Chapter 6: The Fall Of The City.
The Roman soldiers--seeing the wall of Jotapata tremble beneath theblows of the battering ram, whose iron head pounded to powder thestones against which it struck--redoubled their efforts when,suddenly, from three sally ports which they had prepared, the Jewsburst out; carrying their weapons in their right hands, and blazingtorches in their left. As on previous occasions, their onslaughtwas irresistible. They swept the Romans before them; and set fireto the engines, the wattles, and the palisades, and even to thewoodwork of the embankment. The timber had by this time dried and,as bitumen and pitch had been used as cement in the construction ofthe works, the flames spread with great rapidity; and the work ofmany days was destroyed, in an hour. All the engines andbreastworks of the Fifth and Tenth Legions were entirely consumed.
Just as the attack began, Eleazar--the son of Sameas, aGalilean--with an immense stone from the wall, struck the iron headof the battering ram, and knocked it off. He then leaped down fromthe wall, seized the iron head, and carried it back into the city.He was pierced by five arrows. Still, he pressed on and regainedthe walls; and held up the iron head in the sight of all, and thenfell down dead.
Such was the spirit with which the Jews were animated; and theRoman soldiers, trained as they were to conflict among manypeoples, were yet astounded by the valor displayed by the race thatthey had considered as unwarlike peasants. But the Romans were notdiscouraged. Heavy masses of troops were brought up, the Jews weredriven within their walls and, towards evening, the ram was againin position.
While Vespasian was directing the attack, he was struck by ajavelin in the heel. The Romans ceased from the attack and crowdedround their general but, as soon as they ascertained that his woundwas not serious, they returned to the attack with redoubled fury.
All that night, the contest raged unceasingly. The Roman enginesswept the walls with missiles. The towers came crashing down, underthe blows of the huge stones; while the javelins, arrows, and thestones from the slings created terrible havoc among the defendersof the wall. But, as fast as these fell, fresh combatants tooktheir places; and they continued hurling down stones, and blazingbrands, upon the freshly-erected wattles round the battering ram.The Romans had the advantage in this strife for, while the fires onthe walls--at which the Jews lighted their brands, and boiled thepitch and sulphur in which these were dipped--enabled them to aimaccurately, they themselves worked in deep shadow, at the foot ofthe wall.
The night was a terrible one. The bolts, stones, and arrows whichpassed over the wall spread ruin and death over the town. The dinwas unceasing. The thundering noise of the great stones; the dull,deep sound as the ram struck the wall; the fierce shouts of thecombatants, as they fought hand to hand--for the corpses were, inplaces, piled so thick that the assailants could mount upon them tothe top of the walls--the shrieks of the women, and the screams ofthe children, combined in one terrible and confused noise; whichwas echoed back, and multiplied, by the surrounding mountains.
Morning was just breaking when the shaken wall gave way, and fell,with a crash. Vespasian called off his weary troops, and allowedthem a short time for refreshment; then he prepared to storm thebreach. He brought up, first, a number of his bravest horsemen;dismounted, and clad in complete armor. They were provided with longpikes, and were to charge forward, the instant the machines formounting the breach were fixed. Behind these were the best of hisinfantry, while in their rear were the archers and slingers. Otherparties, with scaling ladders, were to attack the uninjured part ofthe wall, and to draw off the attention of the besiegers. The restof the horse extended all over the hills round the town, so thatnone might make their escape.
Josephus prepared to receive the attack. He placed the old, infirm,and wounded to repel the attack on the uninjured parts of the wall.He then chose the five strongest and bravest men and, with them,took his place to form the front line of the defenders of thebreach. He told them to kneel down and cover their heads with theirbucklers, until the enemy's archers had emptied their quivers and,when the Romans had fixed the machines for mounting, they were toleap down among the enemy and fight to the last; remembering thatthere was now no hope of safety, naught but to revenge the fatewhich was impending over them, their wives and children.
As the Romans mounted to the assault, a terrible cry broke out fromthe women. They saw the Romans still manning the lines which cutoff all escape, and they believed that the end was now at hand.Josephus, fearing that their cries would dispirit the men, orderedthem all to be locked up in their houses, and then calmly awaitedthe assault.
