The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1871-03-03

VII ch they had taken from Roman
detachments, but they used them
awkardly and Intellectually. They
however, we're very daring in the
sorties, endeavoring to bum the
Roman military engines and the
hurdles with which the Roman pio
neers covered themselves when at
work. The Romans also built TOW
ers fifty cubits high, plated them
with iron, in which they placed ar
chers and singers, to drive the Jews
from the walls. at last, about the
fifteenth day of the siege, the Roman
hatteringrams began to shake the
outer wall, and Jews yielded up the
first ! ne of defense. Five days af-
ter, Titus broke through tue second
walls, into a place full of narrow
streets crowded with brsziers', clio
thiers, and wool merchants shops
hut the Jews rallying drove out the
Romans, who not having made the
breech sufficiently large, were with
difficulty rescued by the acIer-.
Four days ater however, Titus re
took the second wall, then waited for
famiI e to do its work within the city.
The Jews now began to desert to
the enemy in great numbers, and al
these wretches the Romans tortured
and crucified before the walls, (al
one time five hundred a day, so
that, as Josephus says, "room was
wanting for the crosses, and crosses
wanting for the bodies"
At this crisis of the seige the
Jews undermining one of the Roman
towers, set it on fire, and did their
best to destroy the beseig, rs works.
Titus now determined to slowly
starve out his stubborn enemies, amt
began to build wall around the
whole city. This wall, with. thir-
teen forts. the Roman soldiers com
pleted in three days. Famine, iu
the meantime, was ravaging the nm
happy city. Whole families persisted
daily, and the streets were strewr
with dead tOdies that no one cared
to bury. Thieves plundered the
half-deserted homes, and murdered
any who showed any signs Of resis-
tance, or who still fingered in the
last agonies Of starvation. The
dead the Jews threw down in the
valley below. In the meantime. the
soldiers, aGundantly supplied with
corn from Syria, mOcked the starv-
ing men on the walls, by showing
them food. The palm trees and
olive trees around Jerusalem had all
been destroyed. but Titus sending to
the Jordon for timber, again raised
banks around the castle Of Antonio.
Inside the city, the sedition grew
more violent, the psrtisans of John
and Simon numbering each other
daily, and pltn ler;n : the Temple Of
the sacred vessels. A rumof
spreading in the Roman camp that
the JEWS deserters swallowed their
money before they left Jerusalem,
ied to the murder in one night, JO-
serhus says, OfEnear.y two thousand
of those unhappy creatures. Again
part of the wall fell before the bat
tering-rams, but only to discover to
the Romans a flesh rampant built
behind it.
In one attack brave Syrian
soldier of the cohorts, with eleven
other men, succeeded in reaching the
top of the wall, but they were over,
powered by the Jews. A few days
after, twelve Roman soldiers scram-
bled up by night through breach in
the tower of Antonia, killed the
guards and sounding trumpets. sum-
named the rest of the army TO their
aid. The tower ones carried, the
Romans tried to force their way into
the Temple, and a hand to hand
to hand fight ensued, which termiRa
tel in the Romans being driven back
to the tower of Antonia. The Jews,
now seeing the Temple in danger, set
FIRE to the clOister that joined the
Temple and the castle of Antonia,
and prepared for a desperate resis-
tenee in their last stronghold. In
this coDaagration many of the Ro-
mans, advancing too eagerly, per
ished.
During all of this fighting, the
famine within the city grew worse
and worse, the wretched people ate
their shoes, belts, and even their
leather thongs of their shields.
Friends fought for food, and robbers
broke into every house were it was
known corn was hidden. Josephus
even mentions we'll known case of
woman of wealth from beyond
Jordan, who ate her own child. The
walls of the Temple were so massive
as to resist the battering-rsm for six
days, so Titus at last gave orders to
burn down the gates. At last, afte-
a desperate resistance, the Jews were
driven into the inner court and the
Temple was set on fire. and destroy
ed, in spite of all the efforts Of Titus
to save it,
When the Jews first saw the flames
spring up, they raised q great shout
Of despair, and sixteen Thousand of
de 'enders perished in the fire. The
Romans, in the fury Of assault, burnt
down the treasury chambers, filed
with gold and other riches, and all
the cloisters, into which the Jews
had fed expecting something mira
culous,as their false prophet had pre-
dicted. Titus now attacked the up-
! per city, and raised a bank against
it, at which about forty thousand OF
the inhabitants deserted to the
Roman camp. The final resistance
was very feeble, for the Jews were
now utterly disbeartened. The Ro
mans, once masters of the walls
spread Ike deluge over She eity