Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)

gigatos | June 10, 2022

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Summary

The siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 was the decisive episode of the First Jewish War, although the conflict effectively ended with the fall of Masada in 73. The Roman army, led by Titus Flavius Vespasian (the future Emperor Titus) besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by Jewish rebels since the beginning of the revolt in 66. Here is how Josephus Flavius, a Jewish historian contemporary with the events, summarizes it all:

During the siege the Romans suffered from a lack of water, the source of which was distant and of poor quality. Titus himself was struck in the left shoulder by a stone so severely that he had problems with his left arm for the rest of his life. There were also desertions among the Roman soldiers, depressed by the long siege. But eventually the Roman army prevailed and took Jerusalem. The city and its temple were destroyed; the destruction of the main Jewish temple is still commemorated today on the annual Jewish holiday of Tisha BeAv, while the Arch of Titus, erected to celebrate the Roman general”s triumph, stands to this day in Rome.

In the midst of the First Jewish War and civil war in Rome, an internal war was also being fought in Jerusalem between three different factions. The story goes that Eleazar son of Simon, who had initially divided the Zealots from the people by allowing them to penetrate the Temple, feigning outrage at John”s behavior because he suffered from having to submit to a younger tyrant, broke away from the others and took with him a number of notables, including Judah son of Chelchia, Simon son of Esron and Hezekiah son of Chobaris, as well as a fair number of Zealots. They then took possession of the innermost part of the Temple, where they piled up large quantities of provisions to form safe reserves for future clashes. Being, then, outnumbered by the other factions, they avoided moving from their position. John, on the other hand, while superior in number of armed men, was inferior in position, since he was below Eleazar. The clashes that ensued between the two factions were bloody and relentless, so that the Temple was desecrated by the constant slaughter on both sides.

Simon son of Ghiora, whom the people had chosen as their tyrant, hoping for his help, controlled the upper city and part of the lower city. He decided to attack more violently John”s troops, who were also subjected to attacks from above. The latter, in fact, found himself in the situation of having to fight on two fronts; and if he was at a disadvantage against Eleazar”s men because of his inferior position, he was offset by the advantage of his superior position against Simon”s. And so the civil war raged between the three factions in the city: the men of Eleazar, who occupied the Temple and who took it out mainly against John, who stripped the people and fought against Simon, who in turn used other means from the city to fight against his two opponents. The environs of the Temple were then destroyed by fire and the city turned into a terrible battlefield, where the flames devoured all the grain, which would prove useful for the next siege against the Romans and which would form an important supply reserve of several years.

John went so far as to employ lumber that was instead intended for sacred uses to build war machines. These were beams, which came from Lebanon large and straight. John had them cut to make towers that he placed behind the inner forecourt, facing the western side of the exedra, the only side from which he could make the assault.

With the beginning of 70, Vespasian was joined in Alexandria by the glad news that Vitellius had died and that the Senate and people of Rome had proclaimed him emperor (early January). Numerous ambassadors then arrived to congratulate him from all parts of the world, which had now become his. Vespasian, anxious to set sail for the capital as soon as the winter was over, settled things in Egypt and dispatched his son Titus with large forces to conquer Jerusalem and end the war in Judea.

Background: Roman approach march to the city

Titus moved by land to Nicopolis, which is only twenty stadia from Alexandria, and from here he embarked with the army on warships and sailed up the course of the Nile to the city of Thmuis. From here he continued on foot and camped near the city of Tanis. Then on the second day he marched to Heracleopolis, on the third to Pelusius where he rested for two days. On the sixth day he passed the mouths of the Nile and, after a day”s march through the desert, set up camp at the shrine of Jupiter Casio, and the next day reached Ostracine. The next stop where he rested was Rinocorura, and from here he continued to Rafia, along the Syrian border. New stop was Gaza, then Ascalon, Jamnia, Joppe, and finally Caesarea Maritime, a place he elected as his headquarters, where he gathered all the troops before departing for Jerusalem.

And while John, hoped to get it over with the other two factions inside Jerusalem, after he had succeeded in building large siege machines to give them the assault, the Romans prepared to reach the Judean capital.

Titus led the army in good order, proceeding through Samaria to Gophna (where there was a Roman garrison). After lodging here for a night, he resumed his march and at the end of the day”s march set up camp at the place the Jews call the “Valley of Thorns” near the village named Gabath Saul (meaning Hill of Saul), about thirty stadia from Jerusalem. From here, having chosen 600 horsemen, he proceeded on reconnaissance toward the city, to examine its fortifications and better assess the intentions of the Jews, should they, intimidated at seeing the Roman army, prefer to surrender. Indeed, Titus had heard that the people longed for peace but lacked the courage to rebel against the three factions of brigands in the city.

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Romans

Titus, having gathered most of the Roman army to himself and ordering all other units to join him in Jerusalem, set out from Caesarea. He had under his orders the three legions that had fought in Judea with his father in previous years, as well as legio XII Fulminata, which had been defeated by rebel troops at the beginning of the war, under the command of Gaius Cestius Gallus, and wished more than any other to take revenge. He then commanded the legio V Macedonica to mammaluccopassing Emmaus, the legio X Fretensis to pass through Jericho, while he himself set out with the other two (the XII Fulminata and the XV Apollinaris) and a much larger number of allied troops provided by the client kings, as well as a good number of Syriac auxiliaries.

The gaps left in the four legions, by those units that Vespasian had sent along with Mucianus to Italy, were filled by troops led by Titus. He had in fact arrived from Alexandria with 2,000 legionaries chosen from the troops stationed in Egypt (placed under the command of Eternio Frontone, i.e., from Legio III Cyrenaica and Legio XXII Deiotariana), in addition to having summoned another 3,000 from the Syrian guarinigiones along the Euphrates. In his retinue, the most important person in terms of loyalty and ability was Tiberius Alexander, who, as governor of Egypt, had supported Vespasian”s bid for the imperial purple. He assisted Titus with his advice on how to conduct the war.

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Jews

The number of fighters under Simon”s orders was 10,000, apart from the Idumeans, with fifty commanders and him as supreme leader. The Idumeans, his allies, numbered about 5,000 with ten commanders, among whom the best were James son of Sosas and Simon son of Cathlas. John when he occupied the temple had with him 6,000 men and twenty commanders. He was joined by 2,500 Zealots headed by Eleazar and Simon son of Arinus.

Simon had in his power the “upper city,” the walls up to the Cedron and part of the ancient walls that, from the Siloa descended eastward to the palace of Monobazo, king of Adiabene. He also controlled the spring and part of Acra (the “lower city”), as far as the palace of Helena, Monobazo”s mother. John occupied the temple and its surroundings, including the Ophel and the Cedron valley. Having destroyed everything between the two sides, their fighting did not cease even when the Romans were encamped in front of the walls. And if with the first sortie they united forces against the foreign enemy, they returned to clash with each other shortly afterward, doing only a favor to Titus” Roman army.

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Clash of the avant-garde

By now close to the city walls, not far from the so-called “Women”s Towers,” suddenly a very large number of enemies appeared, coming out of the gate facing Helen”s monuments, and wedged themselves into the midst of the Roman cavalry, dividing it into two parts and thus cutting Titus off with a few others. Not being able to turn back among his own, because of the large number of enemies that stood in the way, considering that many of his own had fled without knowing anything of the danger that loomed over their commander, he opted for the only chance he had to save himself: he turned his horse and shouting to his comrades to follow him, he threw himself into the midst of the enemies, forcibly opening the passage to reach the bulk of the Roman cavalry. His comrades held tightly to Titus, receiving blows from behind and on the flanks, knowing that their only chance to save themselves was to stick together with their commander, trying not to be surrounded. This was how Titus managed to get to safety, reaching the Roman camp.

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Early Roman encampments near the city

Titus” strategy was to reduce the food and water supplies of the besieged, allowing the pilgrims to enter the city for the customary Pesach temple visit, but preventing them from leaving. Once caught up in the night by the legion from Emmaus (Legio V Macedonica), the following day, Titus removed the camp and approached the city further until he reached the locality of Scopos (Mount Scopus), from where it was possible to see the city and the great shining bulk of the Temple: this is a rise whose slopes reach the northern part of the city. Here, at the distance of seven stadia from the city, he commanded an encampment to be placed for two legions, while the Macedonian V was placed three stadia behind those, since it was more tired from the night march and deserved more protection. Soon afterwards the fourth legion, Legio X Fretensis, also arrived, coming from Jericho, where some vexillationes had been left to guard the passes previously occupied by Vespasian. The latter legion was ordered to encamp six stadia from Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, which faces the eastern part of the city, from which a deep ravine called Cedron (Cedron Valley) divides it.

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Judean attack on Roman camp

The Jews, observing the Romans intent on their fortification operations, made the decision to make an initial sortie against Legio X Fretensis, throwing themselves down the ravine with terrifying clamor and swooping down on the enemy quite unexpectedly. The legionaries, scattered to work, unarmed, as they believed that the Jews were still at odds and not sufficiently brave from making such an attack, were caught off guard and thrown into panic. Some, in fact, gave up their jobs and tried to flee; many others ran to their weapons, but were killed before they could sling them. Meanwhile, the Jews, emboldened by this initial success, continued the attack, generating great enthusiasm even among those who had not initially participated in the assault.

When the Romans saw themselves caught up, they initially tried to curb the enemy”s momentum, but then, overwhelmed by increasing numbers of Jews, they abandoned the camp. Perhaps the entire legion would have been in danger if Titus had not intervened with great promptness and, after reprimanding them for their cowardice, forced them to turn back. He then attacked, himself with selected troops, one flank of the Jews making great slaughter of them and driving many of them down into the ravine. When they reached the other shore, however, the Jews revolted and, with the creek bed in their midst, returned to attack the Romans, fighting until noon. Later Titus, after setting up a defensive line, consisting of both the rushing troops and some elements taken from legio X, sent the rest of the legion back upstream to complete the fortification work.