The trumpet of the legion sounded, and the whole Roman host set upa terrible shout while, at the same moment, the air was darkened bythe arrows of their bowmen. Kneeling beneath their bucklers, theJews remained calm and immovable; and then, before the Romans hadtime to set foot upon the breach, with a yell of fury they rushedupon them, and threw themselves into the midst of their assailants.For a time, the Romans could make no way against the desperatecourage of the Jews but, as fast as the leading files fell, freshtroops took their places; while the Jews, who were vastly reducedby their losses, had no fresh men to take the place of those whodied.
At last, the solid phalanx of the Romans drove back the defenders,and entered the breach. But as they did so, from the walls aboveand from the breach in front, vessels filled with boiling oil werehurled down upon them. The Roman ranks were broken; and the men, inagony, rolled on the ground, unable to escape the burning fluidwhich penetrated through the joints of their armor. Those who turnedto fly were pierced by the javelins of the Jews; for the Romanscarried no defensive armor on their backs, which were neversupposed to be turned towards an enemy.
Fresh troops poured up the breach, to take the place of theiragonized comrades; but the Jews threw down, upon the planks,vessels filled with a sort of vegetable slime. Unable to retaintheir footing upon the slippery surface, the Romans fell upon eachother, in heaps. Those rolling down carried others with them, and aterrible confusion ensued, the Jews never ceasing to pour theirmissiles upon them.
When evening came, Vespasian called off his men. He saw that, toovercome the desperate resistance of the defenders, fresh stepsmust be taken before the assault was repeated; and he accordinglygave orders that the embankment should be raised, much higher thanbefore; and that upon it three towers, each fifty feet high andstrongly girded with iron, should be built.
This great work was carried out, in spite of the efforts of thebesieged. In the towers, Vespasian placed his javelin men, archers,and light machines and, as these now looked down upon the wall,they were enabled to keep up such a fire upon it that the Jewscould no longer maintain their footing; but contented themselveswith lying behind it, and making desperate sallies whenever theysaw any parties of Romans approaching the breach.
In the meantime, a terrible calamity had befallen the neighboringtown of Japha. Emboldened by the vigorous defense of Jotapata, ithad closed its gates to the Romans. Vespasian sent Trajan, with twothousand foot and a thousand horse, against it.
The city was strongly situated, and surrounded by a double wall.Instead of waiting to be attacked, the people sallied out and fellupon the Romans. They were, however, beaten back; and the Romans,pressing on their heels, entered with them through the gates of theoutside walls. The defenders of the gates through the inner walls,fearing that these, too, would be carried by the mob, closed them;and all those who had sallied out were butchered by the Romans.
Trajan, seeing that the garrison must now be weak, sent toVespasian, and asked him to send his son to complete the victory.Titus soon arrived, with a thousand foot and five hundred horseand, at once, assaulted the inner walls. The defense was feeble.The Romans effected their entry but, inside the town, a desperateconflict took place; the inhabitants defending every street, withthe energy of despair, while the women aided their efforts byhurling down stones, and missiles, from the roofs. The battlelasted six hours, when all who could bear arms were slain. The restof the male
population were put to death, the women taken asslaves. In all, fifteen thousand were killed, two thousand onehundred and thirty taken prisoners.
In another direction, a heavy blow had also been struck by theRomans. The Samaritans had not openly joined the revolt, but hadgathered in great force on Mount Gerizim. Cerealis was sent byVespasian, with three thousand infantry and six hundred horse,against them. He surrounded the foot of the mountain, and abstainedfrom an assault until the Samaritans were weakened by thirst--manydying from want of water. Cerealis then mounted the hill, and sentto them to throw down their arms. On their refusal, he charged themfrom all sides, and put every soul--in number, eleven thousand sixhundred--to the sword.
The situation of the defenders of Jotapata was now pitiable,indeed. Scarce a man but had received wounds, more or less severe,in the desperate combats. All were utterly worn out with fatigue;for they were under arms, day and night, in readiness to repel theexpected attack. Numbers of the women and children had died ofthirst, and terror. Save the armed men lying in groups near thefoot of the wall, in readiness to repel an assault, scarce a soulwas to be seen in the lately-crowded streets.
