The Fall of Machaerus

Lucilius Bassus was sent to Judea as legate. He took over the army from Cerealis Vetilianus and won over the fortress at Herodium together with its garrison. After that he gathered all the troops there were, which were many but scattered in detachments, along with the Tenth Legion, and decided to march against Machaerus. It was absolutely necessary to destroy this fortress, so that its strength would not draw many into revolt. For the nature of the place could give those who held it firm hope of safety, and those who attacked it hesitation and fear. The walled site itself is a rocky height raised to a very great altitude, which alone made it hard to take, and nature had contrived to make it hard even to approach. It is trenched all around by ravines so deep that the eye cannot take in their bottoms, not easily crossed and quite impossible to fill. The ravine that cuts it off on the west stretches for seven and a half miles and ends at Lake Asphaltitis, and it is on this side that Machaerus itself has its highest peak, rising above the rest. The ravines on the north and south are smaller than the one just described, but just as impossible to attack. The ravine on the east is found to be no less than 150 feet deep, and it ends at a mountain lying opposite Machaerus. [a]

Alexander, king of the Jews, saw the nature of this place and was the first to build a fortress on it, which Gabinius later demolished when he made war on Aristobulus. When Herod became king, he thought it worth more care than any other place and worth the strongest fortifications, especially because it lay near the Arabs: it sits in a commanding position, looking out toward their land. So he enclosed a large area with walls and towers and founded a city there, from which a road led up to the ridge itself. Besides this, he built a wall around the very summit and set up towers at its corners, each 90 feet high. In the middle of the enclosure he built a palace, lavish in the size and beauty of its rooms. He also made many cisterns in the most suitable places, to catch water and supply it in abundance. It was as if he were competing with nature, to outdo the strength the place had from nature with fortifications made by hand. He also stored there a great quantity of missiles and siege engines, and took thought to provide everything that could let the inhabitants scorn the longest siege. [f]

In the palace there grew a rue plant whose size was a wonder, for it was no smaller than any fig tree in height or thickness. The story was that it had lasted from the time of Herod, and it might well have lasted much longer, but it was cut down by the Jews who took over the place. In the ravine that encloses the city on the north there is a place called Baaras, which grows a root of the same name. Its color is like flame, and toward evening it flashes out a gleam of light. It is not easy for those who come and want to take it, for it shrinks away and will not stand still until someone pours a woman's urine or her menstrual blood on it. Even then, death is certain for those who touch it, unless one happens to carry the root itself hanging down from his hand. It is also taken in another way, without danger. They dig all around it, until only a very little of the root is still hidden. Then they tie a dog to it, and when the dog rushes to follow the man who tied it, the root is easily pulled up; but the dog dies at once, as if given in exchange for the man who was going to take the plant away. After this, those who take it in hand have nothing to fear. For all these dangers, it is sought after for one power only. The so-called demons, which are the spirits of wicked men that enter the living and kill those who find no help, are quickly driven out by this root, even if it is only brought near the sick. Springs of hot water also flow in this place, very different from one another in taste: some are bitter, and others lack nothing in sweetness. There are also many outlets of cold water, and not only in the lower ground, where the springs lie side by side. What is more wonderful still, a cave can be seen nearby, not deep in its hollow and sheltered by an overhanging rock. Above this rock rise what look like two breasts, a little apart from one another. One gives out a very cold spring and the other a very hot one. Mixed together, they make a most pleasant bath, healing for many diseases and above all for the sinews. The place also has mines of sulfur and alum. [h]

