5. It is impossible to describe their fanaticism separately. In short, no city has suffered anything like it, and no generation since the world has done more evil. After all, they also mocked the Jewish people in order to appear less godless towards foreigners. But by this they clearly showed that they themselves were slaves, a crowd of vagabonds, and the illegitimate scum of their people. It was they who destroyed the city, they forced the Romans, against their own will, to give their name to the sad victory, and they themselves almost with their own hands dragged into the temple the slowing fire. Without sorrow or tears, they looked from the Upper City at the conflagration, while it aroused a feeling of compassion among the Romans. Of this, however, we shall have occasion to speak again when we come to the description of the corresponding events.

Chapter Eleven

A multitude of Jews were crucified before the walls of the city. — About Antiochus Epiphanes. — The Jews destroy the fortifications of the Romans.

1. Titus, meanwhile, quickly finished the construction of the ramparts, although the soldiers suffered much from the defenders of the wall. [362] After this, he sent a part of the horsemen to capture those Jews who went down to the country ravines in search of food. Among them there were also warriors who could no longer be satisfied with robbery alone, but for the most part they were poor from the common people. If they did not go over to the Romans, it was only because they feared for the fate of their families, for it was impossible to flee with their wives and children because of the vigilance of the rebels, and to leave them to the mercy of these villains would have been to deliberately condemn them to death. Famine, however, inspired them with courage to leave the city, but even after they had succeeded in deceiving the guards, they were still in danger from an external enemy. Falling into the hands of the Romans, they unwittingly defended themselves out of fear of execution, and once they resisted, they considered it useless to ask for mercy afterwards and perished. After preliminary scourging and all kinds of torture, they were crucified in full view of the wall. Titus, though he pitied these unfortunates, of whom five hundred men were brought in every day, and sometimes more, on the other hand, he thought it dangerous to set at liberty men who had been taken prisoner by force, and if he wished to guard them, such a mass of guards might soon become guards for their guards.

The chief reason for Titus's conduct was the hope that the sight of the executed would induce the Jews to yield, for fear that they would all suffer the same fate if they resisted further. The soldiers, in their bitterness and hatred, nailed the prisoners to ridicule in the most varied directions and in a variety of poses. The number of those crucified increased to such an extent that there was not enough space for crosses and there were not enough crosses for bodies.

2. The rebels, however, not only did not sober up from this horrible sight, but, on the contrary, insidiously took advantage of it to win over the rest of the people to their side. They drove to the wall the relatives of the defectors and those citizens who were peaceful, and pointed out to them what fate befell those who fled to the Romans, asserting that the crucified were not prisoners of war, but beggars for help and mercy. For the time being, until the matter was clarified in its present form, many, indeed, refrained from fleeing and remained in the city, but others immediately fled from there with the deliberate purpose of perishing as soon as possible, since death at the hands of the enemy was already considered a delight in comparison with a painful death from hunger. Titus, meanwhile, ordered the hands of many to be cut off [363]

At the same time, he drove around the ramparts and hurried the workers, wishing to show that his threats would be followed by execution. But those on the wall, in response to these words, reviled Caesar and his father. "Death we despise," they exclaimed, "death is much more pleasing to us than slavery. But while we are still breathing, we will do as much harm to the Romans as we have strength and ability. We do not value our city in the least, since, as you yourself declare, we must perish in any case; as for the temple, God has a better temple, the universe. However, we still hope that this church will also be protected by those who dwell in it. In alliance with him, we ridicule all threats, from which reality is still far away, for the outcome of the matter is in the hands of God!"

3. At this time Antiochus Epiphanes56 arrived at the Roman camp, at the head of many heavily armed soldiers and with a retinue of the so-called Macedonians. They were exclusively his contemporaries, people of high birth, barely out of adolescence, trained and armed in the Macedonian manner, hence their name: "Macedonians". Most of them, however, were far from attaining the glory of this nation. Of all the kings subject to the Romans, the happiest was the king of Commagene; But he also experienced the changeability of fate. Already in the twilight of his life, he was an example of the fact that no one can consider himself happy until death. His son, who came there at a time when his father was at the height of his happiness, expressed his surprise that the Romans were so slow in conquering the wall. He himself was a brave warrior, possessed of a firm, unbending will and powerful bodily strength, which, due to his courage, was almost invincible. Titus, chuckling, replied to his words: "Our desire fully coincides with yours." Then Antiochus and his Macedonians made an attack on the wall. By his strength and dexterity he himself managed to dodge the Jewish arrows, while at the same time showering the Jews with his arrows, but his young soldiers, with the exception of only a few, were crushed; they [364] fought with all their might to prove that they did not separate the word of the department, but, covered with numerous wounds, they had to yield nevertheless. They then learned that even the true Macedonians, in order to win, must still possess the happiness of Alexander.

