Jerusalem Explored Part 57

"Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he a.s.sembled the Sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others [or some of his companions] and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned." XX. IX. 1.

[Sidenote: King Agrippa refuses to rebuild the eastern gate of the temple.]

"... so they [the people] persuaded him to rebuild the eastern cloisters. These cloisters belonged to the outer court, and were situated in a deep valley, and had walls that reached four hundred cubits [in length], and were built of square and very white stones, the length of each of which stones was twenty cubits, and their height six cubits. This was the work of king Solomon, who first of all built the entire temple." XX. IX. 7.

Pa.s.sAGES FROM JOSEPHUS'S HISTORY OF THE JEWISH WAR,

TAKEN FROM THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF

ROBERT TRAILL, D.D. M.R.I.A.

[Sidenote: Antiochus Epiphanes at Jerusalem.]

"That monarch, long intent on the enterprise, was prevailed on; and, pressing forward at the head of a formidable army, he took Jerusalem by a.s.sault, put to the sword vast numbers of those attached to the interests of Ptolemy, allowed his troops unrestricted pillage, despoiled the temple in person, and, during three years and six months, interrupted the course of the daily sacrifices." I. I. 1.

[Sidenote: Judas attacks the garrison at Jerusalem. Purifies the temple.]

"In the ardour of victory Judas attacked the garrison in the city, which had not yet been reduced, and having expelled the troops from the upper town, drove them into the lower, a quarter of the city called Acra.

Being now master of the temple, he purified the place throughout, and walled it round." I. I. 4.

[Sidenote: Hyrca.n.u.s opens David's tomb.]

"Antiochus, enraged by what he had endured at the hands of Simon, led an army into Judaea, and sitting down before Jerusalem, besieged Hyrca.n.u.s; who, opening the sepulchre of David, the richest of kings, and privately taking out upwards of three thousand talents in money, both induced Antiochus, by the payment of three hundred, to raise the siege; and also, from the remaining surplus, maintained--the first of the Jews to do so--a mercenary force." I. II. 5.

[Sidenote: Aristobulus. Antigonus. Tower of Baris.]

"Gradually, and with reluctance, Aristobulus credited these insinuations. Yet careful, at once, to avoid the semblance of suspicion, and to provide against any covert attempt, he stationed his body-guards in a dark subterraneous pa.s.sage--he was himself at the time confined to bed, in a tower formerly called Baris, but subsequently named Antonia--with orders to allow Antigonus, if unarmed, to pa.s.s; but to despatch him, should he approach in arms." I. III. 3.

[Sidenote: Strato's Tower.]

"But, on reaching the dark pa.s.sage, known by the name of Strato's Tower, he [Antigonus] was killed by the body-guards." I. III. 4.

[Sidenote: Pompeius reconnoitres the city of Jerusalem.]

"Incensed at this, Pompeius committed Aristobulus to custody; and having advanced to the city, he considered well on what point he should direct his attack. He found the walls, from their height, of almost impregnable strength, with a frightful ravine in front of them: while within this the temple was so strongly fortified, that, even after the capture of the town, it would afford a second refuge to the enemy." I. VII. 1.

[Sidenote: The bridge broken down by Aristobulus' party.]

"The adherents of Aristobulus, being discomfited in the contest, retired into the temple, and, breaking down the bridge which connected it with the city, prepared to hold out to the last." I. VII. 2.

[Sidenote: Pompeius fills up the fosse of the town.]

"The Roman commander now filled up the fosse, and the whole of the ravine, which lay on the north quarter, the troops collecting materials.

This was an undertaking of difficulty, not only on account of the prodigious depth of the ravine, but from the impediments of every kind offered by the Jews from above." I. VII. 3.

[Sidenote: Herod rebuilds the temple.]

[Sidenote: Palaces of Caesarium and Agrippium.]

"Herod, accordingly, at an incalculable expense, and in a style of unsurpa.s.sed magnificence, in the fifteenth year of his reign, restored the Temple, and breasted up with a wall the area round it, so as to enlarge it to twice its former extent. An evidence of its sumptuousness were the ample colonnades around the holy place, and the fort on its northern side. The colonnades he reared from the foundation; the fort, in nothing inferior to a palace, he repaired at an immense cost; and called it Antonia, in honour of Antonius. He also constructed a residence for himself in the upper town, containing two very s.p.a.cious, and not less beautiful buildings, with which the Temple itself bore no comparison. These he designated after his friends, the one Caesarium, the other Agrippium." I. XXI. 1.

[Sidenote: Pilate constructs acqueducts.]

"He subsequently occasioned another tumult, by expending the sacred treasure, called Corban, in the construction of an aqueduct. He brought the water from a distance of four hundred furlongs. Indignant at this profanation, the populace, on his return to Jerusalem, collected with loud clamours about his tribunal." II. IX. 4.

[Sidenote: Cestius encamps on Mount Scopus.]

