
setting fire to their houses; for they said that they differed
not at all from foreigners, by betraying, in so cowardly a
manner, that freedom which Jews thought worthy to be contended
for to the utmost, and by owning that they preferred slavery
under the Romans before such a contention. Now this was in
reality no better than a pretense and a cloak for the barbarity
which was made use of by them, and to color over their own
avarice, which they afterwards made evident by their own actions;
for those that were partners with them in their rebellion joined
also with them in the war against the Romans, and went further
lengths with them in their impudent undertakings against them;
and when they were again convicted of dissembling in such their
pretenses, they still more abused those that justly reproached
them for their wickedness. And indeed that was a time most
fertile in all manner of wicked practices, insomuch that no kind
of evil deeds were then left undone; nor could any one so much as
devise any bad thing that was new, so deeply were they all
infected, and strove with one another in their single capacity,
and in their communities, who should run the greatest lengths in
impiety towards God, and in unjust actions towards their
neighbors; the men of power oppressing the multitude, and the
multitude earnestly laboring to destroy the men of power. The one
part were
desirous of tyrannizing over others, and the rest of offering
violence to others, and of plundering such as were richer than
themselves. They were the Sicarii who first began these
transgressions, and first became barbarous towards those allied
to them, and left no words of reproach unsaid, and no works of
perdition untried, in order to destroy those whom their
contrivances affected. Yet did John demonstrate by his actions
that these Sicarii were more moderate than he was himself, for he
not only slew all such as gave him good counsel to do what was
right, but treated them worst of all, as the most bitter enemies
that he had among all the Citizens; nay, he filled his entire
country with ten thousand instances of wickedness, such as a man
who was already hardened sufficiently in his impiety towards God
would naturally do; for the food was unlawful that was set upon
his table, and he rejected those purifications that the law of
his country had ordained; so that it was no longer a wonder if
he, who was so mad in his impiety towards God, did not observe
any rules of gentleness and common affection towards men. Again,
therefore, what mischief was there which Simon the son of Gioras
did not do? or what kind of abuses did he abstain from as to
those very free-men who had set him up for a tyrant? What
friendship or kindred were there that did not make him more bold
in his daily murders? for they looked upon the doing of mischief
to strangers only as a work beneath their courage, but thought
their barbarity towards their nearest relations would be a
glorious demonstration thereof. The Idumeans also strove with
these men who should be guilty of the greatest madness! for they
[all], vile wretches as they were, cut the throats of the high
priests, that so no part of a religious regard to God. might be
preserved; they thence proceeded to destroy utterly the least
remains of a political government, and introduced the most
complete scene of iniquity in all instances that were
practicable; under which scene that sort of people that were
called zealots grew up, and who indeed corresponded to the name;
for they imitated every wicked work; nor, if their memory
suggested any evil thing that had formerly been done, did they
avoid zealously to pursue the same; and although they gave
themselves that name from their zeal for what was good, yet did
it agree to them only by way of irony, on account of those they
had unjustly treated by their wild and brutish disposition, or as
thinking the greatest mischiefs to be the greatest good.
Accordingly, they all met with such ends as God deservedly
brought upon them in way of punishment; for all such miseries
have been sent upon them as man's nature is capable of
undergoing, till the utmost period of their lives, and till death
came upon them in various ways of torment; yet might one say
justly that they suffered less than they had done, because it was
impossible they could be punished according to their deserving.
But to make a lamentation according to the deserts of those who
fell under these men's barbarity, this is not a proper place for
it; - I therefore now return again to the remaining part of the
present narration.
2. For now it was that the Roman general came, and led his army
against Eleazar and those Sicarii who held the fortress Masada
together with him; and for the whole country adjoining, he
presently gained it, and put garrisons into the most proper
places of it; he also built a wall quite round the entire
fortress, that none of the besieged might easily escape; he also
set his men to guard the several parts of it; he also pitched his
camp in such an agreeable place as he had chosen for the siege,
and at which place the rock belonging to the fortress did make
the nearest approach to the neighboring mountain, which yet was a
place of difficulty for getting plenty of provisions; for it was
not only food that was to be brought from a great distance [to
the army], and this with a great deal of pain to those Jews who
were appointed for that purpose, but water was
also to be brought to the camp, because the place afforded no
fountain that was near it. When therefore Silva had ordered these
affairs beforehand, he fell to besieging the place; which siege
was likely to stand in need of a great deal of skill and pains,
by reason of the strength of the fortress, the nature of which I
will now describe.