4. With great effort and after incessant work of seventeen days, the Romans, on the 29th day of Artemisium, completed the construction of the ramparts, which they had begun on the 12th of the same month. They built four main ramparts: one, opposite Antonia, was led by the fifth legion in the middle of what is called the Sparrow Pond; another, nearly twenty cubits from the first, was erected by the twelfth legion; the tenth legion erected its fortification at a considerable distance from the latter, at the so-called Almond Pond, to the north, and finally, thirty cubits further, at the tomb of the high priest,[57] were the entrenching structures of the fifteenth legion. Machines were already installed on all these shafts. Then John gave orders to build an underground passage from the inside under the fortifications opposite Antonia and to prop up both the passage itself and the structures under it with pillars, then he put wood smeared with tar and asphalt there, and ordered all this to be set on fire. When the supports burned down, the mine collapsed and the structures collapsed behind it with a great roar. At first, a thick column of dust arose, as the fire was half extinguished by debris, but when the entire fallen forest collapsed, the fire ignited with a bright flame. Fear seized the Romans at this unexpected sight, all their courage was lost, they already considered themselves close to victory, and suddenly lost this hope even for the future. They considered it useless to extinguish the fire, because even if they managed to stop the fire, the ramparts themselves no longer existed.

5. Two days later, Simon and his men made an attack on the other ramparts, on which the Romans had already set battering rams and shook the wall with them. A certain Teftai of the Galilean city of Garsis,58 and Megassar, one of the faithful servants of Mariamma,59 and then the son of Navatai of Adiabene, surnamed Hagheir, which means lame, seized the torches and made a sortie into the cars. The city did not have more daring and dangerous warriors than these three in this war. As if to meet their comrades, and not a densely united enemy mass, without fear or hesitation, they rushed through the ranks of the enemy and began to set fire to the vehicles. Showered with arrows, met on all sides with sword blows, they did not leave their dangerous post until the fire engulfed the buildings. When the flames broke out, the Romans rushed there to help them from the camp, but the Jews tried to drive them away from the wall, and also engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the fire-extinguishing team, sparing their lives in no way. When the Romans pulled the battering rams out from under the already burning protective roofs, the Jews tried to take possession of them, threw themselves into the very fire and did not let the machines out of their hands, even if they had to hold on to red-hot iron. From the vehicles, the fire spread further to the ramparts, so that the auxiliary detachment arrived late. Surrounded everywhere by fire, the Romans saw themselves unable to save their structures and stretched back to the camp. But the Jews, strengthened by a surge of strength from within and encouraged by success, rushed forward with irresistible impetuosity, pushed their way to the camp trenches, and engaged in combat with the sentries. (In front of the camp, the Romans always have a special armed guard, which is replaced by another each time, and the law punishes him with death for leaving the post). The guards, preferring a heroic death in battle to the execution of a criminal, held their posts. Many of those who fled were ashamed when they saw their comrades in extreme danger and returned to their places again. They placed throwing machines on the rampart of the camp and by means of them restrained the crowd that swept out of the city, which did not take any precautions for its safety and protection. For the Jews clashed with every man who came in their way, with the weight of their mass they overthrew their enemies, in their impulse, which knew no caution, they themselves stumbled upon spears; their superiority lay not so much in their success as in their own courage, and the Romans, if they retreated, did not because they suffered considerable losses, but above all because they avoided their frenzied courage.

6. Soon, however, Titus appeared from Antonia's castle, where he was looking for positions for other ramparts. First of all, he severely reprimanded the soldiers for abandoning their own fortifications, now in possession of the enemy's wall, and for having released the Jews from prison, they seemed to have set them against themselves, and now they themselves were in the position of besieged. He then attacked the enemy's flank with his own picked troops. Although the Jews at the same time had the Romans against them from the front, nevertheless they also turned against Titus and bravely resisted. In the midst of the general heap, the dust blinded the eyes, and the shouts of abuse drowned out the ears, and no one could distinguish between friends and foes. At a time when the Jews were no longer fighting in the consciousness of their strength, but rather out of despair, the Romans, on the contrary, were inspired by the thought of glory, the honor of arms, and Caesar, who had preceded them in battle. I think that in the heat of their rage they would have finished off the whole mass of the Jews this time, if the latter, not waiting for the outcome, had not retreated back to the city. But the Romans were also greatly depressed by the destruction of the ramparts, since in one hour they lost the fruits of many days of effort and labor; Many despaired of the possibility of conquering the city with ordinary machines.