"That monarch, long intent on the enterprise, was prevailed on; and,
pressing forward at the head of a formidable army, he took Jerusalem by
assault, 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.
| Antiochus Epiphanes at Jerusalem. |
"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.
| Judas attacks the garrison at Jerusalem. Purifies the
temple. |
"Antiochus, enraged by what he had endured at the hands of Simon, led an
army into Judæa, and sitting down before Jerusalem, besieged Hyrcanus;
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.
| Judas attacks the garrison at Jerusalem. Purifies the
temple. |
"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 passage—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 pass; but to
despatch him, should he approach in arms." I. III. 3.
| Aristobulus. Antigonus. Tower of Baris. |
"But, on reaching the dark passage, known by the name of Strato's Tower,
he [Antigonus] was killed by the body-guards." I. III. 4.
| Strato's Tower. |
"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.
| Pompeius reconnoitres the city of Jerusalem. |
"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.
| The bridge broken down by Aristobulus' party. |
"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.
| Pompeius fills up the fosse of the town. |
"Herod, accordingly, at an incalculable expense, and in a style of
unsurpassed 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 spacious,
and not less beautiful buildings, with which the Temple itself bore no
comparison. These he designated after his friends, the one Cæsarium, the
other Agrippium." I. XXI. 1.
| Herod rebuilds the temple.
Palaces of Cæsarium and Agrippium. |
"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.
| Pilate constructs acqueducts. |
"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.
| Cestius encamps on Mount Scopus. |
"Cestius, on entering, set fire to Bezetha, so named, the Cœnopolis,
and the place called the Timber Market; and, proceeding to the upper
town, encamped opposite the royal residence." II. XIX. 4.
| Cestius encamps opposite the royal palace. |
"For Titus, having drawn together part of his troops to himself, and
sent orders to the others to meet him at Jerusalem, broke up from
Cæsarea. There were the three legions which, under the command of his
father, had before ravaged Judæa, 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.
| Number of the troops of Titus engaged in the siege of
Jerusalem. |
"Detachments having been drafted by Vespasian from the four legions, and
sent with Mucianus into Italy, their places were filled up from among
the troops that had come with Titus. 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.
|
"Leading on his forces in orderly array, according to Roman usage, Titus
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 horsemen,
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.
| Titus with 600 cavalry reconnoitres Jerusalem. |
"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 Titus
with only a handful of men. For him to move forward was impossible; as
the entire space was intersected by transverse walls and numerous
fences, and separated from the ramparts by dykes made for gardening
purposes." V. II. 2.
| Titus attacked by the Jews by the monument of Helena.
The Women's Towers. |
"Cæsar, 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, Titus
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 pass 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.
| Titus encamps at Scopus, seven furlongs from Jerusalem.
The tenth legion upon the Mount of Olives. |
"Titus 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 space from Scopus to
the monuments of Herod, adjacent to what is called 'The Serpents' Pool,'
was reduced to a level." V. III. 2.
| Titus levels the ground between Scopus and Jerusalem.
Tomb of Herod. Serpents' Pool. |
"Accordingly, after maintaining a long contest with their spears, and
receiving many wounds from their opponents, but inflicting not fewer in
return, they eventually drove back the party who had surrounded them.
The Jews, however, as soon as they began to retire, pursued them as far
as the monuments of Helena, annoying them with missiles." V. III. 3.
| Tomb of Helena. Sortie of the Jews. |
"In four days, the interval between his post and the walls having been
levelled, Titus, anxious to forward in safety the baggage and the
followers of the army, ranged the flower of his troops opposite the wall
on the northern quarter of the city, and extending towards the west, the
phalanx being drawn up seven deep. The infantry were disposed in front,
and the cavalry in rear, each in three ranks; the archers, who formed
the seventh, being in the middle.
| Titus encamps opposite the Tower of Psephinus.
Another division opposite the Tower of Hippicus, and the
tenth legion upon the Mount of Olives. |
| "The sallies of the Jews being checked by such an array, the beasts of
burthen belonging to the three legions, with the camp followers, passed
on in safety. Titus himself encamped about two furlongs from the
ramparts, at the corner opposite the tower called Psephinus, where the
circuit of the wall, in its advance along the north side, bends with a
western aspect. The other division of the army was entrenched opposite
to the tower named Hippicus, distant, in like manner, two furlongs from
the city. The tenth legion continued to occupy its position on the Mount
of Olives, as it is called." V. III. 5. |
Description of the walls of Jerusalem.