The houses were now ample to contain the vastly diminished number.Here the women and children crouched, in utter prostration. Thepower of suffering was almost gone. Few cared how soon the endcame.
The siege had now continued for forty-seven days; and the Romanarmy, strong in numbers, in discipline, and in arms, and commandedby one of its best generals, had yet failed to capture the littletown--which they had expected to take within a few hours of theirappearance before it--and so fierce was the valor of the besieged,that Vespasian did not venture to order his legions forward torenew the assault. But now, a deserter informed him that thegarrison was greatly exhausted, that the men on guard could notkeep awake; and that the breach could be carried, at night, by asudden assault.
Vespasian prepared for the assault, which was to take place atdaybreak. A thick mist enveloped the town, and the sleepingsentries were not aroused by the silent steps of the approachingRomans. Titus was the first to enter the breach, followed by asmall number of troops. These killed the sleeping guards, and themain body of the Romans then poured in. Before the Jews wereconscious of their danger, the whole of the Roman army was uponthem.
Then the slaughter commenced. Many of the Jews killed each other,rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. Many threwthemselves over the precipices, numbers took refuge in the deepcaverns under the city. That day, all in the streets or houses werekilled; the next, the Romans searched the caverns and undergroundpassages, slaughtering all the men and boys, and sparing none butinfants and women. During the siege and capture, forty thousand menfell. Only twelve hundred women and children were spared. Socomplete was the surprise, and so unresistingly did the Jews submitto slaughter, that only one Roman was killed.
This was Antoninus, a centurion. He came upon a Jew in a deepcavern, and told him he would spare his life, if he wouldsurrender. The Jew asked him to give him his hand, as a pledge ofhis faith, and to help him out of the cave. Antoninus did so, andthe Jew at once ran him through with a spear.
John was asleep when the Romans entered. He was aroused by Jonasrushing into the room. The boy was at all times restless, andsuffered less than most of those within the walls; for there was anabundance of grain up to the end of the siege and, until the Romanshad discovered the way down to the water, he had not suffered inany way from thirst. He was considered too young to take part inthe actual fighting; but had labored with the rest in repairing thedefenses, carrying food to men on the walls, and carrying away thedead and wounded.
"Get up, John!" he exclaimed. "In the mist I have just run upon amass of Roman soldiers, ranged in order. The town is taken. Quick,before they scatter and begin to slay!"
John caught up his sword, and ran out. Just as he did so, aterrible shout was heard, followed by shrieks and cries. The workof butchery had begun.
John's plans had been laid for some time. At night Jonas hadfrequently descended to the ledge, taking with him food, and jarsof the water he brought up from below; and once or twice John haddescended, Jonas fastening a rope round his body, and lowering itgradually for, active as he was, John could not get down withoutsuch assistance. Indeed, to any one who looked casually over thetop, the descent appeared absolutely impossible.
At the top of their speed, the lads ran to the spot at which thedescent had to be made. The rope was hidden close at hand. Johnslipped the noose at the end over his shoulders. Jonas twisted therope once round a stunted tree, which grew close by, and allowed itto go out gradually. As soon as the strain upon it ceased, and heknew John was upon the ledge, he loosened the rope and dropped theend over; and then began, himself, to descend, his bare feet andhands clinging to every inequality, however slight, in the rock.
He presently stood by the side of John. The latter had coiled upthe rope, and laid it by him; and had then thrown himself down, andwas sobbing bitterly. Jonas sat down quietly beside him, till hehad recovered his composure.
"It is no use fretting," he said, philosophically. "There's no oneyou care about, particularly, up there; and I am sure there's noone I care about--only I should like to have peeped in, and haveseen her face, when the Romans burst open the door. I don't supposeshe was very sorry, though, for it will be better to be a Romanslave than to be going through what they have been, for the lastmonth."
"It is horrible!" John said, "Horrible! However, Jonas, let usthank God for having thus preserved our lives, when all besides arein such terrible danger of death."
For a time, the two lads sat silent. John was the first to speak.
