Chapter VII: Scenes From the Jewish War (2)

Vespasian, having privately questioned the prisoners on these statements and found them true, then began to credit those concerning himself. He did not, however, exempt Josephus from custody or bonds, though he presented him with raiment and other precious possessions, and continued to treat him with kindness and attention, Titus contributing much to these complimentary honours.—_B.J._ III. 7. 33-8. 9 (316-408).

Footnote 272:

Or possibly “could no longer endure the strain, even under
compulsion.”

Footnote 273:

Gr. “chiliarch(s).”

Footnote 274:

MSS “of the fifth and tenth legion” (_sic_).

Footnote 275:

Another reading, “the secret recesses of the city.”

Footnote 276:

Gr. “chiliarch(s).”

Footnote 277:

Lit. “right hands.”

Footnote 278:

Cf. “Romane, memento.... Parcere subjectis.”—Virg. _Æn._ VI, 851 ff.

Footnote 279:

Gr. “polemarch.”

Footnote 280:

Did he claim kinship with his namesake Joseph?

Footnote 281:

Or, perhaps, “began, in his straits, to reason ... philosophically.”

Footnote 282:

The doctrine of _metempsychosis_.

Footnote 283:

Or “a darker region.”

Footnote 284:

Gr. “Hades.”

Footnote 285:

Text (“those who did violence to their fathers”) corrupt. I read τὰς
τῶν πατέρων ὕβρεις.

Footnote 286:

Traill, “be thrown on his own resolution” (lit. “lie on his own right
hand”).

Footnote 287:

Or “to be made in good faith.”

Footnote 288:

Another reading, “through his own virtuous disposition” (ἐξ ἀρετῆς for
ἐξαιρέτως).

Footnote 289:

Text and meaning doubtful. The reference is apparently to the short
reigns of Galba, Otho and Vitellius; but, as Niese suggests, we expect
a sentence to precede, predicting the impending death of Nero.

Footnote 290:

In the underworld apparently.

Footnote 291:

Another reading, “had already raised him to power.”

(44) Reception at Jerusalem of the News of the Fall of Jotapata

When news of the fate of Jotapata reached Jerusalem, the magnitude of the calamity and the absence of any eyewitness of the events reported at first induced general incredulity. For not one had escaped to tell the tale; Rumour, own sister to Black Tidings,[292] came as her own herald of the city’s capture. Little by little, however, the truth found its way through the adjacent districts, and the fact was now regarded by all as established beyond doubt. But the facts were embroidered by fiction; thus Josephus was reported to have fallen when the city was taken. This intelligence filled Jerusalem with the deepest sorrow. In every household and family there was mourning of the relatives for their own lost ones; but the lamentation for the commander was national. Some mourned for their former guests, others for relatives, others for friends, but all alike for Josephus. Thus for thirty days the lamentations in the city were incessant, and many flute-players were hired, who used to take the lead in their dirges.[293]

But when the true story of what had happened at Jotapata was in time disclosed, and the reported death of Josephus was found to be a fabrication, and it became known that he was alive and in Roman hands and being treated by the commanding officers with a respect beyond the common lot of a prisoner, the demonstrations of anger at his escaping alive were as loud as the former expressions of affection when he was believed to be dead. Some abused him as a coward, others as a traitor; and the city was filled with indignation and imprecations upon his devoted head.

They were exasperated, moreover, by their reverses, and their failures added fuel to the flames. A defeat, which with the wise induces precaution and care to provide against similar misfortunes, but goaded them on to further disasters; and the end of one calamity was always the beginning of the next. At any rate, the desire for vengeance on Josephus, now in the enemy’s ranks, impelled them to fiercer assaults upon the Romans. Such was the uproar that now prevailed in Jerusalem.—_B.J._ III. 9. 5 f. (432-442).

Footnote 292:

Cf. Virg. _Æn._ IV, 173 ff.

Footnote 293:

Cf. Matt. ix. 23.

