XLV. And so the originators of the rebellion fleeing when the temple was being burned, the Romans placed their standards inside the walls of the temple itself and against the eastern gate they celebrated Titus as imperator proclaiming this with their loudest voices. In the meantime a certain boy in that place, where the priests still were, whom both the lack of water and the heat of the neighboring fire tortured with thirst, asked one of the Roman guards to give him his right hand, to offer a drink. Having pitied his age and necessity equally he extended it immediately. The small boy drank and because he had been carefully judged of harmless age, he seized the container of water and took himself away in a rush, that he might furnish a supply for drinking to the priests. The soldier wished to pursue him but was not able to catch him. He at his own peril relieved the thirst of the priests. This good trick which harmed no one, came to the aid of need. Finally the soldier himself marveled more at the attitude of the boy than he detested his trickery, because at that age and with the destruction of the entire city and the common danger [p. 396] he did not leave unexpressed by the service he was able to render that respect which was owed to the priests. Not much later the priests finally defeated by hunger and thirst asked for their life, whom Titus ordered to be killed, responding them to be of unworthy mind, who wished to outlive the temple and their office.
XLVI. Furthermore Iohannes and Simonis and the other leaders of the rebellions asking, that he order the the throwing of javelins and the noise to leave off for a short time and that he give them the opportunity of speaking, he did not shrink from the concession, silence having been made he gave his response thusly: "the time is too late, you depraved ones, for mercy, when already nothing is left which should be saved. It was offered to you and you despised it, you thought it lack of confidence, not a concession. But I groaned that harmless buildings would perish from your wickedness, I grieved the common people to be forced to death, I wished to be lenient: you did not allow it; I held up the fighting: you rushed in; I offered peace: you did not accept it; I called on you frequently, I went to meet you repeatedly: it does not shame to say, I made you more arrogant by asking. What were you thinking? That the Roman troops would yield to you and you would surround an army victorious over all lands with your multitude? What portion fought you, since your region was not able to withstand the entirety, nor did difficult straits allow it? A greater care for us was protecting our world rather than extending it. Where we may go nothing is new; nothing foreign, to whom all the world is a possession. We thought this brigandage as a mole long concealed in the body, finally provoked we believed it must be removed, lest your disobedience and a certain murkiness should mar the splendor of the Roman empire. You have experienced Roman might not by fighting but by dying. For we see your troops not on the field but on the wall, since for you not even an enclosure was advantageous for a means of protection of your safety. [p. 397] For what wall stops those whom the ocean does not stop? Or what city hemmed in by a guard of walls would be impregnable to our siege when the arms of the Romans have also penetrated the Britains walled around by a raging element? Spread out beneath us is that steep mountain of water. The wave of the Red sea, as the stories of Iudaea report, walled around with the appearance of a wall your fathers crossing it, Roman bravery broke down the wall of the ocean. I do not envy you the favors of another. The sea saw you and fled, so that shut off from the enemy you might flee, since you were not able to break through the enemy nor to hold it back. For us the flight of the ocean would have been an injury if it had fled. Before the war we fought with the waves, we overcame the raging sea before we arrived at the enemy. Brittania received us already the victors over the elements. Whom they trusted we subdued, so that the ocean itself acceded to the consummation of the triumph. But perhaps you rely upon the strength of the body. Now are you stronger than the Germans, whom fenced in by the wall of the Alps Roman courage led into servitude? Nor those similar to the mountains of the slope of Mount Taurus or the effeminate armies of the Egyptians with which it is your practice to fight. We climbed above the clouds and descending from the clouds we conquered the people, we opened the airy route to all: we do not envy you the watery regions, provided that the former of those celebrating a triumph, the latter of those fleeing. And so the mountains sink down to Roman valor, rivers dried up their course lost, which nature had directed, and turned aside to where the victors ordered. Turned around is your Jordan, as you say, and it returns to its source, that it may offer a route to you, Cloelia the Roman maiden did not lack it, [p. 398] who with broken chains escaped the enemy and racing with the river took herself into the Roman camp. Nor are we amazed at your fires, from which Hebrew boys to have escaped you are accustomed to put out great songs. Our Mucius with no one forcing him put his hand in the fire, and did not remove it, until victor over the fire the miracle of his bravery, which did not feel the flames, confounded the enemy. Finally they asked for peace who were hoping for triumph. And truly did those celestial beings bring out food to you and meat of the rivers against Roman valor? But it behooved you to consider the nourisher itself of the world Africa to have been subjected by Roman courage. It is a slave to us which feeds everyone, in our power if the hunger of everyone and the nourishment of the whole world. What nature gave to all, Roman valor has made its property. It defeated Hannibal himself and forced him into exile, whom of the whole world it did not capture, for whom Africa was too narrow, Spain was seen