"I am thankful," he said, "that, owing to our being down the faceof the rock, the sound is carried away above our heads, and we canhear but little of what is going on there. It seems a confusion ofsounds, and comes to us rather as an echo from the hills, yonder,than directly from above."
Sometimes, indeed, thrilling screams and shouts were heard but, forthe most part, the sounds were so blended together that they couldnot be distinguished one from another. As soon as the mist clearedoff, the lads lay down, as far back from the ledge as they couldget.
"We must not lift up a head, today," John said. "The guards below,and on the hills, will have their eyes fixed on the rock, on thelookout for fugitives and, until nighttime, we must not venture tosit up. Fortunately, that outer edge of the shelf is a good dealhigher than it is, back here; and I don't think that even those onthe mountain, opposite, could see us as we lie."
"I should think a good many may escape, like us," Jonas said,presently. "There are numbers of caverns and passages, from whichthey have dug the stone for the building of the houses. A lot ofthe people are sure to hide away, there."
"I daresay they will," John agreed; "but I fear the Romans willhunt them all out."
"How long do you think we shall have to stay here, John?"
"Till the Romans go, whether it is one week or two; but I do notthink they will stay here many days. The town is so full of deadthat, in this hot weather, it will be unbearable before long. Atany rate, we shall be able to pass a good deal of time in sleep. Wehave not had much of it, lately. Till last night, I have not beenin the house, at night, for over a fortnight. But I felt, lastnight, as if I must have a sleep, whatever came of it. I supposethe guards at the breach must have felt the same, or the Romanscould never have got in without the alarm being given."
For a few minutes, John lay thinking of the terrible scenes thatmust be passing, on the rock above; then his drowsiness overcamehim, and he was soon fast asleep.
It was dark when he woke. As he moved, Jonas spoke.
"Are you awake, John? Because if you are, let us have something toeat. I have been awake the last four hours, and I have been wishingyou would stir."
"There was no occasion to wait for my waking, Jonas. There are thegrain and the water, close at hand; and no cooking is required."
"I wasn't going to eat till you woke, if it had been
all night,"Jonas said. "Still, I am glad you are awake; they are quiet now, upabove, and I have heard the Roman trumpets sounding. I expect thatmost of them have marched back to their camp."
The next day passed like the first. Occasionally cries of agonywere heard. Sometimes bodies were hurled from the top of the rock,but a short distance from where they were lying.
The next two days passed more quietly, but upon that following amurmur, as of a multitude of men working, was heard. From time totime there were heavy crashes, as masses of stones, hurled down theprecipice, struck against its face as they fell; and then bounded,far out beyond the stream, at its foot. All these sounds wereechoed back by the surrounding hills, until it seemed as if a stormwas raging, far away in the heart of the mountains.
"They are destroying the town," John said, in answer to hiscompanion's question as to the cause of the uproar. "That is thebest thing possible for us. Had it remained standing, they mighthave left a garrison here, to prevent our people reoccupying it. Ifthey destroy it, it is a sign that they intend to march away,altogether."
Several times Jonas wished to climb up, at night, to ascertain whatwas going on; but John would not hear of it.
"There is nothing to find out, Jonas. We know what they did atGadara, where they slew all the males and carried off all thewomen, although no resistance was offered. We may be sure thatthere will be no more mercy shown at Jotapata, which has affrontedthe Roman power by keeping their great army at bay, for nearlyseven weeks, and whose capture has cost them thousands of men. Weknow what has happened--they have slain every soul, save a fewyoung women, who were worth money as slaves. Now they are levelingthe town to its foundations. The place that defied them will ceaseto exist.
"And yet, they talk of Roman magnanimity! Would we had fivethousand fighting men, hidden here with us. We would climb then,Jonas, and fall upon them in the night, and take a mighty vengeancefor the woes they have inflicted. But, being alone, we will remainhere till we have reason to believe that the last Roman has left.Did one of them catch sight of you, our fate would be sealed. Theyhave no boys among them, and the slightest glimpse of your figurewould be enough to tell them that you were a Jew who had been inhiding and, in their fear that one man should escape theirvengeance, they would hunt you down, as a pack of wolves might huntdown a solitary lamb."
