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1. When therefore Titus had marched over that desert
which lies between Egypt and Syria, in the manner
forementioned, he came to Cesarea, having resolved to set his
forces in order at that place, before he began the war. Nay,
indeed, while he was assisting his father at
Alexandria, in settling that government which had been
newly conferred upon them by God, it so happened that the
sedition at Jerusalem was revived, and parted into three
factions, and that one faction fought against the other; which
partition in such evil cases may be said to be a good thing, and
the effect of Divine justice. Now as to the attack the zealots
made upon the people, and which I esteem the beginning of the
city's destruction, it hath been already explained after an
accurate manner; as also whence it
arose, and to how great a mischief it was increased. But for
the present sedition, one should not mistake if he called it a
sedition begotten by another sedition, and to be like a wild
beast grown mad, which, for want of food from abroad, fell now
upon eating its own flesh.
2. For Eleazar, the son of Simon, who made the first
separation of the zealots from the people, and made them retire
into the temple, appeared very angry at John's
insolent attempts, which he made everyday upon the
people; for this man never left off murdering; but the truth
was, that he could not bear to submit to a tyrant who set up
after him. So he being desirous of gaining the entire power and
dominion to himself, revolted from John, and took to his
assistance Judas the son of Chelcias, and Simon the
son of Ezron, who were among the men of greatest power.
There was also with him Hezekiah, the son of Chobar, a
person of eminence. Each of these were followed by a
great many of the zealots; these seized upon the inner
court of the temple and laid their arms upon the holy
gates, and over the holy fronts of that court. And because they
had plenty of provisions, they were of good courage, for there
was a great abundance of what was consecrated
to sacred uses, and they scrupled not the making use of
them; yet were they afraid, on account of their small
number; and when they had laid up their arms there, they did
not stir from the place they were in. Now as to John, what
advantage he had above Eleazar in the multitude of
his followers, the like disadvantage he had in the situation he
was in, since he had his enemies over his head; and as he could
not make any assault upon them without some
terror, so was his anger too great to let them be at rest; nay,
although he suffered more mischief from Eleazar and his party
than he could inflict upon them, yet would he not leave off
assaulting them, insomuch that there were
continual sallies made one against another, as well as darts
thrown at one another, and the temple was defiled every
where with murders.
3. But now the tyrant Simon, the son of Gioras, whom the people
had invited in, out of the hopes they had of his
assistance in the great distresses they were in, having in his
power the upper city, and a great part of the lower, did now make
more vehement assaults upon John and his
party, because they were fought against from above also; yet
was he beneath their situation when he attacked them, as they
were beneath the attacks of the others above them. Whereby it
came to pass that John did both receive and
inflict great damage, and that easily, as he was fought
against on both sides; and the same advantage that
Eleazar and his party had over him, since he was beneath them,
the same advantage had he, by his higher situation, over Simon.
On which account he easily repelled the
attacks that were made from beneath, by the weapons
thrown from their hands only; but was obliged to repel
those that threw their darts from the temple above him, by his
engines of war; for he had such engines as threw darts, and
javelins, and stones, and that in no small number, by which he
did not only defend himself from such as fought against him, but
slew moreover many of the priests, as they were about their
sacred ministrations. For notwithstanding these men were mad with
all sorts of impiety, yet did they still admit those that desired
to offer their sacrifices, although they took care to search the
people of their own country beforehand, and both suspected and
watched
them; while they were not so much afraid of strangers, who,
although they had gotten leave of them, how cruel soever they
were, to come into that court, were yet often destroyed by this
sedition; for those darts that were thrown by the engines came
with that force, that they went over all the buildings, and
reached as far as the altar, and the temple itself, and fell upon
the priests, and those that were about the sacred offices;
insomuch that many persons who came thither with great zeal from
the ends of the earth, to offer sacrifices at this celebrated
place, which was
esteemed holy by all mankind, fell down before their own
sacrifices themselves, and sprinkled that altar which was
venerable among all men, both Greeks and Barbarians,
with their own blood; till the dead bodies of strangers were
mingled together with those of their own country, and those of
profane persons with those of the priests, and the blood of all
sorts of dead carcasses stood in lakes in the holy courts
themselves. And now, "O must wretched city, what
misery so great as this didst thou suffer from the Romans, when
they came to purify thee from thy intestine hatred! 'For thou
couldst be no longer a place fit for God, nor
couldst thou long continue in being, after thou hadst been a
sepulcher for the bodies of thy own people, and hadst
made the holy house itself a burying-place in this civil war of
thine. Yet mayst thou again grow better, if perchance thou wilt
hereafter appease the anger of that God who is the author of thy
destruction." But I must restrain myself from these passions by
the rules of history, since this is not a proper time for
domestical lamentations, but for historical narrations; I
therefore return to the operations that follow in this sedition.
4. And now there were three treacherous factions in the
city, the one parted from the other. Eleazar and his party,
that kept the sacred first-fruits, came against John in their
cups. Those that were with John plundered the populace,
and went out with zeal against Simon. This Simon had his supply
of provisions from the city, in opposition to the seditious.