not suitable for lingering, Gallia confined for traveling, Italy unworthy of a treaty of friendship and the partnership of an alliance. Although you throw away what the lightning fought for for you, the celestial powers have fought for, we conquered Hannibal riding the lightning and thundering with the storms of the world itself: the world shook and he beat our walls with arms. Nor truly was it necessary, that our enemies like your Assyrians be killed while sleeping, but fighting. For not in sleep is victory sought, but in battle, it is not a prize of valor when by fortuitous favor. Our enemies not deceived by the redness of waters [p. 399] shining back at the rising of the sun rashly fell upon our troops, from the appearance of scattered blood they thought us killed, but understanding and prepared for battle they covered the fields with their bodies and refilled them with their own blood. What bravery placed you in such great arrogance? Did you not see them to serve you who governed you --- Egypt, which was accustomed to humble you, pays you an annual tribute and provides a path to the regions of India --- to go beyond the world and to seek another world, to join to our empire the secrets of the sea of the sun and the farthest stretches of the ocean and the inhabitants of another world? what? The kingdom of Antiochus, who afflicted you with severe suffering, took away the very right of religion, have we not given that back to you, thinking it more glorious to to rule over kings than to raise up a kingdom? Did not Antioch itself, the seat of your masters, zealously reject its own and choose us as masters? Have not you yourselves fled to us, that you might avoid them as masters? Did we not receive you and defend you against them? We protected you that you might live by your laws, we gave you the freedom to be devoted to your religion. We wished to understand your religious rites but we respected them, afterwards you believed you must rebel. Pompeius captured the temple but he did not destroy it, he seized the city but he preserved it, he saved all the sanctuaries untouched, for which things, o grateful associates, you returned this payment to us, that you waged war for third time. Nero had to be despised, but Roman power was not paid out in one man, but had the soldier Vespasian, who had already recalled the Gauls to peace, who was so strong in battle, that through [p. 400] him even Nero succeeded, through him Nero was formidable to his enemies, he was faithful to his lord, so that alone he did not seek the rule which alone he merited. But Cestius offended. It behooved that the quarrel be put off, not that arms be introduced. My father Vespasian was sent who unexpected was able to pour himself against those unready, he went through Galilaea, he destroyed over a wide area, that you would put aside arrogance, that you would ask for pardon. He exhibited valor and, when he held all men closed in, he went to Egypt, that he might grant an armistice to those becoming reasonable. Our absence made you more arrogant, because you thought us occupied; but we were never so occupied, that we were absent from the world. For even absent we were in attendance and positioned at a distance we took a position nearer. For as the soul in the body makes live all its members, thus Roman foresight is present in all parts of its empire and governs the entire Roman world as if present. But if to every soul that divine force gives the power of managing the body, how much more so to the Roman vigor by which as if one the body of our entire empire is animated, it furnished a certain resource of protecting its vitals. And so you renewed the war which had been suspended. And so my father about to set out for the city Rome that would be taken back from the tyrants separated me from his society lest an executor of his responsibility should be lacking to you. I came to a war with appearance of wasting away, the impression of asking. How many times from your walls have I called back the army? How often have I withdrawn from the inner shrine of your temple? How often have I put out fires? How often have I warned you? But you have never listened. Now finally you are asking, as if now anything might remain such as what has already been consumed? Nevertheless I rouse the soldiers from slaughter burning plundering. What do you want, why do you stand still armed, as if about to give out conditions, not about to receive them? --- if [p. 401] you seek surrender, put down your arms no longer fearing the victors, but proud in defeat and full of arrogance ---so that you ask armed as if you doubt our good faith or threatening war are you yet provoking force? The people have been destroyed. The temple is burning, we hold the city. Surviving what do you hope for unless that life be granted to you? So then put down your arms as if conquered, I will grant you to live, although you do merit it, for you refused to save what are your things with yourselves." Then they began to seek, that to them bound by oath, they at no time would surrender themselves to the Romans, that he would grant them permission of going out through the wall, they would proceed with their families into the desert, yielding the city to the Romans. More enraged by this Titus: "even now," he said, "you impose conditions on us? But defend rather your country, be in attendance at the temple, rise up with all your valor, observe the sacrament of death, because you have rejected life." And at the same time he ordered the Romans to rise up to kill the enemy. Many began to waver to the great indignation of the victors. However the sons of king Iaza surrendered themselves with his brothers and many of the people with them. Nor did Titus, although aroused to anger, revoke his offer in contemplation of the royal summit, but received those fleeing. He made the profit of his sense of duty only however, which is the greatest. For the originators of the rebellion snatched away all the booty of the royal home, so that nothing from it should reach the Romans.