Bassus surveyed the place and decided to make his approach by filling the ravine on the east. He set to work, hurrying to raise the earthwork as fast as possible and so make the siege easy. The Jews shut up inside separated themselves from the foreigners. Thinking them a useless rabble, they forced them to stay in the lower city and face the first dangers, while they themselves seized and held the upper fortress, both because of its strength and to provide for their own safety; for they supposed they would obtain pardon if they handed the place over to the Romans. First, though, they wanted to put their hope of escaping a siege to the test. So they eagerly made sallies every day and grappled with the men building the earthwork, and many of them were killed, while they killed many of the Romans. In every case it was chiefly the moment that decided which side won: the Jews won when they fell on Romans who were off their guard, and the Romans on the earthworks won when they saw them coming and met their sally in close order. But the siege was not going to end in these clashes. Instead, an unexpected thing that happened by chance forced the Jews to surrender the fortress. Among the besieged was a young man named Eleazar, daring in his boldness and quick with his hands. He had made himself conspicuous in the sallies, urging many to go out and stop the filling of the ravine, and in the fighting he did the Romans much serious harm. He made the attack easy for those who dared to charge out with him and made their retreat safe by being the last to leave. Once, when the fighting had broken off and both sides had withdrawn, he stayed outside the gates, out of contempt for the enemy and thinking none of them would start fighting again at that time, and he chatted with those on the wall, his attention wholly on them. A man in the Roman camp named Rufus, an Egyptian by birth, saw his chance. When no one would have expected it, he ran up suddenly and lifted him, armor and all, and while those watching from the walls were still stunned, he got the man over to the Roman camp before they could act. [j]

The general ordered him stripped, set in the place most visible to those watching from the city, and flogged with whips. What the young man suffered shook the Jews deeply. The whole city wailed together, and the mourning was greater than one man's misfortune would warrant. When Bassus saw this, he began a stratagem against the enemy. He wanted to sharpen their grief, so that they would be driven to surrender the fortress in exchange for the man's life, and he was not disappointed in his hope. He ordered a cross set up, as if he were about to hang Eleazar on it at once. At this sight a still greater anguish fell on those in the fortress. They wailed piercingly, crying out that what he suffered was unbearable. Then Eleazar begged them not to stand by and see him suffer the most pitiable of deaths, but to win safety for themselves by yielding to the might and the fortune of the Romans, now that everyone else had been subdued. His words broke them, and many inside were pleading for him, for he came from a great and very numerous family; so, against their nature, they gave way to pity. They quickly sent out some men and negotiated to hand over the fortress, asking to be allowed to leave unharmed, taking Eleazar with them. The Romans and their general accepted these terms. The mass of people in the lower city, learning of the agreement the Jews had made for themselves alone, decided to slip away secretly by night. But as soon as they opened their gates, those who had made the agreement with Bassus informed him, whether because they begrudged the others their safety or out of fear that they themselves would be blamed for the escape. The bravest of those going out got clear first, cut their way through, and escaped. Of those left inside, 1,700 men were killed, and the women and children were made slaves. But Bassus, thinking he must keep the agreement with those who had surrendered the fortress, let them go and gave Eleazar back to them.

When he had settled these matters, Bassus hurried his army to the forest called Jardes, for word had come that many of those who had escaped earlier from the sieges of Jerusalem and Machaerus had gathered there. Arriving there and finding the report was true, he first surrounded the whole place with his cavalry, so that any Jews who dared to break out would find escape impossible because of the horsemen. He ordered the infantry to cut down the woods where they had taken refuge. This put the Jews under necessity to attempt some brave deed, fighting recklessly in the hope that they might perhaps escape. They charged together with a shout and fell on the men surrounding them. The Romans met them stoutly, and with desperation on one side and determination to win on the other, the battle went on for a long time. But it did not end alike for both. Only twelve Romans fell in all, and a few were wounded. Not one of the Jews escaped from this battle; all of them, no fewer than three thousand, were killed, together with their general Judas son of Ari. We said of him earlier that he had commanded a unit in the siege of Jerusalem and had slipped away unseen through one of the underground passages. [l]

About the same time Caesar wrote to Bassus and to Laberius Maximus, who was procurator, ordering that all the land of the Jews be sold. He founded no city there of his own, but kept the country as his own property. Only to eight hundred men discharged from the army did he give a place to settle. It is called Emmaus and lies nearly four miles from Jerusalem. On all Jews, wherever they lived, he imposed a tax, ordering each of them to bring two drachmas every year to the Capitol, as they had formerly paid them to the temple at Jerusalem. Such was the state of Jewish affairs at that time. [m]