Flavius Josephus

Flavii  Josephi  Hierosolymitani  Sacerdotis

DE BELLO JUDAICO LIBER TERTIUS THE JEWISH WAR BOOK THREE Liber ⇚  I   ⇚  II  ⇛  IV  ⇛  V   ⇛  VI  ⇛  VII Capita — Chapters § 01 § 02 § 03 § 04 § 05 § 06 § 07 § 08 § 09 § 10 Book ⇚  I   ⇚  II  ⇛  IV  ⇛  V   ⇛  VI  ⇛  VII Palæstina with locations mentioned by Josephus Book 3 From Vespasian’s coming to Subdue the Jews to the Taking of Gamala ⇑ § I Vespasianus a Nerone mittitur in Syriam, ut Judæos bello aggrediatur. Vespasian is sent into Syria by Nero in order to make war with the Jews. 1 — Caput C-1 — De successoribus Herodis, et ultione direptæ aureæ aquilæ. Neronem autem, ubi res apud Judæam non prospere gestas accepit, latens quidem, quod necesse fuit, cum timore stupor invadit ;  aperte autem superbiam simulans ultro etiam indignabatur ;  magisque ducis neglegentia quam virtute hostium quæ contigerant facta esse dicebat, decere se putans propter pondus imperii tristiora contemnere viderique malis omnibus superiorem animum gerere ;  verumtamen curis arguebatur mentis ejus perturbatio, quum deliberaret cuinam commotum crederet Orientem, qui una et Judæos rebellantes ulcisceretur proximasque his nationes simili morbo correptas antecaperet. When Nero was informed of the reverses in Judæa, he was struck with bewilderment and fear — of course hidden, which was necessary;  but outwardly simulating arrogance, on his part he displayed anger:  it was because of the commander’s negligence, he said, not the enemy’s prowess, that what had happened had come about.  He felt that the burden of empire obliged him to treat bad news with disdain and to appear to maintain a mind superior to all misfortunes.  Nevertheless the turmoil of his spirit was betrayed by his worry as he was debated to whom he could entrust the East in its disturbed state, who would both punish the rebelling Jews and prevent the spread of a similar infection to surrounding nations. 2 Invenit igitur solum Vespasianum his necessitatibus parem et qui tanti belli magnitudinem suscipere posset, virum ab adolescentia usque ad senectutem bellis exercitatum, et qui populo Romano jam pridem pacasset Occidentem, Germanorum tumultu concussum, armisque ante illud tempus incognitam Britanniam vindicasset.  Unde patri quoque ipsius Claudio præstiterat, ut sine proprio sudore triumpharet. He found no one but Vespasian equal to the task and capable of understaking a war on such a tremendous scale.  Vespasian had served in wars from his youth to his mature years;  years before he had subjugated to the Roman people a West shaken by a rebellion of the Germans;  by force of arms he had acquired Britain, till then unknown, so enabling Nero’s father Claudius to celebrate a triumph without a drop of his own sweat. 3 Itaque his omnibus fretus, ætatemque illius cum peritia stabilem cernens, obsidesque fidei liberos, eorumque florem manus esse paternæ prudentiæ, jam tum fortasse de tota Republica Deo aliquid ordinante, mittit eum ad regendos exercitus in Syria constitutos, multis pro tempore blandimentis atque obsequiis animatum, qualia necessitas imperare consuevit.  Ille autem protinus ex Achaja, ubi cum Nerone fuerat, Titum quidem filium suum mittit Alexandriam, ut inde Quintam itemque Decimam Legiones moveret.  Ipse vero, transmissus ad Hellespontum, terreno itinere in Syriam pervenit, ibique Romanas vires multaque a vicinis regibus auxilia congregavit. Considering all these things, he recognized that the man was experienced and of stable age, and that his sons were, moreover, hostages for his good faith and, being in the prime of life, could provide the hands if their father provided the brains.  Perhaps also God was already planning something involving the entire empire.  For whatever reason, Nero sent this man to assume command of the armies in Syria, paying him in view of the situation every smooth blandishment and compliment that necessity can suggest.  From Greece, where he was on Nero’s staff, Vespasian dispatched his son Titus to Alexandria to fetch the Fifth and Tenth Legions {(actually only one legion, the Fifteenth)} from there;  he himself crossed the Hellespont and travelled overland to Syria.  There he concentrated the Roman forces and large allied contingents provided by neighboring kings. ⇑ § II Magna Judæorum cædes circa Ascalonem. Vespasianus Ptolemaïdem venit. A great slaughter about Ascalon.  Vespasian comes to Ptolemais. 1 AT Judæi, post malam Cestii pugnam insperata felicitate sublati, animorum impetus cohibere non poterant ;  sed tanquam Fortuna eos exagitante perciti, bellum ulterius producebant.  Denique omni, quanta fuit, manu pugnacissima congregata, Ascalonem petierunt.  Ea est civitas antiqua, DCC• et XX• stadiorum spatio ab Hierosolyma distans, et Judæis semper invisa ;  quæ res fecit, ut etiam tunc primis eorum incursibus propior videretur.  Tres autem viros aggressionis duces habebant, et corporibus et prudentia præstantissimos, Nigrum Peraitam, et Silam Babylonium, et Johannem Essenum.  Ascalon vero validissimo quidem muro cincta erat, sed vacua pæne præsidiis.  Una enim cohors eam peditum, et una equitum ala tuebatur, cui præfectus erat Antonius. After the defeat of Cestius the Jews were so elated by their unexpected success that they could not control their emotions, and as if whipped up by a driving Fate, they expanded the war further.  As a result, gathering the largest possible warlike band, they made for Ascalon.  This is an old town eighty-three miles from Jerusalem, and always hostile to the Jews, so that even then it seemed closer than their first attacks.  The expedition was led by three men of unequalled prowess and intelligenced, Niger from Peræa, Silas the Babylonian, and John the Essene.  Ascalon was girded by an extremely strong wall, but was almost completely devoid of defenders;  it was garrisoned by one infantry cohort and one cavalry squadron, commanded by Antonius. 2 Illi igitur ira multa velocius itinere peracto ac si ex propinquo venirent, præsto erant.  Antonius vero (nec enim eorum fore impetum nesciebat) equites jam ex civitate duxerat, et neque multitudinem veritus vel audaciam, primas hostium coitiones fortiter sustinuit, murumque properantes aggredi refrenavit.  Itaque Judæi, qui cum peritioribus imperiti, et pedites cum equitibus, cum stipatis autem inordinati, leviterque armati cum instructis, plusque indignationi quam consilio tribuentes, cum morigeris et nutu rectoris omnia facientibus dimicabant, facile profligantur.  Nam ut semel eorum primæ ab equitibus turbatæ sunt acies, fugam petunt ;  et murum versus se a tergo urgentibus incidentes, suimetipsi hostes erant, donec omnes incursibus equitum victi, per totum campum dispersi sunt, qui fuit plurimus, totusque habilis equitantibus ;  quod quidem Romanos juvit, ut magna cæde Judæos prosternerent. Hence, impelled by great anger, they showed up after covering the distance faster than if they had come from nearby.  Antonius, however (who had not been unaware of their coming attack), then led his cavalry out of the city and, fearing neither the numbers nor the aggressiveness of the enemy, firmly held his ground against their first onslaught and brought the rapid assault on the wall to a halt.  When raw levies were confronted by veteran troops;  infantry by cavalry;  undisciplined individuals by military cohesion;  lightly armed men by fully armed legionaries;  men attending more to rage than to forethought, by obedient men doing everything by the command of a leader — the Jews were easily defeated.  When once the front ranks of the attackers were broken by the cavalry, they turned tail;  and running into those in back who were pushing them towards the wall, they became their own enemies, until the entire mass gave way before the cavalry charges and scattered all over the plain.  This was very large and ideal for cavalry tactics, a fact which weighted the scales in favor of the Romans and led to frightful carnage on the Jewish side. Nam et fugientes prævertendo, cursum in eos flectebant ;  et quos occupassent, curriculo transfigendo infinitos peremere.  Alii vero alios, quocunque se vertissent circumdatos, exagitantes facile jaculis opprimebant.  Et Judæis quidem propria multitudo, per desperationem salutis, solitudo videbatur ;  Romani vero, licet ad pugnam pauci essent, rebus tamen secundis animati, etiam superfluere se putabant.  Et illi quidem res adversas superare certantes, dum pudet cito fugere, mutari fortunam sperant ;  Romani autem, in his quæ prospere agerent minime delassati, ad majorem usque diei partem pugnam protrahunt ;  donec Judæorum quidem perempta sunt X• milia, duoque duces Joannes et Silas ;  ceteri vero plerique saucii, cum Nigro qui unus restabat ex ducibus, in oppidum Idumææ, quod Salis dicitur, confugere.  Nonnulli tamen etiam Romanorum in illo prœlio vulnerati sunt. For, overtaking the fleeing men, they charged them and, by running them through at a gallop, killed vast numbers of those they had cut off.  Whichever way they turned, other Romans encircled others of them, chasing them about, and easily struck them down with javelins.  Indeed, because of their hopeless state, to the Jews their own very numbers seemed isolation, whereas the Romans, even though they were few in the fight, were so energized by their success that they even thought their numbers excessive.  The Jews battled against their reverses, ashamed of their swift defeat and hoping for a change of fortune;  the Romans, on the other hand, not at all tiring in what they were doing with such success, continued the fight until the end of the day, by which time 10,000 Jewish soldiers had fallen with two of their commanders, John and Silas.  The survivors, wounded for the most part, with one general left, Niger, fled to a little town in Idumæa called Salis.  Roman casualties in this encounter amounted to a few men wounded. 3 Sed non Judæorum spiritus clade tanta sedatus est, multoque magis eorum dolor incitavit audaciam, et contemnentes quantum ante pedes mortuorum jaceret, pristinis rebus feliciter gestis ad cladem alteram illiciebantur.  Denique parvo tempore intermisso, quod ne curandis quidem vulneribus satis esset, cunctisque aggregatis viribus, majore cum indignatione multoque plures Ascalonem recurrebant, eadem se, præter imperitiam aliaque belli vitia, comitante Fortuna. Far from the spirits of the Jews being broken by such a disaster, their suffering incited their determination even more, and, disregarding how many of the dead lay at their feet, they were lured by their earlier successes to a second disaster.  After a short pause not even long enough for their wounds to heal, they mustered all their forces and with greater fury than before, and much greater numbers, ran back to Ascalon.  But together with their inexperience and other military deficiencies, the same ill Fate went with them. Etenim quum Antonius qua transituri fuerant posuisset insidias, ex improviso in eas delapsi et ab equitibus circumdati, priusquam se ad pugnam componerent, iterum super VIII• milia procubuerunt ;  ceteri vero omnes aufugerunt ;  cumque his Niger, multis dum fugeret magni animi facinoribus demonstratis ;  et quoniam hostes instarent, in turrim quandam tutissimam compelluntur cujusdam vici, cui nomen est Bezedel. For Antonius laid ambushes in the passes, so that they fell unexpectedly into these traps, were encircled by the cavalry before they could get ready for battle and again lost over 8,000.  All the rest fled, including Niger, who during the flight gave many proofs of his heroism.  With the enemy on their heels, they were driven into a strong tower in a village called Bezedel. Antonius vero cum suis, ne vel moras circum turrim, quæ inexpugnabilis esset, diu tererent, vel ducem hostium fortissimum vivum relinquerent, ignem muro supponunt, turrique inflammata, Romani quidem exsultantes recedunt, quasi etiam Nigro consumpto ;  ille autem in castelli specus intimum ex turri saltu demissus evasit ;  triduoque post sociis cum fletu eum ad sepulturam investigantibus sese ostendit, gaudioque insperato replevit omnes Judæos, tanquam Dei providentia dux eis in posterum servatus. Antonius and his men, to avoid wasting time around an almost impregnable tower, or else leaving the enemy’s heroic commander alive, lit a fire at the foot of the wall.  With the fort ablaze, the Romans withdrew triumphantly, assuming that Niger had perished with it.  But he had escaped by leaping down from the tower and into a cave in the very center of the fort.  Three days later while his comrades, seeking his body in order to bury it, were lamenting aloud, he appeared, and joy undreamed-of filled all the Jews, as though the providence of God had preserved him to lead them in the future. 4 At Vespasianus Antiochiam, exercitu adducto (quæ Syriæ metropolis est, magnitudine simul aliaque felicitate sine dubio tertium inter omnes quæ in Romanorum orbe sunt locum obtinens) ubi etiam adventum suum regem Agrippam omni manu propria offenderat præstolari, ad Ptolemaidem properabat.  In hac autem civitate occurrerunt ei Sepphoritæ cives oppidum Galilææ colentes, soli mente pacata.  Qui tam suæ salutis providentia soliciti, quam Romanorum virium gnari, etiam priusquam Vespasianus veniret, Cestio Gallo fidem dederant, dextrasque junxerant, præsidiumque militare susceperant, tunc quoque benignissime duce suscepto, alacri animo etiam contra gentiles suos auxilia promiserunt.  Quibus interim Vespasianus præsidii causa poscentibus, equitum peditumque tantum numerum tradidit, quantum obstare posse arbitrabatur incursibus, si quid Judæi commovere temptassent.  Non enim minimum esse videbatur futuri belli periculum, auferri civitatem Sepphorim Galilææ maximam et in loco tutissimo conditam, totiusque gentis futuram præsidio. But Vespasian, after having taken his army to Antioch — the capital of Syria and by virtue of its size and prosperity undoubtedly the third city of the Roman Empire — where he had found King Agrippa awaiting his arrival with the whole of his own army, advanced swiftly to Ptolemais.  There he was met by the inhabitants of Sepphoris, a town of Galilee, the only ones who desired peace.  With their own safety and Roman supremacy in mind, even before Vespasian arrived they had pledged their loyalty to Cestius Gallus, sealed it by handshake, and admitted a garrison.  Now they gave an enthusiastic reception to the commander and eagerly promised their help against their own countrymen.  In response to their request for a garrison, he allotted them only as large a number of horse and foot as he though adequate to defeat any incursions if the Jews should try to perpetrate anything;  for he thought it would be no small danger in the coming war to lose Sepphoris, the largest city in Galilee, sited in a very safe location, and which would serve as a bulwark of the whole nation. ⇑ § III Descriptio Galilææ, Samariæ, et Judææ. A description of Galilee, Samaria and Judæa. 1 — Caput C-2 — Descriptio Galilææ, Samariæ et Judææ. Duæ sunt autem Galilææ, quæ Superior et Inferior appellantur, easque Phœnice et Syria cingunt.  Discernit vero ab Occidente Ptolemais territorii sui finibus, et quondam Galilæorum, nunc autem Tyriorum mons Carmelus ;  cui conjuncta est Gaba, « Civitas Equitum », quæ sic appellatur eo quod equites ab Herode rege dimissi, coloni eo deducebantur.  A meridie autem Samaritis et Scythopolis, usque ad flumen Jordanem.  Ab Oriente vero Hippene et Gadaris, sed et Gaulanitidis definit, qui etiam regni Agrippæ fines sunt.  Septentrionalis autem ejus tractus Tyro, itemque Tyriorum finibus terminatur.  Inferioris quidem Galilææ longitudo a Tiberiade usque ad Zabulon, cui vicina est in locis maritimis Ptolemais, protenditur.  Latitudine autem patet a vico Xaloth, qui in Magno Campo situs est, usque ad Bersaben ;  unde etiam Superioris Galilææ latitudo incipit usque ad Baca vicum, qui terram dirimit Tyriorum.  Longitudo vero ejus a Thella vico Jordani proximo usque ad Meroth extenditur. There are two Galilees, known as Upper and Lower, shut in by Phœnicia and Syria.  They are bounded on the west by Ptolemais with its border region and Carmel, a mountain that once belonged to Galilee but now belongs to Tyre;  adjoining Carmel is Gaba, known as “Cavalry Town” because King Herod’s cavalry settled there on their discharge.  The southern limit is formed by Samaritis and Scythopolis as far as the streams of Jordan, the eastern by the districts of Hippus, Gadara and Gaulanitis, where Agrippa’s kingdom begins.  Beyond the northern frontier lie Tyre and the Tyrian lands.  Lower Galilee stretches in length {(E ⇛ W)} from Tiberias to Zebulon, the neighbor of Ptolemais on the coast, in breadth {(S ⇛ N)} from the village of Xaloth in the Great Plain to Bersabe.  Here begins Upper Galilee, which stretches in width as far as Baca, a village on the Tyrian frontier;  in length it extends from Thella, a village near the Jordan, to Meroth. 2 Sed quum tanta sint utræque magnitudine, tantisque gentibus alienigenis cinctæ, semper tamen omnibus belli periculis restiterunt.  Nam et pugnaces sunt ab infantia Galilæi, et omni tempore plurimi, neque aut formido unquam viros, aut eorum penuria regiones illas occupavit ;  quoniam totæ optimæ ac fertiles sunt, omniumque generum arboribus consitæ, ut etiam minime agriculturæ studiosos ubertate sua provocent ;  denique excultæ sunt ab incolis totæ, nec pars ulla est earum otiosa ;  quin et civitates ibi crebræ sunt, et ubique multitudo vicorum propter opulentiam populosa, ut qui sit minimus, supra quindecim milia colonorum habeat. But while both are of such size and encircled by such great foreign peoples, the two Galilees have invariably held out against enemy attack;  for the Galileans are fighters from the cradle and at all times numerous, and cowardice has never afflicted the men or lack of them, the country.  For the whole area is rich and fertile, planted with all types of trees, so that by its richness it appeals even to those least interested in farming.  Consequently every inch has been cultivated by the inhabitants and no part of it lies idle.  There are many, many towns there, and thanks to its bounty the innumerable villages are so populous that the smallest has over 15,000 inhabitants. 3 Prorsus, ut etiamsi quis magnitudine minorem Galilæam dixerit quam trans fluvium regionem, viribus tamen eam prætulerit.  Hæc enim universa colitur, tota fructuum ferax ;  at illa quæ trans flumen est, licet multo major sit, pleraque tamen aspera atque deserta est, et nutriendis fructibus mansuetis inhabilis.  Perææ sane mollities et ingenium fructuosum, campos habet cum variis arboribus consitos, tum maxime olivetis ac vineis et palmetis excultos.  Irrigatur autem abunde montanis torrentibus, et fontibus aquæ perennis, quoties illi Sirio æstuante defecerint.  Et longitudo quidem ejus est a Machrærunte in Pellam ;  latitudo vero a Philadelphia usque ad Jordanem.  Et Pella quidem, quam supra diximus, septentrionalis ejus est tractus ;  occiduus vero Jordanis  ;  meridianum autem Moabitis regio terminat ;  ab oriente autem Arabia et Silbonitide, necnon et Philadelphia, itemque Gerasis clauditur. In short, as even if someone may say that Galilee is smaller in size than the region across the river, he will still give it preeminence in productivity;  for the whole country is cultivated and fruitful everywhere, but what is across the river, even though much larger, is nonetheless mostly rough and desert, and unsuited to producing domesticated crops.  On the other hand, Peræa’s workable soil and fruitful quality offer plains planted with various trees, growing especially olive trees and vineyards and palms.  The country is abundantly watered by mountain torrents — and by perennial springs whenever the former sources dry up in the dog days {(July 23-Aug 23)}.  In length {(S ⇛ N)} it stretches from Machærus to Pella, in breadth {(E ⇛ W)} from Philadelphia to the Jordan.  Pella, just mentioned, forms the northern boundary, Jordan the western;  the southern limit is Moab, and on the east it is bounded by Arabia and Silbonitis as well as by Philadelphia and likewise Gerasa. 4 Samariensis autem regio inter Judæam quidem et Galilæam sita est ;  incipiens enim a vico in Planitie posito, cui nomen est Ginæa, in Acrabatenam desinit toparchiam ;  sed natura nihil a Judæa discrepat.  Nam utræque montosæ sunt et campestres, agrosque colendo molles atque optimæ, necnon et arboribus plenæ ;  pomisque tam silvestribus quam mansuetis abundant, eo quod natura sunt aridæ, imbriumque satis habent.  Dulces autem per eas supra modum aquæ sunt, bonique graminis copia præter alias earum pecora lactis abundant ;  quodque maximum virtutis atque opulentiæ specimen est, utraque viris referta est. The Samaritan territory lies between Galilee and Judæa;  beginning at a village in the Great Plain called Ginæa, it ends at the prefecture of Acrabata.  In character it does not differ at all from Judæa:  both are made up of hills and plains, fine and easy for field cultivation.  In addition they are well wooded and prolific in fruit both wild and domesticated because they are naturally dry and yet have enough rain.  Their streams are extraordinarily sweet, and due to the abundance of lush grass the milk-yield of their cows is greater than elsewhere.  The final proof of their outstanding productivity is that both are teeming with people. 5 Harum confinium est Anuath vicus, qui etiam « Borceos » appellatur, Judææ limes a septentrione.  Meridiana vero pars ejus, si in longitudinem metiare, adjacenti vico Arabum finibus terminatur, cui nomen est Jarda.  Latitudo sane a Jordane flumine usque ad Joppem explicatur.  Media vero ejus est Hierosolyma ;  unde quidam, non sine ratione, umbilicum ejus terræ eam urbem vocaverunt.  Sed nec marinis quidem Judæa deliciis caret, ad Ptolemaidem usque locis extenta maritimis.  In undecim autem sortes divisa est ;  quarum prima est tanquam regia Hierosolyma, præ ceteris inter omnes accolas eminens, velut caput in corpore.  Aliis vero post hanc toparchiæ sunt distributæ.  Gophna est secunda, et post eam Acrabata.  Ad hoc Tamna, et Lydda, itemque Ammaus, et Pella, et Idumæa, et Engadda, et Herodium, et Hiericus ;  deinde Jamnia et Joppe finitimis præsunt, et præter has Gamalitica, et Gaulanitis, et Batanæa, et Trachonitis ;  quæ etiam regni Agrippæ partes sunt.  Eadem vero terra incipiens a monte Libano et fontibus Jordanis, usque ad Tiberiadi proximum lacum latitudine panditur.  A vico autem qui appellatur Arphas ad Juliada oppidum longitudine tendit ;  et habitatur ab incolis Judæis Syrisque permixtis. On their common boundary lies the village of Anwath, also called “Borceos,” the limit of Judæa on the north.  The southern region, if you were to measure lengthwise {(N ⇛ S)}, is terminated by a village named Jarda adjacent to the Arab borders,.  In breadth {(E ⇛ W)} it stretches from the River Jordan to Joppa.  Its middle is the City of Jerusalem, so that some have, not unreasonably, called her the navel of that country.  Moreover, Judæa does not want for seaside amenities, given that it extends coastally all the way to Ptolemais.  It is divided into eleven allotments, of which the first — as though the royal one —, Jerusalem, rises above all others among the neighbors as the head above the body.  The prefectures are distributed to other allotments, secondary to this one.  Gophna ranks second, followed by Acrabata, Thamna, Lydda, Emmaus, Pella, Idumæa, Engedi, Herodium and Jericho.  Then Jamnia and Joppa come before the last ones, and besides these the Gamala district and Gaulanitis, Batanæa and Trachonitis which are parts of Agrippa’s kingdom.  That same territory begins at Mount Lebanon and the sources of the Jordan, and in width {(N ⇛ S)} stretches to the lake next to Tiberias, in length {(E ⇛ W)} from a village called Arpha to the town of Julias.  The population is a mixture of Jews and Syrians. — Caput C-3 — De auxilio Sepphoris misso, et Romanorum disciplina militari. De Judæa quidem, et quibus esset cincta regionibus, quam maxime potui breviter exposui. I have now given a description, as brief as possible, of Judæa and the regions surrounding it. ⇑ § IV Josephus, facta impressione in Sepphorin, repulsus est. Titus cum ingenti exercitu Ptolemaïdem venit. Josephus makes an attempt upon Sepphoris but is repelled.  Titus comes with a great army to Ptolemais. 1 QUOD autem Vespasianus miserat auxilium Sepphoritis — hoc est, equites mille sexque milia peditum, Placido eos regente tribuno —, castris in Magno Campo positis bifariam dividuntur.  Et pedites quidem in civitate, ipsius tuendæ causa, equitatus vero in castris, degebat.  Utrimque autem assidue prodeundo, et circa eam regionem loca omnia incursando, magnis incommodis Josephum ejusque socios, quamvis quietos, afficiebant.  Et præterea civitates extrinsecus deprædabantur, civiumque conatus, si quando excurrendi habuissent fiduciam, repellebant.  Josephus tamen adversus civitatem impetum fecit, sperans eam posse capere — quam ipse, antequam a Galilæis deficeret, ita muris cinxerat, ut Romanis quoque esset invicta.  Unde etiam spe frustratus est, quum nec vi nec suasu Sepphoritas in suas partes pertrahere potuisset ;  magisque in Judæa bellum accendit, Romanis indigne ferentibus insidias, et propterea nec die nec nocte ab agrorum depopulatione cessantibus, sed passim diripientibus quicquid rerum in his repperissent ;  qui tamen, quum mortem pugnacibus semper inferrent, imbelles ad servitium capiebant ;  ignis vero et sanguis Galilæam totam repleverat, nec quisquam expers ejus acerbitatis aut cladis erat.  Unam salutis spem fugientes habebant in civitatibus, quas murorum ambitu Josephus communierat. The support that Vespasian sent to Sepphoris consisted of 1,000 horse and 6,000 foot, commanded by the tribune Placidus.  After camping in the Great Plain, the force divided, the foot moving into the city as a garrison and the horse remaining encamped outside.  Constantly sallying forth from both places, and overrunning the whole district, they did great damage to Josephus and his men, no matter how unprovocative they were.  And besides that they pillaged the cities outside the area and beat back the attempts of the city people, if they sometimes had the courage to sally forth.  Josephus, in the hope of capturing it, actually made a attack on the city which he himself, before it seceded from the Galilæans, had girded with a wall so strongly that it would have been impregnable even to the Romans.  And so he was frustrated in his hope since he had been unable to draw the Sepphorites over to his side either by force or by persuasion.  