XLVII. At the same time however an attack having been made that they broke into the royal court, rushing two of the Roman soldiers, they killed one man of the foot soldiers, a horseman demanded that he be taken to Simon alleging himself to have, what he insinuated would be remembered to the leader of the rebellion. But led to him when he wove certain untrustworthy things, he was ordered to be killed, while the executioner is delaying, his eyes already bound with a bandage, he tore himself away to the Romans. Who fighting hand to hand received him fleeing. And led to himself Titus as unworthy of the death of a man, who was able to be captured alive by the enemy, stripped of his weapons ordered to be discharged reserving to him what through the idleness of the enemy he had not lost, taking away the oath of military service, because a captive he surrendered, a deserter he was dishonored. That for him was the greatest punishment, among men there are even worse disgraces of military service than wounds of death. The Jews however immediately driven back took themselves to the high part of the city the defense of the temple and the city having been abandoned. A great massacre was enforced against those who had remained, the ways were filled with bodies and the half-dead. Now too Caesar ordered the war machines to be moved to the high places, which seeing the Idumaeans chose men whom they would send to Titus, who would ask him for surrender. That having been learned Simon prevented and intercepted the men chosen for seeking surrender, but the Idumaeans not much later, although disappointed in the assistance of their leaders, when they were unable to hold back the attack longer, surrendered themselves to the Roman army. Thus first starvation and finally despair of resisting accomplished the surrender. Nor did the Romans already weary from the great slaughter deny the concession of life and with eagerness for selling the captive slaves were quick to save their lives. There were many on sale but few buyers, because Romans refused to hold Jews as slaves, nor were Jews left who could buy back their own, since each congratulated himself to have escaped although destitute. And so everywhere they surrendered themselves fear having been removed, inasmuch as robbers were absent, the Romans pardoned them.
XLVIII. Finally Jesus, one of the priests the son of Thebutus, surrendered himself and vessels of the priestly services, two lamps, tables, basins and plates and all the gold vessels, and both the curtains and the clothing of the leaders [p. 403] of the priesthood with jewels, a pledge of safety having been accepted, he surrendered willingly. And Fineas was seized also, the keeper of the treasury, he pointed out much purple and scarlet dyed cloth and many other things of the priests, which were being saved for use. With which he handed over also cinnamon, cassia, and many spices and incense, many vessels also of the sacraments and the sacred garments, but forced by fear, from which among his own people it was a crime meriting sale as a slave. However although the wish was lacking, the power ought not to have been lacking. Although generally we judge more sternly, than we are able to guard against, if we dwell in such need, made a minister and proof of betrayal we ought to run away.