3. There was a rock, not small in circumference, and very high.
It was encompassed with valleys of such vast depth downward, that
the eye could not reach their bottoms; they were abrupt, and such
as no animal could walk upon, excepting at two places of the
rock, where it subsides, in order to afford a passage for ascent,
though not without difficulty. Now, of the ways that lead to it,
one is that from the lake Asphaltiris, towards the sun-rising,
and another on the west, where the ascent is easier: the one of
these ways is called the Serpent, as resembling that animal in
its narrowness and its perpetual windings; for it is broken off
at the prominent precipices of the rock, and returns frequently
into itself, and lengthening again by little and little, hath
much ado to proceed forward; and he that would walk along it must
first go on one leg, and then on the other; there is also nothing
but destruction, in case your feet slip; for on each side there
is a vastly deep chasm and precipice, sufficient to quell the
courage of every body by the terror it infuses into the mind.
When, therefore, a man hath gone along this way for thirty
furlongs, the rest is the top of the hill - not ending at a small
point, but is no other than a plain upon the highest part of the
mountain. Upon this top of the hill, Jonathan the high priest
first of all built a fortress, and called it Masada: after which
the rebuilding of this place employed the care of king Herod to a
great degree; he also built a wall round about the entire top of
the hill, seven furlongs long; it was composed of white stone;
its height was twelve, and its breadth eight cubits; there were
also erected upon that wall thirty-eight towers, each of them
fifty cubits high; out of which you might pass into lesser
edifices, which were built on the inside, round the entire wall;
for the king reserved the top of the hill, which was of a fat
soil, and better mould than any valley for agriculture, that such
as committed themselves to this fortress for their preservation
might not even there be quite destitute of food, in case they
should ever be in want of it from abroad. Moreover, he built a
palace therein at the western ascent; it was within and beneath
the walls of the citadel, but inclined to its north side. Now the
wall of this palace was very high and strong, and had at its four
corners towers sixty cubits high. The furniture also of the
edifices, and of the cloisters, and of the baths, was of great
variety, and very costly; and these buildings were supported by
pillars of single stones on every side; the walls and also the
floors of the edifices were paved with stones of several colors.
He also had cut many and great pits, as reservoirs for water, out
of the rocks, at every one of the places that were inhabited,
both above and round about the palace, and before the wall; and
by this contrivance he endeavored to have water for several uses,
as if there had been fountains there. Here was also a road digged
from the palace, and leading to the very top of the mountain,
which yet could not be seen by such as were without [the walls];
nor indeed could enemies easily make use of the plain roads; for
the road on the east side, as we have already taken notice, could
not be walked upon, by reason of its nature; and for the western
road, he built a large tower at its narrowest place, at no less a
distance from the top of the hill than a thousand cubits; which
tower could not possibly be passed by, nor could it be easily
taken; nor indeed could those that walked along it without any
fear (such was its contrivance) easily get to the end of it; and
after such a manner was this citadel fortified, both by nature
and by the hands of men, in order to frustrate the attacks of
enemies.
4. As for the furniture that was within this fortress, it was
still more wonderful on account of its splendor and long
continuance; for here was laid up corn in large quantities, and
such as would subsist men for a long time; here was also wine and
oil in abundance, with all kinds of pulse and dates heaped up
together; all which Eleazar found there, when he and his Sicarii
got possession of the fortress by treachery. These fruits were
also fresh and full ripe, and no way inferior to such fruits
newly laid in, although they were little short of a hundred years
from the laying in these provisions [by Herod], till the
place was taken by the Romans; nay, indeed, when the Romans got
possession ofthose fruits that were left, they found them not
corrupted all that while; nor should we be mistaken, if we
supposed that the air was here the cause of their enduring so
long; this fortress being so high, and so free from the mixture
of all terrain and muddy particles of matter. There was also
found here a large quantity of all sorts of weapons of war, which
had been treasured up by that king, and were sufficient for ten
thousand men; there was east iron, and brass, and tin, which show
that he had taken much pains to have all things here ready for
the greatest occasions; for the report goes how Herod thus
prepared this fortress on his own account, as a refuge against
two kinds of danger; the one for fear of the multitude of the
Jews, lest they should depose him, and restore their former kings
to the government; the other danger was greater and more
terrible, which arose from Cleopatra queen of Egypt, who did not
conceal her intentions, but spoke often to Antony, and desired
him to cut off Herod, and entreated him to bestow the kingdom of
Judea upon her. And certainly it is a great wonder that Antony
did never comply with her commands in this point, as he was so
miserably enslaved to his passion for her; nor should any one
have been surprised if she had been gratified in such her
request. So the fear of these dangers made Herod rebuild Masada,
and thereby leave it for the finishing stroke of the Romans in
this Jewish war.
