Jerusalem Explored Part 59

[Sidenote: Forces of the besieged in Jerusalem.]

"The whole number of fighting men and insurgents in the city was as follows. Attached to Simon were ten thousand men, irrespective of the Idumaeans. Over these were fifty officers, Simon himself acting as Commander-in-chief. The Idumaeans who joined his ranks, five thousand in number, had ten leaders, of whom James, the son of Sosas, and Simon, the son of Cathlas, were reputed to be the foremost. John, who had seized on the temple, had under his orders six thousand men-at-arms, commanded by twenty officers. The Zealots, also, had now laid aside their differences and gone over to him, to the number of two thousand four hundred, led by Eleazar, their former general, and Simon, son of Ari." V. VI. 1.

[Sidenote: Position occupied by Simon.]

[Sidenote: Position occupied by John.]

"Simon occupied the upper town and the great wall, as far as the Kedron, with as much of the old wall as, bending eastward from Siloam, descended to the palace of Mon.o.bazus, king of Adiabene, beyond the Euphrates. He held, likewise, the fountain and the Acra, which was the lower town, with the interval as far as the palace of Helena, the mother of Mon.o.bazus. John occupied the temple, and the parts about it to a considerable distance, with Ophla, and the valley called Kedron." V. VI.

1.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus examines the Walls.]

[Sidenote: Monument of the high priest John.]

"While affairs in the city were in this posture, t.i.tus, with a select detachment of horse, rode round the wall, in order to ascertain against what quarter he should direct his attack. Utterly at a loss on what side to a.s.sail them, there being no access at any point through the ravines, while on the other side, the first wall appeared too firm for the engines, he determined to make the a.s.sault opposite to the monument of John, the high priest, for at this point the outer bulwark was lower, and the second was not connected, the builders having neglected to fortify those places where the new town was thinly inhabited; but there was easy access to the third wall, through which he designed to capture the upper town, and through the Antonia, the temple." V. VI. 2.

[Sidenote: Suburbs.]

"He at once gave the legions permission to lay waste the suburbs, and ordered them to collect the timber together for the construction of mounds." V. VI. 2.

[Sidenote: Taking of the first Wall.]

"... The Romans having mounted where Nico had effected a breach, they all abandoned their posts, and retreated to the second wall; when those who had scaled the ramparts opened the gates, and admitted the entire army. The Romans having thus, on the fifteenth day, which was the seventh of the month Artemisius, become masters of the first wall, laid a great part of it in ruins, as they did the northern quarters of the city, which Cestius had formerly demolished." V. VII. 2.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus occupies the s.p.a.ce between the camp of the a.s.syrians and the Kedron.]

[Sidenote: Gate of the aqueducts.]

"t.i.tus now transferred his camp to a place within the wall, styled the Camp of the a.s.syrians, occupying the entire interval as far as the Kedron, but keeping at such a distance from the second rampart as to be out of range of the missiles, and immediately commenced the attack. The Jews, dividing their forces, made a vigorous defence from the wall; John and his party fighting from the Antonia, from the north colonnade of the temple, and in front of the monuments of king Alexander; while Simon's band, intercepting the a.s.sault near John's monument, manned the intervening s.p.a.ce as far as the gate through which the water was introduced to the tower Hippicus." V. VII. 3.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus makes himself master of the second Wall.]

"On the fifth day after the reduction of the first wall Caesar stormed the second at this point; and as the Jews fled from it, he entered with a thousand men, and the select band which he retained about his person, at that part of the new town where were the wool-marts, the braziers'

shops, and the clothes market, and where the streets led obliquely to the ramparts." V. VIII. 1.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus exhibits his troops.]

"The cessation he employed for his own purposes. The stated day for distributing pay among the troops having arrived, he directed the officers to draw out the force, and count out the money to each man in view of the enemy." V. IX. 1.

[Sidenote: The Jews see the review of the troops t.i.tus.]

"And nothing could be more gratifying to the Romans, or more terrifying to the enemy than that spectacle. The whole of the ancient wall and the northern quarter of the temple were crowded with spectators, and the houses were to be seen filled with people on the look-out; nor was there a spot in the city which was not covered with mult.i.tudes." V. IX. 1.