XLIX. Already the ramparts had risen up and the battering rams had began to strik the higher wall: on the seventh day of the month, which they call Gorpieum, it came to the end, disordered and terrified the leaders themselves of the factions also, who in extreme dangers behaved insultingly, they each fell on their knees praying for help. It was discerned how pitiable the change was from that terrible and haughty summit into this humble and plebeian degradation, into tears of weeping from fear. Not yet had the wall of the upper city yielded, already they rushed about individually, bewailing that no garrison remained, they thought that the enemy had made entry, many seemed to themselves to see the Romans fighting as if already from the higher locations, what the mind feared the eyes fashioned and the fear in the mind became the appearance of what was seen. Finally believing it certain that the enemy was already pressing upon their necks, to whom the three towers Mariamne et Fasaelus and Equestris much stronger than the rest still remained, they deserted the heights fleeing to underground cellars [p. 404] or hidden caves. Iohannes however not much later emaciated from hunger and weak from fasting surrendered himself to Caesar, who spared for the triumph but tied up in perpetual chains carrying them till death having tested more the spirit of life than a wish to live escaped the executioner's axe. Simon on the other hand as yet hid inside the ruins of the burned out city hiding himself with a few faithful supporters in underground chambers. Caesar had already departed from the burned city considering that Simon had likely been burned up by fire or crushed by a collapse or killed by some soldier. But truly he, as long as food was available, in a dug out pit was digging further, but when both food came to an end and no solution of escaping revealed itself, suddenly he crept out above ground covered with a white and purple garment over his clothing, that he might strike fear into those seeing him, who first orders the astounded Roman soldiers that they should take him to their leader. In that place was Rufus Terentius, whom Titus had left in place as prefect of the soldiers. Who arriving asked who he was first other things, afterwards he confessed himself to be Simon. Whence he was sent to Caesar and was himself saved for the triumph. But because he had exercised savage behavior against the citizens and had not surrendered himself to Caesar, he was sentenced to death after the celebration of the triumph. On the eighth day of he month Gorpieium the city was completely burned. Innumerable thousands were killed through all he time of the seige --- most assert ninety myriads --- all Jews however, but not all of the same region and place, for they came together there from all sides at the time of the celebration of Passover. Captives were led away to the number ninety seven thousand, almost all the brigands were immediately killed, those who were the strongest were led through the triumph afterwards thrown to the beasts, [p. 405] given to other punishments through almost all the cities, on the route Titus traveled, that by the punishment of the rebellions he might scatter fear into everyone.
L. At the same time the Alani, a wild people and long unknown, because of the difficulty of their interior location and the barrier of the iron gate, which Alexander the Great established at the summit of the steep mountain, with other wild and fierce tribes were held back within, they resided in Scythicum Tanain and its neighbor and the Meotis marshes as if shut inside a prison and are remembered for the talent of their king, so that they might cultivate their own lands, they did not make raids upon others. But whether because of the barrenness of the place, because the fruitfulness did not answer the wishes of a greedy farmer with the hoped for returns, or because they stirred up the king of the Hyrcanians, who was in charge of the place, with the desire for pillaging, unsure of the tribes because of the reward and the dissension between them, that an unbarred gate would give him the opportunity of a sally. Which having been achieved they poured themselves upon the people of the Medes unprepared in a short time with swift horses and others equally tied to their right hands, upon whom they leaped in turn when it pleased them, they overran almost the entire region, so that at first they threw everything into confusion and gave the appearance of a great multitude, against which no opportunity of escape was open, then all having been beset, then as much slaughter having been put forth as they wished, they took away their booty. For this was a region crowded with people and abounding in cattle, which with no one resisting was easily opened to plundering. Indeed Pacorus himself, the king of the Medes, took himself into hidden places for safety rather than looking out for the kingdom, with the result that his wife and children and concubines taken captive by the Alanians were afterwards ransomed for one hundred talents. Nor was Tiridates, the king of Armenia, exempt from danger, but more on guard against foreign mischief, he foresaw the raid and strongly even [p. 406] wished to go to meet it, that he might turn the enemy from his territories. While he was fighting however caught in a lariat he would have submitted alive into the power of he enemy, if he had not quickly cut through the shapeless knot with a sharpened sword. For with a certain arrogance of their own bravery and a proud disdain for others, at the same time they pretend with great trickery a familiar custom of fighting at a distance to themselves and taking the opportunity of fleeing, the skill of the Alanians and their method of fighting is to hurl nooses and bind up their enemy.
LI. And so Tiridates fled, to whom it was sufficient to have escaped. He left his kingdom however to be plundered. For as it were the injury having been received, because he had dared to meet them, they laid waste Armenia more violently than the kingdom of the Medes. And so with the spoils of each rich kingdom they made a retreat to their own country. Whose incursion having been learned Titus traveled to Antioch, slowly however as became one celebrating a triumph, and concealing the reason he celebrated the pomp of victory through each city. Jews were killed in the arena, wherever he went, torn to pieces by beasts they paid out the due reward of rebellion. The gentile people of Antioch also from ancient hatreds inveighed against them, for the reason that the kings of the Persians, had conveyed to the Antiochian synagogues what donations they had claimed from the city of Jerusalem by right of victory having bestowed other things of their own also. And so the piled up wealth easily aroused envy. For as we now omit those things, which rival priests carried on against the Machabaeans and that there was a desire for a great slaughter of the citizens, as we mentioned previously, Antiochus afterwards having arisen not from the common people but lost to custom a crime having been committed, that the Jews had conspired to destroy the city of Antioch by fire, forced to death his own father, who was in the first rank of the Jews, and many others accused [p. 407] by this attack of the gentile multitude. Nor sated with that murder and the slaughter of many he did not rest, but afterwards also having found an excuse, because afterwards it happened that by a chance fire a covered walkway of the same city and a public square and a great part of the buildings were burned, he began to blame the Jews again by the deceit of the aforementioned conspiracy and to attack them. And he would have accomplished the slaughter of almost all, if not that the knowledge kept back from Titus arriving was a fear, that Caesar would be provoked by the punishment unlawfully undertaken of so many. That thing was the saving factor for the Jews.
