THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book V: Chapter 13
THE GREAT SLAUGHTERS AND SACRILEGE
THAT WERE IN JERUSALEM.
1. ACCORDINGLY Simon would not suffer Matthias, by
whose means he got possession of the city, to go off
without torment. This Matthias was the son of Boethus,
and was one of the high priests, one that had been
very faithful to the people, and in great esteem with
them; he, when the multitude were distressed by the
zealots, among whom John was numbered, persuaded the
people to admit this Simon to come in to assist them,
while he had made no terms with him, nor expected any
thing that was evil from him. But when Simon was come
in, and had gotten the city under his power, he
esteemed him that had advised them to admit him as his
enemy equally with the rest, as looking upon that
advice as a piece of his simplicity only; so he had
him then brought before him, and condemned to die for
being on the side of the Romans, without giving him
leave to make his defense. He condemned also his three
sons to die with him; for as to the fourth, he
prevented him by running away to Titus before. And
when he begged for this, that he might be slain before
his sons, and that as a favor, on account that he had
procured the gates of the city to be opened to him, he
gave order that he should be slain the last of them
all; so he was not slain till he had seen his sons
slain before his eyes, and that by being produced over
against the Romans; for such a charge had Simon given
to Artanus, the son of Bamadus, who was the most
barbarous of all his guards. He also jested upon him,
and told him that he might now see whether those to
whom he intended to go over would send him any succors
or not; but still he forbade their dead bodies should
be buried. After the slaughter of these, a certain
priest, Ananias, the son of Masambalus, a person of
eminency, as also Aristens, the scribe of the
sanhedrim, and born at Emmaus, and with them fifteen
men of figure among the people, were slain. They also
kept Josephus's father in prison, and made public
proclamation, that no citizen whosoever should either
speak to him himself, or go into his company among
others, for fear he should betray them. They also slew
such as joined in lamenting these men, without any
further examination.
2. Now when Judas, the son of Judas, who was one of
Simon's under officers, and a person intrusted by him
to keep one of the towers, saw this procedure of
Simon, he called together ten of those under him, that
were most faithful to him, (perhaps this was done
partly out of pity to those that had so barbarously
been put to death, but principally in order to provide
for his own safety,) and spoke thus to them: "How long
shall we bear these miseries? or what hopes have we of
deliverance by thus continuing faithful to such wicked
wretches? Is not the famine already come against us?
Are not the Romans in a manner gotten within the city?
Is not Simon become unfaithful to his benefactors? and
is there not reason to fear he will very soon bring us
to the like punishment, while the security the Romans
offer us is sure? Come on, let us surrender up this
wall, and save ourselves and the city. Nor will Simon
be very much hurt, if, now he despairs of deliverance,
he be brought to justice a little sooner than he
thinks on." Now these ten were prevailed upon by those
arguments; so he sent the rest of those that were
under him, some one way, and some another, that no
discovery might be made of what they had resolved
upon. Accordingly, he called to the Romans from the
tower about the third hour; but they, some of them out
of pride, despised what he said, and others of them
did not believe him to be in earnest, though the
greatest number delayed the matter, as believing they
should get possession of the city in a little time,
without any hazard. But when Titus was just coming
thither with his armed men, Simon was acquainted with
the matter before he came, and presently took the
tower into his own custody, before it was surrendered,
and seized upon these men, and put them to death in
the sight of the Romans themselves; and when he had
mangled their dead bodies, he threw them down before
the wall of the city.
3. In the mean time, Josephus, as he was going
round the city, had his head wounded by a stone that
was thrown at him; upon which he fell down as giddy.
Upon which fall of his the Jews made a sally, and he
had been hurried away into the city, if Caesar had not
sent men to protect him immediately; and as these men
were fighting, Josephus was taken up, though he heard
little of what was done. So the seditious supposed
they had now slain that man whom they were the most
desirous of killing, and made thereupon a great noise,
in way of rejoicing. This accident was told in the
city, and the multitude that remained became very
disconsolate at the news, as being persuaded that he
was really dead, on whose account alone they could
venture to desert to the Romans. But when Josephus's
mother heard in prison that her son was dead, she said
to those that watched about her, That she had always
been of opinion, since the siege of Jotapata, [that he
would be slain,] and she should never enjoy him alive
any more. She also made great lamentation privately to
the maid-servants that were about her, and said, That
this was all the advantage she had of bringing so
extraordinary a person as this son into the world;
that she should not be able even to bury that son of
hers, by whom she expected to have been buried
herself. However, this false report did not put his
mother to pain, nor afford merriment to the robbers,
long; for Josephus soon recovered of his wound, and
came out, and cried out aloud, That it would not be
long ere they should be punished for this wound they
had given him. He also made a fresh exhortation to the
people to come out upon the security that would be
given them. This sight of Josephus encouraged the
people greatly, and brought a great consternation upon
the seditious.