The Jews, believing that the Romans were retreating and seeing that the man they had placed on the walls was sending out signs by waving his robe, threw themselves out with such impetuosity that they looked like a pack of ferocious beasts. In fact, the Romans who tried to oppose this multitude of assaulters ready to die were unable to withstand their onslaught, breaking ranks and fleeing up the mountain. On the other hand, halfway up the mountainside Titus stood firm with a few others of the escort, who, no matter how insistently they begged him to withdraw and not expose himself to danger, considering that he was the commander-in-chief, were unable to gain an audience. The Jews, meanwhile, though surprised by his courage, continued to press the Romans as they fled upward. Titus, not at all intimidated, hurled himself, striking the enemy in the flank, and blocked their initial rush. At the same time, the soldiers who were in the process of fortifying the camp, when they saw their comrades fleeing toward them in disorder, were again seized with panic, so that the whole legion dispersed, believing that the Jews had now overwhelmed all resistance and that their own commander had fled, not believing it possible that he had been abandoned in the midst of the enemy ranks. When they realized, however, that Titus was in the midst of the fray, fearful for his fate, they signaled the danger to the whole legion with great shouts. Shame then invaded their spirits and forced them to turn back, reproaching themselves for abandoning Titus Caesar. They thus threw themselves with all the impetus they had against the Judaean forces and, after succeeding in making them fall back down the slope, managed to drive them back down into the valley and drive them back into the ravine. Titus, who had overwhelmed those he faced, again sent the legion to complete the fortifications of the camp, thus twice succeeding in saving the entire legion in danger.

New clashes between factions within the city

Having quieted the war with the Romans at the time, the discord returned to fuel internal clashes within the city. When the Feast of Unleavens arrived, on the fourteenth day of the month of Xanthicus (late March), when, according to the Jews, they first freed themselves from the Egyptians, Eleazar”s faction threw the doors wide open and admitted into the Temple anyone who wished to pray there. John then, took advantage of this and, choosing some of his own, from among the lesser known, sent them with their weapons well concealed to seize the Temple. As soon as they reached its interior, they shed their robes and generated a great panic. The Zealots immediately understood that the attack was aimed at them and sought refuge in the Temple”s dungeon; meanwhile, the people who had gathered fearfully around the altar and near the sanctuary were trampled mercilessly with blows and sword blows. Many peaceful citizens were, therefore, killed, and anyone who recognized the assailants was led to torture as if he were a zealot. Josephus Flavius adds:

So it was that John”s faction, managed to seize even the innermost part of the temple and the supplies that were contained here, and now they felt stronger in facing the challenge against Simon, so much so that the factions” fight, which initially was three, was reduced to a fight of two.

Second Judean attack

Titus decided, in the meantime, to remove the camps from the Scopos hill and set them up closer to the city, arranging for the defense of those working there against any new Judaean sorties an adequate force of cavalry and infantry. To the rest of the army he ordered instead to level everything between this location and the opposing walls. And so the legionnaires began to pull down all the obstacles they found, from fences and stockades that the inhabitants had created to demarcate their gardens and plantations, to all the fruit trees growing there. Then they filled in the hollows in the ground, flattened with pickaxes the boulders that were sticking out of them, leveling everything down to the area where the so-called “Snake Tank” stood.

The Jews once again organized a new ambush against the Romans. The most daring of the rebels, coming out of the so-called “Women”s Towers,” as if they had been expelled by those who wanted peace, prowled around there. At the same time, others, who were on the walls and pretended to be part of the people, were clamoring for peace and inviting the Romans in, promising to open the city gates, while they were hurling stones at those outside and lending themselves to the sham, in a false attempt to get them to leave the gates. These pretended to want to force their way back in, begging those inside the walls to let them in. But Titus did not trust them since, having invited them the previous day to negotiate through Josephus, he had found no willingness on their part; he gave the soldiers orders not to move. The Romans, however, from the front ranks, arranged to protect the earthworks, had already grabbed their weapons and ran toward the walls. When the Romans arrived near two towers flanking the gate, the Jews ran out and, surrounding them, attacked them from behind. Meanwhile those on the walls hurled a great number of stones and projectiles of all kinds, killing some and wounding a great many. Only at the end of a long fight with spears did the Romans manage to break the encirclement and begin their retreat, while the Jews continued to pursue them, hitting them again and again as far as Helen”s monuments.

Finally reaching safety, the soldiers were met with threats from the commanders, while Titus Caesar, all enraged, rebuked them, telling them that his father, Vespasian, who had grown old on the battlefields, had never witnessed such a disaster; that Roman martial law punished with the death penalty all those who did not obey orders by moving prematurely from their combat post. Soon those undisciplined men would learn to their cost that no victory could be appreciated by the Romans if it was the result of insubordination. It was clear to all that Titus intended to enforce the Roman law of decimation, and so the other legions gathered around Titus and pleaded with him on behalf of their fellow soldiers, begging him to pardon them and that they would soon redeem themselves by future acts of valor. Titus Caesar nodded. He believed that the punishment pronounced for one soldier should always be applied, while when it came to too many culprits it was better to stop at threats. He therefore granted the soldiers a pardon, after reminding them at length to be more cautious in the future.

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Defensive works of the city of Jerusalem

Jerusalem was protected by a triple wall, except for the part that faced deep ravines that were difficult to cross. Here there was only one section of wall. The city was built on two hills, between which was a valley along which the houses sloped (valley of the Caciari). One of these hills was considerably higher than the other and had a greater esplanade at the top (called the upper square of the upper city, or also “fortress” at the behest of King David, Solomon”s father who was the first to build the Great Temple). The second hill was called Acra, and formed the lower city. Opposite this was a third hill, originally lower than Akra and separated from it by a wide valley. Later, the Hasmoneans filled this valley, joining city and temple, and thus lowering the top of Acra. The valley of the Caciari reached as far as the Siloa, an extremely rich source of fresh water. The two hills of the city faced outward over deep ravines, so that there was no possibility of access on either side.

The oldest of the three city walls was impregnable, standing close to the overhangs and the high ground on which it stood. In addition to the advantage of its natural location, it was impressively and solidly built, constantly controlled and maintained from David and Solomon onward, including all their successors. Starting from the north, from the tower called the Hippian, it continued to the Xisto, then reached the council building and ended along the western portico of the Great Temple. On the opposite side, along the western side, the wall ran through the place called Bethso to the gate of the Essenes, continuing south to include the Siloa spring. From here it bent east toward Solomon”s pool, passed the locality called Ophel and reached the eastern portico of the Great Temple.

The second circle of walls began at the gate present in the first circle, which was called Gennath and, encircling only the northern part of the city, reached as far as the Antonia fortress. The third circle began at the Hippian tower, from where it continued northward to the Psephinus tower and then reached in front of the monuments of Helena (queen of Adiabene, daughter of King Izate), reaching then to the monument called the Carder and joining with the ancient wall near the Cedron valley. These walls were built by King Agrippa to protect those parts that had been added to the city and also needed to be defended. The inhabitants grew to such an extent that they encompassed a fourth hill, called Bezetha (i.e., “New City”), located opposite the Antonia fortress, from which it was separated by a deep valley, which had been dug to make the Antonia impregnable. Josephus Flavius adds that Agrippa, after arranging for the construction of these imposing walls, fearing that the emperor Claudius suspected intentions of rebellion, because of the magnitude of the work he had ordered, abandoned the work after creating only the foundations.

According to Josephus Flavius, if the walls had been completed, the city would have been impregnable. These were walls built of stone blocks twenty cubits long, ten cubits wide, which were difficult to remove with iron levers or siege machines. The walls were ten cubits thick, while its height of twenty cubits, which would have been even greater if the builder had not had to revise the initial design. They were, in addition, equipped with battlements of two cubits and propugnacles of three cubits, so that the total height reached twenty-five cubits.

Above the walls rose the towers, twenty cubits high and just as wide, square and thick as the walls. Above the massive part of the towers, twenty feet high, were rooms used as living quarters, and above that again rooms designed to retain rainwater, equipped with large spiral staircases to access them. Of these towers, the third circle of walls had 90, placed at regular intervals of two hundred cubits. Fourteen towers were inserted in the middle walls, and 60 in the ancient one. The entire development of the city measured 33 stadia.

The Psephinus tower stood in the northwestern corner of the city wall, directly opposite where Titus had set up his camp. It was imposing, seventy cubits (31 meters) high and octagonal in plan, so that from the top, as soon as the sun rose, it was possible to see Arabia and the far reaches of Judea as far as the sea. Opposite stood the Hippian Tower and two other towers, all part of King Herod”s ancient walls.

The Hippian tower had a square plan, measured twenty-five cubits in length and width, and was massive to the height of thirty cubits. On this massive part, rested a compartment twenty cubits high, which served to collect rainwater. Above this compartment were two habitable floors with a total height of twenty-five cubits. Above the roofs of different colors, a series of turrets of two cubits and propugnacles of three cubits, so that overall the height of the tower reached eighty cubits (35.5 meters).

The second tower, which Herod named Phasael after his brother, had the width and length equal to forty cubits, while its most massive part was also forty cubits high. Above this first part ran a portico ten cubits high, defended by shelters and parapets. In the center of the portico rose another tower, inside which were rooms including a bathhouse, so that it looked like a palace. On the top then stood turrets and propugnacles. The overall height was about ninety cubits (40 meters), and in shape it closely resembled the lighthouse tower in Alexandria, Egypt. At that time it was used as Simon”s headquarters.

The third tower, named Mariamme after the queen, was massive to the height of twenty cubits. It was twenty cubits wide and long. The upper habitable part was more sumptuous and ornate. King Herod, in building it, believed that this the tower, dedicated to a woman, should be more beautiful and ornate than those bearing male names, although it was less sturdy. Altogether the height of this last tower was fifty-five cubits (24.4 meters).

The three towers mentioned were truly of grand proportions, inserted into the ancient walls, above a raised base beyond which they rose at least another thirty cubits. Also imposing were the blocks with which they were built, for they were not of common material but of white marble. Each block was twenty cubits long, ten cubits wide and five cubits thick. They were very well connected to each other, so that each tower seemed to be built almost as if it were a single monolith, so that the connection of the various parts was imperceptible.