[Sidenote: The Idumaeans.]

"Those at work beside the monument, the Idumaeans, and the troops of Simon, impeded by repeated sallies; while those before the Antonia were obstructed by John and his a.s.sociates, in conjunction with the Zealots."

V. IX. 2.

[Sidenote: Mounds and their positions. Struthios reservoir.]

[Sidenote: Amygdalon.]

"One of those at the Antonia was thrown up by the fifth legion, opposite to the middle of the reservoir, called Struthios; and the other by the twelfth legion at the distance of about twenty cubits. The tenth legion, which was considerably apart from these, was occupied on the northern quarter, and by the reservoir designated Amygdalon, and about thirty cubits from thence the fifteenth legion, at the high-priest's monument."

V. XI. 4.

[Sidenote: The a.s.sailants make the wall of circ.u.mvallation.]

"Commencing at the camp of the a.s.syrians, where his own tent was pitched, he drew the wall to the lower Caenopolis, and thence through the Kedron to the Mount of Olives. Then bending back towards the south, he encompa.s.sed the mount as far as the rock called Peristereon, and the adjoining hill, which overhangs the ravine near Siloam. Thence inclining towards the west, he went down into the valley of the Fountain, beyond which he ascended by the monument of the high-priest Ana.n.u.s, and, taking in the mount where Pompey encamped, turned to the north, proceeding as far as a hamlet, called 'The house of Erebinths:' pa.s.sing which, he enclosed Herod's monument, and on the east once more united it to his own camp at the point whence it commenced.

"The wall was in length forty furlongs, wanting one. Attached to it on the outside were thirteen forts, whose united circ.u.mferences measured ten furlongs." V. XII. 2.

[Sidenote: Number of the dead.]

"Mannaeus, the son of Lazarus, who at this period took refuge with t.i.tus, declared that, from the fourteenth of the month of Xanthicus, the day on which the Romans encamped before the walls, until the new moon of Panemus, there were carried through that one gate which had been entrusted to him, a hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty corpses." V. XIII. 7.

[Sidenote: Number of the dead.]

"After him many of the higher ranks escaped; and they brought word that full six hundred thousand of the humbler cla.s.ses had been thrown out through the gates. Of the others it was impossible to ascertain the number." V. XIII. 7.

[Sidenote: Excavations in Jerusalem.]

"The Jews fled into the temple; the Romans also making their way in through the mine which John had excavated under their mounds." VI. I. 7.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus destroys the Tower Antonia.]

"t.i.tus now ordered his troops to raze the foundations of the Antonia, and prepare an easy ascent for his whole force." VI. II. 1.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus enters the outer court of the Temple.]

"In the meantime, the remainder of the Roman force, having in seven days overturned the foundation of the Antonia, had prepared a wide ascent as far as the temple. The legions now approached the first wall, and commenced their mounds--one opposite the north-west angle of the inner temple, a second at the northern chamber, which was between the two gates, and of the remaining two, one at the western colonnade of the outer court of the temple, the other without, at the northern." VI. II.

7.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus takes the Temple.]

"t.i.tus now withdrew into the Antonia, determined on the following morning about daybreak to attack with his whole force and invest the temple. That edifice G.o.d had, indeed, long since destined to the flames; but now in revolving years had arrived the fated day, the tenth of the month Lous, the very day on which the former temple had been burned by the king of Babylon." VI. IV. 5.

[Sidenote: Bridge of Xystus.]

"t.i.tus took his stand on the western side of the outer court of the temple; there being a gate in that quarter beyond the Xystus, and a bridge which connected the upper town with the temple, and which then intervened between the tyrants and Caesar." VI. VI. 2.

[Sidenote: t.i.tus gives up the city to pillage.]

"Orders were then issued to the troops to plunder and burn the city. On that day, however, nothing was done; but on the following day they set fire to the residence of the magistrates, the Acra, the council chamber, and the place called Ophla, the flames spreading as far as the palace of queen Helena, which was in the centre of the Acra. The streets also were consumed." VI. VI. 3.

[Sidenote: The Romans in the lower town.]

"On the ensuing day the Romans, having driven the brigands from the lower town, burned all, as far as Siloam." VI. VII. 2.