Moreover, he inflamed the war in Judea all the more, with the Romans enraged at his ambushes and so night and day ceaselessly ravaging the plains and plundering whatever they found in them;  they killed everyone who fought back and enslaved those unable to fight.  Indeed, fire and blood filled all of Galilee;  there was no one who did not experience its bitterness or disaster.  The only hope of safety for the fugitive inhabitants was in the towns which Josephus had fortified with a surrounding wall. 2 Titus autem, Alexandriam transmissus ex Achaja citius quam per hiemem sperabatur, manum militum cujus causa missus fuerat suscepit ;  contentoque usus itinere, mature ad Ptolemaidem pervenit.  Quumque ibi patrem suum repperisset, duabus quas secum habebat legionibus (erant autem nobilissimæ Quinta et Decima) junxit etiam quam ille adduxit Quintamdecimam.  Eas autem sequebantur decem et octo cohortes ;  quibus accessere ex Cæsarea quinque cum una ala equitum, et alæ quinque Syrorum equitum.  Decem autem cohortium singulæ mille pedites habebant ;  in ceteris vero tredecim, sescenti pedites, et centeni viceni equites erant.  Satis autem auxiliorum etiam a regibus congregatum est.  Antiochus enim et Agrippa et Sohemus bina milia peditum, et sagittarios equites mille præbuerunt.  Quum Arabiæ quoque est Malchus :  præter quinque milia peditum, equites mille misisset, quorum pars major erant sagittarii ;  ut tota manus computata cum regiis, sexaginta milia circiter peditum equitumque colligeret, præter calones qui plurimi sequebantur et meditationi bellicæ assueti nihil a pugnacissimis aberant ;  quod tempore quidem pacis dominorum exercitationibus interessent, belli autem pericula cum ipsis experirentur, et neque peritia, neque viribus a quoquam nisi a dominis vincerentur. Titus, meanwhile, had sailed from Greece faster than expected in wintertime to Alexandria where he took over the force for which he had been sent and, by forced march, quickly reached Ptolemais.  There he found his father, and to the two legions that accompanied him — the world-famous Fifth and Tenth — he united his father’s Fifteenth.  Eighteen cohorts followed them;  they were also joined by five cohorts with one cavalry squadron from Cæsarea plus five squadrons of Syrian cavalry.  Of the cohorts, ten had 1,000 infantry each;  the other thirteen were composed of 600 infantry and 120 cavalry apiece.  A considerable force of auxiliaries was gotten together by the kings:  Antiochus, Agrippa and Sohemus each provided 2,000 infantrymen and 1,000 mounted archers.  While there is also Malchus of Arabia:  besides 5,000 infantrymen, he sent 1,000 cavalry, of which the greater part was archers.  So that the whole force, reckoned together with the kings’ militaries, amounted to about 60,000 infantry and cavalry, apart from the servants who followed in great numbers and who, habituated to military drill, do not differ in the least from the most combative fighters — since in peacetime they participate in their masters’ exercises, in war they share their dangers, and in skill and prowess are surpassed by none but their masters. ⇑ § V Descriptio Romanorum exercituum, et castrorum, aliorumque, propter quæ laudantur Romani. A description of the Roman armies and Roman camps and of other particulars for which the Romans are commended. 1 Qua quidem in re nimis admirandam quis existimaverit Romanorum providentiam, ita servos instituentium, ut non solum vitæ ministerio, sed belli etiam necessitatibus utiles sint.  Quod si quis eorum aliam quoque respexerit militiæ disciplinam, profecto cognoscet tantum eos imperium non fortunæ munere, sed propria virtute quæsisse.  Armis enim uti non in bello incipiunt, neque solum, si necesse sit, manus movent, quum in pacis otio cessaverint, sed armis veluti natura cohærentes, nullas capiunt exercitationis indutias, nec tempora præstolantur.  Meditationes autem eorum nihil a vera contentione discrepant, sed in dies singulos militum quisque omnibus armis, tanquam in procinctu positus, exercetur, quo etiam facillime prœlia tolerant.  Neque enim ordo neglectus eos a consueta dispositione dispergit, neque metus stupefacit, neque lassitudo exhaurit.  Unde sequitur, ut semper superent quos non itidem confirmatos invenerint.  Nec erraverit si quis eorum meditationes conflictus esse dixerit sine sanguine, contraque prœlia meditationes cum sanguine. Anyone who considers it will find the foresight of the Romans in this matter truly amazing — the way they instruct their slaves to be useful not only in the management of life, but even in the emergencies of war.  But if one studies the organization of their army, he will certainly recognize that they have acquired their vast empire through their own dynamism, not as the gift of fortune.  They do not wait for war before first using arms, or start moving only in a crisis, while stagnating during the calm of peacetime;  but as if endowed with arms by nature they never take time out from training or wait for the proper time.  In no way do their battle-drills differ from real combat;  every man works as hard at his daily training as if he were on the battlefield, which is also why they so easily endure battles:  no indiscipline dislodges them from their regular formation, no panic paralyzes them, no weariness exhausts them;  so victory over men not so trained follows as a matter of course.  It would not be far from the truth to call their drills bloodless battles, the battles bloody drills. Nam ne repentino quidem hostium incursu opprimi possunt, sed quocunque in hostilem terram irruperint, non nisi permunitis castris prœlio decernunt.  Quæ quidem non levi opere, nec iniquo loco erigunt, nec inordinate describunt, sed si quidem inæquale solum fuerit, complanatur ;  quattuor vero angulis horum dimensio designatur.  Nam fabrorum multitudo, et ferramentorum copia quæ usus exstructionis postulat, sequitur exercitum. They can not be overcome even by a sudden enemy attack;  for wherever they invade hostile territory they do not commit to battle until after having fortified their camp.  This they do not construct sloppily or on uneven ground, nor do they design it in a disorderly manner, but if the ground is uneven, it is thoroughly levelled, then its layout is marked out as a rectangle.  To this end the army is followed by a large number of engineers with all the tools needed for building. 2 Et interior quidem pars castrorum tabernaculis distribuitur, ambitus autem eorum extrinsecus muri faciem præfert, ordinatis etiam turribus pari spatio dispositis, quarum intervalla catapultis atque ballistis, et aliis machinis saxa intorquentibus omnibusque instrumentis missilium complent, ut cuncta scilicet jaculorum genera in promptu sint.  Portas autem quattuor ædificant, tam jumentis aditu faciles, quam ipsis, si quid urgeat, intro currentibus latas.  Intus autem castra vici spatiis interpositis dirimunt, mediaque rectorum tabernacula collocant, et inter hæc prætorium divum templo simillimum, prorsus ut quasi repentina quædam civitas exsistat ;  forum quoque et opificum stationes, et sedes militum primatibus, ordinumque principibus, ubi si qua sit inter alios ambiguitas judicent.  Ipse vero ambitus, omnia quæ in eo sunt, multitudine simul et scientia fabricantium opinione citius communitur.  Qui, si res urgeat, fossa extrinsecus cingitur, depressa cubitis quattuor, parique spatio lata. The inside of the camp is divided up for tents.  From outside the perimeter looks like a wall and is equipped with evenly spaced towers.  They fill the gaps between the towers with catapults, ballistas and other rock-slinging machines and every sort of projectile thrower, so that all kinds of artillery are ready for use.  They build four gates, both practicable for the entry of baggage-animals and wide enough for themselves to run in through if need be.  Inside, spaced streets intersect the camp;  in the middle the officers’ tents are erected, and among these the commander’s headquarters, which resembles a shrine.  It all seems like some instant town, with market-place, workmen’s quarters and courtrooms of military officers and heads of the ranks where, among other things, they may sit in judgement on any disputes that may arise.  The erection of the outer wall and the buildings inside is accomplished faster than one would expect, thanks to the number and skill of the workers.  If necessary, a ditch is dug all around, six feet deep and the same width. 3 Armis autem sæpti, per contubernia cum decore atque otio in tentoriis agunt, omniaque ab his ordinate etiam alia, cauteque, per contubernia expediuntur, veluti si ligno aquave opus sit aut frumento ;  nec enim cena vel prandium quum voluerit, in potestate cujusque est ;  simul autem omnibus somnus est, excubias et vigilandi tempora buccinæ significant, neque est omnino quicquam quod sine edicto geratur.  Mane autem milites quidem ad centuriones, illi vero ad tribunos conveniunt salutatum ;  cum quibus ad summum omnium ducem universi ordinum principes.  Ille autem his signum aliaque dat ex more præcepta proferenda subjectis.  Quibus etiam in acie circumaguntur quo opus est, ac universi pariter incurrunt itemque sese recipiunt. After having been shielded with armed fortifications, they lodge in the tents with seemliness and calm by platoons.  All other duties too are carried out by the platoons in a disciplined way and with attention to security, as when they need wood or water, or grain.  Having supper or lunch when they want is not at their individual discretion.  Sleep is at the same time for everyone;  trumpets signal guard duties and times for reveille, and nothing whatever is done without orders.  At dawn the soldiers convene to salute their centurions, the centurions their tribunes, then the superior officers go with them to salute the commander-in-chief.  In accordance with routine, he gives them the password and other orders to communicate to their subordinates.  By means of such techniques they are also directed around where needed on the battlefield, and they all advance and retreat as a unit. 4 Quum autem castris egrediendum est, tuba indicium facit ;  nemoque otiosus est, sed vel solo nutu moniti, tabernacula tollunt, omniaque ad profectionem instruunt.  Deinde iterum tuba ut sint parati significat.  Illi autem quum mulos et jumenta sarcinis oneraverint, velut in curuli certamine signum expectant.  Castra vero incendunt, eo quod sibi alia munire facile sit, et ne quando hostibus eadem usui sint.  Et tamen tertio quoque tubæ signo indicant ut exeatur, urgendo aliqua ex causa morantes, ne quis ordinem deserat.  Dexterque duci præco astans, si ad bellum parati sunt, voce patria ter percontatur.  Illique toties alacri et magna voce paratos esse se respondent, interrogantemque præveniunt ;  et Martio quodam spiritu repleti cum clamore dextras erigunt. When it is time to break camp, the trumpet sounds;  no one remains idle, but at just the mere hint of a signal the tents are taken up and all preparations made for departure.  The trumpet then sounds a second time to get ready.  After loading the mules and pack animals with baggage, they wait for the signal as though in a race competition.  Indeed, they set fire to the camp, since it is easy to construct another one, and so that it will not some day be useful to the enemy.  For the third time the trumpets give the signal for departure, to urge on those who for any reason have been delayed, so that no one will be missing from his place.  Then the announcer, standing on the right of the general, asks three times in their native language whether they are ready for war.  Just as many times they shout back energetically and with enthusiasm, “Ready!” — also answering even before the question and, filled with a kind of martial fervor, raising their right arms as they shout. 5 Deinde otiose et cum omni decore progredientes ambulant, suum quisque ordinem velut in bello custodiens. Then they step off, all marching smoothly and in good order, every man keeping his place in the column as if off to battle. Pedites quidem thoracibus et galeis sæpti, et utroque latere gladiis accincti.  Lævus autem gladius multo est longior, quum dexter mensuram palmæ non excedat.  Qui vero ducem stipant lecti pedites, scuta et lanceas gestant ;  cetera manus hastas et clipeos longos, serramque et corbem et sarculum et securim, necnon et habenam et falcem et catenam, triduique viaticum, ut parum intersit inter onusta jumenta et pedites. The infantryman is armored with breastplate and helmet, and is girded with a blade on each side;  of these, by far the longer is the one on the left, the right one being no more than nine inches long.  The elite infantrymen escorting the general carry rectangular shields and spears, the other units javelins and long oval shields, together with saw and basket, a hand hoe and axe, as well as a strap, sickle, chain and three days’ rations, so that there is not much difference between pack animals and foot-soldiers! Equitibus autem ad dexteram gladius est longior, et contus in manu, transversusque ad equi latus clipeus, ternaque in pharetra vel amplius dependent lata cuspide jacula, nihil ab hastis magnitudine differentia.  Cassides vero et thoracas peditibus habent similes ;  nulloque armorum genere ab equitum alis discrepant lecti qui circum ducem versantur. The cavalryman carries a longer sword on his right and a long pike in his hand, an oval shield slanted across his horse’s flank and, in a quiver slung alongside, three or more missiles, broad-pointed and no different than javelins in size.  They have helmets and breastplates similar to those of the infantry.  In none of their arms do the elites surrounding the general differ from the cavalry squadrons. Agmina autem, semper cui sorte id obtigerit, antecedit. Lots are always drawn for the legion that is to head the column. 6 Talia quidem sunt Romanorum itinera et mansiones, itemque armorum varietas.  Nihil vero nec in prœliis inconsultum aut subitum agunt, sed omnia semper sequuntur facta sententiam, opusque adhibetur ante decretis.  Unde aut minime peccant, aut si peccaverint, facilis est errati correctio.  Fortunæ autem successibus meliores consiliorum — etiamsi aliter successerit — arbitrantur eventus ;  quasi bonum quidem fortuitum ad rem inconsulte gerendam illiciat ;  quæ vero ante cogitata fuerint, etiamsi adversus casus exceperit, bene jam meditatos exhibeant ad cavendum ne idem rursus eveniat ;  et bonorum quidem fortuitorum non is auctor si cui contigerint, tristium vero quæ præter sententiam acciderint, saltem recte consulta videantur esse solatium. So much for Roman routine on the march and in quarters, and for the variety of equipment.  In battle nothing is done without plan or on the spur of the moment;  all actions always follow forethought, and operations implement what is preplanned.  As a result they make few errors, and if they do make a mistake, the errors are easily corrected.  They regard the outcomes of planning better than successes due to luck — even if the outcome is different, because a fortuitous victory tempts men to improvident actions, but predeliberation, even if a failure results from it, shows those who carefully think it over how to beware of having the same thing happen again.  And the man to whom fortuitous victories happen is not their author;  on the other hand, the man to whom fortuitous defeat happens despite forethought, at least has the consolation that things seem to have been properly planned. 7 Armorum quidem exercitatione comparant ut non modo corpora, sed animi quoque militum fortiores sint.  Major autem illis est ex timore diligentia.  Namque leges apud eos non desertionis solum, verumetiam minimæ neglegentiæ sunt capitales ;  ducesque magis quam ipsæ leges terribiles ;  namque bonos honorando redimunt ne in coërcendis noxiis videantur crudeles.  Tanto autem obsequio rectoribus parent, ut et in pace ornamento sint, et in acie corpus unum totius conspiciatur exercitus.  Sic eorum copulati sunt ordines, ita circumduci sunt mobiles ;  et acutis auribus ad præcepta, oculisque ad signa, et ad opera manibus ;  unde facere quidem semper strenui sunt, pati vero tardissimi. Military exercises give the Roman soldiers not only tough bodies but determined spirits as well.  Greater scrupulousness is instilled in them by fear;  for military law demands the death penalty not only for desertion but even for trivial negligence;  and the generals are more feared than the laws themselves, for by honoring good soldiers they offset seeming cruel in punishing delinquents.  They obey their officers with such submission that they constitute an adornament in peacetime and in war it impresses one as a single body of the whole army;  with their ranks so welded together, they are maneuverable when being directed around — and with ready their ears for orders, their eyes for signals, their hands for tasks to be done.  Thus it is that they are always prompt in acting, but very slow to suffer. Nec est ubi prœliantes aut multitudinem hostium aut consilia sensere ducum, aut difficultatem regionum ;  sed ne fortunæ quidem succubuere.  Nam in ea {(i.e., disciplina)} certiorem putant esse victoriam.  Quorum igitur actus a consiliis incipiunt, consultaque adeo strenuus exsequitur exercitus, quid mirum si Euphrates ab oriente, et Oceanus ab occidente, itemque a meridiano tractu Africæ fertilissima regio, et a septentrione Rhenus atque Danubius sunt Imperii limites, quum minorem esse possidentibus possessionem, recte quis dixerit ? There is also no place where in fighting they have been affected by either the vast numbers of the enemy or the ruses of their leaders or the difficulties of the terrain;  nor have they succumbed even to luck.  For in that {(i.e., disciplined system)} they think victory is surer than luck.  When planning goes before action, and the plans are followed out by such a vigorous army, is it any wonder that in the east the Euphrates, in the west the ocean, in the south the richest plains of Africa, and in the north the Danube and the Rhine are the limits of the Empire?  One might say with truth that the conquests are less remarkable than the conquerors. 8 Hæc ergo prosecutus sum, non tam proposito laudandi Romanos, quam solatio devictorum, et ut novarum rerum cupidos deterrerem ;  fortasse autem et ad experientiam proderunt bonarum artium studiosis, Romanæ instituta militiæ nescientibus ;  redeo tamen unde digressus sum. The purpose of the foregoing account has been less to eulogize the Romans than to console their defeated enemies and to deter any who may be thinking of revolt;  and it may possibly be of educational benefit to students of culture who are unaware of the Roman military setup.  I now return to where I left off. ⇑ § VI Placidus, tentatis oppugnatione Jotapatis, repellitur.  Vespasianus impressionem facit in Galilæam. Placidus attempts to take Jotapata and is beaten off.  Vespasian marches into Galilee. 1 — Caput C-4 — Impetus Placidi adversus Jotapatam. Vespasianus quidem una cum Tito filio in Ptolemaide interim degens, ordinabat exercitum.  At vero Galilæam pervaserat Placidus, ubi maximam eorum quos comprehendisset multitudinem interemit ;  hæc autem fuit Galilæorum imbellior turba, animisque deficiens  ;  pugnacissimos autem ut vidit semper in civitates confugere quas Josephus communierat, in Jotapatam, quæ omnium tutissima erat, impetum vertit, existimans eam repentino aggressu facillime captum iri, magnamque et sibi ex ea re alios apud rectores gloriam comparandam, et illis commodum ad reliqua maturius explicanda, quasi metu cessuris aliis civitatibus, si quæ validissima esset occupatam vidissent. Meanwhile Vespasian, together with his son Titus, was at Ptolemais organizing his forces.  Placidus, on the other hand, had swept through Galilee where he destroyed great numbers of men who had fallen into his hands, these being the less warlike members of the Galilæans and the faint of heart.  Then, seeing that the most combative regularly took shelter in the towns that Josephus had fortified, he turned to attack the strongest of them, Jotapata, thinking it would be easily captured in a surprise assault, and he would thereby achieve great glory for himself among the other commanders.  Plus, it would be helpful to them in quickly finishing off everything else, for the other towns would surrender out of fear once they had seen the most powerful one captured. Multum tamen opinione deceptus est ;  Jotapateni enim, quum ejus impetum præsensissent, prope civitatem advenientem excipiunt ;  congressique cum Romanis ex improviso plurimi et ad pugnam parati, necnon et alacres (quippe ut pro salute patriæ, item conjugum liberorumque dimicantes) in fugam eos vertunt, multosque sauciant, septem solum interfectis ;  quia neque inordinate pugna decesserant, sæptisque undique corporibus leviter fuerant vulnerati ;  quum Judæi quoque magis eminus jaculari quam manus conserere inermes cum armatis confiderent.  Ex ipsis autem Judæis tres ceciderunt, paucis præterea sauciatis.  Placidus igitur ab oppido repulsus aufugit. But his hopes were completely dashed.  As he approached Jotapata, its citizens, foreseeing his attack, laid an ambush near it and then pounced upon the unsuspecting Romans.  With large numbers, ready for battle and quite zealous (for they were fighting for the safety of their country and of their wives and their children), they routed them, wounding many but killing only seven;  for the Romans had not retreated from the fight in disorder and, being armored all over their bodies, had suffered only light wounds, while the lightly-armed Jews dared to launch their missiles only from a distance, rather than battling hand to hand with heavily armed men.  On the Jewish side, three were killed and a few others were wounded.  So Placidus, repulsed from the town, fled. 2 — Caput C-5 — Galilæa a Vespasiano invaditur. Vespasianus vero ipse Galilæam cupiens invadere, ex Ptolemaide proficiscitur, ordinato militum itinere sicut Romani consueverunt.  Auxiliatores enim qui levius armati essent itemque sagittarios præire jussit ad repentinos incursus hostium cohibendos, et ut suspectas atque opportunas insidiis silvas scrutarentur.  Hos sequebatur Romani peditatus equitatusque pars ;  post quos e singulis centuriis deni, armaturam suam ferentes mensurasque castrorum.  Post hos stratores viarum ibant, qui aggeris maligna corrigerent, ac aspera complanarent, silvasque obstantes præciderent, ne perplexo itinere fatigaretur exercitus. Vespasian, eager to invade Galilee himself, set out from Ptolemais with his army arranged in the usual Roman marching order.  He ordered the light-armed auxiliaries and archers to lead, to repel sudden enemy incursions and reconnoiter suspect woods ideal for ambushes.  Next came part of the Roman infantry and cavalry.  These were followed by ten men from every century carrying, besides their own kit, the instruments for marking out the campsite.  After them came the roadbuilders to fix bad spots in the highway, level rough surfaces and cut down obstructive woods, so that the army would not be made weary by a difficult route. Deinde suas itemque subjectorum sibi rectorum sarcinas, et tutelæ causa multos cum his equites ordinavit.  Post quos ipse veniebat, lectos pedites equitesque, necnon et lancearios secum ducens, equitumque præterea suorum agmine comitatus.  De singulis enim turmis proprios centum et viginti equites deputatos habebat.  Hos sequebantur, qui expugnandis civitatibus machinas et cetera tormenta portarent, deinde rectores itemque præfecti cohortibus tribuni, stipati lectis militibus.  Et post hos circum Aquilam signa alia, quæ omnibus apud Romanos agminibus præest, quod et universarum avium regnum habeat, et sit validissima.  Itaque illam et principatus insigne putant, et omen victoriæ, quoscunque bello petierint. Following these he had his own personal baggage and that of his subordinate officers and a strong cavalry force to protect it.  Behind them Vespasian himself rode, leading the cream of his horse and foot and a body of spearmen and accompanied besides by a cavalcade of his own legion’s cavalry.  For he had 120 horsemen, assigned from each of the squadrons to which they belonged.  These were followed by the transport of the machines for storming cities and of other artillery.  After them came the generals and the tribunes heading the cohorts, escorted by picked troops.  And behind them the various standards surrounding the eagle, which is at the head of all columns among the Romans, because it has supremacy over all birds and is the strongest of all:  this they regard as the symbol of empire and portent of victory, no matter whom they war against. Sacras vero signorum effigies sequebantur cornicines, et post eos acies, in latitudinem senis digesta militibus.  Hisque adhærebat ex more quidam centurio, disciplinæ atque ordinis custos.  Servi autem singularum legionum cuncti cum peditibus erant, mulis aliisque jumentis vehentes militum sarcinas.  Postremum agmen, in quo erat mercennaria multitudo, cogebant armati pedites, equitumque non pauci. The sacred emblems were followed by the buglers, and in their wake came the main body, in width spread six men abreast, accompanied as always by a centurion to maintain discipline and the array.  All the servants of the individual legions accompanied the infantry, carrying the soldiers’ baggage on mules and other beasts.  The rear guard, in which there was a huge number of mercenaries {(probably part of the foreign auxiliaries, perhaps with non-combat logistics and support elements)}, was made up of armed infantry and quite a few cavalrymen. 3 Ita peracto itinere,Vespasianus cum omni exercitu ad fines Galilææ pervenit ;  ibique positis castris, quamvis promptos ad bellum milites continebat, una et ostendendo exercitum, quo hostes metu percelleret, spatiumque indulgendo pænitudinis, si quis ante prœlium voluntatem mutaret ;  nihilominus autem murorum instruebat obsidium.  Itaque multos quidem rebelliones fugere vel solus fecit ducis aspectus ;  metum vero universis incussit.  Josephi enim socii, qui non longe a Sepphori castra posuerant ubi bellum appropinquare cognoverunt, et jam jamque Romanos prœlio secum congressuros, non modo ante pugnam, sed antequam hostes omnino conspicerent, fuga disjecti sunt.  