South of this line of towers was the royal palace, a building marvelous in magnificence. It was surrounded all around by walls thirty cubits high, equipped at regular intervals with a series of towers. It contained huge halls, bedrooms for at least a hundred guests. Inside was an indescribable quantity of varieties of marble, ceilings admirable for the length of the beams and the richness of the ornaments, with numerous apartments each of different shapes, all richly furnished with objects of silver and gold. Surrounding the palace were numerous porticoes, each with different columns, and many spaces surrounded by greenery of trees forming long avenues lined with deep canals and ponds, embellished with numerous bronze statues from which water gushed. Surrounding the fountains were numerous cottages for domestic pigeons. Much of this marvel was destroyed, however, not so much by the Romans, but by the infighting between the factions when the fire was set at Antonia, which then spread to the palace and the roofs of the three towers.

The Great Temple, stood on an impregnable hill, although in the early days the esplanade on the summit was barely sufficient to contain the sanctuary and altar, for all around it were deep ravines. King Solomon, who was the founder of the Temple, erected a rampart on the eastern side at the top of which he built a portico. Over the following centuries the people of Jerusalem continued to transport earth, widening more and more the esplanade on top. Thus it was that they proceeded first to tear down the northern wall, then widened the esplanade going to include in time the enclosure of the entire Temple. Later they also built on the other three sides of the hill ramparts, enclosing the sanctuary there. Where the surrounding terrain was steepest and deepest, the rampart was raised three hundred cubits (133 meters) and in some places even more. The blocks used in these works measured up to forty cubits (17.8 meters).

All the porticoes had a double row of columns twenty-five cubits high (each of a single piece of off-white marble), with the ceilings covered with cedar panels. The width of the porticoes was thirty cubits and their total perimeter, which also enclosed the Antonia fortress, was six stadia. Inside stood imperious the great temple, as described to us by Josephus Flavius. The Antonia stood at the corner of the northern and western wings of the portico that encircled the temple, built on a fortress fifty cubits high. It had been built by King Herod, and the stronghold had been covered with slabs of polished stone from the base, both to look aesthetically pleasing and to give no footholds to those who might want to climb it. The body of the Antonia rose to a height of forty cubits and dominated the temple square. The interior looked like a palace, divided into apartments of all shapes, with porticoes, baths and barracks. It had four towers at the corners, all fifty cubits high, except for the one in the southeast corner, which reached a height of seventy cubits. On the two sides that communicated with the temple porticoes it had stairs for access, and used for men on guard duty. Inside it a Roman cohort was always quartered, which during festivals would line up in arms above the porticoes to control the people and prevent possible riots. The city then had its own fortress in Herod”s palace. On Bezetha Hill, which was the highest in the city and was divided by the Antonia, part of the “new city” arose.

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Roman assault on the first circle of walls

After describing the defensive works of Jerusalem, Josephus Flavius records that the Romans, after four days of work following clashes at the “Women”s Towers,” had succeeded in leveling the ground up to the city walls. Titus, not wishing to pass new dangers to the charmeries (impedimenta), deployed his forces in front of the northern and western sectors of the walls: this deployment consisted of seven rows of soldiers, infantrymen in front and cavalrymen behind, each in three rows; in the middle stood the slingers, who formed the seventh row. And so the carriages of the three legions and the mass of attachés were able to pass through without danger. Then Titus went to camp about two stadia away from the wall, on the corner where it bends from north to west, opposite the tower called Psephinus. The other part of the army camped in front of the tower called Hippicus, also two stadia from the city. Legio X Fretensis, on the other hand, continued to remain encamped on the Mount of Olives.

Titus together with an escort of chosen horsemen shortly afterwards decided to skirt the city walls to seek the most suitable place to launch the attack on the city. Considering that on almost all sides of the city were either deep ravines (along the eastern side) or walls too solid for Roman siege machines (on the western side), he preferred to launch the attack in the sector opposite the tomb of the high priest John. Here the walls were lower and the second circle did not intersect with the first, since the part of the “new city” that was not densely populated was not adequately fortified. From here it was then easy to approach the third circle of walls, being able to then assault the “upper city,” the Antonia and finally the sanctuary.

Returning from the inspection around the walls, Titus ordered the legions to ravage the entire territory around the city and gather all the timber they could to build numerous ramparts. He divided the army into three parts, and in the intervals between the ramparts he deployed javelin throwers and archers (heavy artillery (catapults and ballistae) in front of them to minimize any possible sortie by the defenders. Meanwhile, the people of Jerusalem, who had been targeted for so long by the soldiery of the three factions within the city, regained their spirits, hoping to have a respite now that everyone was busy defending themselves against the Romans, and to be able to retaliate if the Romans won.

Meanwhile among the besieged, John did not move against the Romans for fear of Simon. Instead, the latter put his own artillery in position on the wall, including that taken from the Roman general Cestius and that of the Roman garrison at Antonia. The truth is that few were able to use them, instructed by deserters, succeeding in throwing stones and darts from the top of the wall and striking Romans working on the ramparts. Others instead assaulted the Roman army by making small sorties to disrupt them.

The Romans, engaged in the works, sought shelter behind latticework stretched over the palisades and repelled Jewish assaults partly by their artillery. All the legions had some in their equipment, but especially the legio X Fretensis had more powerful catapults and larger ballistae, which were also useful for counterattacking defenders on the high walls. They hurled stones weighing a talent (almost 33 kg) and with a range of up to two stages (370 meters) and beyond. Their blows were so powerful that they knocked down not only the front rank but also those behind them by a wide distance.

The Jews initially tried to avoid the projectiles since, being made of white stone, they could not only be heard coming because of the loud hissing sound, but it was possible to see them from a distance because of their brilliance. Their sentries posted to guard the towers, when the device was launched, would raise the alarm by shouting, “Here comes the son!” Immediately afterwards, those on whom it was plunging would run to safety by running far away and throwing themselves to the ground, most often avoiding the bullets.

The Romans then decided to color the bullets black so that it would be more difficult to be able to see them from a distance. This expedient allowed them to make many victims among the Jews with a single shot. But the latter, while suffering continuous losses, did not allow the Romans to freely raise their ramparts, continuing with their disruptive actions during the day as well as at night.

Having raised the embankments, the genius measured the distance from the first circle of walls by throwing a plummet tied to a wire, then arranged to approach them with elepoli. immediately afterwards Titus drew the artillery nearer to protect the action of his own under the enemy walls, giving the order to launch. From three sides a great roar rose over the city from the combined assault of the Romans, and a great terror shook the rebels, who, finding themselves now exposed to a common danger, finally decided to join forces for the common defense. So Simon let those in the temple know that they could join them in defending the walls, and John, though not trusting them completely, allowed them to go.

The two factions within Jerusalem, putting aside rivalries, took up positions on the walls and hurled a large number of incendiary bullets at the Roman siege machines, while the Romans pushed their elepoli. The bravest of the Jews, they also ventured on sorties outside the walls, tearing the latticework of the machines and rushing at the Roman servants, often succeeding in overpowering them. Meanwhile, Titus rushed everywhere to support individual struggling units in person, placing on both flanks of the siege machines, divisions of cavalry and archers, succeeding in protecting them and allowing the elepoli to advance and strike the enemy walls. The walls, however, resisted the blows, and the battering ram of legio XV Apollinaris succeeded only in shattering the edge of a tower.

The Jews temporarily suspended their sorties, waiting for the Romans, believing that the enemies had withdrawn, to relax and return to their work on the ramparts and, in part, return to their camps. When this happened, they returned to the assault outside the walls through a hidden gate at the Hippian tower, going so far as to set fire to the Roman siege works and even to their camps. The audacity of the Jews did not allow the Romans, at least initially, to organize an adequate defense, so that many were overwhelmed by this unexpected assault.

Around the siege machines raged a violent battle, where the Jews tried to set fire to them, the Romans to prevent them. Many were those who fell in the front ranks, but the Jewish fury got the upper hand and the fire began to blaze on the Roman siege works, with the risk of completely destroying them, had not first the legion of Alexandria (legio XV Apollinaris) and then Titus himself intervened with the strongest cavalry units.

At the end of the retreat, John, leader of the Idumeans, an extraordinary man in valor and intelligence, was shot in the chest in front of the walls by an Arab archer and died instantly.

The next night, one of the three Roman towers, fifty cubits high that had been placed on each embankment, collapsed on its own. This produced a great roar that brought such disarray to the Roman army that everyone ran to arms in total general confusion, thinking it was an enemy attack. The disarray and panic continued until Titus understood what had really happened and, communicating it to the legions, restored order and calm.

The fighting continued and saw the Jews, who, in order to put up valiant resistance, suffered heavy losses from the towers, being exposed to the fire of Roman light artillery, javelin throwers, archers, and slingers. They had, therefore, great difficulty because of the exaggerated height of them and because it was almost impossible to eliminate them, considering their bulk, weight, and difficulty in setting fire to them, since they were covered with iron. If then the Jews had retreated to avoid being under constant Roman fire, they could no longer hinder the action of the rams, which were slowly beginning to crumble the walls of the city walls.

The Romans were thus able to begin climbing along the breach produced by “Victorious,” while the Jews abandoned their positions and took refuge within the second circle of walls. Immediately afterwards the gates of the first circle were opened and the Romans were able to enter with the whole army. Thus after fifteen days-it was the seventh of the month of Artemisius-Titus seized the first circle, which was destroyed almost in its entirety, along with much of the “new city” (northern quarter), which had previously been devastated by Cestius.

Roman assault on the second circle of walls

Titus moved the camp inside the first circle of walls, to the place called “Camp of the Assyrians,” then occupied the entire extension to the Cedron valley, but keeping out of range of the second circle. Shortly thereafter he resumed attacking.

The Jews for their part returned to their dogged defense: John”s men fought from the Antonia fortress, along the northern portico of the Temple and in front of King Alexander”s tomb, while Simon”s men fought along the access road near the tomb of the high priest John, up to the gate where the water directed to the Hippian tower passed through. They often made sorties from the gates, but were repulsed and suffered heavy losses because of the Romans” better military preparation and skill, but still managed to defend themselves from the high walls.