4. Hereupon some of the deserters, having no other
way, leaped down from the wall immediately, while
others of them went out of the city with stones, as if
they would fight them; but thereupon they fled away to
the Romans. But here a worse fate accompanied these
than what they had found within the city; and they met
with a quicker despatch from the too great abundance
they had among the Romans, than they could have done
from the famine among the Jews; for when they came
first to the Romans, they were puffed up by the
famine, and swelled like men in a dropsy; after which
they all on the sudden overfilled those bodies that
were before empty, and so burst asunder, excepting
such only as were skillful enough to restrain their
appetites, and by degrees took in their food into
bodies unaccustomed thereto. Yet did another plague
seize upon those that were thus preserved; for there
was found among the Syrian deserters a certain person
who was caught gathering pieces of gold out of the
excrements of the Jews' bellies; for the deserters
used to swallow such pieces of gold, as we told you
before, when they came out, and for these did the
seditious search them all; for there was a great
quantity of gold in the city, insomuch that as much
was now sold [in the Roman camp] for twelve Attic
[drams], as was sold before for twenty-five. But when
this contrivance was discovered in one instance, the
fame of it filled their several camps, that the
deserters came to them full of gold. So the multitude
of the Arabians, with the Syrians, cut up those that
came as supplicants, and searched their bellies. Nor
does it seem to me that any misery befell the Jews
that was more terrible than this, since in one night's
time about two thousand of these deserters were thus
dissected.
5. When Titus came to the knowledge of this wicked
practice, he had like to have surrounded those that
had been guilty of it with his horse, and have shot
them dead; and he had done it, had not their number
been so very great, and those that were liable to this
punishment would have been manifold more than those
whom they had slain. However, he called together the
commanders of the auxiliary troops he had with him, as
well as the commanders of the Roman legions, (for some
of his own soldiers had been also guilty herein, as he
had been informed,) and had great indignation against
both sorts of them, and said to them, "What! have any
of my own soldiers done such things as this out of the
uncertain hope of gain, without regarding their own
weapons, which are made of silver and gold? Moreover,
do the Arabians and Syrians now first of all begin to
govern themselves as they please, and to indulge their
appetites in a foreign war, and then, out of their
barbarity in murdering men, and out of their hatred to
the Jews, get it ascribed to the Romans?" for this
infamous practice was said to be spread among some of
his own soldiers also. Titus then threatened that he
would put such men to death, if any of them were
discovered to be so insolent as to do so again;
moreover, he gave it in charge to the legions, that
they should make a search after such as were
suspected, and should bring them to him. But it
appeared that the love of money was too hard for all
their dread of punishment, and a vehement desire of
gain is natural to men, and no passion is so
venturesome as covetousness; otherwise such passions
have certain bounds, and are subordinate to fear. But
in reality it was God who condemned the whole nation,
and turned every course that was taken for their
preservation to their destruction. This, therefore,
which was forbidden by Caesar under such a
threatening, was ventured upon privately against the
deserters, and these barbarians would go out still,
and meet those that ran away before any saw them, and
looking about them to see that no Roman spied them,
they dissected them, and pulled this polluted money
out of their bowels; which money was still found in a
few of them, while yet a great many were destroyed by
the bare hope there was of thus getting by them, which
miserable treatment made many that were deserting to
return back again into the city.
6. But as for John, when he could no longer plunder
the people, he betook himself to sacrilege, and melted
down many of the sacred utensils, which had been given
to the temple; as also many of those vessels which
were necessary for such as ministered about holy
things, the caldrons, the dishes, and the tables; nay,
he did not abstain from those pouring vessels that
were sent them by Augustus and his wife; for the Roman
emperors did ever both honor and adorn this temple;
whereas this man, who was a Jew, seized upon what were
the donations of foreigners, and said to those that
were with him, that it was proper for them to use
Divine things, while they were fighting for the
Divinity, without fear, and that such whose warfare is
for the temple should live of the temple; on which
account he emptied the vessels of that sacred wine and
oil, which the priests kept to be poured on the
burnt-offerings, and which lay in the inner court of
the temple, and distributed it among the multitude,
who, in their anointing themselves and drinking, used
[each of them] above an hin of them. And here I cannot
but speak my mind, and what the concern I am under
dictates to me, and it is this: I suppose, that had
the Romans made any longer delay in coming against
these villains, that the city would either have been
swallowed up by the ground opening upon them, or been
overflowed by water, or else been destroyed by such
thunder as the country of Sodom perished by, for it
had brought forth a generation of men much more
atheistical than were those that suffered such
punishments; for by their madness it was that all the
people came to be destroyed.
7. And, indeed, why do I relate these particular
calamities? while Manneus, the son of Lazarus, came
running to Titus at this very time, and told him that
there had been carried out through that one gate,
which was intrusted to his care, no fewer than a
hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty
dead bodies, in the interval between the fourteenth
day of the month Xanthieus, [Nisan,] when the Romans
pitched their camp by the city, and the first day of
the month Panemus [Tamuz]. This was itself a
prodigious multitude; and though this man was not
himself set as a governor at that gate, yet was he
appointed to pay the public stipend for carrying these
bodies out, and so was obliged of necessity to number
them, while the rest were buried by their relations;
though all their burial was but this, to bring them
away, and cast them out of the city. After this man
there ran away to Titus many of the eminent citizens,
and told him the entire number of the poor that were
dead, and that no fewer than six hundred thousand were
thrown out at the gates, though still the number of
the rest could not be discovered; and they told him
further, that when they were no longer able to carry
out the dead bodies of the poor, they laid their
corpses on heaps in very large houses, and shut them
up therein; as also that a medimnus of wheat was sold
for a talent; and that when, a while afterward, it was
not possible to gather herbs, by reason the city was
all walled about, some persons were driven to that
terrible distress as to search the common sewers and
old dunghills of cattle, and to eat the dung which
they got there; and what they of old could not endure
so much as to see they now used for food. When the
Romans barely heard all this, they commiserated their
case; while the seditious, who saw it also, did not
repent, but suffered the same distress to come upon
themselves; for they were blinded by that fate which
was already coming upon the city, and upon themselves
also.
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