LII. At Masada also many of the Jews relying on the fortification of the place assembled themselves, whose task of assaulting Titus considering beneath him, because he possessed the general-ship, he committed to Silva, to whom he had entrusted the greater task of of the Roman military in these places of taking precautions lest something again of rebellion should arise. He himself hastened to Alexandria and from there he crossed by ship to Rome. Silva diligently pursuing the task imposed upon him destroyed the wall of Masada with the battering ram. They had constructed the interior with wood for the reason that the wall material would not readily yield to the blows of siege machines of this type. But the Romans the manner of fighting having been changed threw fire, which both easily stuck fast to the wood and grew strong without any delay. And so a great roar was produced by the full grown conflagration of the blaze, which at first was driven back from parts of the fortification by the breath of the north wind and instead burned the shelters of the Romans, then the breath of the south wind having arisen turned itself back against the fortress, so that the material having been consumed all that wooden wall opposed burned up. The Romans since night had intervened, secure of victory took themselves into camp, so that on the following day they might vanquish those unprotected and stripped of all help. But so that no one might escape they surrounded the fortress with stationed guards. [p. 408]
LIII. And so things having been despaired of Eleazarus the originator of the disturbance seeing nothing of a help to be left delivered this speech, which we as a mournful conclusion for finishing the work have not let pass in a rhetorical manner: "What are we to do, men descended from Abraham, a royal race, unconquerable by virtue of priestly favor? For not from the outcome of victory, which is frequently uncertain, but from the steadfastness of a way of life is character seen. From which it is permitted to conclude, because for the enemy to make us subject is fate, not to change your attitude of mind is the act of courage. Rightly therefore I have designated you unconquerable, if no fear of death has as yet conquered you. But not thus did father Abraham instruct you, who in his one son taught, his was not to be death but immortality, if he was sacrificed for his religion. What may I say about Iosias, than whom no one was a better interpreter of religion, a scorner of death, a champion of liberty? For he stationed on that royal dais to whom it was permitted to put off death, however because he saw on account of grave sins there would be captivity of the people of Israel, embroiled himself in another's war, he fled from life. Nechao proclaimed: I am not sent against you, but against the king of Israel. He however did not retreat before he underwent the lethal blow of an arrow. Routed by which wound he is an indication to us, whether in war merit or chance is more important. Iosias the restorer of the holy rites was conquered, Nechao the most wicked of all won, but he the conquered is now with the angels, he the winner is in torment. For who does not know, that the reward for men is not stored in this life, but after the finishing of this struggle? For we run to this, that we may arrive there at the palm, here the struggle, there the reward. Therefore there is not here [p. 409] any favor in a long lifetime. Abel quickly died, Cain survived. Thus there was death for innocence and hardship for life. From that we have come to the same fate, that to live would be a misery, to die would be blessed. For what is life except a prison for the soul which is confined within this prison and adheres to a carnal partner? By whose infirmities it is shaken, by whose labor it is afflicted, by whose wrath it is made weary, by whose lusts it is set on fire, it is vexed by madness, nor bound to the ground can it easily raise itself, mingled with dust, bound with chains, entangled in fetters. Not mediocre however is the power that makes live the body and pours into material incapable of sensation the vigor of feeling, and its soul confers this invisibly to every one, and rules the entire man and carries beyond human frailty, so that it seizes knowledge of the heavenly secrets, as it strains the mind to the future. And so it is not seen in the image and resemblance of its leader, since it is located in the body, not is it discerned with eyes belonging to the body, not is its entrance and exit detected by any act of looking. Representing the image of a divine gift, when it enters it pours in life, when it withdraws from the body it effects death. Where there is the soul there is life, where it is lacking there is death. Whatever it has visited is awakened, whatever it has left behind is immediately loosened and forthwith shrivels up. The dead rises with the infusion of the soul, the living is deprived of life by its departure. Who therefore doubts, that there seems to be in it the result of immortality, whose virtue is to turn aside death? That however is a burden to it, although it redounds to the advantage of another, and what it gives to a body, it takes from itself. For it is made heavy and as it were bends toward the earth with that mortal body. And so the life of the body is the death of the soul, and again the death