|
"Jerusalem, fortified by three walls—except where it was encompassed by
its impassable ravines, for there it had but a single rampart—was
built, the one division fronting the other, on two hills, separated by
an intervening valley, at which the rows of houses terminated. Of these
hills, that on which the upper town was situated is much higher and
straighter in its length. Accordingly, on account of its strength, it
was styled the Fortress by king David, the father of Solomon, by whom
the temple was originally erected; but by us the Upper Market-place. The
other, which bears the name of Acra, and supports the lower town, is of
a gibbous form. Opposite to this was a third hill, naturally lower than
Acra, and formerly severed from it by another broad ravine. Afterwards,
however, the Asmonæans, during their reign, filled up the ravine, with
the intention of uniting the city to the temple; and, levelling the
summit of Acra, they reduced its elevation, so that the temple might be
conspicuous above other objects in this quarter also. The Valley of the
Cheese-makers, as it was designated, which divided, as we have said, the
hill of the upper town from that of the lower, extended as far as
Siloam, as we call it, a fountain whose waters are at once sweet and
copious. On the exterior, the two hills on which the city stood were
skirted by deep ravines, so precipitous on either side that the town was
nowhere accessible." V. IV. 1.
|
"Of the three walls, the most ancient, as well from the ravines which
surrounded it, as from the hill above them on which it was erected, was
almost impregnable. But, besides the advantages of its situation, it was
also strongly built; David and Solomon, as well as their successors on
the throne, having devoted much attention to the work.
|
"Beginning on the north at the tower called Hippicus, and extending to
what was termed the Xystus, it then formed a junction with the
council-house, and terminated at the western colonnade of the temple. On
the other side, towards the west, beginning at the same tower, it
stretched through Bethso, as it was styled, to the gate of the Essenes.
It then turned, and advanced with a southern aspect above the fountain
of Siloam, whence it again inclined, facing the east, towards Solomon's
reservoir, and extending to a certain spot, designated Ophla, it joined
the eastern colonnade of the temple.
| First Wall. |
"The second had its beginning at the gate which they called Gennath,
belonging to the first wall. It reached to the Antonia, and encircled
only the northern quarter of the town. The tower Hippicus formed the
commencement of the third wall, which stretched from thence towards the
northern quarter, as far as the tower Psephinus, and then passing
opposite the monuments of Helena, Queen of Adiabene, and mother of king
Izates, and extending through the royal caverns, was inflected at the
corner tower near to the spot known by the appellation of the Fuller's
Tomb; and, connecting itself with the old wall, terminated at the valley
called Kedron. This wall Agrippa had thrown round the new-built town,
which was quite unprotected; for the city, overflowing with inhabitants,
gradually crept beyond the ramparts; and the people, incorporating with
the city the quarter north of the temple close to the hill, made a
considerable advance, insomuch that a fourth hill, which is called
Bezetha, was also surrounded with habitations. It lay over against the
Antonia, from which it was separated by a deep fosse, purposely
excavated to cut off the communication between the foundations of the
Antonia and the hill, that they might be at once less easy of access and
more elevated. Thus the depth of the trench materially increased the
altitude of the towers.
| Second Wall.
Third Wall.
King Agrippa commences the third Wall. |
"The quarter most recently built was called, in our language, Bezetha,
which, if translated into the Greek tongue, would be Cænopolis
(New-town). Those who resided there requiring defence, the father of the
present sovereign, and of the same name, Agrippa, commenced the wall we
have mentioned. But, apprehending that Claudius Cæsar might suspect from
the magnitude of the structure that he entertained some designs of
innovation and insurrection, he desisted when he had merely laid the
foundations. For, indeed, had he completed that wall upon the scale on
which it was begun, the city would have been impregnable. It was
constructed of stones twenty cubits long and ten broad, fitted into each
other in such a manner that they could scarcely have been undermined
with iron, or shaken by engines. The wall itself was ten cubits in
breadth; and it would probably have attained a greater height than it
did, had not the enterprising spirit of its founder met with a check;
but, subsequently, though the work was carried on with ardour by the
Jews, it only rose to the height of twenty cubits; while, crowning this,
were battlements of two cubits, upon parapets of three cubits in
altitude, so that it attained in its entire elevation twenty-five
cubits." V. IV. 2.
|
"On this wall were erected towers, twenty cubits in breadth, and the
same in height, square, and solid as the wall itself. In the joining and
beauty of the stones, they were nowise inferior to the temple. Over the
solid altitude of the towers, which was twenty cubits, were sumptuous
apartments; and above these, again, upper rooms, and numerous cisterns
therein to receive the rain-water, and to each room wide staircases. Of
such towers the third wall had ninety, disposed at intervals of two
hundred cubits.
| Description of the third Wall.
Ninety towers in the third Wall. |
"The middle wall was divided into fourteen towers, and the ancient one
into sixty. Of the city the entire circuit was thirty-three furlongs.