(45) Murder of the High Priest Ananus; also of Zacharias after a mock
trial

The Idumæans had been summoned by the Zealots to aid them against
the party of Ananus, and had with difficulty gained entrance to
Jerusalem during a thunderstorm at night. After massacring their
Jewish enemies these “children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem”
subsequently repented of their adventure and withdrew from the city.
For Zacharias see Appendix, Note V.

[Sidenote: Winter A.D. 67-68]

The fury of the Idumæans being still unsatiated, they turned (from the Temple) to the city, looting every house and killing all who fell in their way. But, thinking their energies wasted on the common people, they went in search of the chief priests. The main body rushed to attack them, and they were soon caught and slain. Then, standing over their dead bodies, they scoffed at Ananus for his patronage of the people and at Jesus for the address which he had delivered from the wall. They actually went so far in their impiety as to cast out the corpses without burial, although the Jews are so careful about funeral rites that even malefactors who have been sentenced to crucifixion are taken down and buried before sunset.[294]

I do not think I shall be wrong in saying that the capture of the city began with the death of Ananus; and that the overthrow of the walls and the downfall of the Jewish state dated from the day on which the Jews beheld their high priest, the captain of their salvation, butchered in the heart of Jerusalem.

A man in all ways venerable and in integrity unsurpassed, Ananus, with all the distinction of his birth, his rank and the honours to which he had attained, yet delighted to treat the very humblest as his equals. Unrivalled in his love of liberty and an admirer of democracy, he on all occasions put the public welfare above his private interests. To maintain peace was his supreme object. He knew that the Roman power was irresistible; but, when driven to provide for a state of war, endeavoured to secure that, if the Jews would not break off hostilities, the struggle should at least be skilfully conducted. In a word, had Ananus lived, they would undoubtedly either have come to terms—for he was an effective speaker, whose words carried weight with the people, and was already gaining control over those who thwarted him—or else, had hostilities continued, they would, under such a general, have greatly retarded the victory of the Romans.

With him was linked Jesus, who, though not comparable with Ananus, excelled the rest of his contemporaries.

It was, I suppose, because God had, for its pollutions, condemned the city to destruction and desired to purge the sanctuary by fire, that He thus cut off those who clung to it with such tender affection. So they who but lately were clad in the sacred vestments, had led the ceremonies of world-wide significance[295] and were reverenced by visitors to the city from every quarter of the earth, were now seen cast out naked, to be devoured by dogs and beasts of prey. Virtue herself, I think, groaned over these men’s fate, lamenting that she should have been so completely defeated by Vice. Such, then, was the end of Ananus and Jesus.

Having disposed of them, the Zealots with the mass of the Idumæans fell upon and butchered the people as though they had been a herd of unclean animals....

The Mock Trial and Murder of Zacharias

Having now come to loathe indiscriminate massacre, the Zealots instituted mock trials and courts of justice. They had determined to put to death Zacharias, son of Baris,[296] one of the most eminent of the citizens. His pronounced hatred of wrongdoing and love of liberty exasperated them, and, as he was also rich, they had the double prospect of plundering his property and of getting rid of a powerful and dangerous opponent. So they issued a peremptory summons to seventy of the leading citizens to appear in the Temple, assigning to them, as in a play, the _rôle_, without the authority, of judges; and accused Zacharias of betraying the state to the Romans and of holding treasonable communications with Vespasian. They adduced no evidence or proof in support of these charges; but declared that they were fully convinced of his guilt themselves and claimed this as sufficient guarantee that the accusation was true.

Perceiving that no hope of escape was left him, as he had been treacherously summoned not to a court of justice but to prison, Zacharias did not allow despair of life to rob him of liberty of speech. He rose and ridiculed the probability of the accusation, and in few words quashed the charges laid against him. Then, rounding upon his accusers, he went over all their enormities in order, and bitterly lamented the confusion of public affairs. The Zealots were in an uproar and could scarce refrain from drawing their swords, although anxious to play out their part in the farce of a trial to the close, and desirous, moreover, to test whether the judges would put considerations of justice above their own peril.

