A.D. 70
THE aspect of Jerusalem had changed but little from that which it had worn at the time of the Crucifixion, when, thirty- five years later, the Roman eagles gathered round their prey. But during these years the Jews had been plunging deeper and deeper into sin and wretchedness. At last, goaded by outrage and insult, they had risen against their Roman masters; and the great Vespasian had been sent by Nero to tame their stubborn pride.
Galilee and Perea① were subdued after some trouble anddelay; and the conqueror, having drawn a circle of forts round Jerusalem, was at Caesarea, preparing for the last great blow, when he heard the news of Nero"s death. The army in Palestine then proclaimed Vespasian emperor. He hastened to secure Alexandria, the second city in the empire; and having heard while there that the people of Rome were holding feasts in his own honour, he set out for Italy. So the siege of Jerusalem was left to his son Titus.
Mustering his forces at Caesarea, and dividing them into three bands, Titus marched for the doomed city. Arrived there, he fortified three camps-one on the north, one on the west, and one, garrisoned by the Tenth Legion, on the Mount of Olives. Upon this last the Jews made a sally as the soldiers were digging the trenches; but they were soon beaten down the hill.
While the trumpets were blowing at Caesarea, and the clang of the Roman march was shaking the land, murder, and outrage, and cruel terror filled all Jerusalem. Robbers, callingthemselves Zealots, had flocked in from the country. Eleazar, at the head of one set of these, held the inner court of the Temple. John of Gischala, another leader of ruffians, occupying ground somewhat lower, poured constant showers of darts and stones into the holy house, often killing worshippers as they stood at the very altar. In this mad war, houses full of corn were burned, and misery of every kind was inflicted on the wretched people. In despair they called Simon of Gerasa to their aid, and thus there were three hostile factions within the walls.
The great feast of the Passover came, and the Temple was thrown open to the thousands who crowded from every corner of the land to offer up their yearly sacrifice. Mingling in disguise with the throng, with weapons under their clothes, John"s party gained entrance into the sacred court, and soon drove out their foes. The poor worshippers, all trampled and bleeding, escaped as best they could. John remained master of the Temple; and the three factions were reduced to two.
Within the city there were above 23, 000 fighting men-a strong body if united. There was, indeed, a temporary union, when they saw the Roman soldiers busily cutting down all the trees in the suburbs, rolling their trunks together, and to the top of the three great banks thus formed dragging the huge siege-engines of the time-rams, catapults, and balistas.
The siege opened in three places at once, towards the endof March, 70 A. D. The Roman missiles poured like hail upon the city; but none were so terrible as the stones, sometimes weighing a talent (125 pounds), which were cast from the east by the Tenth Legion. The Jews replied with some engines planted on the wall by Simon, flung torches at the Roman banks, and made an unavailing sally at the Tower of Hippicus.③ Three towers of heavy timber, covered with thick iron plates, were then erected by Titus. Rising higher than the walls, and carrying light engines, they were used to drive the Jews from their posts of defence. The falling of one of these atmidnight with a loud crash spread alarm through the Roman camp; but it did not last long. At dawn the rams were swinging away, and pounding against the shaking wall, which on the fifteenth day of the siege yielded to Nico (the Conqueror), as the most ponderous of the Roman engines was called by the Jews. The legions, pouring through the breach, gained the first wall: nine days later, the second wall was levelled with the ground.
Then followed a pause of five days, after which the attack was renewed at John"s Monument, and the Tower of Antonia.④ At the same time, Josephus, a noble Jew, from whose graphic history this sketch is drawn, went to the walls, as he had done before-as he did more than once again, to plead with his countrymen. But all in vain, for the Zealots were bent on holding out, and slew such of the people as they found trying to desert.
Famine had long before begun its deadly work. Mothers were already snatching the morsels from their children"s lips. The robbers broke open every shut door in search of food, and tortured most horribly all who were thought to have a hidden store. Gaunt men, who had crept beyond the walls by night to gather a few wild herbs, were often robbed by these wretches of the handful of green leaves for which they had risked their lives. Yet, in spite of this, the starving people went out into the valleys in such numbers that the Romans caught them at the rate of five hundred a day, and crucified them before the walls, until there was no wood left to make another cross.
His serious losses made Titus resolve to hem in the city with a wall. It was built in the amazingly short time of three days! The attack was then directed against the Tower of Antonia, which stood at the north-west corner of the Temple, on a slippery rock, fifty cubits high. Four banks were raised. Some Roman soldiers, creeping in with their shields above their heads, loosened four of the foundation stones; and the wall, battered at all day, fell suddenly in the night.