5. Since therefore the Roman commander Silva had now built a wall
on the outside, round about this whole place, as we have said
already, and had thereby made a most accurate provision to
prevent any one of the besieged running away, he undertook the
siege itself, though he found but one single place that would
admit of the banks he was to raise; for behind that tower which
secured the road that led to the palace, and to the top of the
hill from the west; there was a certain eminency of the rock,
very broad and very prominent, but three hundred cubits beneath
the highest part of Masada; it was called the White Promontory.
Accordingly, he got upon that part of the rock, and ordered the
army to bring earth; and when they fell to that work with
alacrity, and abundance of them together, the bank was raised,
and became solid for two hundred cubits in height. Yet was not
this bank thought sufficiently high for the use of the engines
that were to be set upon it; but still another elevated work of
great stones compacted together was raised upon that bank; this
was fifty cubits, both in breadth and height. The other machines
that were now got ready were like to those that had been first
devised by Vespasian, and afterwards by Titus, for sieges. There
was also a tower made of the height of sixty cubits, and all over
plated with iron, out of which the Romans threw darts and stones
from the engines, and soon made those that fought from the walls
of the place to retire, and would not let them lift up their
heads above the works. At the same time Silva ordered that great
battering ram which he had made to be brought thither, and to be
set against the wall, and to make frequent batteries against it,
which with some difficulty broke down a part of the wall, and
quite overthrew it. However, the Sicarii made haste, and
presently built another wall within that, which should not be
liable to the same misfortune from the machines with the other;
it was made soft and yielding, and so was capable of avoiding the
terrible blows that affected the other. It was framed after the
following manner: They laid together great beams of wood
lengthways, one close to the end of another, and the same way in
which they were cut: there were two of these rows parallel to one
another, and laid at such a distance from each other as the
breadth of the wall required, and earth was put into the space
between those rows. Now, that the earth might not fall away upon
the elevation of this bank to a greater height, they further laid
other beams over cross them, and thereby bound those beams
together that lay lengthways. This work of theirs was like a real
edifice; and when the machines were applied, the blows were
weakened by its yielding; and as the materials by such concussion
were shaken closer together, the pile by that means became firmer
than before. When Silva saw this, he thought it best to endeavor
the taking of this wall by setting fire to it; so he gave order
that the soldiers should throw a great number of burning torches
upon it: accordingly, as it was chiefly made of wood, it soon
took fire; and when it was once set on fire, its hollowness made
that fire spread to a mighty flame. Now, at the very beginning of
this fire, a north wind that then blew proved terrible to the
Romans; for by bringing the flame downward, it drove it upon
them, and they were almost in despair of success, as fearing
their machines would be burnt: but after this, on a sudden the
wind changed into the south, as if it were done by Divine
Providence, and blew strongly the contrary way, and carried the
flame, and drove it against the wall, which was now on fire
through its entire thickness. So the Romans, having now
assistance from God, returned to their camp with joy, and
resolved to attack their enemies the very next day; on which
occasion they set their watch more carefully that night, lest any
of the Jews should run away from them without being discovered.