"Cestius, seeing that these intestine dissensions afforded him a favourable opportunity for attack, led out his entire force, routed the Jews, and pursued them to the gates of Jerusalem. Encamping at a place called The Scopus, distant seven furlongs from the city, he for three days suspended his operations against it." II. XIX. 4.

[Sidenote: Cestius encamps opposite the royal palace.]

"Cestius, on entering, set fire to Bezetha, so named, the Coenopolis, and the place called the Timber Market; and, proceeding to the upper town, encamped opposite the royal residence." II. XIX. 4.

[Sidenote: Number of the troops of t.i.tus engaged in the siege of Jerusalem.]

"For t.i.tus, having drawn together part of his troops to himself, and sent orders to the others to meet him at Jerusalem, broke up from Caesarea. There were the three legions which, under the command of his father, had before ravaged Judaea, and the twelfth, that had formerly been defeated with Cestius, and which, remarkable at all times for its valour, on this occasion, from a recollection of what had befallen it, advanced with greater alacrity to revenge. Of these, he directed the fifth to join him by the route of Ammaus, and the tenth to go up by that of Jericho; while he himself moved forward with the remainder, attended, beside these, by the contingents from the allied sovereigns, all in increased force, and by a considerable body of Syrian auxiliaries.

"Detachments having been drafted by Vespasian from the four legions, and sent with Mucia.n.u.s into Italy, their places were filled up from among the troops that had come with t.i.tus. For two thousand men, selected from among the forces of Alexandria, and three thousand of the guards from the Euphrates, accompanied him; and with them, Tiberius Alexander." V.

I. 6.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus with 600 cavalry reconnoitres Jerusalem.]

"Leading on his forces in orderly array, according to Roman usage, t.i.tus marched through Samaria to Gophna, which had been previously taken by his father, and was then garrisoned. Here he rested for the night, and, setting forward early in the morning, advanced a day's march, and encamped in the valley, which is called by the Jews, in their native tongue, 'The Valley of Thorns,' adjacent to a village named Gabath-Saul, which signifies 'Saul's Hill,' distant from Jerusalem about thirty furlongs. From hence, accompanied by about six hundred picked hors.e.m.e.n, he rode forward to reconnoitre the strength of the city, and ascertain the disposition of the Jews, whether, on seeing him, they would be terrified into a surrender previous to any actual conflict." V. II. 1.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus attacked by the Jews by the monument of Helena.]

[Sidenote: The Women's Towers.]

"While he continued to ride along the direct route which led to the wall, no one appeared before the gates; but on his filing off from the road towards the tower Psephinus, and taking an oblique direction with his squadron, the Jews suddenly rushed out in immense numbers at a spot called 'The Women's Towers,' through the gate opposite the monuments of Helena. They broke through his ranks, and placing themselves in front of the troops who were still advancing along the road, prevented them from joining their comrades, who had filed off, and thus intercepted t.i.tus with only a handful of men. For him to move forward was impossible; as the entire s.p.a.ce was intersected by transverse walls and numerous fences, and separated from the ramparts by d.y.k.es made for gardening purposes." V. II. 2.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus encamps at Scopus, seven furlongs from Jerusalem.]

[Sidenote: The tenth legion upon the Mount of Olives.]

"Caesar, being joined during the night by the legion from Ammaus, moved the next day from thence, and advanced to Scopus, as it is called, the place from which the city first became visible, and the stately pile of the sanctuary shone forth; whence it is that this spot--a flat adjoining the northern quarter of the town--is appropriately called Scopus (the Prospect). When at the distance of seven furlongs from the city, t.i.tus ordered a camp to be formed for two of the legions together; the fifth he stationed three furlongs in rear of them: thinking that, as they had been fatigued with their march during the night, they required to be covered, that they might throw up their entrenchments with less apprehension. Scarcely had they commenced their operations, when the tenth legion arrived. It had advanced through Jericho, where a party of soldiers had lain to guard the pa.s.s formerly taken possession of by Vespasian. These troops had received orders to encamp at the distance of six furlongs from Jerusalem, at the Mount of Olives, so called, which lies over against the city on the east, and is separated from it by a deep intervening ravine, which bears the name of Kedron." V. II. 3.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus levels the ground between Scopus and Jerusalem.]

[Sidenote: Tomb of Herod. Serpents' Pool.]

"t.i.tus intending to break up from Scopus, and encamp nearer to the city, stationed a body of picked men, horse and foot, in such force as he deemed sufficient to check the sallies of the enemy, and employed the main body of his army in levelling the intervening ground as far as the walls. All the fences and hedges, with which the inhabitants had enclosed their gardens and orchards, being accordingly swept away, and the fruit trees in the whole of the intermediate distance felled, the hollows and chasms of the place were filled up, and the rocky eminences removed with iron implements; and thus the whole s.p.a.ce from Scopus to the monuments of Herod, adjacent to what is called 'The Serpents' Pool,'

was reduced to a level." V. III. 2.

[Sidenote: Tomb of Helena. Sortie of the Jews.]