Cum paucis autem relictus Josephus, ubi animadvertit neque se ad excipiendos hostes sufficientem manum habere, et Judæorum animos concidisse, ac, si fides his haberetur, plerosque libenter ad hostes defectum ire, jam tum quidem bello omni abstinebat, quam longissime autem periculis abesse decrevit, abductisque qui secum remanserant in Tiberiada confugit. Marching in this way, Vespasian arrived with his whole army at the frontiers of Galilee.  There he pitched his camp and restrained his soldiers, though they were eager for battle, both to strike fear into the enemy and to allow them a period for regret in case anyone wished to change his mind before battle;  nonetheless, he set up preparations for besieging their strongholds.  And indeed, the mere sight of the field marshal made many rebels flee;  he truly struck fear into everyone.  The troops of Josephus who had set up camp not far from Sepphoris, seeing the war approaching and the Romans about to close in combat with them, scattered — not just before a battle, but before they had even seen the enemy at all.  Left behind with a handful of men, Josephus saw that he did not have enough of a force to stop the enemy, that the morale of the Jews had collapsed, and that, if their pledge were accepted, the majority would defect to the enemy.  At that point, for the time being he avoided all conflict, and decided to keep as far away as possible from danger, and with those who had stuck to him sought shelter in Tiberias. ⇑ § VII Vespasianus, capta Gadarensium civitate, Jotapata proficiscitur : et, post longam obsidionem, urbem a transfuga proditam capit. Vespasian, When He Had Taken the City Gadara, Marches to Jotapata.  After a Long Siege the City Is Betrayed by a Deserter, and Taken by Vespasian. 1 — Caput C-6 — Gadaræ expugnatio. Vespasianus autem Gadarensium civitatem aggressus, primo impetu capit, quod eam pugnaci multitudine vacuam repperisset.  Deinde hinc transgressus interius, cunctos puberes interfecit, quum Romanos odio gentis, et cladis memoria quam pertulerat Cestius, nullius ætatis misericordia commoveret.  Incendit autem non solum civitatem, sed etiam omnes circum vicos et oppidula quædam, penitus desolata, nonnulla quorum habitatores ipse cepisset. Vespasian descended on Gabara and, finding it devoid of any large, combat-capable number, took it at first assault.  He marched into the town and killed all males past puberty, with mercy to neither young nor old, motivated by hatred of the people and by the memory of the catastrophe Cestius had suffered.  He burnt down not only the town itself but all the surrounding villages as well as some hamlets, completely abandoned, and some whose inhabitants he took as captives. 2 Josephus autem, quam tuitionis causa optaverat civitatem ipse metu replevit.  Nam Tiberienses nunquam eum, nisi de omni bellum desperasset, in fugam versum iri credebant ;  neque in hoc eos voluntatis ejus fallebat opinio.  Videbat enim res Judæorum quorsum evaderent, unamque illos viam salutis habere, si propositum mutavissent.  Ipse vero, quamvis adhuc sibi speraret a Romanis veniam tribuendam, mori tamen sæpe maluisset quam, prodita patria, cum dedecore administrationis sibi creditæ, apud illos feliciter agere, contra quos fuerat missus. Josephus’ hurried arrival produced panic in the city he had chosen as a refuge.  The people of Tiberias concluded that if he had not completely written off the war, he would never have taken to flight.  In this they were making no mistake about his views;  for he foresaw where the actions of the Jews were leading, and knew that their only path to safety was to change their decision.  He himself, on the other hand, even though he still hoped the Romans would pardon him, would nonetheless rather have died over and over again than betray his fatherland and, to the disgrace of the office entrusted to him, live an enjoyable life among the very ones he had been sent against. Decrevit igitur Hierosolymam primatibus quemadmodum sese res haberent cum fide perscribere, ne vel minus extollendo vires hostium, timiditatis mox argueretur, vel minus aliquid nuntiando, fortasse cœpti etiam pænitentes ad ferociam revocaret :  utque si fœdus eis placeret, cito rescriberent ;  aut si bellandum esset, dignum ei contra Romanos exercitum mitterent.  Ille quidem hac epistola scripta, mature mittit qui Hierosolymam litteras ferret. So he determined to write to the leaders in Jerusalem about the reality of the situation, lest by insufficiently inflating the strength of the enemy he would be accused of cowardice or, by insufficiently reporting something, he might reignite the ferocity of those who had begun to have second thoughts :  if they decided on truce negotiations, they should write back at once;  or, if war were the decision, they must send him adequate forces.  Having written these things in a letter, he immediately sent a man to take it to Jerusalem. 3 — Caput C-7 — Jotapatæ obsidio. Vespasianus autem, Jotapatam exscindere cupiens (nam in eam plurimos hostium refugisse cognoverat, et præterea validissimum hoc eorum esse receptaculum), præmittit pedites cum equitibus qui montanum iter coæquarent, saxis asperum, ac peditibus quoque difficile, omnino vero equitibus invium.  Et hi quidem quatriduo fecere quod jussum est, latamque aperuere exercitui viam.  Quinto autem die, qui mensis Maji vigesimus et primus erat, prior Josephus in Jotapatam ex Tiberiade venit, abjectosque Judæorum spiritus erigit. Vespasian was eager to destroy Jotapata;  for he was informed that the biggest number of the enemy had take refuge there, and that in addition it was their strongest bulwark.  He therefore sent infantry and cavalry ahead to level the mountainous road, rough with stones, difficult for infantry and for cavalry quite impossible.  They took only four days to complete their task, opening a broad highway for the army.  On the fifth day — the 21st {(meant is probably the 11th)} of May — Josephus got to Jotapata first, coming from Tiberias, and awakened new courage in the sinking hearts of the Jews.  Quum vero transitum ejus Vespasiano quidam transfuga nuntiasset, utque mox civitatem peteret incitaret, veluti cum ea totam Judæam capere posset si Josephum subjugasset, hōc ille nuntio pro maxima felicitate percepto, Dei providentia factum ratus ut, qui hostium prudentissimus videretur, ultro se etiam in custodiam traderet voluntariam, statim quidem cum equitibus mille Placidum mittit, unaque decadarcham Æbutium, tam manu quam prudentia virum insignem, circumvallare civitatem jussit, ne clam inde Josephus elaberetur. When a deserter reported the news of his arrival to Vespasian and urged him to attack the city immediately, given that with it, provided he got Josephus, he would take all Judæa captive, Vespasian seized on this news as a great piece of luck.  It must be by divine providence, he thought, that the man who was considered the most capable of his enemies had voluntarily surrendered himself to captivity.  So without losing a moment, he sent 1,000 horsemen under Placidus together with the decurion Æbutius — a man renowned for energy and intelligence — with orders to ring the town and prevent the secret escape of Josephus. 4 Postero autem die, cuncta manu comitatus ipse consequitur, et post meridiem usque acto itinere, ad Jotapatam pervenit ;  adductoque in septentrionalem ejus partem exercitu, in quodam tumulo castra ponit, distante ab oppido stadiis septem.  Consulto autem quam maxime conspici ab hostibus affectabat, ut visu attoniti turbarentur.  Quod etiam factum est ;  eosque tantus continuo stupor invasit, ut muris egredi nullus auderet.  At Romanos tota die ambulando fatigatos, civitatem statim aggredi piguit ;  ob eam causam duplici acie circumdato oppido, tertium extrinsecus agmen equitum posuere, omnes Judæis exitus obstruentes.  Sed ea res illos in salutis desperatione audaciores effecit.  Quippe in bello nihil est necessitate pugnacius. Next day the general himself followed with his entire force and, marching until after midday, arrived before Jotapata.  He led the army to the north of the town and pitched his camp on a rise three quarters of a mile from the town, deliberately trying to make himself as conspicuous as possible to the enemy in order to demoralize them by the sight.  Indeed, this happened:  the Jews were so shocked that no one dared to go outside the walls.  The Romans, after marching all day, were disinclined to make their onslaught at once, but they put a double line of infantry around the town, stationing a third line outside them, formed from the cavalry, and so blocking all paths of egress to the Jews.  But in their despair of safety, that action made them all the more daring;  for in war nothing is more bellicose than necessity. 5 Itaque postridie impetu in muros facto, Judæi primo quidem locis suis manentes, Romanis castra ante muros habentibus resistebant.  Postea vero quam Vespasianus et sagittarios et funditores, omnemque jaculatorum multitudinem adhibitam, missilibus in eos permisit uti, atque ipse cum peditibus in adversum collem, unde murus expugnabilis erat, niti cœpit, tunc civitati metuens Josephus et cum eo cuncta Judæorum prosiluit multitudo ;  omnesque in Romanos pariter irruentes, procul a muris eos deterruere, multa manu simul et audacia patrando facinora. Next morning the assault began.  At first the Jews merely held their ground opposite the Romans who were encamped outside the walls.  So Vespasian brought up against them his archers and slingers and whole projectile force, with instructions to keep shooting at them while he himself with the infantry pushed up the slope opposite the point where the wall was assailable.  Then Josephus, fearing for the city, and with him the whole body of Jews rushed out on attack.  Falling in a body together on the Romans, they drove them back from the walls, simultaneously performing many deeds of prowess and daring. Neque minora tamen patiebantur quam faciebant.  Nam quantum ipsos salutis desperatio, tantum pudor incendebat Romanos.  Et hos quidem peritia cum fortitudine, illos autem duce iracundia ferocitas armabat.  Denique cum tota die pugnatum fuisset, prœlium nox diremit ;  in quo Romanorum plurimis sauciatis, tredecim interfecti sunt ;  Judæorum autem cum sescenti essent vulnerati, septem et decem ceciderunt. However, they did not suffer fewer losses than they inflicted;  the Jews were inflamed by despair of salvation, the Romans just as effectively by a sense of shame;  the latter were armed with experience as well as prowess, the other, enraged, by blind fury.  All day long they were locked in battle till night parted them.  Roman casualties were very heavy, and included thirteen killed;  on the Jewish side, the dead numbered seventeen and the wounded six hundred. 6 Nihiloque minus, Romanis postridie iterum irruentibus occurrunt, multoque fortius restiterunt, ex eo scilicet fiduciam nacti quod eos pridie præter spem sustinuerant.  Sed eos quoque pugnaciores experti sunt, quod eorum iracundiam pudor incenderat, vinci credentium, nisi cito vicissent.  Itaque per dies quinque Romanis minime ab aggressione cessantibus, etiam Jotapatenorum excursus agebantur, murique fortius oppugnabantur.  Et neque Judæi vires hostium formidabant, neque Romanos difficultas oppidi capiendi lassabat. On the next day the Romans attacked again, and the Jews, sallying out against them, met their advance with greatly increased determination, emboldened by the fact that, contrary to expectations, they had held them off on the previous day.  But they found the Romans, too, more agresssive than before;  for shame put them into a blazing passion, and they considered a failure to win quickly equivalent to a defeat.  For five days, as the Roman attacks continued without letup, the Jotapenians also made sallies, and the walls were attacked more fiercely;  the Jews were not dismayed by the strength of the enemy, nor did the difficulty of capturing the town tire the Romans. 7 Etenim Jotapata paulo minus tota rupes est, ex aliis quidem partibus undique vallibus immensis præceps, ut earum altitudinem oculis deprehendere cupientium aspectus ante deficiat.  Ab una vero tantum boreæ parte adiri potest, ubi per transversum latus desinentis montis ædificata est, quod quidem ipsum muro civitatis Josephus fuerat amplexus, quo inaccessa essent hostibus superiora cacumina.  Aliis vero circum montibus tecta, priusquam in eam perveniretur, a nullo poterat conspici ;  Jotapata quidem sic erat communita. All of Jotapata is hardly less than a cliff, on all the other sides dropping off steeply into canyons so enormous that the vision of those wishing to grasp their depth by looking would fail before doing so.  It can be accessed only from the north, where the town is built across an angled flank of the foot of a mountain.  Josephus had included this very side with the city wall, so that the higher peaks would be inaccessible to the enemy.  A ring of other mountains screened the town so effectively that, until a man had actually gotten inside it, it could not been seen at all.  That was how Jotapata had been fortified. The Ruins of Jotapata from the North 8 Vespasianus autem et cum natura loci simul certandum putans et cum audacia Judæorum, incipere obsidionem acriter statuit ;  advocatisque rectoribus sibi subditis, de aggressu deliberabat.  Quumque aggerem fieri placuisset qua parte murus facilis erat accessui, totum ad comparandam materiam misit exercitum ;  oppidoque propinquis montibus excisis, magnaque vi lignorum et lapidum comparata, cratibusque ad evitanda jacula desuper missa per vallos dispositis, his protecti aggerem construebant.  Nulla autem noxa vel minima telorum erat quæ de muro jacerentur. Vespasian, recognizing that he had to fight with the terrain at the same time as with the daring resistance of the Jews, decided to prosecute the siege vigorously;  he called a meeting of his senior officers to plan the assault.  It was resolved to build a siege ramp where the wall was easy to get at, so Vespasian sent out the whole army to collect material.  The heights around the town were stripped of their trees, and a huge amount of wood and stones was readied.  Then, as a shield from the missiles thrown from above, arrays of protecting roofs were set up on posts and the siege ramp was constructed under their shelter, the bombardment from the walls causing few if any casualties. Jotapata City Wall Excavations (1994) His autem alii, terram ex propinquis tumulis eruentes, sine intermissione suppeditabant, cunctisque trifariam distributis, nullus erat otiosus.  At Judæi super eorum tegmina saxa ingentia et omne telorum genus curabant immittere, quæ licet minime penetrarent, magnos tamen crepitus dabant, et horribile impedimentum erat operantibus. Others, digging up earth from nearby mounds, kept up a constant supply of earth to these workers ;  thus, with all of them divided into three groups, nobody was idle.  Meanwhile the Jews launched huge rocks onto their screens, together with every kind of projectile;  even though they did not penetrate, nevertheless they made a great deal of noise and were a frightful hindrance to the workers. 9 Tunc igitur Vespasianus, machinis missilium circumpositis (erant autem omnes centum sexaginta), in eos qui super murum astarent jussit tela contendi ;  simulque ex catapultis lanceæ percurrebant, saxaque tormentis ingentia mittebantur, ignisque et sagittarum frequentissima multitudo quæ non solum murum, sed etiam totum intra jactum earum spatium Judæis inaccessum fecere ;  Arabum enim sagittariorum manus, et jaculatores, itemque funditores et omnes machinæ tela jaciebant. Vespasian next set up his artillery in a ring — a hundred and sixty engines in all — and gave instructions to shoot at the men on the wall.  In a synchronized barrage, lances shot from the catapults, and enormous stones were discharged from rock-launchers, together with firebrands and a dense shower of arrows, driving the Jews not only from the wall but also from the entire area within missile range;  for a host of Arab archers with all the javelin-men and slingers let fly at the same time as the artillery. Satellite View of Jotapata Ruins (North is to the Right) Neque tamen his Judæi prohibiti ne desuper propugnarent quieti erant, sed excurrendo per cuneos more latronum, tegmina operantium detrahebant, nudatosque feriebant ;  et ubi illi cessissent, aggerem dissipabant, vallorumque munimenta cum cratibus igni tradebant ;  donec Vespasianus, cognito hujus damni causam ex distributione operum contigisse quod interjecta spatia Judæis locum aggrediendi præberent, adunavit tegmina ;  conjunctisque pariter viribus, obreptiones hostium præpeditæ sunt. The Jews, however, though prevented from fighting from the higher position, were by no means idle.  By darting out in platoons, guerrilla-fashion, they would tear away the screens sheltering the workers and assail them in their unprotected state;  and wherever the Romans retreated, they would break up the siege ramp and set fire to the posts and protecting roofs.  This continued until Vespasian realized that the spacing between the work locations was the cause of the trouble, since the gaps provided the Jews with an avenue of attack.  He then interlinked all the shielding and at the same time strung the troop units together, putting to an end the Jewish surprise attacks. 10 Erecto autem propemodum aggere, pauloque minus æquato propugnaculis, indignum esse ratus Josephus, nihil contra moliri quod oppido saluti foret, convocat fabros, murumque altius jubet extolli.  Quumque illi tam multis obstantibus jaculis minime ædificare posse affirmarent, hanc eis defensionem excogitavit.  Sudibus fixis, per eos boum coria recentia extendi præcepit, quæ emissos tormentis lapides sinuata susciperent, quibusque repulsa tela cetera dilaberentur et ignis humore languesceret.  Hisque ante fabros oppositis, illi murum die noctuque operando, ad viginti cubitorum altitudinem erexerunt, crebris etiam turribus in eo constructis, minisque validissimis aptatis.  Quæ quidem res Romanis jam intra civitatem se esse credentibus magnum mærorem comparavit — tam Josephi molitione quam oppidanorum obstinatione perterritis. As the siege ramp was now rising and had almost reached the battlements, Josephus, thinking it disgraceful if he failed to invent some countermeasure to save the town, called stone-masons together and instructed them to raise the wall higher.  When they declared that it was impossible to build under such a hail of missiles, he devised protection for them as follows:  he ordered that poles be set in place and that, by the workmen, fresh oxhides be hung up which would by folding inward consequently catch the stones hurled by the engines;  and the other missiles, also stopped, would fall down off of them, and firebrands would be quenched by their moisture.  With these devices protecting the builders, they worked on the wall day and night and raised it to a height of thirty feet, built towers on it at short intervals, and fitted it out with an extremely strong parapet.  At this the Romans, who had fancied themselves already inside the town, were plunged into deep despondency, overawed by the efforts of Josephus and the determination of the defenders. 11 — Caput C-8 — Obsidio Jotapatenorum a Vespasiano, et diligentia Josephi, deque Judæorum excursione in Romanos. At Vespasianus et calliditate consilii, et hostium audacia magis irritabatur ;  qui jam recepta ex munitione fiducia, Romanos ultro incursabant ;  inque dies singulos prœlia catervatim, et cujusque modi latrocinales doli, et eorum quæ casus obtulisset rapinæ aliorumque incendia fiebant ;  donec Vespasianus, retento milite a pugna, statuit obsidere civitatem, ut eam usui necessariorum penuria caperet.  Aut enim coactos inopia sibi supplicaturos, aut si ad finem usque in eadem pertinacia duravissent, fame consumendos ejus habitatores putabat ;  multoque faciliores expugnatu fore, si post intervallum rursus anxiis incubuisset.  Itaque omnes exitus eorum asservari præcepit. Vespasian was exasperated both by the cleverness of the stratagem and by the audacity of the enemy who, encouraged by the new fortifications, made unprovoked attacks on the Romans;  and day after day there were battles on the level of skirmishes.  Every device of guerilla war was brought into play, there was a plundering of eveything that chance offered them, and other things beside {the siege ramp} were set on fire.  At length Vespasian recalled his troops from the fight and determined to blockade the town in order to capture it through the dearth of provisions;  its inhabitants would either be compelled by privation to beg for mercy or, if they stubbornly held out to the bitter end, die of starvation.  He was confident that they would be much easier to defeat if after a waiting period he made a fresh onslaught on men under stress.  He therefore ordered all of their points of egress to be guarded. 12 Illi autem frumenti quidem aliarumque omnium rerum intus habebant copiam, præter salem.  Aquæ vero penuria eos affligebat, quia neque fons erat intra civitatem et, imbre contentis habitatoribus, rara est in illo tractu æstivis mensibus pluvia.  Quo tempore obsessi etiam hoc vehementius afficiebantur, quod arcendæ siti fuerat excogitatum, quodque fieri, velut omnis aqua jam defecisset, ægre ferebant. Inside there was plenty of grain and all other necessities except salt, but they suffered from inadequacy of water, as there was no spring within the walls, with the townsfolk restricted to rainwater — and there is little or no rain in the district during the summer months.  Being besieged precisely in that season, they were all the more distressed by the fact that a strategy had been devised to embargo their thirst, and were very upset, as though the water supply had already failed completely. Josephus enim, quum et civitatem videret abundare aliis rebus fortesque animo viros esse, quo longiorem Romanis obsidionem faceret quam sperabant, jam tum potum mensura civibus ministrabat.  Illis autem conservari aquam penuria gravius esse videbatur, amplioremque cupiditatem movebat quod jus bibendi liberum non haberent ;  ac velut ad extremam sitim perventum esset, labori cedebant.  Hoc autem modo affecti, Romanos latere non poterant, qui ex adverso colle trans murum in unum eos confluere locum et aquæ mensuram accipere prospectabant, quo etiam ballistarum pervenientibus telis, plurimos occidebant. For Josephus, seeing that the town had all other necessities in abundance and that morale of the men was high, in order to draw out the siege for the Romans longer than they were expecting, had already been rationing water to the citizens.  They, however, found this husbanding of resources harder to bear than actual shortage;  they were driven by an even greater craving because they did not have the right to drink freely and began to flag as if they had already reached the last degree of thirst.  Their condition could not be hidden from the Romans who from the hill opposite watched them across the wall queuing up at one place and getting their ration of water;  so by targeting this spot with their ballistic weaponry, they killed quite a few. 13 Vespasianus quidem non multo post, exhaustis puteis, ipsa sibi necessitate traditum iri civitatem sperabat.  Josephus autem, ut hanc ejus spem frangeret, jussit quam plurimos per murorum minas immersa undis atque umida vestimenta suspendere, ut omnes repente aqua perfluerent.  Ex quo mæror simul Romanis ac timor erat, quum tantum aquæ viderent eos ludibrio consumere, quos potu indigere credebant.  Denique dux belli etiam ipse, quia penuria civitatem posse capere desperasset, iterum consilium ad vim atque arma convertit, Judæis quoque id maxime cupientibus, quod nec se nec civitatem salvam fore credebant et, priusquam fame vel siti perirent, mortem bello optabant. Vespasian hoped that before long the cisterns would be empty and the town would be forced to capitulate to him.  But Josephus, determined to shatter this hope, ordered as many men as possible to soak their outer garments in water and hang them wet around the battlements to make them all suddenly run with water.  The result was depression and anxiety in the Roman ranks, when they saw so much water thrown away in jest by men who were thought to be in need of drinking water.  The commander-in-chief himself, despairing of being able to capture the town through shortage, reverted to force of arms.  Nothing could have pleased the Jews more;  for they had long believed that neither they nor the town could be saved, and preferred death in battle to dying of hunger and thirst. 14 Josephus tamen, præter hoc etiam aliud consilium quo sibi copia pararetur per quandam vallem deviam, proptereaque minus curiose habitam a custodibus, excogitavit.  Mittendo enim per occiduas ejus partes litteras ad quos vellet Judæos extra civitatem degentes, ab his omnia usui necessaria et quæ in civitate defecerant, accipiebat, mandato commeantibus ut plerumque ad excubias reperent, terga velleribus tecti, quo si qui eos nocte vidissent, canum similitudine fallerentur.  Idque factitatum est, donec ejus fraudem vigiles persenserunt, vallemque cinxerunt. Josephus, however, devised a second stratagem to obtain more supplies through a gully well-nigh impassable and consequently less carefully watched by the Roman guards.  Through its west side he sent out messengers who delivered letters to Jews he wanted to contact living outside the town, and acquired all the necessities that the town lacked.  The messengers were instructed to crawl past the guardposts as a rule, covering their backs with sheepskins so that if anyone did see them in the night, they would be mistaken for dogs.  That went on until the pickets detected the device and blocked off the gully. 15 Itaque tunc Josephus non diu civitatem sustinere posse prospiciens, suamque pariter salutem, si vellet remanere, desperans, cum optimatibus de fuga tractabat.  Verum id populus sensit, et circa eum fusus, ne sese neglegeret, precabatur in quo solo recumberent.  Ipsum enim saluti esse civitati manentem, velut omnes ejus causa alacri essent animo certaturi.  Quod si etiam capiantur, eundem solatio fore.  Decere autem illum nec inimicos fugere nec amicos deserere, aut quasi ex navi tempestate oppressa desilire, qui ad eam tranquillo mari venisset.  Ipsum enim magis demersurum esse civitatem, quum jam nemo audebit hostibus repugnare, si discessisset cui confiderent. At this point Josephus realized that the town could not hold out long and, despairing of his own survival if he stayed, he discussed with the leading citizens how they could escape.  