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But on the approach of pentecost, which is a festival of ours, so
called from the days of our forefathers, a great many ten thousands of
men got together; nor did they come only to celebrate the festival, but
out of their indignation at the madness of Sabinus, and at the injuries
he offered them. A great number there was of Galileans, and Idumeans, and
many men from Jericho, and others who had passed over the river Jordan,
and inhabited those parts. This whole multitude joined themselves to all
the rest, and were more zealous than the others in making an assault on
Sabinus, in order to be avenged on him; so they parted themselves into
three bands, and encamped themselves in the places following: - some of
them seized on the hippodrome and of the other two bands, one pitched themselves
from the northern part of the temple to the southern, on the east quarter;
but the third band held the western part of the city, where the king's
palace was. Their work tended entirely to besiege the Romans, and to enclose
them on all sides. Now Sabinus was afraid of these men's number, and of
their resolution, who had little regard to their lives, but were very desirous
not to be overcome, while they thought it a point of puissance to overcome
their enemies; so he sent immediately a letter to Varus, and, as he used
to do, was very pressing with him, and entreated him to come quickly to
his assistance, because the forces he had left were in imminent danger,
and would probably, in no long time, be seized upon, and cut to pieces;
while he did himself get up to the highest tower of the fortress Phasaelus,
which had been built in honor of Phasaelus, king Herod's brother, and called
so when the Parthians had brought him to his death.
1
So Sabinus gave thence a signal to the Romans to fall upon the Jews, although
he did not himself venture so much as to come down to his friends, and
thought he might expect that the others should expose themselves first
to die on account of his avarice. However, the Romans ventured to make
a sally out of the place, and a terrible battle ensued; wherein, though
it is true the Romans beat their adversaries, yet were not the Jews daunted
in their resolutions, even when they had the sight of that terrible slaughter
that was made of them; but they went round about, and got upon those cloisters
which encompassed the outer court of the temple, where a great fight was
still continued, and they cast stones at the Romans, partly with their
hands, and partly with slings, as being much used to those exercises. All
the archers also in array did the Romans a great deal of mischief, because
they used their hands dexterously from a place superior to the others,
and because the others were at an utter loss what to do; for when they
tried to shoot their arrows against the Jews upwards, these arrows could
not reach them, insomuch that the Jews were easily too hard for their enemies.
And this sort of fight lasted a great while, till at last the Romans, who
were greatly distressed by what was done, set fire to the cloisters so
privately, that those that were gotten upon them did not perceive it. This
fire
2
being fed by a great deal of combustible matter, caught hold immediately
on the roof of the cloisters; so the wood, which was full of pitch and
wax, and whose gold was laid on it with wax, yielded to the flame presently,
and those vast works, which were of the highest value and esteem, were
destroyed utterly, while those that were on the roof unexpectedly perished
at the same time; for as the roof tumbled down, some of these men tumbled
down with it, and others of them were killed by their enemies who encompassed
them. There was a great number more, who, out of despair of saving their
lives, and out of astonishment at the misery that surrounded them, did
either cast themselves into the fire, or threw themselves upon their swords,
and so got out of their misery. But as to those that retired behind the
same way by which they ascended, and thereby escaped, they were all killed
by the Romans, as being unarmed men, and their courage failing them; their
wild fury being now not able to help them, because they were destitute
of armor, insomuch that of those that went up to the top of the roof, not
one escaped. The Romans also rushed through the fire, where it gave them
room so to do, and seized on that treasure where the sacred money was reposited;
a great part of which was stolen by the soldiers, and Sabinus got openly
four hundred talents.