On the Destruction of Jerusalem 5.11–5.15

The following night it happened that three towers which Titus had ordered to be raised on the earthwork, so that he could shoot the Jews with spears on an equal or higher level, suddenly fell with no force of the enemy. At the sound the whole Roman army was thrown into confusion, thinking that the earthworks had been destroyed by the enemy and the towers undermined, which in falling had caused great havoc far and wide. And a pitiable thing had almost been done, that the victors gave way in flight before enemies of whom they were uncertain in the night, except that the darkness and the collapse itself, raising dust, took away their view, so that they were uncertain where to flee. Each asked his neighbor what had happened, and could not learn the truth, because such a mishap was equally unknown to all, until Caesar, having learned the facts, ordered it made known that what had happened was a sudden accident, not any irruption of the enemy. So the panic was calmed, and every help for storming the city was placed in their strength. For since the walls were very high, and many of them covered with iron or bronze, and the enemy were protected from missiles by the very height, the Romans brought up the engines of the rams, by whose frequent blows the strong parts of the wall were loosened; they began to rely on lighter spears and arrows, so as to turn back the defenders and divert the obstacles of those who were hindering them. So little by little the wall gave way to those shaking it; hence the Jews called the largest ram itself the city-breaker. When part of the walls had been loosened, the Jews abandoned the battlements of that wall, secure because they had two other inner walls, and withdrew to the second wall. As they fled, the Romans entered through the breaches of the wall and opened the gates. So the whole army was let in and almost demolished the outer wall, so that it would not be a hindrance to those fighting, or, if things went badly, a barrier to those retreating.

John and Simon, now in league, divided the positions around the second wall between them. John with his men fought at the castle named Antonia; near it was the portico of the temple that faced north. For that very place, in which the castle was afterward built and named after Antonius, lying between the two northern porticoes, was called Baris. Simon had undertaken the defense of the city at the tomb of John. For the one side the contest was for safety, for the Romans for victory. Although the Romans had the stronger valor for engaging, they had the lower ground for the siege, since the fighting from the wall weighed on them; the rashness of the Jews was more insolent, the courage of the Romans keener. The leaders were present with their sides, and so the greater rivalry arose, as each was eager to prove his dangers to his own commanders. Simon drove his men by terror and fear; Titus moved the Romans above all by their shame, since they thought it worse than death not to display their dangers to Caesar, when he himself had so often not hesitated to expose himself to dangers for the army. They were armed by the habit of conquering and ignorance of yielding, and above all by the presence of Titus as judge of each man's valor, from whom the reward of courage was not what was expected, but, above all, the fruit of the greatest prize was to have done something vigorously while he looked on that did not displease him. Spurred by this, Longinus, a man of the cavalry, seeing the opposing bands of Jews before the walls, as though indignant that they should provoke the Romans to battle and dare to come out on equal terms, leapt from his horse and threw himself into the midst of the enemy. And one who was preparing to meet him in the same manner he struck with his spear, and seized his voice and his life at once. Into another he drove the spear snatched from the body of the fallen man, and returned victorious to his own. We speak of the outstanding; besides these there were many imitators on both sides, but of different kinds: desperation gave the Jews daring, desire for glory added courage to the Romans. Yet contempt of death was equal in unequal spirits: the Jews thought it a consolation to die with the enemy. Titus hastened to finish the war, but without loss of his own, he who would even rather save the enemy themselves, if he could, than destroy them. Nor did he warn his soldiers of anything except that they must fight with forethought: that alone was true courage which has prudence as its companion; for courage without counsel seems rashness, and nowhere must one be more careful than in victory. For that the superior should perish together with the inferior is a triumph for the vanquished. One must take care, therefore, lest it seem chance that he conquered, and cowardice that he did not escape a share of the danger. So he ordered the ram to be brought up to the middle of the northern wall.