6. However, neither did Eleazar once think of flying away, nor
would he permit any one else to do so; but when he saw their wall
burned down by the fire, and could devise no other way of
escaping, or room for their further courage, and setting before
their eyes what the Romans would do to them, their children, and
their wives, if they got them into their power, he consulted
about having them all slain. Now as he judged this to be the best
thing they could do in their present circumstances, he gathered
the most courageous of his companions together, and encouraged
them to take that course by a speech which he made to them
in the manner following: "Since we, long ago, my generous
friends, resolved never to be servants to the Romans, nor to any
other than to God himself, who alone is the true and just Lord of
mankind, the time is now come that obliges us to make that
resolution true in practice. And let us not at this time bring a
reproach upon ourselves for self-contradiction, while we formerly
would not undergo slavery, though it were then without danger,
but must now, together with slavery, choose such punishments also
as are intolerable; I mean this, upon the supposition that the
Romans once reduce us under their power while we are alive. We
were the very first that revolted from them, and we are the last
that fight against them; and I cannot but esteem it as a favor
that God hath granted us, that it is still in our power to die
bravely, and in a state of freedom, which hath not been the case
of others, who were conquered unexpectedly. It is very plain that
we shall be taken within a day's time; but it is still an
eligible thing to die after a glorious manner, together with our
dearest friends. This is what our enemies themselves cannot by
any means hinder, although they be very desirous to take us
alive. Nor can we propose to ourselves any more to fight them,
and beat them. It had been proper indeed for us to have
conjectured at the purpose of God much sooner, and at the very
first, when we were so desirous of defending our liberty, and
when we received such sore treatment from one another, and worse
treatment from our enemies, and to have been sensible that the
same God, who had of old taken the Jewish nation into his favor,
had now condemned them to destruction; for had he either
continued favorable, or been but in a lesser degree displeased
with us, he had not overlooked the destruction of so many men, or
delivered his most holy city to be burnt and demolished by our
enemies. To be sure we weakly hoped to have
preserved ourselves, and ourselves alone, still in a state of
freedom, as if we had been guilty of no sins ourselves against
God, nor been partners with those of others; we also taught other
men to preserve their liberty. Wherefore, consider how God hath
convinced us that our hopes were in vain, by bringing such
distress upon us in the desperate state we are now in, and which
is beyond all our expectations; for the nature of this fortress
which was in itself unconquerable, hath not proved a means of our
deliverance; and even while we have still great abundance of
food, and a great quantity of arms, and other necessaries more
than we want, we are openly deprived by God himself of all hope
of deliverance; for that fire which was driven upon our enemies
did not of its own accord turn back upon the wall which we had
built; this was the effect of God's anger against us for our
manifold sins, which we have been guilty of in a most insolent
and extravagant manner with regard to our own countrymen; the
punishments of which let us not receive from the Romans, but from
God himself, as executed by our own hands; for these will be more
moderate than the other. Let our wives die before they are
abused, and our children before they have tasted of slavery; and
after we have slain them, let us bestow that glorious benefit
upon one another mutually, and preserve ourselves in freedom, as
an excellent funeral monument for us. But first let us destroy
our money and the fortress by fire; for I am well assured that
this will be a great grief to the Romans, that they shall not be
able to seize upon our bodies, and shall fall of our wealth also;
and let us spare nothing but our provisions; for they will be a
testimonial when we are dead that we were not subdued for want of
necessaries, but that, according to our original resolution, we
have preferred death before slavery."
7. This was Eleazar's speech to them. Yet did not the opinions of
all the auditors acquiesce therein; but although some of them
were very zealous to put his advice in practice, and were in a
manner filled with pleasure at it, and thought death to be a good
thing, yet had those that were most effeminate a commiseration
for their wives and families; and when these men were especially
moved by the prospect of their own certain death, they looked
wistfully at one another, and by the tears that were in their
eyes declared their dissent from his opinion. When Eleazar saw
these people in such fear, and that their souls were dejected at
so prodigious a proposal, he was afraid lest perhaps these
effeminate persons should, by their lamentations and tears,
enfeeble those that heard what he had said courageously; so he
did not leave off exhorting them, but stirred up himself, and
recollecting proper arguments for raising their courage, he
undertook to speak more briskly and fully to them, and that
concerning the immortality of the soul. So he made a lamentable
groan, and fixing his eyes intently on those that wept, he spake
thus: "Truly, I was greatly mistaken when I thought to be
assisting to brave men who struggled hard for their liberty, and
to such as were resolved either to live with honor, or else to
die; but I find that you are such people as are no better than
others, either in virtue or in courage, and are afraid of dying,
though you be delivered thereby from the greatest miseries, while
you ought to make no delay in this matter, nor to await any one
