had at length arrived when it was to cease for ever. The remaining events of the war, and the siege of the devoted city, will, therefore, be only cursorily noticed.

Amongst others who took advantage of the retreat of Cestius from Jerusalem, were Saul and Costabarus, two bre thers, and Philip, the son of Jacimus, the commander of Agrippa's troops; and at their own request Cestius sent them to Achaia, to lay before Nero the distress and misery into which their city and nation were plunged, and to accuse Florus with being the author of the whole mischief; and probably with the further object thereby to excuse his own negligence or mismanagement.*

As the revolt proceeded and became general, Nero was proportionably alarmed, and at length fixed upon Vespasian, a veteran commander,† to reduce the province to obedience, and restore tranquillity.‡

Before that general's arrival, the Jews had attacked Asealon, but were defeated by Antonius with the loss of eight thousand men.§ Having arrived at Antioch and marching

* Jos. iii. 434.

He was born at a village near Rieti, the 17th November, U. C. 760. His father, whose name was T. Flavius Sabinus, behaved with so much integrity and moderation as a farmer of the fortieth penny, a duty levied on all kinds of merchandize, that several towns had his picture, under which they wrote this inscription, To the honest publican. A surname taken from his mother's family was given him, so that he was called T. Flavius Vespasianus. He was brought up by his father's mother, Tertulla, at an estate she had near Cosa, in Tuscany. He was always fond of the places where he had spent his infancy. He often paid them a visit when emperor, and let the little farm house subsist just as it was, being unwilling to make any alterations in objects, the sight of which gave him real joy. He had always the highest veneration for the memory of his grandmother, and on high days drank out of a silver cup that had been hers. Crevier, v. 203, 204. Jos. iv. 2. Crevier, iv. 301.

§ Jos. iv. 4.

*

from thence, Vespasian formed a junction with Agrippa and the troops under his command, and proceeded to Ptolemais. Being afterwards joined by his son Titus, they marched into Galilee, and after taking Gadara,† besieged Jotopata in form, into which Josephus, who had been prevented by Titus from taking possession of Sepphoris,‡ had retired with all the troops he could collect. The siege lasted forty-seven days, and exhibited many curious and interesting transactions, and the city was finally betrayed by a deserter, and the fortifications demolished by order of Vespasian.§ Joppa and Tarichæa were next taken, and Tiberias delivered up; and then Gamala, where Agrippa was wounded by a sling from the wall whilst addressing his countrymen, and trying to persuade them to surrender; and Gischala, from which latter, John of Gischala, the individual before mentioned, and who had chiefly excited this small city to resistance, contrived to make his own escape to Jerusalem.¶

It was probably from the prisoners whom Vespasian had taken in the conquest of the above mentioned cities, that he sent to Nero six thousand workmen, to assist in the undertaking which that emperor had personally engaged in, of piercing, or, as modern speculators would say, boring, a tunnel through the Isthmus of Corinth, but after seventy-five days' labour he suddenly abandoned it.*

Jos. iv. 55.

Jos. iv. 7. ¶ Jos. iv, 62.

Jos. iv. 15-33. Crevier, vi. The superstition of the people opposed that design; they were afraid of violating the laws of nature, by joining what she had separated. Facts, either magnified or entirely the offspring of fear, were alleged in support of that opinion. It was said, that at the first stroke struck into the earth, blood had gushed out; that groans had been heard as if from subterraneous caverns; and that phantoms had appeared to the inhabitants of those parts. The vulgar were not the only ones prejudiced. Pliny, who is far from being super

And now, whilst the Roman legions were hovering round Jerusalem, having subdued Galilee and almost all Judea, and placed garrisons in all the minor cities, and unconscious of their high commission or the divine hand by which they were led, were nevertheless ready to pour out the vengeance of Almighty God upon this devoted people, as soon as he withheld his restraining influence; it is of some importance to enquire into the state of the unhappy inhabitants of that city, to which our Lord himself had addressed his pathetic exhortation.*

