THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book IV: Chapter 4
THE IDUMEANS BEING SENT FOR BY THE
ZEALOTS, CAME IMMEDIATELY TO JERUSALEM; AND WHEN THEY
WERE EXCLUDED OUT OF THE CITY, THEY LAY ALL NIGHT
THERE. JESUS ONE OF THE HIGH PRIESTS MAKES A SPEECH TO
THEM; AND SIMON THE IDUMEAN MAKES A REPLY TO IT.
1. NOW, by this crafty speech, John made the
zealots afraid; yet durst he not directly name what
foreign assistance he meant, but in a covert way only
intimated at the Idumeans. But now, that he might
particularly irritate the leaders of the zealots, he
calumniated Ananus, that he was about a piece of
barbarity, and did in a special manner threaten them.
These leaders were Eleazar, the son of Simon, who
seemed the most plausible man of them all, both in
considering what was fit to be done, and in the
execution of what he had determined upon, and
Zacharias, the son of Phalek; both of whom derived
their families from the priests. Now when these two
men had heard, not only the common threatenings which
belonged to them all, but those peculiarly leveled
against themselves; and besides, how Artanus and his
party, in order to secure their own dominion, had
invited the Romans to come to them, for that also was
part of John's lie; they hesitated a great while what
they should do, considering the shortness of the time
by which they were straitened; because the people were
prepared to attack them very soon, and because the
suddenness of the plot laid against them had almost
cut off all their hopes of getting any foreign
assistance; for they might be under the height of
their afflictions before any of their confederates
could be informed of it. However, it was resolved to
call in the Idumeans; so they wrote a short letter to
this effect: That Ananus had imposed on the people,
and was betraying their metropolis to the Romans; that
they themselves had revolted from the rest, and were
in custody in the temple, on account of the
preservation of their liberty; that there was but a
small time left wherein they might hope for their
deliverance; and that unless they would come
immediately to their assistance, they should
themselves be soon in the power of Artanus, and the
city would be in the power of the Romans. They also
charged the messengers to tell many more circumstances
to the rulers of the Idumeans. Now there were two
active men proposed for the carrying this message, and
such as were able to speak, and to persuade them that
things were in this posture, and, what was a
qualification still more necessary than the former,
they were very swift of foot; for they knew well
enough that these would immediately comply with their
desires, as being ever a tumultuous and disorderly
nation, always on the watch upon every motion,
delighting in mutations; and upon your flattering them
ever so little, and petitioning them, they soon take
their arms, and put themselves into motion, and make
haste to a battle, as if it were to a feast. There was
indeed occasion for quick despatch in the carrying of
this message, in which point the messengers were no
way defective. Both their names were Ananias; and they
soon came to the rulers of the Idumeans.
2. Now these rulers were greatly surprised at the
contents of the letter, and at what those that came
with it further told them; whereupon they ran about
the nation like madmen, and made proclamation that the
people should come to war; so a multitude was suddenly
got together, sooner indeed than the time appointed in
the proclamation, and every body caught up their arms,
in order to maintain the liberty of their metropolis;
and twenty thousand of them were put into
battle-array, and came to Jerusalem, under four
commanders, John, and Jacob the son of Sosas; and
besides these were Simon, the son of Cathlas, and
Phineas, the son of Clusothus.
3. Now this exit of the messengers was not known
either to Ananus or to the guards, but the approach of
the Idumeans was known to him; for as he knew of it
before they came, he ordered the gates to be shut
against them, and that the walls should be guarded.