And so the days passed between continuous attacks, battles along the walls, sorties of large units and clashes of all kinds. The night did not always constitute a time of respite for those who had been fighting since dawn, proving sleepless for both, for the Jews feared an assault on the walls any moment with the Romans on their own camp. And at first light, they would take up arms, ready to give battle. And if the Jews competed, exposing themselves to danger in the front row to earn the approval of their commanders, the Romans were not to be outdone, for they were spurred on by the habit of winning, by constant military campaigns and exercises, but above all by Titus who was always at their side. Josephus Flavius recounts an episode of valor by a Roman soldier:

The Jews also showed equal valor, heedless of death. Titus, however, who was concerned about the safety of his soldiers, depending on the final victory, declared that being reckless was to blame, while the real value was prudence in avoiding unnecessary risks, commanding everyone to behave accordingly.

At this point the Roman general arranged to pull the elepoli up to the middle tower of the northern wall, on which a Jew named Castor had remained, along with ten others, while the others had retreated to protect themselves from the firing of the Roman archers. These latter succeeded by deception, by making Titus think they were going to surrender, in slowing down the Roman advance. When Titus realized this, he recognized that compassion in war had been harmful and, furious at being played for a fool, gave orders to put the elepoli back into action with greater violence. When the enemy tower then began to give way, Castor and his men set fire to it and leapt into the flames to reach the shelter below.

Five days after the expulsion of the first wall, Titus also conquered the second wall in this sector. And while the Jews were retreating in flight, he penetrated with a thousand legionaries and selected troops into the part of the “new city” where the wool market, blacksmiths” workshops and garment market were located among narrow streets. Having entered the neighborhood, he did not allow anyone, either to put to death any prisoners or to set fire to the dwellings; on the contrary, he offered the rebels a chance to come out into the open to confront him and measure themselves in battle without involving the people; for he wanted to preserve both the city and the Temple. But while the people were supportive of his proposals, the revolutionaries thought that Titus was incapable of conquering the rest of the city and was trying to negotiate their surrender.

So the rebels threatened the people with death if they decided to surrender, and threw themselves on the Romans with a sudden attack: some were confronted in the narrow streets, others targeted from the dwellings. Those, on the other hand, who were beyond the second circle were attacked from the nearby gates with a sortie, so that those placed to guard the walls fled to the nearby camp. Had Titus not intervened, all those roaming the narrow streets of the “new city” would have been slaughtered by the rebels. Caesar, in fact, having arranged the archers at the outlets of the streets, placed himself in the place where the crush was greatest and blocked the enemy advance until all his soldiers were safely placed.

Thus the Romans, who had managed to penetrate the second circle of walls, were pushed back and the rebels returned to take heart from their success. But the Romans did not let up and immediately tried to break through again. Over the next three days the Jews succeeded in stopping them, fighting valiantly, strengthening their defenses and placing themselves to protect the breach, but by the fourth day they were no longer able to withstand the rush of the Roman legions and, overwhelmed, were forced to retreat within the third and final circle. Titus, having once again taken possession of the second wall, immediately had its entire northern (easternmost) part knocked down and, placing garrisons on the towers of the southern part, devised a plan to storm the last circle.

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Brief Roman truce

Titus preferred to suspend the siege for a while, giving the rebels time to consider whether they should not surrender, given the threat of starvation. And so when the day came for the distribution of pay to the Roman soldiers, he arranged to deploy the army in a place where the enemies could see it and put the fact of distributing salaries on display. And so the legionnaires donned their parade weapons and armor, which they used only on special occasions, while the horsemen led their horses all harnessed up. The military parade shone with silver and gold, proving terrifying to the Judean enemy who looked out from the ancient walls and the northern side of the temple. Josephus Flavius claims that:

In four days the Romans collected their wages, legion by legion; on the fifth, since no peace proposal came from the Jews, Titus divided the legions into two groups and began to raise embankments in front of the Antonia fortress and John”s tomb (northwest of the Joppa gate), with the aim of storming the city from both these sides, and then penetrating through the Antonia into the temple. The task of building two ramparts at each of these two points was given to each legion.

Those working by John”s monument were constantly hindered by the sorties of the Idumeans and Simon”s rebels; those working in front of the Antonia, by John”s forces and the Zealots. The Jews, then all together, hammered the Romans with constant projectile launches, now that they had mastered the machinery. Indeed, they had three hundred catapults and forty ballistae, with which they daily obstructed the Romans” filling work.

Titus, however, always not neglecting the fact that he could persuade the Jews to end hostilities, alternated between war action and advice, personally urging them to save themselves and surrendering the city, which had been under siege for too long and was now taken. He then decided to send Joseph to parley with them, believing that perhaps they would be persuaded by one of their own.

Josephus, following the perimeter of the wall at a safe distance, prayed at length to the Jews that they would surrender and spare their homeland and temple. He told them that he had been assured by the Romans that they would respect their holy places if they agreed to end the war. He recalled the difficulties their fathers had overcome throughout Israel”s history, but Joseph”s prayers to them went unheard. The people, as opposed to the rebels, felt incited to desert, so much so that some, after selling cheaply some their property and some their most valuable items, swallowed the recovered gold coins so that the rebels would not discover them and fled to the Romans. And Titus, who welcomed them, then allowed them to go wherever they wanted, and no one was enslaved. But John and Simon”s men noticed this and prevented them from leaving, in some cases even putting them to death. Meanwhile, the population of the city and the rebels suffered more and more from hunger:

As a result, the situation within the city was dramatic, with citizens forced to endure constant overpowering by the rebels. High-ranking citizens were often targeted and dragged before the leaders. Many were put to death on false charges of conspiracy or of wanting to switch sides with the Romans in order to appropriate their property and wealth. Josephus Flavius, horrified at what was happening in the city wrote that:

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Beginning of the Roman assault on the third circle of walls

Meanwhile, the work of the Romans on the embankments progressed, although the legionaries suffered severe and continuous blows from the defenders of the walls, while Titus decided to send a cavalry corps to intercept all those who came out of the city by rappelling down the cliffs in search of food. These included some armed rebels, although most were poor commoners who, fearing for the fate of their families left in the city in the hands of bandits, dared not desert. Hunger made them bold, but they were often captured by the Romans who scourged them and, after suffering all sorts of tortures, crucified them in front of the walls as a warning to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem to surrender. Josephus Flavius adds:

The rebels in the face of this terrifying spectacle not only did not surrender, but used that argument to convince the rest of the population, showing them what end they would come to if they switched sides with the Romans. But while many of those who would have wanted to defect were restrained, some still attempted to escape, preferring death at the hands of the enemies rather than starve to death inside the city. Titus had many of the prisoners” hands cut off so that they would not look like deserters, and he sent them to Simon and John, urging them to surrender to avert the destruction of the entire city. At the same time when he inspected the embankments, he incited the soldiers to work with greater celerity in view of the imminent final victory. To such exhortations the Jews responded by cursing Titus Caesar and his father, shouting that they were not afraid of death, that they would do the Romans all the harm they could, that God was their ally and everything depended on Him.

In the meantime another ally of the Romans, Antiochus Epiphanes, sent by his father Antiochus IV of Commagene, arrived with a good number of foot soldiers and a bodyguard called “Macedonians,” composed of men of the same age (barely out of their teens), of tall stature, armed and trained in Macedonian usage, from which they derived their name. Arriving in front of Jerusalem he exclaimed that he marveled at why the Romans were so hesitant to attack the walls. Antiochus Epiphanes was a valiant warrior, endowed with great strength, who seldom failed to accomplish his boldest feats. Titus then, with a smile, answered him:

Due to his strength and experience he managed to dodge the Jewish darts, but many of his young comrades were killed or wounded, stubbornly fighting hopelessly until they were forced to retreat, reflecting that:

The Romans, who had begun raising the ramparts on the twelfth of the month of Artemisius (mid-April), finished them on the twenty-ninth, after seventeen days of incessant work. These were four immense siege works: the first, against Antonia, was erected by Legio V Macedonica in the center of the cistern called “of the sparrow”; the second, by Legio XII Fulminata at a distance of about twenty cubits (the third, by Legio X Fretensis quite far from the other two, facing the northern sector and the cistern called “of the almond trees”; the fourth, by Legio XV Apollinaris at a distance of thirty cubits (about 13.5 meters), facing the monument of the high priest John Hyrcanus.

And while the Romans were already bringing the machines to the siege ramps, John, who had dug a tunnel from the interior of the Antonia to below the ramparts, after carefully propping it up with poles that held up the siege work of the Romans, decided to put inside the tunnel, wood soaked in pitch and bitumen and set fire to it. When the poles were consumed by the flames, the gallery collapsed with a tremendous roar and caused the rampart of Legio V Macedonica to sink. Then the flames also took root on the remains of the ramp, blazing freely. The Romans, caught off guard by the great disaster wrought by the Jews, just as they thought they had victory in their grasp, were chilled in their hopes of taking the city. And although the fire was eventually tamed, the ramparts had now sunk.

Two days later, Simon”s men also attacked at the other embankments, where the Romans had managed to pull over the elopolis and were already “beating” the walls. Josephus Flavius recounts that one Jephthaeus, with a certain Magassar and Adiabenus, grabbed flashlights and threw themselves at the Roman siege machines in an extremely daring manner, as never before seen.

And when by this time the flames were high, the Romans rushed en masse from the camps to put them out, the Jews, on the contrary, not only obstructed them from the top of the walls by launching numerous projectiles at them, but also went out into the open field to fight against those who tried to extinguish the fire. And so, while on the one hand the Romans tried to drag the elepoli away from the fire, on the other hand the Jews tried to hold them back by also clinging to hot irons from the heat, restraining the enemy rams. But then the fire got the upper hand, and the Romans, now surrounded by flames, despairing of being able to save the works, retreated to their encampments, pressed on by the Jews, who, growing more numerous and daring because of their success, were unable to moderate their action, pushing on to the Roman entrenchments. Here many of the Roman soldiers deployed to guard the encampments were slaughtered, but the remaining units that had turned back from the retreat, lined up with catapults and held back the oncoming mass of Jews.