of the body seems the freedom of the soul. For while we are in the body, our soul serves [p. 410] a wretched servitude which is exiled from paradise and wanders from its leader. When however it has been freed of these fleshly chains, it flies back to that pure and splendid higher place and is in attendance to its lord god and enjoys the dwelling places of the saints and the company of the blessed, it rejoices because it now has no communion with the dead, and has left behind the companionship of the dead body, heavenly grace has breathed upon it, nor does any irritation of human cares disturb it. Quiet is the proof to us, how much grace the soul recovers after the death of the body. With the body put to sleep and its desires and all its commotions as if dead we keep company with the saints more often, we recover what we have lost, and the absent are present with us and the dead live and every grief is at rest, and we approach and talk with god, we become acquainted with the future, there is respite from afflictions, there is freedom for slaves. Therefore because sleeping we dream, dead we gain this, and what in sleep is a phantom, this in death is the possession of truth and the favor of liberty. Whence in some peoples the custom is, that the birth of men is celebrated with wailing, their death with gladness, because they grieve those born to troubles, they rejoice for those who have returned to blessedness, they are in sorrow for the souls of those who have come into servitude, they rejoice for the souls of those who have returned to liberty. The wise men of the inhabitants of India are said, when they have put on the affliction of dying, to testify that they wish to depart and want none to interfere. Then when the state of death has approached, they leap happy upon the burning funeral pile and say farewell to those standing near, the wives grieve as if abandoned, and small children because they are being left behind, others neither bless nor envy because they are hastening to better dwellers, more splendid places, a purer fellowship. What therefore [p. 411] can I think otherwise about you, when even uncivilized peoples have the custom of pursuing liberty? And so you have long been well known to me and prepared to follow the customs of your fathers, which you think must be served neither to the Romans nor to any people but to god alone, who alone is the just and true lord of all, the day has come, who exacts to prove the will with actions and not dishonor the brilliance of ancient innate character, that born in liberty you place yourselves under the despotism of men, especially when it was permitted to you previously to be a slave without peril, now however it is necessary to accept dire punishments with slavery, if we should offer ourselves to be slaves to the empire of the Romans, whom we first of all provoked to war and last still are holding with arms. We did not give the emperor offering peace our hand, we gave it to Silva threatening harshness? O unhappy people, to what hope of this life will we reserve ourselves? So be it, let the enemy forgive. What will it profit, since the displeasure of god is evident? The fires have been turned round from the enemy against us, the breezes of the winds have been changed, the flames turned back, so that our reinforcements were burned down. Who will be able to live with god opposing? There is no place for pardon, but the power of a voluntary death is evident. Why indeed has night intervened, if not that the enemy should not prevent us, that he the wall defence having been burned down should not immediately break in, but that time of exercising a mutual death should be saved to us and it would be permitted to die with our children and relatives, that we not see breathless old people to be dragged off by the Romans, our dear wives to be dragged off for the pleasure of the victor? Let us die together for our country lest surviving we be a reproach of great shame. Whee then shall we flee from the face of god, or where shall we go with the lord of heaven hostile to us? If the mountains fall upon us and hide us with empty caves, how nevertheless will we be able to avoid the anger of such great power? Where indeed shall we go, where god is not, since he is everywhere? Or are they mediocre precedents, by which we are taught, that already for a long time [p. 412] he has been angered against our people on account of our sins, whom he was guarding? Who doubts this, when he considers, that our hands are turned against ourselves, domestic strife has killed more than war? I will not grant to the Romans that they have conquered, nor do they claim this for themselves, who know, that we have almost all been destroyed by our own rather than by another's arms. What Roman arms indeed did the Jews inhabiting Caesarea see, on whose leisure day of the sabbath during the customary celebration of religious rites a multitude of the gentile Caesarea inhabitants by a sudden attack and madness sent from above destroyed twenty thousands burned up, it put all to flight, so that it emptied the entire city? Did not a certain madness fill all Syria, so that Jews and gentiles situated in these same cities and resident aliens connected previously by favor to themselves afterwards clashed between themselves in arms, by which a channel of future victory to the Romans was set