The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1871-03-16
WORLD.

u DAIlO w OC - =
rHEa0aRoRs OF AaQlzEr WAR.
HMi 5rzar u IEausAlsx, ~ TITUS.
IkrlsAi4g tdAs seems u epitoniae al
the horrors of Asuohf contests, forming,
assit.were. the last, croYning scene OF
a nations tragedy ], was the siege'of de-
rnsaIem by. Ttnsy A. D, TO- The city
then contained, according to Tacitus,
6O00D0 inhAbitants. Josephus has well
narrated the sufferings Of his, country
men; not merely in1athe Romans, but
also from the savage factions of rival
chiefs, Simon and John-the former of
whom held the upper city, the latter
the tenple.D Their followers tore, each
other to pieces up to the very moment
that the Romans broke through the
WALLIS The mode in which Titus CON
Quoted this memorable siege furnishes
good example Of theimanner in which
theaRomans conducted such operations.
His DICTIONARIES having established their
camps on Scopas and the Mount OF
Olives, began to burn the suburbs OF
Jerusalem, cut down the, trees, and
raise banks of earth and timber against
the walls. On these works were placed
archers and hurlers Of jayelins, and be-
fore them the catapults and balistas
that threw darts and huge stones. The
Jews REPLIED from the engines which
they had taken from Roman detach-
ments, but they used them awkwardly
and Intellectually. They, however, were
very daring in their sorties, endeavor-
ing to burn the Roman military engines
and the hurdles with which the Roman
pioneers covered themselves when. at
work. The Romans also built towers
fifty cubits high, plated with iron, in
which they 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 bat
tering. rams began to shake the outer
wall, and the Jews yielded up the first
line Of defense. Five days after, Titus
broke through the second wall, into a
place full of narrow streets crowded
with braziers, clothing and wool mer-
chants shops; but the Jews rallying,
drove out the Romans, who, not having
made the breach sufficiently large, were
with difficulty rescued bytheir 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 numbers, and all these
wretches the Romans tortured and cru
CITED before the walls Cat one time five
hundred day., so that, as Josephus
says,s@-Aroom was wanting for the
crosses, and crosses wanting for the
bodies"
At this crisis, of the siege, the Jews,
undermining one of the Roman towers,
set,it on fire, and did their best to des-
troy all the besiegcrs' works. Titus
now determined to slowly starve out
his stubborn enemies, and began to
build wall round the whole city. This
wall, with thirteen forts, the Roman
soldiers completed in three days. Fam
inc in the meantime was ravaging the
unhappy city. Whole families persisted
daily, and the streets were strewn with
dead bodies that no one cared to bury.
Thieves plundered the .halfdeserted
homes, and murdered any who showed
signs of resistance, or who still fingered
in the last agonies of starvation. The
dead the Jews threw down from the
walls into the valleys below. In the
meantime, the Roman soldiers, abund-
dainty supplied with corn from Syria,
Knocked the starving men on the walls,
by showing them food. The palm-trees
and oliye-trees round Jerusalem had
been ALI destroyed, but, Titus sending
to the Jordan for timber, again raised
banks around the castle O.. Antonio, In
side the city the seditions grew more
violent, the partisans Of John and ST.
mon numbering each other daily, and
plundering the temple Of the sacred
vessels. Arumor spreading in the Ro-
man camp that the Jewish deserters
swallowed their money before they left
Jerusalem, led to the murder, in one
night 'Josephus says, of nearly two
THOUSAND of these uphapgPy creatures.