The people sensed what was afoot and poured around him, imploring him not to desert them, given that they depended on him alone.  He was the one hope of survival for the town if he stayed, with everyone fighting furiously because of him;  if it fell, he would be their only consolation.  It would be shameful for him to run away from his enemies and abandon his friends — so to speak, to leap overboard when the ship on which he had embarked in a calm was tossed by a storm. — For he would sink their town, as no one would dare to oppose the enemy any more, once their only source of confidence was gone. 16 Josephus autem, quod sibi caveret occultans, illorum commodo se exitum parare dicebat:  nam intra civitatem manendo, neque servatis grande aliquid se profuturum, et si caperetur, una cum his esse frustra periturum, obsidione vero liberatum, extrinsecus maximo eis emolumento fore.  Mature enim congregatis ex territorio Galilæis, alio bello Romanos ab eorum civitate revocaturum.  Nunc autem non videre, quid apud eos residens utititatis afferret, nisi quod Romanos ad obsidionem magis incitaret ut se caperent magnipendentes ;  quem si fugisse cognovissent, multum essent de obsidionis impetu remissuri. But Josephus, concealing the fact that he was looking out for himself, said it was for their advantage that he was preparing to leave:  for by staying in the town he could not be of much avail to them if they were saved, and if they were captured, he would die with them in vain;  on the other hand, once clear of the siege, he would be of the greatest help to them from outside.  By quickly gathering Galileans from the countryside, he would draw the Romans away from their town with a second war.  As it was now, he did not see what the results of his continued presence could be other than to spur the Romans, who rated his capture highly, to besiege them all the more;  if, in contrast, they discovered he had fled, they would greatly reduce their pressure on the town. Non flexit his populum Josephus, sed hoc circumsistere se magis incendit.  Denique pueri et senes, itemque mulierculæ cum infantibus flentes ad ejus pedes accidebant eumque omnes complexi tenebant, et ut fortunæ socius sibi remaneret cum ululatibus supplicabant ;  non invidia salutis ejus quantum ego arbitror, sed propria spe.  Nihil enim se mali, remanente Josepho, existimabant esse passuros. This appeal fell on deaf ears;  it simply made the people more determined to hold on to him.  Children, old men, women with infants in their arms wept and fell down before him.  They all grasped him by the feet and held him fast, imploring him with sobs to remain and share their lot — not through envy of his escape, I think, but in the hope of their own;  for they felt that if Joseph stayed nothing bad would happen to them. 17 Ille autem, siquidem paruisset hæc preces esse ratus, custodiam vero si per vim cogeretur (multum enim propositum discessūs etiam querelarum misericordia fregerat), remanere statuit.  Communique desperatione civitatis armatus, et nunc tempus esse dicens pugnam incipere, quum spes nulla salutis est, pulchrumque vitam pacisci pro laude, ac forti aliquo patrato facinore in memoriam posteritatis occumbere, ad opera sese convertit.  Cum pugnacissimis ergo egressus, disjectis custodibus, usque ad Romanorum castra excurrebat ;  et nunc pelles aggeribus impositas, sub quibus tendebant, discerpere, nunc operibus ignem immittere.  Posteroque die similiter ac tertio et per aliquot deinceps dies ac noctes bellando non defatigabatur. Josephus, knowing that these reactions were pleas if he yielded, but custody if his plan of departure (which had also been greatly weakened by pity for their lamentations) were to be forced through by coercion, decided to remain.  Turning the general despair into a weapon, he exclaimed:  “Now is the time to begin the fight, when there is no hope of escape left.  It is a glorious thing to give one’s life in return for renown, and to be remembered by posterity as having died performing some glorious deed.”  Then he fell to work and, making a sortie with his toughest fighters, he scattered the guards and dashed as far as the Roman camp where, one moment, he tore apart the hides covering the siege ramps and the encamped troops and, at another, set fire to their works.  The next day, and the day after that, and for several days and nights following, he fought on without rest. 18 Sed Vespasianus, Romanos his excursibus male affectos aspiciens (nam et terga dare Judæis pudebat, et fugientes insequi armorum pondere tardabantur, quum Judæi semper aliquid agentes, priusquam paterentur, in civitatem refugerent), armatis imperat ut eorum impetum declinarent, neve cum hominibus mortis avidis manum consererent.  Nihil esse fortius desperatis.  Restingui autem illorum impetus si proposito frustrentur, quasi flammam, si materiam non inveniat.  Ad hoc oportere Romanos cautius quærere victoriam — augendæ possessionis causa, non ex necessitate pugnantes. Vespasian saw that the Romans were damaged by these sorties.  They felt ashamed about fleeing from the Jews and, when the Jews fled, pursuit was hampered by the weight of their armor.  For the Jews, after perpetrating something, always escaped into the town before suffering losses.  He therefore ordered the legionaries to avoid Jewish attacks and not join battle with men who wanted to die.  Nothing was stronger than men in despair.  But their attacks would die out if they were deprived of a goal — like a fire lacking kindling wood.  And even Romans should take care in winning their victories, since they were fighting not for survival but to enlarge their dominions. Per sagittarios autem Arabum et Syriæ et funditores, perque saxa tormentis emissa, plerumque repellebat Judæos.  Nulla enim telorum machina quiescebat.  Illi autem his quidem male accepti cedebant, verum eminus missa intra jactum subeuntes, sævius Romanis instabant, quum neque corpori neque animæ parcerent, sed per vicem utrimque pugnarent, suorum quisque laborantibus subvenientes. He repelled the Jews mainly through Arab archers and Syrian slingers, and through rock-throwing engines, and none of his artillery was inactive.  The Jews, taking losses from all this, gave way, but when penetrating to inside the minimum shooting distance of the long-range artillery, they assailed the Romans furiously without a thought for life or limb;  but both parties fought using alternation, each side constantly replacing its own exhausted men. 19 — Caput C-9 — De oppugnatione Vespasiani contra Jotapatam, ariete, et aliis tormentis bellicis. Igitur Vespasianus, ultro se existimans longitudine temporis, hostiumque incursibus obsideri, quum prope jam muris aggeres æquarentur, arietem admovere decrevit.  Est autem aries immensa materia, malo navis assimilis ;  cujus summum gravi ferro solidatum est, in arietis effigiem fabricato, unde etiam nomen accepit.  Dependet autem funibus medius ex trabe alia, velut ex trutina, palis utrimque fultus, bene fundatis.  Retrorsum autem magna virorum multitudine repulsus, iisdemque simul rursus impellentibus missus, in fronte prominente ferro mœnia percutit ;  nec est ulla tam valida turris aut murorum ambitus adeo latus ut, etsi priores ictus fortiter sustinuerit, assiduos vincat. So Vespasian, gaining for his own part the impression that with the length of time and the enemy attacks he himself was being besieged and, as the siege ramps were now approaching the level of the walls, decided to bring up the “ram.”  This is a huge log like the mast of a ship, reinforced at the end with heavy iron in the shape of a ram’s head, whence the name.  Its middle hangs by ropes from another beam, as from a balance, and is supported by well-grounded posts on either side.  The ram is drawn back by a great number of men, then thrust forward again simultaneously by the same men so that it strikes the wall with the iron which projects in front.  No tower is so sturdy, no girth of walls so thick that, even if it strongly sustains the first blows, will withstand repeated ones. Ad hujus periculum rei duci Romano transire placuit vi capere oppidum properanti, quoniam perniciosa videbatur obsidio, Judæis minime quiescentibus.  Itaque Romani quidem ballistis ceterisque missilium machinis, ut facilius ferirentur qui de muris obstare temptassent, propius adhibitis utebantur ;  neque sagittarii aut funditores longius aberant.  Quum vero ea causa muros nemo auderet ascendere, ipsi arietem applicant cratibus desuper itemque pellibus sæptum, tam pro sui defensione quam machinæ.  Et primo quidem impetu mœnia concussa sunt ;  clamorque oppidanorum, velut jam capti essent, maximus factus est. It was to this expedient that the Roman commander, anxious to capture the town by force, decided to resort since, with the Jews never quiet, the siege was getting to seem ruinous.  So in order more easily to strike the Jews on the wall who were trying to stop them, the Romans pushed forward their ballistas and other artillery and began to bombard them.  Neither did the archers and slingers stay further off.  While because of that no defenders dared to get up on the walls, the attackers themselves brought up the ram, which was protected on top with wicker frameworks plus hides for their own protection as well as that of the machine.  The very first blow rocked the wall, and a huge cry was raised by the townspeople, as if they had already been captured. 20 Josephus autem eundem locum sæpe feriri, neque multo post murum disturbatum iri prospiciens, quo commento vim machinæ paulatim falleret excogitavit.  Saccos enim paleis confertos, qua semper impetum arietis ferri viderent, demitti jussit ex muro ;  ut eo modo secundi ictus errarent, aut etiam excepta vulnera laxitas frustraretur.  Quæ quidem res multum Romanis moræ attulit.  Nam quocunque hi machinam convertissent, contra illi qui super murum stabant, palearum traducentes saccos, ictibus supponebant, nihilque murus repercussione lædebatur, donec etiam Romani adversus hoc aliud machinati sunt ;  proceris enim contis expeditis, in his summis falces quibus saccos abscinderent alligarunt. Under the relentless battering of the same spot, Josephus foresaw that the wall would shortly be destroyed, so he devised a scheme to block the force of the machine for a while.  He ordered sacks filled with chaff to be lowered from the wall to the spot where they saw that the ram’s blow was always being directed, so that by this means subsequent blows would miss, or even if they did hit, the cushioning would make them ineffective.  This tactic held the Romans up quite a bit, for to whatever spot they directed their engine, the defenders above the wall put their sacks in the way and intercepted the strokes, so that the wall suffered no damage from the impact — until the Romans devised something else against this:  bringing out long poles, they tied sickles to their ends to cut down the sacks. Quum autem hoc modo efficax esset opus arietis, ac murus (qui recens ædificatus erat) ictibus cederet, quod reliquum erat, Josephus ejusque socii ad ignis auxilium se contulerunt ;  accensumque totum quod aridæ fuit materiæ, tribus ex locis pariter inflammarunt, unaque machinas et propugnacula Romanorum et aggeres concremarunt.  Illi vero non sine malo subveniebant, audacia simul eorum territi, et ne adjumento essent, flammis proruentibus impediti ;  quæ aridum nactæ fomitem, et præterea bitumen ac picem, necnon etiam sulfur, opinione citius volitabant ;  operaque Romanorum multo labore curata, unius horæ spatio pessum dederunt. The effectiveness of the battering-ram was thus restored, and the wall, so recently built, began to give way;  so now Josephus and his helpers had recourse to fire.  Setting light to all the dry wood available, they rushed out flaming simultaneously from three places and together made a bonfire of the enemy’s engines, protective sheds and siege ramps.  The Romans suffered in trying to save them:  they were frozen stiff by the Jews’ audacity and hampered in assisting by the racing flames.  For the wood was dry and mixed with bitumen, pitch and even brimstone, so that the flames flew around faster than expected, and the works created by the Romans with a great deal of toil were consumed in a single hour. 21 Hic etiam vir quidam Judæus, prædicatione ac memoria dignus inventus est, Sammæi filius Eleazarus, cui Saab Galilææ patria fuit.  Is enim saxum ingens alte sublatum, tanta vi super arietem ex muro demisit, ut machinæ caput abrumperet, idque ex mediis hostibus saltu ad eos delatus auferret, nulloque metu reportaret ad murum.  Postremo tanquam signum quo tela mitterent, hostibus propositus, nudo corpore quinque sagittarum vulneribus fixus est ;  earumque nulla respecta, ubi murum ascendit, unde jam videri ab omnibus poterat, sua audacia ibi constitit, contractusque dolore plagarum cum ariete decidit.  Post hunc fortissimi exstiterunt duo fratres, Neritas et Philippus, de vico Ruma, Galilæi.  Qui quum super milites Decimæ Legionis prosiliissent, tanto impetu vique irruerunt, ut et aciem Romanorum perrumperent, quique adversum ierant omnes in fugam verterent. Here one of the Jews distinguished himself in a way worthy of note and remembrance.  His father’s name was Samæas, his own Eleazar, and his birthplace Saba {= probably Gaba, i.e., Γ-, not Σ-} in Galilee.  This man raised a huge stone and flung it from the wall at the battering-ram with such tremendous force that he broke off its head.  Then he leapt down and, seizing the head under the noses of the enemy, fearlessly carried it back to the wall.  Finally, standing unarmored in front of the enemy as though a target for them to shoot at, he was wounded by five arrows;  but paying not the slightest regard to them, he climbed the wall and stood there where he could be seen by everyone in all his daring;  then, writhing with the pain of his wounds, he plunged down together with the ram.  Next after him in extreme bravery were two brothers, Netiras and Philip, Galilæans from the village of Ruma.  They charged the ranks of the Tenth Legion, falling upon the Romans with such momentum and force that they broke through their lines and routed all who stood in their path. 22 Præter hos Josephus quoque et cetera multitudo, raptis ignibus, machinas et refugia, cum operibus Quintæ itemque Decimæ ejus quæ terga dederat Legionis, incendunt.  Ceteri autem qui mox consecuti sunt, et instrumenta et omne genus materiæ obruerunt.  Rursus autem Romani sub vesperam erectum arietem ad eam muri partem quæ pridem quassata fuerat appulere ;  ibique propugnatorum quidam Vespasiani plantam sagitta percussam leviter vulnerat, quia vis teli spatio defecisset. Following in the wake of these men, Josephus and the rest of the defenders again snatched up firebrands and set fire to the engines and shelters along with the siege works of the Fifth Legion and the fleeing Tenth.  The other units, coming up quickly, buried their tools and all their timber.  In the evening they again set up the ram and brought it up against the part of the wall which had been shaken.  At his juncture once of the defenders on the battlements hit Vespasian with an arrow in the sole of his foot.  The wound was light, because the force of the shaft was weakened by the long range, Maximam tunc id Romanis perturbationem fecit.  His enim qui prope aderant, viso sanguine, perterritis, per omnem fama cucurrit exercitum ;  relictaque obsidione, plerique cum stupore atque formidine ad ducem belli concurrebant ;  et ante omnes Titus aderat metuens patri.  Unde contigit ut et benevolentia circa rectorem et filii trepidatio confunderet multitudinem.  Facile tamen pater et timore filium et perturbatione liberavit exercitum.  Superato enim dolore vulneris, et ab omnibus qui sui causa pertimuerunt conspici studens, bellum in Judæos sævius incitavit.  Nam velut ultor quisque imperatoris omne periculum adire cupiebat ;  et clamore alius alium adhortantes, murum petebant. but the occurrence produced the utmost consternation in the Roman ranks;  for the sight of the blood badly shook those nearest to Vespasian, and the news ran through the whole army, with the result that most of the men left the siege and in dismay and terror came running towards their commander.  First to arrive was Titus, in fear for his father’s life, so that both their concern for their leader and the son’s worry caused agitation in the troops.  However the father easily put an end to his son’s fears and the consternation of the army.  Rising above his pain and making an effort to be seen by everyone who was alarmed on his behalf, he stimulated them to yet more furious onslaughts;  every man wanted, as the avenger of his commander, to brave any danger;  and, shouting encouragement to each other, they charged the wall. 23 Josephus autem cum suis, licet assiduis ballistarum itemque tormentorum ictibus caderent, nequaquam tamen deterrebantur a muro, sed flammis et ferro et saxis eos appetebant qui arietem protecti cratibus impellerent.  Nihil autem, aut parum, proficiebant, quum sine intermissione procumberent in conspectu hostium positi quos ipsi contra videre non possent.  Nam et suis ignibus collucebant, tanquam si dies esset, et certum erant hostibus signum quo tela dirigerent, machinisque procul non apparentibus, missilia cavere non poterant.  Ergo propterea tam catapultarum quam jaculorum vi simul multi transfigebantur ;  missaque machinis saxa et murorum minas auferebant, et frangebant angulos turrium.  Virorum autem nulli tam fortiter constipati erant, ut non usque ad extremam aciem saxi magnitudine ac violentia sternerentur. Josephus and his men, although continually being killed by the strikes of ballistas and artillery pieces, were not driven from the wall, but with fire, iron and stones continued to attack those who, protected by wicker roofings, were swinging the ram.  Sitll, they accomplished little or nothing, since they themselves, being exposed to the view of the enemy whom they themselves could not see, were constantly being felled;  for their own fires lit them up as though in daylight, and they were a clear target for the enemy to aim at;  and, because the remote artillery was not visible, they could not dodge the missiles.  As a result, many men were killed simultaneously by catapults and javelin-crossbows;  rocks thrown by the engines took off the raised portions of the parapet walls and knocked corners off of towers.  There was in fact no body of men so strong that it cannot be laid low to the last rank by the size and force of these stones. Sciet autem aliquis, hujus machinæ vis quantum valeat ex his quæ illa nocte contigerunt :   in muro cuidam ex circumstantibus Josepho, saxo percusso caput avulsum est, ejusque ad tertium stadium veluti funda excussa calvaria ;  interdiu quoque prægnantis feminæ transjecto utero, ad dimidium stadium infans abactus est ;  tanta tormento vis fuit.  Ergo machinis terribilior erat impetus, et missilium strepitus.  Crebri autem mortui, quum per muros dejicerentur, sonabant. The power of this weapon can be gathered from the incidents of that night:  one of the men standing near Josephus on the rampart had his head torn off by a rock, his skull being flung as though from a sling over six hundred yards;  also, when in the daytime a pregnant woman’s womb was blasted through, the fetus was smashed away a hundred yards — so tremendous was the power of that stone-thrower.  More terrifying than the actual engines was their drone and the shrieking of the missiles.  And the many dead bodies, as they were thrown from the ramparts, made thudding sounds. Et acerbissimus quidem intus excitabatur mulierum clamor ;  extrinsecus autem occumbentium gemitus concrepabant ;  totusque ambitus muri ad quem pugnabatur sanguine confluebat ;  jamque ascendi poterat congestione cadaverum.  Montes autem resonantes multo amplius horrorem augebant ;  nec quicquam illi nocti defuit, quod vel auribus vel oculis terrorem posset incutere.  Plurimi quidem pro Jotapata decertantes, fortiter ceciderunt, plurimi etiam sauciati sunt, et tamen vix circa matutinas vigilias murus assiduis machinarum ictibus cessit.  Tumque illi quidem corporibus atque armis eam partem quæ dejecta fuerat, priusquam Romani pontes apponerent, munierunt. Within the town rose the screeching shrieks of women, outside it the groans of dying men were heard.  The whole approach to the wall where the fighting occurred ran with blood, and it was possible to climb up using the heap of corpses.  The echoes from the mountains greatly magnified the horror, and on that night nothing was missing that could strike ear or eye with terror.  Great numbers of Jotapata’s defenders fell heroically;  great numbers were wounded.  Not till the morning watch did the wall yield to the continuous pounding of the artillery;  and then the Jews blocked the breach with their bodies and their weapons before the Romans could rush their scaling-gangways into position. 24 — Caput C-10 — De iterata impugnatione Jotapatenorum. Mane autem Vespasianus ad occupandam civitatem jam ducebat exercitum, ex nocturno labore paulum recreatum.  Idemque cupiens de convulsa muri parte alios propugnatores depellere, equitum quidem fortissimos equis depositos trifariam collocat ;  ut tecti armis dirutum latus undique obsiderent, contosque prætenderent ;  et quum pontes admoveri cœpissent, ipsi priores introirent.  Post illos autem pedites validissimos ordinavit.  (Reliquam vero equitum multitudinem secundum muri spatium per montana loca distendit, ne quis fugiens excidium civitatis lateret.)  Deinde qui hos sequerentur constituit sagittarios, paratas sagittas habere jussos, funditores quoque similiter, et appositos machinis.  Aliis autem integris muri partibus scalas applicare præcepit, ut qui hos prohibere temptassent, dejectæ partis defensionem relinquerent, ceterique omnibus simul telis oppressi, violentiæ irrumpentium cederent. At daybreak Vespasian brought up his army for storming the city, refreshed by a short rest after the toils of the night.  As he wished to drive the defenders off from the breached part of the wall, he dismounted the pick of his horsemen and ranged them in three groups;  so that, protected by their armor, they would storm the breached side from all directions, pointing their lances ahead of them, and when the gangways began to be moved into position, they would be the first to enter.  Behind them he ranged the strongest of his infantry.  (The rest of the cavalry he lined up, parallel with the wall, throughout the mountains to prevent anyone from slipping away unnoticed from the destruction of the town.)  Behind the infantry he stationed the archers, ordering them to have their arrows ready to discharge;  the slingers and artillerymen received similar instructions.  He ordered others to carry ladders and set them up against the undamaged portions of the wall, in the hope that some Jews in their efforts to hold them off would abandon the defense of the breaches, while all the rest, simultaneously swamped by the deluge of missiles, would yield to the violence of the invaders. 25 Josephus autem hoc consilio cognito, per murum integrum labore fatigatos itemque senes disposuit, quasi lædi non possent ;  in parte vero collapsa validum et potentissimum quemque.  Senosque ante omnes viros, in quibus et ipse fuit, ad pericula subeunda sortitus est ;  hisque præcepit ut agminum ululatibus ne metu quaterentur, aures obstruerent ;  contra sagittarum vero multitudinem communiti protegerentur desuper scutis ;  paulatimque recederent, donec sagittarii pharetras exinanirent.  Si vero pontes a Romanis apponerentur, ipsos prosilire mandavit ;  atque hostibus persuasit per sua instrumenta resistere ;  unumquemque vero ita certare debere, non quasi conservandam tueretur, sed quasi perditam jam patriam vindicaret ;  atque oculis suis proponere mactari senes ac liberos, conjugesque suas propemodum ab hostibus capi ;  vimque futuræ cladis jam nunc collectam in auctores ejus effundere. Josephus, knowing the strategy, stationed the older men and the battle-weary on the undamaged parts of the wall, under the assumption they would not suffer much;  where the wall had been broken through he posted the fittest and strongest of his men.  To head them all he chose by lot groups of six men apiece, among whom he himself was, to go into battle.  He issued instructions that, to avoid panic, the men were to block their ears to the battle cries of the legions, and when the hail of arrows fell, they were to remain protected by taking cover beneath their shields and to withdraw a little way until the archers had emptied their quivers.  But as the gangways were dropped into place by the Romans, they were to leap forward at once — he exhorted them to stop the enemy through his own devices.  Every man must fight, not as though to save, but to take vengeance for, a fatherland already lost;  they should picture to themselves old men and children butchered, the impending capture of their wives by the enemy.  They should now concentrate within themselves the full force of the coming catastrophe and pour it out upon its authors. 26 Ita quidem in utroque disposuit.  Civitatis autem vulgus imbelle, mulieres ac pueri, postquam oppidum triplici acie videre circumdatum (nullus enim ad pugnam translatus fuerat a custodiis) strictisque gladiis ad partem muri dejectam hostes instare, armisque montana loca omnia desuper collucere, atque Arabum quendam sagittariis tela suggerere, tunc extremo ululatu quasi capta urbe consonuerunt, non ut impendēre mala, sed ut adesse jam crederes.  Quare Josephus mulieres, ne misericordia suorum animos effeminarent, intra domos cum interminatione concludit, silere jussas ;  ipse vero ad partem muri quæ sibi obtigerat transivit.  Et scalas quidem applicantibus animum non intendit, sed tantum speculabatur impetum sagittarum. He thus apportioned his forces in two sections.  But after the non-combatant people of the city, the women and children, saw the town encircled by a triple battle line — for none of the Roman guards had been transferred to the battle — and saw too the enemy, sword in hand, standing before the breached part of the ramparts, and all the mountain slopes above them flashing with arms, and one of the Arabs giving arrows to the archers, they raised a last, united shriek over, as it were, the capture of the city — not as if ruin were impending, but were already reality.  So Josephus, lest through pity the women should weaken the fighting spirit of their men, locked them in their homes, threatening them with punishment if they did not hold their tongues.  