Yet did not he by any means think of fighting against
them, but, before they came to blows, to try what
persuasions would do. Accordingly, Jesus, the eldest
of the high priests next to Artanus, stood upon the
tower that was over against them, and said thus: "Many
troubles indeed, and those of various kinds, have
fallen upon this city, yet in none of them have I so
much wondered at her fortune as now, when you are come
to assist wicked men, and this after a manner very
extraordinary; for I see that you are come to support
the vilest of men against us, and this with so great
alacrity, as you could hardly put on the like, in case
our metropolis had called you to her assistance
against barbarians. And if I had perceived that your
army was composed of men like unto those who invited
them, I had not deemed your attempt so absurd; for
nothing does so much cement the minds of men together
as the alliance there is between their manners. But
now for these men who have invited you, if you were to
examine them one by one, every one of them would be
found to have deserved ten thousand deaths; for the
very rascality and offscouring of the whole country,
who have spent in debauchery their own substance, and,
by way of trial beforehand, have madly plundered the
neighboring villages and cities, in the upshot of all,
have privately run together into this holy city. They
are robbers, who by their prodigious wickedness have
profaned this most sacred floor, and who are to be now
seen drinking themselves drunk in the sanctuary, and
expending the spoils of those whom they have
slaughtered upon their unsatiable bellies. As for the
multitude that is with you, one may see them so
decently adorned in their armor, as it would become
them to be had their metropolis called them to her
assistance against foreigners. What can a man call
this procedure of yours but the sport of fortune, when
he sees a whole nation coming to protect a sink of
wicked wretches? I have for a good while been in doubt
what it could possibly be that should move you to do
this so suddenly; because certainly you would not take
on your armor on the behalf of robbers, and against a
people of kin to you, without some very great cause
for your so doing. But we have an item that the Romans
are pretended, and that we are supposed to be going to
betray this city to them; for some of your men have
lately made a clamor about those matters, and have
said they are come to set their metropolis free. Now
we cannot but admire at these wretches in their
devising such a lie as this against us; for they knew
there was no other way to irritate against us men that
were naturally desirous of liberty, and on that
account the best disposed to fight against foreign
enemies, but by framing a tale as if we were going to
betray that most desirable thing, liberty. But you
ought to consider what sort of people they are that
raise this calumny, and against what sort of people
that calumny is raised, and to gather the truth of
things, not by fictitious speeches, but out of the
actions of both parties; for what occasion is there
for us to sell ourselves to the Romans, while it was
in our power not to have revolted from them at the
first, or when we had once revolted, to have returned
under their dominion again, and this while the
neighboring countries were not yet laid waste? whereas
it is not an easy thing to be reconciled to the
Romans, if we were desirous of it, now they have
subdued Galilee, and are thereby become proud and
insolent; and to endeavor to please them at the time
when they are so near us, would bring such a reproach
upon us as were worse than death. As for myself,
indeed, I should have preferred peace with them before
death; but now we have once made war upon them, and
fought with them, I prefer death, with reputation,
before living in captivity under them. But further,
whether do they pretend that we, who are the rulers of
the people, have sent thus privately to the Romans, or
hath it been done by the common suffrages of the
people? If it be ourselves only that have done it, let
them name those friends of ours that have been sent,
as our servants, to manage this treachery. Hath any
one been caught as he went out on this errand, or
seized upon as he came back? Are they in possession of
our letters? How could we be concealed from such a
vast number of our fellow citizens, among whom we are
conversant every hour, while what is done privately in
the country is, it seems, known by the zealots, who
are but few in number, and under confinement also, and
are not able to come out of the temple into the city.
Is this the first time that they are become sensible
how they ought to be punished for their insolent
actions? For while these men were free from the fear
they are now under, there was no suspicion raised that
any of us were traitors. But if they lay this charge
against the people, this must have been done at a
public consultation, and not one of the people must
have dissented from the rest of the assembly; in which
case the public fame of this matter would have come to
you sooner than any particular indication. But how
could that be? Must there not then have been
ambassadors sent to confirm the agreements? And let
them tell us who this ambassador was that was ordained
for that purpose. But this is no other than a pretense
of such men as are loath to die, and are laboring to
escape those punishments that hang over them; for if
fate had determined that this city was to be betrayed
into its enemies' hands, no other than these men that
accuse us falsely could have the impudence to do it,
there being no wickedness wanting to complete their
impudent practices but this only, that they become
traitors. And now you Idumeans are come hither already
with your arms, it is your duty, in the first place,
to be assisting to your metropolis, and to join with
us in cutting off those tyrants that have infringed
the rules of our regular tribunals, that have trampled
upon our laws, and made their swords the arbitrators
of right and wrong; for they have seized upon men of
great eminence, and under no accusation, as they stood
in the midst of the market-place, and tortured them
with putting them into bonds, and, without bearing to
hear what they had to say, or what supplications they
made, they destroyed them. You may, if you please,
come into the city, though not in the way of war, and
take a view of the marks still remaining of what I now
say, and may see the houses that have been depopulated
by their rapacious hands, with those wives and
families that are in black, mourning for their
slaughtered relations; as also you may hear their
groans and lamentations all the city over; for there
is nobody but hath tasted of the incursions of these
profane wretches, who have proceeded to that degree of
madness, as not only to have transferred their
impudent robberies out of the country, and the remote
cities, into this city, the very face and head of the
whole nation, but out of the city into the temple
also; for that is now made their receptacle and
refuge, and the fountain-head whence their
preparations are made against us. And this place,
which is adored by the habitable world, and honored by
such as only know it by report, as far as the ends of
the earth, is trampled upon by these wild beasts born
among ourselves. They now triumph in the desperate
condition they are already in, when they hear that one
people is going to fight against another people, and
one city against another city, and that your nation
hath gotten an army together against its own bowels.