There was there Castor, crafty and ready for fraud, who, when the others had been driven off by the archers' shots, held out with other partners in a new fraud. When he noticed that a tower was being overturned by the blows of the ram and that the wall was slipping and would easily fall if the strokes of the engine were repeated, he stretched out his hands and with a pitiable voice begged Caesar to spare the city now about to perish, and not to think it should be overthrown in a final destruction. Caesar thought he was earnestly begging pardon: ready to give his hand so that surrender might come first, he ordered the blows of the engines to stop and the archers to refrain from battle. He gave Castor the opportunity to speak. Castor pretended to come down, then, as it were, to persuade his men: some were willing, others resisted, and suddenly, as though indignant at being compelled, striking themselves on the breastplate, they fell. A great wonder, since the fraud was hidden; so they drew out the time. Meanwhile one of the Roman soldiers struck Castor's nose with an arrow shot. He lamented and complained to Caesar, asking him to order someone to give him his right hand, so that he might take refuge with him. Caesar entrusted the business to Josephus; but he, being on guard against the plots of the Jews, replied that he perceived nothing sincere in it. Aeneas, however, went up nearer the wall and ran forward to receive him as he came. Castor, shouting to him to open his lap and receive gold, let a rock fall. Aeneas with watchful eyes foresaw the stone and by a quick leap of his body escaped its fall; but the huge falling rock struck another man standing nearby. Seeing this, Caesar pressed more fiercely on the overthrow of the walls, ordering that they be driven with greater force of the engines. On the other side fires were thrown to burn the engines. But when the wall was loosened, Castor with his men cast himself as it were into the fire, using guile to make a show of greatness of mind in contempt of death, when by shameful guile he was seeking ways of escape for his life.

Now only one wall, that is, the third, remained, two having been overthrown; still Caesar kept his patience, as he had perceived that whatever perished now perished for him. While he spared them and invited them to surrender, without waiting for the column he rushed with a few men onto the second wall; the Jews, having gathered a band in the narrow streets, wounded very many, and many on both sides were killed. Then Caesar from a distance shot down with arrows those who resisted; among men crowded together the weapons never missed, no shot was without a wound. So the Jews began to withdraw, and Titus took back his men. And famine had already fallen heavily on the city. The Jews, however, as if victors, because they had retreated within the second wall, boasted as though the Romans had been driven out; but they could neither repair what had fallen nor defend what was about to fall. Yet they held out a little while. There was fighting for three days at the second wall. On the fourth day, unable to withstand Roman valor, they fled back within the third wall. Caesar ordered that there be no assault meanwhile, but commanded that the second wall be pulled down. And because the greatest part of the war remained, he decided that the soldiers should bring in food for themselves, so that want would not press the victors or afflict them with need. For four days the soldiers brought in grain; at the same time it seemed a suitable time for the Jews to change their minds, if they took thought for themselves. And the people indeed would have preferred it, but the leaders of the sedition, reckoning the grave crimes they had committed against the people, since they hoped for no place of pardon, thought it lighter to perish with everyone than for the authors alone to perish. So on the fifth day, because nothing peaceable was offered by the Jews, Caesar attacked the walls with a double column, and ordered two earthworks to be raised, one against the Antonia, the other against the wall opposite the tomb of John. By the latter he sought the destruction of the upper city; by the other, if he stormed the castle, he would easily gain the temple too. Unless he brought it into his power, he could not hold even the city without danger. Titus had divided the army into two units. On the other side John and Simon had distributed the duties of defense between them. John defended the Antonia; Simon with his armed men and the people of the Idumaeans kept watch at the tomb of John, and from the higher ground frustrated all the efforts of the besiegers. And now, trained by practice, they had learned how to meet the engines with whatever means they could, and were more stubborn in their misfortunes; they too had acquired several kinds of engines, with which to destroy the works of the Romans and hinder what was begun. Caesar, noticing their headlong stubbornness from despair of pardon, wished to add persuasion to his works, in case they might give way and, through hope of what was promised, desist. So he began to urge them not to involve themselves in the ruin of a captured city, but to yield it to his power, since it was already held by arms and, ringed by siege works, was being pressed toward final destruction; he would give pardon to them if only they took thought for themselves or for their homeland, so that the whole city should not be destroyed. He also instructed Josephus to address his fellow citizens in their native language, so that they might perhaps renounce their plans. Although he knew the hatred of the Jews poured out against him, still, keeping as far from the walls as he could, beyond the reach of an arrow shot, yet so that he could be heard, he pursued in an address familiar to them what would be of profit to his fellow citizens.