The seventy, preferring to die with the defendant rather than be held answerable for his destruction, brought in a unanimous verdict in his favour. The Zealots raised an outcry at his acquittal, and were all indignant with the judges for not understanding that the authority entrusted to them was a mere pretence. Two of the most daring of them then set upon Zacharias and slew him in the midst of the Temple; and addressing him as he lay with jeering words, “There you have our verdict as well and a surer release,”[297] forthwith cast him out of the Temple into the ravine below. Then they insolently struck the judges with the backs of their swords and drove them from the precincts; their sole reason for sparing their lives was that they might disperse through the city and proclaim to all the servitude to which they were reduced.—_B.J._ IV. 5. 2-4 (314-326; 334-344).

Footnote 294:

Cf. Deut. xxi. 22 f.; John xix. 31.

Footnote 295:

Lit. “cosmical,” meaning either “open to the whole world” or perhaps
“emblematic of the mundane system” (Traill); cf. Jos. _Ant._ III. 6. 4
(123); 7. 7 (the Tabernacle a symbol of the universe), with Westcott’s
note on Heb. ix 1.

Footnote 296:

According to other MSS “Bariscæus” or “Baruch.”

Footnote 297:

The Gr. word (ἀπόλυσις) means both “acquittal” and “death.”

(46) How Josephus was Liberated

[Sidenote: Probably Summer A.D. 69]

Now that fortune was everywhere furthering his wishes and that circumstances had in large measure conspired in his favour, the thought arose in Vespasian’s mind that divine providence had played a part in his rise to sovereignty and that some just destiny had laid the empire of the world upon his shoulders. Among many other omens, which had everywhere foreshadowed his imperial office, he recalled the expressions of Josephus, who had ventured to address him as emperor while Nero was still alive. He was shocked to think that the man was still a prisoner in his hands, and summoning Mucianus with his other generals and personal friends, he first reminded them of his doughty deeds and how much trouble he had given them at Jotapata; and then referred to his predictions, which at the time he himself had suspected of being the fabrications of fear, but which time and the course of events had proved to be divine. “It is disgraceful,” he said, “that one who foretold my elevation to power and was a minister of the voice of God should still rank as a captive and endure a prisoner’s fate”; and calling for Josephus, he ordered him to be liberated.

The officers from this requital of a foreigner were led to augur brilliant honours for themselves. But Titus, who was beside his father, said, “Justice demands, father, that, with his bonds, the disgrace should also be removed from Josephus. If, instead of loosing, we sever his chains, he will be as though he had never been in bonds at all.” This is the usual custom when a man has been unjustly chained. Vespasian approving, an attendant came forward and severed the chain with an axe. Thus Josephus won his freedom[298] as the reward of his divination, and his power of insight into the future was no longer discredited.—_B.J._ IV. 10. 7 (622-629).

Footnote 298:

Lit. “civic rights.”

(47) A Roman Reverse Inspires false Confidence

[Sidenote: May A.D. 70]

Thus, after gaining possession of the second wall, were the Romans ejected. The spirits of the war party in the city, elated at their success, rose to a high pitch; they thought that the Romans would never again venture into the city, or that, if they did, they themselves would prove invincible. For God was blinding their minds because of their transgressions; and they perceived neither how the forces still left to the Romans far out-numbered those which had been expelled nor the stealthy approach of famine. It was still possible to feed upon the public miseries and to drink of the city’s life-blood; but honest men had long since felt the pinch of want, and many were already failing for lack of necessaries. The factions, on the other hand, considered the destruction of the people to be a relief to themselves; they maintained that only those should be preserved who were enemies to peace and determined to devote their lives to resisting the Romans; the crowds of their opponents they regarded as a mere encumbrance[299] and their gradual extinction a cause for satisfaction. Such were their feelings towards those within the walls. As for their external foes, having blocked and walled up the breach with their own bodies, they attempted to beat off the Romans who were once more attempting to break through.