up? For what shall I say of Scythopolis? Where the Jews were first straining, that they should forestall the gentile populace, lest something should be plotted against our people according to the example of the other cities. And so the Jews for whom it was suitable the men joined together to fight in battle against the foreigners, on the contrary fought against themselves, so that part of them fought against their kinsmen and neighbors with the gentiles, then they as the reward for their labor and blood expended were destroyed by the gentiles, because they prohibited to become gentiles. The inhabitants of Damascus with no reason existing killed eight thousand of the Jews, the Ascalonitans two thousand five hundred. In the city also, which has the name Ptolomais, two thousand were killed. In truth at Alexandria the hatred between the Jews and the the people of the tribes was long standing, for which reason Alexander the Great made use of the zeal of the Jews for making subject the Egyptians, from which the city having been founded privileges were allotted equally to the Jews and Egyptians and [p. 413] different places of residence, so that their religious observances would not be mixed together, who wished to preserve their own purifications without any contagion. From this cause there were frequent conflicts between them. Quarrels arose, judgement was sought; nothing however by means of the great king was proven to have been violated. But afterwards a disturbance having been begun by the gentiles, when some of the Jews were killed, some were held for punishment, the people of the Jews aroused by the injury rose up against the originators of the injury, and when they wished stubbornly to go avenge themselves on the citizens, the Roman army was brought in, which routed the fifty thousand Jews within the city. Truly why do I linger over slight matters, when the destruction of an entire city in the ruin of a single state should be lamented by us? Where is the great city of Jerusalem, where the splendid Zion, where the wonderful temple, where that second tabernacle, the shrine of sanctity, where alone once in the year the chief of the priests was wont to enter not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the transgression of the people? It has been profaned by the people, they who destroyed it live in the remains of the city. Where, I say, are you, a city crowded with people, with august kings, acceptable to god, the seat of grace? Your pavements of marble, your walls shining with marble, your roofs were bright with precious marble, your gates glistening with gold, other places shining with silver. All have been killed, both who inhabited you continuously and who came to you from the parts of the earth of the entire world, so that there is no doubt the entire world to have perished in you. Laid bare laid bare is everything, burnt to ashes from the roofs, overthrown from the foundations, your residence has been made a wilderness nor is there anyone who lives in the tabernacles. And is there anyone whom it pleases to live and whom it does not grieve to have lived? Unfeeling eyes, which are able [p. 414] to see these things, cruel minds, who are able to wish, what remains from such griefs, not that the slaughters have ended, but that still there is no rest. For on what may we cast our eyes or what does it delight to see? The entire city if a tomb of the dead, only ashes meet those looking, the streets are empty of the living filled with bodies. The wretched old people in ash covered old age and torn clothing sit above the remains of the dead covering the bare bones, by which they defend them from the birds and the beasts. A few women at the entrance whom the wicked soldier has saved for indecency, not for life. Who seeing this and thinking on the following days of living would dare to raise his eyes to heaven? Who is so forgetful of his country, of their enemy, averse to pity, free from sweetness, whose soft spirit of the half-man, who is so fearful, whom it does not shame to have been saved for this? Oh would that we had first died, or if life had survived, that the light of our eyes had perished, before we looked upon our sacred city destroyed by the hands of the enemy, and this temple dedicated to god by our ancestors so irreverently burned by flames, or we should see the priests lying dead in the temple. Let us emend therefore that we have outlived these evils, that we appear to have put off death not from the desire for life but from the purpose of manliness. The enemy have walled in every fortification, nothing survives except we and our wives. Already for themselves they put our sons up for public sale, and fight among themselves, who shall lead away whose wife, whether they should be distributed according to the services of the rank of the persons or whether the wretched persons should be forced to undergo a lottery. For us also they are preparing prodigies of punishments, the most exquisite torments, not only burning flames and different deaths by the blow of the avenging axe, a harsh punishment even after the chains, after the prison, after the yoke, but [p. 415] more tolerable to men because it is free from mockery, but even limbs wrenched from the living and especially hands cut off. And not unjustly, because they are wanting their service, who could come to their