"They could never get down here, John."
"Not by the way you came; but they would lower a cage full of armedmen, from above, and slay us without pity."
"But if I were found out, John, I would not lead them here. I wouldthrow myself over the precipice, rather than that risk should cometo you!"
"But I don't want you to throw yourself over the precipice, Jonas.I want to keep you with me: in the first place because we are greatfriends now; in the second because, if you were killed, I might aswell throw myself over, at once--for I do not think I could everclimb up this rock, without your assistance."
"It is much easier going up than coming down, John."
"That may be and, indeed, I have no doubt it is so; but I wouldrather not put the matter to the test. No; we have provision andwater here, enough to last us for ten days and, until they areconsumed, it were best not to stir from here."
Four days later, however, they heard the sound of the Romantrumpets and, on raising their heads carefully a few inches, sawthat the guards on the opposite hills had all been withdrawn.Having now less fear of being seen, they raised their heads stillfurther, and looked up the valley to the great camp on the hillsidewhere, at night, they had seen the fires of the Romans, blazinghigh.
"They are going!" Jonas exclaimed, joyously. "Look at the sunsparkling on the long lines of arms and armor. Not a sound is to beheard, above--the work is done. They are about to march away."
"Do not let us expose ourselves further," John said. "It may bethat they have left a few watchers, to see if any who have eludedtheir search may show themselves, believing that they have gone. Ihave no doubt they are going and, by tomorrow, it will be safe forus to move."
All day they heard the sound of trumpets, for the great host took along time getting into motion but, gradually, the sound grewfainter and fainter, as the rear guard of the army took the roadwhich they had cut through the mountains, eight weeks before.
That night, when darkness fell, and the two lads sat up on theirledge and looked round, not a light was to be seen; and not a soundbroke the silence of the night.
"At daybreak tomorrow, Jonas, as soon as it becomes light enoughfor you to see your way, you shall go up and look round. They mayhave left a guard behind, but I should hardly think so. After thewholesale slaughter at Gadara, and here, the hatred of the Romanswill be so intense that, confident as they are in their arms anddiscipline, they would hardly venture to leave a small body of men,in the heart of these mountains."
As soon as it was daylight, Jonas prepared to climb up to theplateau above. He took with him the rope; arranging that, if hefound that the place was absolutely deserted, he would lower oneend to John and fasten the other to the tree above; and that hewould then aid John, as much as his strength would permit, inmaking his way up the rock.
John watched his companion making his way up, and observed exactlywhere he placed his feet and hands, until he was out of sight. Thenhe waited. In about a quarter of an hour, the end of the rope fellin front of him. He fastened it securely under his arms and then,taking off his sandals, began the ascent. It was not so difficultas it had looked; and the steady strain which Jonas kept on therope, from above, aided him and gave him confidence. In three orfour minutes, he gained the top of the rock.
"There is not a soul to be seen," Jonas said. "The town has gone,and the people, and the Romans. All is desolation!"
The scene was indeed changed, since John had last looked upon it.Not a wall, in the so-lately busy little town, had been leftstanding. The whole area was covered, three or four feet deep witha chaos of stones, mortar, and beams; forming a great grave, belowwhich lay the bodies of forty thousand of the defenders of theplace. The walls so bravely defended had disappeared; and theembankment, whose erection had cost the Romans so much labor andbloodshed, had been destroyed by fire. A dead silence hung over theplace, and the air was tainted with a terrible odor of corruption.
The desolation and solitude of the scene overpowered John, and hesat down on a fragment of masonry and wept, unrestrainedly, forsome time. He roused himself, at last, as Jonas touched him.
"I shall go down again, and get what grain there is left," the boysaid. "There is no chance of finding anything to eat within a day'smarch of here. The Roman horse will have destroyed every villagewithin a wide circuit."
"But I cannot let you go down again, Jonas. The danger is toogreat."
"But I have been up and down, lots of times," Jonas said.
"That may be, Jonas, but you might be dashed to pieces, this time."
"Well, if you like I will fasten the rope round me; then, if Ishould slip, I shall be safe."