He himself then went over to the part of the wall which had fallen to him by lot.  He paid no attention to those who were bringing up the ladders, but concentrated strictly on the onrush of arrows. 27 Simul autem ac tubicines universarum legionum consonuerunt, et graviter infremuit exercitus ;  signoque dato, missis undique sagittis lux obscurari cœpit.  Josephi socii memores præceptorum, et adversus clamorem obstructis auribus, et contra sagittarum vulnera corporibus communitis, quum admoverentur pontium machinæ, ipsi eas cursu, et antequam hostes pedem in his ponerent, occupant ;  eosque ascendere nitentes prœlio deturbant, varia manuum itemque animi facinora demonstrantes, et ne vel in extremis calamitatibus deteriores illis viderentur qui sine periculo fortes contra se essent curabant. At one and the same moment the trumpets of all the legions blared and the army roared savagely.  At a given signal, the daylight began to darken from arrows shot from everywhere.  Not forgetting their instructions, Josephus’ comrades stopped their ears against the battle cry and shielded their bodies from the wounds by the arrows;  as the gangway engines were moved into position, they charged and seized them before the enemy could set foot on them.  They threw back in the fighting those who were struggling to climb up, and displayed every heroic exploit of hand and spirit, taking care even in their final catastrophe not to appear to be the inferiors of those who, without that risk, showed themselves to be courageous against them. Nec prius a Romanis divellebantur, quam vel caderent vel occīderent.  Itaque Judæis perpetuo dimicantibus, quum nec unde mutarent propugnatores haberent, defessis autem Romanorum assidue substituerentur, proque his quos violentia repulissent, alii succederent, invicem se adhortati latera copulant ;  protectique desuper longioribus scutis, inexpugnabilis globus effecti sunt ;  totaque acie velut uno corpore repellendo Judæos, muro jam pedem ponebant. They did not separate from the Romans until they either fell or felled.  But the Jews were fighting without letup, since they did not have combatants to take their places, while exhausted Romans were constantly being replaced, and for those driven back by force, others came forward, cheering one another on as they linked sides;  protected from above by their long shields, they built an impregnable bulk {(i.e., the testudo)} and, with their whole battle group acting as a single body driving the Jews back, they were virtually placing their feet on the wall. 28 Tum Josephus, his rerum angustiis consilio necessitatis adhibito — machinis excogitandis quum desperatione stimulatur — ferventique oleo perfundi milites jubet, scutorum conjunctione defensos.  Id autem Judæi multi, qui et paratum haberent et plurimum, cito Romanis infundunt, ipsis etiam in eos aënis missis, calore bullientibus.  Hæc res Romanorum ardentium aciem dissipavit, et cum dolore sævissimo devolvebantur a muro.  Siquidem facile a vertice ad pedes usque sub armatura oleum per totum corpus fluebat, carnemque non secus ac flamma depascebatur, quod natura facile calesceret, seroque pro sui pinguedine refrigesceret.  Thoracibus autem et galeis illigatis incendii fuga non erat.  Nunc autem salientes, nunc incurvati dolore, de pontibus decidebant.  Ad suos autem contranitentes tuto recedere non poterant, quoniam facile ab insequentibus vulnerabantur. In this dire situation Josephus, applying the counsel of necessity — given that it invents stratagems when goaded by despair — ordered boiling oil poured on the soldiers who were protected by their interlocked shields.  As the Jews had a lot of it ready, goodly numbers of them quickly poured it on the Romans, followed by the vessels themselves blistering with heat.  This broke the formation of the scalded Romans, and in excruciating pain they tumbled down from the wall.  For the oil flowed readily beneath their armor from head to foot over their whole bodies and devoured their flesh no differently than fire would, because by nature it heats up easily and cools off slowly due to its fattiness.  Entangled in their cuirasses and helmets, they could not escape the inferno.  They fell leaping into the air or contorted with pain from the gangways, while those who were struggling to get back to their own comrades could not retreat safely, since they were easily wounded by those who were following them. 29 Sed neque Romanis virtus in rebus adversis, nec Judæis prudentia defuit.  Romani enim, licet oleo perfusi mirabilia pati viderentur, tamen in eos qui perfuderant ferebantur, præcedentem quisque incursando tanquam ipse impetum retardaret. But amidst the reverses, the Romans showed no lack of fortitude, nor yet the Jews of resourcefulness.  The Romans, despite the fact that those who had been drenched with oil were seen to be suffering horribly, advanced against those who had done the drenching, everyone bumping against the man ahead as though he were slowing the attack. Judæi vero progressum eorum dolo altero deceperunt, quum feno græco decocto pontium tabulata perfunderent ;  quibus illi dilabentes retrahebantur ut neque fugientium quisquam, neque aggredientium firmo posset eniti vestigio ;  sed alii quidem resupinati per ipsas pontium tabulas calcarentur, multi vero super aggeres dejicerentur, et qui cecidissent a Judæis feriebantur qui, Romanis desilientibus conflictu jam liberi, facillime tela dirigebant. However the Jews frustrated their advance with a second ruse:  they poured boiled fenugreek {a slippery, plant-based lubricant} on the gangway planks, so that the enemy slipped and slid backward.  Thus no one struggling either to retreat or advance could do so with a firm foothold;  some, falling on their backs, were trampled on the gangways themselves, but many tumbled off onto the siege-ramp embankments — and the ones that had fallen were shot by the Jews who, with the Romans jumping off, were now free of the fighting and could quite easily take careful aim. Quum autem multa milites mala in hac perpeti pugna dux videret, sub vesperam eos revocat ;  quorum non paucis trucidatis, plures sunt vulnerati.  Ex Jotapata vero sex viris mortuis, plures quam trecenti saucii translati sunt.  Hoc autem modo pugnatum est Junii mensis die vigesimo. Towards evening, when the general saw that many of his soldiers had been suffering badly in this ongoing combat, he called retreat.  Of the Romans, quite a few were dead and more were wounded.  Of the defenders of Jotapata, with six men killed, over three hundred wounded were recovered.  This fighting took place on the 20th of June. 30 At Vespasianus, eorum causa quæ acciderant consolatus exercitum, postquam ira vidit accensum, neque tam exhortationem quam opus deposcere, aggeres quidem altius tollit.  Tres vero turres quinquagenum pedum in excelsum jubet erigi, ferro undique tectas ut et pondere stabiles essent, neque ignibus expugnarentur, easque super aggeres collocat, jaculatoribus et sagittariis itemque levioribus missilium machinis plenas, funditorum quoque fortissimis.  Qui, quum non conspicerentur propter altitudinem turrium et loricas, ipsi eos qui super murum astarent facile conspicuos telis feriebant. Vespasian, consoling his army over what had happened, after seeing it fired up with anger and asking not for exhortations but for action, raised the siege ramps higher.  He ordered three towers erected, each fifty feet high, encased in iron all around so as to stabilize them with weight and so they could not be destroyed by fire.  He placed them on the siege ramps, loaded with javelin-crossbows and archers as well as the lighter artillery and the strongest of the slingers.  These men, since they could not be seen due to the height of the towers and the breastworks, themselves proceeded to pelt with projectiles those who, standing atop the wall, were easily visible. At illi, quum neque a vertice venientes sagittas facile declinarent, neque ulcisci possent quos non viderent (altitudine quidem turrium librata manu jacula superante, ferro autem quo erant sæptæ flammis obstante) ob hæc defensionem muri deserunt, oppugnationemque temptantibus prompte occurrunt.  Et Jotapateni quidem ita resistebant.  Quamvis multi in dies singulos occumberent, neque contra mali quicquam hostibus facerent, quod eos sine periculo prohibere non poterant. The Jews found it difficult to dodge the missiles launched at their heads or to retaliate against those whom they could not see, given that the height of the towers exceeded the reach of weapons thrown by hand, while the iron that encased them was proof against fire, so they stopped defending the wall and sallied out to confront those trying to attack.  In this way Jotapata held out, though every day many lost their lives and they could not inflict any losses on the enemy because they could not stave them off without great risk. 31 — Caput C-11 — Japhæ expugnatio a Trajano et Tito. His autem diebus Vespasianus, ad finitimam quandam Jotapatæ civitatem evocatus cui nomen est Japha, novas res affectantem, et propterea quod Jotapatenos præter spem restitisse audierat, insolescentem, mittit eo Trajanum, Decimæ Legionis rectorem, dans ei duo milia peditum et equites mille.  Ille autem, quum oppidum contra expugnationem munitissimum repperisset (nam præter naturam qua tutum erat, etiam muro duplici cingebatur), habitatores vero ejus vidisset paratos ad pugnam sibi obvios processisse, prœlium cum his committit, eosque paulisper reluctatos in fugam vertit ;  quos vestigiis consecuti Romani, exterioris muri ambitum quo confugerant, cum ipsis irrumpunt.  Secundum autem murum petentibus cives sui clausere civitatem, metu scilicet, ne cum his rursus hostes intrarent. During these days Vespasian had his attention drawn to a town neighboring Jotapata named Japha which had revolted, becoming insolent because it had heard that the Jotapateni had held out beyond all hope.  So against it he sent Trajan, commander of the Tenth Legion, giving him 2,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry.  The latter, while he discovered that the town was strongly fortified against siege (for besides being protected by nature, it was also surrounded by a double wall), also found the inhabitants coming against him ready to fight;  he joined battle with them and, after some brief resistance by them, put them to flight.  The Romans, who followed hot on their heels as they fled into the interspace inside the outer wall, broke in with them.  When they made for the second wall, however, their own citizens shut them out of the city out of fear that the enemy would get in with them. Profecto autem Deus Galilæorum clades Romanis donabat, qui etiam tunc civitatis ejus universum populum, exclusum mœnibus propriis, ad interitum hostibus dedit avidissimis cædium.  Multi enim simul ruentes ad portas, multumque nominatim præpositos inclamantes, inter ipsas preces mactabantur quibus hostes unum murum, alterum cives clauserant ;  et inter medios coacti murorum ambitus, multi quidem sociorum gladiis transfigebantur, infiniti vero a Romanis interficiebantur, ne ad ulciscendum quidem recepta fiducia.  Nam præter hostilem metum, etiam domestica proditio eorum animos fregerat.  Denique moriebantur non Romanos, sed Judæos exsecrando — quoad omnes interiere numero hominum duodecim milia. But without a doubt it was God who granted the catastrophe of the Galilæans as a present to the Romans, he who at that time gave that city’s entire population, shut out of its own walls, for annihilation over to an enemy lusting for slaughter.  For, hurling themselves in a body at the gates and impassionedly crying out to the gatekeepers by name, they were butchered in the very midst of their supplications — the men to whom the Romans had closed one wall, and their fellow citizens the other.  Packed together in the middle interspace of the walls, many were impaled on their comrades’ swords, immense numbers were slaughtered by the Romans, while not even having the will to retaliate.  For besides the fear of the enemy, their own people’s treachery had broken their spirits.  In the end they died cursing not the Romans but the Jews, until they were all destroyed, 12,000 of them. Unde Trajanus vacuam esse civitatem pugnatoribus reputans, et si qui adhuc intus essent, nihil eos ausuros esse existimans præ timore, imperatori excidium reservavit.  Eumque per nuntios rogavit ut filium suum Titum mitteret, finem victoriæ impositurum.  Ille autem laboris aliquid superesse ratus, cum milite filium misit, hoc est, quingentis equitibus, et peditibus mille. Assuming there were no fighting men left in the town, and taking it for granted that, even if some were still inside, they would be too frightened to make any resistance, Trajan reserved the actual capture for the commander-in-chief, and dispatched messengers to Vespasian inviting him to send his son Titus to put the finishing touches on the victory.  Vespasian, assuming that some work was left over, sent his son with a force of 500 horse and 1,000 foot. Qui mature ad civitatem profectus sic ordinavit exercitum, ut in lævo quidem latere Trajanum constitueret, ipse vero in dextro obsidioni præesset.  Itaque militibus scalas muris undique applicantibus, quum paulisper desuper Galilæi obstitissent, continuo mœnia reliquerunt ;  Titus vero ejusque comites saltu demissi, mature civitatem obtinuerunt.  Tumque vehemens cum his qui se intus congregavere pugna commissa est, nunc per angusta viarum irruentibus validissimis, nunc feminis ex tectorum culminibus, quæ forte invenissent tela jactantibus. Titus marched rapidly to the town, drew up his forces with Trajan posted on the left wing and himself on the right in command of the siege.  The soldiers brought up ladders to the wall on every side, and for a short while the Galilæans resisted from on top, but very soon abandoned the walls;  Titus and his comrades jumped down over them and quickly took over the town.  A fierce battle ensued with those who crowded inside — now with the strongest fighters rushing at them through the narrow lanes, now with the women throwing whatever random weapons they could find from the rooftops. Et hoc quidem modo usque ad sextam horam sustinuere conflictum.  Absumptis autem bellatoribus, cetera multitudo, et sub divo et per domos, senes pariter ac juvenes mactabantur.  Denique virilis sexus præter infantes nullus remansit, qui cum mulieribus abducti sunt servitio.  Interemptorum quidem in civitate, et in primo congressu, numerus fuit XV• milia, captivorum autem duo milia CXXX•.  Hæc Galilæis clades contigit quinto et vigesimo die Junii mensis. They kept up the battle in this way until the sixth hour;  but when the fighting men had all been killed off, the rest of the population were butchered both in the open and in the houses, old as well as young.  In the end no male was left alive apart from infants, who together with the women were taken off to slavery.  Those who had been slaughtered, either in the town or in the preceding engagement, totalled 15,000, the captives 2,130.  This catastrophe befell the Galilæans on the 25th of June. 32 — Caput C-12 — De Samaritis a Cereale devictis. Sed ne Samaritæ quidem alieni a calamitatibus remansere ;  hi namque in monte Garizin, qui est illis sanctissimus, congregati, locis suis expectabant.  Belli autem minas eorum conventūs ac spiritūs habere videbatur ;  nec saltem vicinorum malis corrigebantur sed, inconsulta suarum virium infirmitate, secundis Romanorum rebus exterriti, prona in tumultum voluntate pendebant. Not even the Samaritans remained immune from disaster.  They assembled on Mount Gerizim, which they regard as sacred, and waited in their positions.  But it seemed their concentration and attitude contained a threat of war.  They learned nothing even from the woes of their neighbors but, not considering the weakness of their own forces, while panicked by Roman successes, they wafted in suspense, with an attitude inclined to rebellion. Vespasiano autem placebat motūs antecapere eorumque impetūs prævenire.  Nam etsi præsidiis tota Samaritica regio cincta erat, tamen eorum multitudo qui coierant, et conspiratio, timebatur.  Eaque causa Cerealem, Quintæ Legionis tribunum, cum sescentis equitibus tribusque peditum milibus mittit.  Ille autem ad montem quidem accedere, prœlioque congredi nequaquam tutum esse duxit, quod hostes plurimi desuper essent ;  milites vero, circumvallatis undique montis radicibus, tota eos die custodiebant. Vespasian decided to forestall the uprising and nip their offensive in the bud;  for even though the whole Samaritan region was surrounded with garrisons, nonetheless the size and unity of the assembled host was alarming.  So he sent {Sextus} Cerealis {Vettulenus}, tribune of the Fifth Legion, at the head of 600 horse and 3,000 foot.  In this officer’s opinion it was unsafe to ascend the mountain and join battle, as a great many of the enemy were up there;  so the soldiers, encircling the whole base of the mountain, kept them under observation all day long. Evenit autem, aquæ tunc indigentibus Samaritis, etiam graves accendi æstus (erat enim tempus æstatis, neque se rebus necessariis vulgus instruxerat) adeo ut nonnulli quidem una die siti morerentur, multi vero ejusmodi morti servitium præferentes, ad Romanos transfugerent ;  ex quibus cognito, Cerealis, illos etiam qui adhuc perseverarent, malis infractos, montem ascendit, et circum hostes exercitu constituto, primum eos ad fœdera hortabatur, atque ut salvi esse mallent rogabat, si arma projecissent, tutos fore promittens ;  denique, quia persuadere non posset aggressus, eos occidit omnes.  Erant autem undecim milia et sescenti.  Hæc Junii mensis vigesimo et septimo die gesta sunt ;  atque his calamitatibus Samaritæ oppressi sunt. It happened that, just when the Samaritans were in dire need of water, they were burnt up by a terrible heatwave — it was summertime, and the mass of them had not equipped themselves with the necessary supplies.  As a result, some of them died of thirst that very day, and many, prefering slavery to such a death, deserted to the Romans.  From them Cerealis learned that those who still held out were broken by their sufferings, so he climbed up the mountain.  Posting his men in a ring around the enemy, he first exhorted them to come to conditions, asking them to prefer saving their lives and promising their safety if they threw down their arms.  Finally, since could not persuade them, he attacked and slew them all, to the number of 11,600.  This happened on the 27th of June, and the Samaritans were wiped out by this calamity. 33 — Caput C-13 — Jotapatæ excidium. Jotapatenis autem diu durantibus et præter spem adversa tolerantibus, quadragesimo quidem ac septimo die Romanorum aggeres super murorum altitudinem sunt elati.  Quidam vero ad Vespasianum eodem die profugus venit, paucitatem civium et infirmitatem simul eorum enuntians ;  quodque diuturnis vigiliis et prœliis assiduis consumpti, minime quidem ulterius vim ferre possent, verum dolo etiam caperentur, si quis instaret.  Circa extremam namque vigiliam, quando et malorum requiem habere viderentur et maxime defatigatos custodes matutinus somnus occupat, dormire eos dicebat, eademque hora invadendos esse suadebat. In Jotapata the defenders still held out, bearing up under their reverses longer than expected.  But on the forty-seventh day, the Roman siege ramps overtopped the wall, and that very day a deserter came to Vespasian and let him know about the paucity of men and also their weak state.  He told him that they were exhausted by the constant night watches and ongoing battles and could no longer withstand an assault, but would fall to a ruse if anyone tried it.  In the last watch of the night, when they thought they might get some respite from their hardships, and morning sleep overcame the utterly exhausted guards, he said, they fell asleep, and so it was in that hour that they should be invaded. Vespasiano autem, quia fidem nosset inter se Judæorum, quantaque superbia pœnas contemnerent, transfuga suspectus erat ;  nam et antea quidam ex Jotapata captus, omne tormentorum genus fortiter pertulit, et quum ne flammis quidem coactus, quid intus ageretur, hostibus exquirentibus prodidisset, mortem deridens cruci suffixus est.  Fidem tamen proditori conjectura faciebat, fortasse illum vera dicere ;  ipse autem nihil ex ejus fallacia magnum sibi existimans esse metuendum, asservari hominem jussit, et ad occupandam civitatem parabat exercitum. Vespasian mistrusted the deserter, knowing how loyal the Jews were to each other and how contemptuous of torture;  for earlier on, when a man from Jotapata had been captured, he had bravely borne up under every kind of torture, and had betrayed nothing of what was going on in the town even when seared with fire, and met death by crucifixion with a smile.  On the other hand, the hypothesis induced some trust that perhaps he was telling the truth, and thinking that there would be nothing serious to fear from the man’s lying, the general ordered him to be closely guarded and got his army ready for the capture of the town. 34 Hora igitur quæ fuerat indicata, silentio muros petebat ;  primusque incedebat Titus cum uno e tribunis, Domitio Sabino, paucis ex Quintadecima Legione comitatus.  Interfectis autem vigilibus, in civitatem ingrediuntur, et post eos Sextus Cerealis tribunus, et Placidus, subjectos sibi milites introducebant.  Arce vero occupata, quum hostes in medio oppido versarentur, jamque plane dies esset, ne tunc quidem illi qui capti tenerentur, adhuc excidium sentiebant, multo labore somnoque pariter dissoluti.  Et si quis evigilasset, nebula visus ejus hebetavit quæ casu tunc plurima se circa oppidum fuderat. At the hour indicated they moved forward noiselessly to the wall.  The first to climb up was Titus, accompanied by one of the tribunes, Domitius Sabinus, and followed by a handful of men from the Fifteenth Legion.  After killing the sentries, they entered the town.  In their rear Sextus Calvarius, a tribune, and Placidus brought in the units they commanded.  After taking the citadel, the enemy was ranging through the center of the town, and it was broad daylight — and even then the captured defenders still did not realize their downfall, being debilitated with so much effort as well as with sleep;  if anyone did rouse himself, his vision was obscured by a thick fog which by chance poured around the town at that moment. Donec totus irrupit exercitus ;  soloque malorum periculo exsuscitati sunt, morientesque demum se periisse crediderunt.  Romanos autem, memores quid obsidionis tempore pertulissent, neque parcendi cuiquam, neque miserendi quenquam tangebat cura ;  sed ex arce plebem ad prona compulsam facillime trucidabant, ubi loci difficultas pugnacibus quoque negaret copiam resistendi.  Viarum namque angustiis pressi ac per declivia dilabentes, fluente desuper bello obterebantur.  Id multos etiam qui circa Josephum lecti erant ut manibus propriis liberarentur incitavit.  Nam quum se viderent Romanorum neminem posse occidere, ne Romanorum manibus oppeterent prævenerunt et, in extrema parte civitatis congregati, semet interfecerunt. Until the whole army broke in;  they were awakened only by the debacle of their doom, finally realizing when dying that they had perished.  The Romans, remembering what they had suffered during the siege, were concerned neither with sparing nor showing mercy to anyone.  Driving the people downslope from the citadel, they slaughtered them with great ease, while the difficult terrain deprived the fighters of the means of resistance.  For crowded in the narrow lanes and slipping down the steep face, they were crushed by the downflowing carnage.  It drove even many of the elite fighters around Josephus to take themselves out with their own hands;  for when they saw that they could not kill a single Roman, they forestalled dying at the hands of the Romans and, collecting at the far edge of the town, killed themselves. 35 Quicunque tamen vigilum primi captam civitatem senserant, in quandam turrim septentrionalem fuga recepti aliquamdiu quidem restiterunt.  Deinde circumfusi hostium multitudine, sero dextras dedere ;  hisque instantibus, mortem suam æquo animo præbuerunt.  Potuissent autem incruento Romani obsidionis fine gloriari, nisi unus ex ipsis occĭdisset centurio, Antonius, peremptus insidiis.  Nam quidam ex his qui ad speluncas confugerant (erant autem plurimi) rogabat Antonium, dextram sibi porrigere, ad fidem salutis ac præsidium, quo tutus ascenderet.  Quumque is manum porrexisset incaute, hasta ille præventum sub inguine perculit, statimque confecit. Some of the sentries had been the first to realize that the city had been taken and, retreating to once of the northern towers, held out there for a time;  but after being surrounded by a large enemy force, they — too late — stretched out their hands for negotiations and calmly allowed those attacking them to kill them.  The Romans might well have boasted of the end of the siege being bloodless, if one of them — the centurion Antonius — had not fallen, killed by a ruse.  One of the Jews who had fled to the caves (as many had) asked Antonius to give him his hand as a pledge of safety and protection so that he could climb out safely.  When the Roman incautiously gave him his hand, as he was coming forth the Jew struck him with a spear under his groin and killed him instantly. 36 Illo quidem die comparentem multitudinem peremere Romani.  Postea vero secutis diebus scrutando latebras, per cuniculos et speluncas in omnem sæviebant ætatem, præter infantes ac feminas.  Itaque captivi quidem mille ducenti congregati erant ;  quadraginta vero milia connumerata sunt excidii tempore et pugnis superioribus mortuorum.  At Vespasianus civitatem ipsam exscindi jubet, castellaque ejus omnia exurit.  Jotapata quidem ita devicta est tertiodecimo imperii Neronis anno, calendarum Juliarum die. On that day the Romans killed the entire present population;  on the ensuing days they searched the hiding-places, exterminating every age found in the tunnels and caves, except women and babies.  1,200 prisoners were taken;  40,000 was the number of the dead at the time of the slaughter and in the previous battles {(modern archeologists estimate the town could have initially held only ca. 7,000)}.  Vespasian ordered the town itself to be demolished and set fire to all the guardposts.  Thus Jotapata was taken in the thirteenth year of Nero’s reign, on the first of July. ⇑ § VIII Quomodo Josephus, a muliere proditus, sese Romanis tradere voluit.  