aid. Undergoing also the jaws of wild animals as a spectacle for the victors, which already celebrated in different arenas of the cities ought to be causing shame to us as a warning or as a wretched practice, that we are saving ourselves either for the beasts or about to fight with our brothers. Why therefore should we delay? There is not a free choice for us which we fear to avoid. If we are unwilling to kill our children because of pity or ourselves because of valor, it will be necessary that we kill our brothers or our neighbors through disgrace. Love persuades this, the victors exact this. If we are unwilling to perform the service of duty, we will be forced to undergo the mockery of a parricidal procession. Let us therefore undertake what will benefit our children and wives. If they are weak, let us remove them from future cruelties, if they are strong let us conquer with the compassion of parents, of the affection of relatives, and in this we defeat the enemy, from whom we remove booty. This manliness exacts, this decency persuades. Not to fear death is bravery. And indeed we ae all born for death and we beget children for death, whose death is attributed to nature, whose captivity is attributed to shame. Therefore those whom we are not able to rescue from danger, let us rescue from mockery. Let you fathers have compassion for your children, husbands for your wives, let us all have compassion for little children, what is especial, for our own, while there is the possibility of offering compassion, that we feel compassion for our own, that we do not seem born and saved for dishonor. Who indeed is able to endure that fathers be killed in the presence of their sons, sons in the sight of their parents, men weary with old age to be dragged to their deaths or what is worse to slavery women with disheveled hair to be led away in view of their husbands and be dragged violently to shame, to hear the voice of a wailing small child calling his father, that he should help him seeking aid, when already [p. 416] hands bound you may hear in vain and captive necks placed under the yoke? Therefore while our hands are still free, while we unsheath our swords, let us approach the task, which the triumphant enemy may marvel at. Let our wives receive the last gift of our conjugal love as a dotal inheritance. We pour back these keys to them as a new testament of family, that they are our heiresses of liberty. They themselves urge this, certainly they deserve what they wish, being forced by what they escape. Nor will the small children fear the sword, which they because of their age do not know, which they ought to receive from their dutiful parents, so that they truly become free. To us also what will be outstanding, if we first burn up the stronghold, let us however spare the grain, lest they think we forced by hunger rather than encouraged by the zeal of valor to have seized the service of mutual slaughter? Let us give them food replete with blood, and if the flames shall burn it, the fumes themselves of the burned crops will be proof that what abounded to the besieged was destroyed by those being besieged. After that each one should offer himself to the wound and about to die defend his country and solicit in rotation with a last embrace. May our country be for us the tomb of freedom, which was the home of self-respect. This mound is fitting for our burials, that we may be protected by the folds of valor." Aroused by such an oration the rest held their swords drawn, they gave kisses to their wives, they took their children in an embrace, shedding tears at the same time and hastening, that they should forestall the enemy, "this to you," he said, "a pledge of love, we give as the solace of a last obligation." And with emotion manfully suppressed they shut out suffering, they finished the slaughter. The fearless wives offered themselves to the wound for the preservation of their chastity. They put on also the courage of their husbands. And so their relatives killed, their children also, they chose the strongest, who would follow up the completion of the killing. And so all were killed, nine hundred sixty with small children and wives. One woman alone survived, who hid five sons in the aqueduct, while the rest stretched out for the last necessity. She awoken to calling at dawn by the arriving Romans was the informer of the activity. Their wealth having been put aside by them earlier fire consumed it.
BOOK V OF HEGESIPPUS ENDS HERE.
THE TRANSLATION OF HEGESIPPUS ENDS HERE
1. Translator's note: that is, things are not turning out well for the Romans.
2. Translator's note: as written by Hegesippus in Latin there were four men involved, namely Tepthaeus, Magassarus, an Adiabenian, and Agiras, but in the Penguin Classic version of Josephus as translated into English by Williamson from the Greek there were only three men, with Agiras being the name of the Adiabenian.
3. Translator's note: i.e., the Romans.
4. Translator's note: Matthais now begins to speak to Simon.
5. Translater's note: Thyestes offered the flesh of his son as food.
6. Translator's note: this last bit is surely a later interpolation into the text by some Christian copier.
7. Translator's note: imperator, here not "emperor" but "imperator" a title granted by the troops to a successful general.
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