Finally for the Romans came Titus, returning from Antonia, where he had gone to order the rebuilding of new ramparts. After rebuking his own, now that they were in danger at their own encampments and had turned from besiegers to besieged, he counterattacked the enemy on the flanks together with divisions of selected troops. The battle raged, so much so that in the melee the dust blurred the vision, the clamor deafened the ears, and no one could distinguish a friendly unit from an enemy one any longer. In the end the Romans had the upper hand, thanks in part to the fact that their general exposed himself in the front rank with them; and they would have ended up exterminating the entire mass of the Jews, if the latter had not retreated into the city before the rout. But the destruction of the ramparts demoralized the Roman soldiers, to whom they had devoted so much time and effort, in no small measure. Many feared, in fact, that they would no longer be able to conquer the city, at least with the usual siege machines.

Romans build a ring road around the city

Titus summoned his generals, some of whom expressed the opinion that all forces should be brought into play to storm the walls. Up to that time, in fact, only a few isolated units had been sent against the Jews. In case they had been moved to attack all at once, according to some, the Jews would not have been able to withstand the onslaught. The more prudent advised both the erection of new ramparts and the building of a ring road around the city to block any kind of sortie by the besieged, as well as the introduction of provisions, forcing the inhabitants of Jerusalem to suffer even more hunger, thus preventing the Romans from having to contend with such a desperate enemy who seemed to aspire only to be killed over a sword.

Titus then expressed his opinion: while it seemed to him unprofitable to remain completely inactive with such a massive army, he judged it useless to attack men who were killing each other. The Roman general also realized that there were great difficulties:

Titus realized that the skill lay in leading his army to victory in the shortest possible time. But if he wanted to reconcile speed of action with safety for his men, it was necessary to surround the entire city with a rampart: only in this way would he be able to block all the exit routes and, sooner or later, the Jews would surrender, exhausted by hunger. He planned, moreover, to resume building the ramparts as soon as the defenders offered less resistance.

Having persuaded his generals, Titus proceeded to divide the work among the different legions. The soldiers, seized with superhuman ardor when they were assigned the different sectors of the circumvallation, not only competed with each other but also among wards of the same legion, where each simple miles strove to earn the praise of his own decurion (placed at the head of a contubernium), the latter of his own centurion, who in turn sought the approval of his own tribunus militum, who sought it from his own legatus legionis (at the head of each legion). Of the four legatus legionis, Titus was the undisputed judge. He made numerous rounds each day to inspect the siege works in progress to check the status of the work.

The by-pass began at the “Camp of the Assyrians,” where the commander-in-chief”s camp was located, then turned toward the lowest part of the “New City,” from there across the Cedron valley it reached the Mount of Olives (it then bent southward, enclosing the mount as far as the cliff called Colombaia and the nearby hill overlooking the slopes of the Siloa spring; from here he turned west, descending into the valley of the spring and ascending along the monument of the high priest Ananus, turning north; having reached a place called “House of the Chickpeas,” he encircled the monument of Herod, turned east and reconnected with the camp from where he had started.

This rampart had the length of thirty-nine stadia (equal to 7.200 km) and included, outwardly, thirteen forts whose perimeters added up to a total of ten stadia (where each fort had sides equal to about 35 meters). Incredibly, the entire work was completed in three days. Having thus closed the city within this circle and placed the garrisons in the forts, Titus reserved for himself the inspection of the first watch during the night, entrusted the second watch to Tiberius Julius Alexander, while the third was assigned by lot to the four different generals (legati legionis). Hours of rest were also drawn for the men on guard, while during the entire night they were obliged to patrol the fortifications between forts.

The Jews were thus foreclosed from any hope of salvation, while starvation continued to claim victims and entire households with increasing frequency. In the houses one observed worn-out women and children, in the streets old men reduced to skin and bones, while boys had bodies as swollen and roamed the squares like ghosts, until they collapsed to the ground lifeless. Many did not even have the strength to bury their relatives; others fell dead on top of those they were burying. The city was thus traversed by a deep silence and the night filled with death.

Instead, the rebels burglarized houses, which had turned into graves, and stripped the dead even of their clothing. They also pierced those who were not yet dead; instead, they did not care for those who begged them to kill them to end their suffering, leaving them to starve to death. The rebels, again, initially arranged for the corpses to be buried at public expense, not withstanding the stench, but when they were too numerous, they had them thrown from the top of the walls into the ravines.

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Antonia falls into Roman hands

When Titus saw, in his inspection rounds, that the ravines were full of corpses and, under the rotting bodies, a thick sewage flowed, he had pity for this horrendous slaughter and raised his hands to heaven, as if God were his witness that all this was not his doing, but that of the rebels. This was the situation in the city. The Romans, on the other hand, had high spirits, for they were abundantly supplied with grain and whatever else they needed from neighboring Syria and other nearby Roman provinces. Many arranged themselves in front of the walls and put a large quantity of provisions on display, stimulating the enemies” hunger with their satiety.

But Titus, seeing that the rebels were not yielding and feeling compassion for the people of Jerusalem, who had been taken hostage by those bandits, went back to raising new embankments, although the difficulty of procuring new timber had become more and more difficult, since all the trees around the city had already been felled. The legionaries had, therefore, to go in search of new material at the distance of no less than ninety stadia (more than 16 km) and began to raise embankments only in front of Antonia, divided into four sections, much larger than the previous ones.

Josephus Flavius tells of numerous terrible incidents that the people of Jerusalem had to suffer in those days:

And as the situation in Jerusalem became more and more dramatic, the incredible multitude of corpses piled everywhere around the city gave off a pestiferous stench and created the conditions for an epidemic. Meanwhile, the Romans, although they had serious difficulties in procuring the necessary timber, managed in only twenty-one days to build the embankments, having cut down all the trees around the city within a radius of ninety stadia, so that the surrounding landscape had become desolate, reduced to a deserted heath. The war had thus erased all traces of the ancient splendor of that region of Judea.

Completing the ramparts was a source of fear not only for the Jews but also for the Romans. The former knew that they had to destroy them at all costs by fire, on pain of destroying the city; the latter considered the construction of these last embankments of paramount importance for the final victory, since given the scarcity of timber it would not be easy to find new ones, and then because the Roman soldiers were beginning to lack strength and morale from the exertions of the long siege.

Meanwhile, John”s men, who garrisoned the Antonia, built internal fortification works, in case the wall exposed to Roman attacks was torn down, and attempted in turn to bring an attack on the Roman ramparts before they were hoisted over the rams. Eventually, though armed with incendiary torches, they desisted from approaching and turned back. In fact, the Jews found a “wall” of legionaries lined up to defend the ramparts, so thick that there was no opening for those who wanted to wedge in to set fire to them, each one ready to die rather than abandon his position. The Romans knew that if those ramparts were destroyed, it would cause the ultimate collapse of their hopes of achieving final victory. Similarly, the support of the Roman artillery, under whose fire the Jews were constantly targeted, was very effective.

Of the Jews who managed to get through the Roman “barrage,” some retreated before the “melee,” annihilated at the sight of the iron discipline of the Roman army, deployed in close ranks; others under the blows of the Roman javelins. Thus it was that they eventually retreated without having accomplished anything. This action was attempted in the month of Panemo (June).

As soon as the Jews retreated, the Romans went on the counterattack, putting the elepoli in position, although they were subjected to the constant throwing of stones, fire, iron, and whatnot, from the heights of the Antonia fortress. The latter”s walls withstood the terrible blows of the Roman elepoli, even as the Romans were pelted with stones thrown at them from above. Eventually, however, sheltering their bodies under their shields, by dint of hands and stakes, they managed to scale the foundations of the fortress and remove four large blocks. Night ended the action of both sides, but in the course of it, the walls suddenly collapsed. This was mainly due both to the continuous blows from the Roman battering rams of the previous day and to the subsidence of the ground, under which John had had a tunnel built to cause the collapse of the embankments.

The Jews, who should have remained demoralized, on the contrary, having taken appropriate countermeasures to the collapse, regained their spirits when they saw that the Antonia still remained standing. The Romans, on the other hand, were disappointed, after an initial moment of elation, when they saw another wall behind the one that had just collapsed. Surely assaulting this second wall presented itself easier, because it would be easier to scale it over the rubble of the previous one and much weaker, since it was so quickly executed. But no one had the courage to give the climb first since he would meet certain death.

Then Titus, believing that exhortations and promises often make one forget the dangers and despise death, gathered the most valiant and urged them to carry out this difficult undertaking, now close to final victory. He, while acknowledging the difficulty in scaling the walls, added that he would not leave without reward those who, for valor shown, attacked first. He exhorted them by reminding them that they were Roman soldiers, instructed in peacetime to make war and in wartime to achieve victory. The Jews, though valiant were led by desperation, yet still inferior. He reminded them that once they occupied Antonia, they would have the city in their grasp, finding themselves in a dominant position over the enemy, now close to a swift and total victory. He concluded, then, his speech by telling them:

And as everyone remained paralyzed, a man from the auxiliary cohorts, a certain Sabinus a native of Syria, was the first to rise, saying:

Saying this he raised his shield above his head with his left hand and, unsheathing his sword with his right hand, launched himself toward the walls. It was the sixth hour of that day (between 11 a.m. and 12 noon). Only eleven men followed him, whom he himself preceded by a long way, driven by a divine impulse. The defenders, from the top of the walls, began to target them with javelins and arrows, as well as huge boulders rolled over the Romans, which overwhelmed some of the eleven armed men. Sabinus, however, did not curb his momentum until he had reached the top and put the enemy to flight. The Jews, in fact, impressed by his strength and courage, believing that many more Romans were participating in the climb, fled.