Et quænam ad suos ipsum inhibentes disseruit, quæque ad Vespasianum ductus verba faciebat, et quomodo ab ipso tractactus est. How Josephus was discovered by a woman, and was willing to deliver himself up to the Romans ;  and what discourse he had with his own men, when they endeavored to hinder him ;  and what he said to Vespasian, when he was brought to him ;  and after what manner Vespasian used him afterwards. 1 — Caput C-14 — Quomodo Josephus captus vitam suam redemerit facto et verbis. Romani vero Josephum requirentes, et propriæ indignationis causa, et quod imperatori operæ pretium videbatur (captus enim, maxima pars belli esset) mortuos itemque abditos rimabantur ;  ille autem in exitio civitatis fortunæ quodam usus auxilio, per medios se hostes surripuit, et in quendam profundum puteum saltu demissus est, cui amplum specus adjunctum erat a latere, quod supra scrutantes videre non possent ;  ubi XL• insignes viros latitantes offendit, rerumque utilium apparatum, qui non paucis diebus sufficeret.  Hostibus autem omnia complexis, interdiu quidem se occultavit ;  nocte vero sursum ascendens, vigilias explorabat, ut fugeret.  Quumque omnia undique ipsius causa maxime custodirentur, neque fallendi spes esset, in speluncam iterum descendebat, biduumque ibi delituit.  Tertia vero die, capta quadam muliere, quæ cum ipsis fuerat, indicatus est.  Tumque Vespasianus propere duos tribunos Paulinum et Gallicanum, jussos pacem dare Josepho, et hortari eum ut ascenderet, mittit. The Romans looked everywhere for Josephus, both on account of their anger and because their commander considered it worthwhile, since if he were captured, it would mean a major part of the war.  So they searched carefully among the dead bodies and the men who had gone into hiding.  But during the destruction of the city, Josephus, with the help of a certain destiny, had stolen away through the midst of the enemy and jumped into a deep pit connected on one side with a wide cave which searchers above could not see.  There he found forty persons of importance concealed, and essential supplies that would last for quite a few days.  Given that the enemy controlled everything, in the daytime he lay hid, but at night he came out reconnoitering the sentries to see if he could escape;  but because everything was guarded everywhere just because of him, there was no hope of evasion, so he went down into the cave again and for two days he escaped detection.  But on the third day a woman of their group was captured and gave him away.  Vespasian immediately sent two tribunes, Paulinus and Gallicanus, with orders to offer Josephus safe conduct and persuade him to come out. 2 Quibus tamen ille rogantibus, postquam ad eum venerunt, fidemque pro salute dantibus minime paruit.  Ex his autem magis quæ pati meritus esset, qui plurima commisisset quam ex naturali mansuetudine rogantium, suspicionem colligens, velut ad pœnam evocaretur, timebat ;  donec Vespasianus tertium quoque tribunum Nicanorem, Josepho notum, atque olim consuetum misit.  Is autem, quam mite in eos Romanorum esset ingenium quos semel subjugassent referens, quodque ipse Josephus virtutis causa magis admirabilis quam invisus ducibus haberetur, essetque imperatori studium non eum ad supplicium ducere, quod etiam sine deditione sibi liceret exigere, sed conservare potius virum fortem ;  his addebat, quod nec Vespasianus, si quid dolo moliretur, amicum ad id mitteret ut rem optimam pessimæ, hoc est perfidiæ, prætexeret amicitiam ;  neque semetipsum illi, ut amicum falleret, obtemperaturum fuisse. But when, after arriving and giving him a pledge of safety, they asked him this, he refused to go along with it.  Becoming suspicious more because of what he had deserved to suffer — he who had done so much to the Romans — than to the natural kindness of those who were asking him to come, he feared it was as though he were being summoned to punishment;  until Vespasian also sent a third tribune, Nicanor, known to Josephus and in former times a friend.  He explained what clemency the Romans showed toward those they had once subdued, and that Josephus himself, because of his valor, was held more in admiration than in hatred by the commanders, and the commander-in-chief was anxious to bring him up not to execute him — which he could inflict even without Josephus’ surrender —, but because he preferred to save so valiant a man.  He added that if Vespasian had been laying a trap, he would not have sent a friend to cloak the finest virtue with the worst, friendship with perfidy, that is.  And he himself would never have acquiesced in deceiving a friend. 3 Verum Josepho etiam post Nicanoris dicta hæsitante, milites quidem irati, speluncæ ignem submittere properabant.  Sed retinebat eos belli ductor, vivum Josephum capere plurimi pendens.  Nicanore autem vehementer instante, ubi etiam hostilis multitudinis minas comperit Josephus, nocturna somnia reminiscitur, quibus ei Deus et futuras Judæorum clades, et quæ Romanis essent eventura principibus, ostendit.  Erat autem interpretandis quoque somniis idoneus, et conjectare quæ ambigue divinitus dicerentur sciebat ;  qui et sacros prophetarum libros noverat, quod et ipse sacerdos esset, et parentibus sacerdotibus procreatus.  Illa igitur hora quasi Deo plenus, et recentium somniorum quæ horrenda viderat simulacra mente complexus, occultas preces Deo offert.  « Et quia Judæorum », inquit, « labefactari tibi rem, Creator, placuit, fortuna vero ad Romanos tota migravit, animamque meam quæ futura prædiceret elegisti, do quidem manus sponte Romanis et vivo.  Testor autem, quod non proditor, sed tuus minister ad eos ibo. » While even after Nicanor’s assurances Josephus still hesitated, the soldiers, enraged, were hastily getting ready to throw fire into the cave, they were restrained by the officer, who was determined to take him alive.  As Nicanor was strongly urging him, when Josephus became aware of the threatening attitude of the enemy masses, he remembered those dreams in the night by which God had shown him both the disasters to come upon the Jews and the future history of the Roman emperors.  Moreover, he was versed in the interpretion of dreams and knew how to divine the meaning of equivocal supernatural utterances:  he also knew the sacred writings of the prophets, being a priest himself and the descendant of priests.  At this very moment he was as though divinely inspired and, contemplating the terrifying images of his recent dreams, he offered a secret prayer to God:  “Inasmuch as it pleaseth Thee, o Creator, that the nation of the Jews should be brought down, and all fortune hath gone over to the Romans, and Thou hast chosen my being to predict the future, of my own accord I will deliver my hands to the Romans and live.  But I solemnly declare that I am going to them, not as a traitor, but as Thy servant.” 4 Simulque his dictis Nicanori consentiebat.  Verum qui una confugerant Judæorum, postquam intellexerunt Josephum rogantibus cedere, universi circumstantes clamabant :  « Certe plurimum ingemiscere leges patriæ.  ¿ Ubi sunt quæ Judæis Deus annuit, quibus mortem contemnentes animas indidit ?  ¿ Vita, Josephe, captus es, lucemque pateris intueri servientem ?  Quam cito tui oblitus es ?  ¿ Quam multos pro libertate mori persuasisti ?  ¿ Falsam profecto opinionem fortitudinis habebas, falsamque prudentiæ, si salutem apud eos speras, cum quibus ita dimicasti ;  aut si hæc etiam certa sunt, ab illis tamen te servari cupis ?  Sed quamvis te Romanorum fortuna tui oblivione perfuderit, nos tamen patriæ gloriæ consulentes et dexteram tibi et gladium commodabimus ;  Tu vero siquidem sponte moriare, dux Judæorum, si vero invitus, proditor morieris. »  Vix hæc elocuti sunt, et intentatis ei gladiis, occidendum illum comminabantur, si Romanis pareret. With these words he nodded his assent to Nicanor.  But the Jews who had taken refuge along with him, realizing that he was giving in to the asker, all stood around him yelling, “Incredible!  The laws of our ancestors are emitting agonizing groans!  Where are the values that God has ordained for the Jews — whom he has endowed with death-despising souls?  Have you become obsessed with living, Josephus, and to the point of enduring slavery to gaze on the light?  How quickly you have forgotten yourself!  How many you have persuaded to die for liberty?  False, utterly false, was the reputation you enjoyed for courage and shrewdness, if you really expect to be spared by those you have fought the way you did;  and even if these things are guaranteed you, do you really want to be saved by them?  Still, however much the Roman victory has flooded you with forgetfulness, nevertheless we whose concern is the honor of our fatherland will afford you a right arm and a sword:  if on the one hand you die willingly, you will die as leader of the Jews;  but if unwillingly, as a traitor.”  At the end of these words they pointed their swords at him and threatened to kill him if he gave in to the Romans. 5 Timens igitur impetum Josephus, et se Dei præceptorum proditorem esse ratus si ea non renuntiasset, morte præventus, argumentis eos philosophiæ necessario tractare incepit.  « ¿ Et quid enim tantopere », inquit, « o socii, propriæ cædis avidi sumus ?  ¿ Aut cur amicissimas inter se res, corpus et animam, in dissensionem vocamus ?  ¿ Mutatum me esse quispiam dicet ?  Sed Romani hoc sciunt.  Optimum in bello mori ;  sed lege belli, hoc est a victoribus trucidati.  Proinde siquidem Romanorum ferrum deprecor, vere meo gladio meaque manu sim dignus ;  sin illi hosti suo parcendum putant, ¿ quanto justius nosipsi nobis pepercerimus ?  Quippe stolidum est ea circa nos admittere, pro quibus ab illis dissensimus.  Pulchrum enim esse pro libertate mori et ipse fateor — pugnando tamen, et illorum manibus qui eam præripuere ;  nunc autem neque prœlia nobis obstant, neque nos interficiunt.  Itidem autem timidus est habendus, qui mori non vult quum opus est, et qui vult quum non oportet. Fearing an assault and believing he would be betraying the commands of God if, forestalled by death, he did not convey them, Josephus began to deal with them using philosphical arguments.  “Why, my friends,” he began, “are we so eager for our own deaths?  Why should we make those best of friends, body and soul, part company?  Is someone saying that I have changed?  Well, the Romans know the facts.  Or that it is a glorious thing to die in war?  Quite so — but by the laws of war — that is, killed by the victors.  So if I am asking to escape the swords of the Romans, I fully deserve to die by my own sword and my own hand;  but if they are disposed to spare an enemy, how much more justified should we be in sparing ourselves?  It would be absurd to do to ourselves the very thing that we are against them for!  I myself agree that it is glorious to die for freedom — but on the battlefield and at the hands of those who are trying to take it from us.  But now they are neither opposing us with warfare nor killing us.  Equally cowardly are the man who does not want to die when it is necessary and the man who does want to when it is not. « Præterea, ¿ quis nos metus prohibet ad Romanos ascendere ?  Nempe mortis.  ¿ Ergo quæ ab hostibus dubie suspecta formidini est, eam certam ipsi nobis irrogabimus ?  Verum, servitutem dicet aliquis.  Valde quidem nunc liberi sumus.  ¿ At viri fortis est semet occidere ?  Immo vero ignavissimi, quantum opinor.  ¡ Nam et gubernatorem timidissimum puto qui, tempestatem metuens, ante vim turbinis navem sponte submergit !  Quinetiam propria manu perire, a communi omnium animalium natura discrepat, eoque modo in creatorem nostrum Deum summum scelus admittitur.  Nullum est animal, quod ex industria vel per se moriatur.  Siquidem naturæ lex validissima, ut velint vivere, in omnibus sita est ;  idcirco et qui nobis adimendum id putant, hostes ducimus, et quos nostros insidiatores putamus, pœna persequimur.  ¿ Deum vero indigne ferre non arbitramini, quum donum ejus homo despiciat ?  Ab illo enim accepimus ut essemus ;  rursumque, ut esse desinamus, illi reddendum est. “What fear keeps us from going up to the Romans?  Isn’t it fear of death?  Well, then, shall we ourselves inflict certain death on ourselves when only a suspected, uncertain death is feared from the enemy?  “No, it is fear of slavery,” someone will say.  Ah, yes indeed:  we are currently free men!  Or is it the act of a hero to kill oneself?  No, in my opinion it is a most craven act.  For I think a pilot would be a most arrant coward if, fearing a tempest, of his own accord he sank the ship before the bad weather hit.  Again, suicide is contrary to the instincts of all living things, and thus it is the worst crime against God our creator.  There is not a single living thing that dies on purpose or by its own act;  the will to live is the strongest natural law.  For that reason we regard as enemies those who seek to kill us, and we punish those who lay traps for us.  Do we really not think that God will be angered if man despises His gift?  For it is from Him that we have received our being, and it is in turn to Him that we must leave the right to end that being. « Corpora quidem cunctis mortalia sunt, ex caduca materia fabricata, anima vero semper immortalis est ;  Deique particula in corporibus collocata.  Si quis ergo depositum hominis surripuerit, aut male tractaverit, pessimus statim ac perfidiosus habetur.  Si Dei depositum ex proprio corpore quis ejecerit, ¿ eum se latuisse quem læserit æstimabit ?  Et servos quidem fugientes ulcisci justum creditur, quamvis nequam dominos fugerint ;  ¿ ipsi vero Deum fugientes — et optimum Deum —, impie facere non videbimur ?  ¿ An ignoratis, quod eorum qui lege naturæ vita exeunt, acceptumque Deo debitum solvunt, quum id qui dedit recipere voluerit, perpetua laus domusque ac familia stabiles sunt ? “The bodies of all men are mortal, fashioned out of perishable matter;  the soul, on the other hand, is immortal forever, a fragment of God housed in our bodies.  If a man steals something entrusted to him by another man or misuses it, he is judged a villain and faithless, is he not?  Then if, from his own body, a man throws away what God has entrusted to him, does he think he is hidden from the One he has wronged?  It is likewise considered right to punish runaway slaves, no matter how bad the masters they are fleeing are;  if we ourselves run away from God — the best of all —, will we not be seen to have acted impiously?  Or are you unaware that those who depart this life according to the law of nature, and who repay the loan they have received from God, at such time as the Lender chooses to claim it back, win everlasting praise and that their homes and families are secure? « Puræ autem et quæ, invocantes, exaudiant animæ, retinent locum in cælo adeptæ sanctissimum, atque inde rursum, volventibus sæculis, casta corpora jubentur incolere.  Quorum vero manus in seipsos insanierunt, eorum animas tenebrosior Orcus suscipit.  Pater autem illorum, Deus, auctores injuriæ per nepotes ulciscitur.  Hinc et Deo invisum est, et a sapientissimo Legis nostræ conditore coërcetur.  Denique si qui se occiderint, apud nos quidem usque ad solis occasum insepultos abjici decretum est, quum etiam hostes sepeliri fas esse ducamus ;  apud alios autem et dextræ jubentur abscindi ejusmodi mortuorum, quæ in ipsos armatæ sunt, quoniam ut corpus ab anima, ita manum esse a corpore alienam existimarent. “Plus, the souls which are pure and, calling on God, obey Him, keep the extremely sacred place they have gained in heaven whence again, when time turns full circle, they are sent to inhabit spotless bodies.  But those whose hands have gone insane against their own selves are received by the deeply darksome netherworld, and God, their Father, takes vengeance on those guilty of the wrong through their descendants.  For that reason suicide is hateful in God’s sight and is repressed by the wisest founder {(i.e., Moses [expanding on Dt 21,23], this passage also showing some influence from Plato)} of our Law.  Finally, if people kill themselves, it is decreed in our nation that they be thrown out unburied until sundown, whereas we consider it right that even enemies be buried.  In other lands it is laid down that the right hands of those who die thus should be cut off, since they have made war on themselves, on the ground that as the body has been alienated from the soul, so the hand must be alienated from the body. « Pulchrum est igitur, o socii, justa sentire, neque humanis cladibus addere ut Creatorem omnium impietate lædamus.  Si salvi esse volumus, salvi simus, nec enim salus apud eos ignobilis est, quibus tantis virtutem operibus demonstravimus.  Sin mori placet, ab his occidi perpulchrum est, qui nos ceperint.  Non migrabo ego in hostium locum ut ipse mei proditor fiam.  Multo enim stolidior sim, quam qui ad hostes ultro profugiunt ;  siquidem illi salutis suæ causa id faciunt, ego vero interitus, et quidem mei.  Romanorum tamen insidias votis expeto.  Nam si me et post junctas dextras perimant, magno animo paratoque moriar, mendacii perfidiam pro victoriæ solacio mecum auferens. “It is thus best, my comrades, to reason correctly and not add to human disasters by insulting the Creator of everything with sacrilege.  If we wish to be safe, let us be safe, for a safety is not dishonorable among those to whom we have demonstrated our valor with such great efforts;  if we choose to die, it is quite honorable to be killed by those who have conquered us.  I will not go over to the Roman side in order to be a traitor;  for I would be by far more stupid than those who flee to the enemy on their own:  whereas they do it for the sake of safety, I would be doing it for death, my own death.  However, what I am seeking and hoping for is entrapment by the Romans:  for if after giving me their word they put me to death, I shall die ready and with great equanimity, finding in their lying perfidy the consolation for their victory.” 6 Multa quidem in hunc modum Josephus, ut a cæde propria socios dehortaretur, dicebat.  Illi autem, obstructis desperatione qua se jamdudum morti devoverant auribus, concitantur ;  et alii aliunde cum gladiis accurrentes ignaviam exprobrabant ;  et quasi eum mox percussurus, quisque adoriebatur.  Ille autem quum alium nominatim vocaret, alium vultu ducis intueretur, alterius dexteram prehenderet, alium precibus exoraret, varia mentis affectione (ut in tali necessitate) distractus, ferrum omnium a cæde sua prohibebat, non secus ut feræ bestiæ circumclusæ, ad eum semper qui se contingeret, ora convertens.  Illorum autem, qui ducem in extrema quoque clade reverendum putabant debilitabantur dextræ, gladiique de manibus elabebantur ;  multi, quum manus ei afferrent, sponte frameas dimittebant. On these lines Josephus argued at great length to dissuade his comrades from their own death.  But with their ears blocked due to the desperation with which they had long since committed themselves to death, they were in a frenzy.  Running at him from all directions, sword in hand, they reviled him for cowardice, everyone coming up to him as though about to strike him.  But he called one by name, glared like a general at another, shook hands with a third, prevailed upon another with pleas and, distracted by conflicting emotions in his critical situation, he kept all their swords from killing him, not unlike surrounded animals always turning to face whoever was encroaching on him.  But those who thought their leader ought to be respected even in his final downfall, slackened their right arms and let their swords slip from their hands. 7 Josepho autem non defuit in desperatione consilium, sed fretus Dei providentia, salutem in periculum mittit.  « Et quoniam mori decretum est », inquit, « agite, cædes mutuas sortiamur ;  et cui obtigerit, manu sequentis occumbat, atque ita omnium fortuna perambulet, neque sua se quis dextera feriat ;  injustum est enim ceteris interemptis, ex aliis quenquam, si pænituerit, salvum esse. »  Visus vera dicere, et quod persuasit agitur ;  ut sors cuique obtigit, paratam ei qui sequeretur necem suam præbebat, quasi mox etiam duce perituro.  Cum Josepho enim perire, vita dulcius æstimabant.  Remansit autem ipse cum altero, sive fortuna dici poterat, sive Dei providentia.  Consultoque prospiciens, ne vel sorte gravaretur, vel si novissimus cessisset, gentilis cæde pollueretur, illi quidem, fide interposita, ut viveret persuasit. In this predicament his resourcefulness did not fail him.  Putting his trust in divine protection, he staked his life on a gamble.  “So since death has been decided on,” he said, “let’s draw lots for killing one another.  Let whoever draws the first lot die by the hand of the next man, and in this way everyone’s fate will take its course and no one will die by his own hand — for it would be unfair if, when the rest were killed off, one of them were to change his mind and save his life.”  He seemed to be saying the right thing, and what he suggested was done.  As the lot fell to each man, he would readily offer himself to be killed by the next one, assuming the commander too was soon to die.  To die with Josephus was considered sweeter than life.  But — whether it be called fate or divine providence — Josephus was left with one other man.  With a conscious view to not being downed by the drawing of lots or, if he became the last, being stained with the murder of a compatriot, he persuaded that man, with a pledge of troth, to live. 8 Ipse vero hoc modo et Romanorum et domestico bello liberatus, ad Vespasianum per Nicanorem ducebatur.  Omnes autem Romani visendi ejus gratia occurrebant ;  et quum se circa ducem premeret multitudo, varius tumultus erat, his exsultantibus quod captus esset, aliis minitantibus, nonnullis autem propius eum videre certantibus.  Et qui longius quidem aberant, hostem interficiendum esse clamabant ;  qui vero propius erant, facta ejus reputantes, mutationes stupescebant.  Rectorum autem nemo fuit qui, licet ante irasceretur nomini ejus, viri aspectu non mitior factus sit.  Titum vero præter alios et fortis Josephi animus in calamitatibus, et ætatis ejus misericordia capiebat ;  qualisque pridem fuisset in prœliis reminiscenti, et qualis nunc sit in hostium manibus positis intuenti, succurrebat quanta esset fortunæ potentia, quamque velox belli momentum ;  humanarum autem rerum nihil firmum atque perpetuum.  Quamobrem multos ad miserationem Josephi pertraxit, plurimaque salutis ejus pars Titus exstitit apud patrem.  Vespasianus tamen, quasi missurus eum Cæsari, ut cautissime custodiretur præcepit. Having thus made it through a civil war as well as a war with the Romans, Josephus was brought before Vespasian by Nicanor.  The Romans all rushed to see him and, as the mob milled around their commander, there was mass confusion, some exulting over the fact that Josephus had been captured, some threatening him, some elbowing their way forward to get a nearer view.  Those further back clamored for the execution of their enemy;  those up close remembered his exploits and were dumbfounded at the change in his fortunes.  But of the officers there was not one who, however much they had been infuriated at his very name, was not softened by the sight of him.  More than anyone else, Titus was impressed by the courageous bearing of Josephus in adversity and by pity for his youth.  Recalling what a fighter he had been earlier in battle, and his state now in the hands of the enemy, Titus was struck by the power of fate and how rapid the dynamics of war were:  nothing was stable and constant in human affairs.  Hence he induced quite a few men to feel pity for Josephus, and was the main influence on his father in saving him.  Vespasian, however, intending to send him to Nero, gave instructions that he should be kept in extremely strong custody. 9 Quo audito, Josephus aliquid ei soli se dicere velle ait.  Summotisque ab illo omnibus aliis præter filium Titum ac duos amicos, « Tu quidem », inquit, « Vespasiane, tantum hoc putas, Josephum te habere captivum ;  ego autem majorum ad te nuntius venio, præmissus a Deo ;  alioquin Judæorum legem sciebam, et quemadmodum duces exercituum mori deceret.  ¿ Ad Neronem me mittis ?  ¿ Quid ita ?  Quasi qui Neroni usque ad te successuri sunt, maneant.  Tu es Cæsar, Vespasiane, et Imperator, atque hic filius tuus ;  me autem colligatum artius tibi asservato ;  nam dominus quidem non mei solius es tu, Cæsar, verumetiam terræ marisque ac totius hominum generis.  Me autem ad majorem pœnam custodiri oportet, si ex tempore et subito in Dominum ista confingo. » Hearing this, Josephus asked to say a word to him in private.  Vespasian ordered everyone except his son Titus and two friends to withdraw, and Josephus began thus:  “You suppose, Vespasian, that in Josephus you have no more than a prisoner, but I come sent to you by God as a messenger of much greater things.  If not for that, I knew Jewish law and how army generals ought to die.  You are sending me to Nero?  How so?  As though those who are about to succeed Nero up until you will remain there?  You, Vespasian, are Cæsar and Emperor, you and your son here.  Keep me yet more securely bound and imprisoned for yourself;  for you are master not only of me, Cæsar, but of land and sea and all the human race;  I, however, should be held prisoner for greater punishment if, in violation of the Lord, I am making these things up extemporaneously and impromptu.” His dictis Vespasianus statim quidem fidem non habere videbatur, eaque Josephum existimabat salutis gratia comminisci.  Paulatim vero ad credendum impellebatur, jampridem illum excitante ad imperium Deo, sceptraque multis præmonstrante aliis portentis.  Sed et in aliis verum esse Josephum deprehenderat.  Altero namque amicorum qui secretis intererant, admirari dicente, quemadmodum (nisi hæc deliramenta sint) neque Jotapatenis de excidio, neque sibi de captivitate quicquam divinasset ut a se iram depelleret, Josephus Jotapatenis ait se prædixisse, quod post diem septimum et quadragesimum eos maneret exitium, quodque ipsum Romani vivum essent in custodia retenturi.  Hæc in secreto quæsita, Vespasianus ubi vera esse comperit a captivis, etiam quæ de se dixisset credibilia cœperat existimare ;  sed neque custodiam Josepho nec vincula remittebat ;  vestimentis autem aliisque muneribus eum donare benignissimeque fovere non desinebat, etiam Tito magnam honori ejus operam commodante. Vespasian seemed not to give these suggestions serious credence at the moment, assuming that Josephus was lying to save his life.  