THE multitude of the seditious who bore arms in the city under Simon the son of Gioras, were ten thousand men, besides the Idumeans. These were under fifty commanders, over whom Simon was supreme. The Idumeans who did homage to him, were five thousand, under eight commanders, among whom those of most eminence were John and Jacob the sons of Sosas, and Simon the son of Cathlas.

John of Gischala, who had seized the temple, had six thousand armed men, under twenty com

manders; while the zealots, who had come over to his party, amounted to six thousand four hundred more, under the command of Eleazar, and Simon the son of Arinas.

Now while these factions fought one against the other, the people were their prey on both sides, and were plundered by both factions.

Simon the son of Gioras, held the upper city, and the great wall as far as Cedron, and as much of the old wall as bent from Siloam, and went down to the palace of Monobazus. He held also the fountain of Siloam, the lower city, which was situated on Acra, and all that reached to the palace of Queen Helena,*

John, on his side, possessed the temple, with the parts adjacent; also Ophla, and the valley of Cedron. And when the intermediate places were burnt between them, they left room sufficient to fight in; for this internal sedition did not cease their warfare, even when the Romans were encamped at their very walls. These men continued to fight with fury and madness, and did

* Monobazus was king of the Adiabeni, beyond the Euphrates. Queen Helena was his mother.

all that the besiegers themselves could have desired. For 1 venture to affirm, says Josephus, that it was the sedition that destroyed the city, and the Romans that destroyed the sedition, which was a more difficult achievement than to raze the walls; for we must ascribe our misfortunes to our own people, and the just vengeance taken on them to the Romans.

While this was the posture of affairs in Jerusalem, Titus, with some chosen horsemen, went round to reconnoitre the walls; and decided to make his assault upon the monument of John, the high priest, for there the first fortification was lower, and the second was not joined to it; the wall having been neglected at that spot where the new city was but thinly inhabited. Here also was an easy passage to the third wall, by which he hoped to take the upper city, and, through the tower of Antonia, to seize on the temple itself.

While Titus was thus employed, his friend Nicanor was wounded with a dart, as he and Josephus approached near the wall to discourse about terms of peace. Cæsar, irritated at their vehemence, gave his soldiers leave to set fire to

the suburbs, and ordered timber to be brought to raise banks against the city. While the Romans were engaged in raising their banks, the Jews made continued sallies to annoy them.

John, however, out of his fear of Simon, remained behind, even while his own men sallied out upon the enemy. Simon, on his part, brought forward his engines of war, both those which had been taken when Cestius fled from Jerusalem, and those which had belonged to the Roman garrison when it lay in the tower of Antonia. But their ignorance of the method of using these engines made them of little value. Some deserters, however, who understood their use, instructed them, and they cast stones and arrows at the Romans. The engines of the Romans, however, repelled those of the enemy; yet the Jews contrived by night and by day to disturb them while employed in raising their banks.

When the Romans had finished their works,

they brought their engines to bear upon the walls of the city, upon which a tremendous noise echoed round from three different places, while a still greater noise arose from the terror of the citizens

I

within the walls.

The different factions then

eried out, that they were acting as if in concert with their common enemy, and said that if they could not enter into a lasting concord, they ought at least to unite, in their present circumstances, against the Romans. Accordingly, Simon, by proclamation, permitted those who came from the temple to go upon the wall; John also gave the same liberty to his men. So they formed themselves into one body, and having a great number of torches, they threw them at the engines, and shot darts perpetually upon the Roman soldiers who were battering the wall. Titus sent assistance constantly to those who were hardest beset; and, placing both horsemen and archers on each side the engines, beat off the Jews who brought the fire. Yet the wall yielded not to their repeated blows, except where the battering ram of the fifteenth legion moved the corner of a tower; but the wall itself remained uninjured.

The Jews having intermitted their sallies for a while, the Romans thought they had retired out of fear. But when the Jews observed their enemies scattered about at their works, and in their