Sabinus, having reached the top, put a foot wrong and, striking a rock, fell with a great blow. The Jews turned back and, having seen him in trouble, came back, surrounded him and began to strike him. He tried to defend himself, and although he wounded many, because of the blows he received he could no longer move his right hand and was killed. Of the other eleven, three who also reached the top were killed with stone blows, the other eight were led back to the camp, wounded. This action took place on the third day of the month of Panemo (June).

Two days later, twenty legionaries, who were guarding the ramparts decided to attempt the feat, united under a vexillifer of Legio V Macedonica, accompanied by two horsemen of the auxiliary wings and a bugler, around the ninth hour of the night (between two and three o”clock) climbed the Antonia passing over the rubble and, having killed the sentries in their sleep, seized the walls. The bugler then blew his trumpet to warn his comrades. On hearing the blasts, a good part of the sentinels of the Jews who were still asleep, once leaped to their feet, out of great terror that they were being attacked in force by the Romans, and fled, not having realized that they were only twenty men.

As soon as Titus heard the signal, he ordered the whole army to take up arms and climbed the walls himself among the first. And because the Jews had hastily retreated into the temple, the Romans were able to penetrate the tunnel that John had previously dug to reach the ramparts. The rebels of both John and Simon, while remaining separate, tried to block the passage to the Romans, having realized that the Roman break-in into the temple would mean the ultimate defeat for them. A tremendous battle ensued around these entrances. Neither side was able to make use of projectiles or javelins, however, and they fought in hand-to-hand combat with swords alone. The melee was so furious that one could not tell who were the allies and who were the enemies, so much were they mixed in that confined space and in the enormous din.

Eventually the Jews got the better of the Romans, who began to give way. The fighting had lasted from the ninth hour of the night until the seventh hour of the day (from 2

Josephus Flavius recounts an episode of uncommon courage in the Roman ranks by a certain Julian, a centurion of an auxiliary corps of Bitini:

Titus was impressed by this act of extreme courage, observing what a horrible end his centurion had met, slaughtered before the eyes of so many of his comrades-in-arms. He would have liked to rush to his defense, but from where he stood he did not have the chance. Thus Julian left great fame of himself not only with the Romans and Titus, but also with the enemy, who seized his remains and managed to drive the Romans back all the way into Antonia. The Roman general then ordered his soldiers to tear down the Antonia from the foundations and create a large embankment so that the whole army could easily climb it. He then entrusted Josephus, on the seventeenth day of the month of Panemos (June), with the task of conveying a message in Hebrew to the rebels, calling on their leader, John, to let the people go free and fight only with those who had decided to follow him, clashing with the Romans without involving the city and the temple in its ruin. And if, as was to be expected, John did not agree to come to terms, Josephus” speech impressed many of the noble Jews, some of whom took advantage of it to flee and take refuge with the Romans. Among them were the high priests Joseph and Jesus, as well as some of the sons of the high priests such as the three of Ishmael who was beheaded in Cyrene, the four of Matthias, and one of that Matthias, whom Simon son of Ghiora had had killed along with three other sons. In addition to the high priests, numerous other nobles also fled. Titus, not only welcomed them benevolently, but sent them to Gophna, inviting them to remain there, at least until the end of the siege. A little later, however, Titus recalled them from Gophna and wanted them to go around the walls, together with Josephus, to be seen by the people and make it clear that they had not been killed or chained by the Romans. So it was that from that moment, greater were the defections and those sought refuge beyond the Roman lines. Then the rebels, in response, became even more irritated, and placed over the sacred gates their artillery, from scorpions, to catapults, missile-throwing machines, etc., so that if the area surrounding the temple looked like a cemetery because of the number of dead present, the temple appeared like a fort.

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Assault on the outer porch of the great temple

Having understood Titus, that there was no possibility of dealing with the rebels, who “neither felt pity for themselves nor intended to spare the sanctuary,” he resumed military operations. Since he could not lead the whole army against the enemy for lack of space, he chose from each centuria the thirty most valiant and, entrusting every thousand men to a tribune, put them under the charge of Ceriale (legatus legionis of the V Macedonica) with orders to attack the sentinels about the sixth hour of the night (around midnight). Titus himself armed himself, ready to take action, but he was prevented from doing so by his friends and the generals themselves, arguing that it would have been more helpful to the final victory if he had directed military operations from the Antonia, not in the front line where he would have needlessly risked his life. Caesar, having placed himself on the Antonia, then launched his men on the assault and stood by as events unfolded.

However, the Roman soldiers sent to attack did not find the sentinels asleep, as they hoped they would. On the contrary, they rose to their feet with great readiness and began to shout, drawing the attention of the Judean army and sparking a furious battle. The Romans managed to resist the first Judean counterattack, but when the others arrived, everything degenerated into total confusion, where many mistakenly hurled themselves at their comrades, believing them to be enemies because of the darkness. The combatants were blinded, some by fury, some by fear, so much so that they struck great blows without caring who they hit nearby, whether friend or foe. The Romans, who had conjoined their shields, attacked in close ranks, and seemed to suffer less harm from the general confusion of the battle, partly because everyone knew the password. In contrast, the Jews, haphazardly arranged, often swayed and did not recognize in the darkness those among them who retreated, mistaking them for Romans and wounding many of their own.

Once day dawned, the battle continued between the two sides, which, once separated, also began to use artillery. No one, however, gave way to the other: the Romans, who knew they were being watched by their commander, competed among themselves with acts of valor in order to earn promotion; the Jews, on the other hand, were animated by desperation. The confrontation thus had a static course, partly because neither side had sufficient space to flee or to pursue the opponent. It was like watching “in the theater” a war scene, where Titus and his generals did not lose sight of any detail of the clash. Having reached the fifth hour of the day (between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.), after fighting from the ninth hour of the night (from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m.), the two sides parted without winners or losers.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Roman army, proceeded to demolish the foundations of the Antonia in seven days, clearing a wide path to create an access ramp to the temple. The legions then began to approach the walls and erect four large embankments:

The work, however, progressed slowly amidst great difficulties, as there was no longer any timber available nearby and it had to be transported from at least a hundred stadia (18.5 km) away, in addition to the fact that the Romans were often forced into continuous ambushes, resulting in loss of life and many horses.

The next day around the eleventh hour (4-5 p.m.), many of the rebels, since there was nothing left to plunder in the city and hunger was setting in, stormed the Roman ring road on the Mount of Olives, believing they would take it by surprise. But the Romans became aware of their assault and, rushing promptly from nearby forts, were able to prevent the palisade from being overrun or torn down. The ensuing battle saw many acts of valor on both sides. Among these Josephus Flavius records a horseman of an equited cohort, named Pedanius, who, when the Jews were retreating down to the ravine, spurred his horse at a gallop against the flank of the fleeing enemies, seized one of them by the ankle, a stout young man with arms and armor, while the horse was running, showing off his great skill in riding, and brought him to Titus himself. The Roman general complimented him and ordered the prisoner to be punished for attempting to storm the Roman fortifications.

It was then that the Jews, seeing that the Romans were about to reach the temple, set fire to the northwestern part of the portico, which was conjoined with the Antonia, and then tore down about twenty cubits (nearly 9 meters) of it and began to set fire to the holy places. Two days later, on the twenty-fourth of the month of Panemos (June), the Romans set fire to the other side of the portico. When the fire spread fifteen cubits, the Jews tore down the roof, severing the connection to the Antonia. Meanwhile, incessant fighting continued around the temple. It is told of a Jew of small stature, named Jonathan, who arrived near the monument of the high priest John and challenged the most valiant of the Romans to a duel. For a long time no one came forward, until an auxiliary knight, named Pudentus, came out to duel. After a favorable first confrontation, he lost his balance, and Jonathan jumped on him and succeeded in killing him. Mounted on the corpse, he launched belligerent cries against the Roman army, boasting of the slain enemy. But a centurion named Priscus, pierced him with an arrow, killing him, amid the triumphant shouts of the Romans and the curses of the Jews.

The rebels barricaded in the temple, on the twenty-seventh day of the month of Panemus, hatched a trap against the Romans. They filled the gap between the rafters of the western portico and the ceiling with dry wood and also added pitch and bitumen. Pretending then that they were no longer able to resist, they retreated. Many Romans, seeing this, carried away by their eagerness, pressed on them and mounted the portico, leaning their ladders against it; others suspicious of this unexpected retreat, held their position. Meanwhile the porch was full of Roman soldiers, and the Jews suddenly set fire to it. In a flash the flames rose high, spreading on all sides, throwing the Romans into panic and trapping many of them. Surrounded by them, some flung themselves into the city behind them, others “into the arms” of the enemy himself, others jumped into the midst of their comrades fracturing various parts of their bodies. The fire, which by now was spreading in a devastating way, soon claimed more and more victims. Titus, enraged against those who without his command had mounted on the porticos, at the same time feeling great compassion for not being able to help them, incited his men to do what they could to get them out of that disaster. Some managed to find a way of escape on the wall of the porch, but though they saved themselves from the flames, again besieged by the Jews, they were all killed.

And if this disaster threw the Romans into despondency, for the future it made them more shrewd in avoiding falling again into the snares set by the Jews. The fire destroyed the porch up to the tower that John, during the fight with Simon, had built over the gates leading out on the Xistus. The rest the Jews knocked down after slaughtering the Romans who had mounted on it. The next day the Romans also set fire to the entire northern porch up to the eastern borders, overlooking the overhang of the Cedron valley, which was very deep in that place.

And as the two armies faced each other near the temple, hunger reaped incredible numbers of casualties and untold suffering. Wherever food appeared, a fight broke out. Necessity led to eating anything, even the most unclean, from belts, to shoes, even tearing leather from shields to try to chew it. Finally, Josephus Flavius tells of a gruesome episode, according to which a woman, named Mary, after long hurling insults and curses at the looters, seized the nursing child and killed it, then putting it to cook; one half of it she ate, the other she kept in a hidden place. When the bandits arrived, smelling food, they threatened to kill her if she did not make them aware of what it was. The woman then showed the remains of her little son, generating a thrill of terror among those men who, petrified at the sight of the corpse, left the dwelling trembling. Word spread among the population, the shock was great for all. And though bitten by hunger, they could not wait to die, deeming those who had died before hearing or seeing such an atrocity lucky. Soon this terrifying news reached the Romans as well, generating disbelief in some, pity in others, and even greater hatred of the Jews in many. Titus proclaimed that he would take care to bury this dreadful misdeed of the mother devouring her son under the rubble of his homeland. He also understood that in the face of such despair, it was almost impossible for that people to come to their senses.

