west side of the city, where the soldiers were working, and apparently expelled by their countrymen who were desirous of peace. At the same time, others appeared on the walls stretching out their hands in token of capitulation. The Jews who were without, seemed one moment to attempt to force their way back into the city; while those who were upon the walls acted their part in the stratagem, by throwing down stones, and assuming the appearance of defiance and defence. Titus, who apprehended some design on the part of the Jews, restrained the impetuosity of the main body of his army, but the troops stationed to cover the pioneers hastened to destroy the refractory people they supposed to have been excluded from the city. The Jews instantly fled to the gate, and the Romans pursued. But they had no sooner arrived between the towers which flanked the gate, than they were assailed by a storm of darts and arrows from the walls, while at the same time they were furiously charged by the Jews without the gate. Their valour was rendered ineffectual by their situation, they were completely surrounded, and though they ultimately succeeded in bursting through the party which obstructed their return to the camp, they sustained a serious loss of men, and were pursued by the exulting and triumphant Jews, who insulted them with the most ignominious exclamations, clashing their bucklers, dancing and singing in the intoxication of their joy. Titus was so enraged by the rashness, disobedience, and defeat of the retreating troops, that he determined to make them a signal example of his displeasure; he received them with a stern countenance, and with the most humiliating rebukes; and he pronounced upon them the sentence of death according to military law. He was about to execute his purpose, when the legions interceded for their condemned comrades; Titus listened to their prayer; he forgave the disobedient troops; sensible, says Josephus, that where a single person is to be punished, the sentence of death may often be properly inflicted; but that menaces and rebukes are a sufficient chastisement for a great multitude.

SECTION II.

THE OPERATIONS OF THE SIEGE.

WHAT was the position of the Romans after these operations?

THE Romans were now ready for the assault, they had advanced within two hundred and fifty paces of the walls, two camps were formed, one in which Titus fixed his own quarters at the north-west corner of the city opposite the tower of Psephina, and the second more to the south, opposite the tower called Hippicos, which was between mount Sion and the lower city. The tenth legion was stationed on the east, near the mount of Olives.

What engines of offence were employed by the Romans against the Jews?

Titus, having carefully reconnoitred the city, determined to make his attack on the north-west, which was the most accessible side of Jerusalem. He erected platforms for his military engines; and from his catapults and balistæ, he maintained an incessant discharge of javelins and stones. Some of these machines must have been as complete in their construction, as they were terrible in their effects; throwing stones of sixty pounds weight with such force, as to do dreadful execution at the distance of three hundred paces. The whiteness of the rocks from which they were taken, rendered these stones very conspicuous; the Jews maintained sentinels, who continually watched their approach; and their cry, "Beware of the stone,"

warned the Jewish soldiers of the direction of the mass and enabled them to avoid its fall. But Titus blackened the stones before they were discharged; and on this account the Jews, no longer able to distinguish them, suffered very severely, the same stone often killing several men at once. Titus now placed his archers and slingers behind his engines, and the formidable battering-rams were brought forward to lay the opposing wall in ruins.

Describe the obstinate resistance of the Jews.

The active preparations of the Romans for an assault, and the perseverance with which they conducted their offensive operations, convinced both John and Simon, that their only hope of successful resistance, was to be found in the cordial co-operation of their forces. John had hitherto remained in the temple, and had abandoned to Simon, whose situation was the most exposed to the besiegers, the task of defending the walls; but now he permitted his followers to unite with the troops of Simon, and to exert all their energy in obstructing the progress of the Romans. The efforts of the Jews were astonishing. They placed upon the walls the engines they had taken from Cestius Gallus; they conducted incessant and furious sallies by night and by day; and on one occasion, they had nearly succeeded in consuming all the engines of the Romans. For some days they had ceased their sallies; the Romans imagined that they were completely discouraged, and began to relax in the vigilance they had maintained during the siege. All at once, the Jews rushed from a concealed gate near the tower of Hippicos; they bore down all opposition; they penetrated to the entrenchments of the Romans; they were in the very act of setting fire to the murderous engines by which they had been so much galled; but Titus arrived with a large body of horse; twelve javelins which he hurled with his own hand, killed as many of Jews; the assailants were compelled to retreat; one of their number was taken prisoner and was crucified; and the commander of the Idumæans in the service of Simon was slain.