For three days they maintained a stubborn defence and held their ground; but on the fourth, unable to withstand a gallant assault of Titus, they were compelled to fall back as before. Titus, once more master of the wall, immediately razed the whole of the northern portion; and, placing garrisons in the towers on the south side, made preparations to attack the third wall.—_B.J._ V. 8. 2 (342-347).

Footnote 299:

Another reading, “as mere barbarians.”

(48) Cessation of the Daily Sacrifice. Josephus appeals to the Jews

Titus now ordered the troops at his disposal to raze the foundations of Antonia[300] and to prepare an easy ascent (to the Temple) for his whole army. On the seventeenth of Panemus, [Sidenote: July A.D. 70] having heard that on that day the so-called continual sacrifice[301] had ceased to be offered to God from lack of men and that the people were in consequence terribly despondent, he put Josephus forward with instructions to repeat to John[302] the same message as before; namely “that if he was the slave of a depraved love of fighting, it was open to him to come out with as many men as he chose and carry on the war, without involving the city and the sanctuary in his own ruin; but that he should no longer pollute the Holy Place nor sin against God; and that he would be permitted to perform the interrupted sacrifices through the ministry of any Jews he might select.”

Josephus, in order that his words might be listened to[303] not by John only but by the multitude, delivered Cæsar’s message in Hebrew,[304] with earnest appeals to them “to spare their country, to disperse the flames that were already licking[305] the sanctuary and to restore to God the customary expiations.”[306] This address was received by the people with dejection and silence; the tyrant,[307] on the contrary, after many invectives and imprecations upon Josephus, ended by saying that “he could never fear capture, since the city was God’s.”

At this Josephus cried aloud:—

“Pure indeed have you kept it for God! The Holy Place too remains undefiled! No impiety are you guilty of against your looked-for Ally and He receives His customary sacrifices! Most impious wretch, should any one deprive you of your daily food, you would consider him an enemy; and do you hope to have God for your ally in the war, whom you have bereft of His everlasting ceremonial? And do you impute these sins to the Romans, who, to this day, are concerned for our laws and are trying to force you to restore to God those sacrifices which _you_ have interrupted? Who would not bewail and lament for the city at this amazing transposition, when aliens and enemies rectify your impiety, while you, a Jew, nurtured in our laws, treat them with greater cruelty even than your foes?

“Yet, be sure, John, it is no disgrace to repent of misdeeds, even at the last; and, if you desire to save your country, you have a noble example set before you in Jeconiah, king of the Jews. He, when in the old days the Babylonian led out his army on his account, of his own free will left the city before it was taken, and with his family endured voluntary captivity, rather than deliver up these holy places to the enemy and suffer the house of God to be set on fire.[308] For this he is commemorated in sacred story by all Jews, and memory, flowing ever fresh from age to age, transmits his undying fame to after generations. A noble example, John, even were it dangerous to follow; but I can warrant you even pardon from the Romans. Remember, too, that I who exhort you am your compatriot, that I who make this promise am a Jew; and it is right that you should consider who is your counsellor and of what country he comes. For I pray that I may never live to be so abject a captive as to abjure my race or to forget the traditions of my forefathers.

“Once again you are indignant and shout your abuse at me; and indeed I deserve even harsher treatment for offering advice in fate’s despite and for struggling to save those whom God has condemned. Who is ignorant of the records of the ancient prophets and of that oracle which threatens this poor city and is now on the eve of fulfilment? They foretold that it would be taken when one should begin to slaughter his own countrymen. And is not the city and the whole Temple too filled with the corpses of your fellow-citizens? God it is then, God Himself, who with the Romans is bringing the fire to purge His Temple and desolation upon a city so laden with pollutions.”—_B.J._ VI. 2. 1 (93-110).

Footnote 300:

The tower or “castle” adjoining the Temple from the stairs of which
St. Paul delivered the speech recorded in Acts xxii.

Footnote 301:

The daily, morning and evening, sacrifice (ἐνδελεχισμός: Heb.
_Tamid_); cf. Numb. xxviii. 6.