to give you good advice; for the laws of our country, and of God
himself, have from ancient times, and as soon as ever we could
use our reason, continually taught us, and our forefathers have
corroborated the same doctrine by their actions, and by their
bravery of mind, that it is life that is a calamity to men, and
not death; for this last affords our souls their liberty, and
sends them by a removal into their own place of purity, where
they are to be insensible of all sorts of misery; for while souls
are tied clown to a mortal body, they are partakers of its
miseries; and really, to speak the truth, they are themselves
dead; for the union of what is divine to what is mortal is
disagreeable. It is true, the power of the soul is great, even
when it is imprisoned in a mortal body; for by moving it after a
way that is invisible, it makes the body a sensible instrument,
and causes it to advance further in its actions than mortal
nature could otherwise do. However, when it is freed from that
weight which draws it down to the earth and is connected with it,
it obtains its own proper place, and does then become a partaker
of that blessed power, and those abilities, which are then every
way incapable of being hindered in their operations. It continues
invisible, indeed, to the eyes of men, as does God himself; for
certainly it is not itself seen while it is in the body; for it
is there after an invisible manner, and when it is freed from it,
it is still not seen. It is this soul which hath one nature, and
that an incorruptible one also; but yet it is the cause of the
change that is made in the body; for whatsoever it be which the
soul touches, that lives and flourishes; and from whatsoever it
is removed, that withers away and dies; such a degree is there in
it of immortality. Let me produce the state of sleep as a most
evident demonstration of the truth of what I say; wherein souls,
when the body does not distract them, have the sweetest rest
depending on themselves, and conversing with God, by their
alliance to him; they then go every where, and foretell many
futurities beforehand. And why are we afraid of death, while we
are pleased with the rest that we have in sleep? And how absurd a
thing is it to pursue after liberty while we are alive, and yet
to envy it to ourselves where it will be eternal! We, therefore,
who have been brought up in a discipline of our own, ought to
become an example to others of our readiness to die. Yet, if we
do stand in need of foreigners to support us in this matter, let
us regard those Indians who profess the exercise of philosophy;
for these good men do but unwillingly undergo the time of life,
and look upon it as a necessary servitude, and make haste to let
their souls loose from their bodies; nay, when no misfortune
presses them to it, nor drives them upon it, these have such a
desire of a life of immortality, that they tell other men
beforehand that they are about to depart; and nobody hinders
them, but every one thinks them happy men, and gives them letters
to be carried to their familiar friends [that are dead], so
firmly and certainly do they believe that souls converse with one
another [in the other world]. So when these men have heard all
such commands that were to be given them, they deliver their body
to the fire; and, in order to their getting their soul a
separation from the body in the greatest purity, they die in the
midst of hymns of commendations made to them; for their dearest
friends conduct them to their death more readily than do any of
the rest of mankind conduct their fellow-citizens when they are
going a very long journey, who at the same time weep on their own
account, but look upon the others as happy persons, as so soon to
be made partakers of the immortal order of beings. Are not we,
therefore, ashamed to have lower notions than the Indians? and by
our own cowardice to lay a base reproach upon the laws of our
country, which are so much desired and imitated by all mankind?
But put the case that we had been brought up under another
persuasion, and taught that life is the greatest good which men
are capable of, and that death is a calamity; however, the
circumstances we are now in ought to he an inducement to us to
bear such calamity courageously, since it is by the will of God,
and by necessity, that we are to die; for it now appears that God
hath made such a decree against the whole Jewish nation, that we
are to be deprived of this life which [he knew] we would not make
a due use of. For do not you ascribe the occasion of our present
condition to yourselves, nor think the Romans are the true
occasion that this war we have had with them is become so
destructive to us all: these things have not come to pass by
their power, but a more powerful cause hath intervened, and made
us afford them an occasion of their appearing to be conquerors
over us. What Roman weapons, I pray you, were those by which the
Jews at Cesarea were slain? On the contrary, when they were no
way disposed to rebel, but were all the while keeping their
seventh day festival, and did not so much as lift up their hands
against the citizens of Cesarea, yet did those citizens run upon
them in great crowds, and cut their throats, and the throats of
their wives and children, and this without any regard to the
Romans themselves, who never took us for their enemies till we
revolted from them. But some may be ready to say, that truly the
people of Cesarea had always a quarrel against those that lived
among them, and that when an opportunity offered itself, they
only satisfied the old rancor they had against them. What then
shall we say to those of Scythopolis, who ventured to wage war
with us on account of the Greeks? Nor did they do it by way of
revenge upon the Romans, when they acted in concert with our
countrymen. Wherefore you see how little our good-will and
fidelity to them profiled us, while they were slain, they and
their whole families, after the most inhuman manner, which was