When, therefore, John was assaulted on both
sides, he made his men turn about, throwing his darts upon
those citizens that came up against him, from the cloisters he
had in his possession, while he opposed those that
attacked him from the temple by his engines of war. And if at
any time he was freed from those that were above him, which
happened frequently, from their being drunk and
tired, he sallied out with a great number upon Simon and his
party; and this he did always in such parts of the city as he
could come at, till he set on fire those houses that were full of
corn, and of all other provisions. The same thing was done by
Simon, when, upon the other's retreat, he
attacked the city also; as if they had, on purpose, done it to
serve the Romans, by destroying what the city had laid up against
the siege, and by thus cutting off the nerves of their own power.
Accordingly, it so came to pass, that all the places that were
about the temple were burnt down, and
were become an intermediate desert space, ready for
fighting on both sides of it; and that almost all that corn was
burnt, which would have been sufficient for a siege of many
years. So they were taken by the means of the famine,
which it was impossible they should have been, unless they had
thus prepared the way for it by this procedure.
5. And now, as the city was engaged in a war on all sides, from
these treacherous crowds of wicked men, the people
of the city, between them, were like a great body torn in
pieces. The aged men and the women were in such
distress by their internal calamities, that they wished for the
Romans, and earnestly hoped for an external war, in order to
their delivery from their domestical miseries. The citizens
themselves were under a terrible consternation and fear; nor had
they any opportunity of taking counsel, and of
changing their conduct; nor were there any hopes of
coming to an agreement with their enemies; nor could such as
had a mind flee away; for guards were set at all places, and the
heads of the robbers, although they were seditious one against
another in other respects, yet did they agree in killing those
that were for peace with the Romans, or were suspected of an
inclination to desert them, as their common enemies. They agreed
in nothing but this, to kill those that were innocent. The noise
also of those that were fighting was incessant, both by day and
by night; but the
lamentations of those that mourned exceeded the other; nor was
there ever any occasion for them to leave off their
lamentations, because their calamities came perpetually
one upon another, although the deep consternation they
were in prevented their outward wailing; but being
constrained by their fear to conceal their inward passions,
they were inwardly tormented, without daring to open their lips
in groans. :Nor was any regard paid to those that were still
alive, by their relations; nor was there any care taken of burial
for those that were dead; the occasion of both which was this,
that every one despaired of himself; for those that were not
among the seditious had no great desires of any thing, as
expecting for certain that they should very soon be destroyed;
but for the seditious themselves, they fought against each other,
while they trod upon the dead bodies as they lay heaped one upon
another, and taking up a mad rage from those dead bodies that
were under their feet,
became the fiercer thereupon. They, moreover, were still
inventing somewhat or other that was pernicious against
themselves; and when they had resolved upon any thing,
they executed it without mercy, and omitted no method of
torment or of barbarity. Nay, John abused the sacred
materials, and employed them in the construction of his
engines of war; for the people and the priests had formerly
determined to support the temple, and raise the holy house twenty
cubits higher; for king Agrippa had at a very great expense, and
with very great pains, brought thither such materials as were
proper for that purpose, being pieces of timber very well worth
seeing, both for their straightness and their largeness; but the
war coming on, and interrupting the work, John had them cut, and
prepared for the building him towers, he finding them long enough
to oppose from
them those his adversaries that thought him from the
temple that was above him. He also had them brought and
erected behind the inner court over against the west end of the
cloisters, where alone he could erect them ; whereas the other
sides of that court had so many steps as would not let them come
nigh enough the cloisters.
6. Thus did John hope to be too hard for his enemies by
these engines constructed by his impiety; but God himself
demonstrated that his pains would prove of no use to him, by
bringing the Romans upon him, before he had reared
any of his towers; for Titus, when he had gotten together part
of his forces about him, and had ordered the rest to meet him at
Jerusalem, marched out of Cesarea. He had
with him those three legions that had accompanied his
father when he laid Judea waste, together with that twelfth
legion which had been formerly beaten with Cestius; which legion,
as it was otherwise remarkable for its valor, so did it march on
now with greater alacrity to avenge themselves
on the Jews, as remembering what they had formerly
suffered from them. Of these legions he ordered the fifth to
meet him, by going through Emmaus, and the tenth to go
up by Jericho; he also moved himself, together with the
rest; besides whom, marched those auxiliaries that came
from the kings, being now more in number than before,
together with a considerable number that came to his
assistance from Syria. Those also that had been selected out of
these four legions, and sent with Mucianus to Italy, had their
places filled up out of these soldiers that came out of Egypt
with Titus; who were two thousand men, chosen
out of the armies at Alexandria. There followed him also three
thousand drawn from those that guarded the river
Euphrates; as also there came Tiberius Alexander, who
was a friend of his, most valuable, both for his good-will to
him, and for his prudence. He had formerly been governor of
Alexandria, but was now thought worthy to be general of the army
[under Titus]. The reason of this was, that he had been the first
who encouraged Vespasian very lately to
accept this his new dominion, and joined himself to him with
great fidelity, when things were uncertain, and fortune had not
yet declared for him. He also followed Titus as a
counselor, very useful to him in this war, both by his age and
skill in such affairs.
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