But admirable as was the third wall throughout, still more so was the
tower Psephinus, which rose up at the north-west angle, and opposite to
which Titus encamped. Being seventy cubits high, it afforded at sunrise
a prospect of Arabia, and of the limits of the Hebrew territories as far
as the sea; it was octagonal in form.
| The middle Wall had fourteen towers, the ancient sixty.
The Psephinus tower. |
"Over against this was the tower Hippicus, and near to it two others,
all erected by king Herod in the ancient wall, which in magnitude,
beauty and strength, exceeded all that the world could produce." V. IV.
3.
| Hippicus. |
"Hippicus, so called from his friend, was quadrangular, its length and
breadth being each twenty-five cubits, and to the height of thirty
cubits it was solid throughout. Above this solid part, which was
constructed of stones formed into one compact mass, was a reservoir to
receive the rain, twenty cubits deep, over which was a house of two
stories, twenty-five cubits high, and divided into various apartments.
Above this were battlements of two cubits in height, mounted upon
parapets of three; so that the entire altitude amounted to eighty
cubits.
| Hippicus' Tower. |
"The second tower, which he named Phasaëlus, from his brother, was of
equal length and breadth, forty cubits each, and the same in solid
height. Over this, and embracing the whole of the structure, was a
gallery, ten cubits high, defended by breast-work and battlements....
| Phasaëlus. |
"The third tower, Mariamne—for such was the queen's name—was solid to
the height of twenty cubits; its breadth, also, being twenty cubits, and
its length the same." V. IV. 3.
| Mariamne. |
| "Of this the entire elevation was fifty-five cubits." V. IV. 3. |
"But while such was the actual magnitude of these three towers, their
site added much to their apparent dimensions. For the ancient wall in
which they stood was itself built on a lofty hill; and higher still rose
up in front, to the height of thirty cubits, a kind of crest of the
hill; on this the towers rested, and thus acquired a much greater
altitude....
| Site of the three towers. |
"To these towers, which lay northward, was attached on the inner side
the royal residence, which exceeded all description....
|
"The conflagration began at Antonia, passed onward to the palace, and
consumed the roofs of the three towers." V. IV. 4.
|
"The temple, as I have said, was seated on a strong hill. Originally,
the level space on its summit scarcely sufficed for the sanctuary and
the altar, the ground about being abrupt and steep. But king Solomon,
who built the sanctuary, having completely walled up the eastern side, a
colonnade was built upon the embankment. On the other sides, the
sanctuary remained exposed. In process of time, however, as the people
were constantly adding to the embankment, the hill became level and
broader. They also threw down the northern wall, and enclosed as much
ground as the circuit of the temple at large subsequently occupied." V.
V. 1.
| The Temple. |
"The colonnades were thirty cubits broad, and their entire circuit,
including the Antonia, measured six furlongs." V. V. 2.
| Circuit of the Temple six furlongs. |
"Advancing within, the lower story of the sanctuary received you. This
was sixty cubits in height, and the same in length, while its breadth
was twenty cubits. These sixty cubits of length were again divided. The
first part partitioned off at forty cubits." V. V. 5.
| Dimensions of the Temple. |
"The innermost recess of the temple measured twenty cubits, and was
separated in like manner from the outer by a veil. In this, nothing
whatever was deposited. Unapproachable, inviolable, and to be seen by
none, it was called the Holy of the Holy." V. V. 5.
| Dimensions relative to the Temple. |
"The Antonia lay at the angle formed by two colonnades, the western and
the northern, of the first court of the temple. It was built upon a rock
fifty cubits high, and on every side precipitous. It was a work of king
Herod, in which he particularly evinced the natural greatness of his
mind. For, first, the rock was covered from the base upwards with smooth
stone flags, as well for ornament, as that any one who attempted to
ascend or descend might slip off. Next, and in front of the edifice
itself, there was a wall of three cubits; and within this the entire
space occupied by the Antonia rose to an altitude of forty cubits.
| Position of the Antonia Tower. |
"... The upper town had its own fortress—Herod's palace. The hill
Bezetha was detached, as I have mentioned, from the Antonia. It was the
highest of the three, and was joined on to part of the new town forming
northward the only obstruction to the view of the temple." V. V. 8.
| Citadel in the upper town. Bezetha, north of the Temple. |
"The whole number of fighting men and insurgents in the city was as
follows. Attached to Simon were ten thousand men, irrespective of the
Idumæans. Over these were fifty officers, Simon himself acting as
Commander-in-chief. The Idumæans 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.
| Forces of the besieged in Jerusalem. |
"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 Monobazus, 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
Monobazus. John occupied the temple, and the parts about it to a
considerable distance, with Ophla, and the valley called Kedron." V. VI.
1.
| Position occupied by Simon.
Position occupied by John. |
"While affairs in the city were in this posture, Titus, 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 assail 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 assault 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.
| Titus examines the Walls.
