Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1871-02-03
The Horrors of Ancient War.
THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS

lfrom All the Year Round.
The siege that seems to epitomize all
the horrors of such contests, forming, as
it were, the last crowning scene of ma
tions tragedy, was the siege of Jerusa-
lem by Titus, A, d. 20. The city then
contained, according to Tacitus, six hun
dred thousand inhabitants. Josephus
has well narrated the sufferings of his
countrymen, not merely from the Ro-
mans, but also from the savage factions
of the two rival chiefs, Sim,n and John
the former of whom held the upper
city, the latter the temple. Their follow.
ers tore each other to pieces up to the
very moment that the Romans broke
through the walls. The mode in which
Titus conducted this memorable siege
furnishes good example of the manner
IN which the Romans conducted such op-
erations. His legionaries having estab.
lished their camps on Scopas and the
Mount of Olives, began to burn the sub
urbs of Jerusalem, cut down the trees,
and raise banks of earth and timber
against the walls. On these works we're
placed arches and hurlers of javelines,
and before them thecatapults and balls
tas that threw darts and huge stones
The Jews replied from the engines which
they had taken from Roman detachments,
but they used them awkwardly and inef-
fectually. They, however, were very
daring in their sorties, end ,avoripg to
burn the Roman military engines and
the hurdles with which the Roman pio
neers covered themselves when at work.
The Romans also builttowers fifty cubits
high, plated with iron. in which thev
placed archers and singers, to drive the
Jews from the walls. At last, about the
fifteenth day of the siege, the greatest Of
the Roman battering rams began to
shake the outer wall, and the Jews yield.
ed up the first line of defense. Five
days after, Titus broke through the sec
ond wall, into place full of narrow
streets crowded with braziers', clothiers'
and wool merchants shops; but the
Jews rallying, drove the Romans, who,
not having made the breach sufficiently
large, were with difficulty rescued by
their archers. Four days later, however
Titus retook the second wall, and then
waited for famine to do its work within
the city. The Jews now began to desert
to the enemy in great mum mbers, and all
these wretches the Romans tortured and
crucified before the walls Cat one time
five hundred day. SO that, as Josephus
says, room was wanting for the crosses,
and crosses wanting for the bodies"
AT this crisis of the siege the Jews, un-
derminiug one of the Roman towers, SET
it on fire, and did their best to DESTROY
all the besiegers' works. Titus now de
termined TO slowly starve out his stub
born enemies. and began to build wall
around the whole city. This wall, with
thirteen forts, the Roman soldiers COM
plet.d in three days Famine the mean
time, was ravaging the unhappy city
Whole families perished daily, and the
streets were strewn with dead bodies thai
none cared to bury. Thieves plundered |
the half-deserted homes, and murdered |
any who showed signs of resistance, or
who still fingered in the last agonies of |
The dead the Jews threw
down from the walls into the valleys be-
low. In the me lntime, the Roman sold
iers, abundautly supplied with corn from
Syria, mocked the starving men on the
walls, BY showing them food. The palm.
trees and olive trees round Jerusalem had
been all destroyed, but, Titus sending to
the Jordan for timber, again raised banks
around the castle of Antonia. Inside the
city the seditions grew more violent, the