276
[Whiston sect. 1] [sect. 409] 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.
[Whiston sect. 2] [sect. 414] 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 277
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.
[Whiston sect. 3] [sect. 420] Now the number 278
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 279
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.
[Whiston sect. 4] [sect. 427] 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.
Ch. 10