John consented with some reluctance, but he was so nervous andshaken that he walked some distance away, and did not turn rounduntil he heard Jonas' footsteps again approaching him.
"Now we can start," the boy said. "We have got grain here, enoughfor three days; and tonight we will crush it, and cook it. I havehad enough of eating raw grain, for a long time to come."
The boy's cheerfulness restored the tone of John's nervesand--making their way with some difficulty over the chaos of stoneand timber, until they arrived at the pile of charred timber, whichmarked the spot where the Roman embankment had stood--they steppedout briskly, descended the hill, crossed the deserted lines ofcircumvallation; and then began to ascend the mountains, which had,for some distance, been stripped of their timber for the purposesof the siege. In another hour's walking they reached the forest,and pressed on until the afternoon. Not that there was any need forspeed, now, but John felt a longing to place as wide a gap aspossible between himself and the great charnel ground which, alone,marked the spot where
Jotapata had stood.
At length, Jonas urged the necessity for a halt, for rest and food.They chose a spot at the foot of a great tree, and then set to workto collect a store of firewood. John took out the box of tinderwhich, in those days, everyone carried about with him, and a firewas soon lighted. Jonas then looked for two large flat stones, andset to work to grind some grain.
The halting place had been chosen from the vicinity of a littlespring, which rose a few yards distant. With this the pounded grainwas moistened and, after kneading it up, Jonas rolled it in ballsand placed them in the hot ashes of the fire. In half an hour theywere cooked, and the meal was eaten with something likecheerfulness.
Another day's walking brought them to a little village, nestled inthe forest. Here they were kindly received, though the peoplescarce believed them when they said that they were survivors of thegarrison of Jotapata. The news of the capture of the town, and thedestruction of its defenders, had already spread through thecountry; and John now learned, for the first time, the fate whichhad befallen Japha and the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim--eventswhich filled him with consternation.
The folly of the tactics which had been pursued--of cooping all thefighting men up in the walled cities, to be destroyed one after theother by the Romans--was more than ever apparent. He had never,from the first, been very hopeful of the result of the struggle;but it seemed, now, as if it could end in nothing but the totaldestruction of the Jewish race of Palestine.
John stayed for two days in the little mountain village and then,with a store of provisions sufficient to last him for some days,pursued his way; following the lines of the Anti-Libanus, untilthat range of hills joined the range of Mount Hermon, north of thesources of the Jordan.
He had stopped for a day at Dan, high up among the hills. Here thepeople had no fear of Roman vengeance; for the insurrection had notextended so far north, and the Roman garrison of Caesarea Philippioverawed the plains near the upper waters of the Jordan.Determined, however, to run no unnecessary risks, John and hiscompanion pursued their way on the lower slopes of the hills until,after six days' walking, they arrived at Neve.
Here they learned where the farm of John's kinsman was situated,and made their way thither. As they came up to the house a womancame out, gazed intently at John and, with a scream of terror, ranback into the house. It was one of Martha's maids. John stoodirresolute, fearing that his sudden appearance might startle theother inmates when, suddenly, Mary appeared at the door, lookingpale but resolute. She, too, gazed fixedly at John; and her lipsmoved, but no sound came from them.
"Don't you know me, Mary?" John said.
The girl gave a scream of joy, and threw herself into his arms. Amoment later Martha, followed by Miriam and the other servants,came out.
"It is no spirit, mother, it is John, himself," Mary exclaimed and,the next moment, John was clasped in his mother's arms.
It was not surprising that the first who saw John had thought thathe was a spirit. The news had already been received that the wholeof the garrison of Jotapata had been put to the sword; and John'sappearance was changed so greatly, within the last three months,that he would scarce have been known. Fatigue, anxiety, and theloss of blood--from several wounds which he had received, in thecourse of the siege--had so pulled him down that he was but ashadow of his former self. His clothes were in rags. He had washedthem at the village where he had first stopped for, before that,they had been stiffened with blood; and even now, stained andragged as they were, they gave him the appearance of a mendicant.
Jonas had held back a little, while the first joyful greeting wasgoing on, but John soon turned to him.
"Mother," he said, "this must be as another son to you for, next tothe protection of God, it is to him I owe my life."
