tans required the Jewish residents in their city to retire into a neighbouring wood; on the third night the citizens came suddenly upon their victims, and thirteen thousand of them were slain. An incident took place on this occasion, strikingly illustrative of that desperate spirit which prevailed among the Jews at this period. Simon, a person of eminence, perceiving that no mercy was to be expected from the treacherous Scythopolitans, killed in succession his father, his mother, his wife, and children; and then, standing upon the heap of lifeless corpses, he plunged his sword into his own body. But it is impossible to detail the barbarities which were inflicted upon this miserable people in the various cities where they resided, in connexion with a population not of their own race. At Ptolemais two thousand, at Alexandria fifty thousand, and at Ascalon, two thousand five hundred Jews were killed; Gadara, Hippo, and Tyre contributed to swell the vast amount of the victims, and the whole district of Judæa was a scene of misery and carnage. Notwithstanding, however, all the influence of the Romans, and all the virulent animosity of their enemies, the insurgent Jews continued to gain ground, until at length it became high time for Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, to arrest the progress of the formidable rebellion.

SECTION IV.

THE WAR WITH THE ROMANS.

A. D. 66.

RELATE the defeat of Cestius Gallus by the Jews. Ar the head of a powerful army, consisting of ten thousand Romans and thirteen thou sand auxiliaries, Cestius marched into Judæa, burning and destroying every thing in his way, until he arrived within seven miles of Jerusalem. The Jews, who were celebrating the feast of Tabernacles at the time, immediately broke off the festival, assailed the Romans with desperate fury, and succeeded in killing five hundred of their enemies with the loss of only twenty

two of their own men. The discipline of the Romans notwithstanding prevailed; the Jews were driven within the walls of Jerusalem; the utmost consternation prevailed; the city was on the verge of capture, when, to the astonishment of his friends and the no small rapture of the besieged, Cestius, who appears to have been endowed with none of the qualities which his station and enterprise required, suddenly broke up his camp and commenced a wavering retreat. The animated Jews eagerly pursued. Near Bethhoron, they assailed him on every side; the difficult nature of the country, the swarming numbers and desperate valour of the Jews, and the flagrant incapacity of Cestius, rendered ineffectual all the bravery and skill of the Romans. They sustained a signal defeat; more than five thousand of their foot, and more than three hundred of their horse were killed; all their military engines fell into the hands of the pursuers; Jerusalem was saved; the Romans were discouraged; and the Jews were animated to prosecute their struggle for national independence and glory. But many of their own number by no means participated in the general exultation; forming a reasonable estimate of the gigantic power of the Romans, they were convinced that the struggle was hopeless, and by a timely departure from Jerusalem they escaped the dreadful calamities which overwhelmed their country in irretrievable destruction. Added to these Jews who left the city, the Christians called to mind the warning of their Saviour, and retired to Pella, a small city situated in a part of the country unconnected with the seat of war.

What were the preparations of the Jews for defence, and of the Romans for attack?

After the defeat of Cestius, the Jews diligently devoted themselves to complete their preparations for defence. All the resources of their valour and desperation were soon put to the test. When the intelligence of the revolt of Judæa and the defeat of Cestius was taken to the emperor Nero, at that time in Achaia, he commissioned Vespasian, an officer whose abilities in peace or war deserve equal admiration, to proceed A. D. 67. to Syria, to assume the government of that important province, and to extinguish the

rebellion of the Jews. Vespasian, who had already distinguished himself in Germany and Britain, immediately repaired to Syria, collected all the Roman and auxiliary troops, sent his son Titus to Egypt to conduct the march of the tenth and fifteenth. legions to Palestine, and with characteristic energy, prepared to wipe away the stain which had tarnished the Roman arms, and to inflict a signal chastisement upon a nation which had dared to rebel against the most powerful empire in the universe.

A. D. 67.

Name the commanders of the Jews and give a particular account of the celebrated Josephus.

