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lay violent hands on himself. The rumour of his death induced Antipater to make a desperate attempt to bribe the keeper of his prison. This last offence was fatal. Herod just raised himself up in his bed to give the mandate for his execution, and then fell back-had only time once more to remodel his will-and thus, dispensing death on one hand, and kingdoms on the other, expired.

SCENES IN THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM BY THE ROMANS.

OPENING OF THE SIEGE.

[graphic]

UITE exhausted as the Jews

had already been by dissensions, the last winter of Jerusalem passed away in the same ferocious civil contests; her streets ran with the blood of her own children; and, instead of organizing a regular defence against the approaching enemy, each faction was strengthening its own position against the unintermitting assaults of its antagonists. The city was now divided into three distinct garrisons, at fierce and implacable hostility with each other. Eleazar the son of Simon, the man who was the first cause of the war, by persuading the people to reject the offerings of the Roman emperors, and who afterward had set himself at the head of the Zealots, and seized the temple, saw, with deep and rankling jealousy, the superiority assumed by John of Gischala. He pretended righteous indignation at his sanguinary proreedings, and, at length, with several other men of influence, udas the son of Hilkiah, Simon the son of Ezron, and Hezekiah the son of Chobar, he openly seceded from the

great band of Zealots who remained true to John, and seized the inner court of the temple. And now the arms of savage men, recking with the blood of their fellow-citizens, were seen to rest upon the gates and walls of the Holy of Holies: the sacred songs of the Levites gave place to the ribald jests of a debauched soldiery; instead of the holy instruments of music, were heard the savage shouts of fighting warriors; and among the appointed victims, men, mortally wounded by the arrows of their own brethren without, lay gasping upon the steps of the altar. The band of Eleazar was amply supplied with provisions; for the stores of the temple were full, and they were not troubled with religious scruples. But they were few, and could only defend themselves within, without venturing to sally forth against the enemy. The height of their position gave them an advantage over John, whose numbers were greatly superior-yet, though he suffered considerable loss, John would not intermit his attacks; clouds of missiles were continually discharged into the upper cour of the temple, and the whole sacred pavement was strewn with dead bodies.

Simon the son of Gioras, who occupied the upper city, attacked John the more fiercely, because his strength was divided, and he was likewise threatened by Eleazar from above. But John had the same advantage over Simon, which Eleazar had over John. It was a perilous enterprise to scale the ascent to the temple, and on such ground the Zealots had no great difficulty in repelling the incessant assaults of Simon's faction. Against Eleazar's party they turned their engines, the scorpions, catapults, and balistas, with which they slew not a few of their enemies in the upper court, and some who came to sacrifice; for it was a strange feature in this fearful contest, that the religious ceremonies still went on upon the altar, which was often encircled with the dead. Beside the human victims which fell around, the customary sacrifices were regularly offered. Not only the pious inhabitants of Jerusalem constantly entreated and obtained permission to offer up their gifts and prayers

before the altar of Jehovah, but even strangers from distant parts would still arrive, and, passing over the pavement slippery with human blood, make their way to the temple of their fathers; where, they fondly thought, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, still retained his peculiar dwelling within the Holy of Holies. Free ingress and egress were granted; the native Jews were strictly searched, the strangers were admitted with less difficulty; but often in the very act of prayer, or sacrifice, the arrows would come whizzing in, or the heavy stone fall thundering on their heads; and they would pay with their lives the price of kneeling and worshipping in the sacred place.

The contest raged more and more fiercely, for the abundant stores within the temple so unsparingly supplied the few adherents of Eleazar, that, in their drunkenness, they would occasionally sally out against John. When these attacks took place, John stood on the defensive, from the outer porticoes repelled Simon, and with his engines within harassed Eleazar. When the drunken or overwearied troops of Eleazar gave him repose, he would sally forth against Simon, and waste the city. Simon in his turn would drive him back; and thus the space around the temple became a mass of ruin and desolation; and in these desultory conflicts, the grana ries, which, if carefully protected and prudently husbanded, might have maintained the city in plenty for years, were either wantonly thrown to waste or set on fire by Simon, lest they should be seized by John.

