Chapter LXVI: Section IX: A.d. 70

Afflicted Israel shall sit weeping down,
Fast by the stream where Babel's waters run;
Their harps upon the neighbouring willows hung.
Nor joyous hymn encouraging their tongue.
Nor cheerful dance their feet; with toil oppressed,
Their wearied limbs aspiring but to rest.--_Prior._

1. Vitel'lius was declared emperor by the senate, and received the marks of distinction which were now accustomed to follow the appointments of the strongest side.

2. He had been accustomed from his youth to dissipation and applause. Caligula was pleased with his skill in driving a chariot; Claudius loved him because he was a great gamester; and he gained the favour of Nero by wishing him to sing publicly in the theatre. Upon his arrival at Rome, he entered the city, not as a place he came to govern with justice, but as a town that was become his own by the laws of conquest.

3. Vitel'lius soon gave himself up to all kinds of luxury and profuseness; but gluttony was his favourite vice. His entertainments, seldom indeed at his own cost, were prodigiously expensive. He frequently invited himself to the tables of his subjects; in the same day breakfasting with one, dining with another, and supping with a third. 4. By such vices and by enormous cruelties, he became a burthen to himself, and odious to all mankind. Having become insupportable to the inhabitants of Rome, the legions of the east unanimously resolved to make Vespa'sian emperor.

Vespa'sian was by no means of an illustrious family, his father being only a collector of the tax called quadragesima. Nor was his conduct, previous to his accession to the imperial throne, calculated to do him honour, as he was guilty of the meanest flattery and servility to ingratiate himself with men in power. Yet, as a general, he was indefatigable in his duties, and of unquestionable valour; abstemious in his diet, and plain in his dress. On attaining to the imperial dignity he appears to have laid aside every vice except avarice. His elevation neither induced him to assume arrogant and lofty airs, nor to neglect those friends who had shown themselves deserving of his favour.

Desirous of convincing the world that he owed his good fortune to merit alone, he disdained to court the soldiers by largesses; in short, he displayed a nobleness of disposition worthy of the most illustrious birth, and befitting the exalted station to which he had arrived. This prince was the founder of the noble amphitheatre, called the Coliseum, which remains to this day. Twelve thousand Jewish captives were employed in its erection, and it was capable of containing 80,000 spectators seated, and 30,000 standing. It is now in ruins.

5. During the preparations against him, Vitel'lius, though buried in sloth and luxury, resolved to make an effort to defend the empire; and his chief commanders, Va'lens and Cecin'na, were ordered to make all possible preparations to resist the invaders. 6. The first army that entered Italy with a hostile intention was under the command of Anto'nius Pri'mus, who was met by Cecin'na, near Cremo'na. A battle was expected to ensue; but a negociation taking place, Cecin'na was prevailed upon to change sides, and declared for Vespa'sian.[25] His army, however, quickly repented of what they had done, and, imprisoning their general, attacked Anto'nius, though without a leader. 7. The engagement continued the whole night; and in the morning, after a short repast, both armies engaged a second time; when the soldiers of Anto'nius saluting the rising sun, according to custom, the Vitel'lians supposed that they had received new reinforcements, and betook themselves to flight, with the loss of thirty thousand men.

8. In the mean time, Vitel'lius made offers to Vespa'sian of resigning the empire in his favour, provided his life were spared, and a sufficient revenue allotted for his support. In order to enforce this proposal, he issued from his palace in deep mourning, with all his domestics weeping round him. 9. He then went to offer the sword of justice to Cecil'ius, the consul, which he refusing, the abject emperor prepared to lay down the ensigns of empire in the Temple of Concord; but being interrupted by some who cried out, that he himself was Concord, he resolved, upon so weak an encouragement, still to maintain his power, and immediately prepared for his defence.

