THE WARS OF THE JEWS
OR
THE HISTORY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Book VII: Chapter 9
HOW THE PEOPLE THAT WERE IN THE
FORTRESS WERE PREVAILED ON BY THE WORDS OF ELEAZAR,
TWO WOMEN AND FIVE CHILDREN ONLY EXCEPTED AND ALL
SUBMITTED TO BE KILLED BY ONE ANOTHER.
1. NOW as Eleazar was proceeding on in this
exhortation, they all cut him off short, and made
haste to do the work, as full of an unconquerable
ardor of mind, and moved with a demoniacal fury. So
they went their ways, as one still endeavoring to be
before another, and as thinking that this eagerness
would be a demonstration of their courage and good
conduct, if they could avoid appearing in the last
class; so great was the zeal they were in to slay
their wives and children, and themselves also! Nor
indeed, when they came to the work itself, did their
courage fail them, as one might imagine it would have
done, but they then held fast the same resolution,
without wavering, which they had upon the hearing of
Eleazar's speech, while yet every one of them still
retained the natural passion of love to themselves and
their families, because the reasoning they went upon
appeared to them to be very just, even with regard to
those that were dearest to them; for the husbands
tenderly embraced their wives, and took their children
into their arms, and gave the longest parting kisses
to them, with tears in their eyes. Yet at the same
time did they complete what they had resolved on, as
if they had been executed by the hands of strangers;
and they had nothing else for their comfort but the
necessity they were in of doing this execution, to
avoid that prospect they had of the miseries they were
to suffer from their enemies. Nor was there at length
any one of these men found that scrupled to act their
part in this terrible execution, but every one of them
despatched his dearest relations. Miserable men indeed
were they! whose distress forced them to slay their
own wives and children with their own hands, as the
lightest of those evils that were before them. So they
being not able to bear the grief they were under for
what they had done any longer, and esteeming it an
injury to those they had slain, to live even the
shortest space of time after them, they presently laid
all they had upon a heap, and set fire to it. They
then chose ten men by lot out of them to slay all the
rest; every one of whom laid himself down by his wife
and children on the ground, and threw his arms about
them, and they offered their necks to the stroke of
those who by lot executed that melancholy office; and
when these ten had, without fear, slain them all, they
made the same rule for casting lots for themselves,
that he whose lot it was should first kill the other
nine, and after all should kill himself. Accordingly,
all these had courage sufficient to be no way behind
one another in doing or suffering; so, for a
conclusion, the nine offered their necks to the
executioner, and he who was the last of all took a
view of all the other bodies, lest perchance some or
other among so many that were slain should want his
assistance to be quite despatched, and when he
perceived that they were all slain, he set fire to the
palace, and with the great force of his hand ran his
sword entirely through himself, and fell down dead
near to his own relations. So these people died with
this intention, that they would not leave so much as
one soul among them all alive to be subject to the
Romans. Yet was there an ancient woman, and another
who was of kin to Eleazar, and superior to most women
in prudence and learning, with five children, who had
concealed themselves in caverns under ground, and had
carried water thither for their drink, and were hidden
there when the rest were intent upon the slaughter of
one another. Those others were nine hundred and sixty
in number, the women and children being withal
included in that computation. This calamitous
slaughter was made on the fifteenth day of the month
Xanthicus [Nisan].
2. Now for the Romans, they expected that they
should be fought in the morning, when, accordingly,
they put on their armor, and laid bridges of planks
upon their ladders from their banks, to make an
assault upon the fortress, which they did; but saw
nobody as an enemy, but a terrible solitude on every
side, with a fire within the place, as well as a
perfect silence. So they were at a loss to guess at
what had happened. At length they made a shout, as if
it had been at a blow given by the battering ram, to
try whether they could bring any one out that was
within; the women heard this noise, and came out of
their under-ground cavern, and informed the Romans
what had been done, as it was done; and the second of
them clearly described all both what was said and what
was done, and this manner of it; yet did they not
easily give their attention to such a desperate
undertaking, and did not believe it could be as they
said; they also attempted to put the fire out, and
quickly cutting themselves a way through it, they came
within the palace, and so met with the multitude of
the slain, but could take no pleasure in the fact,
though it were done to their enemies. Nor could they
do other than wonder at the courage of their
resolution, and the immovable contempt of death which
so great a number of them had shown, when they went
through with such an action as that was.
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