THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book VI: Chapter 9
WHAT INJUNCTIONS CAESAR GAVE WHEN
HE WAS COME WITHIN THE CITY. THE NUMBER OF THE
CAPTIVES AND OF THOSE THAT PERISHED IN THE SIEGE; AS
ALSO CONCERNING THOSE THAT HAD ESCAPED INTO THE
SUBTERRANEAN CAVERNS, AMONG WHOM WERE THE TYRANTS
SIMON AND JOHN THEMSELVES.
1. Now when Titus was come into this [upper] city,
he admired not only some other places of strength in
it, but particularly those strong towers which the
tyrants in their mad conduct had relinquished; for
when he saw their solid altitude, and the largeness of
their several stones, and the exactness of their
joints, as also how great was their breadth, and how
extensive their length, he expressed himself after the
manner following: "We have certainly had God for our
assistant in this war, and it was no other than God
who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications; for
what could the hands of men or any machines do towards
overthrowing these towers?" At which time he had many
such discourses to his friends; he also let such go
free as had been bound by the tyrants, and were left
in the prisons. To conclude, when he entirely
demolished the rest of the city, and overthrew its
walls, he left these towers as a monument of his good
fortune, which had proved his auxiliaries, and enabled
him to take what could not otherwise have been taken
by him.
2. And now, since his soldiers were already quite
tired with killing men, and yet there appeared to be a
vast multitude still remaining alive, Caesar gave
orders that they should kill none but those that were
in arms, and opposed them, but should take the rest
alive. But, together with those whom they had orders
to slay, they slew the aged and the infirm; but for
those that were in their flourishing age, and who
might be useful to them, they drove them together into
the temple, and shut them up within the walls of the
court of the women; over which Caesar set one of his
freed-men, as also Fronto, one of his own friends;
which last was to determine every one's fate,
according to his merits. So this Fronto slew all those
that had been seditious and robbers, who were
impeached one by another; but of the young men he
chose out the tallest and most beautiful, and reserved
them for the triumph; and as for the rest of the
multitude that were above seventeen years old, he put
them into bonds, and sent them to the Egyptian mines
Titus also sent a great number into the provinces, as
a present to them, that they might be destroyed upon
their theatres, by the sword and by the wild beasts;
but those that were under seventeen years of age were
sold for slaves. Now during the days wherein Fronto
was distinguishing these men, there perished, for want
of food, eleven thousand; some of whom did not taste
any food, through the hatred their guards bore to
them; and others would not take in any when it was
given them. The multitude also was so very great, that
they were in want even of corn for their sustenance.
3. Now the number of those that were carried
captive during this whole war was collected to be
ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that
perished during the whole siege eleven hundred
thousand, the greater part of whom were indeed of the
same nation [with the citizens of Jerusalem], but not
belonging to the city itself; for they were come up
from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread,
and were on a sudden shut up by an army, which, at the
very first, occasioned so great a straitness among
them, that there came a pestilential destruction upon
them, and soon afterward such a famine, as destroyed
them more suddenly. And that this city could contain
so many people in it, is manifest by that number of
them which was taken under Cestius, who being desirous
of informing Nero of the power of the city, who
otherwise was disposed to contemn that nation,
entreated the high priests, if the thing were
possible, to take the number of their whole multitude.
So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast
which is called the Passover, when they slay their
sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but
so that a company not less than ten belong to every
sacrifice, (for it is not lawful for them to feast
singly by themselves,) and many of us are twenty in a
company, found the number of sacrifices was two
hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred; which,
upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast
together, amounts to two millions seven hundred
thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and
holy; for as to those that have the leprosy, or the
gonorrhea, or women that have their monthly courses,
or such as are otherwise polluted, it is not lawful
for them to be partakers of this sacrifice; nor indeed
for any foreigners neither, who come hither to
worship.
4. Now this vast multitude is indeed collected out
of remote places, but the entire nation was now shut
up by fate as in prison, and the Roman army
encompassed the city when it was crowded with
inhabitants. Accordingly, the multitude of those that
therein perished exceeded all the destructions that
either men or God ever brought upon the world; for, to
speak only of what was publicly known, the Romans slew
some of them, some they carried captives, and others
they made a search for under ground, and when they
found where they were, they broke up the ground and
slew all they met with. There were also found slain
there above two thousand persons, partly by their own
hands, and partly by one another, but chiefly
destroyed by the famine; but then the ill savor of the
dead bodies was most offensive to those that lighted
upon them, insomuch that some were obliged to get away
immediately, while others were so greedy of gain, that
they would go in among the dead bodies that lay on
heaps, and tread upon them; for a great deal of
treasure was found in these caverns, and the hope of
gain made every way of getting it to be esteemed
lawful. Many also of those that had been put in prison
by the tyrants were now brought out; for they did not
leave off their barbarous cruelty at the very last:
yet did God avenge himself upon them both, in a manner
agreeable to justice. As for John, he wanted food,
together with his brethren, in these caverns, and
begged that the Romans would now give him their right
hand for his security, which he had often proudly
rejected before; but for Simon, he struggled hard with
the distress he was in, fill he was forced to
surrender himself, as we shall relate hereafter; so he
was reserved for the triumph, and to be then slain; as
was John condemned to perpetual imprisonment. And now
the Romans set fire to the extreme parts of the city,
and burnt them down, and entirely demolished its
walls.
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