Monument of the high priest John. |
"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.
| Suburbs. |
".... 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.
| Taking of the first Wall. |
"Titus now transferred his camp to a place within the wall, styled the
Camp of the Assyrians, 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 assault near John's monument, manned the
intervening space as far as the gate through which the water was
introduced to the tower Hippicus." V. VII. 3.
| Titus occupies the space between the camp of the Assyrians
and the Kedron.
Gate of the aqueducts. |
"On the fifth day after the reduction of the first wall Cæsar 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.
| Titus makes himself master of the second Wall. |
"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.
| Titus exhibits his troops. |
"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 multitudes." V. IX. 1.
| The Jews see the review of the troops Titus. |
"Those at work beside the monument, the Idumæans, and the troops of
Simon, impeded by repeated sallies; while those before the Antonia were
obstructed by John and his associates, in conjunction with the Zealots."
V. IX. 2.
| The Idumæans. |
"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.
| Mounds and their positions.
Struthios reservoir.
Amygdalon. |
"Commencing at the camp of the Assyrians, where his own tent was
pitched, he drew the wall to the lower Cænopolis, and thence through the
Kedron to the Mount of Olives. Then bending back towards the south, he
encompassed 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 Ananus, and, taking
in the mount where Pompey encamped, turned to the north, proceeding as
far as a hamlet, called 'The house of Erebinths:' passing 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 assailants make the wall of circumvallation. |
"The wall was in length forty furlongs, wanting one. Attached to it on
the outside were thirteen forts, whose united circumferences measured
ten furlongs." V. XII. 2.
|
"Mannæus, the son of Lazarus, who at this period took refuge with Titus,
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.
| Number of the dead. |
"After him many of the higher ranks escaped; and they brought word that
full six hundred thousand of the humbler classes had been thrown out
through the gates. Of the others it was impossible to ascertain the
number." V. XIII. 7.
| Number of the dead. |
"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.
| Excavations in Jerusalem. |
"Titus now ordered his troops to raze the foundations of the Antonia,
and prepare an easy ascent for his whole force." VI. II. 1.
| Titus destroys the Tower Antonia. |
"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.
| Titus enters the outer court of the Temple. |
"Titus now withdrew into the Antonia, determined on the following
morning about daybreak to attack with his whole force and invest the
temple. That edifice God 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.
| Titus takes the Temple. |
"Titus 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 Cæsar." VI. VI. 2.
| Bridge of Xystus. |
"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.
| Titus gives up the city to pillage. |
"On the ensuing day the Romans, having driven the brigands from the
lower town, burned all, as far as Siloam." VI. VII. 2.
| The Romans in the lower town. |
"The works of the four legions were raised on the western side of the
city, opposite to the royal palace, while the auxiliaries and the rest
of the force laboured in the region of the Xystus, the bridge, and the
tower which Simon, during his contest with John, had built as a fortress
for himself." VI. VIII. 1.
| Titus attacks the upper city. |
"And when, at a later period, he destroyed the remainder of the city,
and razed the walls, he allowed these towers to stand as a memorial of
the favour of fortune, by whose cooperation he had become master of
those strongholds, which could never have been reduced by force of
arms." VI. IX. 1.
| Destruction of the city. |
"The whole number of prisoners taken during the entire course of the war
was calculated at ninety-seven thousand; while those who perished in the
siege, from its commencement to its close, amounted to one million one
hundred thousand. Of these the greater part were of Jewish blood, though
not natives of the place. Having assembled from the whole country for
the feast of unleavened bread, they were suddenly hemmed in by the war;
so that their confined situation caused at first a pestilential disease,
and afterwards famine also, still more rapid in its effects." VI. IX. 3.
| Number of Jews killed and taken prisoners. |
| "Cæsar ordered the whole of the city and the sanctuary to be razed to
the foundations, leaving the three loftiest towers, Phasaëlus, Hippicus,
and Mariamne, and that portion of the wall which enclosed the town on
the west; the latter as an encampment for those who should remain there
in garrison; the towers, to indicate to future times how splendid and
how strong a city had yielded to Roman valour. All the rest of the wall
that encompassed the city was so completely levelled with the ground
that there was no longer anything to lead those who visited the spot to
believe that it had ever been inhabited. So fell Jerusalem, a victim of
revolutionary frenzy: a magnificent city, and celebrated throughout the
world." VII. I. 1. | Final destruction of Jerusalem. |
|
"There are many strong places and villages in the country of Judæa, but
one strong city there is, about fifty furlongs in circumference, which
is inhabited by a hundred and twenty thousand men or thereabout."
(Against Apion, I. 22.)
| Population of Jerusalem indicated by Hecatæus of Abdera. |