HISTORIC SKETCH HS 





the prophets, were condemned to pay the penalty of " all the 

 righteous bloodshed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous 

 Abel unto the blood of Zaobarias, son of Baraohias, whom they 

 slew between the porch and the alt:ir." 



The warnings given not only by prophets, but by Christ him- 

 Hi>lf, wore many and distinct. Nothing could bo plainer than 

 the voice in which the result of conduct like that exhibited by 

 the Jews continuously was made audible ; indeed, it was the 

 IilainnoBH of tlio speech that formed the leading feature in the 

 charge which mot with such ready concurrence from the popu- 

 lace before the crucifixion. Thirty-seven years after the last 

 warnings were uttered, the disasters foretold wore accomplished 

 with dreadful exactitude. A succession of weak governors came 

 after Pilate, who was disgraced and banished into Gaul for the 

 misgovornment of his province, and the result was continued 

 disturbances of the peace in Judiua, a general lawlessness which 

 accustomed the people to insurrection, and in the end an out- 

 burst of fanaticism and patriotism combined, which throw down 

 the gage to the strength of the whole empire. About A.D. 67 the 

 Jews became desperate under the many insults offered to thoir 

 religion and nation, and attacking the Roman garrisons in 

 different parts of Judaea, overpowered them, slew all who sur- 

 rendered, and made reconciliation, even upon full submission, 

 impossible. The Roman governor of Syria marched against 

 them, but was compelled to retreat, and it became necessary to 

 employ the strength of the empire in repressing the revolt of 

 the provincials. 



Noro was Emperor of Borne at tho time, and, conscious of 

 the importance of subduing at once and effectually a rising in 

 so conspicuous a part of the empire as Judaea, directed Ves- 

 pasian, who was in command of his chief army, to march 

 against the rebels, and to inflict a signal punishment. Punish- 

 ment was to bo the more severe that the Roman troops hitherto 

 sent against the Jews had by their retreat, and by several 

 battles they had lost, tarnished the reputation of the imperial 

 arms, and it was of paramount necessity to restore the prestige 

 of the discomfited eagles. Vespasian accordingly marched with 

 a large army into Galilee, besieged and stormed several of the 

 principal towns, and drove the malcontents to Jerusalem for 

 refuge. When about to take steps for the reduction of the 

 city, the news reached him that Nero was dead, and that Galba 

 was proclaimed in his stead ; then that Galba was murdered, 

 and that Otho had donned the purple. Unwilling to do anything 

 which might prove of vital imperial importance without specific 

 orders from Rome, Vespasian stayed his onward march, and 

 sent his son Titus to learn the commands of the new emperor, 

 waiting meanwhile his return at Csesarea ; but Titus stopped 

 short in his journey, and wont back to his father about the 

 time that Vitellius seized upon the throne, in the vacancy 

 caused by the overthrow of Otho. The interval was occupied 

 in reducing all the remaining posts held by the Jews in 

 Judaea, and in preparation for the final swoop which was to 

 make tho city that stoned the prophets " desolate." Mean- 

 while the public troubles increased at Rome to such an extent 

 as to make it necessary to find some " still strong man," who 

 should once more save the Capitol, and remove from the seat 

 of empire the scandal occasioned by the administration of 

 Vitellius. The officers of the army, who were really the 

 governing body, held numerous meetings, and declared for 

 their own commander, Vespasian, to whom they offered, not 

 only the imperial crown, but their own lives and services in 

 making good his pretensions to it. 



The action consequent upon Vespasian's acceptance of the 

 offer necessarily took him away from the seat of war in Judaaa. 

 Jerusalem was for awhile preserved, or rather, was for yet a 

 longer time given up to those many internal dissensions which 

 threatened to anticipate the work of the avenging Romans. 