Footnote 302:

John of Gischala.

Footnote 303:

Many MSS insert “standing” (“standing where he might be heard,” etc.).

Footnote 304:

_i.e._ Aramaic. Cf. Acts xxi. 40; xxii. 2.

Footnote 305:

Lit. “tasting.”

Footnote 306:

The Gr. word strictly means “offerings to the dead.”

Footnote 307:

John of Gischala.

Footnote 308:

Amplification of 2 K. xxiv. 12; cf. _Ant._ x. 7. 1 (100).

(49) Conflagration of the Temple

“There shall not be left here one stone upon another which shall not
be thrown down.”

Titus, to protect his forces, had ordered the gates of the outer
court to be set on fire, and from the gates the fire extended to the
porticoes. But, after a council of war, it was decided that the main
fabric—the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies—must be saved; Titus
urging that “if it were burnt, the Romans would be the losers; if
preserved, it would be an ornament of his Empire.” His attempts to
check the spread of the conflagration proved, however, unavailing.

[Sidenote: August A.D. 70]

Throughout that day fatigue and consternation checked the Jews from attacking; but, on the following day, about the second hour, with recruited strength and renewed courage, they sallied out through the eastern gate and charged the guards of the outer court of the Temple.

The Romans stubbornly met their charge and, forming a screen in front with their shields, closed up their ranks like a wall. It was evident, however, that they would not long be able to hold together, overpowered as they were by the number and _élan_ of their assailants. Cæsar, who from the (tower of) Antonia was watching the scene, anticipating the breaking of the line, came to their rescue with his picked cavalry. The Jews could not withstand their onset; the foremost fell and the main body retreated. Yet whenever the Romans retired the Jews returned to the attack, only to fall back once more when the Romans wheeled round; until, about the fifth hour of the day, the Jews were overpowered and shut up in the inner court of the Temple.

Titus then withdrew to Antonia, with the determination on the following day, about dawn, to attack with his whole force and invest the Temple. But God, it seems, had long since sentenced that building to the flames; and now in the revolution of the years had come round the fated day, the tenth of the month Lous, [Sidenote: August] on which it had once before been burnt by the king of Babylon. Those flames, however, owed their origin and cause to God’s own people.[309] For, on the withdrawal of Titus, the insurgents, after a brief respite, again attacked the Romans, and an engagement ensued between the (Jewish) guards of the sanctuary and the (Romans) who were endeavouring to extinguish the fire in the inner court. The latter routed the Jews and pursued them right up to[310] the sanctuary.

At this moment, one of the soldiers, without waiting for orders and with no horror of so dread a deed, but moved by some supernatural impulse, snatched a brand from the burning timber[311] and, hoisted up by one of his comrades, flung the fiery missile through a golden window,[312] which gave access on the north side to the chambers surrounding the sanctuary. As the flame shot up, a cry, such as the calamity demanded, arose from the Jews, who rushed to the rescue, lost to all thought of self-preservation, all husbanding of strength, now that the object of all their past vigilance was gone.

* * * * *

Titus was resting in his tent after the engagement, when a messenger rushed in with the tidings. Starting up just as he was, he ran to the Temple to arrest the conflagration, followed by all his generals, while in their train came the excited legionaries, with the clamour and confused noise arising from the movement in irregular order of so large an army. Cæsar, both by word of mouth and by a wave of his hand, signalled to the combatants to extinguish the fire; but they neither heard his shouts, drowned in the louder din which filled their ears, nor, distracted as they were by the fever of battle or rage, did they heed his beckoning hand. The impetuosity of the legionaries, when they joined the fray, neither exhortation nor threat could restrain; passion was for all the one officer in command. Crushed together about the entrances, many were trampled down by their companions; while many, stumbling on the still hot and smouldering ruins of the porticoes, suffered the same fate as the vanquished.[313] As they came nearer the sanctuary they pretended not even to hear Cæsar’s orders and shouted to those in front of them to throw in the firebrands.