10. During this fluctuation of counsels, one Sabi'nus, who had advised Vitel'lius to resign, perceiving his desperate situation, resolved, by a bold step, to favour Vespa'sian; and accordingly seized upon the capitol. But he was premature in his attempt; for the soldiers of Vitel'lius attacked him with great fury; and prevailing by their numbers, soon laid that beautiful building in ashes. 11. During this dreadful conflagration, Vitel'lius was feasting in the palace of Tibe'rius, and beheld all the horrors of the assault with satisfaction. 12. Sabi'nus was taken prisoner, and shortly after executed by the emperor's command. Young Domi'tian, his nephew, who was afterwards emperor, escaped by flight, in the habit of a priest; and the rest, who survived the fire, were put to the sword.

13. But Anto'nius, Vespa'sian's commander, being arrived before the walls of the city, the forces of Vitel'lius resolved upon defending it to the utmost extremity. It was attacked with fury; while the army within, sallying out upon the besiegers, defended it with equal obstinacy. The battle lasted the whole day; the besieged were driven back into the city, and a dreadful slaughter made of them in the streets which they vainly attempted to defend.

14. Vitel'lius was soon found hidden in an obscure corner, whence he was taken by a party of the conquering soldiers. Still, however, desirous of adding a few hours to his miserable life, he begged to be kept in prison till the arrival of Vespa'sian at Rome, pretending that he had secrets of importance to discover. 15. But his entreaties were vain; the soldiers binding his hands behind him, and throwing a halter round his neck, led him along, half naked, into the public forum, loading him with all the bitter reproaches their malice could suggest, or his cruelty might deserve. At length, being come to the place of punishment, they put him to death with blows: and then dragging the dead body through the streets with a hook, they threw it, with all possible ignominy, into the river Tiber.

[Sidenote: A.D. 70.]

16. Vespa'sian was now declared emperor by the unanimous consent both of the senate and the army; and dignified with all those titles which now followed rather the power than the merit of those who were appointed to govern. 17. Having continued some months at Alexan'dria, in Egypt, where it is said he cured a blind man and a cripple by touching them, he set out for Rome. Giving his son, Ti'tus, the command of the army that was to lay siege to Jerusalem, he himself went forward, and was met many miles from Rome by all the senate, and the inhabitants, who gave the sincerest testimony of their joy, in having an emperor of such great and experienced virtue. 18. Nor did he in the least disappoint their expectations; as he showed himself equally assiduous in rewarding merit and pardoning his adversaries; in reforming the manners of the citizens, and setting them the best example in his own.

19. In the mean time Titus carried on the war against the Jews with vigour. This obstinate and infatuated people had long resolved to resist the Roman power, vainly hoping to find protection from heaven, which their impieties had utterly offended. 20. Their own historian represents them as arrived at the highest pitch of iniquity; while famines, earthquakes, and prodigies, all conspired to forebode their approaching ruin. 21. Nor was it sufficient that heaven and earth seemed combined against them; they had the most bitter dissensions among themselves, and were divided into two parties, who robbed and destroyed each other with impunity: constantly pillaging, yet boasting their zeal for the religion of their ancestors.

22. At the head of one of these parties was an incendiary, whose name was John. This fanatic affected sovereign power, and filled the whole city of Jeru'salem, and all the towns around, with tumult and pillage. In a short time a new faction arose, headed by one Si'mon, who, gathering together multitudes of robbers and murderers who had fled to the mountains, attacked many cities and towns, and reduced all Idume'a under his power. 23. Jeru'salem, at length, became the theatre in which these two demagogues exercised their mutual animosity: John was possessed of the temple, while Si'mon was admitted into the city; both equally enraged against each other; while slaughter and devastation were the consequence of their pretensions. Thus did a city formerly celebrated for peace and unity, become the seat of tumult and confusion.

24. In this miserable situation, Ti'tus began his operations within six furlongs of Jeru'salem, during the feast of the passover, when the place was filled with an infinite multitude of people, who had come from all parts to celebrate that great solemnity. 25. The approach of the Romans produced a temporary reconciliation between the contending factions within the city; so that they unanimously resolved to oppose the common enemy, and decide their domestic quarrels at a more convenient season. 26. Their first sally, which was made with much fury and resolution, put the besiegers into great disorder, and obliged them to abandon their camp, and fly to the mountains; however, rallying immediately after, the Jews were forced back into the city, while Ti'tus, in person, showed surprising instances of valour and conduct.