all the requital that was made them for the assistance they had
afforded the others; for that very same destruction which they
had prevented from falling upon the others did they suffer
themselves from them, as if they had been ready to be the actors
against them. It would be too long for me to speak at this time
of every destruction brought upon us; for you cannot but know
that there was not any one Syrian city which did not slay their
Jewish inhabitants, and were not more bitter enemies to us than
were the Romans themselves; nay, even those of Damascus,
when they were able to allege no tolerable pretense against us,
filled their city with the most barbarous slaughters of our
people, and cut the throats of eighteen thousand Jews, with their
wives and children. And as to the multitude of those that were
slain in Egypt, and that with torments also, we have been
informed they were more than sixty thousand; those indeed being
in a foreign country, and so naturally meeting with nothing to
oppose against their enemies, were killed in the manner
forementioned. As for all those of us who have waged war against
the Romans in our own country, had we not sufficient reason to
have sure hopes of victory? For we had arms, and walls, and
fortresses so prepared as not to be easily taken, and courage not
to be moved by any dangers in the cause of liberty, which
encouraged us all to revolt from the Romans. But then these
advantages sufficed us but for a short time, and only raised our
hopes, while they really appeared to be the origin of our
miseries; for all we had hath been taken from us, and all hath
fallen under our enemies, as if these advantages were only to
render their victory over us the more glorious, and were not
disposed for the preservation of those by whom these preparations
were made. And as for those that are already dead in the war, it
is reasonable we should esteem them blessed, for they are dead in
defending, and not in betraying their liberty; but as to the
multitude of those that are now under the Romans, who would not
pity their condition? and who would not make haste to die, before
he would suffer the same miseries with them? Some of them have
been put upon the rack, and tortured with fire and whippings, and
so died. Some have been half devoured by wild beasts, and yet
have been reserved alive to be devoured by them a second time, in
order to afford laughter and sport to our enemies; and such of
those as are alive still are to be looked on as the most
miserable, who, being so desirous of death, could not come at it.
And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish
nation, which vas fortified by so many walls round about, which
had so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could
hardly contain the instruments prepared for the war, and which
had so many ten thousands of men to fight for it? Where is this
city that was believed to have God himself inhabiting therein? It
is now demolished to the very foundations, and hath nothing but
that monument of it preserved, I mean the camp of those that hath
destroyed it, which still dwells upon its ruins; some unfortunate
old men also lie upon the ashes of the temple, and a few women
are there preserved alive by the enemy, for our bitter shame and
reproach. Now who is there that revolves these things in his
mind, and yet is able to bear the sight of the sun, though he
might live out of danger? Who is there so much his country's
enemy, or so unmanly, and so desirous of living, as not to repent
that he is still alive? And I cannot but wish that we had all
died before we had seen that holy city demolished by the hands of
our enemies, or the foundations of our holy temple dug up after
so profane a manner. But since we had a generous hope that
deluded us, as if we might perhaps have been able to avenge
ourselves on our enemies on that account, though it be now become
vanity, and hath left us alone in this distress, let us make
haste to die bravely. Let us pity ourselves, our children, and
our wives while it is in our own power to show pity to them; for
we were born to die, as well as those were whom we have
begotten; nor is it in the power of the most happy of our race to
avoid it. But for abuses, and slavery, and the sight of our wives
led away after an ignominious manner, with their children, these
are not such evils as are natural and necessary among men;
although such as do not prefer death before those miseries, when
it is in their power so to do, must undergo even them, on account
of their own cowardice. We revolted from the Romans with great
pretensions to courage; and when, at the very last, they invited
us to preserve ourselves, we would not comply with them. Who will
not, therefore, believe that they will certainly be in a rage at
us, in case they can take us alive? Miserable will then be the
young men who will be strong enough in their bodies to sustain
many torments! miserable also will be those of elder years, who
will not be able to bear those calamities which young men might
sustain! One man will be obliged to hear the voice of his son
implore help of his father, when his hands are bound. But
certainly our hands are still at liberty, and have a sword in
them; let them then be subservient to us in our glorious design;
let us die before we become slaves under our eneimies, and let us
go out of the world, together with our children and our wives, in
a state of freedom. This it is that our laws command us to do
this it is that our wives and children crave at our hands; nay,
God himself hath brought this necessity upon us; while the Romans
desire the contrary, and are afraid lest any of us should die
before we are taken. Let us therefore make haste, and instead of
affording them so much pleasure, as they hope for in getting us
under their power, let us leave them an example which shall at
once cause their astonishment at our death, and their admiration
of our hardiness therein."
|
|