In the mean time the Jews were preparing to meet the impending storm. Joseph the son of Gorion, and Ananus the chief-priest commanded in Jerusalem; but Eleazar, already mentioned, found means to acquire a paramount influence. In Idumæa, Jesus, and another Eleazar, were intrusted with authority; and Joseph or Josephus, the celebrated historian, was stationed in Galilee, upon which province it was expected that the first violence of the invasion would be expended. Josephus was the son of Matthias, of a sacerdotal race, and was born in Jerusalem in the first year of the reign of Caius Caligula (37.) From the age of sixteen to nineteen, he was busily devoted to the duties and mortifications of an ascetic life in the wilderness under the care of Banus of the sect of the Essenes. Having examined the principles of the three great Jewish religious bodies of his time, he became a Pharisee. When he had arrived at the age of twenty-six years he went to Rome, was shipwrecked in the Adriatic Sea, and out of more than six hundred persons in the vessel, he and eighty others were saved by swimming all night. His conduct in his government, from his own account of it, appears to have merited the highest commendations. Having stationed proper judges and officers in the cities, he proceeded to fortify more particularly, Jotapata, Tarichea, Tiberias, and Itabyrium, and to form a numerous and disciplined army. He succeeded in collecting upwards of sixty thousand men, among whom he introduced the Roman order and array. His arrangements were however considerably retarded by the celebrated John of Gischala, whose vexatious and un

principled ambition neutralized the good effects which might otherwise have been produced by his energy and activity. Some vexatious intrigues in the different cities, also convinced Josephus, that his countrymen were by no means so united and so patriotic as the imminence of their danger rendered necessary, and must have induced the most gloomy forebodings relative to the final issue of the conflict.

With what operations did Vespasian commence the reduction of Judæa?

Vespasian commenced his progress to Judæa, and on his way he was met by a deputation from Sepphoris, the chief city of Galilee, with overtures of accommodation. The prayer of the deputies was readily granted, and when they returned, they were accompanied by a strong body of horse and foot for their protection. The forces of Vespasian were increased by their junction with the armies of Agrippa, of Antiochus, of Sohemus, and of Malchus, king of Arabia; sixty thousand veteran troops obeyed his command; and in complete equipment and admirable order, they entered Judæa. Gadara was taken; not a man of its inhabitants was suffered to live, and it was abandoned to the flames. Jotapata, strongly situated in a rugged country, was the town selected by Josephus to arrest the progress of the invaders by an obstinate defence; while the ardour of Vespasian to obtain possession of the city was increased, when he knew that the governor of the province commanded the garrison.

Relate the siege of Jotapata.

The immense host of Vespasian was arrayed in full view of the defenders of Jotapata; the city was soon surrounded by his lines of circumvallation; and the Jews, having no hope of escape, could only encourage each other, in generous despair, to die for their country and their God. The attack was made; the light troops advanced to annoy the besieged with their missiles, while the legionary troops, conducted by their general, began to ascend the hill upon which the city stood to the most accessible part of the wall. The Jews perceived their danger; rushed upon the Romans; drove them back upon their lines; maintained

the combat with equal energy and success, and became so animated as to lose their apprehension, and to defy the utmost efforts, of the Romans. All the engines of war in use at that age of the world were employed against this devoted city. Stones of vast weight were hurled from the balistæ; javelins were thrown in showers from the catapults; archers, slingers, and the troops usually employed in the use of missile weapons, maintained a constant discharge upon the besieged; and an immense embankment, constructed with enormous labour, was reared in front of the only accessible side of the city, equal in height to the opposite wall. But the abilities of Josephus and the bravery of his men rendered all their operations ineffectual; the wall was raised to a greater height before the embankment; the Jews wearied their enemies by their incessant sallies; and Vespasian began to think of turning the siege into a blockade, and of starving the warriors he could not subdue. Josephus, however, had amply supplied the city with grain; and when the Romans began io entertain hopes of the surrender of the fortress from the evident want of water, the Jewish commander concealed the alarming deficiency of the supplies of the garrison in this respect, by commanding some of his men to suspend from the battlements garments dripping with water. The Romans saw the transaction, and immediately imagined that the Jews must have a superabundance of the element of life, when they used so much of it in wanton waste. Vespasian determined to renew the assault; Josephus and the leaders of the Jews, conscious of their danger, began to consult upon the practicability of their escape; but the whole population of Jotapata crowded around them; the governor abandoned the shameful purpose of stealing away from the city; he directed the excitement of the people against the enemy, "If there be no hope of escape," he cried, "let us die nobly, and leave a glorious example to posterity;" the Jews were animated by the inspiring exclamation, burst like a torrent upon the Romans, penetrated to their very camp, and though continually driven back by the numbers, the resolution, and the discipline of their enemies, yet for several days and nights they persisted in their furious sallies.