The Rams Reach the Wall

The fighting men in the city, the faction gathered around Simon, numbered ten thousand, not counting the Idumeans. These ten thousand had fifty officers, and over them Simon was master of all. The Idumeans who joined forces with him were about five thousand and had ten leaders, of whom Jacob son of Sosas and Simon son of Kathlas were thought the most prominent. John, who had seized the temple, had six thousand armed men under twenty officers. The Zealots too had now joined him, giving up their quarrel. They were two thousand four hundred, and kept as their leaders Eleazar, who had led them before, and Simon son of Arinus. While these were at war with each other, the people, as we have said, were the prize of both, and the part of the people that would not join in their crimes was plundered by both sides. Simon held the upper city and the great wall as far as the Kidron, and as much of the old wall as bends east from Siloam and comes down to the palace of Monobazus, who was king of the Adiabenians beyond the Euphrates. He also held the spring, and that part of the Akra, the lower city, that reaches to the palace of Helena, the mother of Monobazus. John held the temple and the ground around it for a good distance, as well as Ophlas and the ravine called the Kidron. They burned the area between them and so left a field for their war with each other. [a]

For not even with the Romans camped at the walls did the faction inside lie still. They came to their senses briefly at the first sally, but then fell sick again, split apart once more and fought one another, doing everything the besiegers could have prayed for. Certainly they suffered nothing worse at the hands of the Romans than they did to each other, and after them the city met with no new suffering. Rather, it went through something more grievous before it fell, and those who took it achieved something greater. For I say that it was the faction that took the city, and the Romans who took the faction, which was far stronger than the walls. The misery one may reasonably lay to the charge of our own people, and the justice to the Romans. Let each reader judge as the facts lead him.

With things inside in this state, Titus rode around the outside with picked horsemen, looking for a place to attack the walls. He was at a loss on every side, for there was no approach by way of the ravines, and elsewhere the first wall looked too solid for his engines. So he decided to attack near the tomb of John the high priest. There the first rampart was lower, and the second was not joined to it, since the builders had neglected to wall the New City strongly where it was thinly settled. But from there the way to the third wall was easy, and through it he planned to take the upper city, and through the Antonia the temple. [e]

Meanwhile, as he was riding around, one of his friends named Nicanor was shot with an arrow in the left shoulder. He had gone up rather close with Josephus and was trying to speak of peace to those on the wall, since he was known to them. From this Caesar saw how violent they were, if they would not keep their hands even off men who came to them for their own safety, and he was spurred on to the siege. At once he gave the legions leave to lay waste the suburbs, and ordered them to collect timber and raise earthworks. He divided the army into three parts for the work and placed the javelin men and archers between the earthworks, and in front of them the bolt shooters, the catapults and the stone-throwing engines, to keep the enemy from sallying against the works and to stop the men on the wall from hindering them. The trees were cut down, and the suburbs were quickly stripped bare. But while the timber was being carried to the earthworks and the whole army was hard at the work, the Jews were not idle either. It happened that the common people, who had been suffering plunder and murder, now took heart. They supposed they would get a breathing space while the others were busy with the enemy outside, and that they themselves would get justice from the guilty if the Romans won.

John, though his men were eager to go out against the enemy outside, stayed where he was for fear of Simon. Simon, however, was not idle, since he was nearer the siege. He set up along the wall the artillery they had taken from Cestius before and seized when they captured the garrison of the Antonia. But for most of them owning these engines was useless, because they had no experience. A few, taught by deserters, worked the engines badly. From the wall they shot stones and arrows at the men building the earthworks, and they sallied out in companies and grappled with them. The workmen were sheltered from the missiles by wicker screens stretched over the palisades, and their artillery was turned against the men who sallied out. All the legions had wonderfully made engines, but those of the tenth were exceptional: their bolt shooters were more powerful and their stone throwers larger, so that they overturned not only the sallies but also the men on the wall. The stones they threw weighed about seventy-five pounds and carried a quarter of a mile and more, and their blow was irresistible, not only to those who met them first but to those behind them for a long way. [g]

At first the Jews watched out for the stone, for it was white, so that it was signaled not only by its whizzing but could be seen coming by its brightness. Lookouts posted on the towers gave warning whenever the engine was fired and the stone was in flight, shouting in their native language, “The son is coming!” Those in its path would scatter and throw themselves down in time, and so, as they kept on guard, the stone would fall without doing harm. The Romans countered this by blackening the stone. Then, since it could no longer be seen coming as before, they hit their mark and destroyed many with a single shot. But even under these losses the Jews did not let the Romans raise their earthworks in peace. They used every device and every kind of daring to hold them off, night and day.

When the works were finished, the engineers measured the distance to the wall with lead and line, throwing it from the earthworks; they could not do it any other way, since they were shot at from above. Finding that the rams could reach, they brought them up. Titus set his artillery closer, so that the Jews could not keep the rams from the wall, and gave the order to batter. Suddenly a tremendous crash from three sides rang around the city. A cry went up from those inside, and the rebels were seized by the same fear. Seeing that the danger was shared, both sides now began to think of sharing the defense too. The rival factions shouted to one another that they were doing everything for the enemy, when they ought, even if God did not grant them lasting harmony, at least for now to put off their quarrel with each other and unite against the Romans. So Simon proclaimed safe conduct for those from the temple to come out onto the wall, and John, though he did not trust him, allowed it. [i]

Forgetting their hatred and their private quarrels, they became one body. Manning the wall, they hurled a great mass of fire at the machines and kept shooting without letup at the men driving the rams. The bolder ones leaped out in bands, tore apart the wicker screens of the machines, and falling on the crews, got the better of them, a little by skill but mostly by daring. Titus himself kept coming to the help of those in trouble. He posted horsemen and archers on either side of the engines, kept off those who were bringing fire, beat back those who were shooting from the towers, and set the rams to work in earnest. Yet the wall did not give way to the blows, except that the ram of the fifteenth legion dislodged the corner of a tower. The wall itself was unharmed. It was not endangered along with the tower at once, since the tower projected far out from it and could not easily tear away any part of the circuit with it.

For a little while the Jews stopped their sallies. They watched the Romans scattered about at their works and in their camps, for the Romans thought the Jews had drawn back out of weariness and fear. Then, all at once, they sallied out by the tower Hippicus through a hidden gate, carrying fire to the works and set on pushing forward as far as the Romans’ fortifications. At their shout, those near at hand quickly closed ranks and those farther off came running. But the daring of the Jews outran the discipline of the Romans; they routed those they met first and pressed hard on those who were gathering. A fierce battle broke out around the machines, one side straining to set them on fire, the other to prevent it. On both sides there was confused shouting, and many of those fighting in front fell. The Jews had the upper hand through sheer desperation. The fire was catching the works, and all of them would have been in danger of burning up with the engines had not most of the picked troops from Alexandria stood their ground and proved braver than anyone had expected of them; indeed, in this battle they outdid troops of greater fame. So it went until Caesar took the strongest of his horsemen and charged the enemy. He himself killed twelve of the men in front, and when the rest of the crowd gave way at their fall, he followed and drove them all into the city, and saved the works from the fire. [j]

In this battle one of the Jews happened to be taken alive. Titus ordered him crucified in front of the wall, to see whether the rest would be terrified at the sight and give in. After the Jews had withdrawn, John, the leader of the Idumeans, was talking in front of the wall with a soldier he knew when he was shot in the chest by an arrow from one of the Arabs, and he died at once. He left the Idumeans in the deepest mourning and the rebels in grief, for he was outstanding both in action and in judgment.