27. The city was strongly fortified with three walls on every side, except where it was fenced by precipices. Ti'tus began by battering down the outward wall, which, after much fatigue and danger, he effected; in the mean time showing the greatest clemency to the Jews, and offering them repeated assurances of pardon. Five days after the commencement of the siege, Ti'tus broke through the second wall; and though driven back by the besieged, he recovered his ground, and made preparations for battering the third wall, which was their last defence. 28. But first he sent Jose'phus, their countryman, into the city, to exhort them to yield; who using all his eloquence to persuade them, was answered only with scoffs and reproaches. 29. The siege was now therefore carried on with greater vigour than before; formidable engines for throwing darts and stones were constructed, and as quickly destroyed by the enemy. At length it was resolved in council to surround the whole city with a trench, and thus prevent all relief and all succours from abroad. 30. This, which was quickly executed, seemed no way to intimidate the Jews. Though famine, and pestilence its necessary attendant, began now to make the most horrid ravages among them, yet this desperate people still resolved to hold out. 31. Ti'tus now cut down all the woods within a considerable distance of the city; and causing more batteries to be raised, he at length beat down the wall, and in five days entered the citadel by force. 32. The Jews, however, continued to deceive themselves with absurd expectations, while many false prophets deluded the multitude, by declaring that they should soon have assistance from God. The heat of the battle was now gathered round the inner wall of the temple, while the defendants desperately combatted from the top. 33. Ti'tus was desirous of saving this beautiful structure; but a soldier casting a brand into some adjacent buildings, the fire communicated to the temple; and notwithstanding the utmost endeavours on both sides, the whole edifice was quickly consumed. 34. The sight of the temple in ruins effectually served to damp the ardour of the Jews. They now began to suppose that heaven had forsaken them, while their cries and lamentations echoed from the adjacent mountains. Even those who were almost expiring, lifted up their dying eyes to bewail the loss of their temple, which they valued more than life itself. 35. The most resolute, however, still endeavoured to defend the upper and stronger part of the city, named Sion; but Ti'tus, with his battering engines, soon made himself entire master of the place. 36. John and Simon were taken from the vaults where they had concealed themselves; the former was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and the latter reserved to grace the conqueror's triumph. The greatest part of the populace were put to the sword; and the city was, after a six month's siege, entirely razed, and its site ploughed up; so that according to our Saviour's prophecy, not one stone remained upon another. Those who perished in this siege amounted to about a million; the captives to almost a hundred thousand.[26]

_Questions for Examination_.

1. Who succeeded Otho?

2. In what way did he assume the sovereignty?

3. How did he conduct himself in his new station?

4. What were the consequences of this conduct?

5. Did Vitellius tamely submit to his rival?

6. Who first commenced hostilities?

7. What followed?

8. What was the conduct of Vitellius on this occasion?

9. What farther measures did he adopt?

10. Were the friends of Vespasian idle at this juncture?

11. How was Vitellius engaged at the time of this disaster?

12. What became of Sabinus?

13. What was the consequence of this success on the part of Vitellius?

14. What became of the fallen emperor?

15. Was his request granted?

16. Did Vespasian quietly succeed?

17. What were his first measures?

18. Were they disappointed in their expectations?

19. What was the state of the Jewish war?

20. What was the state of the Jewish nation?

21. Were they united among themselves?

22. Who were at the head of these factions?

23. What was the chief theatre of their enormities?

24. At what remarkable season did Titus commence his attack?

25. What effect did this attack produce?

26. Did the Jews bravely defend their city?

27. What progress did Titus make in the siege?

28. Did he make no attempt to persuade the Jews to surrender?

29. What measures were then adopted?

30. Did these formidable measures terrify the Jews?

31. By what means did Titus gain the city?

32. Was all opposition now at an end?

33. Was the temple destroyed?

34. What effect did this sad event produce?

35. Were there none who attempted farther resistance?

36. What became of the inhabitants and their chiefs?