1. From the armed rebels of the city, ten thousand men, not counting the Edomites, formed the party of Simon; they were under the command of fifty captains, over whom Simon commanded as commander-in-chief. The Edomites who were on his side in the number of five thousand soldiers were governed by ten leaders. The first of these were recognized to a certain extent: James, the son of Sosa, and Simon, the son of Kaphla, John, who occupied the temple, had six thousand heavily armed soldiers under the command of twenty leaders; moreover, he was joined by the Zealots, who had forgotten their former enmity, to the number of two thousand four hundred, led by their former leaders, Eleazar and Simon the son of Yamr. Both these parties, as has been remarked above, were at enmity with each other, and the people were the victims of their dissensions, because that part of the population which excluded itself from their wickedness was plundered by both parties. Simon possessed the Upper City and the great wall as far as Kidron; moreover, that part of the ancient wall which stretched from the spring of Siloam to the east to the palace of Monobazus (king of the Adiabines on the other side of the Euphrates), as well as the said spring, together with the Acra (Lower City), and the whole country to the palace of Helen, the mother of Monobazus. John, on the other hand, ruled over the temple and most of its environs, and then over Ophla and the Kidron Valley. Having destroyed part of the city with fire; lying between their dominions, they created an open place for their mutual struggle. For even when the Romans were already encamped under the walls of Jerusalem, the internecine war did not subside. Coming to their senses for a moment after the first sortie against the Romans, they soon fell back into their former illness, again divided into two with each other, fought with each other, and did everything only to the advantage of the besiegers. They treated each other in such a way that they could not expect more cruel treatment from the enemy, and after their actions in the city, no calamity could seem new; even before the fall of the city, its misfortune was so great that the Romans could only improve its position. I think this: the civil war destroyed the city, and the Romans destroyed the civil strife, which was much stronger than the walls; all fault can truly be attributed to the natives, and all justice can be done to the Romans. But let everyone judge by what events teach.

2. While the city was in this position, Titus, accompanied by a picked band of horsemen, rode around it in order to look for a convenient point of attack on the wall. At all points he found difficulties; from the deep valleys the wall was already inaccessible; But at other points, too, the outer wall seemed too massive for machines. Finally, he decided to undertake an assault at the tomb of the high priest John. At this point, the outer fortification was lower, and the second was not adjacent to it, since in the less populated part of the New Town the fortifications were neglected. From here, therefore, it was easy to pass to the third wall, through which Titus intended to take possession of the Upper City, as through Antonia the temple. From the fact that they did not spare the man who approached them for their own good, Titus understood how great their obstinacy was. He therefore set about the siege with even greater zeal, allowed the legions to ravage the environs of the city, and gave orders to collect materials for the construction of the ramparts.

Following this, he divided the army into three parts for work. In the intervals between the ramparts he drew up slingers and archers, and in front of the front of the latter he placed scorpions, catapults and ballistae in order to repel the enemy's sorties against the workers and attempts to prevent work from the wall. The trees were all cut down, as a result of which the space in front of the city was soon exposed. At that time, however, when trees were brought from everywhere for the ramparts and the whole army was diligently engaged in work, the Jews also did not remain idle. The people, whose lives had been spent in murder and robbery, were now revived: they hoped to breathe freely when their oppressors were distracted by the struggle against an external enemy, and to take revenge on the guilty if the Romans gained the upper hand.

3. John, out of fear of Simon, remained at his post, despite the fact that his army was eager to go to meet the external enemy. Simon, on the other hand, for the very reason that he was nearer to the siege works, did not stand idly by, but placed in various places on the wall the throwing machines which had been taken from Cestius (11, 18, 9) and from the garrison at Antony (11, 17, 7). These machines, however, were of little use to the Jews, since they did not know how to use them; Only a few, who learned how to handle cars from defectors, fired from them, and even then badly. But they threw stones and arrows at the workers, made proper sorties and engaged in small battles with the Romans. But the Romans were protected from arrows by wicker roofs built on embankments, and they were protected from sorties by throwing machines. For all the legions were furnished with excellent machines, especially the tenth legion had extraordinarily strong scorpions and huge ballistae, by means of which he overthrew those who stood even on the wall, to say nothing of those who made sorties: these machines spewed stones weighing talents to a distance of two stades or more; and not only the foremost soldiers, who were immediately caught by them, but also those who stood far behind them, could not resist their blows. At first the Jews escaped from the flying stones, because the latter warned of themselves by their whistles and were even visible to the eye on account of their whiteness; besides, the guards from the towers let them know every time the machine was loaded and the stone flew out, shouting in their native language: "The arrow is flying!", then those at whom the machine was aiming parted and threw themselves on the ground. When this precaution was taken, the stones often fell without any effect. But the Romans, for their part, decided to paint the stones dark: in this way they ceased to be visible in advance and hit the target; One shot destroyed many at once. But in spite of all the harm that the Jews suffered, they still did not give the Romans a single quiet moment for the construction of the siege ramparts, but day and night they tried to prevent them from doing so by every kind of cunning and boldness.