Instead of which procedure, it were highly fit and
reasonable, as I said before, for you to join with us
in cutting off these wretches, and in particular to be
revenged on them for putting this very cheat upon you;
I mean, for having the impudence to invite you to
assist them, of whom they ought to have stood in fear,
as ready to punish them. But if you have some regard
to these men's invitation of you, yet may you lay
aside your arms, and come into the city under the
notion of our kindred, and take upon you a middle name
between that of auxiliaries and of enemies, and so
become judges in this case. However, consider what
these men will gain by being called into judgment
before you, for such undeniable and such flagrant
crimes, who would not vouchsafe to hear such as had no
accusations laid against them to speak a word for
themselves. However, let them gain this advantage by
your coming. But still, if you will neither take our
part in that indignation we have at these men, nor
judge between us, the third thing I have to propose is
this, that you let us both alone, and neither insult
upon our calamities, nor abide with these plotters
against their metropolis; for though you should have
ever so great a suspicion that some of us have
discoursed with the Romans, it is in your power to
watch the passages into the city; and in case any
thing that we have been accused of is brought to
light, then to come and defend your metropolis, and to
inflict punishment on those that are found guilty; for
the enemy cannot prevent you who are so near to the
city. But if, after all, none of these proposals seem
acceptable and moderate, do not you wonder that the
gates are shut against you, while you bear your arms
about you."
4. Thus spake Jesus; yet did not the multitude of
the Idumeans give any attention to what he said, but
were in a rage, because they did not meet with a ready
entrance into the city. The generals also had
indignation at the offer of laying down their arms,
and looked upon it as equal to a captivity, to throw
them away at any man's injunction whomsoever. But
Simon, the son of Cathlas, one of their commanders,
with much ado quieted the tumult of his own men, and
stood so that the high priests might hear him, and
said as follows: "I can no longer wonder that the
patrons of liberty are under custody in the temple,
since there are those that shut the gates of our
common city to
their own nation, and at the same time are prepared to
admit the Romans into it; nay, perhaps are disposed to
crown the gates with garlands at their coming, while
they speak to the Idumeans from their own towers, and
enjoin them to throw down their arms which they have
taken up for the preservation of its liberty. And
while they will not intrust the guard of our
metropolis to their kindred, profess to make them
judges of the differences that are among them; nay,
while they accuse some men of having slain others
without a legal trial, they do themselves condemn a
whole nation after an ignominious manner, and have now
walled up that city from their own nation, which used
to be open to even all foreigners that came to worship
there. We have indeed come in great haste to you, and
to a war against our own countrymen; and the reason
why we have made such haste is this, that we may
preserve that freedom which you are so unhappy as to
betray. You have probably been guilty of the like
crimes against those whom you keep in custody, and
have, I suppose, collected together the like plausible
pretenses against them also that you make use of
against us; after which you have gotten the mastery of
those within the temple, and keep them in custody,
while they are only taking care of the public affairs.
You have also shut the gates of the city in general
against nations that are the most nearly related to
you; and while you give such injurious commands to
others, you complain that you have been tyrannized
over by them, and fix the name of unjust governors
upon such as are tyrannized over by yourselves. Who
can bear this your abuse of words, while they have a
regard to the contrariety of your actions, unless you
mean this, that those Idumeans do now exclude you out
of your metropolis, whom you exclude from the sacred
offices of your own country? One may indeed justly
complain of those that are besieged in the temple,
that when they had courage enough to punish those
tyrants whom you call eminent men, and free from any
accusations, because of their being your companions in
wickedness, they did not begin with you, and thereby
cut off beforehand the most dangerous parts of this
treason. But if these men have been more merciful than
the public necessity required, we that are Idumeans
will preserve this house of God, and will fight for
our common country, and will oppose by war as well
those that attack them from abroad, as those that
betray them from within. Here will we abide before the
walls in our armor, until either the Romans grow weary
in waiting for you, or you become friends to liberty,
and repent of what you have done against it."
