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NOW Caesar took this wall there on the fifth day after he had taken
the first; and when the Jews had fled from him, he entered into it with
a thousand armed men, and those of his choice troops, and this at a place
where were the merchants of wool, the braziers, and the market for cloth,
and where the narrow streets led obliquely to the wall. Wherefore, if Titus
had either demolished a larger part of the wall immediately, or had come
in, and, according to the law of war, had laid waste what was left, his
victory would not, I suppose, have been mixed with any loss to himself.
But now, out of the hope he had that he should make the Jews ashamed of
their obstinacy, by not being willing, when he was able, to afflict them
more than he needed to do, he did not widen the breach of the wall, in
order to make a safer retreat upon occasion; for he did not think they
would lay snares for him that did them such a kindness. When therefore
he came in, he did not permit his soldiers to kill any of those they caught,
nor to set fire to their houses neither; nay, he gave leave to the seditious,
if they had a mind, to fight without any harm to the people, and promised
to restore the people's effects to them; for he was very desirous to preserve
the city for his own sake, and the temple for the sake of the city. As
to the people, he had them of a long time ready to comply with his proposals;
but as to the fighting men, this humanity of his seemed a mark of his weakness,
and they imagined that he made these proposals because he was not able
to take the rest of the city. They also threatened death to the people,
if they should any one of them say a word about a surrender. They moreover
cut the throats of such as talked of a peace, and then attacked those Romans
that were come within the wall. Some of them they met in the narrow streets,
and some they fought against from their houses, while they made a sudden
sally out at the upper gates, and assaulted such Romans as were beyond
the wall, till those that guarded the wall were so aftrighted, that they
leaped down from their towers, and retired to their several camps: upon
which a great noise was made by the Romans that were within, because they
were encompassed round on every side by their enemies; as also by them
that were without, because they were in fear for those that were left in
the city. Thus did the Jews grow more numerous perpetually, and had great
advantages over the Romans, by their full knowledge of those narrow lanes;
and they wounded a great many of them, and fell upon them, and drove them
out of the city. Now these Romans were at present forced to make the best
resistance they could; for they were not able, in great numbers, to get
out at the breach in the wall, it was so narrow. It is also probable that
all those that were gotten within had been cut to pieces, if Titus had
not sent them succors; for he ordered the archers to stand at the upper
ends of these narrow lakes, and he stood himself where was the greatest
multitude of his enemies, and with his darts he put a stop to them; as
with him did Domitius Sabinus also, a valiant man, and one that in this
battle appeared so to be. Thus did Caesar continue to shoot darts at the
Jews continually, and to hinder them from coming upon his men, and this
until all his soldiers had retreated out of the city.
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