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[470]
Now the Jews that were enclosed within the walls of the city fought
against Herod with great alacrity and zeal (for the whole nation was gathered
together); they also gave out many prophecies about the temple, and many
things agreeable to the people, as if God would deliver them out of the
dangers they were in; they had also carried off what was out of the city,
that they might not leave any thing to afford sustenance either for men
or for beasts; and by private robberies they made the want of necessaries
greater. When Herod understood this, he opposed ambushes in the fittest
places against their private robberies, and he sent legions of armed men
to bring its provisions, and that from remote places, so that in a little
time they had great plenty of provisions. Now the three bulwarks were easily
erected, because so many hands were continually at work upon it; for it
was summer time, and there was nothing to hinder them in raising their
works, neither from the air nor from the workmen; so they brought their
engines to bear, and shook the walls of the city, and tried all manner
of ways to get its; yet did not those within discover any fear, but they
also contrived not a few engines to oppose their engines withal. They also
sallied out, and burnt not only those engines that were not yet perfected,
but those that were; and when they came hand to hand, their attempts were
not less bold than those of the Romans, though they were behind them in
skill. They also erected new works when the former were ruined, and making
mines underground, they met each other, and fought there; and making use
of brutish courage rather than of prudent valor, they persisted in this
war to the very last; and this they did while a mighty army lay round about
them, and while they were distressed by famine and the want of necessaries,
for this happened to be a Sabbatic year. The first that scaled the walls
were twenty chosen men, the next were Sosius's centurions; for the first
wall was taken in forty days, and the second in fifteen more, when some
of the cloisters that were about the temple were burnt, which Herod gave
out to have been burnt by Antigonus, in order to expose him to the hatred
of the Jews. And when the outer court of the temple and the lower city
were taken, the Jews fled into the inner court of the temple, and into
the upper city; but now fearing lest the Romans should hinder them from
offering their daily sacrifices to God, they sent an embassage, and desired
that they would only permit them to bring in beasts for sacrifices, which
Herod granted, hoping they were going to yield; but when he saw that they
did nothing of what he supposed, but bitterly opposed him, in order to
preserve the kingdom to Antigonus, he made an assault upon the city, and
took it by storm; and now all parts were full of those that were slain,
by the rage of the Romans at the long duration of the siege, and by the
zeal of the Jews that were on Herod's side, who were not willing to leave
one of their adversaries alive; so they were murdered continually in the
narrow streets and in the houses by crowds, and as they were flying to
the temple for shelter, and there was no pity taken of either infants or
the aged, nor did they spare so much as the weaker sex; nay, although the
king sent about, and besought them to spare the people, yet nobody restrained
their hand from slaughter, but, as if they were a company of madmen, they
fell upon persons of all ages, without distinction; and then Antigonus,
without regard to either his past or present circumstances, came down from
the citadel, and fell down at the feet of Sosius, who took no pity of him,
in the change of his fortune, but insulted him beyond measure, and called
him Antigone [i.e. a woman, and not a man;] yet did he not treat him as
if he were a woman, by letting him go at liberty, but put him into bonds,
and kept him in close custody.
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