TRIUMPH OF VESPASIAN AND TITUS. 65 The loss in many skirmishes and battles,-that of Itabyrium for instance,-is omitted, as we have not the numbers; besides the immense waste of life from massacre, famine, and disease, inseparable from such a war, in almost every district. The number of prisoners is only given from two places besides Jerusalem. Nothing could equal the splendour of the triumph which Vespasian shared with his son Titus for their common victories. Besides the usual display of treasures, gold, silver, jewels, purple vases, the rarest wild beasts from all quarters of the globe, there were extraordinary pageants, three or four stories high, representing, to the admiration and delight of those civilized savages, all the horrors and miseries of war, beautiful countries laid waste; armies slain, routed, led captive; cities breached by military engines, stormed, laid waste with fire and sword; women wailing; houses overthrown; temples burning; and rivers of fire flowing through regions no longer cultivated or peopled, but blazing far away into the long and dreary distance. Among the spoils, the golden table, the seven-branched candlestick, and the book of the law, from the Temple of Jerusalem, were conspicuous. The triumph passed on to the Capitol, and there paused to hear that the glory of Rome was completed by the insulting and cruel execution of the bravest general of the enemy. This distinction fell to the lot of Simon the son of Gioras. He was dragged along to a place near the Forum, with a halter round his neck, scourged as he went, and there put to death. The antiquary still endeavours to trace, among the defaced and mouldering reliefs of the arch raised to Titus, "the Delight of humankind,” and which still stands in the Forum of Rome, the repre sentation of the spoils taken from the Temple of Jerusalem-the golden table and candlestick, the censors, the silver trumpets, and even the procession of captive Jews. BOOK XVII. TERMINATION OF THE WAR. Fall of Herodion-Macharus Masada--Fate of Josephus→→ Agrippa-Berenice. Ar might have been expected that all hopes of resistance, even among the most stubborn of the Jews, would have been buried under the ruins of the capital; that after the fall of Jerusalem, with such dreadful misery and carnage, every town would at once have opened its gates, and laid itself at the mercy of the irresistible conqueror. Yet, when Lucilius Bassus came to take the command of the Roman army, he found three strong fortresses still in arms-Herodion, Masada, and Machærus. Heródion immediately capitulated, but Machærus, beyond the Jordan, relying on its impregnable position, defied all the power of the enemy. Macharus stood on the summit of a lofty crag, surrounded on all sides by ravines of enormous depth, which could not easily be crossed, and could not possibly be filled up. One of these ravines, on the western side, ran down, a distance of nearly eight miles, to the Dead Sea. Those to the north and the south were less deep, but not less impassable: on the east the hollow was 175 feet to the bottom, beyond which arose a mountain which faced Machærus. The town had been built and strongly fortified by Alexander Janneus, as a check upon the Arabian freebooters. It was a place of great beauty, as well as strength, adorned with noble palaces, and amply supplied with reservoirs of water. Bassus determined to form the siege on the eastern side; the garrison took possession of the citadel, and One forced the strangers, who had taken refuge there from all quarters, to defend the lower town. Many fierce conflicts took place under the walls; the garrison sometimes surprising the enemy by the rapidity of their sallies: sometimes, when the Romans were prepared for them, being repulsed with great loss. There happened to be a young man, named Eleazar, of remarkable activity and valour, who greatly distinguished himself in these attacks, being always the first to charge and the last to retreat, often by his single arm arresting the progress of the enemy, and allowing his routed compatriots time to make good their retreat. day, after the battle was over, proudly confident in his prowess and in the terror of his arms, he remained alone without the gates, carelessly conversing with those on the wall. Rufus, an Egyptian, serving in the Roman army, a man of singular bodily strength, watched the opportunity, rushed on him, and bore him off, armour and all, to the Roman camp. Bassus ordered the captive to be stripped, and scourged in the sight of the besieged. At the sufferings of their brave_champion the whole city set up a wild wailing. Bassus, when he saw the effect of his barbarous measure, ordered a cross to be erected, as if for the execution of the gallant youth. The lamentations in the city became more loud and general. Eleazar's family was powerful and numerous. Through their influence it was agreed to surrender the citadel, on condition that Eleazar's life should be spared. The strangers in the lower town attempted to cut their way through the posts of the besiegers; a few of the bravest succeeded; of those who remained, 1700 perished. The treaty with the garrison was honourably observed. Bassus proceeded to surround the forest of Jardes, where a vast number of fugitives had taken refuge: they attempted to break through, but were repulsed, |