Defeats at Ashkelon

After the blow they had dealt Cestius, the Jews were so carried away by their unexpected success that they could not check their eagerness. As though fanned into flame by their good fortune, they carried the war farther afield. At once they gathered all their best fighting men and set out against Ashkelon. This is an ancient city, about sixty-five miles from Jerusalem, and the Jews had always hated it; that is why it seemed the nearest target for their first onslaught. The raid was led by three men who stood out both in strength and in judgment: Niger the Perean, Silas the Babylonian, and with them John the Essene. Ashkelon was strongly walled but had almost no help at hand, for its garrison was one cohort of infantry and one squadron of cavalry, commanded by Antonius. [a]

In their eagerness the Jews marched much harder than usual, as if they had set out from close by, and suddenly they were there. But Antonius was not unaware of the attack they were planning. He led out his cavalry ahead of time and, without the least fear of the enemy’s numbers or their daring, he stoutly withstood their first charges and drove back those who were pushing toward the wall. They were men without experience of war against men experienced in it, infantry against cavalry, a disorderly mass against a united force, men armed anyhow against fully equipped soldiers, men led by passion more than by judgment against troops who obeyed readily and did everything at a nod. So they were easily beaten. As soon as their front ranks were thrown into confusion, the cavalry put them to flight. They fell back on those behind them who were pressing toward the wall and became each other’s enemies, until at last all of them gave way before the charges of the horsemen and were scattered over the whole plain. The plain was wide and good riding everywhere. This helped the Romans greatly and caused the greatest slaughter of the Jews. The horsemen overtook the fugitives and turned them back; they cut through those whom the rout had driven together and killed vast numbers; and wherever men turned, groups of riders surrounded them, rode round them, and easily brought them down with javelins. To the Jews, in their helplessness, their own great numbers seemed a desert, while the Romans, few as they were, thought in their success that they had men to spare. The Jews kept struggling against their reverses, out of shame at a quick flight and in hope of a change of fortune, and the Romans never tired while they were winning. So the battle dragged on till evening, until ten thousand of the Jews lay dead, and two of their generals, John and Silas. Most of the rest were wounded, and with Niger, the one general left, they fled together to a small town in Idumea called Chaallis. A few of the Romans too were wounded in this battle. [d]

Yet so great a disaster did not break the spirit of the Jews; their suffering only roused their daring. Disregarding the dead at their feet, they were lured on by their earlier successes to a second blow. Without waiting even long enough for their wounds to heal, they gathered all their forces and came back against Ashkelon, angrier and in far greater numbers. But their former fortune went with them, along with their inexperience and their other weaknesses in war. Antonius had set ambushes in the passes. They fell into them unawares, and before they could form up for battle the cavalry had surrounded them. Again more than eight thousand fell. All the rest fled, and Niger with them, who did many daring deeds in the retreat. With the enemy pressing hard on them, they were driven together into a strong tower in a village called Belzedek. Antonius and his men did not want to waste time on a tower that was hard to take, nor to let the enemy’s commander, the bravest of them all, escape alive, so they set fire to the wall beneath it. As the tower burned, the Romans withdrew rejoicing, sure that Niger too had perished. But he had leapt down from the tower into a cave in the innermost part of the fort and so survived. Three days later, as his men were searching for him with lamentation to give him burial, he called up to them from below. When he came out, he filled all the Jews with a joy they had not hoped for, as a man saved by the providence of God to be their general in what lay ahead. [f]

Vespasian took his forces from Antioch. That is the capital of Syria, and for size and general prosperity it holds, beyond dispute, the third place in the world under Roman rule. There he had found King Agrippa waiting for his arrival with all his own forces, and from there he hurried to Ptolemais. At that city he was met by the people of Sepphoris in Galilee, the only people of that region who were minded for peace. Looking ahead both to their own safety and to the power of the Romans, they had given pledges to Caesennius Gallus before Vespasian came, received his right hand in return, and admitted a garrison. Now they welcomed the general warmly and readily promised to fight as his allies against their own countrymen. At their request he gave them, for their safety in the meantime, as many horsemen and foot soldiers as seemed enough to beat off raids if the Jews made any move. For losing Sepphoris seemed no small risk in the coming war, since it was the largest city in Galilee, walled on a site of great natural strength, and would serve as a fortress to keep watch over the whole nation. [g]