“It was, Hebrews, a mark of human nature to contend stubbornly before matters came to the last extremity, while you thought you would be superior through the advantages of the place and of a region you knew; although it would have been fitting that the Romans, invincible in war, should not be provoked to arms, since those who had conquered you have often been conquered by them. But the improvident mind of men has this failing in prosperity, and at the same time the outcome of war is often doubtful; and so each one, though inferior in courage, entrusts himself to fortune. Finally, now that the walls have been overcome, do not think that you must go on even to the overthrow of the temple. Spare the altars, spare the sanctuaries, spare what was once a heavenly dwelling. For God himself has already deserted you, because you have deserted the worship of piety toward him. We have endured war in the middle of the temple; fires poured around it wander over the temple, but not such as used to; armed men stand round it. Yet the Romans, whose hands are still clean of sacrilege, wish to spare it, and neither to defile the sacred doorposts nor to abolish the ancient rites, if you allow it. What more is waited for? Two walls are overthrown; the third remains, and it is weaker now that two have fallen. Or is divine protection hoped for, and help from the sanctuary? But he who defended us has gone over to the enemy; for him whom we used to worship the Romans revere, and we offend. And who does not know that God is with those who have subjected all things to themselves, except what is impassable through excessive heat or cold? And therefore, leaving aside what lies beyond the Roman empire and beyond human use, no one denies that God has given power to different peoples in turn: that he was the helper first of the Egyptians, then of the Jews, of the Assyrians too and the Persians; afterward he turned to the Romans and remains with them; in short, all kingdoms have yielded to them, the whole earth has been given into their possession. What have you to do with the victors of the whole earth, whom the secret places of the ocean and the farthest parts of India obey? Why should I add the Britains, divided from the whole world by the sea between, and brought by the Romans into the world? Scotia, which owes nothing to the lands, trembles at them; Saxony trembles, inaccessible in its marshes and fenced by trackless regions. Though it may seem to increase the care of war, it too has often been added as a captive to Roman triumphs; it is said to be the strongest race of men, surpassing the rest, yet it relies on pirate skiffs, not on strength, readier for flight than for war. But you reply that it is better to die than to lose liberty. When did this opinion come to you, Jews? Or when among the Hebrews was useful servitude not preferred to useless liberty? Jacob the patriarch himself led the Hebrews down into Egypt so that they would not perish of famine. The patriarchs went down, his twelve sons together, those glorious beginnings of our race. There was Judah, that noble ancestor of the Jews, who gave his name to the people. There Joseph, lifted high in a chariot and with horses, preferred to submit himself to another's power so as to feed his own, rather than return to the liberty of his own origin. There Benjamin, held back by his brother's loving trick, consented to the deceit, because it was no crime to serve the more powerful. There their inheritance, even when called by Moses, still wished to cling. So even hard servitude did not displease your fathers, so that they preferred it to dangers. You served the Egyptians, then, and would that it had been only once! But you served not only then, when you preferred the food of the last servitude to the rains of heavenly food, but even afterward, conquered and captive, you went down into Egypt, fleeing the Assyrians. You served the Assyrians too for many courses of years, and that servitude was sweet. You served the Macedonians, the Persians, the Seleucids, the Philistines; do you think only the Romans heavy to you, whom even those whom you served serve? Do you owe hatred, then, or gratitude to those who have made you equal to your masters? I think this is your vengeance, not an insult, because they have avenged you on those to whom you were subject. The Assyrian, who ruled over all Asia, is pressed by servitude. The Egyptian ploughs for the Romans, and what he sows the