CHAPTER XVIII.
SIEGE OF JOTAPATA.—FALL OF JERUSALEM.
War—Sieges—Heroism—Fall of Jotapata—The Lot—Horrors in Jerusalem—The City taken by Assault—The Temple Burned.
Into all the details of this most horrible war we will not enter, nor describe how, in Cesarea, Joppa, Damascus, Jews were slaughtered by thousands and tens of thousands. In 67 A.D., Vespasian, a distinguished Roman general, marched into Galilee, where he took the city of Gadara, and other strongholds of the land. He was accompanied by his son Titus, who, on his father’s subsequent elevation to the imperial throne of Rome, headed the conquering army.
Never, even in the time of the Maccabees, had more desperate courage been shown than the Jewish nation now displayed. Of this the defence of the city of Jotapata, under the Jewish historian Josephus, was a most memorable instance.
Jotapata was built on a high precipice, and was accessible only on the north side, which Josephus had strongly fortified with a wall. Against this wall Vespasian raised a high bank, and brought one hundred and sixty engines of war to throw stones, darts, and arrows into the city. But even as the bank rose, so rose the wall; the defenders labouring day and night, and protecting themselves from the innumerable darts and heavy stones cast by the engines, by screens formed of the raw hides of oxen, which broke the force of the missiles.
After many fierce assaults and desperate sallies, Vespasian resolved to invest the city, and starve its defenders into a surrender. There was plenty of corn within Jotapata; but the want of water was great, and Josephus was obliged to distribute it to his followers by measure. Finding, however, that the Romans had obtained some intelligence of their distress, Josephus commanded that many clothes should be plunged into water, and then hung out upon the battlements, that the abundance of water trickling from them down the wall might deceive the foe into the belief that this first necessary of life was plentiful in the city. This artifice was successful; Vespasian despaired of taking the place by famine, and again betook himself to the force of arms.
A daring stratagem was made use of to supply the wants of the garrison. Some of the boldest ventured by night out of the city to procure provisions, creeping on all fours past the outposts of the Romans, and covering themselves with skins, that if descried by the watchful foe, they might be taken for prowling dogs.
The formidable battering-ram was now brought against the walls of Jotapata. This was a huge beam of wood, whose fore-part was armed with a thick piece of iron, suspended from an engine by ropes. When the beam had been pulled backwards by a number of the soldiers, it swung forwards with an impetus so tremendous, that at its very first blow the wall was shaken, and a cry of terror arose from the besieged, as if the destruction of their battlements were certain. Josephus, however, ordered bags of chaff to be hung over the walls, to deaden the force of the blows; but the Romans, with sharp hooks at the end of long poles, cut the ropes by which the bags were suspended.
Eleazar, a Jew, performed a feat of heroism which is well worthy to be recorded. Standing upon the wall, he hurled a huge stone upon the ram with such precision and force, that he broke off its iron head. He then leaped down, seized on the piece, and, though a mark for the enemy, and pierced with five of their darts, he actually succeeded in carrying it off, and regaining the top of the wall, where he stood for a moment exulting, and then fell down dead from the summit, with the ram’s head still grasped in his hands.
Again and again the Jews sallied forth, attacked the besiegers, and burned their engines with fire. When the Romans pressed on to the assault, scalding oil was poured on them from the wall, and the assailants were driven back by the desperate valour of the defenders.
Jotapata fell at last, however, by an attack made by the Romans at night, when, worn out with watching and fighting, the exhausted guard lay asleep. The brave garrison found no mercy; many were driven over the precipice, many perished by their own swords rather than fall into the hands of the foe. About twelve hundred women and children were reserved for bondage by the conquerors.
Josephus and forty of his companions, when they found that resistance was hopeless, concealed themselves by descending into a pit, which communicated with a cave. Here, on the third day, the hiding-place of Josephus was discovered by the Romans; and Vespasian, willing to preserve the life of the general, offered him quarter if he would yield himself up.
Nothing shows in a more forcible light the obstinate spirit of the Jews, than the fury of the comrades of Josephus at the bare idea of his surrender. “O Josephus!” they exclaimed, “art thou still fond of life, and canst thou bear to see the light in a state of slavery! If thou hast forgotten thyself, we ought to take care that the glory of our forefathers be not tarnished. We will lend thee our right hand and a sword: if thou wilt die willingly, thou shalt die as a general of the Jews; but if unwillingly, thou shalt die as a traitor to them!”