Martha welcomed the young stranger affectionately.
"Before you tell us aught that has befallen you, John, go andchange your garments, and wash, while we prepare a meal for you.The clothes of your uncle's son Silas, who is about your age, willfit you; and those of his younger brother will do for your friend."
"Was the last news of my father good?" John asked.
"Yes, the Lord be praised, he was well when we heard of him, a weeksince!"
The travelers were at once conducted to a room, and supplied withwater and clean garments. By the time they had changed, andreturned to the general room, John's uncle and cousin had beenfetched in from the farm, and he received another hearty welcome.
It almost seemed to him, as he sat down to a comfortable meal, withMary and his mother waiting upon him, that the events of the pasttwo months had been a hideous dream; and that he had never left hiscomfortable home on the shore of the Lake of Galilee. As to Jonas,unaccustomed to kind treatment, or to luxury of any kind, he wastoo confused to utter a word. When the meal was over, John wasasked to tell his news; and he related all the stirring incidentsof the siege, and the manner in which he and his companion hadeffected his escape.
"We are, no doubt," he concluded, "the sole male survivors of thesiege."
"Not so, my son," Martha said. "There is a report that Josephus hassurvived the siege; and that he is a prisoner, in the hands of theRomans."
"It may be that they have spared him, to grace Vespasian's triumph,at Rome," John said. "It is their custom, I believe, to carry thegenerals they may take in war to Rome, to be slain there."
It was not until some time afterwards that John learned theparticulars of the capture of Josephus. When he saw that all waslost, Josephus had leaped down the shaft of a dry well, from thebottom of which a long cavern led off, entirely concealed from thesight of those above. Here he found forty of the leading citizens,who had laid in a store of food sufficient to last for many days.Josephus, at least, who gives his account of all these circumstances,says that he quite unexpectedly found these forty citizens in hidingthere; but this is improbable in the extreme, and there can be littledoubt that he had, long before, prepared this refuge with them, whenhe found that the people would not allow them to attempt to maketheir escape from the city.
At night Josephus came up from the well and tried to make hisescape but, finding the Romans everywhere vigilant, he returned tothe place of concealment. On the third day a woman, who was awareof the hiding place, informed the Romans of it--probably in returnfor a promise of freedom, for the Romans were searching high andlow for Josephus; who could not, they were convinced, have escapedthrough their lines. Vespasian immediately sent two tribunes,Paulinus and Gallicanus, to induce him to surrender by promise ofhis life.
Josephus refused to come out, and Vespasian sent another tribune,Nicanor, a personal friend of Josephus, to assure him of hissafety, if he would surrender. In the account Josephus gives of thetransaction, he says that at this moment he suddenly remembered adream--in which it was revealed to him that all these calamitiesshould fall upon the Jews, that he himself should be saved, andthat Vespasian should become emperor--and that, therefore, if hepassed over to the Romans he would do so not as a renegade, but inobedience to the voice of God.
It was certainly a happy coincidence that the dream should haveoccurred to him, at this moment. He at once announced his readinessto surrender; but his forty companions did not see the matter inthe same light. The moment Josephus left them, the Roman soldierswould throw combustibles down the well, and suffocate them, if theydid not come out and submit to slaughter.
They urged upon Josephus that he was their leader; that they hadall followed his orders, and cast in their lot with his; and thatit would be treacherous and base, in the extreme, for him now tosave his life by going over to the Romans, when all the inferiorpeople had slain themselves, or had submitted to slaughter, ratherthan beg their lives of the Romans. Josephus argued with them, atlength, but they were not convinced and, drawing their swords,threatened to kill him, if he tried to leave them. They would alldie together, they said.
Josephus then proposed that, in order to avoid the sin of suicide,they should draw lots which should kill each other. To
this theyassented; and they continued to draw lots as to which should slaythe other, until only Josephus and one other remained alive.
This is the story that Josephus tells. He was, of course,endeavoring to put his own case in the best light, and to endeavorto prove that he was not--as the Jews universally regarded him--atraitor to his country. It need hardly be said that the story isimprobable, in the extreme; and that, had any one of the forty mensurvived and written the history, he would probably have told avery different tale.