The people, in the mean time, particularly the old me. and the women, groaned in secret; some uttered their prayers but not aloud, for the speedy arrival of the Romans to release them from the worse tyranny of these fierce strangers. In one point the three parties concurred, the persecution of the citizens, and in the condign punishment of every individual whom they suspected of wishing well to the Roman army, as their common enemy. It was dreadful to witness the deep and silent misery of the people: they dared not utter their griefs; their very groans were watched, and stifled

in their hearts. But it was even more dreadful to see the callous hard-heartedness which had seized all ranks-all were alike become reckless from desperation; there was no feeling for the nearest kindred; their very burial was neglected: all the desires, the hopes, the interest of life were extinguished, death was so near it was scarcely worth while to avoid it. Men went trampling over dead bodies as over the common pavement; and this familiarity with murder, as it deadened the hearts of the citizens, so it increased the ferocity of the soldiers. Yet, even in the midst of all this, the old religious prejudices were the last to yield. Among the atrocities of John, the promiscuous spoliations and murders, one act made still a deep impression upon the public mind— his seizing some sacred timbers, of great size and beauty, which Agrippa had brought from Lebanon, for the purpose of raising the temple twenty feet, and his converting them to the profane use of raising military towers, to annoy the faction of Eleazar in the inner temple. He erected these towers on the west side, where alone there was an open space, the others being occupied by flights of steps. The force of the three factions was as follows: Simon had ten thousand men, and five thousand Idumeans; John, six thousand; Eleazar, two thousand four hundred.

At length, after this awful interval of suspense, the war approached the gates of Jerusalem. Titus, having travelled from Egypt, arrived at Cæsarea, and began to organize his forces. In addition to the three legions which Vespasian had commanded, the twelfth returned to Syria, burning with revenge for its former disgraceful defeat under Cestius Gallus. The Syrian kings sent large contingents. The legions were full; the men who had been drafted off by Vespasian having been replaced by two thousand picked troops from Alexandria, and three thousand of those stationed on the Euphrates. Tiberius Alexander, who was distinguished not only by his wisdom and integrity, but by the intimate friendship of Titus, was appointed to a high command. He had been the first, in the recent political changes, to espouse the party of Ves

pasian; and his experience in arms and knowledge of the country, which he had once governed, added weight to his counsels. The army advanced in its customary order of march; first the allies, then the pioneers; the baggage of the principal officers strongly guarded; then Titus himself, with a select guard of spearmen; then the horse attached to the legions. The military engines next, strongly guarded. The eagles and the trumpeters followed; then the legionaries in their phalanx, six deep; the slaves with the baggage; last of all, the mercenaries, with the rear-guard to keep order.

The host moved slowly through Samaria into Gophna, and encamped in the valley of Thorns, near a village called Gaboth Saul, the Hill of Saul, about three miles and three quarters from Jerusalem. Titus himself, with six-hundred horse, went forward to reconnoitre.

As they wound down the last declivities which sloped towards the walls, the factious and turbulent city seemed reposing in perfect peace. The gates were closed; not a man appeared. The squadron of Titus turned to the right, filed off, and skirted the wall towards the tower Psephina. On a sudden, the gate behind him, near the tower of the Women, towards the monument of Helena, burst open, and countless multitudes threw themselves, some across the road on which Titus was advancing, some right through his line, separating those who had diverged from the rest of the party. Titus was cut off with only a few followers-to advance was impossible. The ground was covered with orchards and gardens, divided by stone walls and intersected by deep trenches and water-courses, which reached to the city walls. To retreat was almost as difficult, for the enemy lay in thousands across his road. Titus saw that not a moment was to be lost he wheeled his horse round, called to his men to follow him, and charged fiercely through. Darts and javelins fell in showers around him; he had rode forth to reconnoitre, not to battle, and had on neither helmet nor breastplate. Providentially, not an arrow touched him: clearing his way with his sword on both sides, and trampling down the enemy with

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