The (Jewish) insurgents were now powerless to rescue (the Temple). On all sides was carnage and flight. Most of the slain were civilians, a weak and unarmed mob, each butchered where he was caught. Around the altar a pile of corpses was accumulating; down the sanctuary steps flowed a stream of blood; and down the same decline slid the bodies of the victims killed above.

* * * * *

Cæsar, finding himself unable to restrain the impetuosity of his frenzied soldiers and that the fire was gaining the mastery, passed with his generals within the building and beheld the holy place of the sanctuary and all that it contained—things far exceeding the reports current among foreigners and not inferior to their proud reputation among our own nation. As the flames had nowhere yet penetrated to the interior, but were consuming the outbuildings of the sanctuary, Titus, rightly supposing that the structure might still be preserved, rushed out and endeavoured by personal appeals to induce the soldiers to quench the fire; at the same time directing Liberalius, a centurion of his bodyguard of lancers, to restrain, by resort to clubs, any who disobeyed orders. But their respect for Cæsar and their fear of the officer who was endeavouring to check them were overpowered by their rage, their hatred of the Jews and the lust of battle, an even mightier master. Most of them were further stimulated by the hope of plunder, believing that the interior was full of money and actually seeing that all the surroundings were made of gold.

Moreover, when Cæsar rushed out to restrain the soldiers, even one of those who had entered with him baulked his purpose by thrusting a firebrand, in the darkness,[314] into the sockets of the gate. At once a flame shot up from the interior, whereupon Cæsar and his generals withdrew, and there was none left to prevent those on the outside from kindling a blaze. Thus, then, against Cæsar’s wishes, was the sanctuary set on fire.

* * * * *

Deeply as one must mourn for the most marvellous edifice which we have ever seen or heard of, whether we consider its structure, its magnitude, the richness of every detail or the reputation of its Holy Places,[315] yet may we draw very great consolation from the thought that there is no escape from Fate, for works of art and places any more than for living beings. And one may well marvel at the exactness of the cycle of Destiny; for, as I said, she waited until the very month and the very day on which in bygone times the Temple had been burnt by the Babylonians.—_B.J._ VI. 4. 4-8 (244-268).

Footnote 309:

Or “to the people whose own the Temple was.”

Footnote 310:

Or “into.”

Footnote 311:

Text uncertain.

Footnote 312:

Or “a small golden door.”

Footnote 313:

Possibly there is an allusion to the burning of the porticoes in the
riots at the time of the accession of Archelaus, when many Jews
perished in the flames (_Ant._ XVII. 10. 2).

Footnote 314:

Text doubtful.

Footnote 315:

_i. e._ the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.

(50) Portents and Oracles[316]

Thus it happened that the wretched people were deluded at that time by charlatans and pretended messengers of God;[317] while they paid no heed to or discredited the manifest portents that foretold the coming desolation, but, as if thunderstruck and bereft of eyes and mind, disregarded God’s plain proclamations (of disaster). So it was when a star, resembling a sword, stood over the city, and a comet which continued for a year. So again when, before the revolt and the outbreak of war, at the time when the people were assembling for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the eighth of the month Xanthicus,[318] at the ninth hour of the night, so brilliant a light shone round the altar and the sanctuary that it seemed to be broad daylight; and this continued for half an hour. By the inexperienced this was regarded as a good omen, but by the sacred scribes it was at once interpreted in accordance with after events.

At that same feast a cow that had been led by some one[319] to the sacrifice gave birth to a lamb in the midst of the Temple. Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner court, which it took twenty men to close with difficulty at even—it was of brass and very massive, and was secured by bars shod with iron, and had bolts which were sunk to a great depth into a threshold consisting of a solid block of stone—this gate was observed at the sixth hour of the night to have opened of its own accord. The watchmen of the Temple ran and reported the matter to the captain,[320] and he came up and with difficulty succeeded in shutting it. This again to the uninitiated seemed the best of omens, as they supposed that God had opened to them the gate of blessings; but the learned understood that the security of the Temple was dissolving of its own accord and that the opening of the gate indicated a present to the enemy, interpreting the portent in their own minds[321] as a symbol of desolation.