It is impossible, however, to conceive, even faintly, what that state was without reading Josephus himself at length.t The whole surrounding country was either possessed by the foreign troops, or filled with the miserable fugitives who had escaped from the various cities which had yielded to their arms. Those who thus succeeded in their flight, poured from! all quarters into Jerusalem, as to the ark of that God whom they had abandoned, whose worship they had insulted, and whose divine Son they had crucified; vainly hoping that against the holy sanctuary the arms of the Italian foe would be pointed in vain. Thus an immense population was congregated within the walls of Jerusalem, including all the factions, and all the various and conflicting interests of the several cities which had been subdued, whilst in that city

stitious, speaks of the attempt to pierce the Isthmus as of a fata rashness, and alleges the unhappy end of four princes who set about it, Demetrius Poliocrates, Cæsar, Caligula, and Nero. The work was begun on the side next the Ionian Sea, at a place called Lechæum, a seaport belonging to Corinth, and was carried on with great diligence for seventy-five days, in which time was dug the length of four stadia, which was about a tenth part of the breadth of the Isthmus. On the seventy-fifth day came a sudden order from Nero, who remained at Corinth, to give over the work. Crevier, iv. 307, 30S.

*Luke, xiii. 34. See P. 488.

+ Jos. iv. 65-98. Luke, xix. 41-4

itself were both fit materials and instruments for the most desolating havoc and fury. Amongst them were the zealots, who were no better than a band of robbers; the Idumæans, who had been introduced into the city by their means; John of Gischala, who led the war party; Simon and his party; Eleazar and his party; the old priests, who still affected regard for the sanctuary; the new priests made out of course and contrary to the Levitical institution; and various individual leaders, all striving for mastery amongst themselves, and much more anxious to destroy one another, which they did every day by thousands, than to adopt proper and judicious measures for the resistance of the enemy, whom they affected to despise on account of the height and strength of the walls of the city.* At length matters rose to such a height that the zealots and Idumæans forced the temple, and murdered Ananas, the high priest, and Jesus, and Zacharias,† in the temple itself; in the outer court of which no less than eight thousand five hundred dead bodies‡ lay at once; and so horrible was the fury of the former, that at length the Idumæans themselves were panic-struck, and withdrew to their own country, absolutely refusing to partake any longer in these atrocious barbarities.§

Jos. iv. 65-84.

+ See Whiston's note, Jos. iv. 88, as to Matt. xxiii. 35. Walafrid Strabo, Abbé de Richnou, a French monk of the age of Charlemagne, in a sermon on Luke, xix. 38, thus describes the scene." Jacebant igitur corpora juvenum per plateas civitatis, magis fame quam ætate defecta. Nullus juxta morem sepeliebatur, quia nec multitudo morientium, nec virium debilitas, hoc sinebat. Nonnulli corpora carorum suorum sepelire curantes, super ipsorum tumulos spiritum emittebant. Cumque tabes magnus et intolerabilis fœtor essent in civitate, cœperunt corpora mortuorum extra muros projicere, intantum ut corpora ipsis muris coæquari viderentur." Ranken's History of France, vol. ii. 290.

It is not to be wondered at that many of Vespasian's officers, should deem this period of civil conflict and international bloodslaughter, a fit season for attacking and subjugating the city. Not exactly so the general himself, who replied to their remonstrances, "That they were greatly mistaken in what they thought fit to be done, as those that upon the theatre love to make a show of their hands and of their weapons, but do it to their own hazard, without considering what was for their advantage, and for their security; for that if they now go and attack the city immediately, they shall but occasion their enemies to unite together, and shall convert their force, now it is in its height, against themselves; but if they stay awhile they shall have fewer enemies, because they will be consumed in this sedition: that God acts as a general of the Romans better than he can do, and is giving the Jews up to them without any pains of their own, and granting their army a victory without any danger; that, therefore, it is their best way, while their enemies are destroying each other with their own hands, and falling into the greatest of misfortunes, which is that of sedition, to sit still as spectators of the dangers they run into, rather than to fight hand to hand with men that love murdering, and are mad one against another. But if any one imagines that the glory of victory, when it is gotten without fighting, will be more inspired, let him know this much, that a glorious success, quietly obtained, is more profitable than the dangers of a battle; for we ought to esteem those that do what is agreeable to temperance prudence, no less glorious than those that have gained great reputation by their actions in war: that he shall lead on his army with greater force when their enemies are diminished, and his own army refreshed after the continual labours they had undergone. However, that this is not a proper time to propose to ourselves the glory of victory; for that the Jews are not now employed in making of armour, or building of

and