5. And now did the Idumeans make an acclamation to
what Simon had said; but Jesus went away sorrowful, as
seeing that the Idumeans were against all moderate
counsels, and that the city was besieged on both
sides. Nor indeed were the minds of the Idumeans at
rest; for they were in a rage at the injury that had
been offered them by their exclusion out of the city;
and when they thought the zealots had been strong, but
saw nothing of theirs to support them, they were in
doubt about the matter, and many of them repented that
they had come thither. But the shame that would attend
them in case they returned without doing any thing at
all, so far overcame that their repentance, that they
lay all night before the wall, though in a very bad
encampment; for there broke out a prodigious storm in
the night, with the utmost violence, and very strong
winds, with the largest showers of rain, with
continued lightnings, terrible thunderings, and
amazing concussions and bellowings of the earth, that
was in an earthquake. These things were a manifest
indication that some destruction was coming upon men,
when the system of the world was put into this
disorder; and any one would guess that these wonders
foreshowed some grand calamities that were coming.
6. Now the opinion of the Idumeans and of the
citizens was one and the same. The Idumeans thought
that God was angry at their taking arms, and that they
would not escape punishment for their making war upon
their metropolis. Ananus and his party thought that
they had conquered without fighting, and that God
acted as a general for them; but truly they proved
both ill conjectures at what was to come, and made
those events to be ominous to their enemies, while
they were themselves to undergo the ill effects of
them; for the Idumeans fenced one another by uniting
their bodies into one band, and thereby kept
themselves warm, and connecting their shields over
their heads, were not so much hurt by the rain. But
the zealots were more deeply concerned for the danger
these men were in than they were for themselves, and
got together, and looked about them to see whether
they could devise any means of assisting them. The
hotter sort of them thought it best to force their
guards with their arms, and after that to fall into
the midst of the city, and publicly open the gates to
those that came to their assistance; as supposing the
guards would be in disorder, and give way at such an
unexpected attempt of theirs, especially as the
greater part of them were unarmed and unskilled in the
affairs of war; and that besides the multitude of the
citizens would not be easily gathered together, but
confined to their houses by the storm: and that if
there were any hazard in their undertaking, it became
them to suffer any thing whatsoever themselves, rather
than to overlook so great a multitude as were
miserably perishing on their account. But the more
prudent part of them disapproved of this forcible
method, because they saw not only the guards about
them very numerous, but the walls of the city itself
carefully watched, by reason of the Idumeans. They
also supposed that Ananus would be every where, and
visit the guards every hour; which indeed was done
upon other nights, but was omitted that night, not by
reason of any slothfulness of Ananus, but by the
overbearing appointment of fate, that so both he might
himself perish, and the multitude of the guards might
perish with him; for truly, as the night was far gone,
and the storm very terrible, Ananus gave the guards in
the cloisters leave to go to sleep; while it came into
the heads of the zealots to make use of the saws
belonging to the temple, and to cut the bars of the
gates to pieces. The noise of the wind, and that not
inferior sound of the thunder, did here also conspire
with their designs, that the noise of the saws was not
heard by the others.
7. So they secretly went out of the temple to the
wall of the city, and made use of their saws, and
opened that gate which was over against the Idumeans.
Now at first there came a fear upon the Idumeans
themselves, which disturbed them, as imagining that
Ananus and his party were coming to attack them, so
that every one of them had his right hand upon his
sword, in order to defend himself; but they soon came
to know who they were that came to them, and were
entered the city. And had the Idumeans then fallen
upon the city, nothing could have hindered them from
destroying the people every man of them, such was the
rage they were in at that time; but as they first of
all made haste to get the zealots out of custody,
which those that brought them in earnestly desired
them to do, and not to overlook those for whose sakes
they were come, in the midst of their distresses, nor
to bring them into a still greater danger; for that
when they had once seized upon the guards, it would be
easy for them to fall upon the city; but that if the
city were once alarmed, they would not then be able to
overcome those guards, because as soon as they should
perceive they were there, they would put themselves in
order to fight them, and would hinder their coming
into the temple.
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