At the same time two legions had completed the construction of the ramparts, and on the eighth day of Loos (July), Titus ordered the rams to be brought forward against the western exedra of the portico. For the previous six days, the most imposing elepoli had relentlessly beaten the walls, but without any significant results, due to the size of the blocks and their very resistant connection. Others began to excavate the foundations of the northern gate, succeeding albeit with immense efforts to remove the front blocks. The gate, however, rested on blocks behind it and so was not damaged at all, so much so that the Romans decided to abandon siege machines and levers, storming the porticoes with simple ladders.

The Jews preferred to attack the Romans when the latter were mounted on the portico. Here they repulsed many of them, causing them to fall backward from the top of the walls; others were instead killed in the melee. Those Romans who managed to carry the insignia on the walls fought with great courage around them, trying to defend them at all costs. But in the end the Jews had the upper hand and seized them, knocking down all who defended them and carried them, thus causing the Roman retreat. Titus, having observed this, no longer willing to see many of his soldiers die to spare a foreign temple, ordered the gates to be set on fire.

Destruction of the great temple

The Roman soldiers had now set fire to the gates and the silver was liquefying as the flames quickly spread to the surrounding timber enveloping the porticoes in a sea of flames. The Jews now surrounded by the fire, lost their usual courage and in bewilderment stood petrified watching without doing anything to extinguish the fire. The fire burned throughout the following day and night as the Romans set fire to the portico from several sides in successive stretches.

The following day, Titus commanded part of the army to put out the fire and clear the way to the gates to allow a better advance up the temple by the legions. He therefore convened a council of officers. Six of the generals with the highest rank were present: the prefect of Egypt Tiberius Julius Alexander, now also prefect of all the camps; Sextus Vettulenus Ceriale, legatus legionis of legio V Macedonica; Aulus Larcius Lepidus Sulpicianus of legio X Fretensis; Tittius Frugi of legio XV Apollinaris; Eternus Fronton of the two Alexandrian legions; and Marcus Antonius Julianus procurator Augusti of Judea. Procurators and military tribunes also spoke.

Some argued that the temple should be subjected to the harsh law of war, and that the Jews would never bow their heads as long as the temple remained standing; others believed that its evacuation, either by the Jews or by their weapons, was sufficient now that it had been transformed by them into a veritable fortress. Titus then took the floor and said that even if the Jews had taken a stand on the temple, he would never have set such a majestic building on fire, since he considered it such an important monument for the entire Roman Empire. Comforted by what their commander-in-chief suggested, Fronton, Alexander, and Ceriale spoke in favor of this solution. Titus dissolved the meeting and gave orders for the men to rest, in view of the coming battle, except for a few select cohorts, who were given the task of clearing a path through the rubble and putting out the fire.

For that day fatigue and dismay blocked the Jews” assaults. The next day, having regained courage, around the second hour they made a sortie from the eastern gate against the legionaries deployed to guard the outer square. The Romans sustained the first assault, tightening their ranks and forming a wall with their shields, but it was clear that they would not hold out for long because of the large number of the assailants. Then Titus Caesar, who was observing the clash from Antonia, sent in support selected cavalry troops. Thus it was the Jews who did not resist the Roman charge, giving themselves up to flee. When the Romans recovered their position, however, by falling back, the Jews returned to the assault, but eventually fell back until around the fifth hour they were overwhelmed and pinned down in the inner square.

Titus retreated to the Antonia ready to unleash a new offensive at daybreak, with all forces at his disposal on all sides of the temple. On the tenth of the month of Loos (July), the flames were caused by the Jews themselves. Titus having withdrawn, the rebels after a brief pause returned to lash out at the Romans, enraging a clash between the defenders of the sanctuary and the Romans who were intent on extinguishing the fire in the inner forecourt. The latter, having put the Jews to flight, pursued them as far as the temple, and it was then that a soldier grabbed a burning cinder and hurled it in through a golden window that looked out on the rooms near the temple along the northern side. As the flames broke out, many Jews with terrifying cries rushed to the rescue, trying to extinguish the flames.

Someone ran to warn Titus, who was in his tent getting some rest. Springing to his feet, he ran without hesitation to the temple to give orders that an attempt should be made to put out the fire. He was followed by all the generals and then the legions, but such was the confusion that, despite Caesar trying to shout and flail for them to make an effort to put out the fire, no one heard his words, deafened by the clamors of combat and the devastating fury. Crowding in front of the entrances, many were trampled, and when the Romans were near the temple, they no longer even listened to their commander. The rebels could now no longer get to safety: everywhere was a merciless slaughter, and most of the victims were commoners, slaughtered on the spot. Piles of corpses piled up around the altar, along the temple steps ran a river of blood and rolled the bodies of those who were killed up high.

Titus, now aware that it was impossible to stop the devastating fury of his soldiers, accompanied by his generals, entered the temple to observe that sacred place. And since the flames had not yet penetrated into the interior of the temple, but only into the adjacent rooms around it, Caesar felt that the building could still be saved, and, going out quickly, he personally urged the soldiers to extinguish the fire. He then gave orders to one of his centurions of the lancer guard to beat with clubs anyone who transgressed the order given. But in the soldiers prevailed the fury of battle, the blind hatred against the Jews for the long siege, and the hope of booty. Suddenly a Roman soldier, just as Caesar had come out to try to stop the soldiers, threw an ember over the hinges of the gate, setting off a sudden fire. Everyone then retreated, Titus and his generals, and no one could prevent the destruction of the temple any longer.

And as the temple burned, the Romans plundered everything within their reach, also making a great slaughter of everyone they encountered, without any distinction as to age or role: from children to old men, from laymen to priests. Dead bodies were everywhere, and the soldiers, in pursuit of those who fled, were forced to trample over piles of bodies. The rebels managed with difficulty to break through the Romans, first running into the outer forecourt of the temple and then down into the city, while the survivors of the people sought refuge on the outer portico. Some of the priests initially began to remove the spikes and their lead supports from the top of the temple and then hurl them at the Romans; seeing, however, that they were getting no results and that the flames were spreading, they retreated to the wall, which was eight cubits (about 3.5 meters) wide, and remained there.

The Romans continued to set fire to all the buildings surrounding the temple, including the remnants of the porticoes, and to the gates, except for two: the eastern one (opening onto the valley of Olives) and the southern one (opening onto the “lower city”), although later they destroyed these as well. They then set fire to the treasure rooms, in which were a huge amount of money, precious robes and other valuables: essentially all the wealth of the Jews, which had been moved here from their dwellings. They then reached the only portico left standing, the southern one in the outer forecourt, where were women, children and a mass of six thousand of the people. And before Titus could give his orders, the soldiers overwhelmed with fury set fire to the portico, and all who were on it perished: none could be saved.

According to the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, author of The Jewish War, some particular events preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, and were often interpreted as supernatural signs by the city”s inhabitants and priests. Josephus Flavius describes them:

Always Josephus Flavius continues:

Last Judaean resistance: the Roman assault on the “lower” and then “upper” city

The Romans, after the rebels had fled to the lower city and the sanctuary burned along with all the surrounding buildings, carried their insignia to the large square in front of the temple and, once they had placed them beside the eastern gate, celebrated a sacrifice and acclaimed Titus imperator with great displays of jubilation. Josephus Flavius adds that the Roman soldiers had procured so much of that booty that throughout Syria gold was depreciated to half its former value. On the fifth day the priests, overcome with hunger, asked the sentinels if they could speak to Titus and begged him to spare them, but the Roman commander told them that the time for forgiveness had passed and put them all to death.

The rebel leaders, having now realized that they were close to final defeat, surrounded as they were with no chance of escape, asked Titus if they could speak to him. Titus, eager to spare the city, convinced that by now the rebels would accept surrender, took himself to the western part of the outer forecourt of the temple. Here the gates opened onto Xisto, where there was a bridge connecting the temple with the “upper city,” where the rebels were located. On both sides lined up, on one side the Jews of Simon and John, hoping for forgiveness, and on the other side the Romans behind their commander, curious to hear their demands. Titus, therefore, gave orders to the soldiers to keep their spirits and weapons in check and, having called an interpreter, began to speak first, as befits one who turns out to be the victor. He reminded them what misfortune they procured for the city of Jerusalem and their inhabitants. The deeds of the Romans, masters of the then known world, which the Jews had underestimated:

Again Titus reminded them that when his father, Vespasian, came to their country, it was not to punish them for what they had done to the governor Gaius Cestius Gallus, but to admonish them. But evidently the Jews mistook their father”s willingness in weakness. When Nero later died, they took an even more hostile attitude, favored also by the internal unrest within the Roman empire, and took advantage of this to make the necessary preparations for war.

Titus concluded by saying:

Faced with this talk, the rebels replied that they could not accept such conditions of surrender, since they had sworn it. Instead, they asked to be allowed to cross the bypass line with their wives and children, promising that they would retreat into the desert. Titus then lost his temper on seeing that these, now close to defeat, were presenting him with their proposals as if they were the real victors. He made the interpreter say that he no longer hoped for his grace, that he would spare no one and enforce the laws of war. He ordered, for the following day, that the soldiers set fire to and sacked the city, beginning at the archives, up to the Acra, the Council Hall and the neighborhood known as Ophel. The fire then blazed through the streets filled with the corpses of the victims of the war, all the way to Helen”s palace, which stood in the middle of Acra.

That same day the sons and brothers of King Izate, together with a large number of noble citizens, came to Titus and begged him to accept their surrender. The Roman general, although still altered by the rebels” behavior, could not give up his great humanity and welcomed them. Initially he put them in prison; later the king”s sons and relatives he led to Rome in chains as hostages.