How did the Romans effect an entrance into Jerusalem?

The towers which Titus had built and which were higher than the walls, were occupied by the Roman archers and slingers, who kept up such a deadly discharge of their missiles, that the Jews could no longer appear at their posts. The battering-rams were therefore left at full liberty to work, and a breach was at length made in the wall; the Jews abandoned the suburb, retreated to the second wall, which they deter

The

mined to defend with unyielding obstinacy. camp of Titus was immediately removed into the suburb, and the most vigorous efforts were made for the rapid prosecution of the siege. The two tyrants in Jerusalem divided the defence of the city between them; John defended the tower of Antonia, and the northern side of the temple; and Simon guarded the wall, beginning at fort Antonia which covered the lower city. Simon encouraged his men by his own example of heroic valour, and for some time rendered abortive all the efforts of the Romans to gain possession of his post. The battering-rams were again brought forward, and the great tower in the centre of the wall tottered to its foundations. Castor, and ten other Jews remained on the tower, and when they found it trembling beneath them, they held out their hands as suppliants, and pretended to be ready to surrender. The clemency of Titus induced him to listen to their overtures, he commanded his troops to cease their operations, and sent forward Eneas, a deserter, to treat with the imploring Jews. But when he approached the tower, Castor hurled an immense stone from the battlements, which though it missed Eneas, wounded a soldier behind him, the Jews then set the tower on fire, and gained the city by rushing along a subterraneous passage.

Did the Jews repulse the Romans?

With a select body of troops, who always followed him, and a thousand legionaries, Titus passed through the breach and entered Jerusalem. Desirous of saving the city, and sparing its inhabitants, he gave orders that none of the people should be killed, and that none of the houses should be consumed. His clemency produced an appropriate impression upon the miserable inhabitants, who longed to be delivered from the oppression of their tyrants, and the horrors of the siege. But the Zealots put to death every man who pronounced the name of peace, and determined to make a final and desperate effort to expel the Romans from the city. From the tops of the houses, from the narrow streets, they began the attack; and a strong body rushing to the breach, and driving away the guards, Titus and his handful of men were completely

surrounded. Nothing but the most undaunted courage and immovable presence of mind, saved the Roman general and his men from captivity or death. He succeeded after the most imminent danger, in effecting his retreat to the camp, but with the loss of all the advantages he had previously gained.

The Jews were extravagantly elated by their success, and imagined that after all their reverses they would be able to obtain an ultimate triumph over the Romans. God, says Josephus, blinded them as the punishment of their sins, and they neither considered the irresistible power of their enemies, nor the famine which had already begun to extend its ravages among the immense population, cooped up within their walls. For three days they courageously manned the breach, and drove back the besiegers; but on the fourth, they were overpowered, the second wall again fell into the hands of the Romans, a considerable part of it was thrown down by the command of Titus, and its remaining towers were strongly garrisoned by the legionaries.

What measure did Titus adopt to intimidate the Jews?

Titus determined to give some respite to his men, and at the same time to make such a display of his power to the besieged, as might intimidate them to submission. With arms glittering with gold and silver, the cavalry leading their horses richly comparisoned, with all the gorgeous pomp and splendid magnificence of war, the whole Roman army, in full view of the Jews, marched to receive their pay, and for four days they slowly defiled before their general. The whole population of Jerusalem crowded to the roofs of the houses, to the battlements, or to the higher parts of the city, to witness the imposing procession; various emotions agitated their minds, as they gazed upon the striking scene; rage in some, sorrow in others, and fear in all, for the very Zealots trembled; and the Jewish historian has expressed his conviction, that they would have immediately capitulated to Titus, had they not been conscious that their guilt was unpardonable, and that it was better to die in the shock of battle, than by the hand of the executioner.