Again, not many days after the festival, on the twenty-first of the month Artemisium,[322] there appeared a phenomenon so miraculous as to surpass belief. Indeed, what I am about to relate might well, I suppose, be regarded as fictitious, were it not for the narratives of eyewitnesses and for the subsequent calamities which deserved to be so signalized. In all parts of the country before sunset chariots were observed in the air and armed battalions rushing through the clouds and closing in round the cities. Also, at the feast which is called Pentecost, the priests on entering the inner court of the Temple by night, as their custom was, for the discharge of their ministrations, reported that they first became aware of a movement and a resounding noise and afterwards heard a voice as of a crowd, “We are departing hence.”[323]

But a further portent was even more alarming. Four years before the war, when the city was enjoying profound peace and prosperity, there came to the feast at which it is the custom of all Jews to erect tabernacles to God,[324] one Jesus, son of Ananias, a rude peasant, who suddenly began to cry out in the Temple, “A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds; a voice against Jerusalem and the sanctuary, a voice against bridegrooms and brides, a voice against all the people.” Day and night he went about all the alleys with this cry on his lips. Some of the leading citizens, incensed at the fellow’s ill-omened words, laid hands on him and severely chastised him. But he, without uttering a word on his own behalf or for the private ear of those who smote him, continued his cries as before. Thereupon, the rulers, supposing, as was indeed the case, that the man was under some supernatural impulse, brought him before the Roman governor, where, although flayed to the bone with scourges, he neither begged for mercy nor shed a tear, but, merely introducing the most mournful of variations into his ejaculation, responded to each stroke with “Woe to Jerusalem!” When Albinus, the governor, asked him who and whence he was and why he uttered these words, he made no reply whatever to his questions, but never ceased reiterating his dirge over the city, until Albinus pronounced him a maniac and let him go.

During all that period up to the outbreak of war he neither approached nor was seen talking to any of the citizens, but, as if it were a prayer on which he had pondered, daily repeated his lament, “Woe to Jerusalem!” He neither cursed any of those who beat him day after day nor blessed those who offered him food; to all that melancholy and ominous refrain was his one reply. At the festivals his cries were loudest. So for seven years and five months he continued his wail, his voice never flagging nor his strength exhausted, until during the siege, after witnessing the verification of his presage, he ceased. For, while going his round on the wall, shouting in piercing tones “Woe once more to the city and to the people and to the Temple,” as he added a last word, “And woe to myself also,” a stone shot from the military engine[325] struck and killed him instantaneously. So with those ominous words still on his lips he passed away.

* * * * *

If we reflect on these things, we shall find that God shows care for men, and by all kinds of premonitory signs indicates to His people the means of salvation, and that they owe their destruction to folly and calamities of their own choosing. For example, the Jews, after the demolition of the (tower of) Antonia, reduced the Temple to a square, although they had it recorded in their oracles that the city and the sanctuary would be taken when the Temple should become four-square. But what more than all else incited them to the war was an ambiguous oracle, likewise found in their sacred writings, to the effect that about that time some one from their country should become ruler of the world. This they understood to mean some one of their own race, and many of their wise men went astray in their interpretation of it. The oracle, however, in reality signified the sovereignty of Vespasian, who was proclaimed Emperor on Jewish soil.

For all that, it is impossible for men to avoid Fate, even though they foresee it. For some of these portents, then, the Jews found agreeable meanings, others they treated with contempt, until the ruin of their country and their own destruction convicted them of their folly.—_B.J._ VI. 5. 3 f. (288-315).

Footnote 316:

Cf. Appendix, Note VI.

Footnote 317:

The “tyrants” had encouraged optimistic false prophets in order to
prevent desertion to the Romans.

Footnote 318:

March-April.