The rebels soon afterwards stormed the royal palace (built by Herod), where many citizens had put what they owned of value, then repulsed the Romans and, after putting 8,400 commoners to death, seized their property. They also managed in the course of the clash to capture two Roman soldiers: a horseman and a foot soldier. The latter was killed at once and was dragged through the city as a sign of vengeance against all the Romans; the horseman, who had offered them a way of salvation, was brought before Simon, but not really knowing what to invent in order not to be put to death, his hands were tied behind his back and his eyes blindfolded, but when the executioner was drawing his sword to behead him, he managed to escape at the Romans with a very quick burst. Arriving before Titus, the Roman general did not feel like putting him to death, but, judging him unworthy to be a Roman soldier since he had been captured alive, expelled him from the legion, a humiliation worse than death.

As a new day passed, the Romans succeeded in pushing the rebels back from the “lower city,” set fire to the whole area as far as the Siloa, but they could not loot, for the rebels, before taking refuge in the “upper city,” had plundered everything. And once again Joseph”s pleas were in vain in the face of the rebels” cruelty and impiety. Even as they had locked themselves in a prison, accustomed as they were to killing, they scattered to the outskirts of the city and put to death all those who tried to defect and threw their bodies to the dogs. In the city by now there were dead everywhere, victims of starvation or the rebels.

For the rebel leaders and their followers, the last hope was the underground tunnels. Here they thought the Romans would never look for them, and once they had conquered the city, the Romans would leave, not realizing that these remained alive. But they did not realize that they were destined to be scouted by the Romans. Meanwhile, relying on these underground hiding places, they set fire more than the Romans themselves, killing the people who sought refuge in those tunnels.

Titus knew that without building new embankments it would prove impossible to seize the “upper city,” considering the deep precipices that surrounded it. So on the twentieth of Loos month (July), he divided the work among his forces. The real problem was how to recover the timber, since for the construction of the previous embankments, wood had been recovered at a distance of at least a hundred stadia from the city. The works were built by the four legions along the western side of the city, in front of the royal palace, while the auxiliary troops and the remaining forces erected another at Xisto, where the bridge and Simon”s tower (built when the latter was fighting with John) were located.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Idumeans, who had gathered secretly, determined to surrender and sent five ambassadors to Titus to grant them safe lives. The Roman general, hoping that this would then induce the rebel leaders to surrender as well, agreed. And while the Idumeans were ready to leave, Simon noticed this and ordered the five ambassadors to be killed on the way back, put their leaders in prison, among whom was James son of Sosa, and finally, arranged for more sentries to keep an eye on the mass of Idumeans. These, however, were unable to prevent numerous desertions, although many were killed.

The Romans, who welcomed them, sold as slaves all who fled the city, along with their wives and children, excluding those who were citizens, at a very low price, considering the abundance of the goods and the few buyers. Josephus Flavius claims that the citizens spared were over forty thousand, and Titus allowed them to go free wherever they wished. Also during these days, a priest named Jesus, son of Thebuthi, having obtained a promise from Titus that he would be let free once he had delivered to him some of the precious sacred objects, brought to the Roman general: two candlesticks that had been hidden in the temple wall, similar to those placed inside the temple, tables, vases and bowls of solid gold; in addition to these objects he brought veils and vestments of the high priests with precious gems and many other furnishings used during religious ceremonies. Then the temple treasurer, named Phineas, was caught, and he earned his pardon by bringing to Titus: tunics, belts of the priests, a large quantity of purple-colored cloth, used to repair the temple veil; large quantities of cinnamon, cassia, and many other perfumes, which were used to be burned to the God; many other precious objects and numerous sacred vestments.

Having completed the embankments after eighteen days of work, on the seventh of the month of Gorpieo (September), the Romans pushed up the machines, so that some of the rebels, seeing the city”s end approaching, retreated from the walls into the Acra, others descended into the underground tunnels. Many stood instead to defend the walls against the advancing Roman elepoli.

The Romans confronted and routed them because of their numbers and ardor, while the Jews were now demoralized and tired. When a breach was opened in the walls and some towers collapsed under the battering rams, the Jews fled, including the rebel leaders. Some sought a way of escape, running toward the ring line with the intention of overtaking it, hoping to force their way through against the sentries, but they failed. The rebel leaders were, therefore, informed that the entire western wall had been permanently demolished; seized with dismay they descended from those three imposing towers, mentioned above, capable of resisting the numerous Roman devices, and in effect surrendering themselves into Roman hands.

They immediately retreated to the ravine that lay below the Siloa and then attacked the nearby sector of the bypass line. But their attack proved insufficient and so, repulsed by sentries, they were dispersed and took refuge in the dungeon. The Romans meanwhile, having seized the walls, planted their insignia on the towers, chanting victory.

The Romans scattered through the streets of the city with drawn swords, slaughtered everyone they found, and if anyone took refuge in the houses, they set fire to them by burning them alive. In many of these, they found entire families dead, their rooms full of corpses caused by starvation. The carnage ended toward evening, but during the night the fire increased so much that on the eighth day of the month of Gorpieo (September), Jerusalem was enveloped in flames. Soon after, Titus himself was able to enter the city, admiring what remained of its fortifications and especially the grandeur of the towers. Later, when he destroyed the rest of the city and tore down the walls, he spared the towers as a reminder of his victory.

The Roman legionaries were ordered to kill only those who carried weapons with them and resisted, and all others to take them prisoner. But the soldiers also killed old and weak people, while young and strong men were herded into the temple. Titus then entrusted his friend Phronton with the task of determining the fate for each of them: he put all the rebels to death; from among the young men he chose the tallest and best-looking for triumph; all those over seventeen years of age he sent in chains to work in Egypt, or as gifts to the various provinces for gladiatorial shows or to be torn to pieces by the ferocious beasts (those who were still seventeen were sold as slaves. In the days that Fronton devoted to deciding what to do with the prisoners, as many as 11,000 prisoners died of starvation, mainly because of the scarcity of grain.

Immediate reactions

The total number of prisoners captured during the entire war was 97,000; the dead at the end of the siege of Jerusalem was 1,100,000. Most were Jews, not from Jerusalem, who had come from all parts of the country for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the overcrowding generated first pestilence and then the scourge of starvation.

The number of victims turned out to be higher than in any extermination before that time, according to Josephus Flavius. The Romans set out to hunt down all those who had hidden in the underground tunnels, killing everyone they found. Many then took each other”s lives rather than fall into enemy hands. There were not a few valuables recovered in those tunnels. John, destroyed by starvation in the dungeons along with his brothers, insistently asked to be granted a pardon, which had been refused several times in the past, while Simon surrendered after a long struggle. The latter was given the death penalty after parading in triumph in Rome; John, on the other hand, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Finally, the Romans set fire to the outskirts of the city and tore down the entire circle of walls.

Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed in the second year of Vespasian”s reign, 70, on the eighth day of the month of Gorpieus (Sept. 1). Previously, the city had been taken four other times: first by Asocheus, king of the Egyptians; then it was the turn of Antiochus IV (then following the 63 B.C. siege by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and finally with the occupation by the Roman general Gaius Sosius, who then turned it over to Herod the Great (in 37 B.C.). Before them was the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, who took and destroyed the city, 1,468 years and six months after its founding (587 BC). The second destruction came under Titus, 2,177 years after its founding.

Titus arranged, therefore, to raze the entire city and temple to the ground, sparing only the towers that exceeded the others in height: the Phasael, the Hippian, and the Mariamme (as a testament to how large and fortified the city had been that had fallen into Roman hands after a difficult siege), as well as the western sector of the walls, which served to protect the camp of the legio X Fretensis that would remain here as a permanent garrison (along with a number of cavalry wings and infantry cohorts). All the rest of the city wall was torn down and completely flattened, so much so that no one would have believed that a city with such impressive fortifications would have stood here before. Still the Roman commander, having completed the operations of the war, wanted to praise the entire army for valiant behavior and distribute due rewards to those who had particularly distinguished themselves. He therefore delivered an address (adlocutio) to the troops gathered at the foot of a tribune, where his generals attended him (from legionis legates to provincial governors).

Immediately thereafter he arranged for the rest of the army to be sent to the established locations, with the exception of legio X Fretensis, which he left to garrison Jerusalem. Legio XII Fulminata was removed from Syria and, while previously encamped at Raphana, he sent it to the city called Melitene positioned near the Euphrates, along the border between the kingdom of Armenia and the province of Cappadocia. The other two legions, Legio V Macedonica and Legio XV Apollinaris, followed him to Egypt. Then he marched with his army to Maritime Caesarea, where he secured the enormous booty and placed the great mass of prisoners under guard, partly because winter prevented him from taking the sea to Italy.

He departed again from Caesarea by the sea and moved to Caesarea Philippi, where he moved for a long time, offering the people all kinds of spectacles. Here many of the prisoners found death: some thrown to the beasts, others forced to fight each other in groups. Then Titus was joined by the news that Simon son of Ghiora had also finally been captured.

With the capture of Simon, the Romans in the following days discovered a large number of other rebels in the underground tunnels. When Caesar returned to Maritime Caesarea, Simon was brought to him in chains, and Caesar gave orders to reserve him for the triumph he would soon celebrate in Rome.

Theological interpretations of the destruction of Jerusalem

Jews attribute the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and city to divine retribution for the unfounded hatred that pervaded Jewish society at that time.

Christians believe that the events surrounding the siege and destruction of Jerusalem are the fulfillment of a prophecy contained in Daniel that would have been reported by Jesus forty years before the events took place. The eschatological discourse is a sermon by Jesus found in the synoptic Gospels. In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius of Caesarea records that Christians living in Jerusalem at the time fled at the time of Gaius Cestius Gallus” retreat, four years before the siege. Some Christians (preterites) also believe that the events revolving around the year 70 are the fulfillment of various Old Testament prophecies. For example, Isaiah speaks of a “day of doom,” when “ruin will come from afar,” while Daniel foretells a day when “the people of a coming leader will destroy the city and the sanctuary; its end will come like a flood.”

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