4. When the structures were finished, the craftsmen measured the distance to the wall by throwing a piece of lead attached to a ball from the rampart; they had to resort to this means, as otherwise they would have been fired upon from above. Finding that the battering rams could reach the wall, they brought them here. Titus then ordered the throwing machines to be placed at a closer distance so that the Jews could not keep the battering rams from the wall, and then gave the order to use the battering rams themselves. And when a terrible crack was heard from three places in the city at once, its inhabitants raised a cry, and the rebels themselves were not a little horrified. In view of the common danger, the two parties finally thought of a common defense, and said to each other: "We are only playing into the hands of the enemy! If God has refused us permanent consent, at least for the present moment we must forget mutual strife and unite as one against the Romans!" In fact, Simon promised the safety of those in the temple if they would only come out to the wall, and John, though with disbelief, accepted the offer. Forgetting all enmity and mutual strife, they now stood together as one man, occupied the wall, threw from it masses of flaming firebrands on the buildings, and maintained a continuous firing against those who were loading the battering guns. The bolder men rushed forward in crowds, tore off the protective roofs of the vehicles, and attacked the warriors hiding beneath them, for the most part victoriously, more likely from their frenzied courage than from experience. But Titus did not leave the workmen on both sides of the machines for a moment, he placed the horsemen and archers, and with their help repelled the arsonists, drove the shooters from the wall, and enabled the battering rams to act unhindered. The wall, however, did not yield to blows: only the battering ram of the fifteenth legion recaptured the corner of the tower; but the wall remained intact and was not even in danger, for the tower jutted out far ahead, and therefore the wall could not be so easily damaged by its damage.

5. As the Jews had ceased their sorties for a time, the Romans thought that they had turned to inactivity out of fear and fatigue, and had scattered themselves among their installations and legions. But the Jews, as soon as they noticed this, made a sortie at the Hippicus Tower through the secret gates in their entirety, set fire to the buildings, and were ready to invade the camp. Although the Romans, who were nearer, as well as those who were more distant, managed to gather at their noise, the furious courage of the Jews was faster than the Roman tactics: they put to flight the first people they met on the way and rushed at those who were gathering. A terrible battle ensued around the machines: the Jews did everything to set them on fire, the Romans, on their part, to prevent this; an indistinct rumble was heard on both sides; many of the front ranks fell dead. But the Jews were victorious by their furious courage: the fire engulfed the works, and the soldiers themselves would have perished in the flames along with the machines, had not some of the choicest Alexandrian troops, with unexpected courage, with which they had celebrated themselves in this battle more than others, defended the field of battle until Caesar fell upon the enemy at the head of the choicest cavalry. Twelve of the foremost he laid down with his own hands on the spot; their fate led the rest of the mass to retreat; He pursued her, drove everyone into the city and thus saved the structures from fire. In this battle, one Jew was captured alive. Titus ordered him to be crucified in full view of the wall, in order to make others more pliable by this terrible sight. Already after the retreat, John, the leader of the Edomites, was killed, while he, standing in front of the wall, was talking with a soldier who was loyal to him. An Arab archer shot him in the chest, and he died instantly, to the great sorrow of the Jews and to the regret of the rebels, for he stood out for his courage and wisdom. [346]

Chapter Seven

How one of the towers built by the Romans collapsed by itself. — How, after much bloodshed, the Romans took possession of the first wall, and how Titus made an attack on the second. — Of the Roman Longinus and the Jew Castor.

1. The next night there was an unexpected panic in the Roman camp. One of the fifty-kiloct towers, erected by Titus in front of each rampart in order to protect the latter from the Jews standing on the wall, collapsed of itself in the middle of the night. The terrible roar that occurred at its fall terrified the army; all rushed to arms in the supposition that the enemy was making an attack; Terror and confusion reigned in the legions, and as no one could explain what was the matter, they in their despair assumed one thing or another. When the enemies were nowhere to be seen, they began to be frightened of themselves: each in fear asked the other for the password, fearing that the Jews had not crept into the camp itself. They remained in this panic until Titus learned of what had happened and ordered the cause of the crash to be made public. With difficulty, they allowed themselves to be calmed down by this.

