[283]
Hereupon Vespasian comforted his army on occasion of what happened,
and as he found them angry indeed, but rather wanting somewhat to do than
any further exhortations, he gave orders to raise the banks still higher,
and to erect three towers, each fifty feet high, and that they should cover
them with plates of iron on every side, that they might be both firm by
their weight, and not easily liable to be set on fire. These towers he
set upon the banks, and placed upon them such as could shoot darts and
arrows, with the lighter engines for throwing stones and darts also; and
besides these, he set upon them the stoutest men among the slingers, who
not being to be seen by reason of the height they stood upon, and the battlements
that protected them, might throw their weapons at those that were upon
the wall, and were easily seen by them. Hereupon the Jews, not being easily
able to escape those darts that were thrown down upon their heads, nor
to avenge themselves on those whom they could not see, and perceiving that
the height of the towers was so great, that a dart which they threw with
their hand could hardly reach it, and that the iron plates about them made
it very hard to come at them by fire, they ran away from the walls, and
fled hastily out of the city, and fell upon those that shot at them. And
thus did the people of Jotapata resist the Romans, while a great number
of them were every day killed, without their being able to retort the evil
upon their enemies; nor could they keep them out of the city without danger
to themselves.
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