other reaps. Macedonia, which had spread its empire as far as the Indians after conquering Persia, acknowledges masters it did not know, and remembers that it gave its kings the name of the Aeacidae in vain; certainly it yielded to no others than to the triumph of the Romans, to whom even Pyrrhus himself, bearing both the descent and the name of Achilles's offspring, when conquered in arms, so submitted himself out of eagerness to win peace that he asked for pardon. And what shall I say of the Philistines, whom the power of one governor restrains? Ungrateful men, is it not your nobility to serve together with the Persians? For this is to have kings serving with you, and the greatest kingdom as a partner in subjection. But I ask: when were you free, you who now refuse servitude? When, then, were you free? Or when did you rule over others, you who were under a king? You had God as king; you rejected his kingdom, under which alone you were free; you wished to serve men. Why do you tear up the testaments of the fathers? The inheritance is stubborn even against the fathers. You chose a king whose name was Saul. When he was killed, the Philistine people ruled over you; after a time David succeeded to the kingdom of the whole people, gentler indeed than a master, but still a master; before David came to rest, he too nevertheless set a king over the nation. Under Solomon's successor the kingdom was again split in two, and the inheritance was divided through a long series of dominations. To pass over the captivities, Cyrus restored most of the Jews to their lands and their rites. But your fathers, when they were being worn down by heavy wars with the Persians, though ennobled by the triumphs of the Maccabees, chose alliance with Rome for themselves. Divine Scripture holds the treaties of many embassies. You became friends of the Romans, you who had been slaves of the Persians. But again you preferred to have a king rather than a chief priest whom the people would obey; when the cruelty of your kings was unbearable, after Herod died and Archelaus was driven out, you asked to be under the Roman Caesar. You handed yourselves over to Caesar, whom you all served, so as to change your servitude for the better. For to serve in the common condition of all is a kind of liberty, because the obedience of servants is honored by the dignity of their masters; although the Romans, authors of liberty, do not exact servitude, since they not only killed a cruel king but also did not endure a proud one; and therefore among them the name of empire is august, because it increases its own, not because it oppresses others. But grant that it is useful for you not to obey the Roman empire: let us see whether it is free, whether it is not fatal. The Roman lines press you, the ruins of your homeland press you, the destruction of the temple presses you: weigh not what is useful but what is possible. For it is not the appearance of wishes but the reckoning of possibility that must be weighed. Surely the law of nature, poured into all men, birds, wild beasts and beasts alike, is the same: that each one yields to the stronger: the bull to the lion, the stag to the bear, the roe to the leopard, the hawk to the eagle, the dove to the hawk; the young bullocks are inferior to the bull itself, the flocks of sheep to the ram, the goat to the he-goat; so that there may seem to be no distinction even of different kinds, you to the stronger. Yet the Romans drive no one out; you have driven out; indeed they see to it that no one, even when conquered, should go out from his own lands: they preserved part of his kingdom for Antiochus. And now what else does Caesar labor for, but that your land not be deserted, your region not be emptied, the city not be overthrown, the temple not be burned? Victory is not given to all. Nature has given it to few to rule, to many to obey. Bulls stand out in the herds, rams in the flocks. Pre-eminence lies with the few, gentleness with the many. Put on gentleness yourselves, accept subjection, which even the wild beasts put on.” While Josephus was saying this, they hurled abuse from the wall. They cursed him as he urged what was useful. Many also shot arrows, to see whether they could strike him dead. But he, since he could not bend the untamed by his speech, thought they should also be confronted with the testimonies of the Scriptures, especially because they said that God would not fail to protect his temple.