But gradually he was forced to believe, for God was already awakening in him imperial ambitions and foreshowing the scepter by other portents.  Moreover he found that Josephus had proved veridical on other occasions;  for one of the friends present at the private interview expressed surprise that (unless these were mad ravings) he had not forewarned the Jotapateni about their destruction or himself about his capture in order to avert the violence from himself.  But Josephus replied that he had predicted to the people of Jotapata that after forty-seven days doom would await them and that the Romans would take him alive.  After investigating these things in private and discovering from prisoners that they were true, Vespasian began to view what he had said about himself as credible too.  So, although he kept Josephus chained and in prison, he presented him with clothing and other gifts and did not cease treating him most kindly, Titus too putting many resources at the disposal of his distinction. ⇑ § IX Quomodo capta erat Joppe, et dedita Tiberias. How Joppa Was Taken, and Tiberias Delivered Up. 1 Quarto autem die mensis Julii Vespasianus in Ptolemaida reversus, inde in loca maritima Cæsaream pervenit, Judææ maximam civitatem, et quæ majorem incolarum partem Græcos haberet.  Igitur et exercitum et rectorem indigenæ omni favore ac benignitate suscipiunt, affectu quidem quo Romanos diligerent, plus autem illorum qui excisi fuerant odio ;  unde etiam multi simul, ut de Josepho supplicium sumeret, cum clamore precabantur.  Vespasianus autem de ista quidem petitione, velut ab inconsulta multitudine oblata, nihil respondendo dissolvit.  Legionum vero duas quidem hiematum apud Cæsaream posuit, quod opportunam videret esse civitatem.  Decimam vero et Quintam Scythopolim misit, ne totius exercitus molestia Cæsaream premeret.  Erat autem illa quoque aprica per hiemem, quantum æstatis caloribus æstuosa, ut in planitie sita atque maritima. On the 4th of Panemos, Vespasian returned to Ptolemais and thence to the coastal city of Cæsarea, Judæa’s largest city, with a predominantly Greek population.  Army and general alike were received with loud applause and in the friendliest spirit, partly through good will towards the Romans, but still more through hatred of those who had been annihilated, hatred which caused a howling crowd to clamor for Josephus to be executed.  But this demand, considering that it came from an irrational mob, Vespasian dismissed without a response.  Two of the legions he settled for the winter at Cæsarea, as he found the city suitable;  so that the whole burden of the army would not fall on Cæsarea, he sent the Fifteenth to Scythopolis.  That city too is as sunny in winter as it is suffocatingly hot in summer, being situated on the plain and near water. 2 — Caput C-15 — Joppe denuo capitur. Dum hæc aguntur, collecta non exigua multitudo, qui vel ab hostibus seditione defecerant, vel ex civitatibus eversis effugerant, Joppen sibi receptacula renovant, quam antea vastaverat Cestius.  Et quia terra quam vastaverat arcebantur, migrandum in mare censuerunt ;  ac piraticis navibus fabricatis, in Syriam ac Phœnicen, itemque in Ægyptum commeantes, plurimos latrociniis prædabantur ;  omnibusque navigiis invium faciebant illarum partium pelagus.  Sed Vespasianus, cognito quid constituissent, equites in Joppen necnon et pedites mittit.  Hique nocte in civitatem, quod incustodita erat, ingressi sunt.  Ejus autem habitatores, postquam irruptionem præsenserant, ne tunc Romanos arcerent ;  metu deterriti, naves fuga petierunt ;  et in his, ultra contiguum sagittæ spatium, pernoctavere. While this was going on, a large multitude had gathered together — those who had deserted from their enemies, or had fled from the destroyed cities, rebuilt Joppa, earlier destroyed by Cestius, as a refuge.  And since they were blocked from the land, which he had laid waste, they decided to turn to the sea.  They built a large pirate fleet and in many raids began to prey on those sailing to Syria, Phœnicia and also Egypt, making the waters of that area unnavigable to all shipping.  Vespasian, learning what they had started, sent cavalry as well as infantry to Joppa.  As the town was unguarded, they entered it at night.  Its inhabitants, even after having foreseen the attack, did nothing to block the Romans;  scared off by their fear, they fled to their ships and spent the night in them out of bowshot. 3 Quum vero Joppe natura esset importuosa (namque in asperum ceteraque arduum litus desinit ac summis utrimque cornibus leviter incurvum, quæ vaste supersunt, et ingentibus procellis pelagus turbant ;  ubi etiam nunc Andromedæ catenarum signis exstantibus, fabulæ veteris fides ostenditur ;  adversus autem Aquilo feriens litora, summos in objectas cautes fluctus affligit, solitudineque in tutiorem efficit stationem) in eo salo fluctuantibus Joppenis, prima luce violentius, quem illac navigantes « Melamboream » vocant, flatus incumbit ;  et alias quidem naves inter se, alias vero collisit in scopulos.  Multæ autem cum magna vi adverso æstu niterentur ad pelagus (nam et litus saxis infestum, et hostes in eo constitutos timebant) sublatæ in sublime gurgite mergebantur. Joppa has no natural harbor (for it terminates in an rough or otherwise steep shore, mildly curving with high promontories on each end which massively overextend and make the sea boil in fierce storms — a place where, given the still-existing signs of Andromeda’s chains, even today the evidence of that old tale is shown, but where, when the north wind beats against the shores, it drives huge waves against the projecting rocks and makes using the deserted sea into a safer roadstead).  It was in those waters that the men from Joppa were riding at anchor when at first light a stormwind which the sailors thereabouts call “the Black Northerly” bore down savagely on them.  Some of the ships collided with one another, others with the rocks.  Many in the face of the oncoming surge struggled fiercely and got out onto the open sea (for they feared both a shore dangerous due to the rocks, and the foe standing on it);  but after reaching the high sea they were sunk by the boiling waters. Et neque fugæ uspiam locus erat, neque manentibus spes salutis, quum et mari ventorum, et civitate Romanorum violentia pellerentur.  Itaque multi ululatus collisis navibus audiebantur, et multi crepitus fractis ;  Joppenorum autem fluctibus pars obruti, pars naufragiis implicati moriebantur.  Nonnulli autem ferro se interficientes, veluti id satius esset, mare præveniebant ;  plurimi autem evecti fluctibus, scopulis carpebantur ;  ut et pelagus sanguine redundaret, omnisque ora maritima cadaveribus impleretur ;  quum etiam ad litus appulsos in eo stantes Romani milites trucidarent.  Ejectorum autem corporum quattuor milia ducenta fuerunt.  Ita captam nullo prœlio civitatem Romani funditus eruunt. There was no way of escape, and no safety if they stayed:  the ferocity of the wind kept them from the sea, and that of the Romans from the city.  Many wails were heard as the vessels collided, much noise as they broke up.  Of the Joppeni, part were engulfed by the waves, many died entangled in the wreckage, while some, thinking it preferable, cheated the sea by killing themselves with the sword.  But most of them were cast up by the waves and dashed to pieces against the cliffs so that the sea flowed with blood and the beach was filled with corpses;  for the Roman soldiers standing on it slaughtered those who were driven onto the shore.  The number of bodies washed up was 4,200.  Thus the Romans captured the town without a battle and demolished it completely. 4 Joppe quidem hoc modo brevi tempore bis a Romanis excisa est.  Vespasianus autem, ne rursus eo piratæ confluerent, castris in arce munitis, ibi cum peditibus paucis equitatum reliquit, ut hi quidem locis suis manentes, eadem castra defenderent, equites vero omne circum territorium peragrantes ad fines Joppes, vicos et oppidula simul exurerent.  Illi igitur præceptis obœdientes, in dies singulos incursando, exscindebant totas regiones atque vastabant. Thus in a short period Joppa was twice destroyed by the Romans.  To prevent the pirates from settling there again, Vespasian established a camp on the acropolis and left his cavalry in it along with a small infantry force.  The latter were to stay where they were and guard the camp while the cavalry was to rove throughout the surrounding country destroying the villages and little towns in the neighborhood of Joppa.  These orders were duly executed:  making raids day after day, they annihilated the whole region and made it a wasteland. 5 Ubi vero Jotapatæ apud Hierosolymam casus nuntiatus est, primo quidem plurimi, et pro magnitudine calamitatis et quod nemo qui se vidisse diceret quæ jactabantur advenerat, non credebant.  Nec enim vel nuntius aliquis superfuerat ;  sed ipsa per se fama excidium prædicabat, velox nuntia tristium ;  paulatimque per finitimos veritas ambulabat et apud omnes ambiguitate certior habebatur.  Quinetiam rebus gestis plura quæ facta non erant affingebantur, et in excidio civitatis peremptus dicebatur esse Josephus ;  quæ res maximo luctu replevit Hierosolymam, et per singulas domos itemque cognationes, amissorum quisque lugebatur a suis ;  luctus vero ducis publicus erat.  Et hi quidem hospites, alii propinquos, amicos alii, nonnulli etiam fratres flebant, Josephum autem universi.  Adeo ut per dies XXX• nunquam lamenta in Civitate cessarent, magnaque mercede conducerentur tibicines neniarum. When Jerusalem received news of the catastrophe at Jotapata, at first most disbelieved it — both because of the magnitude of the disaster and because no one had arrived who said he had seen what was being rumored.  For no one had survived to report it;  but rumor itself — the swift messenger of sad news — announced the fall of the town.  And through neighbors the truth gradually trickled out and became known with certainty by everyone.  As well, many untruths were added to the truth, and it was said that Josephus had been killed during the city’s destruction.  This report caused extreme distress in Jerusalem;  whereas each of the lost ones was mourned for by his own dear ones, and among individual households and kinfolk, the mourning for the commander was nationwide:  some grieved for former house guests, some for kinsmen, some for close friends, some for brothers ;  but everyone grieved for Josephus.  For a whole month the wailing never stopped in the City, and at great cost they hired flute-players of dirges. 6 Tempore autem veritate revelata, ut de Jotapata quidem ubi res habebat, fictum vero quod de Josephi morte vulgabatur, eumque vivere et cum Romanis esse compertum est, ac supra captivi fortunam a ducibus honorari, tantam in eum vivum iracundiam, quantam prius quum mortuum crederent benevolentiam, conceperunt.  Et ab aliis quidem ignaviæ, apud alios proditionis arguebatur ;  totaque in eum Civitas plena erat indignatione atque conviciis.  Ultro autem his vulneribus excitabantur, magisque accendebantur rebus adversis ;  et offensio quæ prudentibus ne similia perferant cautionis et custodiæ causam præbet, ad alias calamitates tanquam stimulus incitabat ;  et malorum semper incipiebat ex fine principium.  Denique majore in Romanos impetu ferebantur, velut in Josephum pariter vindicaturi.  Hierosolymorum quidem habitatores ejuscemodi turbis agitabantur. But with time the truth was revealed about what had really happened at Jotapata and that what had been broadcast about the death of Josephus had been invented;  and when it was learned that he was alive and with the Romans, and being honored by the leaders more highly than normal for a captive, they became as furious with him living as they had formerly been kind about him when believed dead.  Some accused him of cowardice, some of betrayal;  the whole City seethed with indignation and reproaches.  The people were worked up further by these misfortunes and inflamed by their disasters.  A setback, which among sensible people is an inducement to caution and to guarding against similar occurrences, for them acted as a kind of spur inciting them to new calamities:  the beginning of one evil constantly started with the end of another.  In the end they were carried away all the more by passion against the Romans, as though they would thereby avenge themselves against Josephus.  That was the kind of turmoil that stirred up the Jerusalemites. 7 — Caput C-16 — Deditio Tiberiadis. Vespasianus autem studio visendi regnum Agrippæ (nam et ipse rex invitabat, rectorem cum exercitu simul paratus accipere domesticis divitiis, ac per eos ægras partes regni compescere), motis ex Cæsarea maritima castris, in eam quæ Philippi dicitur Cæsaream demigravit ;  ibique per dies XX• milite recreato, ipse quoque rerum gestarum gratias Deo referens in epulis erat.  Postquam vero Tiberiada quidem novas res cupere ac deficere Taricheas audivit (ad regnum autem Agrippæ utraque pertinebat), decreto apud se undique Judæos exscindere, opportunum esse credidit adversus eos exercitum ducere, simul ut Agrippæ hospitio vicem rependeret, potestati ejus civitatibus creditis. Vespasian was interested in seeing Agrippa’s kingdom, for he had been invited by the king himself, who was ready to entertain the commander-in-chief and his army at his own expense, and through them to bring the troubled parts of his kingdom under control.  Starting therefore from maritime Cæsarea, he moved his camp to the Cæsarea surnamed Philippi.  There he rested his troops for three weeks while he himself attended state banquets and offered sacrifices to God in gratitude for his successes.  But when he was informed that Tiberias was in a pre-revolutionary mood and Taricheæ had already revolted (both of which belonged to Agrippa’s kingdom), and having decided to extinguish Jews everywhere, he believed that this was the right time to march against them and to repay Agrippa’s hospitality by placing his cities under his control. Igitur filium suum in Cæsaream, ut inde militem Scythopolim traduceret, mittit.  Hæc autem civitas Decapoleos maxima, et Tiberiadi vicina est.  Quo quum ipse venisset, ibi filium præstolabatur.  Deinde cum tribus ultra legionibus progressus, ad trigesimum a Tiberiade stadium, in quadam mansione conspicua novarum rerum studiosis, cui nomen est Sennabris, castra ponit ;  atque hinc decadarchum Valerianum cum equitibus L• mittit, qui pacifico sermone oppidanos alloqueretur, et ad fidem invitaret.  Audierat enim quod pacem populus desideraret, a nonnullis autem ad bellum eum cogentibus, seditionem pateretur.  Itaque Valerianus ubi muro appropinquavit, et ipse de equo desiliit et suos comites idem facere jussit, ne lacessendi prœlii causa potius venisse videretur. So he sent his son Titus to Cæsarea to bring the forces to Scythopolis — the biggest city of the Decapolis, not far from Tiberias — where he himself went to await him.  Advancing at the head of three legions, he encamped three and a half miles from Tiberias at a waystation well within view of the rebels, called Sennabris.  Then he sent the decurion Valerianus with fifty cavalrymen to appeal to the townsfolk with peace talks and invite them to an alliance;  for he had heard that the people wanted peace, but were undergoing insurrection by a few who were forcing them into war.  So when Valerianus approached the walls, he himself dismounted and ordered his men to do the same, so that they might not be thought to have come to provoke a battle. Sed priusquam verbum faceret, armati excurrere in eum seditiosi, qui erant validiores, rectore quodam nomine Jesu, Tobiæ filio, latrocinalis agminis principe.  Valerianus autem, neque præter mandata ducis prœlio congredi tutum ratus, etiam si de victoria certus esset pugnamque periculosam esse, si cum multis pauci, et instructis imparati confligerent, inopinata præterea Judæorum stupefactus audacia, et ipse pedes refugit, et quinque alii similiter equis relictis ;  quos Jesus ejusque socii, veluti pugna, non insidiis, captos, læti in oppidum adduxerunt. But before he could say a word, armed insurgents sallied out in a stronger force against him, led by a man named Jesus, son of Tobias {(actually Sapphias)}, the leader of the criminal gang.  Valerianus, thinking it unsafe to join battle against the general’s orders even if victory were certain, and that the battle would be perilous if a handful of men were to fight with a large number, and unprepared men with battle-ready ones, and in addition shocked by the unexpected audacity of the Jews, himself fled on foot along with five others similarly abandoning their horses.  Jesus and his accomplices led the horses back into town, self-satisfied, as though they had been captured in battle, not by ambush. 8 Id autem veriti seniores, et qui eminere in populo videbantur, in Romanorum castra profugiunt ;  adhibitoque sibi rege, ad Vespasiani genua suppliciter accidunt, ne se despiceret obsecrantes, neve quæ paucorum esset, totius esse civitatis insaniam existimaret ;  sed populo parceret, qui semper amica Romanis sentiret ;  magisque ultum iret defectionis auctores, a quibus ipsi, olim ad fœdus venire properantes, nunc usque ne id facerent asservati fuissent.  His eorum precibus, quanquam toti civitati propter equorum rapinam infensus esset, indulsit.  Nam et Agrippam videbat ejus oppidi causa trepidare.  Fide autem per eos populo data, Jesus ejusque socii, tutum sibi non esse rati apud Tiberiada consistere, ad Taricheas confugiunt. But alarmed about this, the elders and those who were esteemed as eminent among the people fled to the Roman camp.  Calling in the king to their aid, they threw themselves in supplication at Vespasian’s feet, begging him not to reject their appeal or to think that the insanity of a few was that of the entire city, but to spare the citizenry which had always considered itself a friend of the Romans.  Let him instead take vengeance against the authors of the revolt — by whom they themselves, long since rushing to reach an alliance, had up to now been prevented from doing so.  The general gave in to these pleas of theirs even though he was angry with the whole city on account of the seizure of his horses, for he saw that Agrippa was worried about his city.  After a pledge had been given to the citizenry through their delegates, Jesus and his accomplices, considering it unsafe to stay in Tiberias, fled to Taricheæ. Posteroque die Vespasianus in arcem præmittit cum equitibus Trajanum qui multitudinem, an omnes pacem cuperent, experiretur.  Cognito autem populum eadem sentire quæ supplices, ad civitatem ducebat exercitum.  Illi autem portis ei patefactis, cum faustis ominationibus obviam prodeunt, salutis datorem ac benemeritum acclamantes.  Quum vero militem angusti aditus remorarentur, murorum partem dirui Vespasianus ex meridio latere jussit, eoque pacto dilatavit ingressum ;  ut præda tamen et injuriis abstinerent, in gratiam regis edixit ;  ejusdemque causa muris pepercit, spondentis habitatores ejus posthac cum reliquis fore concordes ;  aliisque modis malis affectam civitatem ex dissensione recreavit. The next day Vespasian sent Trajan with cavalry ahead to the acropolis to sound out the mass of the population on whether everyone wanted peace.  Discovering that the people felt the same as their petitioners, he led the army to the city.  The people opened their gates to him and went out to meet him with cries of welcome, calling him their savior and benefactor.  As the army was held up by the narrowness of the entrances, Vespasian ordered his men to demolish part of the walls on the south side, and thus widened the passage.  However for the king’s sake he did order them to abstain from plundering and violence, and also spared the walls for the sake of the same man, who was promising that the inhabitants would thenceforth live amicably with the rest.  Thus in a different way he recovered from insurrection a city which had been afflicted with troubles. ⇑ § X Quomodo captæ erant Taricheæ. Jordanis descriptio et regionis Gennesar. How Taricheæ was taken.  A description of the river Jordan, and of the country of Gennesareth. 1 — Caput C-17 — Tarichearum obsidio. Deinde ab ea digressus, inter ipsam et Taricheas castra posuit, muroque firmavit, belli sibi moras illic fore prospiciens, quod omnis turbarum cupiens multitudo ad Taricheas conflueret, munitione confisa civitatis et lacu, qui Genesar ab indigenis appellatur.  Etenim civitatem ita ut Tiberias sub monte positam, qua lacu non alluebatur undique muro validissimo, sed minore tamen quam Tiberiada, Josephus cinxerat.  Nam illam quidem in principio defectionis, pecuniarum itemque virium copia communierat.  Taricheis vero largitatis ejus reliquiæ profecerunt.  Scaphas autem plurimas in lacu paratas habebant, ut in eas videlicet, si terrestri prœlio vincerentur, refugerent, simulque ad navale bellum, si opus esset, instructas. Then leaving from there to a spot between Tiberias and Taricheæ, Vespasian pitched his camp and fortified it with a wall, anticipating that the war would cost him some time, for the entire multitude desirous of revolt was streaming to Taricheæ, relying on the city’s fortifications and on the lake, which is called Gennesaret by the locals.  Like Tiberias, the town was situated at the foot of a mountain and, wherever it was not washed by the lake, Josephus had surrounded it with a very strong wall, but one less strong than at Tiberias;  for he had fortified that city at the beginning of the revolt, with an abundance of money and men, whereas the leftovers of his munificence benefited Taricheæ.  The occupants had a large number of boats ready on the lake to flee into if they were defeated in a land fight, and they were also equipped for a naval battle, if necessary. Romanis autem castra munientibus, Jesus ejusque socii neque multitudine hostium, neque disciplina militiæ perterriti, cursu eos irruunt ;  primoque impetu disjectis muri fabricatoribus, ac parte aliqua ædificii dissipata, ubi armatos congregari viderunt, antequam mali aliquid paterentur, ad suos refugiunt ;  eosque insecuti Romani, ad navigia compulere.  Et illi quidem tantum provecti, unde Romanos contingere missilibus possent, anchoras jaciunt ;  et sicut acies assolent, densatis inter se navibus, adversus hostes in terra constitutos navali prœlio decertabant.  Audito autem Vespasianus magnam eorum multitudinem in proxima civitati planitie congregatam, filium suum cum sescentis equitibus lectis eo mittit. While the Romans were fortifying their camp, Jesus and his supporters, undeterred by the numbers and regimentation of the enemy, made a sortie and with their first attack scattered the workmen and tore down part of the wall.  But when they saw the legionaries gathering, they retreated to their own lines before suffering any losses, albeit the pursuing Romans forced them to take to their boats.  They put out from shore only to the point from which they could reach the Romans with their projectiles, where they dropped anchor.  With their vessels side by side as in a battle line, and engaged in a sea fight with their enemy on land.  Meantime Vespasian, learning that the great bulk of them were gathered on the plain next to the town, sent his son there with six hundred picked cavalry. 2 Qui quum infinitum hostium numerum repperisset, patri quidem majoribus auxiliis opus esse mandavit.  Ipse vero equitum plerosque, etiam priusquam subsidia venirent, alacres esse videns, quum nonnulli eorum multitudinem Judæorum formidarent, unde exaudiri posset constitit ;  et, « O Romani, » ait, « pulchrum est namque in principio sermonis admonere vos generis vestri, ut qui cum quibus pugnaturi simus sciatis ;  nostras enim manus nemo unquam toto orbe hostis ullus evasit ;  Judæi vero, ut etiam pro his dicamus aliquid, ad hoc usque tempus victi non defatigantur ;  itaque oportet illis in adversis rebus constanter dimicantibus, etiam nos in secundis perseverantius laborare ;  aperta quidem fronte vobis plurimum alacritatis inesse conspiciens, gaudeo ;  vereor autem, ne cui vestrum tanta timorem multitudo hostium latenter incutiat. Titus, finding himself confronted with an enormous number of the enemy, sent to his father for stronger reinforcements.  In the meantime, seeing that while most of his men were eager to fight even before the backup arrived while a few of them were in fear of the Jews’ vast numbers, he took a place where he could be heard:  “Romans, at the beginning of my speech it is a good idea to remind you of your race, so that you may know with whom we are about to fight.  From our hands no one in the wide world has hitherto escaped, though the Jews — to say something in their favor —, although defeated, are still not exhausted.  So while they have to fight on doggedly under adverse circumstances, we must put forth our efforts more steadfastly in successful ones.  I am glad to see the great eagerness in your faces, but I fear that the enemy’s large numbers may secretly intimidate some of you. « Igitur quisque iterum cogitet, qualis cum quibus decertabit, quodque Judæi, licet satis sint audaces, mortemque contemnant, incompositi tamen bellorumque imperiti sunt, vulgus recte potius quam exercitus appellandi.  De vestra vero peritia atque ordinatione referre quid opus est ?  Nempe idcirco soli armis exercemur, pacis etiam tempore, ut ne in bello nos cum hostibus numero conferamus.  Nam quod perpetuæ militiæ commodum, si pares cum rudibus congrediamur ?  Quin reputate, quod armati cum inermibus, et equites cum peditibus, et ducis tuti consilio cum vagis neque rectorem habentibus decertabitis ;  quodque nos hæ virtutes multo plures efficiant, multum autem vitia de hostium numero detrahant. “So let everyone remember who is going to fight with whom, and that the Jews, even though they are bold and despise death, are nonetheless undisciplined and unexperienced in war — more properly to be called a mob rather than an army.  What need is there to refer to your experience and organization?  We alone engage in military training even in peacetime so that we will not have to compare our numbers with those of our opponents.  What would be the advantage of perpetual military training if it were only as their numerical equals that we might fight with raw recruits?  Remember, again, that you are fighting in full armor against men who have none, as cavalry against foot soldiers, and according to the strategy of a prudent officer against aimless and leaderless fighters.  