2. The Jews bravely resisted all kinds of attacks; but the towers did them a lot of harm: from there they were simultaneously fired upon by lighter machines, javelin-throwers, archers, and slingers; At the same time, these towers were inaccessible to the Jews because of their height; nor could they be overturned and taken because of their weight; and the iron armor protected them from fire. If the Jews withdrew beyond the range of the shots, they could no longer stop the advance of the battering rams, which, by their incessant blows, though slowly, nevertheless achieved some results. And already the wall yielded to Nikon[39] (as the Jews themselves called the largest battering ram, because he conquered everything); and the Jews had long since been exhausted from fighting and waking at night far from the city. Moreover, they thought it superfluous to guard this wall, because there were two others behind it, and for the most part they faint-heartedly retreated from it. In this way the Romans invaded the wall openings made by Nikon, after which all the guards fled behind the second wall. Those who crossed the wall opened the gates and let the whole army in. On the fifteenth day of the siege, on the seventh day of the month of Artemisia, the Romans took possession of the first wall. They destroyed the greater part of it, as well as the northern part of the city, as Cestius had done before (II, 19, 4).

3. Then Titus, having occupied all the space up to Kidron, built his camp within the walls in what is called the Assyrian camp. [40] Since he was still within firing distance of the second wall, he immediately began an offensive. The Jews were divided into positions and defended the wall stubbornly, John's men fought from the castle of Antonia, the northern temple gallery, and the tomb of King Alexander,41 and Simon's troops occupied the entrance to the city at the tomb of John,42 and defended the line to the gate, at which the aqueduct bends to the Hippicus Tower. Often they rushed out of the gates and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, but each time they were beaten off the walls; for in skirmishes at close range they, who were not initiated in the Roman art of war, were defeated, while fighting from the wall they gained the upper hand. The Romans possessed strength along with experience; On the side of the Jews was courage, strengthened by despair, and their inherent endurance in adversity. At the same time, the latter were still supported by the hope of salvation, and the former were equally hopeful of a quick victory. Neither one nor the other knew fatigue; Attacks, skirmishes near the walls, sorties in small parties took place continuously throughout the day, and not a single form of struggle remained untried. Early in the morning they began, and the night hardly brought rest, for it was sleepless for both camps, and even more terrible than the day: for the Jews, because they expected every minute to attack the wall, for the Romans, because they were always afraid of attacking their camp. Both sides spent the nights under arms, and with a glimpse of the first morning ray, they stood facing each other, ready for battle. The Jews have always contested with each other the right to be the first to rush into danger in order to distinguish themselves before their generals. More than any other, they feared and respected Simon. His subordinates were so devoted to him that at his order each would have laid hands on himself with the greatest readiness. In the Romans, courage was maintained by the habit of constantly conquering and not being defeated, by constant campaigns, by incessant military exercises, and by the power of the prince, but above all by the person of Titus himself, who always came to the aid of all. To weaken before the eyes of Caesar, who himself fought everywhere side by side with everyone, was considered a disgrace; those who fought bravely found in him both a witness to their exploits and a rewarder, and to be famous in front of Caesar as a brave fighter was already considered a gain. Many therefore showed military courage that often exceeded their own strength. When, for example, in those days a strong detachment of Jews stood before the walls in order of battle, and both armies were still being fired upon from a distance, one horseman, Longinus, broke out of the ranks of the Romans, cut into the very ranks of the Jews, tore it apart with his raid, and slew two of the bravest of them, one who stood against him at point-blank range, and the other, who had taken to flight, stabbed from the side with a spear stretched out from the first, and then galloped out of the hands of the enemy back to his own. This, of course, was a very exceptional feat, but many tried to imitate him in heroism. The Jews were not in the least saddened by the losses inflicted on them. All their thoughts and efforts were directed to inflict damage on their part. Death seemed a trifle to them, if only they managed to kill the enemy when dying. For Titus, on the contrary, the safety of the soldiers was as important as victory; he called the rush forward without looking back madness and recognized courage only where they went into action deliberately and without damage. Therefore, he taught his army to be brave, but not to expose themselves to danger.