Footnote 319:

Eusebius (_H.E._ III. 8) reads “by the High Priest.”

Footnote 320:

Cf. Acts iv. 1; v. 24.

Footnote 321:

Or “among themselves.”

Footnote 322:

April-May.

Footnote 323:

So all the Gr. MSS (cf. Tac. _Hist._ v. 13, _maior humanâ vox excedere
deos_). The Lat. version, with two other authorities, reads, “Let us
depart hence.”

Footnote 324:

The Feast of Tabernacles (_Sukkoth_).

Footnote 325:

πετροβόλος, the Lat. _ballista_, a kind of large catapult.

(51) The Last Scene. Capture of the Upper City. Jerusalem in Flames

“Tum vero omne mihi visum considere in ignes....”

[Sidenote: September A.D. 70]

The Romans, now masters of the walls, planted their standards on the towers, and with clapping of hands and jubilation raised the song of triumph in honour of their victory. They had found the end of the war a much lighter task than the beginning; indeed, they could hardly believe that they had surmounted the last wall without bloodshed, and were truly[326] at a loss on finding no enemy in sight.

Pouring into the alleys, sword in hand, they massacred indiscriminately all whom they met and burnt over their heads the houses of those who had taken refuge within. Often in the course of their raids, on entering the houses for loot, they would find whole families of dead bodies and the rooms filled with the victims of the famine, and then, shuddering at the sight, would retire empty-handed. Yet, while they pitied those who had thus perished, they had no similar feelings for the living, but, running every one through that fell in their way, they choked the alleys with corpses and deluged the whole city with blood, insomuch that the flames of many of the burning buildings were extinguished by the gory stream. Towards evening they ceased slaughtering, but when night fell the fire gained the mastery, and the dawn of the eighth day of the month Gorpiæus [Sidenote: September] broke upon Jerusalem in flames; a city which had suffered such calamities in the siege, that, had she from her first foundation enjoyed an equal share of blessings, she would have been thought wholly enviable; and undeserving, moreover, of these great misfortunes on all other grounds, save that she produced so evil a generation as that which caused her overthrow.

* * * * *

Of all the strong defences of the city those which chiefly aroused the admiration of Titus, on his entry, were the towers, which the tyrants, in their infatuation, had abandoned. Indeed, when he beheld their solid lofty mass, the magnitude of each block of stone and the accuracy of the joinings, and saw how great was their breadth, how vast their height, “We have indeed,” he exclaimed, “had God on our side in the battle. God it was who ejected the Jews from these strongholds; for what power have human hands or engines against these towers?” He made many similar observations to his friends on that occasion, and also liberated all who had been imprisoned by the tyrants and left in the forts. And when, at a later period, he demolished the rest of the city and razed the walls, he left these towers as a memorial of his attendant fortune, to whose co-operation he owed his conquest of defences which defied assault.—_B.J._ VI. 8. 5-9. 1 (403-413).

Footnote 326:

Some MSS read “unusually” (ἀήθως for ἀληθῶς).

(52) The Spoils from the Temple in the Triumphal Procession in Rome

The Jewish spoils—the table of shew-bread, incense-cups and
trumpets—as borne in the procession still figure on the Arch of
Titus in Rome; a representation _e.g._ in Driver’s _Exodus_ (_Camb.
Bible_), p. 273.

The rest of the spoils borne (in procession) were not systematically assorted; but conspicuous above all stood out those captured from the Temple at Jerusalem. These consisted of a golden table,[327] many talents in weight, and a lampstand,[328] likewise made of gold, constructed on a different pattern from those which we use in ordinary life. Affixed to a pedestal was a central shaft, from which there extended slender branches, arranged trident-fashion, a wrought lamp being attached to the extremity of each branch. There were seven of these lamps, indicating the honour paid to that number among the Jews. After these, and last of all the spoils, was carried a copy of the Jewish Law.—_B.J._ VII. 5. 5 (148-150).

Footnote 327:

The table of shew-bread.

Footnote 328:

Or “candlestick.”