These advantages make you in effect far more numerous than you are, while the enemy’s flaws greatly subract from their numbers. « Nec sola hominum multitudo, quamvis pugnacissimi fuerint, in bello obtinet, sed etiam si vel in paucis sit, fortitudo.  Hi enim et ordinari faciles sunt, et sibimet subvenire ;  numerosæ autem copiæ plus incommodi ex semetipsis quam ex hostibus capiunt.  Itaque Judæos audacia et ferocitas ac desperatio sive mentis sævitia ducunt, quæ rebus secundis aliquantum valent, minimis vero offensionibus exstinguuntur ;  nos autem virtus regit, et morigera voluntas, itemque fortitudo, quæ et in prospera fortuna viget, nec ad finem usque inter adversa decipitur.  Ad hoc majores nobis sunt, quam Judæis, causæ certaminis.  Nam si illi pro libertate ac patria belli pericula sustinent, quid est nobis incluta fama præstantius ?  Et ne post orbis terræ imperium videamur hostium adversariorum loco Judæos habere ? “It is not only the number of men, however combative they may be, which matters in war, but also their courage, even if they are small in number.  The latter are easy to deploy and readily support each other, while swollen forces suffer more losses from themselves than from the enemy.  The Jews are driven by reckless audacity and desperation or mental rage, emotions that help while things go well, but are extinguished by the smallest setback.  We, in contrast, are led by valor and an obedient will, and fortitude, which blooms in success, but in adversity does not give up even to the end.  In addition, the cause of our struggle is greater than that of the Jews:  for though they face the dangers of war for freedom and their fatherland, for us what is greater than glorious fame?  And that, after dominating the world, we may not be seen to have the Jews in the position of a rival enemy? « Præterea considerate, quod ne patiendi quidem alicujus intolerabilis mali metus est :  multos enim eosque in proximo adjutores habemus.  Rapere autem victoriam possumus ;  et quos a patre mitti nobis speramus auxilio, convenit antecapere, ut et major sit et socium non habeat virtutis effectus.  Equidem puto nunc de me ac patre meo vobisque pariter judicium fieri, si ille quidem rebus ante gloriose gestis dignus fuit, ego vero ejus sum filius, vosque milites mei.  Nam illi vincere consuetum est.  ¿ Ego vero reverti ad eum perpetiar victus ?  ¿ Quo pacto autem vos non puduerit, duce vestro periculis occurrente, non superare ?  Appetam enim pericula, mihi credite, primusque in hostes irrumpam.  Nemo autem vestrum a me discesserit, persuasum habens, impetum meum sustentari ope divina ;  et manifestissime præsumite, quod multo plus mixti hostibus efficiemus, quam si extrinsecus pugnaremus. » “Realize, too, that there is no fear of suffering any irretrievable disaster.  Ample reinforcements are at hand;  but we can snatch the victory ourselves;  and the best thing to do is to get ahead of the troops we expect are being sent by my father, so that that victory will be all the greater and the fruits of our valor will not have to be shared with co-participants.  I believe that right now judgement is being passed on me, on my father, and on you as well, about whether he was really worthy of the glorious exploits of his past;  I am his son, and you are my men.  Conquering is second nature to him.  Could I bear returning to him as a defeated man?  How could you not be ashamed if, with your leader leading the way into danger, you did not conquer?  I shall indeed plunge into danger, you may be sure, and shall be the first to charge the enemy.  Don’t any of you desert me;  be assured that my attack is being supported by divine help.  And be absolutely confident that we will achieve much more if mixed together with the enemy than if (, with them inside the walls,) we were to fight from outside.” 3 Postquam Titus hæc prosecutus est, divina quædam alacritas militibus incidit.  Et quia Trajanum advenire cum CCCC• equitibus ante prœlium contigit, ægre ferebant, tanquam minueretur victoria societate.  Misit autem Vespasianus et Antonium Silonem cum duobus milibus sagittariorum ut, occupato monte, qui ex adverso erat oppido, murorum propugnatores repellerent.  Et ab illis quidem, ita ut præceptum fuerat, circumventi sunt ex ea parte subvenire temptantes.  Titus autem primus perrexit citato equo in hostes, et post eum ceteri cum clamore, tanto spatio fusi, quantum adversa acies occupaverat, unde multo etiam plures quam erant apparuerunt. As Titus finished speaking, a kind of divine eagerness seized the soldiers;  and when Trajan happened to arrive before the battle with 400 horse, they became irritated over the fact that the victory would be diluted through being shared.  Vespasian also sent Antonius Silo with 2,000 archers who were to seize the hill opposite the town and drive the defenders from the wall.  And as had been ordered, those trying to render help from that quarter were thwarted by them.  Meanwhile Titus spurred on his horse and was the first to charge into the enemy, followed by the others with loud clamor, spreading out over the same distance that the opposite front had taken over, and so giving the impression of much greater numbers than they actually were. Judæi vero, licet incursu eorum et disciplina conterriti, paulisper quidem primos sustinuere congressus.  Perculsi autem contis, equorumque impetu deturbati conculcabantur ;  atque ita multis passim peremptis disperduntur, et in civitatem, ut quisque velocitatis habebat, effugiunt.  Titus autem aliquos a tergo instans alios per transitum occidebat, nonnullos cursu antecapiens, ictu ora transverberabat, multos autem, alium super alium lapsos involvens, conficiebat ;  omnesque ad mœnia confugientes præveniens, detorquebat ad campum, donec vi multitudinis elapsi, in oppidum confugerunt. The Jews, though taken aback by their onrush and precision, stood up to the onslaught for a bit;  but impacted by the lances and bowled over by the momentum of the horses, they were trampled underfoot;  as a result, they disintegrated, with many killed everywhere, and they fled to the town as fast as they could.  Titus, hard on the heels of some, cut down some on the run and, outrunning a few, smashed through their faces with a blow;  he slaughtered many by corralling them so that they fell on top of one another;  he also headed them all off as they fled towards the walls, and turned them back towards the plain until, by weight of numbers, they escaped into the town. 4 Excipit autem illos acerba dissensio.  Namque indigenis et fortunarum suarum, et civitatis gratia, et ab initio bellum gestum, maximeque quod male pugnatum fuerat, non placebat.  Sed populus advenarum qui plurimus esset vim adhibebat, et inter se discordantium clamor erat, veluti jam arma caperent.  Quibus auditis — nec enim procul a muris aberat — Titus exclamat :  « Hoc tempus est, ¿ quid moramur, commilitones ?  Deo nobis dedente Judæos, ¡ suscipite victoriam !  ¿ Non auditis clamores ?  Qui manus nostras evasere, discordant ;  habemus civitatem, si modo properamus.  Verumtamen cum velocitate animis opus est.  Nihil enim magnum effici sine periculo consuevit.  Non solum autem hostium concordiam, quos cito necessitas in gratiam revocabit, sed etiam nostrorum auxilia prævenire debemus, ut præter victoriam, qua tantas copias pauci superamus, etiam civitate soli potiamur. » But fierce discord awaited them.  For the residents, both because of their possessions and their city, were disaffected from the war from the beginning, and now especially because the battle had gone badly.  But the mass of outsiders, which was very numerous, was using compulsion on them, and there was a loud uproar between the two sides, as though they were just about taking up arms against one another.  Hearing the commotion, Titus, who was not far from the wall, exclaimed:  “Now is the time, men;  what are we waiting for?  With God handing the Jews over to us, seize the victory!  Do you not hear the uproar?  The men who have escaped us are fighting one another!  The town is ours if only we hurry;  but along with haste we need courage.  For normally nothing great is achieved without risk.  We need to act not only before the détente among our enemies, whom necessity will reconcile soon enough, but even before the assistance of our own forces, so that, besides the victory in which we few have overcome so many, we can take possession of the city by ourselves.” 5 Simul his dictis conscendit equum, atque ad lacum decurrit, et per eum propere civitatem ingreditur, quem ceteri consecuti sunt.  Pavor autem ejus audaciæ murorum defensores invasit, et pugnare quidem, vel prohibere venientem, nemo sustinuit.  Relictis autem excubiis, Jesus quidem cum sociis in agros effugit ;  alii vero, decurrentes ad lacum, in manus hostium contra venientium incidebant.  Mactabantur autem alii quum scaphas scanderent, itemque alii, quum jam provectas assequi natando conarentur ;  plurimaque per civitatem fiebat hominum cædes, advenarum quidem resistentium qui non effugissent, indigenarum vero sine pugna, quoniam spes eos fœderis, et conscientia quod belli consilium non habuerant, a prœlio deterrebat ;  donec Titus nocentibus interemptis, miseratus indigenas ab internecione requievit.  At qui in lacum confugerant, ubi civitatem captam viderunt, quam longissime ab hostibus recesserunt. With these words he mounted his horse, galloped to the lake and through it entered the city, followed by the others.  His audacity inspired the defenders of the wall with terror, and no one had the courage to fight or stave off the invader.  Abandoning their guardposts, Jesus and his supporters fled to the countryside while the rest rushed down to the lake where they ran into the hands of the oncoming enemy.  Some were killed as they climbed into their boats, others as they tried to swim to the boats that had already sailed.  There was a lot of slaughter throughout the city, both of the resisting outsiders who had not fled, as well as of the residents who did not fight, being deterred from battling because of their hope of a truce and the knowledge that they had had no intention of war.  At last, after the slaying the guilty, Titus took pity on the residents and stopped the butchery.  Those who had fled to the lake, seeing that the town had fallen, put out as far from the enemy as possible. 6 Titus vero, missis equitibus, res gestas patri nuntiat.  Quibus ille compertis, quod necesse fuit, et filii virtute admodum lætus, et facinoris claritudine (maxima enim belli pars videbatur exempta) tum quidem statim circumdari civitatem custodibus jussit, ne quis ex ea subterfugeret cædemque evaderet.  Postero autem die, quum descendisset ad lacum, rates adversus illos qui eo refugerant fabricari jussit.  Quæ tam materiarum quam artificum multitudine mature contextæ sunt. Titus sent cavalrymen to give his father a report of his exploits.  Vespasian was naturally overjoyed at his son’s prowess and at the spectacular accomplishment (for it seemed that a major part of the war had been concluded).  He then immediately ordered the city surrounded with guards so that no one would sneak out of it and escape being killed.  The next day he went down to the lake and ordered rafts to be built to launch against those who had fled there.  These were quickly constructed, as there was a lot of both wood and carpenters. 7 — Caput C-18 — De lacu Genesar et fontibus Jordanis. Lacus autem Genesar quidem a terra continente appellatur ;  XL• vero stadiis in latitudine patens, centumque in longitudine, aquæ dulcis est atque potabilis.  Palustri enim crassitudine tenuiores habet latices ;  et undique in litora ac arenas desinens, purus est, ac præter hoc temperatus ad hauriendum.  Et fluvio quidem sive fonte lenior est.  Semper autem frigidior, quam lacus diffusio patitur, manet ;  æstivisque noctibus ejus aquæ sub divo perflatæ, nequaquam æstibus cedunt ;  id enim facere indigenis moris est. Lake Gennesaret takes its name from the region adjoining it.  Though it measures four and a half miles {(Latin:  40 stades)} in {(E - W)} width by eleven and a half {(100 [stades])} in {(N - S)} length {(now 3 to 7 mi E - W × 14 mi N - S)}, its water is sweet and drinkable;  for its water is clearer than the muddiness of swamps, and on every side it ends in sandy beaches.  It is pure and, besides this, when drawn, it is moderate in temperature, milder than river or spring water.  But it always stays cooler than the lake’s expanse would normally allow.  It does not succumb to the heat at all when on summer nights they let the air blow over its waters outside;  indeed, it is customary for the natives to do that. Varia autem sunt in eo piscium genera, ab alterius loci piscibus tam sapore quam specie discreta ;  mediusque fluvio Jordane secatur.  Ceterum, Jordanis fons Panium esse videtur ;  sed re vera huc — terra conditus — fertur ex ea quæ vocatur Phiale.  Hæc autem est, qua in Trachonitidem ascenditur ad CXX• stadium a Cæsarea, ad dexteram non longe a via.  Et proprie quidem ex rotunditate « Phiala » dicitur lacus, rotæ speciem præferens.  Semper autem intra ejus labra cohibetur unda, nunquam deficiens vel exuberans. There are various species of fish in it, differing in taste and appearance from fish found elsewhere.  Its middle is cut by the Jordan.  In addition, the Jordan’s source appears to be the Paneum {(a temple to the god Pan built by Herod near Cæsarea Philippi)}, but actually it flows underground to this spot from what is called Phiale {(“bowl,” “cup” or “saucer,” cf. Engl. “vial”;  now called Birket Er-Râm, in fact having no connection with the Jordan)}.  It is fourteen miles {(actually 6 mi)} from Cæsarea Philippi on the road leading up to Trachonitis, not far off to the right.  Given its circular appearance {(due to being an ancient volcanic crater)}, it is very aptly called “the Bowl” because of its roundness.  The water is always contained within its brim, neither sinking nor running over. Quumque interim hoc esse Jordanis principium nesciretur, a tetrarcha quondam Trachonitidis Philippo deprehensum est.  Is namque missis in Phialen paleis, invenit eas apud Panium redditas, unde antea fluvius nasci credebatur.  Naturalis quidem pulchritudo Panii, regis opibus et Agrippæ divitiis magnificentius accurata est.  Manifestum autem flumen Jordanis ex hoc antro incipiens, Semechonitis quidem lacus paludes secat cænosas ;  centum autem et viginti aliis præteritis stadiis, post oppidum Juliada, Genesar lacum medium transemensus, deinde multam per solitudinem in Asphaltiten lacum exit. While for some time this was not known to be the origin of the Jordan, it was discovered by Philip, a former tetrarch of Trachonitis.  He threw chaff into the Bowl and found that it resurfaced at the Paneum, whence the river had previously been believed to emerge.  The natural beauty of the Paneum was yet more magnificently embellished by royal resources and Agrippa’s wealth.  The visible Jordan, emerging from this cavern, cuts through the muddy marshes of Lake Semechonitis {now Lake Hula [and Valley], largely drained for agriculture and to eradicate malaria}, covers another fourteen miles and, after passing the town of Julias, traverses the middle of Lake Gennesaret;  finally, after a long desert stretch, it ends up in the Dead Sea. 8 Ad Genesar vero lacum ejusdem nominis terra prætenditur, natura simul et pulchritudine admirabilis.  Nullum enim ipsa pro ubertate sui negat arbustum, totamque plantis consevere cultores.  Cæli vero temperies etiam diversis aptissima est.  Nuces enim, quæ arborum maxime frigoribus gaudent, infinitæ florescunt ;  ubi etiam palmæ, quas nutrit calor æstivus ;  has juxta ficus et oleæ, quibus aura mollior destinata est ;  ut naturæ magnificentiam hanc esse quis dixerit vim adhibentis, ut in unum conveniant inter se repugnantia, annique temporum contentionem bonam, veluti singula peculiari studio terræ faverent. Stretched alongside Lake Gennesaret is a territory of the same name, wonderful both in its characteristics and in its beauty.  The land itself, due to its own richness, refuses no kind of tree, and the farmers sow it all with plants;  the mildness of the climate is perfectly suited to all kinds of species.  Nuts, which among trees prefer cold especially, flourish in great abundance, in a place where there are also palm trees, which thrive on summer heat, alongside which are fig and olive trees, for which a milder air is indicated.  A person might call it nature’s boast, this use of force by her so that mutually discordant types should convene in one place, and a productive competition of the seasons that each of them, as it were, should favor this area with its own special interest. Non enim solum nutrit præter opinionem poma varia, sed etiam servat — egregia quidem, et quodammodo regalia.  Uvas sane Caricas intermissione decem mensibus suggerit, ceteros vero fructus, anni spatio senescentes.  Nam præter aëris lenitatem, et fonte quoque irrigatur uberrimo, qui « Capernaum » ab indigenis appellatur.  Eum nonnulli venam esse Nili fluminis opinantur, quod similes coracino Alexandrino generat pisces.  Longitudo autem regionis secundum litora cognominis lacūs XXX• stadiis extenditur, et latitudo XX•.  Horum quidem natura ejusmodi est. For not only does it produce, against all expectations, diverse fruits, but it keeps this up — excellent and, in a way, royal fruits.  For ten months, with an intermission, it furnishes Carican grapes, other fruits ripening throughout the year.  For, apart from the temperate atmosphere, it is watered by an extremely ample spring, known locally as “Capernaum” {(Kephar-Nahum, village of Nahum)}.  Some believe this to be a vein of the Nile river, as it breeds fish very similar to the ravenfish of the lake of Alexandria {(Lake Mareotis)}.  The length of the region along the shoreline with the same name as the lake is three and a half miles, the width two and a half.  That is the kind of place this is. 9 — Caput C-19 — Tarichearum excidium. Vespasianus autem, perfectis ratibus, imposita manu militum quanta in eos qui lacu effugerant satis esset, una provehitur.  Illi autem neque compulsi ad terram evadendi facultatem habebant, infestis omnibus, neque navali bello pari condicione pugnandi.  Nam et scaphæ parvæ atque piraticæ adversus rates infirmæ erant ;  et quum pauci singulis veherentur, cunctis simul instantibus Romanis appropinquare metuebant.  Verumtamen circum rates navigando, nonnunquam etiam prope accedendo, lapidibus Romanos eminus appetebant, aut comminus etiam irritando feriebant ;  plus autem ipsis utroque modo nocebatur. With the rafts finished, Vespasian, having put as large a detachment of his soldiers on board as he thought adequate for those who had fled onto the lake, launched out together with his men.  The fugitives had the ability neither to escape if forced to land, because everyplace was hostile, nor to fight a naval battle on equal terms.  Their boats were small and built for piracy, and weak in comparison with the rafts;  and since only a few men rode in each one, they were afraid to come close to all of the Romans who were in simultaneous pursuit.  However, they circled around the rafts and sometimes even approached, pelting the Romans with stones at long range, or even striking them at close quarters, provoking them.  In either case they themselves suffered the greater loss: Nec enim saxis quicquam præter crebros sonitus agebant, quoniam contra sæptos armis jaciebantur, contiguique sagittis eorum efficiebantur ;  et si accedere propius ausi fuissent, priusquam facerent aliquid, patiebantur cumque ipsis navigiis mergebantur.  Multos autem vulnera inferre temptantium, qui pilis contingi possent, alios desiliendo in scaphas Romani gladiis transfigebant ;  nonnullos, concurrentibus inter se ratibus in medio deprehensos, cum naviculis capiebant. they accomplished nothing with the stones besides a lot of noise, since they were being thrown against men protected by armor, and when close they were killed off by their arrows;  and if they ventured to approach nearer, they suffered the consequences and were sunk with the ships themselves before they could do anything.  When they could be reached by lance, many of those who were trying to wound the Romans were run through, along with others by sword when they leapt into their boats.  Some, as the rafts closed in on them, were caught in the middle and captured along with their craft. Submersorum autem qui capita sustulissent, aut sagittis præveniebantur, aut ratibus occupabantur ;  et si desperatione compulsi inimicis annatare temptassent, eis vel manus vel capita truncabantur, plurimusque passim ac varius erat interitus eorum, donec in fugam versi, ceteri terræ appulsi sunt, circumclusis naviculis suis.  Exclusi autem multi quidem in ipso lacu telis configebantur, multos vero in terram egressos peremerunt Romani.  Mixtum autem sanguine, plenumque cadaveribus cerneres totum lacum. Any of those thrown overboard who raised their heads above water were slain by arrows or overcome by the rafts, and if, forced by desperation, they tried to swim and get onto the enemy craft, their hands or heads were cut off.  Vast numbers of Jews perished everywhere in countless ways on every side until, turning to flight, the rest were driven ashore, their boats completely surrounded.  Many of those disembarking were run through with weapons in the lake itself, while the Romans also slew many who had already set foot on land.  One could see the entire lake stained with blood and full of corpses. Nullus enim salvus evasit.  Acerbus autem secutis diebus odor illam regionem oppressit et facies.  Nam litora quidem naufragiis simul plena erant, et corporibus tumidis.  Calescentes autem ac tabefacti mortui, cæli tractum corrumpebant, ut non Judæis solum ille casus miserabilis videretur, verum etiam auctoribus ipsis esset invisus.  Iste quidem illius prœlii navalis exitus fuit.  Perierunt cum his, qui pridem in civitate cecidere, sex milia et quingenti. There was not a single survivor.  During the days that followed the region was oppressed by a horrible stench and a sight to match.  The beaches were thick with wrecks and swollen bodies which, hot and putrefying, made the air so foul that the calamity not only depressed the Jews but was disgusting even to its creators.  Such was the outcome of this naval engagement.  The dead, including those who had perished earlier in the town, totalled 6,500. 10 At Vespasianus, pugna peracta, pro tribunali apud Taricheas resīdens, advenam populum ab indigenis secernebat, qui auctor belli exstitisse videbatur ;  et, an hi quoque servandi essent, cum rectoribus deliberabat.  His autem affirmantibus eorum liberationem detrimento futuram (nec enim demissos quiescere posse homines, qui et patriis carerent, vimque adhibere ac bellum inferre possent ad quos confugissent), Vespasianus salute quidem indignos esse eos, contraque servatores suos noverat evasuros ;  sed de eorum mortis genere cogitabat. After the battle Vespasian took a seat at the front of the tribunal at Taricheæ and began separating the natives from the outsider population, which he considered as having been the originator of the war, and held deliberations with his officers as to whether these too should be spared.  They advised that their release would be pernicious (for it would not be possible for the released men to remain at peace when they had no fatherland, and would use force and bring war upon those to whom they had fled).  Vespasian recognized that they were undeserving of being spared and would only turn against those who had saved them;  but he continued to think about the method of their death. Nam si ibi occiderentur, non perpessuros suspicabatur indigenas, tot apud se supplices obtruncari ;  fideque interposita deditis vim pigebat afferre ;  verum ab amicis superabatur, nihil in Judæos non licere dicentibus ;  quodque utile esset, honesto debere præponi, quum utrumque obtineri non posset.  Indubitata igitur concessa licentia, solo eos itinere quod Tiberiade duceret exire permisit.  Quumque illi facile his quæ cupierant credidissent, et quo jussum fuerat comitati, neque pecuniis suis quicquam metuentes abirent, totam ad Tiberiada usque viam Romani, ne quis evaderet, occupaverunt ;  eosque in civitatem conclusos, mox insecutus Vespasianus omnes in stadio constituit. If he killed them then and there, he suspected that it would be intolerable for the residents to have so many suppliants slaughtered in their midst;  and he would be ashamed of himself if, after promising them safe conduct, he attacked them.  However, he was prevailed over by his friends who said that nothing was impermissible against the Jews and that expediency ought to take precedence over morality when it was impossible to have both.  Granting them guaranteed permission, he allowed them to leave only by the road leading to Tiberias.  Since they readily believed the things that they wanted to, they left, going in company along the permitted route and fearing nothing for their property.  Meanwhile the Romans lined the road all the way to Tiberias so that no one could escape.  Once they were shut up in the city, Vespasian soon followed and had them all put into the stadium. Et seniores quidem cum imbellibus, qui mille ducenti erant, jussit occidi ;  juvenum autem validissimos sex milia lectos, ad Isthmon Neroni transmisit.  Ceteram vero multitudinem triginta milia et quadringentos vendidit, præter alios quos Agrippæ donaverat.  Nam his qui ex ejus regno essent, facere quod vellet ipse permisit.  Verum et istos rex vendidit.  Reliquum vulgus erant Trachonitæ et Gaulanitæ et Hippeni, pluresque Gadaritæ, seditiosi et fugitivi, et quibus probra pacis bellum conciliant.  Capti sunt autem VI• Idus Septembris. He ordered the aged and infirm executed, 1,200 of them.  From the young men he picked out the 6,000 strongest and sent them to Nero at the Isthmus.  He auctioned off the rest of the multitude to the number of 30,400, except those whom he presented to Agrippa, allowing him to do whatever he wanted with the men who came from his kingdom.  The king sold them too.  The rest of the rabble came from Trachonitis, Gaulanitis, Hippus and many from the Gadarene district — rebels and fugitives whose peacetime crimes made war attractive to them.  They were captured on the 6th day before the Ides of September {(= 8th of September;  but actually, A.D. 67 September 26)}.

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