The conduct of Josephus, from the first outbreak of the trouble,showed that he was entirely adverse to the rising against theRomans. He himself, having been to Rome, had seen her power andmight; and had been received with great favor by Poppaea, the wifeof Nero, and had made many friends there. He had, therefore, at theoutset, opposed as far as he was able, without going so far as tothrow suspicion on his patriotism, the rebellion against theRomans. During the events in Galilee, he had shown himself anxiousto keep in favor with the Romans. He had rebuked those who hadattacked the soldiers traveling as an escort, with a large amountof treasure belonging to King Agrippa; and would have sent back thespoils taken, had not the people risen against it. He affectedgreat indignation at the plunder of Agrippa's palace at Tiberiasand, gathering all he could of the spoils, had handed them over tothe care of the chief of Agrippa's friends there. He had protectedthe two officers of Agrippa, whom the Jews would have killed--hadreleased and sent them back to the king; and when John of Gischalawished to carry off large quantities of grain, stored by the Romansin Upper Galilee, Josephus refused to allow him to do so, sayingthat it should be kept for its owners.
It is almost certain that Josephus must, in some way, have enteredinto communication with the Romans; for how otherwise could he,with the principal inhabitants, have proposed to make their escape,when every avenue was closed? Josephus was a man of great talentand energy, full of resources, and of great personal bravery--atleast, if his own account of his conduct during the siege is to bebelieved. But no one can read his labored excuses for his ownconduct without feeling sure that he had, all along, been incorrespondence with the Romans; and that he had, beforehand, beenassured that his life should be spared.
He had, from the first, despaired of successful resistance to theRomans; and his conduct in throwing himself, at the last moment,into a town about to be besieged and, as he must have known,captured--for the want of water, alone, rendered its fall a merequestion of time--when his presence and leadership was so urgentlyrequired among the people to whose command he had been appointed,seems to prove that he wished to fall into their hands.
It would not be just to brand Josephus as a traitor. He had donehis best to induce the Galileans to form themselves into an army,and to defend the province; and it was only when that armydispersed, at the approach of the Romans, that he went to Jotapata.It was his leadership that enabled that city to continue its heroicdefense. It cannot, therefore, be said that Josephus in any waybetrayed the trust confided to him by the council at Jerusalem. Butthe conclusion can hardly be avoided that, from the first,foreseeing that utter ruin and destruction would fall upon theJews, he had set himself to work to prepare a way of pardon andescape, for himself; and that he thought a position of honor, amongthe Romans, vastly preferable to an unknown grave among themountains of Galilee.
Upon being taken out of the well, Josephus was taken to Vespasianand, in the presence only of the general, his son Titus, and twoother officers, announced that he was endowed with propheticpowers, and that he was commissioned by God to tell Vespasian thathe would become emperor, and that he would be succeeded by his sonTitus. The prophecy was one that required no more penetration thanfor any person, in the present day, to predict that the most risingman in a great political party would one day become prime minister.The emperor was hated, and it was morally certain that his fallwould not long be delayed; and in that case the most populargeneral in the Roman army would, almost certainly, be chosen tosucceed him.
Vespasian, himself, was not greatly affected by the prophecy. ButJosephus declared that he had, all along, predicted the success ofthe Romans, the fall of the town after forty-six days' siege, andhis own safety; and as some of the female captives were brought upand, on Josephus appealing to them whether this was not so,naturally replied in the affirmative, Josephus says that Vespasianwas then satisfied of his prisoner's divine mission, and henceforthtreated him with great honor.
It is much more easy to believe that an agreement already existedbetween Vespasian and Josephus; and that the latter only got upthis story to enable him to maintain that he was not a traitor tohis country, but acting in accordance with the orders of God.Certain it is that no similar act of clemency was shown, byVespasian, to any other Jew; that no other thought of pity or mercyentered his mind, during the campaign, that he spared no man whofell alive into his hands, and that no more ruthless and wholesaleextermination than that which he inflicted upon the people ofPalestine was ever carried out, by the most barbarous ofconquerors.
To this day, the memory of Josephus is hated among the Jews.