 For the city was divided against itself in a way that would 

 have ensured its destruction without the intervention of any 

 foreign foe. John of Gischala headed a numerous faction, 

 called the Zealots, but more fitly described as the robbers, 

 who lived upon rapine, and were a terror to all who had any- ' 

 thing to lose. These men, driven in from the country by the i 

 cordon of Roman troops ever narrowing round Jerusalem, were 

 an enormous drain upon its resources, while the open war they 

 kept up with other factions made them perpetually a source 

 of clread and anxiety to the rest of the inhabitants. Opposed 

 to thorn in about equal numbers were the faction of Simon, son 



of Oioru, a body of men gathered from the decpenfioe* who 

 infested Judtea, and committed to interminable war with the 

 rest of thoir countrymen who did not acknowledge the 

 macy of Simon. There was also the faction of Elmiisr. the high 

 priest, who collected about him a considerable band with which 

 to defend the upper part of the Temple. These three sets of 

 marauders possessed tho city, and regardless of the sacred ties 

 which bound them to one another, regardless of the approach of 

 the common enemy, waged war upon each other, and slew thou- 

 sands of those who should have been available for the defence 

 of Jerusalem. Stores of provisions which the care and prudence 

 of the citizens had gathered in the city, to guard against such 

 a day as was coming upon them, were wantonly destroyed by 

 these domestic foes, the very wheat which would have sufficed 

 the garrison for many months being burned in one of the 

 encounters. 



It was under circumstances like these that Vespasian directed 

 his thoughts to Jerusalem, as soon as he felt himself firmly seated 

 on the imperial throne. To the command of the army in Judtea 

 he appointed Titus, with orders to press the siege of the capital 

 rigorously, and to compel it to make submission. Titus forth- 

 with set his troops in motion, and finding no resistance in the 

 open country, marched at once upon Jerusalem at the time when 

 it was filled with strangers and people from the provinces, 

 who had come up to celebrate the feast of the Passover. All 

 these persons were so many more consumers of provisions, while 

 many of them were unable to give the slightest assistance in the 

 defence of the city. 



So swift was the Roman march, that little opportunity was 

 given for the inhabitants to withdraw themselves. Some, how- 

 ever, including the Christian part of the community, fled be* 

 times to Pella, and so avoided the vengeance, " not a hair of their 

 heads being injured." Titus marched to Jerusalem, and decided 

 by the ease with which he penetrated through the adjacent 

 country, thought to have made it an easy prey. Indeed, so 

 little did he reckon upon a substantial resistance, that he ad- 

 vanced, unsupported by his cavalry, and attended only by his 

 guard, into the Valley of Jehoahaphat, a difficult defile which the 

 Jews had been wise enough to beset with an ambush, so that 

 when Titus and his suite entered the place, thinking to recon- 

 noitre the city in safety, they were attacked by numbers, and 

 must have been overpowered but for the heroic fortitude with 

 which each man conducted himself, enabling the Roman general 

 to cut his way through, and join the body of his main supports. 

 After this the siege of the city was regularly made ; camps were 

 formed at tho various vantage-points, and preparations were 

 made for carrying on the usual siege operations of the Romans. 

 While so much determination was manifested on the part of 

 the enemy, scarcely less was shown by the assailed Jews, who 

 prepared for heroic resistance. No occasion was lost, so long 

 as the siege was not a close one, of attacking tho posts of tho 

 enemy, and in some of the encounters the Romans, ignorant of 

 the nature of the ground, suffered severely once the camp of a 

 legion was nearly taken. With a courage that has been rarely 

 equalled, the Jews resisted their mighty foe, though it is to bo 

 observed that the factions which prevailed in the city did not 

 diminish in intensity of hatred, even in the presence of the 

 Romans. Daily fights between the rivals for the mastery took 

 place inside the city, and hundreds of lives were lost that, if 

 sacrificed at all, should have been sacrificed in the common 

 cause. 



By degrees, the military engines of the Romans the batter- 

 ing ram and the catapult were brought to bear upon the 

 devoted city, and the Jews, rendered desperate by the straits to 

 which they were reduced, made frequent sallies with the hope 

 of firing and destroying the inevitable destroyers of their walls. 

 The difficulties of the besiegers were greatly increased by the 

 natural strength of the situation of Jerusalem. A glance at any 

 good chart of Jerusalem will show that for an army to ap- 

 proach the city within bowshot, much less within battering-nun 

 distance, was ono of the most arduous feats of ancient warfare ; 

 and tho Jews were not slow to avail themselves of those natural 

 advantages. More than once it was only by the personal exer- 

 tions of Titus that the maclxines for assaulting the walla and 

 their defenders were preserved from destruction, while the 

 Roman soldiers began to grow tired of a siege which presented 

 so protracted a chanco of success. To prevent these sorties of 

 the Jews, the Roman commanders saw fit to encompass the 