In their savage rage these desperate men were about to plunge their weapons into their own commander, when, grasping at the last chance of deliverance, Josephus made the following proposal: “Since it is resolved among you,” said he, “that we will die, let us commit our mutual deaths to determination by lot. He to whom the first lot falls shall be killed by him who draws the second, and thus shall death make progress through us all, but none shall perish by his own hand!”
The proposition was accepted. Josephus himself drew among the rest; but as Providence ordered it, his lot was the last but one. When the general was surrounded by the bloody corpses of his fierce companions, he succeeded in persuading the only one of them who survived not to complete the horrible work of destruction. He and the man surrendered to the Romans, and received mercy from Vespasian.
But even the horrors of Jotapata were light compared to those of the siege of Jerusalem! At the feast of the Passover, at the season when the city was most crowded with worshippers—at the season when the Messiah had been slain—the Roman army, under the conduct of Titus, invested Jerusalem 70 A.D. A wall was thrown up around it; there was no means of escape for the multitudes within, except that of accepting the proffered mercy of Titus: that mercy was fiercely rejected.
As though the miseries of such a war were not sufficient, the city was rent by internal dissensions. Eleazar, at the head of a body of fierce bigots, garrisoned the temple of Jerusalem; John of Gischala, an unprincipled ruffian, swept the streets with his bands of robbers; and Simon, a savage tyrant, filled the lower parts of the city with blood. These three parties attacked each other with the fury of ravening wolves, and only united in ferocious sallies against the common enemy. In the madness of their rage in this intestine strife, the Jews actually set fire to the houses which contained their own stores of provisions, and thus added to all other horrors that of the extremity of famine. Multitudes perished by hunger; and happiest were those who were first relieved by death from their horrible torments. Girdles and shoes were eagerly devoured; leather from the shields was torn off and gnawed; robbers burst into the houses where wretched families were dying of hunger, and tortured the poor wretches to force them to discover where a morsel of food might lie concealed. Many of the famished sufferers who endeavoured to escape from the city were seized by the Romans, and crucified in such numbers that wood could scarcely be found for the crosses; while if any in the beleaguered town were suspected of wishing to quit it, they were murdered by the furious Zealots. The sound of war in Jerusalem was heard by day and by night; the streets were slippery with gore; no one there attempted to bury the heaps of corpses. It is said that 1,100,000 of the people perished in this horrible siege.
One by one the three walls which encompassed the city were taken by assault; as the circle grew narrower and narrower, the misery within grew more dreadful. Unnatural horrors were perpetrated. Not only would parents tear the last morsel of food from their famishing babes, but, fearful to relate, a mother was known even to feed upon her own offspring! Let a veil be drawn over such awful scenes. Fearfully was the prediction of the Messiah at this time accomplished—“_There shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be!_”
The Lord had foretold that false prophets should arise and deceive many, and that fearful sights and great signs should be from heaven; and these words were literally fulfilled. The miserable Jews desperately grasped at the hope of a coming Messiah, and eagerly listened to deceivers, who only lured them to ruin. A wonder in the sky, resembling a fiery sword, hung over the devoted city; appearances as of chariots and assembling armies in the clouds terrified the astonished beholders; and one night the priests in the temple were alarmed by a quaking of the earth, accompanied by a strange sound, and a voice which uttered the mysterious words, “Let us depart!”
At length the hour of complete vengeance arrived. Ministers of God’s wrath, the Romans burst through the last defences of the Jews, and the torrent of blood swept the city. Titus had resolved to spare the magnificent temple; but he could not baffle the decree of the Almighty. The Lord had declared that not one stone should be left upon another; and heaven and earth must pass away before one of His words can fall to the ground. A Roman soldier, acting without orders, set fire to the glorious building, which was speedily enveloped in flames. Loud and fearful rose the cry of the despairing Jews when their last hope perished in the blazing pile. In vain Titus in person exerted himself to put a stop to the progress of the fire; the flames curled round the pillars, spread over the roof, and the crash of falling timbers, and the roar of the conflagration, mingled with the shrieks of a multitude of the Jews who were burned in the cloisters of the temple.
CONTEMPORANEOUS EVENT. 65-70 A.D. A.D. Martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul 66